Can Never get Enough of that Homestyle Cooking

Photo taken by Ariele Pappalimberis

This past weekend I want to my home town, Ipswich, MA.  I love going home for the simply reason that my mom is an outstanding cook!  She cooks everything you could even imagine, but ten times better.  The night before I came back to school my mom made me own of my favorite dishes which is Greek style chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, squash, celery stuffed with cream cheese, and cranberry sauce.  Can you say delicious?  Not to mention, while she was cooking dinner she was also preparing meatballs and cupcakes so I could take those both back to school with me!  My mom really is a wonderful mom and woman!
 


Now back to this insane dinner.  The Green style chicken is exactly what it sounds like.  A chicken breast covered with a seasoning of Greek and Mediterranean spices and herbs.  Some ingredients that are present in this rub are oregano, pepper, lemon, and a few other secret spices.  The chicken was so moist that when I cut into it all the juices spread out onto my plate and it was a glorious picture.  She always cooks them in the oven, but some how gets this beautiful lighten-brown crisp on the skin.  I don't know how she does it!

The next part of the dish are her wonderful garlic mashed potatoes.  When I first had these say about a thousand years ago I wasn't a huge fan because the garlic was very prevalent, but as my taste buds have progressed the garlic is a picture addition to the dish.  She sometimes uses red bliss potatoes, but this time she used the kind of potatoes that you would use for baked potatoes.  Either potato in my mind works for this meal.  She then lightly seasons the potatoes with spices and herbs and of course adds milk and butter when mashing.  She always gets them to be so light and fluffy once she mashes them and I honestly could just eat those mashed potatoes for days on end.

The squash is a part of the dish can be substituted for other vegetables such as carrots, celery or a whole bunch of mixed vegetables which is what my mom usually does, but this weekend she made squash and it was a good choice.  She lightly season it and mashed it up and there is nothing better then getting one whole bite of the chicken, mashed potatoes, and squash today.  It's like a food party in my mouth!

I know that celery stuffed with cream cheese sounds weird and gross, but it is the complete opposite.  It is actually a great way to add some lightness to the dish.  The cold pieces of celery mixed with the cold cream cheese makes for this to be a refreshing pallet cleanser.  You can use any kind of cream cheese, whether it is regular or chive.  Although this time my mother used regular cream cheese, she tends to switch back and forth from filling the sticks of celery with chive cream cheese and regular cream cheese.  The chive always adds another layer of flavor to the celery and the meal itself.

Now onto the last part of the meal.....  

The last part of this 5 course meal is the cranberry sauce.  Although cranberry sauce isn't anything special it adds some tart and sweetness to the overall meal.  Cranberry sauce can sometimes act as a divider between all the other portions in the sense sometimes the mashed potatoes and chicken itself can be a little filling, and the cranberry sauce helps digest it all.  I also sometimes consider the cranberry sauce to be an early dessert.  The texture of the cranberry sauce is like a dessert and it's whimsical feeling it adds some fun to the overall meal.

You can never get tired of home cooking.  It is actually one of the things that I look forward to when going home, especially if it is around a holiday.  Tune in for other homemade meals, pictures, and even recipes so you can bring home style cooking to your house as well.  Anyone can do it!