Vi's Famous Hamburger Gravy

Everyone who knew my mother, requested her to make her Famous Hamburger Gravy at one time or another. My mother made everything taste good! However, there were a few recipes that became "legend". For instance, her hamburger gravy, her chicken and dumplins, her potato salad, her turkey and dressing and the recipe that "everyone" wants (and I have) tee hee..... her much coveted...."Beef Stew ! The hamburger gravy was another recipe where the sausage was substituted with hamburger meat due to the depression. And....as the depression grew worse and times became even harder, that's when they did away with meat all together and we got....country gravy and pepper gravy. If you haven't figured out yet.....I LOVE history!
Grandma Sabol said things were different during the depression and during the time she was raising 10 children on her own. She said you had to have a different outlook on material things....a mind set of "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." This was the way of life for my mother and her family while growing up. I might add that I think we all could learn from that out look. I don't know about you....but I am quite spoiled. But I can also say that  the memories that are being brought back while writing this blog....well, they're challenging me in many ways, and making me realize that we are all just one "tragedy" away from being destitute.

Father, we desire to be a grateful people.  We want to be mindful of our blessings and express thanksgiving regularly for that which we do not deserve but receive.
"All we have needed Your hand has provided; great is Your faithfulness, Lord, unto me!" In the name of Jesus we give You praise. Amen.

"All we have needed Your hand has provided; great is Your faithfulness, Lord, unto me!"
Grandma Sabol and her children knew what this meant.....and I'm sure that is why this hymn was one of Grandma and my mothers favorites. ("Amazing Grace" was their very favorite but I'm pretty sure grandma said "Great is thy faithfulness" was next) 
When you hear someone say, "God is so good.".......Remember......"God is soooooo GOOD!"

Double click on pictures to enlarge

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place hamburger in a large, deep skillet. Crumble and cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Remove from heat and sprinkle flour over cooked hamburger. Stir until evenly coated and all fat is absorbed.
2. Place skillet over medium heat, add 1/2 of milk and stir until gravy begins to thicken. Add remaining milk until desired consistency has been reached and gravy comes to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Serve over toast or biscuits.

House Camping!

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has went house camping? When I was young, we didn't have children's play tents. We had sheets and chairs. I would use 4 chairs...two on one side and two on the other....drape the sheet over them...fold back the sheet to create a door and.... Vwa-la...... a tent!
Now-a-days kids have it made. They even have choices...Cinderella tent, Snow White tent, Spiderman tent....ect. Since my grandsons like the "Cars" movie, I got them a Lightning McQueen tent a couple years ago. And since it was cold this weekend when Cash and Silas came over, I asked them if they would like to go camping. Cash is use to Nana's "Winter Time Camping Trips" so he moved the ottoman and made room for the tent. He was jumping up and down singing..."we're gonna go camping....we're gonna go camping".  He bent down toward Silas, smiling, and said, "Brother...we're gonna go campin with Nana! Wanna go?" Silas shook his head so fast, he looked like a bobble head on a dash board. Cash got the tent, I set it up and Cash told me I needed to make a list of camping supplies we would need.... (he's a very bright and meticulous child) The list included;

Blankets
Pillows
Flashlight
Backpack
Marshmallows
and Sticks

We made a pretend fire out of the bag that the tent poles go in and we used spoons for the "sticks" to roast marshmallows. As you can see in the pictures.... we had a blast!

Double click on pictures to enlarge

O.K. O.K....I promise to have a recipe tomorrow.

Anyway, I didn't have time to cook this weekend....I went camping!

Meet some of my grandbabies

I had the Grandbabies last weekend and Cash saw a candy bar on the kitchen counter. There was only one candy bar and 4 grandbabies (only 3 of whom were old enough to eat candy) and I remembered my mother telling me the story of how my grandmother would buy one candy bar (a widow raising 9 children on her own...one candy bar was all she could afford) Grandma would cut the candy bar into 9 pieces for her children to share) I wasn't sure how cutting the candy bar was going to go. Would the little ones cry because the candy bar "broke"? Would the older not want to share?....... I decided they would either be happy or it would become a learning experience for them. Guess what? It went better than I could have hoped for.....as you can see in the pictures, they didn't seem to mind at all! Actually, Silas finished first and Cash said, "Silas do you want more? You can have a bite of mine?" How S-W-E-E-T!
 
