How To Make Homemade Shake And Bake For Chicken Or Pork

This is almost a clone for the commercial Shake n Bake product. It is very tasty! :-)

Green Beef Enchiladas Recipe

There is a restaurant in Big Spring, Texas called "The Spanish Inn". Their Green Enchiladas are my all-time favorite, and they are unique in the restaurant world (at least I have never found another place that comes close). This is my attempt to create a "clone" of their delicious sauce. It is not a "salsa verde", and there are no tomatillos in it.



This version is excellent (we think), but if you have eaten at The Spanish Inn and have some insight on improving it, please share! We live too far away to be able to go there to eat regularly so have to make our own! LOL!

How To Make Gumbo For a Big Crowd - and a Garlic Peeling Tip!

How To Make Whipped Cream Without An Electric Mixer, Using Only a Whisk

A little secret about milk is that the higher the fat content, the longer it will keep in the fridge. So "Heavy Whipping Cream", which has so much fat you could make butter out of it, can be bought a week or two ahead of time to be used for making whipping cream at a moment's notice.

My grandmother, Mema, made whipped cream from scratch - we never had cool whip or dream whip. It tastes divine and once you have developed a taste for it, the other products taste artificial and waxy. She used an electric mixer and I usually do too, but for a small amount to serve one or two people, it is just as fast to whip it by hand.

Here is how you do it:

Buy only heavy whipping cream or whipping cream. You can't use coffee cream or half and half. You can't use "fat free" cream. Highest fat content is essential.  Keep it very cold, but don't freeze it - alas nearly every brand today has additives that cause it to separate when frozen.

You can freeze the BOWL though, and using a chilled bowl will make it whip faster.

Pour about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of heavy cream into your chilled bowl and beat with a whisk (any kind of whisk will work as long as it is clean - don't use a bamboo one unless it is new, because they are hard to clean completely and may retain oils and flavors of other foods they were previously used with).

Beat for about 1 minute, then add one Tablespoon of granulated cane sugar.  You don't need much sugar usually because the cream itself is naturally sweet. So take it easy, you can add more later if it isn't sweet enough. Also add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (vanilla also heightens the sweetness of foods, reducing the amount of sugar needed). Continue beating for another two minutes or so until the cream is stiff enough for your liking. Taste and see if it is sweet enough.

Pile it on top of cake or pie or ice cream and serve!

Refrigerate any leftovers immediately. :-)

Dr Pepper Pulled Pork and Cucumber Salad in a Jar-O

A friend of ours makes this Pulled Pork cooked with Dr Pepper, and it is one of Paul's favorites. She and her husband lead one of the many small groups (aka "Care Groups") at our church. We get together for lunch and fellowship, and everyone brings something. She was kind enough to share the recipe. The photo pictures it with a jarred cucumber salad that makes a good side dish for it if you get tired of cole slaw - recipe below.

You would never dream there is Dr Pepper in it. The faint sweetness could easily be from the onions alone. I used the Dr Pepper with real sugar in it (in the vintage-looking can). This is not as good as the old Dublin Dr Pepper, but at least it does not have high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it - we avoid purchasing anything with artificial or modified sweeteners.

 Since I am a pepper wimp, I also took all of the seeds out of the peppers before adding them but it is still spicy enough for Paul. Depending on your taste, you could start with say half the can (maybe 1/4 cup), then if it needs more spice after cooking is done, you can add the rest to taste. 

This reheats fabulously, and freezes well too. 

Dr Pepper Pulled Pork Recipe

1 pork roast (I used half a pork butt)
2 cans Dr Pepper
2 or 3 large onions, sliced thinly
1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

Place half the onions in your crock pot, add the meat, then the rest of the onions. Since this will be shredded after cooking, it is ok to cut the meat into pieces to fit it nicely into your crock pot.

Pour the peppers and adobo sauce over. Slowly, one can at a time, pour the Dr Pepper over it all. You can reduce the Dr Pepper if there is not enough room to hold it all. I like to have about an inch at the top in my crock pot so things don't overflow.  Each crock pot is a little different so judge for yourself.

Cook in the crock pot on high for 6 hours. Shred within the juices so that it stays moist. Serve on buns. You can add more hot sauce or pickles or onions. I usually put onion on mine (the pickled onions from the salad below were wonderful on it!), Paul likes his plain and simple. The bun soaks up the juices like a pork version of au jus. Yum!

