WEEKLY MENU

Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie

 DATE BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER
MONDAY 10/11 CEREAL SANDWICHES Recipe Experiment Night
TUESDAY 10/12 TOAST LEFTOVERS Potato Pancakes
and Pork Tenderloin
WEDNESDAY 10/13 YOGURT SOUP Twisted Pepper Steak
THURSDAY 10/14 FRUIT CHEESE & FRUIT Hungarian Goulash
FRIDAY 10/15 OATMEAL C.O.R.N. 12 Hour Salad
SATURDAY 10/16 Depression Eggs leftovers Seafood Salad
SUNDAY 10/17 Hash Brown Casserole Monte’ Cristos Chicken Fried Chicken &
Parmesan Potatoes with
Peppered Gravy

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CARING for the CARETAKER

Many of you know that Martha (MM) and myself have both been embroiled in care taking situations for loved ones for quite some time now.  We do it out of love and a bit of obligation, but we do it well with compassion, patience and tolerance.  To say that it is stressful is the WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERSTATEMENT. 
Most evenings we spend a few minutes emailing back and forth commiserating over the days troubles and surprises.  Often it makes us chuckle and laugh which by my standards is soooooooooooooo necessary to help US with the stress.  For me, just knowing that my friend knows what I’m going through relieves a lot of stress and reminds me that there is always tomorrow.  We’re both Virgos and about the same age so there are enough similarities that I honestly believe we think alike.  I know I sometimes receive an email just after I have hit send on one to her which is a relief as I know we were in the same “place” at the same time.  Many times we could have even written each other’s emails because our days were so similar.
These days the difference comes because I am now helping to care for an aunt who has been placed in a care home while I’m also caring for her husband in their home who had triple bypass surgery and Martha is caring for her mother in her mother’s home while taking care of her family in her own home.  We are both basically caring for 2 homes, but I can walk away from my aunt at the end of the day and know that there are at least 2 caregivers on staff for the night in the event my aunt needs help.  This should bring relief. Instead it brings grief.  Many times MUCH grief.  
We have all heard about the horror stories in the news of abuse by caregivers to the elderly and infirm.  For every story we have heard I guarantee you there are a hundred times more stories we haven’t heard.  My aunt has been complaining for some time about the manager of the house she lives in as well as one of the nighttime aides.  Many times we were inclined to believe much of it to be exaggeration. There are so many examples to choose from, but right now many of those cannot be spoken of while resolutions are pending. 

Most of the residents of the home are there through guardianship and don’t have many visitors and while I have no actual proof, I believe that the “manager” (and boy do I use that term loosely) does not like family around because she can’t do things her way and in her time.  She’s loud, rude and downright mean.  She treats family members like they work for her and demands “respect” in “her facility”.  Yep, you heard me right!  This though is yet another story.

The man that owns the house is going through financial difficulties and has cut back on many things, one of which is the cook.  The manager of the house is now doing all the cooking (well supposedly, but that’s another story). She cooks by her terms “Louisiana style”.  From what I can tell, “Louisiana” style is a euphemism for lazy. The food is now being served with all the bones and gristle.  My aunt is sight impaired and has severe dyskinesia, involuntary muscle movements, that makes her dexterity difficult.  She cannot cut meat from a bone or detect it in a bowl of soup or stew. There is a serious choking hazard here. Personally I see not removing the bones before serving it to patients as pure laziness and neglect.
Martha and I  of all people do understand how difficult this type of work can be physically and emotionally.  But, I personally believe that anyone entering a paid position caring for patients should have a patience and tolerance that is reflected by their words and actions as well as the necessary knowledge of the disease(s) to understand the nature of the symptoms and side affects.  If they cannot offer any one of those criteria then perhaps they should be looking for different work.  If they cannot or will not follow the prescribed protocol for caring for patients as I suspect is the case in certain instances with my aunt (i.e. removing her night time meds without consulting the Dr.) then they should not be in this position either.   

I know my horror stories have left Martha feeling a little queasy about getting her mother into an assisted living situation.  But the moral, yes there is a moral! is that the family needs to stay involved, ask questions and not be afraid to follow through with governing agencies as we are doing now concerning my aunt and her care.

The biggest moral is that the caretaker MUST take care of themselves or they are of no good to anyone! The caretaker being stressed only creates stress in the patient that becomes a vicious cycle.
Now for something fun.  The holidays are coming much faster than many of us would like so I offer you this easy and fun recipe that will thrill the kids for Christmas.

Now for something fun.  The holidays are coming much faster than many of us would like so I offer you this easy and fun recipe that will thrill the kids for Christmas.

My great aunt who I only got to see a couple times a year used to make these every year special for me and I would wait out on the front steps for her to arrive just to see them and know they were there. Oh and her too! She always made them soooooooooo pretty and perfect!

