Black-Eyed Peas Mexicano (Southern Living 1979)

I made this dish a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of my picks, because Kevin likes black-eyed peas.  I wasn't sure how it would go over with the kids, so I approximately halved the recipe.  I needn't have worried.  The dish was a huge hit. 

I tweaked this only slightly, mainly to cut down on the heat a little bit for the kids.  Also, since I used canned black-eyed peas, I didn't simmer this for an hour - thus making this an even quicker meal to get to the table.

Black-Eyed Peas Mexicano
4 Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Turkey Sausage patties
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, minced
1 (16-ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 t chili powder

Heat sausage patties.  Crumble as they are heating.  Stir in onion and garlic; saute 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir in remaining ingredients.  Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Lindy

Oriental Stuffed Pockets (Southern Living 1979)

For the month of January, I ended up making way more than my required nine recipes from the January section of the Southern Living 1979 cookbook.  January was an apparently much better month for the Southern Living folks in 1979 than February was.  Next month's choices are not quite so plentiful.  Anyway, this recipe was another one that I really wanted to try for my family.  It sounded quick and easy - and different.

I stuck pretty close to this recipe, and it turned it quite yummy.

Oriental Stuffed Pockets
1 T cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 T ketchup
1 T lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups cooked turkey, cut up (chicken would work well, too)
2 cups peas and carrot mix, frozen
1 cup green beans (leftovers, so already cooked - just refrigerated)
Pita bread

Combine first six ingredients in a skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (well, as constantly as a 2-1/2 year old and a 1 year old will allow), until thickened.
Stir in frozen vegetables; cook, stirring often, for about four minutes.
Stir in chicken and green beans.  Cook, stirring often, until thoroughly heated.
Cut pita bread in half, and spoon vegetable mixture into hollows.

Lindy

Preserve - Filled Foldovers (Southern Living, 1980)

SNOW DAY!!!  In the south, there is nothing like waking up to snow covered ground and knowing that you really can't go anywhere in your car and the best thing to do is stay cozy inside with a fire in the fireplace...  This snow came as a surprise in Birmingham, Alabama; but after much driving drama - the end result was a day (or two) inside with Chris and Mia.  We decided that a snowy morning calls for a special breakfast and opted to make the Foldovers that Lindy assigned.  Just realizing that the two dessert -type dished I was assigned this month I made for breakfast...  Whoops.

I was skeptical.  Really skeptical.  I have never made a dough quite this way before and knowing I was going to make it gluten free, really just didn't have high expectations for these little foldovers.

Gluten Free Preserve-Filled Foldovers

3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour

3/4 cup Sorghum Flour

1/2 cup Arrowroot

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

1 (oz) pkg Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

2/3 cup margarine

1/4 cup applesauce

1 tbls sour cream

Strawberry Preserves

Mix together flour, applesauce, and sour cream.  Soften margarine and cream cheese and add to flour mixture.  (I used a hand mixer to get this all combined).  Chill for at least 2 hours.

Roll out mixture and cut in squares (...triangles, circles - my dough didn't cooperate, so I did the best that I could...).  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  

I took a picture of the dough.  Can you tell by the sides of the bowl the dough wasn't quite firm?

After seeing the dough, I wasn't too enthused about this one.  It just didn't look or feel right.  I persevered, rolled it out and cut it up the best that I could and put a full pan in the oven.  As they started to bake, they smelled GREAT.  Exactly the kind of smell you want to be coming out of your kitchen on a snowy, freezing cold morning.  I was starting to become slightly optimistic.  

These were WONDERFUL!  What a surprise!  Above is Chris' second helping of breakfast.  These were not too sweet and even being gluten free were delicious.  You can tell the trouble I had with the dough, but worth the struggles for sure.   We will most likely make these again for breakfast.  And the dough was really good.  Chris even suggested using it for a pie of some kind (maybe apple?  I might have to try that one of these days).  A solid 4 star recipe.

- Chery

Quick and Easy Lasagna Dinner (Southern Living, 1980)

Living close to my sisters has many, many advantages.  I truly feel so lucky to be near by and to be able to see them and their families on a regular basis.  When we started the blog together, we knew that we would commit to getting together once a month for dinner - to cook a Southern Living meal together and to game plan (and assign recipes) for the next month.

For our monthly dinner in January, Lindy assigned me to cook Quick and Easy Lasagna.

