Category: Food For Thought

Sometimes it’s not about what you want for dinner, but what you have in the pantry. Our refrigerator is completely packed, our pantry is at capacity, but for some reason there’s still nothing to eat. I have everything to cook with, but nothing to cook. How is that even possible?

One thing I try to keep on hand, is three cans of minced clams. That way if all else fails, or it’s just a cold and dreary day, I can whip up some clam chowder. Or at least my version of it, which is less clams and more chowder, and not as rich as most recipes. All the other ingredients (potatoes, onions, bacon, milk, frozen corn) are things I always have on hand.

Then I thought I’d bake a cake. I found a box of cake mix and some instant vanilla pudding, which I had left over from making rum cakes at Christmas. Being orange farmers, we have orange juice in the freezer. So orange juice bundt cake it is.

Most importantly,  I always have my clean-up crew on hand, just in case I drop something while I’m cooking.

 

It’s that time of year to spread a little holiday cheer. I used to do a whole lot more holiday baking, but I still make a few things. Christmas jam is a standard because it’s so easy to make, is a nice festive red, and it’s really tasty. It’s also foolproof.

I vow to never make plum jelly again. I made some that didn’t jell. Dumped it back in the pot, added more pectin, and I still have many jars of what could only be plum pancake syrup. Sigh! So I’m sticking with my Christmas strawberry/cranberry jam.

I also have a few standing orders for rum cake. Nothing fancy there, it’s the ancient Bacardi rum cake recipe. But it’s about as good as a cake can get, is super moist, and lasts for days. Plus did I mention it’s full of RUM?

It remains to be seen what else crawls out of my kitchen this holiday season. I made some good old oatmeal cookies this morning. I was grocery shopping with Mr. Man the other day and he decided he needed oatmeal cookies. I’m not one to keep anyone from their dreams, so we bought some oatmeal. I patiently waited for several days, thinking maybe he was going to make his cookie dream come true, and I could just swoop in and help myself. But noooooo. He outlasted me. I finally gave up and made them myself.

Other possibilities this season include chocolate covered brandied cherries, chocolate covered brownie bites, fudge, assorted cookies, cheesecake, toffee, caramels….. Just gained 20 pounds thinking about it. Maybe I should take a pass. Or maybe not. We’ll see……

A little late to reflect on Thanksgiving, but it’s  a busy time of year. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, it’s a mad rush to get everything done and try to keep from gaining twenty pounds. I’ll be an epic failure at that last one.

I did the whole Thanksgiving feast this year, and how did I survive? PLAN AHEAD!

I cooked everything myself. Dinner was ready at 1:30. And how did I spend my morning? Washed my hair. Had a leisurely cup or two of coffee while I watch a Hallmark Christmas movie. Played some computer games. No kidding. It was a very relaxing day, because I did absolutely everything ahead of time.

A couple of weeks before, I made sweet potatoes and stuck them in the freezer. The longer they sit in that sauce getting delicate, the better they taste. I just put then in the fridge to thaw out a couple of days ahead of time.

Two days before, I made the things that would keep: Noni’s Italian cake, chocolate Kahlua bundt cake, and carrot cake. The day before I made pumpkin pie, apple pie, mashed potatoes, dressing, roasted brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, and the infamous green bean casserole. Prepped stuff for a salad bar and set the table the table too.

Thanksgiving morning, we shoved the turkey in an oven bag, and put it in to bake at 8:00. Then I had nothing to do until I started sticking things in the oven at noon. It was awesome.

Why eat so early? Well, a few people have to go to another house for dinner that night. But mostly it’s because our Thanksgiving tradition requires “Second Meal”. No matter how miserable we are, nobody can go home until we drag out all the leftovers and go at it again. Most heat up plates of their favorite stuff. I require a cold turkey sandwich with lots of mayo and salty Ruffles potato chips with rrridges. We all have our traditions, so don’t poo poo ours.

Of course I was too busy fixing food to take time to take any pictures. Some of the recipes I used are already posted. I’ll post the rest without photos and you can just imagine they look good. Maybe next time I fix them, I’ll remember to take a picture. But don’t hold your breath.

Last weekend we fixed our son Jace The Big Birthday Dinner. I figured it would be better than going out, plus we could enjoy a nice day outside with the dogs, setting up an agility course. We set the bar pretty low when it comes to excitement, but that’s the way we roll.

The menu started off with spinach salad and some homemade foccacia. I thought that would be a nice special effort. Then we had prime rib, lobster (for Jace), cedar plank salmon (for Angela, since she doesn’t like lobster), pilaf, & broccoli. Yeah, phoned in sides with that pilaf and broccoli, because I lost the will to cook. Then I forgot to put the pilaf on the table, so we had to eat that all week. Does everyone feel better about themselves now?

Angela brought three types of macaroons, because she’s an overachiever. They were all awesome of course! I made an apple pie because it’s Jace’s favorite, so he could take the rest home and pack on a couple more pounds. He had it all to himself since Angela doesn’t like apple pie. See what I have to put up with here?

