Mother's Day Musings And A Recipe 'Cause I Know That's Why You Come Here

There was a local media flack about who should get presents for mother's day.  Wow.....a lot of strong opinions.  The older I get, the weaker my opinions get, I find.  If you don't have children, some say, your husband shouldn't give you gifts for mother's day and get all in a huff.  Frankly, if your husband loves you and wants to give you a gift for any reason, that's already a blessing and I say amen to that!  What is the definition of a mother?  For me it was somewhat complicated.  Not early on, of course.  I always had an awesome maternal unit at home to care for me and raise me and feed me and show me the way to go.  A Godly mother (and father) who taught me to pray (not words reiterated over and over again) but to really pray - to hold conversation with a loving God.  We took a lot of awesome family vacations, and I always remember my father on his knees, humbly asking God for travelling mercies and blessings on his family.  So I really have a lot to be thankful for in all respects.  At some point, I may just look up that birth mother of mine, just to let her know that I'm fine, and that I thank her for her sacrifice and goodness to let me grow up with fine people like my mom and dad.  I truly do appreciate it.

When I got older the realization that these wonderful people adopted me and took me in as an orphan really hit home.  And let's be honest....I was a rambunctious child and teenager. I gave them causes to pray!!!  But pray they did and they got me through.

I don't care in what sense you're a mother today.  If you're a mother in any sense, you're important, and it's your day.  In my case, since I was just over being sick (lost two days of work this week), I had one adult child home today and SOMEONE (won't tell who) made some wonderful fresh blueberry pancakes and bacon with real Vermont maple syrup.  Wow...decadence....

We went to the Blue Ribbon Restaurant in Schenectady.  It used to be the Blue Ribbon Diner.  It was awesome 30 years ago, it's even more awesome now!!!!!  I had Coquilles St. Jacques....not sure what anyone else had.  I was too busy nomming and smiling.  I think I heard about stuff like stuffed sole, moussaka, etc.  They were all nomming and smiling around my table.  :-)  And UNLIKE most local restaurants, they actually had a page of MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS in addition to their regular menu.  Not a separate overprice special day menu, actual SPECIALS!!!  So for under $20, you could get the aforementioned dinners, along with soup, salad, sides, warm rolls w/butter.  And the desserts were to die for!!!  I know a lot of "diners" present their desserts are something special.  But then you get your mouth full of that sticky diner "whip" greasy and hard to digest.  Not so here.  The Bavarian Cheesecake was a full (overly full) slice of really creamy cheesecake between two layers of the moistest, lightest chocolate sponge cake you ever experienced lately (and I've TRIED to do this at home) with chocolate whipped cream atop.  Not that chocolate whip where it kind of lubes your mouth with not-food lubricant.  This is real whipped cream friends.  And chocolate, to boot.  I am now a Blue Ribbon Restaurant devotee, and I have only been there once in 30 years!!!

To make my day weirdly wonderful, you may know how I avoid Wal-Mart at all costs.  Well, this morning, Big Steve and I went there really early, (for kitty litter, you know) and one of the managers came over and gave me this: 

 

 

Just a lovely coral carnation.  I must admit, it softened me a bit.  After all, we don't judge a church by the denomination any more than we judge a person by their workplace.  This local manager was a kindly man, trying to do good (even his employees acknowledged that he was a good man).  So kudos to you, Rensselaer NY WalMart manager for softening my bitter feelings toward your employer.

 

And lastly, if you want to make that awesome crispy bacon for your loved ones, but just can't bring  yourself to do it because of the mess:

 

Take however much bacon you want to make (and a little bit more because you know you will all eat it!!!).  Lay it out flat on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet.  Put it into the oven cold and dark until 20 minutes before  your breakfast should be served.  At exactly 20  minutes before the rest of our breakfast should be served (pancakes, eggs, whatever) turn that oven on to 400 degrees.  I guarantee you crispy perfect oven cooked bacon - no clean up whatsoever!!!  It's a holiday miracle!!!  This is what mothers live for, after all.....

Fresh Blueberry Pie Recipe

So.....we are almost harrassed lately...why don't we post more.  It's just that there is SO MUCH going on.  It's not that we don't think "this would be so awesome to share" or "what an awesome picture".  It's just that, when the day's work is done and there is still and hour's worth of peas to shell, blogging becomes lost in the shuffle.  But that's not a good thing.  This humble little blog has begun to earn us a very modest income.  Very modest...don't get excited now.  BUT.....if one of the ads on our blog interests you, please feel free to explore that advertiser's information.  But PLEASE don't just click blindly thinking you'll help us.  Google is much too smart for that!!!  Rule of thumb, if you find it interesting, it will help us if you click.  If not, please just do what's natural and ignore the ads.