Double click on the picture to enlarge

Aiden, Cash,Silas and Carlisle (back to the camera)
Aiden and Carlisle are Bryan and Stephanie's children
Cash and Silas are David and Cortni's

 


The only one sad was Carlisle....he's not old enough to have candy yet.



Aiden



 Silas

Cash

I have to say it....My grandbabies are soooo CUTE!

Scrumptious Mashed Potatoes

Scrumptious Mashed Potatoes

Scrumptious Mashed Potatoes

My mother always called mashed potatoes "whipped potatoes". These are the best potatoes ever! You know what? I honestly can't ever remember a lump in my moms "whipped potatoes" (not even one). They were so smoothy, creamy, fluffy, buttery, and scrupulously delicious! Mmmm, mmmm, good!

 

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs peeled potatoes (Russet or Yukon Golden)
• 1 cup butter 
• 1 (12 ounce) can canned milk
• 1 teaspoon salt (you may like more salt. add to taste)
• 1 teaspoon pepper  (you may like more pepper. add to taste)

Directions:

1.  Boil the potatoes.
2.  Drain the potatoes, saving 1/2 cup of the water.
3.  Add the butter.
4.  Whip with beaters adding the canned milk until creamy.
5.  If you are out of milk or need more liquid, add potato water. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cabbage Rolls, AKA, Pigs In A Blanket

Pigs In A Blanket

The first time I learned to make Pigs In A Blanket was at my Grandma Sabol's house (my mother's mother). It was truly a special experience for me. Not only did I receive 2 generations of knowledge and wisdom from the women but my Grandfather, who was an amazing cook in his own right, shared all of his with me as well! Here I was...just me, in the kitchen (only 12 years old) with 3 of the greatest cooks I've ever known. I'm sure you don't realize just how special this was. I was one out of 30 (or 31? grandchildren) So for me to have this "alone" time with them was a one in a million for me. We lived about 740 miles away, so when we went to visit, everyone that lived nearby came to Grandma's so we could see them also. It was so much fun!.......But as much as I enjoyed visiting family and playing with my cousins... the one "me day" was such a special treat.

I had helped mom make Pigs In A Blanket many times before but she would add everything to the meat and I would mix it together while she cooked the cabbage and then I would rolled them up while she cleaned the kitchen. But on this day I got to be apart of "everything" including Grandpap and Grandma arguing over whether the Pigs In A Blanket were better with or without sauerkraut sprinkled over them. My grandparents loved each other but they would "debate" things such as this, all the time. Voices were never raised.... it was actually, quite funny. I said, "Since we're making two pans anyway...why don't we make one with and one without?" My suggestion was a hit. The cook-off was on and I got to be on both teams! Whew...I got lucky on that one. It turned out to be so much fun, even Grandma and Grandpap were laughing about who won.... Grandma admitted that Grandpap's was better. She then winked at me and said, "I can't tell him he's right too often or he might get a big head".

At some point during our cooking extravaganza...I asked them why they were called "Pigs In A Blanket". My grandfather (who was from Czechoslovakia) said he could explain that and went on to tell me that this was a dish cooked often in his country but ground pork was used....get it? Pork (pigs) rolled up in a cabbage leaf(blanket) hence the term..."Pigs In A Blanket". I looked at them questioning and asked why we used hamburger instead of ground pork. Grandma explained that many recipes received substitutions during the Great Depression and some of the substitutions "just kinda stuck". 

