First's in my new kitchen

first meal - I was sick so we had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

first time baking with a convection oven - mini cheese cakes!  

first meal after being sick - tacos

there have been others but I failed to take pictures....tailgate party...casserole....cookies...yea, I've been enjoying my new kitchen - and it's not quite done, but it's a fully functioning kitchen!  YEA!

Blame the heat

I haven't posted since July 3rd.  Seems like it's been longer than that. It's been so freaking hot here in what is now being referred to as "beige country" that if I do throw something together for dinner, I don't feel like taking pictures and posting and reliving the experience.  Most mornings breakfast consists of a smoothie for the three of us.  I make a picture of 'em before I go to work and each of us drinks ours at a different time during the day.  Sure is good when the temp is pushing 100 by noon.
                                                                 

     

other meals I've cooked have been something quick like fajitas, or a nice green salad is always good when it's hot out.  I guess I've tossed so many salads lately that even The Boy is tired of 'em.  He went to the grocery store with me Saturday and asked that we not have salads this week.  Guess what I bought? Yep, stuff for more salads.  When it's 110+ and the forecast is for more 100+ days you won't find me in the kitchen much. I told him he was welcome to brave the kitchen and learn to cook...yea, he's good with salad....

I did make lettuce wraps one night, which was a nice diversion from a salad but still used some salad ingredients (hence the title).  The smell while cooking was enough to make my dear hubby ask what it was, but once he ate it he told me it tasted MUCH better than it smelled while cooking.  The reason for the stench was the 3 Tbls of fish sauce used during cooking.  I'm not a fish fan but gave it a try and believed my friend Candice, who gave me the hook up to the recipe, that you REALLY can't taste the fish sauce.

with all the smoothies and salads one would think that I've lost a bunch of weight.  Factor in ice cream and lack of exercise because, well, did I mention IT'S HOT?!  I have not lost nor have I gained.  Yea for salads and smoothies.

It may be fall before I blog on here again.....blame the heat!

Blackberry cobbler

Dear hubby and I went to the Cherry Street Farmer's Market and got some fresh picked blackberries.  What does one do with blackberries? Make cobbler of course!  Here's the recipe I used http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1737,145188-252200,00.html

we had some while it was still warm with some vanilla ice cream...almost made us forget we were in the middle of a heat wave....

baking cookies in the car...

I've heard that when it gets hot out like it's been here lately that you can bake cookies in your car, so we put some Pillsbury flag sugar cookies on a cookie sheet and stuck em in the SUV window...

11:55 a.m.

1:15 P.M.

2:30 P.M.

 3:30 P.M.  we took em out...they could've stayed in another 30 minutes or so but were still pretty good....tomorrow maybe we should try cooking the brisket in there....

Dear Hubby's birthday dinner

these two were such great help for me tonight while I cooked up dear hubby's birthday dinner.





Today was Dear Sweet Hubby's (DSH's) birthday and since 1) the economy sux, 2) we are spending what money we have outside of bills on the kitchen and 3) we're broke (refer to #1) my main gift to him was a home cooked meal of his choice. He chose fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn on the cob. We have already had record breaking heat and we're currently under an extreme heat advisory for the next few days; I'm gonna fry chicken?! You betcha - he deserves it.

I soaked the chicken in the fridge in buttermilk overnight - I have no idea if it made a difference or not but even the white meat was good and juicy...it looks over cooked but it really wasn't...

 I love fresh corn! This was good and sweet...the 'tators turned out fluffy and creamy...see how the mixer blades left a fluffy mountain? :-)

I draw the line at making home made coconut cream pie.......Tippins pie at Reasors works just fine this year...

I'm reminded why I do this meal once a year....dealing with being under construction added an interesting new dimension to the cooking experience. I'm going to stick my head in the freezer for awhile now......

when all else fails...make goolash

I've been fighting a migraine for two days...yesterday we had leftovers from Father's Day dinner...today I decided that if I were to die first my guys would probably just sit and stare at my chair and wonder what's for dinner.  Why would I think such a thing?  The fact that everyone was sitting and staring at the t.v. and not a soul was stirring, with stomachs growling would be a good clue. I announced my splitting headache, no one moved. FINE! I'll cook something. I have a pound of hamburger in the fridge that needs to be cooked anyway. I'll get 'em - I'll something semi healthy and I'll use those veggie noodles I bought. This is what I came up with:

I boiled the veggie elbow noodles I found at Reasors...I didn't really look close at the label, they could be really high in food coloring and not really made of vegetables but I'm gonna go with they were made of veggies 'cause I'm a sucker for marketing sometimes...anyway, while the noodles were cooking I fried up the pound of hamburger with about a half of a chopped onion and a clove of crushed garlic, then I drained the noodles, added the hamburger (minus grease), a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of mushrooms, a can of tomato soup, and a can of RoTel  - salt and pepper to taste.  It's some form of goolash, right? Did my guys learn anything? I don't think so, 'cause they liked it.

