It's April 2021;What's Cooking / Eating Etc.

My vegetables are ready to go into the oven ~ olive oil and s&p ~ the potatoes are boiled/tender and shook around to rough up the edges, they are on non-stick foil as well as the olive oil because I don't want them to stick to the pan. The carrots & parsnips are raw, coated well with olive oil and s&p and on a regular foil lined sheet pan in a single layer.

They are in a 475° convection oven until nicely browned and tender.....probably 20-30 minutes. I'll probably turn them about half way through.

Obviously I'm camera crazy today.....sorry if you don't like pictures! LOL


Emptying the juices from the cooking bag Crockpot liner into the de-fatting container IN THE SINK to prevent an accident on the counter top (I speak from experience).





The roast ready to go and the juices settling to get rid of the excess fat.





Potatoes browned & crispy on the edges.





Everything ready for the table.





Pot roast after 8 1/2 hours in the Crockpot ~ shreds with a fork.....




Potatoes WILL be made again ~ boiled until tender, coated in olive oil & seasoned with s&p, roasted at 475° for about 25 minutes until browned & crispy. Inside was SO tender & fluffy, almost creamy tasting.




My dinner plate with Crockpot Italian Beef Pot Roast supper

Your pictures are great. Plan B for me today. I took a drive to Niagara Falls today. So sad to see that there are so few people, so many places closed because of the pandemic. I can't even imagine the people living on much less or no pay at all. My family is fortunate, children in jobs that are still going on. Then son texted "what are you doing, I'm cleaning out my pond (small water feature) and you could sit and watch me" So, I was getting hungry, called a local restaurant and ordered their lobster grilled cheese sandwich for takeout. That, and a garden salad were a late lunch/early supper, no cooking.

Lobster Grilled Cheese Sandwich ~ so decadent! Even though I wouldn't eat it, I can only imagine how fabulous it was for you. It has never stopped bothering me that I just am unable to eat cheese. I'm so happy I made a real effort to teach my children to enjoy so many different kinds so they didn't grow up with the same palate disability as their mom!

The kitchen is straightened up.....Dane puts the dishes in the dishwasher and I take care of the pots & pans and deal with any leftovers that need attention (he'll put extra veg/meat in the refrigerator but if it needs to be messed with, like tonight, I take care of that).

I shredded the leftover pot roast, removing all bits of fat & connective tissue. Then I strained the defatted juices so I could mix the chopped onion & banana peppers with the meat along with the flavorful cooking juices. I'll probably just label the container and stick it into the freezer for Italian Beef Sandwiches at a later date.

I can always tell when it's a meal he really likes ~ I see him taking seconds (and sometimes thirds) on some of the dishes. I ended up finishing the leftover carrots & parsnips ~ oh, SO good! And we both had our fair share (and then some.....) of the potatoes. I cooked 3 small russets figuring I'd have some leftover for a breakfast hash. There were two cubes of potato left so it got tossed. But they were so very good. I'll definitely be making them again sometime.

Beth, your pantry reminds me of my shelf.... I have so many spices. When I moved in here, I had to get rid of so many, because I did not have rom for all of them.. Most of them Penzey's... some McCormack.. but Mostly Penzey's..

Guess I will eventually search the website for more!! Where to keep them, I do not know...

BTW.. any ideas using Meyer Lemons? I picked up a few at TJ's, last week... need to use them up..
Something easy and not involved.. and low salt.. or no salt...

cookingirl wrote:
BTW.. any ideas using Meyer Lemons? I picked up a few at TJ's, last week... need to use them up..
Something easy and not involved.. and low salt.. or no salt...

the first thing to come to mind was Lemon Pudding Cake.  I've made this recipe using little individual custard cups (probably adjusting the baking time).  Butter the custard cups liberally so you can turn them out if you'd like. They're easy and really a 'blast-from-the-past'.  They hold well for a few days in the refrigerator so you don't have to eat them all in one day.....not that I would do anything like that!  LOL

