It seems like every Sunday here comes the Kids, all grown and Grandkids, for Sunday Dinner, Its hot, and Grandma is out of Ideas what to fix. They all work, and I quess there tired and just need a rest. and the farm is fun for everyone, We got hay all piled up for the little ones to swing into and slide down off the barn from the loft. We can"t BBq right now as mosquitos are really bad, so it"s inside eating, Just for fun I would love to know whats cooking at your house. Love Irene

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Answers

Hi Irene! Good old White Trash Feed at my house today! Chicken fried steak (round steak pounded thin, floured, salted, peppered and fried in lard), biscuts and cream gravy, green and wax beans from the garden cooked slow with new potatoes, onions and bacon, sweet corn on the cob and if there's room for dessert, I've got some fresh nectarines to slice over a left over biscut with some sweet cream!

My husband calls it "Heart Attack on a Plate"! I tell him the old folks could eat like that because they worked it off - and not in any old gym, either!!

I remember many Sunday dinners at Granny Leone's. Granny could fry up chicken like no one else! Always had the mashed potatoes and cream gravy; and both light rolls and corn bread. Everybody would haul in the side dishes - I remember hauling up gunny sacks full of roasting ears from this farm. In good weather, we kids sat out on the porch or in the yard to eat; in cold weather we sat on the living room floor with newspapers for placemats. The men always ate first, then retired to the living room or porch with their pie - that way the women could eat at their leisure (and gossip about the men!). Granny had 10 children; Uncle Harry died in combat in WWII, Aunt Lorene in a car accident a few years later. Most Sundays found all the rest of us up at Granny's - 3 and 4 generations of us. You are a wonderful lady, Irene - trust me when I say that you are giving your family a gift they will never forget.

PS - Now, if it's real hot, I'd just go for a cold ham and some salads - don't forget finger jello for the little ones!!

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Ooh, Irene, I'm sure this thread is going to make us all hungry! My fiance and I both work and have a lot of activities in the evenings, so I don't have a lot of time to cook. I usually do what's called 'once a month' cooking where I'll cook up a bunch of stuff and freeze it for later. I'm restocking this week, in fact. We didn't have any special plans for the 4th of July, so I spent the morning cooking up a giant batch of spaghetti sauce, which I then used to make 4 pans of lasagne, 4 pans of baked ziti, and 4 quarts of sauce. I also made up 5 meatloaves. This weekend I'll cook up a bunch of chicken and use the meat to make up several batches of chicken rice casserole, chicken pot pies, and chicken and noodles. It's so nice to come home from work and know that dinner is almost ready. I have a master list of all the ingredients I need and I watch the sales and stock up on things when I can get a good price. I haven't kept any precise figures, but I'd guesstimate that I've cut our grocery bill at least in half by cooking this way.

I have a really yummy recipe for roasted chicken that tastes even better than those pre-roasted ones you can get at the grocery store. It does take about 5 hours to roast at 250 degrees, but once you get it in the oven the only work is to remember to baste it every hour or so. I can post the recipe when I get home tonight if you'd like it.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Sherri.......please do post your recipe!!! Irene, can I come to dinner???? I remember dinners at my granny's and they were special no matter what she fixed. Do you crock pot? On those hot days that I don't like the oven going (believe me it is NOT hot in Michigan right now, we got down into the high thirties last night) I like to put a couple of chuck roasts in the crock pots when I first get up, with some onions, salt and pepper. The kids and grandkids all love it and call it "stringy beef". Salads and veggies for side dishes. I also have a curried chicken dish that I can cook in the crock pot. Put your chicken in and pour a sauce of 1 part honey to 1 part butter with 2 heaping tbsp of curry to every 2 cups of sauce. You have to baste it every now and then to make sure the flavor goes through. It can be fixed in the oven also. We like rice with veggies in it with it. take care and God bless

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Lots of vegetables, cornbread or corn on the cob, country cured ham washed down with sweet tea or buttermilk. Banana pudding or banananut bread for dessert.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Here's the roast chicken recipe I promised. Orange Sticky Chicken

Spice Mix for 1 Chicken 1 teaspoon each of Black Pepper, garlic powder, thyme, onion powder, and salt, plus 2 teaspoons Paprika.

Place rinsed chicken in a zip-lock bag and sprinkle spice mix over chicken. Rub bag to make it even. Put chicken in fridge overnight. Next day (12-24 hours later), remove chicken from bag and fill cavity with an orange cut into chunks. Put in a large roaster with deep sides and roast 5 hours at 250 degrees F. After juices have formed (approx. 1.5 hours) begin basting every 30 min or so.

This recipe freezes really well, so to justify the time and energy spent I usually make 3 or 4 chickens at once. We eat one for dinner that night, and the rest are cut into quarters and frozen. It reheats in the microwave really well.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Here's another favorite. I don't have my HTML-formatting cheat sheet with me, so I hope this comes out readable.