Father's Day dinner

Some friends gave us a couple heads of cabbage, some sweet onions, a case of cantaloupe, a half a case of oranges and 50 pounds of baking potatoes the other day.  I've given some of the potatoes and fruit away but still have plenty...

so even though I have very little space to work on, I decided to cook for my dear hubby for Father's Day.  He has been a pretty good boy this last year and the best way to show my man I love him is to cook a good meal so....Saturday evening I chopped up a head of the cabbage, added a jalapeño from our one plant and some miracle whip, honey, vinegar,  celery seed and called it coleslaw after it sat in the fridge till today's dinner.

This morning before church I seasoned the pork spare ribs

While dear hubby got the smoker going (yea, he went to church smelling like the smoker and cologne - what the heck, it's Father's Day) I peeled and boiled 4 of those baking potatoes and then made some potato salad.  While making the potato salad I remembered I needed to boil some eggs or the salad would be ruined.  The Boy brought me some eggs but one went to be with his cousin Humpty...

some of the white is mud from mudding and taping the walls...as you can see, The Boy drew a face on Humpty's cousin and it was proven that this family can not sit on walls...

After church, Dear Hubby took the ribs off the smoker - where they had been smoking at about 175 degrees for 4 hours - and we put them in a pan with some apple juice in the oven at 275 for another four hours (covered).  MMMMMMM!

                                  

I also decided that Dear Hubby deserved a home made cake - because I think I secretly like to abuse myself I went into the middle bedroom...the room that has almost everything from the kitchen and all of the contents of the former closet. The new closet hasn't been built and the kitchen obviously isn't done so it's quite the determined soul that goes into this room only to come out victorious....

yep - there's even a bathroom sink in there...that's going to have a home someday soon...I found what I was looking for though, which is amazing since I had the flu when the kitchen got packed up....

So, I'm going to make an orange cake...I look on www.cooks.com and I find this recipe for an orange chiffon cake so I decide to go for it...now if you notice in this recipe, no where does it say to put the cake mixture in a bunt pan...it says to put it in a pan - that's it.  It my hairbrained idea to battle that room.  Anyway, I squeezed several oranges and got some fresh juice, found my zester and got some of the orange zest like the recipe called for.  I did everything this poorly written recipe said to do...this is what my dear hubby got for his Father's Day dessert...

the thinnest pound cake ever!  I thought that it would be light and fluffy - that's what "chiffon" says to me...but NO!  At least I know I can brave the wilderness....Happy Father's Day my dear sweet hubby!  MWAH!

the great harvest of 2011

we were at the hardware store buying stuff, you know, for the kitchen under construction, and saw a lonely jalapeño plant and so we bought him and then decided to add three tomato plants to the mix - you know since we'll have lots of time to devote to a garden and all.  So far this is our harvest...

this is the first crop of tomatoes....

and this is the second crop....we can make some really spicy salsa for Barbie and maybe enough for Ken....

Thank God for summer!

 If I come home to ladders blocking the sink much more, my guys may think we've turned into rabbits....

 summer time in Oklahoma means it's BBQ time and dear hubby took some time this last Memorial  weekend to fire up the smoker and cook up some chicken breasts, pork loin and a "roll of red" (bologna, for those of you that don't know)...my dear, dear friend texted me Saturday morning with an invite to Cherry Street Saturday Market.  Today I used some of the wonderful mixed lettuce I bought with a bag of regular salad from Reasors, cut up some of the chicken breasts and a tomato and a bit of purple onion, add some Ranch dressing and viola! it no longer matters that I didn't have access to the sink (because I had already washed my veggies before I put 'em up)

my sink is barely hanging on anyway...it's getting closer and closer to time to deal with plumbing issues and to make a decision on a new sink....for now, I'm glad fresh veggies are coming in, that we've had enough rain to lift the burn ban and we are clear to fire up the grill!

someone PLEASE do the dishes!

I come home to sheetrock leaning up against the sink and my dear hubby is tired from all the projects he has going on so what's for dinner?  How am I going to  work around the sheetrock?  Broil chicken breasts and open a couple bags of salad, cut up some tomatoes and throw in some shredded cheese and that's how I dealt with that.

What wasn't pretty was what I found today after the piece of rock had been hung...The Boy has been slacking on his dishwashing duties....

for whatever reason dishes from last night's chicken salad dinner are sitting on the floor behind the "ta da" wall...

looks like it's been more than an evening that he's slacked off.  I realize Dad has tools laying around too and that clouds your view of things, but dear son o mine, PLEASE, PLEASE take care of the dishes so I can cook again and before I blow a gasket! I hope you read this so you heed this warning.....

how does he not see the dishes? Do guys automatically focus on the tools and manly projects and think "what's she talking about? I don't see anything."?









I do however know how bad my stove looks, it's a filthy mess.  Grease and stuff has dripped down the side over the years, add dust from the removal of the plaster and dear hubby messing with the sheetrock and you get this beautiful sight...

eww, right?!  Good thing I'm not cooking on the sides of the stove!

Add dear hubby not being the greatest at picking up after himself and you get this view....

 I kinda feel like the soap dispenser...

