Spam and rice

This is one of my  husband's favorites.  Frankly, I don't care for it, but there might be some folks out there that might find that they like this. 

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice
2 tblspns butter
1 can of Spam
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 red pepper finely chopped
1/4 large onion finely chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon EVOO

Cut of up the spam in small pieces.  I cut three length-wise, and then cut the long pieces into pieces so I have small cubes.

Warm up a pan with 1 tbsp of EVOO.  Cook the onion, pepper, and spam tidbits until the spam is brown on all sides.  You will have to stir the mix from time to time to get all the pieces browned.

After the spam/pepper/onion mix is browned (NOT BURNT) add the brown sugar and toss to coat the spam/pepper/onion mix.  Then add the ketchup.  Stir until all the pieces of spam are coated.  Cover and simmer on low heat until the rice is cooked.

RICE -- cook rice.  1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water.  Boil the water and add the butter.  When the water reaches a boil add the rice.  Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Put some rice in a bowl and add some of the rice mixture.

I use the word "some" because portions can vary depending on how much a person wants to eat. 

This should serve two adults and two children.

If you have more adults, double the recipe.

Remember, my husband loves this dish.  Me?  Not so much.  So test it out and see if you like it. 

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Chicken a la King

One of my dad's favorite dinners was chicken a la king, aka, creamed chicken with peas and pimentos in the cream sauce.

I haven't made this dish for at least 40 years.  It wasn't one of Alan's favorites back then, but since he is enjoying chipped beef (in cream sauce) on toast, I thought I'd try the dish again.

We probably had this particular dish at least once a month -- none of the children, except for me, particularly liked the dish, but then I liked just about everything my mom cooked (except cow's tongue).
Instead of pouring it over toast, she would make biscuits and we would pour it over biscuits, sort of like biscuits and gravy, except the gravy was loaded with chicken instead of sausage.

It's a very easy dish to make and I have modified it, using half and half instead of the creamy, whole milk, my mom used.  I think our half and half is akin to the milk I had as a child, since the cream rose to the top of the bottle, and mom would shake it into the milk which settled to the bottom of the bottle. 

2 cups 1/2 and 1/2
1/2 chicken boiled and removed from the bones
1/2 cup peas
2 pimentos (jarred) cut up into very small pieces
butter and flour to thicken the milk
salt and pepper to taste

Take 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons of flour -- melting the butter and putting the flour into the melted butter, stirring until the flour is well mixed into the butter.  Slowly add the 1/2 and 1/2, whisking lightly until it thickens -- this should be done over a medium heat.  After the milk  (1/2 and 1/2) is thickened, add the chicken which you have shredded after removing from the bones, the peas and the pimento to heat through.  Salt and pepper to taste.  That's it.

Pour over biscuits or toast or puff pastry.  Your choice.

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Ham and cheese on French toast

French toast was always a favorite of mine.  My mom made great French toast.  She didn't make it very often, but it was a treat when she did.  She would add cinnamon sugar to the egg/milk wash, and she would t whip the egg/milk/sugar/and cinnamon mixture up until it was frothy.

When she made the sandwich, however, she did not use the cinnamon or the sugar.

To make this great supper to serve with soup of any kind, you need:

Eggs (2 for four sandwiches)
Milk about 1 cup (for four sandwiches)
bread
ham
cheese

Preheat your pan or pancake griddle so that butter melts but does not turn brown

Put together the sandwiches: on  a slice of bread (your choice of white, wheat, whole grain, etc) put one piece of thinly sliced boiled or baked ham and one slice of American or Swiss cheese, then cover that with another slice of bread.  Using tongs (mom used baby-bottle tongs--the things she stuck in boiling water to get the bottles out of the water after being sterilized) grab the sandwich further over than the middle (so that the sandwich doesn't flop open) and quickly dip the sandwich in the egg wash.  Note:  you can get a nice pair of tongs at Krogers.

Put on prepared grill/pan.  After the first side sizzles (about one minute) turn it over and grill the other side until browned (about one minute).

Eat with a couple of pickles on the side, and a cup of soup.

DELISH!

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Not so hungry

I'm not at all hungry and I really don't like cooking when I have no desire to eat anything I cook, but I have to do it.

My mom probably felt that way most of the time when I was growing up because while she ate with the family, she hardly ate anything, and when I was old enough she left cooking up to me.

