Chicken Cornetti

Every now and again, but rarely, do I find a recipe that becomes one of my repeat offenders, Chicken Cornetti is one of them.  I like to call it Chicken Cornketti though, sounds less uppity.

Behold the beauty!

Here is the recipe for the blind:

And here it is for the rest of us:

1 (4-lb.) stewing chicken cut up

4 cups (1-lb.) broken spaghetti

2 cups finely sliced celery

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 teaspoons paprika

2 to 3 12-oz. cans DEL MONTE Golden Whole Kernel Corn

1/2 to 1 cup stuffed or ripe olives

1/2 lb. pimiento cheese, cubed

Simmer chicken, covered, in boiling salted water (about 6 cups) until tender, about 2 to 3 hrs. Cool. Remove meat from bones; cut in large pieces. Measure broth; add enough hot water to make 6 cups liquid. Bring to boil; add spaghetti, chicken, celery, green pepper, onions, paprika. Cook 15 to 20 min. Add 1 can of the corn, the olives and cheese; cook 5 min. longer. Taste; add more salt if necessary. Serve wreathed with the rest of the Del Monte Corn, heated and seasoned, either on a hot platter or in the same utensil in which dish was cooked. Edge with thin slices of green pepper, if desired. Serves 10 to 12.

 * * *  *  *  *  *  * * * * * * * * * * *

Well?  Did you read it?!  You didn't did you?  Just getting started it says to boil a whole chicken for 3 hours, primarily to make broth for the noodles.  There is also a call for cubed pimiento cheese.  Nowadays it's only sold as a spread but back in the day it used to come in block form:

So you know I'm not going to follow this nonsense and I'm going to do this myyyy waaaay.

Here's how it goes down for me.  I plan this dish with leftovers following a baked chicken.  I bake a chicken for dinner on night one, saving the leftover meat along with the bones and the chicken drippings.  The next night I boil the bones with the cornketti noodles.  I think this is where the flavor magic really starts to happen.  I don't do green peppers or onions (just personal preference in our house) just chopped celery added in at this time.  After the noodles/celery are done, drain.  Add in with noodles the deboned previously cooked chicken, black olives, corn, paprika, favorite seasonings (Tony's!) and drippings from last nights baked chicken.  Mix together and warm over heat. For the cubed cheese I used cheddar and added it near the end of warming as to not melt it too much.   Now pick back up with the original recipe and "wreath your noodles" in canned corn and trim out with bell pepper.

This is some good eating! 

 

Fiesta Banana Cake

This cake was soooo good!

{image source}

I didn't actually make the cake as instructed...just used the image as a serving suggestion.

The cake portion was a yellow cake box mix that I added mashed bananas and nuts.  I then topped it with cool whip, sliced bananas, and slivers of maraschino cherries.

If you want men to "swarm like bees" here is the real recipe:

 

Crown o' gold Meat Loaf

{image source}

Make it a dinner to remember!!!!

This dish is so visually stunning!  Ohh la la!

The peaks!

The cut away!

The recipe!

Crown O' Gold Meat Loaf:

1-1/2 cups fine soft bread crumbs
1-1/2 lbs. ground lean chuck beef
4 egg yolks
1-1/2 tsps. salt
2 tbsps. French’s Mustard
1-1/2 tbsps. prepared horseradish
3 tbsps. finely diced green pepper
2 tbsps. French’s Minced Onion
1/3 cup ketchup

Crown O' Gold topping:

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. French’s Cream Tartar
4 tbsps. French’s Mustard

Mix bread crumbs with meat. Combine remaining ingredients for meat loaf. Blend into meat-bread mixture.

Pack lightly into a 9-inch casserole and bake in a moderate oven (325 degrees F) 30 minutes.

To make topping: beat egg whites until foamy; add cream tartar; beat until very stiff. Fold in mustard gently.

Swirl on hot meat; return to oven; bake 20 to 25 minutes longer or until tipped with brown.

I wound up making this dish twice so I could get the proper look.  Make sure to fold in the mustard extremely gently with the fluffed egg whites.  I made the mistake of apparently "mixing".

The taste on this dish was...different.  Not bad, but different.  I think it's more of having an odd texture.  The topping is a bit spongy and that's not really my thing, but the mustard tang is a interesting twist to meatloaf.  Another thing to keep in mind is that this thing does not work well as leftovers...refrigerated spongy fluffed eggs aren't going to be better after sitting in the fridge over night let me tell you....

