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Friday, December 29, 2023

Christmas 2023 At Almost Heaven South

Just as last year, Kathy and Keith, came from Nebraska to Tennessee for a couple of weeks and spent the first part of the visit with Wende and the second part with us.  After they did Christmas morning with Eliza at Wende’s, they all came down to our place for more Eliza present opening and Christmas dinner.

With the addition of friend Kathy, her daughter Ashley, and our neighbors, Pat & Steve, we had 14 for dinner - Pat, Steve, Ashley, Kathy, Wende, Ralph, Beanie, Eliza, Kathy, Keith, Larry, Beverly, Pat, Cindy.

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Making Country Ham Broth

DO US A BIG FAVOR AND HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A GREAT 2024

That's our plan.

While I had often mentioned our country ham broth on this blog, I can’t find that I have ever documented the process so I decided to do so for our most recent batch.  We are very lucky to have a famous country ham and bacon maker (Benton’s Country Hams) within a 10 mile drive and they debone many of the hams they sell and the bones are free for the asking.  I stopped by the other day to buy a whole rib roast, which they also sell, for our smoked prime rib Christmas dinner and I picked up 10 ham bones while I was at it.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Crispy Chicken Cutlets

When Pam recently posted the recipe for Crispy Chicken Cutlets on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog, I knew I wanted to give them a try.  I increased most of the ingredients for my three chicken breasts and since I prefer putting most seasonings directly on the meat, I changed the seasoning method a little and made a couple of substitutions.  You can find Pam’s original along with her good pics by clicking on the link.


Sunday, December 17, 2023

Manicotti Using Homemade Crepes

I’ve been trying to make a pasta dish on Sundays and Bev recently suggested we have manicotti using homemade crepes as we have done before.  Most stuffed manicotti seem to be made without meat but I decided I wanted to use our good Wurst Kitchen Italian sausage so off to the web I went for a search.  I found a recipe simply titled Manicotti Recipe on the “Dinner At The Zoo” blog and I opted to go with it.  I made it by the recipe except I used homemade crepes per the first link above.  You can click on the second link for pics and the recipe using store-bought manicotti.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Bologna Sandwiches Revisited – Supper & Breakfast

I’ve been wanting a fried boloney (bologna) sandwich lately as I recalled the one’s we had about a year ago that were based on the one I had in Rugby TN,

Like theirs, I made mine with a thick piece of the meat.

Monday, December 11, 2023

Tennessee Travelers (RV Travel Club) Christmas Luncheon & Beef Stew For Friday

We had our annual club Christmas Luncheon at Chesapeake’sSeafood House in downtown Knoxville on Dec 5.  Thirteen of us were able to attend and as always it’s good to have one final visit with friends before winter and the end of our rallies until April.

Friday, December 8, 2023

CREAMY SALMON ALFREDO PASTA

Doesn’t the title alone awaken your taste buds.  While on the girl’s junket to Marco Island, FL, Cindy had a birthday and when they got home, I decided to fix her a special BD dinner using our last piece of Sockeye Salmon from the freezer.  The dish I settled on was Creamy Salmon Alfredo Pasta using the recipe from Orchids and Sweet Tea.  I made the alfredo sauce by the blog recipe but I cooked the salmon as shown below.  The original recipe and good pics can be found by clicking on the link above.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Socialism - Food For Thought

 I almost never do politics on this blog but I found this article to be too interesting not to post.

"Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that the president's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the presidents's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.”

Does any of this seem to apply to the USA?

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Easy Chicken Tetrazzini

For our three person Friday get-together (Bev, Pat, and Cindy are in FL), I wanted to cook something for which I had the ingredients, was pretty simple, didn’t dirty many pans, and met the likes/dislikes of the diners.  As it turned out, I had a box of gluten free pasta and some chicken breasts and the dish I came up with was chicken tetrazzini.  The recipe I picked was Easy Chicken Tetrazzini from Amy on her “Belly Full” blog.  I made just a couple of changes as noted.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Creamed Cauliflower (aka Creamy Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower with Bacon) & Thanksgiving Dinner

When daughter Wende invited me over for what is becoming her traditional Thanksgiving supper of Cornish hens cooked over an open fire, I volunteered to bring a side dish.  My original choice was Brussels sprouts & sweet potato hash but when I saw Kevin’s recipe for Creamed Cauliflower, I changed my mind.

