shishnit.org

The post for everyone but especially my internet friends out there in the OKC…. A certain someone that inspires me to actually cook more often. I swear some of those recipes are coming soon….to a blog near…er..right here!

I’ve been cooking, snapping photo’s and then not blogging. I know I know….

First I made a stuffed chicken. This is not a hard or difficult thing…but since I haven’t done it in awhile I documented the occasion. I love stuffed chickens and here’s my secret. I absolutely adore Stovetop stuffing. Seriously! Every single time I have tried to make a different stuffing recipe I have gone mad with dozens of ingredients only to end up with stuffing that I’m “eh” about. However, stovetop stuffing always makes me happy. So why mess with difficult recipes when they have it figured out? I pre-make my stuffing and stuff it into the raw bird, THEY tell you not to do that. I’m not dead yet.

Crazy thing is …I do make my own gravy. I swear by Wondra sauce and gravy flour. It’s by far the easiest way to make gravy with no lumps. I also put real butter on my chicken. That I learned from my grandmother. I can’t bake a chicken without butter. Yah I’m probably ruining the healthy…but…I know these two doctors I’d like to visit. (oh but let it be for a well check up please!)

Here’s my stuffed chicken

A horrible photo of the bird next to the sink full of dishes and the dish drainer…the kitchen is nice at the Island of Poredom but it is small. Small but decked out nice. I actually love my tiny cozy kitchen, it reminds me of my grandmother’s.

Here’s the resulting plate of food. Oh…I also cook my chicken per the package directions…I think that time I googled it and cooked it per the lb directions I found online. I don’t make baked chicken often so when I do…I also eat the skin. And that is cauliflower next to the mashed potatoes.  That was in a ready to make bag I threw in the microwave for 3 minutes…super easy…also super good.

Prior to the chicken I made a quick bread. I found this recipe on someone’s blog. I can’t recall who, but thanks and I don’t mean to rob you but your recipe freaking rocks so thank you!!

Peanut Butter Bread….have I mentioned that Rick loves peanut butter?

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 cup milk

Stir together first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut peanut butter in with a fork until it’s nice and crumbly. Stir together egg and milk, stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter into a greased 9×5 bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

(I cooled in the pan..it was fine and came right out later) We loved this with a bit of grape jam on it….and it’s super good toasted.

VELVEETA Down-Home Macaroni & Cheese 

My grandmother is from Italy and when I was 15 and first dating I would often bring my first boyfriend Steve to my grandmother’s house for Sunday dinner.  The first time I brought Steve to my grandmother’s house she chose this particular day to make polenta.  Most people have somewhat heard of polenta but in my grandmother’s native town in Italy they prepare a softer version of polenta (the consistency of oatmeal or grits) and it was and is tradition to serve polenta straight off of the dining room table.  Meaning, she spreads her polenta in big circlular shapes on her Formica dining room table.  She then spreads what most of us know to be spaghetti sauce on top of this and then there is a liberal sprinkling of romano cheese all over.  This later step is done with a huge flourish of activity; the cheese is literally flying all over the room. 

This is something I have seen and been party too since before I could walk or talk.  She then hands around forks for all to begin eating after my grandfather says grace.  Yes, there are no plates…and yes we eat the polenta off of the table until it’s gone. One of my fondest memories growing up is of when my brother, sister and I would try to make the shape of America out of our side.  Her table was shaped like a big circle with a big split down the center.  We always tried to shape America.  I have no earthly idea why.  We would argue over who ate Florida because once you eat away Florida the United States looks like a square.

So, one Sunday Steve and I walked in just as she was handing out the forks.  He eyeballed 15 loud Italians eating and talking with their hands sitting squeezed in around my grandmother’s somewhat small table eating red mush off of the table like pigs eating from a trough and proclaimed, “I cannot eat like this”.  My grandfather jumped up and said “Well then you do not pass and you cannot ever marry Kristy!”  He was of course joking but I don’t think that boyfriend ever really recovered from that experience. 

I wonder what Rick would have done if faced with that same dilemna.  Every single time I personally make polenta he creeps over to where I’m eating it and says “What the hell is that?”  Every single time.
I wonder if Keith remembers how he scarfed down Polenta when he was a toddler.  He called it “o’la” I have no idea why.
How do you make Polenta the way my grandmother does?  You can eat it off of plates…but….its like licking a donut instead of eating it…just not as satisfying!!!

Polenta

Ingredients:
1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tsp salt

3 cups of water in pot

1 cup of COLD water

Spaghetti sauce

Romano cheese

Procedure:
1. Boil 3 cups of water.

