Rebekah Staggs

Are you the kind of cook that follows a recipe exactly for everything? Do you cook loosely based off of a recipe? Or are you the kind that throws this and that together and see what happens?

It’s been almost 18 years since my husband bought me a monthly subscription to one of those Recipe Card Collections and I started to learn how to cook and bake. I could make a few dishes, but most of my experience cooking involved opening up a can and heating it up. Some of my first attempts were, interesting to say the least. Thankfully, my husband was supportive of my attempts and the questionable meals I sometimes produced. Each success giving me confidence to keep trying. In time my skills improved and I enjoyed having friends and family over and making meals for them.

At first I followed my recipes to the letter. Hesitant to stray from the recipe in the least bit lest I ruin the meal.  We’ve gone from low fat, to freezer meals (When I had a young  infant/child and not a lot of time.), to Atkins, to Biggest Loser, to a selection of our favorites with new recipes mixed in for variety.

As I became comfortable in each cooking style I started to loosely base my meals off of a recipe. I still needed a recipe, or two or three, to give me ideas and work from there. I started to create things that weren’t quite following a recipe, but weren’t totally my original recipe either.

It’s only recently that I’ve been daring enough to just throw a few things together and see what happens. I’ve known several “natural” cooks that were able to do this with great results. Seeming to instinctively know what flavors and textures will blend well. I don’t think I’ll ever quite get there. Mine is more having enough experience with similar dishes to know what we liked and didn’t like. I’m still hesitant when I’m not following at least an idea of something, but I’m not afraid to wander outside of the cookbook anymore either.

I still follow recipes to the letter for new techniques and for baking where it is a matter of ratios. I haven’t quite learned the knack of all of the ratios for baking. I’m getting better at altering bread recipes and such. For the first time trying a new food I am likely to follow a recipe pretty closely. But, I am enjoying this new aspect of cooking for me. Of throwing this and that together and seeing where it takes me. It’s been 18 years of cooking and I’m still learning new things.

Keep on cooking!

Between my broken upper oven, slowly dieing lower oven, current aversion to raw meat, and just not feeling up to the back breaking labor of putting out the full Thanksgiving Spread this year I gave in. For the first time in the 17 Thanksgivings we’ve been together I bought everything pre-made.

When we first got married we lived near family and we spread the work out among the family members and meals moved from one sibling’s house to another’s. We haven’t bought a can of Cranberry Relish in twelve years since I first made it fresh. It’s been at least seven years since we moved and I starting making the whole spread myself. Usually taking two days of on my feet prep, cooking, and baking.

This year’s spread was pretty good.  Curtesy of Sam’s Club and Walmart. The only work I had to do was open boxes and move pans in and out of the oven. Thankfully while my lower oven doesn’t work well for baking/cooking it works well enough for heating things up. I spent yesterday with my family playing games, watching TV, and otherwise just resting and taking it easy. Today my family helped in the kitchen, we’re playing more games, we plan on watching the Football game together, and otherwise just hanging out and taking it easy.

It has been a very memorable Thanksgiving and sometimes store bought and not from scratch isn’t a bad thing. This year with so much to be thankful for it hit home that it’s not about the food, but about the memories we make around the table. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Or, I could call this post what we had for dinner. My husband’s new job has Friday Morning Meetings. The guys take turns bringing in a breakfast to share. So, we’re trying out a few recipes of things he could bring when his turn rolls around.

We found this one: Sunday Sausage Breakfast in my Taste of Home: Church Suppers cookbook.

It’s very simple. Not a lot of ingredients. Turned out perfectly the first time. Served up well. Reheated well. Only thing I would do differently next time is layer the croutons flat on the bottom and make sure they didn’t float around as much when I added the eggs and milk. It ‘s really just a matter of preference, but I like the texture better when the “bready” part is just in a layer on the bottom and not throughout the whole piece.

Okay so life hasn’t really handed me lemons, but it sounded good. I wasn’t feeling up to making the Sweet Sour Chicken I had planned for today so I gave in and decided to make something quick and easy from the freezer. Or rather, direct someone else  to make it.

P.F. Chang’s Home Menu Meals for 2: Orange Chicken + Ajinamoto: Chow Mein.

    12 minutes in a pan warms up the chicken, veggies, and sauce cubes
+   3 minutes in the microwave warms up a double serving of noodles and veggies.
= 12 minutes for a full lunch on the table

 It wasn’t bad for a quick frozen meal. Better than most. Flavor on the chicken was good and we rather like the chow mein noodles.

Calorie Count?
    300 calories for 1/3 of the bag of Chicken
+ 230 calories for 1/2 a bag of Noodles
= 530 Calories

Cost to feed the three of us?
    $5.00 for Chicken 
+ $2.50 for Noodles
= $7.50

Letting someone else cook, while keeping a somewhat decent calorie count, without leaving the house? Priceless!

We enjoy Taco Night at our house. I put out a full colorful spread of toppings to enjoy. Enough that everyone has what they like and can avoid what they don’t. Sometimes I have a mix of leftovers that end up in the freezer. I had shredded taco beef, pico de gallo, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and some corn. I happen to enjoy tortilla soup so I thought I’d give it a try with beef instead of chicken. I threw everything in the crockpot with some beef broth and went shopping.

While shopping I got a bag of tortilla chips. I figured we could always have Nachos if the soup wasn’t very good. When I got home the soup was ready. It looked good, smelled good, and even tasted good! I like good food that is cheap and easy.