My Week

 Good Morning!  This past week has been a busy one.  Last Saturday I spent all day cleaning and doing house projects from my very long list.  It felt good to be so productive.  I finally got the big guys Cubbie repainted and hung back up in the tree.

Sunday we spent most of the morning outside working on the yard and gardens. I have a ton of Thai Basil, Genovese Basil and Greek Oregano coming up.  Our very large Rosemary plant made it through the winter and is getting planted in the ground today.  All of my perennial flowers are coming back and looking wonderful.  I can't believe how much they grow each year. I'm keeping the garden simple this year.  We have a number of pepper plants, arugula, lettuce and more herbs.  We have a wonderful farmers market so I will buy our tomatoes and other fruits and veggies there.  Some of the sunflowers are blooming.  In this picture there was actually a yellow finch on one.

Wednesday I had my first haircut in over a year.  I had 5 inches cut off and it felt so good to have someone do my hair.

Friday my doctors surprised me with a wonderful lunch for my birthday.  One of their wives made us an Indian feast.  Everything was delicious, especially the butter chicken and curry rice.  They were quite sneaky in planning the entire thing and getting me there.  One of my gifts was a dozen roses.  They are gorgeous and smell heavenly.

Meals this week were classic favorites, nothing new.

Monday-Skillet Chicken Shawarma and Naan (I really love this)

Tuesday-Beef sausage, veg and potatoes

Wednesday-Spicy chicken, pinto beans and rice

Thursday-Chicken Parm (It has been a VERY long time since I made this and it was so good)

Friday- Eggs and toast ( I was so full from lunch we kept it light)

Saturday- Meat loaf, potatoes and corn ( we found Florida non GMO corn for 25 cents a piece so we bought the limit of 12 )

Today I plan to work outside a little more and do some work inside as well.  I'm grilling ribs and steak for dinner.  I'm not sure what sides yet.  I took tomorrow off from work so it feels good knowing I don't have to deal with a Monday at work.

How is your Spring going?  

Cookbooks

I have a HUGE cookbook collection.  This is the first cookbook I bought for myself.  I had to be about 19 or 20 years old.  It talked me through the basics of learning to cook on my own.  I had always 'helped' my Grandmother in the kitchen but being out on your own without someone to watch over you is a learning curve.

This book has the recipe for banana bread that I have used ever since.  I've tried a number of other recipes but for some reason I always go back to this one.  The bread comes out super moist and the banana flavor is just right. I either use walnuts or pecans when I make it.

Do you have an old favorite recipe that you continue to make?

My Week

 Happy Mothers Day!

My work schedule is 6 am to 2:30 pm and even though it is hard to get up sometimes, it is nice to have the late afternoon and evening off.  I was able to finish a couple more projects this week and yesterday we spent half the day outside planting and cleaning up.  Good thing we did outside projects yesterday because I woke up today to thunder and it is supposed to rain on and off all day.

I ordered the book Open Blind Eyes and it arrived yesterday. This is the story of a local woman who was only nine years old when she was first approached by a perpetrator who was known to her as a teacher and coach.  She goes into detail of the process of being groomed and how the evil of what was happening to her in the dark remained unseen by everyone around her.  She describes how she coped for many years by blocking out the memories only to have them resurface when she was an adult with a family of her own. This happened in the town that I live in and all of the people in the book still live here so this has been a hot topic in the area.  I don't know any of the people involved but as difficult as the book will be to read I think this woman deserves for people to hear her story.

This weeks menu:

Monday- Chicken, peppers and mashed potatoes.  I cooked this in a butter and garlic pan sauce and then let it finish in the oven.  It was so good.

Tuesday-Chili and cream cheese, jalapeno jelly wonton wraps.

Wednesday- Beef nachos, salsa and queso dip.

Thursday- Veggie and cheese omelet, bacon and toast.

Friday-Pizza

Saturday-Stuffed shells and salad.

Well, I'm off to start my day.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Things That Make Me Smile

We have had beautiful Spring weather.  It's been a little cooler than normal which is nice to not go straight from having the furnace on to the air conditioner.  We haven't used either in probably a month which I love.

These beauties are frequenting our bird feeder along with SO many other gorgeous birds.

For Cinco De Mayo I made beef nachos with salsa and Queso dip.  I tried yet another recipe searching for the perfect to me dip.  So far, everything I've made is good but not quite what I'm looking for.  So the search continues.

How is your Spring going?  Anyone have a favorite Queso recipe I could try?

Shawarma-Inspired Skillet Chicken

 This recipe is seriously delicious.  It's probably the best 'new' recipe I've tried in quite a while and it will be in our dinner rotation from now on.

I found the recipe here Havoc In The Kitchen - Shawarma-Inspired Skillet Chicken.  This food blog is amazing and I know I will be trying many of the dishes, especially if they are half as good as this.

My picture doesn't do it justice but I was in such a hurry to try it.  I served it with sauteed onion and broccoli and homemade Naan.  I drizzled the tahini sauce on top and it brought the entire dish together.

Has anyone tried any new recipes lately?

My Week

Not a lot going on  this week. Who am I kidding, not a lot has been going on since March 2020.  Other than work and going out to eat yesterday I have been no where.  It was nice yesterday to sit outside and enjoy a meal.  

Today, I did a LOT of laundry and home projects.  I wanted to work outside but ran out of time so that is on my list for this week.  The weather is supposed to be really nice.  Hopefully no more cold or snow like we had on Tuesday.  Thankfully it didn't seem to hurt any of our trees or bushes. I don't like to freeze things for more than a couple of months so it was kind of nice to have a brief cold front to finish up the soups/chili in the freezer.

