Idea Queen Tips & News

I’ll admit, I hate grills. To me they are messy, a lot of work, and the food really doesn’t taste that good to me. Let me cook indoors ANY day. I realize I’m in the minority here, since most people love to grill. Sorry, that’s not me.

Thing is even though I don’t like to grill or eat grilled food, I absolutely LOVE steak. Cooked on a restaurant grill (which of course is different from an outdoor home grill) steak tastes absolutely FANTASTIC. Luckily it’s pretty easy to fry up a steak on the stove top just as good as you can get it in the restaurant.

The first thing I do is grab my griddle to cook on. I find it easier to get your steak to come out the right way if you use a flat pan instead of anything else. Why I don’t know, I’m not a master chef, but I just know it works better.

I like my steak medium rare, so I cook my steak at medium to low heat. If you like it rare, turn up the heat a bit so it cooks more on the outside than the inside. If you like it well done, leave it on medium low  and cook it for longer.

Depending on your pan and your oven, it may take a little practice to get your steak just right. Although the most important thing is keeping an eye on your steak. Adjust heat as need be while cooking to make sure your steak is just the way you want it.

We’re planning on having steak tonight, with homemade mashed potatoes of course!

In the middle of the snow storm the other day, we had to make due with supper. I was really wanting to make beef stroganoff with our pound of hamburger, but sadly had no sour cream.

Luckily I managed to find a unopened block of Velveeta cheese, as well as a box of pasta shells. Pasta is pretty much a staple in this house, and I always make sure we have at least some form of it on hand (usually we always have fettucini, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, and egg noodles).

So mac and cheese with hamburger it was, even though I’d never actually made it with hamburger before. I don’t know why, because my mom always made it that way when I was a kid. However, I’m pretty sure her mac and cheese was out of a box. Mine is always homemade.

I did learn the other night there is in fact a limit for the cheese. It was a little too cheesy, which honestly I didn’t know what possible. Oops, now we know! For a regular box of pasta shells, apparently half a box of cheese is plenty.

My regular mac & cheese recipe can be found on the pasta recipe page.  Basically you cook it just as you think you would, slowly adding cheese and milk to cooked (and drained) pasta. Even though there was slightly too much cheese, it was still pretty good. The kids liked it, so that was good enough for me!

I love breakfast foods. Although the idea of cooking a major meal that early in the morning is less than appealing. Sometimes on the weekends I manage to actually cook breakfast, although it usually counts as lunch by the time I’m off my lazy, half-awake rear end. To say I’m not a morning person is putting it lightly.

So I thought I’d actually plan to make breakfast for supper tonight. I picked up some sausage the other day (you know, the kind that comes in a tube) figuring I could do something with it. Pancakes sounded good too, so I found a recipe that looks pretty easy. Going to give this one a shot, and picked up some buttermilk at the store on the way home from school.

Of course I ended up forgetting hashbrowns at the store (grr! Never fails!), and didn’t even think about it until we got home.   I suppose I could make my own, but my potatoes aren’t looking so great. Best I throw them out and just stick with eggs, pancakes, and sausage.

This is not something we do that often, but hoping it will be fun!

If you don’t have a bread machine, this post may not apply to you. Although I highly suggest picking up a bread machine if you don’t already have one. You really don’t know how much you use it until you have one. Ours is used on a VERY regular basis, and we’ve had it for quite a few years. Homemade bread makes a WONDERFUL snack for kids!

For those of you that do have a bread machine, I’d like to share a tip with you. This tip has come from much trial and error (and several breads that didn’t come out unfortunately). That tip is….melt the butter.

If your bread recipe includes butter, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds BEFORE you put it in the machine. If the butter isn’t melted, often times the dough clumps and doesn’t mix the way it should. It’s also not a bad idea to have warm (not hot) water instead of cold.

Sure this might not be a major tip, but I sure wish someone would have given it to me long before I figured it out on my own!

Over the weekend I actually pulled out the crockpot and made a roast. Which is unusual for me, since I normally make them in the oven. However, this time I decided to use the crockpot on low setting and cook it over night. The result was a very juicy, easy to pull apart meat. We ate it for supper on Sunday, but of course had tons of leftovers.

Last night instead of just serving the leftovers, I decided to do something a bit different. Back when my mother owned the restaurant in town, hot beef sandwiches were one of the most popular specials. I loved them too, and there is nothing like a home cooked hot beef sandwich. I decided I’d give my own version a shot.

We didn’t have any gravy, but we did have homemade bread and mashed potatoes. I did cook a few potatoes with the roast, so the few that were left got thrown in with the fresh potatoes.

Let me tell you it was DELICIOUS! Especially since the bread was homemade and very fluffy. There was even enough bread leftover for regular sandwiches for lunch today. This will go down as one of our favorite recipes without a doubt.

These two recipes were submitted over the weekend. They both sound like really great ideas, and I can’t wait to try them!

Chicken Strips
by  Annonymous Visitor
First take boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips. Then take about 6 eggs and put some ranch dressing in with the eggs. It thinkens the batter and makes it more crispier.  Then take a zip lock bag and i put flour in it and seasoning salt and garlic salt. Have your pan on medium heat and with oil to cook. 

