50 States; 50 Meals: Idaho

We had our Idaho meal last night.  We had potatoes, obviously.  Idaho Nachos to be exact.  They are like regular nachos except you use waffle fries instead of tortilla chips.  And instead of chili you use bacon.  Then you finish top them off with black olives. jalapenos, tomatoes, green onion and sour cream.



Along side our Idaho Nachos we had Idaho-Style Finger Steaks.  It's what your thinking.  It is like a chicken finger made out of sirloin or cube steak.  The finger steaks were first made in 1957 when the owner of Milo's Torch Lounge, Milo Bybee, was looking for a use for tenderloin scraps. No offense to Mr. Bybee but I think we will continue to grill our steaks.



So I as you can see Idaho was just okay for us.  Next we head to the Windy City.

 

50 States; 50 Meals: Hawaii

Aloha!  I am so behind I don't even remember what night we had this dinner last week.  Picking this menu was so difficult mostly because I didn't think the girls would like the traditional Hawaiian fanfare. When I looked up the meals my choices were raw tuna (Ahi Poke), shredded Salmon (Lomi Lomi Salmon), Spam made to look like sushi (Spam Musubi) or something called a Loco Moco.

None of those sounded "kid-friendly" so I decided to play it safe and decided on Hawaiian chicken and pineapple skewers.  I couldn't help feel like I was taking the easy way out and not really making true Hawaiian food and kept thinking about the Loco Moco.  A Loco Moco was first served on the big island in 1949.  It is white rice topped with a burger patty, gravy and a sunny side up egg.  My hubby was on board but I was sold when my youngest said boldly that she would try it.  That NEVER happens.  I went the easy way since I still planned on making the chicken skewers.  I used frozen hamburgers and jarred gravy.  Sidebar: Ballpark makes a frozen precooked burger.  It came highly recommend from the gentleman working at Wegmans and he was right.  We used the left over burgers for a busy dance class night.

So there is a Loco Moco.  You may not be able to tell but I plated this dish in a bowl.  A coworker of mine was stationed in Hawaii while he served in the Navy.  He told me the best way to eat this meal is to cut it all up in the bowl so the egg yolk gets over everything.  I made one sans egg for my youngest to eat.  Both girls loved this meal and actually wanted to have it again this week.  I'm so happy I made it.

I did still make the chicken and pineapple skewers.  I got some help with a packet of McCormick Grill Mates Hawaiian Luau for the chicken.  I marinated the pineapple in soy sauce and brown sugar.  I skewered them separately so we didn't have to worry about the cooking times.  The chicken was so good I enjoyed it a few more times on top a salad for lunch.

  So I had to throw some Spam into the mix since Spam is so popular on the big island.  I picked up a single serving package of Spam and fried it up real quick.  My oldest housed it!  Loved it.  I would eat it again if I was stranded somewhere and it was the only thing left to eat.

To finish off our feat I broke out the Hawaiian sweet rolls.  My daughter loved the rolls so much she kept asking for me to use them as sandwiches in her lunches.

Here's our feast

50 States; 50 Meals: Georgia

You know the song "The Devil went down to Georgia"?  Well I think the Devil must still reside there because the Devil was in the details this week.
First off, I had such a hard time finding recipes for this state.  Yes internet, they eat peaches and love pimento cheese, I get it!
So on my menu I had broiled peanuts, pimento cheese, biscuits and peach pie.  But that is not dinner.  Lucky, for me my boss is originally from Georgia so I went to him for some help.   After about 30 mins I left his office knowing that I should cook some kind of pork.  I settled on Smothered Pork Chops.

I made the peach pie and the pimento cheese the night before.

Devil detail #1:  Refrigerated pie dough (No, I didn't make my own) needs to be refrigerated.  When the groceries got put away the dough did not get put in the refrigerator until bringing it home much later.  It must have been longer than I thought.  The dough smelled funny the whole time.  I thought maybe it was because I was using an all natural brand instead of Pillsbury but it donned on me what had happened as the pie was just about to come out of the oven.  It was a beautiful pie and the dough was crispy and flakey.  It just smelled like feet.  So dear husband went out for more ingredients and brought back Pillsbury this time.  It didn't smell like feet but I wasn't as impressed as I was with the Immaculate dough.

As I was making the pie, I kept thinking about the part in one of my favorite movie's, A League of Their Own, when Kit yells, "I'm a Peach!"



Isn't that pie so pretty.  Good thing you can't smell a picture.  I adapted this recipe to use with my store bought crust.  I add to substitute a bag of frozen peaches since they are not in season yet.  I let the peaches thaw in a colander for about an hour and 30 mins.

During all that I also made the pâté of the South, pimento cheese.  This cheese gets tied to Georgia because back in the 1900's the pepper was grown and packaged there.  During that time there were several local mayonnaise's and orange cheddar was the only cheese sold.  So I guess you could say they were just doing the best with what they had.
We ate our pimento cheese with tortilla chips as an appetizer and then the next day the hubs and I had it on left over biscuits for lunch.   One suggested way we really want to try is on top of a hamburger.



