cooking | Keren Threlfall

Archive - cooking RSS Feed

From Our Kitchen: Pot Roast over Cheesy Ranch Grits

July 10, 2012 in cooking, recipes with 7 Comments

I spent nearly a decade of my life deprived of the culinary sensation commonly knowns as grits, technically known as boiled enriched white hominy. (But who even calls it that?) Upon my arrival to college during my seventeenth year of existence, I was finally introduced to what I assume were instant grits. They actually weren’t too bad, and I usually got them when they were served. Yet, that exposure wasn’t sufficient to warrant further, self-initiated consumption or preparation; it would not be until over ten years later that I would actually consider making them myself: enter a recent lunch at High Cotton, one of Greenville, South Carolina’s lovely establishments dishing out exceptional southern cuisine. Continue Reading…

In the Kitchen: Mini-Meatloaves and Cheesy Potatoes

March 8, 2012 in cooking, Life, recipes with 0 Comments

Several weeks ago, I was wondering what to make for my brother-in-law’s birthday meal (his response for a special request was “anything’s fine”). I had recently pinned a recipe for creamy cheesey potatoes and mini-meatloaves on my Pinterest boards, and decided they’d probably make a good combo. They did. In the words of my two-year-old, I should call this “Yummy, yummy, yummy meat and potatoes.” A hearty eater herself, there was not much left when we finished the meal, though her favorite was definitely the mini-meatloaf. She ate two. I ate one.

Pizza Rolls

February 26, 2011 in cooking, recipes with 2 Comments

Here’s an easy variation on the crescent roll recipe that I posted earlier this month: pizza rolls! I split the dough, making half into pizza rolls and half into crescent rolls, giving me 8 crescent rolls and 8 pizza rolls.

I simply added 2 eggs to the recipe (did the mixing and 1st rise in the breadmaker), and then used some “pizza” ingredients to fill them, let them rise another hour and baked like the crescent roll recipe.

In our case, the pizza ingredients included a small swipe of sauce, a slab of fresh mozzarella, some sprinkles of Parmesan, a dash of seasoning, and one pepperoni cut into quarters per roll. We ate them for lunch.

The extra eggs made them (and the crescent rolls) very light and fluffy. I’m thinking about adding another egg just to experiment, but at 4 eggs the dough already overflowed out of the breadmaker. At our current baking rate, we’re going to need a chicken to keep up with eggs. Actually, Hana Kate is since she’s the primary lover of baking in our house.

Baked Pancakes

April 22, 2008 in cooking, homemaking, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, recipes, WFMW with 25 Comments

Here’s a fun variation to the normal pancake flipping–bake them! It’s great if you want to cut down on preparation time or want to serve them all fresh out of the oven. It makes a great Sunday morning breakfast. (Or just any time…like this morning! )

Just mix up batter for 8-10 pancakes (using a mix or homemade batter), pour into a casserole dish (pictured with a 2 quart dish), and bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

And, oila, you have “pancake casserole!”

The time and temperature may vary a bit, but this is what I experimented with, and what worked for me. We love berries in our pancakes, and we like them thick with grains–so that’s what I did here, too.

Friday’s $20 Menu: Market Fresh Sandwiches

March 29, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, cooking with 1 Comment

Market Fresh Chicken Sandwich

Who says a sandwich needs to be boring?

The insides of this sandwich include:

Cheese

Spinach

Shredded Chicken

Tomato

Mustard

Mayo

I love to spread butter on the outside, sprinkle with seasoning salt and cheese, and broil both sides 1 – 2 minutes each.

See here for the rest of the week’s menu plan.

Wednesday’s $20 Menu: Taco Salad

March 27, 2008 in $20 Menu Plan, cooking, recipes with 2 Comments

Taco Salad

Ingredients:

Tortilla Chips

1/2 lb. ground meat

Taco Seasoning

Salsa or Diced Tomatoes

Corn

Salad Greens (we used spinach in our case)

Cheddar Cheese

Sour Cream

Cover bottom layer of plate with tortilla chips. Prepare ground meat with taco seasoning and add to plate, along with salsa/tomatoes and corn. Cover with cheddar cheese. Turn oven on broil, and place plates under broiler for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese melts. Add fresh greens and sour cream.

Additional notes:

I had originally listed salsa in the shopping list, but when I went to our pantry I decided to use diced tomatoes (from the food yardsale!) instead, which would have been less expensive on the list I provided. It was probably much friendlier to my 7 week old’s stomach, too!

We’ve also tried this with dorito style chips, as well, and like the additional flavor.

