The chicken was great!

The Chicken was great!  It needs some adjustments, though.  The last time I made this, chicken breasts had to be much smaller.  I seem to remember that if I bought 2 pounds of chicken breasts I probably got 5 breast halves.  Not anymore, 3.5 lbs yielded 5 pieces.  I kind of planned that way, but I still have to work on the size of my pieces.  I cut the chicken breast halves in half again.  I think I should have sliced so the pieces were thinner.  I needed to add 10 minutes to the baking time for the thicker pieces.

This is the cut up chicken...it's huge!

 This is the lovely curry-lime butter that will be stuffed into the chicken

Here is the finished product!  MMM!

I'm still learning how to work with the camera on my phone, but I think I'm getting more comfortable with it.    

I cracked open my two eggs to prepare my egg wash for the chicken coating and look what happened!

Yup, you guessed it, a double yolk!  I haven't seen one of these since I was about 10!  It happened a lot with brown eggs when I was a kid growing up.  In New England the saying was "Brown eggs are local eggs, local eggs are fresh eggs."  I still prefer brown eggs and when the price is no more than 30 cents difference, I'll buy them.

And speaking of pictures, while I was preparing my massive amount of chicken, I ran out of bread crumbs and egg wash for the coating on said chicken.  I went to the fridge and this is what I found. 

So again, reaching back to my frugal upbringing, I knew most of these eggs were fine.  I had to find out which of any of them needed to be discarded.  I filled up my 8 cup measuring cup with water and put the whole dozen eggs in the water, one at a time. Not until I got to the last three, did any of them float.  

I took out the eggs on the bottom, and yes those 3 eggs were the only ones that floated.  If they float, they flunk and they get tossed out!

The rescued eggs were put back in the carton and I labeled them 1/14/17 so I would know when they were tested.

I knew I could use one of these eggs for the rest of my chicken coating.  I measured more bread crumbs and proceeded with the second tray of chicken breasts.  I put them in the oven after dinner and wrapped them in heavy duty foil like I did with the 3 remaining pieces from dinner.  They will be served on the 28th for dinner.  The great thing is I have 9 of them and that means they will work for lunch as well on other days. :)

I'll be back later with the recipe for tomorrow, Curry Beef Loaf, including my recipe for cream of celery soup.  There was a time when you couldn't get this condensed soup at the stores I frequented in Chicago.  Because of that, I adapted the recipe from my copy of The Joy of Cooking I received as a wedding present in 1982.  I'll have that recipe too.  

I can't believe break is over!

It seems like break was just yesterday...oh, wait, it was.

I tried very hard to make our last dinner of break as headache free as possible.  A 5 lb pork roast went in to give me 3 hours of freedom to leisurely set up and cook dinner.  I even set up things I needed for the week of prepping hubby's lunch so that wasn't a scramble in the morning.  It worked for the most part. The only problem I had happened this morning.  A dish fell out of the cabinet at me while putting dishes away from the dishwasher and broke (Mind you, we never break anything here.  It is really rare.) on the counter on it's way to the floor.  The upside is it was a new thrift store purchase at Thanksgiving, so the cost was negligible and the investment in our lives was short.  The downside was I needed to quickly sweep up the floor so my little furfaces (cats) would not have bloody paws when I came home from work.  All this before 7:15 AM. 

Chicken broth happened last night and became chicken soup tonight for our dinner.  I paired the soup with Tuna Sandwiches and since the broth was made last night, I just had to prep the veggies and chicken and toss it with the simmering broth.  It was ready in 20 minutes.  Again this was essentially free, save for the 1/2 of a chicken breast half I sliced up to put in the soup.  I took 12 carrot sticks that I had prepped last night and diced them, diced a small onion and a celery stalk, and then stir fried for a couple of minutes with the chicken until it was no longer pink.  I added this to the simmering broth with some garlic salt and orzo (melon seed shape) pasta and simmered until the noodles were done.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Chicken Orzo Soup
1 lb chicken bones (I froze my bones from 2 dinners of drum sticks)
8 cups water
vegetable scraps ( Carrot peelings, onion peelings, celery cuttings)
1 small carrot, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 chicken breast, about 4-6 oz., cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 t. garlic salt
1/2 c. orzo pasta
Place the chicken bones, water and vegetable scraps in a 3 qt saucepan.  Simmer on low for about 2 hours.  Drain the broth through cheesecloth in a strainer.  In a 10" frying pan, add the veggies and chicken breast and saute until the chicken is no longer pink.  Add this to the reserved broth with the garlic salt and the orzo pasta.  Simmer 15-20 minutes or until the pasta is done.