Tonight I'm making pork chops -- nothing exceptional, just fried chops, no coating, just a little EVOO in the pan and some spices added to the EVOO, then I put in the seasoned pork chops and brown them on each side, cover them, and lower the heat and cook for 15 more windows.

I'll add some peas, a salad, and some mashed potatoes (Bob Evans, not my own).

This dinner will have me recalling a steamy kitchen in the summer and the closeness of all six of us sitting and eating dinner at that table in that tiny kitchen.

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Chicken Curry

I haven't made chicken curry (or any curry for that matter) for years. But, I had a coupon for coconut milk, a product I don't normally buy, so I'm trying to think of ways to use it up. It was a two-for, so I have to use up a gallon of the stuff by the middle of July. I guess I need to go to my favorite recipe Website and find some recipes.

However, chicken curry is very easy to make.

Buy a couple of tablespoons of your favorite curry powder (if you go to a spice shop), or buy a small container of it in the spice section of your grocery store. You will need 2 tablespoons for this recipe, and it isn't very spicy-hot.

First, the chicken needs to be simmered until it is cooked through. I prefer chicken breasts with the bone in for this because the bones seem to give more flavor to the chicken. I suggest one whole breast for two people.

After the chicken is cooked and cooled (you can flash cool it in a bowl of ice water, or just wait until it's cool enough to touch) you need to cut it into bite-size pieces.

Take the juice that is left from the simmer of the chicken and add 1 cup of coconut milk and 2 Tblspns of curry. Salt and pepper to taste. Return the chicken pieces to this concoction and simmer again until the liquid has reduced by 1/2. This will thicken the sauce. Serve over rice.

We like condiments with our curry such as peanuts or cashews, scallions or chives, fresh chopped basil, tomato pieces (like for a guacamole, small sized bits), chopped avacado, raisins or dried cranberries. You just put any of these on top of the rice/curry and enjoy.

NOTE: If you like hot curry, add some hot sauce to taste. This will change the flavor of the curry/coconut mixture. But some people prefer it this way.

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Sauerkraut

I used to hate this stuff, but since my taste buds have matured, I am now really loving sauerkraut.

My mom used to make it much too often for me, but my dad loved it, so we had to have it occasionally. Mom's recipe was quite simple. No, she didn't make her own kraut. Wait! I think she tried to make her own one summer, but we all couldn't stand the smell and at that time our family/TV room was in the basement, and that's where she was brewing the kraut.

Anyway, I can smell it now. I'm making it for dinner tonight because my husband loves it as well.

Before I give you my recipe, let me tell you when I really started to enjoy eating sauerkraut. It was the first time I went to Izzy's (a sandwich shop in Cincinnati). In Philadelphia if you ordered a corned beef on rye you got a side of cole slaw to put on the sandwich. Yummmm.

But in Cincinnati, each table had a large tub of sauerkraut and a large tub of sliced Jewish pickles. So when you ordered a corned beef on rye you got sauerkraut to go with it, or you could just eat the sauerkraut as a side. It was so much better on the sandwich than the cole slaw.

Tonight I'm making sauerkraut. Whether it's the way my mom made it exactly, I'm not certain, but it will taste really, really good.

First, I brazed three medium sized pork chops (I usually use left-over pork roast) and let them cook for 15 minutes so there was a lot of pan drippings. I added 3/4 cup of water to the pot and let it simmer for 15 minutes, then I thickened the drippings (plus the water) with some cornstarch. I added 1 tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet. Then I spread the sauerkraut over the top of the chops and gravy. I used Bavarian style canned kraut. It's a little sweet, but Alan prefers it to the regular canned stuff. After it simmers for about two hours, it will be ready and the meat will fall off the bones of the chops and I can pull the meat apart.

Anyway, that's it. Hope you can convince your family that the awful smelling stuff really does taste good.

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Meatloaf

I do not particularly like meatloaf. At least none that I've tasted other than my mom's. I haven't had good meatloaf in any restaurant, diner, drive-in, or dive, mainly because I'm not particularly fond a tomato/ketchup topping or infusion in the loaf. Alan often orders meatloaf and I at least try a bite or two of what he received, so I have tasted many meatloaves.

My mom made one kind of meatloaf and when I had children I made another kind, one that they all loved, and so did my husband. I tolerated it.

