Miss Hot Dish

It all began two years ago.... when my book club was reading a book --I can't remember the name of it--but it  used the phrase "congealed salad".  Now I know that in the South they still use the phrase "congealed", and rightly so.    Anything made with Knox gelatin is, let's face it, congealed.
It just sounds funny to our Western ears.  In making fun of ourselves and to not offend our Southern friends--I will admit we are a little adolescent out here.  We laugh over stupid stuff--and congealed just sounds funny.  (yes, we probably need to grow up, but to be fair, we laugh at ourselves too.), so we had a book club meeting and  a congealed salad cook-off.   We elected a Miss Congealdiality--just for fun--gave her an old  "Joys of Jello" cookbook, a sash, and a great time was had by all.  (and some of the salads were YUM-MEE!)




Fast forward to last night.  We decided to have a "Hot Dish" party.  In honor of our Midwest friends who bring "a dish to pass" or a "hot dish" to a get together.  We in the west bring casseroles.
BUT AGAIN--a good time was had by all.  We elected a "Miss Hot Dish" and ate some good casseroles, and drank some wine, and at the end of all that we then discussed  "To Kill a Mockingbird"  for over 2 hours.  It was a great evening.  I Love my bookclub(s)!


The Hot Dish (Totally Lit Book Club) evening gave me a chance to use another recipe in my very own Cookbook Notebook ---recipes I've  been saving and collecting for over 30 years.   I can't bring myself to part with old recipes, even if I am never going to use them again, except in instances such as this.  They do bring back memories tho---memories of when we were young and had no money and had 3 kids to feed---ahhhh, those were great times (we just didnt' know it then.)
The casserole I made has no name.  I received it from a friend, Susie Taylor, about 25 years ago.  I'm sure she took it from the back of  a Hillshire Farm's Smoked Sausage package.  It has all the ingredients of a traditional "hot dish",   noodles, soup, sour cream--comfort food at its best!  I haven't made it for at least 15 years.  Hmmm, and it took a book club for me to dust off the recipe card and bring it back.  The Handyman couldn't even remember which casserole I was talking about, until he tasted it and said,  "oh yeah, I remember now.  It's good, I like it."

So, here it is  (and I'm not saying that it's the best thing ever, I'm saying it's a blast from my past and it was good),  the 10th runner up out of 12 hot dishes  (I really don't know where I placed, but there were a lot of good hot dishes there)......
....Debbie's Hot Dish.

Oh wait, you want to know who won? Who is Miss Hot Dish of the Totally Lit Book Club?    Our own,  Miss Jean Pfarr with her mom's homemade Mac and Cheese Casserole   (with some tomatoes on top). 
Or maybe it wasn't her mother's recipe, because Jean used Gruyere instead of the basic cheddar, and added the tomatoes.  She updated and old classic and won!  
 Jean, a nutritionist by trade (I wonder how she reconciled eating all these soup, sour-cream, cheese laden casseroles this evening? ) was given her sash and we sang the  the traditional  "There she is--Miss Hot Dish"  song to the tune of Miss America.  And, as I said, a GREAT time was had by all.

And now.... Debbie's Hot Dish....from her very own collection of recipes scribbled on the back of envelopes found in her purse, torn out of magazines in doctors offices, and discovered in the bottom of her grandmother's  junk drawer.

Sausage Hot Dish

1 package curly noodles --cooked according to package directions
1 can  cream of celery soup
1 cup sour cream
1 cup Swiss cheese--grated
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 lb Hillshire farm smoked sausage--sliced
1/2 tsp dill
salt and pepper

Mix all together and bake at 350 until hot...about 30 minutes.

************************************
Photo Gallery

Miss Congealdiality 2009,  our friend Cindy  Ulch. 
Her winning dish?  Tomato Aspic.  Full of shrimp and all kinds of spicy goodness.

and The Congealed Salads!

January 2011--Miss Congealdiality takes her final walk--around the kitchen--before giving up her title. 

The anticipation of waiting---who will be Miss Hot Dish?

(oops--picture taken after Miss Hot Dish has her sash on....so, not the anticipation, but rather the disappointment of being losers :~)

Our 2011 Queen of the Kitchen--Miss Hot Dish, Jean Pfarr!

