Homemade Pizza Pie

Many years ago, my folks started getting deliveries from Sysco, which is basically a restaurant supplier. My dad placed the order and handled the boxes that arrived. That lasted for a few years, and during that time, their freezers and cupboards were full all the time. Joycie and Sammy loved it. Gramma and Grampa had HUGE boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios and Oreos. Then a Sam's Club came to a nearby town and then Gordon's, and so on. No more Sysco deliveries. I think they quit doing residential orders. I think my dad is still using styrofoam cups and lids from those Sysco years...

One thing they always had was frozen pizza dough balls. Dad and Mom would make the best pizza. Usually just tomato sauce with very few if any spices, lotsa, lotsa cheese and spicy good pepperoni. Really good pizza. Then, as it usually goes, the homemade pizza time waned.

I made a ton of pizza during that time, too. Had a lot of pizza parties. Bought some great pizza pans on sale after Christmas one year, the insulated kind with holes in it to make a nice well-baked bottom crust. I bought 8 of those large pizza pans, and used all 8 of them on many, many evenings.

We still buy take out pizza all the time. Last week, we spent over $55 on 2 pizzas and breadsticks from a local pizzeria (not a chain). Really good pizza. But then we make our own, and wonder why we ever buy pizza. Ours is so much better.

Now that it's usually just me and Kev for dinner, my favorite pan to make pizza in is an old Sunbeam electric fry pan; the kind that unscrews from the plastic feet and handles. That leaves a screw on the bottom of the pan, so it doesn't set on my counter flat... but three thick hand-crocheted potholders that my Mom made do the trick. It makes a nice kind of deep dish pizza. Thick crust anyway. Yum.

A few years ago, I caught a TV show on one of the food channels that is about 2 guys from New Jersey (I think) that go around and highlight pizzerias. Kinda like Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, only all pizza, all the time. They were at Buddy's in Detroit, and they showed how they make pizza there. Cheese on the dough then sauce. That's my style now, too.

I buy frozen pizza dough balls from Gordon's, the 17 oz. size. They come larger, I think, but 17 oz. is perfect.

I get a couple of balls out of the freezer in the morning, put them each in a gallon-size bag and liberally add olive oil. Then moosh them around in the bag so the dough and bag are both coated well with the oil. If I get them out later than planned, I'll set them on the stove top and turn the oven on.

Then let them set all day.  They thaw and rise.

When I'm ready to make the pizza, I turn the oven on to regular bake (not convection) to 500 degrees F. It takes my oven quite a while to get to 500 degrees. Then I, once again liberally, coat the bottom of my pan with olive oil.  Liberally and olive oil are words that go together often in our kitchen. Then put the dough in the pan; it deflates as you do it. Because I use so much olive oil, the dough slips right out of the bag.

I push the dough around and stretch it here and there to fill out the pan. Then I sprinkle on garlic powder, salt and pepper. I know the pepper is kinda odd, but Kev and I love black pepper. Next is the cheese. I don't use mozarella; I use a cheese I buy from an Amish store called "Farmer's Cheese." It's a kinda soft cheese, like moz, but it's creamier... it's really, really good. I buy a whole log of it at the store's deli counter, then take it home, cut it in chunks and freeze it. Sometimes I shred it and sometimes I just crumble it apart.

I use a LOT of cheese for one pizza. Then I put on the sauce, which for this pizza is plain tomato paste to which I added some beef broth to thin it out just a bit. I also use just tomato sauce (a large can) to which I add paste (a small can). Whatever is handy and whatever I feel like using. No herbs. I usually make more than I need, so I freeze the rest in bags, each bag enough for one pizza. It's pretty handy, coz I just cut the corner off the bag and squirt it all over. I also have been using a lot of Vadalia onions that I froze. I got them on sale (19 cents per pound!) and bought a huge bag, peeled them, cut them in half, sealed them in bags and froze them. I take them out of the freezer, in the microwave for 15 seconds, and easy to cut and slice. So easy and so good. Just as I was finishing making our pizza, Joycie called me and suggested putting parmesan cheese around the edge, so I did that this time. I had sent home a bag of dough for Joyce and Mike to make for their dinner (Joyce had the really good parm, I had the standard Kraft). Good call, Joycie!

Then I wait, for the oven, and also for the pizza dough and toppings to get to know one another really well while they're waiting in that pan. It's really good if you can just let it rest for about a half hour or more even. Since Kev was still outside working when I made this pizza, I had plenty of time to wait. Then into the oven, and for this pizza that's just cheese and onion (my fav), 8 minutes, turn the pan so the front's to the back for even baking, and then another 5 minutes. (With more toppings, more like 8 minutes then another 8 or 9 minutes. Not long though, coz 500 is pretty hot.)

Smells so good. And because of the liberally applied olive oil, nice and crispy, and slips right out of the pan onto the cutting board.

Two pieces is super filling. Kev ate 3 and then took the last 3 into work for his lunch the next day.

It's not really good to nuke the leftover pieces... soggyish. Kev put them in foil and heated them up in the toaster oven they have at work. Really excellent that way.

This pizza was so good, that I made pizza again last night. Cheeseburger pizza, which is ketchup squirted on top of the sauce (that's on top of the Farmer's cheese), then fried ground beef (lots of it, and fried really dark), then onion, then some good shredded cheddar, then a bit more sauce (tomato sauce and paste this time) with a little more squirts of ketchup. Freakin' yum!

And the best part, easy clean up, and doesn't cost $55...

