Food

Yep, today's blog is all about food. Well, let's be honest - mostly it's just about sweets. But among my blog aspirations is one day a week devoted to the new and marvelous recipes I've tried over the last week. But truly, at the moment I pretty make the same things over and over and over. (Actually, the husband makes the same things over and over and over. I mostly quit cooking when he made me get a job. I may have just a little bit of an attitude, but that whole story is a post for a different day. Remind me.)   :-)

So anyway, my menu for any given week looks like:

Monday: Hamburger something - The current "something" is typically a pound of hamburger, browned, with a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic soup stirred in. Simple but tasty. This delectable menu is rounded out with Minute Rice and canned green beans.

Tuesday: Eggs/breakfast foods - Husband doesn't particularly care for pancakes or anything similar as a meal, so generally scrambled eggs. Maybe some toast. More recently, if we're feeling fancy we'll make what he grew up calling Egg In The Bread (clever name, no?). I've also seen it called Bird In The Nest or something similar. Where you put a piece of buttered bread in a pan (or on the griddle) and fry it up a bit, then flip it over, cut a hole in the middle, and crack an egg into the hole. Flip it back over to cook the yucky white slimy stuff and, Viola! Yummy dinner! The first time I made these (yup, me not the hubs) a few months ago, the hubs and adult son each ate three. The adult daughter and I each ate two. That's a good way to get rid of a loaf of bread that's been around for a while and is starting to dry out.

Wednesday: Chicken something - Usually I cut up the chicken into bite-size cubes and sprinkle it with some seasoning thing in the big bottle from Sam's - I think we have a Citrus Grill and a Poultry [something] and some Southwest Spice thing. Then I chop an onion, green pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and jalapeno. When hubs gets home from work, he starts some pasta to boiling, cooks up the chicken and sets it aside, then cooks the veggies. Stir the whole thing together and if I was particularly industrious there might be some grated parm. I like this with a big dollop of sour cream stirred in.

Thursday: Mac & Cheese - Just the stovetop version, with cut up hot dogs, of course. Nothing too fancy - unless the daughter or I decide to make hot dog octopi instead of just chunks.

Friday: Pizza - Which the hubs picks up from Papa Murphy's Take and Bake on the way home.

Saturday: leftovers - If there are any.

Sunday: Wildcard Day

These items don't necessarily have to happen on that particular day of the week (except pizza - pizza is almost always on Friday). I just make sure I have everything on hand and we make what we want when we want. But that's a typical week for us. So a weekly food entry might be pretty boring.

But every month or two I'm in charge of taking snacks to church for our fellowship after the morning service. I LOVE this. People think I'm amazing. They say things like, "Oh, Pam brought snacks today? I'll definitely have to go check it out," and, "Everything Pam makes is wonderful. I can't wait to see what she brought this time!" So it's a bit of an ego boost for me. Who wouldn't love that.

So tomorrow I'll be taking Mississippi Mud Cake, Amazing Lemon Bars, and Meringues.

Important lessons learned from the Mississippi Mud Cake - drop the batter in by spoonfuls. It's thick like a brownie batter and does NOT want to spread nicely in your greased and floured pan. The frosting on top should also be drizzled on as evenly as possible because it catches in the marshmallows and doesn't like to be moved much after that. However, if you wait a few minutes and let the heat of the cake soften the frosting, it can be very gently coaxed to more even coverage if necessary.

Very important notes about the Lemon Bars - most of the lemon bar recipes I've seen floating around have melted butter in the crust. This recipe uses cold butter and it makes for a much easier to handle crust. I went a little heavier on the lemon juice. The recipe called for 1/3 cup and I used 1/2. That's just what my 2 lemons netted me today. I also zested the lemons and added that into the filling. The recipe (and my blog notes) are for a 9x13 pan. I like to make them in a half-sheet for church and for that I make a batch and a half. A double batch was way too much for the pan.

For the Meringues - only minimal notes. I didn't top with the candy canes the recipe calls for on account of it being August. I've never tried adding food coloring. I do now own a large pastry bag with a large star tip because I've made these every snack Sunday since last December and this makes them prettier. They're just a very simple, sweet, low-calorie, gluten free, tasty bite of awesomeness. I think I figured out that an entire batch only has about 300 calories. That makes it about 5 calories a cookie. And did I mention AWESOME? The kids especially go through these. I, myself, have been known to eat half a pan while they're still slightly warm (but don't tell anybody).