Roasted Potatoes

Love potatoes? Well, potatoes are good for you regardless of this anti-carb epidemic.
They are loaded with Vitamin C and gosh darn it, they taste good.

Cut up some Yukon Gold potatoes into chunks
Sprinkle with olive oil and rosemary and stir
Heat your frying pan and add a little olive oil
Put potatoes in pan and cook for about ten minutes
Meanwhile preheat oven to 350
Remove from pan and put in a glass baking dish,stir once or twice
Cook for about 20 minutes or until done, it depends on how big or small you cut your potatoes.
Delicious!

And if the kids want ketchup on them, it's okay!!!

Lemon Chicken

Tonight, I was baffled as to what I was going to make for dinner. Friday night is usually a night off for me but I have to work tomorrow and know that I need to have a clear head for a big organizational project on Saturday. So, I went to my fridge to see what I could whip up quickly and without to much prep. I had chicken breasts, lemon, chicken broth, flour,rosemary, and salt and pepper. Perfect, I thought, I'll make some lemon chicken with rice and some fresh greens beans.Not only is this dish simple, it's delicious.It appears as if you have been at the stove for hours. I think it's a rather romantic dish as well,light some candles, eat in the dining room and serve a nice bottle of wine; you will have yourself a romantic dinner, of course after the kiddies have gone to bed.

You will need:
Boneless thin chicken breasts
Flour
Salt and Pepper
Chicken Broth
Butter
Lemons
Rosemary
Parsley

Salt and pepper the chicken
Lightly flour each piece
Heat your frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup of olive oil
When the butter melts, add the chicken, cook on each side for about 4 minutes
Remove chicken
Stir up the drippings from the bottom of the pan
Add 1/2 cup chicken broth
Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice
Stir till it boils
Add chicken again and let it simmer till it is fully cooked.
Add some slice lemon to the pan.
Add the rosemary
Garnish with parsley and sliced lemons

Serve with rice or pasta.

What's Cooking for This Week

Stuff Peppers
Lemon Chicken
Fried Chicken; It's So Good!(Serve on Sunday)

My son Doug, is a chef that works in Boston. Once a week we have lunch and I pick his brain on current recipes. He sometimes works as a private chef so I get to know first hand what he is making for his clients or just for himself, and it is always something simple, yet yummy. Today, we talked about the pork roast he made with fresh rosemary, served it with red bliss potatoes drizzled with olive oil and butter and roasted fresh asparagus.It's funny, I never think to make a pork roast but after today's foodie discussion I am going to go out and buy one; roast it slowly with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary, just like Doug told me. When I think about it, making a roast is easy. Add some baked potatoes(for easier cooking) and a veggie and your meal is complete.

A Garden for Kids

I have had a vegetable garden ever since my children were small. We lived in a different house then and had a huge field where we planted two large gardens. I would send the kids out to pick peppers and tomatoes, summer squash; whatever was ripe, right before dinner. Those days of small children picking tomatoes is vivid in my memory.

Now is the time for you to start your vegetable garden or flower garden indoors.It is such a great activity for kids to see things grow and become stewards of the earth. Believe me when I tell you it's simple, it's simple.

I had stopped growing my vegetables during my divorced but resumed the following summer.I found great solace being in my garden, digging in the dirt and watching my flowers and vegetables spike and grow. I had no little children that were interested anymore and thought they had forgotten what it was like to be involved in a garden.

After planting rows and rows of vegetables and tending to them like a mother hen I had to let them take off, just like my children. One morning while my 20 year old was out in the yard with the dogs, I heard her calling to me,"Mama, Mama, come quick." I thought something had happened to one of the dogs, and when I went to the back door found my daughter picking the freshest green beans. The art was not lost, and she has helped me in the garden since, whenever she can, always inquiring and picking and tending to our vegetables and flowers like a mother hen. Her favorites pumpkins, we had a bumper crop of five this year, and it was so wonderful to see them grow, also sunflowers,so beautiful!!!

So in the coming weeks when spring is just around the corner we will begin our gardens indoors.Fresh veggies from your garden to your table and beautiful flowers as well, will make you cherish this wonderful place we call mother earth.

