Day #4 - Tater Tot Casserole

Friday night my family "abandoned" me, as Sarah would say, Tom had to work and Sarah went to a party, I should have called my friends so we could go out and party like it was 1999, but I decided that I should stay home and clean the house because I had to pick up Sarah and her friend at 10:30pm (I was just hoping that I could stay awake that late).  Cleaning is kind of like therapy for me, it's a no brainer and I can turn on my music and rock out, so that's what I did, rocked out with my tunes and seranaded my dog, Bill.  I'm really not the crazy lady with the animals, but I do love my critters and Bill loves my singing.  Earlier in the week, I had asked a couple of friends to come over for dinner on Saturday so they could sample my cooking, my friend Tina and Auntie M(I am not sure if she wants me to use her name, but now she sounds like a character from the Wizard of Oz) were coming over and I needed to figure out what to cook.  The menu I came up with was Tater Tot Casserole, salad with homemade honey dressing, garlic bread and fruit salad.  Tater Tot Casserole was a dish from my childhood that my grandma gave my mom, it is probably the easiet casserole to make and almost impossible to mess up, here it is:

Tater Tot Casserole:
1 lb hamburger (I try to find the leanest)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the healthy request variety)
Tater Tots

Put the hamburger in the pan, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper

Next layer is the cream of chicken soup

Last layer are the tater tots

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes

I needed a vegetable, so I decided on salad.  My grandma had a recipe for Honey Dressing, I think this must have been something she made for the school (she was a cook at the school) because there was a large portion recipe that was written on a menu for that day, Tuesday, Sept 17, 1968 and it was for Lunch #1, pork patty with cream gravy, whipped potatoes, buttered green beans, slaw, apple sauce, hot biscuit, butter and milk, can you imagine getting that for a hot lunch at school! Thank god she had written a "reduced" portion recipe on an old envelope.

Honey Dressing:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp paprika
1/3 cup vinegar
3/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp dry onion(I used onion powder)
1/2 cup catsup(ketchup)
1 cup olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

Everything turned out great! I have to let you know who Auntie M is, she is my aunt in law from marriage #1 (yes,  I was married before), she is a very dear friend and my friend Tina is actually a "new" friend.  I am very thankful these two people are in my life, they both make me laugh and I always have fun with them, I wanted to tell them that Sarah and I had fun with both of you and I think that "Date Night" was funnier the second time.

I am having a lot of fun with my blog and couldn't wait to post on Saturday, but my DSL/modem/router decided it was tired and it died.  I went and got a new one today and had my brother in law, B, install it (I don't do computer techie stuff).  Thanks B, I will be cooking you dinner next week!

Day #3 - Banana Bread

This is one of my personal favorites and has been in my own recipe collection for years.  My husband, Tom, plays darts on Wednesday nights, I wanted to surprise him and make something so that when he came home the house would smell delightful and since there were banana's on the counter, Banana Bread won!  Tom won't be very happy with me, because the banana's are for his cereal in the morning, and how can you resist banana bread!  I actually don't like banana's, they smell funny and the texture is just all wrong, but mashed up and baked in this bread, it's all good!

Here is the recipe:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, softened (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup melted shortening, but I like butter)
3 bananas, mashed (most of the time I put them in whole and let the mixer mash them)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup nuts(I like to use walnuts, you can leave the nuts out if you don't like them)

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the eggs

Add the bananas and mix

Add 2 cups flour, baking soda and pinch salt and mix

Stir in 1/2 cup nuts(if using)

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour (in my oven I usually have to let it bake a little longer, just insert a knife and if it comes out clean it's done).

Here is the finished product! Too bad you can't do scratch and sniff on the computer, it really smells yummy!

I started swimming today, I am not the best swimmer, probably because I do not like to put my head under water.  The reason I started swimming was last fall I tore a muscle in my leg  playing soccer (at least I think it was a tear, I never went to the doctor, but it felt like a rubber band snapped), I did not run (which I love to run) for 4 months!  I just recently started running again and did my first 5k a couple of weeks ago, my sister and I are working our way up to a 10k by July when the Wharf to Wharf happens in Santa Cruz.  I am slowly getting back to where I was last year, it just takes a little longer to heal from injuries, mentally I am still 16, however, my body is objecting just a little bit.  Thank god I am doing all this exercise, now I can eat the goodies I am making!

Hope you enjoy the Banana Bread and your house will smell delicious when it is baking!

