Cream Puffs, Eclairs and other good stuff.

I just know you ran right out to the fridge, grabbed out some eggs and butter and flour and tried to make the Choux Pastry, and now you’re wondering what to do with it.   You have these wonderful little golden puffs, (and if you haven’t sampled one by now, I want to know why?), and need to fill them with something good.

In our house we love Eclairs and Cream Puffs, and I make them from time to time.    One  of the things I love about Choux Paste is that you can make a batch of these little puffs, and you don’t need to finish them off right away, they freeze, and freeze well.   So if you’re in the mood for an Eclair or a Cream Puff, just grab a few out of the freezer and let them sit on the counter after you’ve prepared the fillings.  By the time you get a pastry bag filled, the puffs will have thawed enough to work with.

There are two ways of filling a Puff.   One is by cutting it in half, squirting in the whipped cream or Creme Patisserie or custard, then placing the top back on and finishing them off.   My favorite though is to get a pastry bag with a large round tip, inserting the tip into the side of the puff and filling them that way.   Much more fun, and it cuts out a step.

Filling for Choux Paste

Sweet Side
Sweetened Whipped Cream
Creme Patiserrie
Custard
Chocolate Custard
Ice Cream

 Savory Side
Chicken Salad
Ham Salad
Crab Salad
Shrimp Salad

Honestly, you are limited only by your imagination as to what you use to fill your puffs with.
Here’s my favorite filling.   But if you have your own favorite custard sauce or custard recipe, by all means use it.

2 cups milk, heated
3 egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
2-4 tablespoons Cornstarch  (depending on how thick you want the custard)
1/2 -1 tsp Vanilla, or my favourite, Kahlua Liqueur

Beat eggs yolks with sugar and corn starch until well mixed.   Strain them if you like at this point to get that pesky little bit of egg white that always clings to the yolk out.    Set aside for a minute or two while heating the milk.     Temper the eggs by pouring a little of the heated milk into it, then add a little more, whisking it well each time.    Then add the tempered egg mixture into the heated milk, whisking it well.   You don’t want to scramble the eggs yolks by pouring them directly into the hot milk, which is why you temper the eggs with some of the hot milk first.    Heat to a boil, whisking it all the time, let cook for about 30-45 seconds, then remove from heat.   It should be fairly thick.   This will thicken some upon standing.    Pour into a bowl, then cover it with plastic wrap, pressing it down onto the surface.   This prevents a skin from forming.   At this point you can place it into the fridge and let it cool down completely, or to hasten the cooling, just put your bowl on a bed of ice, and let sit for about ten minutes or so.   Then take off the plastic wrap and stir, replacing it after you stir.  It should be cool enough to pipe into the puffs after about 20 minutes.

Then just place the tip of the filled pastry bag that you just filled with your Creme Patisserie, into the puff and squeeze, filling the puff as you are drawing out the tip.   Top with some melted chocolate if you like and set it into the fridge to finish cooling.

 

To make the chocolate topping, just microwave a couple of squares of baking chocolate, til it’s softened, stir in one tablespoon of unsalted butter, mix thoroughly, then use a spoon or pastry brush to add a little chocolate to the top of the puffs.  And VOILA! you have an Eclair, or just a cream filled puff.   Call it whatever you like.

 

And if you want this puffs to do double duty just fill them with your favorite chicken or ham or seafood salad.

Filled with some lovely Chicken Salad, each one pretty much bite size.

Now doesn’t this look like a fun appetizer or dessert?

I’ll be posting a couple more ideas you can make with Choux Paste a little later on.

For now, go and practice making some custard.  One nice thing about custard, if you don’t make it exactly right you can always eat the evidence.   No one has to know, it will be between you and your scale or …

Pâte à Choux

I love Pâte à Choux, and all of its iterations.   I love it filled with Creme Patisserie, gilded with some melted chocolate, I love it filled with whipped cream and dusted with confectioners sugar, I love it made the way my mom made it, when we had unexpected company for afternoon coffee.   I love it made into dumplings for soup.   I just plain love it.     That being said, I’m going to introduce you to some of my favorite ways of preparing it, over the next few postings.   For today, I’ll go with the basics.

