Pizza from the Deli

Hey Paw! What's for supper?

Pizza from the deli. What can I say, it's been a tough week.

Home made Parmesan cheese breaded Chicken nuggets, tator tots, salad with Garlic Feta cheese

Hey Paw! What's for supper?
Home made chicken nuggets, cut from breast meat fillets. Coated in bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese and baked in the oven. Crisp tator tots, served with a salad sprinkled with Feta cheese. Yummmmmyyyyy

You may notice that one day of recipes is missing. That's because the church had a dinner and we ate there Thursday night. It was very good, but since I didn't make anything, I don't have a recipe. I thought I should have brought something, as I was pulling into the church's parking lot. I don't know why I didn't, it wasn't very thoughtful of me, was it?! Anyway, no one seemed to mind and we had a wonderful meal. The baby got to hang out with his Grandpa, and that made him very happy. He said "Paw Paw" a couple of times, pretty clearly. It was a proud moment for my Dad. It was also kind of sad when later on the baby went looking for his Daddy. His Daddy had to work, and I was bringing him a plate home. The little boy went to several closed doors, and shouted for his DaDa, he then cupped his ear and listened for a reply. We all kind of felt bad for the little guy, but he didn't cry, he just ran back to us. He sure loves his Dada!
Last night, I wanted to try my hand at chicken nuggets. I didn't want to fry them, I wish I had let them marinate in lemon juice for a little bit, but live and learn. They still turned out really well, moist and tasty. I think if I had added the lemon juice, it would have given the coating something to stick to, some moisture to stick to. I will try that next time. I'm sure you noticed the tator tots, I just love them. I used a Greek Feta cheese crumble over the salad, with romaine hearts, tomato and chopped carrots. My husband really enjoyed it. The little boy ate some tots, a lot of ketchup and a few nuggets. I should have made him eat his chicken before I gave him the tots and ketchup! Again, live and learn. Let's get started.

Tator Tots:
Frozen, out of bag, follow instructions.

Salad:
Hearts of Romain lettuce
Greek seasoned Feta cheese
Tomato
Carrots
Ranch dressing
Toss in a bowl

Parmesan breaded Chicken Nuggets:

Boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 1/2 cups Plain Bread crumbs
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 good hand full of finely chopped parsley
Lots of Parmesan cheese ( I used the kind you have to grate your self)

Heat oven to 375
slice the chicken into strips, then into chunks
Pour the rest of the ingredients into a zip lock baggy, add the chicken then mix thoroughly until the nuggets are coated.
Place aluminum foil on a baking sheet and rub with olive oil
Dump the nuggets, in one layer, onto the foil
Bake for 15 minutes, put the tator tots in and bake another 20, until the tots are crisp
Check the nuggets after 30, depending on their thickness, it may not take that long to bake

I hope you enjoy this, and would love to hear your comments! Let me know you've been by to ask Paw what's for supper!

Hot dogs and homemade coleslaw

Hey Paw! What's for supper?

Hot dogs with chili and homemade coleslaw. YUMMMMYYYYY!

I haven't blogged in a couple of days, been really busy. Like everyone I suppose. I was out for 3 days in a row and the house looked like an elephant had come through, eating and throwing everything in sight. So I've been trying to catch up. The little one has hit his, GRAB everything in sight and ignore the word "no", stage. You know, he looks at me with those innocent eyes and does exactly what he's not suppose to do. The last couple of days, he's figured out how to remove the safety plugs from the electrical outlets. He brings them to me and says, uh oh! I tell him no, and try to explain it's not safe to touch outlets. I then go put the plugs back in, and he waits until I've moved on to something else, then I hear, Uh Oh. There he stands with the plugs. I took them from him and told him, he's being bad and again "explain". He promptly turned around and went straight to the outlet and tried to stick one finger in each hole! I had to raise my voice and get sharp with him. So far, it's worked. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I should just talk to the refrigerator, I might get a better response than from the little one. He's definately hitting the "terrible two's". After dinner last night, I'm in the kitchen cleaning up. I look over to the kitchen table and there he is, in the middle of the table! He climbed into the chair and up onto the table. Oh dear, I'm in big trouble with him. He's a climber!

NOTE TO MOMS:

When you load the dishwasher, make sure to put all sharp objects facing down, toward the bottom of the dishwasher. I personally can't imagine anyone who doesn't do this, but apparantly there are people who put sharp pointy objects facing upwards. It will save you from getting stuck by your knives or forks when you reach in to empty the dishwasher. Most importantly it will save your little one from getting cut or hurt. My neighbor told me a little girl was killed in NC when she ran into the kitchen and fell into the dishwasher her Mom was unloading and was stabbed by a knife facing up.