Day #2 - Orange Eggnog-Scicles

Tom asked me this morning, before he went to work, what I was going to cook today (since I had the day off). Well, I have decided to make "Orange Eggnog-Scicles".  This is one of the things I always remember my grandma having in her freezer when we would come for a visit, her freezer was in her basement and if I remember correctly it was a walk in to the left as you came down the stairs(I called my mom to see if she remembered and she said that I was correct and every year my grandma would buy a side of beef and it would be in her freezer).  It's a good thing I went for a run this morning, because these are not low fat, however they are in a dixie cup so the portion is small, if you can eat just one!

Here is the recipe:
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1-6oz can(3/4 cup) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 egg
1 1/2 cup milk(I used 2%)

Combine the ice cream, oj and egg, mix with a hand mixer

Gradually add the milk, beating constantly

Fill 3oz dixie cups with the mixture, when partially frozen, insert a wooden popsicle stick

Then just let them freeze and be ready for creamy, orangy yummy goodness!

I didn't have to work today (I love holiday's), so I got up had my coffee, talked to my friend Tina, ran 3 miles and talked to my neighbor for awhile.  It wasn't raining today, so my dog, Bill and I went for a walk.  Bill loves his walks, but only in his neighborhood, he has a routine that he likes to stick too, he is a very special dog.  As we were walking, I happened to look down, (my dad always told me to look down because their might be money on the ground or when you are running, you don't want to trip and fall,I have done the latter a few times and it hurts and is very embarassing), well there in the gutter was a $20.00 bill!  I thought for sure I was on one of those "blooper" shows, so I looked up and down the street before I picked it up, I kind of felt like I was stealing, I put that money in my pocket and thought I am going to have a great day, I got onto the next street and found 2 more pennies! Man it is my lucky day! When I got home I texted Tom and my "Bonus" child, Sarah (we don't do steps in this house) and told them that I found 2002 pennies!  For some reason, when ever I find money on the ground, it is always in pennies, if I find a quarter, I tell Sarah I found 25 pennies, I know she thinks I am crazy, but I can't change that.  Well, long story, I used the $20.00 to pay for my "Orange Eggnog-Scicles".  Hope you enjoy them, we are taste testing with my sister and Brian.

Day #1 - Stupid Pie

Inspiration comes in many forms, mine happened to come from Oklahoma, some friends came to visit me and my husband, Tom, for Super Bowl #45 and they brought with them a cookbook from the "Pioneer Woman", after browsing the book, I noticed that some of the recipes were the same or very similar to my grandma's, I promptly got down her cookbook (this is what I chose to keep when she passed away) and started to compare one recipe, Chocolate Sheet Cake, and realized that it was virtually the same!  I decided a few days later that I would put myself on a journey this year to cook my way thru grandma's cookbook.  I have to let you know that I am not a writer, so I am going to do the best I can, here we go!

My first recipe is called "Stupid Pie" and after making it I realized that it is probably named that because any "stupid" can make it.  I noticed that a lot of grandma's recipes were handwritten on scraps of paper, backs of envelopes and sometimes typed nicely on a card and some were cut and taped on the pages of the book.  I also decided to make today the  first day of my journey, because my husband was going to watch the Daytona 500 with our friend Sean Sweeney.  I told Sean Sweeney that there is going to be a lot of taste testing going on so he'd better be ready to participate in my journey.  I am not a good one for tasting my own cooking, I want other people to taste it and let me know if it's good and if it's not then it's going in the trash.

These are the main ingredients in "Stupid Pie", I know it looks kind of strange, but trust me, it came out tasty!

First thing you need to do is separate the egg yolks from the whites, be careful and don't get any shells in the egg whites and then you want to beat those egg whites until their stiff:

Then you are going to add a cup of sugar and a tsp of vanilla and mix.  Then you are going to add 20 Ritz crackers that are crushed and 1 cup of nuts(I used walnuts, because that is what I had in the cabinet)

Mix this all together and pour into a 9 inch pie pan(ungreased)

and bake for 30 minutes at 350

After we ate some yummy tri-tip and brisket(frozen left over's from the Super Bowl) and some homemade potato salad (thank you cousin Carol for that recipe, best potato salad EVER), we decided that our food was digested (after watching a movie), we cut into the pie and topped it with Cool Whip and of course I made Sean Sweeney take the first piece, I watched and waited for his reaction and he said it was good, so my husband tried a piece (he is not an adventurous eater at all, not saying he doesn't like to eat, he just doesn't want to try "new" things), he said it was good too, so I tried my piece and it was pretty darn good.

I was born and raised in California, not anywhere near my grandma, but I remember the summer visits to Illinois or the visits when she would come to California, my grandma was always happy and always cooking!  I believe that everyone has a "story" and I am going to try and share my families "stories" with you.