Seafood Casserole and the refusal of my taste testers trying....

Wednesday was another full day of training reps at the office.  But I had a good nights sleep the night before and also was still full from my lunch at Cheddar's earlier in the day.  When I came home I told Tom and Jacob that tonight's menu was a Seafood Casserole.  Both Tom and Jacob do not like seafood and told me straight up, that they would not sample that dish.  In baking the dish, it also filled the house up with the smell, and that was making Tom ill.  He can't stand the smell of seafood in the air.  This also kept him out of the kitchen until the very end when he was able to help me clean up. 

Tom and Jacob were hungry and decided they would have pizza instead.  I also told them that I would also be making Cheese Balls and Macaroni and Cheese and they agreed to try those.  So they put their pizza in the oven and I started to work on Beth's Seafood Casserole. 

I used the recipe in the 2001 cookbook and it said that Margie's sister-in-law Beth Martin, introduced this recipe and it has been a family favorite at reunions ever since.  This recipe called for cooked shrimp and also claw crab meat.  I purchased (2) 8 oz cups of fresh claw crab meat in the seafood section.  I also purchased frozen cooked shrimp.  This recipe called for many ingredients but it was more assembly than anything. 

It started out with me sauteing the green peppers, onions and celery in a skillet.  Then I added chopped pimientos, cream of mushroom soup, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, milk, cooked rice and the seafood.  There was so much to mix that I had to mix it all in a large bowl and it filled up an entire 9 X 13 baker.  Then it said to top with mild cheddar cheese.  I put it in the oven and baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

While that was in the oven, Tom and Jacob were finishing up their pizza.  I decided to start working on my next recipe which was Cheese Balls.   I also used the version of the recipe from the 2001 cookbook.  This is also my first attempt at making them.  Tom has never had them rolled into individual balls and neither have I, but I wanted to follow the directions.  This was easy to assemble with 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese, 8 oz. of cream cheese, garlic powder and a cup of chopped walnuts.  I mixed everything with a mixer and then I asked Tom if he would roll them and he said he would help. I have a couple of photos of him assisting:

First one is his annoyed "why are you taking a photo of me look":

Next is a photo of him in action and I think he is having fun doing this little job: What do you think?



While he was busy doing this, I had to send Jacob to the store to get me some sharp cheddar cheese so I could work on the macaroni and cheese.  I also asked Jacob to bring home a box of Triscuits so we could have them with the cheese balls.  When Jacob got home, he had the cheese but forgot the Triscuits.  Here's a photo of the Cheese Balls.  I told Tom not to dig into them until he filled up the tray.  Then the ratio became one to the tray to one to his mouth, smiling.....

While he worked on those, I had to start working on the Macaroni and Cheese by cooking up the noodles.  I also used the recipe in the 2001 cook book.  The Macaroni and Cheese was my absolute favorite dish when I dined there so I was really excited to see if I could duplicate it.  Once the noodles were cooked you add 1/2 cup of butter to them and stir until melted.  Then you add 4 eggs beaten to a froth then add 3 cups of milk.  Finally, you stir in the 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese.  There was so much again, I had to use a larger bowl to stir it all up.  Then I put it into my casserole dish.  It was runny and once again I stressed if it would have the correct texture.  It went into the oven  at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and out of the oven came Beth's Seafood Casserole.  Here's the photo:

I was the only one trying the casserole.  I was then finally hungry and had two small spoon fulls of the dish.  It tasted really well.  Texture was great with the rice in it.  I tried to tempt Tom and Jacob in trying it and both said no way and Tom was still suffering from the seafood smells.  I also had a couple of the cheese balls and everyone really liked them.  We were just missing crackers, but popped them into our mouths instead.  The recipe made enough that I will be able to share them with others.

Tom and Jacob then started helping clean up the huge kitchen mess and it was much appreciated by me.  Finally the timer went off for the Macaroni and Cheese and I took it out of the oven.  It looked set up on the top, but when I went to scoop out some, it was still really really runny.  I was so bummed.  I put it back in the oven and set the timer for another 10 minutes.  I tested them again and still not quite set up, so the timer was set for another 10 minutes.  Third time is a charm as the casserole had set up after a total time in the oven of 50 minutes versus the 30 minutes on the recipe.  Here's a photo:

Once the texture was right, I was feeling better about the dish.  But now it was time to sample it.  Both Tom and I had a small serving as it was getting late and we were full from the food earlier.  Tom liked it and thought it was good.  I thought it was also good, but I thought Mrs. Wilkes at her dining room was cheesier than my version.  I am wondering and going to do a little google research to see if there could have been a typo in the ingredient list.  I'll let you all know what I find out.

By the end of the evening, I have a full refigerator of left overs and my Dad is coming to town today, so I'm going to make a left over bag of goodies for him and I am sure I'll have enough to make one for Aunt Doris as well.  Dad promised that he would give me his opinion of the food, but I think he is excited that he gets to sample something after hearing all about my project from Aunt Oatlee and Aunt Doris.

Long day at the office so I took it easy in the kitchen....

I had training all day with new reps and by the time I got home after 6 p.m., I was really tired and brain fried.  I knew I was supposed to cook again, but my motivation was gone.  I asked Tom if he wanted to go out and eat.  He said no and then offered to make a frozen pizza.  That didn't sound good at all.  By the time it was done, I could of made something.  So I went into the kitchen and decided to work on one dish and add to my got r-done list. 

The dish on my menu was Kraut and Frankfurters.  When I was working on my grocery list, the recipe called for 1 lb. of frankfurters.  I decided to use Hebrew National Frankfurters for the recipe.  I have never had them, but had heard they were pretty tasty.  I cut them up and browned them in butter.  The recipe also called for noodles to be cooked and stirred into the dish, I had them also cooking on the stove.  Then I had to stir in the sauerkraut, onion and noodles and heat thoroughly.