(and the sign said,  when I said to bring a hot dish, I didn't mean the green bean casserole!)

And our 1st runner up, who, if for any reason Jean cannot fulfill her reign as Miss Hot Dish,  will accept the duties and responsibilities that come with the sash,  Di An Putnam!!  With her Chicken Tortilla Casserole.

The Hot Dishes

(yes, my friends are all HOT DISHES)

and now the food....

The end.

Cookbook Sundays with Beef Stew

Today is Cookbook Sunday!  One of my favorite days. Why? Because I get to randomly  (or sometimes not so randomly) choose a cookbook from my shelves and  mark one more off my list.  It feels so nice...to cross one off the list.
I own some cookbooks which, once I cross them off the list, I will never use again.  I'm just being honest here.  I don't have the time to go into why I keep them if I'll never use them...that, I guess,  is the subject for another post, or my therapist.
Today's cookbook tho, is one of my own.  I call them my cookbook 'notebooks' and  in them I have tried (most of them) and true (85% of them I love) recipes that I make over and over again.  I ran out of room for a recipe box years ago, so I began sticking them all in a binder...recipes I wanted to try, to see if I liked them   (it would make sense also, to try them and if they are not anything I'd make again, to toss them, like that naggin 15% , as my friend Mitzi does.  Her cookbook notebook--and she has only one--is not bulging at the seems like mine is or are.)

You will notice how thick my notebook is....and also I typed that description years ago.   I have moved salads to their own notebook and also my cousin Linda's recipes have gone with them.  (My cousin Linda is a great cook and talks often of making her own cookbook.  I actually OWN IT ALREADY, but in e-mail form, as I keep asking for this recipe and that one.  It's a sneaky trick of mine )

This is Cookbook #2, Main Dishes and Sides,  from which I am making my beef stew recipe.
It was chilly and rainy and gray and it just seemed like a good night for Beef stew.  We invited our Friday Night Friends  (The Miltons. It's  a standard invite, if neither of us is doing anything we always eat dinner together on Fridays), so I would say that it's company worthy.  Or maybe very close friend worthy.  I mean, Beef Stew isn't something you would make for a dinner party, but, it's really, really good.   The ultimate comfort food.
I am taking that back.....serve it to your company, serve it to anyone.  Isn't it one of the most meaningful things in life, to sit around a good meal with friends and share conversation and laughter?
(tonight...Halloween night, it will be take and bake pizza's and friends)

I take Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Stew and adapt it slightly---I adapt it because I am usually running out of time.  I serve it along side or over mashed potatoes.

The Ultimate Beef Stew
adapted from Tyler Florence

2-3 lbs beef shoulder, cut into chunks
8 fresh thyme sprigs, plus 4 sprigs  (why he doesn't just write 12 is beyond me)
2 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 cups blanched and peeled red pearl onions
1 orange, peel cut in large strips
cloves, a few
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 bottle good quality dry red wine (recommended Burgundy)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil for frying, more to drizzle
3 T. butter
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Bouquet Garni
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1/2 lb baby carrots
1/2 lb garden peas
1 lb whit mushrooms, cut in half
pinch sugar
Fresh flat leaf parsley chopped as a garnish
chives
croutons
garlic puree

To make the marinade  (which to be honest I didn't do, and my stew was PERFECT)  (but you can do it if you have the time)
place the beef in a large glass or plastic container.  Add 8 sprigs of thyme, carrots, garlic, red onions, orange peel, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves and the wine.  Mix well to coat, then cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Remove beef from the marinade and pat dry on paper towels.  Heat the oil and butter with the remaining 4 sprigs of thyme in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on a high heat.  When the oil begins to smoke, remove the thyme. Add the beef and brown evenly on all sides. Season with salt and pepper.   Strain the marinade into the beef and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up the flavorful bits in the bottom of the pot. Add bouquet garni and beef stock. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered until the liquid starts to thicken, about 15-20 minutes. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours.
( what I did was just brown the beef in oil and butter with some thyme springs and salt and pepper, then added some wine--not the whole bottle, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottle, and the beef broth, a bay leaf or 2,  minced garlic, and yes, i did buy some red pearl onions, which I just peeled and put in the stew whole.  I let it cook on the stove top for about 20 minutes.  Then I stuck it in my oven for a few hours on 275-300)

After about 2 hours add the baby carrots, garden peas and mushrooms, along with a pinch of sugar to balance out the acid from the red wine. Turn the heat up slightly and simmer, uncovered for about 30 minutes more, until the veggies are tender.  Season with salt and pepper.
(I just finished it off in the oven)
Garnish with fresh parsley and chives and croutons if you have them. 
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and  serve the stew along side of buttery mashed potatoes.

