Greek Lemon-Butter Chicken & Smashed Potatoes

I was planning to make a soup for our Friday get together but with temps hovering in the low 80’s, I opted for something else – even had to turn the AC back on but highs in the 50’s next week.  Since it could cook during happy hour without my attention, I settled on using the recipe for Greek Lemon-Butter Chicken & Smashed Potatoes from “delish” that Bev had found.  Since most of our group prefers breasts, I substituted them for thighs and I increased the ingredient amounts by 50% for the six of us to get the recipe below.

Delicious Chicken Riggies (Chicken and Rigatoni)

I’ve had this dish teed up in my que since the recipe for it appeared on Dennis’ “Ask Chef Dennis” blog.  So, when the occasion arose for us to cook a meal for our neighbors, this one fit the bill.  According to Dennis “Chicken Riggies aka Utica Chicken Riggies is spicy comfort food that takes pasta dishes to a whole new level of deliciousness.  Chicken riggies or Utica riggies is a popular Italian-American pasta dish native to the Utica area in New York State. They’re a local specialty dish, that you’ll find at almost every restaurant in central New York.”  I used the recipe ingredients except I subbed chicken breasts and I changed the assembly method a little.  You can click on the link above for the original recipe and Dennis’ pics.

Delicious Country Baked Steak With Onion Gravy

We really enjoy baked county steak and gravy but haven’t had it in a year, so when I saw Chef Dennis’ recipe for Smothered Cube Steak on his “Ask Chef Dennis” blog I decided to adapt it.  His dish uses cubed steak and it is totally made on the cooktop but I wanted to bake it, so I used his spices and instructions through the gravy step then added everything to a pan to bake.  For Dennis’ original recipe and his usual good pics, you can click on the above link.

Classic Hoppin Johns

During a recent visit to the Mennonite Farm Market, Bev picked up some purple-hulled field peas (similar to black-eyed peas) and after shelling she had four cups.  I went in search of recipes that would be different than just cooking them like dried beans and what I found was the recipe for Classic Hoppin John’s on the Southern Living site.  Since we like to have the peas on New Years Day for good luck, we decided to make the hoppin john’s now for supper and freeze the leftovers to eat on Jan. 1 for good luck.

Sockeye Salmon With Dill Sauce And Broccoli Casserole

We hadn’t cooked fish in a while and had plenty of salmon in the freezer so it was on the menu for this day.  The salmon was wild-caught Sockeye that we bought back in the summer when it was in season and on sale.

Cottage Pie Baked Potatoes Ala Mary & Breakfast

I am a potato fan and could eat them about every day – maybe the Irish blood in me – and I love Cottage Pie (Shepherd’s Pie from beef).  So when I saw Mary’s recipe for Cottage Pie Baked Potatoes on her “Vegetable Recipes” blog, I knew I had to try it.  Bev had just been to the Mennonite market and brought home some fine looking Yukon Gold potatoes that I could to use.  I followed Mary’s recipe but didn’t take pics of the process as they looked just like Mary’s which you can see by clicking on the above link.

Our Summertime RVing Saga And The Pups

It has been an unbelievably bad summer for us and RVing.  It all began as we were on our way to a club rally just east of Asheville, NC where I was the rally master.  We were about 60 miles into the trip on I-40 E. when we got a low coolant alarm and fortunately, we were at an exit where we could add coolant.  We got back on the road and went about two miles when the engine began coughing and blowing out white smoke.

Delicious Crab Cakes With Lump Crab Meat

Our son and UT graduate, Rhett, drove into Knoxville from his home in South Carolina to go to the UT/USC football game with some of his fraternity brothers this past weekend.  On Sunday, he and Beth came to down to our place for a short visit before heading home.

You may recall on my last post for Crab Imperial Stuffed Crappie And Shrimp that I stated “One of these days I'm going to turn loose of some of the kids inheritance and buy some jumbo lump crab meat.”