 Grandpap Sabol's Pigs In A Blanket

Ingredients

---

• 2 heads of cabbage
• 1 onion 
• 2 lbs. ground beef 
• 2 cups cooked white rice or 2/3 cup of cracker crumbs (approx. 20 crackers crumbled) 
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard 
• 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 large cans / jugs of tomato juice
• 1 large can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sauerkraut drained

• Prepare the white rice, according to instructions. You may also substitute minute rice.
• Cut cores out of raw cabbages, place in pot of boiling water.
• Pick off leaves as they loose from the head. Place cooked leaves on platter. Use the big leaves and then a few of the middle size. The smaller inner part of the head is now removed and chopped to create the blanket in the pan for the rolls to cook on.
• Prepare the meat mixture. Fine dice the onion, add to meat with the rice. I prefer spreading the meat out and then sprinkling on the garlic, salt pepper and breadcrumbs, this way it is evenly spread out.
• Beat egg and pour over meat, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, ketchup and mustard. Mix all ingredients into meat. Even better...use a Kitchen Aid to mix everything together!
• Cutting sideways, reduce thickness of the center "vein" out of each leaf, place 1/3 heaped cup of meat on medium size blanket. For the first 4-5 large blankets, I added another pinch of meat to the 1/3 heaping cup. Roll all the pigs up and set aside on a cookie sheet.
• In a large mixing bowl, pour in tomato sauce, and tomato juice. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper Mix well with whisk. Cover bottom of roaster pan with some of the mixture, place cabbage rolls in the roaster pan, sprinkle sauerkraut over cabbage rolls and pour remaining mixture over the cabbage rolls in roaster until all pigs are covered.
• Bake on 350 covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (It may only take 1 hour to cook. After it has cooked for 1 hour, use a fork to check for softness of the hard vein in the cabbage.)  
• Makes about 20 blankets.

     

Quick and Easy Meatloaf

Mom's Quick and Easy Meatloaf

I had such sweet memories while cooking today. I actually had two different memories. Years ago, mom and I were trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Dad was out of town for annual guard training, mom did not have a drivers license and dad was due to return the next day. So needless to say, "our cupboards were bare." Mom said, "Monica go look in the kitchen and see what we can fix for dinner." I looked and returned to mom with a horrified look on my face, I said, "I don't see anything." With a smile, she said, "Don't worry, you can ALWAYS find something to cook." She started moving things around in the freezer and pulled out, what looked like a small ball of aluminum foil. She then gathered two old potatoes that had a  couple bad places on them and a small wedge of what once was a big head of cabbage. She smiled and said with pride, "Look here. We'll have meatloaf, mashed potatoes and fried cabbage tonight. I looked at her with big eyes and said, "Oh no, I had peanut butter and crackers for lunch so we don't have any crackers for the meatloaf. With the wave of her hand, she dismissed my concern and said, "Not to worry....We have a few oats in the cabinet." Then I said, "But we're out of canned milk and I had the last of the regular milk with the peanut butter crackers."....Still smiling, she winked and said, "Don't worry, I'll show you a couple of tricks." I didn't realize that mom was preparing me for "life". She "went to town" showing me her tricks. First trick was to put the meat in a sink of cold water to thaw. Well, this baffled me because I thought it should be hot water but mom explained that conduction transfers heat faster. I still don't know what that means. All I know is, it's safer and the meat thawed in time to cook dinner! When it came time to mash the potatoes I watched her next trick....she poured some of the potato water into a measuring cup before draining the potatoes. She said that the potato water is better to use to get a creamy consistency because the starch from the potatoes makes the water thicker. Also, the potato water doesn't dilute the flavor like plain water would. We had a "meal fit for a king" that night and I had a sense of pride that we made something from, what seemed like, nothing!

My second memory was of all the many times that I put mom's positive attitude toward empty cupboards to good use. There were many times while raising five children that her teachings made it possible for me to put a wonderful meal on the table. And I must say, I knew it was a success when I saw the sweet little smiling faces looking at me with satisfied tummys!



Mom's Quick and Easy Meatloaf



Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 heeping cup ketchup
• 1 heeping tablespoon prepared mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, combine the beef, egg, onion, mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper and cracker crumbs  and place in a lightly greased 5x9 inch loaf pan, OR form into a loaf and place in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Mix well and form into a loaf. Place in baking dish and coat top of meatloaf with ketchup.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.