On his “Closet Cooking” blog, Kevin describes the dish as “A quick and easy stove-top creamed cauliflower with butter, garlic, parmesan, and bacon!”  I made it by his recipe below but since I made it ahead of time, I transferred to a dish for reheating at Wende’s and I used one of his options to add shredded cheese to the top.  For the complete list of options and his good how-to pics, just click on the above link.

But before I get the cauliflower, this is the main event being cooked over the open fire - potatoes and onions in the foil.


Friday, November 24, 2023

Pork Chop Supreme & Buttery Peas

I had three pieces of pork loin in the freezer and two of them went toward making Pork Green Chile Stew and I opted to use the third one to make six ¾” chops for this dish.  The recipe for Pork Chop Supreme came from the “Sweet Peas Kitchen” blog and I followed it as written.  I made it for our Friday group which was only three of us with Bev and Pat in Marco and Cindy off to Nashville – since I’m cooking for one, I wanted leftovers.


Tuesday, November 21, 2023

How To Make The Best Scrambled Eggs


Using the scrambling technique (same as this recipe) shown to me by my grandmother, I’ve always considered my eggs to be very good and the grandkids have always requested them.  So when Jenn put up her post on How To Make The Best Scrambled Eggs
on her “Once Upon A Chef” blog, I knew I had to try it.  Her recipe is for six eggs but I was only cooking two so I revised the recipe as shown below plus I omitted the dill and chives so I could compare these to mine.  To get the original along with pics, click on the above link.


Saturday, November 18, 2023

Eliza Brings Her Family For Salmon, Tots, And Peas & Carrots

We didn’t get together for Eliza’s birthday, so I invited her to bring her family down for Sunday dinner and to get her present.  The menu for the meal was a 3lb.6oz. piece of Sockeye Salmon, baked tater tots, and peas and carrots.  I opted for the peas and carrots because I had several bags of peas in the freezer.  Rather than our normal of just tossing them in butter, I decided to use Neli’s recipe for Carrots and Peas from her “Delicious Meets Healthy” blog.  I doubled her recipe to get the one below but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Pork Green Chile Stew

When I saw Chef Lea Ann’s recipe for Pork Green Chile Stew on her "Cooking On The Ranch” blog, I thought it would work well for our Hispanic food loving Friday card group.  So, when this chilly, drizzly Friday came along, it became the meal choice.

One her blog, Lea Ann described it as “A hearty stew brimming with Chile Peppers, cubed pork loin roast, potatoes and hominy. Slightly spicy, slightly tangy and mostly mouthwateringly delicious.” I made it sorta by the recipe except I used canned chilies, but the original along with pics can be found by clicking on the above link.

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Cedar Plank Salmon With Maple Ginger Glaze & Smoker Repaired

Not sure how I got there but I ended up looking online at some cedar planks for grilling and since I had plenty of Sockeye Salmon in the freezer, I ordered a 12 pack of planks – probably from Amazon.  As best I can tell, I’ve only made this dish once since I began blogging and since we thought it was just okay, I went in search of a new recipe.  The recipe I selected for Cedar Plank Salmon With Maple Ginger Glaze  came from Lisa on her “Downshiftology” blog.


Monday, November 6, 2023

Sunday’s Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Italian Sausage Pasta

When I saw this recipe, all of the words in the title appealed to me so I put Kevin’s recipe for Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Italian Sausage Pasta from his “Closet Cooking” blog on my try soon list.

Bev and I both like pasta so we have decided to try having it every Sunday beginning with this dish.  Kevin describes the dish as “Pasta in a tasty tomato and roasted sweet red pepper sauce with spicy Italian sausage, cream and plenty of parmesan!”  Since sausage and pasta come in pound packages and I wanted leftovers, I doubled everything to get the recipe below but the original recipe plus good pics can be found by clicking the above link.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

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.

Friday, October 27, 2023

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.


Tuesday, October 24, 2023

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.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

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.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

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.


Thursday, October 12, 2023

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.

Monday, October 9, 2023

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.

Friday, October 6, 2023

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.” 

