50 States; 50 Meals: South Carolina

I definitely needed a food dictionary for this state. Hoppin John, Perloo, Frogmore Stew, it wasn't easy to make a choice.

What we had for dinner:

Frogmore Stew

Commonly known as Low Country Boil, this dish gets its name from St. Helena Island aka Frogmore, SC.  It traditionally includes redskin potatoes, corn on the cob, kielbasa and shrimp.  I love all the ingredients in this dish except for the Old Bay.  If anyone has a recipe that doesn't require Old Bay please pass them on.  This is a great summer family get-together meal.
Try this recipe from My Recipes.
Ingredients
5 quarts water
1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
4 pounds small red potatoes
2 pounds kielbasa or hot smoked link sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

6 ears fresh corn, halved
4 pounds unpeeled, large fresh shrimp
Old Bay seasoning
Cocktail sauce
(I added a fresh squeezed lemon juice)

Directions

Bring 5 quarts water and 1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning to a rolling boil in a large covered stockpot.
Add potatoes; return to a boil, and cook, uncovered, 10 minutes.
Add sausage and corn, and return to a boil. Cook 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Add shrimp to stockpot; cook 3 to 4 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Drain. Serve with Old Bay seasoning and cocktail sauce.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa.
 

Love Old Bay? Pair your Frogmore Stew with a Flying Dog Dead Rise

 

Dictionary:

Hoppin John - Black-eyed peas and rice
Perloo - One pot rice dish similar to jambalaya 

 

Next State: South Dakota

What's for dinner?: July 27 - August 2

Here's what we are having for dinner this week:

Sunday: Pizza Hut Big Dinner Box with Friends

Two medium pizzas and two sides or a third pizza.  Great deal!!

Monday:  Mojo Chicken on the grill, Corn, Potato Salad

Tuesday: Vermont State Dinner - American Chop Suey

Elbow macaroni, ground beef, tomato sauce and veggies


Wednesday: Shrimp Po Boys, Chips and Cole SlawFind the recipe here
I will be making full sandwiches instead of the sliders.

Thursday: Chicken Tostadas with Avocado Salsa and Refried Beans
The original recipe uses a rotisserie chicken.  We are using the left over Mojo chicken.  Find the recipe at My Recipe. 

Friday: Out to dinner

Saturday: Dinner with Friends.  I'm bringing Fruit Salad.  I can't wait to make this fruit salad by FirstYum.

50 States; 50 Meals: Rhode Island

What we had for dinner:

I lost my picture! This one is courtesy of whatscookingamerica.net

Johnnycakes

No, these are not pancakes.  Johnnycakes, also referred to as Journey Cakes, are made from corn meal.  The ingredients include cornmeal, sugar, salt and water.  Top them with butter, maple syrup or applesauce.  We choose syrup.

I used this Martha Stewart recipe because others have you grilling the cakes in bacon grease. 

Ingredients

1 cup stone-ground white cornmeal

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
Unsalted butter, for griddle

Directions

Preheat an electric griddle to 380 degrees. or place a griddle pan or large skillet over medium-high heat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Add boiling water, and mix to combine. The batter will be thick. Using a tablespoon, drop the batter onto the griddle 2 inches apart for each johnny cake. Let cook for 6 minutes, turn and cook 5 minutes more. 

Coffee Milk

The "Official State drink of Rhode Island", coffee milk was originally created during the 1930's.  It's made the same as way as if you were making chocolate milk with milk and syrup.  We also tried it on top of vanilla ice cream and in actual coffee too.  haha  A big thank you for my MIL for bringing this to us from Connecticut. 

Next State: South Carolina

What's for dinner?: July 20 - July 26

We are back from a week in Virginia Beach where we visited family and my daughter competed in a dance competition.  It was an exciting week and full of good summer food.  We had hot dogs, pulled pork, smoked brisket, pulled pork, tuna subs, crab legs, pulled pork, burgers.  Full on vacation food.  Have you ever gotten to a point where you just wanted the Elaine "Big Salad"?

Here's what we are having for dinner this week:

Sunday: Banana Splits for National Ice Cream Day
Yes, we are the coolest parents ever.  We were tired, it was easy and we had a "holiday" to give us an excuse.  Our splits had bananas, Neapolitan ice cream, whipped cream, peanuts, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, pineapple from my pineapple plant and a cherry on top.

Monday:  Chicken Milanese with Spring Greens and Rice Pilaf
I love making this recipe because it is kid friendly without being too kiddy. I do put ranch on the girls salads rather than the lemon dressing.  Pair it with a box of Near East Rice Pilaf (Any flavor will do.  We are having the one with almonds)
Make it even faster by buying a bottle of Lemon Vinaigrette.
Recipe from My Recipes


 

















Tuesday: Tacos with Black Beans
The walking tacos we had the other week added black beans to the ground beef.  I'm going to replicate that with our tacos.  We all really liked it.  Not sure how black beans in the tacos and on the side will go but we have been loving them over regular refried beans lately.  Have you ever bought refried black beans?  Delicious!

Wednesday: Spaghetti and Salad
Have you ever had a spaghetti sandwich?  I totally got the craving while typing this.  I think I will pass on the Texas toast garlic bread.  You just take a slice of sandwich bread, butter the bread, add the spaghetti and fold in half.

Thursday: Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Tomato Soup
My favorite sandwich from Doumar's where we visited last week. 

Friday: Utah State Dinner - Pastrami Burger, Funeral Potatoes and Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad

Saturday:  We will be at birthday party.

Have a great week!

What's for dinner?: July 7 - July 12

Another crazy week of dance!  At least the kids love it.

