Naptime Blog

I love family reunions. Sure, seeing family is wonderful, but the food is what I’m talking about. Who’s with me on this?

I was going through cookbooks and found one printed in 1992 that includes a bunch of family recipes. The cookbook was distributed at the annual family reunion. I would like to share one that is tried and true and really tasty. I love these because they aren’t overly sweet, but are addictive. I can’t eat just one. I like to dip mine in a hot mug of freshly brewed coffee.

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
1 cup margarine, soft
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
Additional sugar

Cream butter and gradually add sugar. Beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add buttermilk and beat well. Combine flour and soda, gradually stirring into a creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Chill dough several hours or overnight.

Roll ¼ inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut out 3 ½ inch circles (or desired shape). Place an inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle sugar on cookie tops (this is optional as I don’t always do it if I am going to be using these to dunk in coffee). Bake 7-8 minutes in 400 degree oven. It makes four dozen cookies.

This recipe is good to use with cookie cutters for birthday or holiday cookies.

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

 I promise this post is going somewhere. We have a 14 cu ft standing freezer in the basement. I love to buy meat in bulk and food saver it. I have saved so much money this way. Since I do this I have a list of the meat I have. I knew I wanted to make pork chops. So I checked the list and I had 4 bags of 4 chops. I looked and looked and could not find ANY pork chops. So I complained to Rick and changed dinner. Rick came home from work and found the pork chops on top of the freezer. He never put them in. He must have set them down to open the freezer and forgot to put them in. No big deal lesson learned.

Here is a picture of the top two shelves of my freezer, the rest is just as filled. Do you think I have enough food? I am not sure.

So I decided for the next month we are eating out of the pantry/freezer. No more weekly grocery shopping. We are stock piling food. For what? So my cooking adventure begins. We only will have to buy things like milk, bread, and yogurt.

Since I didn’t have pork chops I made Apricot glazed chicken instead.
Ingredients

• Chicken (I used 5 thighs & 3 breasts)
• 1 cup apricot preserves
• 1 cup Russian dressing
• 1 package dry onion soup mix

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl combine the jam, dressing and soup mix. Mix together.
3. Place chicken pieces in a 9×13 inch baking dish.
4. Pour apricot mixture over chicken and bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

I’m also making a green giant vegetable steamer and couscous

-Chrystal

Growing up, my mom used to love to make tuna casserole. She made a big pot of macaroni and cheese, added a can of tuna and some peas and mixed it all up. I was not a fan. My sister loved it. To each their own, right?

I do, however, love macaroni and cheese. I also love making my own casserole concoctions with it. The boys will gobble mac and cheese up, so I want to add as many healthy ingredients to it as I can. Recently, I tried the Great Value Macaroni & Cheese and loved the taste. I love that I can save money, too!

Here is a simple recipe:

1 box Great Value (or any brand) Macaroni & Cheese
1 cup frozen green peas
Browned hamburger meat, turkey or chopped up ham (use as much or as little as you like)

Prepare the macaroni and cheese per box instructions. Warm the frozen peas then dump them into the prepared macaroni and cheese. Now mix in the meat. You can also top this with cracker crumbs and cheddar cheese then brown under the broiler if you’d like. There are many variations. I sometimes throw in sun dried tomato or corn.

Do you have a favorite “throw together” casserole?

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

Is it possible that I have passed on to my son this gift of gab?

Surely my husband and I talk to Shaughn every day but Shaughn is definitely more like me. I have a tendency to just talk and talk with people I get along with, even if its meeting with them for the first time. My son will just be sitting there, will make eye contact with you and start yapping away. Its non-stop and he uses his hands a lot for what seems to be his punctuation. I do this. I don’t know why I do but I very much do these things with my hands that to me, I’m assuming, makes it feel as if my point is getting across more. Does that make any sense or am I just weird? Today while the three of uswere eating lunch, he took a bite of his food, chewed it up and swallowed then said “Mmmm!” and just continued in this dialogue. The mmm part was a delightful sound, like he enjoyed the food, and then the rest was just babbling as if he were describing to us what it tasted like and how good he was. Brent and I started to laugh because of how into it he was, and when he finished saying whatever he had to say he laughed with us then opened his mouth and said “ahh” for another piece. All you can do is agree with him, imagining what it is that he’s thinking about. Well, I’m hoping he was talking about it being delicious because if it was the opposite, he’s gonna be stuck with momma’s bad cooking for 17 more years!

Krystle

I was reading in line at the store the other day and the article was very interesting. Here are a few of the things that I learned and thought were helpful: 

1. When cooking put a thin layer of butter around the rim of the pan to keep the water from boiling over (which makes a huge mess depending on what you are cooking). 
2. If you run out of eggs you can substitute in two tablespoons of real mayonnaise for one egg (I have not tried it yet but I think it’s quite interesting). 
3. A common mistake people make when cooking meats is salting the meat before you cook it. This actually pulls the moisture out of the meat as it cooks, making it dryer. 

