September, 2019 ~ What's your meal plan?

Norm, your empanadas looked delicious. You made me laugh, as I've done that with the DVR too when watching someone make something.

Beth, I snagged the recipe YOU posted from Chef John; his recipes are always highly rated on foodnetwork.com

I'd just expounded on Goya products but I learned something new about Goya from you -- I hadn't realized Goya made frozen stuff, too, so I'm going to have to check out the freezer section for them. I feel sure Rouses must stock them.

Thanks to both of you! The only time I ever made empanadas, I made them from scratch all the way and I baked them, too. Frying is just such a pain for me to do that I avoid it like the plague. As you all have heard, I always feel guilty dealing with the grease afterward! I know you can strain it and re-use it down the line, but we hardly ever fry so I don't keep it.

Of course, being a southern cook, I'd qualify as a heretic if I didn't keep bacon grease on hand always (I have a full quart jar now and Brian started another jar recently). That's enough grease in any household!!

Crybaby wrote:

Jimmy wrote:ust finished baking 6 full size foil pans of sausage, peppers, and onions,
They are for the church event for the end of the summer. That was our donation for the event. 60 lbs of sausage / a 1/2 bushel of peppers, and 10 lbs of onions....

We cleaned and prepped the onions and peppers last night, and portioned the sausage that we had to cut the links from the bulk length; in amount for each pan.
Put in zip lock bags so at 6 am this morning, we filled the pans and in the ovens at 325F.    4 hours / done. They are in the car, on way to the church as I write this.

Wow -- How nice of the two of you, Jimmy. Love, love, love this mixture and I'll bet the ones coming out of your kitchen are phenomenal! I told Brian about this and he said, "Wow, does he have a picture?!" He also said how generous and remarkable you and Tina must be -- see how smart Brian is?!

Pleae tell Tina how impressed we were, Jimmy!

I will tell her. I am glad she had the push to do that with her pain.
She prayed, and asked St. Jude, and St. Lucy, to give her the strength.
It was a hot day last Sunday, and she even helped as a volunteer from 2:00 till 6:30 pm.

Tell Brian, MY Bad! I took no pictures. I was more concerned with timing the sausage to be sure it was done well, and then getting them pulled from the ovens, and quickly delivered to the church on the warmers.
We will be making more soon, and I will post pics.

bethk wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:I tried the Rao's marinara sauce. I thought it was awful. Sour. Joe wouldn't eat it either so the whole jar went down the drain.

That's $8 you won't get back again.....and that's why I stick with store brand sauce and only get it when it's on sale 10/$10.  I'm such a cheapskate.  I like to use the bottled stuff and then add to it.  I start with a bottle of the store bought and end up with a full Dutch oven pot full.  

We've thrown away every single type we've tried but I'm hopeful this time. Will let you know how we like it. Laughed at you buying the cheap ones, Beth. If I was going to doctor them, I'd just as soon make my own marinara since it doesn't take that long to make. But I'm looking for QUICK and GOOD. Makes me think of that little sign they have in businesses: You can get two but not three of QUICK, GOOD and CHEAP! They always have that little "figure" that looks like Casper the Friendly Ghost bending over laughing, holding his sides! You often see it at "Quick Print" type places.

I'll let you know how it goes. Since Debbie hated the Rao's, I might start with the Victoria since it came out second and was a lot less pricey.... And then I might not!!!

Bugster2 wrote:I have the plastic KA grinder but I bought mine in the 80's and it is still going strong except the blade is probably a bit dull. They don't make things like they used to.

When you read the reviews of the plastic one today, they're horrendous. Some people said they didn't use it for months when it was new, took it out and used it and it cracked on the first use. Then, of course, they couldn't return it. It was a lot cheaper but I figured it wouldn't be cheaper if I had to pitch it so I bought the SS one.

Jimmy wrote:Tell Brian, MY Bad! I took no pictures. I was more concerned with timing the sausage to be sure it was done well, and then getting them pulled from the ovens, and quickly delivered to the church on the warmers.
We will be making more soon, and I will post pics.

You cracked me up, Jimmy, as did Brian by asking if you'd posted any when I told him of your generosity. I don't blame you for worrying about what you were doing and not taking pics. I've got to run upstairs and grab the camera when I want a pic, and I'd imagine all of you guys have your phones nearby all the time. Which is why I rarely take pics. But I'm trying to do it more often as people on Nextdoor post pics occasionally (when someone asks, usually the same man, "Whatcha Cookin' Tonight?" The more often I do it, the easier it will get to me and I'll no longer have to scan the directions to see how to move the photos from my camera to the laptop!!!