Lemon Pudding Cake
From:  Allrecipes.com ~ adjustments to instructions by BethK

Ingredients
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar, divided  
• 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups milk
Directions
1. Beat 4 egg whites, gradually adding ½ c. sugar, until stiff.  Remove to a separate bowl to reserve.
2. Beat together 4 egg yolks, lemon rind and butter until thick and lemon colored, add in lemon juice.
3. Sift together ½ c. flour, 1 c. sugar and ½ t. salt.  Alternately add the flour mixture & milk with the yolk mixture combining thoroughly between additions.
4. Blend egg whites into batter on low speed of mixer until completely combined.  Pour into an 8” baking dish OR 8 individual serving custard cups.
5. Place dish into a larger roasting pan and add hot water to a depth of 1”.
6. Bake at 350° F. for 45 minutes.
7. Cool completely – can be refrigerated.

When serving, keep in mind the pudding is on the bottom ~ I like to spoon into serving dishes ‘upside down’ with the pudding ending up on top.



I posted the recipe a long time ago in the 'Sweets' section, with a picture.  Keep in mind, as it bakes the pudding ends up on the bottom and the cake is on top.  With the little individual ones in custard cups I was able to run a knife around the edge and turn it out on a plate so the pudding ended up on top.  It's yummy!

another suggestion is Lemon Bars....a Southern staple.  I think Michelle and I both posted recipes for them.


Ohhhh! I just saw a recipe someplace for a lemon shrimp pasta ~ should be something you could google and come up with a bunch of ideas. It sounded really good to me when I saw it.....and could be made for one just by 'winging' the recipe to what you want to eat. I think what caught my eye was the pappardelle pasta because I really love, Love, LOVE good thick pasta, especially REAL Italian made stuff.

bethk wrote:Oh, man, I should have taken the Crockpot outside to cook......the smell of the roast cooking is driving me crazy ~ ~ with hunger!

I'm going to roast a sheet pan of carrots and parsnips and I'm also going to try a roasted potato recipe I saw on Ina.  She had a guest, English actress Emily Blunt, and Emily prepared her mom's roasted potatoes.  Fairly large potato chunks get simmered in salted water until tender, then drained and tossed around in the pot to gently break down the edges of the potato.  Then they get rolled in oil, seasoned and roasted in a hot oven until browned and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.  It reminds me of the Jonathan Waxman French fried baked potatoes (which I cannot make any longer because I can't stop eating them ~ probably the best potatoes I've ever eaten).

My oven roasted potato chunks get nice and brown and crispy without that first step of cooking them in water. It seems that first step is just extra work.

Cookin Lore wrote:

My oven roasted potato chunks get nice and brown and crispy without that first step of cooking them in water. It seems that first step is just extra work.    

Part of the reason I cooked them ahead of the oven time was the amount of time they would need to be in the oven ~ with the a/c running every day I still want to use my oven but not have it on (especially using the convection) for long periods of time.

As with most recipes, everyone gets to adjust to what they prefer and there's many ways to achieve the same basic results.

With not much to do and not much going on, I find myself clicking on some of what I consider to be bizarre stories on the internet.

this afternoon I saw a news report about a woman who was shopping at a Dollar General Store in Tennessee who attempted to purchase multiple gift cards to business' using a fake $1M bill. She claimed she received it in the mail from some church and thought she could use it to help fund her 'help-the-homeless' quest.

The Dollar General employee on duty called the police to report 'suspicious activity' and the local police arrived to take over.

Seems the woman thought it was legal tender and didn't know there is no such thing as a $1M bill in circulation in the United States.

The police didn't arrest the woman but, instead, trespassed her from entering the Dollar General Store again and confiscated the bill......

Another example of 'Truth Stranger Than Fiction'.........


Hahahahahahahaha!

I had picked up a bunch of fresh red beets and decided to cook them up tonight. I thawed out a couple small pork shoulder steaks and decided on buttered/parsley/chive noodles to go along side.

