March, 2021 ~ What's workin' in the kitchen?

Looks good Beth.

We had the Corned Beef on Monday; so tonight will be Tina's chicken soup.
We need a cleanout after that Corned beef dinner. LOL
Oh....It's not over.! .... T's got a small pot with a top round roast simmering on low.

Pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce, German cabbage/potato salad, and steamed carrots and sprouts for dinner for me and my couple in the building here for tonight. No picture yet! LOL

I cut the fat off the top of the corned beef and sliced it for sandwiches. Too crumbly to use the meat slicer.

Stimulus check arrived today but it hasn't cleared yet. Going to pay property taxes with it.

And leftovers from the leftovers could be made into Corned Beef Hash for breakfast with some over-easy eggs!

Neighbor Jim joined us for St. Patrick's Day supper ~ no complaints heard from either him or Dane.....

Everyone loved the colcannon mashed potatoes with the cabbage/onion added.

From Lore:

"Pork tenderloin, carrots and sprouts, and a German combination salad of potatoes, onion and cabbage. That’s the closest this German will get to making an Irish st. Patrick’s day meal!"

My DD#1's family doesn't care for cooked cabbage so she roasted Brussels sprouts & carrots to have with her corned beef. The colors are so vibrant!

It was just the two of us for dinner tonight. Homemade corned beef of course and all the usual stuff that goes with it.

Your meal looks fantastic, Norm. Did you do carrots, rutabagas & parsnips to go with the meal? It really does look like an Irish feast!

Thanks Beth.  Yes, carrots, rutabagas, and parsnips.  I did the accordion cut baked potatoes instead of boiled.  We really like them that way.  We had Irish scones instead of soda bread.  There isn't a lot of difference except scones are sweeter. We also had an Irish recipe for mustard and Irish recipe for butter but truth be told, I didn't have any Irish whisky so I used Scotch.

Hate parsnips. Not sure if I Have ever had rutabegas, Looks like a mighty fine spread Norm.

Joe has corned and Swiss on rye and it kept him up all night. Thank goodness he has an appointment with the gastro today.

My surgery is scheduled the 25th. Hope things go well. If I die on the table that's ok with me. Better that than rotting away in some bed in pain.

That's a week away, Bugs.....you'll be in my prayers. Try to keep a positive attitude ~ it helps.

Bugster2 wrote:Hate parsnips. Not sure if I Have ever had rutabegas, Looks like a mighty fine spread Norm.

Joe has corned and Swiss on rye and it kept him up all night. Thank goodness he has an appointment with the gastro today.

My surgery is scheduled the 25th. Hope things go well. If I die on the table that's ok with me. Better that than rotting away in some bed in pain.

Think Positive Debbie. They gotta keep us going; how else are they gonna make money? LOL

rutabagas are a kind of turnip but I think they taste better.

I had some pork shoulder steak thawed out.....pounded it a bit to even / tenderize & seasoned with whatever I happened to put my hands on in the pantry. I dusted them in a little flour and browned in the cast iron skillet. When crusty & browned I dropped in a cut up onion and added some chicken stock and put on a lid.....braised low & slow until tender and the onions were mush.

I also made some skillet roasted potatoes in a non-stick skillet. Washed yukon gold potatoes, cut about 3/4" thick. Browned on both sides in olive oil ~ again a lid and turned down the heat. When they were just about tender I raised the heat to keep them a bit crispy on each side.

Steamed the asparagus in the microwave with about 1 Tbsp. of water.

It was 'meat department sale day' at Winn Dixie today. I picked up a pork tenderloin, 2 for 1 chicken thighs (now I have 10 huge chicken thighs in the freezer), a nice London broil that I have cut in half and marinated in the freezer and a thin ribeye that caught my eye. When I saw the ribeye, even though it was thin, it was what I wanted for supper.

Earlier I had made a pot of braised kale with cannolini beans & rotel tomatoes. I thought it would make a nice side dish. Turns out Dane would have made a meal of just that. But I cooked another picking of green beans from the patio pots and reheated the leftover colcannon mashed potatoes.

I love to read of you picking veggies from patio pots at this time of year. We have such a short growing season here and I am actually amazed what our farmers are able to produce. I love to shop by our roadside farmers places. First will be asparagus and radishes!

I was in Florida in 2013, last vacation with my hubby, and he was not well any more. It was January, and there was/were still fresh veggies available. Unfortunately, we were hotel bound, so no opportunity to check out the local yummies' Maybe another time.

We had our Rueben sandwiches today.

I'm thinking that sandwich will be in Dane's near future, too.

My SIL flew to Colorado to visit her daughter and family. She had a wonderful time for 5 hours until her SIL came home, called the house from the driveway saying he had lost his sense of smell and felt funny. My SIL couldn't get out of Dodge fast enough. SIL, daughter, baby all tested positive for Covid. She had her 2 doses of vaccine. It probably is the reason she didn't catch it.

Imelda, you cooked a FEAST! I know it's wonderful to go out for a meal on occasion but I can see your friend's point ~ ~ no restaurant can compare to the meal you made and the comfort of the backyard to sit and enjoy the meal and great conversation with your friends.

Great job!

Cookin Lore wrote:I love to read of you picking veggies from patio pots at this time of year.  We have such a short growing season here and I am actually amazed what our farmers are able to produce. I love to shop by our roadside farmers places.  First will be asparagus and radishes!

I was in Florida in 2013, last vacation with my hubby, and he was not well any more.  It was January, and there was/were still fresh veggies available.  Unfortunately, we were hotel bound, so no opportunity to check out the local yummies'  Maybe another time.

After growing up in Ohio with a large garden when I was a child and then another garden when we married, growing food was always something we just naturally accepted. I still miss the fabulous fertile soil we had there.

Gardening is definitely different here in Florida. The growing seasons are strange ~ not so much 'spring' planting but 'fall ~ winter' planting instead. The soil is awful for growing. That's why we use patio pots....more of a chance to keep some nutrients in the soil to support the crops.

And now it's more of a 'hobby' and just for a few fun meals. Dane loves to grow his radishes ~ but it got too warm too fast this year and he ended up with really spicy ~ and WOODY (ick!) ~ radishes. So, they got pulled out and composted. The Swiss chard that we planted with seed in Ohio gets purchased as small starter plants here. It wasn't doing really well for a while and then the weather cooled off after a hot spell in January and is growing nicely again.

But our favorite, to be sure, are the Blue Lake Green Beans. We usually get enough of them from what grows in 3 large patio pots for 5 or 6 meals, sometimes more.

I just wish I could figure out how to grow a decent tomato here. We've tried for many years and if they grow and produce fruit it gets too hot and it rots or, if it does grow to be picked, the tomatoes just don't have the flavor we like. I wish I could bring fresh truck loads of Ohio soil down to grow in!