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Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Brisket is History

And of course, with all the hubbub of company, there is no picture to post.  BUT....how about this sweet little thing sprinkling Big Steve's cheek with some sugar....

Your Mom -- Brisket

Haha - If you're in my family, you will know how awesome it is that I said "YourMom".  At any rate, we're having brisket today.  Not fast food, for sure, but gluten free and awesome!!! 

Just take a nice brisket - at least four pounds.  Then make a mess of this:

  • 2 T chili powder
  • 1 T garlic powder
  • 1 T onion powder
  • 1 T kosher salt
  • 1 T ground black pepper
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1 T McCormack's Season All (because it doesn't have MSG)
Rub it onto the brisket in the pan.  Leave the top off and bake at 350 for one hour.

Then, you put some beef stock in the bottom of the pan (at least 1 1/2 cup) and put the whole mess back into the oven at 300 for another 3 hours.  Shut the oven off and in 1/2 hour, you've got  yourself some serious comfort food!!!  And gluten free-to boot.

Right now, we can smell the brisket in the first stages of cooking.  I'll try and take a picture and post it when the table is set.

Now, back to set the rest of the house straight!!!  (And peel potatoes, and other really important stuff).

Friday, February 26, 2010

And It's Friday

Tonight, we had "Death Dogs".  Of course, they weren't death dogs when they were conceived.  I don't even know who conceived them.  But they are awesomely tasty and wonderful.  And if you eat them regularly, they are "DEATH DOGS".


So, first you get your wieners, and I'm thinking those wieners on a string are a safe bet.  They're not on a string for nothing, you know.

So you cook your wieners and then stuff them into hot dog buns lined up in a pan.  A flat pan.  Then you take some soft butter and rub it down either side of the bunned weiners.  Yummmmmmmm....

Now, you put a slice of cheese atop each, followed by a slice of bacon.  So, actually, YES!!!  You've got a hotdog nestled in white bread, topped with butter, cheese and bacon.

Take the whole mess in the pan, and put it under your broiler.  You know...that's when only the top light is lit in your oven.  (Sorry if you're way more savvy than this, but I have been asked lately to be more specific.  And scrumptious food is worth both the asking, as well as the answer!!!)

So anyway, watch them carefully.  And if they cook, and don't burn, you have nirvana on your table tonight.  I'm just sayin'. 

Nothing for everyday eatin'.  But surely, for an end of a (stupid) week treat, you can't beat it!!!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Pleeeeeeeeeeeezzzeee Mom!!!

Tonight's dinner was pot roast of beef, mashed potatoes and gravy and butternut squash.  The "kids" were certainly enchanted!!  Long story short, they were enclosed to the "dog cave" (aka, my bedroom).  Their dear faces say it all!!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Snowstorm Picnic

Bless all of our hearts, it's snowing like crazy -- we're expecting at least a foot -- and so I'm not sure what anyone else does in a winter storm, but we had a picnic tonight.  We had hotdogs by the string, onions in tomato sauce, homemade potato salad (you'll have to pry me for my recipe -- the fellows were very appreciative!!!) and homemade pickles (bread & butter & dill) from the garden (again, the recipes are secret Haney Place Stuff).  What else does one do when the weather outside is frightful!!!???!!!

It's just too bad we couldn't find any watermelon, but such is life.  I guess we'll suffer through somehow.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Our First Ever Haney Place Giveaway!

This is fun!!!  This is our first ever Haney Place giveaway.  All you need to do is answer the following question in your comments:

What is your favorite food ever -- if you add a recipe, you will get five entries instead of one!

That's it -- because we're trying to think of new menu entries here at the Haney Place.

The prize is a set of four Summer Sun Coasters:



The pattern can be found here:

http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/paid/coasters/p108033summersun.shtml


Thanks, all!!!  The winner will be posted on March 1, 2010.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Gluten Free Lasagne ... and Noodle Kugel

It has been a long, wearying week.  And a long weekend day.  And I am weary.  And yet -- there is something about fixing a meal that energizes me.  I'm not sure about anyone else.

So -- tonight we're having a recipe that I could not resist...gluten free lasagne.  You will find it here.  We haven't tried it yet, but it smells SCRUMPTIOUS!!!

http://glutenfreemommy.com/lasagna/

Her entire website is enticing, and we went to multiple stores tonight to find the anchovy paste.

