Scrapple and Eggs and Whole Grain Toast! Pure Deliciousness!

Whole grain toast, scrambled eggs and pan-fried scrapple

Before I go much further, let me explain scrapple. According to Google, it is a noun. It consists of scraps of pork or other meat stewed with cornmeal and shaped into loaves for slicing and frying. From Dictionary.com we find: cornmeal mush mixed with pork scraps, seasoned with onions, spices, herbs, etc., and shaped into loaves and sliced for frying. But, according to me, it is just plain delicious!!

Basically, scrapple originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch as a way to use up all the meat from a slaughtered hog that wasn't being used some other way. It would all be cooked down with spices (mostly sage, thyme and pepper) and cornmeal into a mush. That would be poured into pans and allowed to cool. Once cooled, it would be cut into blocks which were then sliced and pan fried for breakfast (usually). I grew up on it and I love it. 

The eggs are simply eggs. The only way I will eat them is scrambled or some derivative of scrambled (omelets, quiches, etc). I mix mine with milk so that their texture is somewhat custard-y.

The toast is a recent purchase from my first ever visit to a Trader Joe's supermarket. I've heard so much about them, but I am never close to one. So, when my friend decided to stop there to look for a particular item, I went in, too, since I knew I needed bread and milk. I found this wonderful loaf of sliced artisan bread just chock full of whole grains. It has made the most wonderful toast!! I eat it toasted with chunky peanut butter or just buttered as I did with this meal. It is just so good, I want to go back and get more!!

Now, back to scrapple, according to Wikipedia, scrapple bears similarities to white pudding and hog's pudding of England. Now I know I won't eat black pudding (blood pudding) because they do incorporate the blood into it, but if I'm ever in the UK again, I might just try either of those other two just to see how they compare.

Originally published on my Bubblews account.

Peppers, Onions and Eggs for Dinner

Veggies atop the chicken at the restaurant.

Over this past weekend, my friend Tom and I went to a local Mexican restaurant we hadn't been to in a while. I decided to try something I'd never tried before and went with the Pollo Salvadoreno - Grilled Chicken El Salvador style. I had imagined that the veggies would be cooked down more than they were, but they were still mostly crispy. If you've ever had fajitas, you know what they looked like, but they were cooked LESS than that. I was disappointed, but still ate the chicken, which was delicious. The veggies smelled fantastic, so I brought them home along with the leftover rice, beans, chips and salsa. 

I decided on Thursday that I was going to use those peppers and onions. Perfectly good food that deserved being eaten, even if it was in a different way than originally served. But, I didn't want to thaw out any meat. I wanted something fast and easy. 

Peppers and eggs are very popular in our area, especially where there are a lot of Italians. I'm sorry to say that I refused to ever try them until after my mother passed away five years ago. She would have been thrilled to see me eat them. I discovered I liked them quite a bit. Yes, these peppers came with onions, too, but they were sweet onions, which I'll eat cooked. I don't like onions that have a sharp bite to them and I'll never ever eat an onion raw. So, I tossed the

Shortly after pouring the eggs in the pan.

Salvadoreno vegetables in the pan with some olive oil and began to pan grill them to where I like eating them. While that was happening, I got out seven eggs and put them in a bowl with some milk and scrambled them. 

Once the veggies were cooked (some might call these burnt - I prefer "blackened"), I poured the scrambled eggs over them and began cooking everything together. I took two pictures of the eggs - one while they were setting up and one after I'd stirred them and they were done. There is also a photo from the restaurant showing the veggies as they were before I decided to cook them again. 

After stirring with a wooden spoon until they were just set.

Add two slices of some fantastic artisan whole grain bread from Trader Joe's, toasted and buttered, and I can't deny that I had a pleasurable meal. 

Have you ever brought leftovers home and turned them into something else?

Originally published to my Bubblews account.

Paula Deen fired by Food Network over use of N-word

Well, my first post in a while is about a very current event. If you're a fellow foodie, you'll have an opinion on this one, too. I first posted this on Bubblews.com.

I haven't been able to watch Food Network for a while since we no longer have cable, but it saddens me that this controversy has cost her her job. The use of that word is always wrong, but the events in question, the times when she admits to having used it, took place years ago. If you watch Paula on any of her shows - or on any other show, for that matter - you will see a woman who just loves everyone.

I do not believe for one moment that Paula Deen is a bigot. However, I do believe that the culture in which she grew up WAS - segregation, Jim Crow, whites-only everything. That she has come out of all that as accepting as she is says a lot about her. She's raised her sons to accept everyone. But, that doesn't change the fact that there was a time in her life when the use of that particularly ill-suited word was commonplace. Whether the user meant it in a hateful way or a benign way, it was part of the common vernacular.

Paula Deen brought herself up from poverty to be who she is today. There is no one who can not respect that. So what if she developed Type-II Diabetes because her diet wasn't the best. She's sure as hell not the only Southerner this is happening to. And, who better to represent to those same people how all those sweets and carb-laden foods can affect your health than the queen of butter cooking herself?? I'm not speaking tongue-in-cheek, either. She is an icon, an idol to many and a peer to an entire section of this country. She is a good example for them to observe and learn from.

Now, with regard to her firing....I remember when Food Network also fired Chef Robert Irvine for lying on his resume. It turned out that he had exaggerated the roles he'd played in the jobs he'd listed. However, the man is a brilliant chef AND he has a large following. Although he did deserve to be fired, Food Network brought him back a year later. He'd had his punishment and now he could again do what he did best - accomplish the seemingly impossible.

