Cheesecake? I like cheesecakes.
Mango cheesecake is good.
I was thinking of put coffee with the meat this weekend. Next weekend I will be cooking fish. I was thinking of smoked salmon fillet in the oven. I buy whole salmon and put it in fillets, salt and smoke the next day.

Meowmy

Salmon is my favorite, but I am horrible at cooking fish. I have even burned tuna fish. My mom said we need to give her time to find the directions for the pudding cake. Deb is asking for it too. I made it to a farmer's market yesterday. I got snap beans and green peppers to put with the roast tomorrow. There was one of the owners there, it is one of the oldest farmer's market in our county, while I was looking at the beans. She asked me if she could help me and I told her about my cooker and what I made last weekend. She told me she got one for her family and loves it. I told her what I put in with the roast. She told me to use the snap green beans and a few of the yellow beans. I told her I don't like the beans. She said to add red or green peppers. She said she wished I had gotten there a little earlier cause they had fresh carrots but was sold out. She said her kids comes a running when she makes it. She said she was afraid to use the pressure cooker on it so all she has used is the slow cooker. I told her me too and we laughed. I may get carrots the next time. Our county fair starts this weekend so it is crazy traffic here. I did get beans and peppers so that will work since it was really good with just beans in it last time.

Mom

A pressure cooker is scary if not otherwise because of its build-up of pressure and sound. Maybe someday in the future you dare to try to cook with it.
Carrots with roast are good.
Yesterday we put carrots, turnips, onions and swede with meat. They became very good. I didn't remember I put coffee on it. Next time then.
This week I make a macaroni casserole. It's like mac & cheese but comes with minced meat and egg&milk&broth mix and it is made without cheese. It is a traditional Finnish everyday dish.

Macaroni casserole:

about 3 dl macaroni (before cooking)
1 onion
about 300g of minced beef
black / white pepper, salt, paprika spice, garlic spice
about 2 dl broth + 1 dl milk
1 egg

Cook the macaroni according to the instructions on the package, but leave it just slightly underdone. Drain it in a colander and briefly rinse it with cold running water to prevent it from sticking. Set aside.

Warm a frying pan until hot, add some butter and the crumbled ground meat and onion. Stir and cook the meat and onion on high heat until it is cooked and all the moisture has evaporated. Season it with some pepper, onion powder and paprika powder, or with whatever spices you might like. Stir the meat into the cooked macaroni and pour the mixture into a buttered (round) oven pan/casserole dish (Ø about 20 centimetres) and put broth&egg mix a top.

Bake the casserole on the bottom rack of the oven at 175 - 180 °C for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the macaroni have absorbed most of the liquid and the top is golden brown. Be careful not to bake the dish for too long, or it will come out too dry.

Serve the macaroni casserole with some fresh salad on the side  —  and in the Finnish way with some ketchup, if you like.

Meowmy

Hey Deb put a change up on my brother. She told him she was going to make him mac and cheese when he came over this week. She will like you new meal. She won't use a pressure cooker either. So our cook group is all together on that. The one I have has a veggie steamer in it. I have tried it, You use the pressure top but it isn't in the lock down like it is in the pressure cooker. Not as scary. My mom hasn't given me the pudding cake that was my grandma's. She has been busy this week. Deb has asked me about it too. To get recipes from my mom is kind of hard. My brother remembers it so he wants it too. We won't ask him to help get it because the trouble we had getting the mac and cheese one. I decided to try Chicken in my slow cooker. I like using the slow cooker mode on the cooker. Went to eat with my mom and she got a salad. She had blue cheese crumbled on top. She put pepper on her salad then mixed it then added her dressing. I was confused. I have never seen her do that. Not sure if I would put pepper on a salad. She said that is what my grandpa did. He also put pepper on everything. He even put it on some of his fruit. Hey I don't know if I told you one of my grandma's kids breakfast ideals. I still love it even now. She would slice a banana into a bowl. Sprinkle a little sugar on it and then pour milk on it. She would stir it. Before giving it to us she would sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top of it. Oh yes it is good. Some time she would leave the sugar and cinnamon out and slice strawberries into it. Lots of my mom recipes comes from her. Yes even the mac and cheese. Mom did say grandma used different cheeses in it, but never used more then 1 pound of cheese. Or my grandpa wouldn't eat it. Like I said I will pass your new one on to Deb. 