Here's the photo of the dish:

Have you ever had kraut and noodles mixed together?  Tom and I had never had it before and was curious about how it tasted.  I also served it with a salad on the side. 

Cooking the frankfurters in butter was a hit in the flavor and texture of the meat.  Also it was really good having the noodles mixed with the kraut.  Tom also liked the dish.  I can't say that we loved it, but in the end I was happy that I was able to complete another recipe and also it being an easy one to work.  We ended up having left overs as well and I am sure we will finish this or take it over to my Aunt Doris's or Tom's family to share.

Marvelous Monday!

I'll start off with my confession that I am now not behind on cooking, but I am behind on blogging about it.   I now have three days to account for.  So I am working on that today to get myself caught up.  If you read the last post where I talked about my cooking for Sunday, I called it Disappointing Sunday.  Well you can see by this title I had a much better day with Mrs Wilkes'.

Even though I had Pork Roast on Sunday, for Monday I decided to make Barbecue Pork.  One thing was for sure.  I wasn't going to make it in the oven.  I decided this next roast would be cooked in the Crock Pot.  So I did the same preparation with the roast, covering it up in salt, pepper and paparika.  Then I placed it in the Crock Pot with water around 6:30 a.m.  When I got home, the kitchen smelled of roast. 

As I opened the lid, I could tell the roast was a nice color and also when I tested it with a fork, the roast fell apart, it was so tender!  I was looking at Pot Roast Heaven!  I called Tom into the kitchen to look at my roast.  Then I asked him if he would help me shread it so I could then pour the barbecue sauce over it.

He help me pull it and put it in my 9 X 13 Baker.  Next I had to cover it in Barbecue Sauce that I had made a couple of weeks ago from the cookbook.  Remember how I said it was so yummy and also so easy to make?  Well I coated the pork and I had left overs of the sauce and asked Tom if it looked ok.  He said to add the rest of the sauce too.  So I did.  Then it went into the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Next, I was going to work on the Sweet Potato Pie.  Tom was still in the kitchen with me and agreed to peel and cut up the sweet potatoes to be cooked so I could mash them.  This is the first time I have ever purchased sweet potatoes at the store, much less cook with them.  While they were cooking on the stove, I put together the rest of the ingredients for the pie.  I decided that instead of making the piecrust, I used a frozen piecrust.  I had no guilt with this since the recipe called for her piecrust or other unbaked crust!

It had me combine the dry ingredients separately from the wet and by the time my sweet potatoes were mashed and added, I had to put it back on the stove and cook it to almost boiling.  Then I poured it into the crust.  I was concerned again because the texture seemed runny and I ended up with more filling than the pie could hold.  Tom and I tasted it and it tasted great, but again I thought I would be scooping it out instead of cutting pieces.

I also heated up the rest of the Corn Bread Stuffing  and made Butter Toasted Buns to serve with the meal.  Here's the photos of the food and the menu:

Barbecue Pork
Butter Toasted Buns
Corn Bread Dressing
Sweet Potato Pie

Everything looked and smelled wonderful.  I was excited to taste the pork and also get Tom and Jacob's opinon.  They both took buns and made sandwiches, put stuffing on their plate and got busy!  We all LOVED the barbecue pork.  It was heaven.  Taste, texture on those butter toasted buns was so YUMMY!
My mouth is watering just thinking about that dish now.  I said that I wanted to share that pork with Tom's Mom and Step-Dad and also Aunt Doris to get their opinion.  He said I could share it but to make sure I save him enough left overs to have it the next day.

While we were finishing up with dinner, the Sweet Potato Pie was done and we let it cool while we started packing up left overs.  We called everyone to make sure we could run it over.  Everyone was excited to try it.  Before we left, we also cut the Sweet Potato Pie to sample it.  That pie ROCKED!  It was cooked perfectly, texture was nice and it tasted like pumpkin pie versus sweet potato.  It was still nice and warm and we put whipped cream on top.  So we also divided up the pie and included it in our left overs to share.

Our first stop was my Aunt Doris's home.  She told me that she was sick with tonsilitis and I didn't stay long but I left the food for her and said hello to Pam and her.  Hopefully she will feel better soon and will be able to sample the food.

Next we went over to John and Diane's.  We put together enough left overs to share with everyone including Amanda. (Tom's daughter).  I was so excited to have them taste the barbecue and the pie.  First they tried the Barbecue Pork and they all loved it.  Especially on the butter toasted buns.  Then they sampled my Corn Bread Stuffing.  Diane asked me if there was chopped up egg in them and I said yes.  They all liked the stuffing but agreed it could of had more seasoning, but the texture was really good.

Finally was the Sweet Potato Pie.  They went nuts over the pie.  I was like a proud Momma watching them taste everything and seeing their expressions and hearing them go on and on about how delicious it was.  We stayed about and hour and visited then we went back home.

Tuesday, I have a full day of training at the office, and know I have more to make so I try to get a good nights sleep.

Disappointing Sunday......

That is the overall theme for the dinner that I created on my project for Sunday.  Disappointing.  I had to meal plan for the week and grocery shop in the morning.  In the afternoon, I went to an open house to look at a 13 acre farm.  Why you ask?  Well I am thinking about Mrs. Wilkes' again and how she in the day had boarders.  I was thinking.... what if I had folks stay with me in a farm setting and provide meals for them?  I am thinking about the kind old retired gent that perhaps is a widower however still enjoys playing in a garden but doesn't want to care for a big place or worry about inside chores and meals.  Those are the kinds of thoughts that dining at Mrs. Wilkes' and cooking through her book have me pondering.

The open house gave me a lot to think about.  I'll be chewing on it a while.  But what was interesting was when I got home and walked into my home, I was appreciative with what I had in my own home.  I looked around my kitchen and decided I needed to get to work as I had quite a bit to do to make a 6 p.m. dinner time goal.  I also invited my Mom over for dinner and was excited that she could be a taste tester for me.

