Breads, Christmas, Fall, Winter
Perfect Sweet Potato Biscuits
My mother was a clever cook. Before it was chic to disguise vegetables into ordinary foodstuffs for young picky eaters, Mom used a variety of techniques to surreptitiously keep us climbing the food pyramid. Equipped with her trusty blender, she whirred a veritable smorgasbord of vegetables and fruits into drinks, soups, and binders for healthy and hearty dishes. Meatloaf was truly a “mystery meat,” but one we all loved and gobbled up, and unknowingly eating “kid poison.”
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Salads, Side Dishes, Spring, Summer, Vegetables
Coleslaw with a Little Kick
As easy as coleslaw seems to put together, I’ve found literally hundreds of recipes. Some folks like their cabbage finely shredded. Others like cabbage chopped in small pieces. There are variations with green onions, vinegar and sugar dressing, fennel – the options seem endless. I absolutely love coleslaw, creamy and freshly made with celery seed and dill.
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Beef, Italian, Main Dishes, Pasta
I can’t imagine anything that appeals to all age groups more than a good bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta, the ultimate comfort food, paired with tender, garlicky meatballs, crunchy bread, and a glass of a nice red is heavenly fare. If there are any meatballs left over, it’s always good to slap them between two pieces of crunchy bread topped with sauce and some melted mozzarella cheese for a delicious sandwich. I really love good meatballs, and I love to make them. And save yourself some time by baking the meatballs, rather than frying them in batches – you’ll also have a cleaner stove top.
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Italian, Main Dishes
Final Product – sausage, vegetable and cheese
After we switched over from satellite television to cable here in the Billings, I very much enjoyed watching “Bitchin’ Kitchen,” a theme based cooking show with none other than Canadian chef and comedian Nadia G. Not to be confused with June Cleaver, Nadia saunters around her kitchen wearing sweet ruffled aprons and stiletto heels. She’s an awesome chef with an offbeat sense of humor, which I very much enjoy. Her series aired on the Cooking Channel, a different network than Food Network Television, and my cable company doesn’t carry Cooking. (In fact, the Cooking Channel has many more interesting shows than Food Network, which is running rampant with lots of repeats and one cooking challenge show after another. I’m not as big a fan as I used to be.)
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Crafts, Projects
Jessica Apron Two Fabric
I’m getting ready for a trip to Indianapolis in a couple of weeks. At Christmas, I bought my daughter, Jessica, two apron patterns, and we went out shopping for fabric. My sister found the appliance fabric, which is so adorable. Just perfect for this project. Here’s the pattern and fabric for the second apron. Needless to say, I’m a little behind schedule. I have all the pieces cut out. I’m crazy about the fabrics for this apron. It should go much quicker this time, because there’s no bib.
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Baking, Cake, Desserts, Favorites, Super Bowl
This is the best peanut butter cake I’ve ever baked. Richard loves peanut butter, so I’ve made several attempts over the years for a successful recipe. To me, there’s never been enough peanut butter flavor, but this one did not disappoint.
It’s a rich sheet cake with a yummy peanut butter frosting that you cook on the stove top in a jiffy and pour over the warm moist cake. You get plenty of creamy fudge-like frosting with each piece. The directions for this recipe are a little different for me. You boil the peanut butter, butter, and water before added to the dry ingredients. No creaming the butter and sugars. Sure makes for a nice moist cake.
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Family
L.S. Ayres Clock with the famous Cherub
When I was first married in the 1970’s, I worked during the Christmas season at an Indianapolis department store icon L.S. Ayres. For those of us who grew up in an era when downtown department stores were the rage, L.S. Ayres was the cream of the Indianapolis crop in the same league as Chicago’s Marshall Field’s and New York’s Macy’s. There are many stories shared over the years about “Breakfast with the Bunny” Easters, glorious Christmas decorations, and the fate of the L.S. Ayres Cherub, who took its proper place at the corner of Washington and Meridian Streets every Christmas shopping season perched on the landmark L.S. Ayres clock. In fact, here’s a link to a little history of the Ayres clock and cherub from Historic Indianapolis.
I had no idea where I would clerk when I applied for a part-time job at the Glendale store on North Keystone, but I was offered a position in the housewares department. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. See, I’m addicted to housewares of all kinds. I was quite happy to help customers find the perfect holiday, shower or wedding gift. And I envied the gift recipients who were going to benefit from the newest set of fabulous pans, the sharpest knives, the quirkiest gadget, shiny new flatware, beautiful coffee mugs – I was in my element.
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Chicken & Poultry, Cooking Tips
When I was raising my family, I bought whole chickens and cut them up. Happily, our family was split in half, as far as chicken meat preferences were concerned, so everyone got the pieces they wanted. Besides, whole chickens were always cheaper (remember 29¢ per pound whole chickens? ah, the good ol’ days), and I always made homemade chicken stock out of the leftover skin and bones. A very frugal and delicious use of an inexpensive protein. One thing I’ve noticed is that as America’s chicken preferences changed, many more preferring white meat, the size of the breasts of whole chickens really changed. Now, if I buy a 4-pound broiler/fryer, the white meat is about 2/3 the size of the other combined parts. Leaves pretty slim pickings for those of us who love the dark meat part of a bird.
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Family
As I wrote in March, our wedding anniversary was March 28. Guess who forgot? Yes, none other than my husband, Richard.
Before we were married and over the years, he and I have joked about our “marital contract” – the one written on the back of our marriage certificate, artfully negotiated the night before our wedding. The contract joke always came in handy, like when Richard stands in my way while I’m cooking, or when he forgets to turn off his closet light and close the door, or when he’s late to pick me up at the airport. On those not so rare occasions, I would threaten to review the contract to make substantial and punitive changes. Of course, he’s never had the opportunity to review those provisions that affect the wife’s parts of the contract, because I’m perfect in every way!