That is the present -- now to the past.  I remember making lasagne for years for my family.  And always having noodles left over.  And so, we made noodle kugel.  It's not rocket science, it's actually no more than bread pudding.  But it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, if you can eat the noodles.

So here's something like:

leftover lasagne (or other noodles) at least half a pound

Combine in greased pot: 1 c. sugar 1/2 c. raisins 1/2 c. cinnamon (or, to taste) 1/2 to 1 cube butter

Mix gently, but thoroughly. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve hot.

Comfort food to the ultimate degree!!!  Not diet friendly, not celiac friendly, but if you don't care, neither do I!!!  God bless us everyone!!!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Kyle's Favorite Breakfast

There exists the ubiquitous breakfast casserole.  This one happens to be gluten free.  I made my own hash browns during the last OAMC session.  If you don't have them, just line your casserole with pre-made hash browns.  Whatever you choose to do, this is scrumptious, and this is Kyle's Favorite Breakfast.  James told Kyle that he really likes it, too!



Take a 9 x 13" pan and grease it, one way or the other.  Bacon grease, PAM, butter, whatever you like.  Then line the bottom with either your home cut and pre-cooked potatoes (as I have done this time), or those nice little hash brown patties you can buy anywhere.

Now...on top of that you need some meat.  Bacon, ham, sausage -- whatever you have.  Tonight we have leftover ham from dinner the other night.  Oy, do we have leftover ham!!!  So we cut up about 3 cups of leftover ham and sprinkled it over the potatoes.  You could do sausage, bacon, whatever you like.  3 cups is a guide -- you could use more or less.

Now -- sprinkle about 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese on top of that.  Don't skimp on the cheese -- I have tried to in the past, and it's not worth the result.  So really lay that cheese on top!!

Finally, take a bowl and break 8 or 10 or 12 eggs into it -- depending on how many you're feeding.  Add 1 cup of milk, some salt and some pepper.  And then the mustard.  I use dry, powdered mustard, but you could use prepared mustard.  Whatever you have.  Whisk it all together in the bowl, and then pour over everything else in the pan.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees until done and slightly brown.  About an hour, I have found.

And friends, is this wonderful!!!  You need an extra walk around the block after this breakfast, unless you have a field to plow or animals to feed.  It's not low fat, not low calorie.  But it is gluten free!  And  yummy!  And of course, Kyle's favorite!

Oh boy, Gluten Free Beef Gravy!

I looked at a lot of recipes for gluten free gravy, but with this one, you don't even need to cook a roast.  This was great over mashed potatoes tonight, alongside with grilled steak and carmellized onions.  It only took about 5 minutes, and was scrumptious!
  • 1 4 oz. can mushroom stems & pieces
  • 2 T dried onion bits
  • 2 c. beef stock
  • 2 T. butter
Mix all together and simmer for about 5 minutes or so.  Then add:
  • 2 T corn starch
  • 4 T water
which have been mixed together.  Stir thoroughly and cook only a minute or two longer, or until the gravy is thick and glossy.

Yummy!

Monday, February 15, 2010

There's Nothing Like Dirty Socks!

I was getting a bit jealous, because Elsa kept choosing to sleep with Steve's dirty socks.  She would retrieve them from the dirty laundry, and sleep with them in her bed.  But when we came home today, lo and behold, she had MY dirty socks in her bed!  That's my girl!


Tuffy, on the other hand, seems to prefer his flip chip.  I don't blame him!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Comments!!!

This middle aged person in my just figured out how to make comments easy.  You don't have to sign up to anything, don't have to have an account anywhere.  Now you can just comment.  So I look forward to messages -- just be sure to let me know if you choose "anonymous" just so I can answer you intelligently!

Friday, February 12, 2010

OK, Well, We're Not Expecting Miracles

And she's not always this reticent.  But this is a good marker for today, and in 3 months and then again in six months, we'll chart our progress.  Bless her heart, she's trying so hard.  You can see it in her -- she wants to do everthing that every other dog wants to do.  She just can't bring herself to do it.  We're going to start some basic obedience training as soon as she recovers from her spaying procedure.  She's very smart, and a quick learn, despite her fears.  We're going to work on the back door bells for going out, among other things.  At any rate, I give you our dearest, our little Miss Elsa McGee....

