Tormented Kitchen

Hello dear readers.  It's officially Fall!  It's casserole and soup season!  You have no idea how happy I am for the cooler weather. Being pregnant during the summer was not so fun. I had no appetite and I was not interested in cooking anything in the oven that would make the house hotter than it already was.  I think we'll get the AC serviced in the springtime because it's just not cooling anymore. Anyhow, FOOD! I've been hungry for something different than our standard, go-to meals.  I had to think back to the old days growing up and what kinds of interesting things we found at church pot-lucks. That brings me to home-cooked Basque food. I perused my old community cookbooks and got some ideas. I perused the Internet for more ideas.  Food started flying into the pot on the stove. And then bingo! Basque chicken and rice was served. Basically it all started because we took a short road trip back the old hometown to visit Grandma Rose so she could m...

I'm going to share one of the easiest recipes I have. It's not even really hard enough to be called a recipe by my standards. Don't be fooled though. Simple food can still taste amazing. Check out this "recipe" for egg drop soup. I usually use whatever frozen, cut-up vegetables I have in the freezer. I particularly like peas and diced carrots, but the combination of corn, beans, peas, and carrots is good too. Some restaurants around here might use diced fresh zucchini and canned water chestnuts, too. (Smiley Jenny) There are even a few places that add chopped evil mushrooms...so no soup for me at those places. (Frowny Jenny). Darn food allergies! As for the cornstarch, you can add more if you want it thicker, or leave it out completely.  The soup is great either way. Cornstarch is gluten-free if that is a concern for you. Ingredients 1 32-oz carton low-sodium chicken broth 1 cup mixed frozen vegetables, (or frozen peas & carrots, or corn-beans-pea...

Hello dear readers! The past week Sparks was host to the annual Nugget Rib Cook-off. Of course we went and it was as busy as ever. This year we just went on Sunday. We caught a matinee at Century 14, Minions, since the big kids hadn't seen it yet. It was cute! We have been in the middle of minion madness, and the movie was the biggest deal to the kids. This was also the baby's first visit to a movie theater! After the movie, we walked through Victorian Square. We ate our fill of ribs from some favorites like Texas Outlaw and Chicago, plus a few of the vendors we don't always get like BourbonQ and Texas Thunder. We also chowed on deep fried pickles, deep fried peaches with whipped cream, a funnel cake, and shaved ice.  My husband also convinced me to help him drink a blended margarita. So what if I ended up drinking most of it? By the way, we seriously considered buying the whole roast pig this year.  Some friends have been hard at work helping another...

Hello, my friends.  It's been quite a while since I've been in the kitchen cooking from scratch.  Being pregnant is hard work!  The baby is now almost 3 weeks old, the garden is bursting with tomatoes, and I've gotten slowly back in the kitchen. Today, I'm sharing with you, my recipe for lasagna. I made a small batch of homemade tomato sauce with bell peppers and pork to use up some tomatoes.  I used that for my lasagna sauce this time, but you can use jarred sauce from the store.  I normally use marinara or a tomato-y sauce in a jar, so use what works for you. Ingredients 1 lb ground beef 2 eggs 1 15oz container part-skim ricotta cheese 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (for mixing into filling) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 Tablespoons dried parsley 1 box lasagna noodles (I prefer American  Beauty's Oven-Ready) 1 28oz jar Marinara or Tomato-Garlic pasta sauce, or about 3 cups homemade sauce 1 1/2 cups water 1 cup shredded ...

Hello again my readers! It's almost summer time! That means less time running the oven in the house and more time outdoors with the grill. So to wrap up something I've been working on, let's get to it. Say Hello to my delish oven-baked "fried" chicken recipe. A few months ago I tried something new and I'd been making a little tweak here and there, perfecting it. Now I 'm ready to share. But first, some back ground story. When I was a tween and learning to cook, one of the first cookbooks I got was Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual by the Klutz Press. There was a recipe in there for oven "fried" chicken that used crushed cornflakes. It became a regular thing in our house, so I've had a spot in my heart for oven baked chicken since. Now, I've gotten away from using cornflakes and wanted something flour-dredged so it was even more like real fried chicken. And I found a way to do it. I've only tried this with drumsticks...

Hello readers! I'm back with something delicious! And Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! My son recently turned 9.  Trying to get any birthday ideas out of him was difficult. I had to offer a ton of ideas for what to do party-wise, cake-wise, and even prod at him about what he might want for presents. The good thing about him, is once he found an idea he liked, he nailed down exactly what he wanted. I asked about the cake. At first he just said cake like I always make. Then he said to add bananas to the filling. About 5 seconds later, he changed it to banana cake with strawberry filling. I could definitely work with that. As for the party, we went from maybe having it  at the trampoline party place across town to the petting zoo to go-karts to backyard campout.  Camping won. We had pizza delivered, made s'mores, then had cake. And the boys played with the Nerf guns before sleeping in the tent out back. It was a total winner. Anyhow, I dec...