Honoring the Memories

  This past Sunday was the anniversary of the day that my Mom was called home to Heaven. This year was 14 years since that day, and I was 14 years old when it happened, so this year was a little harder. September 29th has always been an emotional day, but for the past two years I've tried to celebrate my Mom, rather than grieve.

  Last year, for the first time, I thought I'd cook a special meal completely out of my Mom's cookbook, as a way to celebrate her life and one of her favorite hobbies.

  This year, I decided to do the same thing. I prepared Chicken Divan for dinner and Lemon Chess Pie for dessert. Chicken Divan (Turkey Divan in my Mom's cookbook) was actually a recipe belonging to my Grandmother, but I remember eating it all the time when I was little, so I wanted to make it. 

  It was probably only the second time I've ever cooked it, but it turned out fabulously and tasting it took me back to the kitchen table of my childhood. 

   Here's the recipe. I did use chicken instead of turkey and I substituted non-fat Greek yogurt for the mayo, and I promise you couldn't taste the difference. Greek yogurt is a wonderful and much healthier option to use in place of mayo and sour cream. 

  Mary Faust's Turkey Divan

• 1 bunch fresh broccoli, cooked and drained
• 3 cups cooked, sliced turkey
• 1 (10 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. curry powder
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

1. Place the broccoli in a layer in a buttered, ovenproof casserole. Add the sliced turkey. Blend together the soup, mayo, lemon juice and curry powder and spread it over the turkey. Sprinkle grated cheese over all, then top with the bread crumbs. Bake in a 350 degree oven for thirty minutes. 

  For dessert we had Lemon Chess Pie. I don't remember eating this too often when I was little, but I remember that it was a very popular dessert in my Mom's restaurant. I turned out very well and T and I both savored it!

Lemon Chess Pie

• 4 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1 Tbsp. corn meal
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. grated lemon peel
• 4 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
• 1 8-in. pie shell, unbaked

1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Pour into the pie shell. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. 

  Our special dinner turned out wonderfully and was a perfect celebration of my Mom! And just a little reminder, I had my Mom's cookbooks reprinted last year and still have several copies available. If you'd like to get one please contact me under the "Contact Me" tab.

Ginger and T Cook: Crispy Quinoa Sliders with Avocado and Chipotle Mayo

  I'm so happy that tonight T and I were able to cook our weekly meal together. We had planned to cook it earlier this week, but Tuesday night I was struck down with a mystery illness and spent the rest of the week on the couch and was having nothing to do with food! I'm finally beginning to feel a little better and with my appetite returning was ready for some real food!

  T selected our recipe this week and surprise, another vegetarian dish! I actually made us some yummy egg salad sandwiches for lunch today and during dinner asked T if he was feeling okay. He gave me a strange look and said yes, of course. I told him I was just checking since he hadn't eaten any meat all day. I then proclaimed, "See, it'd be easy for us to be vegetarians!" He laughed and loudly said, "No!"

  Anywho! Tonight we made Crispy Quinoa Sliders served with avocado slices and chipotle mayo. Here's a link to the recipe that we slightly modified and used. http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/09/crispy-quinoa-sliders/. 

  T and I love this site for recipes. She's very creative and fun and I want to be a blogger like her when I grow up.

  We didn't have green onions, so I just diced up some yellow onion and used cheddar slices on top of our patties, instead of shredded provolone. We made our chipotle mayo by mixing some sweet chipotle sauce into mayo.

  Here's all the ingredients mixed together.

  You definitely have to pat the mixture together really well to get everything to stick together in the skillet. Next time I might add one extra egg to help hold it together a little bit more.

  This recipe was delicious and will definitely be something we try again in the future.

Ginger and T Cook: Double Bean Quesadillas with Yummy Sauce

  This week for our cooking adventure T and I chose a new vegetarian recipe to try. I've always contemplated becoming a vegetarian and I've really had it on my mind lately, so I love trying new meat-less recipes.