My mom's meatloaf was just plain. Ground beef, seasoned bread crumbs, chopped onion, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and that was it. All that got mixed together with one egg for moisture, I suppose. And then it was shaped into a loaf.

She did not bake the loaf, but rather browned both sides on top of the stove using a small bit of olive oil so the loaf wouldn't stick to the pan. Then she'd cover the pan for about 1 hour, turn the heat on low and wait. It made quite a bit of au jus which was made into gravy. A nice dark brown gravy.

That's my preferred method for making meatloaf and Alan wolfs it down, but smothers it with ketchup. I smother it with gravy.

The kind of meatloaf I made by children when they were growing up was made with Lays Bar-B-Que potato chips, smashed into small pieces, onion, Bar-B-Que sauce for moisture, salt and pepper. That was it. Mixed all that together, and shaped it into a loaf. That meatloaf WAS baked in an oven for about 1 hour at 325. It always turned out really nice. Slicing it was a breeze -- no crumbling. And the children and Alan liked it especially if they could add more BBQ sauce. I tolerated it, but filled up on the sides, which were usually mashed potatoes, peas, and some sort of salad.

If you're wondering what made me think of Meatloaf today. There's a new freebie on Kindle -- 25 Ways to Make Meatloaf. I don't think I'm going to get that book.

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Hello, I'm back

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this BLOG. I'm still eating and still cooking, although my main meals have been mostly salads such as the one described in the post immediately preceding this one.

I haven't invented any new dishes and I haven't absconded with any new dishes from Paula Deene either. I guess my repertoire of recipes is just about used up.

I have, however, decided that I like the way I prepare raw mushrooms for a garnish for dinners. Alan, of course, won't even think of eating a mushroom, if he knows it's a mushrooms. I can hide mushrooms in cooked meals, but haven't found a way to disguise it in my mushroom salad.

This is not a recipe from Runnemede per se, but I don't know where it came from, so maybe it is.

1 package of sliced mushrooms (button/white mushrooms)
1 lemon, squeezed
1 T olive oil
1 T salad seasoning (McCormick makes this, so does Kroger, but you have to really hunt for it)
1 stalk celery finely chopped
a couple of shakes of garlic salt
a couple of shakes of ground pepper (I use the coarsely ground pepper)
salt to taste (may not be necessary depending on which brand of salad seasoning you get.

NOTE: Salad seasoning is what you are looking for. It is a mixture of seasoned salt, sesame seeds, celery seed, salt, pepper, and a little bit of chili powder. But it is called "Salad Seasoning."
And I use this on many things, including as a meat rub.

That's it. Mix it all together. Let it set overnight. Shake it up occasionally so that all the mushrooms get into the marinade. I like it and I hope you do, too.

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What a yummy dinner or what two new knives will do to motivate me to cook!

Not a RRR dinner, but it was a great dinner none-the-less.

After a week of nothing but salad with only lemon used for a dressing, I thought it might be time for me to try something else. First, I have to say that I did buy some flounder, cooked it the way my mother did, which was yummy, of course, and then broke it up into bite-sized bits to put on those salads -- at least the last three.

So, I'm salad-ed out. I love fresh greens and crunchies such as radishes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and not-so-ripe avocado toss in with the greens and lemon juice, but enough is enough.

Are you getting excited about what I'm about to tell you I cooked today and which, if there had been any more, I would have gobbled it up.

But first....

Yesterday, I realized why I have someone do my food shopping for me. I needed just a few things (actually three plastic bags of stuff, one of which was full of Puffs for Alan's nose). So I went and got just what was on my list and added one other item, the item about which I will tell you in a minute.

Anyway, I was so wiped out by the time I got to the check-out -- AND YES, I RIDE ONE OF THOSE RIDING CARTS -- that I said to myself: This is why you have Tamara shop for you. You could kill yourself if you did this every week.

Now to the "meat" of the BLOG:

I made lamp chops that tasted exactly like the rack chops you get at Outback. They are so good, and it was the sauce (jus) they serve with the rack that had me stumped, but I figured it out.

First I seared four chops and then put them in the oven at 400 degrees to bake for 20 minutes, then I turned on the broiler for the last 5. PERFECT, medium rare chops.

