Tin Foil Meals

We just spent a very fun, but rainy, week camping. My sister and I plan all the dinners for the week and one of our favorites is a tin foil meal. This was inspired by my husband's many years of Boy Scouts and he is definitely the master of the charcoal. We just bring all the ingredients and everyone builds their own dinner.

We start with a good sized sheet of heavy duty foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. We flop down a hamburger patty (or two if you're a very hungry camper ☺), then add sliced potatoes, carrots, zucchini, onion, salt and pepper, and a slice of bread. Yup, that's right, a slice of bread. The bread absorbs the liquids from the veggies as they cook and it sorta turns into stuffing. Our group is split 50/50 between those of us who like to add bread and those who don't. (I vote yes! to the bread). This dinner must have belonged to a non-bread-adder.

 We don't add anything like ketchup or hot sauce until after everything cooks because we found that any sugar in a sauce just makes the meal burn easier, we figured that out the hard way years ago!

Now wrap up the foil and then double wrap it in a second sheet of foil so nothing can leak out while it cooks. Then you give your foil dinner to The Mayor who sets it on the charcoal. None of us can figure out how he remembers whose dinner is whose (there are 9 of us) but he remembers! It must be his Eagle Scout skills kicking in, incredible memory stimulated by the smell of food cooking in the woods.

 We use a couple of metal shelves from an old refrigerator as our grates and The Mayor has a really heavy pair of gloves that he wears so he can just pick up the foil packets and move them or flip them.

The Mayor lets them cook for 10 minutes, then flips them and they go for another 10 minutes. They start to smell so yummy I am surprised the bears didn't come check us out!

These are hungry children, waiting for their dinners to finish cooking, passing the time in the hammock. See the sun streaming in through the trees from the lake? Truly beautiful. Take a good look because pretty soon it will start to rain...and rain...and you will be stuck in your camper or under a 10 x 10 awning listening to NOTHING BUT RAINDROPS!!! Okay, back to the dinner...

Ahhh, yumminess in a foil packet. Thanks Mayor/Dad! Luckily I remembered to take a photo before I doused mine with ketchup so you could actually see the food! I am a ketchup queen. Somehow the burger gets cooked and the potatoes come out tender and it tastes oh, so good! It tastes like camping... but without the rain!

Lulu's Sizzlin' Saturday... Deviled Eggs

Hi everyone! Welcome to the second week of Lulu's Sizzlin' Saturday! I hope you read about the delicious Strawberry Soup and decided to join me for some more summer treats because this week we are serving up some Delectable Deviled Eggs!

If you don't have a deviled egg recipe that you love then give this one a try!

Deviled Eggs

6 hard boiled eggs

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp parsley flakes

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

Remove the yolks and mash. Then add all the ingredients and mix well.

Fill eggs and sprinkle with paprika.

ENJOY!!

A Little Egg Tip...

 

Here's how to get perfectly hard cooked eggs without the gray ring around the yolk. (A sign of an over cooked egg)

1. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and cover them with about 1 inch of cold water.

2. Bring the water to a boil, cover tightly, and remove from heat; let stand for 20 minutes.

3. Transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water and let stand until completely cooled.

Have an egg-cellent week!!☺

Lulu's Sizzlin' Saturday... Strawberry Soup

Oh hey folks Lulu here! I am 13 years old and going into 8th grade. For the summer I have decided to have my own posting day... Saturday! Something you should know about me is that I L-O-V-E food and easy recipes... who doesn't? Every Saturday I will try to present a fun recipe easy enough to be made by a young "Chef in Training".☺

Today's Recipe: Cinderella's Strawberry Soup (This is what Cinderella ate after she became a princess... before that she only ate broth and stale bread.☺)

Random Recipe Rotes... I mean Notes: We first tasted this heaven-in-a-bowl at the 1900 Park Fare restaurant in the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World. This turned out to be the BEST part of the meal... well, except for when my dad broke the ice cream machine and got ice cream all down the front of him and on the floor and the staff members had to come out and clean it up.☺


The Best Time to Serve this Dish: Tea parties, girlie lunches, baby showers, bridal showers... Or as my 10 year old brother requested, ladled into his water bottle for soccer practice!☺ 


On with the show!... the recipe...

Cinderella's Strawberry Soup

Two 16 oz. containers frozen, sliced strawberries with sugar

16 oz. heavy cream

2 oz. light sour cream

3 oz. plain Greek yogurt

fresh strawberries for garnish

1. Thaw frozen berries in their juices.

2. Blend all ingredients except the fresh strawberries in a blender on low until smooth (All of this did not fit in our blender. You may need to blend in batches and stir together in a large bowl.)

3. Chill, stir before serving, garnish with fresh strawberries.

Fancy Pants Add-on: Strawberry Fan Garnish

1. Cut a strawberry in half length wise through the stem. 

2. Take one half and make two length wise cuts from just below the stem to the pointed end.

3. Spread the sections apart forming a fan making sure all pieces stay attached at the stem.

Viola! You have a beautiful strawberry fan to garnish your delicious Strawberry Soup!