I did a lovely pork shoulder chop/steak in the oven using a combination of flavours. sprinkled garlic, cayenne, and some of the Indian Madras masala that I bought. Then added a honey sriraccha sauce. Potato done like a Hasselbeck, but I also cut crosswise and added butter. Plain steamed broccoli finished it.

This is our favorite recipe to use with our Meyer lemons. I don't use lemon extract or zest and think the recipe is yummy.

Lemon Creme Crumb Bars



Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter , melted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp lemon extract (optional)





Instructions


1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, rolled oats, salt and baking soda. Stir in granulated sugar and brown sugar and mix until no clumps of sugar remain. Stir vanilla into melted butter and pour mixture over dry ingredients. Using a spoon, stir mixture until evenly moistened. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased 8 by 8-inch baking dish and gently press into an even layer.
Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside (leaving oven heated at 350 degrees).


2.In a mixing bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolks and lemon extract until well blended. Pour mixture over crumb crust in baking dish and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle top evenly with remaining crumb mixture. Bake in preheated oven 23 - 26 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool at room temperature, once cool cover and refrigerate 30 minutes - 1 hour (I actually loved this cold), then remove and cut into squares. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

From Lore:


Supper tonight!

bethk wrote:From Lore:


Supper tonight!

Thanks, This was a pork chop with a sriratcha sauce, Hasselback potato and plain broccoli. I had not had a pork chop for a long time and it was really good. I'm down to about 1/3 of my freezer space right now. Still have chicken and some fish, and a small beef roast. But I think tomorrow I'm going to my fav. butcher shop and get some interesting cuts.

For tonight I am going to panfry some Lake Erie pickerel/Walleye that I found in the grocery store. There were 4 fillets in the bag, I'll have the second one tonight. Did the first one in the oven, but it definitely was not as good as when I get them fresh from my fishing son. Maybe the $30,000 he has invested in his fishing boat is actually worth the money! I'm also doing some vegetables on my indoor grill.

I drove Lyn to Orlando this morning to take Bill's car in for an oil change/tire rotation.  For some reason he made the appointment for 8:00 a.m. ~ ~ we had to leave at quarter to 7 ~ ~ way, WAY too early for a couple old broads!

But it was a short appointment and we went to breakfast after.  Then we stopped at Trader Joe's for a couple items and over to Costco because I needed laundry detergent and I like the ECOS brand they carry ~ and it was on sale! Woo Hoo!!!

But by supper time, when we were home, the early morning hours caught up with me.  So, I let Papa John cook supper.  DD#2 had sent us some gift cards for Christmas and it was a perfect night to use one of those.

I picked up a package of the brown Kumato tomatoes at Trader Joe's yesterday. I wish they came in a red variety ~ but I'll accept the brownish green color since they do taste like a 'real' tomato.





I'm going to make BLT's for supper ~ gives me an excuse to go walk around the grocery store to see if there's anything different to pick up. And since BLT's are on the menu I decided a nice bowl of macaroni salad would go with the picnic theme. I had a hard time deciding between small elbows or medium shells ~ decisions, decisions! I finally decided on the shells because they grab hold of the ingredients so well and you can get a bite of everything at one time.




and, yes, the bowl is 'decorated' ~ not because I wanted it 'pretty' but because having it arranged makes it less likely that I will spoon out a few bites multiple times this afternoon! LOL

That's an interesting way to not snack! LOL I'm going to make a pot roast. I have not been cooking for my couple here in the building the last couple of weeks, thought I needed a break. Then yesterday I called them, said I wasn't busy today and would they like the roast, mashed potatoes and some veggies. I was going to do it in my slow cooker, but it's too big.

Supper was a success ~ the BLT really hit the spot.....and the macaroni salad is the best I've had all month!

Had Philly Cheese steak sandwiches. Peppers and onions and cheese filled.