Pantry and spices

Well I told you in last post we cleaned out the pantry and added a new shelf and was surprised to have only a few things to get rid of. Mostly old spices and some flour that was about up. We put all the cans so we can see what we have. So here is a peek. We have cat food and bird seed in the litter buckets they come in handy for storing stuff.

As I have mentioned before we don't get to eat out at our favorite restaurants as much as we would like and one of our favorites is Aladdin's. This is a Mediterranean style restaurant and we love their food. Lucky they have a little grocery there and we stocked up on some of the spices.

But try as we may we just can not get our humus as smooth as theirs.

Happy New Year tomato soup and sandwich

Boy am I glad to see 2010 go by by. I only can hope the new year is better. I did see my first white Christmas and most likely my only one. We went to B'ham for Christmas day and when we were almost there the rain suddenly turned to big wet snow flakes and snowed all day long. My sister in law lives on a Mt. and the higher elevation got a lot more snow than in the lower areas. And of all times to have forgotten my camera. Isn't that the way it also goes.

Speaking of the way it always goes why is it when you have a few days off you get sick. I came down with a terrible earache and all my hopes for trying the new recipes I had picked out went out the window. We just fixed a huge pot of veg soup and ate on that for two days and then a cheese sandwich. Plus it has been so cold we had to run our water hate to see the bill when it comes in.

So after staying in bed for almost three days I was well enough to get up and move around. The only thing we did constructive is add a shelf in the pantry and cleaned and organized it. Now we can see what we have. LOL. Missed out on the black eyed peas and cabbage this year.

Can of Campbell's tomato soup with cream added with a garnish of cilantro and Parmesan cheese. The sandwich is on a bun using a three meat lunch pack,salami,baloney and Canadian bacon and salad greens with provolone cheese. I have only one new dish to post that we did and I'll get it up as soon as wife get the picture ready.

Pumpkin and Black bean soup

Well I thought I was back but we have gone to 5 day a week till Feb. and being out of town does not give me much time to cook. We have been cooking some of our favorites when I have been home so not many new stuff to post. This is one we have seen on a good many blogs out there and we gave this one a try and it was pretty good. It has been cold latley and this was a good new one for us with some good french bread.

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion finely chopped

3 cups vegetable stock(didn't have any so used chicken)

1 can diced tomatoes not drained

1 can black beans drained and rinsed

2 cans pumpkin puree

1 can corn drained

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon curry powder (as we are not as accustomed to curry we used half)

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper ( we do like this and added a little more)

salt to taste

we used cilantro as a garnish.

Heat soup pot add oil when hot

add onion and saute about 5 minutes till clear

add broth, tomatoes,black beans,pumpkin and corn

bring to a boil

reduce to med heat and stir in cream slowly and then add cumin,cayenne and salt to taste.

Simmer for 5 minutes adjust seasonings and serve.

Did not take long to cook.

I'm back

Wow can not believe its been this long with out posting. Baby is finally back and she can get my pictures set up to post.

I have to admit we have not been cooking any thing much new but some of our older stuff as it was good the first time and we felt like revisiting it.

I have been working on poaching eggs and this is our Will McMuffin for breakfast.

Poach egg, slice of Canadian bacon and some cheese.

Wife added a new button so now the recipes can be printed.

Floyd Eugene Wadsworth

Photo taken 2007

It is with a sad heart that I inform you of the passing of my Father in law.
Floyd Eugene Wadsworth passed away on Oct. 11, 2010. He lived in Birmingham Alabama. He served his country in WWII aboard the destroyer escort USS Wileman. And was a retired Postal Worker of 30 years. He will be dearly missed. My wife Genie is in Birmingham and will be back soon. Upon my wife's return we will resume our cooking adventurers.
Will

Chicken Parmesan

Can you believe I have never made this dish. For some reason I guess I thought it would be real complicated. It was nothing like the chili rellenos we cooked. We got some chicken breast on sale and thought we would give this a go. We had some spaghetti sauce put up and used that.

2 boneless and skinless chicken breast pounded flat

Salt and pepper

Cook spaghetti for two.

