Cookin again

[Zardnaar]

If it’s good, I don’t care too much if it’s boring. If I’m eating it for the 8th meal in a row, THEN boring becomes an issue.

Several years ago, Mom made a HUGE batch of small banana pecan pancakes. They were very tasty, but after having them several meals in a row, I had to stop. I don’t know if I’ve had tgat kind of pancake since.

And I grew up eating PB & grape jelly sandwiches pretty often. Loved them. So when I went awa for my 1st year of college, my folks got me a 5lb can of Peter Pan and a 3lb jar of Welch’s Concorde Grape jelly. Because of renovations, only one of the school’s fining facilities was open for dinner service, and I kept getting there too late. So I ate a LOT of PB&J sandwiches.

I have not had grape jelly of any kind since 1987.

I'm like that with rum. Copped a bottle back in 96, must have been poisoned or something.

Haven't touched it since.

Don't make pancakes that often, left over suger,powdered milk, flour from lockdown.

Basic 1 of everything recipe, 1 egg, cup of flour/milk, tablespoon of butter, tsp baking soda, 1 desert spoon suger etc

 

[Cadence]

Recipe from my great Aunt (now 100) whose parents immigrated to the states from Finland. It was one of the recipes we submitted to an 8th grade ethnic cookbook back in the early 1980s. Our family copy had vanished, but a friend found one a few weeks ago (go go Facebook). I apparently don't have the patience to dice (instead of cube) and it makes me wonder if a bag of frozen cubed potatoes could be comandeered for the job. The white pepper is a nice flavor change, and it's different to have a dish like this without cheese.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mom’s getting some culinary wishes fulfilled at the moment. Comfort foods.

Tonight, for instance, I did pork chops baked over onion with a side of stuffing. Plain, midwestern style stuffing, not our creole oyster version.

In a couple of days, I’ll be making hot dog casserole for the first time in my life. Essentially, you take the ingredients of a chili cheese dog with onions and sub pasta for the bun. I’ll be using smoked cheddar, mozzarella and parrano for my cheeses, and I’ll add a little crumbled cracker on top.to help form a crust.

I’m also planning on doing some buttered, diced turnip roots as well as a pot of turnip greens. The latter will be trickier- I’m having trouble finding the ingredients! Usually, we do big batches when we do greens because they’re sorta labor intensive, and big batches means I can store leftovers in the fridge for later. Work once, eat many times. But instead of the 18-21 bunches of greens we usually use, I was only able to get 9 yesterday...and they had NO smoked meats whatsoever. So I have t go shopping again tomorrow.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, we’ve already started planning for Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner.

In all probability, it will not be possible to do a traditional big family gathering for either holiday. But we still want to enjoy them both as much as possible. So what we’re going to do is start making big batches of our favorite sides NOW, setting them aside in the freezer in small or middle sized containers that we can thaw later on the days in question.

...and also send some of those containers to our friends and family to share. Hopefully, there will be reciprocity.

By starting now, I can spread out the hassle of dealing with some of the dishes over a bunch of time instead of the usual 72 hours or so. And my fridge won’t be overflowing with ingredients.

And when the holidays come, all we’ll have to do is warm the sides we want and cook a small bird.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nothing to exciting. Cold night early spring rain so carb overload.

Last ate sausages in lockdown around April. Lightly own fried in olive oil.

Chicken, broccoli, potato "salad".

Still eating nah oats, fruit, yoghurt for the other meals. Soy and linseed bread whatever that is.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I‘d eat that. Looks tasty!

 

[Zardnaar]

I‘d eat that. Looks tasty!

It was. It's my wife she's fairly hell-bent on eating chicken only so it's hard to get her to eat other meat.

Yet she will raid my plate when we go out. She's branched out recently eats the occasional steak now.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Have you tried making your own sausages? Not only do I have a commercial recipe handed down through the family, I’ve also developed a couple recipes of my own.*

I’ve had some good chicken sausages in the past, and even though I’ve never made one, I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to do. Really, the only equipment you need is something to grind the meat. And the first time I made a pork sausage, I used my food processor for that task. (Took some doing, though. We have a grinder, now.)




* We generally gave up on actually stuffing the casings, and just make chubs we wrap in ziplock freezer bags instead.

 

[Zardnaar]

Have you tried making your own sausages? Not only do I have a commercial recipe handed down through the family, I’ve also developed a couple recipes of my own.*

I’ve had some good chicken sausages in the past, and even though I’ve never made one, I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to do. Really, the only equipment you need is something to grind the meat. And the first time I made a pork sausage, I used my food processor for that task. (Took some doing, though. We have a grinder, now.)




* We generally gave up on actually stuffing the casings, and just make chubs we wrap in ziplock freezer bags instead.

No we don't really eat them that often and I don't think to hard what's in them.

And other types lot me pepperoni are off the menu for the most part (to much salt).

Since January I think we've used something like 100 grams of salt and a cup of suger.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Part of the beauty of making your own is controlling the ingredients- salt included.