Bob Talbert's White Chili Recipe from The Detroit Free Press

Back in January of 1992, Kev gave me a portion of a page torn from the Detroit Free Press that had Bob Talbert's column on it. It was before the Super Bowl game (01/26/1992, the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills, 37-24), and it had a recipe for White Chili that the Talbert family would make for Super Bowl Sunday. Back then, putting chicken in chili was something Very New. Now you can find white chili on menus of all sorts of chain restaurants. Whenever I make this chili, it's always a hit. I'll give you Bob's recipe as it appeared in his column, and then I'll tell you how I tweak it. (Thanks to Traverse City Record-Eagle for the text of Bob's recipe.)

Bob Talbert's White Chili
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 14-oz. cans chicken broth
3 16-oz. cans white beans, with liquid
2 c. finely chopped white onions
2 T. fresh minced garlic
1 T. olive oil
4-oz. can chopped green chilis with liquid
2 heaping t. cumin
2 level t. oregano
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
Dash red hot or Tabasco sauce
Poach or bake the breasts at 350ø for 30 minutes. Chop into bite-size cubes.
In a large soup or chili pot. pour the chicken broth and add the 3 cans of white beans with liquid. Keep the heat low.
In separate pan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Stir in the green chilis with liquid. Add that mixture to the pot with the beans and broth; add chicken. Stir in cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and hot sauce. Heat until it starts to bubble, about 10 minutes. Serve with cornbread.

Here's what I do, pretty much using all the ingredients above:

Put about 2, 3 or 4 nice, fat skinless boneless chicken breasts (you decide how much chicken you want) in baking dish (light spray oil first), generously sprinkle Mrs. Dash original blend (yellow cap) and extra spicy blend (bright red cap) on chicken, cover and bake at about 350 deg. for an hour or so. Remove from oven, take lid off and let cool a bit. Stab yourself one of the pieces of chicken out of the lovely juices in the pan, put it on a cutting board and chop away. You'll want the bite-sized pieces. Put the pieces back into the pan and swirl them around in the juices. Set aside.

In a large Dutch oven (this, not this) or soup pan, saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent and the smell is absolutely heavenly. Add the chopped chicken and its juice. Pour in a large box of chicken broth, 48 oz. or equivalent to about 6 cups. I like to include The Good Stuff if I have some, you can use whatever you want. How much broth you add also depends on how much you got from baking the chicken, and how thick or thin you want your chili. Remember, you can always add more broth, so maybe start with just some of it...

Add the beans, I like to use Great Northern and other white beans, whatever you have on hand, and include the juice. I like a variety of beans not only coz it tastes good, but also it's aesthetically pleasing to me. I may use 4 cans of beans if I'm in the mood; I'm a fan of beans. Add the can of green chilis - and make sure you get the peeled and chopped kind. And again, I may add 2 cans, not just 1. Toss in the oregano, ground cumin and cayenne to your taste. (I never measure spices when I cook... do you?) I usually pass on the Tabasco sauce. Not by choice, but coz I usually just forget it for some reason.

Stir and let cook on medium-low heat until well heated through, longer for more flavor blend. I don't make this chili in a crock pot, but I will often put it into a crock pot to keep it warm while serving, especially at potlucks.

We then have available a variety of temperatures of salsas for garnish (Kev likes the really hot stuff), as well as sour cream and shredded cheese. Your choice on the cheese, a Mexican blend is nice. Eh, whatever's on sale will work.

Corn bread is nice with it, too. I usually just whip up a box or 2 of Jiffy corn muffin mix into which I add sugar and maybe a little extra milk, so it's more like Johnnycake. (Where I come from, Johnnycake is sweetened corn bread - Johnnycake is usually more moist, where corn bread can be kinda dry.) We usually have tortilla chips with our white chili.

Like all chilis, the more you heat it up, the better it gets. On this chili, make sure your significant other also eats this chili with you, otherwise he or she probably won't be able to stand your breath in bed. Seriously.

As I write this blog post, the sun is shining and there are 5 male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at our bird feeder and in the dwarf magnolia next to it, along with a couple of the pretty brown and white females.


We've had lot of birds this year, including a Baltimore (Northern) Oriole, and he's really pretty...



and so is the more-yellow-than-orange female.

I'll give you one hint, honey, you sure did put on a show

This morning on the way into work I saw 2 Budweiser semi-trucks. Great big red ones. I called my husband. Since Kev left for work a little bit earlier than I did, he saw only 1 of them. I told him the universe had sent us a sign. It wanted us to stay home from work today and drink Bud. We should obey. But... sadly, he didn't buy it.

I haven't had beer in a while, but I had a few this past Saturday evening. An ice cold beer on a hot muggy evening was very nice. Several were even nicer. Ryan and Megan, two awesome CMU students who were working at the pottery studio, were putting on a wood fire. Ryan had built the wood fire kiln, etc. outside behind the studio building, so we took our lawn chairs and watched them work. And oh my heck, what a great amount of work those 2 did. I took some really cool pictures and will do a post on that.

After we got home, even though it was quite late (for me) and waaaaay past my usual bedtime, I was wide awake. Sammy, Kev and I, and Wiley, ended up watching some TV. We watched a recorded episode of "Royal Pains", the "Comfort's Overrated" episode. This one had a guy who did a "Mac Truck" business, and he sold mac & cheese with lobster out of his truck. It was a good episode, and we like that show.

Kev and Wiley fell asleep together on the sofa. Sammy and I were still wide awake... so we did the best we could with what we had... no mac & cheese with lobster (man! that looked really good on the show, and I'm sure this recipe from Barefoot Contessa would be close or even better!), but we did make Tuna Helper Creamy Broccoli... at about midnight! The box said it would serve 4, but Sam and I split it while watching the latest episode of "Persons Unknown". And though I've heard that show has had some bad reviews, Sammy and I really are enjoying it. It's weird. We're big fans of weird.

