SEPTEMBER 2015.."What's For Dinner??"

Even better than not divulging a 'secret' recipe is when they give you the recipe but leave out key ingredients....

My late MIL gave me a recipe for soft sugar cookies I wanted to make because Mr. Amazing grew up eating them and really liked them. I made them exactly according to her recipe and when they baked they spread out and over the sides of my cookie sheet. Somehow, she had omitted half the flour in the original recipe.

I mentioned my failure to his sweet grandmother and, turns out, the original recipe was HER'S that she had given to her daughter-in-law....and she had given the proper amounts. So Grandma let me copy the recipe and my problem was solved.

Sounds like someone you would like to be friends with.....

I know a lady who wouldn't disclose her recipe because she didn't want to admit that she'd bought it at a bakery.

I remember a TV show where someone was trying to duplicate his aunts secret Tulhause cookies. Turned out it was Toll House chocolate chip cookies.

I wish I was one of those chemists that can analyze a substance, break it down and tell you what is in it and the percentages. I have a few things I would like analyzed.

Easy Peasy supper.....grilled knockwurst, warmed-over purple peas & Betty salad - a taste of home!

Kids are home. I am going to do that Huli Huli chicken when they get hungry. It's 5pm here. it's 3pm Seattle time so I imagine they won't be hungry for a while. I think they are going to take a nap right now.

Here is my attempt at Huli Huli Chicken thighs. Salad was tossed with Southwest Airlines peanuts and baby bella mushrooms with corn.

Grilled steak.Rib eye .

Looks great you guys...

Goulash soup as an appy, then meatloaf, red cabbage and home fries in a local German restaurant.  It was really good, but way too much gravy on the meatloaf. I never make gravy with meatloaf at home.

NormM wrote:Here is my attempt at Huli Huli Chicken thighs.  Salad was tossed with Southwest Airlines peanuts and baby bella mushrooms with corn.

That looks delicious to me!!

Niagara Visitor wrote:Goulash soup as an appy, then meatloaf, red cabbage and home fries in a local German restaurant.  It was really good, but way too much gravy on the meatloaf. I never make gravy with meatloaf at home.

I
Hi Niagra! What is Goulash soup? I have never heard of it. I make a goulash at home with round meat, tomato stuff and pasta, but never a soup..

I finally tried out that recipe for scallops on a bed of spinach with a Calvados sauce. DH and Roomie said it was a keeper.

cookingirl wrote:

Niagara Visitor wrote:Goulash soup as an appy, then meatloaf, red cabbage and home fries in a local German restaurant.  It was really good, but way too much gravy on the meatloaf. I never make gravy with meatloaf at home.

I
Hi Niagra! What is Goulash soup? I have never heard of it. I make a goulash at home with round meat, tomato stuff and pasta, but never a soup..

 I had it in the Black Forest Inn restaurant in Hamilton Ontario.  It was beef, potatoes, probably paprika, I think a bit of noodles.  The broth was med. brown so I assume that they probably thickened it a bit with flour.  Good, but not very spicy.  The goulash I made yesterday was based on the recipe I got when I googled Hungarian goulash.  Restaurant had their recipe on their website.  

The reason I ordered the soup today was to find out how it would taste.

P.S. I looked in one of my German cookbooks and will translate the way it is printed. 

Goulaschsoup. 

-300 grams onions, sliced
-1 red, one green bell pepper, washed, seeded and cut into strips (Julienne)
-250 grams beef, cut into small cubes
-60 grams margarine (this is an old book guess they used margarine then) 
-sautee onions in the margarine (butter)
-When onions are pale yellow, add peppers and 3 tablespoons tomato paste, stir well
-Add the meat, 1.5 liters of hot water, 3 beef boullion cubes (I would use beef broth instead)
-Add salt, pepper, Paprika, extra sharp goulash spice, some garlic salt
-Combine 2 tablespoons Creme fraiche with 1 tablespoon flour, add to the soup mixture.
-300 Grams potatoes, washed peeled, cut large dice, add to the soup.
-Simmer for about an hour, taste for spices, adding tabasco as desired.

 *** recipe doesn't give amounts for spices. But, I think you get the idea here. 

German recipes do not start out as ours generally do by giving all ingredients first, and then going on to method.  Sometimes they are really confusing. 
-

Wow...food looks fantastic! Norm, your Huli Huli Chicken looks great. Hope you and the kids liked the taste.

Barb, you have me green with jealousy.....RIB EYE STEAK! Only time I can afford that around here is when it's NOT a good looking piece of meat. I want what YOU had!

Niagara...goulash is very different from area to area in Europe. I'm sure what you were familiar with is not like what is traditional in Hungary. And what we grew up with here in the States, as Cookingirl said....ground beef, tomatoes, maccaroni ~ not even close to the others.

Just like there are many, many recipes for meatloaf, there obviously are also for goulash.  I did not grow up with it, never had it in Germany. I only learned to like it from reading magazines, trying things out etc. and having it in restaurants.

I did have a wonderful venison goulash in Germany last year. It was in a restaurant/Inn that was a converted farm (very large) served with chanterelles on the side and Spaetzle.

I haven't had goulash since the 70's. My mother made it with sliced round steak, tons of paprika, green peppers, beef broth, tomatoes, sour cream over a bed of noodles. As I recall I liked it but with all that paprika, I can't eat it today. I wonder what an authentic goulash has in it?

Everyone liked the chicken.

Barb, you have me green with jealousy.....RIB EYE STEAK! Only time I can afford that around here is when it's NOT a good looking piece of meat. I want what YOU had!


lol..I only buy it on sale.Very early in the morning,Sunday and Monday, Food Lion and Harris Teeter mark down the meats.Publix never does.

And I've found IF WinnDixie marks something in the meat case down it is because it's discolored and has a greenish tinge....no thank you.

No WD here they closed up..I went in once the place smelled like rotten meat.


No meat like that here either. It still has a use by date stamped and it is still good. We had another store Piggly Wiggly nasty store and Bi Lo is too.The Pig was bought out by BL..I never go in either of them.

I have everything prepped for supper....beef & mushroom stirfry over rice. I'm using Norm's kalbi beef marinate for seasoning.

The head of bok choy I bought for the first meal was large so I have half of it leftover in the refrigerator ready to use. If I don't have it tonight it will start to go bad so, rather than toss it and have it become really expensive bok choy, we will have another stirfry tonight.....

It was easier to cook meals when there were more people to eat what I fixed.

Some of the markets out here just re-date the meat.

A few years ago I was in a local market and noticed something strange.  I looked at some chicken, ans saw that the "packaged on" date was the day following when I was there.  I asked the meat manager who said that they re-package meat and re-date it all the time.  I didn't buy any.

The stories I have heard from store clerks would make your hair stand on end.