Spaghetti

My kids love spaghetti.  My husband not so much.  One time he was in the hospital for back surgery.  He hadn't eaten all day.  He was recovering in his room and was terribly hungry.  The supper hour had passed but I was able to flag down an orderly to ask him if he could manage to find him something to eat.  The orderly came back after 15 minutes with a huge smile on his face.  He had "just the ticket."  He had found Lewis some spaghetti.  Lewis was less than thrilled but spaghetti can put a smile on my kids' faces anytime.

I do take the easy way out using a jarred spaghetti sauce. 

Ingredients
1 1/3 lbs or 1 package of Caston hamburger meat.
Salt/pepper
Spaghetti noodles cooked as directed on the package but leave about 1/4  -1/3 cup of the water.  When you drain it completely, you lose some of the starch that adds good texture to your spaghetti.
1 jar of Prego spaghetti sauce- I like the three cheese variety.
1/4 cup of sugar.

Brown the hamburger meat adding salt and pepper to taste.  There will be very little to drain but drain the meat.  Add the jar of Prego to the meat.  Mix well.  Dump this into the cooked spaghetti and add the sugar.  I often have to add a little more sauce to the mix so I do keep an extra jar in the refrigerator.  Top with Parmesan cheese. 

Perfect with bread sticks, a copy cat  Olive Garden salad (get the dressing in the salad dressing aisle at your local grocer, add cherry tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, purple onion, Parmesan cheese, and croutons. 

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf has been a favorite around here for a long time.  It's that Sunday after church lunch that my family looks forward to.  It can be made with very little mess. The fact that the main dish is home grown makes it even more special.

Ingredients

1 1/3 lbs of hamburger meat or 1 or our packages

1 roll of Ritz cracker crumbs

2 eggs

1/3 to 1/2 c of ketchup

salt and pepper to taste.

Put the hamburger meat in a large bowl.  Crush one roll of Ritz cracker crumbs inside the pack.  Add that to the hamburger meat.  Add your two eggs, salt, pepper, and ketchup.  Now dig right in.  That's right. Dig your hands in that mix and mix it all together.  Get the ingredients good and incorporated.  Dump all of that into a loaf pan and top with more ketchup.  I like to make sure every inch of the loaf is covered in ketchup smoothing it out over the top with a spoon.   Cover with aluminum foil and place in a 350 degree oven.  Let cook about 40-45 minutes covered.  Uncover and cook 15 more minutes.   Serve with mashed potatoes, green beans, and deviled eggs.   Left overs are even better the next day!

It's a family favorite for sure! 

Yes 

The Biscuit Games

When I was a little girl and my sister and I  would go to Granny Clem's, I remember her letting us put in  our request for breakfast. I always wanted a runny egg- which meant a fried egg and CANNED biscuits.  My sister would request homemade biscuits.  After this week, I clearly know I must have been her favorite as homemade biscuits aren't easy.

  My biscuit making has always been less then wonderful no matter if I used canned or frozen.   I always managed to burn the bottoms.  The biscuits would be eaten except for the litter of burnt bottoms that were pulled from the biscuit and left on the cookie sheet. And homemade---- well that was totally out of my league.  But this week, this week I was determined to learn how to make a delicious biscuit.

My first attempt this week was less than perfect!  I was completely set up for success, had the perfect recipe, and was prepared to be a champion at first attempt.  I always keep both kinds of flour in my house and the easy thing to do would be to mark the container self-rising or all purpose.  But that would be easy.  I choose to leave them unmarked and just do a taste to see which is which.  I find my self-rising- because it's a little salty and proceed with the recipe.  I had freezer cold butter- I had my 1 cup and half of flour, I had my parchment  for rolling, my milk for liquid -- I was prepared.  So I mix and I roll.  I had read that you just pat but my recipe called for rolling.  I did everything as directed and waited patiently.  I pull my biscuits out after a few minutes and they look a little strange.  Almost like cornbread. I mean, I didn't have my glasses on when I pulled out the flour but my taste buds never lie.  I tasted them- a little salty.  I did use salted butter instead of unsalted.  They crumbled.  Oh MY! I didn't notice the texture.  I had used self rising corn meal for my biscuits. They were terrible! 



I move on to my next attempt.  I watch a granny on Facebook and she uses oil and just brings it in with her hand.  One of my friends sent me a recipe that was similar so I watch her multiple times and I'm ready. These biscuits are a no fail! I feel like a super hero ready to conquer the biscuit enemy!  I make her recipe, wait patiently, and what do I have?  I have a flat biscuit.   It didn't work!  FAIL! (my friend's recipe did say just drop them in the cast iron skillet but the granny patted them out- you can't argue with a granny can you?)


So, I research. Maybe self rising flour isn't the trick?  Maybe the biscuits need to have a little more baking powder in them than self rising flour provides. Taylor sends me a recipe she finds on Pintrest.  I also change my fat from oil to unsalted butter. This recipe has a little sugar.  How can you go wrong with a little sugar?  Off I go to make the biscuits.   I make the biscuits -flatter than a flitter- no success! My daughter has been staying with me due to a water leak at her house and she is now referring to my biscuits as biscuit cookies. 

I try again- I changed the fat to Crisco and still using all purpose flour.  NOPE! By this time both girls are at the house and have an interest in making the perfect biscuits.

Torrie decides she will try.   She uses a recipe with cream of tartar.  Her biscuits are somewhat better and not near as flat, but still no sure fire "I want you to make me some biscuits because they taste awesome recipe!"

I text one of my good friends.  She tells me to go back to using self rising flour and I will know by the feel of the dough.  It will be a little sticky.  We also take to Facebook asking for our friend's thoughts.  This morning we have made it a step closer.  We have use some of your tips and tricks.  We left the dough a little sticky.    Our friends have said let the mixture get cold so the steam will release and make a fluffier biscuit.  We have  placed our biscuit cutter directly down in the dough and not twisted.  We patted out our dough leaving it a little thicker than maybe we have in the past. (We have toggled between patting and rolling.)    There have been all kinds of combinations of self-rising flour, types of fat, amounts of milk, and the temperature of the oven.   We have chose to follow daughters' grandmother in law's secret recipe- she told us to follow the recipe on the WR self rising flour bag and we couldn't go wrong.    In all we have tried seven batches of biscuits.  And when Grandma says you can't go wrong with her recipe, she doesn't know us.  On to batch eight changing the recipe again!