Day #10 - Gravy, Italian Sausage and Whoopie Pies

It is raining, again, that means no softball, no running, no nothing!  I don't know how many days of rain we have had, but I am done, I need some sunshine! My wonderful, Italian husband is going to make some homemade "gravy" today with the rest of last summer's tomatoes. Our garden will be planted on April 19th, we plant on the same day every year, we put in between 6-8 tomato plants, some jalapeno's, green beans, cucumbers and last year I ventured into the world of herbs with some basil (NOTHING smells better than fresh basil).  A few years ago I started freezing my tomatoes so we could enjoy them all year, that way we would have them  for "gravy", chili and soups. I have never made Italian sausage, but my husband's grandma would come visit his family at Christmas and make all kinds of yummy food with Tom's dad.  I remember the deep fried cauliflower, it was dipped in some sort of batter and then fried, the funny this is, I am not a huge fan of cauliflower!  Well, one of the things they would make every year was Italian sausage, 100 lbs of sausage!  Unfortunately, Tom's dad and grandma are no longer with us to give us a little guidance in the sausage making, so we are just going to wing it and I think we did a pretty good job for our first time!

Chop up the meat

Send it through the meat grinder

Add the seasonings and mix together

We needed to sample it to see if it needed any additional seasoning, so we fried up a patty.

Then we decided to add some sauce and parmesan cheese and a meatball, it was delightful!

I decided we needed some sort of sweetness to eat, so I decided that I was going to make some Whoopie Pies.  This isn't totally my grandma's recipe, except for the frosting, she call's it "Mock Whipped Cream Icing" and the funny thing is, I saw this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's web site!  The Pioneer Woman was making "Devil Dog's", she used a Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe and the Icing to make these, both of these recipe's are in my grandma's cookbook!  When we go visit our friends, Andy and DeAnn in Oklahoma this summer, I am going to make these "Devil Dog's", I can't wait!

Ingredients for the Whoopie Pie cake/cookie portion

Mix all this together

Drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet and bake

I have to admit the first time I read the Mock Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, I was a little skeptical, the ingredients seemed a little strange to me, but when I saw it on the Pioneer Woman's web site, I thought, "it has to be good" and I have to say it was tasty!

Cook milk and flour, until it is thickened, let cool completely
Then with a mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar and then add the cooled milk/flour mixture and beat for about 10 mintues.
To assemble the Whoopie Pies, take one of the cakes, spread some frosting on the bottom and top with another cake.  They are like big Oreo cookies

By the way, the gravy was wonderful!  My husband out did himself again!

Day #9 - Bars, Hamburgers and Golden Parmesan Potatoes

This past Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, of course for us that means we go to the Redi Room to eat Corned Beef and Cabbage, this has been our tradition for the past 6 or 7 years and every year it is delicious.  We got an extra dose of fun because the Redi Room has regular Karaoke on Thursday's, nothing like watching drunk people sing (I should know, I am usually one of them).  We had a great time, cousin Jody came and my sister and B, however I drank a couple too many adult beverages, let's just say I wasn't feeling 100% on Friday, but I made it through my day at work.  Tom and I were invited to attend a grand opening of a new BBQ place (the company I work for did the remodel work), our plan was to go to the grand opening, have a little food and go home to sit on the couch, of course things never work out that way.  First, the owner of another local pub/restaurant was at the same grand opening, he is also one of Tom's customer's, he and Tom decided to take a walk and look at another bar in this same complex, when they came back, I noticed the Rockstar (a friend of Tom's) was with them, we then decided to leave and go to to the the pub/restaurant and have some dinner and more drinks. Dinner was good (Shepherds Pie), we had a couple more drinks, the boys played a few games of darts,  but Tom and I really just wanted to go home and relax, we finally did at 11pm.  Tom had to work the next day, which means he has to be in a bar most of the day running a dart tournament and I was going to a birthday party at a place called the Saddlerack.  The Saddlerack has been around forever, we used to go there in our twenties, there is a mechanical bull, bands, just like the movie "Urban Cowboy" (best movie EVER).  Well, I knew I was not looking for love in all the wrong places and I was the designated driver, I decided that watching all the drunk people would be fun, most of these people (mostly women) really need to learn how to dress appropriately for their size, and I guess that when you are drunk these days, these women all turn into wanna be pole dancers (believe me, they ALL needed to take a few lessons).  It had been raining all day and since I was the designated driver, I was trying to be careful on the freeway for the ride home, staying in the slow lane and going the speed limit, I was just saying to the other girls in the car that with all the rain, it was hard to see the lines in the road and the next thing you knew, my car started hydroplaning, scared the you know what out of me!  I remember Tom telling me not to break if that ever happened, how on earth did I remember that! I said a quick prayer and I got the car straightened out and thank god we were fine, the only thing I wanted to do at that point was go home and pull the covers over my head! Finally, we made it home, I told Tom what happened and fell asleep. Today we had to go to another bar for a baby shower, there was no way I could drink again, so I stuck with diet pepsi, I think I'm done with being in a bar for awhile. 