I've been trying to listen to the radio station that Sam likes, 102.5. I usually can't stand most of the songs, but there are couple that are ok. Which is a good thing because every single time I turned to 102.5 I hear one of the 2 songs... one about "you think you're cooler than me" and one about "Alonso Fernando". Seriously, I think 102.5 has those 2 songs on a constant repeat, kinda like the French language distress message on "Lost"... over and over. And over.

I listened to 102.5, heard the "you think you're cooler than me", switched over to an "oldies rock 'n roll" station to hear the Stones "Under My Thumb", which would have to be the antithesis song to the 102.5... followed by the most awesome Billy Joel and his song, "Big Shot"... ah, the irony.

Odds and Ends

I’ve been sick with a flu or cold or whatever the heck it is for so long, and with the Seriously Quite Majestic Cough I’ve had, I have been staying home from the office and working from home. For some reason, instead of sitting at my computer desk, I’ve been settling myself quite comfortably in the much-loved recliner with my trusty wood desk and my laptop with a 50’ cable attaching to the router (cable is faster than wireless at my house, and yeah, my cable speed wouldn’t blow you away). I find I have been working on and off pretty much morning, noon and night. The downside... after 4 weeks of this, I have discovered this comfortable position supports my neck perhaps too much. I worked in the office all day this past Thursday, and sitting upright with no neck support whatsoever just about did me in. I am still recovering and my neck is hurting. And I’m sitting in the recliner as I type this... Oy!

For some reason, I have been using “Oy!” a lot. Probably too much. But I am trying to clean up my language. 2008 found me cussing much, much more than I usually do, and I was fond of cuss words prior to 2008, so... Oy!

The other evening while I was working on my laptop, sitting in the recliner, and Kev had the TV on watching football stuff... the college boys’ Combine 24-7, then lately all the free agent stuff... It’s all a blur to me. But I did see one guy, a free agent named Albert Hainsworth, talking about his deal with the Redskins for a hundred mil. The money I’ve been hearing has been making me gag. Whatever. And then during Hainsworth’s talk about the deal, Kev said, “Yeah, and let’s not forget he’s the guy that stomped on a guy’s head.” WTF?!! says I. I mean, What the Oy!... So I Googled him. He did stomp on a guy’s head, an opposing team player who did not have his helmet on at the time. Actually, Hainsworth stomped once and missed Cowboy’s Andre Gurode’s head, so he stomped a second time and connected with the man’s face... Andre had to have something like 30 stitches and had blurry vision from the stomp. Lucky that was all. Hainsworth is 6’6” and weighs well over 300 pounds. This happened in 2006, so Hainsworth was maybe 24 years old. I don’t care how much he apologized, how much “anger management” or counseling he got afterwards or how he made amends... If you’re 6’6” and weigh about 320 pounds, you know damn well how powerfully strong you are. In my opinion, Hainsworth should have been kicked out of pro football never to return. I bet Gurode’s family and friends would agree with me. If Andre were my son, for example, I would be angered beyond belief to hear about this one hundred mil deal. Hainsworth should be forced to give half of it to medical research or medical facilities for head injuries.

Speaking of injuries, my Mom had knee replacement surgery this past Wednesday. The surgery went well, and Mom came home from the hospital yesterday. She is so strong. She’s the strongest 72 year old woman I know. Heck, she’s stronger than a lot of people I know who are 20 years younger. I know my Mom has dealt with pain most of her adult life, having had back surgery way back years & years ago. She’s done so much with pain that would put many people down. The way she’s handled this surgery is amazing, and the hip replacement surgery she had last year. My Mom is amazing! I wanna be like my Mom!

Kev is finally my age again. He turned 48 on March 1st. Sammy made him a coconut cake, from scratch, recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. I was sick, and couldn’t really taste how wonderfully yummy the cake was, but Kevin enjoyed it very much. Joycie & Mike drove into town and got wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, so dinner was nice, too... Kev likes those wings. Now Kev and I are the same age for about a month, until I turn 49. I think 49 is like 39; it’s just not real. When you’re 49, eh, you’re 50. Just admit it.

I recently had a conversation at work about payroll and handling some things, and a person said something like, “...especially when we’re dealing with bargained-for employees...”. I hear this kind of comment pretty often working in a payroll setting. For some reason, there are a lot of folks who are anti-Union. For payroll, yes, Union employees are more work. But so are the other end of the spectrum, the special circumstances in a payroll system for the highly compensated employees also cause extra work. So why the negative feelings toward Union employees? I don’t get it. My husband is a Union member, so I am very pro-Union. I know Unions are not perfect. Is there politics? Is there corruption? Is there narcissism? Yes. Where there are humans involved in a group setting, those things exist. Become active in your local Little League board, and you’ll see all that. You can’t pin those negative characteristics on something as unique solely to Unions. Kev worked in a building where the building manager was a total asshole named Mark Wanus. If it hadn’t been for the Union, that jerk would have accomplished his goal of getting Kev fired. Wanus talked to the Union employees like they were trash, with total disrespect. If my boss talked to me the way Wanus talked to the Union employees, men and women, in that building, my boss’ ass would in the ringer with HR. So, yes, I am pro-Union.

It’s staying lighter longer. Lighter longer. Lighter longer. I love saying that. Spring is coming. I can’t wait. I go around humming sing-song “lighter longer” repetitively to myself, and it feels so good.

