Steak & Salad

“Salad is never more appetizing than when served in a large wooden bowl.”
Dorothy Draper, 'Entertaining is Fun’ (1941)

Steak & Salad

My MIL was craving a good steak and huge, tossed salad. She gave us the money so my husband got the meat and I got the produce . . . funny how much that reflects us. I love fruits and vegetables and healthy, wholesome foods. Blake? He loves meat. If our freezer and refrigerator were full of beef, chicken, turkey, fish, and on and on the list goes --- he would be fine with little else.

Anyway, our DIL and grandbits came over and our 6-year-old went with Granna to see Grandpa in the VA hospital. While they did that and my husband grilled steak and chicken breasts, the rest of worked on the salad. It turned out better than any, ever before!

My DIL, 15- year- old daughter, and our 3-year-old granddaughter all helped! We washed and spun dry two heads of lettuce and filled a large drainer with a bounty of produce. We washed it well and peeled, cut, and grated everything into one, large, bowl.

My MIL came in mid way through and suggested I use the salad shooter for all of it since that is what it is for. I’m in such a habit of using a knife or food processor that I only shred the carrots and cheese most of the time, using the shooter.

I grated a bag of washed, peeled, carrots with the ends cut off and filled a bowl with them. Emily, my granddaughter asked me what the salad shooter was and I told her. She replied: “You mean, carrot shooter, Nandy?”

It was cute because she looked up from her little cutting board with little cutting knife (a small butter knife with a blue handle) and her small, yellow drainer full of vegetables to cut up. She paused with knife mid air and then went right back to cutting.

Caden, her younger brother (2 years old) took her spot using the old, wooden stool from Mamaw’s house. He added flair to his work by chewing some of the vegetables up and spitting them on the work table. Yes, I stopped him. Just thought the difference in Emily’s precise job and his stark contrast set smiles up in my heart.

Hailey talked and jabbered with a soft lid to one of our storage containers from a pallet on the floor. One of our Christmas Eve kittens was fascinated with her and kept watching her every move. The beagle tried to plop down with her since she loves pallets but we didn’t allow it and she sauntered off to the living room to sneak up on the couch.

Onto the salad!

This was it:

Bite sized lettuce
Sliced cucumbers
Sliced zucchini
Slice yellow squash
Sliced (half wise) vine ripe tomatoes
Shredded carrots
Sliced radishes
Sliced green peppers
Fresh broccoli heads
Dried cranberries
Sliced Pears
Sliced Kiwi (peeled, too)
Sliced Mangoes
Sliced red onions
Walnuts

It sounds like a strange combination, I know. It was beyond words and everyone raved on and on and on over it.

The next day, we ate it topped with shredded, sharp cheddar cheese.

We made up bottles of the Italian dressing you buy in packets and mix in cruets. When it is first made, we add honey and shake well before serving --- a tip from one of my sisters that we have fallen in love with.

We also had Raspberry Vinaigrette with walnuts and light Ranch for those who wanted it.

The salad was enjoyed at least as much as the steaks and this included my husband! He has always joked about me eating rabbit food but now he loves it. Laugh . . .

Wednesday: 3/10/10

God has given us two hands:- one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for giving.|

Billy Graham

Oatmeal Cake
1 ¼ cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg (we used this and then freshly grated some to go with it.)
Combine water and oats in a small bowl; set aside.

Place butter, brown sugar, and sugar in bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater. Turn to speed 4 and beat 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl.

Add vanilla. Turn to speed 4 and add eggs, one at a time, beating 15 seconds after each addition. Stop and scrape bowl. Add oat mixture, flour, soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Turn to speed 4 and beat 30 seconds.

Pour batter into greased and floured 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-55 minutes. Cool cake in pan. When cool, top with Broiled Coco-Walnut Topping

Yield: One 9-inch cake

*My notes* We doubled the ingredients (started with the Kitchenaid but I made a mistake with the oatmeal so we needed to double it so I transferred everything to the Bosch mixer) and I added more nutmeg and chocolate chips --- ideas from my creative DIL!
I also put the topping on the cakes while the cake was hot and it was delicious!

Broiled Coco-Walnut Topping
¾ cup shredded coconut
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
3 Tablespoons heavy cream

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Spread on top of cake. Place under broiler until topping is bubbly. Cool before serving.
From: The KitchenAid Cookbook

Wednesday with my DIL and three of my grandlittles was today and what a day it was! The first part of the morning consisted of me doing laundry, mopping the kitchen floor and doing some basic tidying and my DIL taking three kids in the rain on errands without an umbrella!

I wanted to bake something so the warmth created by the oven and the comfort of home baked goods would make things inside more welcoming.

We had salads for lunch (left overs from last night and I’ll share that in another post) and ended up adding French bread and roasted garlic hummus. So good!