Friday, September 29, 2023

Crab Imperial Stuffed Crappie And Shrimp

I’ve been wanting to make crab stuffed fish for some time and when I saw a recent recipe for stuffed flounder I decided now was a good time but using crappie rather than flounder.  I used a combination of several recipes to come up with the one below.  I once again used canned Chicken Of The Sea Crab Claw Meat.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Authentic Mexican Posole

We had pulled pork left from our Loaded BBQ Pork Potato Casserole  and decided to turn it into Posole which we hadn’t made in a long time.  After looking around, I selected the recipe for Authentic Mexican Posole from Food.com because we had most of the ingredients on hand and it used canned chiles.  I changed the instructions quite a bit as I was starting with cooked meat but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.


Saturday, September 23, 2023

Angel Biscuits For Happy Hour And Breakfast

Bev had made arrangements for the neighbors to join us for happy hour to try her first attempt at making Angel Biscuits, which we had known about for some time.  I assumed we would have biscuits with butter, jelly, and tomatoes but when I went into the kitchen to check on her, Bev was well into meat cooking.  She used the biscuit recipe from Southern Living Magazine and made it as written with a yield of 19 good sized (about 3”) biscuits.  What makes them different from other biscuits is that they contain yeast in addition to the normal baking powder/baking soda and the dough can be kept in the fridge for five days and used as needed.


Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Loaded BBQ Pork Potato Casserole

I was planning to make stir-fry for our Friday get-together and when I saw this recipe for Loaded BBQ Pork Potato Casserole on Tricia’s “Mom On Timeout” blog, I wished I had some pulled pork in the freezer.  During our Thursday drive down to the Englewood Farmers Market, we passed an Englewood, TN BBQ restaurant that Bev said she had always wanted to try.  So on our way home, we pulled into Navarro’s Smokehouse full parking lot and decided it must be good so the stir-fry was out and the casserole was in.  After tasting the pulled pork, I knew why they were full.  

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Maryland Crab Cakes

Well, maybe not real Maryland crab cakes as Bev bought a couple cans of Chicken Of The Sea Crab Claw Meat on sale and we decided to turn one of them into crab cakes using our go-to recipe from the “Once Upon A Chef” blog.  I realize that the great crab cakes are made with lump and jumbo lump crab meat, but I just refuse to pay the very high prices for them ($36 for a pound for Chicken Of The Sea Lump at Walmart).

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Delicious Tomato Basil Pasta

We only had a few grape tomatoes but we had a bunch of small tomatoes from our garden and decided they should work in this recipe and we had a giant plant of fresh basil to use so we opted to make Chef Dennis’ Tomato Basil Pasta from his “Ask Chef Dennis” blog.  Since I prefer shaped pasta with chunky sauces, I used the box of penne we had on hand.

Monday, September 11, 2023

Bev’s Ride, A Couple Of Dishes, and My Owie

Before we retired, we bought a 1976 red Corvette that was to be Bev’s retirement car but it mostly just sat in the garage until we sold it a few years ago.  Now, she sure looks good in this 2004 Ferrari with 30,000 miles.


Friday, September 8, 2023

Mexican Johnny Cakes (Hoe Cakes) With Our Pinto Beans

In Sep 2022, I posted about our meal of Pinto Beans and Hoe Cakes but this meal is different in that we used our recipe for Mexican Cornbread for the cakes.  Johnny Cakes are made along the eastern seaboard from New England into the Caribbean Islands and are often called Hoe Cakes in the US South.  For this meal, I cut our Mexican cornbread recipe in half to get the one below.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Chopped BLT - A Nice Change

Maybe it’s just me, but I find a regular BLT hard to keep together when eating, especially if I set the sandwich down between bites so when I saw Kevin’s recipe for a Chopped BLT on his Closet Cooking Blog, I knew I wanted to try it.  Then I decided it would be a good meal for our Friday get-together but I increased the ingredients for the six of us.  After watching Kevin’s video and looking at his pics, I believed he used too much stuff for his two sandwiches so rather than just triple his, I used the ingredients below.  While it looks very neat to stack them up and chop them like Kevin did, I cut each of them separately and mixed them together.  You can click on the link above for the original recipe and Kevin's great pics.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Easy Swiss Steak - Super Good