Reilly got a good brushing from Sammy yesterday, and it looks like he lost weight. The Furminator works so well. It’s funny, that dog adores Kev so much, and when Kev gets home from work, Reilly is beside himself with joy. But then, when Mike arrives, Reilly is overjoyed. Then Reilly follows Mike around like a shadow. He’s next to him or watching him constantly. He always sleeps with Sammy on Sammy’s bed... except when Mike’s here, then he sleeps near Mike. Reilly is totally in love with Mike. Just like Joycie.

Quick Red Beans & Rice with Sausage recipe

Today was a gorgeous day. Sunny and warm. All the ice has left the pond. We still have a few little bits of snow here and there, but it was almost t-shirt weather.

Kevin and Sammy spent the afternoon cutting, splitting and stacking wood. They've set up a new area for stacking by leveling some sand out (sand that Kev took out of the pond), and now they have lots more room for pallets and rows.



Our pantry is getting kind of bare, since we haven't gotten groceries in so long... Kev's just been picking some up here and there, since I can't get out to do grocery shopping proper. He had bought some Johnsonville brats and Polish sausages the other day, and we still had the sausages... So I thought I'd make red beans & rice for dinner for my hungry boys. From scratch, because that's what I had to work with. I got online and started to look for a recipe. There are only about a zillion out there. Each one I looked at required hours of cooking, like in a crock pot, or overnight with the beans, or something like 24 different ingredients. Ugh. I'm more of the Rachel Ray make dinner in 30 minutes type. So I said to heck with the 'net and rolled up my sleeves. I made a red beans and rice with sausage that was quick and easy, and it turned out super duper delicious! Here's my recipe...

Quick Red Beans & Rice with Sausage

In large pan, such as Dutch oven (I used a wok fry pan), melt about 1/3 stick of butter.
Chop 1 medium onion, medium sized pieces, add to melted butter.
Slice 6 sausages on the diagonal and add to onions and butter.
Sprinkle with Tony Chacheres’; to taste.
Cook until well done.

Then add the following:
“Chicken Juice*” about 2 cups, or 1 can (or 2 cups) or so of chicken broth
About 1.5 cups Minute Rice
1 small can El Pato tomato sauce
2 cans red beans, your choice, drained and rinsed

Cover and cook about 15 or 20 minutes.

Serve with sweet corn bread muffins, aka johnny cake muffins. I use the Jiffy mix, and since I didn't have any eggs, I substituted a big spoonful of Activia vanilla yogurt again (like with Sammy's waffles yesterday, which is what I had in the 'fridge), plus I added about a tablespoon of sugar. They were sweet and yummy, soft, moist and chewy... I think the yogurt for eggs is a permanent substitution.



It was really good. Kev added more Tony C.'s to his, but the El Pato made mine spicy enough. Sammy even liked it.

*Chicken Juice is the juice from baking chickens, The Good Stuff, that I've mentioned before... this chicken juice adds so much to other recipes & makes them so good. And when I bake a couple of chickens like that, the meat disappears... it's so good, it's gone quickly. Since I always pick over the carcass and give the ukky pieces to Barn & Betty (our dogs), with a little to the cats, too, nothing goes to waste on those birds. I put the juice into one of those Ziploc containers in the freezer for just such days as this. This juice was from early January, before my surgery. I've done next to no cooking since then, so today it felt good to not only cook again, but to make up a recipe... and have it turn out so good that Kev told me 5 times how much he liked it.

I can see for miles and miles

I loves me a challenge, & the challenge of trying to find something on the Internet is a type of research I can really enjoy. Especially now since we have high speed 'net instead of ye olde dial up. And also especially when many of my waking hours are spent in a chair keeping my head still... So here I am, Detective JT, at your service...

I kept thinking about Darren's chili recipe that I mentioned in this post. I remembered it was something called his hometown name chili, and I was certain it was a city in Ohio, like Columbus Chili or Cincinnati Chili or Cleveland Chili... so I did a Google image search on Ohio chili. Which led me to a blog called Not Eating Out in NY and gave me the answer: Cincinnati Chili! Not just chili, The Famous Cincinnati Chili.

Side Note: My link above to the blog, Not Eating Out in NY, doesn't necessarily mean I'm recommending it to you, but only because I haven't read much of it yet... I was quite excited to find what I was trying to remember (Cincinnati chili) that I moved on to my continued research for Darren's recipe. But this blog looks very interesting, and I am looking forward to perusing it further. And, hey, anyone who quotes Thoreau in their about me bit on their blog gets good points in my book. I also really like her blog layout.

So, back to my research. I found some cached pages on Google searches. Then, thanks to a handy little thing called the “Internet Archive Wayback Machine,” I finally found Darren’s Cincinnati Chili recipe. Yay!

You can see the complete, original post, text only, here and the post title is, "Onions... Chili Powder... Cumin... Juicy Ground Chuck? It's Chili!"; though no photos. (If that link doesn't work for you, try this one and click on the January 26, 2007 link there.)

It’s worth the read, because as I’ve said, he’s a talented writer.

This is an excerpt from his post; you should check out the Camp Washington Chili web site he recommends.

I should tell you, though, that what you’re about to make is really only a homemade approximation of Cincinnati chili. For the real thing, you’ll have to go to the city this chili hails from and order it from a place called Camp Washington Chili. Don’t waste your time with Skyline or Gold Star.

Side Note: Not Eating Out in NY would seem to agree with Darren's opinion on Skyline. Interesting, eh.

So here is Darren's recipe for Cincinnati Chili...

Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs. ground beef
2 11 oz. cans dark red kidney beans
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
3 bay leaves (remove before serving)
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. un-sweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp. chili powder
½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. all spice
½ tsp. cardamom
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper

Brown the ground beef and drain. If you want to be a purest and get the ground beef as finely ground as possible, put it in a food processor or a blender for a few seconds after you’ve drained it. Put everything into your crock-pot and stir it up. Simmer on low heat for five to seven hours, stirring thoroughly once every hour. Good luck staying out of it because, jeeze Louise, your whole house is going to smell like heaven for the rest of the afternoon. Serve over well cooked spaghetti noodles, top with a mound of finely shredded cheddar cheese, and then smother that mo-fo in some sort of cayenne hot sauce, preferably Frank’s. What you end up with will look like this:

[Note: this is not Darren’s photo.]


A word about the plates. You can, I suppose, eat Cincinnati chili on a regular round plate. However, if you want to eat this dish the way God intended, you’ll serve the chili on eleven and a half inch white oval platters.

I ordered mine from Fishs Eddy.

I did some half-hearted research on white oval platters like the one Darren got at Fishs Eddy, and truly, I think he got a good deal on them at about six bucks each. When I make Darren's recipe, we will be eating this chili on our usual everyday plates, however, because as much as I would really like to order some of those platters (me want!), CMU keeps wanting our money (we just recently paid Joycie's Spring semester tuition and books bill... ouch; though to her credit, Joycie's scholarships have helped).

I had mentioned I got the tip about using a potato masher while browning ground beef to make it fine from Darren's post, and I don't see that suggestion in the text... maybe it was in the comments, or perhaps in a different post. I stick to my original credit to Darren, though. Coz it works really well, and I'm stubborn that way.

Beef & Noodles

Yesterday morning, Kev and I put a couple of roasts into the crockpot & let ‘em cook all day. We had it over egg noodles for dinner, and it was really good. Really good. Ask Kev... he’s told me about 5 or 6 times so far how good it was. And he's taking some more (the last of it) into work with him tonight, so I'm pretty sure I'll hear it again from him, at least one more time.



I will tell you how we made it, but first I have to tell you about baking chickens. It’s possible I’ve already done a post about the baked chicken recipe I always use, because it’s wonderful. This is a recipe I got from Sandy, from whom I get all my best recipes! I remember that it’s called “Poulet Provence,” but I long ago lost my sheet of paper it was on & go just from memory now. My kids call it baked chicken. As in make baked chicken please. They love it.

I always bake 2 whole chickens at once, and I use one of my big, oval roasting pans. Clean the chickens well & lay them breast down in the pan. Pour some olive oil over top of each, drizzling it all over, about a quarter cup or so per bird. Now for the garlic. Yum. I usually use the chopped stuff in jars, and I take a couple of large spoonfuls per bird and sprinkle it all over. Then generously sprinkle with Fines Herbs, which is an herb blend consisting of parsley, chives, chervil & tarragon. I’ve also used Herbs de Provence blends, & the last one I bought had chervil, basil, rosemary, tarragon, garlic, lavender, marjoram, savory, thyme and parsley in it. That one was very nice, but I prefer the simple Fines Herbs. Cover the pan and bake at about 325 degrees F. for about 4 hours or so. Can adjust temperature and cooking time, as you prefer. Bake at least 2.5 hours, though. This isn’t something you want to rush. I usually take the cover off the last half hour. The meat will fall off the bones, and it will be some of the most tender, melt-in-your-mouth chicken you’ve ever had.

After dinner is over, and the birds are cooled, I always pull all the good meat off the carcasses, and we eat it for the next day or 2 (if it lasts 2 days). I also put all the yukky stuff aside, like the skin, fatty parts, etc., carefully removing all the bones (especially those little, hard to find ones), and we give some of that stuff to Barney & Betty for the next couple of days, too. They love it.

In the pan with the chickens will be a lot of juice. This is The Good Stuff. We usually pour a little over our chicken. There is always more juice than we use on the chickens, and I save the leftover. I put it in an old Tupperware container and pop it in the freezer. It is good for so many things. Like in cooking roast beef in the crockpot.

This is how we made our roast beef yesterday. When we got the roasts out of the freezer the night before, I also took the container of chicken juice out. Kev trimmed the thawed roasts and cut them into chunks, probably quartering the roasts or so... big pieces. While he did that, I dumped 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup & 1 can of cream of chicken soup into the crockpot. Then I added some milk, probably about 2 cups or more. Maybe 3... I wasn’t measuring, just pouring. Then I took the container of The Good Stuff... the grease and oils had separated from the chicken juice, and I scraped as much of that out as I could. The chicken juice, thawed, is the consistency of jello, so I popped in the mic for a couple of minutes to liquify it, poured the liquid into the crockpot, nuked it again, and so on, until it was all liquid again and in the crockpot. I didn’t want to nuke it too long, for one thing, it would ruin my old Tupperware container. It was about a quart of chicken juice, slightly less. I stirred the contents up well and tossed in the roast, covered the pot and turned it on high. Left it to cook for about 6 hours, then took the lid off, stirred it, and let it continue cooking for a couple more hours. Leaving the lid off while it cooked on high reduced the sauce a little more. Before serving, I took the chunks of roast out, carefully because they were falling apart, and I tore & cut them into bite size pieces, sorting out the fatty portions as I went (Barney & Betty were happy with those). I put all the meat back into the gravy, and served it over cooked egg noodles, with freshly ground pepper. Heaven.

In lieu of the chicken juice, I suppose you could use a couple of cans of chicken broth, then add garlic and herbs into the crockpot... (But it won't be the same as using The Good Stuff.)

And there ya go... 2 easy & heavenly recipes for the price of 1... so don’t say I never gave you nothin’.

Company French Toast

Here's my recipe for "Company French Toast" (aka "Overnight French Toast")...

