MAY 2017...Whats cooking for dinner ?

I just noticed the pics from the weekend in my Photobucket....I meant to share them.

Here are a few from The Beiruit:











The pics from Mancy's Steak House came out really dark because of the lighting....and I'm not great at editing in my photobucket but here's a pic of Ben's 3 double lamb chops with a Hunter's Sauce:

And here's a pic of DD#2 and fiancee, Ben:

I was watching "Bizarre Foods". Andrew was in Alabama sampling something called "liver mush". Has anyone ever tasted it?

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:OMG Beth. That is funny....
It reminds me, when my son was around 5 or six, He loved staying with grandma.
He asked, "Hey, gram, is it time for your nap?" ..... Why do you ask jimmy?
He said, Because you are talking square gram ( His explanation for slurring her words ), and that wine makes you do that every time gram. I think you need a nap!

My mother just about peed her pants from laughing.

Reminds me of Art Linkletter and his program, "Kids Say the Darnest Things"! LOL

I baked some red peppers stuffed with pepperoni, mushrooms, quinoa, mozzarella and pizza sauce. Since I suspect Charlie won't be excited about stuffed peppers, I split the end of a loaf of French bread, cut it long ways, hollowed it out and put some stuffing in them. I had a piece and maybe next time I'll leave out the peppers entirely.

Cooked peppers (sweet peppers) don't agree with either Dane or me so I only make stuffed peppers on a really rare occasion. I do much better by hollowing out a green zucchini and using that as my 'boat' for a meat or meat/rice filling.

It always sounds so good to me, and I love the color, but it's just an occasional meal around here.

Beth, I just decided that I like stuffed green peppers better. I like the stuffed bread even better.

I made a quiche with a potato crust and spicy sausage and cheese filling. It was good.

That's awful Jimmy. My mom had the shingles. She said it was terrible. I got a shingles shot a couple years ago. I hope it works.

Oh, poor Tina. I've not had shingles but I've seen others and heard how difficult it is to put up with all the pain. I hope the Lyrica stops the progression and makes the pain go away.

I wanted to get the leftovers out of the refrigerator.....He had the rice, chicken & stirfry vegetables and I had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and the peas & carrots spooned on top of the potatoes.

He talked to his sister today and she's coming on Sunday for a cook out. It'll be either a spatchcocked chicken or a rack of ribs ~ I haven't decided yet. Whatever, it will be just a small celebration meal, I don't want a bunch of leftovers again.

NormM wrote:I made a quiche with a potato crust and spicy sausage and cheese filling.  It was good.

Eggs are such a versatile meal....and yours looks really good!

I was all excited this morning. On Facebook I saw a Winn Dixie ad for Bone-in Chicken Breasts for only $0.89 / lb. OMG! That's a fantastic price for this area. I picked up my little grocery list (only had 3 things on it) and headed to pick up a bargain.

Here's what I read: "It’s a #PriceAlert! Get Bone-In Value Pack Chicken Breast for just 89¢/lb. - that’s a savings of 40¢/lb.! Price good FRIDAY 5/26 ONLY! This deal is moving quickly! When it’s gone - it’s gone! While supplies last. No Rain Checks. Limit 4. Available at participating stores"

I got to the store and saw the regular packages of chicken breasts....marked $1.79/lb for the bone-in, skin on. Then, in the corner of the meat case I saw the "special" chicken breasts. Ewwwww! They were packaged with some brand name I had never before seen, the meat itself was discolored and had what looked to be 'freezer burn' icky stuff under the plastic wrapper. I will say there WAS a disclaimer of "Previously Frozen" but it was the worst looking chicken I've ever seen. I cannot believe they would actually sell such a sub par product.

Needless to say, I left without any of their "special" chicken......

GROSS!

I am so sorry about Tina! I am surprised she never got a shingles vaccine. I got one last year because I remembered how awful it was for my MIL.

Bugster2 wrote:I am so sorry about Tina! I am surprised she never got a shingles vaccine. I got one last year because I remembered how awful it was for my MIL.

Thanks Debbie, and Beth and Norm.
Poor girl suffers so much. She said her hair looks like a rat with the mange.
It hurts, just to blow it with the dryer.
I'm gonna suggest she get the shot. I never knew that was available. Hmm?

