Down Home Kitchen

Well, as you can tell ………there was plenty of food…..  ….front and center was my dressing……..right next to it on the right sliced turkey and then just to the right of the turkey, Mom’s sliced ham……..above the dressing…….is green onions…..the creamed potatoes and to the right of them is the sweet potatoes, topped with melted, marshmallows……….over on the left is some dishes that my sister left covered that she brought, they kept getting cold for some reason………..Above the potatoes were her deviled eggs and banana pudding, which you can’t see, because they are covered…….too………. she was supposed to bring a fruit salad, which she forgot……..

Oh I kept my giblet gravy on the stove……..since there wasn’t enough room for it on the table and was able to re-heat it ever so often and keep it warm…… 

Hope all of you had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving…….

4 c. of 1 inch cubed french bread and prepared cornbread

4 T. olive oil

1 T. dried thyme

1 lb. italian sausage, broke into clumps

1 c. chopped red onions

1 c. chopped celery

1 T. minced garlic

2 T. dried sage

3/4 c. dried crangerries

3/4 c. chopped pecans

1/2 c. pitted prunes, quartered or chopped

1 c. chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350*.  Place bread cubes in lg. bowl an dtoss with olive oil, thyme, salt, & pepper to taste.  Spread on two baking sheets & bake 15 to 20 min. till lightly toasted.  Return to bowl.

Brown sausage, over med. heat, in skillet, discard fat.  Add onions, garlic celery, & sage, and heat on med. heat for 15 to 20 min. stirring often.  Combine  with bread cubes, cranberries, pecans & prunes.  Drizzle broth over mixture to moisten & toss.  Season with salt & pepper, bake covered with foil for 30 to 45 min. and transfer to table.

Most people you talk to, can’t stand the sight of liver & onions, much less the smell. Once they take a taste, for some it’s even worse.
Then you have the die-hard liver & onions…….lovers, who will pick it every time it’s on a menu at a restaurant.  I am one of them and it’s quite a highlight of my day to find it offered. I also cook it very often, when I can catch a good looking grade of beef/calves’s liver at a store.  I love to baste my liver in flour, and brown in in oil, along with sliced up onions.  I fix the brown gravy the easy way, by using the package mix adding water and heating until it thickens.

I usually serve the liver & onions, with an assortment of veggies, and if I in a cooking mood, hot rolls or biscuits.  Nothing gets better than that on a cool evening………

I’ve started thinking about my grocery list for Thanksgiving.  How about you all?  I already have the turkey and just need to get the rest of the fixings.  Guess I’ll make my homemade pecan pies again this year, my spouse said he wants one.  I was seriously thinking of being lazy this year, but it looks like I’ve started something that I can’t change, unless some one else can do it better………either way, I’ve got to do the cooking again and will be plenty exhausted when it’s over.

Have you ever had a disaster happen to your cooking on a holiday?  If so, tell me about it and I will be glad to print it, with your link.

I found this recipe in the newspaper this weekend and thought it sounded good for these cool evenings.  So, I thought I’d pass it on to you………

4 tsp. canola oil divided

1 sm. onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 ozs. lean ground pork or beef

1(15-oz.) can red or black beans, rinse & drain

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1(16-oz) log cooked polenta, cut into 8 slices

1(16-oz) jar med. hot salsa

1 c. frozen corn kernels

chopped cilantro

Heat 2 tsp. oil in skillet over med. heat.  Saute onion till soft, stir in garlic, cook 1/2 min.  Stir in meat, breaking up with spoon, till no longer pink.  Stir in beans chili powder & cumin turn down heat.  In another skillet heat other 2 tsp. oil over med. heat.  Add polenta, saute till golden and heated through, turning once about 5 min. per side.

Stir salsa and corn into meat mixture and simmer 5 min.  Stir in cilantro and serve in pan or deep dish pie plate with polenta slices arranged on top.

1 med. chuck roast

2 ribs celery cut up

3 carrots cut up

1/2 green bell pepper cut up

1 med. onion cut up
3 med. potatoes cut in quarters

1 c. water

salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder for seasoning

Place all ingredients in slow cooker except potatoes.  Set temp. on high and cook for three hours.  Put in potatoes and cook another hour.  Remover to serving dish, reserve stock for making gravy.

We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.  I had enchiladas, rice and beans, with pico de gallo, chips and salsa.  It was good and filling, so for $5.75 it was worth the effort to go there.  It would have been nice to have had some guacamole and sour cream on the side.  We mostly go to this restaurant on the weekends to get their fresh made menudo.  It’s a huge bowl and they bring out a large plate of pico de gallo, sour cream, and lemons with a bunch of flower tortillas to eat with it.  It costs $4.99 and is very filling with plenty of tripe, hominy, soup and a large ham shank.  The last time we got it we brought home half a cup of soup, in “to go” cups and I froze them.

This is a very full restaurant on the weekends and it’s very hard to find ample parking.  They have a large clientel of Mexican people and often run out of the menudo…..before we can get there……

For the last few months we’ve been wanting to try the new Jalapeno Tree Restaurant, that’s been recently built close to our home. As for a Tex-Mex restaurant, it can be ok, but as an original Mexican restaurant, I don’t buy it. We went in and the hostess’s took us to the smoking section, which was located in the Bar area. The bartender, became our waitress and was very busy tending the bar, so often we waited, until she could make it over to us.   We naturally got our drinks fast, once the order was made, but had to wait for her to come back and take the food order.

When the food arrived, I wasn’t very impressed with the look of the food. The guacamole salad needed more lime juice and seasonings and was very bland to the palate.  The taste of the food was even more bland and the hot chili sauce, that they brought as a condiment, had almost no pepper heat at all. I ate most of my food and so did my spouse, but both of us, mused that the food at On The Border, was much more flavorful and we would have rather gone there. We definitely decided that we won’t be going there again.
Unknown by me, it seems that my youngest daughter happen to visit the same restaurant the next day after we did, and on a visit to my home a few days later, she happen to mention going there. She had the same feeling as we did, that it wasn’t as good as one of the other Mexican restaurants, that we also like.

With the heat being so horrible these days, I find myself using the slow cooker, many times in one week. Today, I put 2 New York Strips in the cooker with a can of mushroom soup and later it will be nice and tender, and the gravy will have been used to season it.  I’ll probably make a salad to go with it, and there you’ll have a nice dinner, on a hot day.

Every time I get into a relationship, I get fat. It never fails, that I start cooking and eat and eat, until I fill so miserable, I can’t breathe. Why do we do this? We seem to want to try to satisfy the other partner at first with our expertise, in cooking. So, we try everything out on them. Before we know it, a few pounds pop up in the wrong places. There goes the waistline and a few other place I don’t like to mention. It’s just a mess, cooking, eating and gaining weight. I hate it, but I love to eat…….lol Is that what they call, being happy and content? Yuck!