HOLIDAY WREATHS

(these are better when they are made a few days ahead)
30 large marshmallows (or 1 jar marshmallow cream)
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon green food color
3 1/2 cups cornflakes
Red Hots
  • Combine marshmallows, butter, vanilla and food color in top of double boiler. Heat and stir frequently until well blended.
  • Gradually stir in cornflakes until well blended.
  • Drop onto wax paper and arrange into wreath shapes. I plop them onto the wax paper and then push out from the center to form the wreaths.
  • Decorate with red hots.
  • Let cool.
  • If your house is warm – chill in refrigerator until set.

Beans and Rice

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1 Bag of Pinto Beans
Pork Stew Meat
Seasoned Salt
Garlic Salt
  • Cook in crock pot or stove top until beans are soft – About 12-16 hours in crock pot and 2-4 hours on stove top.
  • Serve over rice.
  • I like Ketchup and Garlic Salt on mine…
    Happy Eating…
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Stuffed Bell Peppers Italiano

It’s Fire Day Friday but you can make this one in your oven too. It’s just not as fun.

I was sitting at my desk at work reading government guidance about performing IT risk assessments (exciting stuff, really) when the idea of this dish popped into my head. I love stuffed bell peppers but they have always been the traditional ones stuffed with a rice and beef/chorizo mixture.

But before I get into that, check out the giveaway package that Robyn is running over at Grill Grrrl. As if the autographed Michael Symon book isn’t good enough, she’s throwing in all of this other great stuff! So get over there and enter.

Okay, back to my idea. I thought that I would make stuffed peppers but make them with an Italian influence. Kind of like a lasagna inside of a bell pepper. Since this was a total off the wall idea, I only made two of them in case they sucked and made our Italian Skillet Slop for the boys.

Stuffed Bell Peppers Italiano
Source: NibbleMeThis

2 ea green bell peppers
5 oz Italian sausage
½ cup ditalini pasta
3-4 oz cream cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella
1 tsp basil, dried
¾ cup marinara sauce

Cut the tops of the peppers off and remove the seeds. Parboil them for 3 minutes, remove and drain.

Cook the pasta and drain. Ditalini is a small pasta (see pic below) which works perfect for this dish.


Brown the sausage.

Mix the cream cheese, mozzarella, and basil together. I would have used ricotta cheese instead if I had it but the cream cheese worked.

Now assemble your stuffed peppers in layers like this.

A few tablespoons of pasta, about 1/4th of the cheese mixture in each of the two peppers, the sausage, and a few tablespoons of the marinara sauce. Feel free to use your favorite marinara or jarred marinara. I made a quick one.

Quick Pseudo Marinara
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp oregano, dried
¼ cup marsala wine (I was out of red)

Sauté the garlic for 1-2 minutes in the butter and oil. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30-45 minutes. I hit them with the immersion blender about 30 minutes in.

Set your grill up for an indirect heat cook at 350f (or put in a 350f oven). Put the peppers in a casserole dish or individual baking dishes. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out so I put some of the cheese mixture on one of them and was going to add the other one later.

I baked them on the Big Green Egg for about 20 minutes. Then I added the cheese mix to the other one, put the rest of the marinara sauce in the boats, and tossed in the last of the cheese mix on that.

Meanwhile, Alexis was cooking another garlic bread roll on her Egg. We got this recipe from Rex at Savory Reviews. We had to bend it because it was too big to fit on the pizza stone. That didn’t affect taste at all.


I cooked the peppers for about another 15-20 minutes and then took them off to serve.

These worked great as a concept and was a very good dish. But this is more of a technique than a recipe. You could do the same idea with any of your favorite pasta and sauces and it would come out wonderful. Just doing this technique with leftover spaghetti would be great too.

BEEF VEGETABLE STEW revisited

BEEF STEW

1 pound lean beef stew eat, cut into cubes
1/2 pound baby carrots, halved
1 large Vidalia onion, peeled and quartered
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Knorr Spring Vegetable Recipe Mix
1 cup V8 juice*
1/4 cup white zinfandel wine*
2 tablespoons brown sugar*
1 tablespoons tapioca*

  • Spray bottom of slow cooker lightly with PURE!
  • Place the beef cubes in the bottom of the slow cooker.
  • Layer onions over top of beef.
  • In a mortar and pestle, grind all the seasonings together to reactivate their properties.
  • Add to Knorr Spring vegetable mix and blend well.
  • Sprinkle over the meat and onions.
  • Add carrots.
  • Whisk together the wine, V8 juice, brown sugar and tapioca until sugar and tapioca is completely dissolved.
  • Pour this over meat and vegetables.
  • Cover and cook on low 5 hours, undisturbed.
  • DO NOT CHECK ON IT!
  • Serve Immediately over mashed potatoes.
*The tapioca, wine and brown sugar make a really nice thick gravy consistency with robust flavor when mixed with the V8.

