Mimi's Kitchen

Today my other blog, $2 Dinners, is being featured as blog of the day on Foodista! For those of you who may not know about $2 Dinners, it's based on my column in the Burlington Times-News and features budget-friendly recipes that cost $2 or less per serving to make. Stop by and check it out! Please also check out Foodista....a fun and free-to-join cooking community/cooking encyclopedia that everyone can edit.

Hey ya'll...I just joined a great new food blogging community that I want to share with you. It's called Foodie Blogroll and it's lots of fun.....they have community forums, great contests and lots more. Right now they are having a contest to promote Foodie Blogroll and the prize is a great customized FBR tote. It's easy to enter...all you have to do is join!

So if you're a foodie, what are you waiting for? Join Foodie Blogroll today and network with other foodies, get your blog noticed and be part of a fantastic food blogging community!

People often ask me for advice on cooking tools and ingredients, and they usually want to know what I use in my own kitchen. When it comes to cookware, I tell them that in Mimi's Kitchen, we use Le Creuset.

I bought the first piece of my Le Creuset cookware set, a
5 qt. Dutch Oven, a few years ago and my husband thought I was out of my mind. I understand his reaction....he's an accountant after all, and $230 for a single piece of cookware could seem a bit much even to someone who doesn't think about dollars and cents for a living. (For the record, I bought it with a gift card!).

I had always heard about Le Creuset enameled cast iron cookware, but had never owned a piece before this one. I tried it out and that was it...I was hooked! I use it for soups, stews, roasting and braising and everything I make in this all-purpose beauty comes out perfect every time. It's safe to say that this Dutch Oven is my new favorite cooking tool and one that I use several times a week.

Since that first purchase, I have gotten several more pieces of Le Creuset, and I continue to be impressed with their quality and performance. I plan to keep adding to my collection, and in fact, I'm hoping that this year for Christmas, I'll find a set of Le Creuset stainless cookware under the tree! (Hint, hint…could someone please send Santa a link to this post for me?).

I truly believe that when it comes to cookware, you get what you pay for, so don't let the cost deter you from trying Le Creuset for yourself....save up, get your first piece, and add more as you can down the road.....you'll be glad you did!

According to Share Our Strength's website, "49.1 million Americans - including nearly 17 million children - lack the means to regularly put enough nutritious food on the table . They are food insecure and struggle with hunger." How can this be? In a country with the resources that we have here in the U.S., the fact that 17 million children are going without enough to eat makes me angry and sick at heart. But you know what? I realize that getting angry and feeling sick won't help unless I use those feelings as motivation to take action and make a change.

I'm a huge fan of any kind of casserole, after all, what's not to like? They're easy to put together, I usually have the ingredients on-hand in my pantry or fridge, and most of them use only one pot or pan (ok...two if you have to cook pasta or rice). So, unless you or someone in your family is one of those people who hate their food mixed together, or (yikes!) someone who hates the foods on their plate to touch each other, casseroles are just plain easy, delicious, and a busy cooks' best friend! (No offense intended to the mixed-food-hating, no-food-on-the-plate touching people, you can't help how you feel...I just don't get it)

One of the things I love most about casseroles is that I can make them with whatever I have on-hand in the fridge and pantry, mixing and matching ingredients to build a casserole around my basic "formula" that I adapted from a recipe I found in my mother's recipe box. I do this so often, that over the years I've come up with a chart of sorts that helps me mix-n-match my ingredients based on what my family likes best.

The following chart gives you an idea of how you can mix-n-match pretty much whatever you have on-hand to create your own fabulous casserole. The rules are simple: make your base, choose 1 item each from the sauce, meat, veggie, and starch choices, combine with base, add anything you want from the optional add-ins, top with your choice from the toppings selctions, and bake! That's it...one pot, no hassles, and you don't even have to cook the rice or pasta first. How easy is that? You can mix-n-match your own fabulous and delicious casserole tonight! Click on this Mix-n-Match Chart to get started.

Note: You can "plan" these casseroles ahead by cooking extra meat and freezing or refrigerating it for later use. I often do that with ground beef or chicken, by cooking extra portions than freezing it in one lb. or one cup portions so I can grab-n-go!

Yikes! Has it really been two months since my last post? I've been so busy getting the new business going, working on the cookbook etc. that I guess I didn't realize! Thanks for being so patient with me everyone...I'll have a new post in the next day or so....have a cooking competition at the NC State Fair tomorrow (wish me luck!) and the parental units are coming for the weekend, but I'll figure out a way to make it happen.