1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1 egg beaten

2 teaspoons butter

1 cup spaghetti sauce

2 slices mozzarella cheese

1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Flatten chicken and salt and pepper to taste

Dip chicken in egg and then in bread crumbs

Fry in butter in hot skillet, turning and browning for about 10 minutes

or till cooked

remove from skillet

add spaghetti sauce to skillet and heat

Add chicken and place mozzarella on top of chicken

Cover and cook till cheese is melted.

Place over spaghetti and sprinkles parmesan cheese on top.

Salmon with Lime and Cilantro

We have had meat for the last few blogs so its time for a fish. The only problem with this dish is it is the second time we have fixed it and it is so good that we have not wanted to try a new recipe. So we hope you try it and like it as much as we do. We had fried eggplant and fresh green beans with new potatoes. Just look on side bar for recipes for them.

4 salmon fillets

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450

place salmon on baking sheet and season with salt and pepper

Bake until no longer pink in middle 10-13 minutes depending on how thick

remove from pan

In a small bowl mix lime juice,sugar, soy sauce and chopped cilantro

Serve salmon with sauce [poured over it and we also but some in a bowl on the side.

Thanks to every one and poor puddy

First I would like to thank Ms Carolyn and staff at the Comfort Inn in Tupelo their kindness and hospitality is unmatched by any. So if any one is going to be staying overnight in Tupelo this is the place.

Second I would like to thank everyone who visits and reads my blog I look forward to comments and emails.

It has been one long hot summer and I am really enjoying the cool weather that has come in. I'm ready to get back cooking and hope to be home more starting in Nov. Wife and I are already getting into the soup mode and hunting for new recipes. We just have one problem our go to site ( the death of the Zaar is now food .com ugh) has changed and she will not use it any more as it is so hard to find anything and does not work the way it did. It was nice to list what ingredients we had and do a search to find a recipe to fit. So if anyone know of another site please let us know.

We took two of our cats to the vet they are getting old and have bad teeth so we had them cleaned and a few pulled. Talk about working to pay for animals. I think it cost more to take them than us. Spot Jr is just not getting around good right now and was sliding all over the wooden floors. The anesthesia seemed to last a little longer on him.. Here he is in bed with me as I read him a tale of two mice along with Blue.

Smoked Brisket

This is another of one of the meats we smoked in the new smoker. It is nice to cook such a large piece of a cheaper meat and it taste so good. Another plus is we are able to put a good bit up so wife can use for sandwiches while I am out of town. And of course the best sause is Sweet Baby Rays.

Wife thought this was good but she likes the pulled pork the best. I like the beef.

Crowder Peas

A while back I wrote about foods we used to enjoy around the dinner table growing up especially those after church on Sunday.

Another of my wife favorites was peas and rice. Well we have fixed peas and put them over rice many a time but she said there was something different about her Moms. Well the last time we were there we asked and she said they were crowder peas. We found some at the farmers market and that was it. So if you have not tried the crowder peas you all just don't know what you are missing.

2 cups crowder peas

2-3 slices of bacon. (Ms Mona used to use a salt pork )

1 med onion chopped

2/3 stalk celery diced

2-3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

if you have it a few okra pods

3 cups chicken broth

cook bacon till crisp drain now cook onion,celery,garlic in bacon grease till tender

add broth, peas, salt and pepper (if have okra add now also.) bring to a boil. Skim top if needed.

Lower to simmer, add crumbled bacon to peas cook 30 minutes to 1 hour till peas are tender.

Add over rice!

Green Tomato Casserole courtesy of Cassie

We have made this twice now since we got the recipe from Cassie's site at in Amazing Graceland to check out her site look at the side bar she has some beautiful pictures.
The first time we made it was to bring to our jam night and as we like to bring something new this fit the bill alas we did not get any pictures. This time we got some. We also peeled the tomatoes the second time to make it easier to get out out the dish.
The picture of the green tomatoes at the top is one of wife's set ups so I took a picture and thought I'd post. See what I have to put up with she steals my produce to use in her paintings.

