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!