Preparing myself for the Valentine weekend with Nick and then one more week of work before I take a week off to finally do some proper job searching because I really have to find another job….ASAP!
Along with that I will also get my blog transferred over to a self-hosted site, so I’m excited about finally getting that done and pray I can do it without too much trouble.
As I begin thinking about finally getting my blog set up to a self hosted site, I thought about what I really wanted to share if I’m going to do this and I realized the one thing that stood out was that everyone seemed to enjoy my posts more when I shared food from my childhood.
With that in mind, I decided that I’m going to start including a lot of the recipes that I grew up with, that my mom would make for weeknight dinners, and weekend treats and especially our Sunday dinners, oh boy, how I miss moms Sunday dinners, thankfully I can still drop by on weekends when she decides to do it up and score a plate of goodness.
It doesn’t mean I won’t still work on fancier dishes or try and create my own but I need to get back to my roots of what it means to cook and family dishes means you learn to not only cook but you learn to love also.
During the week I take off, while getting everything transferred over and in between the job search, I will be giving all my Aunts and Uncles a call to get their recipes, like my Uncle Rob’s hog head cheese or my Aunt Rose’s fried ribs. The hard part will be to figure out how much of any ingredient I will need because they cook with a little of this and a little of that philosophy, and of course as I always say when I’m cooking “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
Today as I wrote out my goal plans for the upcoming week, I decided I wanted spaghetti and fish like mom used to make. Normally mom would serve this with catfish nuggets but ok I wasn’t in the mood to go to the fish market, so I made her salmon patties or for you fancy folks salmon croquettes.
These are both really simple dishes and I used to make them for my kids when they were little and my daughter still asks me to make this for her from time to time. Hope you guys enjoy them just as much and be sure to let me know.
Remember: “Nothing ventured, Nothing Gained!”
Mom’s 1 Pot Spaghetti
This is the spaghetti I grew up on and sometimes I still like to eat it like that.
- ½ pound Ground beef**
- 1 medium Chopped onion
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons Garlic/Pepper seasoning
- 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
- 2 cloves Minced garlic
- 1 can Fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 can Tomato sauce (small can)
- 1 jar Prepared pasta sauce (your favorite sauce)
- 1 medium Chopped green pepper
- 1 package Spaghetti (cooked and drained)
- Cook spaghetti according to package directions. I normally cook it just a little less since it has to cook a little more with the sauce
- Drain and place to the side
- Cook ground beef with the cumin, salt and other seasonings
- Drain and place into a separate bowel
- Add the onions and garlic to the same skillet and sauté until onions are clear
- Remove from heat and return the ground beef to the skillet and mix well
- Add the fire roasted tomatoes; pasta sauce and tomato sauce to the meat mixture in skillet and heat on low until just bubbly
- Put spaghetti back in your pot if not already, pour the meat sauce over and stir till mixed well, add the green peppers and stir till mixed up good
- Cook on low for about 10 minutes until everything is good and hot
- You can add more salt if needed, just taste before you do, and serve with some hot sauce on the side
** I sometimes use Italian sausage in place of ground beef
Note: This will dry out, so when you heat it up the next day add a little water and some butter and it will be even better than the day before.
Salmon Patties
Whenever mom made spaghetti she always made these canned salmon patties to go with it.
- 1 can Pink salmon
- 1 Egg
- 1 ½ tablespoons Flour
- ½ medium Yellow onion
- ½ Green pepper
- 1 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoons Black pepper
- Enough cornmeal to coat patties**
- Oil to fry patties in
- Drain the can of salmon and remove the bone that runs down the middle of it.
- Put into bowel and crumble.
- Add other ingredients except the cornmeal and combine until well mixed
- Form into patties, and dust with the cornmeal or breadcrumb mixture
- Fry in a hot skillet until browned on both sides
- Drain and serve hot with a little yellow mustard on the side
Life Food and Me 
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