My new favorite cake to take places is:

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE

• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. boiling water
• 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 10 T. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 t. vanilla

1. Grease three 8-inch cake pans and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk boiling water, chocolate, and cocoa until smooth. 
3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, scraping the bowl and beaters as needed. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. 
4. On low, bet in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in half of the chocolate mixture. Repeat wth half of the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining chocolate mixture, and finally the remaining flour mixture. 
5. Give the batter one final stir using a rubber spatula. Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake 15-20 minutes. 6. Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Flip onto wire rack, flip capes upright, and let cool completely before frosting, 1-2 hours.

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened
• 1 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter (don’t substitute chunky)
• 3 T. heavy cream
• 2 1/2 t. vanilla
• 2 1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar

1. Beat butter, peanut butter, cream, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl on medium high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, 1-2 minutes.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, and beat until incorporated and smooth, 4-6 minutes. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 5-10 minutes.

This recipe is straight from The America’s Test Kitchen Baking Book. Let me know what you think!

-Chrystal

A few weeks ago I wrote about Christmas shopping for food.  Wanted to share the official Christmas menu!

I am of Italian heritage.  Anyone who has ever eaten over our house growing up on holidays (heck, even on an average Sunday!) would think my family was NUTS!  The amount of food my grandmother, then my mother, and now I prepare and consume on a holiday can feed a small country.  This is the menu for Christmas dinner. 

The antipasto course is first.  We prepare provolone, soppressata, dry sausage, mozzarella, ricotta salata, pepperoni, and other cheeses and meats in antipasto trays.  Along with seasoned peppers stuffed with cheeses and prosciutto, seasoned artichoke hearts, and an olive salad, the cold trays complement the hot trays: stuffed mushrooms and warm Italian bread.  For many, this is a meal in itself (and really, it is!).  But this is only the beginning.  Enjoyed with red or white wine, the antipasto sets the stage for the rest of the afternoon.  Yes, dinner starts at about 3:00 PM.

The women clear off the antipasto dishes and check the pasta baking in the oven, while the men and children find their way into the living room for football and new toys.  And everyone gets a chance to digest the antipasto until the next course is served.

The pasta course is usually lasagna.  I personally would prefer a stuffed manicotti or baked ziti, but the traditional pasta for Christmas Day is lasagna.  Layers of pasta with ricotta, mozzarella, and teeny tiny meatballs are baked in the oven.  I spent last Sunday preparing the sauce (which I call ‘gravy’) and the ‘gravy’ meat, including the meatballs.  One hundred and twenty mini meatballs for the lasagna and 65 large meatballs along with sausage, a piece of beef, a piece of pork, spare ribs and braciole were cooked in the gravy in advance.  This Christmas I am expecting to serve thirteen people.  Luckily, the gravy and any leftover gravy meat can be (and will be!) frozen for future meals.  The lasagna and gravy meat are our second course. 

By this point, no one wants to eat anymore, but somehow everyone finds room.  This Christmas, we are cooking a 20 pound fresh ham along with a 5 pound roast beef.  Onions, stuffed artichokes (my personal favorite food!), candied yams, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad, corn, and red cabbage add to the fun (oh, joy!) of the meal.

Notice we still have not had dessert!  Dessert in itself is three different courses, maybe four.  We start with fruit and then nuts.  Winter fruits, including oranges, apples, pears, and finocchio (fennel, a fruit that tastes like black licorice) is served next.  Following the fruits are the nuts: walnuts, almonds, Brazilian nuts, hazelnuts, and baked chestnuts, we are now finishing up the bottles of wine, preparing for the liqueurs.  The after dinner cordials are served with boxed chocolates, including chocolate covered cherries, after dinner mints and jelly rings.

Finally (now that everyone has eaten enough food to last them for 6 more days) it is time for coffee and cake.  We serve the desserts our guests have brought, usually including pastries, cheesecake (my father usually makes his Italian cheesecake specialty) and a chocolate cake.  We made dozens and dozens of cookies to satisfy every palate: butter cookies, peanut butter cookies, butterscotch walnut cookies, anisette cookies (my grandmother’s specialty), and nut cups.  My parents will bring the tri-color cookies that took two days to prepare (rainbow cookies, and they are worth every minute!) and my aunts will bring the struffoli (honey balls).  All of these cakes and cookies are served with a choice of coffees (American coffee, espresso, cappuccino). 

And then, everyone rolls home!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com

My husband and I are cooking Christmas dinner this year.  We are hosting 15 or more family members.  Both my family and my in-laws are of Italian descent, and both families have kept the holiday traditions alive through the years with menus.  I cannot believe how much food is actually served at a holiday in our family!

First, we begin with an antipasto (appetizer) which consists of various cheeses and deli style meats.  These antipasto trays are served with bread and some salads, peppers, olives, sweet breads, stuffed mushrooms, and more.  (Hang on, I am FAR from done!)

Next is the pasta course.  Christmas is generally lasagna, with mini meatballs inside.  We cannot forget the “gravy meat”, which is meatballs and sausage among other meats served in the lasagna sauce.

