yes you read that right, slop. i don’t know what i created but it was a slop of some sort. this comes from throwing things on hand together. what made it into this slop……vegetarian meat crumbles cooked with onions, jalapeno, and stewed tomatoes all mixed with a box of classic mac & cheese. i was attempting a sort of homemade vegetarian hamburger helper and i got something i am lovingly calling vegetarian slop.
its slop but its good slop
quick chilli and cornbread
listening to the splendid table podcast may not be the best thing to listen to when hiking. all i catch myself doing, as i work up an appetite, is what i would cook to impress lynn. after my hike the other day, in 18 degree weather, all i wanted was something that would warm me up. the solution my quick chilli. i also made some from scratch honey-whole wheat corn muffins and instead of just eating the muffins as a muffin, i cut it up and put it in the bottom of the bowl with the chilli on top. all i got to say is yummmmy!
RECIPE
1 lb ground turkey
1 large jar of salsa (i like mango or lime flavored personally)
1 can of chilli beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
plain low-fat yogurt or sour cream
* cook the turkey in a large saucepan. add the jar of salsa, can of chilli beans, and can of stewed tomatoes, mix well. bring chilli to a simmer and let simmer 15-20 minutes. top with a scoop of low-fat plain yogurt or sour cream, which ever you fancy!
January 23rd is National Pie Day (I didn’t make it up I swear!)
So to celebrate I decided to eat homemade pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Here’s my day of pie!
Breakfast: A tiny strawberry pie.
Lunch: Sugar Cookie Pie (4 inches. Getting a little bigger!) and a warm steamed milk.
Dinner: A pie created just for tonight! Spaghetti Pie with a Pillsbury garlic breadstick “pie” crust.
So yummy and so easy!
Happy Pie Day to Everyone!
Mom gave me this popcorn popper when I went to college 17 years ago. The popcorn pumper died today. Thank you for all the tasty snacks you provided.
You will be remembered.
Leftover “Artie Wellington” from the deep freeze (veggie Wellington with field roast and dad’s mushroom gravy) boiled smashed potatoes and garlicky greens.
Homemade Mac and Cheese with butter pretzel croutons, mixed grain casserole, salad and cornbread.
My version of the Nearly Famous veggie club with homemade potato chips and a salad…
Pretty close I think!
John’s sandwich at Nearly Famous Deli.
John’s sandwich at home.
miss maggie smith
“yummmy, yummmy, yummy” is a maggie smith quote that we use quite often at meal time, even though it comes from gordsford park, it still seems appropriate for downtown abbey. in the theme of fabulously everything british on sundays dad busted out beef wellington. honestly i think if you put anything in a puff pastry it just makes it a thousand time betters.
beef wellington
RECIPE (a la jamie oliver and art farris)
1 lb beef fillet
peppers, onions and dried apricots –diced to make 1 cup of mixture
8 slices of parma ham
dijon mustard for brushing beef fillet
puff pastry — one frozen sheet rolled out
egg wash
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 glass white wine
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1. preheat oven to 390, season beef with sea salt and black pepper. heat a pan with olive oil and fry beef on high heat until it is browned. let cool.
2. mix peppers, onions, garlic, and dried apricots to form a puree. add puree with a glass of white wine to pan and cook till wine evaporates.
3. on a piece of plastic wrap layer parma ham, puree and beef (brushing beef with mustard) cover with plastic and keep in fridge 30 minutes.
4. unwrap meat. roll out pastry dough and put meat in center. egg wash the edge of the pastry and roll up pastry. turnover and egg wash over the top. mark the pastry using the back of a small knife to make a cross hatch.
5. bake at 390 for about 30-35 minutes. allow to rest before cutting and serving.
why do i have so much kitchen stuff?!?!
i moved yet again, and roughly 90% of the boxes were labeled “kitchen” and one particular labeled “whiskey jugs”. (just so you know my new year’s resolution is to resign my lease). so once the kitchen was all unpacked and a pic of paul mccartney framed and hung up to supervise the happenings, i busted out a very fine dish indeed. crispy tofu in a veggie curry sauce with rice. so yummy it is fast becoming one of my favorites. welcome home!
in honor of the premiere of season 2 of downton abbey dad whipped up a pompous worthy roasted chicken.
the bird
while the rest of the meal was being made (which included mashed potatoes, peas, cole slaw, and some left over eggplant parmesan) dad and i speculated what was going to happen on this WWI epic. definitly mathew at some point will become wounded and missing making mary realize that she does love him. i saw he’s going to wind up with a bum leg dad says temporarily blind. we all hope the youngest cybil ends up with the political rebel chauffeur and the family concluded whatever maggie smith does is perfect because well she is maggie smith.
dad cooking and coming up with plots
we all huddled around the table and waited to see what would happen. i advocated that for the rest of the season we create british themed meals to go with our british miniseries, mom however declares there is no good british food, the debate continues.
ready to dig in
The past few years I’ve tried to create a new traditions for our family– having “Springfield Style” Cashew Chicken our Christmas Eve dinner meal. I have to admit I stole this from my childhood neighbors, The Muetzels, but good traditions come from good people. The challenge for me of course is that we can’t just go out and buy Springfield Style– Toto, we’re not in Springfield anymore. So each year we’ve made it ourselves using the most accurate recipe Lyn and I have found. I think we’ve blogged about it before so I won’t go into details of the recipe.
This being my first christmas as an almost vegetarian I also made Springfield Style with crispy fried tofu– still good people, I swear!
Once the crab rangoon and fried goodness were gone, we broke out our only long-term, unique-ish Christmas tradition… The Christmas Game.
I can’t even remember when we got The Christmas Game it’s been in our family for so long. I think it came from Skaggs AKA Osco AKA CVS. The game, like Christmas, is all about collecting gifts and ridiculous moments of chance that are very holiday specific and sort of realistic when you think about it. We love it, even dad, though he grouses sometimes about playing.
We have friends who are honorary family members and Jessica (Lynley’s best friend) has been an honorary Farris the longest. As many of you know, she and Lyn have been best friends since they were 3, so Jess basically grew up with The Christmas Game too.
During the game, there are Santa cards that help you out, Scrooge cards that are a humbug because something bad most likely will happen and reindeer cards (which are my favorite) where you have to roll the dice to find out if something good or bad is coming your way.
We had to play in pairs which is not the normal way of playing and I think how people got paired up might not have the best mix for a “friendly” game…but it’s the holidays, a time when anything goes! Let me ask you this, have years of being friends made Lynley and Jess competative…you decide.
And the winners were….
Cheers to Springfield Style and the Christmas Game– long may you be a Farris Family tradition!
Hearty Eaters 