Summer Meal And Best Corn On The Cob Cooking Method Then Another Summer Meal

Bev had made a trip to the Mennonite farm market and we decided to have a summer time meal for supper.  So, the meal was Malibu Green Beans cooked with Benton’s country ham, cucumber salad, and boiled corn (sort of). I had recently read an article on Serious Eats about the best ways to cook corn on the cob.  I think it’s a must read if you like this dish and I opted to give the cold start method a try.  The article also discusses using salted water but I decided to wait until next time to try it.

Creamed Chipped Beef On Toast And Cheesy Broccoli And Cauliflower

My mom occasionally made creamed chip beef on toast when I was a kid and Dad always complained because, while serving during WWII, he said they ate it about every day – I can’t recall if he would eat Mom’s or not.  But, like most things gravy, I still really enjoy it.

It’s Tomato Season – Biscuit BLT, Mini Pies, Kennedy Quiche, Tomato Pie

We are trying to take advantage of our ability to buy real vine ripened (not picked partially green), local tomatoes and after many, many taste tests over the years of growing tomatoes, we try to get Cherokee Purples when we can.  

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.

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“. 

Random Summertime Meals And Tomato Soup

A classic summertime meal.

Asparagus Season – I Love It – Steamed, Omelet, Frittata

I love it when our little asparagus patch begins producing and it seemed to be a little earlier this year thanks to the warm spring.  Cindy and I had it steamed and tossed in butter and parmesan as a side to some tuna steaks.

Red Snapper Livornese And Sauteed Asparagus

While doing a deep freezer dive, I found a package of red snapper that we had frozen from our 2017 trip to Joe Patti’s in Pensacola, FL and I’m confident most people would just toss it.  However, I’m bad not to throw away items past their expiration dates, especially canned and dried items, without testing them.  So, I thawed the fish in the fridge and when I opened the plastic bag, I was met with a fresh fish smell (so almost no smell).  Upon removal, I found the flesh to be firm and without freezer burn so I cut off some thin belly meat and gave it a quick nuke for a taste test.  It tasted just like it should have and it didn’t make me sick so on the supper menu it went.

Alabama Scramble – Different Version

This summer, we made Alabama Scramble a time or two using our normal method of cooking everything in a skillet but since we had oil in our deep frying pan, we opted to change it up some.  We recently had deep fried okra and green tomatoes and realized they needed more seasoning than just S&P at the end so I’ve attempted to correct that.  The following recipe feeds 3-4 people eating only this.

Tangy Mustard Cauliflower A Different Way

I’m a big fan of this dish from Chef Lea Ann’s HighlandsRanch Foodie blog and have enjoyed it several times but the last time I made it, I decided I wanted to try something different next time.  When it’s made as an entire head, all of the flavor is on the outside and much of the head is eaten as just steamed cauliflower but I wanted to get a bite of the tangy, cheesy topping into every bite by making it as a casserole.  I used the same basic ingredients, with increased amounts, but chopped the cauliflower into smaller pieces with a knife.  The original recipe can be found by clicking on the above link and this is how it looks.

Southern Fried Cabbage

I’ve seen information that says the origin of Doolittle is both Irish and English and on St. Patrick’s Day, I always choose to go with Irish and we usually celebrate.

With Bev and Pat in St. Maarten and Cindy in California, I was on my own for St. Patrick’s Day and since I was still dieting and had a half head of cabbage in the fridge, I opted for a Keto friendly, pretty low-cal Irish dish – fried cabbage.  After looking at several online recipes and finding them to all be similar, I settled on Mary’s Southern Fried Cabbage recipe from her “Deep South Dish” blog (I assume the title means southern Ireland).  Since I had just a half head of cabbage, I amended Mary’s recipe to get the one below but you can click on the above link for her original.

Broccoli Purée & March

It must be March as we went to bed on Friday following a beautiful, sunny, 68F day and woke up to 4 inches of snow and temp of 28F with a low Saturday night predicted to be 14F.  Just north of us in Knoxville, they got 6-7 inches of snow.

It turned these tree blooms into big cotton balls.