I actually got this recipe out of the Parade Magazine back in the 1980’s when Julia Child was still pretty active.   And I’ve been making it from her recipe ever since.     My copy of the recipe is pretty dog-eared now, and I finally figured out that I could scan it and save it on my computer.   Can anyone say DUH!!!!  At least now I don’t have to worry so much about it suddenly falling apart on me, now I just have to worry about computer crashes.  Sigh, as if there weren’t enough stuff to worry about.   There are other recipes out there, and sometimes I make this the way my mom made it as well.   Depends upon how humid it is outside.  Really!   More humid, fewer eggs needed.  But for starters, Julia’s recipe is a good one, and a good starting point.

To start with, make sure you have all the items you need ready.   The French call it Mise en Place, which means everything in place.  It just makes sense, you don’t want to be searching for anything once you get started.  Have your oven preheated, get out the utensils you need, measure out the ingredients you’ll be using, and get them ready.   This also helps you to maybe not forget key ingredients like, oh say, salt, sugar or in my case, I once made carrot cake for a friend and put the cake in the oven and thought it looked a little skimpy and realized, I’d forgotten to put the carrots into the batter!  You’ve never seen anyone get a cake out of the oven faster and fold in the carrots and back into the oven than me that day.   By the way, the cake turned out great.

Without further ado…

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.   Get out a 2 quart heavy bottom pan, a stout wooden stirring spoon and a large bowl.      Then get the ingredients together…
Pâte à Choux

1 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup flour, all-purpose, scooped out and leveled.
1 cup eggs,  (stirred together with a fork and measured into the cup, about 5 large eggs)

Heat water and butter together, bring to a boil.

Take off of heat and dump the flour in and begin to beat it together.

It will be rather lumpy at first but keep beating vigorously.   It does come together.  Keep beating it until it forms a large ball, then place back on medium heat and keep beating it, until it stays together and leaves a thin-film of dough on the bottom of the pan.

This tells you that a lot of moisture has evaporated, and it will accept more of the egg.   Take off of the heat now.

Add about 1/4 of the eggs to the dough and beat together.   It will look very strange at this point, cause it separates and looks rather nasty,

but keep beating together, and as soon as the egg has incorporated into the dough, dribble a little more in, and work your arm vigorously again, beating the egg in.   (at this point you can use a mixer bowl and beat it in with that, but I don’t like the dough as well when it is done this way).   Add the egg a dribble at a time, beating vigorously with each addition.    If the humidity is high, you may not need all the eggs,  but if it’s dry you will.    I’ve been making this for many years and can tell from the feel of the dough if I need all the eggs or not.    The pastry should just hold its shape when lifted with a spoon.

Now, you’re ready to bake your cream puffs.   You can spoon them onto a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment covered baking sheet.   My personal preference is for Parchment paper, but then again, it’s up to you.
Form small balls, and space them about 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.

(Sometimes I pipe the pastry onto the sheet, filling a Ziploc bag with the dough, and cutting a hole in one corner of the bag).   Using a damp finger smooth out the tops of the puffs, and brush with an egg wash if desired.   Sometimes I do this, and sometimes not.

 

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden and puffed.   DO NOT OPEN OVEN TO CHECK THE PROGRESS, THEY WILL FALL!   Check after 20 minutes, and if they are nice and golden brown, then pierce the side of the puff with a knife and place back in the oven.

Oh yeah, turn off the oven, before you put them back in.   This allows the steam to escape and helps them to dry out a little.

And there you have it, wonderful little puffs of golden deliciousness, ready to be filled with either savory or sweet fillings.

Have fun with your baking, if it doesn’t turn out this time, it might next time, but the process is always fun.

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

Corn dogs rule!  Well sometimes they do.   And if you’re like me, you don’t want to fiddle around with all that hot oil, or want fried food, so here’s an idea.   Corn Dog Muffins.   Yup, itsy bitsy corn dogs baked in a mini muffin tin.    And they are good.   I’m not too sure how I found this recipe the other day, I was playing around with Google again, well actually Ixquick, and ran across this site, Weelicious  with the recipe for these little charmers.   So I did what I usually do, saved the link and thought “Gee, I’ll have to remember that, it would be a great dish to take to a Potluck”.   And wouldn’t you know it, I got an invite to a friend’s place for an impromptu appetizer get together.   And then I got excited, I realized I had all the ingredients to make these in my cupboard.  Oh does anyone say that anymore?  “In my cupboard”, I think the new term for this is pantry.