Bugster2 wrote:I tried the Rao's marinara sauce. I thought it was awful. Sour. Joe wouldn't eat it either so the whole jar went down the drain.

I forgot to ask you what brand you use, Debbie. I thought we might like the more expensive ones so I'm giving them a try especially for the reasons I already stated. I thought we'd like Newman's Own but we didn't like his either. I hope this time we find one of them at least passable....

Crybaby wrote:Norm, your empanadas looked delicious. You made me laugh, as I've done that with the DVR too when watching someone make something.

Beth, I snagged the recipe YOU posted from Chef John; his recipes are always highly rated on foodnetwork.com

I'd just expounded on Goya products but I learned something new about Goya from you -- I hadn't realized Goya made frozen stuff, too, so I'm going to have to check out the freezer section for them. I feel sure Rouses must stock them.

Thanks to both of you! The only time I ever made empanadas, I made them from scratch all the way and I baked them, too. Frying is just such a pain for me to do that I avoid it like the plague. As you all have heard, I always feel guilty dealing with the grease afterward! I know you can strain it and re-use it down the line, but we hardly ever fry so I don't keep it.

Of course, being a southern cook, I'd qualify as a heretic if I didn't keep bacon grease on hand always (I have a full quart jar now and Brian started another jar recently). That's enough grease in any household!!

Michelle, the Goya frozen discos are really nice to use ~ thaw, paper in between so easy to get apart. I do roll them a little thinner on a lightly floured mat, and sometimes the edges are icky, kinda freezer burned or just plain dried out. I just snip it off with kitchen shears and move on. Who knows how many times that stuff has been frozen, thawed and frozen again? But the texture is nice and the taste is good. I really do like the picadillo with the raisins, cinnamon, cumin, etc.....and more olives sliced up than the recipe calls for (because, like bacon, everything is better with MORE olives!). I usually add an egg wash and a sprinkle of s&p when I bake them. Who doesn't like a nice crunch of the salt on the outside?

One of these days I'm going to try using those frozen discos to make baked fruit pies. I think with the egg wash & a sprinkle of crusty sugar they'd be absolutely delicious.

Crybaby wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:Just got news that my sister had emergency surgery for an ovarian torsion. Don't know yet how she is doing. My BIL never talks to me, so I am not surprised. I doubt that he has said more than 5 words to me in 35 years.

I just have to ask: Do you talk to him? If not, try it and things might change. You could start with, "I know how scared I was when I heard about [your sister's name] surgery. YOU must've been our of your mind with worry, [his name]." He'll see it as an acknowledgment that you thought of HIM and things might start chilling out.

Hope you don't mind me butting in but when someone doesn't speak to me or look at me, it becomes a personal challenge to me to change that. Brian's laughed over the years at how I've gotten elderly grouchy people to start talking to me -- people who walked by our houses over the years, never acknowledging my LOUD "good morning" every time I saw them. I just pretended I didn't know they were ignoring me. After good morning got old after a couple of months, I'd add, "Wow, you look great in that color!" or "Your new hairstyle looks fantastic!"

This has worked for me my whole life, whether it's with strangers who should no longer be strangers, or co-workers in large offices I've worked for that appeared to be shockingly shy. Sometimes people would tell me I'm an idiot, saying something like, "Why are you so nice to her, Michelle, as she's a b*itch who ignores everyone!" I used to respond something like, "Oh, she's a challenge. I often wonder how she got so withdrawn," and sometimes, "I'm glad it just not ME who she ignores." But I'd often privately wonder if that person might have a problem we're not aware of, like Asperger Syndrome. I'm laughing as I probably sound like a complete nut but I often wonder about people who I see often but know nothing about -- ESPECIALLY if they seem to lack or don't display what I think of as regular societal participation and/or reactions. Brian used to marvel at how I could turn around people HE didn't greet anymore in the neighborhood and he'd laugh and tell me how he'd started doing it sometimes with people he passed in his building!

I'm not trying to hurt your feelings by suggesting this but figured I'd pose it as something you, like me might enjoy trying, Debbie. You seem like the type of person who wouldn't give up when challenged!

Part of the problem is that I have only seen him 5 times in 35 years. The other problem is that I know he thinks I am not up to snuff. He is an MD and a PhD. He got a perfect score on his SAT. In other words I am a moron in his eyes. It doesn't bother me. I don't rate with my sisters either. Never have, never will. I am sort of the black sheep of the family.

