I'd never make it as a food blogger. For one thing, I take so many shortcuts. Sure, I can feed people here at Camp Rustown. But not everything has to be homemade, in my opinion, and there are lots of nights I rely on packaged items. Not gonna lie. Yes, I love trying new recipes, but I surely cannot do that every night.
Bubbie asked for chicken fried steak one night recently. Now, while chicken fried steak is not my forte, I know you can buy the pre-breaded patties and cook them up, so that's what I did...
I put some frozen green beans from my mother's garden in a little saucepan with a smidge of bacon fat, some salt, and a little water. {Never throw out bacon fat, for goodness sake!}
The patties fried up all professional looking, no?
I strained the oil, added the bits and pieces of fried stuff back to the pan, mixed up a packet of cream gravy and added it into the hot pan to thicken up while I nuked a package of mashed potatoes. The patties stayed warm in the oven as I baked a tube of cresent rolls...
All of it was so good!
My point is this: I can feed people here a hot dinner at the end of their day and it doesn't have to be fancy, creative, or even 100% homemade to bless them. Their tummies will be full, and we will eat something other than take out pizza.
Dinner shortcuts never hurt anyone.
Shared with
Oh my, that looks delicious! And agree, as long as they have a hot meal at the end of the day and it was made at home, I consider it "home" made.
ReplyDeleteI have never had chicken fried anything, but boy does it look good!
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious, Gina! I agree with your last paragraph. Your efforts and the time around the dinner table are what matter most.
ReplyDeleteI love cooking from scratch ,but sometimes you just want it fast and good. We all take short cut even those that like to cook from scratch.. I love the premade chicken fried steaks. They make great sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteShortcuts make the world go round...and I'm with you on the bacon fat! Everything looks great :)
ReplyDeleteMy dear Gina...you are sooo my kind of woman. I adore Sandra Lee the Semi Homemade Queen. I love using shortcuts and no matter what ANYone says, these days, we have some mixes and etc that are better than a lot of homemade things.
ReplyDeleteNow, all that said...Chicken Fried Steak is my favorite steak of all time but....it does have to be breaded AT HOME...in egg and flour and double dipped. (and really, I'm not all that picky about most foods) in fact, now that I think about it...I did a post several yrs ago on CFS...better bring it out of the Archives and post it again....:)
xoxo
Wowza Gina! This is one thing I miss about Texas. Mmm! It looks fantastic - premade or not, I'm sure your family had happy tummies.
ReplyDelete