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Crafts, Projects
I worked on these afghans for Quinten and Joshua for several months. I was a bit apprehensive about giving them as gifts. After all, they’re little boys. Why should they get excited about handmade blankets from their Mimi. When I watched this video, I was overjoyed. Quinten’s remark that didn’t make it on the recording was his exclamation, “I always wanted a blue blanket!” Well, that made my heart melt. I guess the afghans weren’t such a bad idea afterall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-16gFaq6Y
After many years away from needlearts, I have found a new affection for them. My mother and grandmother taught me how to knit and crochet when I was in elementary school. They are hobbies I’ve enjoyed very much through the years. Crocheting is easy, and there are hundreds of free patterns on the web. If you don’t know how, there are also hundreds of free videos on the Internet where you can learn.
I like the ability to pick up the work whenever I’m in the need for something to do. I can crochet for one-half hour or off and on all day. I can even do needlework in the car, which I did during our 24-hour car trip from Montana to Indiana for Christmas.
The pictures I took of the two project aren’t great, but here are links to the pattern for the boys blankets.
Chevron Baby Blanket
Design Adventures
Cobblestone Afghan – Crochet
Momsloveofcrochet.com
Family
Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!
Happy 15th Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Richard! Wow! On this date in 1998, Richard and I were married at my parents home in New Chicago, Indiana. I couldn’t imagine being married anywhere else, and my mother made our wedding such a special event. She decorated the far end of her living room to look like a wedding chapel. The minister who married us was a friend of my dad’s from the U.S. Steel Mill in Gary. And my Grandma Szewczyk, who was 97 years old, was able to join, along with my sister, Carol who traveled from Pennsylvania, and my daughter, Jessica. Jessica sang Mom made us all a special lunch. She even went to the trouble of making Swedish meatballs – Richard is part Norwegian from a group who settled in North Dakota. We ordered an “atomic cake” from a small family owned bakery in Lake Station – it was yellow cake layered with fruit and whipped cream – it was a special cake our family ordered for special occasions.
Happy Anniversary, to my sweetheart. I love you so much!
Family
Spring 1983
On this day In 1982, I gave birth to the first of my two children, Jessica Marie.
She was a much anticipated granddaughter, the first after my brother and his wife had three sons. This picture was taken in the Spring of 1983, just before her first birthday. We were living in Canfield, Ohio at the time. The house we rented had a huge screened in porch, and if I had something to do, I would put Jessica in a playpen, bring my project to the porch, and she and I would play and visit. By the time this picture was taken, Jessica had already lived in three cities: Indianapolis, where she was born, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we moved just after she was six weeks old, and Canfield, which is a small town outside of Youngstown, Ohio.
I made her a birthday cake in the shape of a rabbit, and thought she would be so pleased. But, Jessica cried and wouldn’t have anything to do with her bunny birthday cake. I’m not sure why she was so bothered, but it was so funny! We celebrated her first special day in Ohio, and then went to visit my parents in Indiana for several days. The first birthday of my first child! Such a special time, and I couldn’t wait to see her pictures. But things happen . . .
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Ethnic Foods, Mexican, Snacks, Summer, Super Bowl
Avacados and Lime
The only Mexican food I knew growing up were the tacos my mother made, and they were awesome. Hers is one of those recipes the taste of which I have never been able to accurately recreate, and I helped her do everything but the frying. Mom would make hers with El Milagro corn tortillas that were shipped daily from Chicago. Mom was absolutely overjoyed when she reached into the box at our local Mexican food market and found the paper wrapped dozen to still be warm – that’s how fresh they would be. We never ate refried beans or rice or burritos or enchiladas – and Mom refused to try avocados Her story was that avocados were one of the highest calorie fruits, and her waistline could not afford to fall in love with another high calorie food. But now we know that avocados are an excellent source of monounsaturated fat, the good fat, the kind of fat that may actually help lower blood cholesterol levels. Ole!
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Family
Where he belongs – out of the kitchen and outdoors with a sandwich.
After extensive research, I have come to the conclusion that where ever you are working in the kitchen, your husband will be directly in your path.
Ten percent of the time, it may for some perfectly legitimate reason. The other 90%, what on earth made him decide to plant himself there? Directly between me and the television, so my line of sight is blocked from the IU/Michigan basketball game. Or, while I prepare dinner, he plants a blockade between the stove and the sink. “Scoot, scoot!”
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Cooking Tips
Wilton Bake-Even Cake Strips
A few months ago, I was reading a recipe from another blog, Baked Bree. It was just before my birthday, and I fell in love with her Funfetti Cake. I scrolled down through the instructions and photographs, and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the baked cakes cooling in the pans. What’s that? How did she do that??
I wasn’t the only one who took notice, and Bree let us in on her secret. She uses Wilton’s Bake-Even Cake Strips. These strips are padded strips of cloth sewn together. As you’re getting the cake ready, put the strips in a bowl and cover them with water. They should be totally submerged, and quite wet when you lift them out of the bowl.
Just before you pour the batter into the prepared pans, you remove one strip at a time, run the strip between your thumb and forefinger to remove as much water as you can, and wrap the strips around the outside of the cake pan. Fasten the strip with a T-shaped pin that’s included. Put the cake pans in the oven and bake.
Flat top chocolate layer
I bought my daughter a pair, and we used them to make my birthday cake. When I returned home to Montana, I bought myself a pair, and used them to make the Rich Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting.
The chocolate layers turned out beautifully. You can find the bake-even strips wherever Wilton cake supplied are sold. They even sell another package of four varying size strips for differently sized cakes.
Pure genius!
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