Tag Archives: Cracker Barrel

Let’s Eat-Pot Roast

1 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Photo credit Google search and Sugar Spun Run

Anyone have a good pot roast recipe?  I can’t seem to make a good one for anything.  

My Mother used to make such a good pot roast…nearly every Sunday she would make one in her pressure cooker.  It was melt-in-your-mouth tender and tasty.  My Dad used to tease her that it was “no good…it just falls off the bone!”  But I never learned her technique for making a good pot roast.  I have a pressure cooker – I’ve tried several different cuts of meat – all to no avail! 

 My roasts are either dry or tough.  The only time I’ve made a decent pot roast was when I purchased one of those Rōmertopf clay pots that must be soaked in water for a while before using – lid included.  But I found it so much work that I didn’t think it was worth the effort.

Photo credit Google search and Rōmertopf

One of my Aunts made a great pot roast.  She always cooked it in her electric skillet, and she always used a chuck roast cut of meat.  She would coat it in flour then sear the meat in the skillet before covering it and cooking in slowly.  Yummmm!  Even trying it in my electric skillet, it still didn’t work for me.

Photo Credit Google Search and Presto

So I gave up on trying to cook my own pot roast.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like to eat a good pot roast!  When Fred and I would go to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, we always tried to eat at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  They had the best pot roast!  Slow roasted, they claimed, and it was delicious!  However, we haven’t found it there recently, much to our distress.  So we eat at other places now.

Photo Credit Disney Food Blog

Surprisingly enough, we have found a good pot roast at our local Culver’s.  Now Culver’s is essentially a hamburger joint – and their hamburgers are REALLY good – but they serve other meat dishes as well.  They have a good Reuben sandwich, but they also have a pot roast – either a dinner plate, or as a sandwich.  I would not have thought an eatery like that would have a good pot roast, but they do.  Fred and I frequently get the dinner and share it – it’s a lot of food!  And it comes with two side dishes, as well.

Credit Culver’s website

And recently we ate at our local Cracker Barrel, and found that they have created a new dish – Shepherd’s Pie with their signature Hash Brown Casserole on top.  It comes in a skillet, and is quite tasty.  While most Shepherd’s Pies that I have eaten are made with hamburger meat, this one is made with their pot roast!  Big chunks of the roast, along with onions, carrots, green peas, mashed potatoes as a bottom “crust” with the hash brown casserole on top, and melted cheese topper.  A dollop of sour cream tops it all.  Really good!  Rather than sharing it with Fred (which we will do next time), I ate half of it and brought the remainder home for my supper meal!  A footnote here – our daughter reminded me that a “true” Shepherd’s Pie is made with mutton.  After all – shepherds shepherd sheep, right?  I think I’ll stick with the pot roast!

Photo Credit Cracker Barrel website

I don’t know too many people who make their own pot roast these days.  I just wish I could make a good one.  Oh well, I’ll just have to enjoy the ones I’ve mentioned above.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Happy Thanksgiving

19 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I have many and varied memories of Thanksgivings throughout my lifetime – all of them happy times with family.  I don’t remember making my own turkey or dressing until Fred and I had been married for five or six years, and had moved to Wiesbaden, West Germany with the U.S. Air Force.  Then I was sort-of forced to try my hand at cooking a turkey, whether I wanted to or not!  I did find that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be.  

I have to say here, that neither I nor my brother, Bill, can remember what kind of dressing (or stuffing) our mother made!  I suspect it was cornbread dressing, since Daddy grew up in Louisiana and that’s more likely what was made there.  I never tried to make cornbread dressing, as it isn’t Fred’s favorite.  However, his mother, who grew up in New England, taught me how to make bread dressing, New England style.  So that’s what I’ve made ever since.  It’s what our girls grew up eating, and they – and we – love it!  

All that to say that I do remember some things about Thanksgivings along the way.  I remember the cranberry/orange/pecan relish in gelatin that my mother made in small forms that were placed on leaves of lettuce.

1955 – Albuquerque – Granny, Daddy, Mother, Bill

Dessert time at the Lites Thanksgiving table

Mother’s cranberry relish dish on lettuce leaves on the table (red)

1956 – Albuquerque – Thanksgiving meal

DiVoran, Bill, Judy, David Bowers (DiVoran’s brother) Daddy, Granny, Dora Bowers (DiVoran and David’s mother) my Mother

I remember the sweet potato dish she made.  And of course there were always mashed white potatoes and lots of turkey gravy.  Pumpkin pies with whipped cream was the dessert.  I don’t remember any other kinds of desserts.

