Muffuletta & Olive Salad

REMEMBERING OUR FALLEN HEROS

I could have broken this into a couple of posts but I wanted us to get our muffuletta's worth.

I recently had the urge for a muffuletta sandwich which is not an easy desire to fill here in our area due to the ingredients as it is an Italian sandwich and there are no Italian markets around these parts.  The muffuletta was created in 1906 at the Central Grocery in New Orleans by Sicilian immigrant Salvatore Lupo and we ate one of theirs during a trip to NOLA in 2010 – actually we just ate half of one. 

Braised Beef Shanks and Strawberry Pie

For years, I have been complaining that we need a good butcher shop in this area and now, not only do we have one but Hyde Farms Butcher Shop is only four miles away and they raise their own beef and pork. Now, I need to start supporting them to help them stay in business so I stopped in the other day and bought three nice, big beef shanks to braise.

Seared Ahi Tuna Steaks & Soy Sesame Asparagus

When I thawed out the package of tuna for the previous meal, I still had a 14oz. and an 8oz. piece left which I decided would feed three people so I saved it for our Friday get together – Joe, Cindy, and I ate tuna and Bev and Pat leftover Pasta Di Angelo.  I found another Asian recipe for Six-Minute Seared Ahi Tuna Steaks on the "Bowl Of Deliciousness" blog.

I increased the marinade amount by 50% to get the recipe below.

I had mentioned in the previous post that most tuna is gassed (with carbon monoxide) to achieve the bright red color and it's easy to understand why as ours looks like beef liver.

Sesame Crusted Seared Tuna & Knockout Roses

Last fall, Bev cut her knock out roses way back and was afraid she had overdone it but they look like they loved it.

Spaghetti D’Angelo

While I plan to stay on a Keto-like diet, I’m also going to indulge with some carbs on occasion – such as pasta a few times a month.  I had been saving this recipe for Spaghetti D’Angelo from Chef Dennis since last fall and it seemed like a good one for my first real pasta dish in 2022 (I ate just a little back in mid-March).  I upscaled the recipe for 3 servings (shown below) but believed it would be plenty for four.  I used mini farfalle pasta as I believe shaped pasta works better with chunky sauces – it’s hard to get a mushroom to cling to rolled up spaghetti on a fork.  As you can tell from Chef Dennis’ pic below, he added the sauce over the plated pasta while I mixed them together prior to plating.  Click on the above link for the original recipe and more photos.

Pineola, NC Rally – Trip Day 7 – Campground And Trip Home

Our original plan was to return home on Saturday but since the weather for Friday was mostly rain and then all rain predicted on Saturday, we decided to go on home on Friday so we left during a lull in the showers and in time to beat the Friday afternoon traffic near home.

Pineola, NC Rally – Trip Day 5 & 6 - Camp Meals & Louise's

There was no planned group activity for Wednesday so it was an opportunity for folks to do as they pleased, except we did have two group meals planned at the campground, beginning with breakfast.  During our rally, we had use of the campground’s open-air pavilion and this was the location for breakfast including a fire in the fireplace – also our evening fire location nice setup on the banks of the Linville River.

Pineola, NC Rally – Trip Day 4 - Roan Mountain & Little Switzerland

The group plan for Day 4 was to start with a visit to Grandfather Mountain State Park but I could not interest my girls in going and it would have been more walking than I wanted to do so we made an alternate plan for ourselves.  After not being there for 10 years, we made the 20 mile drive to Roan Mountain, TN for breakfast at the Smokey Mountain Bakers and Wood Fired Pizza for breakfast.

Pineola, NC Rally – Trip days 2 & 3 - Blowing Rock

We awoke Sunday to a cool (42F), misty mountain morning and I could just imagine how nice it would be here on a hot July day at home.  Since the rally didn’t officially begin until 6pm today (three coaches had come in on Sat), we decided to just drive around the area a little before we had to cook our dish for this evening’s pot luck supper.  The trees are fully leafed out at home but they are several days behind here in high county.

Finally, An RV Trip – The Drive & Campground

Covid-19 had significantly waned, the hip replacement surgery is behind me, the coach is hopefully readied, and Cindy is in place to house-sit so we headed out for our first RV trip in 53 weeks.  Our friends and neighbors, Steve and Pat, have put together a great sounding Tennessee Travelers Club Rally to the western North Carolina high country.

Hamburger

You know what this is?

Yes, of course, it’s a hamburger.

Chicken Fricassée

Perhaps being a novice to French food, I’m easily impressed by the names of dishes and Chicken Fricassee is one of those names, so when I recently saw a blog posting for the dish, I wanted to make it – while I’m still dieting, I’m no longer on a near starvation diet so I can eat meals like this on occasion.  As best I can learn a fricassee is between a saute and a stew because it is cooked without liquid to begin then in liquid at the end.  I believe the chicken version generally uses thighs and legs to get a dish that looks like this. 

This is mine and I just realized this recipe didn't have carrots.