Today was a long day.  First day back after Winter Break and I have finally become part of the digital age...I got my first smart phone today. It's been an adventure to say the least!  

Wednesday is Chicken Korma and Friday is Curried Lime Chicken Breast.  I'll post those recipes tomorrow.

Beef Barley Soup and Beyond

Beef Barley Soup...and beyond

So I made Beef Barley Soup for dinner last night.  I almost forgot to take a picture of it. (I was so silly, I ate my whole bowl of soup before I remembered!  Fortunately, I could still pour another bowl...I was hungry enough for seconds.)  We had the soup with our favorite potato rolls from Aldi...so yummy.

I usually make the recipe on the back of the Goya brand barley that we use.  It is perfect.  This time, though I made broth from the bones from our standing rib roast from Sunday and the meat for the soup came from the bones I used.  Essentially making this a free meal when it comes down to it.  I had saved my vegetable trimmings from Thanksgiving and New Years and frozen them.  I used half for the beef stock and I'll use the other half for the Chicken stock I'll make on Monday.  When I make my soup stock I just quarter an extra onion and peel the carrot I'll use for the soup itself and throw the peelings in too. (My Mormor would be so proud of me 💖)

I looked on the Goya website and couldn't locate the recipe that has been there forever.  So here is a variation of the Goya Recipe:

Beef & Vegetable Barley Soup
1 T. olive oil
1 lb boneless chuck, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t. dried oregano
4 t. beef bouillon granules
4 c. water
1 bay leaf
15 oz can veggies, undrained or 1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies + 1 c. tomato        juice or tomato sauce
1/2 c. barley
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and brown the beef.  Stir in the onion and garlic.  Cook until the onions are tender.  Stir in the seasonings and water.  Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer one hour.  Add the veggies and barley.  Cook over medium heat 30 minutes.  Serves 4.

Dinner Monday is Chicken Soup...I'll post the recipe tonight!

It's January and my calendar is naked!

     I just noticed my calendar is naked!  I'll take care of that.  Dinner tomorrow is  Curried Beef in Pastry, Wednesday is Pytti Panna and Friday is Beef Barley Soup.  

     For New Years Day, we had an awesome Standing Rib Roast for dinner. Our good friends C & D joined us as well as our kids, Miss K and Miss M. Also our sister in law, L joined us with our nephew young Master D.  Dinner was so awesome and yummy.  I made Herb & Garlic rolls and had a misstep with my stand mixer.  Well it was a big misstep actually.  It just flat out broke. Fortunately, I still had my old stand mixer and used that to finish the job. ( as Miss M & Miss K pointed out, it was a good thing I had not donated the old mixer like I had wanted to.) The rolls weren't the best attempt and looked fairly rustic, but they still tasted great.

     We rounded out the meal with broccoli, peas, carrots, mashed and gravy. Did I say yum?  We had cookies and coffee or tea depending on who you were for dessert.  I had made more iced lemon cookies and melting moments to complement the pepparkakor that we still had left from my holiday baking earlier.
     That said, the bones from the roast are the base of the meal on Friday. I saved all the drippings from the meat and that's in the fridge waiting for me to make a glorious gelatinous broth from those drippings and the bones on Wednesday night.
     I also have a confession.  I did not make the dusted pork chops.  But tomorrow we have kids stopping by and I'll make dusted chicken for them instead.  It will work, and I'll get a picture of the finished product.  I decided not to cook on Friday because Miss M had been house sitting and baby sat that night.  It's one of the meals I like to make for her so I was going to make it on Saturday as a meal swap instead.  But our Saturday went differently, too.  We ended up going to our friend's house to celebrate New Years Eve, I so had two nights off of cooking!  It felt a little weird.

    DH had a 5K road race this morning.   When we got home the roast went in the oven.  I worked on the rolls, broke my mixer, found my old mixer, finished the rolls and then worked on the rest of the meal.  It was a busy day all in all.  The girls set the table and put things on the table as they were finished. The dishwasher is now humming with the 3rd and last load of dishes of the day.  
     The next post will have my recipes for the week and I'll update the calendar.

