Saturday, July 30, 2011

This week

Let me just start by saying that my finicky little eater went to a birthday party today (that's him and the birthday girl, Gabi, in the pic) and ate everything under the sun. My friends were telling me that they didn't believe me when I say that he won't eat.

Of course, I don't usually offer him ice cream, cake, and candy all the time. :)

He had a blast though..and a major sugar high!! It's always so cute to watch kids at that age interact with each other. I really hope they grow up to be good friends!

Anyway, this week has been good. Of course the funeral was hard and I was so glad that when that whole day was over. I missed most of it. The service was at 11 and that is nap time, so Joseph only made it 30 minutes before he spontaneously combusted. I was actually relieved to leave...as awful as that sounds.

But all the other days have been great. Joseph has gone on lots of tractor rides with his "Paw Paw" and has had a blast feeding the chickens and "tats." He even fed Tiny Tat all by himself tonight...4 tiny fistfuls of food for a tiny tat. Tiny Tat is a kitten that is in our old lambing barn. She is the sweetest thing and just loves Joseph.

I have done some cooking...I have made 2 recipes from the Shaw Family Cookbook as well as one of my own creation which I will be posting later. I'm always happy to cook for other people. I have eaten entirely too much cake this visit...so I will probably be off sugar for at least 12 hours when I get home...ha ha!

I have done no running. I packed all these running clothes because I was going to have someone to watch Joseph and I love running the roads around the farm..but, let's face it, it's too stinking hot and humid. I don't enjoy running in it...call me a wuss, but I think I'm going to stop running until September.

So, we've got another full day with the family and will be heading back to Kentucky Monday morning.

I so look forward to the day when we can stay here permanently. I have so missed my friends and missed having people to talk to and laugh with. It's also been so nice since Joseph is so obsessed with his Naner and Paw Paw that he doesn't cling to me for everything. It's good when he has other entertainment/people to entertain that just me all day.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Cooking with the Shaws - Pizza

Cooking with the Shaws – Pizza

This recipe is one I have been using since my mom gave me the Shaw Family Favorites. It’s for my mom’s pizza. Now, growing up, I rarely had pizza from Pizza Hut or Dominoes or anywhere else. For one thing, they wouldn’t deliver out to the country where I was raised… and the other reason is that my mom made fantastic pizza almost weekly so there was no need for any “brought-on” pizza. :)

Don’t worry, I got plenty caught up on delivery pizza while in college. And none of those can touch homemade pizza.

I’ve started having Pizza Fridays at our house. It’s a good tradition. It makes for a quick and easy meal as long as I remember to get my dough going earlier in the day. While I LOVE to think outside the red sauce when it comes to pizza, last Friday I took it back and cooked my mom’s Pizza (p 155). Here’s how you can too…you may notice a few differences between the cookbook and what I put here….we have made a couple of changes like subbing Italian seasoning for oregano in the sauce):

Dough

1 pkg dry yeast

1 cup Water, warm but not hot

1 tsp Sugar

3 cups Flour

½ tsp salt

2 Tbsp Oil

Stir yeast and sugar into warm water and let proof for 5 minutes.

Beat half the flour into yeast mixture. Add salt oil, and remaining flour. Mix well.

Knead until smooth, adding more flour if needed.

Place in lightly oiled bowl, turning dough to coat. Cover and let rise until double…1 hour at least.

Sauce (I don’t know why, but I could eat this by the spoonful…and sometimes I do, but I’m weird like that)

8 oz Can tomato sauce

6 oz Can tomato paste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Sugar

1/8 tsp Pepper

1 Tbsp Oil

Mix all together!

Toppings

Mozzarella cheese (12-16 oz for 2 pizzas)

1 lb sausage or ground beef or a combination of the 2, browned

Parmesan cheese to taste

This recipe will make 2 pizzas or 1 really big one. 1 of the smaller ones can feed 2-4 people depending on if you have sides or not. So you will need to divide the dough in half. If you just make one pizza, the dough freezes really well..just plop it in a Ziploc bag. Get it out the day you plan to make your next pizza and put it in an oiled bowl, cover it and let it thaw and rise.

The rest is pretty explanatory….spread the crust out on a baking sheet or pizza pan (dust your pan with cornmeal to keep it from sticking), top with sauce, meat, and cheeses. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or so. Enjoy!!

