What we've been eating

Let me begin by saying- I can't believe how much our food bill has gone down since I started making more and more from scratch.The majority of my shopping now consists of meat- as little as possible- dairy and produce- lots of produce. Though not a vegetarian I've been trying to eat less of it. Mostly chicken and salmon now a days- some in my soups ...but you get the drift.Feels good to be skippig most of the aisles of the stores

I made this cute little loaf of bread on Sunday morning to go with the lasagna I made for dinner. We invited my parents up since they normally come take my monsters out to dinner on Mondays and they were calling for snow. It's the same Granmother's Bread from Chicken in the Road's blog only I added 1/4c parm cheese and 1 Tbs Italian herbs and baked it in one of those corning ware white dishes. Cute and oh so yummy




Yesterday's meal consisted of leftover lasgana-salad and bread for the kiddies and homemade cream of mushroom soup for the hubby and I. So so easy and I plan on trying different veggies in the future.

4c pureed cooked veggies
1c stock
2c milk or 1/2 and 1/2
seasonings to taste and depending on the veggie
1c chopped cooked veggie

We've had a gentle snowing all day- perfect for cooking. Tonights dinner is beef stew and biscuts. Unfortunatly it's those lame pillsbury ones. I have a couple of them and I want them OUT!

Our can along with Tigress is due this week and I "think" I found the PERFECT recipe for it. More on that Thurs or Fri when I actually attempt to make it. The ingredient of the month is carrot. And we have use the water bath medthod not pressure cooker. Wish me luck.

Preparing for the storm

We're also have yummy coffee cake muffins made ( just in case those cinnamon rolls are a flop)
From the 75th anniversary Better Homes and Gardens cookbook

3 TBS flour
3TBS brown sugar
1/4tsp cinnamon
2Tbs BUTTER
3TBS pecans or walnuts chopped

Mix together till crumbly for topping
**********
For the muffins
Preheat oven to 400
grease or use cupcake cups

1 1/2c flour
1/2c sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c melted butter
1 beaten egg
1/2 c butter milk or sour milk

Stir dry ingredients together
in seperate bowl whisk together the butter egg and milk.
Add to dry mixture until just combined- Batter will be lumpy

Spoon half the batter into the prepared cups ( about 1/3 full)
top with half the topping - then the remaining batter- then the rest of topping- pressing down into batter.

Bake 15-18 minutes- cool in pan 5 min then transfer to rake to finish cooling.


For the main course*********


Brunch egg bake
6c shredded cheese- I use whatever we have in the fridge
chedder/jack mix - pepperjack -Mozzarella

2c cubed ham
2cups assorted sauted veggies

2 TBS butter melted
10 eggs-beatened
1 1 2/c milk
herbs to taste today we used basil/thyme 2tsp dried
salt and pepper to taste
1/2c flour

Toss cheese with veggies and ham

Make a sauce ( is it called roux?) with melted butter stirring in flour till smooth- add milk and herbs- Add eggs and mix well. Combine with veggie/ham/cheese mix

Pour into greased 9x13 pan bake at 350 for 40 min or until set and cooked through


We have lots of milk ( 2 gallons) and OJ (1 gallon).....potatoes to make hashbrowns
I'm thinking our breakfast for dinner might have leftovers for breakfast tomorrow

Hubby loves me- he brought home a BIG 1.5liter bottle of wine to keep me happy.
Cause if mom's not happy no one will be happy all stuck in the house together.
New York City has already called for no school tomorrow- wonder if our town will be smart enough to do that instead of calling us at 5 AM to tell there's no school.....time will tell.

Baking up a storm here lately and falling low on vanilla. Thanks to my friend Mary- she gets vanilla beans from her co op that are too dry to sell and gave me a few- nothing a little vodka won't reconstitute. Though I hated to use Absolute- it's what my dad gave me. It's been sitting at his house for almost 15 years- I think it's aged properly by now-lol.

Gearing up for a snow storm- tomorrow is breakfast for dinner one of the family favs.
Cheap white bread- eggs-vanilla for french toast and Susan's mix for waffles- Vermont maple syrup- bacon- fresh oj 2 gallons of milk- plenty of hot cocoa and marshmellows- We're ready :)