Porcupine Meatballs with Rice

This is the easiest of recipes and smells great while they are cooking.
1 pound ground beef
1 cup rice
2 large cans of tomato soup
salt and pepper
Additonal rice

Season ground beef with salt and pepper
Add the one cup of rice to ground beef
Stir or mix with very clean hands and fingernails
Make meatballs
Take the tomato soup and put in crock pot or dutch oven
Put the meatballs in the soup.
Cook for about 2 hours if in a dutch oven or four hours in crock pot.
Serve with rice

I don't know why this dish is so delicious but it just is; simple, yummy and time saving. Give it ago gals.

Meals for the Week

In one afternoon I made a meatloaf, meatballs with sauce, American chop suey, a roasted chicken and cod piccata.Yeah,I know it's alot of beef in one afternoon but I made the American chop suey with ground turkey(no one will know, so that doesn't count.)Save the ranchers, eat beef! And I'll make a chicken soup with my leftovers.
My daughters that live with me work crazy hours so I like to have a variety of foods for them to eat for lunch or a late supper.I made the cod piccata for Andy and I so you can do the same for your spouse.I freeze some things and leave notes that food is in fridge.
My Mama always had yummy things to eat in her fridge, it was great to come home and find leftovers.
As a mother of adult children who I rarely see I feel as if I am leaving a little bit of love for them like my Mama did.

How To Make Chicken Stock

Don't buy the broth in the box, make your own.It's easy and delicious!
Use a leftover chicken or roast one for a broth. I always use a leftover chicken.
Put the chicken in a big pot and cover with water, add a couple of big carrots, a few celery, a whole peeled onion and salt and pepper. Cook till the chicken falls off the bone, strain into another pot. You now have just liquid, let cool, after cooling put in freezer till you see the fat come to the top.Skim off the fat and put the broth back on the stove reheat. You now have plain chicken broth. We will move on to chicken soup next.

Teaching Children to Cook

When my daughter Lizzy was about three years old she always wanted to help this Mama cook. I would give her little things to make and by the time she was eight years old she was making lasagna for the whole family. Lizzy loved to cook, bake and prepare the evening meal with me.She is a real foodie and still when she is home is always making something delicious on the stove.Teaching children to cook is a gift. Every parent should teach their children to nourish their bodies and not depend on take-out or someone else to cook for them when they get older.I remember when she was a little girl she made me strawberry shortcake for my birthday!

Betty's Chicken Soup

Soup is easy to make, you can do so many other things while the stock is simmering on the stove and the smell is so yummy!
I already told you how Betty made her stock, now it's time for the soup.
You will need:
1 onion
5 carrots
3 celery stalks
Rosemary
2 tablespoons of butter

Cut up the celery, carrots and onions.
Put the butter into a large saucepan.
Cook the vegtables in the butter till tender, do not overcook.
Take your chicken and cut up into small pieces.
Have your stock ready.
Add the cooked veggies and chicken to your stock, simmer,add rosemary.
Add noodles, rice, barley, whatever you want to the soup.
You can also add corn or peas or anything really.
Simmer till noodles or rice is cooked.

How to Roast A Chicken by Betty

So you never roasted a chicken? Lots of people have never roasted a chicken, and I had no knowledge till Mama taught me when I was a young bride, oh so many years ago. But as soon as I tell you how Betty did it, you will do it all the time.The aroma will fill your house and soothe hungry little tummies.

Buy a chicken
Unwrap it from it's plastic wrap
Take out the guts from inside the chicken, it's okay they are wrapped
Take out a baking rack that fits into one of your roast pans or improvise with another pan
Put your chicken on the rack
Cut up a lemon and place inside the chicken
Sprinkle with lots of salt and pepper
Coat the skin with a little olive oil, give it a good overall rubbing with your hands
Preheat oven to 325
Put in oven

Now Mama never bought a chicken where the little temperature thing popped out, she did it the only way that was done back then, cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes per pound.
Now wasn't that easy?

The photo is of my Thanksgiving turkey, so the same rules apply to turkey as well, Isn't she a beauty!

Betty's Homemade Chicken Gravy

Now, I know most people don't make homemade gravy anymore but let me tell you, it couldn't be any easier or Betty wouldn't have made it. My Mama did not have time to labor over the stove, she had five kids to take care, if it wasn't simple it didn't get made unless for a very special occassion.