Mom

You can put a little cheese top of the macaroni casserole if you like. Yesterday I put a little cheddar cheese on my portion and it was good.
Your grandmother's breakfast idea sounds interesting. Pepper in the fruit sounds a bit strange, but so does what my grandpa used to put on a slice of buns, he put a layer of butter and a layer of sugar. Or a piece of Finnish salami on top.
I put a little salt on top of a piece of grapefruit because the salt makes the grapefruit a little sweeter. Sometimes I put oatmeal and milk in a cup and mix them together.
Chicken in the slow cooker, it can be good. If you make it overcooked you can put it in between the sandwich. Sometimes I make an overripe pork neck, it's called pullet pork meat here.
Maybe this week I will do another of me and mama favorite foods with a little modification. It's a meatloaf stuffed inside a bacon.
To do this you will need: (portion size is for two people)
- about 300g of minced meat
- 1-2 packets of bacon (depending on package size)
- 1 onion
- spices to your taste
- 1/2 dl bread crumbs
- 1dl broth
- First, make a meatloaf in the normal way, then take pieces of the dough of your own size, which are then made into elongated meat blocks and wrapped with 1 to 2 bacon slices. Next, the meatballs are browned in a frying pan and placed in a baking dish (where is meat broth to cover the meat blocks) for about an hour at 175c. Maybe I put small piece of cheese and piece of ham inside of meat before I wrapping it in bacon.

Meowmy

Here is you a dessert ideal. Yes mom looked it up. She isn't sure if grandma called it a cake or a pie. I don't know what to call it but it is so easy.

She called it pudding cake, You need 2 large puddings that you cook and a box of graham crackers and a cake pan.

Bake your 2 boxes of pudding she said chocolate is best. After the pudding is done take your cake pan and graham crackers. Have all 3 things at hands reach,

Cover the bottom of the cake pan with graham crackers{not broken up whole pieces. She said that the whole bottom needs to be covered. She said you can break the graham crackers in 1/4s to cover the whole pan. Then put a layer of pudding then graham crackers. You do that till you run out of pudding. She said the top layer should be graham cracker. Then put in the refrigerator to chill. She said you cut it like a cake and can put whip topping on it then serve. 

I remember it and may have to try making it myself. I can always take left overs to work.

Mom

The dessert sounds really good. Need to put items on the shopping list. Someone (me) forgot salmon from the shopping list, how can I have such a short memory that I forget one thing off the list, so no salmon last week. I put this week's shopping list right underlining the salmon so I won't forget again.
I use smoked sea salt to salt salmon. Gives the fillet a nicely smoky flavor while salting.

Meowmy

I gave up on shopping list cause I kept forgetting the shopping list. So I am in worst shape then you. Cooked chicken in the slow cooker this weekend. I uses breast meat. I wasn't too happy with it. My mom said that is because I like the dark meat. She told me to use thighs next time. That actually sound better. I didn't think about it. My favorite has been the roast. Don't know what I am going to come up with. The farmers around here don't have much veggies available cause of all the rain we had at the beginning of planting season. I will walk down the meat counter then decide what I want. Someone at work said to get a couple cans of bake beans and some skin hot dogs or sausages also some bacon. Put in slow cooker on low and just let it simmer. It sounds good to me since I love hot dogs and baked beans. Kind of sound weird cooking it in the slow cooker. She said she has done it and it was really good. She said can add brown sugar too. I asked why she did it in a slow cooker she said she did it for a party. Normally I don't buy skin on hot dogs so that will be a treat. Just weird enough for me to try it. I will have to go to the meat market and not the food store. The pudding cake is really good. My mom said if I buy the stuff she will make it. I normally burn the cooked pudding.

Mom

Often I send a shopping list to mama's phone via SMS. If a paper shopping list is forgotten at home, it is at least on the phone. Today we're going to the store and the shopping list is in my wallet.
Today we have salmon steaks and creamy potatoes for food when we come back home from store but I don't know about the weekend yet, maybe steaks and baked potatoes Saturday and Sunday chicken soup. Next week, one day there will be some Finnish meatballs and one day I'll make some soup, I haven't thought of anything else.