This will probably be my only post this week. My grandfather passed away yesterday and I am probably going to drive down to Tennessee tomorrow for the funeral and such. Now don’t be sad for me. As awful as it sounds, I was not fond of the man. This is not a place to list the reasons why. Just know that I don’t have any warm memories of him. It makes me thankful that Joseph has such wonderful grandparents and won’t have to worry about having one that treats him like he’s nothing. I am sad…but not because I will miss him. I am sad because of the grandmothers that left me too soon and the grandfather that I never knew at all who I know would have loved me.

So anyway…enough sadness. I hope you all have a great week! I have many more Shaw Family recipes in the works and will be moving to another kitchen this week. I’m sure mom won’t mind. :)

Friday, July 22, 2011

There's an onion thief on the loose....

Here's our garden as of today...it's only 1/2 a garden right now, but I'm hoping to get the other side ready for a fall garden. Why? Because I've got and I might as well use it.

Our cherry tomato is flourishing....but Joseph gets almost all of them. I have to pick them when he's not looking bc if he sees me pick them, then he MUST have them...right then.

These will probably be ready tomorrow:


My pretty bell pepper:
Some carrots that survived the bird attacks before we put up the scarecrow:
Joseph eating the onions that I had pulled up earlier this morning to dry in the sun.
I know they are tiny, but their tops were dead so they weren't going to get any bigger...they taste fine, they are just miniature.

I raise miniature onions. It's the new thing.

Tell your friends.

And be warned that there is an onion thief on the loose....
And he will run clean off with your onions...

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Finicky Toddler


Joseph and I went to the farmer's market in Frankfort this morning. It was actually our first time to go....sad, I know....I always forget about it. Every week I say that I'm gonna go check it out and then forget. This morning I remembered!! I always love to look at all the beautiful fruits and veggies and marvel at how people are able to grow them! I was really excited to find garlic since it was on my shopping list anyway. If it looks like they shorted me on blackberries, they didn't...Joseph ate a whole slew of them. :)

Which brings me to a subject that is frustrating the tar out of me lately....

Feeding Joseph.

I swear I can't figure that child's eating habits out!!! And I would be more: "Fine...be hungry" if he wasn't so dang skinny! Last night was probably the worst that I can think of...I tried everything: chicken strips, cheese (shredded, string, sliced; cheddar, mozzarella, american), cherries, banana, plum, watermelon, etc. I did get him to eat some watermelon granita (which is fabulous...try it!), but he mostly wanted to feed it to me. I finally got him to eat a little bit of yogurt and 2 doritos. The supper of champions!! Luckily by this time it was bedtime because I had just about had it.

It just gets so hard....I want to fix food for my child, but it gets so old fixing things just so that he can turn up his nose time after time. About the only things that don't seem to get old are blueberries (frozen or fresh) and banana peanut butter smoothies. I've started throwing all kinds of things in those smoothies to try to get more nutrition into them. Blending oatmeal in has worked very well. Oh, and tomatoes....but only fresh from the garden ones. So far I've only used tomatoes in our meal once...Joseph has eaten the rest.

Everything else is a toss up as to whether he will eat it or not. I know he likes blackberries now and we'll see what he thinks of cantaloupe and zucchini later. He's pretty iffy on peaches, but I don't care...I could eat that whole bag!!

Anyway, I do try not to get totally stressed by it (sometimes I'm unsuccessful). I keep telling myself that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Try to stay cool everyone!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Cooking with the Shaws - Sour Cream Pound Cake


I am so sorry that I didn't post any recipes last week!! I was having kind of a lazy week...and when I had time to spare I just didn't want to spend it uploading pictures and typing blogs. Not like it's hard, but sometimes that's just who I am. :) I did a lot of reading, watching movies and tv, and playing video games last week. I did do some cooking and baking though and have not fallen behind in my quest for 100 recipes in the next year. I just have fallen behind in my posting those recipes. So I am going to be trying to catch up this week.

This one is a doozy. I had seen this wonderful looking dessert in Martha Stewart Living with pound cake and fresh peaches and whipped cream. So, I made Rosie's Sour Cream Pound Cake (p 220).

I am new to baking cakes from scratch. I was pretty scared of scratch cakes. Then when I started emulating Martha Stewart, I starting trying them out....Martha doesn't make no box cakes. :) I still get nervous, but this one turned out really well. Be sure to have all your ingredients at room temp before starting.

Sour Cream Pound Cake
2 sticks butter (or margarine)
3 c sugar
6 eggs
1 c sour cream
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla

Sift flour and measure.

Sift flour twice with soda and set aside.

Cream butter and add sugar slowly, beating constantly to cream well.

Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Add sour cream.

Add flour mixture 1/2 c at a time. Beat well.

Stir in vanilla.

Turn into a well greased and floured tube pan.