 

Cucumber Salad in a Jar-O

This is my version of a recipe that has been making the rounds on Facebook. I have reduced the volume since this makes up so quickly, and I would rather fill my fridge with homemade sauerkraut. :-)

2 salad cucumbers, peeled and sliced very thinly
Half a red onion, sliced thinly into rings
1 bell pepper, your favorite color, sliced into rings (it is prettier like this but strips are fine)
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1 cup of white vinegar
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Put the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until the sugar has melted. Remove from heat, add the water and let cool while you work on the vegetables. 

Peel and slice the vegetables. Layer the vegetables pleasingly into a clean quart glass jar - a pickle jar will work great if you don't have canning jars. If there is more left over, put the rest into a smaller jar. 

Sprinkle the celery seed and pepper flakes over the vegetables. Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over it all to cover. Put the lid on and refrigerate at least overnight. This will keep for a month or more easily as long as it is refrigerated.

There you go! This can all be done ahead and leftovers are as good or better than the first time. :-)

A Fresh Strawberry Cake for a Springtime Birthday Dinner

Our granddaughter (or "Grand angel" as Paul calls her) asked for a strawberry cake and filet mignon for her birthday. Oh boy! I got to set a pretty pink table and use my pretty "new" flea market dishes, along with my old family pieces!

The footed iced tea glasses, in the Mayfair pattern, are heirlooms: they belonged to Big Grandmother - my great-grandmother, Mema's mother. I inherited her pink depression glass, mostly in the Cherry Blossom pattern - the cake plate is one of those pieces.

The plates are a recent find, with hand-painted wild roses in pink with green leaves. They look very much like Franciscan's Desert Rose. They were made by Villeroy and Bach, a good brand, but they were quite dirty from having been packed in newspaper and so were priced very cheap. A good scrub with my glass cooktop cleaner (I use Ceramabrite - it's basically a polishing glass wax) took the stains right off.

 

My table is oval, and it is impossible to find tablecloths in that shape, so I end up using oblong ones. This vintage damask linen is one of the few oval table cloths I have. The pink is such a pretty shade.

Paul cooked a lovely meal: filet mignon, baked potato, our own asparagus with a saffron sauce. For starters, he made a hot chicken dip that she'd also requested - one of her mother's recipes. It was yummy, and I'll share the recipe for that another time.

Here's the recipe for the cake - it got raves all around and has a lovely fresh taste. Keeps so well in the refigerator. It is one I will make again: nice and cool for a summer barbeque, and it is best if made in advance. That's important for me: things I can make up the night before, to save time and fit my schedule.

Pretty & Pink Fresh Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

1 boxed yellow cake mix
3 tablespoons flour
1 small box strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups of strawberries (a one pound carton)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three round cake pans.

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top. Let it sit to dissolve.

Wash the berries. Pick out 5 or 6 pretty strawberries for garnish and set them aside. Hull the rest of them. Take another cup full of whole, hulled berries and set them aside - they will be sliced for the layers later.

Take one cup of strawberries and chop finely. Add them to the mixing bowl with gelatin, and beat on high for a couple of minutes, then add the remaining ingredients: cake mix, flour, eggs, oil. Beat at medium speed for 5 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in the pans 5 or 10 minutes, then turn out and complete cooling on wire racks.

Chop one cup of strawberries finely and sprinkle with sugar in a small bowl. Let them sit a few minutes to draw excess liquid out, then drain them.

Whip the cream and set aside. Cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and the drained, chopped strawberries until light and fluffy then add the whipped cream. If necessary, add more powdered sugar until the frosting holds peaks. Refrigerate the frosting until you are ready to ice the cake.

Slice the rest of the strawberries (except the ones to be used for garnish - leave them aside for now) into very thin slices.

When layers are cool, place one on a cake plate. Spread frosting on top evenly to the edges. Arrange half of your thinly sliced strawberries all over the top of this layer, then put the next cake layer on top of that and repeat, using the rest of the thinly sliced berries on this layer.

Top with the 3rd layer and frost the top and sides thickly with the frosting.

Do not garnish until right before serving, as the juice from cut berries will drip down the sides of the cake. To avoid this, you could garnish with a single whole berry in the center.

When ready to serve, add the strawberries for garnish - in this photo, Paul showed me how to fan the center one by leaving the hull on, and slicing through from bottom to top, leaving the slices attached at the hull end, then twist slightly to fan it out. The other berries were simply cut in half and arranged around it.

Store this cake in the refrigerator and serve chilled. It keeps beautifully and is best made a day or two before.

Enjoy!