Please remember that our parents and grandparents, ect...didn't know about Cholesterol

Fried Pork Chops, Fried Potatoes and Field Peas

This meal may be loaded with grease....But it sure taste good! I guess every

now-n-then it won't hurt.

This is truely...a Violet meal! YUMMMMMY!

Mom's Iron Skillet Pork Chops



Ingredients

• 4 pork chops
• 1 teaspoon bacon fat
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika
• Garlic Powder

Method

1 Heat a large cast iron frying pan to medium high or high heat (hot enough to sear the meat). While the pan is heating, sprinkle spices (not the salt) on each of the pork chops. Using your fingers, rub the spices into the meat. Turn the chops over and repeat on the other side.
2 Once the pan is hot, add a teaspoon of oil or fat to the pan and coat the bottom of the pan. Right before you put the chops into the pan sprinkle each side with a little salt, or you can salt the chops in the pan. Put the chops in the pan. Make sure they are not crowding each other too much. There should be space between the chops in the pan or the meat will steam and not sear properly.
Tip: Arrange the chops in the pan with the thickest, boniest parts towards the center of the pan where they get the most heat.
3 Sear the chops, about 2 minutes on each side. Watch carefully, as soon as the chops are browned, flip them. As soon as you flip the chops, if you are using a cast iron pan, you can turn off the heat. Cast iron holds heat very well and there will be enough heat in the pan to finish cooking the meat.
If you have chops that are a lot thicker than 3/4" (many are sold that are 1 1/2"-thick), you can put a cover on the pan and let the chops finish cook for 5 minutes or so (if you are using a cast iron pan and have turned off the heat, there should be enough heat if you cover the pan to finish the cooking of a thicker chop, if not, lower the heat to low and cover.
How do you know when the chops are done? Mom used a "touch test" which with practice I've learned as well. If you wait until you see juice oozing out of the top of the chop, it is definitely done. Mom typically just kept the chops in the pan, the heat is turned off, so the pan is losing heat. The pan initially provides enough heat to sear the second side. As it initially cools, it is still cooking, though not searing the meat. After a couple of minutes, it's just keeping the chops warm.

Tip - "Pork should never be pink when it's done"







Lasagna on an icy day!

My great-grandmother was Cherokee Indian so.... with my mothers dark eyes, dark hair and her ability to cook "out of this world" Italian food, well....most people thought she was Italian. My mother was definetly a prankster, all of this added on top of her witt, humor and the way she could talk with an Italian accent....yes, I'm-a  sure-a  you can  imagine-a  some-a  her-a  prank-a-s!
Today was so cold. It got down to 18 degrees. BURRR! We still had some ice on the road so I stayed home and cooked lasagna. Hot lasagna on an icy day. Yummy!



Violet's Lasagna

Lasagna Sauce / Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients -

1 pound Ground Beef 1 large Onion, chopped 1 clove Garlic, minced 2 (1 pound) cans Tomatoes, chopped 1 (8 ounces) can Tomato Sauce 1 (12 ounces) can Tomato Paste 2 tablespoons Parsley 1 teaspoon Brown Sugar 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano Leaves 2 teaspoon Dried Basil Leaves 1 Bay leaf 1 - 2 teaspoon Salt (to your taste) 1/4 teaspoon Pepper Box of Lasagna noodles Ricotta Cheeses Motzarella Cheese

Preparation:

1. Break up ground beef with fork. 2. Add ground beef to pot with onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, beef broth, fresh parsley, brown sugar, dried oregano, dried basil, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. 3. Cover and cook on LOW for 2-4 hours. Mom's Secret - "The longer you cook the sauce, the better!"

Putting it together...

