Food Suggestions

I always have crackers at home,especially when my stomach is upset. You can put anything on crackers from cheese, to orange marmalade to peanut butter.

Instead of a grilled cheese with bread, I have made quesadillas with flour tortillas with dipping in tomato soup.

I also added salsa, sour cream, and black olives in my tomato soup.

You can make your own fancy ramen. . . chicken tenders, veggies, even hard boiled eggs.

Use left over chili and put it on your mac N cheese. I’ve even seen people put chili on spaghetti.

I’ve also made bakes with pasta and rices. It makes food go further.

Easy mousse. . . puddling packs folded into cool whip.

Want to spurge your kids or your inner-kid on a Sunday morning have a French toast or pancake bar, where you have fruits, chocolate chips, hot fudge, caramel, fruit syrups, and whipped cream even have sausage and bacon. . . they can layer their own plate.

Christmas Traditions

Every Christmas my family has a mushroom-sauerkraut soup.

We made a huge spread. . .

Soup
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes fries
Ham
Turkey
Gravy
Rolls
Green Bean Cassarole
Balalki
Seafood Salad
Smoked white fish
Sauerkraut balls
Two types of stuffing

Desserts

Oatmeal cookies
Apple pie
Pumpkin Pie
Cherry pie
5 Chocolate Brownie (*that is blog on itself.)

Sauerkraut and Porkchops

I have some German roots in my family . . . (Slovak, German, English, Scottish and Irish. . . it’s just a huge mixture. I also like to cook Italian and have had my food been approved by my Italian friends.)

Anyway, my mom always like when I make my sauerkraut with pork chops.

I always make mashed potatoes so that can mix my sauerkraut in.

I took the crock pot (slow cooker) I put the pork chops in with the sauerkraut with a pitch of season salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar for about four hours. . . the pork chops fell apart and have the flavor of the sauerkraut.

I even left the skins on the potatoes as they felt heartier.

If I had a fryer right now, I would make the left over into sauerkraut balls. I love those.

Fritatta Or Crustless Quiche

I’ve been into writing (working on my novels) so I haven’t been cooking as much.

I made a crustless quiche (Fritatta) yesterday . . . It’s like omelet meets pie.
I added mushroom and green pepper.
I melted cheese on top.
I seasoned with chives, pepper, and season salt.
I made it in a slow cooker and it just took a few hours.
I made scalloped potatoes.

It would have been awesome with salsa and sour cream and toast.

It was fluffy and flavorful.

One of my favorites: Tacos

For my brother’s birthday (turtle), I made him homemade tacos.I love a good taco bar.

Soft tortillas
Crunch corn tortillas
Season ground beef
Salsa
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped black olives
Shredded cheese
Lettuce
Turtle had his sliced pickle jalapeños

Sometimes I add rice, sometimes beans.

This was turtle’s taco.

Its fun to make you’re own.

I sometimes cut the tortillas and make mini tacos.

It was a really good taco. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Another Huge Feast

Turtle, Zeroman and I take advantage when we can get access to the kitchen. We had access yesterday and we made a feast.

Zeroman made . . .

two type of meatloaf (Plain and BBQ Candied Bacon with a mountain of cheeses),
seafood pasta salad,
BBQ and Mayo chicken,
mashed potatoes
Potato salad

I made . . .

Lasagna: two sauces, seven types of cheese and layer of meatballs.
Cheese rolled Lasagna with a cheese sauce
Soured beans
glazed and roasted carrots
chopped Mac N cheese

Turtle helped with both.

We also baked. . . chocolate pudding cake and very chewy brownies.

The lasagna and the lasagna cheesy rolls.

Here is the plain and candied bacon BBQ meatloaf.

Roasted and glazed carrots

The soured beans had bacon and were sour and yet tangy. It was grandma’s recipe and my mom had asked for them, so we made them just for her.

The brownies were chewy.

The cake was soft with the creamy pudding on top. . . yum.

It was a nice way for us to celebrate Mother’s day as Turtle, Zeroman, and I got to cook for our mothers.

We had three days worth of food as we also have leftover for tomorrow as well.

Cooking Pet Peeves

I love to cook! I like being in a kitchen, turning on the radio and just making something yummy and awesome.

I enjoy making food. I really like it when I have people enjoying the food that I made. I appreciate feedback.

However, I have some pet peeves . . . (I talked this over with Turtle and Zeroman, and they agree.)

I hate cooking with people who do not know their way around food or the kitchen. (They can’t even wash a simple dish. I don’t mind serving them, but they can stay out of the kitchen if they do NOT want to learn.)
Or people who think they know it all, because they have watched two cooking shows, but try to serve raw chicken. (The Food Network is amazing, I have so many show I love on there, but you need to know the basics first because imitating someone else’s cooking style.)
Picky eaters. . . (I hate cooking for hours at a time for someone to nick-pick my food. I think you should learn to cook for yourself)

Cooking is an exploring science. (Yes, most who know the kitchen, may not measure, but I always suggest taste as you cook, especially herbs, seasons, and sauces. Even the most studied chef will experiment with seasons, meats, veggies, and flavors.)
Baking to me is precise science. (You really need a recipe and to measure to get the brownies, cookies, cakes, or pastry exactly the way you need them. Measuring cups and spoons are baker best friends.)

If you don’t like to cook, then find friends who do.

If you are picky on your food, find people who are just ask picky.

Leafy Salads

I knew if I just posted “Salads” that someone would say there are so many out there. . . (from leafy to protein like chicken or tuna to potato and pasta etc.) I love many different salads.

However over the weekend we made an awesome leafy salad. . .

I had few salad mixes. . . it ice-burg lettuce, Kale, greens, spinach, shredded carrots, and red cabbage. We added tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, and shredded pork and shredded cheese.

We have a south-western ranch or Italian dressing.

When I go to a restaurant, I don’t mind a simple salad before my main meal. However when I am at home everything is in my leafy salads. . .

I love fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, snap peas, black olives (sliced), shredded cheese (prefer white cheeses), sunflowers, flavored croutons, and whatever else will work. Plus I will cut up lunch meat or cube or shred chicken. My salads usually become a huge part of the meal. I even love having bacon in my salads.

Whenever I make a salad and my family is home, I usually end up making them salads too. I like to think of myself as a creative salad. . . I’m not sure if I am to master level yet. LOL

Growing up, whenever I would visit my grandparents for dinner, they could always have some kind of salad with dinner. My grandma got me into sprouts, poppyseed dressing, and adding chopped nuts in salad. I love the crunch and freshness.

I try to eat salad at least once a week.

Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
You can add into bean or split pea soups.
Add it to Mac N Cheese
Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.

Beef Stroganoff

I had sliced beef pieces, mushroom, sour cream and egg noodles. So I spiced everything up and made beef stroganoff. I marinaded the beef with ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

(I currently cannot handle onions with my stomach, but I have seem people add onions, and pepper to it.
I’ve also seen people use hamburger with it, but I prefer beef chunks.)

However it a hit a spot and it was eaten so fast, that I forgot to grab a picture.

It is so easy, but I usually never have the left over sour cream. (We had steak tacos Sunday and fish taco Monday, so I had left over sour cream today.)

Noodles are one of my comfort foods.