I don't have to worry, because I never had the chicken Pox. I can't catch it either. The kids had it, and I took care of them, and I never got it.
My brother had the Pox, and my mom put me in the lions den to catch it from him to get it over with.

Bugster wrote:Mine aren't plastic they are enamel coated metal, maybe aluminum.

Forgive me, Debbie, I should've known that. Like I said, those are the ones I see chefs use most often on TV. I know you said you use the juicer if you need a lot of juice, but don't you just love how much juice you get out of those handheld ones? I always noticed that on TV but was just astounded that it worked that way for me! Brian's mouth was open when I showed him, and he actually said, "The juice is just POURING out of that thing! Are you squeezing it very hard?" Like I said, he was even able to do it without much strength due to pain in his hand.

Don't you just love when you've been wanting something for a while and it turns out to be everything you hoped it would be?!

Imelda, I'm with Beth -- those little measuring cups are absolutely ADORABLE and you SHOULD use them! As good a cook as you are, you DESERVE to use something cute that you love. I'm amazed at your accomplishments since coming to the U.S. -- learning the language, learning to cook with ingredients you weren't familiar with, teaching all of us (and your blog readers, too) about exciting ingredients we aren't or weren't familiar with, blending your oh-so-wonderful exotic-to-us ingredients with ones available in this country to make unique dishes we all drool over -- use those cute measuring cups and then put them back in the hutch to admire when they're not in use.

When my father passed away, his desk was full of gifts we'd given him that he loved -- beautiful pens (he had a gorgeous handwriting and his printing, like my brother's, was so exacting that it looked typewritten from a couple feet away), and all kind of business and desk gizmos and gadgets that he truly loved -- he "saved" them rather than use them. Of course, we knew he did this with some of the things we'd given him, but we were amazed at how many nice things he'd saved for a day that never came!

I even use my good china on a regular basis for Brian and me to enjoy. I have a big set of white ironstone that my mom got for me years ago (about 37 years now that I think about it). She got me two sets as we used to entertain a lot, and though I'd bought by "good china" years before I even moved out of my mom's house, I only had a set for 6. She knew I'd been looking at this set for a while, as it was being discontinued (though they advertised it as being on its way out for about 2 years) so she got me a double set of it.

I have those in a lower convenient cabinet next to my good china, which is Portmeirion's Botanic Garden, where each plate has a different flower (the botanical motif of the flower). I use the dinner plates and the salad plates all the time -- they're huge plates so we often use the salad plates for a dinner plate if we're not too hungry or if we don't have a lot of side dishes. Have I broken some of the good ones over the years? You bet I have. Every once in a while when they're on sale, I buy either another set of 6 dinner or salad plates, or I search for an older plate they no longer issue so I can replace one that broke that I adore (my favorite is the Passion Flower plate). So I use both the white ironstone and the Botanic Garden plates as we deserve a pretty place setting whether or not we have company!

I also have another "good set," as I took my mom's really big set of good china after she passed away. No one else wanted it, and that's probably the ONLY reason I got it as I didn't get much -- just didn't feel like fighting with my sister for anything. I know the maker and the pattern name of the china, both of which of course I cannot think of right now. But I had no room for that in lower cabinets so I have them very high up and lots of the smaller pieces to the set still wrapped up in boxes upstairs. But I'd use that regularly, too, Imelda, if it was convenient for me to do so!!!

Your father, Michelle, is a prime example of why I no longer wait for a 'special' occasion or hold back on using something because it's expensive or unique. I no longer have 'good' dishes ~ if you come to my house you're going to eat off my everyday Corelle. And, Lucky You, I even have 'new' GLASS glasses and I put away the plastic tumblers I had when we first moved here. I don't like drinking out of plastic and they always looked 'dirty' to me, even though I knew they had gone through a hot dishwasher cycle. Now I have glass glasses and if I drop one and it breaks, well, the only thing that will bother me is if I get cut and bleed all over the place. So far, so good! LOL

I picked up a package of two bone in pork chops when I went to check out that nasty chicken at Winn Dixie. Supper was grilled pork chops, grilled cauliflower and grilled sweet corn ~ must be the first of the 'fresh' Florida corn. It was super sweet and I ended up eating an ear and a half!