The first recipe I worked was the Corn Bread and Corn Bread Muffins.  I had to make a double batch because half of it was going to be used for the Corn Bread Stuffing.  I used the recipe in the 2001 cookbook to follow.  Florrie Simpson Leach, Mrs. Wilkes' longest serving cook, claims this recipe as her specialty.  Now when I read that I thought, these have to be good.  I bet Florrie herself checked this recipe to make sure it was right!

Putting it together was easy it had me mixing the dry ingredients separately and then adding the liquid.  I also put the batter into cupcake holders and the rest into a 8 X 8 baker to use for the stuffing.  When these came out of the oven they looked good!

Next to get ready was the Corn Bread Dressing.  As I looked at the ingredients, I noticed it called for 3 hard boiled eggs chopped.  So I wanted to get the eggs boiled.  A confession.  I think I have boiled eggs before, but couldn't remember how to do it, so I had to Google that.  I also learned that Tom doesn't boil eggs, but he sure knows how to eat them.  So he was no help.  I found a website that broke it all down for me and followed the instructions.  Let eggs get to room temperature, put them in cold water.  Bring to rolling boil, take off stove, cover and let stand for 20 minutes for extra large eggs.  All of that was easy.  Now, peeling the eggs were  not.  Tom helped me with that but said that they should of cooked a little longer and it wouldn't of been so hard.  But when I cut them open, they looked perfect to me.  Maybe the eggs were too fresh?  Do you have any idea?  I peeled them in cool running water and also let them sit in a pan of cold water for 10 minutes before I started to peel them.

I also had to prepare 2 cups of crumpled toast crumbs for the dressing.  I decided to take white bread and run 8 slices through my toaster.  Then I crumpled the bread up with my hands and added it to the crumbled corn bread.  Then I cheated and bought chicken stock at the store.  It called for 4 1/2 cups of stock to be heated up and then poured into dry mixture, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.  While that was going on, I finished the eggs, chopping the celery, green pepper and onion.  After letting it set, I mixed the rest of the ingredients together and put in my 9 X 13 baker to bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Finally I am ready to work on the Roast Pork.  When I went to the store, Tom helped me pick out the pork roast to use.  Recipe called for 4-5 lb roast and we found the roasts to be 3.75 lbs.  I rinsed and dried the roast and then rubbed it with salt, pepper and paprika.  I put it in my stone roaster and added 2 cups of water, covered and put in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.  This is where I become disappointed.  After cooking I wanted to make sure it was done, so I did a temperature check.  I also had to google what is the correct temperature for cooked pork (160 degrees).  After checking, it wasn't done.  Then I put it back in the oven.  When I got to the correct temperature, I cut into the roast and it was still red.  So back into the oven it went.  This put me over my time limit to serve dinner at 6.  I told everyone to sit down and work on the salad, muffins and dressing until the roast was done.  Here are my photos to share:

I was excited to have my Mom over and serve her some Mrs. Wilkes' cooking, but when the roast was finally done, it wasn't pretty or tasty.  Cooking a roast in the oven, I give myself a big fat D-.  Once it was done, I didn't like the texture or the fattiness of the meat.  Next roast would be cooked in the crock pot.
Mom, Tom and Jacob all had some of the meat and Tom was the only one that went for seconds.  I took like two bites of it and was no longer interested. 

Everyone liked the corn bread muffins.  The texture was good and smoothering them with real butter was better.  I wish that they would of been a little sweeter.  The corn bread dressing was also disappointing.  The texture was excellent.  It looked really good, but taste was just OK.  It needed additional seasoning to jazz it up.  Perhaps I am just too used to Stove Top Stuffing to appreciate a more bland version.  Again, everyone liked the stuffing but I wanted it to taste better. 

We enjoyed the dinner overall and my Mom realized how much work I was doing to pull off this meal.  Everyone helped clean up the kitchen and then we rewarded ourselves with a couple of games of Euchre and the evening ended well with Mom and I winning both rounds! 

Mrs Wilkes food is being sampled by folks from a far and is taken far to be sampled!

Here it is 6:46 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I only have two recipes to share since my last post.  The most exciting news to share is that my project is being sampled by some interesting folks and that is why I chose it to be the title of my post.  Lets get you caught up.....

Thursday was left over night.  I had little containers of almost an entire week of cooking and I heated everything up and Tom and I was able to finish off most of them.  I needed the left over containers out of the refrigerator to make space for upcoming cooking. 

Friday was a unique day as I had some Global Freeloaders spending the night.  Peter and Sally were from New Zealand and they are here in the states on a 4 month adventure and they are busy driving Route 30 (The Old Lincoln Highway).  We spoke early morning on Friday and I told them I would be cooking dinner for them and they were very appreciative of the gesture.  What I didn't share is that they would be subjected to my cooking project, smiling.

Once I was home from work, it was time to assemble my next recipe.  I had on my menu (meant for Tuesday, but that didn't happen) Spaghetti.  I decided to make this because it was a short time frame and I needed it ready by 6 p.m. dinner time.  Here's the photo taken after we had it for dinner, so this is left overs.

Once again this was a recipe with tomatoes, onions and peppers.  Tom is believing that I am really trying to poison him now.  But think about it.  There are a ton of recipes that include those ingredients.  There was another ingredient that was unique to this recipe.  Bacon.  Did you raise your eyebrows?  I did.  The first step in this recipe is to cook a couple strips of bacon crisp, then remove the bacon and then saute the onions and peppers in the bacon fat.  Then add your ground chuck, spices, then drain, then back on the stove and add tomatoes chopped and paste.  Cook on simmer on stove 30 minutes.  This was a piece of cake for me.

I served it with wheat rotini pasta, spinach salad and garlic bread.  My guests Peter and Sally enjoyed the pasta and I tried to get everyone to see if they could taste the bacon in the recipe.  They didn't taste the crumbled bacon, so I finally shared my secret ingredient with them.  One of the guesses was anchovies! LOL.  We had a nice evening enjoying the company of Peter and Sally and learning more about life in New Zealand.  I thought the dish was OK.  Not fantastic, just OK. 