That being said...someone at tonight's dinner table shared that the fresh blueberry pie we had tonight was perhaps the first really fresh homemade pie he had ever enjoyed.  SERIOUSLY??????  Egads!!!  In this day and age, in this world of pre-made, pre-formed pie leathers (oh, sorry, I meant pie crusts), I guess there are any number of folks who have never truly enjoyed a fresh home-made fruit pie.  So....here we go!!!

Recipe - Chicken Tiki Masala

A little while ago, I enjoyed Chicken Tiki Masala at Pizzeria Uno tremendously.  This was our attempt to imitate that dining experience.  The results were dinner-time nirvana.  We served it with a mixture of brown, mahogany and white rice, and steamed broccoli with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and grated parmesan. 



It was really an easy recipe, but not fast food.  If you have more time than money, this might be just the recipe for you!  It was a bit warm, but not really hot.  Recipe here:

Recipe - Tutorial - Kyle's Favorite Breakfast

There will be a celebration here tomorrow at the Haney Place.  Our daughter (in-law) will celebrate her graduation from HVCC.  We are so proud of her!  Tony did a good job, Destiny is such a wonderful addition to our family, but I digress....

The graduation ceremony is something like 8 a.m. tomorrow!!!!  No, I kid you not.  8 in the AM.  Seriously.  Who does that?

So anyway, we were thinking about a ceremonial bar-bee-que, but now we've re-grouped to a lovely brunch.  And the centerpiece -- Kyle's favorite breakfast!   I know we go to that frequently here at the Haney Place http://thehaneyplace.blogspot.com/2010/02/kyles-favorite-breakfast.html, but here's a how-to.  And this recipe is such a basic (feed the help) kind of recipe, everyone should be able to appreciate.

At any rate, figure on how many folks you'll be feeding.  And multiply that times 2 or so.  Depending on whether you're feeing hungry men or little children or church ladies.  It all depends.  And then break those eggs into a big bowl and add some good milk.  We only use good raw milk here from happy, healthy cows, and we count that as one of our blessings here. 

Now...to that lovely mess in the bowl, add some good salt (sea salt or kosher salt) and freshly ground pepper.  I had the extreme blessing of Big Steve going out to our back yard and harvesting some wildly growing chives, planted forever ago by whomever, in the back yard of this home, formerly a farmstead, and now smack dab in the city.  But hey, it's real and good food, and organically grown, at this point.  So I chopped them up and added them to the mess in the bowl (thank you Lord!)

So swish those good Haney grown chives in, or onions or store bought chives, or whatever the heck your heart tells you.  (My heart will be telling me broccoli in about 6 weeks when ours comes in)....

Meantime now...we got a 9 x 13 pan well greased and containing potatoes:

Add the mixture of the eggs/milk/whatever:

Add your meat -- doesn't matter if it's ham or sausage or bacon:

Add some cheese (we used an American/cheddar blend tonight)

And bake that whole mess for one hour at 350.  I'll post pictures of the final mess tomorrow.  For tonight, it's sitting in the fridge until lift-off, so it's TOTALLY do-ahead.  And tomorrow we'll post Anna's fruit dip recipe!!!

Hugs!

Crisis Food - Cooking From the Pantry

I am a great lover of preparedness.  I want to be ready for any emergency, from an ice storm that takes out the power for a day or three, or something more scary, like what we all thought we should prepare for following 9-11.  Not only that, but I really hate having to go to the store after work, or sending Big Steve.

So within the past 36 hours, we have had a real crisis here.  Big Steve was involved in a bad car crash yesterday and the past day has been a whirlwind of worry and phone calls, seeing to prescriptions and doctor appts, and prayer.  Mostly prayer.

So tonight when we got home from the doctor and had a pound and a half of good ground beef thawed from that cow we bought a few weeks back, what could we do?   It was alredy 6 pm and we were really bone weary. So it was pantry cooking all the way...and this is where a prepared pantry comes in.

Here's what we had -- we'll call it homemade hamburger helper.

Boil up some pasta -- your choice.  Gluten free, or regular, or whole grain, or spinach.  The shape or flavor doesnot matter.

In the meantime, fry up some ground beef and some chopped onions.  Tonight we used 1.5 lb. pasture fed ground beef and one really large onion, chopped.

