Sorry about being late- our basement apartment flooded last night. Thank goodness for good weatherstripping and a drain 3 feet inside the door. Nothing was harmed but my pant legs.
So for those nights when I really don't want to cook much of anything, or when I'm teaching kids to cook, one of my favorite meals to throw together is meatloaf. You really can't do much to ruin it. In fact, it's so easy, I never bother to measure.
Meatloaf
mixing bowl
spoon/really clean hands
casserole dish
***
roughly equal parts hamburger/ground meat and oatmeal
1 egg
4 tsp. Worchestershire sauce (I love this stuff, so I tend to add a lot).
ketchup
BBQ sauce
garlic salt
pepper
any other seasonings/sauces that smell good (I used oregano and sage last night, but I've even put jam in it. Grape or Apricot Jam work best. Dried mushrooms or onions also work well. Experiment! As long as it smells good, it will taste good. Besides, drenching the finished product in ketchup or BBQ sauce will cover any mistakes you made).
***
1. WASH YOUR HANDS! Especially if you're planning on mixing it with your fingers (fun, but I personally hate the feel of it on my bare hands). Then set the oven to 350 degrees to preheat.
2. Put the meat and the oatmeal in the bowl. Mix together until it forms one gloopy mess. (Eventually, you won't be able to tell the difference between the oatmeal and the meat).
3. Add the egg and sauces to the meat mixture and mix it in thoroughly. You don't want any spice hotspots.
4. WASH YOUR HANDS if you were mixing with your fingers. Then spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray and dump in the meatloaf. Spread it out evenly across the bottom of the dish. If you want, use the ketchup to write your initials on the meatloaf before you put it in the oven.
5. Put the meatloaf in the oven and bake for 25-45 minutes. Thicker meatloafs take more time than thin ones.
Make sure to cook up some vegetables and add some fruits to make it a complete meal. It tastes meaty, but fills you up like oatmeal. And it's made from things you normally have in your house, so it's an easy meal anytime. It's also really easy to swap out ingredients- no hamburger? Just use other ground meat. Turkey works well with rosemary, oregano, and thyme. No oatmeal, use breadcrumbs (although why you would have breadcrumbs but no oatmeal- let's just say it never happened at my house). Mix and match the spices to find the blends your family enjoys. Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Vegetable Potato Chowder
My husband wanted something filling last night, but he didn't want any more protein. So I looked through the fridge, freezer, and cupboards and came up with this tasty dish.
Vegetable Potato Chowder
1 large soup pot
stirring spoon
knife and cutting board
***
1/2 onion, chopped up into little pieces
4 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chicken broth/stock
1-2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. thyme or poultry seasoning
1-2 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
water
4 large potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces (with peels or not, the peels are where most of the fiber is)
4 large carrots, in little round slices
1 can green beans
1 cup corn (creamed, canned, or frozen)
1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes.
1/2 cup frozen peas
***
1. Wash(rinse and scrub until all the dirt comes off) and chop up the potatoes, carrots, and half an onion.
2. In the soup pot, on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until the onion turns see-through. This is called 'sweating.'
3. Add the chicken stock and the spices. Smell it, does it smell good to you?
4. Add the chopped potatoes and carrots and add just enough water to cover them. Turn up the heat until the pot starts to boil. Then turn down the heat to low. The soup should stay just barely bubbling, or simmering. Simmer the soup for about an hour, or until the potatoes are falling apart. Stir every 15 minutes.
5. When the potatoes are soft, add the green beans and corn. Slowly stir in the instant mashed potatoes- the soup will start to stick to the bottom.
6. When the soup thickens up, add the peas and turn off the heat. Keep stirring until the peas thaw. The soup is ready to eat!
This soup makes enough for 4-6 people. If you want to, you could add some ham with the potatoes and carrots, or garnish the soup bowls with bacon bits. Enjoy!
PS> It tastes even better when it's reheated. Perfect leftover. Make it on Sunday, freeze some and eat the rest a couple of days during the week.
Vegetable Potato Chowder
1 large soup pot
stirring spoon
knife and cutting board
***
1/2 onion, chopped up into little pieces
4 Tbsp. butter
1 cup chicken broth/stock
1-2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. thyme or poultry seasoning
1-2 tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
water
4 large potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces (with peels or not, the peels are where most of the fiber is)
4 large carrots, in little round slices
1 can green beans
1 cup corn (creamed, canned, or frozen)
1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes.
1/2 cup frozen peas
***
1. Wash(rinse and scrub until all the dirt comes off) and chop up the potatoes, carrots, and half an onion.
2. In the soup pot, on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until the onion turns see-through. This is called 'sweating.'