Now enjoy and don't forget to eat like a princess!! ♥

My Favorite Tomato Soup

(source)

I have always had a special place in my heart (or I suppose in my stomach!) for tomato soup. My mom would cut up little chunks of cheese and put those in our bowls and then ladle the hot tomato soup over the cheese...it would get all melty and delicious...yum. Nothing better than grilled cheese and tomato soup. So, with all this lovely SNOW and freezing cold weather this week I have been craving soup. Have I mentioned even once or twice how much I dislike winter?? Seriously, the amount of snow at the end of our driveway from the town plow is ridiculous! We live on a corner so Mr. Plow Dude gathers up all this snow coming around the bend and deposits it in the first driveway, which is, of course, OURS! These are the things no one tells you when you are buying your house! And the problem here is that I get up at 5:30 am to get Lulu on the bus but the Mayor doesn't have to get up until 8-ish for work. I feel bad waking him up so early to snow blow the driveway so Lulu and I just shovel a path. Well, then the crazy, perfectionist part of me can't leave the driveway with just one path, so I end up shoveling the whole thing! It's not too bad until you get to the icy, chunky part left at the end by Mr. Plow Dude. And all while I shovel I think about all the people who are at Disney wearing their flip-flops and capri pants. JEALOUS!

Anywhoo, back to the soup. This is my favorite, favorite soup in the whole entire universe. It is a Wegmans recipe and they sell it already made...sometimes...not much anymore because it is an older recipe and has been replaced by newer (and less delicious) soups! When this was on the soup bar, I would get it for lunch and it may have been the only time I was excited to go to work! They printed the recipe in the Wegmans Menu magazine and it is definitely worth trying. It is a textured tomato soup because of the veggies and pasta and it does have a little cream in it. I will "un-Wegman-ize" the recipe in case you don't shop there...wait, do people actually shop other places? Inconceivable.

Tomato Basil with Orzo Soup

1 pkg (8 oz) cleaned and cut Mirepoix which is a fancy French word for onions, carrots and celery so, if you want to do this yourself use 1 cup onion, 1/2 c celery and 1/2 c carrot all finely diced

2 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 can (28 oz) Kitchen Cut Roma Tomatoes with Basil

1 can (28 oz) Crushed Tomatoes with Italian Herbs (use 2 of these if you can't find Roma Tomatoes with Basil)

1 carton (32 oz) vegetable stock

salt and pepper
2 roasted red peppers, diced (available in a jar or from the olive/Mediterranean bar)
1 cup orzo soup pasta
1 cup light cream
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Add mirepoix and oil to large pot on med-high. Cook, stirring, 6-7 minutes. Add garlic. Cook 2 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add tomatoes, simmer 10 minutes. Add stock, return to simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add red pepper and pasta. Simmer 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until pasta is firm but tender. Remove from heat.

Temper cream...pour cream into a medium bowl, add a few ladles of hot soup to slowly raise temperature of cream. Add cream mixture to soup, fold in basil. Serve.
Makes 13 cups. About 170 calories per cup.

If you decide to make some, just let me know what time to come over! The recipe also says it freezes very well if 13 cups of soup seems daunting.

Nel's smile for the week: We made Mar's knee-high baby Jesus in 4 year old Cubbies this week! Some of the faces on baby Jesus were very original!!
Nel's frown for the week: How many weeks until Spring??

Lulu's smile for the week: No school on Monday! Honors to you MLK!
Lulu's frown for the week: The Christmas tree must finally come down this weekend...yes we are the weirdos who still have our tree up, we're busy, okay? Back off people!

♥'s full of thanks...

Happy 2 days after Thanksgiving...i just wanted to savor this holiday..because we immediately dive into the the next, the very next day...welcome to chaos...so just for this weekend, forget about black Friday (who wants to wait in line all night in the freezing cold anyway to save a couple bucks?)...forget about the gift list, the cookie plans, the joann fabric coupons that would save us 203 percent of our total purchases... and take a while to reflect on what you're thankful for...I have plenty to ponder...♥



Lord, so often times, as any other day
When we sit down to our meal and pray



We hurry along and make fast the blessing
Thanks, amen. Now please pass the dressing




We're slaves to the olfactory overload
We must rush our prayer before the food gets cold





But Lord, I'd like to take a few minutes more
To really give thanks to what I'm thankful for




For my family, my health, a nice soft bed
My friends, my freedom, a roof over my head




I'm thankful right now to be surrounded by those
Whose lives touch me more than they'll ever possibly know




Thankful Lord, that You've blessed me beyond measure
Thankful that in my heart lives life's greatest treasure





That You, dear Jesus, reside in that place
And I'm ever so grateful for Your unending grace





So please, heavenly Father, bless this food You've provided
And bless each and every person invited





Amen!