  For this recipe you'll need:

• 2 cans of beans (we used black and navy)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Whole wheat tortillas
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp. parsley
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and pepper

  Start by combining the avocado, greek yogurt and all other sauces and spices into the food processor. I was using fresh garlic and with my mighty strength actually managed to break my garlic press. This lead to me having to use jarred garlic that I had in the fridge and buying a new garlic press the next day. Here's the before and after pics of the yummy sauce.

  While I mixed up the sauce T rinsed the beans and then mashed them with a potato masher.

  Once your beans are mashed, melt a little butter on a hot griddle or skillet. Throw down a tortilla and layer it with cheese, the bean mixture and then some more cheese. Top it off with another tortilla. Flip it every minute or so. You'll want to make sure your tortillas are getting nice and crispy on the outside and that all the yummy goodness on the inside is getting melty. When it's done, slice it up and serve with the yummy green sauce.

Mmmmm.....goodness!

My kitchen appliance love

  I must admit....I'm slightly in love with one of my kitchen appliances.

  The coffee maker??

  Not quite....but close. It's actually my Crock-Pot!

  Our love is actually a new love. We received our beautiful slow cooker as a wedding gift, but prior to about 6 weeks ago we'd only used it to make queso dip during Super Bowl parties. Sad....I know. We'd always been a little nervous about leaving it on while we were gone during the day, but we gave it a shot one day, and we'll never go back. It's absolutely amazing! You take about 3 minutes to throw your ingredients into it in the morning before you leave for work, turn that baby on, come home 6-8 hours later and you have an awesome meal waiting for you. Not to mention that your house smells amazing. I just always feel sorry for Molly, who's probably been salivating all day with the yummy smells!

  So, last night I had two friends over for dinner. I wanted to do something easy since they'd be over soon after I'd be getting home from work, so I decided to use the slow cooker. I tried out a new recipe and they were my little guinea pigs. Tehehe! Thankfully, I think they really enjoyed it!

  Here were my ingredients. Three things people! That's it! 6 chicken breasts, 1 packet of taco seasoning mix and 1 bottle (16 oz.) of salsa. I accidentally picked up the chunky salsa so I added a little extra water.

  Next, I placed the chicken in the slow cooker, sprinkled the taco seasoning over the chicken and then poured in the salsa and a little water ( maybe 1/4 cup or so). Here's what it looked like.

  I set the cooker for 7 hours. Mine has a handy-dandy feature where you can set the cook time and once that time runs out, it automatically switches itself over to the "Keep Warm" setting. So, by 2 pm it was done cooking, and had moved over the "Keep Warm."

  When I got home from work a little after 5 pm it looked like this.

  I removed the chicken and shredded it with two forks and then threw it back into the cooker to simmer in all the nice juices until we were ready to eat, but not before snapping a quick pic. Yummy!

 

  I served the meat in corn tortillas with diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheese and lime wedges with black beans on the side. It was a delicious meal and I had a great time catching up with my girlfriends!

The way to a man's heart

  You know how they say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

  So, back in the day when T and I first started dating, of course we had our first few dates in public places. I had to make sure he wasn't a serial murderer or a past car stealer. Funny story there. T actually told me when we first met that when he was younger he used to steal cars. I thought maybe he'd had some kind of troubled teenage past, and he actually had me going for a few weeks. Needless to say, he was a perfect angel child and never did so much as run a stoplight. I still have no idea how he came up with that story or why he felt the need to try and impress me with it. Goofy boy.

 But where was I? Focus Megan Focus!

  Anyways, the first time I invited T over to my apartment for dinner I cooked Taco Pie. It was delicious, but probably one of my easiest go-to recipes. But hey, he didn't need to know that I didn't slave over a hot stove for 6 hours!

  This dinner won him over! Ok, maybe not completely...we'd only been dating a few weeks after all, but this dinner proved I got cook, so he stayed interested.