Bake at 325 for 1 hr 15 min. Test after 1 hr.

As you can see from my picture, I did not use a tube pan. This cake made 2 loaf pan cakes. I put one in the freezer for later and used the other for my peaches and cream cake. The bake time was about the same though.

If you want to make the peaches and cream cake above, here's how:

Pit 4 medium ripe peaches and slice into wedges. Taste for sweetness. If desired, add 1 Tbsp sugar.

Cut cake into 3 sections lengthwise. Layer bottom section with peaches and top with whipped cream (I used cool whip...it took about 3/4 container). Repeat for center layer. Place top layer on top (duh) and garnish with peach slices, whipped cream, and mint if you are feeling extra fancy. Chill or serve immediately. Freezes well.

Enjoy!

If you want to

Monday, July 11, 2011

Stuff


First of all, I would like to say Happy Birthday to Shelby. He is 3 today. No, he doesn't read my blog...it's kinda hard to work the keyboard with paws. :) It's hard to believe we have had him over 2 years now. Even though he has his issues, I wouldn't trade him for any dog in the world.

It was a pretty good weekend here. I did a good 4 mile run early Sunday morning which was a nice way to get the day started. I also finished my 2 Shaw recipes for the week....posts to come later.

It was a sad weekend for the garden. I ended up pulling up my corn because it was already all tasseled out and had no ears. :( Also I had pulled up our potatoes last week and got MAYBE 2 pounds of potatoes. Grrr. All of this was on one side of the garden, so we pulled it all up and are going to get it ready to our fall garden. Maybe we will have better luck. I mixed a bunch of our compost into the soil and maybe that will help. Live and learn as I always say.

Well, I hear a little one rustling around in his crib waking up from his nap, so I had better get to getting. :)

Friday, July 8, 2011

Cooking with the Shaws: Barbequed Chicken and Squash Patties


I thought I might have a problem with my "Cooking with the Shaws" Project this week. I went to the grocery Monday and spent all of our weekly food budget but hadn't decided what to make out of the Shaw Cookbook so I didn't buy anything for that. One of the good things about this cookbook is that there are a lot of recipes that use things that I almost always have on hand. So, I picked Aunt Pete's Barbequed Chicken (p 137) and Linda's Squash Patties (p 202).

I love this barbeque chicken of Aunt Pete's. I also love that her comment on the recipe is that she was "not a good griller" and that is why she created this oven barbeque recipe. I'm not a good griller either, and so this suits me.

It's got a lot of ingredients but don't be scared. You're basically making your own BBQ sauce. I went ahead and made the whole recipe of sauce even though I was only cooking 3 breasts. I just jarred the rest and will use it later.

Here's what you need:
2 chickens (pieces of your choice)
2 sliced onions (less if you use less chicken. I think I used 1/2 of one, but we aren't big onion eaters)
sauce:
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp red pepper
1 Tbsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp chili powder
3/4 c ketchup
3/4 c water

Place chicken pieces in roasting pan and cover with sliced onions.
Mix other ingredients and pour over chicken and onions.
Bake for about 1 hour.
Remove chicken to Pyrex dish and bake for 20 minutes or until brown.

Ok, Aunt Pete did not specify an oven temp. I just did 375. Also, since I was using boneless skinless chicken breasts, I baked them for 30 minutes and then removed the onions, basted them with sauce, and put them back in for 10 minutes to brown. I also just did it all in a pyrex dish because I hate having extra dishes to wash.

The verdict: The chicken was moist and delicious. The sauce was nice and spicy, but not overly so (or Michael wouldn't have eaten it).

Now the Squash Patties were a revelation. I got some good fresh squash from my parents this past weekend. Neither Michael nor I are big fans of squash but I thought maybe I could find some way that we liked it. Well, I did. Yes, it includes frying, but MAN, they were so good!!

Squash Patties (makes about 14)
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Dash pepper
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 c cooked, mashed squash
1/2 c self rising flour

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Drop by tablespoon into 1/2 inch of hot oil in a large skillet.
Flatten patties to 1/4 in thick.
Fry until golden brown.

My patty "dough" was kinda runny so there was no controlling the thickness, etc. It kinda fried like a funnel cake. They also cook really fast so be ready with your plate to put them on. But do try them....they are fantastic.

Ok, that is 3 recipes down...97 to go!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Happy 4th!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! We had a wonderful weekend in Tennessee with family. I got to see some cousins that I haven't seen in a long time and it was wonderful to watch all the kids play together.

