Thursday, October 08, 2009

Fall Comfort Foods

Elle just asked me for some meal inspiration. Which is a switch because I'm usually bugging her for help with school lunch packing or ideas for dinner......

Things are a bit chaotic here....

1. I'm still recovering from being sick (so tired) and I smacked my head yesterday (don't ask.... cleaning behind the pellet stove and that blessed elk mount.... need I say more??). So just getting things done is a challenge right now.
2. I'm putting things away from the evacuation pile and the wedding pile. And catching up on laundry... a challenge with no working dryer and below freezing temps outside.
3. We got our first real storm. It is cold here. Right around freezing. So we did the "dig out the winter stuff" from the shed.... it is all piled in the dining room. And I ordered some stuff from Land's End... mittens and hats and such. Sweet really needs a new winter jacket. He has one but it isn't very high quality or warm. And Tuff really needs new boots. And everyone needs those little liner one-size-fits-all knit gloves. Plus some heavy winter socks, and long underwear tops and bottoms. More shopping. Ugh. Paid Sweet a dollar to search for garden hoses under the snow and a dollar for every one he hauled to the lean-to for storage. Bought enough bags of pellets to get to the weekend... hopefully I will have time to take the pickup and get a ton this weekend.
4. Hot is on a diet. No carbs. He swears it works for him. I've been eating some sugar (leftover wedding cake and cinnamon rolls) this week but I finished that up last night so I'm back on the wagon. The no carb thing makes dinner interesting. It seems wrong to make big vats of pasta and eat it in front of Hot. On the other hand.... I could eat an omlet every night and be happy.
5. My "to do" list is multiplying exponentially. Paying off doctor bills from this summer, doing school stuff (fundraisers, book orders, math homework, reading homework, finding library books, checking out the teacher's Amazon wish list....), dealing with cold weather stuff (I must put plastic on the windows this weekend and blow out the flowerbed sprinklers and finish putting porch pots in the garage.... so much for my plans to put my flower beds to bed nicely...), the broken dryer isn't helping, trying to feed everyone healthy-ish but cheap and easy, oh my... it overwhelms sometimes.

So back to the recipe request.... I went for some comfort foods.

Inspiration: Fall Comfort Food

From my mom: Scalloped Potatoes and Ham (I won't mention that you can redneck it and use hot dogs....)
From my aunt: White Bean Chili (This is actually a great crock pot potluck item.... you can tone the hot up or down with green chilies or habanera)
From my grandma: Porcupine Meatballs (serve with garlic mashed potatoes made in the pressure cooker....if you make enough you can have meatball sandwiches the next day)
From the internet: Cube Steak Sandwiches (serve with salad)
From my uncle: Pul Go Gi (We like it with plain rice)
From my friend: Chicken Enchiladas (Elle's recipe)

Up first.... Scalloped (Scalped) Potatoes and Ham....

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