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Comfort Food Guest Post from Mom

 

I have more recipes and things to post, but haven’t gotten myself organized enough to find time for them.  I am expecting a pile of editing work this weekend, so hopefully next week I’ll get back on track.  Until then, here’s another one from my mom!! This is pretty much top secret information I’m about to share, so be grateful.  My grandma makes something we have always called Easter Bread…it has very little to do with Easter for me, since I remember eating it all the time.  She used to send it to me in college and one of my roommates and I would devour an entire loaf…it’s amazing. Super simple, but somehow you have to get it just right otherwise it won’t be the same.  My mom has been working hard trying to get it to be as good as grandma’s, and she is pretty close…there’s just something about grandma food, right?? 

Anyway, here it is.  Can you really go wrong with bread, cheese, pepperoni and ham?? Nope! I actually like it better when it is leftover in the fridge after a day or two (if it lasts that long).  The bread is nice and chewy and soft and because it’s all rolled up, you get a bit of cheese, pepperoni and ham in each bite and it’s one of the most comforting snacks for me 🙂 Take it away mom!

Easter Bread à la Grandma, via Mom

Or as mom calls it: “For the girls that need to add a couple inches to the waistline.” Of course that’s not me and I really don’t know any.  Never as good as  hers but we keep trying cause it is so yummy.

• Bread dough rolled thin (Mallory note: mom has a bread maker, which makes this part wonderfully easy…I have no bread maker and have not yet attempted to make this for that exact reason.)
• Ham, Pepperoni and cheese  -  sharp please
• Dad and I started adding some pizza seasoning too

1. roll…seal with cold water
2. 350 for 30 minutes…

MISTAKES	HINTS
I love my cheese but too much will make it burst…	When some bursts out of the badly sealed edges  -  YOU get to eat it….
forgetting the seasoning on the 2nd loaf	Great for me to take to work for breakfast
I can get flour all over the kitchen in 2 seconds..	Wonderful heated slightly with some tomato or marinara sauce for dipping (Mallory note: AGREED!)

 

Recipes From Home

Things have been ridiculously busy, and I’m about to head to KY for a long weekend to celebrate a friend’s wedding…plus we have been reheating leftovers from the freezer and having boring meals lately, so there hasn’t been much to post.  Plus, Santana has been exhausting me lately….she’s fussy about her food all of the sudden, sometimes doesn’t eat her breakfast, and last night I had to sleep on the couch with her to keep her from howling all night.  Not so good.  Hop on over to her blog to read about our hike last weekend.

My mom, however, has been on a roll cooking up some of my favorites (and some new things).  She sent me massive info about all this stuff, and I’ve decided you’re lucky enough to get a peek at her cheesecake.  It’s way down at the bottom of this post and it is my absolute most favorite cheesecake ever.  Especially when she uses the mini chocolate chips.  I can’t wait to go home (hopefully in September!) so I can get some of mom’s cheesecake 🙂

These are recipes that are simple, easy and satisfying.  My dad usually eats them several times in a row for lunch, and lots of times they’ll have leftovers for dinner throughout the week.  I love my mom’s recipes because a) she’s hilarious and b) it’s a refreshing change from the fancy blog recipes you sometimes see.  Plus, the ingredients are straightforward, easy to find and not intimidating…my mom was NOT excited about trying edamame or tofu at any point.  🙂

Mom & Dad’s Chicken Dinner

POTATO SALAD

Cook cut up potatoes until done. Cool. Add the following:

• Cut up hard boiled eggs (I use lots)
• diced dill pickles
• chopped green olives (unless you are serving Matt)
• diced carrots or/and celery if you want

Season with seasoned salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of the pickle juice and yellow mustard. Toss with miracle whip and chill. Turns out different all the time but after a while you get a feel for the mix and consistency you like.

3 BEAN SALAD

I had a recipe to try with fresh beans but in Unadilla, there were no fresh beans at our HUGE store. So I can across this one in a cookbook I had before I got married –  New and Revised Betty Crocker 1978 !!

• 1 can (16 oz) green beans, drained
• 1 can (16 oz) wax beans, drained
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained
• ¼ cup chopped onions (calls for green)
• ¼ cup snipped parsley ( I used 1/8 cup dried)
• 1 cup Italian dressing
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (once again from my limited pantry – I used 1 teaspoon minced from refrigerator)

Mix beans, onions and parsley in large bowl. Mix dressing, sugar and garlic. Pour over salad and toss.  Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 3 hours.  The recipe says to serve in lettuce-lined bowls…. Of course, I didn’t..

TEXAS-STYLE FRYER CHICKEN

  From Taste of Home Chicken Cookbook

• 1 Tablespoon seasoned salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 broiler/fry chicken (3-3.5 pounds)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (or in my case 1 teaspoon minced from jar)
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ½ cup lemon juice

Combine seasoned salt and pepper; rub inside and outside of chicken. Place chicken on rotisserie rod on grill (we subbed by putting on a rack in a disposal pan). In a small saucepan, sauté garlic in butter until tender.  Stir in broth and lemon juice. Pour into drip pan and place under chicken. Baste with sauce every 15 minutes for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until juices run clear. Dad made this so I don’t even know how much of this he followed!!

