Toaster Oven Tuesday

Did you think I'd given up on Toaster Oven Tuesday?  I've thought about it.  After all, it seems I can pretty much bake in my toaster oven anything one would bake in their regular oven; except a full-sized, stuffed turkey that is.

We had an overnight guest this week and I made my meat loaf in the toaster oven. We had rough mashed red potatoes - peeled because they had been here for a few weeks and I didn't want any nasty surprises! I rounded the meal out with whole green beans, and then added this for dessert, and it needed to be baked.  So into the oven it went.

I'd never tried Claim Jumper's Dutch Apple Pie.  I was originally shopping for a peach pie because that has been the only flavor Nick likes, but the store had none, and this just looked good.  I think I've been craving something sweet with that crumbly type of topping.

This is how it looked going into the oven...frozen, of course.  After the first 35 minutes or so, I did have to put foil around the edges of the crust so that it didn't get too dark.

After 50-55 minutes, the crumble topping was added while leaving the foil in place, then baked for an additional 10 minutes.

This was the end result.  Oh how scrumptious looking.  You know, we ate it with Tillamook Vanilla Bean ice cream and didn't get a single picture of that!  Not even of the leftovers over the next few days.  This was a delicious pie.  I will buy it again, but I sure wish pie didn't have calories!

Oh, and Nick, he liked it too.

Slow-Mo Saturday

In reality, I think just about every day is 'Slow-Mo"  for me.  

I haven't written up any Toaster Oven Tuesday posts for this year yet.  I intended to do one on Mac & Cheese this week, but didn't take a single picture so didn't bother.  Notice I wasn't really very intent!

A friend was going to come on Tuesday and have dinner and spend the night, but her plans changed and she arrived a few hours earlier and only stayed for a couple hours.  We rarely have guests, so I had to make the house look at least a little presentable.  That kept me busy all morning, and I had to do some shopping, which I tend to put off all the more with Marty's unemployment.  It's not like we can't afford to still eat, but I go into survival mode, I was very poor for more years than I care to remember.  This friend and I have been friends-of-various-degree since 1974.  She's had her own difficulties in finding good employment in recent years, and barely scrapes by. 

We had a good visit even though shorter than planned, and after she left, I went ahead and prepared the dinner I'd planned and Nick, Marty & I enjoyed it and the leftovers all through yesterday.

Marty's been busy with telephone and in-person interviews.  In between, he needed to have an out-patient procedure done to remove a bladder stone.  He's so much more 'relieved' now.  We voiced thoughts about what would have happened if we were living 100 or more years ago...I think, as minor a problem as we see this today, it might have become a slow, agonizing death for him back then.  Dreadful thought.  He had to go through a pre-op visit for this procedure, and a chest x-ray caused some concern so he has to go in this next week for a CT scan.  Please pray this is nothing more than a faulty x-ray.  Marty's quite concerned (i.e. worried) and I'm trying not to be until we have all the facts.

Yesterday, he received the call from one of the interviewing companies, to offer him a position.  They just have to work out his salary, hopefully acceptable to them to keep us on or above, the same plane we've been on.   He'd taken cuts with the last two positions after his August 2013 lay off, so it would be nice to come back up a little.  It took nine months for him to regain employment last time, so if this position holds, it's a big improvement being only three weeks since he was let go.

Two friends this past week or so have respectively lost a parent.  One's dad was in his 90s, the others mom was 86.  One in CA but taking the remains to TX, the other in MN with final resting place in TN.  The one for TN is tomorrow so I pray that with the horrible weather conditions back there, that all goes as planned.  There seems to be so much loss at this age.  I don't suppose that'll change. 

Toaster Oven Tuesday ... Not

Yes, well it usually is Toaster Oven Tuesday, but I haven't been doing a lot in the kitchen lately so I've nothing to write about on that subject.

December and I seem to not have a very close friendship, and it's a struggle to "do" December every year.  Putting up with a cold that threatened both a bronchial and sinus infections didn't help either. My friend Vertigo reappeared mid-month as well and it seems to be more off-putting than the last bout.   As I told my daughter, I should make it a point to have all things Christmas ready and done before Thanksgiving and that way I can hibernate through most of December. Hah!

