A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Halloween 2020: The At Home Family Party that Rocked

      

These two amazing kiddoes are the reason for our at home Halloween party.   Myia, who is  8 and the  cutest Black Panther-ess out there (okay, I might be prejudiced but look, she's  adorable!) had been very concerned about how this whole Pandemic thing was going to affect her trick-or-treating.  But Aunt Gonnie and Uncle Gene (and Uncle Hal) always take care of the kiddoes at Halloween.  We don't have kids ourselves but we've long thought that having our nieces and nephews around gives them people their own age to play with--especially at Halloween.

In our family, there was also a long tradition started by  our Aunt Bessie who always always had Chili on the stove on Halloween, along with  popcorn balls and cookies for  all the neighborhood kids. I loved that tradition so years ago, after Aunt Bessie was no longer able to entertain, I took over making sure at our house there was, and always will be, Chili, popcorn balls, and treats for all the family and friends.

Because the pandemic has changed so much in our lives, we've had to rethink our Halloween get togethers too.  Instead of opening the house to all, we focused on my brothers and sister, and their children, and grand child.   The  youngest are Junior (above, who started out the evening as a Mutant Ninja Turtle, but as he got hot ended up as mostly a naked child running through the house) and Shamyia, whom we mostly call Myia. All together there were 9 of us able to spend the evening together 

Since this is a food blog, I'll go through the food first, but at the end  I'll also talk about keeping everyone entertained which is also part of the fun of Halloween. There are four recipes: Chicken and Homemade Noodle Soup, Spider Bread, Knorr Spinach Dip, and Jello Spider in the Brain.  And then descriptions of three great activities:  Over the Top Large Halloween Word Search, Solo Cup Bowling, and Mini Cornhole.

For 30 years we've always had Chili on Halloween but this year we voted and they chose the lovely, country Chicken and Noodles  for the big pot on the stove.  And I said "No problem!"--fun change for me too.

 One note as you click on my recipe links, for some reason the blog's photo takes about 20 seconds to load so please be patient with it. I apologize. I'm working to solve the technical problem and hope to have that corrected soon.

 Glenna's Chicken  and Homemade Noodle Soup

If you are in a   hurry, I will say that Rheames makes a great homestyle egg noodle in two different shapes so if you're not in the mood to roll out pasta dough...slip over to the freezer section in the grocery store. Other than perfect shapes, no one will know the difference. 

My favorite food part of the night was Knorr Spinach Dip in my own little creation: The Bread Spider. It was a last minute "Hmm...would it work if I..." thought that  turned out to be my favorite foodie thing we had.  This will definitely become a tradition. Who doesn't like a spider than you can pull off his legs to eat dip with?

Copycat Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup

I must confess.  I love Campbell's Bean with Bacon Soup. I know.  It's canned.  I'm supposed to love all things from scratch. Well, actually, now I do.  This soup smells exactly like Campbell's but it tastes even better because of the TLC, of course, but also all those fresh veggies.  In a can of Campbell's there are maybe a half dozen carrot pieces and a few identifiable itty bitty chips of bacon but this soup has almost as many veggies as there are beans!  

It's  very simple and easy to make and absolutely delicious. I'll be making this again and again!

Stuffed Pepper Soup (Two Ways)

 

Our friends, Jeff and Dee, gave us this recipe a few months ago and, for the first time, I had all the ingredients in the house at the same time.  Well, let me be honest, I'd lost the actual recipe so I made this based on what I remembered which is basically all the ingredients for stuffed green peppers plus beef broth so that's how I made it.  I did make two substitutions from what I remember of the original recipe: brown rice for white rice and a small red and yellow pepper for the green pepper, simply because I love the slightly sweeter taste.

Let me share one lesson I did learn from this little kitchen project:  if the recipe says "cooked" rice, pre-cook the rice!  I remember Dee and I saying, when we discussed the recipe, that using a separate pan or rice cooker for the rice was a pain in the patoot.  Yes, but if you don't pre-cook the rice, for some reason and I'm not at all sure what the chemical basis is, the rice either will NOT cook or it takes forever to do so. It's simply easier, even though it shouldn't be, to pre-cook the rice in a separate pan or a rice cooker.  Learn from me, my friends.  Or, make the same mistake I did, confess to Dee, and she'll make fun of you like she did me, which was funny too.

Creamy Chicken and Cauliflower Soup

I love soup.  All kinds of soups, stews, chowders. Soups with veggies only, soups with beans, and soup with everything but the kitchen sink.  Let's face it: it's usually easy to make, you can usually use your crockpot, there is endless variety, it's customizable, it heats up easily in small portions, it's portable (think lunch)....what's not to love?  So when I was craving potato soup the other day, and even though I'm no a low-carber I still blanched at the thought of all the starch, I decided that potato soup made with cauliflower (love cauliflower!) and the chicken breasts that just happened to be thawed out in the fridge would be the ticket--and it was! I'm not going to tell you one of those cauliflower lies--"TASTES EXACTLY LIKE POTATOES!"-- it doesn't, it tastes like cauliflower, but it does taste delicious.

 

Chicken and Brown Rice Soup

 

 Chicken and Brown rice soup with veggies. Perfect for both summer and winter, always nourishing, always comforting, makes a body feel better when well and when sick.  Be it ever so humble...there's nothing like chicken soup.