Everyone has a good lasagna recipe that they typically fall back to, and there are so many different ways to do lasagna... so to get the true Southern Living experience, I didn't want to change this one up too much to be "my" lasagna.  I typically like my lasagna cheesier, but felt I needed to keep the basic recipe pretty close to the above (with the exception of mushrooms, because mushrooms are disgusting). I also did not microwave the dish as I am just somewhat opposed to "cooking" in the microwave.  And, I did do two versions of this - one with turkey meat and gluten free pasta, and one with red meat and regular pasta.  The main thing I changed was I didn't make this a true lasagna, but combined everything to make a pasta bake.  Cooking for 6 adults and 5 kids is not something I typically do, but I think having the pasta bake instead of true lasagna worked out well.  

For convenience, I made this the day before - with church and girls brunch scheduled before dinner at my sisters, I wanted to have the pasta ready to go and put in the oven at Lindy's house.  It was really easy to mix it together & put it in the fridge...  

Quick and Easy Pasta Bake

1 lb ground meat (beef or turkey)

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup green pepper, chopped

1 clove minced garlic

1 (15 1/2 oz) jar Spaghettic Sauce

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup mozzerella cheese

pasta noodles

* Cook meat with onion, pepper and garlic.  Add seasonings, sauce and ricotta cheese.  Add meat/cheese mixture to cooked pasta noodles of choice.  Cover with mozzerella.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Gluten Free version with ground Turkey (I used Tinkyada Pasta Joy Brown Rice pasta - this is the best gluten free pasta I have found.  Really good!!)

Regular pasta with red meat.

Overall, this was quick and easy as advertised.  The pasta was slightly dry, and we've had better baked pasta dishes - but this one was good.  Easy to do two ways and easy for a crowd.  

Chris had both versions with my family and then had the regular as leftovers the next day.  His review - the day of, gluten free was better.  The next day, regular was better.  Not sure what the difference was, but he seemed to like the pasta both days; which makes this dish a success for our house.  We gave it 2 1/2 stars.

- Chery

Pork chops and carrots: fail (Southern Living 1981)

 

I made two of the things Lindy picked for us for this dinner. They were both a major fail. The salad was the highlight of this dinner. 

I think I helped make this a fail though, so I'm not blaming it on the recipes. The pork chops sounded innocent enough. Pork chops and apples. What's not to like? Well, the recipe called for ground clove. I didn't have any, so I used whole. I think it was just WAY too clove-y. 

The side was scalloped carrots. I think I'm not a fan of cheesy carrots. Really though. Who is? I used baby carrots and didn't slice them up. Probably would have been better with grated carrots. Oh well. I tried to take the easy way out.

Needless to say, neither of these recipes are worth making again.

Here's to February's dinners being all winners!

Onion-Cheese Bread (Southern Living 1981)

I made this to take to our monthly dinner.  

This is the original recipe:

 

 

I only changed it by leaving out the onions and the extra butter on the top.

I also doubled the recipe, which was good. There was only 1/4 left. It came together easily and I could see making it again because it was easy and good enough. Everyone who ate it seemed to like it.  It was pretty crumbly though, that was the most negative feedback I got.

Audry - menu plan 2/2/2014

Last week was snowpocalypse 2014. Yikes! The hubs was stranded at Lindy's and we made do at home. Crazy times!

Sunday went as planned at our monthly dinner. We had a great time together. The Onion-cheese bread I brought went over pretty well.

Monday night we had breakfast  because we love it and we skipped it on Sunday night. I made waffles and sausage. The hubs and I gave junior a lesson in scrambling eggs.

Tuesday I made bengalese  chicken.  My boys did not like it!  :( honestly I didn't really like it either. It seemed under seasoned. I think that was 100% my fault. I didn't have cardamom (which I realized after the snow started) but I did have garam masala which has cardamom in it. I used that and cut out the cinnamon. I think the proportions were wrong or something. I don't plan to make it again.

Wednesday we had leftovers. Snowpocalypse. Enough said.

Thursday we had what I call tamale casserole. I mixed black beans and corn with taco seasoned ground beef. I then put a cornbread crust and top with cheese. Of course my boys hated it. Anything with beans is an automatic struggle for them. I anticipated this and also made quesadillas with the taco seasoned ground beef.

Friday night we had leftovers from Thursday. I won the Super sweet mom award by only serving quesadillas to the boys and giving the casserole me and the hubs. 

This week's plan:
Sunday - Super Bowl fun with friends
Monday - breakfast
Tuesday - bacon cheese burgers (Southern Living 1981)
Wednesday - pork bbq from the freezer
Thursday - leftovers or chicken casserole from the freezer
Friday - homemade pizza

Graham Cracker Cake (Southern Living 1979)

Both my family and Audry's family love graham crackers.  When Audry saw Graham Cracker Cake in my Southern Living 1979 cookbook, it was a definite pick.  However, Chery and Audry do most of the baking around here, so I was both excited and apprehensive about being in charge of a cake, particularly a cake that was for everyone to try.