I just caught the tail end of a smoking cooking program and the host was smoking beef 'short ribs'...or, as he called it, Brisket on the Bone. The last time we went to Orlando we stopped at a Brazilian market, at least we thought it was Brazilian.....Nothing was in English and we could hardly read any of the labels on the products. But the meat case was amazing! The prices were way lower than our local Winn Dixie or Publix, to be sure. I remember seeing a cryovac'd package of beef short ribs ~ about 7 - 8 pounds ~ and priced at $65.00. They looked SO good. And that's what was smoking on the off-set smoker grill on the program I watched. The host seasoned simply with sea salt, cracked black pepper and hot pepper flakes and then slit the membrane at the back of each of the three beef rib bones for easy removal when done. He set up the smoker with a cast iron pot with a bottle of beer for humidity in the smoker and then smoked two of those huge hunks of beef for 10 hours, spraying lightly with white vinegar every hour for the first 5 hours.

I'm not usually a big fan of smoked meats but that 'brisket on the bone' really looked amazing.

Norm, I thought of you immediately when I saw the program. It sure looked like something you could do justice to. Without the right equipment I'd be afraid of messin' up $65 worth of fabulous beef!

That idea of putting beer in the water pan is something I'll have to try. I put water in a metal bread loaf pan.  I hadn't thought of using juice or beer.  I had used apple juice once in a different smoker but didn't tell much difference.

Ps I did save a recipe for baby back ribs that are cooked in the smoker with just salt for the first couple or hours then finished over high heat with a glaze of sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and root beer.

Joe had a chicken salad sandwich on toasted sourdough. I had 1 1/2 tater tots which proceeded to make me feel very ill. I felt like I had a lump in my throat and a hot poker stabbed right smack in the middle of my esophagus. I dosed myself with Pepto Bismol, anti-nausea pills, tranquilizers. Didn't do much good. I felt faint and hot. My gut is in a knot. I have to see a doctor if I can find one that will take my insurance. I need to see an ENT for some throat pain. I have a feeling it is going to be very bad news. My biggest fear is going to an ENT. They scope you without anesthesia. I think I will absolutely freak out. I have PTSD from previous invasive proceedures involving my mouth and throat. I am hoping that they can at least shoot me up with enough valium to make me falling down drunk. At that point maybe I won't care what is happening to me.

My SIL just had a scope done, They removed some restrictive tissue so now she can swallow without problems. But, fortunately or not for her, the procedure was done at the same time as her colonoskopy. So she was already 'out'.

NormM wrote:That idea of putting beer in the water pan is something I'll have to try. I put water in a metal bread loaf pan.  I hadn't thought of using juice or beer.  I had used apple juice once in a different smoker but didn't tell much difference.

Ps I did save a recipe for baby back ribs that are cooked in the smoker with just salt for the first couple or hours then finished over high heat with a glaze of sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and root beer.

He just put the beer in a cast iron pot over the coolest part of the smoker.....from left to right it was: Pot-o-beer, beef brisket ribs, (he cooked two briskets) beef brisket ribs, (end of smoker grill), and the firebox out on the far right. He said the temperature was about 250° next to the fire box and 225° in the middle so about half way he rotated the hunks of beef brisket ribs for even cooking. I really didn't see much need for the pot of beer since he spritzed the meat with white vinegar every hour for the first 5 hours of a 12 hour smoke, but what do I know about smoking? (answer: NOTHING! lol) I can't believe the beer would impart much flavor to the smoking meat. But, hey, beer is cheap so why not?

The end result had more to do with the quality of his beef than anything else, I suspect. It sure did look good when he pulled the rib bones out and then flipped the beef over and sliced like a brisket, against the grain. The moist meat was glistening with juice.

I had to look up beef brisket ribs. I had not heard of them before. I guess they are the same thing as beef plate short ribs. And I have never heard of placing a liquid at that end of the smoker either. An actual brisket has a fat cap that doesn't need basting or spritzing.