Mama's Recipes

I love making recipes pasted down from my mom. She will tell you herself that she does not enjoy cooking, but she does have a few recipes up her sleeve that are just delicious. Yesterday I made her creamed chicken casserole and it turned out wonderfully. It's so creamy and delicious, it has always been on the top of my favorite food list. I changed it up some my adding fresh steamed cauliflower and by adding spices like onion and garlic powder. You always cook up some buttery rolls to go with it. It's kind of like chicken pot pie when everything comes together. Thanks mom for passing these wonderful creations down to me we can't get enough of them.

Other top Mom Recipes:
Creamed Spinach
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Broccoli Casserole

Easy Meal Breaks

You all know I enjoy to cook, but sometimes I prefer to cook something easy. In cases like this I'll get a Stouffer's Lasagna and just stick it in the oven, steam some veggies, and sometimes cook a rice or potato dish to go with it. It feeds us for a week and everything tastes great.

This week I found another easy meal, Perdue's Oven Ready Seasoned Chicken. Again you just follow the directions and it's ready in two hours. It's really well seasoned and the meat just falls off the bone. To add to the delicious meal I made mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Everything tastes wonderful together.

I do love to cook, but sometimes it's nice to have a break.

Sweet n "Saur" Cabbage Soup

Man oh man, I just made the best soup ever. I never really accomplished a great soup before and now I can say I have. It was a Rachel Ray recipe I saw her make on her 30 Minute Meal show. It looked like it would taste great and be easy to make so I went for it. It was called Sweet n "Saur" (as is sauerkraut) Cabbage Soup. I have never enjoyed sauerkraut by itself, but I knew Jason was a big fan of it so I made it regardless. I knew Jason would love it and I hoped to like it at least. I've really been branching out food wise and thought this would be another taste challenge.

It was all made in one pot, which was fantastic. I would really like to find more soup recipes made in one pot. The main ingredients were ham steak, savoy cabbage, sauerkraut, carrots, onion, canned white beans, and frozen hash browns seasoned with honey, chicken stock, fresh dill, and apple cider. Neither Jason nor I had tried a soup like this. Once it's heated up you mix in a spoonful of sour cream. It was a little hard for my taste buds to handle it at first, I had to really let it develop in my mouth. By the next day I was madly in love with the taste.

It has very German-Polish type favors, which is my ancestry. I'm thinking of making a big batch of it for Christmas for my whole family to enjoy. It would be great to have around when people get peckish. This is one of those -"I have to share entries".

To enjoy the soup for yourself go to:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sweet-n-saur-cabbage-soup-recipe/index.html

The Heaven of Food: Wegmans

Wegmans is the most amazing grocery store I've ever been to, it has everything you could possibly imagine. I don't go in there much knowing how much I could possibly end up spending. There's one right near my new and old work place. I went there after work the other day and only allowed myself to carry around a small basket. I seem to discover something new every time I go there. This time I discovered the organic and herbal aisle they have. They have an entire section of organic energy drinks. It's like everything they have at whole foods plus all the stuff they have at your general grocery store put under one roof. An awesome gift would be a gift certificate for Wegmans. Jason and I would have a ball.

They have so many different selections of fresh fish, cut meat, cheese galore, pre-made salads, and so much more. You can just go there for lunch, grab a tray and have your choice of homemade soups, fresh Chinese food, sushi, fried chicken, gourmet sandwiches, and fresh fruit for desert. Then you can sit in there large food court and enjoy an awesome lunch with your co-workers. The options are endless no matter what isle you are on. Wegmans definitely intimidates me and going in there is scary at times, but it is truly an absolutely glorious mecca for food lovers.

Birthday Joys

I stocked up on all my favorite snacks and drinks yesterday. I also got something we could eat for dinner and lunch the next couple of days so I don't have to cook. Reason being, tomorrow's my birthday and I don't want to have any stressful moments. Lauren's coming into town from NY and a few of us are going out to dinner. Then on Sunday we're meeting a bunch of friends at the Renaissance Fest to hang out and be merry all day. It should be a great birthday!

Here are a few of my favorite things (sing with me):
pistachios
popcorn
cheese and crackers
chicken salad
potato salad
grapes
olives
frozen pizza (I prefer this over pizza delivery, I'm aware that it's strange. :)
black cherry ice cream

As you read in Jason's blog, I also got ingredients for a yummy new drink creation and I picked up a couple 6-packs of our favorite beers.

Creamy and Delicious

I'm not moving as fast as I need to be today, so I'm going to make this a short one. I really love creamy food, I made creamed spinach for dinner yesterday and it was so good. My creamy recipes all come from my mom. There's this chicken casserole I make of hers, which is out of this world good. I forgot that to make a good cream sauce you must have the burner on low the whole time, so yesterday I completely destroyed the first batch of cream sauce, curdling the milk. It was sick. But once I recalled the temperature mandate, I proceeded to make a better batch. It was really good in the end.

Creating a Stir Fry

I like making stir fries. You can be so creative with them, the possibilities are endless. It really is an excellent food for Jason and I too, because he loves Chinese food and I'm really picky about Chinese food. This way I'm cooking it my our way with everything we love. Jason even said yesterday as he was eating it that it was equal too if not better than Chinese take out, I of course think it's better. I really couldn't get enough of it, I was even thinking of it before I passed out last night. It was really good this time.

If you're interested here's the recipe:
Salt and pepper 2lbs of boneless chicken strips, then marinate them for an hour or more in a mixture of garlic wasabi marinade (pre-bought from store), teriyaki, and soy sauce.
Cut up vegetables to bite size pieces, this time I used half a red pepper, 1/4 of a yellow pepper, one zucchini, half an onion, and a 1/2 a lb of broccoli.
Once the chicken is finished marinading, start sauteing the vegetables (you'll need a large wok or deep frying pan, preferably one that could eventually fit all the chicken in it as well at the end). Once the veggies are sauteing, heat up a separate frying pan (I had to use two), then start laying the chicken out on them, I made the mistake of leaving the burner on high the whole time, next time I would turn them to medium. Pour the extra juice in the pans. Now just watch them, I did 3 minutes on one side, flipped them and then did 3 minutes on the other side. I started doing something kind of dangerous so if you'd rather do it a different way I understand, here it is once they are about done I cut the chicken up into bit size pieces while they are cooking on low, this way you cook them a little bit more as bit size pieces, letting the delicious marinade cover every piece. While you've been doing the chicken I add teriyki and soy sauce and some salt and pepper to the vegetables and then stirring them occasionally. You then add the fully cooked chicken to the vegetables. Let it simmer in each other's juices for about 15 to 30 minutes, while it's doing that make the brown or white rice. Serve chicken and veggies over the rice, and walla.

It is so good at the end you will think you've died and gone to Heaven- Seriously!