May, 2018 ~ What did you make for dinner?

WOW!  How did May sneak up on us so fast?  This year is whizzing by at warp speed!!!

Tonight I did a quick charcoal grilled RIB EYE STEAK!!!  OMG ~ a fast cook on a super hot grill gives the most wonderful flavor to beef.  The best part was chewing the bits off the bone ~ OK, not so lady like but it was an 'oh-so-delicious' bite!  I did a baked sweet potato and microwaved broccoli.....even threw together a salad as per Mr. Amazing's request.  Oh, yeah, I forgot to add: I had a package of sliced shitake mushrooms that I fried up in a bit of butter to go with my steak.....super flavorful, seasoned simply with s&p.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:KFC popcorn extra crunchy, and coleslaw.
76 degrees today. Breezy and sunny, but no humidity. Tomorrow....H O T ... 85 degrees.

Wow, Jimmy -- that's hotter than it is here though it's warming up this week and the humidity is going up daily. The first weekend of Jazz Fest was gorgeous but this weekend, it's going to be a lot hotter, maybe some rain, too.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Crybaby wrote:


Jimmy, this is a test!  Find the fourth man in this picture!  

 

(My laptop is on my lap and it's shaking so bad from me laughing that I could hardly type this!)  So sorry -- I couldn't resist!!

It's a challenge!

   HILARIOUS!  I thought I was all laughed out over my own confusion, and then yours.  But you started me laughing all over again! Touche!!!

We had the BEST dinner last night and Beth, your Korean BBQ Sauce (Bulgogi Marinade) played a big part!

I think I told you I'd gotten some beef spare ribs at the grocery a while back -- they were on what I call "hurry up and get them out of here" sale at the grocery, and were marked down for a quick sale. I think it was under $2.50/lb. I bought three packages of the biggest ones they had (they were cut up already and not in a slab-liek form), which came to about 5.5 lbs. of them.  I put them in the fridge and then waited a couple of days before fiddling with them, as I was trying to figure out how I'd cook 'em. Brian mentioned smoking them but he's having so much trouble with pain in his hip that I worry when he does too much walking around so I didn't want him going up and down the few steps to the back yard from the side door of the kitchen to the smoker in the yard so I'd nixed that right off the bat.

I ended up taking them out, rinsing them off really well and drying them with paper towels. Then I spread them out on a half-sheet pan and lightly sprinkled them with Mad Hunky rub -- I put the rub in a small wire mesh strainer and just tap it so they get a nice light coating. Flipped them and made sure all sides were covered. Then I used the FoodSaver to put them in three big bags and sealed them tight. They sat in the fridge another couple of days until yesterday.

Took them out and luckily, they just fit on a foil-covered half-sheet pan with a little space between each. Put them in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes and then took them out, sealed them well in foil that I sprayed with non-stick spray but made sure they had some space in the top in hopes that they would stay moist. Lowered the oven to 225F and cooked them for 2-1/2 hours. Removed the foil, and then brushed them with that DELICIOUS Korean BBB Sauce on both sides, flipped back to the meatier side up and gave that side another coating of the sauce. We'd both tasted the sauce when we opened the bottle and loved it so we couldn't wait until they were ready.  Stuck them back in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes even though they were nice and brown (and tender) when I'd first removed them from the foil -- I just wanted them to get to that yummy sticky stage. Pulled them out and after brushing on some more sauce, served them with baked beans (Brian had put the beans together that morning -- the kind we normally smoke for a couple of hours but I talked him into just letting me bake them in the oven) and a nice salad with leaf lettuce, olive salad with several types of pitted olives with chunks of cheese and other goodies that I'd bought a the store to which I added some chunks of heirloom tomatoes (red, yellow and dark red ones -- they were so pretty), capers, and hearts of palm in a nice vinaigrette.

