A broke woman's blog.

I love my dad yes I do, but that man kills me with the things he does. Remember in my opening statement I said "I may make you laugh, cry, smile, sleepy or even hungry?" Well this is the part where I may make you laugh and cry. My dad will do anything. Today he decided he was going to shoot some fireworks. Yes I said fireworks. In the middle of April.

You gotta love him. He will do anything for my girls and I. He decided to light a roman candle lol. Needless to say the stem went out. He was standing in the front door and snapped it in half. The candle started shooting and he threw it in the trash lol. All of a sudden I hear somebody loling. My girls were standing by him screaming, "Papa you set the grass on fire." I got my camera and ran to the front door. He set the trash on fire instead of the grass lol. You think I should get my girls some glasses?

I was filming and telling them to get the water hose. He tells my youngest to go move the table out of the way and let the trash burn because we have to clean the yard up lol. My youngest wanted to shoot some missiles on a brick. When they where shooting up in the air, the were not going high enough. They were popping a few seconds before they hit the ground. We were running like crazy to get out of the way lol.

It's funny. My dad's about 6'12" (6'4") and about 320. He's a country boy and will walk around outside without shoes. He's a barrel of laughs!

You know a Sunday would not be a Sunday if I didn't get in the kitchen and cook. So here is how my day started. I went to the store at 9:30. I really didn't want to go but with hungry family members to feed I reckon I had to. Let's see, I grabbed some green and red cabbage, augratin potatoes, carrots, bacon, and sweet potatoes. The agenda for today's dinner was a roast, baked pork chops, cabbage, augratin potatoes with carrots and sweet potatoes. For dessert, I made an apple shortcake. Did I say that I made a tip for cooking? A friend of the family gave me a $10 tip for fixing him and his family a plate! Uh huh...a tip for me. Let the cooking begin!!!!!!!!!

Roast or pork chops

Roast or pork chops
Chopped basil
Chopped chives
Baby carrots
Seasonings

1. Wash your meat off and carrots.
2. Season them with your seasoning, basil and chives.
3. Pop in the oven and cook to your liking.

Cabbage

Green or red cabbage
Bacon
Seasonings

1. Fry your bacon in a skillet or pan.
2. Cut up cabbage and rinse it off while bacon is cooking.
3. When bacon is done cooking pour off some off the grease.
4. Add cabbage, seasonings, and a 1/4 cup of water to bacon.
5. Cook to your liking.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes
Butter
Brown sugar
White sugar
Cinnamon


1. Rinse sweet potatoes off and peel off the skin.
2. Cut them up a ¼ inch thick cross ways the sweet potato. They cook quicker when sliced thin.
3. Rinse them off.
4. In a medium sauce pan put enough water to coat the bottom of it.
5. Add sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
6. Let the sweet potatoes cook and simmer in the juice.
7. Taste the juice to see if it’s sweet enough and taste the potato to see if it’s done enough for you.
8. Once they are the way you like them serve them.

Augratin potatoes

Buy a box of augratin potatoes and read the directions!

Source: Bree

In Tuesdays Food Pro I class we learned how to mince shallots and make concassee. It was so fun. Our class is not your typical class if you know what I mean. Half of our class is of younger students and the other half is of older students. It's a funny mixture. Most of us have nicknames we've given each other in the class. Like my good friend Wolverine I mean Glen! Glen is really funny and a hard worker from what I've seen. I have no idea where Derrick came up with the name of Big Red for me lol. I had to ask him if I looked like a red soda pop. He just laughed. We all have different personalities in our class. Some are quiet and some are extremely loud. When it comes to getting a job done we all pull together as one.

But anyways on to mincing shallots and making concassee! Mise en place!

You will need:

Shallot
Cutting board
Knife

1. Cut the end of the shallot and rinse it off.
2. Lay it on it's flat side and cut it a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch thick horizontally half way through the shallot.
3. Then turn the cut it towards you and cut it a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch vertically to the half way point.
4. Turn it side ways to where the cut end is facing you knife.
5. Finish cutting the shallot a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch.
6. Cut up the finished shallot until it's really fine.
7. Take your knife and turn the blade on it's side away from you.
8. Put your hand about half inch to an inch away from the spine on the blade.
9. Rub you blade over the shallot towards you until the shallot is completely minced up.
10. Now you can do whatever you want with it!


Concassee

Roma tomato
Boiling water
Ice water bath
Knife
Tongs
Cutting board

1. Turn tomato upside down and score it on the tip like a small x.
2. Put it into the boiling water for about 15 - 20 seconds.
3. Use the tongs to pull the tomato out after time is up.
4. Put it in the ice water bath for a few seconds to stop the cooking process.
5. Once out of the ice water bath pull the skin off from where you scored the tomato.
6. One the opposite end cut the plug out.
7. Turn tomato horizontally and cut it in half vertically.
8. Take out all of the seeds.
9. Turn back on side and cut it to the thickness you want it.
10. Turn the opposite way that it it's been cut and cut it that way.
11. Put it on anything you want!

That concludes our lesson today.

These are videos of my instructor Chef Douglas.

I don't think I need any introduction from the title. You already know Sunday is my day to cook dinner at my house. This is the meal that I wanted to cook the previous Sunday but my dad beat me to it! Well I finally got a chance to cook what I wanted. My dad is a bird lover and I love bird too! He loves it fried but I love it baked. So are you thinking we had bird for dinner? You guessed it right. Baked bird it was. I made baked chicken with cream of mushroom, wild rice, corn and sweet peas mixed, biscuits and a Reeses pieces cake. Yea, my daughter wanted that cake lol. I'm the type of cook who will cook from scratch and out of the box. You don't have to be a professional chef to make wonderful tasting food. It's all in your mind and hands. All you have to do is find it! So let's get it started!

Mise en place [MEEZ ahn plahs]! Don't worry. You do this all the time I hope. All that's saying is for you to have everything in place that you need to prepare your meal. You will tire yourself out running back and forth throughout the kitchen looking for stuff.


Baked chicken

Chicken (whatever parts you like)
Chopped chives
Chopped basil
Seasonings (whatever you like)

1. Pull off fat on chicken and wash it.
2. Season it and sprinkle chives and basil over it.
3. Let it cook to YOUR liking. Done, I hope!

Wild rice

1. Just buy a box of Rice-A-Roni and follow the directions.

Mixed sweet peas and corn

1. Open a can of sweet peas and corn and bring them to a boil.

Biscuits

1. Grands biscuits. Follow the directions on the can.

Cream of mushroom

1. Open can and scrape the cream of mushroom in a saucepan.
2. Heat up and serve it on top of chicken!

Reeses pieces cake

1. Buy cake mix and follow directions on the box.
2. When cake is half way done, drop some reeses pieces in the mix.
3. When the cake is done, you can put your icing on so it can melt into the cake.
4. An hour after cake has cooled off sprinkle more reeses on the icing.
5. Put cake in the freezer for about 30 minutes to let icing get cold, then take it out.
6. You may eat!

Source: Bree