The Week in Review

This may not be the most exciting post, but I let myself get so far behind, that I feel like I really need to just do a recap of the last few days, just so I'm caught up!

Starting off with last Wednesday - I had to post this picture of the Side-by-Side Quiche that we made. It looks so yummy! We made half of it with just bacon, for Nathan, and the other half was bacon, broccoli and baby bella mushrooms, for us!


Served up with some watermelon and sauteed zucchini sticks...YUM!

The next couple of days were boring food days. We had Subway on the beach Thursday night, and Friday night was an AWFUL tuna casserole. You don't want to see that....

Saturday we went grocery shopping, and for once, only went to one store! I had my rain check for berries (5 packages for 5 bucks!!) for Lowes Foods, so that's where we headed. We had to buy a loaf of french bread, to make the pizzas we planned for Saturday. I've always wanted to have a big loaf of bread sticking out of my paper bag. Doesn't it seem like in movies that EVERY time someone goes grocery shopping, they have french bread sticking out of the bag?? So here it is - french bread, wine and some leafy greens - just like the movies! (I'm adding this after the original post...apparently I'm not the only one who likes the look of this, though I should have taken it out of the plastic bag. Here's a related funny little story!)


Saturday afternoon we headed to Freestyle Music Park with the kids. SO MUCH FUN - and plenty of stuff for a separate post! We got home pretty late, but didn't eat at the park, so I got to work on the french bread pizzas.

Chuck was just waiting for me to drop something!!



I totally meant to take a picture when they came out of the oven, but there were only about two bites left of my pizza when I realized I hadn't done it! We were HUNGRY!

The next morning I woke up early and decided to invite my whole family over for breakfast. I had bought a quart of buttermilk last week to make Lucas's birthday cake. I had more than 3/4 of it left, so I had to find things to make with it! I started out with a big batch of buttermilk pancakes. My sister was the only one to come over from my mom's, since she had to work, and everyone else was still in bed. More for us!! We topped the pancakes with some of my Lowes blackberries and raspberries, leftover blueberries and mashed bananas. YUM YUM YUM!

I spent all morning in the kitchen, and did a spring (late summer) cleaning. I scrubbed every single surface! Then I messed it all up again! I made a buttermilk pie to send back to mom's. I'm not sure how it turned out and didn't take a picture. No one has called to say it's wonderful, so I may have been a big FAIL, but who knows...at least the buttermilk got used! I have about 1/2 a cup left, just enough to make some buttermilk biscuits to bake and freeze tomorrow night.

Before breakfast I had gone out to the garden and done a mini-harvest. We had grown some garlic chives, but gave up on finding them early on. I went two weeks without weeding, and once I went out, I couldn't tell which were the chives and which were the weeds. Sunday morning I went out and grabbed a handful and could easily tell which were the chives. The smell was SO strong! I decided to bring them in, chop them up, and dry them in the dehydrator. Nathan has already eaten them on his potatoes twice, so that was a success!

A little more of the recent harvest - tomatoes, jalapenos, banana peppers

Lunch was a salad of boiled eggs, mixed greens, blackberries, feta and Full Circle Organic Tuscan Italian dressing. YUM!


We had some company while cooking dinner on the grill. This little guy hung out on the cooler for a bit.

Dinner was completely done by Lucas - grilled salmon with dill, griled potatoe with monterey jack and chives, and grilled mixed veggies....sooo good!


That brings us to tonight, when I tried to make some chicken empanadas. Lots of work, and I wasn't impressed. Chicken, cheese, peppers, spices inside little pockets of pie crust, baked. The stuffing was good, the crust I could do without. Lucas liked it though, so it was still a success!!


That catches us up on the food front! Off to bed!! Good night!

Chuck and the Computer

I'm going to have to post a non-food entry tonight, since we spent the evening on the beach and just had sandwiches - not too interesting! I'll write some more about my puppy instead!

Chuck has been fascinated with our computers since he came to live with us. Lucas and I lay in bed at night and we each have our netbooks in our laps, either surfing, or paying bills, or writing blogs. When Chuck was younger, he would stand next to the computer and chase the mouse pointer across the screen, and bark at it if he couldn't catch it. That has worn off some, but he's found a renewed interest in the last week.



