Good Old Home Cooking

New Food Night -- have you missed it? We cancelled last week because of the weather. Let me tell you, though, this meal was worth waiting for. We had chosen American food as the theme for this week.  What's more American than Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes?

Tables ready now to get the food ready.

We started with a simple lettuce wedge. This was Chris' contribution. I had some Poppyseed Dressing on mine. We also had Ranch or Dorothy Lynch.  Don't you just love a wedge of crispy lettuce?

All the ingredients for Chicken Fried Steak.  We had some cube steak (thanks Red and Vicki). Good old corn fed beef straight from the farm. Dip the steaks in egg then in flour and fry in a cast iron skillet.

Here's a little kitchen secret for you. How do you make steak extra tender? Salt. That's right, salt. The cube steaks were still partially frozen. Gary liberally sprinkled both sides of the meat with salt and let this melt down into the meat as it finished thawing.

How does that Chicken Fried Steak look?  It was yummers!  I'll be honest, I don't know that I had ever eaten Chicken Fried Steak. I don't eat a lot of fried meat unless it's hamburger and I have only had a couple of them this year (my new diet).

Some gravy to go along with the steak. Make a rue by adding flour to the grease and meat crispies in the cast iron skillet. Add milk to this and stir until thickened.  Good old gravy!

Some rolls (Sister Shuberts) brought by Rick.  Sister Shubert sure does make a good roll!

Look at those mashed potatoes. Creamy - buttery - yummy! This was a new recipe for Miss Annette. Now she has made mashed potatoes just not this recipe. She used Yukon Gold Potatoes - a stick of butter and 4 ounces of cream cheese. Yes, that's right - cream cheese. You have got to try this recipe.

For dessert I made some gingerbread cookies.  I've got to tell you, I have been so looking forward to this dessert. Not the cookies but the extra part of dessert.

GLOGG! Isn't that fun to say? Go ahead - say it a couple of times. Glogg - glogg- glogg.  The only thing more fun to say is squab. (One of mine and Gary's favorite episodes of Two And A Half Men is when Evelyn is going to keep Jake for the weekend and offers him squab).  Glogg - it's a 'traditional Scandanavian Winter Drink'. It said to serve warm with  gingersnaps or gingerbread.

We warmed the bottle up and poured into glasses to eat with our cookies. It was wonderful! Cinnamon, cardamon citrus, apple and grape juice. Reminded me of Christmas :)  I will definitely have to remember this for the upcoming Christmas season this year. It is traditionally drank after outside winter activities or while sitting around the fire on a chilly evening.

There you have it - good old home cooking with a little foray into Scandinavia with some Glogg. Who wants a seat at next week's table?