I discovered a package of cubed steak in the freezer that needed to be used and our usual would have been to turn it into chicken fried steak or baked steak in gravy.  But in an effort to reduce calories, I opted to go with Swiss steak which we haven’t had in years – since I had no blog post about this dish, it must have been pre 2009.  I looked thru my saved recipes and finding nothing, I went to the web and selected the recipe for Easy Swiss Steak from the “Spend With Pennies” blog.  Factoid - "One would think the name comes from Switzerland, but it actually comes from the technique of tenderizing the meat by pounding or rolling, which is called “swissing” in England."  I adapted the recipe based on my larger meat amount.

Monday, August 28, 2023

Outstanding Fresh Tomato Tart with Dijon and Gouda

When Bev recently said she wanted to make tomato pie to use up some of our tomatoes, I searched my saved blog recipes and came across Lea Ann's recipe Fresh Tomato Tart with Dijon and Gruyere on her “Cooking On The Ranch” blog.  After looking at Lea Ann’s tart version, we decided to go back to Ina Garten’s original recipe and make it on a sheet pan – much like a pizza.  Then we decided to use Gouda cheese as we had it on hand and Bev is not a fan of Swiss cheeses.  Then Bev decided to go all out and make the dough as well.  And finally, rather than make one large one she split the dough and made two of them on different days.

Friday, August 25, 2023

Greek Chicken with Lemon Vinaigrette – My Grilled Version

Bev recently said she would like some sort of lemon chicken so I went to my file of meals we’ve made and rated highly.  The one I came across was Greek Chicken with Lemon Vinaigrette that we had made about 13 months ago using the recipe from Pam on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog.  My blog comment about that meal was “OH WOW, this was one of the best chicken dishes we’ve ever had and we all oohed and aahed over it.”  But rather than make the same dish, I decided to see if I could adapt it for a grilled version but keeping the sauce the same.  Below is the recipe I came up with but this was the fried version.


Sunday, August 20, 2023

Chopped Cheese Sandwiches

Our Friday group loves hamburgers and when I saw Kevin’s recipe for chopped cheese sandwiches on his "Closet Cooking" blog, I knew it would be a hit although I haven’t a clue as to how he named it.  It’s basically a cheese burger that is not formed into a patty – like a sloppy joe.  wanted some leftovers so I doubled the recipe to get the ingredients list below and I changed the cooking instructions by precooking the meat and onions then adding them back to the pan for the sandwiches.  I've shown the original instructions below.


Thursday, August 17, 2023

Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo With Pesto & Canadian Bacon

Two things happened this summer that resulted in this dish: 1. We made Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo and 2. Bev decided after all of these years that she liked pesto once she ate Ina Garten’s version at a friends house.  So after I suggested we make pesto pasta, she suggested we combine the two dishes and below is the result.

Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo With Pesto

The Ingredients:

1¼ lb. grape and diced tomatoes

3/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 medium cloves garlic, finely minced by hand

18 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

1 cup pesto – Link above, we made a half recipe

Kosher salt

16 oz. thin spaghetti

The Directions:

1. Make the pesto per the recipe below and set aside.

2. In a pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta until al dente.

3. Drain pasta using a colander and return to cooking pot.

4. Add pesto to the pasta and stir well until the pesto is evenly distributed.

5. Add pasta to bowl with tomatoes.

Monday, August 14, 2023

Delicious Balsamic Cucumber Salad & BBQ

Bev makes lots of cucumber salad over the summer and she uses both a vinaigrette and a creamy dressing, making both to taste.  Tonight she chose to go with a recipe for Balsamic Cucumber Salad that she found on "Taste Of Home."  We sided it with a marinated sirloin steak from Food City that we will buy again.  The salad called for a balsamic vinaigrette but it didn’t provide a recipe so I used the one for Balsamic Honey Vinaigrette, also, from "Taste Of Home."

Balsamic Cucumber Salad 

Ingredients:

1 large English cucumber, halved and sliced (we used cukes from our garden)

2 cups grape tomatoes, halved (we used grape tomatoes from our garden)

1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced (we used a Vidalia onion)

1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below)

3/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes and onion. Add vinaigrette; toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, until serving. Just before serving, stir in cheese. 

