The Nice Mother's Award

Well, it seems as if I've been nominated for the Nice Mother's Award. What an honour. On days where I have to run from work to school to home, make supper and do homework and then rush off to choir practice... I may not necessarily feel like a particularly nice mother. Rushing about always makes parenting more difficult. Then I remember the quiet things, the "mommy I have a booboo" that are really "momma I wanna kiss", the laughing together as we're going to the store, and the singing and dancing as we do household chores. Maybe I am a good mom after all!

Thank You Suzanne for the nomination. I now tag:

Rachel Mom to 5 boys! Wow! Snaps and snails and puppy dog tails...

Boothe A mom who, when given an impossible situation, remained open to life and graciously took us along so that we might also be blessed by Copeland - Heaven's newest angel.

Danielle A homeschooling mom to 8 children! An author and an inspiring blogger.

KristenA very nice mom indeed.

and finally Melanie A really nice homeschooling mom too! :D

Blog?... Meet Life! And my first Potato Festival

I came on the computer today and realized that I hadn't posted a blog in a while... What with a new job, kids going to visit with their dad, school and the change of seasons... And last night's stew was just sooo good.

A friend of mine works for the departement of agriculture, and over the last few days has brought me potatoes. They were testing potatoes and the ones that passed were good to use. Except, well, there is too much. So even after everyone takes a fair share, there is some left over that needs to be destroyed. I'm glad that my friend thought of us. I have over 20 lbs of Russet potatoes and 20 lbs of Chieftan potatoes. Thank you Daniel! I'll certainly share this bounty with others.

So over the next little while, I'll be working with potato recipes. Last night was the first... Chicken stew. Money has been tight around here for the last little while, what with school starting up and the kids hitting a growth spurt like I haven't seen in a while. I'll get paid soon, but in the meantime, my pantry is getting kinda bare. (The Lord does provide for us doesn't He? I mean I'm running out of food, then a friend comes along with over 40 lbs of potatoes! The Lord IS good - All the time! Praise God!!! :D )

So my stew was made with what was on hand. I started with an onion that I roughly chopped into 3/4 inch squares. I sautéed that for a few minutes in some butter. I pulled the skin of four chicken legs and threw that into the pot. I added two and a half liters of water, and started to let that simmer. Meanwhile I peeled some russet potatoes, probably enough to fill my litre measuring cup once diced, washed them and cut them into 3/4 inch cubes. I added that to the water. I asked my sous-chef, M., to get me some thyme from the garden to add to the stew. Then I added a bay leaf, about a half dozen peppercorns, three carrots that had been diced, and a bit of condensed vegetable broth. As the stew simmered, I skimmed the foam off of it - I wanted a clear and clean broth. A bit over an hour later... I had a wonderous stew. Now I had to pull the chicken meat off of the bones, add the meat to the stew and serve.

The kids ate it up. Here I thought I had made an industrial size stew for my family, and I barely made enough! The kids weren't hungry when we got up from the table... I just don't have my leftovers for lunch today.

I wonder what I'll do with potatoes for supper today. hmmm.... If you have any good potato recipes please forward them. I'll hold a potato festival on October 3rd. Please pass the word along, and we'll have lots of excellent potato recipes next week!

Simple pasta

Today's lunch:

2 italian sausages - peeled and crumbled
1 med onion - diced
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp butter
1 pound pasta (shell or fusili or "scooby-doo" or bow-ties)

Cook pasta as per directions on the package. Sweat the onions quickly in the melted butter. Add the crumbled sausage and cook through. Add the chicken broth to the cooking sausages. Bring to a boil and let reduce by half. Drain the pasta and toss with the sausage sauce. Serve warm. Mmmmmm!

This works well with both hot and mild italian sausages.

Enjoy!

Tonight supper...

Easy enough...

For each person:

1 chicken breast (boneless skinless), seasonned simply with a bit of salt and pepper, pan fried in a little bit of oil with a bit of garlic.

2 tablespoon salsa (degree of heat of your choice)

Cheedar cheese curds.

