My pantry included Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder and also Yankee Clipper All Natural Baby Clams. Both were gifts from neighbors.
I had some potatoes left over from last night and I put the Clam Chowder, the baby clams (drained), the left over potatoes and some milk in a pan and heated it up. I had to add some salt and pepper to taste and it was pretty good! I found the clam chowder to be fairly bland before but after adding the extra clams it was very "clammy".
Monday, February 15, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
White Clam Sauce on Spaghetti
Along with the 7 large boxes of canned foods, I got Progresso White Clam Sauce and a can of Yankee Clipper Fancy Crabmeat. My kids are pretty adventurous so I made spaghetti and crab/clam sauce. I put the clam sauce in a sauce pan and added the crab meat to it.
They all really liked it a lot.
They all really liked it a lot.
Lentil Soup
I had two bags of Lentils. My friend at work gave me her recipe for Lentil soup. It was a fairly basic recipe for Lentil soup but at the end the recipe called for added soy sauce. It didn't say how much to add so I added about a Tablespoon. I couldn't taste a big difference, so I must have to add more.
Anyway, I liked it but it was not a big hit with the kids.
Anyway, I liked it but it was not a big hit with the kids.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Margarine or Butter
My Mother grew up on a dairy farm in Central Ohio. She grew up sneaking into the kitchen and skimming the cream off the top of the fresh, non-pasteurized milk that had been brought in from the barn that very day. I grew up never eating margarine unless my mother cooked with it. We used it for baking but we never had margarine on the table. I have tried "I can't believe its not butter" type of spreads, but I can taste the difference. Consequently I have never had anything but butter in my house either. We ran out of butter the other day and when I went to the store, the margarine was $1.20 per lb. cheaper than the butter. The margarine was on sale for $.69 per lb and the butter was $1.89. This is actually a very good price for butter, but since I am in my frugal mode I decided to buy the margarine instead.
What a mistake that was. I can't stand the taste of margarine on bread. I guess it will keep me from eating slice after slice of my homemade bread because without butter it just doesn't taste good.
Since we are all exceptionally healthy I just don't buy into the idea that butter is the cause of all these health problems. I think most of the problem stems from genetic pre-disposition. I have unnaturally low cholesterol and it has nothing to do with my diet, I eat all the mayonnaise, butter, ice cream, cream, eggs, cheese, etc. and have never used light versions of any of these. I don't see the point. If you are going to eat, then eat something that TASTES GOOD! I think when people eat bad tasting bland food, their little taste buds are always searching for more.
So my middle son, who blurts out anything says, "Gross, that tastes bad." My oldest son who tries to conciliate and make everyone feel good says, "I can't tell the difference." My youngest son is oblivious.
We will see what happens, I think I am going to have to move the margarine to the baking ingrediants list and use butter on the table. I just can't see having noodles and margarine or rice with margarine, which is one of our families favorite foods.
I love the taste of noodles with fresh butter, salt and freshly ground pepper and some grated Parmesan cheese. (And not the powdered Kraft variety in the green foil can).
What a mistake that was. I can't stand the taste of margarine on bread. I guess it will keep me from eating slice after slice of my homemade bread because without butter it just doesn't taste good.
Since we are all exceptionally healthy I just don't buy into the idea that butter is the cause of all these health problems. I think most of the problem stems from genetic pre-disposition. I have unnaturally low cholesterol and it has nothing to do with my diet, I eat all the mayonnaise, butter, ice cream, cream, eggs, cheese, etc. and have never used light versions of any of these. I don't see the point. If you are going to eat, then eat something that TASTES GOOD! I think when people eat bad tasting bland food, their little taste buds are always searching for more.
So my middle son, who blurts out anything says, "Gross, that tastes bad." My oldest son who tries to conciliate and make everyone feel good says, "I can't tell the difference." My youngest son is oblivious.
We will see what happens, I think I am going to have to move the margarine to the baking ingrediants list and use butter on the table. I just can't see having noodles and margarine or rice with margarine, which is one of our families favorite foods.
I love the taste of noodles with fresh butter, salt and freshly ground pepper and some grated Parmesan cheese. (And not the powdered Kraft variety in the green foil can).