6 eggs
1 & 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
ground cinnamon, to your taste (we like a lot of it)

Mix above together well.

Take 1 loaf (about 1 pound) of French bread and slice it into thick slices. I usually go about an inch or so.

Spray oil on the bottom and sides of a 9x13 inch cake pan or any kind of dish that strikes your fancy of about the same size. Pour some of the egg mixture into the bottom, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Arrange the bread slices in the pan so there's one layer. Feel free to cut them to fit. Or squish them to fit. It's like a bread mosaic, so have fun with it! Once your mosaic masterpiece is finished, pour the rest of the egg goo all over the top of it. Make sure you coat the tops of all the bread slices. The egg mixture won't cover the slices, or maybe it will, depending upon your artwork. Doesn't matter. Cover the dish and put in the fridge... if you're making this for breakfast, leave it in overnight, if you're making this for dinner, prepare in the morning and leave it in there all day. You'll want at least 4 or 5 hours, minimum. This ain't a dish you'll decide to make at the last minute... this here's a plan-ahead thing.

Take the dish out of your cold fridge about 1/2 hour or so before you plan to bake it. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Uncover the pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Serve with maple syrup... and enjoy!

The recipe I found on the 'net called for the corn syrup, brown sugar and butter to be heated in a saucepan - not mixed in with the eggs, but rather to become the bottom layer of the dish. I also like to add cinnamon to that, and some pecans for Kev. The only thing is this bottom layer can become kinda hard, like sticky taffy. My family prefers the all-together version, as I described above.

Here's a photo of what it looks like if you have too much wine* before serving dinner and leave it in the oven a bit too long...


Our friends John & Canice, and Molly, Mikayla, Jack & Noah came out for a visit yesterday, and I made breakfast-for-dinner. (Hi Canice!) It was wonderful to see them all again. These are 4 of the best kids you would want to visit your home. They're all adorable, & they're so well behaved. Kudos to John & Canice! I can't believe I didn't take any photos last night. *sigh*

John brought a bunch of different, unusual kinds of beer, and he and Kev had their own little beer tasting party. Methinks Kev had plenty, since it's mid-morning and he is still in bed! 'Course, it may not be due to the beer, but to the kazillion strange hours he's had to work lately... my poor Kev is in need of a good sleep. And deserving of.

*Pinot grigio & orange juice go together pretty well, by the way... not quite as festive as a mimosa, but A-OK in my book. And I'm lovin' the Fish Eye Pinot. Yum.

Cheeseball a la Luke

I was talking the other with someone about how long I have worked for the company that’s my employer... from the time I started in my senior year in high school as a co-op (short for co-operative education work program, or something like that), I passed the 29-year mark this past June. Sounds like a helluva long time, doesn’t it? Doesn’t seem like it. Hmmm.

Anyway, that got me thinking back to my co-op days... and I remembered this one older guy, named Luke, who was such a nice guy. He retired not too long after I had started working there, and he died quite a few years after that.... which was a long time ago. Luke did a lot of things in the department where I worked; he was the problem-solver guy. He was always quick with a smile, and he had a ton of jokes. Good ones, funny ones. Not blasting anyone. Mostly the kind about husbands & wives or hunters & deer, good clean fun. Well, sometimes a little, teensy bit risqué. Think Reader’s Digest. This was back in the days before e-mail. Yes, the Dark Ages. Luke had a hanging file full jokes, some that had been run through copy machines so many times, they were all dotted and smeared looking. Sometimes I’d sit in Luke’s office and we’d drink a cup of coffee & hit the joke file. Good times.

Every Friday was Apple Fritter day, courtesy of Luke. He’d go to this local bakery and buy a bunch of fresh apple fritters... they were so good. Still warm and gooey, cinnamon and apples. Mmmm. That bakery is still around, but the old owners are long gone, and the apple fritters just aren’t the same. At all.

Back then, anything was used as a reason to have a “goodie day,” birthdays, new grandchildren, promotions, return from a long vacation, weddings, engagements, pregnancies, anything. We were a large department, but everyone knew everyone and any little thing could trigger a celebration. Goodie days meant everyone brought in treats. Except if it was your birthday, then you did not... everyone brought treats in for you & sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to you. Goodie days still occur at work, but with much, much less frequency. Just not healthy, you know. And usually no singing, either. Too busy for that.

Luke would often bring in his famous cheeseball. One day, I finally asked him for the recipe. He jotted down the ingredients on a piece of paper, and I still have it. Cream cheese, chipped beef or deli ham, green onions, Worcestershire sauce, grated cheddar. Put in as much as you want according to your own taste, mix it up, form a ball and roll it and pat it in chopped walnuts.

Guess what I made.


Yum!

Venison Chili, simple & quick

I like to cook, but sometimes ya just wanna get dinner on the table... this venison chili recipe is one way to do that quickly & easily. The hardest part is opening all the cans.



Just fry up about 2 pounds of ground venison, and I use about a half stick of real butter to fry it since the venison meat is so lean. Depending on the dish I'm making, I may substitute water for the butter when frying up ground venison, but the butter is good with the chili. I also finely chop an onion and fry it with the meat, along with a good dose of chili powder... oh, and salt & pepper, too, 'course. I usually also put in some ground cumin, but my cumin bottle was empty today. I think cumin has been on the grocery list for a while...

Then I open all these cans... chili beans (have to go mild for the kiddos), pinto beans, light red kidney beans, tomato sauce & chicken broth. The chicken broth is the secret ingredient. When the meat is good & brown, I just dump it all in. That's pretty much it. Let it cook for a while, and it's dinnertime.

