Mondays with Mom- Fiesta Time

Mexican food will probably always make me think of my mom. We ate it often, at home and in restaurants. Growing up, there was a little place by our church and we ate there every other week. My sister remembers me eating the butter packets placed on the table to spread on tortillas (I still deny this) and I remember her ordering chicken fingers at a Mexican restaurant (she cannot deny this). 

Our family tradition is to eat Mexican food every year on Christmas Eve. No turkey or ham for us, just enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas, even homemade tamales one year. It's a pretty special feeling on Christmas Eve, knowing that my family in California is celebrating in the same manner. 

We ate a lot of Mexican food at home, as well. Mom would usually buy a Taco Bell taco kit from the store and a block of frozen hamburger meat was transformed into a fiesta by the end of the day. My dad works for Frito-Lay, so we always had plenty of chips, salsa, and queso to round out the meal. Taco night is a favorite at our house, as well. I love it because it's one of the quickest meals to get on the table, and yet it always looks like such an elaborate spread of food. 

I also love it because no other meal gets my oldest picky eater to voluntarily add lettuce and tomato to his plate. 

I forgo the boxed kit and packaged taco seasoning but usually have crunchy shells for the kiddos. If I feel fancy, I'll make flour tortillas. Rice and beans, guacamole for me, and everyone ends up happy and full. If I've learned anything from this blog series about feeding a family, it is this: my mom knew what she was doing. 

Taco Seasoning
To season 1 lb of hamburger meat:

1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbs chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp oregano

Brown and drain your meat, then add seasonings and a couple of tablespoons of water. Stir well to combine and distribute the seasoning throughout.

Mondays with Mom- Mother's Day Without Her

I used to fear that my mom was going to get pulled over for drinking and driving. I didn't realize that the law referred to drinking alcohol (which she never did). All I knew was, whenever we went anywhere, our first stop was always 7-11 for a Diet Dr. Pepper (for her) and Dr. Pepper's for my sister and I. 

On Mother's Day this year, my second without her, I bought Diet Cokes for she and I and sat on her porch for a while, having a good solid cry. I sang the hymn I sang to her on our last Mother's Day together. Then I went and saw The Great Gatsby, a movie that she and I would have no doubt seen together. I missed her fiercely. 

If she had been here, we would have all had lunch together after church. Perhaps Dad would have grilled something, or perhaps we would have picked up barbecue. Whatever the case, the girls would not have cooked. Not on Mother's Day. 

I didn't follow that rule in my own home. I made my own breakfast. For starters, I was up by 5 a.m. and my husband slept until 8:30. So I cooked some bacon, made some coffee, and then wrote one of my most popular Facebook statuses ever: "There is NOTHING like waking up on Mother's Day to the smell of bacon and freshly brewed coffee. My husband will thank me when he wakes up." I made my own eggs, which is also fine- he doesn't know how to make them like I do! Then I added a slice of the cake I had made the day before. When my husband saw me taking pictures, he said, "So are you going to call that a 'Greek Yogurt Breakfast Cake'?"  I replied, "I'll call it 'It's Mother's Day and I can eat whatever I damn well please Cake'." (In jest, of course.)

The cake was the highlight of the day. 

Greek Yogurt Cake
from Mad Hungry Cravings

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
1/4 cup honey
12 tbs (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 with a rack in the middle position. Butter and flour a 9-by-2-inch springform pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together the yogurt and honey in a small bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the yogurt and beginning and ending with the flour.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cook the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and invert the cake; lift off the pan bottom and let the cake cool completely.

Slice the cake and serve plain, sprinkled with sugar, or with the topping of your choice, like fresh berries.

Mondays with Mom- Leggo my Prego

About three times a week, Mom would leave a frozen block of hamburger meat in the sink. Ah, the versatile little things. What would it become? Tacos? Burgers? Quite often the mystery answer was spaghetti. 

