Mom's Cafe Home Cooking

Braised Outside Round Roast

2009-11-11T07:00:00.006-05:00

Early this week I posted about cherry picking the sales and there have been some great local sales recently. The sales included fresh pork shoulder picnic roasts and outside round (bottom round) roasts for $1 per pound. In addition to the meat values various sizes of beets, carrots and onions were on sale for $1. I decided to take advantage of the sales picking up one of each roast for the

Scandinavian Rosette Cookies

2009-11-10T07:00:00.006-05:00

It's that time of year where I'm looking for a few new things to add to my gift baskets for gifts from the kitchen. As promised here is one of the cookie recipes I tried out. Now I do have to point out these are one of the most frugal cookies I have come across. They are made from 5 low cost ingredients and despite this they look quite fancy. I really like foods that look like they took a lot

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Beverages

2009-11-09T08:00:00.004-05:00

Beverages are a part of every meal and they can be budget busters. One reason for this is dollar for dollar beverages give very little nutritional value for their dollar. This week's topic for Frugal Kitchens 101 is how to save on beverages.water - Water by far is one of your most frugal choices for a beverage providing you are not using costly bottled water. It hydrates your body best! The

Last Week in the Kitchen

2009-11-08T15:19:00.003-05:00

Sometimes a day goes by without a blog post here like yesterday. That's because life gets in the way. The kitchen hasn't come to a standstill. Saturday morning I spent doing a bit of straightening and and cleaning with the kitchen getting extra attention. So by lunchtime everything was squeaky clean just in time for parents of our middle grandbaby to arrive. At 18 months this grandbaby is

Butternut Squash Soup

2009-11-06T07:00:00.005-05:00

Autumn is the perfect time for homemade soups. The weather is cooling and life tends to get a bit busier with kids back to school and preparing for the holiday season to come. One of my favourite homemade soups is tomato soup because it reminds me of my childhood. This is the time of year instead of greeting the day with coffee, cappuccino or espresso I love a large mug of tomato soup. I did

Kitchen Quick Tips - Flavour

2009-11-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

Always substitute an ingredient with not flavour with one that has flavour. Use stocks, broths, juices and wines in place of water. Use coconut in place of regular milk. Use any sweetener that adds flavour (honey, molasses, etc) in place of white sugar. Don't forget the flavoured vingegars and to use oils with depth.Bon Appétit!Garden Gnome©2006-2009

Lasagna Revisited

2009-11-04T19:33:00.003-05:00

The weather is chilling so the comfort foods are coming out in full force as well as testing out new recipes that may become family favourites. These are the foods that later become comfort foods. Comfort foods are a true must have during the winter months!LasagnaLasagna is one of our family favourites so I've posted a lot about it. Just to wet your whistle pictured is one of three lasagne I

Cherry Picking the Sales - Beef & Pork

2009-11-03T17:06:00.004-05:00

My apologies for a later than usual post. I try to get a post out daily usually in the morning hours as I know many look forward to them. I ended up doing a bit of a foodie run for the shear purpose of taking advantage of a couple of excellent sales. That ended up with me not getting home into the mid-afternoon hours so by the time I put everything away and vacuum sealed the dried foods this

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Gifts from the Kitchen

2009-11-02T06:58:00.004-05:00

While homemade goodies have always been popular for gift giving over the holiday season there is a renewed interest in gifts from the kitchen this year. Part of the reason for this is the forced belt tightening of the recession. The fact is many have lost their jobs and many more are facing the very real possibility of losing their jobs. At the same time the holidays are a time of celebration

October Contest Wrap-up & Kitchen Chit Chat

2009-11-01T16:34:00.005-05:00

My gosh I can't believe it is November 1st already! Where has the year gone? We are now starting to gear up getting things ready for the holiday season. So it's time to sit and do a little chit chatting in the kitchen. October began with a lovely five day road trip of which I shared some of the highlights. When we arrived home I was back into preserving mode thanks to the generosity of a

She Said - Coconut Milk

2009-10-31T13:49:00.007-04:00

If you have been following this blog you will know my husband and I hold special cooking contests called He Said/She Said. This month's contest (announced here) was for each of us to find one ingredient we had not cooked with then use that ingredient to make 2 dishes/recipes. That sounds simple doesn't it, but trust me it is a bit more challenging than it first appears.I decided to follow my

