Hey Grandpa, What's For Supper?

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
I feel you. I have a full-time job outside the home, too. I'm getting some free time this summer since it's my daughter's last summer vacation before starting kindergarten, though.

I never start anything for dinner until after 5:00, which is when our office closes. So you can know that anything I post here is EASY! I do NOT feel like coming home in the afternoon and THEN spending 2 hours in the kitchen. Plus, to be honest, I resent it being my responsibility. But it IS. My husband will "provide" if I say I'm just too tired, but he's exhausted, too, so for him, "getting dinner" means buying it somewhere, which we just can't afford. I swear, if I was sick for a week, he'd bring home takeout every single day. So I fix dinner every night out of self-defense and to save our pocketbook, more than anything.

I've never had a breadmaker, but after reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, I'm kind of wanting to get one. That would be one way to solve the "no time to make bread" problem.

I save big projects like soapmaking or putting up (by which I mean prepping & freezing) produce for the weekends.

I am WAY jealous of people who get to stay home on hobby farms all day...NOT that I think it's an easy life (far from it); it's just what I'd rather be doing all the time instead of part-time. I'm dying for dairy goats right now, but I'm just afraid I've already got so much on my plate, I could never make it work.

Long story short, BOY, do I understand where you're coming from!

 

[happyhen]

If you can, buy a breadmaker! Bread (either baked in the machine or formed and baked in the oven), doughs, pasta...I use my machine to do the hard work. You will be amazed at how self-sufficient you feel and how much money you save.

You can spend a day making and freezing bread dough, pizza dough, make and freeze fresh pasta. Just put in the fridge overnight and cook the next day.

 

[lizardz]

Quote:

I've been there - there have been a couple of times over the years that I've had the flu and do I get tea and broth? No, I get "Does this mean I'm fixing dinner again?" "Dinner" is either boxed Mac & Cheese, beans & weenies, or scrambled eggs. When my son was 5, after a few days of this, he came up to my room, put his hands on my cheeks and said "Mommy, I hope you get well really soon. I'm really tired of daddy's cooking"

Smart kid.

I keep thinking about a breadmaker, too, but I so love the feel of kneading the bread, I don't know if it would be the same. Thanks for comiserating with me, ninjapoodles.

Well, enough feeling sorry for myself - DH agreed to drive DS down to his band practice, so I'm off to do some work in the garden (have to re-plant my zukes as the nasty earwigs ate them all up

).
Liz

 

[Aneesa's Muse]

I had a banana for dinner!

Some folks can't even handle "take out" !!


lizardz ...get the breadmaker!! We love the breads and rolls (dough) that I make in mine!

happyhen ...could you share the pasta recipe for the bread maker, please? I feel like I should know this ..lol ...but it's not coming to me..

 

[happyhen]

Basic Egg Pasta (1 1/2 pounds)

4 large eggs, room temp and lightly beaten
2 TBSP warm water
1 TBSP olive oil
2 cups unbleached AP flour
1 cup semolina pasta flour (can omit, just increase AP flour to 3 cups)
1 tsp salt

Place in bread pan according to manufacturer's instructions. Program for Dough or Pasta Dough cycle; press Start. Set a kitchen timer for 7 minutes. When timer rings, check the dough ball. It should be firm but pliable. Reset timer for 3 more minutes. When timer rings, press Stop.

Remove dough from pan, form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

You can freeze the dough ball for up to 1 month. Defrost in refrigerator overnight before bringing to room temperature and rolling out.

You can freeze formed noodles in bundles on a baking sheet, then traansfer to plastic bag.
These can be cooked frozen, they just take about 2 minutes longer.


Herbed Egg Pasta

Replace water with milk. Add 2 TBSP minced fresh parsley, 2 TBSPS minced fresh basil and 2 TBSPS minced fresh marjoram to flour in bread pan.


Black Pepper Egg Pasta

Add 1 heaping TBSP of finely ground black papper to the flour in pan.


Whole Wheat Egg Pasta

Increase warm water to 3 TBSP and replace 1 cup of semolina flour (or if using all AP flour, replace1 cup) with 1 cup of whole wheat flour.


Green Spinach Pasta

Decrease eggs to 3 and add 1/2 pound fresh spinach, cleaned, pureed in food processor, and squeezed of juice (should equal about 3 TBSPS of spinach puree).

I hope you enjoy these

 

[purr]

DH and I are having leftover jambalaya , corn bread and apple crisp is in the oven and its sooo hot in here.
DH is on a charity motorcycle run so I don't know what time he'll be in.
I usually go but its too long a ride for me.

