No, I don't think she got asked to the Prom...

She was kind of a Plain Jane. Every one's friend, no one's girlfriend. You know, like 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride" type of deal.

I failed miserably at my attempt to clean out my pantry. I had made a 'resolution' to use up what was in my pantry and freezer, only buying fresh ingredients and those staples that I needed on a regular basis-flour, sugar, tuna. I failed. I have this odd neurosis-I am afraid we are going to starve. I really don't know if this is somehow attributed to the stories of my youth about how there wasn't enough food to go around when I was really young. How my Mom would sit out on the porch with a cup of coffee, while my Dad and sister ate, and I picked through the few things I liked.

I don't really remember those times. I remember bits and pieces of life before, say, 7 years old, but not very many things. I remember bugging the crap out of my Mom to let me open a birthday present before my Dad got home from work. I must have driven her crazy, because I remember her letting me open a pair of musical spoons. Do you remember those? They were two spoons with the rounded sides facing each other, and the handles were cemented into a piece of plastic. You would hold them in one hand, slap them against your knee while holding your other hand above them. They would slap between your hand and your leg and make magical noise.

I remember waiting for my Dad to come home from work. He worked at Ford Motor Company in St. Paul. At this time we were living in Baldwin Wisconsin. It was probably 50 miles away. He would come home and strip down to his skivvies and undershirt and I would strip down to my undershirt and panties and on special days he would bring home a little smoked salmon. We would sit on the couch and I wanted to be just like him in my t-shirt and underpants and watch TV. We had an old Black and White console, that had a record player and radio on the other side of the television.

I remember the television repair man who was crippled. I don't know if he had arthritis, or some other illness, but I remember him being nice.

I remember Susie and Sally, the twins that lived across the street, across the open field. They were blond and so pretty.

I remember being at their house and seeing the moving van in our front yard. No one had told me we were moving-the van was just there, and people were moving our few belongings into it and soon we were on our way to St. Paul-to a house that was finally ours. No more renting. We had a yard and my Dad built a sandbox and bought us a Jungle Jym. And I never moved again until I was almost 18 years old and moved in with my Mom.

I never remember us being poor.

In my adult life, we haven't been poor. We haven't had to use an emergency shelter, or use a food bank. We have been broke and couldn't afford things, but we could always make our house payment and all the regular bills we had. We had setbacks. Dude lost his job of 18 years and all of a sudden, I was the primary breadwinner, making a whopping $14 an hour. We had two teenagers, orthodontist bills, clothes, sports equipment, insurance, cell phone bills. We made it through.

I lost my job. Dude was a temporary employee at the cereal plant. We had no health insurance, I willed that my kids wouldn't get sick and we did without presents at Christmas with the exception of a few for the girls.

I am now sitting here wondering if I will lose my job due to my elbow. I know that sounds like I am paranoid, but there has been weird conversations and innuendos and, well, just stuff.

I am now successfully making due with the pantry. I have had to buy some meat, but only on sale.

I have never made pasta sauce before. For two bucks, I could buy a jar of pasta sauce. Work is done, and sometimes it is cheaper than making from scratch. I looked in the cupboard and found many cans of whole, peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste.... and on and on.

I stood looking at the cupboards at 3 PM. Dude was on his last week of day shift as his wrist had healed and he was headed back to nights. Drama Queen was working at the dry cleaners and would be home in a couple hours. Think, Tami, think.

I saw tomatoes, paste, some pasta. I had some cooked ground beef in the fridge. I dumped some stuff together and prayed for the best.

She was a little plain, but she filled our bellies with warm food.

Baked Pasta

1-28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes

1-15 oz can of tomato sauce

1-12 oz can of tomato paste

1/2 cup water

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 TBSP sugar

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp red pepper flakes

pinch of salt and pepper

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained

1/2 pound cooked mostacciola (I think that was what it was)

1 cup shredded cheese-your choice

In saucepan, combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, garlic, sugar, basil, oregano, onion powder and red pepper flakes. Crush the tomatoes down with potato masher. Simmer over low heat for 1-1/2 hours. Stir in ground beef and simmer for half an hour. Pour cooked pasta into an 8x8 or 9x9 square glass pan. Top with tomato sauce mixture and shredded cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

Serve with a green salad and bread.

It wasn't perfect. To me the sauce was too tomato-ey. Dude said I was crazy as that was what it should be like. Maybe all those years of jarred sauce makes me crave a little smoother, sweeter sauce.

I shall play with this recipe. But we went to bed with full bellies and that is what it is all about.

Chicken and Stuffing Hotdish

The days here in Minnesota are turning fall-like. Slightly cooler temps. The skies are flipping back and forth from brilliant blue and cloudless to grey and ominous looking. Most of the trees in the yard are bare. Piles of orange, yellow and red leaves are scattered across the lawn. That smell-the smell of turning leaves and crisp air hang all around me. Taking deep breaths, I fill my lungs with that wonderful smell of autumn. It is absolutely my favorite time of the year. We are very fortunate to live someplace that experiences all four seasons of Mother Nature's calendar. But I love fall most of all. The clean air, the changing color of the sky, the crunching leaves underfoot.

Hotdishes.

