APRIL 2019 ...What's Cooking??

Over diced tomatoes and the Eggplant Meatballs.

Bugster2 wrote:
That is a LOT of vinegar. Not too much?

Bugs ~ I halved the recipe. After the chicken is cooked you pour off the excess fat/oil and brown the chopped shallots and add the red wine vinegar. As with a bure blanc (sp?) you reduce the vinegar down to a syrup-y consistency. Then the creme fraiche gets stirred in and cooked with the vinegar concentrate to really temper the taste of the vinegar. The taste was in the sauce but not overpowering by any means. It was a pleasant, interesting taste.


As I mentioned in my comments, I'm sure it would have been more flavorful if using bone-in/skin-on chicken pieces instead of boneless breast as I used. The chicken fond adds to the overall taste.

I've got some pork thawing. I also washed and spun dry some leaf lettuce to make wilted lettuce. Probably lol do some sweet potatoes and another vegetable, not sure yet.

No dinner last night. Joe was full on a protein shake.
Tonight, maybe canneloni, steak or cod.
Last night we watched "The Green Book". Excellent movie. We had fits over Viggo Mortensen's verbal faux pas. Calling collard greens colored greens. It is hard to believe blacks were treated so poorly back then. Makes me ashamed of being white. As I understand it, in some parts of the south, things haven't changed much.
I am trying to get up enough nerve to go to Costco. Their parking lot is wretched - hard to get in and out and the store is always packed. I want to get some See's Candy gift cards. Then I go across the street to See's which at this time of the year will probably have a line. It wouldn't be so bad but it is close to 10 miles away.

I'm thinking of this, and it was funny....
Going way back to the original cooking.com .....Anyone else remember the poster with the moving or sparkling Avatar? And another poster who said it was irritating to her, and that she should change her avatar, because it was distracting.??

Supper turned out good.....still adjusting to the heat settings to use with my cast iron skillets. I wanted something different with the sweet potatoes so I made a hash with onions and red Fresno chiles. At the last couple minutes I wanted to crisp it up just a bit ~ and I didn't give it my undivided attention so it got caramelized a little more than I had planned. It wasn't burned tasting but it certainly wasn't as vibrant in color as I had anticipated. Dane made the choice on the lima beans (I told you they are his favorite!) but the Wilted Lettuce Salad was my #1 choice.....actually, it's the reason we had the braised pork steaks because I knew pork would be good with the sweet vinegary bacon dressing.

Now I'm stuffed because I over ate, especially the salad......I'll probably sit in my chair and doze off and then I'll not be able to sleep tonight.

I went out for lunch with my pretend granddaughter (sister's grandaughter) and had a lovely salmon and vegetables, then went to a movie. She picked............. "Wonderpark". Stupid animated feature with a stupid, hard to follow story, way too much violence for an animated feature. Small children will have nightmares for weeks after seeing it!

bethk wrote:Supper turned out good.....still adjusting to the heat settings to use with my cast iron skillets.  I wanted something different with the sweet potatoes so I made a hash with onions and red Fresno chiles.  At the last couple minutes I wanted to crisp it up just a bit ~ and I didn't give it my undivided attention so it got caramelized a little more than I had planned.  It wasn't burned tasting but it certainly wasn't as vibrant in color as I had anticipated.  Dane made the choice on the lima beans (I told you they are his favorite!) but the Wilted Lettuce Salad was my #1 choice.....actually, it's the reason we had the braised pork steaks because I knew pork would be good with the sweet vinegary bacon dressing.

Now I'm stuffed because I over ate, especially the salad......I'll probably sit in my chair and doze off and then I'll not be able to sleep tonight.  

Set the alarm, and then take a snooze.

Yes, Jimmy, I do remember the whinner who didn't like that sparkly avatar.....I hated it.....only because I couldn't find one like it! LOL

I was going to fix ham steak for supper when HE decided it would be good to go out. We went to a little sports bar in a close by town. He got a Cuban sandwich and I got a hot dog wrapped in bacon and deep fried.....pretty decadent. They had a really good 'not-so-sweet' white sangria with fresh strawberries and blueberries in it.

I had some leftover meat sauce from a spaghetti dinner in the freezer. I cheated, threw in a can of beans, some chili seasoning and had a bowl of yummy chili.

I forgot about a package of Johnsonville brats in the refrigerator.......meant to make them over the weekend. So now they're simmering in some Bud Light and I'll probably brown them on the gas grill. I had 3 hard cooked eggs so that gave the inspiration for some pasta salad. So supper is in the works and will be a breeze to put together later.

One of the nice things about only having macaroni salad/potato salad/wilted lettuce salad very seldom is when you DO have it, you savor every bite. Thank goodness Dane is over his big fear of eating any carbs, he, too, enjoyed two servings of it and enjoyed every bite!

I sauteed some onion and one of the hot banana peppers that's growing in a patio pot. The pepper wasn't very spicy but it sure was good with the onions. If this year's plant grows as many as last year's then this will be a side dish I make often this spring.

I had a  Big Mac. I can't remember the last time I had one and I didn't remember how messy they are to eat.

