Sunday, March 17, 2024

My Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf & My Restaurant

To My Irish Friends Out There

Bev had bought a large package of ground beef for me to make deconstructed cabbage rolls and decided that she wanted to make meatloaf from the rest of the meat.  Now I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but it didn’t take me long to realize that her announcement meant no cooking for me.  Bev had selected a different-from-our-normal recipe to try and I think it’s because it had the soffritto in it – she likes the veggies in her meatloaf.  The recipe for My Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf came from Simply Recipes.  I show the original recipe below, but I scaled up the one Bev used for our 2½ lbs of meat.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Deconstructed Skillet Stuffed Cabbage Rolls And A Very Small Rant

We really enjoy cabbage rolls, especially when someone else makes them, so when I saw Kevin’s recipe for Deconstructed Skillet Stuffed Cabbage Rolls  on his “Closet Cooking” blog, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  I’m going way out on a limb here to say I actually changed a Kevin recipe a little based upon some other recipes I saw – I added some bacon & sausage and changed the cooking order just a little.  The original recipe and his great how-to pics can be found by clicking on the above link.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Simple and Delicious Pasta With Meat Sauce

I still try to use Sunday for pasta day but I didn’t feel like putting much effort into this meal so when I found a part full jar of Rao’s marinara and a package of burger in the fridge, a plan was born - Pam from “The Love Of Cooking” blog does this a lot on a much more sophisticated scale than me.  How about a simple meat sauce, me thinks, by simply combining my two finds with more Rao’s from the pantry (we try to keep it on hand but it’s obviously been discovered as it’s around twice the cost of most others).

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Hot Rods 50’s Diner

It’s been years since we visited Hot Rods in Alcoa, TN but since I had a 12:30 appt. in town and Bev wanted to visit Cindy at the rehab center, we decided to kill several bids with one stone including our meal out for the week and a stop for lawn lime at Rural King.  Hot Rods has a giant menu (eg - 80 kinds of burgers) and clicking on the link will take you to it.  It was a nasty weather day so I borrowed an outside pic from the web.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Ham and Spinach Frittata

I had a bag of spinach in the fridge and decided I wanted to turn it into a frittata that also used the ham we had on hand.  My web search led me to Lauren’s recipe for a Ham and Spinach Frittata on her “Elle & Pear” blog.  I followed the recipe as written but you can click on the link to see Lauren’s how-to and finished pics.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Steakhouse Steaks For the First Time & New Kitchen Lights

I can’t imagine how many steaks I’ve cooked in my lifetime and the vast, vast majority have been done on a charcoal or gas grill.  Only recently have I tried pan frying them and recently I cooked a beef tri-tip first in the oven then finishing in a pan on the cooktop (reverse sear method) .  While I’ve watched them cooked on TV many times by adding the crust in a hot pan then finishing in the oven, commonly called the Steakhouse Method, I don’t think I’ve ever used it.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Angie’s Kitchen in Loudon, TN & Cindy Update

Before I get to the restaurant visit, here is some info about a pretty serious situation with Cindy. You likely know by now that she has been living with us for several years and for the past many weeks she has been dealing with some serious pain in her hip and knee.  She has been to several doctors and none of them have been able to say for sure what is needed to fix her problem.  Last Thursday, she went to see about getting another injection in her hip and after being told about how much pain she was in, the doctor sent her for a hip x-ray.  At 4 pm that day, the doctor’s office called and told her to go to the hospital for emergency surgery the next morning, but didn’t tell her why. After the surgery we learned that she had an infection in her hip that even required some bone removal – bless her heart.  

She will be in the hospital until tomorrow, then go to a step-down location, and finally home for six weeks on an IV.  We don’t yet know if it’s Mrsa (and sure hope not), the cause of the infection, or the next step for the hip.  We are just happy that the problem has been discovered and that she is no longer crying from the intense pain.  Here she is post surgery after her sister fixed her hair.