  

Slow Cooker/Crockpot Pinto "Brown" Beans & Cornbread Muffins

One of my favorite meals from childhood was "Brown" beans and cornbread.  Funny, I never realized until I started blogging how we never called beans by their real names but by colors: Brown beans = Pintos, White beans = navy, Black beans = Cuban.  Still a favorite meal, I like them just as well meatless as with ham or sausage added and my favorite way to cook them is in the crockpot.  Interestingly, I did a small experiment a few years ago and found that, in the crockpot, soaking the beans overnight doesn't make more than a 15-30 minute cooking time difference.  So I don't bother anymore.  I work nights so usually when I make them, I come in from work in the morning, throw them together in the slow cooker (takes about 5 minutes!) and wake up to the lovely smell of beans and cumin.  Tasty, not to mention so very good for me!

Food Network: Pioneer Woman's 7 Can Soup

 

We have a small group that gets together on the Sunday nights I'm not working to watch....well...first it was Dexter we were all crazy about, then we all got hooked on The Walking Dead, and now we're all hooked on FEAR the Walking Dead, sort of TWD: Los Angeles if it were in the CSI franchise. What used to be "Dexter Dinners" became "Dead Dinners" and is now "Fear the Dead Dinners" 

Auntie Miranda and I switch off cooking or one of us makes the entrée and the other one makes a dessert. Sometimes we cook in theme but mostly we use these dinners as a way to experiment and try out new recipes we find interesting.  This was one of those.  I mentioned that I'd seen a Pioneer Woman recipe for "7 Can Soup" that I wanted to try.  She laughed and said she'd bought the same 7 cans wanting to try it to.  Hey, two names sharing one brain!

We all  loved this soup and what Auntie and I loved the most was the ease.  The directions are to make it on the stove. I threw all the ingredients into the crockpot and went to bed for the day (worked the night before).  I would have called it "chili" rather than "soup" but I'm not trying to split hairs, it's just a good chili with a little extra oomph.  We definitely will be making it again (so nice to have it all in the pantry for times when I don't have the patience or the time to spend thawing/browning ground beef.)  We're actually even considering it for our annual Halloween Party.

Pinterest Recipe: One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

 

 You know how you, okay: me, pin a million recipes on Pinterest that look good or proclaim to be "the best ________ ever!" and you, okay: me, either never get around to trying them out or I do try them and they are lackluster at best? 

This one (photo to left) works--it's a keeper! 

It's called chili mac but, to be honest, it's what we called, when I was growing up, Mom's goulash.  The differences are the cheese, the beans, the chili powder, and the best of all: ONE POT!  I know, right? That last part made my little heart skip a beat.  ONE POT.  No cooking the pasta separately and the skillet to brown the ground beef, etc.  Just brown, drain, dump in cans from the pantry, pasta that tastes even better from having cooked in the sauce, and it's a done deal.  To most people, that's called a weeknight dinner win-win.  To me, as a 12-hour nightshifter with a non-traditional work schedule, it's work night or sleep day win-win.

To get the recipe, click below: 

One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese from Damn Delicious blog

Nutrition per 1/8th recipe:  Calories:   153;  Protein:  12;  Carbs:   13;  Fat:   6;  Fiber 1;

Cook's notes:

I did make a few changes, no reflection on the original recipe, I just had to work around what I had in my pantry and fridge.  I used double the amount of meat (hubs is a big meat eater) half of it ground beef and half ground sausage.  I used large shell pasta instead of macaroni simply because that's what I had, I doubled the amount of cheese, used kidney beans only, and used shredded "Mexican" cheddar/monterey jack mix, again, because that's what I had on hand. 

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German Lentil Soup from German World Magazine

My new go-to recipe for Lentil Soup from German World Magazine.  The addition of vinegar and potatoes makes it a shade different from the lentil soup I grew up eating but, wow, what a difference!  Love this stuff.  Easy to make on the stove or could easily be converted to the slow cooker/Crock-pot, there's a lot of flavor jammed into what appears to be humble ingredients.

A huge hit with my officially unofficial tasting staff:  Chris and Evan.  If they had hands free (as in not chowing down) they'd physically give it two thumbs up.

Colorado-style Green Pork Chili with Sweet Potatoes

 

Our Respiratory Dept Council is sponsoring a dept Chili Cook-off tomorrow. I wasn't going to sign up but when Mary jokingly put my name on the list, I thought "Why not? I've been wanting to try my hand at green pork chili like we've had when we've traveled out west."  After searching through recipes and experimenting a little, I came up with this healthy twist on the genre.  The recipe's "secret" ingredients include Herdez Salsa Verde, Chocolate, Cinnamon, and Sweet Potatoes.  Intrigued? I hope so.

Where my standard chili recipe focuses on hearty beans and a rich beef base, this recipe is lighter, with less fat, lighter beans, and gets it's richness from the warm spices and chocolate.  If it sounds too strange to be believed, just take a leap of faith with me.  Chocolate and cinnamon really make this chili warm with layers of flavors but with none standing out on its own.

My crockpot and chili have already been delivered tonight for the competition tomorrow. Wish me luck! And good luck to the dept council on your fundraiser-- not to mention: THANK YOU for all your hard work!