I visited one of the message boards that I sometimes live in, and one of the members made the statement that he thought the board was broken because every time he came in, he could hear crickets chirping. Me, being the big joker that I am (yeah, right), thought it would be funny to post a YouTube video of crickets chirping.



Chuck was entranced by it. Ears cocked, standing at attention, with his face right on the screen watching the cricket - it was hilarious! We tried to record the whole thing, but the sound didn't work on the recording.

I decided to look for another video to entertain the pup. I came up with this:



Chuck went WILD!! It was funny to watch his reaction to different animals! He loved the birds and the monkeys. When the lion roared, he jumped backwards on to Lucas's lap. He didn't like the cats either, but I think that's because he had a run-in with one the other night!

After the video was done, he was all worked up. He ran around a bit, then jumped up on the bed. I had put away the computer, but he got up and started scratching in the spot on the bed wear the computer had been, as if the sounds were coming from the bed. He finally gave up after realizing he was getting nowhere!

A few days later I played the video again, this time in the living room. He got up on the back of the chair, behind where the computer was sitting, to try to find the animals. So cute...

(I had a really cute picture to insert here, but my stupid phone wouldn't let me have it...)

Last night I had left my computer open, sitting on the bed when I went to tuck Nathan into bed. When I came in, Chuck was laying flat out on the bed with his nose resting on the keyboard, just staring at the screen. I think he wanted the animals to come out and play!

Try the videos on your dogs! I hope it is just entertaining Chuck, and not making him too nuts, but it's too cute to keep to myself! I had to share the story!

Busy Night!

Wow! I got A LOT of stuff done tonight! Right after work, I headed back to Lowes Foods. They are having a sale this week on raspberries and blackberries - 6 oz packages - 5 for $5!!! When we went to our usual store last night, they were out. I tried the Myrtle Beach location after work, and they were out, also. They were nice enough to give me a raincheck, and I found some blueberries on sale, so it all worked out in the end. Unfortunately, I had planned to use the raspberries later this evening for a special something...don't worry, you'll see what soon...but I ended up with a GREAT back up plan.

My son, Nathan, requested bacon turkey burgers for dinner tonight. Lucas threw these on the grill, while I came up with the sides. I used up the last of the potatoes from Saturday's party, with some jalapeno to cover the "fish" taste, as Nathan called it. Worked perfectly - spicy fried potatoes! I fried a few pieces of bacon for the burgers, and thought about the leftover leek greens from the night before. Though I had never done it, I know it's common to cook collards, or other greens in bacon grease. I did a quick search online to see what the thoughts were on the leek greens, since Alton Brown didn't tell us how to use them, and although no one seemed to be a fan, I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did - they were SO tasty. I'm sure that they'd be just as great sauteed in olive oil. We've got two leeks left in the fridge, so I'm sure we'll have them again, maybe with some of the baby bella mushrooms we bought! Some of those made it to the burgers, you just can't see them!


After dinner it was time to make my big surprise. It occurred to me today that I never made Lucas the birthday cake I promised him!! He can't eat sugar, and since we're trying to stay all natural, we try to stay away from any artificial sweeteners. I found a recipe for Chocolate Honey Cake that I wanted to try, with a sugar free icing recipe that came along with it. When I thought I was getting berries, I was going to add some raspberry extract, instead of the vanilla the recipe called for, and top it with raspberries. Since that didn't work out, I decided to use the strawberries I had. I'll post my (revised) recipe under another post, as I need to rewrite it. The changes I made to it were to add half a banana to the cake mix (the last honey cake we made was a bit dry, and I thought it would add an interesting flavor) and I juiced 5 strawberries and added the juice to the icing. You can see the pieces of strawberry in the icing if you look hard enough!




I was worried about doing the double layer cake, as I had never been able to do it successfully, but it came out perfect! I need a little practice at icing the sides, but it was pretty enough!


Lucas was very surprised, and very happy.

The cake was so moist! I wish the picture didn't come out so blurry!


