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.

Betty's Banana Bread

Got a couple of old bananas around? Don't throw them away, Betty would tell you that's wasteful, so make a banana bread. The aroma from your oven will make you happy, knowing something yummy and delicious is just waiting for young mouths to consume. Mama liked cream cheese on her banana bread but I like mine with nice soft butter. Yummy!

1 egg
1 cup of sugar
2-3 mashed bananas
1/4 cup of oil
1 cup and 1/2 cup of white flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teasoon of baking soda(very important)

Combined all ingredients in a large bowl, oil or spray your loaf pan and bake for 1 hour at 350.
Insert toothpick after 45 minutes to see if it is done, if it comes out wet it is not done, when it comes out dry it is!
My son Douglas loved my Mama's banana bread and I repeated the recipe hundreds of times since he was a little boy. He makes it better than I do now,well he's a chef now so that is to be expected!

My Summer Kitchen

If I can cook in this tiny airstream kitchen,anybody can cook! The trick, fresh summer salads, veggies from the Farmer's Market and grilled meats and fish.