A pound of hamburger meat, browned. A box of spaghetti, boiled rapidly, then a few strands thrown against the wall to see if they stuck. A jar of Prego, then that same jar filled with water and added to the sauce. (Don't ask me why.) My randomly picky sister would make Mom set aside some of the sauce without meat for her. This is probably the first meal Mom taught me how to make. Besides the usual salad, we'd also have some Wal-mart frozen garlic bread, or, my favorite, hot dog buns spread with Country Crock and sprinkled with garlic salt. (A friend of mine calls this "Okie Toast.") 

Homemade spaghetti sauce was hard for me to figure out when I first got married. I knew I didn't want to reach for the Prego, but I wasn't pleased with my results for a while. I wanted to replicate the taste of my childhood, but make it from scratch. It wasn't until college, when I saw a friend browning onions and garlic before she added her meat, that I even realized that you could use something besides the veggies in the jar! 

Since then, I've learned to add other flavor enhancers, when I have them on hand- fresh basil, when I have it, and Parmesan cheese rinds, which I stash in the freezer for just such a purpose. I brown the meat first, then use my go-to tomato sauce recipe. 

Though these days, my kids request Veggie Spaghetti instead of regular. I will never, never deny them Veggie Spaghetti. I don't have to feel guilty that they refuse to eat the salad I serve with it! And of course, I always make Janna's French Bread to accompany this meal.

It's amazing to me, as I sit down and think about the meals that my mom made on a regular basis, that I find myself reaching for the same things. Our cooking styles are different, but all we really want is to feed our family with minimal fussing and headache. Thankfully, it turns out that the meals that meet those criteria most fully are some of the simples to make.
I look forward to sharing some of Mom's Sunday dinners with you, when she would choose dishes that would cook all morning when we were at church. Those are the most vivid smells of my childhood.

Mondays With Mom- The Weekly Shake and Bake

My Mom always had to work, but she always took a job that would allow her to be home when my sister and I got out of school. For a few years, she even worked in the cafeteria of my elementary school. I was never embarrassed to see her there, in her hairnet. She was hilarious and all my friends loved her. It wasn't until a sociology class in college, while researching my family's educational history, that I learned that my mom had two master's degrees and was pretty wicked smaht. She had been an educator most of her life, so slopping mashed potatoes on an endless line of plastic trays was a truly sacrificial move on her part.

Throughout my childhood, in the mornings, mom would grab some kind of meat out of the deep freezer and set in the sink to thaw throughout the day. Not in a sink filled with cold water, just the sink. When I commented on this when I became an adult who cooked and who knew that this really wasn't a safe way to thaw out meat, she responded, "Nothing bad ever happened, right?"
I don't remember a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which are a staple in my house today. I remember a lot of pork chops. I'm sure they were a cheaper option. If there were pork chops in the sink, you could count on one thing for supper- Shake and Bake. I loved Shake and Bake nights, because of course, I helped!

These days, I still rely heavily on a weekly dose of "shake and bake" chicken. 25 minutes in the oven, a side of brown rice and some veggies? Done. And everyone loves it. Growing up, the cast of characters would have included a bag of Lipton Rice and a salad. There was always salad on the table. 

Crispy Rosemary Chicken is my go-to version of mom's weekly favorite. It requires little more effort than the boxed variety and it tastes infinitely better. This meal has completely taken the place of Parmesan Chicken as my family's favorite meal.  

I think mom would have loved it. I'm willing to bet your family will, as well. 

Mondays With Mom, a Blog Series

If (when?) I write a book, I predict it will involve food.

I don't have enough "original" recipes to constitute an entire cookbook, but I do have many memories that center around food and I am a lover of food memoirs.

So in an effort to dip my toe in the pool of the food writing world, I'm starting a blog series.

It's called "Mondays With Mom," and, as you might guess, it will feature a recipe each Monday that is a remake of a favorite childhood meal. My mom worked when I was growing up in the era of convenience foods, so many of the meals I remember do indeed need to be remade and re-imagined. This series will also serve as a bit of therapy for me, as I face the second anniversary of my mom's death next month.

So that's the plan.