Method:

Cook the chicken breasts partially. Place them in a casserole. Top with some salsa and finish off with cheese curds. Place in your preheated 400F and cook for 20-30 minutes. Long enough for the cheese to melt, bubble and start to become golden.

Serve immediately, topped with a bit of chopped cilantro if you have some on hand. Yum!

Off for a bit...

My mom has been in the hospital for over a week, and yesterday the doctors finally figured out why she was sick. She needed emergency major surgery. She'll be touch and go for a bit. She's still in a drug induced coma at this point. Please say a prayer for her.

More than just noodles...

You know those ramen noodles that are so popular? Those that you can by four for a dollar? The kids eat them dry, crumbled and seasonned with the salty broth powder that comes with the noodles. Don't ask me how. They make for a quick snack after school, or a light lunch on a rushed day. Did you realize they could make a nice supper?

Tonight for supper we will be having ramen noodle pork stir fry for supper. With a few simple ingredients, a little bit of preparation, maybe a touch of imagination and we'll have a lovely supper.

For 5 people (4 of them children) we'll have:

3 packages of ramen noodles
3 small pork chops (boneless)
1 medium bell pepper
1 medium onion
3 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
Soya Sauce
Garlic
Ginger
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup almonds

First we slice the meat into thin strips, dice/slice the veggies thinly, mince the garlic and ginger. Depending on your speed and ability, this could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. This part is very important because the once the cooking starts there will be no time to cut and prepare the next ingredients. Even having the measured ingredients ready and on hand will make the cooking fast and easy.

Once everything is gathered, cut, and prepared, we can start to cook. First, we heat our sauté pan, add the oil, then the ginger, garlic and pork. Stir and cook at high heat with a bit of soya sauce. Remove the meat from the pan once it is cooked through. It's easier to cook in small batches, so that you can get the best flavours from the meat. Once the meat is cooked, sauté the vegetables quickly, starting with the carrots, then the celery and onions, and finally the bell peppers. At the same time cook the noodles. Once the noodles are cooked, drain, reserving a bit of the broth if you like.

To finish the dish, sauté the almonds quickly, then stir everything together. If you like a little bit of spice, you can always add a bit of chili pepper (to taste) to the vegetables as they cook. Serve the dish hot, with chopsticks if you want. The kids love eating ramen noodles this way. Flavourful, interesting and varied textures, this dish disappears quickly around our home.

You can always add other veggies such as brocoli, bok choy, chinese cabbage...

She can't can-can anymore...

I was talking with my grand-mother recently, and looking into her cupboard to help make lunch. What did I find there? Can upon can of canned vegetables and chicken sauce and soups and... and... and... Imagine, a cupboard that is about 36x18-20x24 in size that is completely absolutely full of canned goods. All 13680 cubic inches of space taken up with salty, soggy, mushy vegetables.

Oy! And here we (her family) are trying to make sure that she follows her prescribed diet as she should. One thing that is on the no-no list is salt. So she doesn't salt her food. Good thing, considering that one serving (1/4 cup) of chicken sauce contains nearly all of her required daily intake of salt! So... I tried to find a way to help my grand-mother find a way out of the canned goods aisle. Keep in mind that she is alone in her home now, and though she often has family over at meal times, we often bring our own meals so that we don't strain her limited budget. Yet here she sits with at least one cupboard filled with canned goods. If she never bought canned goods again, she would have canned food through to next summer if not next fall!

So as we were talking, she kept saying how she liked her canned goods. Then it struck me. We grew up in different times. I've always known the freezer and refrigerator. I've grown up with frozen vegetables. My grand-mother though grew up with the ice-box. She was an adolescent during the depression. What little they had, they had to ration and preserve to keep for tomorrow whenever they had any bit extra. Salt being one of the oldest, best, and cheapest preservation mediums available at the time, my grand-mother has developed a palate that requires a strong salt presence.

