Sounds yummy, Sally. I am making either ham & bean or shimp and celery cream soup tomorrow. I don't use cream, but normally evaporated milk. But since, I'm collecting jugs for winter sowing, I'm using milk. Single people don't buy too many gallon jugs of anything. I have to beg them from everyone that I know. I drink tap water.
Comfort food for the New Year!
Just added empty milk jugs to my Swap list LOL
Oh I had a small container of leftover frozen crab meat and a few shrimp thawing in the microwave last night, and forgot it.
nutz.! ah, well.
Is the shrimp soup easy enough to do? A cream soup (roux) base? I have made a good veggie cheese soup that way. Make a a roux, thin a little , add shredded cheddar and a few cups of cooked broccoli, cauliflower, carrots for the color, onions for a bit of savoriness.
I NEED some!!!! Yes, but I'm doing a lot of celery, because it was on sale and I like it. No cheddar for me, have to watch the fat. Instead of making a roux, another fat, I puree a large baking potato to liquification stage and whisk it into the soup. It will thicken up from this as it heats up. Sherry gives a good flavor to the soup, or a little cognac. I add some old bay too. Mushrooms were on sale too, so were orange peppers and scallions. They will add nice bits of color. Minced onion and maybe half a leek for flavor.
sounds terrific
Thanks, It usually comes out pretty good. Another combination that I like is a clam chowder in the same type of white soup where I add two packages of those frozen artichokes minced. That is an unexpectedly good combination, a take off on all of those oyster/artichoke combos from New Orleans. If I don't have a potato, I will thicken the soup by wisking arrowroot or cornstarch in with the cognac and slowly stir it into the soup.
Sally, I do dumb things like leave stuff in the microwave all of the time. I'm notorious for doing this at work. I heat up my lunch and then find it 4 hours later. Meanwhile, I spend all afternoon wondering why I'm so hungry, but then the phone rings again and I forget about it again.
The local Arby's even asked me for my phone # because so many times I've ordered at the drive through, then paid and drove off without my food!! Just dropped by to make a donation!!! My thoughts are so wrapped around the work waiting for me back at the office, I forget why I went out.
I do more of the other, I plan a meal and forget to get any of it out of the freezer, that's one reason we eat so late, so often. LOL I often start my soups with butter, onion, and a flour/cornstarch but some I brown my flour and cornstarch with a little bacon fryings (bad), to start. Ric
Ric, I miss those great rouxs! I start all of my greens out with frying bacon or pancetta with garlic or onions. Lot's of soups too, but skip the butter. Use Olive or canola oil. I do pour off a lot of the bacon fats. The onions and garlic absorb their flavors.
I am constantly forgetting to defrost things, especially if I'm out in the garden. Good thing the Microwave has a defrost setting, although I prefer not to use it.
Got some nice redskins at market last week, very reasonable. So tonight was boiled, buttered, and browned potatoes with parsley, mild Italian sausage, and Brussels sprouts. Ric
HAD some nice red potatos but they are sprouting like crazy already
How did you cook your italian sausage? I've only simmered it in tomato sauce with peppers and onions. to go with pasta.
ALDI's cooking bag with chicken seasoning tasted very good to us. The bag was smaller than I expected; I barely fit my four chicken breasts and five drums in it. A whole fryer would fit OK, but it called for cut up pieces. Next time I'll save the bag for something else and just use the seasoning on a panful of chicken. Not overly salty, at all. Paprika, celery, onion, garlic--I never tasted Shake and Bake but this might be a copy of that.
I cut up some small white potatos and roasted them and heated up trombocino ( butternut ish) squash leftover from another night.
Sally, We are talking about stuffed Italian sausage, right? I just simmer it in a skillet with a little water till it's about cooked through, and allow it to brown as the water cooks off, if you really want you can get a brown gravy out of the pan. Ric
Well... the skillet spaghetti was so good!
Then my Mom blew out the candles on not one, but two birthday cakes! I had ordered her a cake on Monday to be picked up Saturday. My brother came in as well, and he brought a cake with him! They were both good... to be polite, I had to try both! LOL! The one I ordered was vanilla pound cake with buttercream icing! Mmmmm!!!
This was my brother's...
And the one I bought...
the flowery one is soo pretty, you can get me that one tee hee
That flowery one is beautiful!! Bet it tasted yummy!! Of course you had to have some of your brother's. Oh, the sacrifices we make just for good manners!!
Pork Sausage is one treat that I'm not willing to forgo. To be able to eat it fairly frequently and still feel that I'm following my dietary guidelines, I pierce it and boil it first. The excess fat will go into the water. I'll then drain them and brown them. I've gotten used to and actually prefer the taste of them this way now. I love to fry onions, red and green peppers, garlic and mushrooms up and serve them on a bed of the vegetables.
I also make a cannelinni bean and escarole, chicken broth based soup, and add slices of Italian Sausage. I still give the sausage the same treatment for the soup.
Stormy, I grew up with that kind of preparation, only my GM would make brown gravy (another bad). LOL I also like to grill it. That gets a lot of the fat out too, if you use a fork on it beforehand. Ric
Going to check the weather for this afternoon, I just may have to grill up a couple of NY strips, blue cheese red skin potato salad, and beans. Can you tell I want nice weather. LOL Ric
It is looking like grill able weather--grab it before it goes!