Therefore, it is my hope that the same will hold true for Paula. I hope that her followers are strong and vocal enough that they convince Food Network to bring Paula back. She is an asset to the network, even if this situation is less than optimal. She knows she screwed up. You can see it in her face in the video she posted to YouTube about this. In fact, she looks so downtrodden, I wouldn't be surprised to hear of new health concerns brought on by this stressful situation. I know that some will say "she deserves it" and they may be right. Whether she deserved to be fired, I'm not sure, since her actions were done long ago and were not done against her employer as Chef Irvine's were. Regardless, a punishment has been meted and she will deal with it. But, I still think that they should consider bringing her back after everything cools off. She's good at what she does, as was Chef Irvine. She makes clear that she is NOT a chef, but is a cook. All of her coworkers love her. I would love to see this all work out for her.

How do you all feel about this?

First video - deleted by Paula. Can be seen here: www.mediaite.com/online/paula-deen-releases-video-statement-addressing-use-of-n-word-plantation-costumes/
Second video - www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&;v=nu6Us7fpr00
Third video - www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&;v=9L9LOfVlNxc

Check out Paula's Facebook Page and see what her supporters, many of them black women, are saying about and to her. 

Originally published on my Bubblews account.

Alyan's Restaurant - Big Middle Eastern Tastes in a Small Affordable Package

Tonight I was treated to dinner at Alyan's Middle Eastern Restaurant located at 603 South 6th St. (literally just off the famous South Street in Philadelphia). They are a very small venue, but the flavors they offer are HUGE! I have been there before and have always chosen the mixed grill, whether it be the sandwich or the platter. The sandwich is a good buy since it offers as much meat as the platter, but for $5 less. Perhaps I should say it DID offer as much since that may have changed. The one thing I noticed tonight was that there wasn't as much meat on the platter as there had been the last time. Admittedly, they had run out of beef and I opted out of the Kefta, but they said they'd give me more chicken and lamb to make up for it. Maybe they didn't. I just don't know. Despite that, what I had was spectacularly delicious, as it always is. 

Now, I'm no fan of hummus and that was a full 1/3 of my platter. But, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. I broke my pita in half and put the salad, some hummus and pieces of the meat into my pita and ate it as a sandwich. I've had hummus in the past and it was so heavy with garlic that I simply couldn't enjoy it. Garlic lovers may not have issue with it, but it just doesn't please my palate one bit. Tonight, though, the hummus was delicious. Yes, I could taste the garlic, but it was far more low key than I've seen previously. I do like chickpeas, so the hummus and I got along just fine with a sprinkling of salt on top.

For the first time, we ordered a pitcher of mint iced tea. It was superb! Not too minty, yet the mint was there. We had a choice of sweeteners - simple syrup with vanilla bean pods soaking it it, In The Raw sugar packets or Sweet-n-Low. My dining companion chose the former and I chose the latter. I'd never seen a simple syrup offered as an option before. I was impressed.

We ordered extra pitas so that we could finish what was on our plates and then we were done. The entire meal for the two of us was $32 and change. It's a great way for someone unfamiliar with the cuisine to begin. Who doesn't like grilled meat??

Super Easy Crockpot Roast Beef

I live for simple cooking. If the ingredient list requires me to scroll, it’s a good bet I won’t be making that particular thing. That’s just how I am. But, if I can find a way to make something taste like I did a lot of work with little effort, you can bet it’s going to be on my must make list. This is one of those recipes.

Out of habit I buy, when I have the money and it’s on sale, bottom round roasts. That’s what Mom bought and I prefer them to chuck roasts just because I hate dealing with all that fat. The roasts that I buy range anywhere from 2.5 to 3.25 lbs (there’s only two of us), so it fits well in my 3 qt. crockpot.

I then either put a package of onion soup over the meat (without searing it) or put peeled potatoes and carrots in first with the meat on top followed by the onion soup mix. I have also used Campbell’s condensed onion soup (NOT cream of onion) with excellent results. I then add a half to a full cup of water and let it cook on low all day.

The meat comes out, usually, tender, moist and full of flavor. You can strain the onion bits if you want or leave them in the broth for onion gravy. You can also add some more water (I usually end up with 2 cups of gravy) and then use a flour/water slurry to thicken it. If you remove the meat and vegetables right away, the broth will still be hot enough to thicken in the crockpot.

French Onion Pot Roast - similar to mine

I don’t add any other seasonings because of all the seasonings in the soup mix or can of soup, although they’re not as concentrated in the can as they are in the dry mix. You can also buy low sodium onion soup mix if you want to reduce the amount of sodium.

I use bottom round roast, but one time I used a California roast (very much like a chuck roast) and it just fell apart so wonderfully. Perfect for roast beef sandwiches!!

The potatoes and the carrots are tender and flavored from the soup mix and the resulting gravy is flavored by the potatoes and the carrots. You can eat the potatoes with butter like baked potatoes or mash them on your plate to use with the gravy. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned!


The photo is not my roast, but is made the same way I make mine and looks very much like mine. The photo is also a link to the recipe it goes with.

Ham and Eggs (and Pintos, too)

Top to bottom: pan fried ham, scrambled eggs, pinto beans.

Holy cow, I've enjoyed my meals since cooking that ham and those beans. But, I think my favorite of all was when I used the ham for breakfast and fried it nice and brown along with eggs nicely scrambled and some of those wonderful pinto beans.

I know this photo isn't the prettiest. Our plates aren't made to display our meals and there was more juice in the beans than I'd meant there to be, so what you see surrounding the eggs is that juice that ran across the plate. (My daughter bought all of our plates at Dollar Tree because she liked the colors and how sturdy they are. My set of white plates is unused in storage.)

Well, I enjoyed this breakfast so much that I just had it again for supper (or dinner, depending on where you live). The slices of ham were nicely crisped, the eggs had picked up the ham drippings (this time I cooked them AFTER the ham) and the beans were as good as they were the first time. I didn't even have bread or a tortilla with this. It was satisfying just as it was.

I wish my daughter would eat ham (not counting deli ham which she will eat). I could have it more often. But, by the same token, I can have more of it since she doesn't like it. 

