Salmon Cakes

This is a frugal recipe while still getting fish in your diet. Even non-fish people will like this one. So yummy and makes a perfect meal with fresh corn on the cob and sauteed zuchini - right in season!

Salmon Cakes

1 14.75oz can of salmon
2 c soft bread crumbs
1/3 c minced onions (or use 1/8 c dried minced onions)
1/4 c milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp minced parsley
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dill weed
dash of pepper

Drain the salmon and pull out the larger vertebra bones. You don't have to worry about the other fine bones becuase they will get mashed up and they are harmless, in fact they add calcium to the dish. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Shape into eight patties. Fry in 2 tbsp oil in skillet. Cook about 4 minutes each side until browned and crispy on the outside. Place on a paper towel to drain while you cook the rest. You can serve with tarter sauce, but my family loves these plain. Even the two year old gobbles them up!

The RIGHT Way to Eat Chili

All month long we've been participating in this Eat From the Pantry Challenge inspired by my favorite coupon blog. Here is what I've learned about my cooking habits after doing it for 3 weeks:

• I have enough food in our house to feed my family for three months at any given time! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a crazy thing.
• I am terrible, really terrible about planning a menu ahead of time. My cooking is guided by "what I feel at the moment" so I'm constantly changing the menus I had planned.
• We have leftovers at least twice a week and call it Refrigerator Night. We just pull everything out and each person decides what they want to eat from the stash. I usually make so much on cooking nights we would be wasting food if we didn't do this. 
• I love to cook but not the same things over and over. I don't cook the same thing twice in one month, sometimes I won't cook that same thing twice in one year. We love variety so eating the same thing over and over just doesn't work for us.
• I can't live without lettuce and milk. I did breakdown midway and buy both of those things along with some grapefruit. 

When we have dinner, we almost always have a meat and a couple of different frozen or fresh veggies (which thanks to my neighbor we have enjoyed carrots this week and last). I often serve homemade bread if we are not having rice, pasta or potatoes. Many times, the husband and I will have salad to go with our meal. The kids will only eat salad if it has ginger dressing on it. And only the Makoto Ginger Dressing will do the trick. This stuff tastes JUST like what you get at a Japanese Steak House. If you like those house salads, don't waste your money trying other ginger dressings from the store, because they are terrible. Makoto is really fresh and gingery tasting. (FYI, Makoto also carries the white sauce they give you for your vegetables.)

Here's what we ate for dinner this month while we were trying to whittle down our stockpile:

• Venison Chili with Beans - served over rice with cheddar cheese and sour cream; the kids love it this way (pictured above)
• Vegetable Beef Soup and Sourdough Cornbread - leftovers I stored in the freezer
• Spaghetti - a Christmas gift from my amazing Aunt Sharon
• Corn Potato Chowder - with homemade bread and salad
• Roast Chicken and Sauteed Cabbage - the chicken roasts quickly in my convection microwave that came with our house
• Spinach Salad - will post my soon-to-be-sister-in-law's tasty dressing soon 
• Chicken Broccoli Devine - hubbie's childhood fave
• Venison Meatloaf - with corn and mashed potatoes, comfort food at it's best
• Homemade Pizza - with sourdough crust
• Venison Stroganoff over Egg Noodles- I tried a new recipe we didn't like, I'll go back to the onion soup and sour cream deal next time
• Baked Fish with Parmesan Cream Sauce
• Venison Tacos - using the chip and dip tray method
• Tomato Soup and Grilled Ham and Cheese
• Sweet Meatballs with Rice - you know the kind of sauce made with grape jelly and chili sauce
• Pumpkin Ravioli with Chicken Sausage - will post more on this later as I used wonton wrappers to make the ravioli and it was very easy
• Spiral Sliced Ham with Cherry Sauce- frozen ham leftover from Christmas a friend gave me cherries her mother had canned and I made up a recipe for the sauce
• Breakfast for dinner - omelets (from our fresh eggs), sourdough pancakes, and venison sausage
• Broccoli Cheese Soup - leftovers I froze, made with lamb stock and very yummy

For this week, we had the chili last night. We'll have stirfry one night, but I have no idea for the rest of the week. I imagine it will involve chicken, since I'm kinda tired of venison. I'm excited about going to the grocery store and giving in to my gluttony and desire just to cruise the aisles. Ahhh, fresh fruit, crisp veggies, and dairy products, how I long for you. I'll have to be careful not to overspend on next Monday!!