The next morning I was up early to start preparing breakfast for Peter and Sally and I decided to make Fresh Strawberry Pie with No Roll Piecrust.  I was making the pie to take up to Pemberville to be dessert for dinner with friends Brenda and Larry.  Brenda and I go back to the days of Pampered Chef and she ordered goodies from my last show and I wanted to deliver them to her and spend some time visiting with her.  So I was excited for the day but was anxious about making the pie.

The reason I had such anxiety was that my past experience with pie crust is NOT GOOD.  I had a dear friend tried to show me how to make it and I wasn't successful at all.  This pie crust seem easy.  You make it all in the pie plate and then press it out with your fingers.  The catch however was in baking time.  It didn't give me a baking time in the recipe.  It said "bake until brown at 375."  So once again I googled how long to pre-bake a pie crust and found out it is about 11-14 minutes.  So I set my timer for 10 minutes, and cooked it 15 minutes before I decided it was brown enough.  Oh yes, and I remembered about pricking the pie crust too.  So I did that.  It came out looking pretty good for someone that doesn't have a pie crust clue.

Next was putting everything together for the pie.  By this time, I had already made my batter for my blueberry pancakes and had the kitchen prepped to start working on breakfast and Sally came down to see what I was up to.  I explained I was taking my first stab at a fresh Strawberry pie.  She looked amused as I was trying to cook the strawberries on the stove per the directions to "thicken them."  Another confession I have is that the recipe called for "crushed strawberries."  I had no clue how to crush them.  I had to google that too.  Oh my, it is just using a potoato masher to do the job, well I have one of those! 

I followed the directions on cooking until thickened, then cool.  Then you slice up remaining strawberries, stir into mixture, pour into piecrust and chill until  time to serve with whipped cream.  Here's my photo of the finished pie:

We had to drive two hours to Brenda and Larry's home and I worried about keeping the pie cold enough for the trip.  I was able to keep it iced down in the trunk.  We had a great visit with Brenda and Larry and Brenda who follows my blog here, did some of her own Mrs. Wilkes cooking with making a lasgana from scratch, fried zuccinni, and fresh green beans.  Dinner was great but after a couple of hours of visiting past dinner it was time to sample the pie.

Brenda asked me to cut it and serve and when I looked at it, I could tell that it didn't set up firm.  It was still on the runny side.  She smiled and took the plates and gave me bowls instead.  We both commented that while it may be "soupy" it will probably taste good.  I laughed and said I am used to eating some pie with my whipped cream and thought maybe I should serve more whipped cream than pie to cover up the runny issue.  Instead I decided if anyone asked that it was supposed to be more cobbler than pie!  NOT!

Once it was time to taste the pie, it was good for my first scratch attempt.  The piecrust was a little salty but I agreed with Brenda that the saltiness was good with the sweetness of the pie.  Larry and Tom enjoyed the pie.  Tom was happy that we got to take the pie back home with us.  While I was disappointed the pie didn't set up, I was happy that I pulled off piecrust and willing to make another.  Thankfully Brenda is going to forward to me another Strawberry Pie recipe to try. 

Today I have a full day with grocery shopping and cooking for dinner tonight and my Mom is the guest of honor.  Here's hoping that taste and texture is present and accounted for too!

Got some catching up to do....

I haven't cooked since Saturday and here it is Thursday and I am behind the eight ball.  I have two more meals planned that I haven't been able to do and need to catch up on.  Jacob is now working at Steak and Shake and on Sunday Tom and I went out there and had lunch so Jacob could wait on us.  We then spent the rest of Sunday evening again visiting with his family at his Mom's.

On Monday, I was to cook, but went out of town for work and didn't get home until after 6:30 p.m.. On my way back into town I was going to go by Steak and Shake and Jacob was working so I called Tom and told him to meet me out there for another dinner with Jacob waiting on us.  (I have a feeling that I may be at Steak and Shake at least once a week.)

On Tuesday, I prepared to get back into the kitchen and got home from work and Jacob wanted to talk about how well he did taking care of Tom and I the night before.  An hour and a half later, we are still talking about it and no dinner is working.  With cooking these meals, they are easy enough to understand, but many things require long cooking times, meaning that it is at least and hour or more for me to prepare dinner.  With an hour and half gone, we were all starving and went out for Mexican instead. 

So that brings me to Wednesday and now I have some catching up to do.  Before I go over that day and menu I wanted to share a photo of my Corn Pudding that I had made on Saturday, but wasn't able to get a photo myself.  Cheryl let me borrow her camera and sent it to me so I could share with you all.  Here it is:

OK, here's yesterday's menu and photos:

Pepper Steak with Rice
Sue's Potatoes Au Gratin
Chewy Brownies

First recipe to make was the Sue's Potatoes Au Gratin.  I used the recipe in the 2001 cookbook versus the version in the 2010 cookbook.  This recipe was created by a long time cook Susie Mae Kennell at the dining room.  I had to peel 6 cups of potatoes and dice them up to cook them to mash them. (I am getting so good at that, smiling.)  Then I added mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar, onion and top with cheddar cheese and bake it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. 

These potatoes tasted just like potato salad warmed up.  Tom really enjoyed the flavor but could taste the onion in them and I said not to worry that they were cooked.  But again he went easy on the food as he is allergic to tomatoes, onions and peppers.  I thought they tasted good, but I am not much of a fan of potato salad, but it being creamy like mashed potatoes and the cheese on top made it good for me.

While my potatoes were cooking, I assembled the Pepper Steak.  This was an easy recipe to assemble and cook.  The downside is that it needs 45 minutes to simmer on the stove.  I cut up the steak into bite size pieces, sprinkled them in salt and pepper, dredged them in flour and then fried them in oil until they were brown.  Then I added the onion soup, catsup, chopped onion, water and cooked for 45 minutes.  In the last 15 minutes you add the chopped green pepper.  The recipe called that you served it in a bowl over rice.  So I made rice as well.  Minute Rice that is.