Crybaby wrote:

Jimmy wrote:Tell Brian, MY Bad! I took no pictures. I was more concerned with timing the sausage to be sure it was done well, and then getting them pulled from the ovens, and quickly delivered to the church on the warmers.
We will be making more soon, and I will post pics.

You cracked me up, Jimmy, as did Brian by asking if you'd posted any when I told him of your generosity. I don't blame you for worrying about what you were doing and not taking pics. I've got to run upstairs and grab the camera when I want a pic, and I'd imagine all of you guys have your phones nearby all the time. Which is why I rarely take pics. But I'm trying to do it more often as people on Nextdoor post pics occasionally (when someone asks, usually the same man, "Whatcha Cookin' Tonight?" The more often I do it, the easier it will get to me and I'll no longer have to scan the directions to see how to move the photos from my camera to the laptop!!!

Here is the Method that DD Maria actually does it....so she gets the credit!

We lightly oil the pan, layer the sausages, drop the peppers over to slightly cover the sausages.
lightly salt & pepper the peppers, We used approx. 1 tsp Kosher salt and 1 tsp. black pepper.
Add the onions, then crushed tomatoes. We used 1 + 1/2- 28 oz. cans for each full pan. .........
Adjust accordingly for pan size (s) .
Add a light sprinkle of olive oil over everything.
Place in a 300ºF oven, covered , for 4 to 5 hours....* Checking for doneness at 4 hours.

I bet your house smelled heavenly!

Michelle, when Kansas City became a town in its own right and not just a riverboat landing for other cities south of the last river port, it was because of cattle coming in and railroads going out . Mexicans were drawn here for both reasons (train maintenance and cowboys plus restaurants, lodging and more support), so Mexicans have played a big part here from the very beginning.

Bugster2 wrote:I bet your house smelled heavenly!

It surely did, and I had the exhaust hood running.
We were up at 6:00.....they went in the oven at 7:00
I went back to sleep, and woke up chewing on my pillow / thinking it was food! Haaaa

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:I bet your house smelled heavenly!

It surely did, and I had the exhaust hood running.
We were up at 6:00.....they went in the oven at 7:00
I went back to sleep, and woke up chewing on my pillow / thinking it was food! Haaaa

Sometimes Katie wakes up chewing on her ear plugs.

Bugster2 wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:I bet your house smelled heavenly!

It surely did, and I had the exhaust hood running.
We were up at 6:00.....they went in the oven at 7:00
I went back to sleep, and woke up chewing on my pillow / thinking it was food! Haaaa

Sometimes Katie wakes up chewing on her ear plugs.

Debbie wrote:Part of the problem is that I have only seen him 5 times in 35 years. The other problem is that I know he thinks I am not up to snuff. He is an MD and a PhD. He got a perfect score on his SAT. In other words I am a moron in his eyes. It doesn't bother me. I don't rate with my sisters either. Never have, never will. I am sort of the black sheep of the family.

I tried to let this go but have to ask, did your brother-in-law TELL you he thinks you're a moron, or do you just feel that way when you're around him because he's so smart?

Loved hearing how you did all those sausage, onions and peppers, Jimmy. During Carnival season when there are some of those old-fashioned precursors to food trucks -- the kind that are towed to a location and have lots of glass on the sides so you can see some of the inside -- selling items at different locations on the parade routes, they sell soft rolls with sausage, onions and peppers on them and they're delicious. I'm pretty sure they use garlic in them too or perhaps the sausages have a decent amount of garlic.

I haven't had one of those things in years but when we tried them years ago when we were out late at parades and "starving," we liked them so much that we started making them a thojme. Only difference between yours and the ones we make and the ones we've encountered being sold down here is they don't put crushed tomatoes in them. Sounds delicious with tomatoes, too!

The verdict is in! It's a miracle but we both LOVED the Rao's Homemade All Natural Marinara Sauce! And the Chicken Parmesan I made with it came out absolutely delicious, too. Brian told me about 9:30 this morning that he was really looking forward to tonight's leftovers. Not only did we not feel it needed any baking soda, but it tasted so good that I didn't doctor it up at all. We both wanted to see how it tasted when used "as is." (I put some fresh basil on top of each breaded chicken cutlet prior to topping them with fresh mozzarella and running under the broiler but did nothing to the sauce itself). Wish I'd have remembered to take a photo, as the Chicken Parmesan LOOKED really good as well as tasted good.

