Let's Go Mediterrean

I'm a little late in getting this post done. We did have new food night this week. I've just been busy getting ready for vacation and am slow in posting about it.  So we decided to try something curry flavored. Curry happens to be a favorite of Miss Annette and Mr. Rick.  Chris chose to go out with a friend instead of joining us this week.

What do you think of our meal?  We obviously won't be going hungry will we?

We started with Trinidadian Curry Chicken.   Gary marinated the chicken in tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, salt and a lot of cracked black pepper.  Make a curry slurry out of tumeric, curry and water.  Fry the curry slurry in a little oil - this basically cooks the spices until you have a thick paste. Toss in chopped onions, stir then add chicken coating in the paste. Add water and simmer for 20 minutes.

Knowing that we were having curry, Miss Annette said she would bring a salad to go along with it.  This consisted of spinach leaves, fresh mango, julienne peppers and peanuts. She made a simple dressing of lemon juice, orange juice and olive oil.  Gotta say it was really scrumptious!!

Gary also made some cous cous.  No special recipe here - just a basic olive oil and roasted garlic cous cous.  We did put some of the sauce from the curried chicken on the risotto and it was really good.

And what is a meal without bread?  Mr. Rick brought some garlic bread that just topped the meal off perfectly.  I think garlic bread goes with every thing, don't you?

Now I decided to do dessert. But what to fix to go with curry chicken?  A quick Google search gave me an idea.  Now most of the Google searches suggested coconut ice cream and I gotta admit it sounded good but I wanted to make something.

What do you think of this?  It's a Strawberry Mango Lassi.  Isn't that a funny name?  LOL  It consists of milk, plain Greek yogurt, frozen mangoes, frozen strawberries, a couple tablespoons of honey and a 'pinch' of cinnamon.  I used several 'pinches' of cinnamon because I like cinnamon.  It suggested to serve with a light cookie. It turned out to be the perfect ending to our meal.


Now you are just going to have play catch up on my blog if you are a new follower. We are going to take a short vacation and I am sure I will be blogging about it.  Looking forward to a family Alaska cruise.  I've been blogging for a while so just read a few of my older blogs. Get to know my family if you don't already know us. Catch up on some of my poetry and basically just get to know me in the next couple of weeks.

Keep watching for upcoming blogs when we get back.

Potluck Tuesday

I know that you have been waiting expectantly to find out what we have been having for New Food Night.  Last week we postponed our evening meal due to family circumstances. All is well and we are cooking again!

Last night we had Potluck Tuesday.  No one knew what anyone was making and everyone was bringing a new dish.  The only thing we knew for sure was that Miss Annette was going to bring an entree.

What do you think of that entree?  Balsamic glazed pork chops with rice.  Yummers!  It tasted so good.  She fixed the pork chops with onion, garlic, and herbs and used a balsamic vinegar for the glaze. She removed the pork chops and then used brown rice that she cooked up then added the pork chops back and finished the dish up.  This is a meal in itself but we are just beginning.  

Side dish of Asian fried Napa cabbage. This was Gary's contribution. He sauteed onion in canola oil with fresh onion, garlic and soy. Add in the Napa cabbage and you have a great side dish.  And because he used Napa cabbage it did not have the pungent smell you usually associate with fried cabbage. 

Mr. Rick brought some beans and ham that he had been cooking in the crock pot all day! How yummy do those look? He soaked his beans overnight.  I remember once my Grannie Lake teling me that she was going to have dried beans to eat.  I didn't know what she meant. Turns out it was just beans like I was used to eating she just called them dried beans.  Makes sense because they are dry until you soak them and cook them.  After soaking the beans overnight he put them in the crockpot with a ham hock and let them cook all day.  Awesomeness!!

My contribution was Oven Roasted Garlic Potatoes. I just love potatoes! Any way you make them I can eat them, raw, boiled, baked, fried, mashed.  They are all good. I took some potatoes and peeled them up. I cut them to approximately the same size and put them in a baking dish so they fit together snuggly. (This was actually what the recipe said to do).  I took some chicken broth, about a cup or so will be enough, and added some garlic seasoning.  I used Garlic Galore Seasoning from Wildtree that I got from my good friend Shellie.  I put the broth and garlic in a pot and heated it up for about a minute to get the flavors mixed good. I poured the broth over the potatoes and then for the really yummy part. I put a pat of butter on each potato. When I say a pat it was probably about 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon of butter on top of each potato. Put this in an oven at 350 degrees and let it bake away for about an hour. Pure goodness!  