Cooking at Home: How to Feed A Family Well on $___ a Month

The cost of essentials just keeps rising. To keep up a good standard of living even during tough times we often change our approach. Food prices are expected to climb during the rest of this year. How to avoid an empty larder and keep the pantry full when money is tight? How to keep those boys with hollow legs filled up and keep the lights on at the same time? One way is by stocking up and cooking at home. Make it an adventure! Think of economizing as "vintage living".

During the 1990's, we fed our family of 5 plus the assorted houseguests and friends that three teenaged sons brought home for around $300 per month. I think that would be about $450 a month in today's food dollars. We didn't have a garden, and we didn't receive food stamps. If one does have food stamps and/or a local food bank, there is still a need to make those resources stretch further.

Angel Food Ministries didn't exist at that time, but it is a neat way to save on your food budget and still buy high quality food. AFM is a Christian food ministry that operates on the order of a co-op: everyone qualifies, no applications or limits, and anyone can buy groceries through Angel Food Ministries for about half the usual cost of the items in each month's box.

What we DID have that "saved our bacon" in the food budget, then and now, were:
(1) a commitment to stocking up & eagerness to watch for bargains
(2) a Freezer
(3) a willingness to cook from scratch & eat only homemade meals
(4) a willingness to forego chips, sodas, cookies & other packaged foods

I love to grocery shop. Since I first married, that has been my favorite household task. So I go to all the stores and go up and down every aisle, just looking at things. If I see a bargain on something we use, I buy a lot of it - depending on how well it keeps & where you can store it, sometimes you can buy enough to last a year. I once bought a 50 lb bag of rice. That was a little much. I think I stumped my toes on the cans we stored it in for a couple of years. Ooops.

It's not good to overbuy, but you'll get to a point where you're always nicely stocked up and only have to buy when it's on sale.

For example, Alco recently had canned wild Alaska Salmon with an expiration date of July 2015. We don't use salmon that much so I only bought 5 cans. Had it been canned tuna, I probably would have asked for a whole case. On the other hand, canned evaporated milk does not keep well past its due-date, so I only buy a few cans at a time so that we can be sure to use it up before it expires.

One thing we do use a lot in our cooking is canned mushrooms. We buy the least expensive "stems and pieces" because there is absolutely no difference in the flavor. Big Lots has them right now at 50 cents a can (a savings of about 69 cents each over regular price in the grocery store), with an expiration of April 2012. I bought 20 cans! We're assured of mushrooms til March.

I don't know how families with children survive without a freezer. Ours has always made such a difference for us. I never have to buy meat that isn't an excellent bargain. Tonight, we had a lovely Boston Butt Pork Roast that I bought in July for $1.49 a pound. More than 4 pounds of meat for a little over $6.00. Paul cooked it in the crock pot and it is so tender! The two of us will get 3 or 4 meals from this - & we could stretch it further if needed. Over the next few days, we'll have easy Moo Shu Pork, a catch-all pork fried rice or stir fry, Mexican style in adobo sauce... 

Because we have a freezer, I was able to buy several roasts and put them away. If I had bought one today, not on sale, it would have cost twice as much. I wouldn't've bought a roast at that price, so it's not that I "saved" money so much as that we are able to eat better quality food while staying on a small budget. Here's a link to the USDA's website on safe food freezing practices, including how to save frozen food in case of a power outage. When our freezer is not full of food, we use bags of ice to take up the remaining space & help it operate most efficiently - this reduces electricity use & helps protect against loss in case the power went out.

Eating out is very costly over home cooking, but it is so hard to get off work and still put a meal on the table every night. The freezer saved us during those years because we could cook up meals in advance to pull out and reheat after working all day and having no time to cook. Beans ( I love pintos) freeze great and taste far better than canned. Sauces for pasta, chicken & egg noodles, enchiladas, meat loaf, casseroles, soups and stews...all will make you smile when you pull them out of the freezer for supper. AllRecipes.com has a special category with hundreds of "Make Ahead" recipes.

Even cooked hamburger patties, grilled chicken, and other chopped cooked meats in the freezer can make it easier to put a casserole or skillet dinner together than to fight traffic getting to & from the fast food joint. With sauces made up in advance, we could have pasta at the drop of a hat. German sausage was also a mainstay for nights we forgot to thaw something.

We also froze things for the boys to nuke in the morning for breakfast.  Paul used to make huge batches of pancakes, sausage patties or bacon, then put portions into baggies for the freezer. Ethan could heat them up and have his breakfast while waiting his turn in the shower.  Ditto with sausage biscuits, banana nut muffins, german sausage tortilla wraps, breakfast tacos ...

