Friday's Blue Plate Specials

Breakfast: Buttermilk Waffles
Bacon or sausage

Buttermilk Waffles: Beat 2 eggs. Add 2 cups buttermilk, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, ¼ cup oil. Bake in preheated waffle iron until steaming stops. (3-5 minutes) To add blueberries, sprinkle fresh blueberries over batter after it’s poured into waffle iron. Serve warm with syrup or whipped cream and sliced strawberries.

Dinner: Tossed lettuce salad with choice of dressing
Kentucky Hot Brown
Peaches and Cream

Kentucky Hot Brown: Heat ½ stick butter and ¼ cup flour until bubbly. Whisk in ¾ cup heavy cream and ¼ cup milk. When sauce has thickened, stir in 1 cup grated Swiss cheese. Simmer 15 minutes over very low heat. For each serving: Place 1 thick slice toasted French bread in oven safe dish. Top with 2-3 slices deli roast turkey and thinly sliced tomatoes. Pour sauce over open-faced sandwich. Bake 10 minutes at 400. Garnish with bacon crumbles.
Peaches: For easy peeling, dip peach briefly in boiling water; rub off skin. Cut in half around pit and twist to separate halves and remove pit. Slice into bowl, sprinkle with sugar if desired and pour heavy cream over peaches.

Lunch: Banana Bread
Banana Bread: Sift, then measure 2 cups flour. Add 1 tsp baking powder and sift again. Set aside. Mash very ripe bananas to measure 1 cup. In a separate bowl, cream together ½ cup softened butter and 1 cup sugar. Beat in two eggs. In a small cup, dissolve ½ tsp soda in 3 tblsp milk and add to mashed bananas. Add the banana mixture to the butter/egg/sugar. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients. Fold in ½ cup nut meats, if desired. Bake in greased loaf pan 50 minutes at 350.

Supper: La Sagne
Chilled Watermelon Wedges - if you have any leftover from Church night.
French bread

(This sauce is pretty much the same as the one we use for spaghetti.) In bowl of crock pot, mix together one 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, one 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes, one 8 ounce can tomato paste, 1 tsp each basil and oregano, 2 cloves roasted garlic (see below), mashed and ½ cup sauteed onion. Add ½ pound browned ground beef and ½ pound browned Italian sausage. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Cook 6 lasagne noodles to al dente (yes, rednecks know what “al dente” means). In a 9 x 13 pan, spread half the meat sauce, top with 3 noodles. Stir 1 egg and ½ cup Parmesan cheese into 8 oz Ricotta cheese. Spread half this mixture over the noodles. Spread more meat sauce over the cheeses, reserving a bit for the very top. Put on 3 more noodles and the rest of the cheese. Top with remaining sauce. Bake, covered at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove cover and top with ¾ cup or so of shredded Mozarella cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.
Roasted garlic: Leave garlic in bunch; remove papery outer leaves. Trim off top until tip of each clove is exposed. Place on a square of foil and drizzle with oil. Roast in 325˚ oven 45 minutes to one hour. When cool enough to handle, separate the cloves and squeeze form bottom end. Cloves will pop out and are ready to eat or use in recipes. Don't forget how to do this. I use this ingredient in a lot of my recipes.

French Bread:
Mix 2 tblsp butter flavored shortening with 1 tsp salt and and 2 tblsp sugar in large bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water over; stir until shortening is melted. Add 1 cup cold water. Stir in 2 tbslp (1 package) yeast. Add 2 ½ cups sifted flour and mix until no longer lumpy. Stir in enough remaining flour, 3-5 sifted cups to make a smooth dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Let rise until double – 1 ½ hours or so. Punch down and shape into two long loaves. Make a few diagonal slashes in each loaf. Let rise 1 hour. Bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until loaves sound hollow when thumped. Extra loaf can be frozen for future use.