So...whats for dinner?

Debbie,



The spam post was in reference to how we had scalloped potatoes growing up... with SPAM rather than ham as my parents didn't have a lot of money early on.



Interesting aside, when my kids were little we transfered from NY to Rochester, MN with our jobs. A little bit to the south and west is a small town called Austin, MN where the hormel plant that makes SPAM is located. They have a festival every summer celebrating America's favorite canned meat...SPAM... lol!!



Lacey,



Everytime I watch Downton Abbey I am just in awe of how those people really lived (live?). It just is so beyond anything I can imagine. So interesting to see how even though they all share the same house, the experience is so different based on whether you're upstairs or downstairs! Enjoy your foray into the world of the 'Rich and Famous'...lol!!



Carole,



I make Emeril's Chicken Marsala all the time and we really love it!!! Chicken and dumplings sounds really good, too.....



Gardengumby,



Noted your soup recipe as well!! Loving all those hot, delicious soup recipes since it's been so bitterly cold here!



Moon,



Great idea on the freezer starter bags. I seriously don't know why it never occurs to me to freeze more things especially during the summer when the produce is so great and usually at a really good price... I did buy zucchini at the farmer's market last summer when it was abundant and cheap (and my harvest of it was horrid). I shredded lot of it and froze it in 2-3 cup measures. Then when I want to make zucchini bread or fritters, I can thaw it and I'm good to go! Need to do more of that!



AnneMarie,



I have a recipe for pork or chicken enchiladas that is really good (at least we think so) but, it's a little involved and not sure how authentic it is but way better than Taco Bell. It has a creamy chile verde sauce rather than the typical red enchilada sauce. I can dig it out if you're interested. I will check to see what else I may have...

I didn't cook tonight, we went out for sushi

Last night, we had a black eyed pea soup that I'd frozen from New Year's Ever Day. It was so tasty. I'd used the left over ham from Christmas, added tameric and collared greens. When I made this on New Year's I found a lot of conflicted information on how to prepare black eyed peas! Who knew! It was my first time. I have more peas still frozen because I made so many not knowing what I was doing I went a little nuts. I guess I needed a lot of good luck this year.

I've been putting a lot of effort into working toward new meals for my family and myself, giving up some old habits and adding new. I'm starting to go crazy with the garlic, onions, ginger and tumeric. I need more clever ways and means to add anti-cancer possibilities to our diets. 

We have a juicer and when my DH juices I seem to get an upset stomach. :-(

I need to figure out what to do with this cabbage & kale I bought.

I have a really great recipe for grilled fish I'll post later. 

Had a fabulous day today making fresh pasta with my SIL. We made pappardelle and fettuccini. The pappardelle was cooked in chicken stock then cream, garlic, butter and parmesan added. Simple but outstanding. The drying racks DH made worked wonderfully well so I am now officially a fresh pasta addict.

Lacey  Oh my goodness I feel as if I am in the company of a movie star! I would never leave that place! Maybe hide out in one of the bedrooms?

Thanks for the enchilada recipe, I used to have a recipe for these but have forgotten about making them in forever...now on my list.

Nance Sounds like so much fun making the fresh pasta, do you make enough at one time to freeze?

I, too, am gonna make some chili this weekend.  Who had the chicken chili? Want to share the recipe?

Carrie - I think I was one of the ones making White Chicken Chili. Mine came from Cooks.com called just "White Chicken Chili". Has ground turkey, boneless breasts (I used thighs) and so on if you want to look at the original on-line.

1# ground turkey, 3 large bonesless breasts, 1 pkg. white chile mix (I think nearly every manu. makes one now), 1 onion, 2 cans mushrooms (I skipped this), 1 pkg froz. chopped spinach, 1 packet Goya Sazon (I think I couldn't figure it out since there were several types of Sazon), 2 tsp Goya Adobo (I think this is generic seasoning though does have MSG in it), 1 TBS Goya Sofrito (this is a salsa type in a jar that I have fallen in love with, not hot, I'm sure you could sub any chunky salsa and I think I added more than this), 1 TBS Goya Recaito (a cilantro based sauce very green), 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 c cilantro (I skipped just put at little extra Recaito), 1/2 c frozen corn, 2 c chicken stock, olive oil, taco cheese, sour cream.   INSTRUCTIONS - in large soup pan, heat olive oil over med. heat. Says to crush garlic cloves in bottom of pan just to flavor the oil, then remove so it doesn't burn.  I think I added it a little later and didn't bother to remove it. I always cheat and use the stuff in the jar. I actually just found my garlic crusher buried in a drawer. Add turkey and chicken and saute until white.  Add onion (I think I used 2 - can't have too many onions) and saute about 8 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and stir and cook on medium low heat for an hour, stirring occasionally.  I think I skipped the corn but I did add the spinach which was good in it.  "This will be rick in flavor. You can make it thinner by adding milk of water, or thicker by simmering a little longer."  I had to keep adding liquid since I simmered so long.  Top servings with a dollop of sour cream and taco cheese.  It was only mildly spicy which is to my liking.  Another recipe I had off of Cooks. com was Lewis and Clark's White Chili which does call for canned chopped green chilies.  I know I cooked my longer than an hour but that's just because I started too early and made it for a party.  Put it crockpot and took it that way. Doesn't say why all the Goya ingredients but they are very common here.  Enjoy.