We bounced babies on our knees while going through cookbooks and Brandy found the Oatmeal cake recipe. Great idea!

This was well loved by us and the three teen girls who came talking and laughing in from school later this afternoon.

We watched a movie (“Murder In Coweta County” --- a true story and had Andy Griffith and Johnny Cash in it) and visited until this evening. We were both so tired and longed for naps but those are pretty non-existent. {Smile}

My Dad & Notes on Now

My Dad & Notes on Now (I sent this to the wrong blog the first time!)
Dear Readers,

For any of you who don't know, my dad passed away on February 8th at 11:30 pm.
I am hoping to write more soon and to share the recipes again now because I know he would encourage me to do just that.

I miss him.
Tonight, I was doing yet another cozying of my kitchen (have been working on it for days) and moved a picture of him with his name at the top. I felt like sitting down and crying in my hands until the tears were all gone but closed my eyes and kept moving.
The latter was much more comforting this time.

I hope each one reading this will cherish every single moment with your parents. Grandparents, kids, grandkids and on it goes. They are such SOUL GIFTS.

Onto the blog focus on food so I don't overwhelm you with too much of my own world and thoughts:

Today in my kitchen, I made four loaves of homemade bread, a delicious roast with carrots and potatoes in the oven, a very large chicken breast "oven fried", a pot of two pieces of chicken simmered in water with carrots and seasonings, a pan of homemade style noodles in the chicken broth (once the meat and carrots were removed) and a cast iron skillet full of fried chicken with a pan of gravy on the side.

This served us for lunch, dinner and some snacking through the day!

I planned to make a Cocoa and Banana bar dessert but didn't have bananas! If I end up liking it when I do try it, I'll share the recipe here.

The roast was put in a greased cast iron deep skillet and I cut it in four pieces, rubbed with oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic, and onion flakes. I added lots of carrots and some small potatoes.

The fried chicken was just a cut up chicken, washed and dredged in a flour, salt, pepper, and all purpose seasoning mixture. Once fully coated, I put it in a skillet with some peanut oil already getting hot and then sprinkled a bit more all purpose seasoning over all. The chicken didn't get turned until it was lightly browned on the side nearest the heat.

We really enjoyed these foods and all the ovens and stovetops created some darling heat all through the main rooms!

Our son was here from college (he came to see his brother and his new baby) so it provided a nice lunch and snack for him.

Our DIL took our oldest son back to the Police Academy so she stopped by and we had coffee and fixed plates of chicken, noodles, gravy and bread. God made that time cooking today overflow to comfort and feed all of us!

Kitchen Stuff

http://www.mytoque.com/brands/cookware/la_chamba_soup_stock_pots.html

Chamba pots --- cool.

Soup & Scones

Sandy's Broccoli & Chicken Chowder

2 chopped onions
4 garlic cloves (building up immune systems and this is a BIG pot of soup!)
Butter
Olive oil
Frozen broccoli
Chicken breasts
Flour
Salt, Pepper, Seasoning blends
Paprika
Sharp cheddar cheese
Cream Cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Drizzle olive oil into a stock pot and add a small amount of butter. Sautee' chopped onion in stock pot for a few minutes and then add grated/zested garlic cloves. Let cook for a few minutes and then sprinkle flour (just about any flour works) over the onions and stir. It should make a paste of sorts. Add a quart or two of chicken broth, a generous pouring in of milk, lots of frozen broccoli and all the seasonings. I put chicken breasts in a Dutch oven and partially covered them in water. Brought the water to a boil and then simmered until the chicken was cooked. Cut cooked chicken in bite sized pieces and add to the soup. Let simmer as long as needed without drying out and then add a generous amount of sharp cheddar cheese, 1/2 to 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan, and 3 or 8 ounces of cream cheese. Cook on low until desired consistency. I kept mine on a simmer mat to keep it hot and it did very well. Hint: I didn't like how little actual bites of broccoli were left by the time the cheese was added so I brought the chicken broth from cooking the chicken breasts to a boil, added a Dutch oven full of frozen broccoli and cooked for a few minutes at full boil. I lowered the heat to let it simmer until tender and then added the broccoli to the chowder.
Hit for all the ages here! Well, we didn't let little Hailey Hope try it (she is four months) but Caden Michael (two years old) all the way up to Nandy loved it. We ate it with the bread recipe below:

New Zealand Cheddar and Onion Scones
My changes: doubled all the ingredients and used whatever cheddar cheese I had in the fridge. I also shredded my butter for easier blending but won't be doing that again. For those in America, I found a place online to learn 50 grams of butter equals approximately 1/2 cup/1 stick. I also used 2 percent milk instead of whole since that is what I had. From the recipe on is from the blog it came from and has no notes from me.

