( It's a Brand New Month ) "OCTOBER" of 2013

 very nice dinners.. 

Good looking meal, Norm. And your potato cakes do look a lot like my German potato pancakes that I usually have with brats. I love when they get all crispy on the outside but are still tender on the inside.

Gee, Jimmy, maybe Tina fixed supper and ate while you were snoozin' in the chair!

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Take a guess.

 that is so cute.talk about playing with your food.

at first I thought it was carrot cake lol

You did an amazing job....but you gave it away the other day when you mentioned you were making it!

I won't say what in case someone missed your post.

But you did a GREAT JOB !

 

Grilled chicken breast sandwich.

Nice, Barb....nice~!  You're still getting such fresh looking corn, not to mention you have a PEACH !

I pulled one of my Provencal marinated London Broils out of the freezer this morning.  I decided it was about time for a "real" baked potato, too.  I'm tired of the baby potatoes.  My vegetable was all the leftovers in the refrigerator, heated together on the stovetop ~ green beans, grilled zucchini & onions.  I made a salad of shredded lettuce topped with cucumber, carrot & sweet yellow peppers and half a tomato (that I had put in the refrigerator....just like Jimmy said).

nope big fat breasts lol. 

oh beth...  

Boy, there must be a million different ways to make a shepherd's pie....

I always did it with ground beef & mixed vegetables in a gravy topped with mashed potatoes.

A neighbor, the quad's mother with an army to feed, made hers with ground beef, green beans, canned tomato soup and potatoes made from the dry box stuff.

And then there are the ones who say it has to be ground lamb or it's not a real "shepherd's" pie because cattle (beef) don't have a shepherd......

LOL

Tina made it with ground beef and onions browned...placed on the bottom of the bake ware, then a can of corn, topped with mashed Bob Evans' mashed taters, and then topped with mozzarella cheese.
 
Me....I like More on top of More Cheese. I like cheddar and mozzarella too. But????/ Tina doesn't like too much cheese because she gets sick from the lactose.

I guess beef would be cattle-herd pie.

Jimmy, taking the extra time to cook the different components is, IMO, a very tasty way to have an end result where everything tastes like what it is but, after being combined, is perfect together.  And I think you are correct, Tina would prefer her cabbage on the side and not mixed with the sausage, peppers & onions.  Good call!

I, too, decided to cook my ingredients separately, seasoning each as I thought it needed, before combining.  I didn't have lunch (I forgot ~ go figure!) so I was ready for an early supper.  I've been trying to come up with a chicken/pasta dish in my head for a while.  I knew what I wanted included but couldn't find a recipe that was just what I was looking for....so, I made my original dish and I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

I'm calling my dish chicken in white wine cream sauce with roasted tomatoes, mushrooms & spinach.  Or, I'll call it Chicken George just to confuse everyone else!

I started by browning some sliced mushrooms in a bit of oil & butter, allowing them to get browned.  I removed them to a dish and softened a sliced shallot, also reserved with the mushrooms.  I had roasted a basket of grape tomatoes last week (with evoo, s&p) and had those in the refrigerator ~ I piled some on top of the hot mushrooms & shallots so they would start to get the chill off.  Then I browned half a chicken breast I had cubed into 1/2" pieces, cooked just until no longer pink in the center....and reserved the chicken with the vegetables.  Into the hot pan I added some Pinot Gregio wine and turned up the heat to reduce to an almost syrupy consistency.

While the wine was reducing I was boiling some farfalle pasta and I tore the stems off a few handfuls of baby spinach into a serving dish.  When the wine was reduced I added a splash of chicken stock and allowed it to boil and reduce to about half.  When my sauce was sufficiently reduced I stirred in some heavy cream, just enough to make a nice sauce.  It's been my experience if you try to use milk or even half & half and not the heavy cream, the sauce will break and curdle so I prefer to go with the cream.  When it came to a boil I added my reserved vegetables & chicken and stirred to coat well.

When my pasta was cooked I drained and added to the raw spinach, poured the hot chicken and sauce over and tossed to wilt the spinach.  

This is definitely a dish I'll be making again.  I do so love when a plan comes together!

there is steak on that plate.Then I decided to add some cheese to my baked potato.

I had another low today.72. so I did not feel bad having a big potato.

Not to be picky, Barb, but it looks like you put cheese on your broccoli and sour cream on your potato.

Just being observant....if you know what I mean.

But it looks good, that's for sure!

 

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Hooray! That is chicken, but seeing you cooked it Beth... I would eat it!... That looks better than Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill... You Da Winner Kid!

That was all white meat...right?
I never knew that White (breast ) meat cooks faster than the dark meat in a dish!!! ....

From what I've seen on this wonderful family forum, is that everyone..including Barb and Norm and Others that show pics, really do cook the chicken well.

When I fry breaded chicken Tina and Maria (DD) say I over cook the cutlets. Now I cook theirs and set my pieces aside and cook mine crispy dark and dry!...

Mom used to make what she and we called "Sticky Chicken" Uckhhh! She would add paprika to flour, and coat the chicken parts with oil, and then dredge in the flour.
She put it in a oiled cookie pan, and baked it in the oven.
The chicken was done, but the pieces were wet with pasty sticky flour. I HATED THAT Chicken. Dad and Brother Loved it.

I think there is a standard recipe for it, but they could have it! hahahahahahaha

Yes, I agree, Jimmy. I think everyone here cooks their chicken well done, not necessarily as dry as you like, but certainly no one has any pink around the bone. Besides, that's just not particularly pretty.

And you just might have eaten this chicken since I cut the pieces into very small bite size, about 1/2" or less. I just wanted to cook it to get a tiny bit of color from the fond that was in the skillet from cooking the mushrooms and shallots. All that goodness got released when I deglazed the pan with the wine.

And for once my meal in my head was what ended up on my plate.

I've got another similar dish in mind that I haven't made yet - chicken in cream sauce with raw chopped apple added at the end just to heat through. But I think for that one I need to use a sweeter white wine, maybe a Riesling.

Last night we had boneless chicken breasts, cooked in 9x13 glass baking dish with cubed garden Yukon Gold potatoes and green beans. Drizzled some butter over and sprinkled with packet of Good Seasons Zesty Italian dressing mix. Covered with foil and baked for an hour -- its very good and so simple to assemble. Tonight was homemade chili and silver dollar rolls from the bakery -- the rolls are a new item they have and a dozen were only a buck. They were surprisingly good and close to tasting like homemade. We will probably have an Apple Butterscotch Brownie with a scoop of vanilla gelato on top later for our dessert. Friday night is our TV night where we watch 4-6 shows that we have on the DVR, amazing how short they become when you can fast forward through the commercials. We'll start with the Voice and see if we get to anything else.

Gee, what happens with a DVR when you fall asleep and the remote is in your hand???