Now, I'm wondering, and maybe someone reading this could advise me, about making ham gravy. I'm not talking about redeye gravy or the milk gravy you make from the ham drippings (love it!!), but ham gravy in the sense of sausage gravy or dried beef gravy. These slices are too thick to really do it justice like dried beef could, but there's so much flavor in this ham, I was wondering if I could grind some of the ham up (one time through the grinder) and then sizzle the ground ham until it begins to get color before adding my fat, flour and milk. Do you think that would work? I'm really craving a milk gravy with that kind of salty kick that sausage or dried beef would give it. I'll take any suggestions!

Oh, and even after eating beans for four meals, I still had enough left to freeze two pints of them. Well, they're not frozen yet, but they will be once the containers cool off. Good for making chili or burritos.

Spiral Ham and Pinto Beans

Mine are like these, but I won't add seasoning until they're cooked.

My daughter was given a spiral ham for Christmas by her new employer. We never baked it because she's not fan of ham. I decided I wanted ham yesterday. I REALLY wanted ham. I could just taste it I wanted it so bad. But, I wanted to do it in my crock pot instead of in the oven. I found instructions online on how long to cook the ham, but I ran into a problem. The ham was too big for the crock pot. Apparently, the one used in the instruction was oval. Mine is round. 

So, I took the crock out since it already had the ham in it and stuck it in the 250 oven and baked it for just over 50 minutes per the regular instructions. It was perfect! It came with a brown sugar glaze, but I didn't put that on it. Instead I made it as a side sauce and used it to dip my ham in.

Today, I cut off the remaining slices of ham from the bone and froze the large end piece of ham. The slices are packed separately and are in the fridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner options (for a day or two - after that, I'll freeze them, too.)

Then this evening, I took the crock that had the ham in it and added a pound of pinto beans to it along with sufficient water for cooking. I am going to have myself some pinto beans flavored with the ham drippings from that Christmas ham. I am looking forward to it.

Right now, I'm thinking of breakfast - scrambled eggs, crisped up slices of ham and a side of beans with a flour tortilla. I don't have any potatoes, but that's OK. I'm better off with the lower carb option. Still, I'm looking forward to my breakfast in the morning. 

Pan-Seared Steak - It's What's For Dinner

Image from AmericasTestKitchen.com.

Last night, I cooked the first steak I've cooked in over a year last night and it was DELICIOUS!! I guess I'll be needing to pick up a small bottle of red wine just for steaks. Here's why...

I seasoned the steak with steak seasoning (lightly) on both sides and seared it. It was a thin steak, so it didn't need lengthy cooking. I cooked it long enough to caramelize/sear the steak on the one side. When I took it out of the pan, there were loads of tasty bits in there, so I poured a tiny bit of red wine in and one of those Chinese restaurant packets of soy sauce as well to de-glaze the pan and create a sauce. It was just a quick thing - no reduction or anything like that - maybe a full tablespoon of sauce when I was done. But, OMG - that sure did taste good!! The steak, though small, was perfectly flavored (for me). 

The image that I found to use looks very much like my steak last night, although I didn't drink the red wine - I cooked with it. No potatoes with mine, but this is actually a pretty good likeness of what I had to eat.

I don't know why it took me so long to be able to try these kinds of things, but I honestly think it's because of Food Network that I even know about the concepts of de-glazing and the use of wine to make a sauce. My mother's cooking was "farm" cooking. Very basic, stick to your ribs but delicious, foods to fill the belly and taste good, too, were her specialties. I was never really that good at it, but my cooking generally was based on what I grew up on. 

Then, when we got cable, I discovered the Food Network and a whole new world of cooking opened up to me. I still didn't particularly like doing it, but I found myself learning more than I'd ever learned before. If it sounded good to me, I would make a mental note and try it at some point. So, there are still a few techniques that I know about that I haven't tried yet. Until last night, using wine to de-glaze a pan was one of them.

I've never cooked steaks well. They were always overcooked and tasteless. I ran the risk of overcooking this one, too, because it was pretty thin. But, after searing the one side, I barely left it in the pan on the other side so as to not overcook it. I succeeded in cooking a tasty, not dried-out, steak with a sauce that didn't need barbecue sauce to taste good. I was proud of the results. Not restaurant quality, maybe, but definitely worthy of a second go-round in the near future. 

So, thank you, Food Network. My kids may refer to you as "food porn", but you've really helped me think about the cooking of food in an entirely different way even as I stay true to my culinary roots.

Impossible Tomato Broccoli Pie - finally!

Well, I finally got the Impossible Pie made! It looks great, doesn't it? See the tomato slices peeking out of the top in the first picture? The only thing I would change is to chop up the tomato slices and drain them better because the overall pie was a bit wetter than it should have been. I'm assuming because of the water in the tomatoes. I also might be able to compensate for that liquid with a little more self-rising flour.

I tried leeching the tomato slices by salting them in a colander, but they didn't really drain. I also added diced onions and some broccoli florets. I put some onion powder in the batter along with some parsley flakes. I still wanted some salt on my own serving because it was a little flat, but I'd rather under spice than over spice. 

I also might lean towards Italian seasoning next time maybe with some pepperoni added on top. The cheese was just enough for this recipe. I'd also rather use a sweeter onion next time than the strongly flavored and fragrant one Deb bought that I had diced and frozen. Even cooked, it's not my favorite flavor.

I didn't pre-cook the broccoli and it turned out good. Because the pieces were small, they cooked all the way through. But, I would definitely want to dice up the tomatoes next time. These tomatoes were pretty fibrous, so they were on the tough side as far as being able to cut through them with my fork. They were plenty cooked, but near the center, they held fast and didn't want to break down completely. Not sure what kind of tomatoes these were, but that might have played a role in it. Maybe next time I'll use the Tommies Snack Tomatoes instead.

So, here's what I did to make this. 

