In The Kitchen With Linda

What’s For Dinner?

April 4, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I’m rearranging our meal plan this week. It’s just not working out having pizza night on Saturday anymore. I’m trying to have all our food prepared ahead of time for the Sabbath, and homemade pizza is just too labor intensive. So supper on Saturday will now be a chicken dish prepared on Friday. And pizza night moves to Tuesday. And beef night moves to Monday.

Hope I can keep track of the changes! I’ve used this menu plan for so long, I don’t even have to think about it. I think the new plan will be better, eve if I have to think. lol

Saturday – chicken- Cholent, hmm….not a chicken dish, but good anyway lol

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – tuna fish & egg salad sandwiches

Monday – beef – Spaghetti with Meat sauce, salad, green beans

Tuesday – pizza – homemade pizza…..yum! carrot sticks

Wednesday – super simple – leftovers, salad

Thursday – chicken – Chicken & Rice with beans

Friday – Friday Night Fire/Beef – steak, salad, broccoli & challah bread

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

March 28, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Last Friday, Abby wanted to make a cake for our Friday night Sabbath meal. We took the Chocolate Crown Cake, and adapted it into a cinnamon cake. Then she whipped up a cream cheese icing to drizzle (or pour!) over the top.

It was so delicious! When we inverted the cake, the cinnamon was on the top of the cake, and a little crispy, and oh so good!

The whole family loved this cake, and I imagine Abby will get to make it a lot more.

Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

cake batter:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

For cinnamon batter:
5 T melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour a 6 cup Bundt pan.

In large bowl, mix sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add all remaining ingredients except cinnamon mixture.

Mix together the melted butter, sugar & cinnamon.

Pour half the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Spoon in all of the cinnamon mixture. Pour in the rest of the cake batter.

Bake at 325* for 35-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Serves 8.

Cream Cheese Icing

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Beat together the cream cheese, the butter & vanilla until creamy. Stir in the powdered sugar. The icing should be runny enough to drizzle over the cake. You can add a small amount of milk, if desired, to get the right consistency.

If you will be eating all the cake at one sitting, you can pour the icing over the whole cake to serve. Since we didn’t eat the whole cake, we poured the icing over each slice. Store left over icing in the refrigerator.

This cake is great served warm. It was also good the next day, with the icing from the fridge

Enjoy!

What’s For Dinner?

March 28, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Saturday – pizza night – Dinner at church

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Cholent and sandwiches – Cholent is a beef & bean stew cooked in the crockpot all night.

Monday – chicken – Chicken,rice, bean burritos, salad

Tuesday – beef – Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans

Wednesday – super simple – leftovers, salad

Thursday – chicken – Oven baked BBQ Chicken legs, twice baked potatoes, cooked carrots

Friday – Friday Night Fire/Beef – If weathers nice, cook out – hot dogs, brats, carrot sticks, if not, steak, salad, broccoli & challah bread

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Chicken Freezer Session

March 22, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Krogers had chicken leg quarters on sale for 49 cents a pound in 10 pound bags last week. So when my husband went shopping of Saturday, he bought 3 bags.

Yes, that’s 30 pounds of chicken! So I did a chicken freezer session today. Here’s what I did:

I separated the legs and thighs on all 30 pounds

I put the legs into 2 ice cream buckets & put in the freezer raw

I baked the thighs from 2 bags, we ate some for supper, and I put 8 cups cooked meat in the freezer (2-3 cup bags, 1-2 cup bag)

The thighs from the other bag, we deboned and put in the freezer raw

I boiled the bones that still had meat on them

My son discovered a couple of weeks ago that he likes to cut the legs off the thighs. So when he saw me doing this today, he came and took over. I showed him how to get the meat off the thigh. It’s not something that I do that often, so I wasn’t very good at it.

So he went online and looked it up. Here’s the website he found, de-boning a chicken thigh. It really helped him. He got the meat off in one piece, as opposed to the smaller pieces I was getting.

When the bones I boiled where done cooking, my helper drained them, thinking he was doing the right thing. I was sorry to see the broth gone, but he separated the meat from the bones, and we added it to the meat from the thighs I baked. And I’m over the lost broth. He was just trying to help. So no crying over spilt chicken broth. 🙂

If I’m careful with the meat, I can usually get 3 meals out of a 10 pound bag. So I should be able to get 9-10 meals out of these 3 bags, depending on whether we have company or not.

It’s worth the couple of hours spent this afternoon, to have easy meals in the freezer.

For more tips and ideas, visit:

Domestically Divine Homemaking Link-up

Tipping Point Tuesday

Homemaking Link Up

Works For Me Wednesday

What’s for Dinner?

March 21, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I had another great House Party last week. This one was a Philadelphia Cooking Creme party. I got to cook supper for everyone using the new Philly Cooking Creme. Everyone loved it! If you haven’t tried the Philly Cooking Creme yet, you really should. Most of the containers come with a little recipe sheet on it, so make sure yours does. The two recipes we tried were great.

And if you haven’t signed up for House Party you, what are you waiting for? Sign up now, and they will email you when new parties open so you can apply. Great fun, and great goodies for the host and the guests.

Saturday – pizza night – Philly Cooking Creme House Party- Ultimate Creamy Beef Stroganoff, & Chicken Primavera with pasta

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Leftovers and sandwiches

Monday – chicken – Baked Chicken, rice, cooked carrots

Tuesday – beef – Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans

Wednesday – super simple – leftovers, beets

Thursday – chicken – Chicken Pasta Salad, carrot sticks

Friday – Friday Night Fire/Beef – Steak, broccoli, challah bread

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

What’s For Dinner?

March 14, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Saturday – pizza night – Homemade Pizza, , carrot sticks,

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Leftover pizza and sandwiches

Monday – chicken – Baked Chicken, leftover challah bread, cooked carrots

Tuesday – beef – Beef stew

Wednesday – super simple – leftovers

Thursday – chicken – BBQ Chicken legs, rice, green beans

Friday – Friday Night Fire/Beef – Steak, broccoli, challah bread

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Storing Cookbooks

March 11, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I love cooking. Which means I also love collecting recipes.

Storing this recipes in a neat and organized manner can often be a problem. Since I have a small kitchen, I can’t devote a cabinet to cookbook storage. How nice would that be, though?

I have some of the least often cookbooks and cake decorating books in the schoolroom. I stored the ones I use more often at the end on the kitchen table on a little cabinet. It’s actually a night stand.

I forgot to take a picture before I moved the cabinet, but here’s one after I moved it. I’m sorry to say, it was this messy before I moved it. 🙁

We stored our aprons in the drawer, and yes, more often than not there was a tie or ruffle hanging out of the drawer. And you know what? That’s not even all the cookbooks and recipes that were on it. Here’s the rest.

It really was an eyesore. So one day it came to me to switch places with this cabinet and a small table I had in another room. So, after measuring to make sure the 2 would fit in the others spot, and that the cookbooks would fit on the shelf, I made the great switch-a-roo.

Ah…much better. A binder with the recipes I print on the computer and my household binder are on the top shelf. A couple of file folders on the bottom left, hold recipes cut from magazines and instruction manuals and warranty papers. Our aprons are hanging neatly from a Command hook on the kitchen wall.

I would really like a small bookshelf here to hold all my cookbooks. But for now, this works and is a great improvement.

For more tips and ideas, visit:

Domestically Divine Homemaking Link-up

Tipping Point Tuesday

Homemaking Link Up

Works For Me Wednesday