Category Archives: Recipe Ideas

We didn’t expect to be here, but here we are. My husband is on call this week for work emergencies so we have to stay in town.

He got his birthday off, first time since we’ve been out here, nearly three years, so we have four days together. He doesn’t seem to get that I still have to do laundry and make the bed and make breakfast and dinner. On weekends he likes to go out for lunch.

Last night, Christmas Eve, I made a pork tenderloin that I’d marinated overnight. I rubbed it with grainy mustard, placed it in a plastic bag (in a bowl, always) and added a beer, Heineken was the best I could find at the time. It was drained, dried, and brushed with olive oil, seasoned with s&p and grilled to perfection.

I served it with mashed potatoes and braised carrots.

Christmas dinner, I still can’t find capon  and have received 37 hits on this blog for how to cook capon in the past two days. We didn ‘t know we’d be here otherwise would have ordered from http://www.roastgoose.com

So I made filet mignon (grilled perfectly by my husband), scalloped potatoes and brussels sprouts with bacon.

Some dishes worked, others didn’t work as well. The filet was rare and wonderful. Let me think about it and the rest, it’s late and I wish you a merry Christmas. Dee

Let’s see what is more important to the US economy.  Let’s take all the designers and staffs that created three wedding dresses, a wedding and feast for 400 guests and goodie bags.  How much did that cost and what did it contribute to the designer, couiffeur, catering and other communities?

Now, how many people are out of work in the US while the Kardashians, who have nothing to go on but their looks and a reality TV show, spend millions on a wedding?

Did I watch the wedding?  Heck, no.  Did I tune in to CNN for Libya info, yes. All while I was making the last dinner for my husband’s mother, Marjory.

We had grilled turkey burgers, heirloom tomatoes, and spiced sweet potato fries.

I got our butcher to grind 1# of white meat turkey and 1/2 # of dark meat turkey.  I mixed it with 1 beaten egg with 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper.  Then I added a bit of bread crumbs to bind.

Normally, I’d have grated garlic and onion in, using a micro plane, but Marjory hates onion so I did it this way.

Oh, I also did cucumber salad, which is already on this blog and a wonderful summer dish.  As for the sweet potato fries, they were frozen from Alexia, I just added some Aleppo pepper at the end.

My husband got one sliced tomato on his burger, a larger heirloom from the farmers’ market was cut into wedges for all to share.

This morning on the “news” on the Today show that I watch for local weather, the Kardashian wedding was billed as “simple.”  Three wedding dresses, two groom outfits, 400 guests, full TV coverage.

That doesn’t sound simple to me.  Now task the Kardashians with what I did.  A wedding and honeymoon in under $2,500, including two 18K wedding bands from Blue Nile.

I live for the day when being famous for being famous for being on a reality show does not equal money for life and “branding.”  Where my husband comes from, branding is done to cattle.

It’s been nearly a week that Jim’s mom has been here and we’ve done some terrific activities, amused ourselves at home, rested a bit, and had some good conversations.  She has another stop, at her dad’s, before going home to a hot and dry home in TX.  We’re all getting older, and family is important, especially if they’re not in town.

Real people don’t have Kardashian lives.  Let’s face it, even the Kardashians don’t have Kardashian lives.  I think they spend 1/2 of their time in hair and makeup, 1/4 being on camera, 1/8 being taken out of makeup and hair, and the final 1/8 with their publicist or maybe yelling at the husband and sleeping.

I’m glad to be here in the mountains in a quiet and calm landscape.  Enjoy yours.  Dee