I have to admit—-I wasn’t really feeling “the project” on the way over last night…busy week, my mom, life. BUT – once I arrived. TOTALLY worth it and so glad I made the effort. Thank you for opening up your home every week! KC
The Daily Noodle… aka a day in the life of SW.
Bloody Mary’s aka a day in the life of PD….
Seriously, there is nothing that Mimi liked better than a great Bloody Mary -especially the way Bumpy used to make them. She is quite particular and it always involved Clamato juice- an ingredient PD didn’t include. What is great about the way PD makes Bloody Mary’s is he sets an entire Bloody Mary bar with all the fixings – most notable, yet also absent from this weeks Project Mimi, a strip of bacon crisply fried. Mimi would have been proud.
A day in the life of SW….
Why, you may ask, is there a photo of noodles – and a link? Well, noodle is the dietary mainstay of SW – a member of the PM (Project Mimi) family. Oh, and creme brulee. That is the other mainstay.
PM is about the legacy of food – all of us have favorites – KC has biscuits from his Mom, PD crab cakes, PC butter and sugar from his Mamaw (hehehe)…. and for Steve it is noodles. From time to time each of our histories will be included. This is a bit of SW’s …
Each time Steve joins us we get to share more of his life in Singapore. It was National Day in Singapore – equivalent to our Fourth of July. So he visited with us while his family was sleeping. It was morning there and despite PD’s nudging and insistence that it was the “perfect thing to have in the morning” , Steve resisted having a bloody mary.
Best Evermade
This vintage tin sign hangs in Mimi’s kitchen – likely a testament to all the meals she has made through the years.
I think we all agree that this week’s PM (project mimi) didn’t quite live up to the sign. Busy weeks and busy days leading up to Wednesday night had us a bit off our game (see KC’s quote). That said, if one of the measure’s of Project Mimi is to share a few laughs amongst friends, this one surely hit the mark. I will remember PD and PC ‘s posing for portraits and their broadcast of the evenings activities as though they were news anchors. I will remember how very much KC likes bloody marys…. and I will remember SW introducing us to his tree frogs. All ridiculous and funny – and a welcome respite in a week filled with too much….. stuff.
The Potato Guillotine
PD and I tried the mandolin and both agree it is a bit scary. PC concurred – so when trying to figure out how to slice the potatoes, we discovered this super chopper at Williams and Sonoma. I used it for the onion and for all the potatoes and it is pretty nifty – with the added benefit of releasing some of the days aggressions. New name? The potato guillotine.
Ham and Potatoes Au Gratin….
Frankly, I didn’t quite grasp the recipe and will have to take another crack at it. These looked tasty coming out of the oven, but were a disappointment. The first place this went off the rails was in reverting to an Au Gratin recipe and then adding ham. Second place, was it was just too large a pan and too much to cook in the time we had allotted, so the potatoes were…. al dente. Not quite what you want when you are looking for creamy potato goodness. And thirdly, the ham chunks were just a bit too big. So, I will give this a crack at a later date and re-post with – confidently – better results. To the credit of my dear PM compatriots, they ate it… and PC even took home the leftovers.
Ham and Potatoes Au Gratin – makes 6 serv.
1 Ham steak, cut about 1/2 in thick (1 3/4 lbs)
1 medium onion sliced
1 pkg (5.5 oz) Au Gratin Potatoes
2/3 cup milk
Trim fat from ham. Heat fat in skillet to get about 2 Tablespoons of fat drippings. Remove fat pieces, discard. Saute onion in drippings until soft. Stir in potato slices, sauce mix, 2 1/4 cup boiling water and milk. Cut ham into bite size pieces, add to the potatoes. Bring to boiling stirring often. Lower heat. Cover, simmer 30 minute or till potatoes are tender and ham is real hot.
I do remember Mama making it ( I loved it of course – the pasta Queen) but I don’t remember her having an actual recipe for it. Will indeed try it – it just looked so yum bubbling away in that pot. Shirley aka Mom referencing Mimi’s meat sauce.
project mimi 