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Plan now to Steal – A recipe for your kid’s Halloween Candy

Save your kids from a lifetime of obesity… Steal their candy and make these little delights for yourself…

Fast and easy… Little baby candy bars and some puff pastry…

Wrapped in a square of puff pastry and you have a nice tasty little treat (and the kids stay fit and healthy).

A couple hints, roll out the puff pastry just about as flat as you can.  The pastry puffs up (duh).  You want these to stay bite size.  And the egg wash I talk about is VERY important.  Without good seals, the guts will blow out the pastry and not look right (tastes fine, but you want the little bundles, not a flatbread treat).

1 4X4 square of rolled out Puff Pastry
1 Egg, beaten for an egg wash to seal edges
a bit of candy bar… I used 1/2 a reese’s and/or 2 of the mini Crunch

And, pretty much that’s it… 

Bring the 4 corners together over the stuffing, press edges to seal and do a twist of the top.  Bake them in a 350 degree oven on parchment paper for 35 minutes and you have a Candy bar in a pastry!


Garnish with some fruit and drizzled chocolate if you like.  Garnish with the fruit just to keep the little darlings away from your stash!


Dave here from MY YEAR ON THE GRILL. It really is just this easy!  

 … I CAN COOK THAT! 

And so can you!







TEXAS RED CHICKEN

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 medium Vidalia onion, diced
2 cups homemade chicken broth
1/2 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce

  • Whisk together the ketchup, BBQ sauce vinegar, soy sauce, broth and sugar.
  • Place chicken pieces in slow cooker.
  • Add onion pieces.
  • Pour ketchup mixture over top.
  • Cook on low 6-8 hours.
  • Remove chicken and shred – add back to sauce.
  • Serve over Rice or on buns.

Save Room for Dessert…Coconut Pound Cake

Coconut, how do I love thee?  Truly, I love coconut.  The flavor.  The texture.  The aroma.  In a pie, in a cookie, in a cake, in a drink.  If you’re serving coconut, send me an invitation.  I have noticed, however, that coconut tends to be polarizing.  It’s either one or the other,  “Is that coconut?  Yummmm, I adore coconut.”  or “Is that coconut?  Gross, I hate coconut!”  I can’t say that I’ve heard any noncommittal responses.  Since today’s post is all about coconut, I hope the majority of you are coconut lovers…

Coconut Pound Cake  

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups coconut, divided
1 3/4 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Chocolate Ganache
Vanilla Glaze

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Butter and flour a Bundt pan (this cake will stick, so be sure to use the flour)
In a food processor, process 3 cups of the coconut with the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Process until the coconut has been fully ground into the flour.  Set aside.
In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. 
Add eggs one at a time.
Scrape vanilla bean and add paste to butter mixture.
Add yogurt and mix well.
Finally, stir in flour.
Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour or until tester inserted comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool for 20-25 minutes before inverting, then cool completely before applying glazes.
Pour on vanilla glaze and allow to set.  Once set, pour on chocolate glaze and sprinkle on remaining coconut.
Serve.

Vanilla Glaze
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 tablespoons whole milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
Microwave butter and 4 tablespoons milk until butter melts.  Stir in vanilla and salt.  Add powdered sugar and stir until smooth.  If glaze is too thick, add additional milk until desired consistency is reached.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla
Microwave heavy cream and chocolate chips for 60 seconds.  Remove and stir.  Return and microwave for another 30 seconds, stirring and returning to microwave for 30 second intervals until chocolate has melted.  Allow to cool before using.

IT’S TAILGATING TIME!

We’re HUGE Ffootball fans!  We do a count down in August to pre-season every year and never miss a game when at all humanly possible!  Well, it’s that time of year again! Football season is already 3 weeks old (where does the time go?) and that means it’s time for tailgating at the games, serious football food and game day buffets.  Bring over your best appetizers and your biggest appetite and oh don’t forget the Brewskis to go with it all.  I like mine really cold please with a side of lime!
Tailgating Time will be posted every Sunday at noon and open all week for you to add your football favorites. We’ll play each and every week until Superbowl Sunday. I can’t wait to see what you’ll be bringing!
It’s Tailgating Time!
HOSTED BY:
Martha at Seaside Simplicity 
Tamy at 3 sides of Crazy 
Lyndsey at Tiny Skillet
Would you like to be a host of Tailgating Time too? 

Leave me a comment here with your email or with Martha over at Seaside Simplicity so we can send you the code and add you to the host list – more exposure, more links, more football food!