Get Cooking!

Well we've had two Addie's Kitchen sessions since I last posted.  One in October and one in November.  The last was on Saturday.  We had 31 people there working in the kitchen.  It is awesome for me to see that we always always have new faces every time.  My husband asked me if I thought people were burned out of doing the meals.  I think the number of people just shows the answer is NO!  I also talked to some folks on Sunday morning at church and they said the same.   We made about 600 meals and 50 dozen cookies in 2 1/2 hours!  WOW!  Of the 600 meals, about 30 or more went into the church freezer to feed families that can use a meal.  It warms my heart to be in a kitchen with all those people having fun cooking away and chatting with folks next to them.

Here's the recipes we made this November session:

• Rice with Green Chiles - from the "Colorado Cache Cookbook"
• French Dip Sandwiches - from the "Southern Living 1997 Annual Recipes" book, page 211
• Simple Enchiladas - from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/simple-perfect-enchiladas-recipe/index.html
• 24 Hour Wine and Cheese Strata - from "The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook", Volume 2
• Port and Black Currant Glazed Chicken Thighs (and we did breasts for the white meat lovers) - from "Best American Recipe 2001-2002"
• Grilled Pork Loin Roast - from "World Champion Bar-B-Q" by John Willingham
• Hyacinth's Everthing Cookies - from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/hyacinths_everything_cookies/
• Cayenne Nuts - we used these in the Hyacinth's cookies above for a new kick.  The recipe is from "The Junior League Centenniel Cookbook"

These cookies are the BOMB and the nuts add a unique twist.  My hats off to the Pioneer Woman and Hyacinth!

I've given you where to find the recipes so Get Cooking on your own.  Join some friends and do your own freezer meal session.  You won't believe how fun it is!!!!

Addie

Fall is here!

For some of you, fall may still be on the way, but here where I live I can feel the nip of cool in the air and my mind starts racing on what I can cook in my oven.  All summer without air conditioning we tend to focus on foods we can grill.  Heating up the house with the oven is a no-no.  But now that the cool fall nights have arrived, the oven is back to work!  Last night I made one of my families' favorites from childhood "Date Chocolate Chip Cake".  It's a yummy cake with dates in the batter and chocolate chips, nuts and sugar spread on top before you pop it in the oven.  No one hardly realizes it has dates in it.  It's more like a yummy type coffee cake.   I should have a piece now!

With Fall here we are starting up our church freezer meals sessions again.  The first is targeted for October 8th.  I sent out a notice to everyone on my mailing list at church asking for their votes for favorites from last year to target for this first session.  Top votes so far are listed below along with a list of the meals we made this first year.  I'm looking forward to this next year....I need to start testing some new recipes...my husband will love it!

Top votes from last year:

Cajun Meat Loaf
Ham Loaf

Here's all the meals we cooked in 6 sessions last year:

October 2010

Chicken and Rice Casserole
Mozette
Honey-Glazed Chicken Thighs
Rice Pilaf
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Five-Spice Cookies

November 2010

Addie’s Baked Potato Casserole
Cajun Meat Loaf
Chicken Florentine
Beef Barley Soup
Asparagus and Potato Frittata
Addie’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

January 2011
Margarita Pork Chops
Island Rice
Ham Loaf
Man, Oh, Manicotti
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Apple Crisp

February 2011

Chicken spaghetti
Addie’s Chalupa
Beef Fajitas
Lentil, Ham and Barley Soup
Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Farmer’s Casserole
Orange Cookies

April 2011
Addie’s Chalupa
Addie’s Baked Potato Casserole
Honey-Glazed Chicken Thighs
Cheeseburger Boat
Chicken Ranch Pizza
Chocolate Lava Cakes

June 2011

Sweet Asian Chicken
Steak Kabobs with Orange Hoisin Glaze
Turkey Apple Burgers
Addie’s Version Dolly Parton’s Cowboy Beans
Jerk Chicken
Grilled Honey Lime Chicken
Father Tim’s Beef Tenderloin Seasoning
Double Tree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies – Adapted

It's Been a While!

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything here.  I have a day job and I have only been home a few weeks now...which is bliss!  I do like my job, but 45 days from April through June in another city living in a hotel is hard!  I'm happy now to be home.

