Great Mornings

There is nothing like a delicious breakfast.  Think about it.  It doesn't matter if you are on vacation, if you are home for the weekend, if there has been a sleepover or the night after a party, or if you are by yourself and you have woken up when you WANT to and not when you HAVE  to, a delicious breakfast begins the day and gives you the strength to deal with whatever life decides to hand you.  One of my most memorable breakfasts, was when we were in Bermuda.  Hubby and I had fresh pineapple, bacon, hot tea and coffee.  That was it.  But the pineapple was so fresh, it puckered your mouth while the juice ran down your arm. Served overlooking the beautiful, warm turquoise waters it was breakfast at it's finest.

There are many kinds of breakfasts.  There are the conventional kinds that include  cereal, eggs, and toast to the unconventional and just as delicious kinds that include cold pizza, chicken, or cheese and rice.  Breakfast is just that....breaking your nighttime fast.  On a day to day basis, I'm not a huge, regular breakfast eater.  I enjoy breakfast, but am often content with a scalding cup of freshly brewed  tea.  The experts will tell you that that is not wise and not good for the diet, and I agree.  So as a nod to this I will bring a bag of dry cereal or granola with me to munch on, or a piece of fresh fruit.  Except in the winter, when I will make steaming bowls of oatmeal, and how can you resist hot oatmeal with apricot preserves or maple syrup stirred in.

One of my favorite breakfasts is Sunday morning breakfast.  After church, when we come home, the skillets are taken out, the toaster heated, the tea kettle is on the back burner, and breakfast preparations commence.  It can be anything from toast, bacon, and tea, to french toast and sausage, to omelets with all the fixings, to Belgium waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  Another favorite breakfast is when we go camping.  Bagels, sliced in half, and buttered thickly, and then cooked over the coals of the fire in a skillet and are to die for.  Buttery, toasted bagels, scalding cups of tea or hot cocoa, ( or coffee in Hubby's case), and thick slabs of ham or bacon fried in the same skillet that we toasted the bagels in.  Delicious!

We often have overnight guests, and I really enjoy prepping and making breakfast.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not at my best in the morning so I do most of the prep ahead, and many of my dishes are already put together the night before so I just pop them in hot water or in the oven while I get a hot cup of tea to get my brain moving.

This morning I found an old recipe from a friend.  It was a recipe from her grandmother and we hadn't had it in a very long time.  It was easy prep, and could be done while I drank my first cup of tea.  It was called Finnish Pancakes, and was prepped in the blender.  When baked, the dish is a delicious, hot, custardy, popover type pancake.  It puffs up beautiful and golden in the oven and is served with honey or maple syrup.  This would be a lovely, impressive, and easy breakfast to make for guests.  I was going to take a picture of it, but it was devoured before I had the opportunity to.  It may sound different, but it's delicious and very easy.  Serve with bacon and fresh fruit and you have a lovely breakfast treat.

This weeks recipes pay homage to breakfast treats...so break out the bacon and the maple syrup!
***Indicates recipe to follow.
Sunday
Finnish Pancakes***

Monday
Omelets for a crowd (YES, you can make omelets ahead, AND give your guests what they want!)***

Tuesday
French Toast Casserole***
Cheddar Apple Sausage Strata***

Wednesday
Homemade granola with dried cherries***

Thursday
My Grandfather's Favorite Buttermilk pancakes***
Bacon

Friday
Breakfast for One
Poached Eggs on Toast
Fruit Yogurt

Little MouseKitchen: Magic Chicken Soup

Little MouseKitchen: Magic Chicken Soup

1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (or in a pinch use two drained cans of cooked chicken chunks)
On a baking sheet, season chicken breasts with salt & pepper. Drizzle both sides with olive oil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, or until the juices run clear. When done, allow to cool slightly (15 min)

In a sauce pan, add 1 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onion
1 c chopped carrot
2 Tbsp minced garlic
4 c of your favorite chicken stock
1 c water
salt, pepper to taste
2 tsp Greek Seasoning (McCormick spice blends)

Simmer on low heat for 30 min.
Cut the chicken breasts into chunks and add to the broth.

Simmer for 30 more min. (The longer the soup simmers, the better it tastes.)

Cook separately 2 cups of rice or noodles...your choice.
Add the rice or noodles in the last 10 minutes of cooking. They will absorb the flavor of the broth, without turning the soup starchy.

