April 4th, 2011

My dates are out of order!!!  Pretend you don’t see or notice that. 

It was Monday and the girls and I had plans to meet Trent in Clayton for lunch.  Afterwards we decided to go to Starbucks to get the girls a sweet treat and a cup of tea for mommy. 

Lauren picked out a mini chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing.  Chocolate and peanut butter, a girl after my own heart.

On one hand Sydney loves lollipops.  On the other hand she loves cake.  Put those hands together and the cake lollipop is born. 

I am still shocked she paused and smiled for the camera in the middle of eating that. 

Trent’s paternal grandmother, Hazel, used to make this ground meat dish called “Fancy Pants.”  I don’t know if I’m supposed to know why it’s called that, but I don’t.  It’s basically a cheese stuffed hamburger and instead of a bun it’s covered in a tomato sauce.  So it’s either a bun-less burger in tomato sauce or pasta-less cheese stuffed meatball if you will.  The traditional recipe has 5 ingredients, ground meat, sharp cheddar cheese, a can of tomato sauce, celery salt, and garlic salt.  It’s easy, inexpensive, and tasty.  I like the concept and like to mix it up.  So I did a greek inspired fancy pants.  I used ground turkey and mixed it with thawed frozen spinach, minced garlic, grill seasoning, and ketchup. Then I formed 8 small and flat burgers, topped 4 with feta cheese, and covered with the other 4.  It would have been nice of me to take pictures of this step wouldn’t it?  Then I made a basic tomato sauce with onions, garlic, crushed tomatoes, kalamata olives, italian parley, salt, pepper.  I cooked the burgers in a hot skillet until browned on both sides, topped them with the tomato sauce, and let them finish cooking for 10-15 minutes. 

In the skillet.

Salad ready to be dressed with balsamic vinegar and garlic olive oil, so good!  Last year I started saving celery heart and leaves to put in salads, it’s super yummy and crispy.

Everyone coming together on a plate!

I love family recipes like fancy pants, especially when I have a handwritten recipe.  I save them all in my recipe binder and they could be high on my list of things I would grab if there was a fire.

Aunt Mary’s award winning Eggplant Parmigiano, written out in paragraph form.

My Dad’s risotto Milanese family recipe written out in my mom’s handwriting.  But you can’t make it correctly with just this recipe, there’s many tricks and secrets only those who watched him make it will know.  Good thing I’m in the know!

Nammie’s crowd pleasing Chicken Tetrazzini, a Bond Family favorite.  Love love love that I have it in her handwriting. 

I wish I would have asked Grandma Coco to write her potato salad recipe, braided Easter bread with hard boiled eggs, fried chicken, and her chicken and dumplings.  Definite regret.  Note to self: try to ask my loved ones to write out some of my favorite dishes they make.  The emailed, photocopied out of a recipe book, or hyperlink versions just aren’t the same.