In June we had an awesome Freezer Meal experience....23 people were there.  We made over 700 servings of food with about 40 dozen cookies in 2.5 hours!  A record!   I planned a very grill friendly menu.  The church kitchen can get hot and so using the stove is not a great idea.  We made Dolly Parton's Baked Beans (my adapted version), several marinaded grill meats (one particular favorite is Turkey Apple Burgers), and the infamous Double Tree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies.  It was a one week reprieve from the traveling so I was home to get ready for the meals.

Last Friday I held a planning session with several of the team who have been dedicated attendees.  We are going to continue this year and take notes on how things go.  There were some great suggestions for next year. I got a beautiful note from a family who lives close by a church member and has benefited from some of the meals.  Her quote "I think what you are doing is just wonderful!".  I am sooo glad that this mission in life is not just bringing together a community of friends in one of my favorite places (the kitchen) but also that we can touch other people with the extra meals we make to share.

Happy eating and cooking!

Addie

Oh What Fun!

We had an awesome time in April making the freezer meals.  We had 42 people there to help cooking and 13 of them were youth.  It was a great time.  The youth at church were a great help.  I hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having them there.   A guy who had joined for the very first time said it was the most fun he'd had in a long time.  We even finished fairly early.  It was very busy and we made over 732 servings of food.  That's a lot of food if you think about it....

Next freezer meals is in June and we want to do grill type foods.  On Sunday, I made 14 different 4 person serving meals for the freezer to test for the next session.  Can't wait to try them out over the next few weeks.....YUM!

Menu Planned for April

So I have a menu for April.  We have youth helping us so I was trying to make something kid friendly.  Here's the planned menu:

Cheeseburger Boat Recipe
Addie's Chalupa
Chicken Ranch Pizza
Chocolate Lava Cakes
Addie's Baked Potato Casserole
Honey-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Everyone is excited and tonight is shopping list pricing....

Testing Recipes

Well, in the last week I've tested a few recipes. 

Cheeseburger Boat http://onceamonthmom.com/cheeseburger-boat-recipe-kid-friendly/
Pizza Crust in 30 minutes:  http://moneysavingmom.com/2009/02/homemade-pizza-in-less-than-30-minutes.html
Chicken Ranch Pizza (topping):  http://annies-eats.com/2010/01/07/chicken-ranch-pizza/

The next Freezer Meals/Addie's Kitchen is in April and the youth at the church are helping.  So I'm trying out some recipes I think the kids will enjoy making.  I liked these recipes....I've frozen one of each to test later...but we ate them immediately and they were good.  The freezer test will be good.  We're also making Addie's Chalupa again so folks can get the full affect.  I also want to make a type of molten chocolate cake that will freeze and then can be frozen...I just have to figure out a container that we can freeze them in.  I'm thinking I could buy aluminum cupcake pans and cut them to size (2 servings or 4 servings)?  Chocolate Lava Cakes is a good recipe from More Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer by Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell and Bonnie Garcia.  I believe more testing is required this week.....

February Meals

So it's Sunday morning and I'm headed off to church but had time to add this post.  Yesterday we had 32 people at the church making freezer meals for February.  We made about 280 meals in 3 hours!  What a blast!  This is the fourth session and as usually we had some slight recipe "differences".  I was really wondering why the Addie's Chalupa sauce was so low and we felt we were running out for the meals...turns out we missed a LOT of beef in the frig to add to the sauce....there was some in it, but we missed a lot.  Everyone was very good hearted about it but I think maybe we will make this one again so folks can taste the true fully beefed up version!  This chalupa recipe is adapted from one my mom always made at home.  The original was from a home town cookbook where my parents grew up.  It was very small (7 kids per class) and they have festivals like large class reunions pretty frequently.  Now and then they've created a cookbook.


Here's the recipe for Addie's Chalupa for folks to enjoy.  The original recipe skipped the enchilada sauce, used flour instead of corn tortillas and just regular cheese.  I like the extra spice and corn tortillas instead.