To make the sauce I had very finely chopped two stalks of rosemary and sprinkled that along with the salt and pepper on the chops. Then I arranged the chops in the pot and put whole cloves of garlic in the center (when I popped the pot in the oven, not before). I was left with a wonderful jus (syrup?) to which I added a tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet and 1/2 cup of water. This I brought to a boil and then put in a light slurry of cornstarch and water. Perfect viscosity for the jus -- not thick, not watery, and oh, so yummy.

Alan and I dipped our chops in the jus (did you know that lamp chops have a wonderful handle to hold on to when you're eating them in the privacy of your own home?) and were moaning and aahing and oohing with each bite. What a combo. I added fried noodles and tomatoes mixed.

Just boil the noodles to al dente, and then drain. Put them in a frying pan with 2 T of melted butter. Turn the heat on high and turn the noodles frequently for about 3 minutes. This will give most of the noodles a nice crunch, but they will still be noddle-y. The tomatoes to be served over top of the noodles was just cherry tomatoes (I used 20) sliced in 1/2, and added some sweet basil finely chopped, salt and pepper, and a few drips of EVOO. YUMMMMMMM.

What can I say? It was a fabulous meal.

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fetuccini alfredo

I think If I looked back, I'd see that I already have put this recipe into this BLOG, but my sister and cousin and I enjoyed this so much on a recent trip to Virginia, that I thought I'd reprieve it, per sis's request.

Mom never made this treat. However...

Back in the mid-80s to the early 90s when I was entertaining frequently, I found that this dish was well received by any and all in attendance at one of my dinner parties. I varied the base from time to time by including cut up ham or bits of bacon, but always started with the same base.

The recipe is very, very simple.

For 4-6 people:

1 pound of fettuccine noodles -- cooked according to package directions. BE SURE TO NOT OVERCOOK the noodles.

1 quart of heavy cream.
1/4 of a stick of butter
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
2 cups Parmesan cheese

In large fry pan* melt the butter. Sprinkle the garlic salt over the melted butter. Mix. Add to the melted butter the cream. Slowly bring the cream to a bubble, but not a boil. If the cream boils, it will separate. It will still taste as good, it just looks nasty. After the cream comes to a bubble, add the cheese, stirring until all the cheese is mixed in. Turn down the heat to low (electric stove is a 1 or 2 setting). Let the sauce keep warm until the noddles are cooked. Add the noodles into the cream sauce right in that pan, mix and let the mixture remain in the pan (on low) for 5 minutes or so, so that the sauce is absorbed into the noodles.

Eat and enjoy. Serve with salad, and if you wish garlic bread. We had it with fresh tomato/basil salad, which was a real treat.

*Large fry pan -- large enough to hold all the sauce and all the cooked noodles.

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Capon and risotto and mush

I am reading a book about Abruzzo and the food of the region (Food and Memories of Abruzzo: Italy's Pastoral Land by Anna Teresa Callen). It's a long book with Anna's memories of her childhood and the food that she enjoyed. She is a cook, had a stint on PBS as a chef back in the 60s and early 70sm and returns to Italy and Abruzzo every year to get more recipes.

I'm reading about capon. A capon is a rooster that is raised specifically for eating, as opposed to helping the hens make eggs. And I recall as a small child that my mom always wanted a capon at Christmas time. She would ask Mr. Leap to get her one, and when I was younger than a teenager, we often had capon for Christmas dinner, and I must say, I rather enjoyed it.

I probably enjoyed it so much because it was a much bigger bird than the normal chickens we got, and parsing this bird between six people gave me a bigger portion.

I guess I never realized until I read this book that in Abruzzo the traditional bird for Christmas was a capon. In fact, the author avers that capon was rarely eaten except at this time of the year.

Now, my mom never made risotto; at least she didn't call it that. It was just rice. And until she started using that awful minute stuff we had good rice in our house. Mom would put some butter in a pan and then "brown" the rice for about two minutes, stirring all the time. Then she would add twice as much liquid -- usually chicken broth -- to the rice as she had put rice in the pot. She would lift the lid occasionally and stir the concoction, and then we would top it with parmesan cheese. It was very good. And I suppose this creamy well-cooked rice was risotto.

Another item in this book that harps back to my mom's cooking is the use of mush -- corn meal mush -- as a supplement to meals, to bulk them up so to speak. Mush...now called polenta. I hated that stuff, so I'm not in any hurry to try polenta at any restaurants and pay a big price for something I never could stomach as a child. I don't like grits either.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you have time and can get a copy of Food and Memories..., by all means do. It's a great read, and I've culled several recipes.