Medical concerns may weigh heavy on our minds, yet how can we disregard everything that my grand-mother has been through and grown up with? So we humour her canned goods cupboard, and we watch how much rotation goes on in that cupboard. We try to help her understand the importance of portion control - especially with the canned stuff. She seems to be catching on, but we know that she is probably sneaking in some "banned" foods. They are a comfort to her and so we turn a blind eye - to a certain point.

I blog this in my cooking blog because although we are what we eat, we are also who we were. The flavours we grew up with are the ones we search for in our old age. They speak not only of the foods we used to eat, but also of where we've been, of who's travelled along life's road with us and the comforts or struggles we've encountered along the way. For although food will nourish our bodies, who can deny that it also feeds our spirit?

Monday, Monday...

Well, today is Monday. It is return to work day. That means that I need to get supper going in the morning. Yet I have no clue what to prepare. I could take a chuck roast, brown it really quick in a cast iron pan, and throw in a few vegetables such as carrots, onions and celery (the regular mirepoix), sliced mushrooms and maybe a diced tomato. Add a cup of beef broth, a bit of salt and pepper, maybe a sprig or two of thyme. Oh! And what would it do if I added a few cloves of garlic? Mmmm! Cover with foil, then throw in my toaster oven at 250F for the day. Oh! I can hardly wait to smell supper tonight! :D 15 minutes work this morning to have a mouth watering and suculent meal tonight.

Food Bank Donations

Throughout the year there are food drives for a variety of food banks across the country and around the world. Obviously for a good cause. You can never imagine why certain people would need to go to a food bank. I'll admit that I have relied on my local food bank for a while. I never thought I would, but events came to be that I required the services of my local food bank.

For those of you who don't know (I hope you are many), here is a list of some of the things that I would find in my food box to feed my four children and myself for a month...

• Cream of tomato soups (Lots of cream of tomato soups)


• A few boxes of macaroni and cheese


• Canned peas/string beans/creamed corn/variety vegetable


• Canned pineapples


• Canned meats (ham, tuna, chicken, mystery...)


• Frozen pizza pockets


• Frozen donuts/timbits


• Frozen potato nuggets


• Maybe some frozen hot dogs


• A couple of odd things such as fruit ketcup


• 2 cups of rice


• Beans (not necessarily in amounts that can feed my family - single serving sizes are not particularly useful for some families)


• 2 cups of sugar


• Powdered drinks


• Jello


• 1.5 lbs of frozen ground beef

Keep in mind that some families live on the food box that they receive sometimes as often as once a month. If I could prove with a note from the doctor that I needed extra nutrients, I would be allocated one of the few cans of tomato juice or a bit of "real" meat such as chicken or small roast.

Can you imagine looking for something to feed your family and find only these items in your pantry? You have no salt. You have no pepper. You have no seasonings. You have no choice. The children are hungry and this is what you have. So I did my best and I was very grateful.

Now, I don't go get food boxes anymore. I do give though. I give lots of dried herbs and spices. I give salt and pepper. I give chicken bouillion base. I give a variety of things that allow for those who receive to have more than just something from a can.

Next time there is a food drive for your local food bank, keep this in mind and give generously. Give things that you hadn't thought of before, things that you would buy for your own family. Know that when you give, it may well be your neighbour who receives, and that they are grateful.

Hello all!

Unknown to everyone is that I have a stat counter on my site. A little something to give me a hint that there are people out there reading my little blog/online cookbook. Like anyone else, I like it when people leave comments, but I don't often get any - thank you to all of those who have left comments, they were much appreciated... This little counter just lets me know that I'm not talking to myself out here. Although it can be considered strange, I have been known to do that in "real-life" too.

My little stat counter doesn't just let me know how many people came to visit my site. I get a bit of an idea of where people are visiting from. I get a little google map with "pins" to show where people come from. Many are from Eastern and Central US, as could well be expected. However some of the visits came from places I never would have thought of... Peru, Brazil, Germany... A little island off the coast of Africa.

Well, to all of my visitors I wish to say Salut!

*Raises a glass in a toast to new friends*

I hope you will find my site informative and enjoyable. :D