3 medium tomatoes, sliced after coring

3/4-1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup shredded cheese (I used Colby/Jack)

diced onion to taste (I had about 1/4 cup)

3/4 cup self-rising flour

3 eggs

1 3/4 cups milk (I used reconstituted powdered milk)

Any other seasonings you are inclined to add - I used onion powder, parsley flakes, fresh ground pepper and a bit of salt.

Spray a 9" casserole dish with PAM (or equivalent). Prepare the veggies if they aren't already. Layer the tomatoes and broccoli (you can use zucchini or other veggies, too). You can also add a bit of Parmesan cheese here as well. Spread the shredded cheese over the vegetables. Mix up your batter with the flour, eggs and milk. Add seasonings if you want. Pour the batter over the cheese and veggies without stirring, other than to make sure they're covered. Place in a 400° F oven and cook for between 35 & 40 minutes. I took mine out after 35 minutes and allowed it to sit. It was nicely browned, but I wonder what five more minutes might have done for the excess liquid.

So, I hope you try this and maybe even experiment a little. This method of casserole making has just so much flexibility!

Breakfast/Dinner - French Toast/Tomato-Broccoli Impossible Pie

French Toast (wheat) with Pumpkin Pie Spice

As I begin writing here, I haven't started making the tomato-broccoli impossible pie. I was going to wash dishes first, but found that the dish washer isn't draining properly, so I'm working on that to see if I can fix it. I really don't want to have to call the landlord if I can avoid it.

Anyway, I made myself some French Toast this morning and it was wonderful. I probably should keep it in the pan just a little longer so that the toast solidifies a bit more in the middle, but I surely did enjoy it. I sprinkled some Pumpkin Pie spice into the egg-milk mixture and it was a much nicer flavoring than when I try using cinnamon. Not sure why - maybe it just mixes better.

Anyway, the photo isn't the prettiest one, but I love how brown it got (not burned) rather than looking overly "anemic" as I've had in the past. I didn't drown it in syrup, so it wasn't too too sweet, either. It was just the right amount of sweet combined with salty. Neither one dominated.

Now I hope to be able to make the tomato-broccoli pie. I've seen recipes for zucchini-tomato impossible pie and I've seen recipes for broccoli impossible pie, so I think I'll just swap out the zucchini for the broccoli. I know the photos I've seen of the various tomato pies look fantastic, so I am looking forward to trying this recipe out - hopefully tonight. I'll be using instructions for self-rising flour rather than Bisquick because that's what I have on hand. I'll finish this post when everything is done.

Well, tomato-broccoli pie didn't happen. I made the mistake of telling my daughter my plans and she expressed her disgust at the entire concept, so I guess I'm going to have to let the end results speak for themselves. I'll have to get it done while she's working tomorrow. I'll be sure to post whatever it is I do. I shredded the cheese already for it, so you'll hear about it when it happens.

Oh, and I seem to have fixed the dishwasher problem by using a vinegar soak and wash to clean it before I tried anything else. Thanks God!!

Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls by Flour Me With Love

Flour Me With Love: Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls

I wish I could tell you I made this and how outstanding they are, but I haven't and I can't. I can only say that they look fabulously outstanding!! 

I'm not into sweets all that much. Haven't been since around 5th grade or so. But, there are times when something like this just screams at me so loudly that it's almost impossible to ignore. I am fortunate that I cannot currently afford to go buy the ingredients for this because, as a diabetic, it's probably not the wisest food choice for me to make. But, I do love cinnamon and I do love cream cheese and I do love doughy treats and this is all that and more!!!

I would recommend heading on over to this web site and checking out this really quite easy recipe (the filling is the only thing you actually need to make yourself) and get to work trying this for yourself!!

Meanwhile, I need to figure out what I'm going to make for supper and get some dishes washed. I hope you enjoy eating this as much as I am enjoying dreaming about it! LOL

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

This is the recipe I used. Mine didn't brown as nicely.

Well, I did it. I tried a recipe I'd seen a while back but just hadn't gotten around to trying yet. I grew up on my mother's chicken potpie, which is very similar to chicken and dumplings down south except that the chicken is kept separate from the rolled and cut dumplings in the broth. Mom's was downright the best there was and she never made just a little. Her recipe called for SEVEN cups of flour. Yeah - really. And, there were only three of us.

Needless to say, for me it was a daunting task to even consider making her recipe because she'd never made  small batches and I wasn't that good at making the dough. So, she would periodically make drop dumplings in her later years, which she liked almost as much, but I wasn't so thrilled with.

Then I discovered I could make potpie (our kind) using flour tortillas. After all, aren't tortillas just flour dough already rolled and flat? All I had to do was cut them into strips and drop them into the broth to cook. Mom loved it and told everyone they should try it themselves.

So, Mom's gone now and I do once in a while make up a batch of tortilla potpie for myself. My daughter's not quite so fond of the tortilla kind, so I only make enough for me. But, I saw this recipe a while back and kept it in the back of my mind as a potential option for the future. It is called Chicken and Dumpling Casserole.

The original recipe I saw required Bisquick, something I never have on hand. But, just yesterday I found a recipe that called for self-rising flour instead of Bisquick. I knew I had to try it because I had self-rising flour on hand that was never being used except as a gravy thickener. The only thing I didn't have was cream of chicken soup. I did have cream of celery, though. I decided the time had come.

Tonight, I made Chicken and Dumpling Casserole and I am so glad I did. I wish Mom were here because I just know she'd like it, too. As with the pork chops yesterday, I was a little heavy handed with the spice. I used just a bit too much poultry seasoning, but I can cut back the next time. And, I might put a little more liquid in next time, too. But, those two things aside, I was very happy with the results. 

One of the reasons I don't like drop dumplings is because of the dry dumpling in the center. I like the rolled dumplings because they absorb the broth all the way through. Well, this recipe pretty much takes care of that problem. It works much like the Bisquick Impossible Pies where the batter cooks in the broth and puffs up creating a "dough"; in this case, the "dumplings". Because it is poured in as a thick batter, it doesn't really have a substantial thickness to it that allows it to stay dry as it cooks, so it creates a very moist dumpling-like biscuit topping to the base of chicken and chicken broth. 

