A New Tradition: Sunday Family Dinner

I decided last week to begin hosting my family for Sunday dinner.  The idea was to create a tradition for my own little family and hopefully encourage my parents and siblings to have a family oriented time each week spent together and with the kids.  So, today was the first.  Andy, Mom, and Dad came over.  This was a good experience since Grandpa Frye had a stroke on Thursday night and has been in Peoria since then.  We don't know what is coming for him, but we're all dedicated to the common prayer for his full recovery.

Today's Menu:
Pork Roast with a Walnut-Parmesan Crust

Verdict: For me, this is a 10.  I would say to be generous with the ingredients creating the sauce as I ended up being a little light.  I used 2.5 lbs and it was barely enough for the 5 of us.

Roasted Garlic Lemon Broccoli

Verdict: This was good, not shocking.  Dad liked this a lot.  I would give it an 8.5.

Feta Foldovers
Verdict: These were strong in flavor.  They were Mom's favorite.  I would give them a 9/9.5.

Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (not sure how, but I don't have a link for this - sorry!)
Ingredients:
• 4 large russet potatoes, about a pound each
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
Cheddar and bacon version
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 4 strips bacon
• onion powder
Blue cheese version
• 1 cup crumbled blue cheese 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Poke potato in several places with the tines of a fork so that when the potatoes are cooking they don't explode. Rub the potatoes all over with a little olive oil. Place directly on the middle or top rack of the oven. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. They should give a little when pressed.
If short on time you can bake the potatoes in the microwave, 10 minutes on high heat for 2 potatoes, 15 minutes for 4 potatoes. The skins of microwave baked potatoes aren't nearly as crispy, so you may want to rub a little olive oil on them and finish them in a conventional oven at 400°F for 10 minutes.
2 If you are including bacon as one of your mix-ins, while the potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon strips in a frying pan on medium low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Let cool. Crumble.
3 Allow the potatoes to cool to touch. Slice the top third lengthwise off the potato. Use a spoon to scoop out the insides, forming a potato "canoe", leaving about 1/4 inch of potato on the skin.
Alternatively you can slice the potatoes in half, lengthwise. In this case you may want to bake an extra potato so that you will have more potato filling to mound into the potato boats.
4 Place the scooped out potato insides, sour cream, milk, cream, and butter into a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher. If you want a creamy texture, beat with an electric beater until desired consistency. Note, do not over-beat potatoes, they can turn glue-y.
5 Mix in the extras with the potatoes. Reserve some of the extras to sprinkle on the tops of the potatoes. Spoon fillings into the potato shells. Sprinkle with extra toppings.
6 Heat oven to 350°F. Place potatoes on a roasting pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes until heated through.
Serves 4 to 6.
Verdict: I have tried the bleu cheese version and now the cheddar and bacon version.  We prefer the bleu cheese version.  They were both very good.  I would give them an 8.5/8.

Choco-Scotch Marble Cake

Verdicts: I would give this an 8.  It was moist and different than anything I've had.

So, this whole meal was really a good turnout.  I'm very happy with the first effort.  We finished the afternoon with a game of sets & runs.

Carrot Cake

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and combined with other suggestions and working with what I had:

Ingredients

Cake

• 4 eggs

• 3/4 cups vegetable oil & ½ cup applesauce

• 1 cup white sugar & 1 cup brown sugar

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 3 cups grated carrots

• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

• 8 oz. crushed pineapple no juice

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, both sugars and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Verdict: This was fantastic!  I give it a 10.

Delicious Dinner

This is the best pork chop recipe I've ever had. 

Parmesan Sage Pork

Verdict: This was a 10.  Following the recipe exactly as it's written is important.
 
Parmesan-Carrot Risotto .
Verdict: I would call this an 8.  Good use for carrots.

Snow Days



The view from our living room

  Monday and Tuesday we received about 16.5 inches of snow with major winds over night. Every school in the area is out - for the third day in a row. It's been a major pain and scary for many people and a fun break for others.

 

 

We've made the most of our time snowed in.  We have eaten a lot and just enjoyed being together.  We tried these recipes tonight:
Sausage Potato Casserole (lost the link)
Ingredients
• 3 large baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 pound Polish kielbasa
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon caraway seed
• 2/3 cup milk
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Using two long sheets of aluminum foil on top of each other, fold one long edge together and open out to make a large sheet of foil. Line a 13x9 pan with the foil, allowing edges to hang outside pan
2. Arrange the sliced potatoes, overlapping slightly, in bottom of pan. Pepper to taste. Top with half of the cheese. Cut sausage in half crosswise and lengthwise and place, cut side down on top. Top with remaining cheese, the dill weed, caraway seed and milk. Seal edges of foil tightly.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees) for 1 hour.
Verdict: We give it a 7.
 
We made snow cream using a Paula Deen recipe I found - it was delicious!

We literally opened the basement door and scooped our snow with a measuring cup into a bowl because the drift was so big and the snow was untouched.

We ate it with the following recipe:
Peanut Butter Graham Bars
Verdict: Well, I forgot the butter so I'm sure they could have been easier.  The were pretty yummy, but maybe a 6.5 without the butter.

 
Tomorrow is another snow day, but Chris will be back to work.  These special days are so few and fast!