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Fried Pork Tenderloin and Fondant Potatoes

Bev has been wanting to have pork tenderloin medallions and I have been wanting to make Fondant Potatoes so we whipped them up for our Friday card group.

For the pork, I sliced the tenderloin into about 5/8“ thick rounds then used the Jaccard to flatten them to 3/8“. 

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Two Meals In & Two Meals Out, Three Italian & One Hispanic, All Good

Simple Pizza At Home

After making the Pepperoni Pizza Quiche for breakfast , we had leftover stuffing and Bev suggested a very simple pizza for supper – flour tortilla coated with olive oil, then jack cheese, topped with the Quiche stuffing and a little Parmesan & basil.  Simple but very good.

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Pepperoni Pizza Quiche

I came across a frozen pie crust during my latest freezer organizing effort and decided we hadn’t made quiche in quite awhile and Bev suggested a version starring pepperoni.  I did a web search and found a recipe for Italian Quiche (With Pepperoni, Mushrooms, & Olives) which looked like a good place to start, especially since I had everything on hand.  I changed the recipe by using more veggies and cooking them to remove most of their liquid.  The original recipe can be found by clicking on the above link.


Monday, July 24, 2023

Pasta al Pomodoro Crudo (Pasta With No-Cook Raw Tomato Sauce)

Bev found this recipe for Spaghetti al Pomodoro Crudo on line at "Serious Eats" and since we had fresh tomatoes from the garden and fresh pasta from the farmers market, we thought they would make for a good meal.  Since Bev likes lots of marinara on her pasta, I was surprised she wanted to try this.  I used shaped pasta as I don’t think chunky sauce works well with string pasta.  For my 10 oz. of fresh pasta, I adjusted the sauce ingredients below but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.

Friday, July 21, 2023

CAJUN SALMON

When Pam recently posted the recipe for Cajun spices on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog she commented about the delicious Cajun Salmon her brother-in-law had made.  I immediately thought that we like Cajun and we have a salmon filet in the freezer so off I went in search of a recipe and there many on the web.  The recipe I settled on came from “Cooktoria” because I liked the combo of spices and sauce.  For the Cajun spice, I used my homemade Emeril’s Essence because I make it with no heat for Bev and Cindy then I just add it to mine.  For my three servings, I increased the sauce ingredients to get the recipe below.


Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Fun & Delicious Oxtail Taste Test

Actually, cow tails. When I’ve mentioned eating oxtails, some folks have said to me “not likely” and even when I pointed out that it was just another muscle on the cow, it didn’t seem to help much.  So, I decided to do a taste test and you know I love taste tests.  In addition to the cow tails, I cooked three beef shanks, which also can get the turned-up nose reaction, and a piece of chuck roast, which most everyone loves.  I had made Southern Smothered Oxtails about a year and a half ago and they were a hit so I used the same recipe for this meal.  Since I had a little over 8 lbs. of meat, I increased the other ingredients by 50%, but didn’t need to so I won’t reproduce it here.  You can click on the above link for my blog post or go to I Heart Recipes for the original.

First, I checked to be sure the meat would all fit in the pan.    


Saturday, July 15, 2023

Really Good, Slow-Cooker Goulash

I found myself reading online about Ukrainian food and decided to make one of their dishes to honor their situation.  It seems that Borscht and dumplings are two of their favorites but I opted to go with Guliash (Goulash) and it seems that there is very little differences between the goulashes eaten across Eastern Europe so I just picked a recipe that looked good to me – several used steak sauce (Heinz 57) and that didn’t appeal to me.  The recipe I chose for Hungarian Goulash came from Taste Of Home and I amended it a little to use ripe peppers and I omitted the sugar then, rather than egg noodles, I served it over mashed potatoes using just a basic recipe to make them.

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken - Three Delicious Meals

I am a big fan of salsa verde, an even bigger fan of pork chile verde (Oscar‘s in Durango, CO was my first), and Bev and I both want to lose some weight so when I saw this recipe for Salsa Verde Chicken from Kevin on his “Closet Cooking” blog, it moved to the top of my make-soon list.  For plenty of how-to pics, check out Kevin’s blog by clicking on the above link.