Old Favorites

I do not plan a theme for my menus each week, but often a theme emerges. Since I sit down and plan in one evening, I guess that makes sense that the menus would follow a trend. The theme this week was old favorites: recipes that I have been making for years (and years.) These are those tried and true stand byes that fill our mouths with flavor and our hearts with love.

(For Monday nights menu, see last week's blog.)

Tuesday
Our younger son finished his high school senior project this night. We celebrated with dinner out at a local restaurant.

Wednesday
My husband was out of town so my younger two children and I ate spaghetti using the last batch of frozen home made spaghetti sauce. I have loved that sauce and that recipe, but for my next batch, I am going to try something different. That just seems to be how I am!

Thursday

This is really an OLD favorite. My family loves Chop Suey. Looking at Wikipedia, chop suey can mean lots of different things to different people. This chop suey recipe was from my grandmother - my dad's mom. My mother gave me a copy of the typed copy she had when I married. The original recipe called for veal - which I don't cook, and "chop suey sauce" which I have interpreted as soy sauce. The only vegetables in it are celery and onions and it isn't really a stir fry as it simmers for a while, but it is a comforting dish. My children love it as much as I do. I served it with brown rice and an Asian seasoned frozen vegetable medley. The vegetables had baby corn in the mix and my five year old tried it the same way Tom Hanks did in the movie, "Big." She tried to eat it like regular corn on the cob.

Friday
Friday's menu consisted of another meal from my childhood. As I have mentioned before, Friday is my day to cook easy. My older son was home from college, so I was looking for easy and tasty. (I'm always looking for tasty.) I made the Sloppy Joe recipe my mom made while I was growing up. It is unbelievable how easy it is. Brown ground beef (I used ground sirloin) and drain. Add chopped onion and green pepper and cook until soft. Then add a can or two of tomato soup and a half a can or so of water. Stir and simmer until it is the consistency you like. Serve on a hamburger bun. Very easy and very tasty! In our family you can choose open face (meat on both sides of the bun and eat with a fork) or closed face (eat like a messy hamburger.) I had planned to make sweet potato fries to go with our Sloppy Joes but the kids said they would prefer regular white potato fries. Since this was Friday, I used some frozen fries I had in the freezer. I baked them because I don't even know how to fry. I don't deep fry anything. To finish the meal I had Easy Cole Slaw. I took a bag of pre-shredded cole slaw mix and added Marzetti slaw dressing - another item I picked up from watching my mom. For many years I worked at making my own slaw dressing but the Marzetti dressing is the one my family and I prefer and it is easy - just open and pour.

Saturday
During the day Saturday, I made another batch of bagels. I substituted orange juice for the water and added a little grated orange rind. To this batch I also added 1 Tablespoon of ground cardamon and 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. These turned out to be some of my best bagels yet. This is also a flavor you won't find in the grocery store.

For dinner Saturday night, I grilled some boneless skinless chicken breasts. I marinated them for a few hours in a mixture of lemon juice, fresh rosemary, minced garlic, a little olive oil and a little white wine vinegar. I made the whole package of chicken breasts because I will be able to use the leftover breasts this week. I don't know yet if it will some type of salad or chicken enchiladas or something entirely different. Grilled chicken is a great recipe starter.
With the chicken we had baked potato. Because I didn't make the sweet potato fries, everyone had a choice of white potato or sweet potato. I used to make my baked potatoes in the microwave, but my family told me they prefer the old fashioned slow bake method and, I admit, the texture of the potatoes is better. I was already using the oven for the bagels so I didn't mind heating it up! I completed the meal with a tossed salad. I have quit making separate salad dressing for the most part and make dressing the way my mother-in-law always has - just dump a little of this and a little of that. We ate a little earlier than usual so we could go out for a family movie. The price of movies is incredible but eating at home first saved us both money and calories.

Sunday
Our Sunday dinner continued my theme of old favorites. I cooked Brisket Carbonnade from the Better Homes and Gardens Red and White checkered cookbook. This is one of my favorite roasts. (This recipe is similar, but not identical.) It smells divine when you walk in the house from church. You cook the beef brisket in beer and other seasonings with lots of sliced onion. I don't usually make gravy but the gravy from this roast is exceptional so I made gravy today. (So much for saving calories!) Mashed potatoes accompanies this roast beautifully. (More gravy!) I steamed frozen green beans and made a hot lemon tarragon sauce to go over the beans. This recipe comes from the 1991 Southern Living Yearbook cookbook. We rounded out the meal with fresh pineapple and corn muffins I had made a couple of weeks ago and froze. For dessert we had "berry jello mousse." Last week I mentioned that I was going to experiment with my home made yogurt. I whipped it into jello and made a new dessert. There is a recipe for something similar on the side of the jello box, but it uses Cool Whip. I used the fresh yogurt. My family was reluctant to try it, but once they did, everyone really liked it - except for the five year old and she was the one I was trying it for originally. We added fresh strawberries and mini chocolate chips to the top and enjoyed every bite!

I do not know what theme will emerge next week. It is spring break, so easy will probably be the overriding theme. I need to include a meatless meal each week. This afternoon I am going to make some Mocha Chip Gelato. It is a surprise for my husband. I'll let you know how it turns out. We love BlueBell Mocha Almond Fudge Ice cream but it is a seasonal flavor and we can no longer find it so I am going to try to create something similar. We shall see!!

Have a great week and have fun in the kitchen!