The beef just melted in your mouth!! 


I am linking this up to  Cookbook Sundays (of course)  And my own Cookbook Countdown (natch) and  Weekend Cooking (my bookie friends).   (wait a minute, I live in Nevada, Bookie  just doesn't sound right.... Book Bloggers?  That sounds better, altho I do believe Beth from Beth Fish Reads, has a ton of cookbooks too)

My Tasty Kitchen's best comfort meal ever!

Last week I got a flu shot. This week I swear I had the flu.... a low grade, mild flu. Not bad enough to stay home sick, but my body ached and my throat was very dry and scratchy and well... I just didn't feel good.

But yet, not bad enough to crawl into bed and have everyone leave me alone.
My 2 year old granddaughter from Virginia is here at our house for 6 weeks also, and she had a runny nose, so perhaps I caught something from her.
(my youngest son, father of the preemies/twins had the swine flu this summer, soon after the babies came home from the hospital. Hopefully that is immunities enough for everyone in their house for the winter!)

Whatever I had tho, like I said, wasn't bad enough to keep me down.... just wish that I could justify going to lay down and bypassing all my housewifery duties.
Here you are reading a "food blog", which is mine. Because I do love to cook. I love to bake, and cook new dishes.... but only when I "want" to. My boys are all grown, with families of their own, so for the past couple of years, it has been just me and the Handy-man. We go out to $1 taco night EVERY THURSDAY, eat with our friends the Miltons EVERY FRIDAY. I might cook like mad for 7 days straight, and then not cook anything at all for 5 days in a row.

I'm lucky like that...the Handyman doesn't care. He's good to make himself something to eat if I don't feel like cooking. Or rather, he's good to say, "where should we eat tonight?"


(a confession: we eat out more than anyone I know. It's not even fun anymore. Except that I don't have to do the dishes).

My point, you might be asking yourself? Is that, my middle son moved home a while ago... he is transitioning. But even with him home, I don't cook every night. He's 26, he knows his way around a kitchen (at least enough so he won't starve), but...... he brings home this cute, adorable, little devil... I mean ANGEL. (did I say devil--ha ha.  She really is adorable, and very spunky)to visit and stay with us for the next 6 weeks, and all of the sudden, I have The Handyman (who should know better), my  son,  and my little "spunky"  granddaughter, (who really does need to eat), looking at me, like "what's for dinner tonight?"

So on Tuesday, I just felt achy and icky...and I was looking thru some food blogs and was laughing at Donna's from Tasty Treasures, when I noticed she had a recipe for Chili Mac with green chilies. She had me at green chilies. Because truthfully, I already make a chili-Mac. My mom makes a chili-Mac, my friend Traci in California makes a chili-Mac. Chili-Mac is not that hard to figure out.... BUT she had green chilies. I had never seen that before, and I love the flavor of green chilies. And Donna also had the addition of cheese... mmmmmmm.

I ran my achy body to the store on the way home from work and picked up the few things I didn't have in my pantry. Because lets face it... Chili-Mac is one of those recipes where most of us, have most of the ingredients on hand, and is easily thrown together. We don't think of Chili-Mac as something grand.


I finish that errand and go home, where, you guessed it, I walk thru the door, where 3 expectant faces are scanning my face for clues as to what I am planning on making and glancing at the grocery bags in my hand to see some interesting ingredient is sticking out.


I tell them I'm fixing Chili-Mac. All of them except for my granddaughter  (she's happy with most things on the dinner table), turn away with disappointed looks on their faces.

