A Great Big Skillet Full

I made this dish for dinner last night and wanted to share it with you. It's from Betty Crocker's Outdoor Cook Book, copyrighted 1961. My copy is held together with a thick rubber band because both front and back covers have long ago fallen away from the pages of the book.

It's a great meal for a casual company dinner . . . as popular as a favorite soup would be, but much easier to serve. The name of the dish is Tagliarini and in the book it's described as "a hearty Italian skillet dish with noodles, meat, tomatoes, corn and olives." (I wonder what "tagliarini" means in Italian. Anybody know? Jane? Ice Man?)

TAGLIARINI

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Few grains cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 medium onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium green pepper, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
2 cans (15-16 oz. each) Italian-style tomatoes (I use stewed tomatoes.)
1 can (10 oz.) whole kernel corn with liquid (I use 2 cups frozen corn and one cup
water.)
1 can (7 oz.) pitted ripe olives, drained
4 oz. (1-1/2 cups) noodles, uncooked
1/2 to 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Heat olive oil in large heavy skillet. Brown meat.

(Above picture is with remaining ingredients just added but not mixed)

Add remaining ingredients except cheese and cook covered over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes. Remove lid from skillet and cook another 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and fold carefully into the mixture and serve. 8 servings.

If you don't have a really large skillet, you might want to make this in a medium sized stock pot because it does make a big bunch. I used my biggest skillet and it was a little difficult to stir because the skillet was so full.

Because there were just three of us for dinner last night, I have plenty leftover, but that's a good thing as my husband LOVES it and it tastes really good reheated.

I Am Thankful For . . .

. . . the look of my new kitchen cabinets. (Some people [ahem] didn't think my idea would work.)

. . . my comfy bed. (Hubby complains of the dip in the middle, but I don't notice it 'cause I'm a dyed-in-the-wool cuddler.)

. . . like-minded bloggers. (You make me laugh and cry, you support and cheer me on, you generously share your knowledge and offer true friendship.)

. . . a husband who is cheerful and positive 99% of the time. (We are both even-tempered; his temper is always good, mine is always bad.)

. . . friends who call to say thank you for small favors. (There are still lots of kind, caring people out there.)

. . . living in an area that has a low rate of crime. (There are many disadvantages to living where we do. These are balanced with some very big advantages.)

. . . good garden soil for growing good food. (I am all a'quiver waiting to get at my gardening this year!)

. . . lots of wood in our wood sheds and lots of wood stacked in the yard to be cut. (Our mild winter has been extremely easy on the bounty our wood sheds hold. Plus, we have a mountain of wood waiting to be cut that is paid for.)

. . . Mondays because they are the start of a brand new week. (Every day is a new beginning --- especially Mondays!)

Using the Bountiful Harvest

The bountiful harvest in the freezer, that is.

Friends of ours have a cabin in Idaho and whenever they come back from a trip there, they bring us a passel of blackberries. They are huge and succulent and grow wild out there. They say the bushes are very large and plentiful but you take your life into your hands picking the fruit because of the nasty thorns.

Needless to say, we really luck out in being handed these berries without any of the work!

Today I decided to use them in baking a pie which I've not done before. I used my recipe for Winter Raspberry Crumble Pie simply substituting the blackberries for the raspberries. If you're interested in this pie recipe, scroll way down on my right hand side bar and type in Winter Raspberry Crumble Pie in the Search box. The post that will pop up with the date of December 5, 2008 contains the recipe.

I'm happy to report that the pie with the blackberries came out just great. I know the huge empty part of the pie plate devoid of pie looks bad, but I just wanna state that we did have help eating it.

Some time I'm going to try making Blackberry Jam out of the berries. That sounds really good to me, toast and jam lover that I am.

She Earns Her Keep

Currently we have only one bantam hen. She's a Golden Laced Cochin and, if our math skills (and memories) are correct, she's 5 years old.

She's still giving us 2-3 eggs each week and has been all winter. (Banty eggs in the back.) Now, is that a grateful hen . . . or is she simply an over-achiever?

Gotta love those banties!

Relax and Breathe

I foolishly made the proclamation last night that I was going to spend the whole day at my desk today getting caught up on many, many things that have been sliding by the wayside for too long.