Boiled Dinner

(I will pick the ham and potatoes out of this, but always hated the way the cooking cabbage made the house smell! -Mallory)

 

Add to large crock pot:

• 3.5 lbs ham (I used half of a bone in one)  Froze the rest for another meal.
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Onion
• can of broth

Remember to leave enough room for cabbage later..Cook on high 3 hours. Add cabbage wedges. Cook 2 more hours..

That’s it.  I didn’t add salt as ham can be salty.  I drizzle vinegar over mine.

Mom’s Cheesecake

(I generally love cheesecake, but this is my FAVORITE, especially when it has the chocolate chips-Mallory)

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons margarine, melted

Combine crumbs, sugar and margarine; press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan. I bake in the oven when preheating but only for a few minutes. Make sure it is cooled off before adding cake mixture.

• 3 8-oz pkgs of cream cheese (softened) -  I bring to room temp and then microwave at 50% for 1.5 minutes. You can use one “Lite” cream cheese but don’t use 3 – really changes the consistency
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended.  (This is when the mix flies all over if the cream cheese isn’t softened enough). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in chocolate pieces and vanilla; pour over crust. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 (leave oven door open a crack until temp. reaches 250. Continue baking 35 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan. Cool before removing rim of pan.

Chill.

 

Next week I should have more recipes to post…but for now I’m headed to KY and dreaming of cheesecake from home in NY 🙂 Miss you mom!!!

Mom’s Blogging Debut

Keep reading for a mini-guest post from my mom with a hard-core apple themed meal!

I am light on meals to post because Matt was out of town all weekend and I didn’t do a ton of cooking. Tomorrow or Thursday I’ll be posting a more successful version of my fried rice…Soy Squared Fried Rice.  Stay tuned!

Before we get to Mom, check out Missy Maintains for a Rudy’s Organic Bakery giveaway! These products look delicious!

Ok, on to mom…a little info first.  My mom is hilarious and has recently been getting really creative with her food! So when she sent me some pictures of her Sunday dinner this weekend I told her I’d feature it on my blog if she sent me a post to go with it!  Mom doesn’t have a blog (sad, but true), but she does have an Etsy site that is great! Guess who designed the banner??? 😉 As I wrote about before, she crochets like crazy and everyone in the family has piles and piles of afghans to show for it.  This is spectacular!  I love afghans, and Santana loves to dig them (maybe I will try to get a video of this sometimes), so it’s good that my mom keeps cranking them out!  With her surplus of afghans, she’s created Crochet By Shelly, where you can buy your very own, spectacular, hand-made afghan from my mom! All proceeds go to benefitting my mom make more afghans! I think she’d probably be up for suggestions or requests if you had a particular pattern or color that you wanted…we haven’t quite figured out the Alchemy section of the Etsy site, but there’s a way to do this! ANYWAY, check out my mom’s Etsy shop for all your afghan needs.  First, though, check out my mom’s Apple Butter Pork and Apple Pie Sunday dinner!

—————————————————-

On the roast, I don’t really have a recipe..

I browned it (peppered) with olive oil on all sides on the griddle since it was out from making grilled cheese last night. Chopped up a good size onion and placed in bottom of crock pot after adding some season salt.  Had some small carrots and threw some in.  Placed the roast in.  Added the rest of the carrots.  Put some apple butter (Mallory’s note: My mom makes this from scratch in the Crockpot!! I have the recipe and plan to try it soon…expect a post about it!) on the top.  Threw in some beer (surprise – it was the handy liquid and didn’t feel like opening up stock). Turned the roast once and added some more apple butter and some water.  Too much liquid now, so I took some out and put in a pan to make gravy with later. Have no fresh potatoes so I add a can at the end – you know those cans dad always has in the cupboard for chili. (Mallory’s note: these cans of potatoes are SO handy! Not fresh potatoes that you want to eat on their own, but great for soups or random things like this.)

 

We don’t have a picture of the final product all plated up, but Mom’s new to this blogging thing, so we’ll let it slide…if she sends one later, I’ll post an update! 🙂 She said the pork was AMAZING and you could taste the apple butter all the way through. Yum!

PIE:

• I’m weak – use Pillsbury dough.
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Mix that stuff  ( I put in a little more because I over stuff it so when it cooks down – dad still has lots of apples).  Add the apples sliced.. the recipe calls for 6 – but I use the whole bag from the store… When the seasoning is right and I don’t’ have to buy at the store, I will guess how many.  Mix apples with above.. put in crust (don’t grease pan).    Cover with other crust.  Do the sealing, fluting and all that good baking stuff.  Add some slits to top crust to let the steam escape.  Cover with that crazy thing to keep the edges from burning… remove 10- 15 minutes before done.

425 – 40-50 minutes.. 

Serve over vanilla ice cream!

I am crazy craving apple pie now! Thanks mom!!!! Miss you!