Me and Lady Mary and Chef Teresa

Did you watch Season 4 of Downton Abbey?  Did you see the pig watering episode?  I just loved seeing that side of Lady Mary.  And then to see her so at home in the kitchen making eggs for Charles Blake.  WELL... she used an egg holder and I fell in love with it.  It was wood and just the most wonderful thing.  So, I looked on eBay and there was one.. just one.. of the same kind of egg rack and ::BOINK:: my finger went on the button and nobody else bid on it and soon it came winging it's way to me.  It also came with a wooden springerle rolling pin.

This is a poor photo, but it's my grandparents kitchen queen which I quite literally rescued from their old farmhouse in Oklahoma that was falling in on itself.  My dad had inherited 80 acres of his dad's farm and his section had the house on it.  After a lot of research in a book about kitchen queens I deduced that this was made by the Boone company.  It was painted a hideous green and the inside a horrific acid yellow.  So, I had it restored by my friend Gary Law.  He even made a new sliding wooden door (like in a roll top desk). There were only a few of the slats left in the cabinet and he made an all new door using the clues from the cabinet.  I love this thing dearly.

I love old aqua Ball and Mason jars.  The little ones are a salt and pepper and the medium sized one is a vintage bank!

I want to make some cookies and use this pin to decorate them, but I'll have to grease it up as it's not very smooth.

I love the old rough stained enamel sliding out work surface on this.  This is where my grandmother taught MY mother how to cook and roll out pie dough and make home made noodles and all manner of good old fashioned things.  

Old jars.

The wood grain in this egg holder is just beautiful.

Now... my sister Denise and I spent quite a bit of time on our trip talking about cooking.. she has become an excellent cook over the years.  So, I got the urge to do some culinary efforts for the family.  I saw this recipe on of all places.. Facebook.. and thought it might be good.  It's Lemon Garlic Chicken.  It turned out pretty good, but if I make it again I will not use 3 lemons!  It was VERY lemony! (I made 1 1/2 recipe for 6 people)

GARLIC & LEMON CHICKEN WITH RED POTATOES & GREEN BEANS

INGREDIENTS
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon thinly sliced, 1 juiced (or leave the extra juice out)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
4 chicken breasts 

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400°F (180). Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the chicken, green beans and potatoes and toss to coat. Pour this mix into the pan and spread around evenly.

Roast for 50 minutes or until cooked through. Serve warm. 

And then I made dinner last night too!  This is the bread we had, take 1 loaf of artisan bread, cut it lengthwise, liberally butter each side and sprinkle with McCormick Garlic Bread Sprinkle.  Wrap with foil and heat in the oven for 1/2 hour or until heated through.

Now, I served everyone this before I took the photo, but this recipe is of my own invention and I hadn't made it in a long time.  I made it last night and everyone loved it!  It's a creamy flavorful lasagna-ish pasta bake.  I wrote up the recipe last night and you should try it.  I do have a caveat - I had to estimate the ingredients so if you make it and find something you'd change, please let me know.  You can all be my recipe testers!! :-)

This is good!

Teresa’s Creamy Pasta Lasagna-style Casserole

16 oz curly edged mini lasagna noodles (Mafalda) or wide egg noodles 

2 lbs lean ground beef

3 Italian sausage links, med

½ onion, chopped 

Mushrooms, sliced 

1 67 oz. large jar of Prego pasta sauce, Traditional flavor

1 8 oz brick of cream cheese 

1 cup milk 

2 TBS Worcestershire 

2 lb grated mozzarella

1 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan or a mixture of Parmesan/Romano

Put a big pot of water on high and bring to a boil, add salt.  Begin sautéing ground beef, remove sausage from casing and cook with beef, chopping meat as it cooks.  Add chopped onion.  When meat is done, drain grease off.  Add mushrooms and cook with meat.  When mushrooms are done, add Prego sauce and stir and simmer.

When the water comes to a boil, add pasta and cook just until al dente as it will cook more while this is in the oven.

When the pasta is done, drain, put cream cheese, milk and Worcestershire in glass bowl and put in microwave for 1 minute, remove and stir until it becomes a smooth sauce.  Put hot pasta, well drained, into a bowl and pour sauce over it and toss the pasta until coated.

Oil a baking pan with olive oil and then spoon or pour in half the meat sauce.  Put half the saucy pasta over meat sauce.  Put half the grated mozzarella on top, then half the Parmesan. Add other half of meat sauce, other half of the pasta, the rest of the mozzarella and top off with the parmesan.

Bake 45 minutes at 375 degrees covered with foil, uncover for 15 more minutes until the cheese is bubbled and slightly browned.  Enjoy!

When I was shopping for the ingredients in the pasta bake, I got Dayle his favorite Easter goodie which are marshmallow eggs.  We gave one each to the boys for dessert and they were yummy!  Have you been cooking fun things lately?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)