Christmas is over and the New Year is creeping up on us. We generally spend the week between Christmas and New Years trying to de-stress from the frantic gift buying season and cleaning the house for the gathering of New Years revelers.
Last year, we went up the hill to our friend's lake house for the holiday. The wife had to work and they wouldn't be able to attend otherwise. I was getting over the flu, and my poor husband started getting a fever on the way up there. So, I spent the weekend nursing him through bouts of fever spikes and soaking sweats, cooking for the crowd, and taking pictures and didn't get to enjoy myself much. This year, the party will be back at our house.
Our kids are getting older now and while that thought is somewhat bittersweet, it is kinda nice to look back over the past year and see how much they have grown. My baby boy will be 18 in March. My daughter, 21 in June. I know that I don't tell them often enough how proud I am of them. They have turned into the kind of kids any parent would be proud to claim. And I love them very much.
My husbands job is still looking ok for the time being, so we are going to focus on getting the house ready to sell. We still have a lot of work to do around here to make that happen but at least we are not pressed for time or money to do it. We still have to do something with the bedroom and our bath, living room floor and kitchen counters. There are a few outside things that need doing, but they will be easy and inexpensive fixes that can wait until later. I am just ready to get out of this place and into my forever home.
The past year has had it's share of ups and downs. We got the house paid off, which is a major accomplishment, all of the vehicles are paid for, the kids both have good scholarships for college, and we have enough saved to be able to do the things we need to do to the house. On the down side, the garden didn't really do well this year and we are starting to feel it in the lack of canned vegetables that are left in the pantry. I may actually have to start buying vegetables from the grocery store again before the first produce comes out of the garden this coming spring.
And our smallest family member, Stuart, a 15 year old house cat passed away the first week of December. He was pretty old for a cat, and had been declining for the past few months. I was heartbreaking to see him getting so weak and know that there was nothing to be done about it. He died peacefully at home and was laid to rest with his favorite things in a spot by the back fence. We will be building a flower bed over his resting place as we did when Katie, our 14 year old Border Collie, passed a couple of years ago. He will continue to be sorely missed for a long, long time.
For the New Year, we will be starting off with a major celebration. Our Alma Mater had a winning football season for the first time in a very long while and has a Bowl Game that will be played the first week of the New Year. We are very excited about it and will be supporting our team in a grand style.
Our son will be graduating from High School in May with very good grades and will be getting ready to go to college in the Fall. Our daughter will be completing her Junior year of college (with perfect marks so far!) and will be starting her Graduate School search.
All of our years of scrimping and scraping are paying off. Our children are moving fully into adulthood as productive, well rounded citizens with bright futures ahead of them and we will have an empty nest. It will be a little odd to not have them underfoot but I think the future they will have will be worth it for all of us.
This New Year, for us at least will be full of new beginnings. And I am actually looking forward to it.
Showing posts with label cooking for a crowd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking for a crowd. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Last minute company
Whew, as much as I enjoy having company over, it is always nice for them to go home.
Se got home from vacation on Saturday the 9th, and Sunday, one of the friends that was feeding the critters for us stopped by for a couple of hours. He was on his way home from Springdale and decided to stop by for a visit. He was here for about 5 hours and it was enjoyable, and then he went on home. Then later that night, we got another email from our friends at the lake. They had decided to take their vacation in Little Rock this year, but unfortunately, their son had a bicycle accident the previous Friday that required surgery on his leg and wouldn't be able to get around with them. They asked if he could say with us while they did all of their running around. Of course, that was a no brainer, and I told them that there was absolutely no reason for them to stay in a motel when we were only about 30 minutes from everything they wanted to see and do, so I told them they could stay here. (They really don't have much money, he is on disability and she is a waitress) So they arrived about 8:30 Tuesday evening. Their injured son is about the same age as my son and they get along great. I think they spent most of the time playing on the game consoles and the computer.
The rest of the time, our friends spent running around Little Rock, seeing the sights and doing things they do not get to do in the very small town they live in, you know, the Zoo, an Art museum, a baseball game, the Mall, and they spent one afternoon at the $1 movie theater. I would feed them before they left and when they got home. They felt really guilty (for no reason) about eating our food, so on Friday night, our other friends (that fed the critters) joined us and we all went out to eat. We left the kids at the house and ordered Pizza for them. Their ages are 17, 16, 16, 14, 13, 13, 11, and 10. So 5 pizzas. Us 6 grownups actually got a night out. And our vacationing friends insisted on paying for the meal. So we insisted on paying for our bar tab. A good natured argument ensued and we graciously paid for our own drinks.