That is, until I made this Chili-Mac and they tasted it. They went back for 2nds, for 3rds... the next day at lunch, the Handyman calls and asked what we were having for dinner. I say "leftovers". He is disappointed again, but not because we are having the Chili-Mac for dinner, but because he wanted to come home and heat it up for lunch.
Donna's "Skillet Chili-Mac with Corn and Green Chilies"         was comfort food at it's best. And  super easy to top it off. I think Donna was working on some easy week-night simple suppers. Or maybe one skillet meals.  I can't remember...check out her blog for that.... whatever it was tho, this one is a keeper.

I will never make my old Chili-Mac again.
Good-bye stupid oregano---hello green chilies and cheese!


I can't say enough about it... warm, tasty, filling, easy, comforting. YOU should try it. It really was grand!
I will post the recipe, but for pictures that are 100x better than mine and for a full tutorial, check out Donna's blog. Seriously. She's funnier than I am too.  You won't leave disappointed.

I am going to submit this meal to "thekrazykitchen's"   "Simple Saturday" meme.

Skillet Chili-Mac with Corn and Green Chilies

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 garlic-cloves, minced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
2 cups water
8 oz (2 cups) elbow macaroni
1 cup frozen corn
1 4.5oz can chopped green chilies
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
2 cups shredded cheese ( Donna used a combination of cheddar and Monterey jack, but she says we can use pepper jack or a Mexican shredded cheese blend. I used cheddar this time. I also used sea-shell pasta, because that's what I had)

Directions
Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the ground beef, onion chili powder, cumin and salt. Cook the beef until it is no longer pink. Drain off any excess fat or grease (the amount will depend on how lean your beef is) Stir in garlic and brown-sugar and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato sauce, water and macaroni. Cover and cook, stirring often and keeping the heat a steady simmer, until the macaroni is tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Stir in 1 cup of the cheese, frozen corn, green chilies and cilantro. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Cover and let sit until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
Yum!!
 

Browning it all up

The addition of brown sugar....not sure what it did, but it was good!

As I mentioned, I had sea-shell pasta.  It worked tho.   That's the great thing about easy week night meals, you can substitute what's in your pantry.

And Wah-La!  It's on the table!

And my little dev...I mean angel.

Evalynn.

Garlicky Lemon Pepper Chicken

My husband, must have read my blog.
I'm never sure when he does or if he does, but he must have today, because he sent me an e-mail that said:

"you have a lot more than 200"

I am assuming he meant cookbooks. Because this soon after Christmas, he certainly doesn't mean the pennies I have in the bank!
I had to set him straight... I have 208 cookbooks plus assorted notebooks and magazines (which I'm going to toss as soon as I MAKE SURE I have taken out all the recipes I want to try). He just shakes his head at me. He loves me!

I'm not sure if this recipe counts as a "cookbook" for my goal, but it does come from my "file" of recipes to try. (and it's a keeper)
That would make one cookbook down and the file down. Right?

I was actually doing some blog surfing and came across this recipe at The Hungry Mouse-- "The Angry Chef's Garlicky Lemon-Pepper Chicken." It looked great.

It has 3 types of garlic, so ya gotta be a garlic lover. And it is fried, so in not sticking with my new "lighter" dishes....WAIT, that was someone else's goal, not mine, so I can do the fried garlicky, lemon chicken! Hooray!!
And I am ever glad I did. It was so good. There is something so comforting about frying. Seeing all those bubbles just going, making a nice crispy crunchy coating. And the sound of frying! Frying is good for all the senses. None of us do it often anymore. We dare not, because it is not good for us---but once in a while, I think for nostalgic purposes, and because it feels good on our tongues and tastebuds, we need to eat a fried food. And this...this good garlicky, lemony fried chicken just hits the spot.
You should really try it. I loved it. My husband loved it. My son (still at home and in his transistion period/year) loved it too.

Here is the recipe in the new cookbook holder. ( I e-mailed it to myself) (pay no attention to what looks like a messy "pile" behind and to the right of the fancy cookbook holder. It is a figment of your imagination)

And I don't know if anyone noticed, but this recipe was on top when I opened my file to show those recipes when I counted the other day (for my recipe goal count).

I must have REALLY wanted to try it out, because that was not planned.