4 thick french bread slices,torn into small pieces about 2 cups
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 medium green tomatoes cut into 1/4 inch slices (we pealed them the second time)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 Tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 400. lightly grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole or deep dish pie pan
place bread in food processor and pulse to a course texture
Combine sugar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl mix well.
Arrange 1/3 of tomatoes slices in bottom of pan sprinkle 1/3 of sugar mixture
1/3 of bread crumbs and 1/3 of cheese. repeat till you have three layers, leaving of the cheese on last layer, add dots of butter on top and cover with foil.
Bake for one hour, uncover and add last 1/3 of cheese and bake uncovered for 5 minutes or till cheese melts, remove and let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Smoked meat, breakfast fattie

I know it has been awhile since my last blog but I had to kill the computer and reload everything. It was running so slow. Now we are zipping along. I also have been working out of town and coming home on weekends and the heat has me wore out. I'm not a spring chicken anymore even though my head will not admit to it my body sure is telling me.

This last week end was such a tease. I hope every one had a good labor day holiday. I did do a little laboring as I got out the smoker and did some smoking.

We did a beef brisket and what is called a fattie. Wife was not crazy about the fattie maybe we did it wrong. I liked it even if it was a little bit of trouble.

take two sausage pkg. like Jimmy Dean or your favorite. and but on plastic wrap

layer of cheese

can of chillies

3 eggs

then take the plastic wrap and role it all up.

Cook in the smoker when done slice.

Sunday cat featuring Blue

Blue is our teddy bear cat. If you look closely he looks like he is smiling. Blue is one of the amigos and the shyest of the bunch and very aloof. He almost never meows and has a barley audible purr. Never fear he does let us know what he wants by head butting and softly pawing and looking at us with that cute face. He does this the most when we are eating ice cream.

By the way if you click on the picture it should get larger.

Italian Sausage,Tomatoes,Pasta one skillet dish

It is so hot that just looking at the stove makes me break out in a sweat much less turning on the oven. We have been eating more sandwiches like ham and swiss and tuna fish salad. We did have this one that was cooked on top of the stove and it had rained (Thank you Lord) and we were a little cooler so I gave it a go. What is every ones favorite dish when its so hot the roads are buckling from the heat?

By the way this was ok it might be better with hot Italian sausage.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 sweet Italian sausage links casings removed and crumbled

1/4 red pepper flakes

1/4 cup onion diced

1 1/2 cloves garlic

1 14 oz can Italian plum tomatoes drained and coarsely chopped. (we used our own tomatoes)

3/4 whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 6 oz pasta any we use the spiral

1 1/2 parsley

Parmesan grated

we also threw in a little fresh sweet basil since we have so much.

Cooks pasta... aladenta. you want it to finish cooking in the sauce.

Heat oil in large heavy skillet

add sausage and red pepper cook till no longer pink about 7 to 8 minutes

add onion, garlic and cook till onion is tender

add tomatoes cream and salt and cook on simmer till mixture thickens a little

add drained pasta (cook it aladenta) then add to sauce and simmer serve with Parmesan cheese

Sunday Cat feature staring Frosty

Frosty is a people cat. He does not run and hide like the other scared cats but tries to get up on your lap and give you a sniff all over with his very cold nose. It may be 100 outside but his nose is always cold so his name Frosty has a double meaning.

Frosty is almost as big as the Stinker but in the fact he is overweight and would rather lounge next to you than run around the house. He hates to be away from his people for long and is always on the couch or kitchen with us and sleeps at the foot of the bed.

When we have been away from the house he is the first to greet us and will not quit doing this little hopping thing against our legs till we make all over him. The way he acts one would think we had been gone for days.

We can only think he acts like this because as kitten he was the last for us to catch. We found five kittens under our porch and rescued them. Three we kept and the other two found a home with our Vets sister who had a big barn. We call Frosty and his brothers Sambo and Blue the the three amigos. Brother Blue will appear soon.

Frosty has appeared before as our kitchen cat. He likes to sit on the stool and watch me cook.