When we opened the jar, we both took a taste and liked it even before I heated it up. I took a look at the label again last night and hadn't realized it was a product of Italy, which may account for how good it is. Its contents are as follows: Italian whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, basil, black pepper and dried oregano.

Like I said previously, Walmart sells it for $6.28 for a 24-oz. jar (or $7.88 for a 32-oz jar), so it's not cheap. But these days, it's more than worth it for me to have a couple of jars in the pantry to make things easier on me when making dinner on days when I'm in a lot of pain.

Walmart carries a couple of other "flavors" of Rao's red sauce too:

(1) Rao's Homemade Roasted Garlic Sauce, 24 oz. ($6.95 on sale for $2.75); Italian plum tomatoes, Italian cherry tomatoes, olive oil, roasted garlic, carrots and salt; and

(2) Rao's Homemade Tomato Basil Sauce, 24 oz. ($6.28); Italian whole peeled tomatoes, olive oil, fresh onions, fresh basil, salt, fresh garlic, black pepper and dried oregano.

Walmart here also sells Rao's Homemade All Natural Pizza Sauce ($4.48 for 13 oz.), and a Margherita Pizza Sauce, same size, same price; and two white ones, Alfredo Sauce and Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce, too. Probably won't get around to trying anything else but do plan to try a jar of the Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce while it's on sale. Watch, that one we won't like!

In N.O., people often say "red gravy" instead of "red sauce" which drives some people crazy, especially my friend from NY who's not Italian but whose red sauce was taught to her by an Italian neighbor lady who took a liking to her. Stephanie corrected me once and said, "I don't call it red sauce, Michelle, just 'sauce'," and we both cracked up!

Crybaby wrote:Loved hearing how you did all those sausage, onions and peppers, Jimmy. During Carnival season when there are some of those old-fashioned precursors to food trucks -- the kind that are towed to a location and have lots of glass on the sides so you can see some of the inside -- selling items at different locations on the parade routes, they sell soft rolls with sausage, onions and peppers on them and they're delicious. We liked them so much that those were what inspired us to make them at home. Only difference between yours and the ones we make and are sold down here is no crushed tomatoes with them. Sounds delicious with tomatoes, too!

Thanks Michelle....
I don't like the sausage and peppers floating in tomato sauce. I don't know what it is, but, sometimes the loose sauce, fills us up, and masks the flavor (s). The crushed tomatoes seem to control the moisture, and make a more palatable experience.
It's like a different style pasta, can taste differently, just by changing the shape. A different dish has its own type and style of sauce; such as with seafood and certain fish. Appetizers and sauce dips usually are different; for example sauce for Fried breaded mozzarella sticks, would not be used with fried calamari. etc.  That is just my Opinion.
One taste example is, an Italian sausage sandwich with slices of Italian sausage layered on the bun, and ladling a loose / watery tomato sauce over. Nothing worse than a wet drippy sandwich, and slices of sausage sliding out with each bite. hahahahaha.

NormM wrote:Michelle, when Kansas City became a town in its own right and not just a riverboat landing for other cities south of the last river port, it was because of cattle coming in and railroads going out . Mexicans were drawn here for both reasons (train maintenance and cowboys plus restaurants, lodging and more support), so Mexicans have played a big part here from the very beginning.

That's so interesting, Norm, as I never knew that. What I do know is that Mexicans seem to be very hard workers. We're one house off the corner and thus behind our backyard, we look at the side of a house (a double) which faces the side street next to our neighbor's home. The woman who owned that house at the time of Katrina hired a Mexican crew to put on a new roof and re-point the three chimneys on the roof of her house (I've never been in that house but usually chimneys in the middle of a house indicate the fireplace services both sides of the double). We came back to N.O. around the third week of October after 7 (long) weeks in Houston so Brian could work at his company's home office. I didn't find a job and go back to work (the city was still pretty deserted) until the first week in January so I was home while the roof was being put on. It was a total new roof, taken all the way down. These men showed up while it was still dark outside and I was up having coffee and reading the paper with Brian before he left for work so I'd see them up there, even though they seemed to make an effort to keep quiet until daylight. They worked really hard and didn't leave that job until it was really dark and I guess impossible to see what they were doing. The pointing job they did on those chimneys is really gorgeous and has needed no repairs or touching up since 2005 so you know they did a really good job. I used to go out in the yard a bit (every single thing was dead except for one potted citrus tree) to try to get things looking a bit better back there so I would greet them and they'd greet me most days. So polite and sweet, as some of them would tip their caps when they saw me outside.

