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Tour of Fifty States: Connecticut's Meal

This weekend we did Connecticut's meal.  I purchased seven lobster tails, thinking that with six of us, a seventh would give just a little more meat to fill the lobster rolls.  Little did I know, but lobster tails are tiny!!! When I took them from the shells, cut them and sauteed them, there was very little meat to go around.  Bill and I opted to give the kids the lobster and we went with some leftover pizza and he quickly threw together an olive oil and parmesan-tossed pasta while I added a salad.  Things happen! 

Menu: Lobster Rolls, Nutmeg Cake with Apple Butter filling and Caramel Icing

Outcome:  The lobster rolls were a hit!  The kids liked these better than the cold ones.  I LOVED the cake.  :)

Next up:  Brandi selected Kansas!

Weekend time!

This is my husband's recipe that he has made for many, many years.  We made it last night to have for dinner tonight.  This is one of those dishes that gets even better by sitting overnight.

In honor of 3-14-14 (a.k.a. "Pi day",) my son made a blueberry pie for tonight's dessert that will be topped with real whipped cream!

Stroganoff!

Apple Spice Dump Cake

When we went scout camping about two weeks ago, I brought dessert for everyone. Instead of the traditional dump cake that uses yellow cake mix, I decided to make a little twist when I added it to the dutch oven. I'll include directions for home ovens also. It came out very nicely and this is one I'm going to duplicate at home, too!

Salted Caramel Sauce

I made up a batch of Salted Caramel Sauce to drizzle over some Molten Lava Cakes from The Pioneer Woman that I made for my husband and son.  This made plenty to drizzle over plus there was extra to refrigerate.  It's also lovely to eat by the spoonful. :-)

Tour of Fifty States: Rhode Island's Meal

We had Rhode Island's meal this past weekend after a Scout camping trip. We (I) learned that after a weekend of camping, we should have something SIMPLE for dinner.  Like grilled cheese.  Or cereal.

Menu: Rhode Island Clam Chowder, Stuffies, Coffee Milk, Black Cows

Outcome:  Everyone really liked the clam chowder and black cows but Brandi didn't care for the coffee milk or the Stuffies ... that's okay, we just want the kids to try new foods!

Next up:  Bridget selected Connecticut!  (MMM...warm, buttery lobster rolls!) 

Tour of Fifty States: Nevada's meal

Nevada's meal had been postponed over and over but we finally got to have it on February 2, 2014.  NO I did not take pictures.  Why?  Good question!  We got up that lovely Sunday morning, read the paper and had breakfast.  Then we decided to watch "The Great Escape," a very good classic WWII movie.  We all enjoyed it, but I think the kids didn't enjoy the ending very much (I won't give it away)...it was a bit of a let down for them.

So here we are, sitting on the couch watching this 3 hour movie ... not remembering that we had a meal to make before the kids were picked up!  Ack!  I didn't even think about turning on the oven or defrosting anything.  So we went into a whirlwind of  activity and got the meal on the table. 

When I was researching Nevada, I couldn't find any traditional or ethnic recipes, nor could I find a major group of settlers that made Nevada its home.  Native American recipes are hard to come by.  Yes, the mining operations brought many Chinese to Nevada, but I didn't feel that Chinese recipes would best represent the state. FYI:  most of Nevada today is US Government-owned (86% of the state.)

My first thought was to make a Las Vegas-style buffet. Within reason, of course, nothing too fancy, just to symbolize a buffet you might visit when you go to Las Vegas.

Menu:  Buffalo Wings, Caramelized Chicken Wings, Baked Ham and Swiss Sandwiches, assorted pickles, assorted cheeses and crackers, and chips (with leftover Whoopie Pies from Maine for dessert topped with ice cream)

Outcome:  For a quickly put together meal, everyone really liked it!  My favorite was the Caramelized Wings but the Buffalo Wings were a huge hit.  They liked the little sandwiches and asked to have them again another day when we need easy hors d'oeuvres.

Next up: Ben selected Rhode Island!

Taking Care of Business...

It's true in my last post when I mentioned about having so many of our weekends busy during the holidays.  I was also going to try to make this a "true" website with all of the subpages, clickable recipes, cool features, etc.  I had set up with a domain name and an exterior hosting website; however, I discovered that the domain name provider had my website name "hostage" for a full year. I know it said they would hold the website name for 90 days when I signed up.  I waited my 90 days and tried to change the website name ... now it shows one year. 

Since I created this original blog to share recipes and stories about our meals with friends and family, I wanted it to be easily accessible. The hosting website I chose provided me with a url that was composed of a string of meaningless letters and numbers, which just is not easily shared.  I am not willing to wait a year to get the name I want, so I am sticking with Blogger.

It may not have all of the bells and whistles as a "regular" website and may be a little more difficult to navigate, but I'll do my best.  Continuing with our recipes....

Tour of the Fifty States: North Dakota's Meal

North Dakota, being a cold state that needs warm and hearty meals, has Knoephla as the signature dish, which is Potato Soup with Dumplings.  North Dakota had a significant settlement of  German emigrants from the Russian Empire. 

Menu: Knoephla, tossed salad, warm bread, and Peach Kuchen
Outcome:  This went over really well, and we even had leftovers for work!

Tour of the Fifty States: Maine's Meal

Well, our first state is Maine.  I know it was selected first, but I wanted to have the lobster be as fresh as possible, so we made the Lobster Rolls on Friday and we had already prebaked the Whoopie Pies on Thursday evening. Here we go:
NOTE:  none of us like celery, so I took Executive Power and changed it to finely minced onion.

Menu: Lobster rolls, potato chips, and Whoopie Pies

Outcome:  they loved the lobster rolls!  I ended up with Cape Cod potato chips since I couldn't find any made in Maine.  Everyone is looking forward to whenever Connecticut is chosen, since that state’s Lobster Roll is just warm lobster and butter on the roll.