Daughters are wonderful!

I was very, very tired when I came home from work today.  I laid down on the bed to catch a short nap before I made dinner.  I flipped it to the "Maury" show (my secret vice...I know it is trash TV but I love it) but I was so tired I fell asleep. 

My sweet daughter, Paulina, came in and told me to stay in bed, that she was going to make dinner.  And boy did she ever!  She made meatballs and garlic & butter pasta.  I hate to say it, but her meatballs were better than mine! She had them seasoned just so perfectly! Her garlic and butter pasta was the perfect blend of garliky buttery goodness.

After dinner, I did the dishes.  I don't mind doing the dishes when someone else cooked!  I also dove into my new favorite cookbook for a recipe to make a treat for my friend.  The cookbook is the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book from 1956.  It is quite worn out but it still has a lot of old traditional recipes.  I enjoy using it.  I frequently use the pancake, crepe and yellow butter cake recipes from it.

I decided to make a Blueberry Buckle cake.  I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer left over from the smoothie craze the oldest kid went on for a while.  I rinsed and thawed them out and made that.  It is in the oven right now, smelling so good!  I hope it turns out okay.  I am going to take it over to Monique Negron's house as a thank you.  She made dinner for my family last week when my sweet husband was in the hospital. 

I am certainly one very blessed lady.  I have awesome children, an awesome husband and wonderful friends.  Thank you God for blessing me so much.

Fried Green Tomatos!

I remember in days gone by my dad standing in the kitchen frying up some green tomatos....I am trying to remember what else he made when he did this, I seem to recall that he did some kind of shrimp boil?  Anyway! The Farmer's Market had some really good green tomatos so I could not resist trying to make them.

I put some olive oil on the stove to heat.  I am pretty sure my dad used shortening but I prefer using the olive oil.  I did the double dip method.  I sliced the tomatos and did the first dip in milk, then in flour, then in a mixture of a beaten egg, milk and a few drops of Texas Pete, then in a mixture of cornmeal and Soul Seasoning.  Off to the skillet to fry up.  THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD!!

I will have to think real hard of other things my dad used to make. It was nice.

I did it again!

I was not sure what to cook for dinner tonight and really did not want to go to the grocery store.  So I stood around staring at my cupboard trying to figure out what to do.  I found, in the very back, a jar of pad thai sauce I bought at a specialty store and thought, "what the heck".  I spread it over some chicken and threw it in the oven.  I made some rice and stir fry vegies (frozen snap peas, carrots, onions, mushrooms). 

It was actually very good.  The chicken was sweet with a little bit of a kick to it.  Even my pickiest of picky eaters (the two girls) liked it!  Success! I guess the moral of this story is to keep a lot of variety in my cabinets for days I don't feel like going to the store!

Bonnie Butter Cake

So I needed a cake for someone's birthday tomorrow.  This receipe is from my 1956 edition of Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book.  It used almost two whole sticks of real yummy butter.  I am always concerned about making a cake from scratch because I am afraid it will still taste like flour.  The batter for this one was different.

It was really creamy, a product I suppose of all the butter in it.  I was very careful with my measurements.  I did not want anything to go wrong.  Thank goodness the batter did not taste like flour!

They baked up really well.  I have not tasted them. I also have not decided what frosting to use.  I cannot use anything with peanut butter as some of the youth group have allergies.  I am thinking maybe a chocolate buttercream.  I can't decide!

I will try to remember to take a picture when I finish it up!  Got to get ready to try and sleep since tomorrow is Mother's Day.

Here we go again....

It's Thursday, the day before payday and my pantry is looking a little bit thin.  So here I stand in the kitchen trying to figure out what I can throw together to feed the hungry natives.  I have some ground chuck (poor chuck) that I had frozen from the butcher.  That is about it.  No fresh mushrooms.  No onions left (how did that happen? I never run out of onions).  No potatoes.  Sheesh.

I defrosted the ground chuck (poor chuck) and mixed it with crushed saltine crackers, Gold Medal Soul Seasoning (my new favorite spice to use) and some garlic powder.  I made them into five good sized hamburger steaks and threw them in my pan with some chopped onions that I found I had frozen previously. 

After browning them up on both sides I added some (don't judge me here, this stuff is good) dry brown gravy mix and a butt-ton of milk.  I stirred it up real well and it is simmering on the stove for about twenty minutes.  I think I am going to make macaroni noodles to put under it as we have had rice twice this week already.  Being a good Italian wife, I always have pasta on hand.  It is a national emergency if I ever run out of that stuff.

So....here I sit, watching it simmer and pondering the meaning of life, pickles and butterflys.  I think I should like to be a pickle one day instead of always being IN a pickle....