Cook Wannabee

Welcome back!

Since I mentioned it before, I figured that i would talk about how i fixed this tasty food.

I do not have a blender to chop up ham or pork. I cheat and use lunch meat that is finely sliced.
Place it on my cutting board and mince it up finely. The boiled eggs are easy. I used to use 1,00 Island and then would mix it all up. It worked nicely.

4oz thinly sliced ham
6 boiled eggs
1/2 cup 1,000 Island

This mix on toast is great and easy. If you can think of a good substitute for the 1,000 Island, I would love to hear about it.

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I genuinely enjoy eating egg salad sandwiches, ham, and tuna also. They are so easy to fix, that it is amazing there are not a lot of recipes on possible variations.

My question is this. What do you do when one of your family members cannot eat Mayo, or 1,000 Island salad dressing. The 1,000 Island makes it easy to fix the mix without a lot of worry. What do you use instead of those things, though?

I have been trying to think about that and have come up with some really strange ideas.
I have thought about using BBQ sauce - not with tuna, no thanks. I have also thought about using Caesar salad dressing, but it uses Parmesan cheese which my husband can’t eat. So, what do I do next? Haven’t figured it out, yet.

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i know that it has been a while since I last wrote something here. There have been deaths of people we love and sickness that has interfered with any writing.

Today, I want to write about something that is very important. Food Allergies are something that can sneak up on you without warning. My husband has ended up in the ER many times because of an allergy that caught him off guard.

He is allergic to many medicines, spices, and some foods. An allergic reaction can be anything from feeling as if you have taken some kind of drug, you might feel as if you have the flu, or it can kill you. The symptoms can be all of the above, or anything in between.

If you know someone with an allergy, do not take it lightly. Being aware of the dangers can save a life - theirs, or yours.

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Do you have a crock pot? This is an important question. I have two. The first crock pot that I ever had is only 1 quart. Not much that can be done with it until you get experienced with crock pots. The second and my favorite crock pot is a 5 quart. BIG difference. I have been having fun.

The title of this blog tells it all. Wannabee means that I would like to do more, but….not just yet.

Well, I got a hold of a great piece of pork butt roast. Some fat, a little marbling, nice hunk of meat. My first thought was crock pot roast. YUM.

I started by cheating. I put a little water in the pot with one chicken bullion cube. Then I took 6/7 regular carrots, trimmed and washed. Cut the carrots into chunks and dumped them into the pot which was already getting warm on high. I got 2 beautiful yellow onions and cut them into chunks, dropped them into the pot also. Took the piece of roast (5 1/2 lbs) rinsed it off and placed it in the pot on top of the ingredients. I let the veggies ease up the sides a little, but had no room for potatoes. I added enough water to be just barely visible around the meat and veggies. Oh well, the potatoes can come later. I put the top on the crock pot and walked away for 5 hours. Later a wonderful smell was in the house.

I then got7/8 small to regular potatoes, washed them and then cut them into chunks, too. I leave the peeling on for the vitamins that are in the peelings. Put the potatoes into a separate pot with 2 beef bullion cubes. There was enough water to barely reach the top of the potatoes. Turned on the heat and let them cook until just tender. Let them cool.

I took the roast and its veggies out of the cock pot and left the juice in it. Drained the potato water into the crock pot and then made thick flour water. Stirred it all together and let it continue to cook. I added white ground pepper and a touch of salt. We have to limit our salt because of health problems. When the mixture was thick enough, the meal was served. Roast on a plate, with the veggies - carrots, mushy onions, and potatoes; then gently pour gravy oveer the entire things. EAT It was an easy meal, not at all hard to fix, and easy to clean up. We ended up with a lot of gravy left which was put into the freezer and some put into the fridge. There is a lot of roast and veggies left for more meals that only need to be heated up.

INGREDIENTS

51/2 lb pork butt roast
6/7 regular carrots - cleaned and cut into chunks
2 yellow onions - I like the flavor, white onions would be milder
6/7 white potatoes - cleaned and cut into chunks
1 chicken bullion cube
2 beef bullion cubes
water
crock pot
regular pot for potatoes
flour to thicken the gravy

It is an easy meal and leaves you time to relax and be with your family, go shopping, what ever you desire to do. When it is all done, you will have more than one meal out of it depending upon the size of your family gathering. The left overs will be easy to heat up and enjoy again.

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Egg Rolls can be used as appetizers, a side dish, or even if you like them a lot, as a main dish.

I used to wonder how they were made and how hard they could be to do. My Texas sister showed me one day. We had some canned meat (pork, chicken, turkey, shrimp seem to work best) that we shredded. She had me shred a head of regular cabbage (we didn’t want to get fancy and use Chinese cabbage). She also had some Chinese veggies in a can and bean sprouts in a can.

The shredded cabbage was slowly cooked in a pan with a little oil and seasoned with soy sauce when mostly done. The Chinese veggies and bean sprouts were also drained and then added when the cabbage was almost done. Mix it thoroughly to get all of the juices mixed. Fold in the shredded meat, add more soy sauce to taste. You could also add finely ground pepper if you want. When the cabbage is fully cooked, set the pot aside to slightly cool. When you get used to making these, you can vary the veggies used, and the flavorings used to have fun. Imagine chicken, bell peppers, onions. They would almost be like fajitas. You could add shredded cheese when rolling them up. YUM

Then get the packages of egg roll wrappers out of the fridge make a paste of flour and water for sealing the egg rolls them selves.

