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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: A family favorite

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen was down for the count after I was suffering with an insufferable flu for a few days last week! So, I decided to take an easy day in the kitchen. Maybe you can follow suit and give yourself a break too as we wait for spring to finally arrive…

I know that here in Northern Illinois, we have had nothing but, in this order: cold, snow, cold, snow, cold, snow….and keep repeating that over and over and over!! So, in thinking of an easy dinner, I decided to treat us to a “summer supper” of sorts. In thinking about what to make, I was thinking back to when the girls were young. Brian would be off on Fridays in the summer, and we would spend all morning at the swimming pool. Then we would trudge home, tired out, and fire up the grill, where Brian would make delicious hot dogs! Melissa just loved them, with ketchup, mustard and onions on the top, hold the bun (strange child!).

So, for the summer supper I decided to “healthy it up” a bit, and here is what we did…

*1 package turkey smoked sausage
*1 onion, chopped
*Ketchup, mustard, pickles and any other toppings you like
*Chopped tomatoes

Heat up the smoked sausage (I didn’t grill it….maybe Melissa has mentioned my fear of the barbecue?!). Add the onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard and tomatoes to the top and serve with side dishes! That’s all there is to it.

We had potato salad, macaroni salad and baked beans with it. Finish it off with some Girl Scout cookies, and support a good cause with your dinner! I brought out a beach towel and made it look kind of summery, and we had cool grapes and iced root beer to drink. What a fun meal — was easy and cheap too! Of course, you could always have a nice cold beer with it too, just like in the summer!

I hope that if you live in a cold place right, you will enjoy a summer supper yourself! Have fun!!!!

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3 Comments Filed Under: childhood week, comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, peek inside, recipes, recipes series, Uncategorized

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: The ultimate comfort foods

Oh yes, another two weeks has gone by again — and very quickly! I couldn’t decide what recipe to do for the blog this time, and then it hit me! I was making green bean casserole for 40 people at the local homeless shelter, so I decided to just remind all you readers that green bean casserole does not have to be for holidays only! So, here it is….easy as pie, which you could always serve with it…lol!

Now, as you can see, I used the big, big cans of green beans. You wouldn’t want to use that big of a can at home, of course! So, just gather a couple cans of green beans. I use Del Monte, but you can use frozen too if you would rather. Get a couple cans of cream of mushroom soup (one if you don’t have a lot of beans, and two if you are going bigger). Mix the beans, condensed soup, some pepper and some milk into a pan that can go in the oven. You don’t want to add too much milk, not the whole can like you would do if you were making soup…maybe just 1/2 of it. Add some french fried onions to this mix and mix in gently. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until hot and bubbly, and then add some more french fried onions on the top and cook for another five minutes. Enjoy!

We also had meat loaf and mashed potatoes for dinner that night. Because, really, what goes better with green bean casserole than meat loaf and mashed potatoes? We think Elvis highly approve.

I know that the above recipe is not all that precise, but it’s easy to make and you can do it however it looks good to you! We really enjoyed having it outside the normal holiday time. I think the people at Hope Haven, our homeless shelter, enjoyed it too. Hope Haven was one of the places where Brian, my husband, loved to volunteer. After he died, a man came to church and said that he had spent some time living in the shelter. He said that Brian was a special man because most people just served the food, but Brian sat down and ate with the residents and talked to them. No wonder that man never got home from there until 10 at night! That made me so proud of him!

As I told you before, I am not all that great a cook. If you have any dishes you would like me to “attempt” for this feature, let Melissa know, and I can give it the old college (or cooking school!) try. That would be fun! See you next time in Ms. Bear’s Kitchen!

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3 Comments Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, my father's suicide, peek inside, recipes, recipes series, Uncategorized

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Peek Inside: My StickyGram magnets

I pulled a cryptic card out of my bag of tricks last night when I posted the above photo on Instagram — a sort of fun preview of things to come. Well, I was quite excited a few weeks ago when I received an email from the lovely folks at StickyGram, the amazing site that lets you bring your Instagrams to life. It’s such a fun concept: You choose your favorite Instagram shot, upload them to the site and voila! A pack of nine magnets arrives right at your door.

