Tag Archives: dinner

Veteran’s Day

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I used to look cute in hats!

Today is Veteran’s Day in the US.

I come from a long line of military service members.  (Not unlike Lieutenant  Dan from Forrest Gump.) I’m not sure where that comment came from, but that’s the kind of day I have had.

Brief family tree lesson:

I was born in a Navy hospital in Virginia.  I participated in NJROTC in high school.

Both of my grandfathers served in WWII.

Both my mother’s brother and sister served in the Army.  My Uncle Dusty once told me that there was a secret door into Ft. Knox. I have a sneaky suspicion that he might have been joking around, but to this day I have never told another living soul the location of that hidden entrance.  My Aunt Sandy served in Alaska.  She unknowingly opened up my eyes to the amazing untouched vastness of the tundra, and a spirit of adventure that I never knew existed.

My bonus Papa is a retire Marine.

I can trace my paternal linage soldiers in the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Further into the past, I can trace my branches to warriors in England and the Crusades, Vikings and Romans.

Chipped Beef Gravy

So in honor of all of the brave men and women who have served this country, I decided that we would have the mess hall favorite S.O.S for dinner. (S.O.S. stands for S#!T on a Shingle)

Some people call S.O.S. chipped beef gravy.

It’s a quick and easy comfort food, that doesn’t photograph well…

Ingredients:

  • one two ounce package of shaved beef
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 1/4 cup of flour
  • 2 teaspoons Onion Onion Seasoning
  • 1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
  • 2 cups milk

Directions:

  1. Remove beef from package and rinse.  (Rinsing will remove some of the salt used in the processing.  This is a fantastic job for a rambunctious almost 4 year old, if you happen to have one hanging around.)
  2. Cut beef in ribbons and set aside.
  3. Melt butter in pan over medium heat.
  4. Add Onion Onion Seasoning.
  5. Whisk in flour and freshly ground pepper.
  6. Slowly add the milk, mixing constantly.
  7. Gravy will thicken as you stir. Add beef ribbons and let simmer about five minutes.
  8. Serve over toast, biscuits or rolls.

Happy Mushroom Day!

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Tonight I had every intention of posting a step-by-step on how I make stroganoff. But of course, I started cooking before I took photos. And then I had a my youngest telling me, in a very loud voice because obviously I hadn’t heard him the 400 times he had told me, that he wanted cereals for dinner. And no that isn’t a typo, cereals is plural because he wants a whole bowl. Try arguing with that logic…

So I resigned myself to posting a recipe without the tutorial, but with the finished dinner plate instead.

And then we ate…without the photo of the stroganoff, noodles and bright tricolor medley of corn, carrots, and green beans. And of course I didn’t think about it until after I had “lunched up*” the leftovers.

* lunched up is a verb meaning to place leftovers from dinner in containers for lunch.

Feeling a bit morose, I decided to slice up the cake I had baked, only to realize that I had forgotten to take photos of the cake too!

After thinking that I have the be the worst blogger ever, I told the guys that I will have to make everything another time so that everything can be photographed.

Everyone smiled as they ate their cake. How could I torture them with all this delicious food again!!

Tonight’s blog post might not have turned out the way I had planned, but so it goes. My family is fed. All is well.

Menu Planning and Holidays

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Last Friday, I decided to make a menu and grocery list.  I looked ahead on my food holidays calendar, and created a menu to celebrate those holidays.

Monday: Columbus Day – which means Italian – Angel Hair and Alfredo, wedge salad with Italian dressing, and garlic bread made with Jimmy John’s day old French bread

Tuesday: Mushroom Day – Stroganoff with extra portabellos

Wednesday: National Boss Day (Is that a real thing??) – Shepard’s Pie

Thursday: Pasta Day – Ravioli with sausage in a chunky red sauce

Friday: No real holiday, which means choose your own holiday…well not really but we haven’t had BLTs in a while

Weekend: we’ll have a full house, so it’s a little less structured.

Anywho… I have had this all planned out, groceries bought, meals prepped, when I realized at work this morning that today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.  HOW DID I MISS THAT?! I mean, you would think I would remember that being 1/32nd Canadian…I guess I will have to chalk this up to poor planning.  I am sure that my great-great-grandparents would say don’t worry aboot it, eh?

A Sweet Mistake

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Life can be filled with sweet mistakes.

In my family we tend to wear a lot of hats, figuratively, wearing a hat literally just looks odd on me. My oldest is a student, an artist, a big brother, and occasional babysitter. The youngest…well he’s testing out the Terrible Two’s…so he is less than helpful sometimes! (but adorable in hats!) My Sweetums is my partner. We are a fantastic team. We might not be as well oiled as possible, but we are patient with each other (most of the time), very understanding of each others schedule and willing to pick up each others slack, because we know that the other would reciprocate.

Last year, I had a job where I worked a lot of night shifts. I would try to have dinner at least started for my guys with instructions on how to best finish it up. One night I had put a pot roast in the slow cooker with instructions on how to make a gravy using the “drippings” in the cooker. I said to add some flour and milk. Well evidently not everyone in the house knows that the flour is in the biggest plastic container and the powdered sugar is in the smallest.