I also learned that Joseph is not a fan of the lake. He wasn't big on being on the boat and he SCREAMED when I got him in the water. He didn't even want to be around me after I had been in the lake. Weirdo. But he had a blast when he was on dry land.

We came back to Frankfort Sunday night because we ran in the Great Buffalo Chase 5K on Monday. It has become our July 4th tradition. In the 6 years we have been running, we have only missed one Buffalo Chase and that was the year I broke my ankle. It's a really good race. The course is flat and fast and they offer $1000 to the winner, so some really fast people come out.

We have been fortunate that it hasn't been overly hot any of the years we ran the Buffalo Chase. This year it was 70ish (but humid). It spit some rain on us during my 2nd mile, but I didn't mind and Joseph didn't seem to care.

We did pretty good. I was about a minute slower than I wanted to be, but I was happy with my time since I was pushing the stroller which slows me down. I ran it in 34:57 and Michael ran it in 28:47. The winner ran it in 14:23 I think. That's moving.

Afterward, Joseph had a blast playing in the coolers of gatorade and eating oranges and bananas. He was a social butterfly as usual.

We were pretty bushed afterward. We grilled burgers and hotdogs and I made a hot potato salad that I've been wanting to make (delish) using our potatoes and some from my parent's garden. I dug up our potatoes and was disappointed to find that we didn't have many. Live and learn.

Then I fell asleep watching a movie. Fun times.

Today we joined the YMCA, so I'm pretty excited about that. Also, we have been doing this challenge between ourselves where we do a minute of situps, pushups, burpies, and jump lunges and do a 1 mile run. Each category is worth a dollar to whoever improves the most. We also weigh in and whoever loses the most gets $5. But we included Joseph in the weigh in and if he gains a larger % than we lose, he wins. He won tonight. But we were both happy about that. Michael and I were split on the exercises and Michael did his run early and improved his mile time by 17 seconds. I just knew I would never beat that. But...I DID! I ran my mile in 9:11 tonight which is a 37 second improvement!! Woo Hoo! Show me the money! I am $3 richer tonight.

Life is good. :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Cooking with the Shaws - Mom's Red Beans and Rice


I know I promised I would have my first Shaw Family Cookbook post yesterday, but obviously that didn't happen. Yesterday was super busy trying to get ready to go out of town this weekend. We are going to my parents' house in Tennessee. All my cousins on my dad's side are getting together for the first time in I don't even know when. One of my cousins lives in Maryland and the other in Colorado. The other 2 live in middle Tennessee but I still don't see them often. So, I'm pretty excited. They all have kids and it'll be fun for all of our kids to play together.

Anyway, after a day of packing and cleaning, I put Joseph to bed and went to the barn for a ride...and didn't come home until 11:30. I wasn't about to post then. The barn owners and their kids were out and we just sat around riding and talking for a few hours. It was so worth the tired eyes I had this morning.

Anyway, here is recipe 1. It's for "Mom's Red Beans and Rice." Submitted by Susan and Linda (I'm not putting any last names here). For those of you who have the cookbook (since I know a good bit of my readers are family...) this is on page 156 of what I believe is the first printing.

Mom's Red Beans and Rice

1 lb dried red beans
4 qts water
3/4 c chopped onion
3/4 c chopped celery
3/4 c chopped green pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 c margarine
2 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (recipe recommends Hungarian, but I didn't have any)
1 tsp dried whole thyme
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 lb smoked polish sausage, cut into 1 in pieces
1/2 c finely chopped fresh parsley

Ok, I didn't put green pepper in it since Michael and I are not green pepper fans. I also used 1/2 tsp of ground thyme instead of 1 tsp of whole thyme and I used smoked turkey sausage because we are on kind of a health kick.

I also didn't put in the fresh parsley because I forgot to go out to the garden and get it.

ANYWAY, all those things aside...here's what you do:
Sort, wash, soak beans (quick soak or overnight...the directions are on the bag). Drain the soak water and add 4 qts of water to the beans in a 6 qt dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 1 to 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Saute onions, celery, peppers, and garlic in butter until tender.

Stir sauteed veggies and next 6 ingredients into beans. Cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (add water if necessary).

Bake sausage at 350 for 20 minutes, drain well (you could probably omit this if you use turkey sausage...there is nothing to drain).

Stir sausage into bean mixture and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Remove bay leaves and serve over rice.

Michael was a big fan of this dish....as I knew he would be. That boy loves beans. Joseph even seemed to really like it. It's definitely going to be joining the regular rotation in our house, because, while it is time consuming, it is so simple and not very "hands on." I like that.

Enjoy!