Corn & Cheese Chowder and Cornbread

Bev had a dozen ears of good, fresh, young corn and since the weather had cooled, she decided to make it into corn chowder.  She checked the web and decided she liked the recipe from Pioneer Woman for Corn & Cheese Chowder, but she adapted it a quite a bit - click on the link for the original.  I would like Ree’s site if she didn’t show a half dozen photos of adding salt to a dish – a slight exaggeration.

Arroz Con Pollo (Rice With Chicken)

When I saw this recipe on Chris’ Nibble Me This blog, I knew I wanted to try it and I considered it for my BD dinner but it didn’t satisfy my easy, little mess criteria.  Chris made it with the goal of replicating the version he had eaten at the Knoxville Pelancho’s Restaurant - the place that contributed the most to my margarita recipe. 

We basically followed Chris’ recipe with three deviations:

1. We used chicken breasts as that’s what we had.

2. We had no sazon spice and made our own  - ½ t coriander, ½ t cumin, ½ t garlic powder, ½ t salt, ½ t paprika (or turmeric for yellow)

3. We made the queso sauce with what we had on hand and needed to use. 

Green Chile Lasagna

As soon as I saw this recipe on Heathers blog, Rocky Mountain Cooking, my first thought was this had to be tried with the roasted Hatch green chiles we had in the freezer from last fall’s western trip – Heather actually took us to the place we bought them in Denver.  

Birthday Dinner & Football

Like most families, Bev grew up in one that insisted your birthday meal be something special and she still likes to do that – ala Pat’s recent meal.  She’d been asking me what I wanted and several things were considered but I finally decided I wanted something good but very easy for both of us with little mess.

And a couple of days before the meal, rotisserie chicken with vegetables, all cooked on the grill, showed up on Penny’s blog at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen and it looked like a great solution to my meal criteria.

Steak, Green Beans, and Horses

The other night, I was in the mood for steak and Bev found some green bean bundles in the freezer from last year’s garden.  I grilled them both on the charcoal grill to get this.

We have a vacuum sealer and I continue to be impressed with the more-than-a-year-old food that we discover and eat.  The beans were as fresh and tasty as they would have been after just a month in the freezer and they were very good grilled - everything is better wrapped in char grilled bacon.  The steaks had been in there awhile as well and I consider the vacuum sealer a must for our lifestyle - we wore out a FoodSaver and now have a commercial grade one from Cabela's. 

Sunday Humor - USRSF

I saw this on Facebook and being from both WV and TN, so after a chuckle, just had to post it here.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

Chicken Marsala for Pat’s Birthday

We managed to let Pat’s (SIL) birthday slip by us and to make up for it, we offered to cook her a meal of her choosing and she selected chicken Marsala and invited four of her friends for the event.  

Easy Individual Tomato Pies

As summer and tomato season begin to wind down, it’s time to be sure we’ve eaten plenty of the good ones and this meal was to accomplish this goal.  I had something else in mind for breakfast but Bev wanted to make individual tomato pies using the recipe from the Roseville Bed and Breakfast courtesy of Suzanne Cook & Company.  We served them to the attendees at our RV rally in May and they went over well.  

A Fish Meal With The Lusk’s

A year ago, we joined the local chapter of the FMCA called the Tennessee Travelers as a way of having monthly RVing opportunities and meeting new RVers the area.  We have met many fine people and invited one nearby couple over for a fish dinner - we knew it was a favorite of theirs.  Good friend, Joe, and SIL, Pat, also joined us.

We decided on a European style meal (several courses over an extended time) with a menu of raw oysters, chargrilled oysters, oysters Rockefeller, bread, fried crappie, slaw, hush puppies, and homemade peach ice cream.

We bought a box of oysters from the Shrimp Dock in Maryville and according to the box, they came from Sea Farms Inc. in Hudgins, VA so I assume they are from Chesapeake Bay. 

The first appetizer of raw oysters was served with Ina Garten’s Cocktail Sauce, lemon wedges, and saltines.