About once a year I get hungry for a Whopper. I usually end up tossing the last 2 or 3 bites because it gets so sloppy. And once my hunger is satisfied I can go another year without wanting one. It surprises me how little I miss French fries. It must be me getting old....I could live without any and not mss it one bit.

We have been eating take-out much more often than before and I Charlie usually picks what we eat.  He asks for the two cheeseburger meal from McD. about every other week and I usually get a quarter pounder but the last one was different and too much for me so I tried the Big Mac.  It was so messy.  I had forgotten that they are hard to eat because everything keeps trying to slide out the other end.

A number of years ago we had stopped at a McDonald's in one of those "Love" Truck Refueling Stations.  Dane ordered whatever he wanted and I ordered a Big Mac MINUS cheese.  I had done the same order other places and it wasn't a problem.  When I got my order there was the slip from the computer taped on that clearly stated Big Mac NO CHEESE.  And, yes, there was cheese.  So I returned it to the counter (as Dane ate his meal) and I waited....was handed another box with the Big Mac NO CHEESE slip attached ~ inside was a QUARTER POUNDER WITH CHEESE. Returned it again and simply asked for my money back. We wanted to get back on the road. I had to wait for a manager. She finally gave me my money back and apologized for the errors, stating, "I have a Trainee at the grill today". I just looked her in the eye and said, "Lady, I KNOW McDonald's ~ THERE ARE PICTURES!".


And I don't think I've tried to order another sandwich at McDonald's ever since...…..

Tina out-did herself! That looks yummy.....and super healthy. Good for you both for making great menu choices.

bethk wrote:Tina out-did herself! That looks yummy.....and super healthy.   Good for you both for making great menu choices.

Thanks Beth

Yesterday Lyn & I went to Orlando to take her car in for service.  She loves Lebanese food so I told her to choose one to go to for lunch.  We ended up ordering just appetizers since we were sure the meals were much too large for either of us to eat.  She chose her favorite salad in the world, a fatoosh salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions & radishes in a lemon sumac vinagarette as well as some chicken livers cooked in lemon, wine & parsley (I think).  The fatoosh was not at all like the one served at her favorite Lebanese restaurant in Toledo that is much more a parsley tomato salad ~ but she enjoyed this one all the same.


I ordered a beef sausage tomato dish and another of fava beans, both new to me but interesting enough to interest me.  Both were very heavy with garlic which doesn't always agree with me.  And neither were what I would have expected, although the beef sausage & tomato dish was quite tasty.  The fava bean dish could best be described as a Lebanese refried bean dish, heavy with garlic and topped with chopped tomatoes and parsley.  Everything was served with fresh house made pita which was excellent, as well as a dish of pickled turnips that were excellent ~ we couldn't determine what the turnips were and asked the waiter what they were.  My first guess was it tasted like horseradish....although I couldn't imagine you could eat spears of raw horseradish.  It was a light pink color as if it had been pickled with a bit of red beet or red onion, although there was neither in the dish ~ just turnips.


It was nice to give Lyn the chance to have HER choice of lunch venues as she usually defers to anyone and everyone else.


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This afternoon is our last patio party of the season.  I decided to bake a cake I haven't made in years.  I use to make it probably once a week when I was growing up because we always seemed to have the ingredients on hand, as well as cake mixes.  Oh, but to return to the day when we could eat desserts on a regular nightly basis!

I tried adjusting the cake mix to a hack I've seen on multiple cooking sites to make a boxed cake mix more like a bakery cake in texture.  I used a Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix.  The 'hack' instructions suggest adding 1 or 2 additional eggs (I added one extra), exchange the oil for 2 X melted butter and exchange the water for whole milk.

I baked the cake in a 9 X 13 glass dish and put a bit of the batter into a buttered custard cup so I could taste test the cake before I took it off to the party this afternoon.  I have to say, the cake had a really superior crumb and was quite tasty.  It's something I'd try again.

I made the loaf cake because I wanted to make a Broiled Coconut Frosting that I made years ago.  I'm sure the recipe originally came from either Mom's Boston Cooking School Cookbook or the red & white gingham Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook.  It's 1 stick of butter, 2 c. brown sugar & 2 T. half & half or cream, brought to a boil.  Stir in 2 c. shredded coconut.  Spread on cake and broil until golden.  And the recipe card clearly states:  "DO NOT LEAVE KITCHEN WHILE BROILING !!!"  I'm pretty sure I may have walked away a time or two for me to add the warning on the bottom of the recipe card.  LOL

Our Blue Lake green bean plants and our Hot Banana Pepper and Fresno Chile Pepper plants looked healthy and green two days ago. This morning Dane discovered the pepper plants had attracted some sort of leaf cutting insect or bug ~ FILTHY CREATURES!!! My poor Fresno Pepper plant has dropped probably 70% of it's leaves and many of the tiny 'just beginning' peppers have dropped off. His Hot Banana Pepper plant is faring a bit better because it already has 5 or 6 huge peppers hanging, but it's dropping leaves as well.

He immediately got out some vegetable bug dust to sprinkle on the plants. Hopefully it's in time to save them.

The bean plants don't look affected but he gave them a shot of the dust, too, just in case. We're really hoping to get a bumper crop off all those little plants.