Clara, a 91-year-old great-grandmother, talks about growing up during the Great Depression and the meals she and her family prepared then in the video above.

She also fixes a “poorman’s meal” of potatoes, hot dogs and onions, which I remember my grandpa also making!

What cheap and delicious meals do you like to make?

Post from: Blisstree

Depression Era Cooking with Clara

Giada DeLaurentiis was on the Today Show this morning to make her classic beef lasagna. She says the biggest hurdle with making lasagna is the prep work, but I’ve got to disagree with her – I love prepping for it!

She shares a few of her lasagna techniques like rinsing the noodles to keep them from getting gummy (I don’t rinse and have never had an issue). She also uses a bechamel sauce for her lasagna, which, after a little Googlefu I’ve found is authentic though I’ve never tried it.

The end of the clip is chaos as they rush to beat the clock, but as always Giada’s lasagna looks amazing!

Post from: Blisstree

Giada DeLaurentiis Makes Beef Lasagna on the Today Show

All of the recipes we found were very basic and had a lot of the same ingredients, so we took a little from each and added some of our own variations as well to come up with the one below.

At the restaurant he goes to the rice and curry are served separately, you get a spoonful of rice and then scoop up with the curry with it.

Chicken in Red Curry

1 lb diced boneless chicken
1-2 tablespoon red curry paste
1 (14 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup sweet basil
5 lime leaves, halved (or one Tb lime zest)
1 Tb red chili paste
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 red bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/3 cup water
1 (8 oz) can sliced bamboo shoots
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar

Heat about 1/2 the coconut milk to a boil in a large pan, stir in the red curry paste. Add the chicken, reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the rest of the coconut milk, water, bamboo shoots, sugar, and fish sauce and return to a boil. Stir in the zucchini, red bell pepper, lime leaves, and chili paste. Cook several minutes or until zucchini are tender. Garnish with basil and serve with rice.

Post from: Blisstree

Chicken in Red Curry

So, it’s Pancake Week and who better to jump on that bandwagon than IHOP?

Today being Shrove/Fat Tuesday, the restaurant is helping celebrate the last day of Mardi Gras with free pancakes!

Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., we’ll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes. All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network, or other local charities.

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Free Pancakes Today

Did you know it’s National Pancake Week? This yummy holiday runs from February 22nd to February 28th, 2009.

It’s actually tied to Lent, and more specifically to the medieval celebration of Lent when people would purge their pantries of “luxury” ingredients like milk, eggs and butter. To make sure these items didn’t go to waste they became big batches of pancakes, and a tradition was born!

Pancakes go by a lot of different names depending where in the world (and where in history!) you are: Battercakes are associated with Thomas Jefferson; Blini are Russian pancakes; Blintzes were popularized in America by Jewish immigrants; Crepes, of course, come from France; Flapjacks are pancakes made with baking powder; Jonnycakes are pancakes made with corn flour; and griddlecakes and hotcakes are just other names for pancakes.

So, what’s your favorite pancake topping?

[image: wikipedia]

Post from: Blisstree

It’s Pancake Week!

While this isn’t a quick meal to whip up — the pork chops need to cook for about 45 minutes — it’s very easy to put together.

I usually buy a four-pack of chops, and by cutting them into strips after they’ve cooked I can fan them out over the rice and feed my family of five and usually even have some leftover for my husband to take to work.

While the chops are cooking, get some rice on to cook too and the whole meal will be ready at the same time.

Tangy Pork Chops

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 pork chops, about 1/2 inch thick

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c water

Combine the flour, garlic powder and pepper and coat chops with mixture. (The easiest way to do this is to place the flour mixture in a large resealable bag, place chops inside the bag and shake.)

Brown chops on both sides in hot oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle tomatoes and onion pieces over chops. Pour soy sauce and water over all. Cover and simmer 45 minutes, or until tender, turning chops over once.

When chops are finished cooking, remove them to a plate and keep warm. Reduce the onion, tomato, water and soy sauce mixture for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, to make a sauce, and serve over chops and rice.

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Tangy Pork Chops on Rice

Thankfully, Alton Brown has come to the rescue with his delicious overnight cinnamon rolls, which you make the evening before, stick in the fridge overnight, and bake in the morning.

The combination of the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon filling create a delicious caramel-y filling, and the cream cheese in the icing actually seems to tone down the sugar overload!

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Alton Brown’s Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

This is another one of those favorite meals: Korean-style short ribs. One of the reasons I like it so much is because the majority of it’s done in the crockpot, so a lot of the hard work is done for me and the house smells wonderful all day — how can you beat that? I like to serve it over white rice and garnish wish toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onion.

Korean-Style Short Ribs

1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c packed light brown sugar (you can scale it down to 1/3 c)
2 Tb sesame oil
2 Tb rice vinegar
2 Tb minced fresh ginger
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
5 lbs beef short ribs

3 Tb cornstarch
3 Tb cold water

Mix soy sauce, sugar, oil, vinegar, ginger, garlic and red pepper in a small bowl. Place ribs in a 5-quarter slow cooker and pour sauce over. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 9 hours.

Transfer ribs to a platter, and skim and discard excess fat from liquid. Place liquid in a saucepan, combine cornstarch and water and add to liquid. Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove meat from ribs, place over rice and top with sauce, green onions and sesame seeds.

Post from: Blisstree

Korean-Style Short Ribs

We decided to throw a Super Bowl party this year and invite over a bunch of friends and co-workers. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a large amount of people coming over in the past, so we’ve been working on our game plan for the last week, trying to make sure we’ll have enough food for everyone!

We decided to go with a large amount of snacks so that we’re not working away in the kitchen all afternoon and people can pick and choose what they want.

In the line-up are pinwheels (flour tortillas with cream cheese, green onions, turkey and spinach), buffalo wings, tortilla chips and chili dip (queso cheese dip with chili kept warm in a little crock pot), little pizza bites for the kids, peanut butter cookies, chocolate cake balls, veggies and dip, mozzarella cheese sticks and marinara, franks in a blanket and jalapeno poppers. Of course, there’ll also be lots of chips, sodas and other tasty beverages!

We’ve also asked our friends to bring their favorite treat or snack so that’s always fun to see what they’ll show up with. What’s on your menu for the Big Game?

[image: flickr]

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Super Bowl Snacking: What’s on the Menu?

Three Foodie Obsessed readers will get the opportunity to stock their fridges with Santa Barbara Bay refrigerated dips and spreads. They’ll get five of the yummiest best-selling dips (including Artichoke Dip, Caramelized Onion & Roasted Garlic Dip, Garden Dill Dip, Spinach Dip and Chili Con Queso Dip), as well as several recipes for fun, inventive party appetizers, such as the easy, elegant five-layer dip pictured above.

With a playbook of winning recipes –- not to mention an all-star lineup of delicious dips -– each giveaway winner can be this year’s Super Bowl host with the most!

To Enter:

Leave a comment here telling me what you do Super Bowl Sunday — do you go to a party? watch at home? That’s it!

* Contest closes at 12:00 noon PST tomorrow, January 27 (so the dips can be sent to the winners on time for the Super Bowl this Sunday!). Winners will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to respond with contact information before a new winner is chosen.

* Open to US residents only.

* One entry per household. Multiple entries will all be discarded.

* Three winners will each win a selection of dips and spreads.

* All current Bloggy Giveaways at Foodie Obsessed may be entered one time each. Good luck!

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Bloggy Giveaway: Santa Barbara Bay Dips and Spreads