Then comes the main course, which is either one or two of the following: roast beef, fresh ham, leg of lamb or turkey.  This is accompanied by various vegetables and starches, such as stuffed artichokes, green beans, broccoli, salad, baked potatoes, yams, more bread and other fixings that go along with the meats.  (And the meal continues, thank goodness this is only one day a year!)

Fruit and nuts come next, with various winter fruits and nuts, including my favorite, chestnuts.  I guess we use the excuse that there are all these fresh fruits and veggies in the meal, therefore we are eating “healthy”! 

If anyone still has room left (which most of us FIND room for dessert!), dessert is last, served with different types of coffees and liquors.  Oops, I forgot to mention the red and white wines that are served throughout the meal.  So yes, I guess my family is stuffed and drunk by evening!  Everyone who comes to dinner has either baked cookies, pies, cheesecakes, and/or purchased a variety of these as well as pastries for dessert.  Wow, I am getting a stomach ache just thinking about all this food!  But I believe everyone should experience this kind of meal if just ONCE!  Amazing!

Our supermarket hosts a special each holiday season, just before Thanksgiving, that if you accumulate a certain number of points from shopping in the weeks before Thanksgiving, you can earn a one time use 20% off coupon on a future purchase to be redeemed the week of Thanksgiving.  So my husband and I took advantage and managed to purchase any items for Christmas dinner that we could in advance with the discount coupon. 

Now just imagine how much money it costs to purchase all of these things?  The dry sausage and cheeses alone are a small fortune!  We decided to save wherever we could and buy generic.  Many of the food items above do not come in generic, however, I am proud to say that I saved a fortune on other items needed to prepare dinner!  For instance, instead of buying ‘Reynold’s Wrap’ at $6.99 a roll, I bought the store brand at $3.99!  I bought store brand baggies to wrap up the cheeses in and saved another small fortune!  And because I want to be able to toss after dessert and get some much needed rest, we got the store brand coffee cups and dessert plates as well! 

We will need to spend an afternoon the week of Christmas shopping for more groceries for Christmas dinner.  So while many people shop for gifts, this year I will be adding “groceries” to my Christmas shopping list!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com

My grandmother is in town from NY for Thanksgiving and everything has been wonderful. I offered to make a couple of dishes to help relieve some cooking stress her and my mom would have had if they had to make all that food. I made green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. We called over to see if they had at least made some mashed potatoes, which they hadn’t. So my husband quickly whipped up homemade mashed potatoes which was delicious. He also made a really good dessert the nite before called “Chocolate Delight” and boy was it.

With the high chair up to the table at my moms, we said a prayer and dug in! Having a big spoonful of each dish we had, Shaughn also had on his plate some turkey, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. He was in food heaven! After we all stuffed our faces, it was time for naps! Well…. a nap for Shaughn and me! He very rarely naps past 4pm, but tonight he and I crashed out from 7pm til 9. Well, 9 is normally his bed time but that night we had to go visit our friends’ home who are pretty much our extended family. I’ve known my friend Peter for about 15 years through school so all of his family and siblings have become mine as well, and they are such wonderful people.

Before we left to go there, Shaughn was being silly and playful and all of a sudden just got up and stood up for the first time by himself! Now when you tell him to stand up, he does it for a couple of seconds before laughing and plopping down. We had helped stand him up in the past and he stayed like that. Then the other day he used a pillow instead of furniture to stand up, but on this day he didn’t need ANY help which was another “first”! Every new thing Shaughn learns is amazing and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

-Krystle

Cherry Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (9-inch) graham cracker crust
• 1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling, chilled

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
• Gradually add the milk; stir until well blended.
• Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla.
• Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
• Top with the remaining pie filling before serving.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 3 hours
Ease of Preparation: Easy
Yield: 6-8 servings

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

We LOVE this recipe from Paula Deen! It is ridiculously easy…and it looks like you worked really hard on it when in fact you DID NOT:-)Now that’s my kind of cookin’! All though I’m sad it didn’t include butter. Just kidding. If you watch Paula you know she LOVES butter.
Ya’ll enjoy!

Chrystal

My post about family get togethers made me think about one of my favorite take along recipes. This time of year brings lots of family gatherings and holiday parties. Many times I am asked to bring my favorite side dish.

My favorite side dish is called Cheesy Potatoes. I was given the original recipe years ago by a friend, but I sometimes make it my own by adding in ingredients like finely chopped prosciutto or crumbled bacon. As with any recipe, I suggest experimenting with it to make it to your family’s taste.

Cheesy Potatoes

(This is super easy and a HUGE hit for any potluck, family reunion or other event you have to go to)
 
2 pounds frozen tater tots, thaw and break apart (Use your hands, it’s easier!)
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pint of sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
About 4 finely chopped green onion (
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
 
Mix the butter, soup, sour cream, onion, salt and pepper together with the smashed tater tots. Then mix in cheese and press into a GREASED 9×13 pan or a 3 quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until bubbly and starts to slightly brown.

Every time I make this I have several people ask me for the recipe. Do you have a favorite recipe that is your “go to” for family reunions or other potluck events?

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/