Applesauce Bread
Cream together
1/2 c shortening
1 cup sugar

Add 1 1/2 cup applesauce
Mix together

Add:
2 c sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

Stir all together. Pour into a pan sprayed with cooking spray and bake 350 for 40 min or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
(I cook mine in a cast iron skillet)

Linguine With Clam sauce
1 box linguine
2 cans clams (drained)
1 box or can of chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
2 tsp oregano,
 2 Tbsp parsley,
2 tsp garlic salt or 2 Tbsp Greek seasoning from McCormick
  You can add the fresh spices and salt and pepper as you go.
Mix the clams, broth, wine, and seasonings in a pan.  Simmer for 15 min.  Cook and drain linguine.  Pour sauce over hot pasta and sprinkle on grated cheese

Couscous with Pine Nuts and Spinach
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup couscous.
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Bring the broth to a boil. Add the couscous, take off the heat, and cover. Let sit for 10 min. Fluff with a fork
In a skillet pour 2 Tbsp olive oil and saute 2 Tbsp garlic and pine nuts. Saute for a minute or two on low heat. (Be careful to not let the garlic burn.) Fold the couscous, spinach, feta, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with steak

Gone all Day Turkey Dinner
1 lb ground  turkey
1 med onion, chopped
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup Italian dressing
1 tsp steak sauce (we use A1)
1 can cranberry sauce
1 box stuffing mix

Combine turkey, onion, corn, dressing, and  steak sauce in a slow cooker.  Top with cranberry sauce and put the dry stuffing mix on the top.  Cover with lid.

Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

Magic Chicken Soup

Do you remember being sick?  What helped you to feel better?  Getting sick when I was a kid meant that the house went into "sick mode".  Ginger ale was poured and  the carbonation stirred out, saltine crackers with honey were put on small plates, the smell of Lysol and Vicks vapo-rub permeated the house, and a pot of chicken soup went on the stove.

What gives chicken soup it's healing powers?  Is it actually a chemical substance that helps to strengthen the body?  Does it help the body's immune system fight off what ever germs have taken hold?  Is it easily digestible so that the body can convert  and use it quickly to repair whatever is damaged?  Or is it that someone has taken the time, effort, and consideration  to show that they love you and will simmer a pot of broth, meat, and veggies and pamper you until you feel like you can join the human race again?  Maybe it's all of the above.

There are many home remedies and comfort foods out there for when you are feeling feeble.  Sometimes, you just don't have a pot of homemade chicken soup on hand when the flu hits.  Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup was a staple in our house in the winter and in the closet of the dorm room in college.  There is something just a little comforting when you open that red and white can.   Hot tea with lemon and honey (and sometimes a drop of the Irish), would loosen and soothe a cough.   Jello with fruit  would brighten the room with it's fun colors and was fun to eat, and soft puddings (butterscotch... mmmmm) would slide down  a sore throat easily.

This week, Hubby is not at his best, and the chicken soup is on the stove.  The smell of Lysol is in the air, and ginger ale, orange juice, tea, and hot Tang are the beverages of choice.  Even if your house is healthy this week, wash your hands and put on a pot of hot comforting soup.  You will feel rejuvenated by the magic of chicken soup.

*** Indicates recipe following
Sunday
Chicken Soup w noodles or rice **
applesauce bread***

Monday
Linguini with clam sauce***
Green Beans

Tuesday
Grilled steak
Couscous with pine nuts and spinach***

Wednesday
Gone all day Turkey Dinner (Slow cooker meal)***

Thursday
Lasagna Soup
Garlic Bread

Friday
Pancakes
Bacon

Little MouseKitchen: Playing With My Food

Little MouseKitchen: Playing With My Food: "Now that January is here, the garden and seed catalogues have been in the mail box on a daily basis. I love leafing through..."

Playing With My Food

Now that January is here, the garden and seed  catalogues have been in the mail box on a daily basis.  I love leafing through the brightly colored pages of  juicy, ripe produce, beautiful flowers, and green, aromatic spices.  It seems I always linger on the pages of  fresh  berries and sweet corn.   The varieties are always amazing and every year, Hubby and I sit and plan out the garden.  Row by row we figure on what we use, what we never keep up with, and what never even makes it in the house!  Sweet baby green peas never make it inside.  They are always gobbled up, pods and all while we weed the rest of the garden.  Tender, green asparagus stalks also get chomped up and rarely make it inside or even more rarely make it to the grill.

    Even though we are in the midst of  a January thaw, my cupboards and pantry are full of  foods that we "put up" for winter time.  We have had soups and stews, pickles, sauces, and jams.  I have opened numerous boxes, jars, and cans to create various soups, stews, and casseroles.  But I miss playing with my food.  I miss gathering the tender green beans,  weeding the sweet carrots, and popping tiny, paper thin onion sets in the soil.   I miss picking black and blueberries until my fingers (and mouth) are stained with berry juice.