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Addie's Chalupa
Serves: 8

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons chili seasoning mix, I use Williams
1 can tomato soup, condensed
1 can enchilada sauce, I use El Pato sauce in a 7 ounce can
3/4 cups milk
12 corn tortillas
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
vegetable oil

Brown the ground beef with onion until thoroughly cooked.  Add the flour and chili seasoning mix.  Let simmer slightly for a few minutes.  Add the can of tomato soup, enchilada sauce, and milk.  Mix and simmer about 5 minutes.

Soften the corn tortillas in a skillet with a littl bit of cooking oil.  Start with 4 tortillas, cut into pieces and layer in the bottom of a greased 8x12" pyrex pan.  Add 1/3 of the meat mixture.  Repeat tortillas and meat mixture 3 times total.  Top with sharp cheddar cheese.

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For those that would like to know, here's our menu that we prepared yesterday:

Chicken Spaghetti - Check out the Pioneer Woman's web site
Addie's Chalupa
Beef Fajitas - From "Fix, Freeze, Feast"
Lentil, Ham and Barley Soup - This was on the Internet, but I a dead link now.
Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits - Todd Wilbur's version
Farmer's Casserole - From "Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer"
Orange Cookies - Cooking Club Magazine - April/May 2010

So now I will start testing recipes for the next meals...Watch for some test results here!

Addie

Freezer Meals or Addie's Kitchen

About 10 years ago, one of my church friends came home and told me she had found the perfect job for me.  I had been worried off and on about my job as there were always layoffs.  She was visiting her daughter who would go to this new place where you could get meals for the freezer.  These were more like home made meals and you would go there and prep and package your meals.  Well, I didn't lose my job and still am working at my job...but it got me thinking.  Instead of doing the freezer meal thing as a job, why not make it a church project.

It's taken me 10 years, but in October I finally started this project.   I call it Freezer Meals, the church staff calls it Addie's Kitchen.  I prep and plan for 4-6 main dishes or side dishes.  I collect the orders and then my husband helps me buy all the groceries.  Then several of us meet at church to cook and prep all the dishes.  The first month (October) we had 24 people attend, then in November it was 27 people, and the last time in January we had 36 adults and 7 children.  Some of the children were too small to help, but a few of the older ones worked with us.  We made over 350 meals.  It is so much fun!  When I price the meals, I include a bit extra so that we have extra dollars to spend on meals for the church freezer.  These go to families with a member in the hospital, homebound members, or anyone who could use a meal now and then.  Anyone from the church can pick up a meal and deliver it to someone who would enjoy it.   It has grown every time.  Folks who first visit the church have attended.  You really get to know someone when you are standing next to them crying and chopping onions!

I've had a request to post some recipes.  Here's one of my recipes from the Freezer Meal in November.  I created this recipe for my kids because they just loved twiced baked potatoes, but sometimes they took longer to bake than I wanted (they never taste as good baked in the microwave):


                      Addie's Baked Potato Casserole
Recipe By     :Addie Sale
Serving Size  : 10    Preparation Time :0:45

Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method  40            ounces  bagged Hash Browns -- Not frozen
  1/2           cup  butter -- melted
  16            ounces  sour cream
  16            ounces  shredded Colby-Jack cheese
  1/2           cup  bacon bits
     1           teaspoon  salt -- to taste
     1           teaspoon  pepper -- to taste
 1/2           cup  milk -- or more as needed
     1           teaspoon  onion salt

Mix all ingredients and poor into a greased 9in x 12in pan.  Bake at 425 degrees for 25-35 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Of course, you can freeze this recipe!

Enjoy!

Wow, I'm Blogging

That title pretty much says it.  I've finally made the move to blogging and decided that my experience in my kitchen is the topic. 

Cooking is fun!  I cook to relax, I cook to wind down, I cook to make others happy, I cook as a gift to friends and family, I cook because I love it!  I don't have a fancy kitchen and I've not had any formal training.  I've just been in the kitchen since I was about 9 years old.  I would say I learned the "down home" way.  My parents were both raised on farms and the type of cooking they taught me was definitely comfort food.  Steak, mashed potatoes and gravy were a family staple.  I now like to try recipes just for fun.  My family never knows what they will get next.  The family definitely loves the experimentation and will provide me with a yes or no (does it go in the family cookbook or not).

My next post will be about how I named this blog Addie's Kitchen and my latest kitchen project!