Our current freezer is a small, 7.2 cubic feet chest type Frigidaire. These cost between $250-$300. For more encouragement about how a freezer can help your food budget, read the reviews on the small freezers at the Frigidaire site. Lots of ideas for where to keep the freezer and stories about how people use them.

Cooking at home made a difference in more than our budget. We noticed that our tastes changed, and our sons became adventurous eaters. They liked eating healthy. They liked eating at home. Nicolas would make a salad for his after school snack. Ethan was on the swim team, and made ramen noodles when he came in - essential carbs and fats for energy. Canned tuna (in water, they requested), peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly), scrambled eggs in the microwave (lower in fat, they said) gave them protein between meals.

Now that they are adults, they all still cook for themselves and their families. And we all have a lot of nice memories to share about the shopping and cooking and eating we did together when they were growing up.

Mema's Potato Salad and Brand Name Memes

Christopher at "Word Around the Net" has an interesting post musing about the brands of products his family uses, and why they use them. I commented, and it got me thinking about all the day to day brands I rely on. I'd not ever describe myself as a "brand snob" but I do have my favorites. Many are brands my grandparents used, and I think about them briefly if i think about why I buy the brand. Come join the conversation and share your favorite brands.

Daddy and his ladyfriend - a lovely lady that we like a lot - came over today, along with my step-sister and her son, for Father's Day. Paul cooked burgers on the grill and tried a new seasoning from Fiesta Brand (we like their spices) "Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning". It is excellent! He melted Kroger's house brand cheddar cheese on them and put them on Sunbeam buns.

I made my grandmother's potato salad. I guess my grandchildren will think of me when they say "Mema's Potato Salad", but each member of the family will make it their own with small variations. Nick made it a couple of weeks ago, and I meant to post the recipe then.

Here's how:

2 to 3 pounds of potatoes (Russets are good but any irish potato will do), peeled, boiled, drained and mashed. Cool to room temperature.

Put in a large bowl and add:
1/2 cup chopped dill pickle (we use Claussen's Kosher Dills - Mema used her own homemade garlic dills)
1/2 cup chopped sweet pickle (we use Best Maid gerkins or Mt Olive sugar-free Sweet Relish)
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup diced red onion, more or less to your own taste (the color of red onion is really nice in this but if not available substitute Texas 1016's or Vidalia's or even green onions)
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped coarsely (in fairly large pieces)
1 large (4 ounce) jar of sliced pimentos, drained (we use Dromedary Brand)
Salt and black pepper to taste (go easy - best to slightly under-salt this)

1/2 cup to 1 cup Miracle Whip - start with a half cup and mix it in before adding more. Sometimes you'll need a little more, depending on how creamy you like your potato salad.  If you only have mayonnaise, add 2 Tablespoons of vinegar and 2 teaspoons of sugar to the mayo and mix well before adding it to the potatoes.


Stir it all together well, and put it into the serving bowl or container you'll be taking it in. Smooth out the top and decorate with 2 more boiled eggs, cut lengthwise into quarters.

Sprinkle over the whole top generously with paprika. Paprika is a spice that, like cinnamon, has different nuances depending on where it is from. We love Hungarian Paprika - it is sweet and pleasantly bitter. Very nice.

Cover with clear wrap and refrigerate until serving.

Enjoy! 

Big Grandmother's Home Made Chicken and Egg Noodles

Big Grandmother (Mema's mother, the boys' Great-great-grandmother) taught me how to make chicken and egg noodles. She cooked from scratch even for herself, and this was one of her favorite dishes. This is what our family made instead of dumplings.

They are easy to make, and require few ingredients. They do require a little time, and they are best if you can let them dry for a few hours before dropping them into the boiling chicken broth.

I always used to roll mine out and cut them by hand. Now that I have a snazzy little pasta machine (inherited from Thelma) I use it instead, but you do not need one. Hand rolled and hand cut are even better, I think, because they are a lttle thicker.


Take 2 cups of flour, and add 1 tsp (teaspoon) of salt. Add a sprinkle of black pepper, and mix together well. Then add about 1/4 cup of shortening or lard, and mix it into the flour with your hands until it has a uniform crumbly texture.


Make a well in the flour and add two eggs. Mix them into the flour until all the flour is a very stiff dough. If necessary, you can add a little water, only one Tbls (tablespoon) at a time, to get all the flour incorporated. This takes a little muscle to do: just keep working it. The dough should be stiff but not sticky by the time you are done.






