DECEMBER. 2020 ~ What's going on YOUR table?

Now my mouth is happy! It's awful when just the mention of a food makes you crave it.....

Had another stone this morning. I wish they would stop.
I had some leftover eggnog so I made eggnog custard out of it. I hope it tastes good.
Katie and Joe took Olive the dog to the vet and left Cooper at home. He is sitting by the garage door howling. I am going to have to listen to it for at least a couple of hours. ARGHHH!

We went out after his golf scrambles so there'll be no cooking here tonight. A big lunch is enough to last for the day.

Found a large burger in my freezer which turned out to be really good, nice and spicy, I think I added horseradish when I made it. I did it in the oven, and just threw in a potato to bake at the same time. Leg is really bad, so I had no energy to make any veggies or anything else.

I love horseradish but it no longer likes me.

My sister sent me a Honey Baked ham with a wheel of swiss and a jar of horseradish mustard and a jar of champagne mustard. That was so nice of her.

I have so much stuff, vegetables and fruit which I now have to go through. Half or more will end up in the garbage because I just haven't been able to use it up. Hopefully today. Fridge needs cleaning up.

It's been 2 days since I've cooked ~ ~ gotta figure out something for tonight.

Maybe I'll go back through pictures to see what looks good.

I had to go get lab blood drawn at 7:45 a.m. and stopped for a donut as a treat for not crying. So I'm not hungry now and that's when I have the worst time deciding on what to fix for supper.

Decided on salmon for Dane & grouper for neighbor Jim and me.  I've got green beans, baby potatoes to steam/smash/crisp and I'll probably make a small side salad.  Glad I came up with a plan!

My thermapen died so I got on line and ordered another one.....got one for Jim, too. If it's the last thing I do I'm gonna teach him to cook foods he likes. He just doesn't know how to judge doneness and a thermapen, with a temperature cheat-sheet made by me, will be just the thing. He bought some lamb chops that he loves and he said he would cut every smidgen of fat off the edges before he grilled them. I said, "no, put them on the grill on their edge to really sear & melt off that fat ~ it's there to protect the meat from overcooking and getting tough". Now I just need to teach him how to probe in through the side to get an accurate temperature.

I'll give him a lesson tonight when I'm cooking fish for supper.

I just dropped my Thermapen so it only works when it wants to. I do have two others but they don't work great either.

I thought mine just needed a battery change ~ uses two 2032 disc type batteries. We changed the batteries but it still just cycles through different temps so I ordered a new one. I didn't realize it when I ordered them but I ordered one red and one green ~ ~ Christmas Colors!

I just like to have something bright so when I open the drawer I can spot it immediately. My other one was purple.

ribs with a sauce I made up on the fly. Half a can of pineapple chunks, chopped onion, a red pepper, a bit of worchester sauce mixed with some Bisto gravy, then poured over the ribs which were pretty well done already in the oven. Pretty good, leftovers will be better tomorrow 'cause the ribs could use a little more time in the oven. Not bad, but not worth a picture.

My pic came out looking burned but it really wasn't all that dark ~ the grouper was cooked to just 140°, a perfect temperature ~ ~ ~ because my new Thermapen CAME TODAY!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Dane mentioned after we ate and Jim had gone home that he noticed Jim didn't leave much on his plate ~ he must have really liked what you fixed! Don't you love when that happens?

It was pretty good. Dane had his salmon, which always makes him happy, and he had some of my grouper because I always seem to have more than I can eat. Jim even asked how I made the potatoes. Steamed in the microwave, smashed & then crisped up in a skillet with olive oil and seasoned well with s&p. They're always a hit.....tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

I've cooked, eaten, and made lots of headcheese using pork hocks, have never cooked the feet. Is there actually any meat on them? When I made hocks and sauerkraut, my hubby's best friend always traded the meat of the hocks for the skin. That's all he wanted, the skin, sauerkraut and a potato.

I had to look up what a Thermapan is, I just have one with a probe, a wire attached and then the thingy that tells me the temperature. No battery.

This is a picture of the thermapen thermometer I use. It registers the accurate temperature in 2 - 3 seconds. I use it for meats, bread (on the rare occasion I actually bake....), casseroles, cakes, etc.

I love that it's thin and I can usually judge where the middle of the dish is.

I couldn't cook without a Thermapen.

Bought myself a Christmas present. A meat slicer. I was going to return it but decided to hell with it and used it yesterday. It is a Chef's Choice. Came with a serrated and non-serrated blade. It was very nice and cleaned up easy.

I was outside a few minutes ago and something on my neighbor's flagpole caught my eye. I'm no bird expert but I'm guessing this is an American Hawk.....

When I was sorting through the freezer to get some chicken thighs for supper I spied the small package of leftover chicken from when I made the Million Dollar Chicken dinner. Suddenly, even though I KNOW I'm making chicken for supper, I wanted some chicken salad for my lunch. So that's what I tossed together......love when I think ahead and make my leftovers really flat so they thaw in just minutes!

I had chicken thighs out for supper and went looking for a recipe that sounded good. Found one with a mushroom cream sauce and, since I knew I had mushrooms it was the winning entry! It turned out really good, a keeper. I used my spiralizer to make zucchini/carrot/onion 'spaghetti' and heated some of the leftover beans (I've still got another meal of those left to use).

That looks really good. I really should take my spiralizer down from to cupboard and have it handier so I would use it more. I've only used it three or four times in the two years that I've had it. Gonna have to do some re-organizing maybe in my pantry.

I'm thinking next time of doing the carrots & zucchini in a ribbon cut. Somehow changing the shape changes the taste. It's easy to clean so that's a huge plus ~ I just have to let it sit out to dry completely because I store it in the original box in a cabinet in the garage.