Slow day in the kitchen

Today I didn't cook a meal because hubby had to leave for the upstate to do an inspection and training session. I don't usually cook just for myself - I'm too lazy. For breakfast, I had made a batch of double chocolate muffins with a mix I doctored up a little. Yum, yum. Daughter number two and I ordered Domino's pizza and ate half for lunch and half for supper.


We talked a good bit about what she would prepare for her friend's Super Bowl Party. She loves my teriyaki wings and they are easy to prepare. Everybody enjoys our "Open House Meatballs," so she's going to make those too. She pulls for the Boston Patriots and will make a Boston Cream Pie in their honor. Salsa and tortilla chips will be easy. If she's inclined, she'll make the seven layer dip for the tortilla chips. She's thinking of making Ham Delights, but when we are serving them to men, we use those dinner rolls that are the size of White Castle burgers instead of the tiny Pepperidge Farms party rolls. She'll include a bowl of salted peanuts too.


Over the next few days I'll include the recipes for the above dishes. Tonight I'll share the one for Open House Meatballs:


I'm going to give you the easy version.


Buy frozen meatballs which are usually already cooked. Each batch requires 1 lb. of meatballs. Combine 14 oz. of Heinz catsup (the amount in the small bottle) and 12 oz. of beer OR Coca cola in a large skillet (at least a 10" straight sided one). Bring it to a boil and add the meatballs and bring back to a boil. Simmer them, stirring occasionally, until heated all the way through - about 20 minutes should do it. Cover them to keep the splattering to a minimum, but if there's no vent, tilt it so the steam can escape. You can remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and cook another batch in the same catsup/beer or cola mixture. After that, too much grease will probably have cooked out of the meatballs, but if you can't see it a lot, you can cook another batch in that same liquid. I have used a huge skillet and doubled the cooking liquid and meatballs and made one huge batch of meatballs. When I've cooked the amount I want, I transfer them to my small crock pot (which the Down Home Diva, daughter #1, has made off with). I include some of the cooking liquid to keep them moist.


I've had this recipe for about 35 years - I got it when hubby was in graduate school and back then you couldn't buy frozen meatballs. My original recipe gives ingredients to make your own, and says to freeze them not touching each other on a cookie sheet before bagging in 1 lb. batches. Then you can pull them out and prepare just as I've described above. You DO NOT have to brown them or thaw them first. They will cook in just a little more time than it takes to heat up the frozen, cooked ones.



My nieces and nephews are now in their mid forties and still love them as much as they did as kids. They were thrilled to be eating "beer meatballs." That's why I experimented with the Coke and found that it also worked well.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll have to get myself organized to include the rest of the items in the next few days.

Odds and ends

Today we're having hamburgers and french fries for supper.

By the way, that brings up an interesting topic - what do you call the meals at your house? We say breakfast, lunch and supper. "Dinner" just doesn't enter into it except we might say "Sunday dinner" or "Christmas dinner" for those special occasion type meals.

Hubby loves hamburgers and could eat them 7 days a week I think. I only have a few hamburger hints, and you're going to think I'm OCD when I share them with you.

I keep my kitchen scales out and always measure out my lumps of ground beef so that they are equal. I do this so that they will cook in the same amount of time and because I have found that the size of the buns determines the weight of the pattie for us. I actually prefer what we call fatty ground beef, the 73% fat, for juicy hamburger patties, but today I have some Angus ground chuck, 80% fat to use.

I usually cover either a bread and butter plate or a salad plate with plastic wrap and use the depression in the dish to shape the patties. The weather here is pretty rotten today so I'll be cooking the burgers inside. If we're going to cook outside on the grill (hubby's domain), I will make the patties about an hour ahead and put them in the freezer to firm up so that the risk of them coming apart and falling through the grill is reduced.

Where ever the patties will be cooked, if they are large in diameter or more than 1/2 inch thick, I use my index finger and make a hole in the middle of the pattie. The hole will disappear as the burger cooks, but it helps the middle of the pattie cook faster and more evenly. I believe I got this hint from someone on Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite sites.

I'll be glad when the new George Foreman grill comes in so that I can toast the cut surfaces of the hamburger buns on the flat grill plates. Until then, we'll continue to run them under the broiler for a light browning.

Hubby picked up three tomatoes (beefsteak variety) at the grocery store yesterday and they cost $5.85. I am horrified, but it's not a hamburger to him if there aren't tomato slices on them. I am sooo longing for sun ripened summer tomatoes.

I'd better get busy. I have nine pounds of the ground chuck to deal with - some for tonight's burgers, and the rest to be frozen in 1/2 lb. and 1 lb. packages in freezer ziplock bags and flattened to stack on a cookie sheet I keep in the freezer so that things will freeze flat for stackability.

I'll talk to you again tomorrow. That's all for now.

This is fun!