Day one of the World Tour...Singapore noodles. Day two's recipe Pastichio

 

Dinner was so yummy!  There is an incredible amount of prep that goes into Singapore Noodles, but it is so worth it.  I spent my afternoon as my own Sous Chef.  Once everything was prepped (mind you I had no idea how many guests would show so I prepped enough for 3 recipes), I relaxed for a bit, waited for the guests to arrive and find out if there were any allergies I needed to be aware of.  There were no allergies and I only had to make 1 recipe's worth of dinner.  I boxed up 2 bonus dinners and served the rest.

Speaking of Sous Chef, one shortcut I can think of is for the julienned carrots.  I always make carrot sticks every week for DH to take in his lunch that he brings to work.  I used carrot sticks that I had left from Friday for the julienned carrots.  It was easy to just chop the sticks into 6 smaller pieces.  I'm sure commercial carrot sticks would work the same way, and it would save a step in your dinner prep.

Wednesday is Pastichio.  Miss M was asking me tonight what it was, but I do remember her liking this the last time I made it. This was one the whole family loved.  Again it's another labor intensive dinner, but so worth it when you have time.  It's break and so I have that kind of time now.  I also know I will really appreciate the bonus dinner on January 12th! :) 

This could be put in two different dishes and baked at the same time and one could be frozen intact for another day, reheated in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 350° making it two 6 serving dinners.  That was me when I had a fuller house.  Now I'm content to serve this to company first and then portion out bonus dinners for later.

Pastichio

1½ c. unsalted butter, divided

6 rounded T. flour

1 qt. milk, heated

2½ c. grated Parmesan, divided

9 eggs, divided

Salt & pepper to taste

1½ lb. elbow macaroni, cooked

2 large onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2½ lbs. ground beef

½ 6 oz. can tomato paste

½ c. water or tomato juice

½ t. ground cinnamon

Dash nutmeg

           Melt 1 c. butter in a large saucepan.  Add the flour and stir until golden.  Gradually add the hot milk, stirring constantly over low heat until the sauce is thick and smooth.  Stir in ½ c. of the cheese; cool.  Beat 6 eggs; stir into sauce.  Season to taste.  Melt the remaining butter in a large skillet.  Sauté the onions and garlic until golden.  Add the ground beef, stirring until the meat is browned.  Don’t pour off the fat.  Add the tomato paste, water, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper (to taste).  Stir and simmer for 20 minutes.  To the macaroni, add the remaining 3 eggs and a handful of cheese.  Butter a high sided 9 x 13 or 10 x 15 pan.  Spread with half the macaroni.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Pat the mixture down.  Add the meat, spreading to cover.   Sprinkle with more cheese.  Top with the remaining macaroni and remaining cheese.  Press down.  Spread the cream sauce on top.  Bake at 350° until firm and golden, about 1 hour.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Makes 12 servings.

Yummy meatballs and the next recipe Dopiazah for Wednesday...

Tonight we had Curried Meatballs with Rice.  We've had that for dinner as another of our "go to" recipes for a long, long time.  It was a recipe from early in our marriage.  It never disappoints.  I boxed up 3 dinners for later and we had no leftovers.  Miss M joined us and we talked about how I should sometime make the rice by itself because it's so darn good! Mmm...a hint of ginger just makes it a stand alone with other dinners.

 Wednesday is going to be Dopiazah for dinner.  Dopiazah means double the normal amount of onions.  The recipe I use comes from The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking, Octopus Books Limited, 59 Grosvenor St., London, WI., 1982.    

Dopiazah
3/4 c. ghee*
2 lbs. onions, peeled and sliced
2 t. cumin powder
1 t. fenugreek powder
1 T. turmeric powder
2 t. Garam Masala (recipe follows)
3 green chilis, chopped
1 lb. boneless lamb shoulder or leg cut into 1 inch cubes
1 1/4 c. water

Melt the ghee in a heavy pan, add the onions and fry gently until soft.  Remove half the onions from the pan and set aside.  Add the spices to the onions remaining in the pan and fry for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the chilis, then the lamb and fry until the lamb is browned on all sides.  Stir in the water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the meat is tender.  Add the reserved onions and cook a further 5 minutes until the curry is fairly dry.  Serve hot with rice.  Serves 4.

