North Dakota - Peace Garden State

The closest I have ever been to North Dakota is watching the movie Fargo (I love the Coen Brother movies) so I wasn't sure what to expect. It turns out a North Dakota meal consisted of a lot of potatoes.

The main dish for our North Dakota meal was Knoephla (pronounced Nipfla) which is a german soup. Knoephla is a chicken/milk base soup with potatoes and dumplings. It was tasty and definitely would be great on a cold rainy night. We also had Lefse, which are crepes made from potatoes. The crepes were good, Will loved them but they were a pain in neck to make. The Lefse served as our bread and dessert for the meal. I accompanied the meal with corn on the cob and German Red Cabbage, which I enjoyed but was not very popular with the younger crowd (Conner and Will).

I threw the meal together quickly since we were trying to get one more meal in before Sydney left for California for the summer. Louise joined us for dinner. It was a quiet state meal. We are moving on to Ohio next, not sure when that will happen, but it's going to happen. Cincinnati Chili, Buckeye Candy and Tomato Juice.

North Carolina - First in Flight

My daughter Sydney came home from college so we have resumed our family state dinners until she leaves for her summer job in California.  Sydney came home from college with 3 girlfriends, one who was from North Carolina.  Thankfully, Jenna helped me plan the menu for our NC dinner.  I really do love the southern states, it is all good comfort food and everyone seems to eat everything.






I decided to go with Brunswick Stew instead of BBQ.  I really like the Brunswick Stew but it was different from what I have had in the past.  It reminded me more of jambalaya. The google definition of Brunswick Stew is "A stew originally made with squirrel or rabbit, but now consisting of chicken and vegetables including onion and tomatoes."  

A southern meal is never complete without Collard Greens.  I love Collard Greens and this recipe was a good one.  Jenna suggested Shrimp and Grits for our North Carolina meal.  I had never paired the two together but apparently it is a popular dish in NC and I can see why.  The Shrimp and Grits were delicious.  Those who didn't like the shrimp just ate the grits.  To round out the meal there was a Sweet Potato Casserole and Corn Bread, both were just OK.  We also had Mt Olive Pickles from Mt Olive, NC.

For dessert we had Moravian Sugar Cake, which is a traditional Christmas yeast bread/ cake.  I had never heard of the Moravian church (protestant) but they make a great dessert.  The cake was yummy and was even better for breakfast the next morning.  To drink we had Pepsi.  The birthplace of Pepsi is New Bern, NC, this surprised me because I thought Pepsi was a north east soda

North Carolina was a lot of fun. The food was wonderful but sharing it with 4 Auburn sorority girls made the fantstic, y'all!

New York - The Empire State

What's not to love about New York?  New York has everything; beaches, mountains and a city like none other.

We ate from the state back in January and I am just now getting to write about it, sometimes life gets in the way.  I love New York... That said, I had a bad cooking day.  I have decided I need a do over with NY since the food is so fantastic there.  The company was wonderful. Lauren, Louise, Leslie, Sam and Joe all came to celebrate along with the 5 of us.

For beverages we had Egg Creams (for the under 21) and Manhattans for the adults. The Egg Creams were disgusting, it consists of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup.  All three ingredients are wonderful by themselves but not together.  None of the kids drank their egg creams.  The Manhattans were delicious and the adults enjoyed their beverage.

The New York Style Pizza was perfect.  The recipe for the dough and the sauce were fantastic.  I will definitely do this recipe again.  The Waldorf Salad was OK, if I did this one again I would only use half the mayonnaise.

I was really excited to make the NY Style Cheese Cake.  It looked great until I cut into it and it wasn't cooked in the middle.  It was really good on the edges.

I haven't been to NYC in over 20 years but one of my best friends is moving there this week so I will definitely be visiting soon.  I will redo NY after my visit to the Big Apple.

New Mexico - The Land of Enchantment

New Mexican food is a mix between Mexican and Pueblo Native American cuisine.  There was a lot to choose from for the menu, I decided to go with a traditional Christmas New Mexican Main dish called Posole Rojo.  The main ingredients in Posole Rojo are pork, hominy and New Mexico chili peppers.  As I was making the Posole I thought it was going to be a failure, in the end it turned out OK.  I have never used hominy before and to be honest canned hominy is really disgusting, but it worked in the stew. 

The salad (Ensalada de Fiesta) was good and the tostatdos (tortilla chips) were really good and the company was great.   My friend Polly came for dinner, she has been to every state in the US (except Alaska) and brought the best part of the meal, a dipping sauce (it's not from New Mexico but it is so delicious).  Sydney's friend Jacqueline and Lauren come for dinner too.