I had some hot dogs in the freezer, I had corn meal, no buttermilk, but I know how to fudge that one.  So I made them.    And being a cook, I had to tweak a little, so here’s my recipe.

Corn Dog Muffins    Heat oven to 425 degrees

1 cup White Cornmeal
1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Honey
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk   (I used  1 cup milk and 1/2 cup Sour Cream)
2 Large Eggs
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
3-4 Hot Dogs, cut into 1/2 inch  coins

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.   In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.    *If making your own substitute for Buttermilk, like I did, mix the milk and sour cream together and let sit at room temperature for a little while, the milk will thicken and you’ll get more of the buttermilk tang.  
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and thoroughly combine with a whisk.

 

Place a teaspoon of batter into the greased mini muffin tins, you just want a little layer of batter here.  Then put the hot dog ‘coin’ into the batter and top with another teaspoon of batter.   (I got too much batter and not enough hot dog in each of these little guys, but they were still tasty, please learn from my experience, now back to the recipe).
Bake for about 15 minutes and serve.

 Make sure you’ve got lots of mustard and ketchup and then stand back while you watch everyone indulge.   giggle      This recipe actually made about 30 mini bites, but I only had three hot dogs so, next time I’m going to go for broke and cut up four of them, or more.

Squash Medley and more….

I love this dish, so much so I’ve introduced it to the Seniors as one of the dishes I make from the bounty of squash we’re given as part of Farmshare.  I’ve made it a few times, and each time it is eaten and appreciated.   (this week I actually got a taste of it, giggle, it’s usually gone by the time lunch is over).    One of the best things about this recipe is the fact you can make it with whatever variety of summer squash you have available.  This week we had a bunch of yellow crookneck squash given to us, and even though they were a little ‘tired’, we still were able to use them.   So, since I scored on a good deal for mushrooms, and we had some lovely onions, I decided to go ahead and make what I call Squash Medley.   I usually like a mixture of zucchini and yellow squash for this, but if you only have one kind, go ahead and make it.   Here’s the quantity I made this week, but you can cut it down very easily.   And I’ll tell you how much of each at the end of the big recipe.

 20 small Yellow Crookneck squash, cut into small strips.    I like to julienne them, as I think it looks better, and they cook fast that way. 

2 lbs. Fresh Mushrooms, cut into slices

6 Sweet Onions, cut into strips. 

Olive Oil for sauteeing the vegetables.

4-6 teaspoons Toasted Sesame Seed Oil (add at the end)

Saute the mushrooms in about a teaspoon of olive oil, just til they are cooked, no need to brown them, put aside.

Saute the onions in a little olive oil, just until they are done, and are translucent.   Set aside with the mushrooms. Add  a little more oil, and then start to saute the squash, in small batches, you don’t need to over crowd the pan, you want them to be sauteed, not fried.   As each pan is finished add it to the mushrooms and onions.   When all the squash is sauteed, then toss them with the onions and mushrooms.   To finish it off, drizzle the sesame seed oil over the entire dish and toss gently again.  Serve right away.   This is also great mixed with some cooked linguine or pasta.   

*Now for the home cook.   This is so easy, just saute 8 oz. mushrooms, 1 onion, one each, zucchini (the small ones), and yellow crookneck squash. Then, drizzle with a half teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil, or to taste, and if you like, mix in some cooked pasta at the end.   And Voila!  you have a wonderful side dish or main dish even.   I’ve added chicken strips to this dish as well.   And if you notice, no seasonings other than the Sesame Seed Oil, you don’t need salt for this.  So it’s also great for anyone watching their salt intake. 

 

Now for the rest of the dishes we served.   We had Mojo Pork,which is pork marinated in  a Mojo Criollo sauce, served that with Yellow Rice and Black Beans.  

We also had our Cabbage, Smoked Sausage and Potato boil.   We still haven’t figured out what to call it, but it is so good. 

 

I made some Glazed Carrots,

and can’t forget Dot’s Deviled Eggs,

they’re always a hit, plus fresh sliced tomatoes out of our little garden.    And of course Biscuits with our own Home Made Butter.     Plus the desserts of course.  Which I neglected to get a picture of. 

So, there you have it, one more week of great food served to people who deserve the best we can offer.