Tom and I always love talking about what we are going to have for dinner, so this morning he had my mouth watering when he mentioned the Bacon, Blue Cheese Burgers he wanted to make.  I decided that some Golden Parmesan Potatoes would be a good companion for these. The potato recipe was something my grandma must of clipped out of a newspaper at some point, they sure sounded good to me.

Golden Parmesan Potatoes:
6 large potatoes
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/3 cup butter
Chopped Parsley

Cut up the potatoes in chunks.  Combine, flour, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in a bag.  Moisten potatoes with water and shake a few at a time in bag, coating the potatoes well.
Melt butter in 13 x 9" baking pan, place potatoes in pan, bake 375 for about 1 hour, turning once during the baking.  When golden brown, sprinkle with parsley.

Some of the things I love about cooking my grandma's recipes, is that there are very few ingredients, the recipes aren't fancy and they are good comfort food. 

I can't give out the recipe for the hamburgers because Tom doesn't usually write things down, he just starts throwing things together and everything always turns out good.  I have been bugging him to cook the hamburgers in the cast iron skillet for awhile now, that is how I remember eating a burger growing up, can't wait to taste it!

Day #8 - Sugar Cookies and Sarah's Birthday

Sarah's birthday was March 10th, she wanted to go to Original Joe's, which is a local Italian restaurant that we love, so Tom and I took her to dinner for her birthday and we ate some yummy Italian food.  We also decided that we would make dinner for her on March 12th and invite some family and friends over to celebrate, we wanted to keep it "old school", we let Sarah pick out whatever she wanted to eat and she decided she wanted her dad's enchilada's and I asked her if I could make her a cake.  The menu consisted of chicken enchilada's with a delicious chili verde/limey sauce, ground beef enchilada's with a red sauce, spanish rice, corn salsa and salad.  I decided to make homemade Devil's Food cake with a chocolate glaze. Instead of a traditional layer cake, I thought it would be fun to make "little cakes" with a bundt cake pan I had gotten years ago.  I think Tom and I cooked all day, well Tom cooked all day, I made the "cakes" and cleaned the house. By the time everyone ate dinner, drank a few adult beverages and ate birthday cake, Tom and I were exhausted and it was only 9pm!  After cleaning up the mess, Tom sat in the big chair, I went and took out my contacts, by the time I got back to the living room, maybe 5 minutes later, he was sound asleep.

Tom's yummy enchilada's:

Sarah's Birthday "Cakes"

Tom and I knew we had leftover enchilada's to eat for dinner, so he suggested that I make a dessert or something sweet to eat for after dinner.  I threw out a few suggestions and we decided that I would make some sugar cookies.  Tom suggested that I put some lemon icing on the cookies, like his grandma used to make for him.  We had a bag of lemons in the garage, thanks to Buttercup's dad from last week.

Here is the recipe:
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt(I don't use this much because I use salted butter)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
4 cup + 2 TBSP flour

Cream butter and sugars, add eggs, then oil and vanilla.  Beat until fluffy. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.  Chill dough for 1 hour.  Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten or roll and cut. Bake 375 for about 11-13 minutes.

One of the things Tom and I agree on, we actually agree on a lot of things, but we love to have our friends and family over for dinners.  When I was in the process of getting divorced from husband #1, my house was under construction because it was being remodeled.  Tom and I had re-connected at that time, we probably hadn't seen each other in about a year, he came over and helped me out with some painting and the only thing he wanted in return was for me to make him my chili enchilada's.  I didn't get around to making those chili enchilada's for a few months for other reasons I won't get into right now, but when I did, I thought it would just be Tom, Sarah and me for dinner.  Well, it turned out that my sister and B stayed for dinner and Tom and Sarah brought Uncle Shakey and Sean Sweeney.  Tom asked if there was enough for everyone and my reply was "If we don't, we'll make more".  That has been the motto around here ever since, we'll always have enough for whoever shows up.

