Hello all:)  Growing up, our Sunday lunch was always beef roast, rice, gravy, peas, etc;)  Paul’s English Sunday lunch was (and still is) a roast chicken, roast potatoes and Bisto gravy.  Mum will usually make little green peas and carrots to go with it; however,  Paul isn’t fond of the later 2 so it’s usually just chicken and potatoes here. It’s so easy to make and always makes him happy:)  So that’s what I’m sharing with yall today. Hope your weekend was great. Have a wonderful week!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

1 Whole Chicken  - I usually get a  4 pound chicken

Yukon Gold Potatoes – I use about a pound and a half

Salt, Pepper and Veg Oil

HERE’S What you Do:

Take out the giblets and wash your chicken well. Pat dry inside and out. Salt and pepper the inside and out generously.  Place the chicken (breast side up), in a roasting pan of your choice that has a bit of veggie oil in the bottom.  Drizzle a little oil over the chicken and place into a 350 degree oven for 2 hrs.

Meanwhile, peel and cut (into 2×2 pieces). Place them in a boiler, cover with water and salt.  Boil until juuuuust almost tender.  You don’t want them falling apart. Drain. This is where I scuff them up a little bit. Place the colander  over the top of your boiler full of potatoes.  Shake up and down a little to make the outer potato scuffed. This makes the potatoes crispy when you roast them.  Coat a roasting pan with oil. Drizzle potatoes with oil and place in the same oven as your chicken.  Continue roasting both for the duration of the 2 hours (chicken cooking time).  By the time the 2 hours is up, if your potatoes are not as brown on top as you’d like, just turn your broiler on and let them brown up quickly (don’t turn your back on them! It won’t take long at all once you are at this point).

Put a nice salad on the table and you’re done:)   Eat, enjoy your family time and then, when it’s over, make the kids wash up:)

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Our’s started off good until Saturday night.  We were eating supper and Sarah accidentally knocked Paul’s brand new iPhone 4 into her glass of milk. That pretty much killed it.  We’ve had it in a bag of rice since Saturday night. It seems to be coming back to life a bit at a time. I don’t think it will ever be the same.  Pretty sure we are going to be heading into the city to purchase a new one in the next couple of days.  Paul is dreading the expense but there is no way, as a web developer, that he can be without an iPhone.  Anyway, watch this space:)

Saturday, I made a big batch of chicken salad. It’s my simple way. I didn’t have almonds or pineapple on hand so it’s just plain. I love it this way though. So here is my way:) Yall enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

5 boneless skinless chicken breast

Salt, pepper, garlic powder

3 stalks of celery

1/2 yellow onion (this was on the smaller side)

about a cup of Mayonnaise

HERE’S What You Do:

Place the 5 boneless chicken breast on a foil lined pan.

Season - salt, pepper, garlic powder (or your fav seasoning)

Seal the foil. Bake at 350 F until done. About 45 minutes or so. My chicken was frozen so I had to cook longer.

Meanwhile, chop your celery and onion

Let your chicken cool for a bit.

Chop your chicken into 1/2 inch chunks

Shred the chunks a bit. Not to much though.

Add onions, celery and Mayo (1 cup) to your chicken. This is where you can also add pineapple or almonds... OR BOTH! If you do add pineapple, you might want to cut back on your mayo because the juice.

***MIX. Taste and adjust your seasoning***

I love it on the white bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth it's so fresh:) OR, you can just eat it right out of the bowl! However, if you added the other ingredients, you might want to be a bit more civilized and serve it on pretty bread or a crisp lettuce leaf. Anyway you serve it, it's going to be SO goooooooood:)

Hello!! I hope everyone’s week is going well. It’s almost the weekend and I have to say, I am ready for it! The other night, when I made the Shepard’s Pie, I also made one of my Aunt Kathy’s recipes – Beef Stroganoff. She’s made this recipe for years and years. It’s actually the only stroganoff I’ve ever had/made. My brother, Bill, just emailed me asking me again how she makes it so that’s what I’m leaving here today for yall:) It’s easy and its GOOOOD STUFF!!:) Enjoy!!
OK, HERE’S What You’ll Need:

1 lb of ground beef (I like to use ground round)

1 small onion cut up (if you don’t have one, just use dried minced onion)

salt, pepper, garlic powder

1lb button mushrooms (or 1 small can, DRAINED sliced up mushrooms)

1 can Cream of Mushrooms (or Chicken) soup

8oz sour cream

Serve over white rice or egg noodles

HERE’S What You Do:

1 pound ground round

Season w/ salt, pepper,dried onions,garlic powder & brown

***Now, drain your meat and put it to the side to keep it warm. Do not wash out your skillet.  Add about 1 T. butter to your skillet**

Mushrooms (small can drained or you can use fresh - I like fresh:) Instead of slicing, I like to break them up into quarters with my hands - nice chunky pieces.

Saute' your mushrooms in the skillet with butter and little bit of drippings left over from the hamburger meat.

Meanwhile, start your noodles - or rice (I use my rice cooker when I make the rice) Here I just made egg noodles.

Once your mushrooms are all nice and goldeny (like that word?:) browny, add your beef back to your skillet

To your meat/mushrooms, add a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup (or Cream of Chicken) and 8 oz of sour cream

Sour cream and Cream of Mushroom soup - mix into meat/mushrooms and simmer on low til warmed through.