Spinach Maria and Boat Club for June

I am so thankful for being able to attend our monthly potlucks at Boat Club, it means I get to try lots of new dishes and if I’m lucky I get recipes as well.  The best of both worlds.    And last night was no exception.

We had everything from ham to salad to desserts.    We really do have the best cooks here.  I say that every month, but it’s true.

And I have to admit to taking the easy way out this time.   I made my Blooming Onion bread and a Black Olive Tapenade, mainly cause I had the ingredients to hand and they were easy to make, and I wasn’t feeling inspired.  I did change up the Blooming Onion Bread a little, mainly cause I had some cheddar cheese and some Pepper Jack cheese that I’d already sliced and that were in the freezer.    And of course I always have at least one can of Black Olives on hand so I can make a quick Tapenade.  I used some Ciabatta rolls I had in the freezer for the Tapenade, and that worked well also.

Now without further ado, drum roll please….   Here are the dishes we had last night and I’m following that with the recipe for the Spinach Maria, which was OMG good.

 

Blooming Onion Bread

 

Tapenade with Ciabatta Roll slices

 

Spicy Asian White Bean Dip

 

Ham

 

Fresh Sliced Cucumbers

 

Spinach Maria

 

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno’s

 

Fresh carrots and tomatoes

 

Dessert

 

More Dessert

 

Creamsicle Cookies

 

Salad

And here’s the recipe for the Spinach Maria.   And this was shamelessly copied from this blog Nibble Me This  which has some really yummy looking recipes and stunning photography.     This is usually served in little ramekins at Calhoun’s restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee.

 

Calhoun’s Spinach Maria

 

5 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach

4 1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 3/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper

1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon butter

5 tablespoons melted butter

6 tablespoons flour

8 ounces  Velveeta cheese

8 ounces cheddar cheese

4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese

1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (for topping)

Thaw spinach in refrigerator for 24 hours. Squeeze as much excess water as possible out of spinach. Heat milk and spices in 4-quart saucepan on medium heat to just below a boil (190 degrees). Then reduce heat and simmer. Saute chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter on medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Add to saucepan. Combine 5 tablespoons melted butter with flour in a small suate pan. (This is the first step of making a roux, which will thicken the sauce.) Mix until completely blended. Cook on low heat 3-4 minutes to make roux. Add roux to milk in saucepan and mix well. Continue to cook until sauce thickens.

Cut Velveeta, cheddar and Jack cheese into small cubes and add to saucepan. Continue to mix until all the cheese is completely melted and blended into sauce. Be careful not to burn the sauce while cheese is melted. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Add drained spinach to cheese sauce, mix until completely blended. Spoon into 11-by-9-by-2-inch casserole dish and top with grated Monterey Jack cheese. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

 

Pineapple Pie and more…

I had fun on Thursday, I got to make a bunch of desserts and along the way discovered a couple of neat tricks, which made for a very good day.

And of course we also served our seniors a very nice lunch as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me start with the menu:
Spaghetti with Meatballs

Johnny Marzetti (Goulash with a Cheese Topping)

Green Salad
Tuna Salad
Peas
Pickled Beets
Garlic Bread
Sliced Tomatoes

Salad

Tuna Salad
Sliced Tomatoes

Not too shabby, huh? I think we do a good job. Oh and the desserts, well, I had fun. I made a couple of marble cakes, and topped them with some Banana Cream, giggle, so easy to make.

And I threw together three Pineapple Pies as well. I want to share the recipe for them here. They are such an easy, last-minute throw together dessert. Perfect for when unexpected company comes, or you’ve run out of time to make something more elaborate or …. I learned this recipe from Sarge. He said it was something he would throw together when his kids were young, and they needed a quick dessert. All I can say is this, it is so yummy, and popular as a dessert.

Pineapple Pie recipe

3 Graham Cracker crusts, either homemade or bought

2 Quarts Heavy Whipping cream, whipped divided into two bowls after being whipped. **
1 Large Family size box Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
1 15 oz. Can Crushed Pineapple

Make a graham cracker crust, or buy one. I made some crusts, and they are so easy to make. Mix one box of graham crackers made into crumbs with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup melted butter. You want enough butter so that the crumbs stick together. This made enough for 3 1/2 pie crusts. I think I could actually have made 4 but I didn’t have enough filling.