While the cake was cooling, Nathan and I recovered the kitchen chairs. Nathan had pulled the seats off the chairs the other day, and pulled out every staple from the last cover job I did. There were LOTS of staples, since I really don't know what I'm doing! Lucas and I picked out the fabric and I covered them tonight, and put the seats back on the chairs, with lots of help from Nathan. Finished results:





Now we just need to buy some new accents to go with the chairs to pull everything together. I'm excited about the new look!

So, after all that, once again I'm exhausted. I'm even skipping my situps tonight. My back is aching from hovering over the chairs and I'd really just rather sleep!!

Good Night, Everyone!!!

Don't do what I did....

Right after work tonight we needed to do our grocery shopping. We had done some over the weekend, but it was mostly for the party. I love when our grocery bags look like this on the inside!


And I especially love when it looks like this on the outside! I got this reusable bag at the Disney Store, for something like $1.50. It's my favorite!

A week or so ago we saw an episode of Good Eats that was all about leeks. I really had no idea what a leek was, but Alton Brown can make anything look like something you want to run out and buy, so we did. As a refresher course we watched it again while prepping dinner. You can watch the episode here.


Is it weird that I think leeks are pretty cool looking?


We grilled and braised the leeks, as instructed in the Good Eats episode, and they were SO good. They didn't come out as pretty as Mr. Brown's, but that's because knives and I don't always agree. Make sure to cut the leek right down the middle (not all crooked, like I did) and it will stay together better on the grill. Doesn't change the taste though! Oniony, but not so much, kinda sweet, so good. YUM!


We found some catfish chunks on sale at Bilo for $2.00. We got two packs, for some reason, probably because I shouldn't shop when I'm hungry. I've never cooked catfish before. We breaded them with italian bread crumbs, ground mustard, celery seed and red pepper and pan-fried them with some olive oil. MORE YUM!!
We had some farmer's market green beans that NEEDED to be used up. We also had been thinking about mashed cauliflower for awhile. We didn't use fresh, but the frozen tasted just as good. Boil the cauliflower, add a tbsp of butter, 1/4 cup or so of milk, a handful of swiss cheese, salt and pepper and throw it in the food processor until it's the consistency you want. DO NOT try to use an electric mixer (like I did) or you WILL get cauliflower flying about the kitchen (like I did). Food processor is best.

We topped it with some of our new favorite all purpose dill dip. It's good for really anything. Of course, you need to make sure that you do not mix up the lids from the parsley jar and dill jar (like I did) or your dip will not have much flavor. Thankfully I figured out the problem, and added more dill to fix it.

Finished product:

The above picture was my attempt and making a pretty looking layered appetizer...leek, cauliflower, catfish and dill dip. It didn't look pretty, but it tasted awesome!

So, as a wrap DO what I did, and try this awesome meal, but DON'T mess up the process nearly every step of the way!! In the end it all worked out, so it's ok!

Good night!!

Low Country Boil Chowder

As I told you in my last post, we had lots of leftovers from our Birthday "Stone Soup" seafood boil on Saturday. We figured the best way to finish them up is to create a giant soup that used all that we had left. As promised, here's the recipe!




Low Country Boil Chowder

6-7 slices bacon, cut in tiny pieces
1 med. onion, chopped
1 c. diced celery
4 c. diced potatoes, cooked
1 ½ c. seafood stock (see below)
3 c. milk, warmed
1 (16 oz.) can whole kernel corn, or 4-5 corn scraped from the cob
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper (or more to taste)
1 tbsp. butter
Clams, oysters, crawfish, mussels, shrimp left over from the boil (or fresh, cooked – as much as you want)

STOCK: Place all crab shells (or shrimp, oyster, clam, etc) in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Strain broth through cheesecloth and discard shells.

In a large heavy saucepan fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towel. Pour off fat except for 2 tablespoons. Add onions to saucepan and saute until transparent, not brown. Add potatoes, celery and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat. Cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until celery is tender. Add remaining ingredients and heat just to boiling. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour. The longer it simmers, the better the flavors mix.