I absolutely LOVE the idea of putting ranch dressing in instead of milk, and plan to try that out. The rest of this idea is usually the same way I make chicken strips at home, except we use a deep fryer instead of pan. Although we have been getting away from the deep fryer a bit and seeking less greasy options.
Leftover Meat Recipe
by Alysha Romine

Take one of those Lipton flavored noodle or rice boxes. They are always on sale for $1.00. Cook it just like the directions say but add in a cut up piece of chicken, beef, or pork from the night before. Also add in any two veges you like that go with the flavor (canned come out fine) You can stir in sour cream when the meal is done to make it creamy. This is a one dish 15 minute wonder to feed the family! Examples: Lipton Butter and Herb Pasta add leftover chicken (or canned chicken) and a can of green peas (drained) and a can of carrots (drained) then stir in sour cream (1/4 cup) when it is done. Another example is Lipton Strogonoff Flavored Noodles, add in leftover beef (diced) and mushrooms and cooked onions. Again sour cream would not be amiss in this recipe. The options are endless and it is a cheap and easy meal for a harried mother or wife.

This particular leftover recipe we do quite often, but almost always with rice instead of pasta. I guess we are such pasta as a main dish fans we never thought to use it as an ingredient in a leftover dish! Great idea!

Remember if you have ideas to add anywhere on the site, you are encouraged to do so. We are ALWAYS interested in new ideas and different ways to do things. Feel free to submit your ideas!

This recipe comes from our potato recipe collection. Worth trying if you are wanting to make your own potato chips!

Homemade Potato Chips
6 or more medium lg. potatoes
Oil or fat for deep frying
Salt

Wash and peel the potatoes. Slice very thin. An old fashioned cabbage slicer can be used (careful of the fingers) - or use a sharp knife or food processor with a thin slicing blade. Put the slices at once into a bowl of cold water and let stand for at least one hour. Ice water is best, but you can set the whole bowl in the refrigerator if you wish.

Dry well by shaking them in a towel. Fry in hot oil at 390 degrees F. until a light golden brown. Don’t try frying too many at once, better to put one layer on the frying basket. Drain on paper towels or any kind of plain crumpled absorbent paper. If you haven’t any paper, use a worn dish towel. Salt lightly. These can be kept for some time if they are sealed into plastic bags or containers after they have cooled.

See more potato recipes at Idea Queen.

It’s a snow day. No where to be, nothing to do. Not even if we wanted to. So we’ve got all day to come up with ideas for dinner tonight.

Luckily I went shopping yesterday, so there’s quite a large selection of meal ideas in my kitchen. We knew the snow storm was coming, and I made sure our food was stocked.

Whenever I’m deciding on what to make for dinner, I always start with a main type of food.  Usually this is a type of meat or pasta. After I know the type, I plan accordingly. This makes it a whole lot easier than digging through cookbooks without a clue, or trying to think up some general recipe.

Right now I’ve got chicken, hamburger, steak, pasta, and a few other meats in the freezer. So really I could make just about anything. Unfortunately nothing sounds appealing at 8am, so I might hold off until noon to decide and pull something out to thaw.

How do you decide what to make for dinner? Do you start with a meat and go from there? Or do you plan ahead of time and buy specific items for a full week or month?

Everyone has their own way of making mashed potatoes. I was spoiled early with my mom’s mashed potatoes, because they were just so perfect. Luckily I watched closely every time she made them, and am able to make them just as easily.

It may take some practice, but making perfect mashed potatoes really isn’t that hard. All you need is potatoes, milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Just skin the potatoes, boil them on the stove, drain, and put in a bowl. You’ll need a hand mixer to get them just right, adding your butter, milk, salt, and pepper slowly to get it “just right”. As my mom always said “add your milk slowly - you can always add more but you can’t take any out”.

I’ve since come up with my own tasty version that is just as good (if not better) as you’d get in a restaurant. My version uses red potatoes, not skinned, with garlic salt instead of salt and pepper. It’s made exactly the same way as above, just with a few different ingredients.

The garlic mashed potato recipe goes extremely well with other easy dinner ideas, such as steak and pork chops. I tend to make a lot of the mashed potatoes, because they are good even reheated.

Eh, sorta. I guess you could call what we made chicken and noodles…

Yesterday I pulled out the crockpot and made chicken and noodles….sorta. For some reason the crockpot inspires me to play “let’s see what this makes” every time I decide to cook with it.

I had about a pound of leftover chicken from something else (I think it was a sweet and sour chicken experiment), so thought I’d see what I could make with it. Also in the pantry I managed to find cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, and canned corn. I dumped them all in as-is, with my mother watching over my sholder . She insisted I put in two cans of water to cook, saying it would cook away.

Half way through the day, I had something resembling water logged chicken. Too much water, but I had an idea! Just before school got out, I tossed in about half a bag of egg noodles. I knew from experience those would soak up that water in a heart beat. I made sure I stirred a few times before we ran off to dance class.

It actually turned out pretty well, and very similar to a chicken noodle casserole. Except this was pretty creamy. Right before we dipped into it, I added salt and pepper to taste. I wished we would have had peas and carrots, because I felt it was missing that. The corn worked just fine as a vegetable though.

So to recap, here’s what I added:

- 1lb skinless, boneless chicken (semi-thawed)
- Cream of mushroom soup
- Cream of chicken soup
- Can of corn (do not drain)
-  2 cans of water

Cook on high for about 2-3 hours, turn down to low. Cook about another hour, then add 1/2 bag of egg noodles. Stir on occasion. Cook an additional 3 hours. Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!