Cooking for Mom

Just wanted to keep a list of all the major comfort/never foods (read that as Beef)that Mom had me make while I was here:

Beef stroganoff - froze three large containers. Just add sour cream.
Chicken soup base - three or four large containers of Chicken soup starter. Just add noodles, pearl onions, and peas for Ann Tabor stew, or make dumplings, or just eat.
Meat loaf - made three small loaves (or is that meats-loaf)
Beef brisket a la Rhoda Staub - Heinz Chili Sauce and onion. - 2 containers
Beef soup - three LARGE containers - just add potatoes
Ground beef with onion- browned and ready for spagetti or what have you - 5 one-plus pound bags.
Lemon and Garlic chicken - two containers with three thighs and one with six.
Twice baked potatos - a dozen; the triple by-pass special with butter, sour cream & cheddar cheese.

Still to mix up: Eleanor Klein's Bran muffins (that live in the fridge until you are ready to bake them) and molten chocolate cakes that do the same (wait for you).

It's good that Mom's issues are pulmonary and not cardiac!

The Easter food fest

We had the big Easter Egg hunt and Ham Feed on Easter. Shopping at the Marketplace was wild - with the convergence of Greek Orthodox and Western Easters, I had to elbow all the little Korean ladies at the produce aisle. The ham that I got was delicious and is now in the freezer awaiting a big pot of bean soup.

Small crowd this year. Liz made deviled eggs (better than mine from Seder) and we had ham, baked potatoes, beans - delish - but the potatoes took forever!!!! to bake. What was the deal with that?

Julie and Emma came over to fill out the ranks of the egg hunters and I (thank the good G-d) had chicken pot stickers (not pork - they don't do pork) and matzoh to eat with the SDSU cheddar that was fabulous!

Excellent Bloody Marys. Just enough horseradish (our Pesach nod) to make them irresistible.

I made a bunch of teeny crispy meringues (see previous post) with no chocolate chips. Ellen made fabulous macaroons that I must get the recipe for you.

The other desert option (besides the chocolate eggs) was Ella's famous lemon meringue pie. I'll post the recipe when I'm home and I have it in my hand. - and here it is:

Lemon Pie
1 C Sugar
2 TBS Cornstarch
2 TBS Flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 C boiling water

2 egg yolks
juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
1 TBS butter

Place dry ingredients in the top of a double boiler and add boiling water slowly, stirring. Cook until mixture begins to thicken. Add lightly beateb egg yolks, lemon juice, and rind. Cook 1 min [this has to be a mis-print unless you like lemon soup - it often takes 10 minutes until the mixture coats the back of a spoon nicely- keep stirring]. Add butter and remove from heat.

Pour hot filling into a prebaked 9 inch pie crust. Top with merengue made with the reserves egg whites [I often add a third], sugar, and cream of tartar [if you must]. Spread merengue all the way to the crust. This makes it less weepy somehow. Put in a moderate to high oven until the merengue browns (not too long - really).

From Hypothetical to Theoretical to Real

First it was just hypothetical. So if we get married and we have children, how would we raise them? Jewish? Catholic? What do you think?

Well, we thought that we would just do both. Yeah. Great idea. Let's do both.

Then it was theoretical. The first child is here. A daughter. That's good, no urgent bris or not to bris questions. But now what? Well, she can't talk, so there's still time...

Not any more. Three girls and many Hanukah candles later we are in the thick of it. But what to do? So I'm starting this blog to keep a record of what we do, but mostly - WHAT WE EAT! Because, as far as I can tell, when push comes to shove, it all comes down to the food.

So, it's a start. Let's see where this takes us.