Monday, December 27, 2010

Post-Christmas Menu Plan

On Christmas Day, we ate: roast of filet mignon, garlic baked potatoes in the slow cooker (YUM), broccoli, mashed rutabagas and Portuguese Easter Bread.

Christmas: The Day After was supposed to be at my parents' house, but the snow put an end to those plans. We had leftover "Christmas meat" in Beef Paysanne over noodles.

Today is Middle Sister's birthday. She wanted "bread-crumb chicken." I think she means Cheesy Garlic Chicken. She's requested broccoli and white rice with that. I made a chocolate pound cake and am going to go for a homemade chocolate glaze on top. Recipe (and maybe a photo) after the taste-test, and only if it tastes good.

Tuesday: Soft tacos

Wednesday: we're going up to my cousin's for a Christmas celebration.

Thursday: Spaghetti

Friday: New Year's Eve.

Saturday: New Year's Day.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Cookies

Usually I only make one kind of cookie for Christmas: Mrs. Wagner's cookies.

Here's the recipe; I do not recommend trying to reduce quantity as it doesn't yield good results. But you can freeze the dough!

Mrs. Wagner's Cookies
Makes 10 dozen, at least, depending on the size of your cutter.  I've gotten as many as 180 cookies out of a single batch.


1 pound butter -- softened (margarine works also)
7 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks (reserve whites)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 heaping tsp. baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup bourbon (we use Jack Daniel's)
1 cup milk
TOPPING:
5 egg whites
Colored sugar/sprinkles for decorating


Cover your baking sheets with parchment paper.  Mix flour and butter like pie dough.






Beat remaining ingredients (except egg white and colored sugar) and add to dry mix.  If using a stand mixer, use the mixer to beat those ingredients and then add the dry mix to the mixer bowl.





Dough should be STIFF.  Chill the dough for at least one hour before rolling.







Roll thin and cut into shapes.






Brush with egg white and decorate.








Reserve scraps and roll into the next section of dough.
Bake on parchment-covered sheet, 6 to 7 minutes at 375. Bottoms should be light brown, tops should be white.  Allow to cool on pan for a minute or two, then remove to a rack.








Just a fraction of the finished product!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As I said, I usually only make ONE kind of cookies at Christmas.  However, this week I made some delicious chocolate cookies and decided that if I made a batch of these, they'd make a nice addition to my cookie tray. Barbara's Fudge Cocoa Cookies are really good.

And then I got a message from my niece, asking me to make a batch of Michelle's Molasses Crinkle Cookies. How do I say no to that?

There's going to be a lot of cookie-baking this week, I think!

For the Record

If I didn't keep this list in the planner, I'd have no idea what we wound up eating.

OCTOBER
1: pizza
2: Fall Festival at our church. Polish food!
3: Tandoori chicken
4: Pot roast, noodles
5: Chicken barley soup, rolls
6: Fajitas
7: Spaghetti
8: Chili's
9: London broil, pasta salad, beans
10: Balsamic chicken with thyme and onions, rice
11: Italian chicken, pasta
12: Pork chops, roasted garlic potatoes
13: Sliders, pasta salad
14: Spaghetti
15: Tilapia
16: chili
17: pizza
18: Beef paysanne, noodles
19: Honey drumsticks
20: Chick-Fil-A (school fund-raiser)
21: Spaghetti
22: Flounder
23: not home
24: Pork roast
25: Chicken Caroline
26: Tacos
27: Enchilada soup & bread
28: Spaghetti
29: pizza
30: Honey mustard chicken
31: Pepperoni bread

NOVEMBER
1: Skillet stroganoff
2: Chili's
3: Hawaiian chicken, rice
4: spaghetti
5: Scallops
6: slow cooker pork carnitas, roasted potatoes
7: chicken & noodles
8: lemon mustard herb chicken
9: pot roast
10: enchiladas
11: spaghetti
12: ravioli with marinara
13: pizza
14: roast chicken
15: Skillet stroganoff
16: Chicken lo mein
17: Pork chops, potato patties
18: spaghetti
19: Salmon burgers, rice
20: Pizza
21: Chicken parmesan bake
22: lemon & garlic chicken, rice
23: Chinese
24: Beef paysanne
25: Thanksgiving dinner
26: Leftover Day
27: meatball sandwiches
28: Throwback's
29: Chicken crescent casserole
30: Shepherd's pie

DECEMBER:
1: Chicken
2: Chick-Fil-A (school fundraiser)
3: Tortellini with marinara
4: rainbow stir-fry
5: ate at neighbor's
6: tacos
7: Turkey noodle skillet
8: leftovers
9: spaghetti
10: french-bread pizza
11: not home
12: Olive Garden
13: Garlic cheesy chicken, potatoes
14: Skillet stroganoff
15: Beef stew
16: spaghetti
17: macaroni and cheese
18: diner
19: roast chicken, roasted potatoes & sweet potatoes

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Skillet Turkey & Noodles

Better than soup, but serve it in a bowl so you don't lose any of the sauce. I've wanted to figure out how to make this for a long time. Then I was inspired by Barbara's Skillet Stroganoff (which we love) and figured I could do something similar with chicken or turkey. Comfort food? Oh, yes!

SKILLET TURKEY (OR CHICKEN) AND NOODLES

2 TBL butter
1 small onion, chopped fine
3 TBL flour
3 cups turkey (or chicken) broth
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked turkey (or chicken)
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
3 cups wide egg noodles
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in butter until translucent. Stir in flour. Add broth and milk and bring to a boil. Stir in turkey, vegetables and noodles. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes or until noodles are done.

Serves 4.

To increase the recipe and serve more people, add an extra 1 cup noodles and 1 cup broth per person.  Also add a little extra milk, meat and vegetables.

Print this recipe!

Friday, December 03, 2010

How absolutely pathetic.

I cannot believe that I haven't put a blasted thing up here since HALLOWEEN!!!!!

I've been keeping track of our dinners, so I guess I'll have to take out my planner and write out our menu plan from November.  And then get you updated on what's new for December.  If anyone's even still reading!!

While you're here, I'm looking for a recommendation on a good probe-style cooking thermometer.  I had a Taylor, and something happened to the probe, so the device just kept flashing "LO" instead of a temp.  Then I bought a Polder, and it was DOA.  "LO" right out of the box.  Troubleshooting info for both said that if it says "LO" then the probe is broken.

This is an item that I really do depend on (and Thanksgiving was a little extra challenging without it, since I had to keep opening up the roaster to check on the turkey's progress--slowing down said progress.) 

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