Yummy, Yummy, Yummy

 My sister and brother in law came to visit this week.  One of the nights they were here, they took us to eat at the Inn where they were staying.....  And here are a couple of pics.  The first was an excellent chicken dish with rather fancy presentation.  The whole meal was beautifully presented AND most important.... excellent.

 

And the next picture shows me with my dessert.  The Pastry Chef at this Inn was a contestant on "Hell's Kitchen" on the Fox tv network  and came in third.  SHE is very good and creative.  I loved the look of my dessert and it tasted good too. It was a chocolate mousse.

(If you look closely at my hands you can see the thumb splints I have to wear 

because of very bad arthritis in my thumbs!

Now, we don't always eat like that, mostly because I enjoy cooking and over the years I have learned to cook in ways that my husband likes too. But it was a wonderful treat and we enjoyed the evening and of course the visit with my sister and her husband.

We had another friend here for dinner last night.  Here is what we had from my kitchen.  Not quite as fancy presentation (I will have to work on that!!!  LOL) But very good anyway.

The Salad was a spinach salad with cut up oranges, fresh grated Parmesan cheese, some slices of red pepper, a sprinkling of  sugared Walnuts and dried cranberries and a Raspberry Vinaigrette.

And served with herb bread.

Next, I made sweet potato fries sprinkled with dried cranberries. They were baked not fried.

And finally we had Chicken Shish K Bob, with chicken, peppers and onions.  They were grilled.

It was all YUMMY.

And lest we forget, we also had dessert...  It was a Boston Creme Pie, from the Bakery at the grocery store.

We have definitely eaten well this week and it isn't over yet since Father's Day festivities are coming up.  Maybe I will have more food pics on Monday.

Happy Father's Day to any dad's that might read this.

Yummy Saturday Night Fare

Saturday night dinner at our house has always been a Barbequed steak dinner with potatoes and onion rings. Here is last nights dinner with a couple of changes in methods of cooking.

I like to cook and often look for new recipes Sometimes I stumble on one that is too good to pass up. I found this one indirectly. I was visiting one of my favorite altered art type blogs,
Aileen's Musings and enjoying some art when I came upon this recipe for making potatoes. They were called Crash Hot Potatoes. She had gotten it from another site so I followed the link over to that site. Pioneer Woman. Not only was this recipe there but lots of others that I must soon try.
These are the Crash Hot Potatoes I made. Be sure to check the Pioneer Woman's website for directions to make them. Click on link in the above paragraph.

I showed the picture to my husband and he said that looked like something he would like. Since Saturday night has always been steak night we are having steak with these potatoes along with my very special recipe for onion rings.

Here is the recipe for the Onion rings or really Onion clusters as we call them.

ONION CLUSTERS
1 Cup flour
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon Milk
2 beaten eggs
salt to taste (I often don't cook with salt but add afterwards as wanted)
1 large or two medium onions.

Slice the onions VERY thin, I use a Mandolin slicer. (I tried to find one on line like mine to show you but can't but if you google Mandolin Kitchen Slicer you can find similar)
The onions must be almost sliver thin to work right.

Mix up the batter, add the onions and coat thoroughly.

Heat oil to a high heat in a pan or use a deep fryer. I use canola oil.

Drop in, gently, little clusters of onions. Let brown on one side and turn over. Then take out and drain on a paper towel. At least that is the way I do it.

Here are the onions cooking in oil.

This is how they look individually.

And here is the final "pile" of last nights onion clusters

Go back to top of page to see the final result. The dinner was VERY good.

Trigger Finger, Spring and a recipe

It is most assuredly spring. Tulips, Forsythia and daffodils are everywhere and the trees are beginning to come to life. I hope to be able to get out into the yard soon to do some cleaning up, planting and such.

However it may take a couple more weeks. I just had surgery on my right hand (I am right handed of course) for Trigger finger... I had two fingers that were so bad I couldn't do much normal with the hand. So after cortisone shots and other treatments didn't work it was decided to go for the surgery. It was pretty simple apparently and I was back using my hand that evening.... except for the wrap and bandage. Now less than a week later it is about back to normal except for the stitches which will come out next week. Then I can get back to gardening and sewing and other fun things.

Everyone knows that FRENCH'S® French Fried Onions are yummy and great for the quintessential Thanksgiving recipe Green Bean Casserole. But they have added a new classic to their recipe list.......French's Crunchy Onion Chicken. My daughter introduced me to this awhile back and now it is a favorite in our house too. The recipe for this is at their website or conveniently on the can itself.
Last night I cooked it and added a pasta salad favorite to it. And..... we had homemade Banana Cream Pie too cause we had a few overripe bananas.

I didn't take a picture of the pie but here is the dinner as it was served..... Notice I used one of my Polish Pottery dishes for the honey mustard we use as a dip for the chicken.
The recipe for the pasta salad is simple Cook up a favorite pasta, we like bow ties (farfale). Add fresh baby spinach and feta cheese, crumbled. It can be mixed to your taste, more or less spinach, more or less feta. I got the idea for this from the Deli. They sell something similar there don't know if it is exactly the same but we like it the way I make it.

A good recipe

My daughter is a great cook. She is constantly on the lookout for good recipes. I tried one that she recently talked about on her blog. Well, it sounded good and I had all the ingredients in my frig and pantry so I did it.
The recipe, Chicken Stroganoff, came from the Taste of Home website. My daughter didn't follow it exactly. I did so there was a bit of difference but it was still great. I even took a picture of my offering. Notice that I added green peas and a couple of tomato chunks. When I was in high school I took home ec classes and they always stressed your meal should have colorful presentation. So that is what I did with this one. I did not use paprika this time. Maybe I will the next time I make it. However, I think I will go back to using beef. That seems to be more of a family favorite here.