Here's what we are having for dinner this week:

Sunday: Texas State Dinner - King Ranch Chicken, Texas Sheet Cake
We were supposed to have this on last Saturday but ended up going to an impromptu pool party with a group of friends from church.  It was a bring our own meat to grill and a side dish to share party.  Very easy and relaxing. 
Light King Ranch Chicken Recipe from Southern Living
Texas Sheet Cake from Cooking Light

Monday:  Mac and Cheese w/ Salad

Tuesday: Subway - Participating Subways offer a $3 sub each month.  This month is the Spicy Italian with/ Pepperoni and Salami.

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup

Thursday: Club Wraps and Fruit
Everything is better with Bacon!

Friday: Frozen Pizza

Saturday: Heading to Dance Nationals Competition

Childhood Breakfast

Good Morning!

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the 4th of July last night. I did go back and add pictures for the deviled eggs and cole slaw. I also had to change my cole slaw recipe at the last minute because the store was out of one of the dressings that I use. I think it got even easier and still tasted the same. 

Check that post out here. 

A couple weeks my aunt posted that she made scrapple on Facebook. I started craving it and finally made it today the only way I know how. When I would visit my grandparents and aunt's house I always had scrapple with Honey Nut Cheerios. (Or a vanilla cream donut from Dunkin Donuts, yum!) I can't think about scrapple and not think Cheerios. So that's what I made this morning.

Now I'm headed to the gym. Haha

Have a great Saturday!

4th of July Cookout Side Dishes

Happy Independence Day!

Invited to a 4th of July Cookout today? Here is what I making. I'll add pictures this afternoon. 

Deviled Eggs - Recipe from My Recipes

I first made this recipe after Easter. I wanted to use up the dyed eggs. I don't like eggs but I was told they are very good. Truth is I don't mind the yolks of a deviled egg. 

Two Dressing Cole Slaw

1lb Bag of Cole Slaw mix

1 cup Marzetti Original Slaw Dressing

1/4 cup Marie's Cole Slaw Dressing 

1 tsp sesame oil (optional but delicious)

Mix all ingredients together. 

Make at least an hour ahead of time. 

I started making cole slaw with the two dressings by accident. I prefer the Marzetti because it does not have celery seed. I but Marie's by accident one time and my family said they liked it better. Marie's has celery seed. So the next time I made it with both with a little of the Marie's so my family gets the celery seed taste they like.  My mom taught me the trick about the sesame oil. I usually only add it when I'm not taking the cole slaw to an event. 

So when I went to the store today they were out of Marie's slaw dressing. 

New recipe same great taste!

Quick Cole Slaw

1lb Bag of Cole Slaw mix

1 cup Marzetti Original Slaw Dressing

1/8 tsp celery seed

1 tsp sesame oil (optional but delicious)

Other Side Dish Menu Options

Potato Salad

Baked Beans

Corn on the Cob

Sliced tomatoes w/ Dukes Mayonaisse 

50 States; 50 Meals: Pennsylvania

What we had for dinner:

Cheesesteaks 

Probably one of the most famous food wars is the cheesesteak showdown between Pat's and Geno's. 
Pat Olivieri began in the food industry by running a hot dog stand.  The story is told that one day he made the, now famous, chopped steak and onion (no cheese) sandwich for lunch.  A cab driver happened to stop at the hot dog stand and asked for his own steak sandwich.  The stories of the cab driver range from he suggested that Pat stop with hot dogs and focus on the sandwich to him telling all his cab driver friends about it (Word-of-Mouth Marketing at its best) and they all came looking for a sandwich.  Either way we all owe our gratitude toward this mystery cab driver. Provolone cheese added to the sandwich later by Joe "Cocky Joe" Lorenza, a manager at the Ridge Avenue location."
Some say that Joe Vento, the founder of Geno's, says that he added cheese to the sandwich first. 

How to order a Cheesesteak:

I would like a Cheesesteak = One
I would like cheese = wiz; provolone
I would like onions = with
I would not like onions = without

Example:
I would like a cheesesteak with Cheese Wiz with onions.  = One wiz with
I would like a cheesesteak with provolone without onions. = One provolone without

My cousin once took me to Philly for a cheesesteak.  I was so worried about ordering wrong I made him order for me.  I was worried it would turn into a Soup Nazi situation and I was too hungry to let that happen.

The meat traditionally used on a cheesesteak is thinly sliced rib-eye or top round.   Most cheesesteak places use Amoroso or Vilotti-Pisanelli rolls and the most commonly used cheeses are Cheez Whiz, provolone, and white American cheese.
We used an awesome recipe from The Little Kitchen.  We will definitely make these again.

Rita's Water Ice/Italian Ice

Rita's is based out of Trevose, PA.  The company began when Bob Tumolo, a former Philadelphia firefighter, started selling Italian Ice porch window. Rita's was named after Bob's wife.
More History

We brought home a quart of Cherry to share.

Soft Pretzels 

Pennsylvania today is the center of American pretzel production for both the hard crispy and the soft bread types of pretzels.  According to Ushistory.org, the average Philadelphian consumes about twelve times as many pretzels as the national average.

We just picked up a box of frozen soft pretzels.  I taught my girls how to dip the soft pretzel into their cherry Italian ice.  Something I learned from my boss when I worked at Rita's. 

Stromboli

One claim is that Nazzareno Roman, owner of Romano's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria created the first Stromboli in 1950 in Essington, Tinicum Township, just outside of Philadelphia.

I made my Stromboli using pre-made pizza dough, not the can kind, pizza sauce, a package of shredded pizza cheese and pepperoni.
Roll out the dough into a circle.
Add the sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice.
Roll the dough like a jelly roll
Bake at 500 for 8 - 10.

I just winged it but for an actual recipe you can try this one from Lauren's Latest.
Lesson learned:  divide the dough in half of you end up the with the biggest Stromboli ever.

Next State: Rhode Island