The Pepper Steak and Rice was really good!  The consistency was more like a soup than a gravy though.  Tom said they make Pepper Steak soup and this dish reminded him of that but this was way better because it was homemade.  The steak was tender and the flavor was really yummy.  We both thought eating this homemade was better than buying it in a can and heating it up.  This was not full of preservatives and additives. 

The last dish I made was the Chewy Brownies.  I have made Brownies plenty of times from a box mix, but I believe this is my first time making them from scratch.  This was the recipe that I think was incorrect in ingredient amounts and cooking time.  They turned out runny, raw brownies instead of chewy.

This recipe had me melt 1 cup of butter and 4 squares of chocolate on the stove on low heat first.  Then stir in 4 beaten eggs, 1 tsp of baking powder, 2 cups of sugar, 2 tsp of vanilla, 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of pecans.  Then it said to bake 20 minutes in 350 oven in a 9X13 pan.  After 20 minutes, they were still raw and I increased the time another 10 minutes.  When we cut them, they were still raw, so I put them back in the oven for another 15. 

After that, I took them out and noticed that they are still raw.  Total cook time was 50 minutes and still not right texture.  So I got online and googled other brownie recipes and found similar recipes with high sugar amounts but also the flour was more than a cup.  Most folks modified the recipe and used less sugar and more flour.  Also bake times were around 30 minutes versus the 20 in my cookbook.

The consolation was that they tasted really good, but you had to eat them with a spoon.  The only part that cooked to chewy was the edges of the pan.  I also forgot to take a photo of the brownies until this morning.  So if you look closely, you may notice the middle is still not cooked through.

I should have taken a photo of the kitchen when I was done with all this food on the table.  I had dirty dishes everywhere!  Southern cooking leaves a girl with a dirty kitchen with all the prep bowls and pots and pans used to cook everything!  Thankfully, Tom helped me clean it up.

As for the leftovers, Tom ran out and bought some Gladware and we put together some leftovers and went over to my Aunt Doris's for a visit.  She is enjoying my cooking adventure and very appreciative that I would take her food and visit with her.  She loved the Peanut Butter Pie and was excited about the Brownies even though she was warned that they were still raw in the middle.

Today is going to be a busy day with work and then at the end, back to the kitchen I go to try to catch up on my cooking project!  Ya' All come back now!

My first attempt (but not the last) at making Barbecue Sauce from scratch...

With my Mrs. Wilkes fascination and decision to cook my way thru her cookbook, I did a search for her on Amazon and found that there are quite a few cookbooks that have been published prior to the one that I am working out of.  Her original cookbook dates back to 1976.  I found one for sale on eBay and was the happy winner with a $35.00 bid.  Here's a photo of my prize and it is not the first edition (I shutter at what that would have cost) but the second edition.

I also ordered on Amazon the last cookbook that Mrs Wilkes was involved in prior to her death in 2002.  This cookbook was published in 2001 and includes an entire history of her boardinghouse and dining room days.  I spent $19.79 (discounted from $30.00) on this edition.  Here's a photo of that hard back book:

Isn't she a cute little old lady?  Finally, I wanted to share the cookbook that I purchased while I dined in her dining room.  This was published this year and Tom paid $15.95 for it and it resembles her original cookbook of the same recipes but the articles about the dining room have been updated so the story continues after Mrs. Wilkes passing.  Actually this year was huge for the Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room as the President of the United States Barack Obama dined at her place on a visit to Savannah.  That says a lot that the President would select her place over Paula Deen's.  Many folks give credit to Paula Deen for giving so much attention to Savannah and the tourists (including myself) show up to dine at her restaurant.  But I agreed with many others who had given a review of The Lady and Sons.  It was not worth the price or the hype.  Mrs Wilkes Dining Room food, experience and price blew Paula Deen away.  Here's a photo of the cookbook that I am working thru:

I posted yesterday an email to the great-grandson of Mrs. Willkes, Ryon to ask for help on the recipes as there seems to be typos and missing directions in the cookbook I am working through.  Well when I sat down yesterday and compared the cookbooks and the recipes in each of them my thoughts were validated.  The cookbook dated 2001 had different instructions and modified ingredients than the first and last book.  So I decided yesterday that I am going to use the recipe out of the 2001 book if it I have it there versus the 2010 version.  I think this book was proofed and edited and therefore there's more instruction and back story to the recipes itself.  So before this entry gets completely out of control.....Lets talk about what went down in my kitchen yesterday.

I decided to work on three recipes yesterday and they are:  Please note, that I forgot to take a photo of the corn pudding myself but Cheryl got a photo of it and is sending me later and I'll post when she does....

Brunswick Stew
Barbecue Sauce
Corn Pudding



Have you ever made Barbecue Sauce from scratch before?  Well I had my first (and not the last) experience making it yesterday.  It is really easy to make and you couple that with the taste and I sit and wonder why folks would go and buy it in a bottle?  It takes only 15 minutes to make from start to finish and the recipe makes 6 cups of sauce which of course will be used in other recipes in the book.  If you don't know how to make barbecue sauce, you cook it on the stove and this version is vinegar based.  I just had to pull out the ingredients and the only work was juicing my three lemons.  Really easy with the Pampered Chef juicer!

I had to make the barbecue sauce first because it is an ingredient in my next recipe, Brunswick Stew.  This stew is pretty famous in Georgia.  It is like barbecue vegetable soup with pork or chicken as the meat, and potatoes and corn as the veggies.  This is also an easy recipe to put together.  It called for the pork to be cooked and chopped and also the potatoes to be cooked and then everything assembled and cooked at low temperature.  That is what I did and I put it all in a crock pot and turned it on low to heat up.