 

Pear Ginger Cake

And for the butt ugly meal I just served up in the last post, here is it's dessert companion...Pear Ginger Cake.  The thing here is that the original recipe image is stunning but not the reality of how the dish turns out.

 What the?!  I don't know how they got the pears to be so nestled down in that cake.  Mine look like the cake is having an allergic reaction to them.  But all of this doesn't matter.  The cake is blah, testing well with senior citizens and the toothless.  Not worth making unless you do some flavor boosts, maybe go wild with allspice.  It's easy enough though if you want to give it a go:  Canned pears placed down in a greased baking dish and then topped with prefab gingerbread cake mix, bake as directed, top with cherries.

I put my cherries on after baking because I wanted them to look pretty.  But now I'm wondering if the cherries are what hold back the pears and shove them into the batter better.  Who knows, who cares.

Chili Con Carne

Here is a great dish for the winter months...Chili Con Carne!

I know.  I just said previously that I had all these posts of beautiful food and I show up with this mush.  That's why I am putting it up first, to get it out of the way.  The dish may be barf ugly but it's pretty good and sticks to my diet (sans shortening).

  

Here is the blurry recipe:

Full freezer of Drafts

 

You may be surprised to hear that I have a "freezer" full of drafts awaiting defrosting...or posting as it may.  Back 20 years ago...pardon me, I mean 2 years ago, just feels like 20, as everyone was diving into new hobbies (ie: bread baking and TP hoarding) to keep their hands and minds occupied I turned to my vintage cookbooks.  Instead of finding a new project I decided to ramp up my cooking and baking because as Checker's says "Ya gotta eat."  

The dishes that I have yet to post are the "saving the best for last" even!  Most of the work is already done: Dish constructed, photographed, photos edited and loaded.  It's just that last little problem of getting the posts written.  That's always the time vampire.  At this point the other problem I foresee is remembering what the dish tasted like....

There are 13 dishes that I have out defrosting and will be working on getting them all served up in the near future!

Vintage Junk Pile

So there is this house in our neighborhood that has been vacant for decades.  It was probably built in the 1920s, 2 story, craftsman's style.  It could have been a really cute house but the family that owned it couldn't bear to part with it yet left it to become derelict.  They came by once a year and mowed the jungle and had the roof replaced when it caved in.  

Back in the early part of 2019 (maybe even 2020?  Time is not grasp-able anymore.) the house was torn down and PB noticed that there was a big pile of stuff in the back of the property so we went on an adventure.

Who's up for some scrounging?!

The fridge had a clock in it!  And to the right a similar hair dryer to mine.  PB really loved that old TV to the far left but it weighed like 50 pounds...should have brought a heavy lifter along with us.

The back side of the pile.  Every.thing.was.old. Even the boxes.. look at that neat Doublemint Gum box to the right.  It was full of old records but they were unfortunately wet and moldy.   I think the newest item I saw was a electric hamburger press (a George Foreman precursor) that was probably from the 1980s (seen in the second photo bottom left).

 

So it seemed obvious to us that all of this stuff was just waiting to be tossed into a dumpster so we went digging for some treasures.

Here is what came home with us:

Old peanut butter jars.

Starburst coffee carafes.

 

This is interesting huh?  It is a cotton candy machine from the 1960s.  

I happened to find the instructions online of how this thing worked, wanting to know more about it being "Safe!  Battery Operated".  The spinny part is battery operated but the metal disk that spins on the top has to be sat on a hot stove burner and then transferred to the spindle using a wonky tong apparatus.  I guarantee kids got burned either between using the hot stove, transferring the searing metal disk, or having said disk go whizzing off the 20 mph spinner... all in the name of it being "safe" because batteries.

PB picked out a couple of things too.  One was this pogo stick, another toy with questionable safety. He also found an old tintype photo of a Civil War looking dude that he has in a frame in his room. 

The last item we scrounged was this Harmony House electric clock that we found face down covered in wet dirt...and it still worked!  

PB and I had sooo much fun rummaging around in all of this stuff.  It makes me wonder what other things may have been swept away with the demolished walls.  When we got to the site the entire house and driveway were gone, even the dumpster so no diving.  Nothing left but the front porch base, an empty storage shed, the mangled jungle, and this pile.