What a delicious dinner THAT was!  The ribs were tender as all get out and that Korean BBQ Sauce was delicious -- tastes like the perfect blend of American BBQ sauce but with more of an Asian flavor!  I really think it MADE the ribs. Brian was over the moon with how good they were but we had a feeling since we'd smelled them getting gooey with that sauce on them.  He said this morning that he could honestly say they were the best ribs he ever had1  I laughed as I really liked them too and reminded him how not only how good they would've tasted if we'd smoked but also reminded him how much easier it had been for me to cook them in the oven. I think they tasted so good as it had been ages since we'd had beef ribs, something we normally get from an Asian restaurant. These were better than those and a heck of a lot bigger, too!  

The consistency of that sauce is really nice, too -- it sticks but it's not pasty like American BBQ sauce, which flavor I got really sick of when Brian was on a ribs on the smoker kick several years ago and kept making them over and over and over again.  

We'd planned to have them for dinner tonight, too, but Lynn came late today to clean for us. Right before she came downstairs to clean after finishing upstairs, we both had a bowl of leftover pappardelle noodles with the red sauce from the Sicilian Round Stake I'd made last week for lunch -- no round steak left but a decent amount of cooked pasta that I'd mixed in with the leftover sauce prior to refrigerating it. Once Lynn camde downstairs, we headed upstairs. That was about 1:30 p.m. Neither one of us was hungry even when the clock hit 6 p.m. -- Brian went down to get us some drinks for the evening and confessed that he'd had a rib while he was down there, as he just wanted to "remember" how good they were. I confessed I'd had one for breakfast while I was getting the coffee together to bring upstairs this morning!!!

I'm going to order two more bottles of that Korean sauce from Amazon though it's probably a lot cheaper if I get myself over to the big Asian market we rarely go to.  We never want to run out of that stuff, that's for sure! Thanks, Beth, for that link you sent me. We want to try it on London broil, too.

Beth, I was in the pantry the other day and noticed on the bottom shelf a bag of the lump charcoal we'd never opened. It's not Kingsford or Royal Oak but we'll give it a try the next time we grill outdoors, which might be a while.

Believe it or not, Brian is going to have to get radiation AGAIN -- his fourth treatment of it, as tests showed the pain in his hip and leg is from a spot of prostate cancer on his hip. So if the radiation oncologist can figure out if he can hit that spot with some radiation without damaging anything else nearby, he's going to go through it again. It's a pain and a lot of work for him to head to the hospital 5 days a week for a couple of weeks but since it worked so well on his back pain which he'd had for YEARS, he's willing to give it a shot for his hip. I know he's just as worried as I am that he's going to fall one day and break a hip as he stumbles in pain a lot.

But meanwhile, that stairlift has been a gift from God. Riding up and down the stairs has saved him (and me, too) a lot of unnecessary pain. We send laundry up and down the stairs on it, too, and anything else in lieu of toting it up and down our steep staircase.  An expense, yes, but a worthwhile expense that will allow us to hopefully stay in this house!

bethk wrote:

This looks delicious, Beth, as did Norm's recent bulgogi, too. Both of your dishes made my mouth water!

They finished the roof yesterday just in the nick of time because we have had some rain. It is cold for us but is supposed to heat up this weekend.
We have to start cleaning up the house for photos so we can get it on the market. Once I get my kitchen spotless I do not want anyone to do cooking in there. I thought of frozen meals and TV dinners. Do you have any suggestions as to what is good and bad? Thanks! It will really help me out.

Bugster2 wrote:They finished the roof yesterday just in the nick of time because we have had some rain. It is cold for us but is supposed to heat up this weekend.
We have to start cleaning up the house for photos so we can get it on the market. Once I get my kitchen spotless I do not want anyone to do cooking in there. I thought of frozen meals and TV dinners. Do you have any suggestions as to what is good and bad? Thanks! It will really help me out.

At least you're begun the process, Debbie. We know all too well how once you open something up how it often leads to more money having to be used to make things right -- like with your roof. At least you'll have all those invoices to prove to potential home buyers to show the roof is new, and this, that and the other has been repaired or replaced. It will definitely help you get top dollar when you sell your home.