Finally, I had to make Corn Pudding to complete my recipes for the day.  This recipe was the most modified from the 2010 cookbook.  Again, I used the recipe from the 2001 cookbook and it turned out great!  This is also really easy to make and it is a different spin on just opening a can of corn and serving it as a side.  I mixed the dry ingredients into the corn and then added beaten eggs and milk, pour into a butter greased pan and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now for the taste testing and I had an entire group of folks able to sample the days work.  We had plans to have a Swiss Steak dinner at Tom's Mom's home because Greg and Cheryl were in town for the weekend.  Diane (Tom's Mom) asked me to make a Taffy Apple Pizza for dessert and bring.  I did that and I also took over the Corn Pudding and Brunswick Stew to share and get an opinon.

Once I set out the corn pudding and a serving was taken out, that is when I realized that I didn't have a photo of it.  So I went to get my phone and realized I left it at my house.  Cherly let me use her camera to capture the corn, but it will be a couple of days before I can post the photo.  The corn casserole was completely gobbled up.  It was delicious.  Not too sweet and the texture was nice.  It passed the Olivia test.  She's two years old and typical two year old picky.  She ate all her corn!  Proof positive in southern cooking with her approval!

The Brunswick Stew was loved by all who enjoy barbecue.  This stew wasn't for everyone.  I think a couple of the family members were surprised it had a barbecue flavor versus tomato based.  Tom loved it and said the only better version was the version he had at The Pink Pig on our trip.  He didn't want me to take it over to the family as he wanted to keep it all to himself.  Fortunately, there was leftovers for him to eat later.

Trying to get in touch with Mrs. Wilkes Family

Yesterday I didn't prepare any recipes but got to enjoy an evening with Tom's family as his brother Greg and wife Cheryl were visiting from NY.  I was able to take over the left overs of the Chocolate Pecan Pie and it was sampled by the family and thought it was good but really rich.  I did warn them of that fact....

I also decided this morning to send an email out to the Wilke's family to see if they would be willing to help me out with the recipes and instructions.  I went to the website http://www.mrswilkes.com/visit.html and just
assumed there was a way to email them.  There was not.  So I spent about 20 minutes searching for an email address to the great-grandson Ryon to email him.  I tried to send him an email and below is what was sent.  I am not sure he got it as I may of had to pay a membership fee (which I didn't) to get this delivered to him.  I also called the restaurant and got the memory full message.  So we'll see if I get a reply and I'll try calling them during the week when they are open.  I'll let you all know how it goes.  Now back to the kitchen I go to work on my three recipes for today!

Ryon:
My name is Marlene Speelman and I am trying to contact you regarding the lastest cookbook that I purchased while visiting the dining room this month. 

From my dining experience and looking through the cookbook, I decided to cook through the entire book (326 recipes) and blog about my adventure on Blogspot.com.  http://mrswilkesandme.blogspot.com/.
In the process I am discovering errors and have questions regarding the recipes.  I wanted to ask if the recipes were proof-read or tested prior to the cookbook release?  So far I have made nine recipes and have had issues with ingredients and assembly on almost all of them.

I hope that you will consider helping me in my project and advising me of any potential errors or provide guidance to recreate your Great Grandma's wonderful food and let me share her wonderful food up here in Ohio.
You can contact me directly at XXXXXXX@XXX.com or call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX.  I thank you in advance for your help!
Sincerely,
Marlene Speelman

It all looks good, but it didn't taste as good as it looked....

Yesterdays cooking marathon produced some really good looking food.  So good that my expectation on the taste level, should be off the charts.  Well, I think I set my taste bud expectations too high.  As I tasted the dishes, I was disappointed in them.  They were good to just OK.  Here's the menu for yesterday:

Bacon Casserole
Fried Potatoes
Chocolate Pecan Pie

My first recipe was the Chocolate Pecan Pie.  I have made many pecan pies (very easy) and even a Kentucky Derby Pie (pecan pie with chocolate chips and bourbon) and thought this recipe from looking at it would be like the Kentucky Derby Pie.  Well the difference with this recipe is that you melt the chocolate chips, butter and evaporated milk and then stir it into the corn syrup and eggs adding last pecans and the vanilla.  Also this recipe called for flour.  Only 2 tbsp but I wondered why? 

When I poured it into the pie shell, I was worried it would overflow but it went to the top and when it baked it didn't spill over.  I took it  out of the oven it smelled really good and looked like a brownie in a pie shell.  In tasting it, that is exactly what it tasted like.  Super super rich brownie in a pie shell with some pecans.  Tom loved it saying that it was best chocolate pie he has had.  It was so rich though, too rich for me.  I couldn't finish my piece it was so rich so Tom finished it.  If you are a chocolateholic, then you might think this pie would be for you.  When Jake got home, we told him to try it and he too cut a small piece and stated it was like a gooey brownie but good.  Me personally, I would of just like a pecan pie.

On to the Bacon Casserole.  Doesn't this sound yummy?  Doesn't it look yummy?  It has been well over a year since I have had real bacon.  We have switched over to Turkey bacon and if you had both, well you know hands down the taste winner of the two is.  This recipe called for 1/2 lb (1/2 package) of bacon, but I cooked an entire package and used it instead.  Couldn't understand how I could have pulled this off with just 8 pieces of bacon. 

This is another recipe where I am pretty sure it was typed incorrectly.  It called for shredded Swiss Cheese and the directions said top with grated cheese.  It also said to use half the bacon and never said what to do with the rest.  So when I got to this line of directions:  "Place remaining slices of cheese on top"  I said "huh? they must mean rest of bacon slices not cheese, so that is what I did."  Put rest of bacon slices on top. 

It also called for two cups of toasted bread crumbs.  I am going to confess, I had to google how to toast bread crumbs.  I was clueless.  For those that would never admit to that fact, you put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes until browned.  You mix bacon drippings and 1/2 of the bacon crumbled and then place in the bottom of pan.  Then top with tomatoes, seasoning, egg and milk,  cheese and finally more bacon. 