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Surprize - unlabled can
Among the cans brought over by my neighbor was an unlabeled can. Yes!!! I have been waiting for this! It had "food storage" written on the top in black magic marker. I could not wait to open it. Well, it was peas. Not very exciting.
They tasted like.... canned peas. But these had a tinny flavor to them. Not at first but after a few bites I could taste the tin can flavor. I have no way of knowing how old it was.
My kids have been opening cans and tasting the kid friendly stuff like the Chef Boyardee Macaroni and Cheese in a can or the individual servings of Mac and Cheese in the microwave container. The Chef Boyardee Macaroni and cheese definitely tasted like a tin can. He loves Mac and Cheese in any form but he didn't eat this at all. He didn't like the individual microwavable Mac and Cheese either.
I had no idea that vegetables could pick up the tin can flavor. I just assumed that the canning industry would have figured this out already. I have not used canned vegetables very much except for tomatoes which seem to overwhelm any canned flavor and I use a lot of them. I wonder about the lining used in some of the brand name vegetable cans. The unlabled peas, above, were in a tin can that was not lined. I am wondering if the tin can flavor is diminished if the lining is used or if it picks up other flavors instead. I will have to search my basement for brand name and private label brand cans that are the same age to see if there is a difference in flavor.
In any case, the boxed Mac and Cheese definitely wins over the canned variety.
They tasted like.... canned peas. But these had a tinny flavor to them. Not at first but after a few bites I could taste the tin can flavor. I have no way of knowing how old it was.
My kids have been opening cans and tasting the kid friendly stuff like the Chef Boyardee Macaroni and Cheese in a can or the individual servings of Mac and Cheese in the microwave container. The Chef Boyardee Macaroni and cheese definitely tasted like a tin can. He loves Mac and Cheese in any form but he didn't eat this at all. He didn't like the individual microwavable Mac and Cheese either.
I had no idea that vegetables could pick up the tin can flavor. I just assumed that the canning industry would have figured this out already. I have not used canned vegetables very much except for tomatoes which seem to overwhelm any canned flavor and I use a lot of them. I wonder about the lining used in some of the brand name vegetable cans. The unlabled peas, above, were in a tin can that was not lined. I am wondering if the tin can flavor is diminished if the lining is used or if it picks up other flavors instead. I will have to search my basement for brand name and private label brand cans that are the same age to see if there is a difference in flavor.
In any case, the boxed Mac and Cheese definitely wins over the canned variety.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Canned Fruit Cocktail
Hearing of my job loss, a friend brought over 7 large cardboard boxes of canned food. I spent about 2 hours this morning sorting through all of the cans and organizing my basement area where I keep my food.
I am not LDS but I am very fiscally conservative and when I moved to Utah and learned about the LDS penchant for lots of food storage in case of an emergency, I decided it was not a bad idea for anyone. My neighbor, the one who brought over all the food, has been hooking me up with all her bulk buying contacts. So, I have accumulated quiet a bunch of stuff. Some of it I will probably NEVER use unless I am very hungry. I won't use the fake Beef chunks which really just taste like dog food. Actually, I doubt that a dog would eat it, with all the nice smelling garbage that would become available in case of Armageddon.
Anyway, after sorting through all the food, I had about 25-30 cans of canned fruit. I don't use canned fruit. This seemed like something I could use and that my kids would like.
I like to collect the local cookbooks that community organization put out for fund raising. I have cookbooks from churches, schools, farm bureaus, women's clubs, and our local ward (neighborhood). The worst of these cookbooks (from my perspective) was put out by a school my children used to go to in Utah. About half of the recipes from the main dish section called for cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup and almost every recipe called for canned something or frozen something. I was really expecting a lot better from the cooking in Utah since the culture is very family based, but I think the lack of fresh cooking has a lot to do with food storage. If you have all this food stored, then obviously the plan is to use it. My kids friends tell me I am a great cook, which is crazy because I am not a great cook compared to my mother. But, my son tells me that the cooking at his friends house is not that great.