They had to leave fairly early on Saturday since a she had to be back at work at 3PM. The girls were hugging and claiming that they would miss each other. The boys were like "Dude, later man". We agreed that the Labor day weekend would be at the lake (their house) and that we would see them in a couple of weeks. Our other friends left around 7:30pm. And the house is quiet again.
But school starts tomorrow. So today will be busy getting everything ready for that.
So, a s a short recap, a week in Florida, a really long drive home, visitor, a single day to ourselves, then 5 extra people, then, 10 extra people, then quiet again. But there are still dishes to be done, laundry to be done, floors to be done, bedding to wash and put away, school clothes to pick out, back packs to clean out and restock, and hopefully, somewhere in there, we can take a breath.
But you know what, I still would do it again.
Se got home from vacation on Saturday the 9th, and Sunday, one of the friends that was feeding the critters for us stopped by for a couple of hours. He was on his way home from Springdale and decided to stop by for a visit. He was here for about 5 hours and it was enjoyable, and then he went on home. Then later that night, we got another email from our friends at the lake. They had decided to take their vacation in Little Rock this year, but unfortunately, their son had a bicycle accident the previous Friday that required surgery on his leg and wouldn't be able to get around with them. They asked if he could say with us while they did all of their running around. Of course, that was a no brainer, and I told them that there was absolutely no reason for them to stay in a motel when we were only about 30 minutes from everything they wanted to see and do, so I told them they could stay here. (They really don't have much money, he is on disability and she is a waitress) So they arrived about 8:30 Tuesday evening. Their injured son is about the same age as my son and they get along great. I think they spent most of the time playing on the game consoles and the computer.
The rest of the time, our friends spent running around Little Rock, seeing the sights and doing things they do not get to do in the very small town they live in, you know, the Zoo, an Art museum, a baseball game, the Mall, and they spent one afternoon at the $1 movie theater. I would feed them before they left and when they got home. They felt really guilty (for no reason) about eating our food, so on Friday night, our other friends (that fed the critters) joined us and we all went out to eat. We left the kids at the house and ordered Pizza for them. Their ages are 17, 16, 16, 14, 13, 13, 11, and 10. So 5 pizzas. Us 6 grownups actually got a night out. And our vacationing friends insisted on paying for the meal. So we insisted on paying for our bar tab. A good natured argument ensued and we graciously paid for our own drinks.
They had to leave fairly early on Saturday since a she had to be back at work at 3PM. The girls were hugging and claiming that they would miss each other. The boys were like "Dude, later man". We agreed that the Labor day weekend would be at the lake (their house) and that we would see them in a couple of weeks. Our other friends left around 7:30pm. And the house is quiet again.
But school starts tomorrow. So today will be busy getting everything ready for that.
So, a s a short recap, a week in Florida, a really long drive home, visitor, a single day to ourselves, then 5 extra people, then, 10 extra people, then quiet again. But there are still dishes to be done, laundry to be done, floors to be done, bedding to wash and put away, school clothes to pick out, back packs to clean out and restock, and hopefully, somewhere in there, we can take a breath.
But you know what, I still would do it again.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Pasta, Rice, and Potatoes
A couple of days ago I mentioned how pasta, rice, and potatoes can really stretch your food dollars. I have found that those three items go a lot farther than most people would think.
Let's take pasta first. When most people think of pasta, they think of spaghetti or other Italian dishes with a tomato or cream sauce. But there is a lot more to it than that. You can use pastas of different shapes and sizes for just about any meal. Egg noodles are one of our favorites.