After you have cooked that yummy chicken, let it cool on a plate.
Remove the rack from the baking pan
Take some cold water, perhaps a half cup and pour in the bottom of the roasting pan
Stir it and scrap bottom of pan with the spoon
Poor into sauce pan
Put sauce pan in the freezer for about ahalf hour if you want a lower fat gravy
Remove and skim off the fat that has hardened.(see photo 1)

You don't have to do this but Mama was always watching her waist-line and knew about low-fat cooking before it became all the rage.
The beginnings of your gravy should look something like the mixture in photo 2.
Cook on high till it bubbles.(see photo 3)
(Now before you do this, get a cup of very and I mean very cold water, add about 1/4 cup of regular flour to the cup of water, stir it with a whisk really fast until the flour and water mixes well
Pour the water/flour mixture into the bubbling mixture, lower temperature to simmer,stir and stir and stir.
Add some salt and pepper
It will thicken, if it is to thick add some more water, if it is to thin, repeat the water flour mixture again.
Now just before I serve the gravy, I reheat it and add 1/4 cup of chicken broth,just stir and serve over chicken.

Betty's Meatloaf

There is nothin' like the smell of meatloaf cooking in the oven on a cold winter's afternoon. The smell alone brings me back to my own Mama cookin' in the kitchen, her worn pink apron tied around her thick waist.Meatloaf was a staple in our house and always brought a smile to my daddy's face when he arrived home from work. "Betty, is that meatloaf I smell?" Serve it like Betty did with baked potatoes and fresh green beans. Mmmmm.....

1 pound of ground beef
1 egg(beaten)
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of bread crumbs(any kind)
Salt and pepper to season
1 small onion chopped
A dash of basil or any spice you like
Small can tomato sauce

Take the ground beef and put in bowl, add the onion, the milk, beaten egg and the bread crumbs. Combined with very clean hands. Shape into a loaf  and put in any type of pan. My Mama used a yellowware  loaf pan, which I still make my own meatloaf in today. Preheat oven to 350 and cook for 45 minutes or until done. During the last 5 minutes of cooking you can add tomato sauce to the top of the meatloaf.In Mama's house only half was topped with sauce,some of us didn't like the tomato sauce and used kethup instead.

I made this today for my friend Amy, she told me "you don't know what it means to a mother of three to have someone make a meatloaf for her." What a sweetie!

American Chop Suey

Who the heck knows where the name came from; when I think of chop suey it has nothing to do with ground beef,peppers, onions, elbows and sauce. But this is an inexpensive meal and if you make a double batch it will taste even better the next day.My Mama was always looking for ways to stretch a dollar and this meal is one of the most inexpensive to make. I have made a few changes.If you are watching your fat intake or are a vegetarian who eats turkey, you can substitute the ground beef for ground turkey. My daughter Elyssa loves American Chop Suey, which always bring a big smile to her face after working a long day.

1 pound ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 pepper chopped
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1 jar of sauce
italian spices
(one trick that Mama taught me was to add the spices while the ground beef is simmering)

Cut your pepper and onion, saute in the pan, add ground beef and spices till ground beef is brown.
At this time I also add my whole tomatoes.
Boil your water for pasta, cook and drain.
Combined all ingrediants into a large saucepan or the one used for boiling the pasta.
Add the 1/2 cup of the pasta sauce and simmer on low heat.Serve with garlic bread and a green salad but it's great all by itself, perhaps with a slice of crusty bread.

Betty's quick tip: Buy frozen onions and peppers and always have on hand. Remember the boiling water, you now have it for your pasta.

Kyra's Chicken Picatta

Now, chicken picatta will warm all hearts who love chicken and the taste of lemon and capers. What a combination of the tart lemon and the salty capers mixed with chicken broth and perhaps some white wine if you're up to it.I have named this dish after Kyra, who loves it everytime I make it!

