After spending the last few weeks on vacation, having family visiting and camping, I am looking forward to a very simple menu with easy to cook foods.
Monday:
- Hamburgers
- French Fries
- Cottage Cheese
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
- Pot Roast with Potatoes & Carrots
- Green Beans
- Corn muffins
This is an easy macaroni salad that my mother taught me to make. My version is a little different than my mom’s. I like to use the colored Rotini but you can make it with regular macaroni, mini shells or any other kind of macaroni noodle. My mom uses mayonnaise but my family prefers Miracle Whip. Also, my mom puts diced onions and celery in her salad. I substitute onion powder and celery seed in mine.
Macaroni Salad
My version of Mom’s
12 oz Tri-Color Rotini pasta
6 eggs
1 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
1 - 1 1/2 T Yellow Mustard
1 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Celery Seed
2 T Sweet Pickle relish
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
Put 6 eggs into a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. For the best boiled eggs, use a large enough pan that eggs are in one layer and covered completely plus 1 inch of water. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to a medium boil and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately place eggs under cold water. After eggs have cooled, peel and chop.
Prepare rotini according to package directions. Be sure not to overcook the noodles. After cooking, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
Combine the rotini, chopped eggs, and remainder of ingredients in a large bowl mixing thoroughly. Chill before serving.
Last week Steve and Violet ended up eating out 2 nights while Jon was working and I was starving. Then we ate at the Airshow on Saturday. So I have several meals from last week that I need to make before we leave for vacation.
Monday:
Tuesday:
- Mini Penne with Marinara Sauce and Italian Sausage
- Corn on the Cob
- Cottage Cheese (using up the perishables)
Wednesday:
- Barbecuing with the neighbors - we’ll each bring 2 sides and whatever meat we want to cook. We’ll be doing hamburgers & hotdogs.
- Macaroni Salad
- Baked Beans
- Peanut Butter cookies
- Chocolate Chip cookies
Thursday:
Friday:
- We’re leaving for vacation today and eating out this evening (yea!). We’ll be back in a week or so. My parents will be here the day after we get home so there will be some yummy Southern-style dishes coming up!
We’ll be having that old standby Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes for Sunday dinner. I’d love to be able to give you the meatloaf recipe that we use around here but the loaf at our house is usually made by Steve or Jon and is never the same twice. No measuring is actually used. Everything is just “eyeballed”. Instead, I’ll give you this recipe for an absolutely decadent desert. You can make the whole thing from scratch but I like to cheat on the cake and use a box mix that has pudding in it so that it’s really moist.
Chocolate Raspberry Torte
Virginia’s version
1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix (with pudding in the mix)
1/3 c Water
1 small jar Red Raspberry Jam (seedless if possible)
3 cups Heavy cream
2 T Butter
2 T light Corn Syrup
1 1/2 lbs semisweet Chocolate - I use Ghirardelli semisweet chips
Prepare cake mix according to box directions making 2- 8″ cakes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
While cake bakes, make ganache. In a saucepan, bring 1 1/4 cups of heavy cream, 2 T butter and 2 T corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and add 1 pound of chocolate. Whisk until it is smooth. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before assembling cakes.
Prepare raspberry syrup by heating raspberry jam and 1/3 cup of water in a small saucepan. Heat until of syrup consistency. Keep warm. If you used jam with seeds you will need to strain the syrup to remove them.
Assemble the cake. Slice each 8″ cake into 2 layers with a long serrated knife. Remove the ganache from the refrigerator and bring to just under room temperature (it should still have a slight chill). Mix the ganache with an electric mixer until smooth and light.
Place one layer of the cake on a large plate with cut side up. Brush with 1/3 of the raspberry syrup. Top with about 1/4 of the ganache. Place another layer of the cake on top of the ganache and repeat the process with the syrup and ganache for the next 2 layers. Always place the cake layer cut side up so that the syrup is absorbed better. Add the top layer and spread the sides and top of the 4 layer cake with the remaining ganache. Chill for 30 minutes.
Prepare a glaze by putting 1 cup of heavy cream into a saucepan and bringing it to a boil. Remove from heat and add 8 oz of chocolate, whisking until smooth. Pour the glaze over the top and sides of cake. Chill another 30 minutes before you serve.
Serve the cake with a dollop of whipped cream made from the remaining heavy cream.