We watered down the sour cream, which is probably why it looks so “soupy.”.

For menus for the rest of the week, go here.

Menu Plan: $20 Budget Menu

March 10, 2008 in cooking, Frugal Friday, frugality, homemaking, household tips, venison with 13 Comments

Several people have asked for a sampling of a $20/week grocery menu, so here’s a rough version…

We have been extremely blessed to have so many meals provided for us after our daughter’s birth. Between provided meals and what I froze ahead, last week was really the first week for me to get back to the oven. Even then, we still had the blessing of having meals provided.

However, even with our various means of having food provided at no cost, the menu listed fits well within our the $20 weekly budget system–even if I would have made the provided meal. (In fact, we’ve mainly just been doing “pantry living” for over a month now.)

Since this next week has a few variables, I’m listing last week’s menu instead of our highly tentative menus for this week. I do hope to post some further examples in coming weeks, and hopefully include some recipes and pictures, too! This was definitely a very lackadaisical week as far as creativity and flair go, but an example nonetheless.

Breakfasts:

Oatmeal and fruit or
Cereal with milk

(We are able to get almost all cereal at CVS or the food yardsale.)

Lunches:

My husband takes a packed lunch to work with him, and we almost always both eat leftovers for lunch. I take this into account when preparing our suppers, and on a rare occasion send him to work with a PB&J sandwich. This is a bit less expensive than buying lunch meats and cheeses.

For this Sunday’s lunch, we were going to have tuna casserole that I’d made ahead before our daughter was born, but a friend told us after Sunday School that they’d be bringing lunch by for us. Blessings!

Suppers:

Monday

Apple Fried Pork and Wild Rice
Broccoli
Blueberry Muffins

Tuesday

Venison Rolled Roast with Potatoes and Carrots
Toast

Wednesday

Mustgo Soup and Crackers
(This version included: leftover roast and veggies, lentils, and wild rice—more of a stew)

Thursday

(A friend brought us this dinner)
Chicken Casserole
Beans
Corn
Cookies

Friday

Mustgo Mustgo Soup and Homemade Pita Bread

Saturday

Pizza
My favorite recipe is here.

Sunday

French Toast

Blueberry Muffins…for The Files

February 29, 2008 in cooking, recipes with 6 Comments

Need some muffins for your muffin files? Here’s a blueberry muffin recipe that’s been passed down in our family through the years. Of course, I’ve adapted it a wee bit, but hey–at least I’m following a recipe!

1 egg ½ cup sugar

½ cup milk 2 tsp baking powder

¼ cup vegetable oil ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup flour 1 cup blueberries

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottom of muffin cups/line with papers. Beat egg lightly, stir in milk and oil. Blend dry ingredients; stir just until flour is moistened. (Batter should be lumpy.) Stir in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Muffins will have gently rounded, pebbly tops.

Want some Lemon Blueberry Muffins instead? Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or lemon crystals). If you have real lemons on hand, by all means use some lemon zest!

I’ve also adapted this to accommodate various other fruits and chocolate chips. Just substitute your choice for the 1 cup of blueberries.

The Muffin Files

February 26, 2008 in cooking, homemaking, household tips, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, recipes with 11 Comments

One way I’ve kept my frozen items organized is by “filing” my baked goods in a plastic bin that fits in our deep freezer. I put the baked goods in similar sized ziploc bags, suck all the air out with a straw, put labels on top where they can be seen, and file them away. This makes things easy to access and find without having dig through the freezer (and freeze my fingers!). Lately, this “file” has been getting a little low, though!

Here’s my ~~secret~~ family muffin recipe: here.

For more “Kitchen Tip Tuesday” tips, go here.

Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza with Free Cheese Sticks!

February 22, 2008 in cooking, freebies, Frugal Friday, recipes with 18 Comments

Target has free Market Pantry cheese sticks with this coupon again through 3/08/2008. The coupon is for 50 cents off any 2 Market Pantry cheeses; in most stores cheese sticks/string cheese is 24 cents per pack. (Even if you don’t have a Super Target, most regular stores carry cheese sticks.) This deal has come up several times before, and we’ve put our cheese to good use with homemade stuffed crust pizza!

Here’s my favorite pizza crust recipe (adapted from this recipe and this recipe):

1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast

1 Cup Warm Water (I heat it in the microwave to save time)

1 Tsp Sugar

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil/butter

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Knead dough until smooth. (No need to let the dough rise with this recipe–that’s why it’s my favorite! )

Insert cheese: