Monday's Menu Item

Photo credit: MeeMom

Note: It has taken (literally) years for MeeMom to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe that works for her.  This is THE recipe!  Enjoy.

MeeMom's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
2 cups butter (no substituting)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond oil (or 1/2-1 teaspoon almond extract)
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips (DooDad prefers milk chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugars until creamy.  Add eggs, vanilla and almond oil. Add dry ingredients: flour, salt, and soda.  Mix until incorporated into dough.  Mix in chocolate chips.

Make cookie dough balls the size of golf balls.  Place 2x3 on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes on until golden brown.  Remove from pan and let cool on cookie rack . . . if they last that long!

Monday's Menu Item

photo credit: MeeMom
Pizza Soup with garnishes

We know, we know.  It doesn't sound so good, but try it once and you'll be hooooooooked!  In our family, we like to start with the soup as the base and then have a bunch of "garnishes" or "sides" that are added to the soup.  This allows for everyone to put in their soup what they like. That means they'll eat every bite instead of picking out the onions and the olives and the peppers and . . . .


PIZZA SOUP
Feeds a Hungry Family of Eleven

1-2 pounds ground beef or Italian sausage (or both)
2-3 Tablespoons oil
2 large cans or bottles of your favorite spaghetti sauce
2-14oz cans of Italian tomatoes, pureed
6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups water + 7 boullion cubes)

Brown meat in oil.  Drain and rinse.  Place remaining ingredients in large stock pot or slow cooker.  Let simmer for an hour or longer, if you have a lot of time.

Soup Garnishes/Sides:
cooked macaroni or shell pasta
bell peppers
onions
cheeses (Mozarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Colby)
fried pepperoni (yum!)
kidney beans
black olives

Serve with bread sticks or garlic toast

Monday's Menu Item



photo credit: MeeMom
Waffles with sour cream sauce and fresh peaches!

Truth be told we DO have breakfast for dinner!!  This is one of our very favorites!

WAFFLES WITH THE WORKS
Yield: Enough for a hungry Family of Eleven
(This is a perfect recipe for a Belgian Waffler Iron)

5 1/4 cups white or wheat flour (or half and half of each)
3 Tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
5 1/4 cups milk (I always use pre-made powdered milk)
1 1/2 cup oil

Place all ingredients in a large mixer.  Beat until smooth.  Bake in heated waffle iron.

Serve with all or some of the following:
Maple Syrup
Peanut Butter
Powdered Sugar
Fresh Fruits
Jams or Jellies
Honey
Ice Cream
Whipping Cream
Yogurt
Sour Cream Sauce: mix with sugar to taste and a drop or two of almond oil
Fruit Sauce

Monday's Menu Item

Photo credit: MeeMom

DUTCH OVEN IN THE OVEN STEW
Feeds: A Family of Eleven


Ingredients (add what you like, the amount you like)
Potatoes, quartered
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts cut in pieces
Roast Beef, cut in small pieces
Carrots, cut into pieces
Corn
Onions, cut into large chunks
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive Oil
1/2 cup water

Place in 350 degree oven and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until potatoes are soft.

Serve with gravy or BBQ sauce.

Saturday Sound Off

MeeMom: Another Saturday. Another Sound Off.

B Sharp: I did SOMETHING that WAS COOL. I was in BASs AND TREBle's room AND I shot the little basketBALL from FAR away and made iT iN the HOOP!

Allegro: l love my family and my parents, even when my dad stole my scooter and Mezzo stole my scooter. We were going on a walk to the school and they stole the scooter away from me and rode it down the street. Signed, Allegro.

Middle C: So today we had to get out of the house. We weren't given a lot of options so we were happy to walk to a school near our house and we raced on a track. We were all running the 50 yard dash and Doo Dad was timing us. On the last race before we left I came in second because I was slower than Bass. My best time was 7.9 seconds I was pretty fast, but my slowest time was 8.00 seconds. After, we went to our neighbor's house, The Rock Stars, because they let us watch College Football at their house because MeeMom says she won't get satellite TV and DooDad couldn't find the games on the internet. It was a lot of fun of fun for me because I ate tons of food.

MeeMom: Let me just say a word about these little foot races we had at the school. I discovered a fifty yard dash marker and thought it would be fun for the kiddos to time themselves because, if I remember correctly, I ran the 50 in 7.2 in 6th grade! I was just checking to see if my kiddos are as fast as I was. Notice the operative word is was. Because before we walked home, we had one final race that involved everyone. Yes, I thought it would be fun to see how I would fare running against all the kiddos. I should have listened to my gut because I never finished the stinkin' race. I pulled some glute muscle that rendered me a limper for the rest of today. Tomorrow's pain doesn't look too promising, either.

Staccato: I don't really want to write anything because our neighbor, Maraca, told me today that she's reading our blog. So I want to be on my best behavior.

Bass: I wish that we had Comcast, but I also like that we don’t have it. I want it so we can watch sports such as football and basketball. But I am glad we don’t have it because it is so much money to get it and pay for it every month. I like sports very much.

Treble: I so agree with Bass. I want Comcast or whatever people have these days, but we can't afford it. Today I went to the Rock Stars' house to watch college football.  They are nice to let us come. What excitement! Thanks for reading the blog!

Mezzo: There is a lot to say on this "free day" Saturday. First, what an exciting day to talk about sports. College football, that it. I always like the exciting, edge-of-the-seat last play, a field goal block, an interception or a touchdown. When we went to the school this afternoon played some basketball, rode bikes, and ran a timed 50 yard dash. My best time was 7.1 seconds. My legs start to hurt after awhile. I tried to help DooDad connect our internet box to our TV so we could watch College Football in the confines of our own family room, but it didn't work. So we went to our neighbors, The Rock Stars, and ate and watched football games. Treble and Bass are bad sportsman and have bad sportsmanship. They were cheering for the team I wanted to lose and booing for the team I wanted to win.

MeeMom: About the food at the Rock Stars' house. I am so embarrassed because it wasn't supposed to be us, Family of Eleven, going across the street to watch football and eat them out of house and home. I tried my best to make some eats to take over, but I must have been overtaken by an alien cook because nothing I made turned out. Nothing. So I went over with a bowl of sad, sticky popcorn and ranch dressing and left my excuse for breadsticks at home, cooling off in the garbage.  My kiddos owe them a HUGE thank you for the intake tonight! I'm thinking I owe them a dinner. . .

Fermata: I forgot I that I hadn't summarized what I had read this week, so I ended my Saturday doing Language Arts homework.

Coda: All the football made me grumpy and tired. I kept trying to wail my way back home, but everyone thought I was just plain cute. It finally took falling asleep on MeeMom's shoulder that got me home and to bed.

DooDad: Yo MeeMom, I ran the 50 in 6.8 in 5th grade!! And yes, we definitely owe the Rock Stars dinner!

Monday's Menu Item

photo credit: MeeMom

BUTTERSCOTCH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Yield: Enough cookies for a Family of Eleven

3 sticks butter, softened and almost melting
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until well blended.

3. Mix in eggs and vanillla.

4. Gradually add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, beating until well blended.

5. Stir in oats and chips

6. Make into racquentball-sized balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake 8- 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet an dplace on wire rack.

8. Watch them disappear!

Dessert Entitlement

Photo credit: Bass

MeeMom: When DooDad and I were first married I already had my own compilation of favorite recipes - all desserts!!  While I have since added much, much more variety to my recipe collection, I have successfully passed on a love of desserts to my children. All of whom have sadly grown-up thinking that a dessert comes with every meal!

B Sharp: My favorite dessert is cookies and ice cream. I like ice cream for breakfast, but MeeMom won't let me have it unless my brothers make a fruit smoothie on Saturday morning. Then she says it's okay.

Coda: Puh-lease don't talk about dessert.  I still have to work my way up to rice cereal!

Treble: Okay, so I love dessert! But I don't think that every night we should have one, but I think that every once and a while we should have one - at least four or five times a week. Some nights I really. feel like one, but I don't constently ask for one. GO DESSERT, I say!!!

Middle C: I am one of the guilty parties who ALWAYS asks MeeMom "What's for dessert?" Most of time she makes us desserts. But when we get irritated that she didn't, DooDad tells us we should be grateful because GrandMeeMom only made desserts once in a while. And DooDad said when her cookies came out of the oven, if they weren't eaten hot, they were used for hockey pucks 10 minutes later.

Staccato: I got mad today because I could see frozen cookie dough in the freezer from the cookies MeeMom made yesterday but she wouldn't bake them for me. She said we were going to have dinner in a half an hour. A half an hour is such a long time. I think I was going to starve.

Bass: Dessert is the best ever! I prefer dessert over pretty much anything. We should get a dessert every once in awhile, not everyday. Tonight, I feel like dessert. My favorite dessert is cornflake chewys. Fermata is a cornflake chewy and a really big piece of snow pudding.

Fermata: We should not eat dessert any day of the year because it is bad for our bones! HEY, Bass typed that! I think we should eat stuff like cheesecake so we can get our dairy for the day. We also need to eat banana cream pie so we can get our potassium. Chicken pot pie should be considered dessert so we can get our protein and veggies.

Mezzo: I like dessert. It is the best at our house. Our mother is the best chef in the world. I think that we should have dessert some of the days of the week (at least the ones that end in -day).

Allegro: My favorite part of dessert, other than eating it, is helping MeeMom bake. I like that. Signed, Allegro.

DooDad: Dessert? I'm more of a main-course kinda guy. Succulent steak or tender, slow-cooked ribs is my kinda dessert.

MeeMom: Gulp.  Pretty sure we are now on the USDA/Michelle Obama radar as an unhealthy, dessert-loving family. . . Just you wait until we blog about c.h.o.c.o.l.a.t.e.

Monday's Menu Item

photo credit: MeeMom

Here is the Argentine Dinner we made last week. Mmm, it is always a treat to eat what DooDad loves. This meal takes a lot of time to prepare but it is so worth it. I didn't use a recipe for the Milanesa Nepolitana, so I will give you the basics of what we did. (Nepolitana means it is layered with sauce and cheese. You could eat it without it if you would like).

The Gnocchi's are best served with your favorite sauce - red or white - and then sprinked with Parmesean or Mozzarella cheese!

MILANESA NEPOLITANA
Chicken Breast and a beef roast (we asked the butcher to slice it as thin as he could)

1 column Soda Crackers
1/2 cup flour
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1 1/2 Tablespoon Basil
1 Tablespoon Oregano
1 - 3 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper

Bowl #1: Crush soda crackers until fine. Add all other ingredients.

Bowl #2: Beat 3 eggs with 1/8-1/4 cup milk.

Tenderize beef. You could fillet your chicken breasts and pound them a little if you like. We just filleted them.

Dip meat in egg mixture, then in dry mixture.

Fry in 355 degree oil until golden to medium brown or until meat is done in the middle. (Will take longer for chicken if your beef is thinly sliced).

Spread a thin layer of your choice of marinara sauce and sprinkle with Mozzerella.


GNOCCHI'S - Potato "Dumplings"
2 pounds baking potatoes, washed but not peeled
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

1. Steam potatoes until tender. While still hot, peel potatoes, place them in bowl and mash.

2. Beat in egg and salt. Slowly mix in flour.

You want the dough to be soft and firm, but not sticky.

3. Turn mixture on floured surface and knead.

4. Put a pot of salted water to boil.

5. To form gnocchi's: Break off small pieces of dough and roll to make short ropes. With a knife cut

them into 1" pieces. Press gently each piece with the tines of a fork. (This is not really necessary, it just makes it look nice).

6. If just one person is cooking, you may want to form all your gnocchi's before boiling them. If this is the case, place gnocchi's on floured napkins so it can absorb the moisture from the potatoes.

7. Drop the gnocchi - several at once - into the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes of until they rise up to the surface. (No, they won't turn brown as one of our children asked how we would know it was done).

8. Remove cooked gnocchi with a slotted spoon and drain well.

9. Set gnocchi's on a clean, dry dish towel for a few moments and then place on a platter.

10. Cover to keep warm while cooking remaining dumplings.

Saturday Sound Off

photo credit: MeeMom

MeeMom: Since this blog is new and each family member has a say in what we write about, the kiddos want to have a day when they can talk about anything they want.  So it's looking (as of week 1) that Saturdays are the day to SOUND OFF about anything that has happened  in our family during the week.  So to give us all a little memory jogger here are some things that have happened this week: back-to-school father's blessings, wearing school uniforms, Saturdays, Milanesa and gnoochis, swimming, homework, our "new" daily responsibility chart, and Mezzo's IPod contract. Certainly this is not all inclusive, but it's a start.

Mezzo: My IPod contract is okay. I wish my parents would let me go on the computer to get apps and that kind of thing. My parents hardly ever let me get apps for my IPod. I wish I could get more ITunes Gift Cards but I don't.

MeeMom: Mezzo had the golden opportunity today to write up his own contract regarding the use of his IPod and the family computer.  It's not like we hardly ever let him get apps, it's more like we don't let him get whatever apps he wants whenever he wants to get them.  So, after it was all said and done, I was very impressed with his capacity to try to see his parents' side of things.  And I'll be even more impressed to see his contract in action!  I'll see is he will let me post a copy of his contract in the weeks to come.

Treble: I don't really like Saturdays, because we don't do anything. Even if we do something it's what the younger kids want to do. I always want to do something after cleaning the house but we don't really do anything. I think that Saturdays are one of the weirdest days. But I guess it's good because we get a break from school!

Middle C: I don't really like Saturdays either because we hardly do anything so we just sit around and watch TV.

MeeMom: Treble is right.  Saturdays are our "get the work done day."  It does seem that by the time we get everyone in the cleaning groove it seems like the day is already gone.  And Middle C seems to think that TV is what he should be doing in between the cleaning groove he should be getting in.  Take today, for example, I was ready to pull out all my grey matter (for that matter) due to children being over-indulgent in other people's business and not their own.  It took h-o-u-r-s for us to be somewhat done withour chores because everybody wanted to do something other than what they should have been doing.  Finally, when we were ready to get out and go, we had to have a family council to figure out what we wanted to do.  Because we do have such a large family and DooDad is self-employed, we have to be very creative on finding activities that are free or next to nothing.  Going to library, playing basketball at the Church gym, going for a hike all come to mind, but it doesn't always jive with everyone, so there are compromises to be made. And that's what happened today.  We got out of the house and did what the younger kiddos wanted to do.  At least it saved my grey matter.

Fermata: Every day we have individual daily responsibilities. This Saturday I had to unload the dishes, -and I HATE unloading dishes. I don't mind the other chores, so every time I have unloading I try to switch chores with someone.


MeeMom: Yup, he tried to switch with me, but I had a cushy responsibility today: clear and wipe the dinner table and put away food.  (Oh, if that were the ONLY responsibility I had . . . .)


Staccato: I have a new teacher.  This is her first year teaching.  She is the nicest teacher.  Tomorrow I'm going to Church and having an interview with my Bishop because I'm going to get baptized.  Am I done now?  Because I can't think of anymore things to say.


Allegro:  What we should have had for dinner was peas, carrots, corn, coconuts, chicken and that's all.  Instead we had corn and this stuff with cheese on it - what was it called?  Oh yeah, milanesa and pears and soda drinks. Signed Allegro.

Bass: Our dinner was very good. We had many things: milanesa, chicken, soda drinks and much more. My mom and dad are the best cooks in the world. Hope they cook something big tomorrow.

B Sharp: I played games. I played games with my family.

DooDad: What is left to say? Kids with wiggles and always hungry.  We had a great Argentine dinner that took about two hours to prepare. The funny thing was that during the two hours of dinner prep the kids asked over and over when dinner would be ready. When it was finally done, it took them about 10 minutes to finally drop what they were doing, wash up and get to the table. It's like that every day.

MeeMom:  And well, that about sums up our first Saturday Sound Off.  BTW, believe me when I say the Milanesa and gnocchis were out. of. this. world. Yummo.

Got Milk?

photo credit: MeeMom

MeeMom: With eleven bodies in our home, most of which are children who think they need to eat and drink because they will starve to death, we go through A LOT of milk. If we weren't such city folks we would seriously consider buying a milking cow. But since we would never seriously consider milking a cow, we settle for the double pack of milk (times five) everytime we pass through Costco. (And who can just "pass through" Costco?)

Coda: Well, I'm not the cow milk drinker so no one can look at me. I'll stick to my Kirkland brand formula, thank you very much! Isn't that why you go to Costco anyway, or is it really for the food samples???

Treble: Well MeeMom, I hate to burst your little bubble, but milk is sick! I don't like it! Sure, drinking milk is great with cookies and cereal and that stuff, but drinking a plain glass of milk is gross. It's Mezzo who loves milk. He drinks it for every single meal. I think milk is just a gross, gross liquid. YUCK!

Middle C: I agree with Treble, I don't like milk but it is good with cookies and cereal and when I put a lot of chocolate or strawberry syrup in it. Ooooooh, now that is when milk is good!

MeeMom: So now I know where all the Hershey syrup disappeared . . .

B Sharp: I have to have a milk whenever I take a drink. But, if there is juice or soda, I will choose soda. I leave my cup of milk in the fridge so it will stay cold because I don't like drinking warm milk.

Bass: Just for the record, I do. not. drink. milk. But I do with waffles or pancakes. Milk is my last preference of drinks. Water, on the other hand, is my favorite thing to drink, and I drink about 5 cups a day.

MeeMom: Umm, so where is all the milk going?

Allegro: Milk is good. I like milk. I especially like giving myself a milk mustache.

Fermata: I'm with Bass and Treble on this one. Milk is definitely not on my beverage list.

Mezzo: I LOVE MILK! Milk is the best drink that has ever come into our house. I love milk so much that it doesn't matter to me what temperature the milk is. I pretty much drink milk when ever I get a chance. And boy, do I take all my chances!  Folks, milk is the best!

MeeMom: Ohh-kay, I just figured out that we've been buying 10 gallons of milk a week for one teenage boy who, honestly, can drink a gallon or more a day!

Allegro: I want to say something else: I love milk. It is so good because I love it. Signed me, Allegro

Staccato: Milk is my comfort food (I didn't write that. MeeMom did and I had to ask her what comfort food means). I like milk so much that when I was six MeeMom made me a quilt with cows on it so I could dream of milk when I went to bed.

DooDad: Let's just say that milk is, well, rather moo-ving. :)

MeeMom: Whoa, this topic opened my eyes to some ways we could budget our food money and use more of that powdered milk that's in Food Storage. Tofu, anyone?!?!