The oldest loved the sweet gravy. He has asked for it numerous times since.

My Girly Moment

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I could never be accused of being a girly girl.  I am not a frilly, hearts and glitter kind of girl.  I hate shopping.  I don’t like pink, and I think unicorns are early genomic experiments (or creatures brought here by the aliens….)  But I digress…

I grew up with two little brothers, and I have two sons.  I have been surrounded by boys close to all of my life.  But saying all of that I do have moments of girly-ness…I love butterflies.  For one, they are pretty. 🙂 And secondly, from a scientific standpoint, metamorphosis is fascinating.  And from the life lessons file, how wonderful it is to know that even if you start out as a weird caterpillar, some day you can be a fantastically beautiful butterfly!

So of course, as I walked down the pasta aisle at the grocery store, my eyes were drawn to the farfalle pasta.  You know the ones…the bow-tie pasta…but then I saw the farfalline…baby butterflies!  (ok as I just pointed out “baby” butterflies are catapillers, which look more like ziti, but I don’t have to be that critical ALL the time!)

I grabbed the box of pasta excitedly.  The wheels in the creative side of my brain started turning!  I had to find the perfect way to use these tiny butterfly noodles!

The days are much shorter now.  Fall is definitely arriving.  The days are tending to be more gray and wet.  As much as I want to hold on to summer, I am looking forward to autumn.  BUT butterflies are a spring/summer kinda thing…some how I need to find a way to make an autumn-y dish more summer-y.

This is how I created Butterfly Garden Soup

Butterfly Garden Soup

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this soup!

This soup is far from complicated.  Some of the best meals are ones that are just thrown together.  I browned a pound of ground beef with a bit of Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic. While that was cooking away, I filled a pot with a bag of frozen vegetables.  My favorite would have to be vegetables for soup:  stewed tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots, celery and okra. Cover the vegetables with water and put on medium heat.  I drained the grease from the ground beef, and slid it into the pot with the vegetables.  I used three beef bouillon cubes and two cans of condensed tomato soup.  Season with salt and pepper after the bouillon has dissolved.  If you season before, you could end up with too much salt.  Lastly I added two handfuls of little butterflies.  Honestly I did toss the butterflies in…so that they could fly into the soup…hey I never said I wasn’t easily amused!

Like most soups or stews, the next-day left-overs are much better than day of soups…not that I would know with this soup, I didn’t get any left-overs! 🙂

It’s Just Taco Night

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I want to apologize for the quality of my photography to this point on this blog.  I’ve been using the camera on my cell phone as the primary source for photography, which hasn’t been horrible.  Next photos should be of a much higher quality!

But I digress…

YUM!

There's no folding this one!

TACO NIGHT!  Growing up, we had taco night quite regularly.  In fact, a memory a friend of mine has of overnights at my house was taco night! Mom would buy these mini-taco shells, and we would have tiny taco nights.

I really wanted Mexican food the other night, and with the MAJOR tightening of the pursestrings at our house (like so many other houses in America), I decided to make Mexican at home.  I had hamburger in the freezer, seasoning in the cabinet, and cheese, tortilla shells and tomatoes in the fridge.  I thought a quick trip into Wal-Mart for lettuce and sour cream would be all we needed.

That was until I got into the store.  All of a sudden, I wanted black beans too.  Thinking my 20-month-old wouldn’t eat black beans, I got refried beans, because I KNOW he loves those!  Then an avocado was a must-have…as well as onion…

Realizing that I needed to get the youngest from daycare, and the oldest out of Wal-Mart, we headed to the check-out.

I didn't think about all the dishes I would have to do though!

Mom's Build-Your-Own-Taco-Bar

Dinner tends to be more family-style in our home, but taco night equals buffet-style!

The countertop became “Mom’s Build-Your-Own-Taco-Bar!”

Dinner was also delayed because I sliced my finger open on the refried beans can.  Finding something to keep the gash closed was tricky (I’m allergic to adhesives on band-aids and tape, but that’s another story for another time), but we managed, without needing to amputate!

This post will probably be more of a list of goodies, rather than a recipe.  The only real recipe will be how I seasoned the beef.

LIST OF GOODIES ON THE BUFFET

Avocado
Onion
White rice
Refried Beans
Black beans
Cheese
Lettuce
Grape tomatoes
Tortilla Shells
Sour cream
Salsa

Taco meat

1 pound ground beef
6-8 ounces water
2 T. Fiesta Party Dip Mix (R) 

Brown ground beef.  Drain any grease.  Add Fiesta Party Dip Mix (R) to beef and stir.  Add water to pan.  Simmer and stir occasionally.  When water has cooked down, serve!

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

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The more "mature" version

One of my oldest son’s favorite meals would have to be chicken and dumplings.  I had a tried -and-true recipe that I have been using for quite a while, but as I pointed out in the first recipe, I tend to deviate a bit from tradition.