Place in a large bowl

* 3 cups of flour
* 6 tspns baking powder
* 1/4 tspn of salt
* 50 grams of butter (chilled and cut into chunks)

Next rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine crumbs; make sure there are no big chunks of butter left in the flour.

Add:

* one small brown onion chopped finely
* 1/2 cup strong cheddar
* 1-2 tspns parmesan cheese
* 1/2 tspn paprika

Stir through to mix

Add:

* 1 1/4 cup of whole milk (you can use 3/4 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt for a softer scone)

Stir with a knife - or metal spoon to just mix and no more - do not stir the heck out of it - resist the temptation.

It should look like this - a slightly sticky dough.

Place your dough on a floured bench and knead lightly, until it just comes together, flour your hands as much as needed.

Shape gently into a fat rectangle, with the dough about an inch thick - be gentle with the dough, just push it into position gently. You will notice I said gently three - err no 4 times in this little piece of instruction - that’s because I mean it!

Cut into rectangles. I like to make mine fairly large in size, I normally cut 12 or 16 scones. If you decide to cut them smaller, keep in mind they will not take as long to cook.

Place on an oven tray fairly close together, with a small gap between each one. You want to give them room to expand, but also close enough that they join together as they cook to force some height into the scone also. So roughly 1 cm or 1/4 inch. Sprinkle a little grated cheese on the top of each scone.

Bake in a 220 C or 428 F oven for 10-15 minutes. Every oven is different, so keep an eye on your scones and take them out when they are golden brown on the top and springy to the touch. You can cut one of the larger ones in half and take a peek if you are not sure. If you undercook your scones they will be doughy.

Serve while warm from the oven with butter and don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about eating several.
http://sundayhotpants.nocturne.net.nz/post/255359386/cheddar-scone-tutorial

2 Recipes: Muffins & Brownies

love my kitchen appliances and gadgets
I used my food processor for two great recipes recently. I got these from a cookbook my mom gave me a long time ago called: Food Processor Techniques by the Editors of Consumer Guide. ©1982

I think I might have already shared this recipe from our lunch here with Nana, Papa, & The Twins but I’m not sure. Papa and Summer could not get enough of these and we all loved them! The adults ate them along with steaming cups of coffee.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Muffins
Makes 1 dozen
1 cup (250 mL) uncooked quick oats
1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
½ cup (125 mL) packed light brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons (7 mL) baking powder
½ teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
½ teaspoon (2 mL) salt
½ cup (125 mL) butter or margarine, melted and cooled to room temperature, or vegetable oil
1 egg
1. Combine oats and buttermilk in large mixing bowl; let stand 30 minutes.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
3. Insert steel blade. Measure flour, brown sugar, baking powder, soda and salt into work bowl; process, using on/off technique, until mixed.
4. Combine butter, egg, reserved oats and buttermilk; add to flour mixture in work bowl. Process, using on/off technique 5 or 6 times, just until flour is moistened; do not overprocess (batter should be lumpy).
5. Spoon into 12 greased muffin cups (cups should have 1/3 cup or 80 mL capacity), filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake until golden and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot.

Marbled Brownies
Makes 18 large brownies
1 package (8 ounces or 225g) cream cheese, at room temperature, cut into 4 pieces.
2 1/3 cups (580 mL) sugar
5 eggs
½ teaspoon (2 mL) vanilla
1 cup (250 mL) butter, at room temperature
1 cup (250 mL) unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ cups (375 mL) shelled walnuts (I used pecans)
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Using steel blade, process cheese, 1/3 cup (80 mL) of the sugar, 1 of the eggs and the vanilla until smooth; remove from work bowl and reserve.
3. Using steel blade, process butter and remaining 2 cups (500 mL) sugar until light and fluffy. Add remaining 4 eggs to butter mixture; process until smooth. Add cocoa and nuts to butter mixture; process until nuts are coarsely chopped. Add flour to chocolate mixture ; process, using on/off technique, just until flour is moistened.
4. Spread half of the chocolate batter evenly in greased 13 X 9 X 2-inch (33 X 23 X 5 cm) baking pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer; top with remaining chocolate batter. Swirl slightly with spoon or spatula. Bake until center is fork to the touch, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool brownies in pain on wire rack; cut into bars.

A Humble & Southern Brunch

     Papa and Nana visited with our three year old nephew, Konnor yesterday and it was our oldest son’s birthday. He, his wife, Brandy and our three grandlittles were here and my husband was home along with the girls (15 year old daughter and niece) AND our college “kid”, Matthew (wink) was here. . . so a nice gathering. One son (Brandon) wasn’t here because he was on a 24 hour shift at the fire department and his wife was 45 minutes away and our youngest son was still in school. We gather when we can and with who we can around this little homestead.