We had a cheesecake for dessert - just because Gary thought we should have a dessert. Now that is not to say that any of us turned down the dessert. Gary just happened to be the one think we needed dessert.  

Now, if you thought this meal was good wait until you read what we are having next week!  Don't forget to check back in.  

Cooking Memories

We are having roast and potatoes for dinner this evening. Gary was going to put the roast in the crock pot before he left for work but forgot to so I did it when I got up. I posted a picture of the roast on Facebook.  As I was getting the roast ready it brought to mind two people - my daughter Charlie and my father-in-law Red.  

Let me explain.  I think of Charlie because she loves roast and potatoes. Gary also loves roast and potatoes.  Early in our relationship I worked several evenings a week. This meant that the girls and Gary might have dinner at home without me. One such time Gary put a roast in the crock pot and made a big meal of roast, potatoes, carrots and even a pan of brownies for dessert. Due to whatever circumstances came up that day when it was dinner time the only two at home were Gary and Charlie. They ate the entire roast and the entire pan of brownies.!  Not one scrap of leftovers for anyone else to east.  Whenever, we have roast I always think of this.  

I think of Red for an entirely different reason. When Gary and I got married I had been cooking for ever.  I started cooking at home as a kid for our family of eight when I was 12 or 13. So when Gary and his love of cooking came along I embraced it.  He loved to cook - he wanted to cook - no problem for me.  We had been married a year or so when my father-in-law asked me 'Do you even know how to cook?'  LOL -- I can see why he wondered as every meal he ate at our house Gary had prepared.  

Along this same line let me say that whenever I make noodles I always think of my 'other' daughter Lorrie Swigart Scrivner.  She is my 'other' daughter because she lived for us three years while she was in high school.  I called her my red-headed stepchild.  One time when I was making noodles Lorrie Lou wanted to cut them up. We had the strangest looking noodles you have ever seen!  Some where triangle shaped even.  I don't roll up my noodles and cut them. I just roll the dough out and then use a pizza cutter to cut them. I have taught two of my grand kids how to make noodles.  Remington and Lily always like to cut them up. And I always think of Lorrie whenever I see them cutting the noodles.  
Our live has changed since we first got married almost 20 years ago.  I am now cooking more than I did then. Circumstances keep Gary at work more and I have taken over more of the cooking. Although he still loves to cook and does so often. There are certain things that he thinks I actually cook better than him (noodles being one of them).  Our styles of cooking are very different. He loves to experiment and try new things and sometimes even elaborate things. By elaborate I mean it may take many dishes to prepare. I tend to like one dish meals - preferably cooked in foil if at possible so I have less clean up.  That's the lazy in me.  LOL  We have a good system - he does most of the cooking and I set the table.  It works for us.  And from the looks of the two of us, doesn't matter who is doing the cooking - we are both eating it

Not Your Mother

Well, here it is. The start of another new semester at school.  You know what that means. Yep, busy busy time at work. And the crazies come out in full force. You know that means that I may need to do a little bit of venting. Classes start next week and the calls have already started and let me say this, "I am not your mother!"

Don't get me wrong. I love being a mother and grandmother. I would do anything within my power for my children and grandchildren. Let me also say this, the people who call me on the phone are not my children nor my grandchildren.  

So, if you call me asking which scholarships are available for you to apply for I will advise you to go talk to an advisor on campus. I do not have the time to look up individual scholarships that might by chance apply to you. Furthermore, you should have already been checking on this and put in applications.  

No, I will not look up your schedule to see what time or day your class meets. I will advise you how you can log into your account and check your schedule for yourself. Truly, this is something that you need to know. It's not anything that I need to have knowledge of.  

