A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Southern Green Beans: More Than Just Bacon

I know it sounds like a misnomer but southern-style green beans really don't have to turn out like gray lumpy mush.  You can actually have green beans prepared in the southern style that are still recognizable and full of flavor.

I've taken a few tips from the cooks in my family along with my own twist to come up with a good southern-style green bean recipe that compliments other southern standards like meatloaf, ham, fried chicken, etc., that at the same time do not break the calorie bank or clog arteries with bacon grease.  It's like having one of my childhood memories in an adult form and with no bacon guilt.

Pantry Meatloaf with Country Bob's Sauce

 

We invited James over last night for dinner and to watch the premiere of the new season of Dexter.  For the menu, I went with comfort food:  Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Green Beans, and Dinner Rolls.  Gene and I together make a decent meatloaf but we played around with some stuff last night to create this one that was a big hit with all three of us. We're calling it "Pantry Meatloaf" because, duh, so many of the ingredients came from the pantry including Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce.  We started out with the ground beef and the eggs. Then when I reached for the bread crumbs I decided to try cornbread stuffing mix instead. While I was doing that, Gene walked by and added Country Bob's to the ground beef.  Gene used to use Lipton onion soup mix in his bachelor meatloaf but I only had Knorr Vegetable soup mix a couple of meatloaf dinners back and decided to use it which worked out really well....all in all the recipe turned out to be a success so I'm now "writing it down" so we won't forget what we did so we can do it again next time on purpose. 

(Spoiler Alert!)

I liked the opening show of Dexter.  Certainly not as high emotion as last season ended with Dexter and Trinity's love/hate relationship (so glad John Lithgow got that emmy--well deserved!) but it was a nice tribute to Rita.  Loved the last line where he admits he loved her. He finally realizes he can feel.  I also liked the way they set it up to be an exploration of his new role as primary care-giver to the kids and also that he's going to be in deep doo-doo again from within in his own department. He thought Doakes was tenacious, but Quinn hates Dexter for knowing he's a dirty cop. Should prove interesting.  Actually, I was chuckling, thinking Dexter's biggest challenge is going to be winning over Astor. 

Love this line from an earlier season:  "How many more bodies would there have been had I not gotten to those killers? I didn't want to save lives, but save lives I did. Motivation aside, I think Harry and Lundy would agree on this one. "

My Email Program Just Flipped Me the Bird

  Okay, kids. Anyone who has sent me email that I haven't answered, please do not feel ignored.  My email program had a massive infarct last night and wiped itself clean. Literally. I have nothing left from before 3pm yesterday afternoon.  And since I have a memory the size of a gnat's butt (Hey, that's what my dayplanner and email queue are for so I don't have to use up my few free brain cells remembering stuff) I have not a clue who what when where was in that lineup.

If you were talking to me and I hadn't answered, ring me up again, so to speak.  The program is working fine now, I just have no email history left prior to yesterday afternoon.

Welcome Harvest Moon: Autumn Has Arrived

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. 

~Albert Camus

We Have a Winner for the Nakano Summer Splash Giveaway!

When I said I was going to have Gene pull a name out of a hat, I meant it literally! Behold, niece Sydney's kindergarten art project: magician's hat with wand AND pink bunny. Pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself, the proud Auntie.  If you look closely you can see her name upside down in silver glitter, or what remains of the silver glitter a decade later!  Thanks for letting Aunt Gonnie exploit your childhood memories, Sydney! 

Gene was indeed the honest-to-goodness designated "name puller" and since no one sent the bribes he tried to hijack, he was also honest, even closing his eyes to pull out one of those multi folded  slips of paper.

And the winner of the $25.00 AmEx gift card and bottle of Nakano seasoned rice vinegar, courtesy of Nakano is:

Congratulations Jessie!!!

Much thanks to all who signed up for the Nakano enewsletter and/or left links to great recipes featuring Nakano seasoned rice vinegars.  

To see the original post, click here:  Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar Contest 

 

Knitting for the NICU: September '10 Brings Organization

 

Not only did Gene brave Wal-mart for me the other day when I was dreading that trip to the pharmacy(I totally UN-heart going to Wally World on principle and fear of bad fashion rubbing off) he brought home this cheery pink organizer for Hat Baby and all of my supplies.  It's so freakin' nice to have everything right here in my little corner instead of strung out in multiple drawers all over the house! 

So let's take a tour of NICU Knitting Central, shall we?  Hat Baby sleeps in the top drawer with all the current yarns I'm working with while on top in the blue frous-frous hat box is all the completed hats for upcoming months.  Next to the rolling caddy you can see the stack of food magazines, catalogs, and Respiratory Care journals being neglected, alongside the stack of recipes waiting to be experimented with in the kitchen...and the bottle of Tylenol Arthritis that keeps me going some nights.  The latest football hat rests on top of the ever-present notebook where I'm actually being smart and writing down the patterns as I go along now instead of having to recount stitches on my models like I used to!  This old dog does learn a few tricks now and then but admittedly it's still mostly learning the hard way just like when I was younger.