I couldn't wait to try this and it smelled good in the oven.  Once we sat down to eat it, it was just OK.  There was too much bread crumbs or needed more eggs to make it set up like a casserole more.  Tom ate a couple of tomato slices and they got the better of him.  He didn't feel well.  He thinks I am trying to poison him with tomatoes, peppers and onions as he is allergic to them.  He can usually handle them cooked.  But he didn't feel well after eating the two tomato slices. 

Lets talk about the Fried Potatoes. Another confession here.  (I think by the time I'm done with this project blog, you all will be shocked at how little I have done basic cooking.)  I have never made them before.  This recipe also had me going to Google to look up what pared potatoes meant?  Do you know what pared means?  Pared is another word for peeled.  Whew, I knew what peeled meant!  Recipe called for 4 cups of sliced pared potatoes, 1 cup of sliced onions.  You cook them covered for 15 minutes and the last 10 minutes with no lid and in the end you don't stir or turn them, but when cooked flip and serve like an omelet. 

That didn't work! The time didn't work or I didn't have my grease hot enough but bottom line my potatoes weren't done in 25 minutes.  I had to call Tom in to ask him what I did wrong.  He said I had too many potatoes layers to cook.  He also thinks that sliced in the directions really meant to shred since he read that I was supposed to be able to end up with a huge omelet looking potato.  So we had to flip the potatoes and it took way longer to cook them through.  Once cooked, I sprinkled chopped parsley on top. 

In tasting these, they were too greasy for my taste.  Tom liked them but at this point the tomatoes from the casserole where working on him and he picked out the onions afraid to eat them for fear he would feel worse.  If anyone has any other suggestions for cooking fried potatoes, please share.  I am giving myself an "F" on cooking these.

Finally, While I was working on the casserole, Tom came in and helped me with the bacon and also peeled the potatoes and I sliced them with my Pampered Chef mandolin.  That thing rocked, once I figured out how it worked!  Again, Tom came to my rescue and showed me that you have to have the food holder attached to the slicer to release lever to engage the blade.  Very cool safety feature to keep your fingers from getting cut.  A shout out to my man for helping me once again with dinner and also helping me decipher instructions.

Still full from last nights dinner....

When I reflect this morning while working on my blog, I am thinking about how I decided to blog about southern cooking and when I think about the calories involved, it isn't pretty. Perhaps, I should have used a healthy cookbook instead? I don't think my taste testers would have as much fun as they are having now. (Tom and Jacob)

Here's my menu from yesterday:

Chicken Cacciatore
Mashed Potatoes
Peanut Butter Pie

I made the Peanut Butter Pie first. Peanut Butter Pie is Tom's favorite and I have used a recipe from his Mom that is super easy to make. This one is different and in the directions I think there is a mistake in the ingredients and some additional directions for the whipped cream. It called for 3 oz of cream cheese which is an unusual amount. Was the 3 a typo and supposed to be 8? That is what Tom's Mom recipe called for. I followed the directions and used 3 but the pie wasn't as full. It also called for whipped topping but nowhere in the directions does it say what to do with the 1 1/2 cups. Fold it in the pie filling?  Put it on the top after the pie is chilled?  Serve it on the side? I ended up chilling the pie and then putting it on the top. The other unique option to this pie was that after you pour it into the shell you sprinkle chopped nuts on top of it. That extra peanut love put this pie ranking into the 2nd best Peanut Butter Pie Tom has had. (He said first place is reserved to a pie he had made by the Amish)

Both Jacob and Tom had two pieces of the pie and there was some serious trash talking between the two of them over that pie. There was less than half the pie left and Tom agreed to let me cut two more pieces out to take back over my Aunt Doris's house, leaving one large piece left. He threatened Jacob's life if that pie came up missing. The pie was the most coveted dish in the house yesterday, hands down!

Next I assembled Chicken Cacciatore.  Here's another recipe where a frying pan was involved....Instructions again left me wondering what to do with some ingredients.  At the beginning of the cook book it is dedicated to Mrs. Wilkes daughter Margie who tirelessly typed out all of the recipes on her Smith-Corona typewriter more than three decades ago.  As I work through these, I wondered if the recipes were ever proofed for errors or tested out prior to being published?   I am going to say....hmmmm No.  Next on my agenda is to send a love note to the owners of the dining room asking if they would be willing to answer my questions of what to do as I cook through this book?  There are many positive reviews for the book, but none of them mention making any recipes.  Ok, back to the recipe....

Here's what the directions said that confused me:  Dip chicken in flour, brown in oil. Remove from bone.  Place in casserole with saute onions, and peppers.  Pour over chicken and add mushrooms.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.  Sprinkle cheese over casserole about 15 minutes before removing from oven.  

These ingredients where not mentioned in directions: garlic powder, tomato sauce, bay leaves, celery seed.  What I did was mix it all together and then poured it over the chicken, peppers and onions.  Then placed mushrooms on top of sauce.  What do you all think?  Is it obvious that I am used to step by step cooking?  Perhaps I can get a side job of testing recipes and proofing recipes for errors?

While I was working on the chicken in the skillet, Tom came into the kitchen and asked if he could help with anything.  OMG, I said YES!  So he peeled the potatoes and cubed them for the mashed pototes.  When it was time to cook the potatoes, the directions gave me no indication of how long to cook the potatoes.  Tom said that you only need to cook potatoes for 15 minutes once they reach boiling.  So that is what I did.  They turned out fine.  What do you all do out there?  He put them in a pan and put in enough water to just cover the tops of the potatoes and then told me once they start full boil, set timer for 15 minutes.  Another question is that in the directions it has me melting butter and heating it up with the milk and then pouring it in while I am beating the potatoes.  What do you all do?  Heat milk and butter, use another ingredient?  I didn't use all the liquid in the recipe as it would have made the potatoes too runny.  I like my mashed potatoes more stiff, but these were more medium consistency than stiff or runny. 