        So this week, I've been playing with my food,  indoors.  For our New Year's celebration, I made guacamole.  It was so satisfying to make the creamy, green  mash, and I have to admit,  I loved using my hands as my tools.  There is something so satisfying about using your hands to peel, mash, and mix.  Mixing and mashing onion, garlic, and cilantro into a paste and then peeling and mashing the glorious green of fresh avocados.  Feeling the sting of fresh lemon juice running down my hand and into the bowl to preserve the beautiful green and the sharp bite of clear, salt crystals. I imagine the vibrant green of the avocado tree.  Someday, I will see one. (Not my photo....but someday it will be.)
      The next adventure my hands had was making applesauce cinnamon ornaments.  Now I know that Christmas is over, but I'm in withdrawal.  The house always looks so naked and empty. This year, I left the greenery on the stair railing and hung red lights for Valentine's Day.   I used fragrant applesauce cinnamon dough to cut out small, crinkle, edged hearts.  When they dried, I edged them in white acrylic paint  and hung them to scent the house. 

     Playing with the various veggies and spices, and a fridge full of holiday leftovers inspired me to try a jambalaya.  What a party for eyes, noses, hands, and mouths!  Right along with avocado trees, I will get to New Orleans someday to try the food.  What fun a jambalaya is!  You begin with chopping onions, celery, and carrots.  Normally you would use peppers for the "Holy Trinity" of southern cooking.  However, none of my guys are pepper lovers, so I substituted carrots.   It's a veritable feast for the eyes of green, white, orange, and red.  Slicing sausage, and chicken gives bulk and heft to the meal.  Adding cilantro, cumin,paprika, cayenne pepper, onion, and bay give the mixture a delightfully spicy, aromatic  scent that tickles the nose and begs for heat.    Let the dry, dusty grains of  rice run through your fingers and add it to the steaming pot.  Hot Tabasco  sauce adds the necessary heat when you add it with chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce.  Finally add the final touches of peeled, and deveined shrimp, and freshly minced parsley.    It will bubble in the pot and bring everyone into the kitchen with "What's that cooking?  It smells really good!"

        Your hands will remember the feel of  peeling, and dicing, slicing, and mincing.  Your eyes will revel in the fresh greens, and whites.  The heat will remind your taste buds that the days are getting longer and spring will be here before you know it!

***Indicates that recipe is included

Sunday
Jambalaya with Shrimp, Chicken, and Sausage***
Crescent rolls

Monday
Guinness Stew***
applesauce

Tuesday
Clam Chowder
French Bread

Wednesday
Cheryl's Rice Pilaf ***
Asparagus
Grilled Flank Steak

Thursday
Deli Beef Burgundy
Noodles
Carrots

Friday
Subs

Little MouseKitchen: Homemade Christmas

Little MouseKitchen: Homemade Christmas

Linguini with Lemon Shrimp
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
infuse the oil in a skillet with the lemon zest

Sweat 1/2 cup diced onion or shallot and 2 tsp of garlic in lemon olive oil
Add 1/2 cup white wine
Add a pinch of salt

Add 1 bag of frozen shrimp, peeled, and deveined
Zest one more lemon in the shrimp. Squeeze the lemon in with shrimp and add salt and pepper
Turn the shrimp 5-7 min

Cook one box of Linguini in salted, boiling water. Drain and add to shrimp mixture. Add handful of chopped, fresh parsely.
Top with parmesean cheese

Easy Shortcut Gingerbread Cookies
(These are soft and biteable)
1 pkg sugar cookie mix
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg or 2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup melted butter

Stir together. Roll out onto a floured surface and cut out as desired. Bake 8 min at 350.
Allow to cool completely and frost

White Bean and Ham Soup
(This tastes just like bean with bacon soup)
2 cans cannelinni beans (drained and rinsed)
2 med carrots chopped
1 small onion chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups fully cooked ham
pinch of salt
1 bay leaf

Mash one can of beans or puree' in a food processor, set aside. In a large saucepan, saute the carrots and onion in butter. Stir in the whole beans, water, ham, seasonings,carrots and onion. Add the mashed beans to the mixture and cook over medium heat.

Overnight Salad
1 head iceberg lettuce
1 red onion sliced and separated into rings
1 small head cauliflower broken into florets
1 bunch broccoli cut into florets
1/2 . cucumber, sliced and peeled
C. frozen peas
1/2 lb. bacon cut up crisply fried
1 C. cheddar cheese
2 C. light mayo1/3 C. sugar
In a serving bowl add the lettuce. In layers add onions, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, cucumber, and peas. Spread the mayonnaise on top. Sprinkle with the sugar. Add the bacon and cheese. Cover and chill over night.