Country Chicken Pot Pies

Makes four 6-inch pies, one serving each.

1 C chopped onion

1 C chopped celery

1 C chopped carrot

1/3 C butter or margarine

1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 C chicken broth

1 C half-and-half

4 C chopped cooked chicken

1 C frozen peas, thawed

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Basic Pastry Crust

4 C all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 C plus 1 Tblsp. shortening

1/3 to 1/2 C cold water

Saute first 3 ingredients in butter in a skillet over medium heat until tender. Add flour, stir until smooth. Cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Add chicken broth and half-and-half; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, peas, salt, and pepper.

To prepare pastry: mix flour and salt. Cut shortening into flour til the size of peas. Add water 1 T at a time and mix gently.

Divide pastry into 8 equal portions. Roll 4 portions of pastry to 10 inch circles on a floured surface. Place in four 6-inch disposable pie pans. Divide chicken mixture into pans. Roll remaining 4 portions of pastry and place over filling, crimp edges. Cut slits in top for steam to escape. Cover tightly and freeze. To serve, bake uncovered at 400 degrees F for 1 hour or until crust is brown.

Note: This filling is really rich, I can't even eat an entire pie if I follow the recipe exactly. Instead, I usually saute the veggies in olive oil instead of butter, and only use 1/2 cup half-and-half plus 2 1/2 cups chicken broth.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

Cherrie, I've heard of that "once a month" cooking you refered to. Do you have any addresses with decent recipes, and better yet,thawing and re-heating times? I'm a decent enough cook, but I'm single and live alone most of the time (when the son is on tour with his band). So, I really don't feel like cooking a big meal every night for only one person. This sounds like it wold work good for me. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. John

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2001

John, almost anything you cook can be used for freezing and rethawing, except of course the most obvious stuff that we like best on the grill fresh. If you like and make goulosh.......double your recipe and divide it up into the size portion you would want to eat and freeze. In the stores now they have all different sizes of freezer to microwave dishes. If you don't like to microwave you can spray paam or something similar into a glass cassrole dish and freeze in it. After frozen dump it out into a freezer bag and reuse. Then the individual portions can be placed back in the dish for reheating at a later date. Everything that I cook I make at least double the amount and freeze the extra for those busy days when I don't feel like taking the time to fix a big meal. Fresh salads from the garden, veggies and warmed up meal.......instant supper.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Neither Steve or I can stinkin' cook to save our lives!

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Polly I am going to make that dinner just like you said, right down to the desert, It sounds really wonderfull, something a grandma would do, I haven"t done chicken fried steak in years, and I love the part about heart attack on the plate.My gosh when I was a kid before margerine, we used nothing but lard. And as I remember no one was dieing from hear attacks. they all died from Pnemonia,Man We would set down to a table loaded with fatty foods, whole milk, butter, biscuits, pies all made with lard.And we were a healthy bunch of kids. And the rest of the foods all sounded so good, we need to come on the forum once a month , and give out ideas what to cook. also the one who said to freeze in the bowl, and then take out and put in bag, why didn"t I think of that, cool idea. I will do the chicken pot pie, The grandkids and my grown children will love you , I set a table of 11 and card tables for kids, when the kids are not there, my husband says I still cook for a army. so I do put in freezer, and I was buying those freezer boxes, get costly. thanks again every one Love Irene

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Sherri, I meant to asked if you ever tried cornish game hens with your recipe. I can get them real cheap at sams and use them alot.there is four in a bag, for three dollars and sixty cents. I plan to try anyway. sounds great. Love Irene

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Heck, I remember those days at Grandma's and Pa's , those were the days! Irene, I hope that when I am a grandma that it will be the same way at my house. I know you probably get tired sometimes, but my wouldn't it be different if they didn't want to come, or if everyone had moved to the far corners of the U.S. and couldn't come! You don't allways have to work so hard , nothing wrong with just cutting open a watermelon,putting on a few cans of baked beans, opening a bag of chips, setting out the sliced ham and cheese and buns. A jar of homemade pickles or relish. Don't forget Irene, everything and anything tastes good at Grandma's house. Tren

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2001

Irene, I sure hope the kids enjoy the dinner (and if they don't, I'll be right over to help you clean up the leftovers!!) I use only butter on the table and for cookies and etc... and only lard in my pie crusts. Hubby still shudders when he sees me plop butter in my oatmeal or apply it liberally to a waffle, but I've finally broke him of throwing out my bucket of lard when he cleans the fridge. He doesn't have to eat what I cook, but I'm not lowering my standards for good tasting grub, either! He can go nuke him some Lean Cuisine if it comes to that!

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2001