Catch up on e-mails owed, order some probiotics we're out of and a couple of other things, pay a couple of bills, sort through the stacks on my desk top to make sure I haven't lost a couple of bills, sort through and throw away catalogs that came in two or three months ago, go through the catalogs I can't bear to jettison without checking out, order some new audio books for my husband from library, catch up on blog reading and leaving comments, get up this new post and one on my quilt blog, sort out some files that are keeping the file drawer from closing, maybe even look through that new cook book I got two weeks ago . . . puff-pant, shall I go on?

So how am I doin'? Not so good, she says in a pitiful little voice. I did have to stop to make a run to the post office and return some materials that were due today at the library, but other than that I've really been working hard at the desk. I guess, just like all other things we try to do, it always takes more time than we imagine it will. Wouldn't ya think we'd get smarter when looking at a task and judging how long it will take to complete it? Yep, ya would think that. Sigh.

Persevering in my efforts to change, to not get uptight, to stop pushing myself mentally and physically when it's not really necessary, to ignore my monkey mind telling me I don't work hard enough or get enough accomplished, I shall slow down in order to enjoy what I did get done and get pleasure out of the moment. I refuse to get my undies in a bundle and end up cranky and emotionally exhausted today.

Relax and breathe. Take a few moments to appreciate my good life and all I have to be thankful for. Sit here and look at the top of my desk (which is now about 50% visible) and be happy that it looks so much better than it did first thing this morning. No, I haven't accomplished all I thought I would and that's okay. I did a pretty good job on what I did. (Besides, nobody's gonna fire me, that's for sure.)

It's almost time to start dinner preparations. A yummy taco salad for which Chicken Mama will join us tonight. I'm good. I'm okay. I'm relaxing and breathing . . . and appreciating. Hey, I think I may be making some progress here. (Now where's that good red wine I opened a couple of days ago?)

P.S. Just got a post up over on my quilt blog. Go over and take a look if you wish.

The Month of March

Although most of us (in our own little corners of this country) can still expect to experience the blustery, sometimes biting winds of March (if not some snow, sleet, hail, ice, slush, rain or combinations thereof), it is technically the birth month of Spring.

In a way, March is akin to the first of the New Year in that it has the felling of a new start, fresh and wonderful things to come.

Some people might suggest it's a good time for cleaning, reorganizing and generally spiffing up your home environment. Others of us will try to avoid such outlandish activity and cling to indoor exertions more along the lines of sewing, quilting, knitting and snuggling under a quilt on the couch with a good book.

Each year the month of March reminds me of something I did (in March) way back in the 1980s. We were living on our first homestead here in Minnesota, a ways farther out of town than we do now. Hubby and daughter went off to school every day leaving me as head of the homestead and all that entailed. I'm imagining this particular March was during a time (there were a few such times if memory serves me correctly) when we had only one working, reliable (reliable being the operative word) vehicle and unless I wanted to go to town with the troops first thing in the morning and wait until they could come home at night, I stayed on ye ol' homestead for weeks at a time.

Since we ate a lot of soups (still do, always have), I decided I needed some new recipes to add to my repertoire. So the first of March I sat down with some cook books and made a list (a long list) of new soups I would make a concentrated effort to try out during the next thirty-one days.

No, I didn't make a new soup every single day, but I did cook, stew and simmer my way through that whole month of March. And do you know what? I ended up with a nice bunch of soup recipes added to my recipe box that I still make frequently to this day.

So, I ask myself, why haven't I embarked on the same kind of adventure again since then? Not to find more soup recipes, but think of the possibilities. A month of trying out new breads. Casseroles. Main dishes with eggs and/or cheese. Sandwiches. Of course, I could always concentrate on cookies, pies or other yummy desserts, but in the name of trying to be a smidge bit healthy here, let's stick with those first categories that came to mind.

Yup, my little experimental culinary adventure during the month of March so long ago is worth repeating.

Maybe next year, I'll look back on . . . say, the month of April . . . and remember it as the month I found that perfect rye bread recipe. Or . . . could it really happen? . . . the month I learned to make a good sourdough!