I still regret not getting that TV to the house....

Betty White's Easy Slice Banana Loaf

In celebration of Betty White's 100th birthday I made her "Easy Slice Banana Loaf".

I decorated it with little plastic critters due to her great love and dedication to animals.

It is a simple recipe and very good.

 Although Betty White may be known more for her giant dusty muffin, this loaf also has no yeastyness to ruin your whole day...or week as it may.

Here's hoping your loaf turns out velvety, not dry or crusty.  

And don't be concerned with how it looks, just let it all hang out.

Coconut of the Month Club

{image source}

Last year I was working my way through a little vintage monthly party ideas booklet featuring the Frito Kid.  I got up to August and then shit started hitting the fan of life and I didn't finish out the year.  I still have full intentions of doing the last 4 "parties" but I've got to work out when and what-not.  They all were very holiday specific and doing a Halloween party in March is going to be off key no matter how much I love Halloween.  So what better thing to do when you don't follow through with one year long project? Why start another that's what!

I came across this scanned booklet online that features a themed COCONUT cake for each month!

Yeah, I can make that happen.  Coconut is mine and Mr. Husband's favorite of favorite everything.  And the bonus about taking on this challenge is I already have a couple of the cakes made from years past!  I'll just be double dipping from my own posts!

Like this month....

Mr. Snowman Cake from 2014

Done!

{If you want to take a sneak peek of the future cakes check out the image source.}

And here are links to all the frito-rific Frito Parties I did get done:

January Frito Kid Circus Party

February Frito Kid Valentine Party

March Frito Kid St. Patrick's Party

April Frito Kid Easter Party

May Frito Kid Flowers and Fairies Party

June Frito Kid Cowboy Party

July Frito Kid Independence Day Party

August Frito Kid Backyard Party

Lucky Dragon Glasses

Here is a close-up image of our New Year's eve dragon glasses...stuffed with some fiberfill fake snow!  Still putting the Christmas away and it was handy!

I bought these glasses here and there at thrifts and estate sales.

{image source}

 And here is an image of the ad for these glasses circa 1980s.  I am thinking these may have come in an array of colors since the ad mentions customers accumulating a sizeable collection.  I came across a green one a few months back at a thrift store but ehhh.  I like the red, black could work also.  Check out the entire catalog thru the image link, amazing stuff!

and here is a link to a photographed massive collection of Orchids of Hawaii drinking vessels:

My Tiki Life

New Year's Eve Decor

Every year I decorate for New Year's but never take many photos and certainly don't post them.  It's decor that only stays up for a few hours and most of that is during bad lighting. This year I decided to snap a few pics along with cobbling together some from past years to make a complete presentation.  

Doing the New Years decorating is a push toward getting the house de-Santafied.  Our dining room is  themed to be an Asian restaurant during the non-holiday times.  We have Chinese for our New Year's eve meal every year (gotta get our "fortunes" for the upcoming year!).  So that means I have to get the Christmas out and the regular decor up in that room by Dec 31.  But then to make it more New Year festive I use the branches from the aluminum Christmas tree (they remind me of sparklers/fireworks!) along with silver garland and some other what-nots to decorate.  Remember when Asian restaurants used to have paper placemats with the years and horoscopes?  I have always loved these so I saved several and had them laminated over 20 years ago.  Oh yeah, and we have special plates and glasses for New Years....and silver ware.  The plates are authentic Chinese buffet plates that I bought from a restaurant in town.  The glasses are vintage originally from Asian-Tiki themed restaurants where you got to "keep the souvenir glass" from a mixed drink.  The silverware (not pictured) have bamboo handles and I bought them from Target over 20 years ago.

Enough blah-blah-blah.  Here's the photos:

 

Our New Year's eve top hats were from the dollar spot at Target from 2011..when it was actually a dollar.  They were each part of a set of other plastic bits to decorate a snowman...plastic carrot nose etc.  We live in Florida (God help us) and we don't get snow...could maybe do a sand-snowman but I hate the beach.  Anywho, I turned them into hats for us by adding an elastic string and some silver tinsel.

Here we are in 2011 with our hats.  

This is my most favorite family picture.  I have it in a frame and it's up all year.

Here's hoping for 2022 to better than 2021...or 2020...but I'm not placing any bets.