Nick & Marty went out...on their own...and picked out a Christmas tree on Saturday, or was it Sunday?, but it has yet to be decorated.  It does sport two decorations, one a bow that was in a tin that Nick handed me yesterday as he was (finally) cleaning his room, and the other is one that's been hanging from a door jamb for at least two years and of which I've forgotten its origin.

beautifully shaped little tree

You have seen on Webs of Thread though, that I have put in some quilt time.  Most of that because I was able to sit in one place, with the box of tissue within arms reach, and a television just feet away.  There have been a lot of naps these past two weeks.  I am much better of course, but finding it hard to get in gear for anything more than the basics of day to day.

But, today I got out and took Nick to get his hair cut, got a late lunch, killed some time at Target without making a purchase, got him to his dentist appointment, stopped at the grocer but they didn't have the main thing I was looking for so picked up only a couple necessities and will head to Costco in the morning, to be there when they open.  My son's dentist is right across the street from Costco, but at 4:30 in the afternoon, there was no way I was going to battle for a parking spot and then battle the crowds and checkout lines when it's three days before Christmas.   After I get Costco out of the way, I'll probably go to Walmart or Target and see if I can't get some things I have in mind.  It might be a year for finding images online, printing, and putting that in a wrapped box.  

Where, oh where has my Christmas excitement gone?  I used to love putting up lots of decorations and getting the tree, and planning and cooking a feast, spending time with friends.  I'd put on Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving was over, ask Marty to pull the decorations from the rafter storage area (and wait, and wait until he did).  I'd write the Christmas letter, and prepare all the cards.  Something's gotten lost over the last few years.  I'm thinking I just got tired of "doing it all myself".

If I can get through this winter's malaise, perhaps next year, it can look more like this again:

and this:

Perhaps by Thursday I'll be able to get to those oatmeal cookies I want to make.  I haven't made cookies in my toaster oven yet, but I'm guessing they'll come out pretty well. 

Merry Christmas

Toaster Oven Tuesday, Week 51, 2015

We're getting awfully close to the end of the year now.  My cell phone calls the last week of December, Week 53.  Funny.

For this week, I had a big old chuck roast that I thought I'd try by mostly following a method posted by Pioneer Woman, found here.

 I think my big Lodge cast iron skillet could be seasoned better.  That's a few tablespoons of olive oil getting ready to heat up.

 A couple of onions cleaned and quartered and already seared a little bit.  Same for the mushrooms which were my own addition and not in PW's recipe.  I had them, I wanted them, and they were GOOD!

 Searing up the carrots too.

 The roast seasoned with salt & pepper and just hanging out while I seared up the veggies.

 Oh, I did mention salt & pepper, right?  Be generous on the salt.

 What? No individual photo of the seared roast?  Nope, I forgot! until I'd already added all the veggies back to the pan. And I'd deglazed the pan with beef broth (from a can) and added the whole can to the pan.  I also forgot to take a shot of the foil wrapped over the top - I don't have a lid for this pan, and I don't have a Dutch oven, bt this large skillet fits in the toaster oven perfectly, on the lower rack setting.  I'm thinking this is a moist roast since it's covered, and I roasted it for three hours at 275F.  PW says to roast until it falls apart; mine wasn't quite that well cooked, but was cooked well enough.

 I transferred the roast into the serving dish and cut it into chunks and then scooped out all the veggies placing to one end.  There was a lot of juice in the skillet, so some of that was poured over the meat & veggies.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I didn't have fresh spices so used just a little dried thyme and rosemary crushing it before putting over the top during the last half of the roasting time.  With the remaining juice, I poured it through a strainer into a saucepan and thickened it with flour to make gravy.  To that I added about a teaspoon of beef bouillon because it seemed to need to taste a little beefier.

For additional sides, I boiled some quartered potatoes and reheated some leftover green beans and then just piled it altogether on my plate and pouring gravy all over everything.  Yum, this was one of those warm you to the bones, love in a skillet, comfort foods.  I should make it more often.  

Another successful dish from Toaster Oven Tuesday.

Toaster Oven Tuesday, Week 50, 2015

Way back in the 1970s, I loved reading, so I joined the Double Day Book Club to save money on books.  They had a lot of 'clubs' like that back then.  By the time you added shipping & handling, I'm not sure there was much savings.    I don't know that I still have a lot of those books, other than a set of John Jakes books that came out ca. 1976, but I know I DO still have my favorite cookbooks which I ordered from them.  