I was reading in a magazine about Pediatric ER doctors. The article was about the top 10 things Pediatric ER doctors wanted parents to know. The first one they wanted parents to know is: cut grapes and hotdogs into small bite size pieces before giving them to your child. They said that one of the worst things they have to do is tell a parent their child has suffocated to death on a piece of hotdog or a grape. Anything that is round and can get stuck in their throat should be cut into bite size pieces: cherry's, cherry tomatoes, hot dogs, grapes, or gum drops, to name a few. Gumballs should be avoided until the child is older and able to chew really, really well. You should cut the gumball into half, if possible, or avoid it all together along with jaw breakers!

Back to the blog:

Let's get to the supper menu. I didn't know what to fix, and hot dogs sounded really easy. I have never fed my little guy hot dogs. He did have a few bites of my corn dog in Disney World, and loved it. I remembered what I had read about hot dogs being such a choking hazard, so was a little timid about it. Then I had an idea, pop into my head, cut the hot dog in half length wise. Then cut that half, in half again, lengthwise. So instead of one hot dog wienie, I now have 4 pieces. I would then, put two on a piece of bread, add some chili, then wrap the bread around and press it closed. It sounded good to me, so that's what I did. I also thought to cut the wrapped up hot dog into 4 bite size pieces he could pick up with his little fingers. Eureka!

What about the cole slaw? The last time I attempted cole slaw, it was so bad, it went directly into the trash can. Do not pass go, do not collect $100, just go straight to jail, errrr, trash! Well, the food network always has tons of ideas, so I went to their website. I found a recipe that was quick and easy, so I took it. It's by Robert Irvine, from his show, Dinner Impossible. I love that show, anyway, this was a hit. I only added one small sprinkling of something to give it a little more zing, since I didn't have the "white wine vinegar." You'll see in the recipe notes, what I did. It was very good! Let's get to the recipes!

Hot Dogs:

Ummmm, you need hot dogs, buns and chili. heat on stove and there you are!

Cole Slaw:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dinner-impossible/cole-slaw-recipe/index.html

6 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 cup sugar
Salt and pepper
Directions
In a large bowl, combine cabbage and carrots. In a smaller bowl, make dressing by combining mayonnaise, vinegar, celery seed, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss dressing into cabbage mixture and let chill. Serve in a family style bowl.

I didn't have the white wine vinegar or celery seed, so I used apple cider vinegar, and thinly chopped celery. It was good, but lacked a little punch, I thought maybe the two missing ingredients would have added. So, I sprinkled, just a very little bit, of garlic powder in and that did it. This will be my "go to" cole slaw from now on, it's YUMMMMYYYY!

My guys loved it, and gobbled it all up! I have to say, I thought it was pretty tasty myself!

Vegetable Soup, Grilled cheese and Pumpkin pie

Hey Paw! What's for supper? Homemade Vegetable Soup, Grilled Colby/Jack cheese sandwiches, left over Corny Cornbread muffins and Pumpkin Pie. Yuuuuuuuummmy!

Can a menu get any more random?

My Grandaddy was put into an assisted living home a couple of weeks ago, and my Grandma is pretty upset about it. As one would imagine. She and Grandaddy are a love story. They've been together for 40 years and are still in love. Even when Grandaddy had trouble remembering his own name, he asked my Grandma to marry him. He couldn't remember he was already married to her. It was bitter sweet for Grandma, her husband forgot who she was, but wanted to marry this new woman, that was her. When you can't remember who you are, or who your spouse is, but you know that you want to marry that person, again.........That is true love. His memory comes and goes, sometimes he remembers, sometimes he doesn't, but he always loves. Anyway....I took the baby and went to see Grandma. We went shopping and had a really nice time. She lights up when she gets to hang out with Ben. He loves her too. Before we were leaving her house she went into the kitchen and brought us some homemade vegetable soup and pumpkin pie. I was very glad. I had a menu in mind, but wasn't looking forward to going home to cook. My Grandma's soup is so good. While we were in the grocery story, I told her I made her Jello salad, but used ice cream instead of Cool Whip in the topping. She gave me a "look" and, well, we left the grocery store with Cool Whip......

I don't know how Grandma made her soup, but I know what's in it (food allergies, Grandma gave me the list of ingredients) and I can tell you how I would have made it.

Rutabagas
Turnips
Potatoes
Carrotts
Green beans
Cabbage
Corned beef
Celery
Tomato juice
salt and pepper

The amounts you'll need depend on the amount of soup you want to make. I usually make a small pot of soup to last a couple of days.