You can seriously cut down on the amount of meat you use for a meal with a simple meat gravy over egg noodles. The noodles are great because they don't take very long to cook, are very inexpensive, and exceedingly versatile. One of the easiest meals that I make with them is a ground beef gravy. Brown about 1/2 pound of hamburger meat and drain off the fat, add your favorite seasoning salt, chopped onion, chopped peppers, mushrooms, whatever you and your family likes. Pour in 2 1/2 cups of water or beef broth (if you use water, add a couple of beef bullion cubes to give it flavor) and bring it to a boil. In 1/2 cup of water, stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch. If you have any Kitchen Bouquet, add that to the cornstarch mix (it enhances both the flavor and the color). When you have a good boil going in the meat, slowly add the cornstarch water to the pot, stirring constantly so you don't have lumps. Continue to boil until it is almost thick. It will continue to thicken as it cools so don't worry if it looks a little thin. The thing to remember is that the cornstarch has to boil to cook it or it will taste kinda gritty. Serve over egg noodles. This will make around 3 cups of meat gravy, so if you consider a serving to be 1/2 cup, then that is 6 servings out of 1/2 pound of ground beef. Just make sure you have plenty of noodles. If you don't have any hamburger, you can use round steak or chuck cut into thin strips and cook it the same way. Just remember that it doesn't take a lot of meat. The meat is for flavor, the pasta is the meal.
Another good thing about pasta is that it can be just as good cold as it is hot. Take a pasta salad. That is a wonderful meal for the summer months. You can make it up ahead of time and just chill it in the fridge until dinner. One that we like is almost an antipasto type. Boil a package of rotini (the spiral ones) until soft but not mushy. Drain. Mix in chopped onion, chopped pepper, a shredded carrot, mushrooms, sliced black and green olives, whatever you have handy. You can add leftover chicken (chopped) or pepperoni slices, or summer sausage, or whatever tidbits of meat you have hanging in the fridge. A crumbled hamburger patty is good too. Toss it all with Italian dressing and cover it. Stick it in the fridge until you are ready for dinner. Sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese. This is good with a salad and fresh fruit. Keep in mind that 1 pound of pasta will serve about 8, so if you don't need that much, don't cook the whole pound of pasta.
These are just a couple of our favorites, but they give you the idea. It lets you feed a family a good meal that is also inexpensive. This is also good when you have company coming and not a lot of cash to feed every one. Just make a double batch. Still cheap, but it doesn't look or taste that way.
Rice is another way to spread the meal around. Whether it is steamed, boiled, baked, in a stir fry, risotto, as a pilaf, in a pudding, whatever, rice will seriously stretch out your food dollar. When you consider that a pound of rice is about $1, and it will almost (but not quite, 1 cup of rice will make about 1 3/4 cup cooked) double in size when it is cooked, adding rice to a dish is a great way to bulk out a meal. Add a handful to a soup pot to add texture. Whip up a quick stir fry for lunch. Make a rice pudding for dessert. Drop a couple of bullion cubes to a pot of boiling rice for flavor. Use it as a base for meat gravy instead of pasta. Or just boil some up for breakfast, served with butter and sugar.
You can find a zillion recipes that use rice on the web. It isn't just for Chinese food. And because it is a grain, that is healthy for you. Using brown rice is even better since it is whole grain.
For a meal on the cheap, baked potatoes are probably one of the best. A little butter, some shredded cheese, a few bacon bits, add a salad and dinner is served. Roasted, boiled, baked, fried, steamed, grilled, in a casserole, hash browns, scalloped, au graten, potato salad, mashed, etc, there are enough ways to make potatoes that you can have them every day for a year and never have them the same way twice. They are low fat, high fiber, and best of all, generally cheap. Adding potatoes to a meal will allow you to serve less of everything else since potatoes will bulk out a meal. My general rule of thumb is 1 medium sized potato per adult, 1/2 for each child under the age of 10 or so. This doesn't always work, you have to take family preferences into account, but it is a good general idea. For instance, for fried potatoes, I usually peel 6 for my family of 4 because we really like them. But for mashed potatoes, I only use 4. The plan is to make enough, but not too much. Unless it is potato salad, potatoes don't really reheat well, so to save on waste, only cook what you actually need.
An easy way to roast potatoes is to wash them really well and cut them into about 1 inch chunks. In a large ziplock bag, add about 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning. Add the potatoes to the bag and shake it up really well to cover all of the potatoes with the oil and seasoning. Pour it all out onto a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes start to brown. You may need to stir these around a couple of times to keep them from sticking to the pan, but I promise, they are wonderful.
Pasta, Rice and Potatoes...great ways to spread out your food dollars without your family thinking they are being cheated. Cheap, versatile, and really really good.