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts

2009-10-30T07:00:00.004-04:00

Good home cooking need not be time consuming or complicated. In fact some of the best meals are the simple meals. Typically these meals have fewer ingredients, nothing fancy just normal ingredients you would find in your pantry, vegetable bin, refrigerator or freezer. I love finding a simple side that just works nicely especially when it is just a bit on the rustic side! When it is a side

Kitchen Quick Tips - Reducing Sugar

2009-10-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

He Said - Ground Turkey

2009-10-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

If you have been following this blog you will know my husband and I hold special cooking contests calle He Said/She Said. This month's contest (announced here) was for each of us to find one ingredient we had not cooked with then use that ingredient to make 2 dishes. That sounds simple doesn't it, but trust me it is a bit more challenging than it first appears.My husband took the KISS approach

Prime Rib Roast

2009-10-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Prime rib roasts are on sale here so despite having filled freezers my husband couldn't resist picking up one. Then he went online to find a different way to prepare the prime rib. What he found was rather humourous instructions as to how to cook the prime rib to perfection. Well the method looked like it would work so we decided to try it.Just look at that beauty of a prime rib roast (1).

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Frugal Mantra

2009-10-26T13:20:00.002-04:00

One of my favourite television channels is the Food Network Canada. I watch it almost daily and one thing I have noticed that is a common theme amongst most chefs is the importance of being frugal in the kitchen. It is stress that anything you throw out costs you money. Now in a restaurant setting those pennies being tossed away has to be kept in strict check otherwise the restaurant won't see

Slow Cooker Pork Loin Chops

2009-10-25T07:06:00.001-04:00

The weather has turned extremely ugly here so that means I'm going into hibernation mode. Well not hibernation as in sleeping the entire winter but finding any excuse as to avoid going outside. That translates into filling, homemade comfort meals using meats from the freezer and ingredients from the pantry. Quite often the evening meal is decided on the spur of the moment starting with an idea

What's in the Pressure Cooker?

2009-10-24T07:00:00.002-04:00

After a few meals of turkey we are always ready for something a bit different. Now we have been on this use it up trend since we returned home from our trip. Part of the reason is reducing what's in the freezers in prep for new meats but another part is the weather has turned cold so hibernation is a good thing.MysteryThese are days I love my pressure cookers mainly because I do feel lazy.

Left Over Turkey

2009-10-23T12:31:00.005-04:00

Anytime we have a turkey dinner there are left-overs. It's a given there will be lots of left-overs and always, always a batch of turkey stock. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about turkey left-overs is they are dry. If the turkey was moist to begin with the left-overs will be moist as well however the reheating process can dry out the meat. I like using moist reheating methods for

Kitchen Quick Tips - Baking Adjustment

2009-10-22T07:00:00.002-04:00

Thanksgiving Highlights

2009-10-21T07:00:00.004-04:00

The Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October. We normally have our big family Thanksgiving meal on Sunday before on years we are at home. If you recall we arrived home the previous Wednesday after being away for 6 days. The following couple of days I was busy processing corn (more here) so I had Saturday to do the menu and prep work for the meal. The meal highlights

Canadian Chef - Michael Smith

2009-10-20T07:17:00.000-04:00

A good part of my cooking style has been influenced by family and friends as well as our lifestyle. For the most part it means my cooking style is rather laid back and very much homestyle cooking from scratch. Several years ago I discovered the Food Network and it only took a couple of shows before I was hooked. Like anyone who enjoys food I really wanted to learn how to do some of the fancy

Frugal Kitchens 101 - Quality Counts

2009-10-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

When it comes to frugal cooking food quality is very important. Lower quality foods are often high is sodium, sugar and preservatives as well as being lower in nutritional value. Buying quality foods does not mean you have to break the bank either. Quality foods can be quite inexpensive. I want to stress that inexpensive doesn't mean cheap when it comes to foods. Inexpensive quality foods

Nine Dozen Ears of Corn & Corn Chowder

2009-10-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

During our recent road trip we were rather flexible as to when we would be returning home. We decided to play it one day at a time which made for a rather relaxing trip. On the Monday evening of our trip we received a phone call from one of our friends who had very generously dropped off nine dozen ears of corn at our house. Finding no one home the corn was left by the garage so we called one

Cedar Valley Cheese Store, Belgium, Wisconsin

2009-10-17T07:00:00.002-04:00

Wisconsin is the dairy state so it just wouldn't do to visit there and not bring home cheeses. We bring a cooler for traveling that keeps drinks and snacks cold on the way there and additional folding cooler. On the journey home we make several stops filling up the coolers as desired. Cheese makes up a good portion of what we bring home but fish and some meats often are added to the coolers.