Any luck in finding a home you want to buy yet? Or are you going to wait until you're ready to put yours on the market prior to buying another one? Good luck and I hope you find the house of your dreams for a good price. That "good price" is hard to find out in California. Though our prices have gone way up since Katrina, we're still amazed at what even mediocre homes cost in your state. When people move here from pricier markets, they're always amazed at how "low" the home prices are; of course, everything is lower here, including salaries!

Good luck with your improvements and on your search for a new home.

Imelda wrote:I like Korean BBQ sauce too, I like to make it myself, how did you make yours Beth?

I think Beth buys hers, too, Imelda, as she's the one who sent me a link to the one I got. Just getting ready to buy four more jars online as I saw four bottles at a good price with free Amazon Prime shipping. Here's the link of the stuff she sent to me that we loved so much:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U945I6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2RGORP3M2GEF7&psc=1

I wish it was a little more spicy than it is but that can always be remedied by adding some gochujang or some sambal oelek like I plan to do. I almost bought some gochujang but all the containers of it were so big that I figured I could save some bucks by using what I have on hand. With the repairs and changes we've been making to the house, the stairlift and the new furniture I've been buying, I've been spending money hand over fist lately and am trying to slow down!

Crybaby wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:They finished the roof yesterday just in the nick of time because we have had some rain. It is cold for us but is supposed to heat up this weekend.
We have to start cleaning up the house for photos so we can get it on the market. Once I get my kitchen spotless I do not want anyone to do cooking in there. I thought of frozen meals and TV dinners. Do you have any suggestions as to what is good and bad? Thanks! It will really help me out.

At least you're begun the process, Debbie. We know all too well how once you open something up how it often leads to more money having to be used to make things right -- like with your roof.  At least you'll have all those invoices to prove to potential home buyers to show the roof is new, and this, that and the other has been repaired or replaced. It will definitely help you get top dollar when you sell your home.  

Any luck in finding a home you want to buy yet? Or are you going to wait until you're ready to put yours on the market prior to buying another one?  Good luck and I hope you find the house of your dreams for a good price.  That "good price" is hard to find out in California. Though our prices have gone way up since Katrina, we're still amazed at what even mediocre homes cost in your state. When people move here from pricier markets, they're always amazed at how "low" the home prices are; of course, everything is lower here, including salaries!

Good luck with your improvements and on your search for a new home.

We have seen some nice homes but most are out of our price range. I only want to spend $650,000 but Joe wants to spend $800,000. The only way we can do that is with a reverse mortgage and I have looked at the figures and don't like what I see. If we were in our seventies, no problem, we ain't gonna live forever, but in our 60's, I think it is a big mistake. What these places do is calculate that your home value is going to increase over the years offsetting any interest that is eating away at your equity. Well, what if the market crashes? What if I am dead, Joe wants to move and there is no equity left if he wants to sell it? I don't think so. Joe doesn't seem to care that I am looking out for our future and we are going to have to accept the fact that we may not get a dream house.
We have been looking in Oceanside which has some sketchy areas but it is close to the beach and we get the beach air. We have also looked at Fallbrook but have decided that the place is a firetrap and I think it is too isolated. Temecula is beautiful and has all of those wineries. It also has all the stores I need and the real estate is reasonable for California. Trouble is that it is a pocket town and you have to drive 45 minutes to the beach and other entertainment. But, a huge casino is right next door where they get headliner acts. I just went to home Depot and got some boxes and I am going to start packing some things.

Dane had to go to Ocala to get a root canal today.....YIPES! He's a brave one, to be sure!

So this morning I brought in two quarts of chicken stock from the freezer. Then I left to go shopping with Lyn (some concerned wife I am, huh?) and when I got home this afternoon I cooked the celery & carrots and made the noodles. I did end up adding about half a box of bone broth stock I had in the refrigerator in hopes there would be leftovers in case his mouth is sore tomorrow.

It was pretty good.....both quarts were the nice, thick jellied kind so I know it was what I made from whole chickens and let simmer for hours.

If anyone is getting emails from 'Cooking Friends' and are wondering why.....

I'm not sure!

Well, it looks like the forum is automatically generating these emails for some reason. I had nothing to do with the decision, nor do I know how it started.