As a final note: I went to the butcher shop to pick up my ground lamb. Lamb is very difficult to get in this part of the country, so I asked my butcher to get me a few racks and about 10 pounds of ground lamb, mainly because both Alan and I like lamb-burgers. So, what did he get me? Ground veal. I figure somewhere in this book there has to be some recipes for ground veal.

Without the benefit of any specific recipes, I am thinking I can make some veal patties and bread them and fry them in EVOO, then make veal Parmesan out of them, or something similar.

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

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Lunch with a friend

I had lunch with a friend yesterday. It was such a treat for ME to have my friend visit and then stay for lunch. I still like to entertain, and now that my knees are doing so much better, I can entertain without getting so sore.

My mother didn't do lunches with friends, but the recipes I used for my luncheon were mostly hers.

The luncheon consisted of:

• Lime flavor chips and green (tomatilo) salsa (bottled). I have to say that I don't really care for this salsa. It's just too mild for me. I think I'll stick to the red (tomato) salsa.
• Fresh garden salad with a lemon/white wine vinegar dressing. Salad contained fresh greens, cucumber from the garden, fresh picked tomatoes, and avocado.
• Cucumber sandwiches
• Peaches with whipped cream

The lemon/white wine vinegar dressing is very simple to make. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the avocado and over the cucumbers. Salt the salad lightly. Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil or olive oil (depending on your taste). Stir thoroughly.

The cucumber sandwiches are made as follows: remove the outer skin from the cucumber. Cut the cucumber in half length-wise and remove all the seeds. Then slice the cucumbers into thin slices. Add 1/4 cup white vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt. Chill overnight. To make the actual sandwich, I use the softer bread, but any bread (your favorite) will do. Spread a very thin covering on one slice of bread of Philadelphia brand whipped cream cheese. Lay on top of the cream cheese the slices of cucumber that you made last night. Cut into quarters. If you wish, take off the crusts. Do not make these too far ahead as the bread will get soggy.

The cucumber sandwiches are delicious as is the salad. Enjoy.

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Chicken

My mom had a problem cooking chicken. Many times it was too dry, especially when she baked it or broiled it. By dry I mean sawdust dry. You know, the kind of dry chicken that sticks in your throat and even swallowing water on top of it doesn't dislodge it? Really, really dry chicken.

So when mom made chicken in the oven we would pray no one called on the phone or dropped by or else we knew the chicken would be bone dry.

She always served this baked chicken -- a recipe she picked up from Better Homes and Gardens magazine -- with mashed potatoes, which were really creamy and lumpless, and excellent tasting, and succotash (creamed corn and lima beans). Also, of course, the salad of greens for the end of the meal. Always a salad of greens for the end of the meal.

Her chicken and dumplings we loved. Her chicken croquettes we loved. Her chicken-a-la-king we loved. Her chicken cacciatore we loved. Her chicken, rice, broccoli, cheese casserole most of us loved that dish. Her fried chicken -- yummy. Her chicken soup, delish. And her chicken salad couldn't be beat.


But that baked chicken -- sorry, BH&G, but that recipe failed more times than it passed.

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No giggles

I was so certain we were going to get the giggles like we did when I was a child. My cousin, Joan, was there, and I guess if we had sat together in church, we would have giggled. However, I was playing the piano, so I sat in the front, beside the piano, and Joanie was sitting with her husband, Ron, in the near rear of the church.

I was thinking about Joanie yesterday and was a little bummed because everything was so rushed on that Sunday morning, and I didn't really have as much time with her as I had desired. And then I recalled about the giggling which I was so sure was going to happen during church.

The picture of the rose above is from my mother's climber which spreads out each spring to cover the front of the garage. A friend from the church told me that they cut it back every fall, and every spring it grows to the great proportion which I saw when I got home. The picture is just of one of the many roses that covered the bush.

I also noticed when I was home that all the weeds that had grown behind the garage had been removed and it is now part of the lawn. It never was when I was growing up. It was sort of a divider between our yard and the neighbor's yard. Now, it's all one giant lawn from our yard to the eastern end of Second Avenue. That's the top picture. No more picket fence, no more weeds.

And that's ttfn.

I outdid myself.