               

Polly and I had Margaritas (with vodka substituted for tequila) and the kids had Jarritos (Mexican soda). For dessert we had Bischochitos, which are like sugar cookies with cinnamon sprinkled on top. The recipe called for anise but we hate licorice so I substituted vanilla. The biscochitos were OK. I would definitively not make them again.

    

We are moving on to New York, the kids have requested New York Style Pizza...

New Jersey - The Garden State

It has been months since we had a family state dinner, life got in the way.  Now that I am finally settled into the new house and we are all together for a few weeks we will try and eat our way through a few states.

It is fitting that we started back on NJ.  I spent my formative years at exit 4 in The Garden State (5th grade through high school).  Whenever someone would ask me where I was from I would always say I was from the Philadelphia area.  New Jersey is divided into two separate cuisines, South Jersey and North Jersey.  Southern New Jersey  is Philly style food and North Jersey is New York City.

Karen, Soren, Louise and Lauren came for dinner.  Karen, who is one of my best friends in the NW, grew up in NJ and graduated from Trenton State.  For graduation she asked for a one way ticket to Seattle, that was 30+ years ago. 

 

I forgot how much I miss the food.  I grew up eating Taylor Pork Roll, it was a staple in our house.  I was able to find it in Seattle at DeLaurenti.  Taylor Pork Roll is best fried and then served on a hard roll.  Jersey is famous for its tomatoes, asparagus, peaches and corn so we had them all for dinner. The sliced tomatoes, spicy corn and roasted asparagus recipes are ones I use all the time and are fool proof and always good. 

I also made Disco Fries, which are french fries with gravy and mozzarella cheese.  I had never heard of Disco Fries, apparently they are popular in North Jersey.  They are delicious!  We also had Welchs Grape Juice to drink with dinner (made in NJ).

For dessert Sydney made a peach cobbler and topped it with peaches ice cream.  Our second dessert was some Whipped Vodka which we had in honor of the show Jersey Shore.  It was surprisingly tasty, I think it was Soren's favorite.

Karen and Soren wore their Jersey Girl and

Springsteen T Shirts and brought Salt Water Taffy. 

Next week, New Mexico!!!

  

New Hampshire - The Granite State

I have only driven through New Hampshire and it was a long time ago so I can't remember much about the state or the food.  Most of the New England states have similar cuisine.  New Hampshire is famous for pumpkins, it's the states food.  I couldn't even find canned pumpkins this time of year so I focused on the 2nd most famous food in New Hampshire, Maple Syrup. 

I made a Simple New Hampshire Beef Stew for dinner.  I have never made a lot of stews since my kids never liked their food touching when they were little, but it turns out my kids like stew.  The stew was good I will definitely make it again, it was so easy.  The Maple Syrup Bread was delicious, Will scarfed down all of the bread.  The New Hampshire Maple Mustard Salad Dressing was really good.

We ended the meal with Maple Brownies for dessert.  The brownies were really yummy too.  New Hampshire turned out to be a delicious meal.  For drinks we had Apple Cider (the official drink of NH) and Nut Brown Ale from RedHook.  It turns out RedHook has a brewery in Portsmouth NH.  Ted and Louise came for dinner, which is always a treat.

 

Nevada - The Silver State

 

I have only been in Nevada once, although  I have been in the airport several times.  I spent a long weekend in Vegas years ago with Allen, Ted and the kids.  Sydney was 4, Conner was 1 and Will was 3 months old.  The flight to and from Vegas was so memorable that I am sure passengers are still talking about my boys. 

The food in Vegas consisted of lots of all you can eat buffets and booze.  I decided to go with the Basque theme for the menu.  Basque sheepherder's immigrated to northern Nevada during the gold rush.  We went with a Lamb Stew, which was really good.  Conner loves lamb so this was a real hit for him.  I also made a salad with the Nevada Hotel Basque Salad Dressing, which was delicious.  The Basque Shepherd's Bread was OK.  I made individual loafs so it was a bowl for the lamb stew.

For dessert the choice was flan or Chocolate Nuggets.  We hate flan so we went with the Chocolate Nuggets, I am not sure we made the right decision.  The dessert didn't setup and its consistency was a little firmer than pudding (we hate pudding too).  Fortunately Louise brought Girl Scout Cookies and her dad Chuck, so we had dessert and great company.

Next up is New Hampshire...





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