If you need to thicken the chowder, I mixed 2 tbsps butter and 2 tbsps flour, added stock until I had a thick mix, and added it to the soup. While cooking, it will thicken.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas had his 38th birthday yesterday. For weeks we couldn't decide how to celebrate it, changing the plans from going out, to just spending time on the beach, and maybe a cook out at home in the evening. Last week, we came up with the idea of inviting over all of our friends and doing a Stone Soup kind of dinner, only with seafood and potatoes and corn, in the style of a Low Country Boil. If you don't know the Stone Soup story, it goes like this:

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

So we asked everyone to each bring a bit of the following: clams, oysters, crab legs, mussels, shrimp, potatoes, corn or sausage. We ended up with more food than we ever imagined! Luckily, one of our friends owned a huge steampot to cook it all in, and brought it along. She even brought the "stone" for the soup - a brick to set the steam basket on! Perfect!!



Yum!!!!!



It was fun watching the guys figure out how to dump the food once it was done!






We ate, drank and were VERY merry through the night, and had a great time with all of our friends. I count it as one of the best get-togethers we have EVER had!!

We had so much food leftover, that I needed to come up with something to do with it. The mystery was solved with a seafood chowder, and an afternoon of crabs and beer today! Around lunch time we covered our coffee table with newspaper and dug right in!




We made a seafood potato corn chowder for dinner, served with a fresh new loaf of the jalapeno bread. I will post the chowder recipe, but in a separate entry, as I don't have it all written out yet.

DOUBLE YUM!!



Another weekend ends with a great dinner, True Blood (SO GOOD TONIGHT!!) and situps - we did 90 tonight!!! Ouch!

The kids start school tomorrow, so I really should already be sleeping! I guess I just am not ready for the weekend to end!

Good night, all!

Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone!

Well, the week of pretending we're vegetarians has come to an end. And it ended at lunch today with a humongous tuna sandwich. While we enjoyed all the vegetarian meals we tried this week, we were both happy to become carnivores again! Don't get me wrong, I could do it, if I had to, but I don't, so I won't. Welcome back, meat. You've been missed.

We finished up our vegetarian week with a delicious dinner of spaghetti squash and eggplant parmasean. Neither of us has ever cooked spaghetti squash before, but quickly learned it's easy, as most squash is. Simply cut it in half, gut it, place it face down in a dish and cook it at about 375 for about 30 minutes. Once you can stick a knife in it easily, it's done! Take it out of the oven and scrape it top to bottom to get a stringy mess of squash.





The eggplant was easy, too. Peal it, slice it, bread it, bake it. We breaded it in an egg and some italian breadcrumbs, placed it in a pan with marinara sauce and mozzerella cheese and baked it for about 30 minutes at 375. So easy!!




We had it with a bit of our leftover cheddar jalapeno bread. What a great ending to
vegetarian week!


This morning for breakfast I finished off the last of our pint of blueberries, using them to top my new favorite cereal. More Big Lots discount priced Kashi - this time one of the GoLean flavors, I believe Honey Almond Flax Crunch (I think, I'm not 100% sure of that title!). It's the best yet!



Lunch was a tuna, lettuce and tomato sandwich, with cantaloupe and cherries, and Full Circle ginger cookies for dessert. No pic - I ate it too fast!

Finally, dinner...after being SO good all week, and not even having red meat in nearly a month or so, we decided on cheeseburgers tonight. I swear it was the best cheeseburger EVER. Burgers on an onion roll, topped with good ol' American processed cheese, mushrooms, onions, tomato, spinach and mayo. YUMMMMM!!

So yeah, we strayed a little from our path tonight, but it was SO worth it. And surprisingly, I'm not even feeling yucky like I expected to!

After dinner we started preparing for the big party tomorrow. It's Lucas's birthday, and we're having a bunch of friends over to make seafood steampots and hang in the backyard. I made some veggie dip and chopped up veggies, and Lucas made a batch of almost-famous salsa.

Salsa fixins:


Once the cooking was done and the cleaning was complete, we settled into bed for some websurfing and old Criminal Minds episodes. Drinking Game Alert: Watch Criminal Minds and drink every time they say "unsub". You'd be surprised!! NOT that we're doing that tonight! Actually, tonight we opted for Full Circle Organic Chocolate Soy Milk and Full Circle Ginger Cookies. DOUBLE YUM!



So the night is over, and once again I'm skipping the sit-ups. Bad, bad girl. But I'm sleepy, and I think it's time to follow Chuck's lead. Good night!