4-6 thin skinless chicken breasts
2 lemons
1/4 cup of brined capers
2 cups of all purpose flour
5 Tablespoons of olive oil
6 Tablespoons of butter(unsalted)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 fresh lemon juice
1/3 parlsey(garnish)
1/2 cup white wine(optional)



Melt 2 tablesppons of butter and oil in a large sauce pan
Flour the chicken breasts
Once oil has reached a high temperature, reduce heat and sautee chicken until lightly brown
Remove breasts from pan to side dish
Add some chicken broth,(about 1/2 cup) and a splash of white wine and the lemon juice, stir and stir
Let simmer
Add capers and stir again
Add the chicken back to pan
Let simmer, and taste
Does it need more chicken broth or lemon?
Add as needed
If it taste as if there is to much lemom add a tablespoon of butter
If it doesn't add more lemon
Play around with the taste by adding the above ingredients

Serve with pasta or rice or a nice green salad.

Oh! By the way Amy loves it too!

Cookin and Kids and How do I get it All Done!

Again, as a young bride my mother would often accompany me to the grocery store.She would point out good pieces of meat, tell me to buy in bulk if something was on sale, and prepare my dinner menu before arriving at the store. Now in my Mama's house we never had beef two days in a row. All meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian dishes were alternated. And yes, back then my Mama believed in a meat-free meal. This could be stuff peppers with rice and tomatoes, mac and cheese, soups, or even a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup if my daddy was working late.

So how do you plan and buy what is needed? Don't have time to prepare a list between picking up kids from school and running errands. Well, Mama would tell you that grocery shopping was important, this was the time when you were going to nourish your children's bellies for the week. So do like Mama did and keep all of these things on hand.

Two 1 pound packages of ground beef
A chicken
Pasta sauce
Peppers, onions,carrots and celery
Jiffy Baking Mix
Fresh fruit( strawberries, blueberries, apples and oranges)
A steak or two, London Broil, Flank Steak or a roast
Potatoes,Yukon Gold
1 pound of American Cheese or any other cheese for sandwiches
4 cans of tomato soup
1 package of center cut pork chops
Chicken broth(always have in pantry)
Butter, always unsalted
Milk
Eggs
Pasta (elbow, spaghetti.etc) at least three packages
Boneless chicken breasts
Stew beef
Frozen vegtables( you can get those great steam-in a -bag )
Beef broth
A few pie crusts( for chicken pot pie)
Jiffy pie crust mix
Flour
Sugar
 These are your staples, if you have them all you have enough meals for more then a week. We will work on individual meals from this list.

Fish?

Fish was served in our house every Friday night, and it was the sacred rule for every good Catholic mother to serve fish to her children.(Yuk!) Serving fish was considered a sacrifice and so every Friday, fish was served.
When I was a child I hated fish. I hated the smell, the look and the taste. But Mama made us eat fish and it was a sacrifice."Offer it up to God," she would say as the five of us looked at our plates in disgust."What ?you're not going to eat your fish, well no desert then."
We learned to eat fish, and today I love fish and have for many years.
So here are some simple fish receipes we will explore in the next week. By the way, I don't recommend serving fish to children unless they like it.

Baked Haddock
Salmon with Dijon and Almonds
Fish Chowder
Broiled Swordfish
Cedar Flank Salmon

Of Course You Can Have Dessert!

Desert was served at our dinner table every night after our meal. Once the dishes were washed and dried and a pot of tea was put on the table, along with a pitcher of milk,  it was time for desert.
My Mama loved desserts and would bake a pie or a pan of brownies or a pineapple upsidedown cake, a chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting or shortcakes for strawberry shortcakes.She then would set it aside for all of us to stare at when we came home from school.

Ice cream was a staple and my mother stocked our freezer with every flavor, mine was strawberry. If you didn't like the major desert served, you could have ice cream topped with canned peaches or pears( canned was in back then). My Mama believed in desert, believed it made her children happy and sent them to bed with a full belly. Do we want to bring up the weight issue again?

Dessert time was a time, we as children cherished, there was no arguing at Mama's table when desert was served and if you did not behave you did not get any!!  Probably the hardest decision my Mama would have to make that day, taking desert away from one of her children.
Desert was not served in my grandmother's home accept on Sundays and that is why my Mama loved it so much. She vowed to have desert every night in her home and she did up until she died, when she would ask one of us girls for a "little" ice cream.

So serve dessert and make someone smile.

The above photo is me making cookies in my p.j.'s. It was a Sunday when I do most of my cookin' for the week.