1. They are easily made ahead and can be thrown in the fridge to cook later (or sometimes the freezer for another day). In my case this often means during nap time.

2. I can get the kitchen cleaned and dishes washed up while they are baking in the oven. It is nice sitting down to a meal knowing that you don't have a huge mess waiting for you.

3. They often combine all the food groups in one dish - or can be tweaked to do so.

4. We tend to not eat meat-heavy meals, so casseroles are a great way to stretch smaller portions of meat.

5. They are also a good way to sneak in vegetables for those who would typically avoid such things.

6. They are about the easiest meals to take to other people or share in a potluck.

7. They are incredibly versatile.

8. They can be quite economical.

Some of my favorites are:

Broccoli Chicken Delight served over pasta or rice

Spaghetti Pie with a salad or steamed veg

Just recently I discovered another casserole that we all loved. In the spirit of eating more seasonally, this one is perfect for the summer. Below is my adaptation from the original recipe on allrecipes.com.

A good portion of cooked rice (I probably had 4-5 cups worth)

1 - 1 1/2 cups of sausage (I used the crumbly, breakfast-type, but probably any kind would work.)

2-3 med zucchini, cubed

several green onions, sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp paprika (I didn't have any, so it works without as well)

1 1/2 cups tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded

Cook the rice ahead of time. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Cook up the sausage. Add the zucchini, onions and garlic and stir-fry until tender. Mix in seasonings, then add rice, tomatoes and half the cheese. Cook until heated through. Transfer to a casserole dish, sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly (about 20 min). Serve hot. YUM!

You could probably add different vegetables to this dish depending on your preferences. Yellow squash and leeks are two that come to mind. Hope you enjoy.

Can you tell where this is leading?.... VERY DRY HANDS!  Or, as one of my students once pointed out: "Grandma hands!"  

This was brought to an embarrassing focus last week when I was accosted by a vendor trying to sell *miracle* Dead Sea salt scrubs.  He asked to see my hands and I jumped back with a horrified, "NO!" We decided to be nice and let him do his spiel, and I walked away with softer hands - for a few minutes.  

All that to say, it reminded me of a sugar scrub that I used to make and give as gifts to people.  I decided it was time to make some more as a gift to my poor, abused hands.  I love how simple it is, and it leaves my hands soothed and smooth.

*****

1/2 c. sugar

2-4 Tbsp. olive oil (or almond, coconut... those nice ones)

2-4 drops of essential oil or extract (optional additions for their pretty smells)

Stir together.  

Rub about a teaspoons worth on your hands. 

Rinse and dry.  

Ah... the softness!  

The sugar exfoliates, getting rid of dead skin cells while the oil protects your skin from moisture loss.

I found different variations of this scrub here and here with some fun additions.  One person said it made a great face scrub - worth a try, me thinks.

Now that we are living in the western world, sandwiches have become our lunch-time fare with left-overs thrown in when we have them. But, I'm getting tired of sandwiches... or at least the same old versions. I need help to think up some creative, inexpensive new ideas. Below are some of my sandwich varieties... I hope you can give me some new suggestions. I would prefer the ingredients to be fairly common. As good as avocado and mango chutney sounds, I don't really keep that in my kitchen. (Well, that's not entirely true.. I have a big box of mangoes in there right now and chutney sounds kinda good...)

* PB & J/honey

* Ham/Salami/deli meats and Cheese (with pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc...)

* Egg, Ham and Cheese

* BLTs (except it's hard to find American-style bacon here. What they say is "bacon" is our ham. What they say is "ham" is ham. And what they say is "gammon joint" is ham. Sigh...)

* Peanut Butter, Tomato and Mayonnaise (an oddity from my mom's side)

* Tomatoes, Boiled Eggs and Pickles

* Fruity Curry Chicken Salad (always a big hit wherever I take it)

* Ruebens

* Sardines or Pilchards (in Tomato Sauce) on Baguettes, topped with Mozzarella and broiled

* Hot Subs (with left-over spaghetti sauce and mozzarella on top)

* Grilled Cheese

When I responded to someone's offer of a crockpot on Freecycle, I also got a yogurt-maker in the bargain.  Whoo-hoo!  I've actually only made yogurt twice because I found it to be barely cheaper than the plain yogurt I can purchase here and I don't have a candy thermometer (yet!), so I always feel nervous about the outcome.  However, it's worked out great both times and I am starting to experiment with flavored yogurts - which would save more money.  I'll share both methods I've tried.