In a soup pot add olive oil and sautee the vegetables for about 5 minutes
Then add your tomato juice about 1 large can, add some water to thin and set stove on medium low and bring to a boil.
Add your corned beef, salt & pepper to taste and bring to low, and let simmer for about 30 minutes or if you have more time, and hour. Stir occassionally. Remember the corned beef is high in sodium, so be easy with the salt!

I used the left over Corny Cornbread muffins to crumble in the soup, which added a really nice flavor.

Grilled Cheese:
I put a little butter on each slice of bread and added some Colby and Jack cheeses. I heated a skillet and turned the sandwich frequently until the cheese was melted.

Pumpkin Pie:
All I can tell you is, follow the instructions on the can. I have no idea how to make pumpkin pie. I have tried to make pies, but had to quit. I made pies for Thanksgiving dinner, two years in a row. Both years, I dropped the pie before I got it into my Dad's house. I did better the last year, I dropped it in his front yard! The year before that I dropped it in my front yard. Thankfully the pies had lids, so they just erupted and looked awful, but still tasted good and never touched the actual earth.
So, my advice for the pumpkin pie: use a ready made pie crust. follow the instructions on the can and let someone else carry it to the table.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you will enjoy the yummy menu. Remember that when it comes to soup, you can use any vegetable you want. Those are the veggies my Grandma used. Try different combinations, it's fun to come up with your own soup recipe! Enjoy cooking, it's not rocket science.

I'm in BIG Trouble

Hey Paw, what's for supper? Whether I'm talking to my daddy or my hand, I am in big trouble 'cause I can't think of anything. I have cornbread on the brain from testing so many recent cornbread concoctions that I have written. I can't even think about eating another wedge. Meatballs is my fallback, Hazel covered the bases on that one. Chicken rounds out the top three and she just blogged about that. So, it will have to be a Kentucky Hot Brown tonight. My husband will be so pleased, and I can take the cheese sauce and just spackle it to my bottom!

Kentucky Hot Browns
Serves: 2-4 generously and kids love the gooey cheesy sauce!

Ingredients:
Cheese Sauce (I double the sauce):
3 TB butter, melted
3 TB flour
1/4 lb velveeta, cubed (1 small box)
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

4-6 slices bread (I use a good quality white bread like an Italian loaf but sandwich bread works fine)
cooked, sliced turkey or chicken breast (buy a chunk from the deli and slice it yourself)
cooked, sliced ham (sometimes I use country ham to dress it up a bit)
8-12 cooked bacon strips
4-6 slices of tomato
Preparation:
In a saucepan or heavy skillet, whisk together melted butter and flour. Then stir in the remaining sauce ingredients. Cook until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.
Toast bread.
On a large dinner plate, place two bread slices side by side. Top one with turkey and the other with ham. Cover (or in my husband's case, drown) with cheese sauce, reserving a little sauce. "X" the tops with bacon slices.
Top "X"s with a tomato slice.
Then drizzle remaining sauce over the tomatoes and bacon.
Just before serving, place plates on a baking sheet and brown the cheese under the broiler. Watch carefully, Velveeta burns quickly. If it does, the other neat trick with Velveeta is that the burned part just peels away, and you can broil again. No losers here!!

Lemon & Rosemary baked chicken with fixins'

HEY PAW! What's for supper?


Tonight we're having lemon & rosemary baked chicken, corny cornbread muffins, tater tots for the tot, fried corn & little green onions, and Grandma's jello salad. YUMMMMYYYYY.

It's been a cold and snowy day. We've played in the snow, drank hot chocolate (or in the case of my son, guzzled) and ate cookies and strawberries. Now it's time for dinner, what to make? On cold snowy days, I want to make soup. I must refrain, I've made soup two Sunday's in a row. So, what's the next best and easiest thing? Baked chicken.


Now, the thing to remember is, I'm not an expert. So don't take the measurements to heart. Use as much or as little as you like. To be safe with cooking meat, cook according to the package directions. I look for easy things to fix, without a lot of time and fuss. I simply don't have the time, nor do I want to take hours to fix my supper. Fix & serve, that's how I like it.


Grandma's Jello Salad has several steps, so you will have to start this in the afternoon. It's still pretty easy, it just sounds hard. Once you make it, you'll see the steps are easy.


My husband insisted I take a picture of the plate, since he said it looked and tasted, so good.



Here's how I fix it.



Lemon & Rosemary Baked Chicken:


1 package chicken breast


2 lemons


Garlic rosemary seasoning


salt and pepper





Heat the lemon in the microwave for about 15 seconds then cut in half and squeeze juice all over both sides of chicken, and sprinkle with the rosemary seasoning. Let sit for about a half hour, in the fridge. Then bake in a 350 degree oven until cooked through, about 40 minutes give or take.