***Remove noodles from heat and drain***

Serve stroganoff over noodles and ENJOY!:)

My husband, Paul, is from England.  He has a few favorites that I make for him. Last night I made a couple of dishes. One of them was Shepard’s Pie. Now, he is a pretty simple guy when it comes to his ingredients. So here is his favorite way that I make it:)   Oh, btw, it freezes/reheats really well!

OK, HERE’S What You’ll Need:

1 pound of beef (I use ground round)

1 small onion, chopped (I didn’t have one so I used dried onions)

salt, pepper, garlic powder

button mushrooms (about 4 oz sliced up)

brown gravy mix (follow directions)

Mashed potatoes  - I used about 1 1/2 pounds and used a lot of butter;)

Butter – we use Kerry Gold Irish butter. It’s soooooo good

Preheat oven to 375(f)

HERE’S What You Do:

Into the skillet - Ground Round (1 pound)

Season - salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried minced onion

Start your mashed taters - place in water with salt - boil (1 1/2lb)

Brown your meat

Get your baking dish ready - These are Paul's favorite for this dish;)

Cover the bottom of your baking dish(es) generously with beef

You can use either fresh or a small (drained can) of mushrooms.

**Ok this is where you can add other assorted veggies if you would like. Paul used to like corn in his but he’s kinda gone off it. Other veggies you common – corn and little green peas.  But my Englishman is simple:)**

Place sliced mushrooms on top of beef

Make your brown gravy - We use Bisto

Gravvvyyy

Pour your gravy over the beef and mushrooms

Going back to the potatoes - drain

Trick to great mashed potatoes is the butter - Kerry Gold!

add butter (LOTS of butter:) and mash

Potatoes on top - trail your fork to make ridges (they get crunchy:)

Bake until it bubbles around the sides (about 35 minutes). If it’s not brown enough on top, run it under the broiler until you get your desired color.

Done:) Nice and crispy on top!

Hello!! I’m back. Again.  It’s been quite a while since I wrote last.  Life in general just happens and things take priority.  Last year is a blur. The kids are now back in school and I have “retired” from the PTC after 6 looong years of being involved.

Jamie began Jr. High this year (7th grade!) MyMatthew is in 5th and Sare Bear is a 3rd grader:)  So far so good. Knock on wood! I am going to start back to school myself end of the month:) I’m excited but really nervous. I will be working toward my HTM degree (Hospitality and Tourism Management).  Paul is currently doing his own thing. He was laid off last September. He has been working on things he’s been wanting to do for a while. I think he’s planning on looking for a job at some point.  We had a great summer. It was nice that we didn’t have to schedule things around his work.  We were able to just up and go when we wanted.  I will miss that when he does go back to an office job.

Sarah had to sit out of ballet last year due to her school work just being so out of hand. She would come home with 6-8 pgs of homework at night.  It was horrible.  We just weren’t able to get homework done and make it to ballet on time twice a week.  We are hoping to get her back in this year (and add ice skating) but we want to see how things are going to work out with homework/schoolwork. I am hoping that her teacher will have her more structured than last year’s.  Last year, she was in a mixed class. 1st and 2nd graders.  This year, it’s just the 3rd grade.

MyMatthew is no longer doing soccer (we are completely out of the soccer organization now).  He began swim team last September and is just LOVING it:)  It’s unbelievable (to me) how he has progressed in a year. They are on break atm but will be starting up again next month.  He’s really looking forward to it.

Jamie is puttering along. He has been so excited about getting to Jr. High:)  He gets up and gets excited about going to school.  He’s out of the house before school even opens the doors for breakfast:) He really loves getting there, having his blueberry muffins and then going to the library:) Then at lunch, he gets a choice of what he’d like and that is also a huge thing for him:) It’s the little things that make him happy! This Saturday, he’ll start golf again.  He hasn’t done it in a while, but he’ll be able to start practicing with the golf team next year and then hopefully play on the team the following year.  Yes, it’s going to be another busy year!

Over the last several months, I have discovered Julia Childs. Not really discovered her but really started paying attention to her.  I have to say, she is pretty darn cool. I love her shows now. She tickles me because if she messed something up, she had no problem saying it/showing it and just tossing it in the trash and starting all over again!  She was very real.  I hope to bring yall some of her recipes that I have been making. Some of them are really complicated. I tend to stay away from those, like her Boeuf Bourguignon. However, today, I am going to show yall a recipe that I found at Pioneer Woman. It’s for Ribeye steak with a Burgundy Mushroom sauce.  It’s very good. Pretty simple and looks/sounds very impressive:) Enjoy!
OK, HERE’S What You’ll Need:

3 nice Ribeye steaks

1/2 cup butter

1 pound of button mushrooms

4 cloves of garlic

3 green onions cut up

1 1/2 cup of Burgundy (next time I’ll pull back on this a bit. Maybe 1 cup)

Salt and Pepper

1 Tbsp butter

Parsley (chopped up to make it pretty:)

HERE’S Whatcha Do:

Slice mushrooms (1 lb)

Slice up green onions (3)

To the butter add your mushrooms, green onion and chopped garlic (4 cloves)

Cook it alllll down until the shrooms are golden brown

1 1/2 Cups!!

Add and reduce

Almost there!

Add your parsley....

Set aside

Quick wash!

Butter to the pan

Ribeye!!

Cooked just the way you like with a little salt and pepper:)

Voilà!! Ribeye w/ Burgundy Mushroom sauce:) Bon Appetite!!