After heating milk, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, honey, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, malt, molasses or sweetener. Add 1 TBSP of extract - vanilla, lemon, almond, peppermint or instant coffee.  Allow to cool to 110ºF, add culture, blah, blah.. carry on as usual.  (I used sugar and vanilla for my trial run and it was GOOD!)

Other options: add 1 tsp. of ground spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger

For jam, preserve or peanut butter flavors, add 1 TBSP to the bottom of the cup containers before incubating. (Assuming you are using a yogurt maker, otherwise you will need about 6x the amount for the whole batch.)

Fresh fruit should always be added after the yogurt has set as it will inhibit the process.

I have run into this fantastic bread recipe on several blogs.  It has become popular with the release of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.  The authors have their own website where they post all sorts of delicious looking breads using this very basic method.

Here is the base recipe:

3 cups luke-warm water

1 1/2 Tbsp yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp salt

6 1/2 cups white flour

Mix the first three ingredients together.

Add the flour. (The dough will be tacky still.)

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 2 hours.

At this point you can throw it in your fridge for up to two weeks.  The dough will continue to work becoming more sourdough-like.

Or you can shape it into whatever type bread you want to serve: loaf, rolls, braid, etc...

Sprinkle flour on the dough as it is quite sticky and cut off as much as you need.  Gently shape into a loaf and place on a greased (or cornmeal-ed) baking sheet.  Let rise for 40 minutes or till double, cut a slash across the top with a sharp knife and bake in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until well-browned.

Super easy!

Now, there are all sorts of additional tricks you can do to make your bread more crusty.  The basics being: hot oven and steam.  You can go to Lynn's Kitchen Adventures for more instruction about how to do that.  There are also several videos out there to show you exactly what do to.

*  *  *  *  *

Today, I wanted to make Brotchen - a hard-crust, German dinner roll. 

 According to the Artisan people, I just needed to make the regular recipe and brush the rolls with egg white before baking.  Here they are in all their unequal-sized splendor.

But... I don’t have a picture of the final result because right when I am supposed to be putting the bread in the oven, I get a long-distance phone call which takes 15 mintues and leaves me feeling somewhat discouraged. Then I rush into the kitchen to turn on the oven for my over-risen rolls and madly start preparing dinner. 

Meanwhile, my son is doing everything he can to hinder me. After making it clear that the water in the sink is off-limits today, he proceeds to pull the water pitcher off the counter, flooding the floor. I’m mopping and trying to keep him out of the mess at the same time. In the process, I spill some of the egg white for basting my rolls all over the counter – another mess to clean.  

I’m frustrated and grumpy knowing that the rolls won’t turn out, dinner is going to be late, my family will probably hate what is on the menu anyways, my kid is too much underfoot and most of all, my husband is peacefully sitting upstairs, oblivious to all the fuming and stewing going on in the kitchen.  Does he not know how annoyed I am? (No)  Shouldn’t he sense my mood – we are supposed to be “one”, right? (Uh.. I don’t think it works that way - at least not 3 rooms away.)  How can he be so inconsiderate to let me slave away down here while I'm sure he is doing nothing important. (Irrational assumptions.)

All the negative energy must have made its ways upstairs (or perhaps the sounds of sniveling?) because my knight in shining armor DID come down to see if I needed help and took a little boy off my hands.  Now what was it that I so upset about exactly?  How much easier it would have been if I just had asked for help in the very beginning rather than testing my husband’s love in an exam he didn’t even know about (yet somehow managed to pass with flying colors). 

Dinner ended up being just so-so.. the bread had all stuck together rather than being individual rolls, but eh… it’s just a meal and not worth destroying our family harmony over, right? 

So…. Let’s just pretend that these were my beautiful dinner rolls okay?

This bread recipe really is cool and very easy to make.  

Don't let my bad day keep you from trying it out.

Have fun!