The Kid's Table

This week we decided to make things that we enjoyed when we were children, oh so long ago, but with an adult twist. One might refer to it as comfort food kicked up a notch.
BAM! It turned out so awesome that i think we all ate ourselves into a stupor! (I know i did.)

what did we make? EVERYTHING!

As an appetizer/general finger food, "ants on a log" was made by myself(edog) and sarah. Of course the "original" ants on a log is celery sticks coated with peanut butter topped with raisins. No doubt we stepped it up by making our own cashew butter and topping them with dried cranberries! Holla!

we'd never done it before so making the cashew butter was crazy.

step 1: get a big ass can of salted cashews and chop them to hell with a food processor. Eventually you end up with a giant ball o' cash butter that bounces around and sounds like the apocalypse.


Then, after smearing it out you must drizzle oil into the hole on the top of the processor while pulsing it to smooth it out. The result is quite inrapturing!


add some sugar and of course you know what to do then:


As for the real meal we dined upon amazing renditions of beanie weenie, macaroni and cheese, chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and a lovely "Olive Garden" salad! You can see most of them in the plate shot up top. Jealous much?

INSANE stepped up beanie weenie with crazy andouille sausage and pork rib meat!!!
The chicken n' noodle and greenbeans were awesome and
Matt's amazing mac n' chee ruled MY world for sure!


also don't forget we enjoyed home made oatmeal creme pies courtesy of Sarah F.!




...also i can't help but retell the hilarious tale of matt's blundering of his first batch of mac. he accidentally added the wrong kind of milk at the wrong time and the result was:


keep it real!!!!!

(help me touch up this one yall_)

Chicken and Noodles/Green Bean Casserole
Kitty here!! My absolute favorite food as a child was mashed potatoes. EVERY dinner we had resulted in a Close Encounters of the Third Kind style mound of mashed potatoes covering at LEAST half of my plate. There were several menu items floating around the internet, but I chose chicken and noodles, because I love them, and green bean casserole, because Matt hates creamed corn.

Chicken and noodles are one of the food items I have made most in my life. I do not have a recipe and it probably changes a bit each time. I bought two entire, but cut up chickens and put them in a big ol' pot and added chicken broth until they were just covered. Grandma always used water, and I do that sometimes, but I had the broth around and figured it would insure a rich sauce.

I boiled the chicken (with a little salt and pepper) for quite some time (45 minutes?) making sure that all of the pieces were submerged. When all of the chicken was well cooked and falling off the bone, I strained all of the solids out and put Gavon on chicken separation duty. He tore it up into bite sized pieces which we added back into the pot of stock.

We had decided to make fresh noodles but use the food processor and pasta roller to help the job go a little faster and save our poor little lady arms (yes, Gavon, I just called you a lady). I pulsed 1 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tbs butter, two large eggs, and two large egg yolks, until it just formed a ball. We separated the ball into 4-5 pieces and Gavon ran them through the pasta roller 5 or 6 times on the widest setting. Once that was done, we rolled the sheets into a tube (well floured) and sliced them (sorta' like sushi) into about 1/3 inch wide pieces. Then we unrolled the pieces into noodles (Gavon did this like an autistic child, stacking them so very orderly into neat and uniform piles, then I tossed them into a messy pile with more flour).

We added the noodles to the chicken and chicken stock to cook (boiled them for about 20 minutes then turned the heat off). The sauce was a little runny, so I added some corn starch when we got to Mavis' house, but it could have used a little more. I like my C&N a little on the thick side. Anyway, all of this was served over mashed potatoes. Nothing special, just russets mashed with milk butter salt and pepper.

For the Green Bean Casserole, I used

6 Cups of chopped fresh Green Beans
8 oz of fresh Mushrooms, sliced
16 oz of Whipping Cream
2 tbs of Sour Cream
1 Tablespoon of Oil
1 Tablespoon of Salt
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Basil
1 teaspoon Marjoram
1/2 teaspoon of Pepper
3 Cups of fresh Bread Crumbs (dried a bit in a very low oven)
1/4 Cup of freshly shredded Parmesan Cheese
A whole crap ton of french fried onions

For the onions, I soaked thin-ish sliced onions in milk while I was dealing with the chicken then drained them and patted them dry. I tossed them with some flour and deep fried them then sprinkled on some kosher salt. This may be the best thing I have ever eaten. I fried them until they were a pretty deep brown, but when I put them on the casserole in the oven, they burned. I would recommend either not frying them as dark, or just adding them to the casserole when it comes out of the oven.

For the casserole, I blanched the green beans for about 4 minutes, then shocked them with cold water. I mixed the cream, sour cream, spices, oil, and cheese in a sauce pan and brought it to a simmer. I removed it from the heat and mixed in the bread crumbs, then added it to the mushrooms and then to the green beans. Once all ingredients were mixed, I stuck the sucker in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until it was warm and bubbly. This was AMAZING and you all have to try it. GO!!