1 Cook lasagna noodles in 6 Qt. Pot per cooking directions (al dente). (Note noodles may be cooked in advance.) Stir often to prevent from sticking and be sure that water remains at a boil during the entire cooking to prevent noodles from sticking. I add Tbsp of salt to the water so the noodles are more flavorful. Drain in colander and place in a cool water filled pan to keep from drying out and sticking together.
2 In dry lasagna pan, ladle one cup of sauce and spread along the bottom of the pan. Apply a layer noodles 3 length wise (edges overlapping). Ladle in sauce sparingly into center trough of 3 noodles. Apply a layer of mozzarella cheese on top of lasagna sauce. Place ricotta cheese dollops every 2 inches in center of noodles on top of mozzarella cheese . Apply second layer of noodles, topping again with sauce and cheese. Finish with another layer of noodles. If you have extra sauce and cheese you can spread that over the top. Tent lasagna pan with aluminum foil (not touching noodles or sauce). Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.
Note - Flavor improves for second service and may be reheated in convention or microwave.

Never store anything with a tomatoe base with aluminum foil or in an aluminum pan. 

Hello

 

My beautiful mother,Violet

My name is Monica and I had a mother who could cook like there was no tomorrow! (You will find many of my mothers colloquialisms...better known to her children as "Mom's sayings" woven through out this blog.) Violet was a born cook. God gave her many talents...but her cooking was one of my favorites. LOL I had the pleasure to sit under the feet of, in my opinion, one of the world's greatest cooks.
Ah ha! Tutelage - the state of being under a guardian or a tutor / Direction, supervision, tutoring, coaching. That was me!  I wish I could say that I had been a wonderful and obedient daughter but I was not. I do believe I heard my mother and father use the word....rebellious? However, I did listen to her when she was teaching me how to cook. When it came to my mother and the sweet aroma that would seep out of the kitchen and drift down the hallway and into my bedroom...well, it was like an invisible hand that would gently tug at my sense of smell and inquisitive mind. I would always find myself following the delicious aroma back down the hall and into the kitchen, so that I could learn to cook and create such masterpieces myself. Cooking with Mom are some of the best memories I have of my mother. When it came to cooking....she was fast, fun and fabulous! She cooked with lightning speed. She made cooking fun. And when I watched her cook....she was no longer just "Mom", in my eyes, she was this amazing "chef" who I loved being around and who loved to teach me her "secrets". She was fabulous!
About eleven years ago my son Joseph (Joe) told me he would love for me to make him a recipe book with all my/Mom's recipes. After that, and at different times, with each not knowing the others had asked... my remaining four children asked for a cook book as well. But it wasn't until my mother's death that I realized the importance of keeping her recipes alive. My sister asked me if I would start writing them down and said we (mom's children) could put a cook book together in memory of Mom. I thought, "what a great idea!" However, trying to write them down was not to be an easy task. My Mother owned measuring cups and spoons but rarely used them. She would add a pinch of this, a handful of that, a swoosh of this and a few swirles of that ("to taste" of course). Trying to convert "swooshess and swirles" into measurements has been very time consuming . So time consuming, that I started..... but immediately gave up. Until today!
My son, Joe, came home from Iraq recently and I have been enjoying making some of his favorite dishes and when I started to make some Tuna Salad for lunch today, I thought... O.K. this is it, I'm going to start this new year off by cooking one of Mom's recipes every day and converting it into a "writeable" recipe. It will be like I'm "Cooking With Mom" again. Then I thought...hhhmmmm.....I aught to create a blog and record my experiences and memories. So, here I am blogging away. Or as my mom would say, "Blogging my little heart out!
So far, I think I like this blogging stuff. LOL So hold onto your seat because I think this just might be fun!

Have a blessed day,
Monica

Mom's Tuna Salad

Ingredients

• 1 (5 ounce) can white tuna, drained and flaked
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (Mom never used salad dressing)
• 3/4 of a  Heinze Old Fashion Dill Pickle
• 1/2 an onion chopped
• 1 hard boiled egg chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon frenches mustard

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir all ingredients together. Mix well and serve with crackers or on a sandwich.
2. To make a larger amount...double, triple, ect...the recipe

       

       Here's some of Mom's "secrets"......

       "NEVER put salt into the tuna sald. Salt and Pepper AFTER you put it on the bread." If you salt the Tuna Salad when you make it, the salt will draw the water out of the onions making the Tuna Salad watery.

        "Bread and  Butter Pickles are good with every lunch and dinner"

        "Coffee goes good with everything"