Well, I survived my entry into the world of blogging and was amazed to find some comments. Thank you, ladies, so much.

Some days I may not give a recipe, but instead give a few shortcuts or tips to make things quicker, easier, tastier, or more economical. I hope you will not feel that I am insulting you. After all my years in the kitchen, I still look for new ways to do things. Sometimes they work for me and sometimes not.

Tonight I'm not cooking anything special because hubby had a large lunch when his office went out to celebrate someone's birthday. I'm planning on grilled ham and cheese sandwiches which have been a mainstay for us from our earliest married days. I do have a few tips I have gleaned along the way, so I'll share those with you tonight.

1. This is a good way to use up bread that isn't the very freshest.
2. I used to melt the butter in the skillet, but now I actually spread a very thin layer of mayo on
the outside of each slice of bread.
3. I have the heat on medium low so that the insides will have time to warm up by the time the
outside has turned golden brown.
4. Watch them closely. They can go from golden to black in a jiffy.
5. One or two each of thin ham slices and cheese are enough. If you put too much cheese, it will
ooze out while you're eating the sandwich.

If you want to gild the lily, so to speak, you can lightly beat an egg or two with a tablespoon of water per egg and dip the sandwich in that before you put it into the skillet. If you do this, you will need to melt some butter in the skillet.

If you want to really go overboard, you can dip the sandwich in dried bread crumbs before putting the sandwiches in the skillet.

Now it's actually Saturday. I lost this post last night, but after trying several things, I seem to have gotten it back.

Last night Hubby wanted the sandwiches prepared in a little sandwich grill he bought for $2. about a month ago at Goodwill. This purchase was soooo out of character for him that I am still amazed. His best work friend is very careful with his money and they go there sometimes on their lunch hour. His friend has one of these and likes it. Our sandwiches keep sticking. I have a rain check from Dillard's department store right now for the new George Foreman Grill that comes with multiple plates that can go in the dishwasher. The ad said the regular price was $149.99, but they were selling it the week before Christmas for $89. and then you could mail in a form for a $10. rebate. They were out when I went for mine, but they did give me the rain check and said they would send me a postcard when the new shipment came in. I call every week just so I can get a jump on them, but they haven't come in yet. They may be on the truck Tuesday or Wednesday. I certainly hope so because I have so many things I want to try. I'll keep you posted. If you have any experience with these grills and want to share, I'm very interested.

Oh, so self-conscious

I suppose I should begin my first post by introducing myself, and so here it goes:


Daughter Downhome Diva has set this up for me, and I hope I'll have fun with it. I'm a 59 year old married, retired school teacher. I suppose I've been in the kitchen all my life, but one of my earliest memories is of insisting on helping my mama wash dishes by standing on a kitchen chair. I still have my 5 year old birthday present from my mama , a very simple cookbook for boys and girls and my 8 year old present from her, Betty Crocker's Cooking for Boys and Girls. I must have had around 200 cookbooks at my highest count, but I've weeded out so that I'm down to around 100 now.

I've lived all my life in the South and most of it within a 70 mile radius of my present home on Lake Murray in Chapin, SC. I have two grown daughters, the Diva , who is married whom I mentioned above and a younger daughter who has moved back into the nest to save money to go back to college and change her occupation. She is now a dental assistant and aspires to be an optometrist. The Diva is a paralegal for her mother-in-law, a family attorney, and frequent guardian at litem.

I've just finished reading Sandra Lee's biography, Made from Scratch, and found it very inspiring. So, now I want one of her cookbooks, but I want it at a very good price. That's my other passion - getting a bargain on everything I buy. Men go out in the woods to hunt game and I scour the stores, newspapers, and Internet for bargains. What's the difference? I used to adore garage sales, but I am disabled by arthritis now and getting in and out of the car is too painful for me to enjoy it any longer.


One reason I wanted a blog was to help me keep up with my favorite recipes. As I make each one, I'll try to add it here. Tonight I made Hamburger Gravy, which was inspired by philocrates at Allrecipes.com (Nana's Favorite Hamburger Gravy #139492). I have changed it so much that I now consider it mine. Here's my version:

Hamburger Gravy

1.5 lbs. of ground beef

1/2 cup very finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

6 tablespoons of water

6 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

3 cups of milk (I use whole milk)

Kitchen bouquet browning sauce, optional (Hubby likes it without)

Toast to serve it over

Put the ground beef and onion in a large skillet and cook on medium heat until the meat is no longer red and the onion is transparent. Stir frequently. While that is cooking, put all the other ingredients in a quart jar with a tight fitting lid and shake or stir to blend well. When the meat is done, drain the fat and add the other ingredients and stir until thickened and smooth. It will take about ten minutes, still on medium heat. I bring it to a slow boil. Serve over slices of toast or split biscuits. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

That's it for tonight.