2. Mix cornmeal, salt and 1 cup of COLD water in a bowl.

3. When water in pot boils gradually add the cold water mixture into the boiling water stirring constantly.

4. Reduce heat.

5. Continue cooking over low heat 5-10 minutes.

6. Spread mixture on your dining room table.

7. Cover with sauce and sprinkle generously with romano cheese.

8. Eat this meal directly off of the table with family surrounding the table. If you put it on a plate you’ll not get good luck like you will if you eat it off of the table.
 

Serving Size: 2-3 servings  

Grandma Rena’s homemade Spaghetti Sauce  
(the easy way)
 

Ingredients:
2 cans Contadina tomato paste

4 cans water

1 stick margarine (do not use butter…it doesn’t work!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp rounded Italian Seasoning

1 tsp onion powder

Procedure:
Simmer over low heat 30 minutes
Serving Size: perfet for 1 pound of spaghetti, and also perfect on Polenta
 

Low and behold not much survived the marriage of 1991.  However, the recipe below is my former mother-in-laws.  My grandmother asked me today if I ever talk to my former in-laws and I sadly told her “No, I don’t.”  She asked me how I get along with my current in-laws and I told her wonderfully.  They are sadly deceased. 

I often wish I could talk to Rick’s parents just once.  Even more often than that I wish that he could talk to my Dad over a smoke…just one night.  I would chop off my left arm to see that happen.  The merging of the two pivotal Rick’s in my life would have been amazing.  Oddly my brother-in-law Doug reminds me of my father a lot.  A LOT!!!  He’s cantankerous with a side dose of smart ass.  Just the way I like my people to be. Yesterday Rick asked me to make chili.  I obliged today.  I really love my former mother in law’s recipe.  When I first saw it 17 years ago I thought, wow…sugar?  Yah sugar.  Yum. You can’t taste the sugar but I think it cuts the raw acid taste of the tomatoes and therefore it can’t be omitted.

The cast of characters.  I love Publix and I love to buy their store brand’s.  Cheaper and awesome!!

Vidalia onion = .55
Kidney beans = .89 x 2 (15.5 oz cans) = 1.78
1 lb lean ground beef = 3.73
Chili powder = $2.99 for the can = 1 TB worth = .30
Shredded jack/cheddar cheese mix  (4 oz small bag) = 1.89
Green bell pepper = .90
Can crushed tomatoes = 1.35
Salt/pepper (nearly free!)
= $10.50

Chili is a pretty cheap meal.  I would have been at a mere $8.61 minus the unnecessary cheese but try telling Rick that cheese is unnecessary.  I’m sure we won’t use the 4 oz bag all at once.  I’m positive he’ll be throwing it into an omelet or on an egg too.  However, I consider $8.61 to be a fantastic cost for a meal for 4.

I brown my hamburger first.  Then I remove it and put it in a strainer in the sink.  Then I brown my onion in the hamburger drippings.

Then you add the pepper and let it cook with the onion. (I’m sure you don’t need a photo for this step), then I just dump everything else in.  I do not fry my garlic…garlic gets weird when you overcook it on direct heat.  I crush it in a garlic press and add in two cloves with the beans and tomatoes, sugar and chili powder.  I also add in some black pepper and salt but really not enough for it to even be measured. 

Chili

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Brown the hamburger.  Remove from pan temporarily.  Brown remaining ingredients, add ground beef back into pot.

Then add in any order

1 regular size cans of red kidney beans
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
½ cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of chili powder

Cook all ingredients together about ½ hours on low heat.

Keith….if you’re reading this is your grandma’s chili and its the best!!  She’s not the best cook….but dang if she didn’t make the best chili ever.  I prefer hers over my Italian grandmother’s even.  Yummy!!!!  oOPS I forgot I bought crackers…so that pushes me over the budget edge with an additional $1.29 for saltines!!!  Uh…but we won’t use that entire box for this….hmmm so it doesn’t count!!! 

mmm look, I know you want some now.

Home Style Potato Soup

1 can (14 oz) Chicken broth

1 pound potatoes (peeled and cut into fourths (about 3 medium)

1 ½ cups of milk

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 medium green onions (1/4 cup)

Heat broth and potatoes to boiling in 3 quart saucepan; reduce heat to low.  Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Do not drain.  Break potatoes into small pieces with potato masher or large fork.  (Mixture should be lumpy.)Stir milk, salt, pepper, thyme and onions into saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until hot.  Do not let soup boil. Variation: Potato Cheese Soup  Make above as directed and stir in 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese until it is melted.The only thing I added was 1 Tablespoon of butter.  Butter makes everything better.