The recipe calls for ready-made stock, but since I was cooking chicken just for this recipe, I used the stock that I created with that. And, I used that cream of celery soup knowing that there was plenty of chicken flavor in the broth and in the granulated chicken stock it also listed in the ingredients. I really don't think there was much of a difference between the two soups at all that I could claim to recognize. The only thing is that you really don't need to put any salt on the chicken because there's plenty of salt in the stock, in the butter (I don't have unsalted butter) and in the soup. You can always add some if you want when you eat it.

The only thing missing was cranberry sauce - an accompaniment I have always loved with chicken potpie or turkey dinner. I didn't even have any apple sauce, which is an acceptable alternative for me. Quite frankly, there are worse things to be missing. Like dinner.

Pork Chops and Green Beans

Imagine a dish like this combined with pork chops!

Years back, when I was still married, I used to buy pork steaks instead of pork chops because they were cheaper and meatier than pork chops. My husband was a lover of pork chops and didn't seem to mind (or notice) the difference. They look very much the same.

One of the ways I would cook the chops would be to score them, pan fry them and then pour stewed tomatoes over them in the pan to finish cooking. I wasn't the best cook, but he seemed to like them and ate them without complaint.

Another dish we would eat (and I still do) was cooking hamburger and adding green beans and tomato sauce. We would serve that with fried potatoes and everyone enjoyed this meal.

Since moving back to New Jersey, I've enjoyed green beans served with marinara sauce in restaurants. I don't like them with garlic, but if they have marinara, I'll order them.

So, this leads me to today's meal choice. I was actually looking for hamburger patties I was sure I had in the freezer when I saw a pack of bone-in pork chops I had frozen in November. Nice ones, very meaty. I took them out and thought the pint of green beans I'd frozen would be a perfect accompaniment. Except, I decided to take it just a bit further. I added a can of diced tomatoes and a sprinkling of diced onions I also had frozen recently.

First, I placed the green beans in the bottom of the baking dish. Then I laid the pork chops on top, sprinkled the onions over them and poured in the diced tomatoes. I topped it off with steak seasoning and a little salt, turned the oven on to 350, put the dish in the oven and set the timer for an hour. When the timer went off, I took the dish out and let it rest for about 10 minutes before taking the first chop out. 

Other than being a bit peppery because I'd used a tad too much steak seasoning, it was really really good. The chops were perfectly cooked, tender and moist, the beans were overcooked the way we like them (if you start with fresh, you probably won't overcook them) and the tomatoes added the perfect additional seasoning to the entire combination. This was all in addition to the fact that the chops were still frozen when I placed the dish in the oven.

Now, the image I used here comes from a blog about Southern cooking and green beans with stewed tomatoes is apparently a favorite. Although my dish didn't include sugar like theirs did, the concept is the same as is the look, other than mine also had pork chops in it. I have linked back to that blog so you can enjoy what they have to offer. I think her beans look divine, personally!

So, here you have another meal I've put together that combines what we have on hand with the fresh vegetables my daughter has brought home from work. Actually, quite a low carb meal, if you happen to be looking for that kind of meal. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but it's good for me because it keeps my blood sugar from spiking.

I'd love to hear some of your ideas for pork chops, tomatoes and green beans, if you've done anything different from what I did. I'm always looking for new ideas to try that are simple and easy.

String Beans in the Freezer

Fresh string/green beans (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

My daughter brought home a huge bag full of fresh string beans the other day along with the snack tomatoes and peppers. I finally got to them yesterday and ended up with 3 1/2 quarts in the freezer! 

I haven't prepped string beans since I was maybe in Kindergarten, so I'd forgotten just how much fun it was (NOT!). That required cutting off the ends, tossing the bad ones and cutting the lengthy beans into smaller segments. It took me just over an hour to get them trimmed and cut up before I could begin cooking them. 

Now, I say cooking them because I chose not to blanch them. I don't have ice to quickly cool them off, so I just cooked them through and froze them in a cooked state. I also added a bit of ham broth to the pot to add some flavor along with the salt I'd put in. 

Of course, once I was done cooking them, my daughter came home from work with a bag full of regular tomatoes. I guess our vegetable supplies aren't going to fall short this year, for sure!

Pasta Stuffed Peppers!

OK, here I am again, not all that long after my last post. Can you believe it? Well, I actually did something worthy of posting right away and I'm here to tell about it.

I had made the macaroni with the pasta sauce that I used the roasted tomatoes for. There was quite a bit of it and Deb wouldn't eat any of it. I didn't want to eat it all myself, so I thought maybe I could use it for stuffing the peppers she'd brought home that needed to be used. I went online and found that plenty of other people had used pasta to stuff peppers, so I found one that used elbow macaroni like I did in order to know what temperature to set the oven and how long to bake them.

Not my peppers. These are from  Tummy Temptations.

Before I stuffed the peppers, though, I diced up a couple snack sized summer sausages to add meaty flavor to the mix and opened a can of corn, drained it and added that as well. I cut the tops off of five peppers and removed the seeds and veins, got out my square baking dish and placed the peppers in it. Then I stuffed them with the macaroni mixture (that now had diced summer sausage and corn). We had a small block of cheese that I grated a portion of and topped each pepper with a blend of ketchup, dried mustard and chili powder followed by some grated Cheddar Jack cheese. I followed the baking instructions for the one recipe I'd found and in an hour, I had five lovely stuffed peppers waiting to be eaten.

My friend Tom really liked them - he had two. My daughter had one, which surprised me since she had just eaten a hoagie. I haven't had one yet because she had brought me some broccoli soup when she came home, so I was no longer hungry. But, there are still two peppers left and they're now in the freezer waiting to be reheated and eaten. I'm very happy with the results, although next time I'll plan ahead and put pasta sauce around all the peppers so they are more "saucy". I like peppers that way.