3. Add the chicken stock and the spices. Smell it, does it smell good to you?
4. Add the chopped potatoes and carrots and add just enough water to cover them. Turn up the heat until the pot starts to boil. Then turn down the heat to low. The soup should stay just barely bubbling, or simmering. Simmer the soup for about an hour, or until the potatoes are falling apart. Stir every 15 minutes.
5. When the potatoes are soft, add the green beans and corn. Slowly stir in the instant mashed potatoes- the soup will start to stick to the bottom.
6. When the soup thickens up, add the peas and turn off the heat. Keep stirring until the peas thaw. The soup is ready to eat!
This soup makes enough for 4-6 people. If you want to, you could add some ham with the potatoes and carrots, or garnish the soup bowls with bacon bits. Enjoy!
PS> It tastes even better when it's reheated. Perfect leftover. Make it on Sunday, freeze some and eat the rest a couple of days during the week.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Chicken Stir-Fry
I think I'll try posting a recipe on Tuesdays and everything else whenever I feel like it. That should help me be more regular with this blog and also help those who read it to be able to follow along.
***Quick note: While I was studying spices, I learned that this dish also closely resembles a buryani (rice dish native to the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia). I'm going to have to experiment some more...***
I must have been only 13 or so when I learned how to make this dish. My youngest brothers had food allergies (corn, soy, wheat, and milk) and most days it was easier to cook one meal that everybody could eat than to try to get two toddlers to only eat what wouldn't make them sick. In order to help my mom, I started making dinner. There's only so many meals you can make that use either rice or potatoes - and this quickly became a favorite because it was fast, relatively cheap, and didn't make very many dishes.
Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry
frying pan
wooden spoon or heavy duty spatula
pot to cook rice or noodles in
***
2 cups chicken (2 breasts or 5-6 tenderloins)
1 bag frozen vegetables or fresh vegetables cut into bite-size pieces
butter or oil
***
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2-3 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth or water or orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp. vinegar or vinaigrette salad dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
***
1. Choose either rice or noodles as your grain and start them cooking. If you're doing noodles, it will help to have someone else around to stir the stir-fry while you drain the noodles. Follow the package directions or
1. Pour 1 Tbsp of oil into the frying pan and tilt the pan around until it completely covers the bottom. Or, you could melt 2 Tbsp. butter in the pan (but it tends to burn, unlike the oil, so you have to watch the stir-fry more carefully if you use butter). 2. On medium heat, cook the chicken until it is white on the outside (you will have to flip it), but still pink in the middle. Move it to a cutting board and cut it into bite-size pieces and then wash your hands.
3. I like to mix my sauce while the chicken is cooking. In a small liquid measuring cup, mix the spices. It really doesn't matter what spices you use, this was my favorite dish for experimenting with different mixtures of spices. So long as you have something sweet (sugar or honey or juice), something acid (lemon juice, vinegar), and soy sauce- your meal will resemble a stir fry. Use your nose to tell you what goes together (although you might want to add the vinegar last as it tends to cover up all the other flavors until after the food is cooked). You could also just add the spices to the stir-fry, although then you usually end up with pockets of just one kind of spice. I like to mix all the dry spices together and then add the liquid spices.
4. Pour the sauce into the pan and stir it around with the oil already in the pan. Then add the chicken, stir it to coat and cook the chicken for 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so to make sure the sauce doesn't burn.
5. Turn the heat up to high and add the vegetables. Stir it around, there will be lots of steam as the ice melts. If you used fresh vegetables, add up to 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every 30-60 seconds.
6. Cover the stir fry and turn off the heat. Finish setting the table, invite everyone to dinner, and say prayer. After that, dish up a pile of noodles or rice and top it with the stir-fry.
So forget the mac and cheese or the ramen and make your family some tasty, vegetabley goodness. Their tastebuds and their waistlines will smile.
***Quick note: While I was studying spices, I learned that this dish also closely resembles a buryani (rice dish native to the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia). I'm going to have to experiment some more...***
I must have been only 13 or so when I learned how to make this dish. My youngest brothers had food allergies (corn, soy, wheat, and milk) and most days it was easier to cook one meal that everybody could eat than to try to get two toddlers to only eat what wouldn't make them sick. In order to help my mom, I started making dinner. There's only so many meals you can make that use either rice or potatoes - and this quickly became a favorite because it was fast, relatively cheap, and didn't make very many dishes.
Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry
frying pan
wooden spoon or heavy duty spatula
pot to cook rice or noodles in
***
2 cups chicken (2 breasts or 5-6 tenderloins)
1 bag frozen vegetables or fresh vegetables cut into bite-size pieces
butter or oil
***
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2-3 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth or water or orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp. vinegar or vinaigrette salad dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
***
1. Choose either rice or noodles as your grain and start them cooking. If you're doing noodles, it will help to have someone else around to stir the stir-fry while you drain the noodles. Follow the package directions or
1. Pour 1 Tbsp of oil into the frying pan and tilt the pan around until it completely covers the bottom. Or, you could melt 2 Tbsp. butter in the pan (but it tends to burn, unlike the oil, so you have to watch the stir-fry more carefully if you use butter). 2. On medium heat, cook the chicken until it is white on the outside (you will have to flip it), but still pink in the middle. Move it to a cutting board and cut it into bite-size pieces and then wash your hands.
3. I like to mix my sauce while the chicken is cooking. In a small liquid measuring cup, mix the spices. It really doesn't matter what spices you use, this was my favorite dish for experimenting with different mixtures of spices. So long as you have something sweet (sugar or honey or juice), something acid (lemon juice, vinegar), and soy sauce- your meal will resemble a stir fry. Use your nose to tell you what goes together (although you might want to add the vinegar last as it tends to cover up all the other flavors until after the food is cooked). You could also just add the spices to the stir-fry, although then you usually end up with pockets of just one kind of spice. I like to mix all the dry spices together and then add the liquid spices.
4. Pour the sauce into the pan and stir it around with the oil already in the pan. Then add the chicken, stir it to coat and cook the chicken for 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so to make sure the sauce doesn't burn.
5. Turn the heat up to high and add the vegetables. Stir it around, there will be lots of steam as the ice melts. If you used fresh vegetables, add up to 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring every 30-60 seconds.
6. Cover the stir fry and turn off the heat. Finish setting the table, invite everyone to dinner, and say prayer. After that, dish up a pile of noodles or rice and top it with the stir-fry.
So forget the mac and cheese or the ramen and make your family some tasty, vegetabley goodness. Their tastebuds and their waistlines will smile.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
A Tale of Two Trees
I've been thinking quite a bit about growth and how our growth relates to the trials we go through. Let me illustrate using the Tale of Two Trees.
When I was in second grade, we moved. It was scary for me, with all those new people in their designer clothes and fancy hairstyles, but I learned to thrive where I was planted. The class was just finishing up a unit about plants and had planted honey locust tree seeds. I selected a seedling from the extras my teacher had started and took it home in a little plastic cup.
While we prepared a place for it in the lawn, it became subject to the influences of the household. The cup was knocked over several times, and probably wasn't watered as much as it would have liked. The suffering of the little plant was over fairly quickly as we planted it outside, just off the center of the lawn, where it would grow to shade the house from the harsh summer sun. We had dug a ring in the lawn, and embedded bricks and a little siding around it to help prevent the grass from overwhelming the tiny tree. We planted nasturtiums to shade and protect the little plant from insects and, hopefully, the lawn mower. The place prepared, we took the seedling from its cup and planted it in the soil, exposed to the elements and seasons, but protected from much that would harm it.
The seedling grew, happily sheltered in its little bed surrounded by the protective nasturtiums, and produced a nice crown of leaves. Then the dog ate the top of the tree. I remember being really mad at the dog for eating my tree, but the tree drew from the strength of its roots and the few remaining leaves and continued to thrive. The interesting thing is that after the dog ate the top, the stem grew back as three separate but equal trunks, splitting close to the ground at first, but rising higher as the tree grew. I think this gives the tree a grace that single-trunked trees do not have.
As the tree outgrew its bed of nasturtiums, a new enemy appeared: the cats. The cats loved to use the tree's soft bark to sharpen their claws, so we put up a chicken wire fence around the soft trunk. We also hung heavy weights from the branches to spread the three trunks so that they didn't grow into each other. The tree continued to grow.
This is a tale or two trees - and so I introduce the second tree. Shortly after planting our tree, our neighbors also planted a honey locust tree. They bought theirs from the nursery already half-grown, its roots wrapped in a little ball of sacking, the trunk tall and straight, and the crown a bushy mass of leaves about 4 feet up the stem. They planted it with care, creating a small flowerbed around the base and edging it with concrete blocks. The trunk was wrapped and taut lines were set around the tree to hold it straight until its roots grew strong enough to hold the tree upright. The tree grew.
Both trees grew tall enough to shade the houses and dropped their long thin seedpods. Both fulfilled their purpose in life.
It has now been almost 18 years since that first little tree was planted, but looking at the two trees, a person immediately notices a difference. While both trees are certainly healthy, the tree that was grown from a seedling is much, much taller - broader of limb and home to quite a few birds in the spring. It shades the house and the yard while still allowing that beautiful golden green sunshine through. It has a majesty and presence that the other tree lacks.