Flour your board and rolling pin, and sprinkle flour on the ball of dough. At this stage, you don't have to worry about "too much" flour. You want to be sure it doesn't stick. Roll it out very thin - this is sometimes easier to do if you divide the dough in half and roll and cut one half before
doing the other half.



When it's rolled out, sprinkle generously with flour again and cut into long strips about 1/2 inch wide and as long as the dough.



When they are all cut, lay them out on newspapers or cuptowels to dry for a while. I usually try to let them dry for from 2 to 4 hours - just depends on how much time you have. Over time, you'll find the right amount of time for your taste.



While they are drying, put a whole chicken (with the skin on) into a large pot with a lid, cover with water, add a couple of tsp (teaspoons) of salt and stew it (simmer) until done. This usually takes an hour or so. If starting with a frozen chicken it will need a couple of hours. Add more water if needed.



When done, remove the chicken onto a plate or large bowl and set aside to cool enough so that you can remove the meat from the bones.

Bring the broth to a boil. Toss the noodles with more flour and add them to the broth a handful at a time, stirring after each addition. Reduce to a simmer and let simmer, uncovered, while you prepare the chicken meat.



Remove the skin and discard it with the bones. I like to leave the meat in large pieces, just as it was torn from the bones. The breast meat might need to be torn into smaller chunks.

Add the meat back into the broth with the noodles. The excess flour that was on the noodles should have thickened the broth nicely.

If needed you can add thickener. How to make thickener: Take a couple of tablespoons of flour and mix with cold water in a cup or jar. In a cup, stir with a fork or whisk until you have a slurry. In a jar, you can put the lid on and shake like crazy until it's all mixed up. Then add the
thickener to the broth, stirring at the same time.

The reason you don't just add flour directly to the broth is that it causes lumps. By mixing it with a little water first, you prevent lumps. this works with making gravies or sauces of any kind too.


Simmer the noodles for about 40 minutes to an hour. This keeps well, and is even better leftover the next day, so it makes a good Sunday Dinner for those who try to keep the 4th Commandment and have Sunday as a Day of Rest (Exodus 20:8-11). It is perfect on its own, or you can serve with bread and butter on the side.

A fun way to serve it is in the milk glass covered hen dishes - just be sure to warm them first by rinsing with hot water so the hot broth won't crack them when you ladle it in

How to Make Fried Corn (aka Creamed Corn)

It's a little late in the season, but there might still be time to make this dish if you have access to fresh corn. It is called Fried Corn, because it is cooked with butter in a skillet, but it is not
deep-fried nor is it cooked hard or crisp. It is also known as "Creamed Corn" in some places. Think of it as an Okie corn version of refried beans. :-)


This is a very old recipe, from Mema's childhood. She was raised on a dairy farm, and every once in a while on Sunday, she would make what she called "Country Dinner", with many fresh vegetable dishes in season, and fried corn was often part of that.

The secret to success is that it must be made with fresh corn that you shuck yourself - and the fresher the better. If you can get it from a roadside stand or from a U-pick place, or if a gardening friend gives you some corn on the cob, that is the time to make fried corn.

You can make this with as little as one ear of corn. For these photos, I used 4 ears and 1/2 a stick of butter.


Take your corn and remove the shucks and silks. It can be less messy to do that outside. Don't worry about getting all the silks off, a few cooked in the dish won't hurt anything.

Over a large cutting board, cut the corn off the cob. Here it is better to make several goes at it so it's actually best if you only get part of the kernals the first time around.



VERY IMPORTANT: After you've cut off the kernals, take the back of the knife and run it down the cob, all the way around, scraping the milk and pulp from the cob. I use the BACK of the blade, not the sharp edge, because the goal is to scrape out the pulp, not to cut any more. For safety, use a butter knife or even the edge of a spoon for this part.


When you think you've finished, set the cob aside in a bowl and after all the corn is cut off, scrape the cobs again. you will be surprised how much liquid and pulp is still there.

Get your skillet hot (non-stick is very nice) and melt 1/2 stick of butter, then add the corn. Cook at medium high heat, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom so it won't stick, for about 5 to 8 minutes, until the corn has brightened its color and is cooked through. It doesn't take long.



Add salt to taste. If your corn has been picked a few days (bought from the grocery store, for instance), you can add a couple of tablespoons of cream and 1/4 tsp of sugar (a pinch) to help it along.


It holds well so you can go ahead and take it up while you finish getting the rest of the meal.