So everyone give Gene a big hug or "Good job!" when you see him out and about or on Facebook for such a thoughtful and helpful gift! 

Night Shift Birthday Party: Jessica's Cucumber Sandwiches

 

One of the great side effects of work birthday parties is getting to taste new recipes like these pretty open-faced cucumber sandwiches our friend Jessica brought in.  Easy to make, they were delicious, so good Carrianne and I ate almost a container of them by ourselves (luckily, there were three containers so others could indulge too).

By the way, I'm going to start adding Cook's notes to recipes with "use this...or that..." and I've set up a new category to reflect recipes that take substitutions well.   So many times recipes can be equally good using several different ingredients and it can all depend on what you have in the pantry or what you need to use up from the garden.  Not all cooks are adept at making those substitutions the way I was taught growing up in my mother's kitchen.  Quite frankly, we were very poor and running to the grocery store for a $5.00 ingredient was rarely an option so my mother became extremely proficient at still trying new recipes while also still using her pantry items on hand.  For example, most recipes that call for asparagus taste just as great substituting broccoli when asparagus is out of season, zucchini for eggplant, or in this recipe Cavender's Greek Seasoning is a great substitute for fresh dill when you don't happen to have fresh from the garden on hand.

Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar Summer Splash Giveaway

    

Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegars by Mizkan is having a fun end of the summer prize giveaway to celebrate their new flavors. Along with the original seasoned rice vinegar, they now also have:  basil & oregano, red pepper, roasted garlic, balsamic blend, and Italian herb & red wine flavors. Yum!

I'm excited about this contest because I personally use Nakano all the time in salads and to marinate chicken and steaks before grilling.  I'm re-posting three of my favorite recipes:  Nannie's Cukes & Onions, Japanese Steak House Yum-Yum Sauce, and Cucumber Salad with Southern Boiled Dressing.

For more recipes, go to: http://www.mizkan.com/Recipes/

To host the contest they sent me $50 and a bottle of the basil & oregano to try out and for one lucky winner, they'll send YOU $25.00 and a complimentary bottle of Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar.

All you have to do is one or both of two things:

1) Sign up for the NAKANO SPLASH RECIPE CLUB to receive a free monthly e-newsletter freaturing great recipes and tips  http://bit.ly/9KS2BD

and/or

2) Send me a link to your favorite online recipe using Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar.

Post in the comment section that you've signed up and/or your recipe link and next Friday, September 17th, I will literally put everyone's name into a hat and have Gene draw the winner.

Baked Chicken Wings with Anheuser Busch Wing Sauce

 

Nieces Jordan and Sydney came over one night last week and while Jordan (thank you, Girlie!) mowed the lawn, Sydney made baked chicken wings for dinner. Honestly, out of all the things I've cooked over the years that most people never have, one of the things I've never made that most people have is chicken wings.  We just got a not great blood report back on Gene so we're steadfastly back on the heart diet, trying to eat less refined carbs and less fat so I also was going for baked wings rather than fried.  Sort of a two-for one experiment.

   One of the interesting things I found out about Sydney is maybe a clue to how she learns. We all learn better one way or the other:  verbally or from writing. I think Jordan is more of a verbal girl but what I didn't realize until that night was that Sydney is more of a reading/writing girl.  Sydney was a couple of months premature (ruptured membranes and other complications) and spent a week on a vent in our NICU. She has residual hearing loss and learning challenges from her birth.  One of her weaknesses is short term memory loss especially when following multi-step directions.

I had the coating bowls set out in order but only three: milk, whole wheat white flour mix, egg/water, so she had to go back to the middle for another dredging of flour before laying the wings on the baking sheets.  It really threw her.  She couldn't remember the fourth step. I tried verbally cueing her "1, 2, 3, 4, and in the pan" and she remembered better but still not enough to finish all the wings without prompting.  On a hunch, I grabbed a pad of sticky notes and a magic marker and labeled the bowls "1", "2, 4", "3".  From then on she had no problems remembering the steps and finished getting the rest of the wings on the pans.

It was a beautiful "AHA!" moment!

Jordan got to be our first taste-tester but it was a chore for her in between us yelling at her to eat it so I could take pic and her complaining "But it just came out of the oven--it's hot!"  Geez, such a little thing. Doesn't she know she's supposed to be willing to burn herself for my blog?  The blog is ALL IMPORTANT!~  Hehehehe

Thanks for being our taste-tester, LoLo!  You were a good sport!