Day #7 - Pumpkin Cookies and Sarah

Tomorrow is Sarah's birthday, she is going to be 14 years old, it's really hard to believe she is that old!  Sarah is a great kid, she has been in my life since she was born, she doesn't remember, but her dad, my husband Tom, used to bring her to my parent's print shop (I worked for my parents for 16 years) and all of us would just fuss over her, she was and still is a doll.  I re-entered her life seven years ago when Tom and I started seeing each other and we became more than friends, I don't think she liked me too much, because Tom and I took her and cousin Jody to Disneyland and let's just say when we got home, I told Tom he needed to spend some quality time with his daughter and less time with me.  I knew she was feeling like she was loosing her daddy to that "other woman", but I hope she knows that she is the most important thing in his life and mine too.  I love seeing her grow up and how much she changes, it is a lot of fun.  I didn't have kids of my own for very personal reasons, I am just glad I get to be a part of her life.  I love you "little girl" and I hope you have the best birthday ever!

Well tonight I decided to make "Pumpkin Drop Cookies" this was a recipe that I found in the "Armstrong Ladies Aid Cookbook", this was a contribution my grandma made, I will give you the recipe as it is written:
1/3 cup fat
1 cup sugar
1 cup cooked pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 tsp B.P.(Baking Powder)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
Cream together the sugar and fat.  Add the cooked pumpkin and flour, which has been sifted with the dry ingredients.  Drop on greased tin and bake in a hot oven.
My first question is what kind of fat?!? I decided to use butter.  I did not want to cook a pumpkin, so I used canned pumpkin.  My second question was how hot should the oven be and how long do I bake them?!? I decided that 375 would be ok and the cookies should bake for about 15 minutes.  These cookies don't flatten out, they stay in a ball shape and the texture is more "cakey", so in all of my wisdom, I decided that the cookies should be "dressed up" with some cream cheese frosting (because everything is better with cream cheese frosting, right Keli Maddox?).

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 TBSP butter, softened
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Cream the butter and cream cheese, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and the vanilla.

Tom has his route on Thursday's in Santa Cruz/Watsonville/Monterey (I know what a horrible place to spend a day working) and I wanted him to be able to share some goodies with his customers.  I hope they like them!

Day #6 - Chicken Casserole, Softball and My Dog Bill

I spent the morning and early part of the afternoon at Sarah's opening day ceremonies for softball, it was a lot of fun and the best part was Sarah won the Hit-A-Thon, 2nd year in a row!  She was a little nervous before it started, but she pulled it off, way to go kid!  My friend Tina came with us to hang out and we had a great time.  Sarah and her friends are pretty funny. I forgot what it was like to be 14 and Tina and I were having fun giving Sarah and her friend Maddie a hard time. Of course there was a raffle and of course I did not win anything, but Tina won a cool basket with cute flip flops, Itunes gift card, lotions and other useless junk.  All in all it was a great day.  When Tina and I got back to my house we were unloading my car and we both looked over and saw a guy stopped in the middle of the street and his dog was laying on the ground (I live by a park), I have seen this man several times walking his dog, the dog is a large golden retriever named Buttercup, she was having a seizure, poor thing, I ran and got him a baby aspirin and some cheese and we waited until Buttercup came back to reality, we got her into my car and we drove them home (about 5 blocks).  This happened to my boxer, Lucy, when she got older, it was very scary because the dog can't tell you what is going on.  I came home and told my dog, Bill that he wasn't allowed to get old and that he needed to just stay the way he is right now (of course he understood me because he was wagging his tail).  These darn animals just worm their way into your hearts and hold on tight and even though the end comes, I could not imagine my life without my critters.  Bill was a rescue dog from the Humane Society, he was probably the biggest sissy in the whole place, he wasn't like the other dogs that were running around their "jail cell's" he sat in the corner and stared at the wall, why I thought I needed that dog, I have not a clue(probably because I was in the process of getting a divorce from husband #1).  Auntie M and my sister were with me at the time and we all loved him! The funny thing was, Bill was a stray, so he didn't have a name and the Humane Society named him Grizzly, he was the farthest thing from Grizzly.  It took me awhile to let myself love him, like I loved my boxer, Lucy, but I could not imagine a day without this dog in my life.  Auntie M's dad, grandpa, used to say that animals find you, I tell Bill daily that I'm sure glad he found me at the orphange that day.

