July, 2021 ~ Star Spangled Meals in our Kitchens!

Not surprising, we had a rain storm this afternoon. But somehow the Rain Goddess decided to spare me and quit in plenty of time for Dane to fire up the charcoal grill.

I know it seems silly to go to the trouble of lighting charcoal for just two hamburger patties, but, truth be told, we much prefer the taste of the burgers with a bit of char than when they are cooked on the gas grill. And I can't remember the last time I cooked a burger in the house ~ way too much mess to clean up for lazy me!

Yesterday I cleaned a bunch of collard greens. Today I simmered a ham hock to make stock to use to cook them. They came out really tasty.




(when I looked at the pic I took I realized my burger with the added onion rings looks somewhat like modern art! Hahahahahaha)

If I had a charcoal grill, I'd be lighting it up for just one burger!  A friend said to me "You turn on the oven for just two sausages"?  What should I do, cook 10 of them and then eat the leftovers for two weeks?  I went to plan C for what I did today.  Decided that I would bake some gluten free bread for my daughter-in-law.  It's ready to come out of the oven and smells really good. Gonna take it to them now, so she can try it fresh out of the oven.  It's a 7 minute drive to their place.

P.S.. I'm back from delivering the bread. Lisa liked it as a breakfast bread with butter and jam, but not as a "bun" for a burger. She noticed right away that there was something sweet in it. Honey. But, the texture and flavour were good. Lisa said she's going to freeze it to see how it tastes then toasted. So, next I have to make another type, more like a crunchy French or Italian. It was fun to do, so that's good!

I had leftover pizza, and cooked greens and beans that Tina made.
Tina had leftover shepherds pie.

Johnsonville Brats, simmered in cheap beer and then browned on the gas grill, leftover lima beans turned into (my favorite) succotash with the addition of some fresh corn, leftover collard greens and some 'quick pickles' (cucumber & onion with a bit of rice wine & sugar and a few spoonfuls of store bought pickle juice I saw in an empty jar in the refrigerator.....

I had some chicken noodle soup. Only a couple of bites. Food still doesnt taste normal yet. I cant even look at chocolate.

Bought 2 tickets to the Rolling Stones concert for Katies birthday and Christmas. Her birthday is December 22. She is thrilled. They are in the nosebleed section. That is all I could afford.

From Lore:

"Dinner Two pieces of butter chicken done with a sauce right out of a jar, a baked potato and two sides I picked up from my favourite grocery store. Unfortunately the store is about 40 miles away near where my son lives. But, I felt like going for a drive. The two sides are a Greek salad with olives, cicada CELERY etc, the othe is a beet, feta and spinach dish. I’m not fond of beets, so i try them when I see something different. These were actually good. Beets, feta, spinach. I may get to like beets yet!
The potato was so-so. I had it in the oven with the chicken but it wasn’t done, so I put it in the microwave for two minutes. It ended up gummy."

bethk wrote:From Lore:

"Dinner Two pieces of butter chicken done with a sauce right out of a jar, a baked potato and two sides I picked up from my favourite grocery store. Unfortunately the store is about 40 miles away near where my son lives. But, I felt like going for a drive. The two sides are a Greek salad with olives, cicada etc, the othe is a beet, feta and spinach dish. I’m not fond of beets, so i try them when I see something different. These were actually good. Beets, feta, spinach. I may get to like beets yet!
The potato was so-so. I had it in the oven with the chicken but it wasn’t done, so I put it in the microwave for two minutes. It ended up gummy."

Thanks as always, Beth. I mail the pictures using my iPhone and I guess that the auto-correct decided that the Greek salad had cicadas in it. LOL. I assure you, there were none in it! it was celery, not cicadas.

Hahahahaha, Lore ~ I just post 'em like I get 'em!


But, I've gone in to the post to make the correction for you since you can't edit my posts.


It really is fun to find out what 'auto-correct' does with our words......

My neighbour says that we have to think of the auto correct as a helpful elf, but that it is often quite drunk. She says also that she can read drunk elf! LOL

Today is a bit of a reflective day for me, food wise. It would be my hubby's 82 birthday. We had soooo many firepit birthday party dinners on the farm. Two times a pig roast, once a lamb roast. Lordy, I prepared a lot of food. Hubby's sister was married to a Greek (now divorced) so he and his Greek friends did a lot of the work for the lamb roast. They did something really interesting and absolutely tasty. There was a second, smaller spit on which they put all the innards, I think they bought extras, those pieces were on a spit, wrapped really tightly by yards and yards of natural sausage casings, spiced, and oil on them. This was of course done in a couple of hours and served as appetizers. SOOO good. The Greeks sure now how to cook! Brother-in-law's mother was visiting from Athens, brother came from New York. We must have had at least 30 people. Such fun! OPA!

I thawed a boneless chicken breast, not knowing what I was going to make. Then I thought of chicken parm ~ PASTA!! That's all I could think about. It's been a long while since I've made any and it sounded so very good. I've been trying to stick to a very low carb diet but it isn't going to kill me to have something I'm really hungry for.

I didn't bread the chicken cutlets (although I was really tempted because it's so good when I do....) so I just sauteed the seasoned cutlets, spooned over a bit of the marinara sauce and added some mozzarella cheese ~ into the toaster oven to melt. The pasta was the 'good stuff' from Trader Joe's and I purposely didn't make a huge amount. I wanted just enough for one meal.

Turns out there was just a little bit of sauced spaghetti & additional sauce and about 1/3 of my mozzarella covered chicken to save for a lunch for Dane ~ HE claimed it (thank goodness, stops me from being tempted). Oh, and I made a small salad to go with the meal.

DD left to pick up Tina's broccoli and cavatelli, and my shrimp and clams, from the Blackstone Bar and restaurant.
The kids are going out, so we will eat a peaceful meal at least.
Poor Tina fell at the church garage sale this afternoon. The knee is on ice
and she is hobbling around.

OH NO! Poor Tina! I hope icing helps and she's dancing again tomorrow!
I finished the last of the butter chicken I made yesterday and had some more of the sides that I bought. Put the chicken in the micro to heat, and had the biggest blowup in there that I have ever seen. The sauce was all over the inside of the micro. Top, bottom, sides, you name it, it was covered. I should have covered it, I guess!

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:DD left to pick up Tina's broccoli and cavatelli, and my shrimp and clams, from the Blackstone Bar and restaurant.
The kids are going out, so we will eat a peaceful meal at least.
Poor Tina fell at the church garage sale this afternoon. The knee is on ice
and she is hobbling around.

Tell Ms. Tina to rest well and let everyone else DO for a change......

I hope she's feeling better after a good night's sleep.

Cookin Lore wrote:OH NO!  Poor Tina!  I hope icing helps and she's dancing again tomorrow!
I finished the last of the butter chicken I made yesterday and had some more of the sides that I bought.  Put the chicken in the micro to heat, and had the biggest blowup in there that I have ever seen.  The sauce was all over the inside of the micro.  Top, bottom, sides, you name it, it was covered.  I should have covered it, I guess!  

Somehow we KNOW what we should do but sometimes DON'T......

And then we suddenly remember WHY we knew we should have.

((sigh))

I finished this month and started a new one


  https://cookingfriends.forumotion.com/t1637-august-2021-what-s-cooking