Let's take pasta first. When most people think of pasta, they think of spaghetti or other Italian dishes with a tomato or cream sauce. But there is a lot more to it than that. You can use pastas of different shapes and sizes for just about any meal. Egg noodles are one of our favorites.
You can seriously cut down on the amount of meat you use for a meal with a simple meat gravy over egg noodles. The noodles are great because they don't take very long to cook, are very inexpensive, and exceedingly versatile. One of the easiest meals that I make with them is a ground beef gravy. Brown about 1/2 pound of hamburger meat and drain off the fat, add your favorite seasoning salt, chopped onion, chopped peppers, mushrooms, whatever you and your family likes. Pour in 2 1/2 cups of water or beef broth (if you use water, add a couple of beef bullion cubes to give it flavor) and bring it to a boil. In 1/2 cup of water, stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch. If you have any Kitchen Bouquet, add that to the cornstarch mix (it enhances both the flavor and the color). When you have a good boil going in the meat, slowly add the cornstarch water to the pot, stirring constantly so you don't have lumps. Continue to boil until it is almost thick. It will continue to thicken as it cools so don't worry if it looks a little thin. The thing to remember is that the cornstarch has to boil to cook it or it will taste kinda gritty. Serve over egg noodles. This will make around 3 cups of meat gravy, so if you consider a serving to be 1/2 cup, then that is 6 servings out of 1/2 pound of ground beef. Just make sure you have plenty of noodles. If you don't have any hamburger, you can use round steak or chuck cut into thin strips and cook it the same way. Just remember that it doesn't take a lot of meat. The meat is for flavor, the pasta is the meal.
Another good thing about pasta is that it can be just as good cold as it is hot. Take a pasta salad. That is a wonderful meal for the summer months. You can make it up ahead of time and just chill it in the fridge until dinner. One that we like is almost an antipasto type. Boil a package of rotini (the spiral ones) until soft but not mushy. Drain. Mix in chopped onion, chopped pepper, a shredded carrot, mushrooms, sliced black and green olives, whatever you have handy. You can add leftover chicken (chopped) or pepperoni slices, or summer sausage, or whatever tidbits of meat you have hanging in the fridge. A crumbled hamburger patty is good too. Toss it all with Italian dressing and cover it. Stick it in the fridge until you are ready for dinner. Sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese. This is good with a salad and fresh fruit. Keep in mind that 1 pound of pasta will serve about 8, so if you don't need that much, don't cook the whole pound of pasta.
These are just a couple of our favorites, but they give you the idea. It lets you feed a family a good meal that is also inexpensive. This is also good when you have company coming and not a lot of cash to feed every one. Just make a double batch. Still cheap, but it doesn't look or taste that way.
Rice is another way to spread the meal around. Whether it is steamed, boiled, baked, in a stir fry, risotto, as a pilaf, in a pudding, whatever, rice will seriously stretch out your food dollar. When you consider that a pound of rice is about $1, and it will almost (but not quite, 1 cup of rice will make about 1 3/4 cup cooked) double in size when it is cooked, adding rice to a dish is a great way to bulk out a meal. Add a handful to a soup pot to add texture. Whip up a quick stir fry for lunch. Make a rice pudding for dessert. Drop a couple of bullion cubes to a pot of boiling rice for flavor. Use it as a base for meat gravy instead of pasta. Or just boil some up for breakfast, served with butter and sugar.
You can find a zillion recipes that use rice on the web. It isn't just for Chinese food. And because it is a grain, that is healthy for you. Using brown rice is even better since it is whole grain.
For a meal on the cheap, baked potatoes are probably one of the best. A little butter, some shredded cheese, a few bacon bits, add a salad and dinner is served. Roasted, boiled, baked, fried, steamed, grilled, in a casserole, hash browns, scalloped, au graten, potato salad, mashed, etc, there are enough ways to make potatoes that you can have them every day for a year and never have them the same way twice. They are low fat, high fiber, and best of all, generally cheap. Adding potatoes to a meal will allow you to serve less of everything else since potatoes will bulk out a meal. My general rule of thumb is 1 medium sized potato per adult, 1/2 for each child under the age of 10 or so. This doesn't always work, you have to take family preferences into account, but it is a good general idea. For instance, for fried potatoes, I usually peel 6 for my family of 4 because we really like them. But for mashed potatoes, I only use 4. The plan is to make enough, but not too much. Unless it is potato salad, potatoes don't really reheat well, so to save on waste, only cook what you actually need.