I will give you the ingredient list, but am going to leave the instructions and tutorial to Jessie aka The Hungry Mouse, as it is her Angry Chef's recipe and no one can blog it like she does. (Honey B and I were just discussing this....she makes us want to eat lots of meat!)
But this way, you can check out the ingredients and see if it's a recipe for you.
And then...I will post some of my pictures. (which pale in comparison to the originals) but you know, it's just kind of fun for me--and my old Kodak--to try and get a decent shot.

But first THANKS Hungry Mouse and Angry Chef! You made dinner tonight, a fun, tasty, treat.

The Angry Chef's Garlicky Lemon-Pepper Chicken

6 chicken breasts (about 4 1/2 pounds)
2 cups flour
1 lemon, juice and peel
1 clove elephant garlic
3 1/2 tablespoons prepared minced garlic
pure olive oil
onion powder
garlic salt
white pepper
black pepper
dried oregano
dried parsley
powdered lemon peel

Serves 6- 8 as a main course.

And now...what you've all been waiting for...MY pictures.

Poor Man's pastie, pigs in a blanket, or strange foods you ate as a kid.

A Poor Man's Pastie.

Pigs in a blanket. When I say it, do you think of pancakes and sausages? Or do you think of little cocktail smokies wrapped in a crescent roll dough, eaten with mustard at a party?
This has been the question of the ages for me. Because when I say it, it brings to mind something a bit different for everyone.

Yesterday day I made the little ones for an open house we attended in the afternoon.
And I am not too proud to admit that I love pancakes with sausages and syrup for breakfast!

But yesterday, when making the cocktail ones, all of the sudden, I was hit with a memory of my mom making what she called Pigs in a Blanket.
I remembered feeling a sense of comfort and family and safety. And since it was a snowy, cold Sunday afternoon, I decided to make this old family recipe.

After of course, we ventured out in freezing temperatures to go to the Holiday Open House at the Church Parsonage.

Fast forward to back home.... me reminiscing about my mom making this quick supper for us. It had to be towards the end of the month, close to the next pay day, when money was running out, she'd throw together her "Pigs in a Blanket".

And let me just state right here...we all have those strange meals from our childhood that we would never actually admit to, right? Meals that we were just sure no one else on earth ever had because they were so different?
My mom took pear halves out of a can and put a dollop of mayo in the center and sprinkled some cheddar cheese and called it our salad. It was in 1960's for heaven's sake.
The 1960's when I was growing up was not known for home-based gourmet cooks. TV dinners were in fashion, and it was way cool, to peel back some foil and Wa-LAH, there was your friend chicken and mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. But that was probably a bit pricey for the end of the month, so my mom would whip together this......



and so I made them last night.
Pigs in a blanket.
Hot dogs ( Rich picked them up for me. I would have preferred a heartier-sausager type of weenie, but it's okay)
onion
sharp cheddar cheese
and homemade biscuit dough.

It's like a very poor man's Cornish Pastie.

But you know what? It was warm. And it was good. And it reminded me of my mom. And growing up.
And I can't believe I'm posting about it.....

and there really is no recipe. I made biscuit dough from my Bright Orange Betty Crocker cookbook, that I have had for 30 some years.

sliced a hot dog
added chopped onion

and cheese

rolled it up

Baked it for about 20 minutes.


mmmmm.......mmmmmmm. (okay, it's not for everybody. LOL )

Silly old Bassett Hound, Monroe checking out which cookbook I'll use next!




To redeem myself, I also made some caramel corn last night. I will send it to my sons in Connecticut and Arizona today.

Caramel Corn

3-4 bags of microwaved popcorn-popped
3 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups butter
3/4 cups light corn syrup
1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the popped corn in a large roaster.
melt the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil over low heat and cook for 5 minutes. Be sure not to scorch.
Remove from heat and add the baking soda and the vanilla. Stir to mix.
Pour over the popped corn and stir well.

Put the roaster in a 250degree oven and cook for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
Pour onto waxed paper and let cool.
Break apart and eat.
*****

I use microwave popcorn--and try to pick out all the "old-maids" before covering it with the caramel sauce.


Melting everything


Ready to pop in the oven

Ready to cool --all laid out on the waxed paper.

Cool enough

Ready to eat!