Family Recipes

This weekend I made a recipe that paid homage to my husband Hispanic background. And I called my mom for some of my grandmother's recipes I remember from when I was young. Nearly every Sunday we'd eat dinner at my grandparents and there would be a ton of
food.

I can still taste the Wilted Leaf Lettuce and Sour Cream Cucumbers. There was also what we call Grandma's jello, her ham with pineapple and cherries, and something with those little hotdogs and Catalina salad dressing.

My mother found the recipes and they were from Better Homes & Garden's New Cookbook. The one I have used to be my mothers and is a three-ringed binder with the red and white checkerboard cover, copyright 1976. We all know what happens to paper in three-ringed binders - they tear. So there are a lot of floating pages that are stuffed in the wrong recipe category, but I still love this cookbook.

 Flan is a wonderful Spanish, Mexican, Hispanic custard that is refreshing, creamy, and delicious.  Some people refer to it as Flan de Leche. Just as France has creme brulee, the Spanish have Flan. Sometimes I make a cream cheese flan that is awesome.  I'll let you know how they turned out.

Sunday Dinner

I've mentioned before how we have a large Sunday dinner around 3pm. Well, today after watching a DVR'd episode of Pioneer Woman, my husband and I headed to Wegmans to grab the ingredients for dinner. We used her recipe for Bruschetta and Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks.


What was on the menu?

 Bruschetta - this is a great recipe and different than what Italians usually do since the bread was fried in butter. I usually grill the bread after brushing it with olive oil. Note, i didn't use grape tomatoes, but vine ripened plum tomatoes. Rich, but oh, so good.

Skirt Steak - on sale so be purchased several packages for my carnivore son and husband. My son doesn't consider it a meal unless there is meat. We grilled the meat in a very hot cast iron pan with a grill like bottom using Montana Steak Seasoning (Our grill happened to be out of gas)

Pasta with Pancetta and Leeks - Oh my goodness. This recipe is so, so good. I followed the recipe to a tee and it turned out great. I added a tossed salad made from greens picked fresh from our garden and we had a wonderful Sunday dinner.

Friday Dinner

Photo from Living Light Blog

I love cooking on the weekend. Starting Friday a good dinner and then a relaxed Saturday and a big Sunday morning breakfast or brunch. Usually on Sundays we a big breakfast of eggs & toast, pancakes (love Pioneer Woman's recipe), sour cream waffles, dutch babies, or something I cooked up from one recipe or another.

Then for dinner, which we usually eat around 3pm, and usually a big pasta dish, pot roast, chicken pot pie, the list is long.

This Friday, I'm going to try Rachael Ray's Southwestern Chili Con Queso Pasta Bake.  Looks like an interesting tweak on traditional pasta bakes that I'll pair with salad and fruit. The recipe was posted on Pinterest by a blogger. Here's the link and I'll let you know how it taste! Recipe Link