Sorry to say, but this site has been so depressing for a few days. I thought I'd ask an average, everyday question....to make us all feel a little more normal today.
I made Eggplant Lasagna, and my BIL and SIL are coming for dinner. They leave for Cali tomorrow to see their beautiful grand daughter.
Sorry, sometimes we just need some REGULAR conversation.......or at least THIS caregiver does.
ill probably cook sweet rice tonight. it has the highest energy payoff of any food per the energy required to digest it. 2 billion lean chinese cant all be wrong..
Although my dinner is fine. I made a huge pot of cabbage soup, with ground beef, rice, carrots, celery, onions, etc. Eating it with pumpernickel bread, strawberries, and kiwi. (A meal of cabbage soup requires some thing with bright colors!)
All the asparagus in markets here now is from South America. I prefer to keep the shipping profile a little more local. But if I waited to get it when Michigan ships I'd probably only have it 3 or 4 meals a year. And by the time our local farmers' market opens the asparagus season is over. We are planting some this year. That would be local enough! :)
I plan meals a week or so out, and I take suggestions from my boarders (whether they want to suggest or not!) I handed my family recipe book to Barb and asked her to pick something we haven't had lately. She picked Turkey Fajitas. That is one of my sons' all time favorites, and one of the few they both like. It is also suitable for my vegetarian daughter-in-law. So I invited them over and made it last night.
This doesn't seem to be the right season to find fresh turkey so I used chicken. I think the real claim to fame of this dish is that the marinade uses beer, and I started making it when my sons were teens. :-D
In the past I've always sauteed the paper strips and onions but this time I tossed them in oil and roasted them in the oven -- much simpler than keep track of several things on the stove top.
Here is the marinade recipe. I've always used it for fajitas, but I'll bet it would be good for grilled chicken breast sandwiches, or other ways of using chicken/turkey. For fajitas, cut the poultry into thin strips.
1 package "au jus" mix
12 ounces beer
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 Tablespoons lime juice
Mix all ingredients except the lime juice in a small saucepan. Bring to boil. Add the lime juice. Cool slightly by refrigerating while you prepare the other ingredients. (You don't want the poultry to start cooking in very hot marinade.)
Place the poultry in the cooled marinade for 15 to 30 minutes. Drain. Cook the poultry as desired.
This is plenty of marinade for a whole turkey breast or about 6 pounds of chicken. Don't worry about having too much -- you just drain it off when the marinading time is up.
speaking of booze, jeanne, im reminded that my esterhazy steak usedta require some wine in the veg topping, wasnt good at all without it.
oh i like to talk about booze too. i once bottled up about 18 bottles of cantaloupe wine . it tasted horrible every time i tried some and one day i went to pour it all out to use the bottles for a better batch and wouldnt ya know it, it had microfermented in the bottles and was downright delicious.. the cantaloupe stayed in the cellar and the new batch went thru the pressure canner. 5 gallon of wine reduces to about 1/2 gallon of 151 proof liquid panty remover..
cap not so sure about the blackened green beans. There is nothing like a fresh green bean cooked tender but still firm.
Last night mesquite marinated oven baked chicken legs (seem to be popular here - I got 2 pkts for price of one), roasted acorn squash with butter, a little maple syrup and lashings of cinnamon, and the ubiquitous brussel sprouts.
Hmm - the Ubiquitous Sprout. Sounds like the name of a trendy restaurant with great home cooking, if that is not an oxymoron.
roux, is just flour and water if im remembering correctly but when scorched become a mainstay in cajun flavoring.
i can give a chinese cook a fair hassle too. sweet / sour, freakin grape jelly and white vineagar. so dam simple. now wheres my crushed red pepper? lol
incredibly enough, it doesnt even require yeast to fire off a batch of wine -- only a couple slices of white bread..
i dont stay on subject very well stegman. you lost me at artichoke. that sounds almost as vile as an ebelskiver.. brrrrr.
ebelskivers tho? makes me keep my meat cleaver just a little closer to my person.. i thought kaiser bill killed off all them s**ts..
I bought a cauliflower and I think tomorrow I'm going to do battered and fried cheddar cauliflower fritters with ranch dressing. YUM! My boys don't like cauliflower, thank God! More for me! :)
the cheddar, cauliflower fritters with ranch sound like a fine ambrosia wine. i believe ambrosia just means the essence of everything good. my family usedta do a lot of dumpster diving to feed a couple of pigs. once we found two 60 lb cases of giant prawn. i know, tainted seafood can be dangerous thats why we ate em before they became tainted. i made shrimp chowder for weeks but the boys preferred the shrimp deep fried in fritter batter. good fritter batter requires a stale beer. its the rising agent. im practicing sober-ishness right now but there are still a couple of flat beers in the fridge. habit i guess..
my mom was spoiled on chowder style soups based in sour cream. one time a customer sent me home with a pint jar of homemade split pea " soup " for mom. jake and i laughed uproariously at the briny swill all the way home. i handed it to mom , still in the jar. she tasted a sip and straight armed it right back to me. thats what i thought. briny swill..
Fried veggies are always good to me. :) And ranch is pretty much good on everything!
I used to make this shrimp chowder for my mom all the time. It had half and half in it, onions, potatoes, shrimp...I don't remember what else. I took a basic recipe and modified it some and it turned out really well, a little hot and spicy. My mom had me making that soup once a week for awhile. Maybe I'll have to try and make it again soon. :)
Tonight for dinner...I don't know. Maybe something simple. Like bacon and eggs with chives and cheese. Some fresh made bread sounds good...