As we go through life, we often wonder if the Master Gardener is paying attention to us. When our little pots fall over, he rights us. He prepares a place for us to live where we will be protected from the worst of the storms - but He still puts us out in the weather. He will plant nasturtiums around us, to drive away the evil forces and shade us from the harsh sun. He will surround us with a protective barrier against the encroaching weeds. We may wonder if we can survive the prunings, and our tender bark is often marred and scratched. He puts up a barrier though, that will give us time to heal and develop a strong thick bark that need not flinch under the assaults. At times we may wish that we were a nursery tree- protected from everything for the first few years, encouraged to grow as tall as we can, but think too, that the Lord knows what we can become, and will provide all that is necessary for us to become the majestic beings he knows we can become. Our roots must dive deep. Are we content with being pampered, or do we really want to reach and grow to our full potential? In all growth, it is the trials that we overcome that become the essence of our strength, so when those sore trials come upon you- think of what the Gardener has done to protect you and let the trial bring you strength as you reach your roots down to find His living water.
When I was in second grade, we moved. It was scary for me, with all those new people in their designer clothes and fancy hairstyles, but I learned to thrive where I was planted. The class was just finishing up a unit about plants and had planted honey locust tree seeds. I selected a seedling from the extras my teacher had started and took it home in a little plastic cup.
While we prepared a place for it in the lawn, it became subject to the influences of the household. The cup was knocked over several times, and probably wasn't watered as much as it would have liked. The suffering of the little plant was over fairly quickly as we planted it outside, just off the center of the lawn, where it would grow to shade the house from the harsh summer sun. We had dug a ring in the lawn, and embedded bricks and a little siding around it to help prevent the grass from overwhelming the tiny tree. We planted nasturtiums to shade and protect the little plant from insects and, hopefully, the lawn mower. The place prepared, we took the seedling from its cup and planted it in the soil, exposed to the elements and seasons, but protected from much that would harm it.
The seedling grew, happily sheltered in its little bed surrounded by the protective nasturtiums, and produced a nice crown of leaves. Then the dog ate the top of the tree. I remember being really mad at the dog for eating my tree, but the tree drew from the strength of its roots and the few remaining leaves and continued to thrive. The interesting thing is that after the dog ate the top, the stem grew back as three separate but equal trunks, splitting close to the ground at first, but rising higher as the tree grew. I think this gives the tree a grace that single-trunked trees do not have.
As the tree outgrew its bed of nasturtiums, a new enemy appeared: the cats. The cats loved to use the tree's soft bark to sharpen their claws, so we put up a chicken wire fence around the soft trunk. We also hung heavy weights from the branches to spread the three trunks so that they didn't grow into each other. The tree continued to grow.
This is a tale or two trees - and so I introduce the second tree. Shortly after planting our tree, our neighbors also planted a honey locust tree. They bought theirs from the nursery already half-grown, its roots wrapped in a little ball of sacking, the trunk tall and straight, and the crown a bushy mass of leaves about 4 feet up the stem. They planted it with care, creating a small flowerbed around the base and edging it with concrete blocks. The trunk was wrapped and taut lines were set around the tree to hold it straight until its roots grew strong enough to hold the tree upright. The tree grew.
Both trees grew tall enough to shade the houses and dropped their long thin seedpods. Both fulfilled their purpose in life.
It has now been almost 18 years since that first little tree was planted, but looking at the two trees, a person immediately notices a difference. While both trees are certainly healthy, the tree that was grown from a seedling is much, much taller - broader of limb and home to quite a few birds in the spring. It shades the house and the yard while still allowing that beautiful golden green sunshine through. It has a majesty and presence that the other tree lacks.
As we go through life, we often wonder if the Master Gardener is paying attention to us. When our little pots fall over, he rights us. He prepares a place for us to live where we will be protected from the worst of the storms - but He still puts us out in the weather. He will plant nasturtiums around us, to drive away the evil forces and shade us from the harsh sun. He will surround us with a protective barrier against the encroaching weeds. We may wonder if we can survive the prunings, and our tender bark is often marred and scratched. He puts up a barrier though, that will give us time to heal and develop a strong thick bark that need not flinch under the assaults. At times we may wish that we were a nursery tree- protected from everything for the first few years, encouraged to grow as tall as we can, but think too, that the Lord knows what we can become, and will provide all that is necessary for us to become the majestic beings he knows we can become. Our roots must dive deep. Are we content with being pampered, or do we really want to reach and grow to our full potential? In all growth, it is the trials that we overcome that become the essence of our strength, so when those sore trials come upon you- think of what the Gardener has done to protect you and let the trial bring you strength as you reach your roots down to find His living water.
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