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!