Once that is nice and done, stir in some crushed red pepper flakes, some celery seed, some seasoned salt (Morton's is gluten free) some worsterschire sauce (i like it a lot, so we added a good heaping few tablespoons, at least) and a can of crushed tomatoes, or in our case, a quart of Haney frozen chopped tomatoes.  Stir it up good.

Meantime, the pasta should be done by now.  Strain it, pour it in with the meat mixture and stir it up good.  Put this whole mess into a big pan, stir in a fat bunch of cheese (cheddar or whatever you like) and pop it into a 325 oven for 25 minutes.

Now granted, it's not fast food, but it's not unreasonable food either.  And it's frugal, and tasty, and very satisfying at the end of a very stupid and scary day.

Not sure where this whole crisis theme will bring us...stay tuned...we've only just begun...  I don't want to do stressful crisis cooking every day...so I''m off to check the freezer and pantry for something do-ahead for tomorrow.  Our schedule is already daunting...

Ketchup -- The Recipe

It just couldn't be easier.  I'm WHEY-ting for my whey to be ready.  Then we'll make some lacto-fermented ketchup that will knock your body's health socks off.  In the meantime, this recipe is a radical improvement to store-bought, commercial ketchup.

• 1 6 oz. can organic tomato paste
• 1/4 cup filtered water
• 1/8 cup honey (I used a coffee/tea teaspoonful of raw wild manuka honey)
• 1/2 tsp. salt ( we use celtic sea salt)
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. cloves ( I like a little more -- cloves are warm and wonderful)
• 2 Tlb. apple cider vinegar (use the good stuff, "with the mother", otherwise, why bother)

Just stir, refrigerate, and enjoy.  I'm "whey"ting for our whey to be ready (from our blessed raw milk) and then I'll post the recipe for a wonderful lacto-fermented ketchup.  Good stuff!!!

I Made Ketchup!!!

It's ketchup.  Now mind you, it's not the best it could be.  It's not Army (Be, all that you could be...).  It's just middlin' Haney Place ketchup.  But at least it doesn't have any HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP or any other bs ingredients.  It's just a condiment I would be proud to put on my (pastured, free range) scrambled eggs.  Nutritional nirvana.  We're working on lacto-fermented ketchup, and that will follow in a week or so.  But for now, it's ketchup that parents could encourage their children to dip into.  And that's saying something!!!  Next fall, we will make this recipe using our own home grown, dried tomato powder.  See me for that.  That's multiple blog posts.

At any rate, it's not organic, it's not the best it could be.  But it's a damn sight better than that crap you buy in the supermarket bearing the same name.  And it's a good food to put in your mouth.  And anyway, for ketchup lovers, ketchup is in itself a food group!!!

Meanwhile.....Big Steve has been outside all day today (being the first real Spring-like day) raking up a winter's worth of dog poopies, pruning the mini-orchard and making the Haney Place agreeable, in generable.  I heard he had a hankering for pancakes, so I just called him in for lunch.  He had no problem in obeying my request for his presence!!!



Then, I made ketchup.  I LOVE ketchup as an adornment to some lovely free range eggs, scrambled in some coconut oil, and then topped with some spicy sweet ketchup.  I do NOT, however, appreciate high fructose corn syrup, or the other additives (poisons) in commercial ketchup.  So I made my own.  Took me five minutes, tops.  And it's freaking awesome.



And now, the sheets are flapping on the line in this truly spring day.  We haven't had anything resembling Spring here in Upstate NY since last year.  But I have already put a few loads out to flap in today's blessed sunshine.  No dryer needed, thank you Lord!

Saturday Goodness, Thank you Lord!

Today I was able to enjoy and participate in the Beef Blessing.  This means that we ordered a hind quarter of beef several weeks ago, and were blessed with the means to go pick up a lovely hind quarter of beef today.  Pastured, grass fed.  It's real nutrition.  I wondered to myself at the fact that we had a means of transporting ourselves to the beef and then transporting the beef to the household.  All in all, in the big picture, a very good day indeed!  So let's start with the basics.   We here at the Haney Place firmly believe in the health benefits of food the way God intended us to consume it.  So we START with wonderful, sweet, creamy, unprocessed milk straight from the cow, just the way God intended it.  Thank you to the cow that produced it, and to the wonderful farmer that provided it to us.  Do any of us ever realize where our nutrition comes from?  (My fridge, and count yourself among the few who are allowed to peer into the sanctuary...)

Now...we are in the process of making a lovely and natural whey from that glorious raw milk.  It will take a few days, but then it will be the basis for some wonderfully lacto-fermented goodness.  Ketchup, for starters.  And then some. 