Corny Cornbread muffins:


1 package cornbread mix, I use Jiffy


1/4 cup corn

Prepare cornbread mix according to box. Stir in the corn, more or less to your taste. Pour into prepared muffin tin and bake according to box directions.

These muffins are moist and you get a little more texture with the corn.

Tater Tots for the Tot:
I would like to say these are strictly for the Tot, but I love Tater Tots, it's easier to blame this on the little boy!


Pour tater tots out of the bag and heat in the oven according to the package details. Can't get any easier. I bake these with the chicken, the last 20 minutes of the chickens baking time.







Fried Corn & Little Green Onions:


Frozen corn


3 tablespoons salted butter


enough water to cover the corn


A couple little green onions, chopped





I use frozen corn because it doesn't have any extra sodium. Canned corn has some sodium, even if you rinse it off, some of that sodium will still remain.


Put a couple cups of corn in a sauce pan and cover with water, add the butter and salt and pepper to taste.


I usually don't add salt, since I use salted butter, but whatever you like.....


Let the water boil off until all that remains is the butter and let that fry in the pan a little bit.


After it's fried a bit, turn the eye off and add the chopped onions and let that warm up.





Grandma's Jello Salad:





This recipe makes a lot of Jello Salad. I cut it in half and I have fun with the combinations of jello and fruit. I also use the flavored marshmallows to mix things up a bit. During Easter, I made this and used the Easter shaped marshmallows, that was so cute. Kids love this, and adults do too!


My Grandma makes this a lot, and she always adds different kinds of fruit with the pineapples. Her favorite type of fruit to add are bananas. I'm allergic to bananas! I go to her house and she tells me she made her jello salad. I cut myself a piece and put it right back in the pan. I go back into the living room with no jello. She was just about to ask me why, when her eyes got all big and she said BANANAS! A few weeks later she makes the jello again. This time she doesn't add banana's and is happy to tell me that. I go in, and there are some odd looking fruit pieces mixed in with the pineapple, so I ask her what they are, Mango. I'm allergic to mango too! So, I had to learn how to make it myself, or I'd never get any I could eat! Ha Ha.





1 regular package Lemon Jello
1 regular package Orange Jello
1 can crushed pineapple
1 bag mini marshmallows
Orange Juice
2 tbl. sugar
3 tbl. flour
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 pint whipping cream (or 8oz. Cool Whip)
Grated cheddar cheese

Prepare Jello according to package
Drain pineapple and reserve the juice
Add pineapple to jello
Pour into glass dish
Cover with mini marshmallows and refrigerate to gel



Add orange juice to pineapple juice to make 1 cup
Pour into sauce pan
Add sugar, flour, and beaten egg
Cook over medium heat until pudding like, stir constantly
Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally
Once room temp., refrigerate until ready to add to Jello salad





Put whipping cream in a bowl and add lemon juice
Fold in the pudding mixture, whip together (if using whipped topping, then mix into pudding mixture)
Put on top of marshmallows then grate cheese on top
Refrigerate until ready to serve





Tonight I didn't have any whipping cream or whipped topping, so I used softened vanilla ice cream, just a large scoop. It mixed in well, and was yummy. How it sets, will be a different story, I'm sure. Guess we'll see!

Spaghetti & meatballs

My husband loves this recipe. It's a variation from a "Throw down with Bobby Flay" show I caught, "Meatball Throw down" from the Food Network.

I used Fettuccine because my son does not like the texture of thin pasta.

Remember, the measurements don't have to be exact. Add more or less to your taste.

1 jar spaghetti sauce of your choice
Fettuccine
Bread slices
butter

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Hand full of chopped parsley
kosher salt to taste
fresh ground pepper taste
1 large egg
1/2 large onion finely chopped
garlic powder or a couple finely chopped garlic cloves

Heat oven to 350
Mix the beef, bread crumbs, parsley, egg, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper together, careful not to over-work the meat
make meatballs about the size of a large egg
place on a lined baking sheet and put into the oven for about 30 minutes

Meanwhile: boil your water for your pasta and fix according to the package

While pasta is cooking, butter your bread and sprinkle garlic powder over it, during the last 5 minutes or so, of your meatballs cooking time, add the bread to toast.

drain the pasta really good and put back into the hot pot, pour 1/2 sauce over the pasta, add meatballs and pour remaining sauce over the meatballs.

Serve it up, it's YUMMY!

Have some ice cream sprinkled with blueberry's for desert.

IF there are any left over meatballs, cut them up and serve them on bread for lunch the next day. A meatball sandwich.