My parent's families are very different. My Mom had a larger family-all girls. She had four sisters. There are 21 grandchildren, 50 something great-grandchildren and numerous great-great grandchildren (although now all four of my grandparents have passed away). My Dad has two brothers. It is hard to explain, but I have two sisters and a brother, but I am my Dad's only biological child. Because of this, there are 5 grandchildren to my paternal side. I am the only girl. I have several girl cousins on my Mom's side, but I wasn't close to them as most of them were 4 to 18 years older than I. I am pretty close to my cousins on my Dad's side, but I longed for girl cousins there. My prayers were answered over the course of 10 years when each of my cousins married wonderful women. 1990 had a busy summer as three of us got married. I cherish all four of the beautiful women my cousins brought to my life. I waited a long time for them to get here!

All of us know our way around a kitchen. Maybe not fancy-schmancy food, but we can all put a satisfying, hot meal in the bellies of our men and children.

My cousin (in-law) Geri brought this hotdish (in Minnesota it is a hotdish, not a casserole!) to one of our Cousin Christmas parties and holy moly, it is good. I do not like stuffing at all (please don't eyeball me like that). I prefer straight up turkey, mashed potatoes with butter, corn, rolls, jellied cranberries (again with the eyeballing me?) and my aunt's lime Jell-o with applesauce and 7 Up. However, when you bake stuffing on top of this hotdish, and it gets all crunchy? Oh my word, it is heavenly.

Diane's Chicken Hotdish (Geri's co-worker)

3 to 4 pounds chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup (left this out, I hate mushrooms)

1 cup milk

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup butter

2 stalks celery, a fine dice

1 small onion, a fine dice

8 ounce bag of chicken stuffing mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Boil chicken and cut up into small pieces. Put chicken pieces into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Mix soups and milk and pour over chicken. Melt butter in saucepan. Saute veggies for a few minutes then add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Stir in stuffing mix and turn off heat. Stir to moisten all the stuffing. Let sit for a couple of minutes so all liquid is absorbed. Pour over the top of the soup layer. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes.

I picked all the crispy bits off the side of the pan before putting it into the sink to wash. It was heaven.

Cluck-n-Tater hotdish

Yes, here in Miny-soo-tah, we call them hotdish-Wisconsin does too. I do believe that most other places in the country it is called a casserole. And the joke goes "What do we call a casserole? Hotdish! And what goes in every hotdish? Cream of Mushroom soup!" Seriously, that was used in a commercial on the radio. I can't even remember what they were selling, but I remember the bit.

I found this recipe probably close to 15 years ago in some random magazine. I had to modify it as everyone in the house likes a different version of it. One likes hers with corn and no cheese, one like green beans and cheese and the Dude doesn't care as long as he gets some! It looks pretty unappetizing-one of those 'are you kidding me-that looks awful' dishes, but it is sooooo good. I think it just looks bland since the colors are pretty mundane.

Cluck-n-Tater Hotdish

1/2 cup Miracle Whip (or mayo)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

dash of pepper

1 can of corn or green beans, or a small can of each (I'll explain at the end)

2 cups cooked, diced chicken

4 to 5 cups mashed potatoes

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

I am showing how I cook my meat only because I cooked up several breasts so I could have some chopped chicken in the freezer. I simmer it for about 45 minutes in a box of chicken broth and some fresh rosemary. When it is cooked through, let it sit for about 15 minutes then chop as you desire. The rest of the recipe will go on as if you already have the chicken cooked and the mashed potatoes made (I put my recipe on the blog for my mashed spuds).

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix Miracle Whip, milk, salt and pepper in saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly. I will tell you now-it looks gross, but it is worth it in the end. Stir in drained corn or green beans *you can use fresh, it is just the middle of winter here and I have no frozen ones left in the freezer* and diced chicken. Stir to combine and heat through. In a 2 quart casserole, spread about one cup of mashed potatoes on the bottom of the dish.

Pour the creamed mixture over the potatoes. Spread the rest of the potatoes on top, smoothing it down. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 325 degrees F for 25 minutes. After removing from oven, let it sit to let it firm up.

I said everyone likes their own version at our house, so when we are all home, I make each person an individual one in a ramekin, so that is why I use a small can of each vegetable in the winter months and one can have it without cheese, one can have green beans, etc. Tonight the Hermit Crab had to work so she didn't eat before she left. I'm sure she had tacos at work. The Drama Queen was home, so I left cheese off the one side. She loves mac and cheese and cheesy bread, grilled cheese-but no cheese on her hotdish. What gives?

Oh, random photo here. The Drama Queen told us at 5:30 that she had to go back to school because she forgot she was singing the National Anthem at the BB game tonight. Let me tell you-I had on long johns, sweats, a 13 year old sweatshirt from the place I used to work, hadn't washed my hair and was full of flour as I was baking today too. Grrrr! Had to jump in the shower and go out with wet hair. Her and Em did a great job. She can sing really well-takes after my side, but not me. I can't carry a tune in a bucket (I would rather carry my beer there anyway), but both my parents and my siblings sing. Really sucks as that is what I would do in a different life. Oh well. She is the one in the green sweater holding the mic.