Whip up 1 quart heavy cream til soft peaks form, then fold in 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding. Add 1 can of crushed pineapple, juice and all. Fold together. This will stiffen up because of the pudding. Then divide the filling into three and place one-third of the filling into each pie shell. Top with some more whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least a half hour. Decorate with slices of fresh pineapple to serve. And don’t be surprised if people go for seconds on this.
** If you don’t have fresh cream to whip, go ahead and use some whipped topping in place of the cream. It works very well. Just use 2 (two)8 oz. tubs of whipped topping, 1 1/2 for the filling and half of one for the topping.

And I also made some whipped cream topping for the marble cakes, but this time I added a small box of Banana Cream Instant Pudding to the whipped Cream and used that to ‘frost’ the cakes. They were so good as well. I have to say I got the idea from Robin, because I had gone to the store to get a couple of things and forgot to pick up some more frosting. So instead of making a butter cream frosting from scratch, I whipped up some cream and added the instant pudding mix. You have to try this sometime. It was so good.

You might be wondering why I keep using whipping cream, well, thanks to Farm Share we were given a lot of cream, so we’re using it. I make custards, use it to make our own butter, use it where ever we can. It helps that I’m an ‘old’ farm girl, and I use the term old gingerly, but I was so lucky to grow up on a farm and have a mother who was one of the best cooks ever to teach me how to cook from scratch. And also how to cook using the foods I have available. Thanks to her and my older sisters who I shamelessly ask for hints from, I am a pretty decent cook.

‘Faux’ Roasted Garlic and a couple of other tips

I need to clarify here, it’s really not fake garlic, but a faux ‘roasted’ garlic.   That didn’t come out right either.   So it’s real garlic cloves, but they’re not roasted in the oven for an hour, but instead are cooked in Olive Oil on top of the stove, til they’re soft and a little bit browned.   And so darn yummy.    I’ve actually been making them this way for years.   I was given the tip by a woman at a day old bakery outlet during a conversation about garlic bread.   She told me she used to work in an Italian restaurant and they would go through a lot of garlic, but the owner would ‘boil’ the garlic cloves in oil, on top of the stove over low heat, and then use the softened, very flavourful garlic for his garlic bread, or wherever he needed garlic.   And with the summer heat upon us, well, in this area at least, it makes sense to make garlic this way and not have the oven on for an hour.   And really, this takes very little time on top of the stove.   Another added benefit, you have some lovely garlic infused oil you can use to drizzle over spaghetti, add to some butter for garlic bread, or anyplace you want a hint or touch of garlic flavour.

I like to have a whole bulb of garlic done this way, then I just place the leftover garlic cloves into an empty glass bottle, (washed out of course), cover them with the oil and place it in the fridge to use later on.  Empty spice bottles are great for this, or just a small glass jar.   They will keep for about a month, if they last  that long.   The olive oil will solidify, but it only takes a few minutes on the countertop to liquify again, and you are good to go.

And since I’m just full of tips today, how about making some chicken stock and freezing it in ice cube trays, I know I’ve talked about this before, but really, having  a cube of frozen chicken stock you can add to some packaged gravy to amp up the flavour, so much better.   I was making some rice the other night and wanted to get another layer of flavour so I grabbed a cube of my home made chicken stock, (which I’d frozen in ice cube trays), and added it to the rice.   So easy and quick.   If you’re in the habit of buying rotisserie chickens for an occasional quick meal, then cover the bones that are left with some water, add a carrot or onion, then just let it simmer for an hour.  Cool it down and strain the stock and VOILA!!!! you have some home made chicken stock.    I find most commercial stock is way too salty for my taste, so I do make my own.   It really doesn’t take that long.   I’ve even been known to keep a chicken carcass or turkey carcass in my freezer and then cook up a big pot of stock from that.   And here’s another hint, those leftover chicken bones, roast them in the oven with a couple of onions and carrots til they brown a little, then add them to pot with some water, lots more flavour that way.  Oh and if you have any of the ‘roasted’ garlic in your fridge add a couple of cloves.