 

[lizardz]

It wasn't too hot today, but with all the smoke in the air it made it really humid, so I didn't want anything heavy. We had chicken ceaser salad with some garlic bread. For dessert we had "Chocolate Decadance" from the store. Not very good; I had a few bites and hubby finished it off. I would have preferred some of my coffee chocolate chip ice cream instead. And when I say "my" I mean only mine - I hide it from DH and DS! Some things I share, and some things I don't

Liz

 

[MoonbeamQueen]

happyhen, thank you for posting that pasta recipe. I only use my bread machine for dough, for pizza, rolls, etc...it never occurred to me to make pasta dough in it!

Anyway, I picked the figs and ripe blackberries I could reach today at our place. Dinner was sauteed chicken breasts, spinach, and mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert was a cobbler (made with those fresh blackberries and augmented with raspberries and blueberries from the grocery) and a scoop of double vanilla ice cream. I work swing shift and don't make the time to cook often enough. This is my 3-day weekend though and cooking is a nice change!

 

[2dream]

It seems like forever since I had a chance to get here. Been way to buy to suit me.
Friday night we tried something new. Pulled our first eggplant and first bell pepper and just had to eat them. Also had one fresh ripe tomato and had to eat it. So we sliced the eggplant, sliced the tomato, chopped some bellpepper and onion. Sprayed a piece of tinfoil with non stick spray. Started with an eggplant slice, covered that with 5 cheese mexican cheese shreds (that is all we had on hand), topped with a tomato slice, covered that with onion and chopped peppers. Placed foil on the grill and let it cook. (Not a pouch. Left foil open). About 15 to 20 min. later we covered with more cheese and let that melt. Served with grilled chicken and garlic bread. Talk about good.
Saturday- busy morning working on nest boxes, rabbit cages and a pole barn. Around noon thirty we were starving. So I just used some leftover deer sausage from Friday night and made quick redbeans and rice. Saturday night we fried up some fish (bream) that someone had give us and some homefries.
Tonight will be chicken and dumplins made with a rooster we processed yesterday afternoon and fresh butterbeans and cornbread.

 

[Tutter]

I'm just having chicken, mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives, biscuits, candied carrots, and cole slaw for Sunday dinner.

Any more effort would be wasted. Ds doesn't generally work on Sat., but because his boss went down for a 16 hour shift at the CalFire headquarters, he ran the shop, which should have closed at 5.

At 8 there were still people buying the last of their fire supression items. Then a U.S. Department of Forestry person came in with a special pump with a blown head gasket. He was part of a 3 man strike team, and they had to get back to their fire. (Still over 60 burning in my direct area...they've merged into larger fires.) No parts for it here, so ds fabricated something.

Long story short, he got home at 2:30 A.M. asleep on his feet, having started at 6 in the morning. It's been like that all week, so no one wants more than to just fill their stomachs and go to bed early.

At least I'm getting an air filter mail order, which should be here tomorrow. Even the dogs have red swollen eyes, and are wheezing, so it should help....and I got it for 1/3 off!

NinjaPoodles I got a breadmaker after we moved here, 20 years ago, as a gift, after hand making my bread for years, and I love it. I've gotten a more modern one since, but it's even better!

Have you thought of getting a couple of smaller goats, like Nigerian Dwarves? They are very sweet, and can give you 1-2 quarts of milk a day apiece, which isn't bad at all!

Lizardz, I'm sorry that you're still having the smoke, too. But the ice cream sounds great! I'm going to talk dh into making some chocolate-chip mint tonight. I have what I need, and it's what I want.

You can still make pizza dough with not a horrible amount of effort, and this is a really good recipe. I've been making it for about 15 years. I don't use a breadmaker for it, but a food processor, with a regular old metal blade. When it's at the sitting stage, you can get together your cheese and other toppings.

Pizza Dough

Flour, 2 cups
Yeast, ¼ ounce (1 packet ~ check the date for freshness.)
Sugar, ½ teaspoon
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Olive Oil, 2 Tablespoons
Water, 2/3 cup, heated

Whisk yeast, sugar, and 1/3 cup of the warm water in a large bowl.

Let set 10 minutes, until foamy.

Stir in other 1/3 cup of warm water, oil and salt, and put into a food processor.

Process 15 seconds w/ reg. metal blade. If too dry, add 1 Tablespoon H20 at a time and process.

When it forms a nice ball, process 15 more seconds.

Oil large mixing bowl lightly. Flip dough ball in it to coat. Cover, let set 1 hour, or until risen.

Punch down.

Roll pretty thinly with a jar or thick glass soda bottle. Alright, use a rolling pin if you must.

Put on pan, p-r-i-c-k (the system won't let me type the word, it changes it to 'jerk') very well with fork all over. Put on toppings, bake.