Date Swirl Cookies

Shades of "Grandma Maynard" aka Susan or Grammie....
I made the beloved cookies that I remember were almost always in the cookie jar in her dining room. The recipe makes lots so I actually cooked about a quarter of them and saved the remainder uncooked in the freezer. I'll let you know how that works out.

I plan to make the jelly roll to take to the Ground Hog Day potluck.

JoAnn

Clarification on Chinese Salad Page 44

The directions should include:
break up the dry Ramen noodles and toast them in a dry fry pan,
toast the slivered almonds in a a dry fry pan as well as
toasting the sesame seeds separately.

The toasted dry Ramen noodles give it an interesting crunch.

CURRIED LENTILS AND VEGGIES ON RICE for supper. Very, very good. Took it light on the curry as I wasn't sure if it would be too much curry for me, but it could have used a little more than I added. The recipe made a lot and Ralph thinks any leftovers would work well in a soup. If there are any leftovers! Thanks JoAnn

Lots of Leftovers

Today has been left overs.  Lots of good food.  We are still working on the Pulled Pork.  Tonight it was nachos.  Yesterday I made some Hungarian Slumgullian Soup for lunch. Quite easy, hearty and tasty.  The rest of the hamburg went into a meatloaf (Individual Meatloafs) for dinner last night.  The meatloaf sauce was easy with surprisingly complex flavors.  With a bit of liquid smoke it would make a great barbecue sauce!  And since the oven was hot, a Jelly Roll with homemade blueberry jam was the dessert selection.  Making the jelly roll brought back a lot of memories from childhood.  Spreading jelly and snacking on the trimmed edges.  The spongy consistency of the cake.  It's possible I haven't had one in about 45 years! 

we tried Ralph's wedding soup every one liked it even Zack D. he had 2 bowls

Roger and Patti

Comfort food on a snowy evening

Yesterday we made Rachel and Dan's Slow Cooked Pulled Pork.  We made the dry rub and put it on the pork the night before and let it marinate all night.  We made the braising liquid the night before as well and in the morning it was quick and simple to put the pork and liquid in the crock pot.  The house was filled with a delicious aroma all day.  We did not add the onions until the last two hours - due to rushing in the morning to get to work - but the onions cooked just fine.  Rich and flavorful and just as tender as the pork.  Last night we had the pork fresh from the cooker with mashed potatoes, using the braising liquid as gravy.  Hmmm

Tonight we thickened some of the braised liquid with a roux, added some of the meat and onions, toasted some nice French bread, added a couple pickle slices and had juicey pulled pork sandwiches.  The bread and butter pickles complemented the tangy pork nicely.  As a side we made Jen and Zach's Baked Mac N Cheese.  I think we have discovered a new ingredient to add to a macaroni and cheese dish.  The eggs made a nice cheesy, slightly custardy goo.  Excellent comfort food on a cold, snowy evening.  A rich Argentinian Malbec wine rounded out the dinner.  Thanks to both couples for excellent recipes!

DELICIOUS!
Just made Gail's Rosemary White Bean Soup for lunch - Yum! Gail made it for a Maynard's Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years back and we had great memories of it. Really a nice soup for the tail end of another snow storm! Tip: We both tried it before using the food processor and it would be a great soup either way - processed or not! Thanks Gail!

New

Macaroni paste?

I tried to find macaroni paste. Ifoods has a recipe for basic pasta paste.
I think it's just the dough that you would make macaroni from.
Being the simplistic cook that I am, I'd just add pasta to the chicken soup.

Slow, steady progress

I think this is coming together.  Some things to remember if you are trying to navigate the blogs.
To add or read Comments:
All you need to do is click on the "0 Comments" (or whatever number) at the bottom of each posting.  If it says "0 Comments" no comments have been made yet, but you can make a comment of your own by clicking there as well.  It will take you to a form to fill out. 

If you are not seeing all the blog postings, there should be a listing of all of them on the right side of the page under "Blog Archive".  Click on any of these and you will have each blog entry with comments on its own page. 

To add a New Post:
For those who have managed to sign up as Contributors, on the upper right of the blog page you should see  "Sign In", click there, sign in and then find the tab near the middle of the new page you've navigated to for"New Post".  If you're already signed in you will have "New Post" on the upper right of the blog page.  That will take you to a form to fill out.  When done, make sure you click the orange "Publish Post" at the bottom.
Good luck and Enjoy!

Chicken Tetrazzini

Made Chicken Tetrazzini tonight, or at least a version of it.  We didn't have the mushroom soup, so it wasn't too close to the recipe in the book.  Gail, does that count?

we tried Ralph's wedding soup it was very good even zack d liked it roger

Day two of the Maynard Family blog

Well, we are slowly working the bugs out.  We have some contributors who have signed up as contributors, but haven't contributed anything yet.  We may still need to do some work to get that to work.  I've gone into the blog settings a few times, and tried to adjust everything to make access as easy as possible, as long as we don't get any stray comments of questionable content from the world at large I'll try to keep it that way. 

We have gotten some comments to work.  Be sure to click on the "1 comment" or whatever at the bottom of each day's blog posting to expand the comments to read what has been written.  Comments may not appear instantly in the blog when you make them.  Give the system a while to work, it is free after all...  We're still waiting for some enlightening input in those comments.  I know you people are enjoying the cookbook!  Nothing new to report here in the Stratham kitchen  I think making two recipes a day on the weekend is my limit.  But I agree with Polly, the Onion Soup is very good!  Oh, I did not have any Gruyere, we don't keep much of that around ;-)  so we made some toasts from French bread slices with melted sharp Provolone on top.  Perhaps a sacrilege, but it worked very well in an emergency.

Oh, and for the "West Coast" Maynards, just letting you know, it's 9 degrees this morning here by the New Hampshire seacoast, I know Stanley and Gail aren't anywhere near that warm this morning.

January 16, 2011 Onion Soup for lunch

Making Onion Soup for lunch.  Made Pop's Waffles for breakfast, but I did tinker with the recipe a bit.  Substituted about 1/3 cup of cornstarch for similar amount of flour.  Cornstarch is supposed to make them crisper and not get soggy so fast when they sit.  Don't know if I noticed that much differnce.  Also added a couple tablespoons of sugar to the egg whites when I beat them.  I think that did improve consistency and fluffiness. 

Have a couple followers.  I'm so excited, but no comments.  Maybe we need some one younger than 50 to tell us how to do this blog thing.

Cookbook January 16

The Cookbook is all printed, well almost, I have one more copy to print and bind, but that's all!  JoAnn came into my office yesterday and helped with collating, binding and proofing.  Need to check them over before the Publisher releases them for distribution.  Trying to decide what to make today from the cookbook, maybe Pop's Waffles or Diane's Finnish Pancake.  If I make the pancake I can make some Beer Bread too.  That stuff is great, simple and hearty.  Thanks Mike.  Winter Ales work well, they give a subtle hint of spice to the bread. 

I made Roger's Quick Baked Beans.  Very good, though I had to adlib on some ingredients, and they might need a warning to serve with Gasex ;-)

Also made the Chicken Soup yesterday.  I called Mother to find out what Italian macaroni paste was, and she didn't know either.  My solution was to use a heaping tablespoon of Orzo as well as a tablespoon of tomato paste.  I ended up with a pink soup, that tasted fine, perhaps a bit heavy on the celery.  And even though the recipe didn't call for any chicken in the chicken soup, I did and most of a cubed chicken breast. 

I hear Gail may be doing her own version of Julie and Julia and trying to cook her way through the entire cookbook.

John