This weeks menu was...

Monday-Beef roast, onions and potatoes and corn.

Tuesday- The last two servings of spicy white bean chicken soup from the freezer

Wednesday- The last two servings of chili with cheese and Fritos

Thursday- Left over beef roll ups with pepper jack cheese and cilantro

Friday- Grilled Chicken, potatoes, salad

Saturday-We were still pretty full from lunch so I made a one pan omelet. Not sure why the photo is coming out this way, but this really is the easiest way to make an omelet for more than one person.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. What did you cook/eat this week?  

Saturday at Firefly

One of the few places we eat out at is Firefly Grill Firefly Grill - Restaurant in Effingham, Illinois (ffgrill.com) . It's a beautiful restaurant inside and out.  It has that incredible atmosphere where you feel comfortable whether you're wearing jeans and a sweater or all dressed up. We've been going there for years and have enjoyed every single dish we've had. They grow a lot of the food they serve right there on the premises and source locally for everything else. We haven't been there since November 2019 because of the pandemic.  Today we finally got to go and the meal was as amazing as always. 

We had the fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. In the summer they do fried green tomatoes with a corn relish that is to die for.  Today they were toped with a house made pimento cheese, house smoked bacon and pickled jalapeno relish.  This was as equally amazing.

The big guy chose crab cakes and declared them exquisite.  His word not mine. I could tell they were filled with large flakey pieces of crab with very little filler.

I have such a hard time choosing what to get since everything is so good.  Today I chose the All American Burger.  The local beef is very tasty.

It was a nice ride, good company in a beautiful setting over looking their large pond and fabulous food.  I'm already trying to think what I want to choose when we go next month for my Birthday.

What is happening in your world today?

Key Lime Cookies

I should be back to a more normal schedule this week and I am so happy for that. I had a three day weekend which unfortunately is passing by too quickly.  Our temperatures have been a little lower than usual but nice.  Lot's of sunshine.  Everything is SO green.

Thanks to Martha from Seaside Simplicity who used Key Limes for her A-Z challenge I have been craving Key Lime Cookies.  So today I had to make them. The cookies are slightly crispy with a delicious lime flavor. They will remind you of Spring.

1/2 cup butter room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg and another egg yolk room temperature

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (approximately 3 limes)

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime zest (approximately 1 and 1/2 limes)

1/2 cup confections sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl cream butter, sugar, eggs until smooth.  About 2 minutes with a hand mixer.  Stir in lime juice and lime zest slowly.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and blend into the creamed mixture.  Form dough into 1/2 inch balls and arrange on the cookie sheet. ( I use parchment paper)

Bake 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool on wire rack. Cover with powdered sugar while still warm.

Tips:  Wash your limes in warm water and then roll on the counter firmly for a minute to make them a little easier to juice.  

How is everyone's Sunday going?

Things That Make Me Smile

Sorry I just dropped out of sight for the past week and have to totally ditch the A-Z challenge.  I'm disappointed about that as I had the list complete and the photos taken.  Everything is OK I just have a couple of projects that have taken up a ton of time.  By next weekend, I will be back to regular postings.  

Yesterday I witnessed some awesomeness.  I saw a deer in our front yard in the late afternoon.  While we do have a large population of deer you do not see them in the front yard much at all.  She was pacing around a little.  I was worried that maybe she was sick.  Then she wandered over to the side of our house.  Our back yard is fenced in but I could still see her.  One minute she was standing behind the neighbors shed and then when I looked back out less than 5 minutes later...she had had a baby!! The pictures aren't great but I didn't want to disturb her so I took them from the sliding glass door which is quite a ways from where she was.  I guess nothing says Spring like this.

Have you experienced any amazing signs of Spring?

C-Country Cookbook

 My Mother sent me this cookbook back in 1987 when I was living in Florida.  She loves organization cookbooks.  Unfortunately most of them from the 80's are filled with recipes that include boxed and canned ingredients that I just don't use.  They are still a fun read though.  

This one has a page with 23 suggestions on appetizers. Chicken livers minced and moistened with mayonnaise anyone?

I do like the weights, measures and equivalents page in this one.  It is very helpful.  

I hope everyone has a blessed weekend and a Happy Easter.  I will be continuing this challenge on Monday.

B-Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

This was my Grandmothers 1953 edition so it is very special to me.  It's in good shape for as old as it is and as much as I'm sure she used it.  Tucked inside I found a few recipes she clipped from the newspaper over the years.  I haven't cooked anything out of it but I love all of the information it provides and I enjoy seeing how much what we eat and how we cook has changed over the years.

I love this picture of a kitchen from the 1950's.  

I like a cookbook that lists all of the recipes before each category. It's makes finding something very easy.

A-America The Great Cookbook

I'm doing the A-Z challenge. Well I guess I should say I'm really going to give it an attempt. Wish me luck.

The topic I chose was cookbooks/food memoirs from my bookshelf.  

This cookbook was published in 2017.  The subtitle is The food we make for the people we love from 100 of our finest chefs and food heroes.  It gives a brief description of the chef and then shares two or three of their favorite recipes which was a lot of fun to read. Just a few of the chefs included are Marcus Samuelson, Jose Andres, Nancy Silverton and many many more. I also really liked that the proceeds went to the organization No Kid Hungry. I've tried many of the recipes or gleaned ideas from them.  One I really enjoy to this day is Grilled Steak Salad with Charred Sugar Snap Peas, radishes and herbs.  SO good!