 Ghee:  Clarified butter.  Also sold in jars in the Indian section of the supermarket.  You can clarify your own butter to save money by melting over low heat and separating the milk solids from the oil.  Refrigerate the ghee and use within 3 months.  

Garam Masala
1 1/2 t. whole cardamoms
5 t. coriander seeds
1 t. cumin seeds
1 1/2 t. whole cloves
2 T. whole black peppercorns

Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods, then place on a baking sheet with the remaining ingredients.  Bake in a preheated 475 degree oven for 10 minutes, then leave to cool.  Grind to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle or food processor.  Store in an airtight container.   

Dinner went well.  Miss M joined us.  I figured I haven't made this in about 18 Christmas Eves.  That was when Miss K asked if we could eat something different since curry is so spicy.  Now we usually have Wednesday's dinner.  It's kind of ironic that I have them so close together in the meal plan.  I made Curried Rice with Golden Raisins to go with.  It was so yummy.  I packed up our dinners like normal, labeled them and they are waiting in the freezer for the 13th. 

 Friday's recipe is Turkey a la king.  This recipe almost seems like cheating because it uses soup, but sometime you just need convenience.

Chicken A La King Supreme

1 T. oil
2 ribs celery, diced
1 can cream of onion soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 soup cans milk
2 c. diced cooked chicken*
1 c. frozen peas, if desired

In a large saucepan, heat oil.  Add the celery to  the pan., cooking unitl transparent, but not brown.  Add the soups, stirring to combine with the celery.  Gradually add the milk. Stir constantly until thickened and well mixed.  Add the chicken and peas.  Heat until the meat is heated through and the peas are hot.  Serve over hot cooked rice or noodles.  Serves 6.

*Turkey also works well in this recipe.

I have also been known to swap the cream of onion soup for cream of celery soup.  If I do this, I add a diced onion to the recipe for flavor.

Tomorrow we go out with friends so our bonus dinners become lunch for Miss M and I.  :)  Yum!  Spaghetti for lunch!

December's list of recipes

So I've got the next recipe list for December put together.

14. Curried Chicken with Rice
15. Cheesy Ground Beef with Rice
16. Rogan Josh
17. Curried Meatballs with Rice
18. Dopiazah
19. Carolina Ribs
20. Curried Lime Chicken
21. Meatloaf
22. Roast Chicken
23. Singapore Noodles
24. Pastichio
25. Dusted Pork Chops

The plan is the same.  Cook Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Pack up bonus dinners for the freezer before serving dinner, label them with the serving date.  Serve dinner and have nothing to refrigerate when the meal is over.  Depending on what the meal is, I'll package it as a dinner for one or as an entree and a side dish.

Some days I end up with bones from our meat.  I freeze them and save them until I get enough to make soup stock (about 3 pounds).  I also freeze my vegetable scrapings to add to the making of the soup stock. Then I get bonus soup and stock for other recipes.  I love free meals!  Add a salad or a sandwich or just some crusty bread or crackers and voila!  Instant meal!  

This list gets us through the winter holidays which is great.  We have a two week break from school, so I'll likely clean out my freezer(s) [we actually have more than one, but I want to get it so we can just function with one chest freezer and move the extra fridge down stairs. I know, I know.]

Here's the recipe I promised: 

Swedish Meatballs

1½ lb. ground beef

½ c. grated onion

2 slices bread, crust removed broken into crumbs

1/3 c. milk

2 eggs

1 t. salt

½ t. pepper

⅛ t. nutmeg

Pinch allspice

2 T. vegetable oil

1/4 c. flour

1 c. water

            In a large bowl, combine the beef, onion, bread, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and allspice.  Form into 2 inch meatballs.  Brown the meatballs in the hot oil in a 12" skillet on all sides.  Into the juices, mix in 1/4 c. flour.  Whisk in 1 c. water to make gravy.  Bring to boil; reduce heat to simmer and simmer 5 minutes.  Add more water if the gravy gets too thick.  Serve with egg noodles.  Serves 6.

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome!  I love how this meal comes together when we have these big meals with our friends.  I also love how everyone has a buddy at the meal.  We go way back to preschool for the little one, but we've been doing Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter Dinners for so long like this I don't remember not doing them this way.  We also do the Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day barbecue thing too.  Love that as well!   The great thing about Thanksgiving turkey is  the leftovers to work with.  Historically (ok, for the past 35 years or so), DH has only eaten Thanksgiving leftovers.  Usually with Turkey Frame soup and Turkey in some other meal (like Monday's Turkey Curry).  We'll see if I can get this to go a bit further than I've gotten in years past.

