Menu for the week of 4/13/09 - 4/17/09

You will notice a couple of things about my menus that are similar each week. Currently, Tuesdays are a very busy evenings for me. Both of my two older sons are in activities and have to be on other sides of town at the same time, and we don't get home until 7:00 pm. So Tuesdays are an "easy" meal - generally soup and sandwich. Also, Friday's are family "pizza night". I'm beginning this week giving the basic recipe for pepperoni pizza, and next week I'll begin branching out with some of our favorite "unusal" pizzas. Pizza is so fun to make and inexpensive, you'll wonder why you weren't doing it sooner!! This is probably my last week making pork chops until September. Usually when we get into spring and summer in these parts, I'm all for grilling ribs and burgers! To view my menu and recipes for this week in printable form, click HERE Hope you enjoy! Caroline Monday, 4/13/09 Grilled Marinated Chicken Breasts Cheesy Potato Slabs Steamed mixed vegetables Tuesday 4/14/09 Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup Wednesday 4/15/09 Burrito Casserole Mexican Rice Mixed green salad with ranch dressing Thursday 4/16/09 Crockpot Ranch Pork chops with gravy Mashed potatoes Steamed green beans Friday 4/17/09 Homemade Pepperoni Pizza Tossed salad with Italian Dressing

I'm Home......

We're home, and yes, so is our laundry!!! Actually, our laundry was lost for nearly 12 hours, and I wasn't one bit upset! Dirty laundry is lost, and the airline will pay me for it!!! Oh, yes, happy day! Now to finish the dirty laundry, get it folded and put away (yep, that's another couple of steps!) - but now I'm getting the blog up-and-running too. My goal is to give out a weekly dinner menu with recipes each Thursday. Then during the week I'll highlight a featured kitchen gadget, or a special herb, or anything else that seems cooking related. So for now, it's laundry baby!! Caroline

We're Leaving On a Jet Plane....

We're out of here!! Our bags are packed, I've double checked (ok, triple checked!!) that I've got the airplane tickets, and we are heading for the beach!! I'll be back on 3/30/09 and begin my menus and recipes on 4/1 (no foolin'!!) Caroline

Ok, I'll be the first to admit this picture is a little blurry. I'd like to blame it on my Sony digital camera, but I think the real culprit was the Harp's Lager!! Too much of a good thing - but hey, good times were had by all!! I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day. I was planning a bigger meal than this, but our electricity went out for several hours, so the potatoes just didn't get done. The corned beef was perfect, and the Harp's was cold, so all was not lost! My corned beef recipe is to die for (so says my family - and I love them dearly!!). It's so simple it's almost embarrassing. Here it is for those that love a good corned beef sandwich:

Caroline's super easy corned beef recipe

2 - 3 lb corned beef briskets with pickling packets

2 bottles (12 oz. each) good Irish Lager (we like Harp's) Plus extra for drinking!!

1 bulb garlic, separated and peeled

about 10 (or a small handful) black peppercorns

1 can/jar sauerkraut (I like Vlassic in a jar)

Thousand Island Dressing

Swiss cheese

Your favorite rye bread

Dill Pickle

Rinse corned beef briskets with cold water and dry off. Cut off as much visible fat as possible. Place corned beef in a large crock pot. Cover with contents of pickling spice packets (if not available, about 2 tablespoons of pickling spice can be used). Add garlic and peppercorns and pour the 2 bottles of beer over corned beef. Add enough water to cover corned beef - almost to the top of the crock pot, but not quite. You don't want it to bubble over!! Cover and cook on low about 8 hours. Try hard not to peek!!

When done, remove corned beef to a cutting board and let sit about 10-15 minutes. Drain the sauerkraut and place in a microwave safe dish. Microwave about two minutes on high, stir, and microwave another two minutes or until warm. Lightly toast rye bread. On one slice spread some Thousand Island dressing. On another place a couple of nice slices of Swiss cheese and spread out some sauerkraut . Cut the corned beef against the grain and lay the slices on top. Put the sandwich together and add a nice dill pickle and you'reready to eat!

Hope you enjoy!

Caroline

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I saw these cute little fortune cookies while surfing the web for some "Irish" ideas. How funny are these? I can't imagine having the creativity to think this up!! I'm in a rush today to run errands getting ready for our "Big Trip", so this St. Patrick's Day will be a little more subdued. We're trying to eat up everything in our refrigerator before we leave. Anyway, hope you enjoy your St. Patrick's Day!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog! Please be patient with me for the next couple of weeks as I figure all this out. While I love to cook and bake, I have to admit I'm not a great fan of computers and editing Html!! Beginning April 1, 2009 I will post my family's menu for the day, any photos I have to share, and recipes. Some are frugal and others are not. I'm a mish-mash of all kinds of styles!! I'll try to stay on-topic with food, kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, and anything else kitchen/food related. I'll try hard not to bore you with my life, my children, and the mountain of laundry I never seem to have time to fold. And I imagine it's not going to get any better while I post blogs!! Oh, well, so be it! So check back soon and see the great menus and recipes I'll be sharing with you! Caroline