I thought it turned out really pretty, though.

When I realized the recipe was for a three-layer cake, I knew I was going to have to make more people my guinea pigs.  Thankfully this month's supper club from our small group at church was willing. 

Here's the original recipe.  It took most of the afternoon for me to make.  I'm just not proficient with baking cakes.

I, of course, "had" to modify this recipe.  Shortening?  A total of seven eggs?  Three cups of sugar?  Not for my young 'uns.  My first taste testers - the supper club from my small group along with my hubby and our kids - said it was good.  The adults all said it could have been just a little bit sweeter.  Little man and little miss both wanted second helpings, and Kevin even had another slice.  At sisters' and their families' dinner, the cake went over pretty well.  Junior even got seconds.  Chris said it was the right sweetness level for him, but he is admittedly not a huge dessert fan.  Audry said that it was good, but the cake layer could have been a bit sweeter.  Regardless, I guess you could take your pick for where you wanted to add a little more sugar.  I think I would actually swap the plain yogurt for all vanilla yogurt and see if that did the trick or bump up the sugar in the cake to 3/4 cup, which would have been exactly half the amount in the original recipe.

Graham Cracker Cake
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup plus 2 T whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3 cups graham cracker crumbs (I crushed two full sleeves (18 long rectangles) of graham crackers)
1 1/4 cups milk
Filling (recipe follows)
Brown Sugar Frosting (recipe follows)

Cream Greek yogurt and sugar until smooth.  Add egg yolks and vanilla yogurt, beating well.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Combine with graham cracker crumbs.  Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.
Beat egg whites until stiff.  Fold into batter.
Pour the batter into 3 sprayed and well floured 9-inch cakepans.
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until done.
Cool completely.
Spread filling between layers.
Frost top and sides of cake with Brown Sugar Frosting.
Store in refrigerator.

Filling
1/4 cup plus 1 T whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
2 cups milk, scalded
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 t vanilla extract

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.
Slowly stir in milk; cook over low heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly.  I cooked mine for about 18 minutes and could have gone longer, I think.
Add a small amount of hot mixture to yolks.  Stir yolk mixture into hot mixture.  Cook an additional 3 minutes longer.
Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
Cool.

Brown Sugar Frosting
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T water
2 egg whites

Combine sugar and water in saucepan; cook over low heat to soft ball stage (234F to 240F).  This took about 15 minutes.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Continue to beat egg whites, gradually adding syrup mixture; beat well.
I ended up with some of this frosting leftover.

Lindy

Lindy - Menu Plan 1/26/2014

Sunday - dinner with the sisters, no breakfast.  Little man is a little distraught about this break from the norm.  For dinner, each sister was assigned one item to bring from her cookbook.  My contribution was Graham Cracker Cake.  Lunch was sandwiches. 

Monday - Salisbury Steak
Tuesday - Brown Sugar Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday - Oriental Stuffed Pockets (SL 79)
Thursday - Cheeseburger Pizza Pie Bundles or Cheesy Chicken Cordon Bleu (depends on whether or not I can find egg roll wrappers!)
Friday - Taco Casserole

Linking up with orgjunkie.com



Lindy

Peanut Butter Parfait Breakfast (Southern Living, 1980)

Chris and I aren't huge on sweets.  But we also aren't stuck with conventional views of desserts.  We both think that if you can have waffles with syrup for breakfast, whats wrong with key lime pie?  Thus, we decided to make the Peanut Butter Parfaits for breakfast instead of as a dessert.  This was a great decision.  It was VERY filling.  If it had been a dessert, I don't think we would have been able to eat it.  As it was, we couldn't finish a serving.

I did make several changes from the above and I did cut the recipe in half, so below is for two servings.

Peanut Butter Parfaits

3/4 cup Quick Cooking Oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup applesauce

2 tbls melted margarine

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbls cornstarch

1 cup milk

2 tbls egg substitue

2 tbls applesauce

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

** Mix together and spread in baking dish.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, stirring occassionally, until somewhat crunchy

** In a saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch, milk, egg, and applesauce stirring constantly until thickened.  Continue stirring for an additional minute (it will get a little more "pudding" texture).  Add in peanut butter and vanilla.  At this point, I put the mixture in the freezer until the oats were finished.  Layer and serve.

