New York Mom Blog
This is a good recipe for using up extra lunch meat. My husband likes me to have lunch meat on hand for weekend sandwiches, but no one but him and my son eat it. So half the time it ends up not getting eaten, and since it is expensive I hate to buy it and then not use it. This recipe will use it up, and with this recipe you can stretch a little bit of meat a long way. You can easily vary the recipe depending on what meats and cheese you have on hand.
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All three of my kids are done with school finally! School doesn’t actually end here until the end of the week, but my 9th grader’s test were all last week so we are officially done. We don’t really have any summer activities starting up for a few weeks, so we can spend some time getting things done around the house. Our plans for this week are lots of relaxing and picking strawberries. With four of us picking we should be able to get lots and lots of strawberries, our favorite fruit. So even though I didn’t write it into the menu we are planning on having strawberries every night.
Monday: Italian Sausage with pepper and onions
Tuesday: Shrimp Korma with rice
Wednesday: Pasta with Zucchini
Thursday: Chicken Riggies
Friday: Catfish sandwiches
Saturday: BBQ chicken leg quarters
Link up at Orgjunkie.com for more Menu Plan Monday.
I made this recipe for paella last week for the first time, and it was delicious. I have made Spanish paella before, but this recipe is the best one I’ve found so far. Most paella recipes have you cook the rice and meat all together, but this one cooks them separately and then combines them at the end. I thought this made the dish better, and it was easier to time everything so nothing cooked too much. Of course paella should have seafood; I used clams but shrimp would have been even better if and that is what I would use next time. Spanish paella traditionally has peas in it, but both my husband and I hate peas, so I usually leave them out. I don’t think my kids have ever even tasted peas since we never serve them. Since we weren’t having peas I decided to add spinach to this recipe right at the end so there would be some green in the dish. It might not be traditional paella, but I though it worked well, and got some healthy greens into the meal. Although the recipe has a lot of ingredients, but it only took about 40 minutes to make from start to finish. I wish I had a paella pan, but I was able to make do with my regular cooking pans.
Chicken and Sausage Paella
Ingredients:
Directions:
For more recipes you can link up at Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
Every area has their own regional specialty recipes, and Upstate NY is no exception. Salt potatoes are not something I had ever heard of until I met my husband, who was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. They are very popular in the Syracuse area, and my in-laws have them at every picnic. The name pretty much gives away the entire ingredient list, and they are certainly not for people who need to watch their salt intake.
Syracuse has a long history of salt production, since there are salt springs that feed Onondaga Lake and the area used to be a major producer of salt. Now a days I think most of the salt produced is used for de-icing roads, not eating. But since there is a lot of need for de-icing in the Syracuse winter that works out!
The idea behind the salt potatoes is simple, you cook small, new potatoes with a huge amount of salt. The salt seals the skins of the potatoes, and all the salt makes the water boil at a higher temperature, so the potatoes turn out creamier. They are served with melted butter, which makes them taste even better of course. I am not usually a big fan of potatoes, but salt potatoes are tasty and creamy. One drawback to making this in your kitchen is you end up with salt crusted all over your pans, and the stove too if the pot boils over.
You can see the salt all over this pan after the potatoes have cooked. The smaller the potatoes are, the better they taste. Around here you can buy salt potatoes in a bag at any grocery store, which consists of 4 pounds of potatoes and 1 pound of salt. But here is the very simple recipe for when pre-bagged salt potatoes aren’t available.
Salt Potatoes
Ingredients:
Directions:
For more recipes link up with Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
This is a delicious traditional Norwegian cake, and since today is Norway’s National Day I wanted to post the recipe for it. I first had this cake when my son was invited to a birthday party at the home of a friend with Norwegian heritage. It was so good I knew I had to get the recipe and make it for my family. It is the traditional cake used as a birthday cake in Norway. We like the fact this recipe is not overly sweet, and has lots and lots of fruit. Of course I’m sure it is still very high in calories, but you won’t feel as guilty eating it because of all the fruit. It starts with a traditional sponge cake, which is fairly simple to make, since it has only 5 ingredients.
Sponge Cake Recipe:
Ingredients:
Directions:
Assembling the Blotkake:
You can use different fruits on the cake depending on what your family likes. I made it the way we were served it at the birthday party, with peaches and raspberries. Next time I think I’ll use strawberries instead of the raspberries, though, since my husband likes strawberries better and they are cheaper. I used instant vanilla pudding, although making pudding from scratch would be more traditional.
Ingredients:
Directions:
For more recipes check out Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
