Day 36

What's on the menu:

Chicken and rice
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Chocolate bread pudding

Chicken rice

Put about 4 quarts of water in a large pot and add chicken. I used 1 breast and 6 long legs.
Add 1 onion chopped
1 celery stalk chopped
Cook about 45 minutes and debone chicken and put back into broth. Add salt and pepper to taste and enough rice to what you need. I added about 3/4 cup.
I added just a pinch of saffron but this is not necessary. My daughter went to Turkey on vacation and brought me some back. I have never had any saffron in my cubbard as it's way too expensive in U.S. But I was so excited to have some and wanted to use it.

Cook over low heat about 30 minutes or until rice is done.

Grilled cheese sandwiches

I use chunk cheddar cheese and spread soften butter on each side of sandwich. Grill on griddle. If cheese is not quite melted enough, pop in microwave about 10 seconds.

Chocolate bread pudding

6 cold biscuits (homemade works the best)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup milk
4 heaping TB cocoa
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup coconut (optional)
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Crumble biscuits well. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix well. Add cocoa, sugar and melted butter. Spray 8 inch pan with Pam. Spread mixture into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes until dry on top.

I got this recipe from my Aunt Mable's church cookbook. My biscuits were left from my menu two days ago.
I always add a glaze to all my bread puddings so they will look more appealing. This just something I made up.
Glaze
1/4 cup sugar
2 TB flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 TB Hershey's chocolate syrup
1/2 cup water
Stir above ingredients and cook on medium high heat until it boils. Stir for about 3-5 minutes until thickens a little.
You want a glaze not icing. Pour over pan of hot bread pudding.

Day 35

What's on the menu:

Cabbage rolls
Side platter of cheese wedges

Cabbage rolls

This recipe came from my husband's Aunt Liz in West Va. I went for my first visit as a newly wed to West Va. and this is what she made for us. I had to fry up a pan of southern fried chicken in exchange.

I halved her recipe as half makes over two meals for us. Half of a recipe make 12 cabbage rolls. I freeze half and cook the other half.

4-5 heads of cabbage
2 lb. sausage
6 lb. ground beef
2 large onions (diced)
5 eggs
Salt
Pepper
3 cups uncooked rice
1 large can tomato juice

In a large pot fill 3/4 full of water, bring to a boil. Take each head of cabbage and cut about 1 inch all around the core and 1-1/2 inch into the head. Put cabbage into boiling water and cook until leaves can be pulled away from the head. Cook about 10-15 minutes. Take as many leaves off that will come off. Cook remainder of that head of cabbage until the rest of the leaves loosen enough to come off. Do not over cook them because the leaves will get too soft and they will fall apart when you roll them.

Place cooked leaves on cookie sheet to cool. When they have cooled off place leaf in your hand with the back side of the leaf facing up. Cut the large vein on the back of the leaf with the rest of the leaf. This will make it easier to roll. Set aside.

Cook rice. Set aside. Mix ground beef, sausage, onions, eggs, salt and pepper together. Add cooked rice.

Take cabbage leaf and put desired amount of the meat mixture on the bottom part of the leaf. Start rolling the leaf around the meat, when the meat is covered fold one side of the leaf in and continue to roll until the whole leaf is used. Then tuck the other side of the leaf into the meat.

In a roast pan, line bottom of pan with the extra cabbage leaves. Fill the pan with the cabbage rolls, stacking them on top of each other if necessary. Put more leaves on top and pour tomato juice over them and cover.

Bake at 350 degrees for 2-3 hours.

This recipe can be cut down. I freeze some of them to cook later. When you freeze them, do not cook them.

If you freeze them first, put them into freezer bags and freeze. When you want to cook the ones you have frozen, just take out of the freezer, put into roaster, pour tomato juice over them and bake.