House of Moon Chinese Dinner

Most of the food I've been cooking lately is old favorites. I made my chocolate cake for a dinner party last one day last weekend and my green chili quiche for the other so that's why I've not posted much. Here at PBE we are very lucky to be able to rely on each other in times like this.

My task for Thursday, though it's more of a joy, was to cook dinner for our darling friend Sandi and her husband Mike. She's mid-way through her chemo treatment and her friends have insisted we help and she's finally acquiesced. My contribution for dinner was:

Chicken Stir-fry with Bok Choy and Steamed Rice
Baby Broccoli with Lemon Garlic Sauce
Pineapple Buttermilk Meringue Pie (posted by Nicole @ Baking Bites)
I added a very light chicken soup with fresh homemade egg noodles just in case she wanted something less spicy.
I called to make sure they were ready for dinner and my beloved and I made a quick delivery. Sandi called later to thank us and I told her it was done for the "love of it." I wish I could do more, she is a dear sweet lady who is going through a very rough time but she believes in prayer and I think there is someone out there praying for her.
Gotta say something about this pie. It is so easy and so damn good you can't imagine. I always seem to have buttermilk left over from some other recipe and don't know what to do with it. Now I know I'll whip up this beauty. Visit Baking Bites for the recipe and especially the recipe for cooked meringue. Fantastic!

Can food heal?

Chris at Mele Cotte is hoping it can. This is her second annual event, Fighting Cancer 2 and how could I help but participate. With so many being touched by this stinking disease maybe what we put in our bodies can help. If you make it healthy and tasty it can't hurt.

After seeing this interesting article about broccoli having an ingredient that may fight bladder cancer I set out finding a new recipe. Broccoli has been a fav at our house for ever but most of the recipes were heavy with fat and that's a definite no for someone with cancer. I needed to find something different. I tried a few different recipes but kept coming back to just good old steamed broccoli. Stumped I tried some sauces. Cheese, too much fat. I needed something lighter. While picking some lemons off my tree it hit me. Broccoli goes great with lemon. Here is a nice light sauce for steamed broccoli.

Soy Lemon Sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons soy sauce. ( I used a reduced salt variety)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons salad oil
toasted sesame seeds

Place all the ingredients together in a small jar with a cover, shake well to blend, and let stand one hour. Shake sauce again and pour over two servings of steamed broccoli. Toss to coat and serve. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds.

My photo was crummy but the broccoli was yummy. None left. Serve up someone you love some healthy cancer fighting foods and visit Chris' blog to get some good ideas.

thanksgiving - part 2

thanksgiving dinner
Originally uploaded by lornababy

check out that steam!

as we all know, the majority of the pbetouffee family had thanksgiving a few weeks back - without me. not one to go without my turkey and fixin's on turkey day, i had mother moon and my pa over for a little meal on thursday afternoon. we also had my bunky's dad over and took in a family-less quebecois for the day, as well. of course, there was the standard turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and, our family standby, broccoli casserole. new additions this year were braised brussels sprouts with pancetta and bertha's corn pudding from miss sylvie's soul fusion kitchen. the corn pudding was great, i think we're going to put that one in regular holiday rotation. mooncrazy brought the pumpkin pie and a good time was had by all. hope everyone's thanksgiving was just as great!

here's the family broccoli casserole recipe. it is so not low fat, but who cares!

10 oz package frozen chopped broccoli
10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup bread crumbs
butter for top

defrost broccoli, drain well. stir together soup and cheese,
gradually add milk, mayo and egg. stir until well blended. pour over
broccoli in casserole. sprinkle with bread crumbs and dot with butter.

bake 350 until heated and bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Addendum from Moon,
In an earlier post, Doodles talked about our early Thanksgiving dinner. Although we missed lil bird and her husband not being with us, we did have a fine dinner, complete with all the trimmings. There is a dish the West Coast portion of the family would not think of leaving out of our holiday feast, Broccoli Casserole. Doodles prepared it when we were visiting them in Connecticut in the early 80s. My family loved it. Lil bird was much lil-er at the time and broccoli was her favorite so this recipe was taken home to California. Our father, who was a great cook, ate it at our house and it then appeared at each Thanksgiving dinner there after.

Jump to our recent Thanksgiving in the desert. All three of us, Mary, Doodles and myself prepared our meal and when it came to the casserole we were quite shocked when Doodles didn't recognize her recipe. What?! Although we'd spent many a Christmas holiday together, we'd not done Thanksgiving so our small tradition was unknown to the East Coast contingency of the family. We had a good laugh. I can't tell the amount of times I'd served this recipe and gave my sister credit.

This Thanksgiving, at lil bird wonderful dinner, we ate broccoli casserole as she explained the tradition to new guests at their table. The tradition continues.