Turkey Salad

Anyone ready for a picnic?  This turkey salad went with us to most picnics and church festivals that I remember.  I won’t vouch for it being too healthy with its Miracle Whip and Western Dressing; I will vouch that I loved it as a kid.  I wonder if my tastes have changed since I last had it?  Try it and see what you think.

18 Turkey Salad

Lasagna

Lasagna! It was always my choice for a birthday meal.  Well, there was that one year that, when asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner, I responded, “Liver and onions.”  Thankfully I was told, “No.”  (Of course that made me wonder, why did you ask if you don’t want my answer, but that is for a different day.)  

Lasagna is tedious, and worth every minute of effort.  You will notice that the second recipe is for the spaghetti sauce.  It is a recipe for 40 people because grandma catered events such as weddings and church dinners, so we often worked with large quantities.  

16 Lasagna

17 Spaghetti Sauce 40

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my mom’s secret chocolate chip cookie recipe, handed down from generation to generation, from back of bag to recipe card.  Yep, I found out that this recipe is the same as the back of the Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag.  I think she doubled it, probably so it will go further, last longer.  You can probably reduce the amount of sugar (my notes on the card suggest 1 cup and not 1.5 cups) and not notice much difference.  I have also tried half butter, half shortening and it turned out awesome. My suggestion is to stick with the semi-sweet chips.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chicken Oregano

If I were to rename this dish I would call it Orange Juice Chicken.  It is delicious!  Yes, it has oregano but the outstanding flavor for me is the orange infused chicken.  Those probably aren’t the right words for folks who know cooking (unlike me–I don’t know cooking), but it seems like all parts of the chicken are infused with that orange flavor.  Give it a try and serve it over rice, real rice.  Thanks, mom, for the recipe. (The food-splotch stains are mine.)

Chicken Oregano

Chicken Oregano Sauce

Porcupine Meatballs

Nothing says comfort like mom’s Porcupine Meatballs.

I have not made this recipe in many years, but it is one that I loved.  Note in the recipe where it says, “Real rice.”  You might think that the opposite would be fake rice, but this is actually a reference to Minute Rice, as in, “Don’t use Minute Rice.” Mom always used Minute Rice when she was cooking so she wanted to make sure that I knew which rice to use: real rice.

To up the comfort level even more, I would recommend serving this with more real rice or perhaps mashed potatoes.  Mom also used instant mashed potatoes, but mashing your own potatoes is pretty easy, especially if you have a potato ricer.  Rice and potatoes seems pretty Peruvian to me.

Porcupine Meatballs