After School Treats

It's that time again!  Just ending a heat wave that really was brutal!  Hopefully it will cool down a smidge or two so that everyone can concentrate and not miss the beach too much.  (Fat chance that that will happen, but it is worth a shot!)

I was thinking of concentrating on crock pot meals, but with the weather being so warm, and the grill working hard, I'll save the crock pot theme for another week.  Getting ready for school also brings back memories of after school treats!  So this week I've been asking folks what their favorite after school treat was or is.  What's yours?

My favorite after school treat was my mom's waffle sandwich.  It was "left over"  brilliance.  My mom took waffles that she had made for breakfast and would put the leftovers in the fridge.  Then when I got home from school she would take a waffle, split in half and toast it until it was crispy and warm.  She would put one half on a plate and would spoon applesauce over the top.  Then she would take crushed walnuts and sprinkle them over the applesauce.  Finally, she would take maple syrup and pour it all over the top. OH YUM!  Toasty, appley, maple yuminess!  My waffle recipe is included in the "After school treats" section on the side of my blog.

My hubby's favorite after school treat was homemade chocolate chip cookies.  His mom and dad both worked, so homemade cookies were a treat.  When I asked if they had a cookie jar that they were kept in, he laughed and said "No, they never lasted that long!"    Cookies and milk are the classic after school treat!  Hubby also  remembers a whole sleeve of Fig Newtons in his Grandfather's (Pop's) old, black, metal lunch box.   He remembers waiting for Pop to come home from a long  day on the road crew, and going through the lunch box to see what was left.  There would always be some cookies left  for him.

When I asked my son about his favorite after school treat, he grinned.  He remembers cookies as well.  Sugar cookies.  They are his absolute favorite after school treat...however, much to my dismay, his favorite sugar cookie comes from a mix out of a red envelope.  Not the recipe handed down generation from generation, but a prepared cookie mix that you just add butter and an egg....heartbreaking. SOMEDAY we WILL have a cookie bake off and he will see the light....I hope!

 My son's second favorite after school treat is peanut butter cookies.  Then magic happened.  As we were talking about them he asked, "Hey, will you teach me how to make them?!"  HECK YES!   Out to the kitchen we went  to get everything ready.  Will there be any left for school?  Probably not!

Baking cookies for after school

To get ready for this week of being back to school and work, I've done alot of prep work ahead.  Predicing and packaging ingredients for dinner make meal prep quick and easy.  I have prebrowned a full pound of hamburger for the tacos and chili.    I stored it in a Ziplock bag in the fridge so that I can measure out what I need when I prepare each meal.    I have also put some bacon that I cooked ahead  for Friday's salad.  Onions and  tomatoes are chopped and in the refrigerator as well. 

 ** Means Recipes are included on the side of the blog under "After School Treats".    Full steam ahead....oh!   Pass the cookies please! 
Monday
Tacos
Rice and Beans

Tuesday  (Back to School)
Chicken Parmesan (cook extra chicken w/o sauce  for Friday's salad)
Spaghetti
Carrots
 Peanut butter cookies  **

Wednesday
Chili (Crock pot)
Cornbread **

Thursday
Hamburgers on the Grill
Corn on the Cob
watermelon

Friday
Chicken Caesar Salad (grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mandarin oranges, mushrooms, and bacon)
Grilled Bread with garlic and ricotta

Saturday
Leftovers! 

Fresh Salsa

4-5  fresh tomatos, chopped
1 small onion diced
2-3 large green, yellow, orange, and red peppers, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh garlic, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp chili sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Makes 5-6 cups of salsa

Mix all together in a bowl and refrigerate.  Season to taste.  Cover with plastic wrap.   If the tomato acid bothers you, add a Tsp of sugar.  Serve with chips, nachos, or on top of your favorite steak or chicken.

Tomatos, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Oh My!!!

Baskets of tomatos, cucumbers, and zucchini sitting on the counter waiting to be frozen, grated, pickled, and sauced are familiar sights.  Sometimes too familiar!  (What am I going to DO with all of this?)  Growing up my Grandfather and my mother would be in a canning-freezing frenzy this time of year. 

A white enamel pan was the "pickler" along with stainless steel pots for blanching tomatos to take the skins off.  A huge black speckled enamel "canner" would bubble away with hot water and I always felt like one of the witches in Macbeth, as I would get to stand on a stool to watch for when it boiled.  "Boil, boil, toil and trouble, cauldron burn and cauldron bubble."  I would watch for the bubbles and then Mason jars of all shapes and sizes would go in to process and seal. The Ball Blue Book-An Easy Guide to Tasty Thrifty Canning and Freezing  never left the kitchen and was always open to the stained tomato page, even though my grandfather and mom knew the process by heart.

Bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, tomato sauce, and whole tomatos would cook away and when done would sit on the counter.  I loved to wait to hear the POP of the seal as they cooled.  Mom would snap the tops of the lids to make sure that there was no bubble in the center.

Zucchini was treated differently.  That was shredded (usually by hand, when I was a kid) and put in freezer bags.  Whole bowls of it would be turned into loaves of zucchini bread and what wasn't eaten was frozen.  There is nothing like that first taste of hot zucchini bread with melted butter.   By the end of august however, I usually had had enough of it, but that never stopped me from gorging on it when it was first made or diving into it in the middle of February.

I now have the Ball Blue Book, canner, and pickler.  The only differences in what I do, is I let my food processor do the job of  shredding the zucchini!  What a time and elbow saver that is!  However, if you want a good work out, I highly recommend grating zucchini by hand.  You'll end up with great arm muscles.   No one else in the family are big tomato eaters, but I have found that fresh salsa goes much quicker.  I keep a bowl going in the fridge and add to it as it gets empty.

Back to school  is coming quickly as well as Labor Day.  I head to work this week so I need to get myself planned and prepped.  All this week's menu will also include pickles, zucchini bread, and tomato salsa.  Anyone want some?

Sunday
Margahreta pizza
Margaritas

Monday
Easy Potato Corn Chowder
Melon slices
Zucchini bread

Tuesday
Shrimp scampi over Linguine
Sliced Cucumbers

Wednesday (Back to work for me!)
Nachos
Salsa

Thursday
Grilled Pork Chops
Couscous with baby Spinach and Pine Nuts
Applesauce

Friday
Grilled Beef k-bobs with mushrooms and apples
Rice
Raspberry mousse