Ric LOL I'm still thinking about breakfast!!
Jamie, JR, and DIL all showed up at breakfast time to fix my wireless router. LOL So we had Maple link sausages, pancakes, grits, canned pears, and OJ for 5. We got a lap top so we can DG on the road! LOL It is now up and running, hooray! We picked up a refurbished Latitude D620 from Dell. It's actually better than our desktop pc and fully compatible.$250 with warranty seemed pretty good after shopping around, I guess we'll see. Ric
Had the In Laws down for dinner, it was nice enough out to grill steaks, yummy. Made potato salad, regular, Holly didn't want blue cheese and walnut. Made frozen sweet corn for a veggie and viewed our Longwood pictures for desert. Ric
Sounds good Ric. I'll do pork chops tonight with roasted onions and garlic, sauteed spinach with pignoli and some asparagus risotto. Grapes for dessert.
This message was edited Jan 18, 2010 6:40 PM
Today was a day off, and I did pulled pork barbeque in my crockpot! Cooked all day, then "pulled" this evening and back in the crockpot for another hour to "marry" all the BBQ seasonings! It was ssooooo good! And it will last us a few days! :o)
I am an avid reader of audiobooks, and I was listening to a book the other day that mentioned this cake. I didn't believe it was true so I looked it up. Yep! Sure enough, you really can make a margarita cake! Well, hubby and I love margaritas, so I had to try this! It is cooling on the rack right now... but it looks and smells so good!
More to follow....
VWR, let us know how it turns out, if it passes your taste test, post the recipe.
Anyone try a bake bean cake, yes there is a can of baked beans in the recipe and you can't tell unless some one tells you. A good novelty cake as far as "guess the secret ingredient".
And also a good excuse to indulge in a high fiber cake! VWR, I'll be waiting on your report!!
Stormy, LOL
VWR, you have to tell us about your mom's spaghetti.
Oh my goodness! I think hubby and I may hurt ourselves on the cake!
Anyone wanna come by and have a piece???
It is so good it's evil! Really, you cannot tell there is tequila in it... it tastes like a super moist lemon pound cake!
First I looked up a recipe on AllRecipes. Then I tweeked it to suit me, just like any good cook does!
Here's how I did it...
Margarita Cake
1 package white cake mix - I used DH Super Moist White
1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup lime juice - I used fresh squeezed
1 cup pre-made margarita - I used Jose Cuervo's Golden Margarita (already bottled mixed)
Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl. Beat on high speed for about two minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt cake pan. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Spoon an additional 2-3 tablespoons of margarita over the cake when it comes out of the oven. Let cool in pan about 10 minutes, then turn out onto plate.
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 Tblsp margarita
3 Tblsp lime juice
Mix together until smooth. Pour glaze over cooled cake.
All I can say is YUMMMMMYY!!!!!
My glaze was too thin but I don't care!
Sound yummy. Would be interesting to sprinkle some sea salt on top on the glaze.
Looks like a good office party after work cake......bring on the booze!
Mary...
Mom's skillet spaghetti... She just browns a pound of hamburger with some chopped up green pepper and onion. Then she breaks up thin spaghetti noodles over the hamburger mixture and pours tomato juice over the whole thing. Season to taste and simmer until the spaghetti absorbs all the juice... about 30 minutes. It's pretty basic... she doesn't go for alot of spices and she doesn't like mushrooms (I put them in mine when I make it) but I grew up on it, and it's always better when your Mama makes it!
One of the reviews on All Recipes mentioned sprinkling kosher salt on the glaze, and one mentioned crushed pretzels. My preference is no salt on my margarita glass!
Tomorrow I am going to try making Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits!
Oh, those things are sooooo good. That spaghetti sounds good. My mom used to make a clear brothed spaghetti "pancake" with olive oil, mushrooms, garlic and parsley. We loved it. I never did learn how she made it and now she's gone. She lived to feed us. She baked every day. She was always giving candy and fudge away. Complete strangers used to tell me how muched they loved my mother's fudge and cookies. Oh well, maybe I'll come across it one day.
Scalloped potato casserole with sweet corn and ham. I also maybe ham and bean soup with shredded carrots, and put some sliced ham away for sandwiches. The smoked skin and fat will go into the suet feeder. I got every thing but the squeal outta' that one. LOL Ric
Ric, you are one kitchen slavin' man. Sounds wonderful!
Both turned out too yummy. LOL I still have 2-3 batchs of brownies to bake for a funeral tomorrow, great fun on a cold night. Ric
Good night for comfort food.
The snow appears to have almost stopped now, and we have 11 inches.
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac&cheese, corn, and rolls....
Yep... just roll me in front of the TV and I'll be fine!
That would have been so good! We had pizza--second night in a row for two of us! well, i didn't want to argue with not-cooking. I already had a leftover sink full of dirty dishes 'scolding' me all day.
That's OK Sally... I think pizza is a food group!
I am making pizzas for lunch tomorrow.
(Kid friendly foods when the kids are here...)