day 7..... oh those mashed potatoes

Lots of people have a certain food that they love. A favorite that when they make it, everyone loves it. We have a lot of those around here. Let's face it, with this many people in the house, there are a LOT of favorites. But a constant favorite are these mashed potatoes. These are Mashed New Potatoes with Garlic and Sour Cream. They are incredible. Most of my kids will swear that this is the food of the Gods. My 17 year old is going to come home from work tonight hungry as she always does, and she will eat these over ice cream. For the rest of the meal we had slow cooked roast beef and some french style green beans on the side, but seriously... it was all about the taters. Will post recipe tomorrow.

day 6..... Spiral Spaghetti with Pepperoni

yummy. I am tired. might add more later tonight. have to look for a remote. still no remote, will post the recipe tomorrow.


We aren't back on our full schedule for menus yet, but we are slowly trying to get them filled in. Basically, we had a very busy day with some evening company, I needed something quick, yummy, and filling. They all thought they were starving. They were not.

day 5..... Pork Tenderloin and Lipton Onion Fried Rice

Ok... tonight we had it easy. The pork tenderoin was slow cooked yesterday for several hours in the dutch oven. It marinated for several hours before that. On the side we had fried rice. Tonight I used brown instant rice to add some extra fiber. You could use white as well. The only reason we didn't have the pork yesterday is that it wasn't quite ready when we were for supper. I think my husband is enjoying seeing his supper on here. Recipe follows, enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups oil
1/4 cup soy sauce (make sure it is gluten free)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
3 pound tenderloin
1-2 cups chicken broth

Mix all ingredients except the pork and chicken broth in a gallon size freezer bag. Place pork inside mixing around to coat it good all over. You may want to set it in a plastic container in case of drips before you stick it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. 
Heat dutch oven to medium heat. Place meat in pan, searing to your preference on both sides. Add 1/2 cup of marinade to the pan. Add 1-2 cups of chicken broth. Cover and simmer on low for 3-4 hours until pork is fork tender. Check every so often to make sure liquid isn't cooking dry. Remove to plate and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice to desired thickness and serve with choice of sides. We chose fried rice. It was a favorite growing up.  Recipe follows:

Lipton Onion Fried Rice

2 T. oil
2 cups instant brown rice (white rice may be substituted)
4 cups water
1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 T. soy sauce and some extra for later

Heat oil to medium heat in a large skillet. Add rice, stirring to coat with the oil. If using white rice, you need to stir and cook a little while to give it a light brown color. Stir in water and soup mix. Bring to a soft boil. Cover and reduce heat to keep at a simmer until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir this every now and then. When rice is how you want it, crank the heat back up to medium, make a well in the middle of the rice, and pour in the eggs. Keep stirring it every few minutes incorporating more of the rice until the eggs are scrambled and scattered throughout the rice. Once the eggs are finished, add about a scant tablespoon of soy sauce and stir. Serve on the side with your favorite meat, or have it as a lunch. This stuff is delicious. I always add a little more soy sauce to my plate as I love the stuff, but it is up to you. Adjust in the recipe as needed for your family. Enjoy!

day 4..... Blackberry Apple Crumble

Today's dessert was a luscious Blackberry Apple Crumble. It has moist apples, juice berries, surrounded with a crumbly cake-like filler. We served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce. It was a huge hit, with the 4 year old asking for more, several of them licking their plates, and a certain someone asking to have the portion saved back for 2 of the teenagers. I will definitely make this one again soon. The recipe follows:

Ingredients:
6 apples, any sweet variety
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. water
1 cup blackberries
1 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend (I used 1/2 cup each of rice & corn starch and 1/4 cup tapioca starch)
6 T. chilled butter or margarine cut in small pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a pie plate with non-stick cooking spray. Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until apples are tender. Pour apple mixture into prepared pie plate. Sprinkle blackberries over the apple mixture.

In a blender, combine flour and butter until it resembles a course cornmeal. Add sugar and cinnamon and pulse until blended. Sprinkle flour mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbly. Immediately turn on broiler, watching very closely, until lightly browned to your liking. It should only take about 1 minute.

Serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel topping sauce.

day 3.... I make real food too

Today was a busy day. It had been set aside for freezer inventories, among other things. That entails completely emptying both deep freezers and the downstairs fridge freezer, hauling it all upstairs, as the freezers are in the basement, and sorting and making a complete list with quantities. As a result, we found 37 pounds of missing turkey burger, that I knew was there someplace, and decided to cook some of it up into a delicious batch of chili in the cast iron dutch oven. We topped that with some shredded cheese blend and had tortilla chips on the side. Well, I think most of the little ones had some chips for supper with a bit of chili on the side, but oh well. Made a nice size portion, and with 2 of the teenagers gone for the evening, there is plenty left. Might make up some chili-mac tomorrow for lunch, but we'll see. Now I am going to go look through the new cooking magazines and see what I can find to convert into a gluten free recipe. There is some seriously yummy looking stuff in there.

Day 2..... chocolate chip bliss

There are not many things better than a warm, gooey, fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookie... except maybe a dessert made from those same cookies. Today we had both. We had fresh baked cookies and cold milk for dessert after lunch. The weather was nice enough, we put the top down on my car and took a bag of them to my husband at work. Needless to say, we took the long way home. Then after supper, we turned out a cup of Schwan's Chocolate Fudge Sundae Ice Cream Cups, put a cookie with it, and topped it with whipped cream. It is a toss up as to which one was better. We couldn't pick one... could you?

Day 1..... raspberry peach crisp with vanilla ice cream

So when my husband went to the store on Sunday to get newspapers, he took the 6 year old princess with him. And she likes to shop. And she loves fruit. He brought home a bit more than he went for. Among the treasures was a lovely little box of beautiful raspberries. After much deliberation, we chose this crisp. It was simple to make, but not simple in taste. The 17 year old daughter scalded the peaches in boiling water to peel them while I took out the pits and sliced them. We mixed in the fresh raspberries and the wait was on for it to bake. To make it even more fun and pleasing to look at, we baked it in one of my large cast iron skillets. We had cut into before I had a chance to take a picture, so this is what was left. Will post the recipe tomorrow.