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Great Expectations

How to live up to the title in just one post.  Impossible.  Suffice it to say that Stiva and I (and Elsa and Tuffy) enjoyed the 1946 version of Dickens' "Great Expectations" as a family tonight.  Stiva has since gone to bed, but not without the significant nods of the head when the phrase was uttered throughout the movie.

If you haven't read the book, there is no excuse.  It's available here, free of charge, to all who are interested:  http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/1400/1400.txt  You don't need to sign up, you don't need to have an email address.  All you need to do is read.

It made me think about what the poor kids being brought up today are going through.  They are denied the real life experiences and hardships of the hero "Pip" and yet, they have the label of "Great Expectations" etched on their foreheads.  What can we expect of these children?  Ultimate failure, I'm afraid.

We shall not harangue, we shall just observe.  And exempt our little canines from "great expectations".  We shall only love them, and encourage them to be the best they can be.  In this way, they cannot ever let us down.  They can only ever belong.  To us.

Dickens is believed by many in today's literary circles as shallow -- as a writer who wrote in installments for monthly journals -- as a "recipe" author.  So you can also accuse Harriet Beecher Stowe or Louisa May Alcott.  Judge if you wish to, that's perfectly ok.

Dickens was a hater of social evils -- an early civil rights proponent.  He hated and exposed social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. While yet a child, he came to understand the concept of oppression.  He was not allowed to finish his own education; rather, he went to work in a factory.  He had plenty of characters from his personal experience on which to base the characters of his books.

If you ask me in person, I could tell you about a lot of characters I have met:  Larry, Newman, Christine, and others.  Good grief, but a life of gainful employment does give one characters to work with!!!

So I'm not sure what the conclusion of this post it.  Just an acknowledgement that folks need to be loved, even dogs, and great expectations are usually a setup to great failure, sad to say.

Here's to letting kids be kids!!!  And growing up with the burden of the knowledge of (REAL) fair play and justice.  Not just the ubiquitous "It's not your turn yet" of shallow parents to even more shallow chidren, but real self-sacrifice and social justice from parents who have done some serious self-examination to children for whom the prayer is to be real, grounded people with a real life and a real God.  The real important stuff.  Because how to get ahead and always hold your head up as a "respectable person" is pretty shallow stuff, for sure.  Great expecations -- of the parents/benefactors.  It's a real mess!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Friends!

Tuffy and Elsa would appear to be dear friends already.


If you are a "dog" person, you will understand that two dogs who have known each other fewer than 72 hours, who can share a blankie face to face like that, with a chewey thing between them, with no aggression, no stress -- this is a very good match indeed.

I haven't had too many friends as close as this in my life.  I have been blessed with a few, but these types of friends are few and far between.

I'm so thankful that Elsa is with us, and I'm so thankful that it's all working out the way it is.  She is a dear, sweet girl, and a comfortable companion not only to us, but to Tuffy.

I feel bad that she doesn't have a winter coat, having come from "the south" (Georgia?).  It's really cold outside, and I can see her shivering.  I know we'll all feel a lot better when the temperature rises in the (hopefully) near future.

At any rate, our little family is complete again, and I can say it is complete in a sweet, comfortable way.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

All is Well

Elsa arrived this evening.  She certainly is loaded with fears, but she had a wonderful arrival here.  She seems to really like "Big Steve" and has initiated contact with us several times.

Right now, though, they are all worn out.  Look closely.  Does it look much different from in the past, I mean, other than the fact that Elsa is where Theo used to be?

At any rate, the dear ones are resting comfortably, and all is well.

All worn out

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

We have WORD! Part Last

We received word yesterday that Elsa is ours, barring any freakish circumstance.  I know she will be blessed by her new friend and companion, Tuffy.  He was a gentle companion first to Nikki, our dear friend Anna's dog, and then to our own beloved Theo.  Tuffy has a servant's heart and a healing manner.

DSC00154

Keep those prayers coming.  Elsa has a long way to go before she isn't haunted by fears perpetually.  She needs to find out that being a dog is a VERY GOOD thing!