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Finding a great restaurant that will please a large family can be difficult. You have problems with what the menu offers, the price issue and whether or not it is kid friendly.
This past week as we spent a week on vacation for spring break with our five children, my sister, her husband and their two children, it proved to be a challenge. How do you keep this many people happy and full at the same restaurant?
You will not find a person pickier about his or her food than my sister. Any place we would eat, she always ordered a hamburger, plain of course, or a piece of dried-up chicken. Now this is not hard to find on the menu of any restaurant, so we were safe at just about any place with her likes and dislikes.
The first problem the rest of us dealt with every where we went was the cardiac arrest the host of the restaurant had when we said we had seven children and that we would like to dine in. After the initial shock and the response of " I will be back with you in a few moments," we were always seated in the farthest corner and away from as many people as possible, not by our choice but by the manager of the restaurant.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the back, when she announced "seven children." I am sure the servers were drawing straws as to who would take care of us. But as a side note, we did not leave a restaurant without being told that we had such well-behaved children.
The second issue was how much is a kid's meal, and does the menu have food for adults that is actually edible and doesn't taste like cardboard? By the time we'd been gone two days we didn't care about the looks we received or which corner we were sitting in. We just wanted to eat, and eat for less than a hundred dollars.
It didn't take us long. We got smart and realized that fortunately there is a buffet in just about every city of every state and there really is a smorgasbord of savings in each one of those buffet lines.
While it used to be that the quality of food in a buffet wasn't as high, over the course of time it has changed. The food lines are kept clean. The food is hot and changed out frequently. The selection is wonderful, and the children can eat all the Mac and Cheese they want. On every corner of the buffet line there is a bottle of hand sanitizer, which for me is worth all the money I pay to eat at a buffet. I have some peace of mind knowing that I have hand wipes at my table, and hand sanitizer that I can use to wash off all of the germs left at the buffet line from others' bodies and its functions.
Buffets proved not to be all the bad, if you keep one eye closed and just eat your food. They are easy, child friendly and inexpensive, and when there is always one person up getting food, it made our party appear much smaller, which helped keep our server wanting to help us. And yes, my sister even found a piece of dried up chicken if she was patient.
Everyone was happy, and buffets made for a pleasant spring break.
I could not wait to get home to my cookin' place and eat a meal that was not prepared in mass quantities, but instead was made just for myself and the ones I love. So, this week I would like to share with you a recipe from my mom's cookin' place and I know that with its simplicity and great taste you will be serving it in your cookin' place as well.
Until next week's batter chatter, may you find love in the food you eat. I would love to hear from you with your questions and recipes. I can be reached at
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Lipstick's Casserole
• 2 lbs. hamburger
• 1 small onion diced small (or minced onion to taste.)
• 1 4 ounce can green diced chilies
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 12 flour tortilla shells
• 2 cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
In a large skillet brown hamburger and onion.
In a medium sauce pan combine soups, milk, and chilies over medium low heat until warm.
Cut tortillas into 1/4's.
Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and cover bottom with half of tortillas layer with half meat mixture and half of soup mixture.
Repeat layers with remaining tortillas, and meat mixture and soup mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake on 350 degrees for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.
* You can use wheat tortillas if you would like. |