Candy Cane Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 egg
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food color
2 tablespoons finely crushed peppermint candies
2 tablespoons sugar
Stir together 1 cup sugar, the butter, milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Divide dough in half. Stir food color into 1 half. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Heat oven to 375ºF.
Stir together peppermint candy and 2 tablespoon sugar; set aside.
For each candy cane, shape 1 rounded teaspoon dough from each half into 4-inch rope by rolling back and forth on floured surface. Place 1 red and white rope side by side; press together lightly and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; curve top of cookie down to form handle of cane.
Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until set and very light brown. Immediately sprinkle candy mixture over cookies. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes

Homemade Christmas

Hard times come to everybody.  It's even worse when they come at Christmas.  One of my favorite Christmas's happened as a result of hard times and I wouldn't trade the memory for anything.  Our house was destroyed by tornado in the later part of May.  My parents used every penny they had to rebuild and we were in our new place by fall.  However, there was not a lot left over for extras.  We had lost everything, including Christmas decorations.  The only decoration that made it, was an angel that had been passed down to my Mom, and  was in need of repair.

I woke up one morning in December and made my way down the hall.  Every light in the house was on.  The tree was up in the living room, bare, but up just the same.  When I went in the kitchen Mom had every bowl, pot, pan, recipe book, and ingredient out.  She announced with a smile that we were going to have a "Homemade Christmas" and that we were going to make all of our decorations.  She wasn't kidding.

One of my favorite ornaments that we made was "Shredded Wheat Wreaths."    They were made with shredded wheat, glue, and green food coloring.  They were messy,  gloppy, and so much fun to make.  We made dozens of them!   I have made them with numerous classes of kids, and they still love making them.


Nabisco Shredded Wheat Cereal- large biscuit style (or a generic brand) - use one  biscuit to Plastic bowl
Canning lid or plastic lid
Spoon/or rubber gloves
Glue (Liquid glue)
Paper clip
Green curling ribbon about 8 inches long
Scrap piece of red ribbon for a bow
Three red beads or something small, red and round for decorative “berries” (optional)
Directions:
Pour about 1/4  of a cup of glue into your bowl.  Add green food color and stir to create the shade you want for your wreath.  Using your hands, break apart half of the shredded wheat biscuit into the bowl.  Don’t crumble the biscuit too fine, because they  will  break   apart and you want it to look like branches.    Using your spoon, toss the cereal around with green glue until completely coated.  Kids like to do this with their hands! (Have them wear the plasticgloves.  Otherwise, they will have green hands!!)   If the mix appears too dry, add more green colored glue.  Turn the mixture over onto the canning  lid and using your hands, press into the shape of a wreath.  Press firm enough to hold together, but not too firm that you lose all the texture of the cereal.  Don’t worry about it sticking to the lid.  It will peel off when dry and have a nice flat back.  Using a brush or your finger, coat the wreath thoroughly with non-colored glue. Bend the paperclip so that it is in a U shape.  Push the clip in upside down so that it forms a hook.   Add  red beads and a bow for decoration.  Allow to air dry.  Tie the curling ribbon onto the wreath so you can hang your ornament on the tree! 

We then began measuring, rolling, mixing, cutting, baking, designing, and decorating.  We made every kind of cookie possible, M&M, chocolate chip. oatmeal raisin, oatmeal butterscotch, stained glass cookies (which looked very cool with the melted hard candy centers), stiff gingerbread, and my favorite, candy cane cookies.

We baked all day.  When the cookies were done, cooled, and decorated Mom brought out plastic sandwich bags and we wrapped the cookie ornaments in clear plastic  and tied the tops with colorful ribbon and hung them on the tree.  We made chains out of popcorn and cranberries and stuck cloves in oranges to make pomanders. 

The tree was amazing!  The house smelled of pine, cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppermint.  When Dad walked in the door, his smile lit up his face as he looked at all the decorations that were hanging around the house and on the tree.  Mom said that we had one more thing to add to the tree, and she brought out the angel.  She had been reglued, reglittered, a new face put on, and cotton clouds added on to the bottom of her dress.  She was beautiful.  When I got married the angel was handed down to me.  
Hard times come to us all, but memories are made by how you deal with them.  Make some memories today...bake some cookies, string some popcorn, talk about ornaments that you have made and make some new ones.

Sunday
Linguine with Lemon Shrimp***
Corn
Easy shortcut gingerbread cookies***

Monday
Beef Noodle Skillet Dinner
Green Beans
Crescent Rolls

Tuesday
White Bean and Ham Soup***
Garlic bread
Clementines

Wednesday
Chicken Fingers
Roasted potatos
Carrots
Applesauce

Thursday
Going out to dinner and going to the movies

Friday (Christmas Eve)
Roast beef
Twice baked garlic mashed potatos
Rolls
Cranberry salad
Overnight salad***
Baked Corn Casserole
Carmel Pecan Cheesecake