I did leave out the peanuts and made it gluten free by using the cornstarch.  It was good, not overly sweet and was VERY filling.  It was also really easy to make.  It came together really easily.  I don't know if we will ever make this one again, but it was fun for a change in our typical pre-church breakfast routine.  

I do have parfait glasses, but they are not in use very often, so they are stored in our attic storage.  For some reason, Chris didn't think the pictures needed real parfait glasses.  So, we used red wine glasses.  I don't think this changed the overall dish (too much).

- Chery

Chery - Menu Plan 1/26

I'm keeping it easy this week.  We did our menu planning on Saturday instead of Sunday and Chris had quite a bit of input on this plan.  He picked the Thai Chicken and the peppers.  The Tamale Casserole was another left over from last week.  

Mexican Tamale Casserole - Something like - http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-tamale-casserole-10000001854020/

Thai Chiken - Similar to - Food.com Recipe #108105

Lasagna (Southern Living, 1980 pg10)- I'll post more on this one later.

Stuffed Peppers - Maybe http://noshingwiththenolands.com/quinoa-stuffed-peppers-2/

And some kind of baked chicken and maybe a baked pasta dish if we need it.  I think I was lazy when we were menu planning and since I don't think we will end up making all of these - I'll leave two "maybe" dishes.  You know, the dishes that you can whip up with the ingredients you have on hand.  I love those kind of dishes.

- Chery

Audry - Menu Plan 1/26/2014

Last week recap:
Sunday we had breakfast. I made biscuits, eggs, and cheese grits. 

Monday I made balsamic chicken in the crock pot. It was a parent winner, a major loser for both boys. 

Tuesday I made seafood gumbo from Southern Living 1981. It was okay. More on that later. 

 

Wednesday I fed the boys hot dogs and ran them to church. I ate leftovers and the hubs picked up something and met the kids at church. 

Thursday we had baked porkchops and scalloped carrots from Southern Living 1981. Meh. Both were Lindy's picks for us. More on that later. 

 

Friday I made homemade pizza. I've been searching for a good homemade crust. The hubs said this was the best yet. Still not convinced it's the best we can do. 

This week:
Sunday - monthly get together with the sisters.  I'm bringing onion-cheese bread from Southern Living 1981.
Monday - breakfast
Tuesday - something from my new Southern Living picks. Probably.
Wednesday - bengalese chicken
Thursday - chicken casserole from the freezer
Friday - pizza casserole or tamale casserole

A 1980 Southern Living Disaster Dinner

After being sick most of the week, our menu plan kind of went down the drain. Knowing that I was behind on my Southern Living dishes, Chris and I decided to make 3 for dinner on Friday.  We knew going in that these 3 dishes didn't really go together, but we also really weren't exicted about any of them and thought it best just to get them over with. 

I have been thinking of how to summarize this meal.  The best thing I can say is that is was edible.  We've had some horrible things in the past when we just threw it away and ordered pizza (a Raw Chicken Incident in 2010 and the disaster of Smoked Mozzerella Pasta to name a couple).  We didn't have to throw anything away uneaten last night, and I guess that made this somewhat of a success.

We had Pea Flips (Southern Living, 1980, pg. 7)

I stuck pretty close to the recipe, with two exceptions.  I did not fry these, I baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.  For the pastry, I did make it gluten free and I think that was the downfall to this dish.

I used a gluten free flour blend of 3/4 cup Brown Rice flour, 3/4 cup Garbanzo Bean flour, 1/2 cup Arrowroot and 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum.  I also used margarine instead of shortening - we don't really do shortening in our house.   

The Garbanzo Bean flour was a bad choice.  You could kind of taste it - and it wasn't good.

Our pea flips - not the best looking thing I have ever made.

Next, we had Creamy Crab & Spinach Casserole (Southern Living, 1980, pg 3)

I had reservations about this one from the beginning.  It wasn't as bad as we feared it could be, but it wasn't necessarily "good" either.  After having the first bite, Chris said "Well, this is exactly what a spinach casserole from 1980 should taste like."  I don't think it was a compliment, but not having too many crab casseroles in the 80's, I will accept that my husband may know what he is talking about and this could be merely an observation.

Again, I stuck pretty close to the original.  I made my Gluten Free Cream of "?" Soup using vegetable bouillon cubes.  We didn't have any sherry, so we used 2 tbls red wine vinegar and 2 tbls + of red wine (we had a bad pour that was the "+").  We also used milk instead of half and half.  And we didn't use breadcrumbs.  Not necessary (and not gluten free).   It did have a unique flavor and was very creamy and cheesy - which I guess are good attributes to a spinach dish.