Anyway, I looked in the aforementioned cookbook because, I thought, if I want to use canned goods then this is the place to go. I picked out the Fruit Cocktail Cake. This cake is a very short batter, with brown sugar topping and then a syrup poured into the cake. It is very, very, very rich. This turns out to be more like a bread pudding or a custard than a cake. I ate mine with milk like it was a strawberry short cake. I have three boys and they only ate half of the cake in one sitting. Normally they would have eaten the whole thing. They said it was good but just couldn't eat it because it was too rich.
Fruit Cocktail Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients below, together
1 Cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup fruit cocktail with juice (= one regular size can)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Pour batter in 9 x 13 inch pan. It will not look as if there is enough batter. You will wonder if this recipe should be doubled. I thought so too, but it puffed up very well.
Spinke on top to cover the batter before cooking
1 cup brown sugar and optionally, sprinkle on chopped nuts
Bake for 18 - 30 minutes. test for doneness with knife or tooth pick. I had to go more toward the high side.
1 stick butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Boil the topping for 5 minutes. After removing the cooked cake from the oven, prick with a fork all over and pour the topping evenly over the cake.
Kitchen tip - if your brown sugar is hard, put it in the microwave and also put in the microwave (in a separate container) a cup of water. Cook for 3 minutes at a time and let the brown sugar absorb the moisture from the air. Periodically take out the brown sugar and mix and break up large chunks.
I am not LDS but I am very fiscally conservative and when I moved to Utah and learned about the LDS penchant for lots of food storage in case of an emergency, I decided it was not a bad idea for anyone. My neighbor, the one who brought over all the food, has been hooking me up with all her bulk buying contacts. So, I have accumulated quiet a bunch of stuff. Some of it I will probably NEVER use unless I am very hungry. I won't use the fake Beef chunks which really just taste like dog food. Actually, I doubt that a dog would eat it, with all the nice smelling garbage that would become available in case of Armageddon.
Anyway, after sorting through all the food, I had about 25-30 cans of canned fruit. I don't use canned fruit. This seemed like something I could use and that my kids would like.
I like to collect the local cookbooks that community organization put out for fund raising. I have cookbooks from churches, schools, farm bureaus, women's clubs, and our local ward (neighborhood). The worst of these cookbooks (from my perspective) was put out by a school my children used to go to in Utah. About half of the recipes from the main dish section called for cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup and almost every recipe called for canned something or frozen something. I was really expecting a lot better from the cooking in Utah since the culture is very family based, but I think the lack of fresh cooking has a lot to do with food storage. If you have all this food stored, then obviously the plan is to use it. My kids friends tell me I am a great cook, which is crazy because I am not a great cook compared to my mother. But, my son tells me that the cooking at his friends house is not that great.
Anyway, I looked in the aforementioned cookbook because, I thought, if I want to use canned goods then this is the place to go. I picked out the Fruit Cocktail Cake. This cake is a very short batter, with brown sugar topping and then a syrup poured into the cake. It is very, very, very rich. This turns out to be more like a bread pudding or a custard than a cake. I ate mine with milk like it was a strawberry short cake. I have three boys and they only ate half of the cake in one sitting. Normally they would have eaten the whole thing. They said it was good but just couldn't eat it because it was too rich.
Fruit Cocktail Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients below, together
1 Cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup fruit cocktail with juice (= one regular size can)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Pour batter in 9 x 13 inch pan. It will not look as if there is enough batter. You will wonder if this recipe should be doubled. I thought so too, but it puffed up very well.
Spinke on top to cover the batter before cooking
1 cup brown sugar and optionally, sprinkle on chopped nuts
Bake for 18 - 30 minutes. test for doneness with knife or tooth pick. I had to go more toward the high side.
Topping
Put in sauce pan1 stick butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Boil the topping for 5 minutes. After removing the cooked cake from the oven, prick with a fork all over and pour the topping evenly over the cake.
Kitchen tip - if your brown sugar is hard, put it in the microwave and also put in the microwave (in a separate container) a cup of water. Cook for 3 minutes at a time and let the brown sugar absorb the moisture from the air. Periodically take out the brown sugar and mix and break up large chunks.
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