 

Devil Detail #2 - Read your recipe! Everything was going so well.  Everything was going to be done at the same time until I saw put pork chops back into gravy, cover and let cook for ANOTHER HOUR!  Okay, so who wants appetizer number 2?

Boiled Peanuts.  Can't say I'll ever have them again but I wasn't scared from trying them.  They taste like baked potatoes and are VERY salty.  We had a few and them I bagged them up for my southern coworker.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally dinner was done!  We enjoyed our Smothered Pork Chops in Onion Gravy!  Not sure if it is a "Georgia" dinner but it was pork and covered in gravy so it was definitely southern, in my book.



After this work I wish I heading off to next week's location, for real!  Hawaii!

50 States; 50 Meals: Florida

I was very excited to make our Florida meal.  The Cuban or Cubano is one of my favorite sandwiches!  Most likely if I see it on a menu I'll get it.  The Cuban  is a popular sandwich in Tampa and Miami.

The sandwich has layered pork cooked in mojo, ham, swiss cheese and a pickles  and then pressed between cuban bread.  I couldn't find cuban bread so I used Italian.  Just look how pretty.  I used a Cooking Light recipe but it tasted just like one at a restaurant. I also just bought Goya Mojo instead of making my own. 

Cuban Sandwich

I turned to Nellie and Joe's Famous Lime Juice for dessert.  We had Key Lime Pie, of course!  It was pretty quick and easy to make.  We have so much juice leftover I may have to make an adult beverage! Or more desserts.  I found tons of recipes on Nellie and Joe's website. I love that their website is keylimejuice.com.  They own the key lime business.  haha Who knew you could do so much with key lime juice?

Key Lime Pie

Whew... All caught up.  Next up is Georgia.  I have a feeling I'll be making another pie.

50 States; 50 Meals: Delaware Part 2

No one suggested it as being a top Delaware food, but knowing that there are many Scrapple plants in Delaware I had to cook it too.  Scrapple is a controversial food because of what it is made out of.  If you don't know don't Google it.  But if you have been raised on it you don't care what it was made of because you love it too much.  I really think that if they had given it another name it wouldn't have the bad wrap it does.  Think about it, people love sausage and that it wrapped in intestine lining.  I bet if sausage had been called stuffed intestine lining it wouldn't be as popular.

My kids loved it!  I told them it was a cousin to sausage which they love.  My oldest liked it so much she had me cook up some more.  If anyone tells them what it made of I will hunt you down.  I'm thrilled they are following our family tradition of loving scrapple.  It is something I look forward to after coming home from Black Friday shopping in Delaware.  My aunt buys the good stuff not that Napa stuff.

I was so excited that Wegmans also offered Habbersett Scrapple.  It is a Philadelphia company but the plant is in Delaware.

I found a recipe on Cooking Channel's website with some not so scary ingredients if you want to try making your own.

50 States; 50 Meals: Delaware

I'm behind!  Life got so busy all of a sudden.  My oldest and I went camping with her Daisy troop last weekend so instead of blogging I was preparing for the trip.  Ugh camping!  You need so much for one night.  The girls had so much fun.  They can't wait to do it again.  We have also added swimming lessons to our Tuesdays.  Tuesdays were our best days to cook the 50 meals dinner so now we are on a rotating schedule.

But back to Delaware!  My father's family is from Delaware.  When I think of foods from Delaware I think of Thanksgiving dinners, chicken and dumplings, lima beans and scrapple.  My research suggested Vinegar French Fries, aka Boardwalk fries, and broiler chickens.

I am a little confused as to why I was pointed to I was pointed in the direction of the boardwalk fries as my research showed these fries were created by a man named J.T. Thrashers.  Any good Marylander knows the first Thrashers was opened in Ocean City, MD.  There is a Thrashers in Rehobeth Beach, DE but it was not the birthplace of the best type of french fry, in my opinion. Get the full history story here.

Cooking these boardwalk fries brought back memories of me and my dad getting a big bucket of fries and then sitting down to people watch.  I was excited that they turned out so well.  I used the left overs to make cheese fries, yummo!

Vinegar French Fries

We had broiled chicken with our french fries.  Broiled chicken is prepared using a smaller bird called a "broiler".  The broiler chicken industry started in Sussex County during the 1920's.  It is also where the Dealware Blue Hens mascots gets its name.  We were only able to find a kosher broiler chicken at our Wegmans.  It smelled so bad after opening the packaging that I couldn't get close enough to even prepare the chicken as instructed in the recipe.  So we followed plan B as suggested in the recipe and used a regular quartered chicken.  The skin came out so crispy it was better than rotisserie! One of the chicken breasts was so large I was able to make two cups of chicken salad.

Broiled Chicken