No, I am sorry, I do not know what books you need to buy for your class.  If you will log into your account you can probably get that information from your syllabus. At the very least, you can print off your schedule and take it to the bookstore where they will be able to assist you with your books.  

No I will not log into your account and change your password for you. I will however, be more than happy to talk you through how to do this yourself. No, I cannot tell you what to make your new password. I can recommend that you make it something you will be able to remember. No, I will not tell you how to spell 'blue'. You need to spell it however you want, just make sure you know how you spell it!.

No, I'm sorry. I cannot look up on line and see if a particular class is available for you to enroll in. I can advise you on how to go online yourself and look up any class you may be interested in. I cannot, however, look up classes for every student who calls because they don't want to take the time to check for themselves. 

Yes, I realize that typically your mother will do this for you. That may explain why you do not know your password or the answers to the security questions your mother put in place for you. It probably also explains why you do not know what classes you are taking this semester.  

Don't get me wrong. It's nice for parents to 'help' to a degree. But remember, you cannot go to class with your son or daughter and take notes for them. And if the 'child' you are trying to help is in the age range of 20-45 years of age perhaps you should let them grow up and be adults. 

Stressed Out?

STRESS:  mental, emotional, or physical strain or tension

Do you ever have so much piled on you that you say 'That's it! No more! I cannot handle one more thing on my plate.'? 

Ever been told "God won't give you more than you can handle with Him"? 

What is stress? Stress is different things for different people. The illness and death of a loved one, moving, changing jobs, health concerns, work. Most people can deal with any of these situations when they come one at a time. What happens when you are hit with several of these at the same time?  What if four different health concerns come up at the same time with different members of your immediate family all within the space of a week?  How do you handle that?

Without going into specific details, let's just say that Gary and I are going through that. We know that two of the situations are under control. Our twin grandsons have come through their tonsillectomies and are recovering. Not as quickly as they would like and maybe not as easily as their mom would like but they are healing. Gary's mom has gone through a heart attack and had two stents placed in her artery. She is home and recovering and is cleared for our Alaska cruise in 2 weeks. The other two situations are still waiting on word from the doctors. 

How do we handle it? We trust in God. Gary tends to worry more than I do. I tend to wait until I know what I have to worry about to get concerned. But sometimes you gotta say, 'can anything else go wrong?'.  We trust in God, we support each other and we pray.  

How do you handle your stress?  Do you get the strength you need to face the hurdles thrown at you from God or do you try to handle it on your own?  I can tell you from experience that having God on your side to help you handle stress is better than trying to go it alone.  

Let's Go Italian

It's Tuesday night and you know what that means?  New Food Night!  I hope that you didn't put off your own meal while waiting to see what we might be having.

I just love pasta and one of my favorite pasta dishes is Chicken Picatta.  Gary took some chicken and put it in a brine for about 30-45 minutes of water, white pepper, garlic powder and salt. When it was time to cook the chicken he seasoned it with some flour then browned it in a skillet with some olive oil and butter. He then moved the chicken to a plate and 'deglazed' the pan with white wine, chicken broth, lemon juice and lemon zest. (If you are not a cooking guru like Gary to deglaze a pan means to loosen up the crust and crumbs on the bottom of the pan). Let this reduce and add capers then toss in the pasta.  We used Angel hair pasta.

Miss Annette brought over a version of caprese salad. She took mozzarella pearls and cherry tomatoes. To these she added fresh basil and minced red onions and tossed with a balsamic vinegar.

Doesn't that look good?  It was too and I'm not usually a big vinegar person but this was excellent!

We added some garlic bread just because you need some type of bread with the meal.

And for dessert we had gellato.  What better item could you choose to end an Italian meal with?

Creamy texture -excellent flavors -- (chocolate and tiramisu).  MMMM- MMMM- good

Now if you noticed the first picture you may have noticed that we had an extra plate setting tonight (five not four).  That's because we missed another friend and invited Mr. Rick Dotts to join us for new food night. I believe he referred to the evening as 'experiment night'.

Now tell me this, what could make for a better evening than good food and good company?  Nothing at all.
And just wait until you read about next weeks meal.  Don't want to give anything away but let's just say that you are in for a surprise next week.