~Scott Weseman~

ps. the hubs strikes again...wanna know how to cook a hunk a meat?!?
he's the guy to ask...the bird was moist & delicious...
check out the recipe he used here
ps. check out the craft blogs where i got all these great Thanksgiving ideas!!

♥ give thanks banner ...atsecondstreet.blogspot.com♥
♥ pumpkin candle centerpiece ...bhg.com♥
♥ dinner menu ...bhg.com♥
♥ printable place cards & table settings ...freeprettythingsforyou.com♥
♥ napkin rings ...marthastewart.com♥
♥ printable bible verse ...cheepideas.com♥

thankful...♥

♥...it seems like were getting into a little holiday spirit around here @ sevensisters...so i thought i'd take a shot at maybe (maaaaybe) getting organized a little early instead of running around like a crazy chick at the last minute (i work best under pressure) and i know November's not even here yet, but let's face it,
around the corner she's a comin'...


...so i'm running right into Thanksgiving...
i was informed as of late that i'm hosting Thanksgiving dinner again, which is exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time since it really is the "huge-est" dinner you'll ever eat all year and it will be compared to Thanksgiving dinner in years past..."remember last year how yummy the casserole was?"...or "remember when you opened the cabinet door and a glass fell out and landed right in the middle of your lemon meringue pie?!" (this really happened to my mom)....so again, i stress...pressure... well...this year i do have a couple new ideas up my sleeve as far as menu & table settings go, but here are some flashbacks from last year that make me look back and think...wow...i'm so blessed...i'm so thankful, and that's what i want the holidays to really be about, really be remembered for...

last year's menu:
♥ roast turkey with truffle butter ♥
♥ sweet potato & pear gratin ♥
♥ make ahead party mashed potatoes ♥
♥ grandma F's mac n' cheese ♥
♥ 2 aunt's who bickered about the stuffing recipe - stuffing ♥
♥ stuffed artichokes ♥
♥ from scratch crescent rolls ♥
♥ green salad, corn, cranberry sauce & gravy ♥


7 things i'm thankful for...
1. wegs pumpkin cookies w/cream cheese icing
2. all the ideas inside my brain that scream "etsy shop"
3. k-love
4. the new tinkerbell movie (love it...so cute)
(and there's no bad guy)
5. seven sisters i can laugh with
6. my family at dinner time
7. my sweet Savior

anybody thankful?...lend an ear let's hear...
(as in post a comment about what you're thankful for)

Golden and Delicious

Pretty much my favorite thing about fall is going apple picking. I love the pumpkin patch, hot spiced apple cider, fresh donuts, hay rides, cool crisp air, but by far apple picking tops the list. My favorite apple to pick is the golden delicious apples. Months in advance I plan out a day to do nothing else but go apple picking, when the golden delicious apple is ripe for picking. Little L, MJ (one of the other seven sisters) and I go out and pick bags and bags of golden delicious apples and then come home and make tons of applesauce.

Over the years we have become better and faster at making applesauce. Each year we think of an ingenious way to make it go faster. One year it was the potato ricer, which is a must have when it comes to making apple sauce. The next year it was the apple peeler, corer, slicer, this little invention was a HUGE time saver. Then this year we discovered how much faster it would go if only one of us brought a food processor to chop up the apples.

It takes 24 medium apples to yield 6 pints of apple sauce. We start out by sterilizing all our jars. Bring a very large pot to boiling and place all your jars and lids into the boiling water and leave them there for 10 minutes. Once completed, remove them and place them on clean towels to dry. Once all your jars are sterilized its time to make the applesauce!!

Once we washed all the apples we were ready to place them on the apple peeler, corer, slicer machine. Little L worked so hard and pretty much peeled, cored and sliced every single apple with this wonderful contraption!! Seriously, hardly any work involved!!!

This is what the apples look like when the come off the apple peeler, corer, slicer machine.

Once you have all your apples sliced they are ready to go into the pot. Do we have enough apples!! I have to admit next year we need a bigger pot!! But this one did the job! You place all your apples, 2 cups of water and 10 inches of stick cinnamon into the pot. Bring it to a boil while mashing it down (I use a potato masher). Once it comes to a boil reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring often. While it is simmering the apples become really soft and much easier to mash down. So while it simmers continue to mash it down with your potato masher.


After 25 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, remove the cinnamon sticks and little by little press the apples through the potato ricer or a food mill or sieve. Return the pulp to the pot and stir in 1 1/4 cups of sugar (add more to taste). If necessary, add an additional 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water to reach desired consistency. (I have never had to add more water so I always skip this step). Ladle the applesauce into your sterilized jars. Place lids on top of jars and process in large pot of boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove from pot and viola! Listen for the sealing of your jars by the popping sound! It is by far the best applesauce I have ever eaten!

APPLESAUCE

*24 medium golden delicious apples, cored and quartered

*2 cups of water

*10 inches stick cinnamon

*1 1/4 cups of sugar