It's funny as many people in construction will still tell you today how much they loved employing Mexican workers after Katrina. Many related when payday rolled around on Fridays, all of their Mexican workers would ask if there was any work available that Saturday and/or Sunday, whereas their regular workers would often not show up until Tuesday or Wednesday, flat broke and hungover. Back then there was so much work to be had that a construction worker or tradesman of any type could get away with murder without losing their job!

Thanks to you and Beth, I'm definitely going to see if our local Rouses groceries stock those frozen discos and other frozen items goodies by Hispanics. I rarely even traverse the frozen food aisles when I stop at the grocery so they may well be there already. I don't go very often but just to pick up meat, fresh produce and wine that I don't or can't order or get delivered from Walmart.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Crybaby wrote:Loved hearing how you did all those sausage, onions and peppers, Jimmy. During Carnival season when there are some of those old-fashioned precursors to food trucks -- the kind that are towed to a location and have lots of glass on the sides so you can see some of the inside -- selling items at different locations on the parade routes, they sell soft rolls with Italian sausage, onions and peppers on them and they're delicious. We liked them so much that those were what inspired us to make them at home. Only difference between yours and the ones we make and are sold down here is no crushed tomatoes with them. Sounds delicious with tomatoes, too!

Thanks Michelle....
I don't like the sausage and peppers floating in tomato sauce. I don't know what it is, but, sometimes the loose sauce, fills us up, and masks the flavor (s). The crushed tomatoes seem to control the moisture, and make a more palatable experience.
It's like a different style pasta, can taste differently, just by changing the shape. A different dish has its own type and style of sauce; such as with seafood and certain fish. Appetizers and sauce dips usually are different; for example sauce for Fried breaded mozzarella sticks, would not be used with fried calamari. etc.  That is just my Opinion.
One taste example is, an Italian sausage sandwich with slices of Italian sausage layered on the bun, and ladling a loose / watery tomato sauce over. Nothing worse than a wet drippy sandwich, and slices of sausage sliding out with each bite. hahahahaha.

Down here there's no sauce of any type on them, Jimmy -- just the olive oil and pan juices that exude from the sausage, onion and peppers. But I agree with you that too much tomato sauce would indeed mask the flavors. When we had them on the street, the Italian sausage links were whole so that's how I've always made them at home. Brian will bug me to make them with smoked sausage occasionally too but they're 10x better with the Italian sausage. But there's plenty of delicious pan juices so the sandwich has sufficient moisture. Congrats 'cause my mouth is now officially watering!

I know you like certain things a certain way, too, Jimmy, but I agree about a lot of sauces suiting certain dishes.

The other day I took a meatloaf out of the freezer to let it thaw in the refrigerator for a couple days. So, today was meatloaf ~ decided to put the ketchup glaze on it this time. Baked a butternut squash and air fried a pan of broccoli with a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese. I also got out the Wal Mart Sweet Kale Salad (kit) that we like.

And wouldn't you know......Dane said the broccoli wasn't cooked enough for his taste (it was the same as always, just the addition of the microplaned cheese) and he said the salad dressing tasted off to him. I mean, it's a SALAD KIT ~ the dressing is a sweet poppy seed dressing in a pouch included in the package. No big deal, but I think his taster's off, NOT what I cooked!

I don't remember where I read it but re sauce vs gravy. It said that Italian sauce is sauce if it does not have any meat flavoring. If it does, it is supposed to be called gravy.   My Southern family, everything was gravy except tomato, then it was sauce. 

I heard about the Kansas City thing just lately when someone wrote into the Star and asked why KCMo. was named after Kansas and not Missouri.  It was originally called Westport Landing because it was where riverboats off loaded goods to be transported overland to Westport which outfitted settlers going west in wagon trains but when the railroads and cattle started changing the commerce of the area and Westport started to die because there were no more pioneers going to California by wagon, Westport Landing changed it's name to Kansas. This was before Kansas was a state, the territory across the river was occupied by an an Indian tribe. They picked the name because it was on the Kansas river.  It quickly outgrew Westport and became Kansas City instead of a town.

Norm, aren't you afraid your head is going to explode with all the tidbits of information you seem to be able to recall???

LOL

I hear or read stuff like that and it's gone as soon as I fall asleep that night.