 I have a number of "go to" recipes in there.  One is for meat loaf.  The recipe is titled "Beef and Pork Loaf".  I'd had these books for 20+ years before trying this recipe in 1997 and I followed it exactly.  You can see that I added notes.

The whole recipe.

 I don't make it exactly as printed anymore and I don't bother measuring very accurately either, and sometimes I'll use a slightly different ingredient.

 I don't bother turning the bread into crumbs, nor is it soft or white.  In fact, this is Milton's Multi-Grain bread and usually includes the heels.  I pour the milk over it straight from the fridge (cold) and just kind of wait until it's mushy - squishing it around with my hand now and then.

 The egg gets beaten pretty well....

 ...and added to the bread/milk mixture and all mixed up so that any bread edges get soppy too.

 Equal parts ground pork and ground beef...1 lb. each according to the recipe.

 You'll see in the recipe, I noted 8-oz for the onion, but it can be whatever amount you want.  If you're really gung-ho, use a nice big one.  This one was a Maui White and probably more than 8-oz.  Because Nick isn't overly fond of onion, I dice it up really fine (the recipe says minced).  I've even lightly sauteed it on occasion.

 Now this was what I thought was the weirdest thing to add to a meat loaf.  Pickles! Gherkins to be precise and if you're like me, mincing things is a real pain, so I've found that my micro-plane does a great job at 'mincing' them.

 The usuals, salt, pepper, a little Worcestershire sauce.  The recipe calls for a whole tablespoon of salt.  We found that to be way too salty, so I never use more than half that amount (1 1/2 teaspoons), and if anyone wants more salt, they can add it at the table. 

 I mix all the small stuff up together with the bread/milk mixture before adding the meats; it makes it easier to incorporate it completely.

 All mixed, and this batch looks like I left the onion a bit larger than usual.

 I dumped the meats in and mixed it thoroughly by hand.

 I then shaped it into a nice loaf in my oblong Corning Ware baking dish and baked at 350F for 1 1/2 hours.  You can put it on a rack in your baking dish/pan, or place it in a loaf pan or two.  I've considered making small individual loaves at some point, which I imagine would not require as long to bake.  I will usually take it out of the dish to a serving plate, and thus out of the oily drippings, as soon as I remove it from the oven; it then rests for about 5 minutes before being sliced.

This bakes up very well in the toaster oven, with the rack in the lower position and using the convection setting.  

Not too long ago, I'd been seeing all the meatloaves topped with bacon via social media, so tried it.  Yech, nope, did not like it that way.  It is perfect just as it is.  If you like a bit of catsup or bbq sauce spread over the top, I don't see why it couldn't be done. 

As a child, my mom's meatloaf was just the basic ground beef, with dry oatmeal, catsup, an egg, salt and pepper.  It was ok, but I think I just grew tired up it, and was looking for something that was more savory that would be good with a brown gravy over it.  This one is that way.  With using two pounds of meat, this makes a large meatloaf, so we have leftovers for several more meals.  I like taking some slices of this and putting it on sourdough bread with barbeque sauce or mayonnaise and even some Provolone cheese.

Toaster Oven Tuesday, Week 49, 2015

Sometimes life gives you lemons!   I love lemon bars! But I have never made them, not even from scratch. My dad had put this box of lemon bars in the stuff he gave to me that I brought back in August. I thought this would be a good time to make them.  My mouth was salivating at the thought of them.

The ingredients: lemon bar mix, three eggs, 1/3 cup water.

Mix the eggs and water...

...until they look like this.

Add the 'lemon filling' to the egg mixture and mix with a whisk.  Hmm, something isn't smelling right but I didn't want to taste at this point since it had raw eggs and I was sure my sniffer was smelling right.

 Now, I'm wondering how long these had been in my mom's cupboard.  The box itself looked fresh, there was no "best by" date, but there was a code.  I sent off an email to the manufacturer asking about the code.

Pressed the bag of "crust" into the pan.  I lined it with parchment paper on the bottom and sprayed the sides.  Bake it for eight minutes until lightly browned as in the photo.  So far so good.

 The crust smelled fine, but I'm still wondering about that pouch of lemon filling, it smelled...rancid.  Of course, what could go rancid in it?  I checked the ingredients and didn't see any oils listed.

The finished product.  It set up perfectly, and surely looked good.  Oh so anxious to try it when it's cooled.