And last but not least, if you purchase ground beef in those large trays, and divide up the ground beef for separate meals, freeze the meat in a freezer bag, and flatten it, it will thaw much faster.   Better yet, if you’re browning meat for one meal, brown enough for two meals and freeze the remainder.   You can always add it to spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, make taco’s, or whatever you use ground meat for.    Why not make it easier to get a meal on the table on those days when you are rushed anyway.   I’ve been able to get a meal on the table within half an hour using my pre-cooked ground beef and just adding some taco seasoning  and we’re good to go.

Pico de Gallo

I love Pico de Gallo, and in fact have been know to make it up on a whim, just because.   And then have proceeded to eat half the bowlful.   Which isn’t as bad as it sounds, cause Pico de Gallo is basically just onions, tomatoes and jalapeno’s.   And so long as you don’t load up on chips, you don’t need to worry about the calories.   Pico de Gallo is just plain good food.    I’ve actually posted the recipe here but it was buried in a post about Acapulco chicken.   And that was not fair to it.   I think it deserves its own post.  So there!

First up, get out your trusty gloves, you don’t want to be messing with jalapeno’s unless you’re properly covered up.   Trust me on this one.   It is very important, unless of course you’re into pain, at which point just go ahead and disregard this.    Just kidding, but I’ve made the mistake of rubbing an eye when I’ve had Jalapeno juice on my hand and the agony, totally not worth it.

Start by getting your ingredients together.  And nothing in this is really exact because you’ll be making this for you, and whatever your heat tolerance is.

You want some lovely fresh jalapeno peppers, a couple of tomatoes, an onion, cilantro, lime and salt.    Start by dicing up a Roma tomato or two, depending on how much you are making, you want a fairly fine dice, then dice up a white onion, again a fairly fine dice.   And now for the fun, depending on your tolerance or love of heat, you want to mince or very finely dice 1-3 jalapeno’s.  Start by whacking off the stem end, slicing them in two lengthwise and then cutting out the seed and membrane.

 

 

 

Add all together and stir, squeeze the juice of a lime over it, add a handful of finely chopped cilantro

and about a half teaspoon of salt, or less to start.  Stir it all up and taste.   You can always add more jalapeno’s or tomatoes or any portion to make it to your taste.  This is your Pico de Gallo after all.

Senior’s Dinners for May

 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m one of the volunteer cooks at our local Senior’s center.   I’ve been doing this for a few months now, and am still having a blast doing it.   I’m really lucky in that I have a great group of people who are willing and able to give of their time, energy and expertise and we all work very nicely together.
And it can get a little nutsy sometimes, just trying to make sure everything is ready and able to be served by noon every Thursday.   We’ve had some miss-steps, some ‘oops and a lot of triumphs along the way.   I feel so fortunate that I’ve been able to learn and continue to learn from everyone.   I really can’t say enough good things about everyone there.   No one does this for the money, no one does this for the glory, they do this because they want to.  And sometimes they don’t get thanked as much as they should be.   I want to mention Robin, my fellow cook, she is awesome, and we tend to get along pretty good in the kitchen.  Which is totally wonderful. And I want to say thanks to Sarge who no longer cooks with us, but from whom I’ve learned so much, and Don, Wally, Dot, Dorothy, Pat, Merle, Vivian, Janice, Reba, and everyone else.   We could not do this without you.   You all are my heroes.   And the people I just mentioned , they’re the ones who help out in the kitchen, put out the desserts, work as sous chefs, dishwashers and generally help out where ever we need it.
Last month was busy, we fed a lot of people, and I thought I would mention some of the meals we had in May.   We ran the gamut from Beef Stroganoff, Roast Pork Sandwiches, Loose Cabbage Rolls, Baked Chicken and BBQ chicken, to Fried Tilapia and Baked Tilapia with Gremolata and Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes, Johnny Marzetti Goulash and assorted vegetables.

Tuna Salad

Deviled Eggs

Beef Stroganoff

Baked Chicken

BBQ Chicken

Squash Medley

I also took a picture last week of a cake Dorothy decorated for the raffle.    It was totally lovely.

Those are miniature marshmallows, dipped in colored sugar sprinkles and placed on the cake.   I thought it was very pretty, she’s really an artist.

So there you have it, a brief glimpse into my month of cooking at the center.   We’ve got some good meals coming up next month as well, and hopefully, I’ll get a chance to take some pictures, at least that’s my goal.

In the meantime, if you can give some time somewhere as a volunteer, do it.   Your time and effort is not only needed, it is appreciated.