bacon cheeseburger pasta

http://amandascookin.com/bacon-cheeseburger-pasta/

when my kids were little, they loved the box variety of this recipe but, as they grew up one of them decided he hated it...but, I still missed it and when I saw a homemade type I could not wait to try it...

this is like the grown up version of it and my grand daughter said that next time, I should add some velveeta cheese and maybe a little cream to it too...otherwise this is definitely a keeper and I will make it again, especially for the little kids...

note...it takes a little more constarch than is called for...

yummy

apple butter pork chop skillet

http://www.thecookierookie.com/apple-butter-pork-chop-skillet/

this is what I made for dinner tonight and it was very good...I used the thinner pork chops and would not do it next time...the apples and the sauce had a very nice taste to them...

paired with leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving

definitely a keeper

Thanksgiving dinner...

Sam and Zoie are staying here until we know that Zoie is ok...so I had a lot of help with Thanksgiving dinner...

we made:

nice size turkey that was so good, so moist
spiral sliced ham that Sam put a very nice glaze on...
sausage cornbread stuffing (yum)
creamed peas
green beans with almonds
biscuits
of course mashed potatoes with gravy
apple tart with whipped cream...

no one in this house is really feeling all that good but it was nice to have help getting dinner to the table...

letting a very sick teen choose dinners...corn chowder, creamy pasta, hashbrown casserole

http://momsdutchoven.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-hashbrown-casserole-with-sausage.htmlso last Saturday, Zoie's 16th brithday, both of the oldest girls had recitals at their school...Tim went and both girls did great...from school Sam and Zoie went straight back to their apartment and I did not speak to them till the next day when we were supposed to meet up to celebrate Zoie's birthday...we went to Red Robin but birthday girl was not feeling good at all...she could not even order her lunch (tho she does not like to order her food anyway...)  we had a very good lunch but Zoie seemed to fade fast, using her inhaler much more than she should have...we came back to my house and Sam and I were going to go to the grocery store and we left Zo at home with Tim but by the time we got to the parking lot I had talked to Sam enough to tell her how worried I was about Zo so instead of shopping, we came back home and Sam took her first to an Urgent Care, but there was no sense of urgency there and so Sam got up, walked out and took her straight to the ER and once they got hold of here, things heated up very quickly...they took her straight back and they were worried...so, to make a long story short she was diagnosed with a severe asthma attack and told Sam she should have callled 911 and not messed around...when she was finally released, she looked and acted horrible...they gave Zoie a very stern talking to on how she is responsible now for her own health and which symptoms warrant a 911 call, they do not want her messing around with the health clerk at school...

I felt so bad for her that I let her choose dinners each night, even tho she was not eating...she at least tried...

while she was at ER, I knew Sam would need to come home to a great down home comfort dinner and they chose creamy pasta with bacon and peas and man did this deliver with a great comfort dinner...I have made this before and posted about it too...it was so good...

http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/one-pan-pasta-bacon-peas-recipe/

was terrific for leftover lunches too...

so Monday when I asked sickie girl what she wanted, it was corn chowder...
here is what I did...

made a roux with 8 tablespoons of butter, 8 tablespoons of flour, about 20+ ounces of chicken stock and about the same in milk..once thickened I added 1 bag of frozen corn, 1 can of whole potatoes (this is what Zoie likes best of this chowder) chopped, 1 can of carrots and some cooked chopped bacon...
this lasted Zoie for her lunch for the rest of the week...

So, Tuesday this girl wanted hashbrown casserole and that is what she got...

http://momsdutchoven.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-hashbrown-casserole-with-sausage.html

except that once I got dinner done this girl only wanted more corn chowder...LOL

So Sam and Zoie have stayed at my house from Sunday morning, well until they plan on going home on Sunday...haha...Zoie said she was scared to leave my house till she knew she was breathing all right and needed no help...(today Saturday, a whole week later we are finally starting to see her perk up a little...)  she has school on Monday so I am hoping she will be ready...

my mom's mac and cheese

I have posted about this before...my mom made this a lot for us kids growing up...we actually thought it more like the adult version of mac and cheese as we really like the box variety and my mom also made a good recipe with velveeta cheese...but as a grown up, when I really want comfort food (mac and cheese) I always go to this one...

and a funny story that bears repeating...when aerospace tanked here in California and my hubby lost his good paying job and times were very bad for us...one night all we had in the house to eat were the ingredients for this recipe...now, I was working and hubby was not and I asked him to make dinner so it would be ready when I got home...I was hungry and I so wanted comfort food...dug into dinner and it tasted awful too sweet...he had used sweetened condensed milk instead of the evaporated milk...needless to say I did not eat dinner that night...

here is what we do...
to al-dente cooked small shells or elbows, I add one layer of pasta to a baking pan, put cheese on top then another layer of pasta and final layer of cheese...(tonight I used sharp cheddar)...seasoned the top (sometimes I add a few pats of butter and some bread crumbs...) and add 2 cans of evaporated milk...
bake at 375 for about 20 minutes...

always (and I mean always...my family would revolt if I did not do this) paired with...
mixed veggies
bbq sauced little smokies
biscuits...

so good when you crae comfort food

grilled tri tip, twice baked potatoes

one of the highlights for me is to go to the grocery store first thing in the morning (love the time to myself, ha...) I get to see what meats they are marking down for the day, and I have really gotten some good deals...
such as it was with dinner tonight...

I had bought 2 pretty large tri tips, but we all love any roasted beef here and especially lately, I have been feeding a lot of people...
so I on the grill browned the meat on all sides, getting some good grill marks, and then left them on the grill on a slow cooking style for about 2 1/2 hours...(seasoned the meat really well first...)  and they came out perfectly...no one complained about dinner tonight at all...

for the twice baked potatoes, I threw the potatoes in the oven when I went to get kids from school at 2 pm and then when I was ready for dinner they were waiting for me...
I cut the potatoes in half and scooped out the insides and Zoie came home from school just in time that she wanted to mash up the potatoes...I let her do whatever she wanted...she put in some butter, a little milk, lots of seasonings, cheese and a little diced ham, oh and on my instruction, she added one beaten egg...she mixed all the ingredients together and put back into the potato shell and she pronounced herself a great chef...once again, everyone loved them...

paired with grilled garlic bread and green beans...

can I just say here that in California it is still in the high 80's...once it finally cools down here I will not be grilling...

porcupines

this was one of my favorite dinners when I was kid and I would always volunteer to make dinner when these were on the menu...I had to eat a few while they were cooking...can you imagine how many meatballs I had to make for a family of 12 kids?  now, I cannot even imagine...

I looked up the history of porcupines on google and most sites report that the recipe came about during the great depression...the thought being that adding rice to ground beef it would make the beef go farther and the rice would puff up during cooking...the name porcupine came about as the uncooked rice sticking out of the meatball resembles a porcupine...one time my kids convinced the neighbor boy that they were really eating porcupine meat...LOL...

here is what I do...

to approximately 2 1/2 pounds of good ground beef, I add about 1 cup of uncooked Minute rice, and then I add tons of seasonings (garlic salt, pepper, and onion powder...)  I shape them into meatballs and fry them in a sauce pan...once browned I add 1 tall can of tomato soup and about 1/3 cup of water...let come to a slow boil and turn off heat...my kids like to add some grated cheese to the top...

tonight paired with:

parmesan noodles
green beans
biscuits...

totally a family favorite...