  This is probably still one of his favorite things that I cook, and he pouts when I haven't cooked it in awhile. He was getting kinda whiny about it the other day, so I figured I better pencil a few hours into my schedule to make this meal. Ok, I kid people. My hubby's not whiny....and this meal takes less than 30 minutes or so to whip up. You've got to give it a shot. You will not be disappointed.

  First, you want to brown 1 pound of hamburger meat. Once it's browned, mix a packet of taco seasoning, a cup of corn and a can of rotel into the skillet. Don't add the water that the taco seasoning packet says to, but you may want to add just a bit to help mix everything up. Maybe just 1/4 cup or so. Don't be afraid. You can't mess this up. Let all that niceness heat up just a tad. This is what it will look like.

   Next, mix up a batch of corn bread mix. I use Jiffy. Mix it according to the package's directions. Once that's all nice and mixed up, pour your meat mixture into a greased casserole dish. A little square or rectangle one works nicely. Next, pour your cornbread batter over the meat mixture and try to kinda smooth it out. It'll look like this.

  Now you're ready to pop that baby in the oven. Bake it at the temperature that the Jiffy box says, for the time that it says. I'd type it all nicely for you here, but I goofed and accidentally threw the box away, and I don't have another one in the pantry. Forgive me? :-(
  It's ready when the top is nice and golden, just like cornbread normally should look.

 
  This people, is deliciousness! Pair it with a nice tossed salad and you've got yourself a balanced, wonderful meal.
 

The husband agrees!

Celebrating my Mom-The Recipes!!

Here are the recipes from the special meal that I cooked up last night. 

Baked Artichoke Spread
-2 (14oz.) cans artichoke hearts
-2-6 garlic cloves, minced
-1 cup Parmesan cheese
-1 cup mayonnaise (I used non-fat Greek yogurt, and it was still fabulous)

Drain the artichoke hearts and put them in the food processor. Chop on a low speed, but don't let them get mushy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour into a round or square baking dish. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until bubbly. Top with paprika and serve with crackers or crispy bread. 
 

Lemon-Garlic Zucchini
-4 med. zucchini, sliced
-2 cloves garlic, crushed
-2 Tbsp. lemon juice
-2 Tbsp. olive oil
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. pepper 
(I also added some diced red onion....cause I like it)

Combine all the ingredients in a skillet. Cook over medium-low heat 5 to 7 minutes or until zucchini is tender, stirring frequently. Serve immediately. 

Chicken Supreme
-1 cup sour cream (I used non-fat Greek yogurt, and couldn't tell a difference)
-2 Tbsp. lemon juice
-2 tsp. celery salt
-1 tsp. paprika
-1 clove garlic, crushed
-1 tsp. salt (this seemed like a lot, so I only used about half)
-1/4 tsp. pepper
-6 chicken breast halves
-1 cup bread crumbs
-1/2 cup butter, melted

Combine sour cream, lemon juice, celery salt, paprika, garlic, salt and pepper. Coat chicken well with mixture and refrigerate overnight, uncovered. The next day, roll the chicken in the bread crumbs and arrange in a shallow baking dish. Spoon half of the melted butter over the chicken. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes take it out and spoon the remaining butter over the chicken and bake for another 15 minutes longer.

Chocolate French Silk Pie
-1/2 cup butter
-3/4 cup sugar (I used Truvia baking blend and it was fabulous!)
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1-1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
-2 eggs
-1 smaller tub Cool whip
-Shaved Chocolate

*You will need a pie shell. Use one found in the freezer section and prepare it as according to the directions for a cream pie. 

Cream slightly softened, but not melted, butter and the sugar together. Stir in the vanilla and melted chocolate. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Pour into a cooled, baked pie shell. Top with cool whip and decorate with shaved chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  

**Note that this recipe does contain raw eggs. They're safe to eat, but are not recommended for the young, elderly, or pregnant. Try to use pasteurized eggs to be extra safe.