I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS
As I continue to work through our supply of frozen fish while Bev is gone, we had two remaining pieces of Halibut and we opted to cook them using the recipe for Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce from the “La Bella Vita” blog. The two pieces of fish were very different which is one of the reasons I cancelled my subscription from Wild Alaska Seafood Co. as I believed I was just getting the leftovers for a very high price.
Bev and Pat (SIL) are off to Marco Island, FL for their annual three week visit and since others were visiting with them each week, Cindy and I stayed home to mind the farm and look after the dogs – I’m very happy I don’t have to tend the four dogs by myself especially since Cindy is a pro (she pet sits for a living). Pat eats very little fin fish and while Bev eats other seafood, she doesn’t eat many fin fish either so this provides an opportunity for Cindy and I to eat as much as we want.
Our first fish meal was the day after Bev and Pat left and it used a simple puttanesca sauce that we have made a few times before and it made good use of the Pacific Cod that we had in the freezer. Cindy cooked and she sided the fish with baked acorn squash. Both dishes were very good and it was a healthy me to boot.
With Bev in Florida, Cindy and me are trying to have leftover soup in the fridge for ready lunches and since the last of our vegetable soup is now gone it was time for another soup. When Cindy made the Creamy Chicken Stew a short while ago, I posted that the broth would be our go-to for future chicken broth dishes and this chicken noodle soup is the first one. The following recipe is a combination of the chicken stew and my dad’s chicken noodle soup which are similar except for chicken preparation.
Our neighbors house is at the top of a hill and even though it's only 110 feet above our place I like to call it Mount Lafon and her is a shot of the Smokies from there in the early morning.
Cindy likes to take her turn cooking suppers and for this meal she chose chicken stew then kicked it up by adding drop dumplings to it. As it turned out, we had a recent recipe for Creamy Chicken Stew from Cathy on her “Noble Pig” blog and Cindy found the recipe for Fluffy Dumplings on the “Just A Pinch” blog. Unfortunately she was too busy cooking to take many pics but this is my bowl.
Bev had been wanting to go to Hot Rods and we had an errand to run in town so it made sense to combine the trips. I borrowed these pics of the diner from the web.
Since most of the trees around here are oak, hickory, and poplar, we don't get much bright color but our burning bushes and providing us with some late fall beauty.
When I was growing up, my mom would get at least three meals from a Sunday pot roast and I’m having some similar results with my brisket. You’ve seen my first two brisket meals (brisket and burnt ends), then my neighbors and Eliza’s dad each got a meals worth of it and then I got a couple more final meals. Following the burnt ends and burnt ends hash, we had brisket sandwiches where the sliced brisket was reheated in the broth then I had mine open faced on a burger bun with each half topped with broth, then a slice of smoked gouda, the brisket, more broth, and pickled red onions - it was delicious.
We had a couple of big basil plants at the end of the season so before they got frost bit, we opted to turn them into pesto just as we did last year. After stripping the leaves from the plants, I packed them into large measuring cups and ended up with 12 cups. Then I adjusted Ina Garten’s recipe for the other ingredients to match them.
One of the things I was looking forward to from the brisket cook was making burnt ends for the first time. Normally they are made as soon as the brisket is done cooking but since that happened at 7:30pm, I was not inclined to make them for a 11pm meal, so I waited until the next day.