Well, tonight I am making dinner for my sister, Katie, brother-in-law B, my mom, Auntie M and grandma(Auntie M's mom) and the main dish is Chicken Casserole, I had to "build" this recipe last night and refridgerate it overnight.

Chicken Casserole:
3 cups cooked chicken (the original recipe called for a stewed chicken, I bought a rotiesserie chicken at Costco)
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 lb of Velveeta, cubed
small pkg of macaroni (the original recipe calls for "creamette" I had no idea what a creamette was so I Googled it and it is macaroni), uncooked
I also added some salt and pepper and some thyme

Mix all of this together and refridgerate overnight

Bake 45 minutes at 350

We are also having green beans, peas and carrots, bread and butter, fruit salad and of course the apple pie that was baked last night.

My mom had a cookbook that was put out in 1939 that was titled the "Armstrong Ladies Aid Cook Book" and my grandma was the secretary, I can't wait to go thru it and find other recipes that she had. There is a little poem inside:

Take a little dash of water cold,
     And a little leaven of Prayer,
And a little bit of morning gold
     Dissolved in the morning air.

Add to your meal some merriment,
     And a thot for kith and kin,
And then as your prime ingredient
     A plenty of work thrown in.

And spice it all with the essence of love;
     And a little whif of play,
Let a nice old book and a glance above
     Complete a well-made day

This is my dad, my grandma Opal, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Lizzie, uncle George and aunt Peggy....looks like they are enjoying their meal. We sure enjoyed ours, good food and good company, life doesn't get any better...but I wish my husband was home to enjoy it with us.

Day #5 - Apple Pie

My family abandoned me again! Well, technically Sarah is at her mom's house because it's her weekend and Tom is in Las Vegas to see the NASCAR race with Sean Sweeney.  I invited my sister, Katie and brother-in-law, B over for dinner tomorrow night because B fixed my computer last weekend, we are going to have a chicken casserole, some green beans, bread, fruit and a homemade apple pie.  I had to "build" (as my friend Andy would say) my casserole tonight because it has to refridgerate overnight and "build" my apple pie because I will be with Sarah at her opening day ceremonies for softball tomorrow.  Last year Sarah won the Hit-A-Thon and Tom won the raffle for Disneyland tickets, I hope this year we are that lucky!  Sarah has played softball since she was 8, she will be 14 next week (where has the time gone?), she is a great catcher and she plays with a great bunch of girls.  I didn't play softball growing up, I was a soccer player, but watching these girls and learning the game is a lot of fun.  I am glad that I get to be a part of Sarah's life and I am glad that she get's to have the experience of growing up and playing on a team, these are times she will remember for the rest of her life.  I still stay in touch with my soccer friends from my childhood and I can't wait to get back to playing again (probably in the fall).

For the apple pie, I have a recipe, but not precise measurements, I kind of learned this one by watching my grandma make it. 

Filling:
6 apples, I like Granny smith
Juice of one lemon
Brown sugar (about 1/2 cup)
White sugar (about 1/2 cup)
Flour (about 1/4 cup)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Mix all this together and put in the refridgerator until you roll out the pie crust.

The pie crust is:
3 cups flour
1 1/4 cup flour
1 egg
1 tsp vinegar
5 TBSP cold water (add more if dough is too dry)
Mix all of this together

Divide in two, roll out a bottom crust, put in pie pan, pour in apple filling, put a few dabs of butter on apple filling and roll out crust for top. Brush the top of the pie with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 15 minutes at 400, then 45 minutes at 375.

We'll serve this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, yum!  My dad always liked a slice of cheddar cheese on his pie, I think that is a mid west thing.  I wish my dad was still alive, he would get a kick out all of this.

The best part of making a pie are the pie dough treats that come afterward, these are my sister Katie's favorites!  My sister gets a little "testy" if she doesn't get any of these. These are pretty simple to make, use the leftover pie crust pieces, roll out flat, spread with butter and top with brown supar and cinnamon

roll up like a jelly roll and slice

put on cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes.

If I thought the house smelled good when the banana bread was baking, it doesn't even compare to some yummy cinnamon goodness that happened in my kitchen tonight, DeAnn I wish you were here with me! Thanks for sharing, via text messages, a glass of wine with me! Tomorrow we'll see how the chicken casserole turns out!