Meowmy

Oh I got a roast again. I went to a different farmers market this week. It is just a little farm. The lady was so nice. She asked me what I was making and I told her. She said to put 3 green peppers  in and beans and potatoes. I didn't tell her I have made 2 other roast. She told me not to dice the peppers. She said to cut them in strips. She said that was the way her mom made roast. The lady was in her 70s. She said her mom put the roast on aluminum foil. Put grounded pepper on it. Then added beef broth, pearl onions, green beans from the garden, and green and red peppers from the garden. She said she sliced the peppers in strips because when you dice them there wasn't much left to them when it was done. She said that her mom would put sliced carrots in it if there was some in the garden. She said she bakes it at 350 and checks the meat to see when it is done. She said to put the veggies in before putting it in the oven. Just make sure the meat is done. She said she lets it rest before she serves it. She said her mom canned the veggies from the garden to use in the winter. She said all she ever brought from the store was the beef broth and ground pepper. She said her mom didn't like using salt but she uses salt in it for her family. She said she now uses sea salt. She said that there is no pepper or salt on the table when meals are served. She said that was her mom's rule and she brought it into the family. The lady was really nice. They no longer raise their meat due to her husband has passed and her kids have no interest in caring for them. Her sister raise the meat and she raises the veggies. I think I talked with her for a hour. Before I left she tried to talk me into corn on the cob. I stopped at this farm after going to another farm that didn't have what I was looking for. That was even a bigger farm. I told her I was going to tell you about it and where you were. She asked how we met. I said from 4 cats in Canada. She was totally confused. I had to show her on my phone. She thought it was neat. Her son said she doesn't have a computer. She is a cat person her son said. She has 4 adults and 2 kittens. The kittens are 2 years old but her son calls them kittens. 

Mom

There are 2 butcher shops that we like to visit. The first is about a half-hour drive away, where you can get a variety of fresh meat, smoked meat, canned meat, as well as a small nearby henhouse eggs and a small local bakery fresh bread. The other is about an hour drive away, providing fresh meat, smoked meats and more. We haven't been there since the store made the extension renovation. The town market would have had fresh vegetables all summer long, but never had go even though the idea was to visit. In October here would be a fish market, there are a variety of fresh fish for sale, canned fish, Dutch cheeses have at least been on sale the previous times, 1 meat company stall has almost always been selling its products. There it is for sale: salmon, herring, perch, pike etc. We always get some deep-fried herring and a piece of smoked salmon every time we visit. And fresh herring and Vili´s favorite fish muikku if there is any left for sale because fresh herring is popular and cheap bought directly from the fisherman.
Meowmy

We don't have a fish market around here. They are all close to the Lakes. Detroit I the closes city that has fish markets by us. Detroit is about 65 miles from me. We do have a few meat markets close by but never think of going there. I ride a scooter so when it is warm I won't go to my favorite one. It is South of me. The other meat markets are on the other side of town. One is almost impossible to get to right now cause of road work. I would have to go way out of my way to get to it. The last 2 beef roast I have gotten were beef chuck pot roast. If I get meat at the store I will pay extra and get a beef chuck roast. My mom said the pot roast has more fat in it. It was even a little string then the plain chuck roast. Mom wants me to get carrots to cook in it next time. Of course fresh homegrown carrots aren't ready yet. Our growing season is messed up because we had too much rain at the beginning of the planting season. I will check the markets to see what veggies they have. I may leave work early on Thursday and see if I can get to the farmers market that has lots of farmers from around the county They said it is a big one. The pepper cutting ideal farmer told me was a really good ideal. I was able to find them this time and  they were good. I cut them in strips from top to bottom then cut them in half. The strips were a little thick but not too thick. Mom thinks I should make chili but it isn't cool enough for it. My stepdad want chili and she doesn't want to make it. I will do that down the road. 

 Mom

We bought a grilled chicken yesterday and today I make a chicken pot. All I do is tear the chicken into small pieces, chop the red onion, a couple of boiled potatoes chopped into big slices, leeks if can find them in the shop, garlic, chicken spice and chicken broth. Everything to small oven dish and 125C for about an hour.
Meowmy

That sounds good. I will have to try that one. Deb likes chicken so will tell her about it. I got a different kind of roast this week. Instead of buying any veggies from the store. I got all my veggies from the farmers market. I even got some good potatoes this time. My mom is trying to think of more of my grandma's dishes to share with you. Might be able to make chili soon cause we have dropped into the 70sF for highs and upper 40sF for lows. My mom wants my dad to stop asking for it cause she doesn't like making it. I told her maybe next week. I didn't know we were suppose to get this cool. They don't see us going over 80F for the rest of the month.

Mom

The chicken pot did not work very well. The idea was good but the food was not what I thought it was. So back to the drawing board, I still need to develop the idea. If I switched to chicken broth for cream, I would add frozen corn and a can of canned mushrooms maybe then it would be better. Must try it next time. I don't really like the new crop of potatoes because they are too watery in my opinion. After a month, their taste is better. If I were in better shape and had a place to grow my own vegetables, I would grow potatoes, carrots, leeks, etc.
I'm thinking of a pressure cooker to ask my parents for a birthday gift, however, the father asks if I would like something. At least it would be useful.
Meowmy