Although I'm not providing any specific instructions for this meal, it wouldn't be hard for you to do. Just make up your pasta and then prepare your peppers, stuff them and bake for 30 minutes covered with foil and 25-30 more minutes without foil, all at 350 degrees. I did put a little water in the dish around the peppers to keep them from drying out, but I'd like to put pasta sauce in the next time. If your family doesn't care much for rice like my daughter doesn't, this might just be the recipe for you.

I had one pepper I wasn't able to use for stuffing, so I cut it up along with the "lids" from the five I did use and froze it for future use. This seems to be a good way to use up leftover pasta if you also happen to have peppers.

Finally - some new food!

It has been so long and no matter how many times I tell myself (and anyone reading) that I'm going to try harder to keep up, it just doesn't seem to happen. Yet, I don't want to give up. So, here I am again with something to post.

My daughter has been working for a fresh produce distributor out of Holland who also develops vegetable varieties of their own. One of their own creations is Tommies Snack Tomatoes. These are specially developed miniature plum tomatoes that are marketed for kids to snack on. They come in little reusable buckets that hold up to four cups of tomatoes. 

She brought home four of these little buckets this week as well as a large bag of fresh string beans and three packs of orange and yellow peppers. We don't cook every day, so I need to find a way to use these things where we're not losing them. We use a lot of tomatoes, peppers and green beans, so if I can prep them right, we will get use out of them.

Well, I went online looking for recipes that use Tommies as an ingredient. They just weren't out there. But, I saw someone describe the Tommies as "grape tomatoes", so I used that as a search term and that's when I came upon this recipe for Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce. 

Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce

 I didn't blend this for sauce after I roasted them, but boy did they smell good and look wonderful!! I ended up adding some ready-made pasta sauce to the roasted tomatoes and then cooked some elbow macaronis to put them all together. I do think I should have added a little sugar to them because they were very acidic, but all in all, it turned out well. I used a potato masher to mash the roasted tomatoes after I added the other pasta sauce. Seriously, it wasn't at all bad - just tangy. I might add a bit of sugar to it before I reheat it tomorrow to cut the acidity.

So, tomorrow I need to cut and blanch the string beans and cut and freeze the peppers. They'll all get used, I can guarantee it. We eat a lot of all of these things.

Plastic Cheese and Eggs

I asked someone to pick me up some cheese at Dollar Tree a while back because I only had a few dollars and I wanted to stretch it. I know that sometimes they have little blocks of cheese and that was all I needed because I was planning to shred it for a recipe.

Well, when they brought the items back, I didn't get two blocks of cheese; I got two packs of cheese food slices, the kind wrapped in cellophane. Not always top quality, but generally edible. Still, they weren't what I wanted because they don't melt all that well, these Dollar Tree slices. But, I thanked my friend and put them in the fridge.

Well, we're pretty much out of cheese except I had a very few slices of white American and these two packs of "cheese" food. I split the white American to make two grilled cheese sandwiches with the white cheese surrounding the yellow "cheese" between the two pieces of bread. They turned out decent, but I had a piece of cheese that broke off left over, so I tossed it into the pan by itself to melt it into a crispy something to go with the sandwiches.

Except.......

That damned piece of "cheese" refused to melt. Literally REFUSED to melt! It bounced and skipped and sizzled, looked like it was blistering, but when I put the spatula under it, it didn't stick at all to the pan. When I flipped it over, it was hardly even discolored. A few attempts to scorch in some spots, but no melting, no change in shape whatsoever. It looked and felt like plastic. Both sides were nice and hot, but no discernible change in structure like real cheese should have had (or other cheese "foods" I've had, for that matter). It stayed entirely intact as it had gone into the pan. And, the pan was hot because it had just cooked two sandwiches and the fire was still on.

So.....THAT was the "cheese" I had in my scrambled eggs, broken up into little pieces to simulate melted cheese within the eggs, and topped with salsa. I've had worse.

Food Samples - Always a Good Thing!

As I have explained in a couple of recent posts, I am now working at Campbell Soup placing orders for sales samples of the many different products Campbell's offers. Everyone has samples sitting on their desks except me, so I was looking forward to the day when I would finally have my own samples.

That day arrived on Friday when I was taken to World Headquarters to finally get my security badge key card so I can let myself into the office instead of hoping someone would hear me knock. Suzanne, who drove me down, had to pick up some samples bags that were given out at a meeting our team didn't get to attend. She made sure I got one, too.

Inside the bag were several products I hadn't seen before, except for the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies. There was a bag of Pepperidge Farm Simply Potatoes Baked Cracker Chips, a box of Sweet Potato and Tomatillo Bisque, a pouch of Marsala Skillet Sauce, and a Microwavable Jammin' Jerk Chicken with Rice & Beans soup. When I got home, we immediately opened the cookies and the Cracker Chips. 

I have to admit I'm not a fan of the Milano cookies. There's nothing wrong with them, but the dark chocolate and chopped almonds were not my favorite combination. My daughter, however, loved them and took them to work with her to snack on while she valeted cars. 

The Cracker Chips, however, gained a fan. I really liked them! They are super crispy without being too hard. They also have potatoes as an ingredient without actually tasting like potato chips. I was impressed at how flavorful they were without being fried. I've tried baked potato chips, but the flavor just isn't there. These, however, changed my perspective on the quality of baked snacks.

I also got to check out the company store (open only to employees) and found our favorite condensed soups for only $.49/can. I bought four cans of chicken noodle for my daughter and a HUGE black soup mug for my friend for Christmas. He never likes anything I get him, but I do think he'll like this. In fact, I need to go back to get one for me, I think. I was hoping they'd have travel mugs, but all they had was Goldfish cracker logo mugs and I knew he wouldn't like that. I do have to go back sometime, though, in order to do some more shopping. Most definitely!