Last night after dinner had been served, I cut off all the visible meat from the turkey and put it in ziploc bags in the fridge.  We had a 14 lb turkey which fed 8 people (we had 9 at dinner, but Miss L is pescatarian and had salmon).  I had 2 quart bags with enough turkey for 2 meals.  I broke up the carcass and put it in my 16 qt. stockpot.  I added a box of carrot sticks left from the week, a quartered onion and the carrot peelings from dinner prep, onion and celery trimmings from the stuffing prep that I had bagged up earlier in the day along with 1 1/2 gallons of water.  I brought it to a boil and turned the heat down to simmer and simmered it for about 4 hours.  The result was 1 1/2 gallons of the most gelatinous turkey stock I've seen in recent years.  I strained it into a smaller stock pot (8 qt.) and let the solids from the pan cool down so I would be able to pick the meat off the bones.  Again, I ended up with 2 generously full quart bags full of boiled turkey.  I took the stock out today and spooned about 4 ladles (approx 2 cups or so) into a 2 qt saucepan.  To that I added a handful of chopped turkey from the soups stock, 2/3 c. cooked rice from earlier in the week I had frozen, a rib of diced celery, 1/2 a diced small onion, a generous pinch of dried thyme, the leftover carrots from Thanksgiving (diced up), and 1/4 t. garlic salt.  The result was some yummy soup for Miss M for tomorrow's lunch.   That's my "Turkey Frame Soup" in a nutshell.  A bonus meal, plus turkey stock to use in place of the chicken broth in my Turkey Curry recipe.  Totally frugal, and totally a free meal.

Monday I'm making Turkey Curry.  This was our meal from the Turkey breast meat I'd cut off and freeze to use later.  I'm not freezing it this time since I'm using it Monday.

Turkey Curry
1 T. butter
1/2 c. diced celery
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 1/2 t. flour
4 t. curry powder
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. + 2 T. evaporated [NOT condensed] milk
3 c. cooked cubed turkey
1 red apple, cored &  diced
1/2 c. golden raisins

In a large saucepan, melt the butter.  Saute the celery, onion and garlic until soft; sprinkle with the flour, curry, ginger and salt; cook 3 minutes.  Stir in the broth and milk; bring to a boil, reduce heat.  Add turkey to the saucepan.  Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes.  Stir in apple and raisinss; cook 5 minutes.  Serve over hot cooked rice.  Serves 4-6.  

I'll post my other recipes for the week tomorrow night.  

Peach Curry Chicken Dinner and a frugal tip!

Just like I promised...another frugal tip:  The Chicken Broth in the sauce was broth I made from the bones I froze after we had Baked Curried Chicken the first time and just added the bones from Saturday.  I made the broth Saturday night.  Some was held out for this recipe in a container and the balance was used for Chicken Soup with short flat noodles.  I used up all my little bits of leftover veggies and voila!  Bonus soup!  Another free meal!

This dinner was pretty yummy!  I say feel free to bump up the curry if you want a more savory meal.  I'd go as high as double the curry and ginger.  Let me know what you think.  The chicken was wonderful the coating stayed intact and the sauce was awesome.  I always expect this to turn out to be a clearer sauce because of the cornstarch but it looks a bit more like gravy when you serve it.  This would work well with apples and apple juice and for jam you could use apple butter.  Also we decided at that table after dinner that white rice is okay but boring.  A Chicken flavored rice or yellow rice would be better.

 I boxed up peaches and sauce in one container, chicken and rice in another.  I worry that the chicken may absorb sauce and I'll end up with a sauce that wants to be pasty again.  Not having that again. This is the last cooking before Thanksgiving.  We are hosting and we typically spend it with friends.  It's great because we can divy up who provides what.  My 14 1/2 lb turkey is thawing as we speak.  I'll make my gravy mix (both veggie and brown) and pies ahead of time.  We should have enough to feed an army!  And the leftovers...I love reinventing them.  There is Turkey Curry in the works for next week!  I'll post my recipes for next week and work on the calendar for December. School is out Wednesday through Friday, so it will be a nice break!  

Tomorrow should be our 4th Bounty dinner (Keema) for dinner, but we are going out for dinner with friends.  This will make an awesome lunch!  Can't wait.  I'll not post until Wednesday likely...