Since our girls are grown and gone to their own families for Thanksgivings now, Fred and I have fallen in the habit of going to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving meal – usually lunch.  We can get a wonderful meal of turkey and ham, sweet potato casserole, another vegetable of our choice, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Along with pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.  All for one low price – and I don’t have to cook it or clean it up, either!! 

Photo Credit Google Search and Cracker Barrel website

However, this year will be different.  We have some very good friends in town that we have dinner with once each week – standing date.  Across the street from where they live is another couple that we are all very good friends with, as well.  We have a meal with them once each month.  Usually for Easter or close to Thanksgiving, they will have a meal for a bunch of people, and we  are invited.  Easter brings certain types of foods.  Thanksgiving brings the turkey and ham, etc., and I ALWAYS bring my bread dressing.  This year, they are holding the meal actually on Thanksgiving Day.  So we get to celebrate that wonderful time of family and friendship on the Day itself.  We are blest.  And my bread dressing will be on the table, with probably none left at the end of the meal.

Since we live in a community called Hunter’s Creek here in Orlando, we receive a monthly magazine called “Life at Hunter’s Creek.”  Last year, this was the cover of that magazine.  Since I like to bake and make cookies, this really caught my eye.  I would like to show it here to wish one and all a very

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

JUDY’S TURKEY STUFFING

For an 8 pound turkey:

   (Allow one cup stuffing for each pound poultry)

½ – ¾ cup chopped onion

½ – ¾ cup chopped celery

1 cup butter (or ½ cup butter and ½ cup olive oil)

2 quarts dry bread slices, torn into pieces

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground pepper

1 Tbsp poultry seasoning

1 cup hot water.

Sauté onion and celery in butter.  Mix in salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.  Pour over dry bread pieces.

Add hot water and mix with your hands to get all the bread wet.  Be sure to get to the bottom of the pan.  If necessary, add more hot water and mix.  Don’t saturate the bread, or it will get too soggy.

Place stuffing in a covered dish in the oven, about 30 minutes.

I prefer the Durkee Poultry Seasoning combination, but use whatever seasoning you like.  

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Meals with the Family-Part 2

15 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

  As the children got older, schedules were more difficult to manage for family dinners, so it has essentially dwindled down to just once-a-month with Bill, DiVoran, Fred and me.  We take turns where to meet:  one month Fred and I go to Titusville, and the next month Bill and DiVoran come to Orlando.  We usually meet about 10:00 a.m. at the house for some time to just visit and chat – catch up on our lives.  About 11:30 we head to a restaurant for a lunch meal together.

Bill and DiVoran’s house

Our house

In Titusville, that usually means Dixie Crossroads.  YAY!  Love that place and the Rock Shrimp they serve! 

Credit photo Google Search and Dixie Crossroads website; Steve Hunsader

There used to be a restaurant in Titusville called Portofino’s that we enjoyed, but they aren’t in business any more.  Another was Pumpernickle’s, which served authentic German food.  Fred and I really loved that restaurant, since we lived in Germany for six years.  But, unfortunately, they aren’t in business any more, either.  Shucks!  There is still a good Mexican/Cuban restaurant where we go occasionally called El Leoncito which is excellent.

Photo credit Google Search, El Leoncito website; Herve Andrieu

When Bill and DiVoran come to Orlando, we have quite a wide variety of restaurants to pick from.  Recently we went to Cracker Barrel, since they have such a wide variety on their menu.

Photo credit Google Search and Cracker Barrel Website

We described the salmon at Longhorn Steakhouse, and DiVoran decided the next time they come here she would like to try that! 

Another time they came over to Orlando, we all met at Columbia House in Celebration.  It is a “traditional Spanish” restaurant, and the food is excellent. 

Photo credit Google Search and Columbia House website

For those who don’t know, Celebration is a housing development built by Disney, located not too far from Disney World. 

This is the symbol of Celebration

Photo credit Google Search and Celebration website

It is essentially a self-contained community which includes shopping, schools (reported to be state-of-the-art), and a hospital (also reported to be state-of-the-art).  I’ve been a patient in that hospital, and it is quite good.

We’ve eaten at Azteca Mexican Restaurant, Cheddar’s Home Kitchen.  We’ve taken them to 4 Rivers BBQ, and The Catfish Place in St. Cloud.  We’ve eaten at IHOP as well as Red Lobser and Olive Garden.  So we really have our choice of eateries here.  That keeps it interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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