I decided my previous recipe needed to mature a bit, which really just means I needed to add some veggies and stuff.

I tend to use chicken thighs in my recipes.  I know that they aren’t as lean as chicken breasts, BUT I enjoy the flavor of the dark meat as opposed to the white.  I boiled a large package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  I used seven thighs and the stock for this recipe, and I have chicken in a baggie in the fridge for chicken and rice later in the week!

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

Chicken
Water
1 T. Garlic Garlic (TM)
1 T Onion Onion (TM)
3 stalks of celery, tops and bottoms for stock/hearts for soup
Onion, quartered
4 carrots, sliced
6-8 mushrooms, diced
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
I can refrigerated flaky biscuits
1/2 c flour
1 t. pepper

In a large pot, add chicken, seasonings, celery (tops and bottoms), onion and water.  Heat to a light boil.  Allow to cook until chicken is done.  Scoop chicken out of the pot and place on a plate to cool.  Remove and discard celery and onion.  DO NOT THROW OUT THE WATER!!!  Save that yummy goodness for your soup!

While your chicken is cooking, prepare your veggies and stuff (you know, the things to make this more “mature”)  I cut the carrots and celery into slices on the diagonal, because I just think it looks pretty.  I didn’t really need the mushrooms to look pretty for some reason so I just diced them up.  After removing the chicken and veggies from the stock, add the freshly cut “mature” ingredients.  Let that cook on a slight boil while you shred your cooled chicken.

There have been debates on the best way to shred cooked meats for recipes.  Most people will tell you to take two forks and just pull the meat into pieces.  I say to wash your hands and use your fingers! (this is a common approach for me)  Add chicken back into the pot with veggies.  This would also be a good time to add a can of cream of chicken soup.

I let this cook until the carrots are not quite finished.  Now it’s time to add the dumplings.  These are the secret to quick and EASY dumplings:  Refrigerated FLAKY biscuits.  I used a little can (7.5 oz) of 10 biscuits.  Peel  the dough apart at the layers so that you have two pieces, then I put them apart again.  This is completely up to you, depending on how big you want your dumplings.  Dredge the chicken in a mixture of flour with a bit of pepper.  Then add the biscuit to the pot.

The next statement is one of the most important, so pay attention!  DO NOT STIR THE SOUP ONCE THE BISCUITS ARE IN! This is an incredibly valuable piece of information.  Stirring the soup will cause the dumplings to disintegrate.  You will end up with a delicious dumpling flavored soup…but no dumplings.  Also important, don’t have to heat too high.  A rolling boil would have the same effect as stirring!

To get all the dumplings to cook, using a spoon or ladle or something (this would not be an appropriate place to use your hands…ouch) gently push the dumplings into the liquid.  Just give them a little dunk.  The dumplings need to cook about 10-15 minutes depending on how thick they are.  

“Ruining” A Tradition

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Ruining a Tradition

Deliciously Ruined

Tradition – noun: the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to
generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way

Last night I “ruined” a traditional meal that has been passed down in my
family. You might be asking how I ruined it. Was it burnt? Did I add too
much salt? Neither of those apply in this situation.

I called my mom yesterday evening to tell her that I had ruined Gramma’s
beef stew recipe by adding one simple ingredient…mushrooms.

Gramma doesn’t like mushrooms, ok that’s putting it lightly. I made this
AMAZING pot roast around Christmas. I offered to warm some leftovers up for
her one afternoon. She was quite vocal about her dislike of the fungus.

While talking to Mom, I decided that my secret would be safe if I blogged
this recipe. Usually putting a piece of information on the internet isn’t
the best way to keep something quiet, but knowing that Gramma won’t be
surfing the net anytime soon, I figure it’s a safe-ish bet. (saying all that
was probably all in vain, knowing that Gramma is currently visiting my
technophile Aunt and Uncle in the D.C. Metro area and will probably see it
shortly after posting 🙂 )

So here it is, the recipe that could get me dis-owned.

Beef Stew

~ 1 pound Stew Beef

1 T butter

1 T Garlic Garlic(TM)

1 package Beefy Onion Soup Mix

~ 3 cups Water

Petite Red Potatoes cut in half

Carrot baby or cut into 2 inch pieces

½ pound portabella mushrooms

1 can tomato soup

Brown the stew beef with the butter and Garlic Garlic(TM). Once thoroughly cooked, add the onion soup mix and about a cup of water.  Let that cook down, then add more water.

I usually let that simmer down one more time while I prepare the potatoes, carrots and in this version of the stew, the mushrooms.

I used petite red potatoes in this recipe, so I just sliced them in half.  The carrots were cut into 1 ½ to 2 inch pieces, cut on the diagonal.  For the mushrooms, I removed the stems and cut the caps into quarters.

Place the freshly cut ingredients to the pot with the beef.  Add a can of condensed tomato soup to the pot as well.  Add water to cover the contents of the pot and stir.  Let the stew cook on medium heat until the carrots are cooked through.

I served my stew with a piece of a loaf of bread from Jimmy Johns! (Only 49 cents!)