I worked around it all, believe it or not, and made a meatloaf (1 pound of hamburger, an egg, saltines, tomato sauce, onion, pepper, and some worcestershire sauce) with a sauce made up of some catsup, mustard, honey, garlic powder,and brown sugar; cut up some potatoes and put 'em in a pan with olive oil, seasoning salt, pepper, parsley and garlic powder and put both dishes in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or until the sauce is thickened and the potatoes are done.

more dishes to do son!

Pork Ribs a la D

I found some pork ribs in the freezer so I thawed 'em out, sprinkled on some seasoning salt & garlic powder, added liquid smoke and worchestershire sauce, cubed an onion and stuck the pieces in between the ribs and then I poured some Head Country BBQ sauce ('cause there's no other kind of BBQ sauce a person should use - just sayin') over the top, covered with foil (am I the only one who has a thing about whether or not the shiny side is up?  If not, I put the shiny side down).... 

bake at 375 for three hours....mmmm, mmmm good!  There was enough for us to have two meals too....the less I have to cook, the better!

Pork chops with mango salsa

Saturday I went to the local WalMart Neighborhood Market and they had mangoes for .25 each, or four for a dollar, and pineapples were the best price I'd seen in awhile so I bought four mangoes and a pineapple and wondered what I'd do with 'em.  Today at work my mind wondered as it's prone to do from time to time, this time my thoughts went to what I'll feed the crew when I get home.  I had some thick cut pork chops that I'd thawed out so I looked on the internet for mango salsa and came up with something I thought I could do and wouldn't have to go to the store for any of the items and then I left the recipe at work.

I think I remember the recipe, so I dig out the itty bit of ginger I had in the fridge for another recipe that I forgot to use the ginger in, the bit of purple onion leftover from another meal and cilantro.  I chopped up two mangoes, about the same amount of pineapple as mango, some purple onion, cilantro, and the piece of ginger, I added about a capful of apple cider vinegar and a "pinch" of salt and mixed this all up.  I let everyone get to know each other for about an hour. 

Then The Boy asked what was for dinner and stood and stared at me until I got up. 

I butterflied the chops and sprinkled on some McCormicks Grill Creation, Citrus seasoning and popped those in the broiler.  I made some white rice and green beans and dinner was on.
 

Oh there was a party going on in my mouth!  Dear hubby liked the salsa on the side but didn't put it on his chop and rice.  The Boy and I decided that he missed out.

Quiche or breakfast casserole?

Tonight for dinner I fried up some Blue and Gold sausage (is there any other kind?) and chopped up some purple onion and cilantro, beat about eight eggs with some milk, added a can of mushrooms and the chopped stuff to the eggs and poured that into a casserole pan with bread crumbs spread out on bottom and then put some shredded cheese on top and baked for 40 minutes at 375.  We briefly discussed what the difference is between this and a quiche...a quiche has a pie crust and is round was the consensus and went back to eating our quisserole - which we added salsa to.  Pretty good stuff when all any of us had all day was a Kashi bar.

Easter dinner

Usually when I make Easter dinner I go all out.  I do a spiral ham, scalloped potatoes (or twice baked potatoes - depending on my mood), green bean casserole (or baked beans or both), rolls, deviled eggs and dessert is usually something like pineapple upside down cake.  I generally go overboard.

This year, not so much.  Last night dear hubby fired up the smoker before the storms hit and put a brisket on to smoke for about five hours.  When he took it off the internal temp was 140 and by the meat guidelines it was at the desired temp.  It was tough. This morning I got up early and fried up some bacon, chopped up some onion (I would've chopped up bell pepper as well but I failed to get any at the store) and fried thim in the bacon grease.  I open up one big can of pork and beans, added the crumbled bacon, fried onion, squirted in some catsup, mustard, worcestershire sauce and added some brown sugar and viola you have baked beans.  Meanwhile I took the smoked brisket and put it and some apple juice in a pan, covered it with foil and stuck both dishes in the oven at 250.

I then got ready for church.  After church I fried up some okra (Allen's from the freezer section), took the brisket and baked beans out of the oven and what do you know, the brisket is oh so tender and we have ourselves what we'll call this year's Easter dinner.

Dessert? I cut up some strawberries, added some sugar and we'll put the berries on top of a WalMart bakery Angel food cake and call it good.  Happy Easter! It's not about the food anyway!

John 3:16

BBQ Chicken

I got up and around early enough this morning to make some coleslaw and cut up potatoes, put 'em on to boil along with some eggs.  Dear Hubby took me to work and remembered to turn the burner off when he got home and put the potatoes and boiled eggs in the fridge so I could make potato salad when I got home while he grilled some chicken breasts.  When I went to make the coleslaw, I realized that I didn't have coleslaw dressing so I made it up.  I globbed some Miracle Whip on top of the coleslaw mix I bought at Reasor's and added some sugar and a couple capfuls of apple cider vinegar and mixed it all up. When I got home I realized I only had purple onions so that's what I used in the potato salad.  Why sliced boiled eggs on top of the potato salad? It's what Grandma Sallie did so that's what I do.

Dear hubby bbq'd the chicken breasts I took out of the freezer this morning and we were all set.

why does the chicken get the top billing when it was the least amount of work?  Dear hubby did do an awesome job - it was the juiciest chicken breast I've ever had!