I may be Back

I know I do not use this blog for personal issues, so I'll make this brief:

As you may or may not know, we are moving on or before October 1st.  As of this writing date, we still do not know where we are going.  I have no idea where I will be living in the next month or two, which means I have no idea what kind of kitchen situation I will have, I am potentially calling this my last post on this blog.  (I will keep my marriage blog active: http://thankful-julie.blogspot.com/ ) 
If you want to, you can still check back from time to time.  If all goes well, I may be back sometime in mid October.  Just not sure yet.

Thanks, y'all for checking out this humble home cook's blog!!!!

Home Style Ground Beef Casserole

I made this for our dinner tonight.  The only thing I did different from the recipe was that I used garden vegetable cream cheese instead of regular.  And my casserole had vegetarian beef (of course), but Mel's had real beef.  Don't let the last picture fool you - it looks gross in the photo - this is so very yummy!  I will very gladly make this again and again. Mel give this a 9, and I give it a 10.  It is one of my new favorite dishes! (I might add green peppers next time.)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I made empanadas for our dinner Tuesday night  http://animalsfaithmiddleearth.blogspot.com/2014/08/julies-bbq-beef-or-veggie-sausage.html and this for dessert.  Even though my birthday isn't until Thursday, I made this for my birthday cake.  It is supposed to be made with chocolate cake mix but I don't like chocolate cake, so Mel picked out Strawberry.  This sounded like it would be so good, but it is very disappointing!  It is surprisingly very dry and you can't even taste the cream cheese.  Mel gave it a 7, and I give it a 6.  I will never make this again.  What a disappointing birthday cake!  :(

Sausage Casserole

I made this for our dinner Monday.  Mel's had turkey sausage and mine had veggie sausage.  I exchanged the mushroom soup for onion, but I think I pretty much kept to the recipe.  This got mixed reviews!  Mel did not like it, but I enjoyed it.  I have a feeling it's one of those dishes you either love or hate based on whether or not you like the texture of "mushy" bread.  It reminded us both of dishes we had as a kid where our moms would put pot roast and gravy on bread.  Anyway, Mel did not give me a rating because he was trying to be polite, but I give it an 8 1/2.  I probably won't make it again just for me, but maybe.

Menu Board for September

Here is the menu board for September.  I won't be doing as much cooking this month because we are moving sometime before October 1 and we will be busy packing.  But, this is my birthday month, so I wanted to make a cake (the one listed on the menu board) and some favorite dishes like the hash, empanadas & maybe even taco salad (I didn't put that on the board) and trying 2 new dishes (the casseroles on the board).