Creamy Corn Potato Chowder

We are still working on the Pantry Challenge, but I think I have to break down and go to the store for milk and a few other things. I needed to come up with dinner from the pantry and found a few potatoes lurking in the bottom bin of the fridge that I needed to use up. I always have frozen veggies on hand, so I made this yummy chowder from Family Fun online. The soup was really creamy and fabulous even though I substituted half and half for the heavy cream. It's the perfect soup for dreary day.

Creamy Corn Potato Chowder

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
5 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 large all-purpose potato, peeled and diced
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt, to taste
1 cup heavy cream (or use half and half)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Black pepper, to taste
Fresh dill or parsley for garnish, chopped (I used dried chives)


Melt the butter in a large saucepan or medium soup pot. Stir in the onion and celery. Partially cover the pan and cook the vegetables over moderate heat for 9 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock, corn, potato, and salt and bring the mixture to a low boil. Lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for about 7 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and flour. Stir the mixture into the soup with the pepper. Bring the soup back to a low boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 8 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with herbs.

Oatmeal Bread

The deal with wild yeast (what most folks call sourdough starter) is, you can use it to make any kind of yeast bread. This was a wonderful loaf of oatmeal bread that I adapted from one of the Taste of Home cookbooks. A good rule of thumb for converting a store bought yeast recipe is 1 c of starter and replaces 1 packet of yeast (1/4 of an ounce) PLUS one cup of liquid. There are lots of recipesout there for "catching" the wild yeast out of the air (think of it as good mold) or you can purchase a starterfrom several places. Your other choice is to get starter from someone you know. See caring for your starter for more info on how to take care of it.

This recipe called for 1 1/4 c of water, so I just substituted my well fed starter. It smelled so good coming out of the oven, that I cut into too early, which is why it looks a little mushy in the middle. I have trouble resisting that fresh hot bread smell and taste. This bread went perfectly with tonight's dinner from the freezer of vegetable beef soup.

Honey Oatmeal Casserole Bread makes 12 wedges

1 c starter
1/4 -1/2 c warm water
1/4 c softened butter
1/4 c honey
2 eggs
1 c quick cooking oats
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 c flour

In a large bowl put 2 c flour and all other ingredients. Mix well (or you can do this in a stand mixer with the bread dough hook) until smooth. Then mix in the remaining 1 1/2 c flour. This should form a nice soft dough that pulls away from the bowl a little or is binding around your wooden spoon. Dump the dough into a clean well oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Put it in a warm draft free place (like your oven with the light on) until it has doubled in size. This should take around 12 hours, so you could do it overnight. The way you know if it has risen the right amount is to gently poke it. If it springs back, it has not risen enough, if it leaves and indent, it's perfect and ready.  If it collapses, you need to knead it again and let it rerise because it's over risen.

After the first rise, you gently deflate it (if your poking didn't already do the job) and form it into a ball.  The best way to do this is to tuck the edges under into the middle, going around and around, until you have a smooth ball. Place the ball into a round well greased casserole dish (think Pyrex). Spray the top of the dough with a little cooking spray too. Put your plastic wrap over it and put it back into its warm home. Let it rise for 6-8 hours until it passes the poke test again.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. You know it's done when you tap the top and it sounds hollow. Cool for 10 mins in the dish and then gently shake to loosen. Dump it out on a wire rack and let cool (unless you are like me, then just start eating).

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

Count me in. There is a blog I read, moneysavingmom.com that has tons of great couponing deals and she and a friend decided to host a challenge for the month of January. The idea is to grocery shop as little as possible and eat from your pantry/ freezer stockpile...for the WHOLE MONTH! This is doable, but I might run out of milk and I'll certainly miss lettuce. I know our pantry is always stocked and the freezer is exceptionally full right now mostly because a whole shelf is taken up with deer meat.

My personal goal is to not shop for any groceries - except milk. This means I need to plan ahead for Banana Girl's birthday party and I'm sure I'll have to do some crazy substitutions. What about you...are you in?