Carole - My local grocery is Brookshires which was a Winn Dixie b4 they pulled out of Texas.  For a small town it's not too bad but I have more trouble esp. with produce counting on them having something special even if I've seen it there b4. When we 1st drove this part of the county about 18 years ago there was only an IGA dinky, dark, dirty. We made another pass through after some financial detours about 3 years later and low and behold they had built the Winn Dixie. That was a big part in us deciding on this particular property.

For someone who is vegetarian with no acid, the soup idea is wonderful. Another meal could be a mushroom risotto [oh yum!] served with a winter salad. Make some mushroom stock from the stems to give it a lovely flavor. I very often do a vegetable ragu served over soft oven polenta. None of these meals gives him the proper proteins, but they are delicious!

*susan*

Susan- Since he will be here for a few days I needed more ideas, and the mushroom risotto  would be good because the risotto would be softer. Do you have a recipe for the veg ragu over polenta? that has me drooling now!! Yumm!!

Carrie, we made two batches, two different recipes. The pappardelle was just eggs, flour and water. The fettuccini, which we will eat tonight was eggs, flour, olive oil and salt. I'm estimating that each batch made about 1 and a half pounds of pasta. We didn't have a scale (at least I know what she's getting for Christmas now sigh!) so that's an estimate. We had another meal's worth of leftovers of the pappardelle and we split the fettuccini to cook later.

I don't post much but I read a lot and thanks to all of you for the recipes.  And send I prayers & good wishes when any of you are ill or having tests or dealing with things so admirably as Michelle does.

Debbie:  Your question about feeding your Dad struck a chord.  When my Dad got past 93, he didn't have too many teeth & also had trouble swallowing, so things had to be soft.  Here's what he loved - whatever time of day:  Oatmeal w/lots of brown sugar, applesauce w/more brown sugar, mashed potatoes for every meal, soups of all kinds but more w/noodles instead of hard veggies, swiss cheese pieces, rice-w/butter or sauces, mac & cheese, peanut butter either on soft white bread or on a spoon, pasta alfredo (aren't tomatoes acidic?) - you could add mushrooms or some veggies (like peas) but you'll probably have to cook all vegetables soft, ice cream, chocolate pudding, plain cakes - like hot milk cake.  He did like poached fish but I think that's out for your Dad.  He wouldn't eat cottage cheese, but that might work w/canned peaches and a fair amount of the juice. I decided the main thing was that he ate something, and he was only going to eat what he liked so it was always a treasure hunt.  Oh yes - and doughnuts.  He wanted those to snack on all day long, a few bites here & there.  Good luck.  I'll enjoy hearing what he likes best.  You can tell I still miss my Dad, stuborn as he could be!!  Sorry this is so long.

Michelle-Love meat loaf for myself and that sounds yummy things would be so much easier if he ate meat. You have been quite here lately, how are you doing?

Laurie-I was thinking of tofu too he does love it maybe with some hoison sauce but not sure if that will be too acidic. Glad the ginger ale helped some and I bet the kids loved the cereal and bagals!!

Susan- Thank you so much for that recipe. I have never tried baked polenta before, it sounds super easy and know my dad will love it. Plus I never thought to put ragu over it. Can't wait to try it.

Minustwo.Good to see you back posting! sorry about your dad. MY dad has esphogus cancer and his throat closes shut to almost a pencil size he has to get it stretched now every thursday. It makes me nervous because he chokes on his food and it scrares me so much. right now it is ok but still hard for him to eat. I will be making him oatmeal for breakfast, thats usually what he eats at home. Thanks!

debbie, tomato sauces and soups that are too acidic can be neutralized with a pinch of baking soda.  Basic chemistry.

Debbie  Looks like everyone had great ideas for you...I was also thinking the mac-n cheese route or the stuffed shells that Laurie said.

I dont think I have ever had polenta, let alone make it.  I may just give it a try.

Laurie hope you guys get to feeling better, so hard to be sick and still have to run kids around.  You need to lay down and put a good movie in....the kids probably think its a treat to have breakfast food for dinner, so dont feel guilty.

Yesterday was roasted red pepper soup, and grilled ham n cheese sandwiches....wine for dinner with friends.

I made this once, it is yummy.

6C chick broth

6C peeled & diced potatoes

4tbl butter

2C thinly sliced leeks

1C chopped celery

1 tsp thyme

1 1/2 tsp dill weed

1 tsp salt/pepper to taste

2tbl white flour

1C half & half

1/2C minced fresh parsley

Bring broth to a boil in soup pot. Add potatoes. Cover and cook until tender (20-25 min). Turn off heat & puree 3/4 of potatoes in blender.  Pour back into soup pot.  In a 10 inch fry pan, melt 2tbl butter and saute the leeks, celery, thyme and dill weed until the leeks are well coated with butter.  Cover and cook on low heat until the leeks are te4nder (10-15min) Add to the potatoes along with salt & pepper.  In the same pan in which the leeks were sauteed, melt the remaining 2tbl butter, then add the flour.  Brown for 1 min on low heat.  Whisk in half & half and turn off heat . Add to the soup, then add parsley.  Simmer 10-15 min, uncovered and serve.