Category Archives: food

Gifts

Posted on May 20, 2017 | 1 comment

I’ve several that come to mind. My husband, of which am I am not too fond of this morning because he shut the door and left our dog with me while I was sleeping and had been up most of the night. His old girls were shut-ins. I can get out easily but Zoe cannot do so. Bad Daddy!

My parents. Bob and Barb got a pup when we were quite young. We approved heartily but she was not allowed in the house at all except when it was below zero, then she was allowed into the basement. On my sixth or seventh birthday, I had a dream that told me it was morning and to let the dog out of the basement. I let her out and it was 2:00 in the morning. My parents came downstairs and said we’d find her in the morning. I was so upset.

They gave her away to a farm where she would be “happy.” I think she would have been happier sleeping on my bed at night and snoozing on the sofa or deck during the day. As Dr. Dog says, a backyard dog is a dog without a home. I heartily agree, unless you’re running cattle or sheep.

Same thing with my in-laws, who said it was OK to bring Zoe to Thanksgiving, then offered to mow a goat pen where she could stay, farm country. I said I wouldn’t go and would keep Zoe at home. There was a gift. Zoe indoors with me and at 90 in “people years” she is standing on Grandpa’s side of the sofa where he reads his Civil War books awaiting his return in a truck or a four-wheeler from feeding cattle. Zoe is 13 now and loves Grandpa and Grandma so much. Grandma is upset when Zoe stays home for Thanksgiving because she addresses our messes in the kitchen, eats everything that accidentally drops and makes cleaning up after our daily messes easier.

That gift was taken back a bit when my father-in-law told me I was solely responsible for the War of Northern Aggression! Oh, he was just joshing! He does it all the time, mostly politics. My husband and his parents and grandmother and younger brother and Stevie are all gifts.

There are so many more but it’s time, I have to take care of my family and get my husband breakfast when he awakens. I’m thinking over nearly hard eggs, bacon and potatoes I cooked last night. Note to cooks, never make leftovers look like leftovers. Cheers, Dee

 

 

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Posted in Editorial, Family, food, Uncategorized

Corn

Posted on October 29, 2016 | Leave a comment

A couple of years ago a dear person left our employ. Another took his place. I gave J a corn pudding with chorizo and mushrooms. He called it a quiche, but it had no pastry.

His replacement thought J had gone so ate the last piece, not good. Since then the new regular has helped me out a few times. I used to make him my version of a corn custard. Then it became a corn quiche but I didn’t make the pastry so he didn’t like it as much. Yes, beggars can be ornery.

This time I made him a corn bread pudding with jalapeno cornbread, corn, cheese, chorizo and duxelles. I made a little one for him, and a bigger one for His Better Half. He got a kick out of that labeling and so will his wife. It was his last day of work here. Zoe and I will miss him.

Perhaps he needs someone to steal a slice and I’ll have the right “new guy!” We’ll see. Dee

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Posted in Editorial, food, Recipe Ideas

Grilling

Posted on September 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

Yes, now that summer is over, we have a new grill and a new sunflower plant outdoors. Since we did not grill we ended up with spider parents and a thousand babies that my husband killed a couple of weeks ago.

He made a mess of the exterior windows, which I’ll take care of, and I also got us on “spider patrol” because lots of folks have had spider problems this year. The gnat population may have abated, a good thing for me but spider bites are worse.

The new grill. I tried to ruin it first time out with one of my favorite dishes, Lamb Robert from Chef Jacques Pepin. I cleaned the life out of it. Now I have the grates clean and a “dog towel” on top with bungee cords to hold it down to protect from weather. We’re in a wind zone.

Tonight I’d like to make skirt steak with a chimichurri sauce based on one from Tyler Florence. Also, a nice fresh salad chosen by my husband, and latkes. I’ve potatoes, flour, eggs et al, even scallions and may need some sour cream and perhaps applesauce, for me, breakfast with yogurt and a banana.

There are things I must do; list, and follow the list. My husband will be away for two weeks, his uncle died and funeral is over the weekend way away. He only has a day, I’m not going and he’s flying right back to work. Also, my father has cancer and will be undergoing treatment far away forthwith.