     Onto the food:
    
     I have been eating grits from the time I first started eating, I guess. I just know that I don’t know a time when I didn’t and I grew up in the south (with the exception of six years in a northern state) and grits here are as common as bread anywhere else.
     I’ve made all kinds --- from instant, flavored packets to the kind you must slowly cook for 30-45 minutes. As is the case with most things, the longer it takes to cook the better it is. Still, I don’t easily find stone ground grits or those taking longer than five minutes other than traveling one to six hours away or ordering online at: http://www.noramill.com/store/index.php?cPath=48.

     Of course, when I order there, I end up wanting to add things like whole bags of poppy seeds since I go through the small containers in the store in no time. I could fill a whole shopping cart with the baking blends, varieties of grits, flax seeds, pioneer porridge (our favorite of all!) and on and on the list tarries.
     Meanwhile, I make do with Jim Dandy’s 5-Minute grits and have developed a small following of fans. Smile.

     My DIL, Laura, went on and on about the last grits we made and this time, everyone who ate them did the same! We cleared out all eight servings along with 1 ½ dozen eggs, two loaves of bread and two sticks of butter. We did have a total of 14 people so I am surprised it wasn’t more than that. We are used to big meals though. We serve anywhere from five to 25 at a time. Smiles.

     My husband says the grits I made yesterday were beautiful and delicious and I believe they are the best I’ve ever made. I started making grits when I was a teenager and always added butter and American or cheddar cheese. I quit eating American cheese along the way and would just stir in mounds of grated cheddar. Now, I make it however we are in the mood for per meal!
     The usual is grated, sliced or broken pieces (sounds strange but gives a delicious bite of cheese every so often and is well loved around here) of sharp cheddar cheese or aged, white cheddar.
     We add in whatever we want and the blog post I got the latest (and best) recipe from shares a whole list of delicious, add-in ideas.

     I’ll add my notes in asterisks. Brandy, Nana, and I served these grits with softly scrambled eggs, toast made in the toaster oven with real butter and topped with blackberry, seedless jam. There was also a mound of bacon for all our pork eaters to devour and I ended up eating a few bites myself. The adults had steaming hot coffee with this meal and it was comforting on a cold day.
     Lauren and Sierrah deserve a thanks for helping with the dishes and children!

The Perfect Grits (shared as taken from blog and the ONLY things I share from here to the end will be put in asterisks. Everything else is the recipe sharer’s notes*
Yield: 4 servings *I made 8 servings*

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt
For your basic grits, you'll need only five ingredients: water, cream, butter, salt and the grits themselves.
Use good butter. This can't be stressed enough. Do not use margarine. Do not use "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." Do not use butter that's been sitting in the fridge uncovered for weeks, soaking up odors and flavors. Do not use unsalted butter. With only five ingredients, you will be able to taste the nasty, disgusting fake butter you inadvisedly used in the grits, and you will be sorry.

 Bring two cups of water and one cup of cream to a boil. I recommend heavy whipping cream, but if you're trying to be more health-conscious, you can use skim milk instead. Either way, don't use all water when trying to make grits -- you need a dairy component.
*I used skim milk mixed with half-n-half --- the closest thing I had to heavy cream!)*
 Gently add one cup of grits and one tablespoon of kosher salt to the boiling water. Don't reduce the heat immediately, but allow the grits to continue boiling while you stir constantly.

 After two minutes, reduce heat to medium-low and continue to stir. Just like risotto, the secret to great grits is plenty of stirring. Don't forget to scrape the bottom and sides.

 After five to seven minutes, your grits should reach a thick but still creamy consistency (dripping gently off the spoon but not too easily).
*At this point, I added a drizzle of melted bacon grease to the grits since this is the way many southern grandmothers did it!*

Remove from the heat, plate and serve immediately. Cold grits are horrid. Garnish with a single pat of butter and enjoy.
*I added butter taken from a fluffy nest by shaving the stick on a zester. Tip and trick from my mother (Nana) who did this for us.*

 If you're feeling more adventurous, I would suggest the following twists that will transform your simple bowl of grits into a stunning centerpiece. All of these ingredients should be cooked/prepared prior to making your grits and added near the very end of cooking.
•    Chopped bacon, green onions, shredded white cheddar and minced jalapenos
•    Crumbled sausage (I prefer spicy Jimmy Dean) and maple syrup
•    Raisins, dates, dried cranberries, walnuts, a few dashes of sugar and a splash of cream
•    Peeled shrimp, scallions and parmesan cheese
•    Shredded cheese of any variety, a dash of paprika and a few generous dashes of garlic powder
It's nearly impossible to go wrong with a base of perfectly-cooked grits. Go wild and let us know your favorite grits recipes in the comments section below.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/10/how_to_make_the_perfect_grits.php#