Oven Fried Chicken & a bonus recipe!

The recipe I use for Oven Fried Chicken is surprisingly new and comes from the internet.  It is Easy Ranch Chicken from www.food.com.

This recipe also uses Ranch Dressing Mix.  I decided to make my own ranch dressing mix.  A canister of Buttermilk Powder will make 2 1/2 recipes.  It is not necessarily less expensive, but I know what's in it.  That recipe also comes from the internet.

It is Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix from SimplyScratch.com. As long as you have all the ingredients and a food processor, this takes no time to put together. In fact, I don't think I'll buy bottled dressing or dip very often anymore.  Note that I leave out the sugar from the original recipe.  You don't need it, the buttermilk powder has some sweetness all its own.  This is the only time in my life I've used parsley.  I know, I just talked yesterday about not using it, but the dried parsley adds something to the recipe.

I'm including both recipes, because I think the dressing mix with no preservatives is worth it.

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

1 c. Dry Buttermilk Powder

2½ T. Dried Parsley, divided

2 t. Dried Dill, divided

2½ t. Garlic Powder

1½ t. Onion Powder

1½ t. Dried Onion Flakes

2¼ t. Kosher Salt

½ t. Coarse Ground Pepper

½ t. Paprika

¼ t. Cayenne Pepper

In a small food processor or blender; measure and add in the dried buttermilk, 2 T. of the parsley, 1 t. of the dill.  Place the remaining ½ T. of the parsley and 1 t. dried dill in a small bowl and set it aside.  Measure and add in the onion powder, dried onion flakes, kosher salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne.  Turn on the processor and let it run until all the spices are blended into the buttermilk powder.  Transfer the ranch mix into a jar or container (with a tight fitting lid) and add the reserved parsley and dill.  Whisk to combine.  

3 T. of the mix is the equivalent to one packet.

Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 months or in the freezer for 6-8 months.

Now that you have your Ranch Dressing Mix, we can proceed with the Easy Ranch Chicken recipe.

Easy Ranch Chicken

4 Boneless Chicken Breasts

½ (1 oz.) package Ranch Dressing Mix (1½ T. of your mix)

1 c. Dry Breadcrumbs

2 Eggs

Salt

Pepper

Butter

Crackers (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Mix the dressing, salt & pepper to taste and dry bread crumbs in a 1 quart storage bag.  Beat 2 eggs in bowl.  Rinse and dredge chicken through the egg and then place in the bag and shake until the chicken is completely covered. Place in a buttered 13 x 9" glass baking dish. Place a pat of butter on top of chicken.  Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Note:  This works without the eggs and adding cracker crumbs makes the coating crispier. 

Frugal Tip:  Use the food processor right after making the dressing mix to make your breadcrumbs so the crumbs pick up the remaining ranch flavor.

Last night's baking for the Church dinner was almost a disaster for 2 reasons.  1.  I didn't have evaporated milk for the pumpkin pie I was making and 2. My apples were too soft for my apple peeler corer slicer.  It went of without a hitch because I found out at my recipes that I could use the milk I had on hand and just had to add cornstarch so it would be a thicker fluid and the right texture to work with my recipe. That and the apples peeled and sliced fine by hand.

At dinner, I had a slice from the pumpkin and DH had a slice from my apple pie ( I recognized the glaze and slice in the crust I made when transfering it onto the apples.).  Hubby enjoyed his as much as I enjoyed my pie.

Tonight we had the kids over for pizza from our favorite place.  I made a salad to go with dinner.  I was gathering the salad dressings and DH will only use Marie's brand Italian Garlic dressing.  It is expensive, but we buy it when it is on sale.  Which brings me to my point.  I looked at the date.  It was last month.  Hmmm, was it spoiled or still good?

Frugal Tip:  I went to Stilltasty.com and it told me that it was good for 6 months past the date!  I love Still Tasty dot com!  It's saved our budget many times!

Tomorrow I will make the Keema recipe for 4 and freeze 2 plates first from the skillet to serve on the 22nd.  We will eat the remainder in the hopes of no left overs like last week with the One Pan Chicken Curry.  That's the goal.  4 dinners total, serve 2 that night and freeze 2 for 3 weeks later.  

