Over a month has passed since we finished our school and almost two months since we made our last state meal.  Guess I should finally post my favorites from our project.  Looking back through all of my #CookingaroundtheUnitedStatesfrommyNebraskaKitchen recipes brought back many enjoyable kitchen memories.  As I read through the posts, I realized just how many states had food we actually did enjoy.  I need to remake many of them again soon.  Narrowing them down to my top five favorite recipes was a bit challenging.  By picking those that we liked that were most unlike our familiar favorites, the task was a bit easier.  Incidentally, each meal contains a different type of meat – didn’t that work out well!  Counting down …

5. California’s Lime Fish Tacos This was one of the easiest recipes that I made, yet this was one of the tastiest.  The lime definitely makes the tacos.  This is on my summer menu!

4. This one is style a surprise to me.  The ingredients in Georgia’s Country Captain Chicken did not seem like they were going to combine well.  After trying this dish, I can see why this recipe has lasted for centuries.  Still going to have it sometime in cooler weather by preparing the whole thing in the crockpot.

3. Hominy is such unfamiliar ingredient to me that I tend to avoid using it.  Yet that is exactly what made
New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment Posole so delicious.  What a great way to enjoy pork!

2. Rhode Island’s Clams Casino happened to be my birthday dinner.  Getting to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day was a present.  I guess when you read the list of ingredients, you can see why this tastes so delicious.  Now to only convince a few more of my children on this one …

1. Evidently Michigan is best state in America according to a combination of factors.  Why not give them my favorite state meal honors too?  When we studied the United States five years ago, my kids were much younger.  I was supposed to try this recipe then, but I basically wimped out.  All of the rolling and prepping – yikes.  This time when I made Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Pasties, I took two days.  That made the process much simpler.  Plus I used bought store crust.

The other factor that made this United States meal enjoyable?  I was able to have my Michigan friend and her family over for dinner.  That was fun.  Crazy loud (with 8 kids), but fun.  And delicious.  Actually we had leftovers, and when I pulled them out of the freezer several weeks later, they were just as yummy.  I hope to make a big batch of these again soon.  Well, maybe I will wait a few weeks until we no longer have baseball games every night.  And after the temperature is no longer hitting 90 degrees.  Someday I will make these again.  Really.

Now that officially concludes my U.S. recipes projects.  At least on the blog.  My goal is to soon have my Pinterest “Cooking around the United States” board updated to reflect the completion of this project.  When I do, I will put something up on my Facebook page.

Your turn …

Did any of you happen to cook any of the meals with me?  What was your favorite?  Are there any of these recipes that you would like to try out on your family?

 

 

Author: neodyssey

My name is Gretchen Garrison. I started this blog about Nebraska in 2013. So far, I have written three books about Nebraska and Lincoln.