My last note on the mashed potatoes is that this is only my second successful attempt at doing them.  Previously, I made terrible mashed potatoes, they always had lumps.  Tom explained it is because I didn't cook the potatoes long enough.  So with his time instructions, my days of cooking lumpy mashed potatoes are behind me.  Whew.....

Now it is time for the taste testing.  Here's a photo of the table before diggin in:

Both Tom and Jake liked the Chicken Cacciatore.  This is huge as Tom is not a fan of chicken, onions or peppers but he ate two pieces of chicken.  Both had two helpings of the potatoes.  Again I ate only small portions and included another spinach salad.  After dinner we had to run back over to Aunt Doris's to fix her door, and Tom suggested taking the left overs to her and Aunt Oatlee.  Aunt Doris was delighted when I showed up with all the food from the last two days in tupperware for her and included two pieces of Peanut Butter Pie.

When I said left overs anyone, I wasn't kidding.  If anyone in town is looking for southern cooking at 6 p.m. dinner time, give me a call.  I'll set an extra plate and suggest you wear some comfortable pants.

Three down and 323 to go!

Already on my first day of my year long project, I needed the pressure of having to document my time to get me to plan my menu, grocery shop and work on my first three recipes. But it worked and here's the not so skinny low-down on the day:

First, I struggled with trying to plan a meal by using the cookbook only. What was tricky was matching main dishes to side dishes and work within certain time frames and also have the food go well together. My taste panel (family) told me it all worked well what I planned yesterday, but it is not easy for me to do.

Second, this is the first time I have really tried to cook a so called simple recipe versus my usual Pampered Chef step by step recipe books. The instructions leave me sometimes wondering if I am doing it correctly. Like a read between the lines, but I am not sure what I am supposed to read in between.

So there's my disclaimers on Tuesday menu. Here's what I had decide to make:

Skillet Meat Balls Stroganoff
Green Bean Casserole
Quick Cheesecake Pie

The first recipe was the Quick Cheescake Pie. I have made plenty of Philly Cheesecakes but this is the first recipe that called for sour cream and an entire 8 oz container of whipped topping too. It ended up being really light and fluffy, yet firmed up nicely. Once assembled, the pie was so full that I could not put the lid on the pie. I just laid it on top.

Next was Green Bean Casserole. Again, this is another recipe that I have made where you put the fried onions on top. But this recipe has the secret stuff ingredient of dry onion soup mix and you top if off with bread crumbs or crushed potato chips. I went with original option of using bread crumbs.

Finally I assembled Skillet Meat Balls Stroganoff. Not my first rodeo with meat balls, but it is the first time I fried them versus baking them. Another ingredient that was unusal was mixing chopped green olives into the meat balls. I also wondered if there was an easy way to turn the meat balls so that all sides would brown while cooking in the skillet. (I just ended up using tongs, and kept rotating them until browned, then I covered them and simmered them in sauce for 20 minutes.)

My timing on the recipes were only off by two minutes but that gave me time to prepare the buttered egg noodles and have them ready to toss with the meat balls and sauce.

Once I had everything on the table, I called Tom and Jacob and then before I let them sit down I took photos of the food. I warned them that there would be no digging in until the photos were taken. Once we started the meal and the plates were getting full, the first comment from my son Jacob was "Wow!". He tried a meat ball and said it was the best ever meat ball. Tom was next and he said the dish was better than any other meat balls I prepared in the past. Each of them had two helpings of the dish. Me personally, I think how can it taste bad when there's butter, sour cream involved? But the meat ball texture was better than my usual cooking method of baking.

The green bean casserole was also well liked. We all agreed that while the bread crumbs were good, we all may of liked better crushed potato chips instead. Both thought the bread crumbs were better than using the fried onion topping.

I also served a spinach salad and once we were done eating, it felt like the kind of meal (carb coma) where you need to take a nap when you are done. I didn't eat that much. Knowing what was in the food, made me keep my portion small but it was tasty.




We took the pie to my Aunt Doris's home to visit with her and my Aunt Oatlee who was visiting from Florida. My Aunt Doris delighted in the fact that she got to keep the leftovers of the pie. Everyone enjoyed the pie and it was a light version of cheese cake. Not heavy. Tom thought it could taste more like cream cheese and I was happy with the more lighter version.

In the end, there were plenty of left overs which means if I am going to do this, I may want to have additional folks for dinner to keep the left overs from piling up. Any takers out there in Mansfield want to come to dinner?

An experience turns into inspiration then into action...

After dining in Mrs Wilke's Dining Room in Savannah, GA, I had experienced a meal that was so much like what my Grandma Dilger had cooked at every birthday and holiday for my family. A huge sit down dinner complete with many dishes of southern comfort food. As we got in the car and left, I had tears coming down my cheeks thinking about my Grandma and how much I missed her and her cooking.

The experience was so memorable that Tom purchased the cookbook for me "Mrs. Wilkes' Famous Recipes Celebrating a Lifetime of Good Food." His hope was that I would prepare more of that kind of food versus my usual genre of Pampered Chef. Well it also sealed the deal when I opened the book and the first one I found was the Peanut Butter Pie. (His favorite)

Since that day, I have been looking at the cookbook and thought it would be an interesting project to cook my way through the book and blog about it. This is not the first time someone has cooked and wrote about it. Of course there was inspiration from the Julie/Julia Project. But like all things in life, if you don't set goals or make a plan, it will likely not get done.

So lets go over the goal and the timelines. My goal is simple. To cook my way through the book (326 recipes total) in a timeline of 1 year. That equals to about a recipe a day. But my plan is to create meals from the cookbook or cook sides or desserts from the cookbook with other meals. After I cook and serve my food, I'll blog about the experience and also the reviews from Tom, Jacob and any other guests who may of sampled the food.

I am excited to see if I can pull off this project and by blogging keep the motivation and dedication to see it through.