So far so good for us, I have room in the freezer because the meat in the meals came from the freezer.  Then I'll only need the space for the 14 dinners that will rotate out of the freezer.  I'm aiming for the bottom shelf of my freezer since there's a bit more shelf depth.  We'll see how that works.  My other thought is to use the basket in my freezer downstairs.  The problem with that is it needs to be defrosted, but I could do that if it would work better.

Dinner on Wednesday went well. We had Salisbury Steak as we planned. It flew together easily and I was able to freeze my extra dinners with lots of the gravy for Day 17. I will make more potatoes that night since Mashed Potatoes don't freeze really well. I may make them the night before when cooking our meal on Wednesday. We'll see when we get there. Miss M joined us for dinner and since there were sliced onions in the gravy, guess what was left behind on her plate? Yup, a few pieces of onion. That's my girl!

Then last night I made our dinner #3. Baked Curried Chicken. MMM Good! That is one of my favorites! I must confess, I did do something different last night. I made 2 separate batches of the seasoning sauce. I put one batch on early in the game, the second was put on the pieces after I turned them over. The result? The best I've ever made, well, except for the chicken skin sticking to the pan, but that made the seasoning get deeper into the chicken itself. I cheated a bit and used "potato boats" for our potatoes, but DH loves them, so who am I to deny him that at our meal? When I make the frozen dinner, I will make some curried rice to go with. That will be an awesome pairing! Can't wait for that one.

Frugal tip: Cutting back on the oil in this recipe not only saves calories, it saves money by saving the oil for another recipe. And it still works well, it is more of a paste that stays where you want it to!

Dinner tonight is with the kids from the team at a local restaurant here in Peoria. Our top kid is running tomorrow and his friends are here to support him. Dinner is our way of supporting him and his accomplishments. Tomorrow will be a long day. I have to bake apple pie when I get home for our church dinner on Sunday. Busy Busy weekend!

Keema for Everyone!

This is a favorite dinner of those who are currently in the nest.  Miss K finds it spicy, but I think if we just cut out the cumin and reduced the chili powder and black pepper, she'd have a change of heart.

This recipe comes from "The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking," Octopus Books Limited, London, UK, 1980.  It was one of the first cookbooks I bought when first married.  It now has the requisite splatters on the well loved recipe pages and the binding is starting to break.  It is from the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh chapter.

Keema
(Spiced Minced[Ground] Beef)

1/4 c. ghee*
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 t. turmeric powder
2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. ground coriander
1/2 t. cumin seeds
1 t. salt
1 t. ground pepper
1 lb ground beef

Melt the ghee in  a pan, add the onions and garlic and fry gently until soft.  Ad the spices and seasonings and fry for a further 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Addthe beef and fry, stirring, until browned.  Continue frying untilt he meat is cooked and the curry is dry.  Serve hot over rice.  Serves 4.

*clarified butter ~  I've used butter with no issues
Frugal Tip:  I also add peas to this as well as cubed potatoes to stretch the meal.

Salibury Steak...or Flat Meatballs?

This wasn't our first recipe for Salisbury Steak.  I had one where I added either chopped onion or dried onion to the recipe.  Sometimes I still do.  When our little one was younger, she used to call this "Flat Meatballs"!  Love to have this with egg noodles and corn.  Love it because I can feed our family this for about $5 total (without the mushrooms, of course) including the noodles and corn.

Frugal Tip:  The bread crumbs are never store bought.  I save the heels of my bread and either break them up with my hands or whirl them in the food processor. 

Salisbury Steak

1 lb. ground beef

⅓ c. dry bread crumbs

½ t. salt

¼ t. pepper

1 egg

1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings

1 can (10.5 oz.) condensed beef broth

8 oz. sliced mushrooms**

2 T. cold water mixed with 2 t. cornstarch

Mix the beef, crumbs, salt, pepper, and egg.  Shape the mixture into 4 oval patties, each about ¾” thick.  Cook the patties in a 10” skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until brown, about 10 minutes; drain.  Add the onion, broth and mushrooms.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer until the patties are done, about 10 minutes.  Remove the patties from the skillet; keep warm.  In the same pan, heat the onion mixture to boiling.  Stir the cornstarch mixture into the onion mixture.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Serve the gravy over the patties.  Serves 4.

** This would never fly at our house; fortunately, it’s great without the mushrooms!

From:  Betty Crocker 1-2-3 Dinner, General Mills, Minneapolis, MN, 2001