An easy way to roast potatoes is to wash them really well and cut them into about 1 inch chunks. In a large ziplock bag, add about 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning. Add the potatoes to the bag and shake it up really well to cover all of the potatoes with the oil and seasoning. Pour it all out onto a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes start to brown. You may need to stir these around a couple of times to keep them from sticking to the pan, but I promise, they are wonderful.
Pasta, Rice and Potatoes...great ways to spread out your food dollars without your family thinking they are being cheated. Cheap, versatile, and really really good.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Toadally fun weekend
We had friends down this weekend and we had a great time. This last weekend was our hometown festival "Toad Suck Daze" with street vendors, live music, and all of the roasted corn and "Gator on a stick" you care to purchase.
Us women bought a couple of 1/2 flats of strawberries from the back of a truck up on the highway and made jam before we left for the festivities. 14 jars of some of the best freezer jam you will ever put in your mouth out of $14 of berries. You just can't buy that kind of good in any store. Especially for a dollar a jar.
My husband kept the men occupied with genealogy. One of the men now has his pedigree back to William of Normandy(a couple of different ways actually) and the first king of Sweden. He spent the rest of the weekend trying to get us to bow to his royal highness.
The other family is stuck in North Carolina. He had participated in a genetic testing study to link families thru DNA. He found out that he was indeed related to George and Rachel, but William wasn't George's Daddy. Now he is stuck again. He was kind of green about the royalty in the house, but it was a good time.
My daughter didn't get to be here this weekend because of an orchestra trip to Dallas. She left early Friday morning and didn't get back until about 3pm Sunday afternoon. Everyone was still here so she at least got to visit for an hour or so before everyone left. She was sad that she missed Toad Suck Daze and the ShawBlades concert Saturday night, but she had a good time in Dallas too.
Feeding 13 people is always interesting. Stew and biscuits Friday night, waffles and bacon Saturday morning, ham(that I smoked on Friday afternoon) sandwiches for lunch, grilled burgers for dinner before the concert. Sunday I made a big breakfast of bacon( 2 lbs), sausage(1 lb), and ham(about a pound), scrambled eggs(19), toast(26), fried potatoes(3-4 pounds), gravy( almost a 1/2 gallon), and the rest of the biscuits from Friday night and jam(of course). We didn't really eat lunch since we had breakfast at noon but I fried chicken and made some frozen veggies for dinner.
The last of the guests were gone by 7:30 pm and the rest was just down time for us.
All in all, a very enjoyable weekend.
Us women bought a couple of 1/2 flats of strawberries from the back of a truck up on the highway and made jam before we left for the festivities. 14 jars of some of the best freezer jam you will ever put in your mouth out of $14 of berries. You just can't buy that kind of good in any store. Especially for a dollar a jar.
My husband kept the men occupied with genealogy. One of the men now has his pedigree back to William of Normandy(a couple of different ways actually) and the first king of Sweden. He spent the rest of the weekend trying to get us to bow to his royal highness.
The other family is stuck in North Carolina. He had participated in a genetic testing study to link families thru DNA. He found out that he was indeed related to George and Rachel, but William wasn't George's Daddy. Now he is stuck again. He was kind of green about the royalty in the house, but it was a good time.
My daughter didn't get to be here this weekend because of an orchestra trip to Dallas. She left early Friday morning and didn't get back until about 3pm Sunday afternoon. Everyone was still here so she at least got to visit for an hour or so before everyone left. She was sad that she missed Toad Suck Daze and the ShawBlades concert Saturday night, but she had a good time in Dallas too.
Feeding 13 people is always interesting. Stew and biscuits Friday night, waffles and bacon Saturday morning, ham(that I smoked on Friday afternoon) sandwiches for lunch, grilled burgers for dinner before the concert. Sunday I made a big breakfast of bacon( 2 lbs), sausage(1 lb), and ham(about a pound), scrambled eggs(19), toast(26), fried potatoes(3-4 pounds), gravy( almost a 1/2 gallon), and the rest of the biscuits from Friday night and jam(of course). We didn't really eat lunch since we had breakfast at noon but I fried chicken and made some frozen veggies for dinner.
The last of the guests were gone by 7:30 pm and the rest was just down time for us.
All in all, a very enjoyable weekend.
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