We usually garnish the bowl of chili with shredded sharp cheddar & some sour cream, with more chili powder. Kev also likes to put some of our homemade salsa on it, too.



It was a good dinner... and the talk at the table was all about seeing no deer today at all. A very unusual first day of rifle season... to see not even one is pretty odd. I heard gunshots throughout the morning, so some hunters were having better luck. Our northern property line borders state-owned property, and that property always sees a few hunters, especially on Opening Day.

Sammy did pretty well, and he got about 3 hours of sleep after 8:30am. Joycie said she got most of her book read today. They all had a good time out in the woods, in spite of the absence of deer.

The Farm and Household Cyclopædia

I've mentioned before that I love books. Through the years, I have collected some old books. Mostly they are not in very good shape, and sometimes they’re in pretty awful shape. But all still readable. As in you can tell what the words are on the pages. Some of them have turned out to be not very readable, as in I cannot figure out what they’re trying to say because the language is so old-fashioned or I cannot possibly read this for one more minute because it is so asinine. Sometimes these old books are entertaining. Like my copy of “The Farm and Household Cyclopædia.”


It is by no means the oldest book I own, but it’s old.


The preface begins, “The purpose of this volume is to supply a ready reference library of useful facts and suggestions for farmers and housekeepers.” The author has compiled tidbits of information he gleaned from a variety of sources, including “leading agricultural journals of this country and Europe.” It includes everything from floor plans for barns to how to exterminate bedbugs. It also has a lot of recipes, like this one for “Johnny Cake”:
Take one pint of milk, one pint of meal, three tablespoonfuls of flour, two tablespoonfuls sugar, one tablespoonful butter and one egg.
That’s it... that is the entire text of the Johnny Cake recipe.

There is even included instructions on how to prevent hair loss in “The Toilet” section on pages 462 and 463

One of my favorite passages so far, though I have a long way to go before reading all 530 pages, is this bit on the Signs of a Prosperous Farmer.

I kind of have a thing for pumpkins, so I always check the index of books like this to see what they have to say about pumpkins. Nothing. Except a recipe for pumpkin pie:
Stew the pumpkin as dry as possible without burning; rub it through a colander. To one pint of the pumpkin add three eggs, one quart of milk, one teacup sugar, half teaspoonful salt, and nutmeg or ginger to taste. The above quantity will make two large pies.

Sounds pretty awful... does no justice whatsoever to one of the most wonderfully edible delights that is pumpkin pie.

Just below that recipe is this one for Washington Pie:
Three eggs, one cup sugar, a scant half cup milk, half teaspoonful soda, a teaspoonful cream tartar, cup flour, a piece of butter size of a hen’s egg, spice to taste; this makes three layers; spread with jelly.

Can’t get much less specific than that. I think this recipe must be a good example of this part of the text included in the Preface:
The object of the work is not to tell the farmer and the housewife that which they already know...

Ah, that was a more simple time, to be sure.

Rumaki recipe

If you search for a rumaki recipe, you'll discover that true rumaki is made with chicken livers. Ummm... yuk. I have a steadfast Life Rule; I do not eat organs. Never on purpose anyway.

This is a rumaki recipe that I got from an old friend. (She's not old, I've just known her for years.) It was a pretty big hit at the party last night, so I share it here.

I bought canned whole water chestnuts and drained them. I cut sliced bacon (regular, not the thick stuff) into thirds, and took a 1/3 slice of bacon and wrapped it around a water chestnut, securing it with a toothpick. Place in a baking dish and bake at 375 degrees F. until bacon is nice and crispy. Drain grease. (Which is a difficult thing to do with a pan full of toothpicked items, so I just took them all out of the pan, drained the grease, washed the pan out and put all the little critters back in.) In a separate bowl, mix well a sauce of 1 bottle Heinz chili sauce, 1 cup real mayo & 1 cup brown sugar. Pour over rumaki and bake at 375 again until bubbly.

I had a large bake pan, larger than the typical cake pan, and I used about 5 or 6 cans of water chestnuts and 2 packages of bacon. I also kinda sort doubled the sauce, more like 1.5 times, and it was plenty. I had to bake them in 2 separate pans, but once done, they all fit into the one big pan. I would say a single recipe would be about 3 cans of water chestnuts and 1 pkg of bacon, use a regular cake loaf pan.

Yum.

It's a very rich hors d'oeuvre, and I noticed it was more the men eating it than the women. Probably the bacon thing. A couple of the guys told their wives to get the recipe. Yep, we're the typical "mostly the wives do the cooking" crowd. Not 100% across-the-board, mind, but the majority... I also didn't see any of the men oohing and aahing over the pretty blue washer & dryer. It is what it is.

Anyway, the rumaki, sans chicken liver, was really good. When I was packing Kev's lunch this morning, he asked if there was any left that I brought home. I just said, "you have got to be kidding." Oh, right.

Homage to the ambrosial onion

Yesterday evening after Kevin and I got home from work (at 8pm, because I rode in with him and worked a long day myself... ugh), I made dinner. Before I picked Kev up after work, though, I went to a local Meijer store. I bought a couple of those huge, 14-inch 4-cheese pizzas in the refrigerated deli section, the kind you bake yourself. I went there only to pick up the pizzas, but I ended up buying a few more grocery items. While the pizza was baking, I made a favorite recipe, tuna macacroni salad, only sans the tuna... and a few other little changes. It was basically seashell macaroni, hard-boiled eggs, chopped tomato, green pepper & celery, frozen peas, and... plenty of chopped, sweet onion. Mmmmm.... I made the dressing from milk, vinegar, sugar and Miracle Whip, plus some seasonings.