Merl and I had been dieting all week, so believe me, there’s NOTHING we wouldn’t eat. Not that that’s any different from any other day, but right about now we’re much more grateful. It sure was tough to send the rest of that apple pie packing.

Anyway, I was too busy to take pictures, but I’ll post recipes for spinach salad, foccacia, and pineapple/bbq glazed salmon. (Decided fooling with the cedar plank just wasn’t worth the trouble!)

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year for the first time in 30 years, and it wasn’t a disaster. I didn’t take any photos because I was too busy cooking, but I’m going to post at least a couple of recipes, for cranberry sauce and turkey rub. I don’t want to forget what I put on the turkey because it was awesome.

Since I was cooking everything myself, I thought I’d do as much ahead of time as possible. I’d been eyeballing a recipe for make ahead turkey gravy for a long time, and decided I’d give it a go. It calls for roasting turkey wings with vegetables, then boiling them, then using the broth to make the gravy. Since you can’t buy just turkey wings, at least I haven’t seen them, we got some pruning shears and hacked the wings off of our bird. So yeah, you wouldn’t really want to see photos of my double amputee Thanksgiving turkey. Or maybe you would. Anyway, we carved it up before company arrived, so no one was the wiser.

Back to the make ahead gravy. Sucko. It tasted like carrot water. I doctored it up with packaged gravy mix until it was tolerable, but it wasn’t great. What was great was the broth from cooking the turkey. I cooked it in an oven bag, so there was lots of broth. It tasted amazing and made the best gravy. I didn’t even have to doctor it up to make it taste good. Just thickened it with a little cornstarch. So moral is, there are no short cuts if you want good turkey gravy. Sorry famous chef who shall remain nameless.

And for posterity, I pass along recipes for the turkey rub and easy cranberry sauce.

Guests for dinner tonight. Merl had a hankerin’ to smoke some brisket and I’m not going to stand in his way. He patted it down with our favorite rub, and plans to cook it for ten hours, low & slow. If it’s not great, it’ll be a tragedy and we’ll be ordering pizza for our guests. You never know, could happen.

I’m making some pilaf and roasted asparagus to go with that, plus a salad and some french bread broiled with butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese on top. Can’t go wrong with that….I hope!

And then there’s dessert. I’ve had a request for a cheesecake recipe. I make several different types of cheesecake because like ice cream, it’s all good in my book. But tonight I have a cheesecake purist coming for dinner. He likes his straight up, no frills, no toppings, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I also have a family member that can’t eat gluten. So I figure I’ll start with this basic cheesecake recipe that has a gluten free filling. (Most of my recipes call for a small amount of flour.) I use regular graham crackers for the crust, but you can buy gluten free graham cracker crumbs if gluten is your kryptonite.

So, cheesecake’s in the oven. Brisket is on the grill. The yard smells like a forest fire. And the dog is looking hopeful. If all goes well, I’ll post asparagus and cheesecake recipes tomorrow. If not I’ll post a photo of an empty pizza box!

 

It’s just that this is the busiest time of the year for real estate appraisers. People are paying me to work. Nobody’s paying me to cook. Most of the time, I don’t even get a pat on the head. So, I hold out my hand and weigh my choices. Money on one hand, thankless servitude on the other. Kind of a no-brainer.  One hand’s hanging a whole lot lower than the other.

That’s not to say we’ve given up eating. We always do plenty of that. There just hasn’t been much going on worth sharing.

But, Tuesday’s Mr. Man’s birthday, so things should be a little more promising. His dream dinner is pretty much some kind of grilled meat and a baked potato, skimp on the veggies and don’t waste your time on a salad. But he won’t be the only one eating dinner, so we’ll see if we can’t do a little better, make everyone happy, and hopefully I can at least get a recipe or two posted.

Till then…

Here’s to not cooking all day! I’m very goal oriented, so I’m sure I can succeed.

As I write this, Mr. Man is in the kitchen making me breakfast, so we’re off to a good start. Smells like….bacon!

There’s a lovely new plant to kill sitting next to me. I give it about a month.

Son Jace and his fiance Angela are cooking dinner for me. I don’t know what, but I do know Jace will be making homemade cinnamon rolls for dessert. Maybe I can get the recipe for you!

So, sadly, on the second day of the Whole Life Challenge, I’ll be taking a mulligan. So glad there is room for failure built in!

I plan to do absolutely nothing today. Perfect! So Happy Mother’s Day to all the ladies out there. May you do exactly as you please and enjoy your day!

Maybe I can even get a hug from my son today without him gritting his teeth or saying, “It BURNS”! We all live in hope.

That would be some good Merrick grain and chicken free dry food, mixed with some beef that’s been slow cooked in a crock pot overnight, mixed with some human food grade dried fruits & veggies re-hydrated in a little water and beef broth, delicately warmed in the microwave and tossed at the table before serving. And that’s how we roll!

Word to the wise, if you dog’s constantly licking his paws, try eliminating chicken from his diet. Or grain. Or in our case, both. Sigh!