November 4, 2023

WEEKLY MENU 11.05.23

We’re stirring things up during the Weekly Menu 11.05.23~

Comfort food season is back in swing during the Weekly Menu 11.05.23. Comfort food means soups and stews as well as baking. (I did jazz hands over here – can you imagine it?) Sure, baking cakes and cookies and pies. But also meatloaf, and sheet pan dinners and roasts. We are deeply blessed with the skill Bert shares with us on the grills and Blackstone, but there is something about a nice hot kitchen that speaks to my soul.

Mom was in charge of dinner for all ten of us growing up, and she did an outstanding job of it. I look back in awe at the meals she presented to us with very little fuss or apparent effort. (Affiliate links precede and follow. See Disclaimer Page for details.) Sometimes the oven would be working when we got home from school. Sometimes she was sitting at her (kitchen) desk, having a smoke and a glass of ice water, planning it. Dinner was always a comfort meal at her table.

The dreaded black pot would hide a scrumptious roast or Swiss Steak. Dinner usually had a starter and sometimes a dessert. We had salad occasionally, of course, but hearts of palm showed up or a perfectly cut half grapefruit with a teaspoon of confectioners sugar and a bright red maraschino cherry would appear on a tray. Jello could be salad-like (not a favorite) or dessert-like with some whipped cream.

Mom was a fabulous cook, but she was not a shouter.

Unlike her oldest daughter. Ahem. When you were in some serious trouble, she would grab a wooden spoon, threateningly, because she wasn’t going to hurt her hand giving you a wallop. If you were not paying enough attention, she would hit the (wooden) countertop with the spoon, splintering it spectacularly. Why the spoon? She was usually in the kitchen.

The hyper-organized kitchen she ruled had an entire drawer full of cooking utensils. When she whipped that thing open (to get the wooden spoon) the force of it would create a cacophony of sound like no other. It was a warning that (most) of us listened to.

The poor individual wooden spoons didn’t last long, not surprisingly. Mom bought them by the three pack at the grocery store, at least twice a month. What can I say? There were eight of us kids.

Cheap wooden spoons were the standard in our house too~

Although I don’t think I ever threatened the Boysies with them. What was the point? Ours are in a utensil holder on the counter. I got no noise or traction from pulling one out of it. And they knew I wouldn’t use it. Talk about non threatening.

I always wanted the super nice wooden spoons but never wanted to kill the grocery budget when I ran across them at the store. But then we came upon a craft show during our New England tour this past summer. Bert was taking a business call, leaving me unsupervised, wandering the aisles.

A craftsman that was also an excellent salesman showed me handmade wooden spoons and spurtles that promised to change my life. What the hell is a spurtle? Just the most amazing kitchen utensil ever made. I kid you not. The wooden spoon three pack from the grocery store didn’t have one, so I had never seen it before. It’s a long, skinny tool that stirs, of course, but gets into the nooks and crannies that a wooden spoon doesn’t.

You can scoop out the last bit of mayo in the jar and stir the potato salad with this beauty. I use it for everything. Stirring the pot, sautéing, even as a spatula. I also got a beautiful spoon with a pointed edge. I use that one constantly too. No corner is safe from this baby. I use these two wooden items way more than any other utensil in the kitchen. I think they’d make outstanding Christmas Gifts, or stocking stuffers, and should be on every registry.

Weekly Menu 11.05.23

Sunday dinner is comfort food at it’s finest. We’re cooking stew meat in our favorite Dutch oven to make classic Hungarian Beef Goulash. Of course we’ll use our wooden spoon and the spurtle. We’re starting out with an appetizer that was one of Mom’s from back in the day: Pumpernickel Onion Toasties. We’re having a little trouble finding the tiny bread loaves of pumpernickel, so we’ll look for a square loaf of bread and quarter it.

Mom knew how to turn squash into a great tasting side dish too. The Acorn Squash recipe is hers as well. Trust me when I say that the brown sugar makes the dish. Eating our veggies was never easier.

Eating out has gotten ridiculously expensive, at least around here. Don’t get me started on the waste of money a steak dinner is. So we’re taking it into our own hands, using our fabulous cast iron skillet and pairing it with homemade French Fries on Saturday. We could even invite friends and still save money!