Spaghetti sauce and The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

Last month I read The Kitchen Counter Cooking School which was an eye-opening read for me.  I learned that you don't have to have mixes to make basic dinner foods.  You can use whole, fresh foods instead of packages to make almost anything.  I don't use tons of packaged foods, but I do use some.  I'm going to use fewer in the future.

Tonight I made spaghetti sauce sort-of from scratch.  I used canned tomatoes, but I did can them myself. 

1/2 lb hamburger cooked with
1/2 diced onion (the book tells how to do that easily and neatly)
1 minced garlic clove
Add:
1 quart diced tomatoes
1 pint tomato puree
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning, all to taste

That "to taste" is kind of new to me.  You're supposed to actually get a spoon and taste the food and see if you like it.  If not, change it.  Sounds basic, but it doesn't come naturally to me.

Good spaghetti dinner tonight!

Cream of potato soup

Tonight's dinner turned out to be a pantry-and-leftovers dinner.  I had several big potatoes left over from the mother's day dinner, along with a little chopped/fried bacon from a dinner last week.  I thought it called out to be made into soup.

 Cheesy Cream of Potato Soup

3 large potatoes, diced
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cooked, chopped bacon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Sprinkle of onion powder (or you could sautee fresh onions with the margarine or butter, or sprinkle in a couple teaspoons dried onion flakes with the milk)

Boil the potatoes in water until tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, melt the margarine or butter.  Sprinkle in the flour and mix and stir until bubbly.  Slowly pour in the milk (I used dry milk I had reconstituted), mixing thoroughly, then bring to a boil and boil for one minute.

Add the cheese, bacon, salt, pepper, and onion powder.  Stir until the cheese is melted, then add the drained, cooked potatoes and gently mix until well-combined.

Serve with sour cream, additional chopped bacon, or green onions if desired.

Mother's Day 2013

This has been a pleasant, low-key day and just delightful.

It started off with breakfast in bed complements of Caroline.  Next was brunch with waffles made by Bill.

Then was probably my most-anticipated gift, which was a Skype call from Kevin.  We might have misunderstood what his mission president said.  Perhaps he said 40 minutes, but we talked for an HOUR and forty minutes. :-)

I thought he looked great.  His hair was longer and in a parted-on-the-side style that makes him look older.  His face looked thinner and more angular.  The boy might be growing up on me.

I made it to Church just before the meeting started and at the end they asked all the women to stand up to receive a small gift.

The last part comes tonight for dinner.  I asked my mom what she wanted to have for her Mother's Day dinner and she said slow-cooker roast and vegetables.  I ran to the store last night and bought a big roast along with carrots and potatoes.  My house has been smelling incredible for hours!  We are waiting until David and Alicia get here, then we'll sit down together to enjoy it and each other's company.

What a little whining will get me

I was doing a bit of whining because I work part-time and part of that part-time work coincides with dinner preparation time.  I can't stand having family members circle around asking when dinner is going to be ready when I'm doing the best I can to get it ready. 

This is what I think: I'm not the only one in the family at home at that hour who knows how to prepare food.  If no one else is going to step up and help, then there is no complaining or "hovering" allowed.

Guess who heard me and responded?  Sophia.  She is making dinner tonight--Buffalo wings and celery sticks.  I couldn't be happier.  My favorite meal is always the one I don't have to make.

What do you do when the kids spend the night at a friends?

You go to out to dinner, of course!

Our needs are simple, so Sweet Tomatoes is was.  I like the Won Ton Happiness salad and always have some of that, although it didn't have much dressing on it and didn't bring the "Happiness" it usually brings me.  However, they did have broccoli cheese soup, which I adore, and I also had small bowls of split pea with ham and classic minestrone as well.  The key here was "small bowls."  I had several pieces of the four cheese bread (YUM), then two servings of apple crisp with frozen yogurt on it.  Since I had two servings, obviously it was good.  I realized with the second bowl that I should put caramel sauce on the ice cream and noticed the little sign said it was now house-made.  It tasted like and had the same texture as my homemade caramel sauce.  Really good.

We had David and my mom along and it was a very pleasant adult evening out.

