The Romancechick Speaks » cooking

Where things stand in my life

nancy — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:49:51 +0000

Yes, it’s been over a month since I posted anything here. I can’t believe I let it go so long. How many blogs that you read say that now and then?

Where I have been since 21 Dec? Well, we had Christmas, of course, which was nice. I got a lovely bread machine from my in-laws. It was label as for both Beloved and myself, but let’s be honest. I will put the stuff in to make the bread and all of us will eat it. Today I’m trying a recipe for beer and cheese bread, but it turns out we’re out of beer so I used some wine so it’ll be an interesting experiment. It’s baking now and I have to say it smells good, anyway!

For New Years’, we went up to Ohio to visit my family. It’s a very long car trip and we did it in our smaller car, a red four-door Mazda. The problem is that my van has become temperamental and sometimes decides just not to start when I turn the key. We didn’t really want that to happen on the road to Ohio.

We celebrated Christmas up there, too, and that was nice. Pepper got to get some bowling in with my brother giving her some pointers that seem to have helped her scores. My father was an amazing bowler and at one time considered leaving the military to go pro. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in a bowling alley while he bowled in a league and being sure that his ball had eyes because it always went where he wanted it to. The pins just seemed to explode!

We are now back to our normal routine, except for my short stay in the hospital earlier this week with a bout of pneumonia. Because of my kidney transplant and the meds I take for that, they didn’t want to risk the infection getting out of hand so they kept me in the hospital for three days, bombarding me with antibiotics. Everyone I know who has had this before was sick for weeks and weeks, but today I’m actually feeling pretty normal. Not tired and weak. However, I’m skipping my writers’ meeting tomorrow because I don’t want to push myself too much. I’m good saying at home, but going out for several hours might be too much.

Plus, all the family will be gone for awhile so I’ll have the house to myself. I can get some editing on Sword & Illusion done.

Works for me Wednesday

nancy — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:56:46 +0000

I have an iron pot rack (is that what it’s called?) on the wall right above my cooktop. Since I started doing Meal Plan Mondays I’ve found that if I put all my recipes and the menu for the week on a clipboard, I can hang it right over the cooktop and it’s handy! The recipe is at eye level and I don’t have to worry about it getting lost or messed up while I’m working. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!

Meal Plan Monday – Jan 29 (and analysis of last week’s plan and recipe)

nancy — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:25:47 +0000

It’s interesting. I do this one week and suddenly, even my husband announces on Monday morning, “It’s Meal Plan Day!”

So here’s the plan for the week:

Monday: O’Brien Sausage Skillet (Jan/Feb 04 Taste of Home) and Apple Cheddar Scones (Aug/Sep 03 Taste of Home)

Tuesday: Taco Squares (found online)

Wednesday: Fried Chicken Strips (Apr/May 05 Taste of Home)

Thursday: Pea Soup (Hubby’s recipe) – I have a meeting that night so, he’ll have to start it on Wednesday night

Friday: Garlic-Onion Tomato Pizza (Aug/Sep 03 Taste of Home)

Saturday: Flavorful Pot Roast (Sep/Oct 05 Quick Cooking) and Buttery Garlic Potatoes (Mar/Apr 06 Simple and Delicious)

Sunday: Leftovers (if there are any or eat whatever you can find)

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Last week was the first time I did this and it was a MAJOR HIT with the family. My husband told me he likes it when I cook and we didn’t have leftovers, even though I’d set aside two days for leftovers. Tuesday night (our first leftover night) ended up being a night when we weren’t even together for the evening meal due to various church/school events and my husband had a big lunch at work.

What I learned: Make more than four servings! Hubby and The Girl supplemented their meals with cereal or something because they wanted more to eat! Not great when you’re trying to cut calories here!

Last Monday, I promised I’d post a recipe for Hash Brown Beef Pie, so here it is.

Hash Brown Beef Pie

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained

1 teas. chili powder

1 teas. dried oregano

1/2 teas. salt

1/4 teas. pepper

1-1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

TOPPING:

3 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed and drained (we actually used shoestring french fries)

1 cup (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

1 egg

1/8 teas. salt

1/8 teas. pepper

In a large skilet, cook beef, onion and garlic until beef is no longer pink; drain. Stir in tomatoes, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the vegetables. Pour into a greased 9″ pie plate (I used my regular rectangular baking dish). Combine topping ingredients; spoon evenly over the meat mixture. Bake; uncovered, at 400 deg. F for 30 minutes. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Meal Plan Monday – Jan 22

nancy — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:46:06 +0000

I’ve been trying my hardest to find some order in my life and household, so I’ve been reading a few blogs from moms who are more organized than I am. One of them is I’m an Organizing Junkie. She initiated “Meal Plan Mondays.”
This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but being the perfectionist that I’m, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to have a specific kind of meal for each day of the week and I wanted to have — well, everything perfect.

I have a stack of Taste of Home and Quick Cooking (or whatever it’s called now, Simple and Delicious?) magazines in my kitchen, waiting for me to organize them. Well, this weekend, while I was stuck in the recliner because of my back, I decided to just go through them and tear out the recipes that looked promising. Then I selected some for the week, wrote out a grocery list and sent the Hubby out.

The plan was to try these recipes and the ones that got good reviews I would copy down on the cool recipe cards I make with my Stampin’ Up set and place in my cool recipe folder I made at a Hostess Club.

Saturday night I made Hash Brown Beef Pie (although with us it turned out to be Shoestring Potato Beef Pie instead of Hash Brown) from The Collectors Edition of Taste of Home. The Girl had just gotten home from a two day Drama Club Convention at Northwestern Louisiana University and she was starving. It was a hit. I’ll post the recipe later.

Last night was Colorful Keilbasa from that same issue. Again, rave reviews and no leftovers, which kinds stinks and tomorrow night was supposed to be leftover night!

Anyway, here’s my list for this week:

Monday – Spaghetti and Meatballs

Tuesday – Was Leftover, but now will be Canadian Bacon Pizza Loaf from May/June 2004 Quick Cooking (no pineapple on Juliette’s but extra peppers)

Wednesday – Crispy Chicken and Vegetable Rice Medley from Taste of Home (not sure of the issue since I tore it out)

Thursday – Broccoli Tuna Roll-ups from Jan/Feb 2005 Country Woman

Friday – Three Cheese Macaroni from Quick Cooking (agan issue date is missing)