I was thinking: DINER. Not dinner. And I was thinking what could I make that was typical DINER fare. I was thining DINER because I'm trying to get us reservations at Phily Diner in Runemede for our one family night together. I think I've accomplished that fete. Guarantee will be on Monday.

I've been working on getting us a place in the Diner for several weeks. One person tells me we have too large a crowd for the diner, another says I have to be in their event room. Another says the event room may be booked. Another says the event room may be too big. Well, tonight I finally got through to the person in charge, and was told we COULD meet in the diner -- in the OLD part -- exactly where we want to be!!!! Isnt' that great!

To my DINER meal:


I made pork chops, mac & cheese, and succotash. How fattening and diner-esque is that?

The pork chops were boneless, and very thick. I first braised an onions, roughly chopped in a little bit of butter, lightly salted. Then when the onions were almost translucent, I put the chops in the pan on top of the onions. I seasoned the chops with salt/pepper and garlic salt and browned them on each side. Then I covered the pan with the chops in it, and lowered the heat down to "low" (on my flat-top electric range). They simmered for about 15 minutes and gave me a lot of juice from which to make a really nice gravy.

To the pan drippings I added 1/4 cup HEAVY cream and 1 tablespoon of gravy bouquet (to darken it), then I thickened it a little bit with cornstarch and water mixed. The gravy was delicious.

The mac & cheese was my easy recipe, same as my moms -- well, it changes every time I make it, as did my moms, but basically it was:

macaroni (1 cup uncooked), 2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/4 stick of butter. After the macaroni was cooked and drained I put it all back into the pot, and stirred it over low heat until it all mixed together. It was really good and creamy. Not at all dried out like my meatloaf was yesterday (See yesterday's post). Mom ALWAYS topped hers with broken up saltines. I didn't top my with anything today. I often top it with bread crumbs and then bake it for 1/2 hour or so. Today I scooped the mac and cheese right out of the pan.

And then we had succotash. Alan's favorite veggies.

I didn't care how I slopped it on the plate, since it was diner fare, and we just enjoyed it tremendously.

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Dried meatloaf

Can anyone tell my why my meatloaf was so dry last night? I mean, yuck. I don't particularly care for meatloaf anyway, but this one was awful. It tasted okay if I slathered it with stewed tomatoes, or for Alan, with ketchup, but it was dry.

I guess I just can't do an oven roasted meat loaf. I usually brown it on top of the stove, then cover the pot, and cook it on top of the stove. That's the way my mother did it. But I chose the lazy route yesterday, and made the meatloaf and cooked it all in the same pan.

Then I made fried noodles, and for some reason the butter just wouldn't stick to the noodles. They were good, though. Fried noodles is something that is a natural side dish for meatloaf. I used to have mashed potatoes, but they are too much trouble. I just hate peeling potatoes, and I'm not fond of the skins, so smashed potatoes isn't often an option. I only smash the potatoes, skin and all, when I'm desperate.

Hunts has a new diced tomato -- it has oregano, basil, onion, and garlic in it. It's my mother's stewed tomatoes in a can, all I have to do it thicken it a bit. It sure was easier than trying to make sure I got all the spices in the right quantities for the way I have prepared stewed tomatoes all my "cooking" life.

Oh, enough, already. I'm on to other things, and cooking isn't one of them.

If you have a perfect meatloaf recipe -- one that gives you a moist meatloaf every time, let me know.

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Creamed anything

My mother was the master of feeding six people with enough meat for three. Yes, we were meat eaters, sort of. And every meal was served with a garden salad. It's an Italian tradition, I suppose.

To go along with our love for meat, my father liked just about anything "creamed." Creamed chicken. Cha-ching. Creamed dried beef. Cha-ching. Creamed sausage. Cha-ching. Creamed peas with pearl onions. Cha-ching. Creamed spinach. Cha-ching

My mother's basic "cream" recipe was so easy to make. And when I was first married, we had very little money, but I had my mother's "cream" recipe. Back then a gallon of milk was 99 cents, a loaf of bread was a quarter, and chicken was 39 cents a pound.

Alan and I thrived on pancakes and spaghetti, and "creamed anything."

So, I'm putting my mom's "cream" recipe on this BLOG and you can add to it what you want.