Elizabeth was delighted with her gift

. . . and I'll bet you didn't think this is what she would be delighted about:

She has been a Spiderman fan(atic) for years and this year she asked for a Spiderman action figure and I figured I'd better give in before she's too old.  So my ten year old daughter received a Spiderman action figure.  It talks and shoots things too.  In addition to other gifts, she also received two Spiderman comic books/graphic novels.

The children received more books, things to make, and outdoor items than in the past.  They were pretty happy with the gifts they opened.

My favorite intangible gift was a two hour chat with Kevin who is on his mission in Brazil.  He looked great and had a little trouble with his English. :-)

Our dinner was delicious:

Salad of Winter Fruits with Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette

Slow Cooked Ham

Buttered Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Warm Cinnamon Apples

  Fluffy Raspberry Fruit Salad

Hot Rolls

Butter

 

Cherry Pie

Dutch Apple Pie

Whipped Cream

Sinking to a new low

When I have super-busy weeks with work, family, and volunteering, this is what dinner sometimes sinks to:

That's fresh potatoes that will be mashed with the potato nuggets in the can to make a hybrid fresh/packaged pot of mashed potatoes.  The mashed potatoes are the side for the gravy with sliced turkey (truth in packaging).  That's it.  My family felt lucky that there were fresh potatoes!

Pretzel Dogs

You might have noticed pretzel dogs on the menu below.  They were delicious!

I've tried to make pretzels in the past, but they turned out more like nice twisted bread rolls.  The secret is to dip them in boiling water with a healthy dose of baking soda dissolved in it.  Thirty seconds, then onto the pan, sprinkle with salt and sesame seeds and into the oven.  The kids loved them and so did the adults.

Do I make the dinner listed in my menu plan?

Usually. Sometimes Monday dinner was hard to follow through with if I was working and didn't have all the ingredients on hand. I've been making sure I have everything for the Monday meal in my pantry and I'm better at staying on track. Plus dh looks at the menu from work and I want to make sure what is listed is at least usually what he can look forward to (?) when he gets home. Maybe not tonight. He doesn't like squash and you can see lovely chunks of butternut squash in the slow cooker there.

My busy, money-saving ways

Today I had about 2 1/2 hours to run errands and I was busy!

*Dropped Mom off at her meeting
*Mailed a package at the post office
*Returned some sweat pants to Target that I bought for my mom that didn't fit and bought two reams of paper. Printing coupons sure uses up paper. Well, that and three daughters who can easily draw on five pieces of paper a day (each).
*Went to Albertson's--three packages of frozen veggies and three boxes of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes for FREE with coupons and a couple other things for a very low price.
*Walked a quarter mile or more from the crowded parking lot into Costco to pick up a prescription
*Ran by the Church because there was supposed to be gospel study there but there were only a couple of cars there so it must have been cancelled.
*Went to Walgreen's where I bought close to $50 worth of things and came out with as much in my wallet as I had when I went in if you count the Register Rewards that are good on my next visit--trust me, there will ALWAYS be a next visit and I always have $5-20 worth of Register Rewards in my wallet.
*Picked Mom up from her meeting
*Returned to Walgreen's because--DUH--I forgot to pick up a prescription there.

Whew! After that I headed home and unpacked everything and put it away. I had some spaghetti Carbonara and Mexican corn for lunch and settled in for a couple hours of work. Work was relaxing because it is Friday in Korea and everyone is in a good mood on Friday.

Dinner is cooking itself in the slow cooker. Beans and ham. I'd make cornbread to go with it but we are out of cornmeal and I forgot to get more. My next obvious choices are muffins or biscuits. Biscuits are more of an anomaly in our house so I think I'll go with them.

Great eats

Last night dh said my favorite words: let's go out to eat tonight. He wanted to go go La Salsa which is a chain of "fresh Mexican" food restaurants. After you order the food is prepared at a counter in front of you, like when you go to Subway sandwiches. I ordered a chicken and avocado thing which was like a New Mexico enchilada--flat instead of rolled. Here is the plate, plus I had a cup of delicious black beans on the side:This morning I was looking through the current Sunset magazine and came across a recipe for veggie stuffed shells. It looked kind of different, but accessable to me, not being any kind of gourmet cook. I didn't mention to dh that some of the vegetable ribbons were zucchini ribbons and he downed two shells worth. I added some crescent rolls and it was a great dinner.