This was Mia's favorite.  We gave her a taste of the crab and I don't think I have ever seen my dog drool as much as she did while this was in the oven.  At least someone in the house was exited about this dish.  

Finally, we made Garlic Spoonbread (Southern Living, 1980, pg. 14)

This was Chris' favorite.  He said it reminded him of grits and he is planning on having leftovers for breakfast.  I found this one inedible.  I only used 4 eggs instead of 5 and we eliminated the bacon.  I hate bacon.  (I know, strange, but I really can't even handle the smell of it).  I'm also not a big fan of eggs in general.  And this tasted like eggs to me.  Not good.

It looks pretty, though.  And it was light and fluffy, like I *think* spoonbread should be, but this was my first attempt at a spoonbread.  So I'm not quite sure how it should taste.  If this is an accurate spoonbread, I don't think we will be making it again - WAY too egg-y for me.  

Overall, this meal got a 1 star.  Chris looked at this plate and said, "This is about the most un-appetizing plate and it will not make a good picture."  He was correct, it does not make a good picture, but we did eat it.  Notice, I didn't even give the revised recipes - not worth it.  We wouldn't recommend or re-make any of these dishes.  Sorry, 1980.  You can have these back.

- Chery 

Pasta Dishes to Warm You Up (Southern Living 1979)

The title of this section of the Southern Living 1979 is "Pasta Dishes to Warm You Up".  Perfect for January, right?  I've made half of the recipes in this section, so let me tell you how they turned out.

I started off the day after New Year's Day making our first Southern Living 1979 recipe of 2014: Quick Manicotti.  Audry chose this recipe for us to try.  I inadvertently had all but one of the ingredients we needed; so after a quick stop at the grocery store by Kevin, we were good to go.

Quick Manicotti
7 manicotti shells
1 pound ground turkey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
1 cup shredded 2% milk mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup low fat sour cream
2 cups spaghetti sauce
About 3 T Parmesan cheese

Cook manicotti shells according to package directions; drain.  Rinse in cold water; drain and set aside.
Saute ground turkey and garlic until turkey is no longer pink.  Drain off pan drippings.
Add cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and sour cream to meat; stir well.
Stuff manicotti shells with meat mixture.
Arrange shells in sprayed casserole dish - approximately 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
Pour spaghetti sauce over manicotti.
Cover and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Uncover and bake 10 additional minutes.

I ended up with extra meat, so I know that 8 manicotti shells would have been much better.  Extra meat was perfect for me, though.  I wanted to give my youngest (just turned one year) the meat without all the spaghetti sauce and noodles.  In other words, I didn't want the mess.

This Manicotti recipe was a huge hit with the family.  There wasn't much "quick" about it, though, other than the amount of time it had to cook.  Preparing manicotti shells just takes a while.

Since I only used seven of the manicotti shells, I wanted to make another recipe that could use the other seven manicotti shells.  I decided to give the Jumbo Seashells Florentine a makeover - first of all instead of jumbo seashells, manicotti.  I knew this would take a while to "stuff" the shells, but the kids were great playing together while I stirred and stuffed.

Manicotti Florentine
7 manicotti shells
1 (10-ounce) package chopped spinach, cooked and drained
1 egg, beaten
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1-1/2 cups cream of chicken soup (Chery also posted a gluten free cream of chicken soup recipe)

Heat oven to 400F.
Cook manicotti shells according to package directions; drain.
Cook spinach according to package directions; drain.
While the above are cooking, make cream of chicken soup, if not already made.
Combine spinach, egg, salt, pepper, and cottage cheese.  Stir gently.
Spoon spinach mixture into manicotti shells.
Pour soup over manicotti shells.
Cover and bake at 400F for 15 minutes.  Spoon sauce over macaroni; bake an additional 10 minutes.

Kevin wasn't home, but this was a HUGE hit with all three kids.  They thought it was worth the wait.  Little man had "thirds".  I thought it tasted very good, too.

Lindy

Frosted Carrot Cookies (Southern Living 1981)

The original recipe:



What I did:
I omitted the shortening in favor of  a butter and Vanilla Greek yogurt blend. I also skipped the coconut. I used less sugar, probably close to a half cup. I did not use any shortening. I used a half stick of butter and the rest was vanilla Greek yogurt. I also skipped the coconut because I forgot it at the store and it didn't seem essential enough to warrant loading everyone up and heading out to the store.

 
All in all, a winner. If I make it again, I won't make the frosting and I'll serve it for breakfast or brunch.