Next time my father and I meet should be later this month, husband the same. One thing I always wanted to cook for Dad is pancakes. He made them every week after church when I was a kid, with a small side of bacon or sausage.

Well, my husband now has a recipe that calls for beaten egg whites and I add vanilla and they’re tasty with my amber maple syrup. Plus bacon or sausage, of course. I’d love to treat Dad to these pancakes. How would I know my brilliant husband would actually listen and become a dilettante chef of a few key items?

He doesn’t know how to choose a dinner menu for a party, or shop, except for strange fruit or ice cream. He’s a last-minute guy who looks up a recipe and sees if I’ve the stuff to help him make it. Then he’s gung-ho. I don’t mind being sous-chef a few moments a week.

Yes, put a bit of the whites in to temper the mixture, then use the spatula to fold in the egg whites I just beat to stiff peaks for you. Yes, chef.

He mans the grill. Overcooks everything but now has the instant pen and I just tell him the target degree. He tries. His parents ran a dairy for 30 years and now a ranch. They eat all their meat well-done. I think that does a disservice to cattle. Medium well, not for me. Medium rare, taste what you’re eating if you eat meat, or anything.

Plain yogurt? Make a cold summer soup with cucumbers (English) in the blender or food processor with lemon, salt and pepper. Chill and serve. As an alternive solution, add vanilla to the yogurt, honey and granola and berries. Breakfast. Make it taste like something. Cheers, Happy Labor Day! Dee

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Hog Wild

Posted on September 2, 2016 | 1 comment

On A Cook Abroad (a BBC production) I saw a horrific scene of dogs going after a wild boar (cingiale in Italian). They’re nasty critters, I know as they take down calves at my in-laws’ ranch in Texas.

On the show featuring Monica Galetti the dogs were feasting on the boar’s flesh when one hunter slit the boar’s throat. I know that le Francais think you’re so superior to Americans. Let me tell you how we do it better. And this is Texas, where you think folks are all backwards. We’ve got an edge on France.

Why would a top end London chef want gnawed meat ravaged by dogs? To her credit, Chef Galetti showed shock and remorse.

Trap the wild hogs humanely in a large enclosure with food. Bring a truck and trailer and fashion your wire “hallway” to get from large trap to hallway to cage. My father-in-law and his friend never touched the hogs. Drive to a place in a nearby town, put them through a weigh station (I never got near the crazy beasts) and I charted the weight, stay out of the way and get out pen and paper, that was my job. Get paid by the pound. Two hogs are not nearly enough to pay the mortgage but money is money and neighbors get together to make tasty large enclosures not to make money, but to save their crops and cattle.

Hogs are transported to Ft. Worth Texas for slaughter and the meat placed on planes to FRANCE. Texans do not want to eat them, yet.

None of them have been roughed up by humans or dogs. As long as France and England want wild boar on the menu, Texas will continue to provide it. No gnawing dogs. Cheers, Dee

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White Peaches

Posted on August 10, 2016 | 1 comment

I bought a bunch today, had one and it was succulent and flavorful so gave one away as my husband prefers nectarines.

There’s another “peach” that’s been on the bed for hours. Zoe, our dog we got as a pup has hips she grew as a pup from cartilage after we had to have hers removed, and has passed her tests but is never away from me for longer than a few minutes. She actually has the coloring of the skin of a white peach. I doubt that in the morning sun she will allow me to take a photo of them together as she just doesn’t like camera and flash.

Today she heard children outside and was desperate. Yes, this gal who’s nearing 90 in “people years” who loves people, kids, dogs and sometimes even pups if they do not jump up on her. Then she’ll just do a harrumph (I believe it means “excuse me, I’m older and more experienced” in dog) and the pup will scale it down. No barking or biting for any. Zoe is kind of a mascot around our neighborhood.