Sit all of this on the table and prepare to make egg rolls, and a mess.
Place a wrapper on a plate, place a spoonful of the mix on it. Slightly fold over two opposite corners on top of the spoonful of mix. Tuck a third corner over and around the mix, then roll up the egg roll until the wrapper has completely gone around. If it won’t go around, you have used too much stuffing mix, and might have to remove some in order to shape the egg roll. Use a dab of the flour paste to seal the last end onto the roll, set aside the completed roll and start on the next one.

Heat up some oil in a frying pan until it is hot. Gently place egg rolls into the pan to fry. Turning occasionally to avoid burning. When they are golden brown, they are done. Remember that the stuffing is already cooked, you are just cooking the wrapper.

These egg rolls can be frozen when cooked completely and microwaved later to heat them up. Each batch of egg rolls will make quite a few, if you have a big family, they can help with the preparation, and will probably have fun doing so. Imagination would be the only limit. Left overs could also be used when making these. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, left over turkey is handy.

I wonder if this can be done with fruit, too? Good thought…..

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Since I had mentioned chopsticks in a previous article, figured that i would mention Chinese Food next.

I know that lately there have been multiple cases of things from China being dangerous, or messed up. However, the food that we can find in many restaurants is truly tasty. I do enjoy good egg rolls, General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet & Sour dishes, Fried Rice. I especially like the way the vegetable are not soggy and limp but have some crunch left to them so they still have a lot of their vitamins in place. Broccoli Beef, and Pepper Beef have good flavors, too. My husband has to be careful when he eats Chinese food, because he is allergic to Ginger and a lot of its relatives, too. We have found out from experience that a lot of Chinese food has ginger in it.

I use soy sauce in a lot of cooking just to season the meat. It does not have to be oriental cooking for it to be used. It is a very flexible alternative to using Worcestershire sauce when you do not want the food to be too spicy.

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Yup, I did spell out Crisco fight. You have heard of water balloon fights, squirt guns, water hose fights. These are things that can be fun and get a lot of laughter involved. Well, one day a few years ago our family (before I got married) got into a fun mood. We lived in Florida and sometimes we got into water fights. Well, we ended up with Crisco one day. All four of us were smeared all over with generous gobs of Crisco.

When we were finally able to get it all cleaned up, our hair had new shine to it! Of course it was not easy to clean up, but I remember all of the laughter that happened. Our sides were sore the next day because we had laughed so hard. Families can be fun. Laughter can be one of the most glorious parts of family fun.

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Who is it that truly designs kitchens for apartments? Has that person ever had to actually use one that they have designed? Sometimes I do wonder about that myself.

It is the same thing with the public bath rooms that can be found in many places. The way things are arranged can truly be a pain in the back or other places. I have actually heard very slender people complain about how things are arranged. That means that the normal or over-weight person wouldn’t have a chance would they?

Any way, back to the kitchen again. Where we live now the kitchen isn’t so bad, except for the need for more shelf space. I have it easy. My mother-in-law (yes, sometimes they can be very helpful) gave me a rather large metal shelf rack that is installed and very well used. It sits right next to the ‘fridge’ and couldn’t be in a better spot. We usually keep it well occupied with the things that sometimes have no regular place to be stored. With Hurricane season coming up, we have a lot of different bottles of water for ‘just in case’. A nice lady that I know used to call that type of water - bomb water. She probably still does call it that. We call it ’storm water’. Having storage in your kitchen is really nice. Just once, though, it would be nice for an actual cook to design the kitchens for apartments. Architects are very handy, but they are not cooks, are they?

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Did you ever want to write something, but had no idea what to say? Well, that happens to me sometimes. Then I wonder what is going on when my thoughts go blank. A piece of cheese right now would help. I know, usually chocolate is what some go for, but I am a cheese lover.

I need to get some sleep, but my mind is active - sort of. My cats are exploring the under sink cabinets, I hear thumps, rattles, and other noises. They have been there before, but keep going back. I mean under the kitchen sink hasn’t changed for use in years. Bottles, tightly closed of course, a box of sos pads or their equivalent, dust - what is there to see? I am surprised that they do not get on the counters. There is more stuff there. Dishes, silverware, knick-knacks, paddy-wacks, and other stuff. I am still looking at the cheese of course. Hmmmm, maybe a grilled cheese sandwich? It is almost midnight though. Maybe bed woul be better. Nite all

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I imagine that we all have made mistakes when cooking for the first few times. I know that I did. I’ve written about a couple so far. Well, here is another one.

When mom decided to help me learn about cooking we lived in St. Louis, Mo. The St. Louis Post Dispatch had a cooking section where kids could learn how to cook by following recipes. It was mostly fun. I remember one recipe for Mulligan stew. I remember potatoes put on to boil.

I also remember not stirring them. They burned on the bottom and the rest of the potatoes picked up the flavor of the burn. I hadn’t realized this until the complete stew was made. Yuk. To this day I remember to stir what ever I am cooking, and if not stirring, I get it iff the heat or the stove. Burned Mulligan stew is not nice. What an understatement.

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