If you don't want to get the emails you can go to your profile and turn off the email notification OK. At least I think that's what you would need to do. As you can see, I'm just drawing straws on ideas!

Imelda HL wrote:I like Korean BBQ sauce too, I like to make it myself, how did you make yours Beth?

I have salmon and asparagus on my mind for today's dinner, last Monday I had a little accident, splashed hot oil on my hands, though I quickly applied some Neosporin on it,  I still got several blisters on the back of my hand, small and big, the biggest one was as big as a 5 carat diamond  I had to rest my hand, most of them are healed a and dry, only the biggest one still needs antibiotic cream. We ate leftover, easy cooking and frozen foods, until yesterday I started to cook

I cooked this spicy baked chicken, I had frozen cleaned thighs in my freezer, so I just thawed them and brine them in salt+sugar water for an hour, patted dry and spread some mayonnaise on top, then topped with hot sauce mix (Sriracha or in this case, I used my homemade hot sauce), baked until they were done then broiled for a few minutes, they were good, spicy and tangy

When I made the Korean BBQ Sauce I based it on a recipe Norm gave me that Charlie uses on their bulgogi. But since I found the Korean BBQ Sauce in a jar that we really like I seldom make it. Once in a while I'll add some extra sambal oeleck to it to make it a bit more spicy but generally I've found it to be a good, all purpose marinade and glaze.

So sorry to hear you got burned. Man, that stuff is a lot of pain. I hope everything heals up quickly and you don't have any further problems.

And from now on, BE CAREFUL !!!

I wanted to keep supper on the 'soft' side again since Dane has had to deal with dental problems. It's amazing how far dental science has improved since he last had a root canal (and swore he'd NEVER endure that again.....). He's feeling fine and just has to wait a week or so before he can go to the regular dentist to get fitted for the crown to permanently repair his tooth.

So I came up with an old family favorite: Creamed ham on noodles. I did use the last two ears of corn from the refrigerator and the leftover beans for a Corn-Bean-Bacon-Onion saute as a side dish. A heavy-in-carbs dinner but very, very satisfying to eat!

Whenever we didn't have anything planned for supper when I was a kid and time was short, Mom or Dad would grab a slab of ham out of the freezer and make this supper for us. It was easy and quick and all of us kids loved it. If there wasn't time to cook noodles (or if there wasn't a package in the pantry) we had it spooned over toast, which is Dane's personal favorite.

We had broccoli cheddar soup with grilled cheese on sourdough. I have been packing all day. I feel like my house is like a magician who pulls a scarf out of his sleeve and it keeps on coming out. Where the heck did I get all of this stuff?

We took daughter out for a belated birthday dinner tonight (she had to work on her actual birthday)
We went to a local sushi restaurant.  I had a vegetarian roll (yes, there is sushi w/o fish   !) that was tempura'd sweet potato with avocado, cucumber and brown rice.  And of course, wasabi, soy sauce, and pickled ginger
It was good.  
I also shared some assorted tempura with the table.
They also shared a plate of pork gyoza.
Hubby had California Roll (crab and avocado), Daughter had Fire Cracker Roll (shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, topped with avocado and crunchy tempura bits,) Grandson had miso soup and Monterey Roll (tempura soft shell crab mixed with creamy avocado sauce, topped with tuna and crab), and daughter and grandson shared a couple of pieces of nigiri, I don't know what they were. Oh, and because it was her birthday, they gave her a plate of tempura banana slices with green tea ice cream and whipped cream.

I'm with you with the vegetarian sushi roll, Muzicgirl! Even though Mr. Amazing will eat just about anything on the sushi list, I'm not a fan at all.

It sounds like a wonderful evening and I'm sure your daughter appreciated being able to celebrate with you!

bethk wrote:I'm with you with the vegetarian sushi roll, Muzicgirl!  Even though Mr. Amazing will eat just about anything on the sushi list, I'm not a fan at all.

It sounds like a wonderful evening and I'm sure your daughter appreciated being able to celebrate with you!

thanks, Beth!

Musicgirl, what part of California do you live? I am down here in So Cal.