StickyGram was kind enough to send me a complimentary pack of magnets, and boy was it hard to choose just nine! I tried to choose ones that really represented my life and all my favorite things, especially my family and our lovely cats.

It was a treat to see those magnets peeking out from the envelope. And the high-quality photos were amazing!

Though I may have been a bit obsessive with the cat pics. I’ll let you be the judge, friends! xoxo

(StickyGram is one of my new sponsors, though the opinions expressed are my own. Thanks so much for continuing to support So About What I Said’s wonderful sponsors!)

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3 Comments Filed Under: art, design, Entertainment and Media, Instagram Fun, peek inside, Photographs, Shopping, sponsor spotlight, Uncategorized

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: Easy enchiladas

Could two weeks have passed already? Melissa says so, and I guess she would know!

We were talking recently about Melissa’s good friend, Samantha (editor’s note: Remember her husband?), who is the biggest fan of my enchiladas of anyone we know. Melissa decided that would be a good recipe to share this week! As you all know, I am not a professional cook, so please feel free to change anything about any of my “recipes” that you want to. I put recipes in quotes because Janelle says I don’t really have recipes, that I just open up cans all over the place and mix them together. There is a kernel of truth in that…lol! Here is the “recipe” for the enchiladas, which even Janelle admitted were good when we made them a few nights ago.

Ingredients (I had actually bought an Old El Paso Enchilada kit, but found it would be a lot cheaper and make more food if you just buy the tortillas, seasoning and sauce separately)…

*1 package flour tortillas
*1 large can enchilada sauce
*1 envelope of enchilada seasoning
*1 cat Rotel tomatoes…I used mild, but you can use any you like
*1 pound ground beef
*1 package shredded cheddar and 1 pack shredded Mexican cheese
*1 can refried beans
*1 can corn
*1 package Mexican rice
*1 onion

Brown the ground beef until done. Add chopped onion and Rotel tomatoes. Cook awhile. Then put some refried beans in the tortilla, add the meat mixture and top with cheese. Arrange all the filled tortillas in a pan. Top with enchilada sauce and more cheese. Bake until bubbly at 350 degrees, around 20-30 minutes. Serve with Mexican rice and corn. Enjoy!

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1 Comment Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, peek inside, Photographs, recipes, recipes series, Uncategorized

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: Noodle bake

Two whole weeks have gone by since my last cooking blog post. I think Melissa thinks a bit too highly of my cooking skills (editor’s note: Don’t listen to her — she doesn’t know what she’s talking about!), but she insisted, so here goes…

Lina’s Noodle Bake

After my husband died in 2003, I was unable to eat anything for several days. On the third day, my good friend, Lina, brought me this casserole. To this day, I remember my sense of smell and taste returning as she walked it past me to the kitchen. I ate 2 really big servings! It was truly like water for someone in the desert, and I have never forgotten the meal or the kindness that went along with it! So, here’s the recipe…

*1 pound ground beef, lean.
*1 large jar pasta sauce.
*1 can diced tomatoes.
*1 green pepper, chopped.
*1 white onion, chopped.
*1 bag egg noodles (or, whatever kind of noodles you prefer).
*1 bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Brown the ground beef and add it, plus vegetables, to the sauce. Cook for awhile to soften up the veggies. Prepare the noodles according to the directions. I never cook them too soft if I am putting the casserole in the oven.

Drain the noodles. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a baking dish (if you use the whole bag of noodles, it should make a 9×13 pan, but I used an 8×8 and then made one even smaller Pyrex dish of the casserole, which I froze for another time).

Put a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce and a layer of cheese in. Repeat until you run out of ingredients (I got three layers in mine).

Bake in a 350-degree oven until hot and bubbly.I usually serve it with french bread, applesauce and green beans, but you can have whatever you prefer.

Well, that’s the recipe for this week. Hope you like it!

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5 Comments Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, my father's suicide, peek inside, recipes, recipes series, Uncategorized

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So About What I Said is a daily blog that covers relationships, disabilities, lifestyle and pop culture. I love to laugh and have been known to overshare. I also have an unabashed obsession with pop music, polo shirts, and PEZ dispensers. Read more...

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