I love summer, peaches kids visiting their grandparents. Not having to wear winter boots, coats, hats. Taking care of my husband and our old dog is a joy and having kids around is a bonus. I think they’re here for the weekend and grandma and grandpa are our dear neighbors. Perhaps the kiddos can toss her ball or make her do tricks for treats sometime tomorrow.

Cherries. Every weekend when they are in season. I’ve yet to do a”cold dinner” for my husband, which he likes. Baked Black Forest Ham, aged cheddar, hard-cooked eggs, tomatoes, blanched green beans, potato salad. A great loaf of bread, I even some compound butter in the freezer from our community garden, and perhaps cornichons. He’s allergic to fish so cannot do a Nicoise salad. He thinks that because dinner is served cold it is not time-intensive however it takes much longer than to place a pot roast in the oven for three hours and cook pappardelle noodles. While I take the dog out! Cheers and happy summer from Dee.

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Posted in dogs, food, Zoe

Food Education

Posted on August 5, 2016 | 1 comment

I’ve an idea. Teach the basics. I spent my life savings to go to cooking school, Peter Kump’s at the time and now ICE. I left college and a corporate career 30 years ago to really learn how to cook, then I became a consultant and was granted a 40th birthday gift to Regello, Italy, for a week to learn more about Italian cooking.

Have shows on how to shop the outer aisles, forget the chips and get flour and make your own pasta. How to choose cheeses. What produce is fresh and hopefully produced locally?

French cooking has a lot of mother sauces. They were created to mask rotting meat. The best Italian food is making the most of spectacular ingredients and not messing it up. My mind is free. It took thousands of dollars and lire to come to this conclusion.

Mama, don’t let your baby become a chef. A cook, OK. No chuck wagons.

Yes, you can buy tea, coffee, rice et al in the inner aisles, along with broth if you wish.

Teach techniques, not recipes. For every couple that marries I buy them an out of print James Beard classic, Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. All of these fake, let’s use Valentines Day as a theme, local cooking classes are just that. If it is just a dating site, make it so. You learn how to make chocolates. Is Romeo ready to take the plunge? Just learn how to cook. Teach him. Work together. See if Junior likes your cooking.

My father always said that all we talked about was the next meal during reunions. That’s because we are female and had to make the lunch or dinner so talked about the different foods we’ve loved.

I saved a meat loaf I made last weekend in the freezer to make my husband a meat loaf sandwich. Eggs and bacon and bread are here and I’ll work on the rest after he arrives, late, and maybe in the morning he’ll tell me what he ate all week. I try to do homey, healthy things for him that he doesn’t get in a restaurant or room service. That might be another clue to a show. I know we’re not in the mainstream, but we are in the midwest and I watch you. Cheers from the Feminist Homemaker, Dee

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A Lot

Posted on July 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

First, I hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend. We did, quietly and went to a lovely dinner with former and current neighbors last evening. I got to make my usual trifle for dessert. We were home before the fireworks started, to take care of our old dog Zoe and assure she was not afraid of the noise.

Our friends F and M often make a great deal about dinner and appetizers. Last night F did a lot of work to make a true American feast. We had BBQ baby back ribs, potato salad and grilled corn on the cob. He never lets me work but allowed me to shuck the corn. Now that they’re a few blocks away we only see them a couple of times a year and it’s always a treat.

We’re going off on a trip to celebrate my father’s 85th birthday. Tomorrow we’ll trim Zoe’s nails (with an expert groomer, not me but I’ll be there to assist and keep her calm). Then she’ll try a couple of hours in open daycare with the older dogs and we’ll see how she does. A couple more of these half-days and I think she’ll be ready for an overnight. Yes, we’re leaving her there for a week. There are many phases to planning the trip, Zoe must be taken care of by the best people we can find.

As to vision, Zoe has an appointment for nails (no polish, thank you) and fun, and I’ve one to get a new lens for my new, expensive glasses I use every excuse not to wear. I’ve only had them for a month. They’re top of the line and there is a sweet spot on the right eye where I can actually see.