4 tblspns butter (or margarine)
1/4 cup white flour
2 cups whole milk

Melt the butter, whisk the flour into the melted butter. Turn back the heat as you're doing this. When the heat is on low to low-med, slowly add the milk, whisking the entire time. This should give you a not-too-thick/not-too-thin cream sauce.

You can add whatever you want: left over chicken (or as my mother did, boil a small chicken in water and then pick the bones, store half the chicken meat in the freezer and add the rest of the chicken meat to the cream sauce). Or, you can add chipped dried beef (it comes in jars now days). When I was a child, mom would send me down to the grocer at the corner of Clements Bridge and the Pike because they had the best fresh dried beef. I'd get 1/4 pound for 25 cents and mom would make the cream sauce. Dinner that night would be cream dried beef over RICE -- yes rice. My dad liked it that way.

In the mid-50s Pepperidge Farms came out with a frozen puff pastry and mom would bake six of those pastry cups and fill them with creamed whatever-was-handy. Yummy. Dad loved it that way. If there was any left over creamed whatever-was-handy, mom would toast a few slices of Italian bread and dad would slurp up the remainder of the creamed stuff.

Cheap, easy, and very comforting.

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Am I in my right mind?

I mean, who in their right mind makes fried chicken and potato salad on a cold (15 degrees), dreary, day in January? Well, I am making that for dinner tonight.

Actually, I'm making SMASHED potato salad because I'm too lazy to peel the potatoes and cut them into itty-bitty pieces. I also smashed the eggs with the potatoes. So, they're cooling off in the fridge, and I've got the celery, green pepper, and onion chopped ready to be added to the smashed mixture.

The chicken is "marinating" and is ready to be thrown, or rather, placed gently, into the hot oil, whenever I turn on the pan containing the oil. Dinner is ready to be cooked. A real summer treat, in the middle of winter. How weird is that?

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Update

I know I haven't written on this BLOG for ages and ages. Well, I've either not been cooking or I've been doing remakes.

Tonight, for instance, I did the old standby -- fettuccine Alfredo, with chicken. I decided since I wasn't really up for a meal at all, I'd just add "shaved" chicken. What is shaved chicken? Well, first of all, it's the easiest way to make a chicken dish go from two people two six or eight people, just by cooking more noodles.

If you get chicken fillets out of the freezer about an hour before you are going to cook the dinner, they will still be quite frozen. Being frozen it is much easier to cut the chicken into thinner pieces (shaved, if you will) and when you mix those pieces with the noodles, you really can't tell where the noodles leave off the the chicken begins. I mentioned that you should make this dish expand by shaving the chicken. I used one-half of one fillet for this meal tonight, and it was more than enough for two people. So you see how it expands the meal?

This works well for stir fry as well, in fact, especially well for stir fry. I use one fillet for the two of us.

So, you all know what I made for dinner tonight. It seems when I don't feel like eating I cook better, or is it just that I've come off a weekend of the cooking channel and am motivated to cook?

Did I mention that I baked a cherry pie today as well? The crust was wonderful. Crisp all the way through, just the way we like it.

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Roast duckling

I may have put this recipe on the BLOG earlier, but since 'tis the season for different meats (non-chicken, pork, or ground beef) I am posting it again.

Our favorite duck is l'orange -- that's with an orange crust. And I'll address that as an add-on.

I have to state at the beginning any left over duck, put into a large pot and covered with water and boiled until the meat falls off the bones, makes the BEST, BEST, BEST soup in the world.

Back to roast duck.

Items needed:

1 duck (thawed). You will probably get it from the butcher frozen. Allow two days in the fridge to thaw completely.
salt - sea salt preferred
pepper - coarse ground preferred
garlic powder or garlic salt

Liberally coat the duckling with salt, pepper, and garlic powder/salt. Put on rack in a pan in the oven preheated to 350 degrees. Cook for two hours. Duck tends to be very greasy. I slit the skin before I put it in the oven, and cook it breast down, that way the fat drips into the pan and doesn't soak into the duck.

Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before cutting up. The pan drippings are mostly fat, but you can skim off the fat and find a nice juice if you wish to make an unthickened gravy.

For duck l'orange, after one hour I liberally spread all sides of the duck with orange marmalade. This also flavors any pan drippings. It's very good. I've also used cranberry sauce (the canned kind) and I've used a cranberry wine reduction to pour over the duck after it's sliced.

Serve with au gratin potatoes and peas with pearl onions. Yummmmmm.

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