REVIEW: Glade Expressions Fragrance Mist and Oil Diffuser

I want to tell you about a product I recently tried. They were provided to me, as a BzzAgent, in exchange for checking them out and sharing the information with others as well as sharing discount coupons for the products.

The fragrance I chose was Pineapple Mangosteen because I tend to have sensitivity to other so-called "natural" fragrances or flowery scents. I like the fruited scents because they are more pleasant and less troublesome to my sinuses and eyes.

I love the Fragrance Mist - it is really unique in that you just squeeze it. It has no trigger or button to push. And, it is refillable. You just remove the insert and replace it with the fragrance of your choice. Best of all, the mist is super fine and expands to fill a large area very quickly. We've used it both downstairs where the cats' box is and upstairs in our bathroom. 

I also love the fragrance. It is PERFECT. Light, fruity, very realistic rather than chemical smelling. It isn't overpowering, yet it quickly fills the area with fragrance. I can't imagine going back to the other canned sprays I used previously. They do have nice fragrances, but it takes more of them to cover the same area and you can feel them in your lungs when you inhale too much of them.

As for the Oil Diffuser - I didn't know quite what to expect. I have used very pricey diffusers in the past, but the fragrances were hardly noticeable. But, I took this one to my new job and have it in my cubicle. Someone walking past said, "Do I smell piña coladas?" It's such a wonderful smell, although a tad heady in such a closed-in area. I have noticed some eye discomfort if I have it too close to where I'm sitting, so I keep it behind me as you step inside my cubicle. It's so nice to have a grand smelling environment to work in.

I especially like how the oil base is replaceable and the holder is so decorative. It can fit in any decor, but I especially like the artistic design. So much more affordable than those you buy through that home candle party program and much more efficient!

As for the coupons, I gave some to my landlady who just LOVES to have fragrances in her kitchen and the rest I shared with people at work. I am very happy with both items and plan to replace the ones I have when they are empty. 

Too Little Too Long Without a Post

For my first two weeks of my new job, I had no computer, no phone and virtually no work. Then, I got a computer and all of a day in training (if you can call it that since the person training me was packing to leave the job for good) and all last week I struggled to understand what the heck I was doing even as I was being trained for even more things to do. I was so deep to the bone tired at the end of each day, I didn't care whether or not I got online. I didn't post on Facebook and I barely answered email. I was just beat!!

Apparently, I'm adapting because this week, so far, I've been able to come home and NOT immediately fall into a deep sleep. Yesterday, I stopped at the neighborhood grocer and got bread, rolls and lunch meat for work. I got home in time to smell the roast beef I'd had in the crock pot all day and enjoyed the most wonderful hot roast beef sandwich for supper!

Tonight, I stopped at the bank, came home and watched television, ate my leftover Chinese food lunch, and have been playing online for just over an hour. And, I'm about to go downstairs to get my clothes from the dryer. Maybe this stuff doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment, but if you had been able to know how I felt last week compared to how I feel this week, you'd know that these things really ARE accomplishments! My back has ached all day, but even that's nothing compared to how bad my entire body felt last week. 

But, back to that crock pot beef.....I got myself a crock pot one day last week. I had seen one on Freecycle and when I responded, the person ahead of me had changed their mind, so the pot was mine if I wanted it. I wanted it. It's a Hamilton Beach 6 Qt Crock Watcher with AutoShift and a removable crock. 

The first thing I did was buy a couple of bottom round roasts that were on sale at ShopRite and put one in the freezer Sunday night while looking forward to Monday morning when I would put the other one in the crock. Although I was thinking at the time that we'd do mashed potatoes and gravy, Deb was too tired from working 15 1/2 hours the day before and only getting about 5 hours sleep before going to work again, so I just opted to slice the meat and make a hot roast beef sandwich with one of the Kaiser rolls I'd bought on the way home. 

I so enjoyed that sandwich!! I had added a packet of onion soup mix to the meat and a couple cups of water, so there was a nice broth to have with the meat. The sandwich was sloppy and flavorful and it was wonderful! When Deb came downstairs, she also had one. There are two rolls left and half the meat and broth. I shredded what was left of the meat.

I think I'll make a turkey ham and cheese sandwich for work tomorrow. I bought yogurt that was on sale, too, so I can take yogurt to have with it. I just love La Yogurt - so smooth and fruity. They were on sale for 10 for $3.30. I'm going to get some more this week when I get paid again before the sale is over. That's a good price and they're really good.

Anyway, I've said this before, but I really do mean it - I'm going to try to post more often because I do like having this blog and I do like talking about food (even more than I like eating it, believe it or not!) But, right now I need to get to bed. Way early day tomorrow because we're taking my daughter's car to the shop for a new front axle. Fun times.

Belated update, but I GOT A JOB!!!!!

It's true! I finally got a job!! And, it's as though providence has shined upon us - you see, my daughter ALSO got a job two weeks before I did! AND, here's the weird thing - BOTH jobs are in the food industry!!! And, we're both doing the same kind of work for two entirely different employers. It's pretty amazing to me how this all came to be. 

First, my daughter got tired of sending out resumes without getting even one response, so she posted her resume on Craigslist. She got one call, interviewed, was hired (without being given a start date) and then called again by the same person and asked to come in for an interview because he hadn't hired anyone yet. o_O?? She knew then she was done with that one. But, she had also scheduled an interview with a fresh produce distributor who had contacted her in the meantime about a part-time job that she thought would be good because she'd learn some new skills that would make her even more marketable in the future. 

She got along really well with the woman and felt really comfortable with her, even though she was told that the job would be pretty much minimum wage. She felt the benefits (full paid!) made it all worth it. So, she did the interview and got along fantastically with everyone she met. She was told that they had one more interview a week later, so she would be called after that if they wanted her. They called her before that interview was out the door! Her coworker said that the woman, her new boss, was so impressed by her that she wanted to hire her on the spot, but couldn't because she'd already scheduled the final interview. 