The problem is that I was born with a congenital defect. Certain vertebrae did not fully form, a fact I found out 30 years later. When I hit the “sweet spot” on the glasses they cause me spine issues. I’m more worried about my spine than I am a pair of glasses. It’s my first pair of gradiated bifocals and is taking time to learn to “follow my nose” as Zoe does, and use them. It is frustrating.

There’s another matter. Should we prop up my computer and television so I can hit that sweet spot on which I recently had surgery for a growth and was just diagnosed with a tiny cataract. I think the proof is in the pudding. Why keep glasses in the case all the time and use cheap readers for computer, cooking or television? I say make these work and have my old ones work as well if the new prescription is a winner. Old ones will be single vision, not bifocal.

I’ve many visions as to life and world and would love to see them through my eyes as well as my brain and heart. Cheers! Dee

 

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Posted in animals, dogs, Editorial, food, Recipe Ideas

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Lunch Money

Posted on June 30, 2016 | 2 comments

If we brought our own lunch we’d have PB&J or bologna and a piece of American cheese, I didn’t care for either.

It was an extravagance to have a red token for $.35 for a full meal of awful “swiss steak.” Then there was the green token, good for a cup of milk. I used to add a penny from my allowance to it to get the same amount of chocolate milk.

Not a mom, I don’t know what is happening with kids these days, especially those in households that cannot afford to keep them properly fed. We never went without food, it was a lunch box with a sandwich  and a two-cent token for milk, or a school lunch for one red and one green token for lunch and the milk. Plus one cent from my immense $.50 weekly allowance for chocolate milk.

Right now I’d love to remember my lunch boxes as I had many and they would be heirlooms now. I can’t think of any! Tell Corky it was too early for “Remains of the Day” lunch boxes and “My Dinner with Andre” action figures! As you wish, Dee

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Ending Thyme

Posted on June 17, 2016 | 2 comments

I’m good at it. First I drown it, then I dry it out. Both have wilted.

Years ago I created a community garden here and the pots are out but there are no plants. It’s such a short growing season I came over every week to keep the cilantro, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives et al from bolting and going to seed. Chives are perennials so they should be kept around.

With no outdoor herb garden to “shop and chop” in, I had to do it myself. The thyme is dead. I’ve also heard it’s difficult to grow lavender. Basil, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, rosemary and some sage still look OK. Indoor growing, lots of cold days.

Some look to save time, I look to save thyme. Both, actually. Dee

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The Doctor is In

Posted on April 29, 2016 | 1 comment

This morning I opened an organic banana for breakfast and it had a huge bruise on top which I cut out.

In high school my best friend Pam sliced bananas an eighth inch thick to make sure she didn’t get any bruises. She drove me nuts, surgically assaulting fruit. Guess what? She ended up a pediatric ER nurse her entire career. It all fits. Her father was a dentist.

Meticulous. I married a Pam in my meticulous husband, a physicist turned software engineer/consultant. He’ll spend 1/2 hour finding the right toilet paper on Amazon. It takes him an hour to write a two-sentence email and he types like crazy then edits and edits and ends up with a cogent message. This is not like saying hello to a neighbor. It’s business. I edit for content, context, spelling et al.

He’s on a flight home tonight so I have to plan menus for the weekend. I’ve a frozen pizza ready in case he’s hungry. I’m thinking Chicken Saltimbocca for one dinner, we can’t grill so it’s still cold here and I may make a pot roast one night with jus and pappardelle noodles (store-bought) before he flies back to work.

I’ve been ill lately so haven’t kept up our home. Tumbling tumbleweeds of dog undercoat on carpets. Need to get someone to help with spring cleaning so we can invite former neighbors over, with their new dog (I helped with the old one before he left us), for dinner and a bottle of private estate Tuscan wine. I did pour water on Jake’s tree the other day, RIP Jake you wonderful Golden Retriever. When he got tired of Zoe he used to lock himself in the bathroom. I felt bad and told his folks and they said he does it all the time at home. Phew!

Pam and I still keep in touch and I thought of her this morning while I took out the banana bruise without layers. I was never meant to be an ER nurse; analyst, advocate, volunteer-that’s Dee.

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