This morning both Kev and I took some of the salad into work for lunch. We drove in together again today, and after we were on our way, pleasantly talking and drinking our coffee, I mentioned the salad. I told Kev that when I opened that Tupperware bowl, the onion aroma just flew out at me. Kev was all like, yeah, I know, they were strong. "Hey," I said, "I wasn't complaining just then... I said that with joyful anticipation of lunchtime." I LOVE ONIONS. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.

Growing up, I never ate onions because my Dad hates onions. And I always thought my Mom hated onions, too, but she can tolerate them. All the cooking we did at home never included onions. I thought I was also a hater of onions... until I had them. I think I was about 16 or 17 years old (I know!), & I realized what I had been missing. (And garlic, too! I could do a whole 'nother chapter on garlic.) At family dinners, if I make a recipe that uses onions, I will either leave onions out or make 2 dishes, 1 with & 1 without onions. There are a few more people in our family that also don't care for onions. (Oh, the shame!)

So if you have the good sense to appreciate one of the finest edible plants God ever put on this Earth... I offer you the following recipe. Enjoy!

Onion Pie
2 cups shredded Jarlsburg cheese
2 cups chopped sweet onion
1 & 1/2 cups real mayo
Mix all 3 ingredients together and bake in a shallow dish at 350 degrees F. for about 1 hour. I usually use 2 quiche pans with this recipe, and I bake it until it's nice and dark brown on the edges. Goes well with crackers.
This is usually considered an appetizer, though I can make a meal out of it.
Must use Jarlsburg cheese, otherwise don't bother.
Also, must be mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip, & I usually use only about 1 cup.

Omelette du jour par Julie

On Thursday morning, Kev got home from work about 8:00am from the last of seven midnight-12s. Normally, upon arriving home from a 12-hour midnight shift, he'd have something to eat, watch a little TV then go to bed... but since it was his "day off" he decided not to waste it sleeping*. He worked outside all day, and including doing something really special for me, which will be the topic of another post later...

When I got home from work that evening, he was in the mode of "just keep moving" because if he stopped for too long, that would pretty much be it. He was hungry, but almost too tired to eat, I think. Since Kev loves breakfast-for-dinner, I went in the house and made an omelet for dinner. I enjoy making omelets, and I do a lot of experimenting with ingredients. This one turned out lovely, and Kev told me about 7 times how good it was. Falling asleep in the recliner later that evening, a couple of hours after dinner, he turned to me and told me again how good the omelet was. Could be the haze of tiredness, but for whatever reason, he really, really liked it. I share the details of the omelet with you now.

I cut up deli ham into small strips and a nice Vadalia onion into thin strips, sauted both in butter (the real stuff) just until the onions were softish. Out of the pan, a little more butter, pour in eggs that have been only gently stirred. Dumped the ham and onions onto half, topped with Kraft shredded "Mexican" cheeses and a little melty good American cheese. Lid on pan for just a bit, then flipped the other half over on top of the goodies. Then I covered the top of the omelet with very thinly sliced tomato, not overlapping, sprinkled on some Fines Herbs, just a bit, and just a little more shredded cheese. The secret to a good omelet is to not overcook it. I put the lid back on the pan just long enough to melt the cheese and soften up the tomato a bit. Voilà! Some wheat toast and homemade strawberry jam and you got yourself a feast fit for a tired hubby.

*This is an example of one of the basic differences between myself and my hubby... whereas Kev would consider that day wasted, I, however, would never consider a day spent sleeping as a wasted day. Particularly after working 84 out of the previous 168 hours.

Swedish Meatballs

A Christmas dinner tradition in our family is Swedish Meatballs. I'm not sure what makes them "Swedish," but they're sooooo good. I think we got the recipe from an aunt, way back when I was a kid.

This past Christmas, my sister, Kathy, and her husband, Bob, had our family's Christmas dinner at their house. I brought the Swedish Meatballs. The recipe calls for ground ham and ground pork together, and since many meat markets won't grind both(some state regulations about not using the grinder for cured and for raw meat...), Kev and I used our meat grinder and did all the grinding. It was a LOT of work, primarily because we ground up way more meat than we needed. I made enough meatballs at Christmas for dinner and plenty of leftovers. Leftover Swedish Meatballs are an absolute MUST. Because after eating them, you wake up the next morning wanting them for breakfast. They're that good.

We had friends visit us last night, and I made Swedish Meatballs for dinner from the ham and pork we had leftover in the freezer from Christmas. (And once someone in my family reads this, they're gonna want some meatballs.) I had only enough dark brown sugar for half the meat, so today, we're picking up more sugar so I can finish up the ham & pork and make more meatballs! This is Kev's plate for breakfast... meatballs and leftover potato casserole. Mmmmm....


My recipe card for Swedish Meatballs is old and yellowed with stains all over it. I typed it up on an old manual typewriter my folks had when I was a kid. When I was in my early teens, I started making my own recipe box up with all the recipes my family loves... so this recipe card is about 30 years old.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS
1 lb ham, 1.5 lbs pork, ground together
2 eggs, beaten, add to meat, plus 1 cup milk
Mix in 1/2 box cornflakes, crushed
Mix all ingredients well, form into balls of desired size.
Put in baking pan.
Cover with sauce of:
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Bake in 325 to 350 degree F. oven,
for about 1.5 hours or so, and
baste frequently with sauce.

Truthfully, I don't follow the recipe exactly, and I think I use the same amount of ham and pork, and cornflakes come in all different sizes of boxes... so I just wing it. Also, we don't just crush the cornflakes, we zap them through the grinder because it's way faster & easier. I always double up on the amount of sauce because that's the good part.