 In the meantime, the manufacturer promptly replied with:

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding our Krusteaz Lemon Bar Mix. We appreciate your interest and are happy to provide you with additional information.

We have been using a "Best By" date on our retail products since April 2010. With our previous method of coding our products, the manufacturing code was embossed (indented into the cardboard) or printed in dark ink on the top or bottom of the package. The code was based on the date of manufacture and reads as follows:

• The code starts with two letters. The first number following the letters represents the year of manufacture.
• The next three numbers represent the number of days into the year (using the 365-day calendar).

Based on the manufacturing code you provided, this mix was produced on 05/11/2006, and expired on 05/11/2007. Our products are safe to use when they are beyond their best by date; however, you may not get the same quality performance (the finished product may not rise as much or it may not taste as fresh).  I would advise against using this product. There is an oil that is in the filling that causes it to go bad." [emphasis mine]

These are the ingredients.  The best I can reason is maybe the "natural flavor" contains real lemon oil and that's what went rancid, or the modified food starch. 

  SO, it appears my mom had this in her cupboard for a very long time.  That's around nine years!  I'm not one to be overly mindful of expiration dates or use by dates...I think I've posted my views on that in the past, but I guess nine years IS a bit extreme.  Maybe I should go check the other mixes I brought back.  I should be learning something here, especially after the recent cornbread mix issue as well.

As it baked and then cooled, I continued to smell some rancidity so I cautiously took the tiniest of tastes when it cooled.  Oh my, and oh yes, it was very rancid!  I was very disappointed after looking forward to delicious lemon bars.  I had to find some mints to get that taste out of my mouth.

Making them in the toaster oven worked very well.  Perfectly in fact.  I will make them again but probably from scratch, so you may see yet another post for them somewhere down the road.  Unfortunately, this batch was bad, and I had to throw them all out.  I wasted three good eggs, but that's a small price to pay.  In loosening the edges from the side of the pan - guess I didn't spray well enough - I broke a spatula.  Not a big loss either, it was a well-used, over 19-year old, plastic one that must've become brittle and it just snapped in two.  I'll enjoy shopping for a new one.

Toaster Oven Tuesday, Week 48, 2015

Today's toaster oven cooking comes from the urge to have something reminiscent of childhood.  Weiner Wraps!!  I don't recall that we had these so much at home, but our small town school with farm wife cooks, served them for lunch.  They were a favorite.

 I started with a package of these.  They're my preferred hot dogs.

 Then I grabbed a can of these.  There's one more roll in this package than there are hot dogs, so it was 'just a roll'.

The finished product.

For the toaster oven, I still followed the directions on the label of the crescent rolls and baked them on the lower rack position.  I served them with a can of 3-bean salad.  

Little fuss, no frills, quick & easy.

Toaster Oven Tuesday - Week 47, 2015

Start with one large flat baking dish. 

This had been my mom's.  It's not that old, I don't think...it was made in China and is not Corning Ware.

 Take one large ham...this was around 8 pounds and way too big for the dish and more than we'd eat, so I cut it in, and only used, half.

 Follow these directions. 

 The ham halves.  Beautiful ham.

 Covered and in the oven.  Ahem, see, didn't I tell you the inside of this oven became quite dirty during my many absences and I've yet to clean it.  I wonder if the 'set a dish of ammonia in it overnight' process will work so that it can just be wiped out?  Anyone ever try that?

 I split the current sauce that came packaged with the ham in two also.

 Sealed it up with a clip and bagged it and the other half ham and put in the freezer for another meal.  In hindsight, I probably should have cut this ham into three or four separate pieces.

I almost forgot to take a picture after it was baked.  We'd already eaten our dinner portions by this point.  We've eaten quite a bit, and yes, I've ignored the "once opened, use within 3 to 5 days".  Boxed scalloped potatoes and canned corn rounded out this meal.  I heated the corn in the microwave...oops...can't run both at the same time, had to go out and flip the circuit breaker back on! 
 
One night I took some leftover ham and diced it up, put some butter in a cast iron skillet, added the ham, some onion, some diced up raw cauliflower and sauteed till veggies tender, then scrambled up 3 eggs and added to the skillet along with some grated cheddar, letting it cook for awhile and then flipping it to finish cooking.  Oh was that ever yummy.