She's doing accounts receivable, credit approvals and adjustments, logistics (scheduling deliveries and pickups) and a variety of other jobs. She was recently told that they planned to open some more locations across the country and she may be flown to those locations to assist in setting them up. She said to me, "Mom, I actually have a 'big girl' job! I'm being treated like an adult and I love it!"

She also learned that her hourly wage went from minimum wage to $11/hr when she got her first pay check. Not bad getting a raise before you get your first pay!!

Although I joined her in posting my resume on Craigslist, all I got out of it was scams. Meanwhile, I continued to send out my resume anywhere I could whose job description fit what I knew. One of them described the job being a data entry clerk in the next town over. The pay was acceptable and I had all the skills (although I am not quite an "expert" in Excel, I did take a course earlier in the year, so I'm better than I used to be), so I submitted my resume. I was surprised to get a call asking me to call back for a phone interview from a company I'd never heard of. They are an agency, like a temp firm, and they had a contract position nearby who needed someone who could start as soon as possible. I affirmed that I could if they chose me and they then set up my phone interview with the client - a well-known producer of canned soups and other foods under a variety of names!!!

The following week, I received the call from the client and was interviewed by two women who more explained the job to me than asked questions; but, as they described it to me, I was able to relate the duties to jobs I had done previously, which they seemed to like. When the interview was done, I just waited to see what would happen. Within two hours, I was called by the agency and told I had the job!!! I loved it!! I didn't have to do a face to face interview, I didn't have to worry about whether or not my looks or weight would turn them off, I was hired solely on the skills I had and how I had handled the interview. Fantastic!!

So, I  now have a week and a half under my belt and I love the office and the people. I wish I could say I love the job, but I really haven't been able to do it yet. You see, their IT department hasn't furnished my desk with a computer or a phone. Actually, two computers. One SAP and one laptop, both operated by the same mouse and keyboard. Very NCIS!! Can't wait until I actually can be trained on the system and begin to do what I've been hired to do. I'll be working with samples (receiving and placing orders for samples of new products for customers, sales people and trade shows) as well as working with deductions (something I haven't been shown yet, but I suspect it's related to when the customer short pays their invoice and the adjustments have to be approved and entered in the accounting). 

Everyone in the office has sample products sitting on their desks and I've heard people talking about trying this or that product, so I'm thinking we get to add our two cents to the product line. But, I don't know for sure, so there's just that much more to learn about. My contract is initially for a year, but could go longer or could become permanent depending on the needs of the client. AND, it offers medical, dental, sick and vacation. WOW!!!

In the meantime, my daughter gets to bring fresh produce home for us to use and, if I get to try out samples, that will help our grocery budget tremendously. How much better can it be for a family of foodies???

A New Day

The title of today's post has multiple implications. It could refer to the literal fact that today is a new day, different from yesterday. It could also refer to the concept of today being a new opportunity or even the beginning of a new era following major change. I'm thinking of it as a blend of all three of those ideas.

It is Sunday and that makes it another day on the calendar, new to you, new to me. But, it is also the beginning of a new era since my daughter started her new job this past week. She is learning new things that she's excited to learn that will benefit her in any future jobs she might hold. In addition to accounts payable and receivable she's also being trained in shipping logistics. She works for a fresh fruits and vegetables distributor and really likes the people and the job, even though for now, it's part-time.

She's supposed to go full-time in three months at which time she'll be eligible for full-paid medical and dental benefits. Since we've both been without any medical for years, she's looking forward to that. She's also going to see if I can be on her insurance since I have been her dependent these past couple of years. I don't believe that can happen, but who knows.

The peppers Deb brought home.

Anyway, another benefit of her job is that any excess or undistributed produce is shared with their employees. The other day she came home with a bag full of bell peppers. She gets to bring home fresh produce when they have excess or need to make room for new shipments. I'm looking forward to eggplant (aubergines) and tomatoes at some point.

She's learning accounts payable and receivable as well as logistics. They told her she'd go full-time in three months and then her full-paid benefits would begin.

Meanwhile, I have a phone interview tomorrow morning with Campbell's soup. If they like me, I may be working within a week. It's a contract position that's supposed to last a year. 

It's interesting that both my daughter's job and this potential job for me are food related. Can't be any more perfect for a life-long foodie like me!

Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada

I was supposed to go out to dinner the other night, but the person who was going to take me, after making a big production of where we were going to go, suddenly decided we were going to go somewhere else. Because he's done this numerous times in the past to the point of extreme annoyance, I decided not to go out at all and make something at home. I'm glad I did.

From Google images - this is how I ate mine!

I went to our trusty pantry and pulled out the box of Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada. I didn't really look at it, other than the name and that it would be Mexican inspired. I assumed it would be pasta as all of them usually are. (Obviously, I failed to look closely at even the photo on the front of the box - and, yes - I am the kind of person who tries to assemble things without reading the instructions.) 

I had already decided that I would incorporate some vegetables because we had a half can of corn my daughter had opened and left in the fridge plus two small portions of limas and green beans in the freezer. That way we have more of a one pot meal than anything. When I realized this particular HH was a rice dish, I wasn't sure the veggies would work out well. I did it anyway.

The instructions said to put the rice in with the hot water and milk, so that's also when I added the three small portions of vegetables. I lowered the flame and put the lid on and let it simmer the 20 minutes required. 

Of course, being the lazy butt that I tend to be, I didn't stir during that time, so I had quite a mess on the stove and counter from the hot liquid escaping past the lid. But, the end result was wonderful!!! 

The flavoring was mild and only hinted at being Mexican-esque. The vegetables incorporated themselves quite well without altering the overall flavor. Even my daughter ate it and she's not a fan of either lima beans or rice. 

I have one more box of this flavor in the pantry. I will not hesitate to make it when I'm craving a rice dish.