The piece de resistance of the day was the score of a 1/4 (hind end) of beef from the gentleman farmer of the Locust Grove Farm of Argyle, NY.  This man has been in business FOREVER!!!  I have been doing business with him for at least the past two decades.  He raises the beef and butchers and packages it himself.  He's not trying to be cute or clever.  He's just a real-live person doing a real-life job the best way he knows how.  And it's working.  He was eco when eco wasn't cool....just sayin'...  I can totally provide you with contact information.  This guy isn't going anywhere.  He's been producing and providing grass fed, pastured beef forever.....

So we've got beef to last months and months, even here at the Haney Place.  And suet for the birds next fall...loads of beef liver to dry for the dogs (I am not a big fan of liver on my dinner plate) and soup bones galore, aside from the steaks, roasts, cube steaks, stew beef, you name it!!!  Wow...how blessed are we?  It's all vacuum packed and labeled with the contents and the weight.  Tomorrow we'll enjoy meatloaf the "Nourishing Traditions" way.....Stay tuned!!!

Ida Walker's Chocolate Cake

The request for this recipe was more overwhelming than even I could have ever imagined.  So here we go.

This cake is ultra dark, ultra moist, ultra rich, but somehow, it's not sickening.  My boss, who is borderline diabetic, asked for the recipe.  He says the cake would be awesome with just a dusting of confectioner's sugar as adornment.  I suspect he is right.  This cake can stand alone.  I served it this week with a dark fudgy icing.  My mother (Ida Walker) swears it must be served with a classic homemade buttercream.

However you choose to serve it, make sure you mix it properly.  No mixers, just one bowl, one spoon.  That's it.  No mixers, no alternating dry and wet ingredients, nothing fancy-schmancy.  Fancy-schmancy would wreck it.

So I present for your baking enjoyment, Ida Walker's Chocolate Cake!!!

2 c. all purpose flour
2 c. white sugar
2 t. baking soda
3/4 c. cocoa

Stir it all up in a large-ish bowl.  Make a well in the center (a divot) and then add:

2 c. piping hot, strong coffee

Stir with that spoon.  Then stir in:

1 stick (1/4 lb.) butter  (don't soften it -- I cut it into slices before adding, but don't soften it)

Then......stir in

2 eggs, one at a time, and then
1 tsp. vanilla

Pour into greased 9" x 13" pan, and bake for 30 mins or so (till it's done).

You can bake it in anything you want, but the 9 x 13 gives the best result.

That's it!!!  Seriously, you can put this sweetheart together in under 10 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

Birthday Cake???

I didn't need to do this, and I didn't intend to do this.  I'm struggling with a chronic issue that causes me pain and exhaustion, and I had NO intention of doing this tonight.

HOWEVER.....

If there is breath in my bones, I cannot control myself once I hit the kitchen.  THEREFORE, tonight I made a 1/4 sheet of Ida Walker's (God help me it's soooo good) Chocolate Cake.  It's one of those recipes you really can't freaking ruin, even if you are suffering short term memory issues.  I found that I had left out one essential ingredient (the fat!!!) and stirred in the butter and it was fine. 

If you wish the recipe, you need to contact me.  It is a friends only secret.  And the blessed pictures didn't take.  This is a communist plot..just sayin'...


Huggies!!!

Pizza, Can We Talk?

If you're seriously trying to be frugal and wise, pizza might be your best choice.  The only picture I have left of tonight's glutton-fest is the following: 

Yes, yes, yes.  Gluten free, leftover wonderfulness for two nice lunches tomorrow for me and Big Steve.  So let's talk frugal.  And talking frugal must involve the Hillbilly Housewife at some point.  I LOVE her recipe for regular pizza crust.  It can create a whole cookie sheet full of wonderful, hot, doughy, tasty delicious comfort-food type pizza for about $2.  Seriously.  We kid you not.  You can find her recipe here:  http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/pizzacrust.htm  It was a wonderful bubbly goodness when I took it out of the oven.  Eventually it simmered down to a lovely thin crust pepperoni pizza existence.  There were no slices left to photograph.

I also made another pan of pizza with Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour recipe.  It was, hands down, the BEST gluten free pizza I have ever enjoyed!!!  I've eaten gluten free pizza out, but it couldn't hold a candle to this.  You can find the recipe here:  http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=1426

So - Christmas is coming -- money is tight.  Do you need to go hungry?  NO!!!!  Treat your family to some awesome comfort food tonight!!!

Ain't Nothin' Like a Meal

We arrived home from work a little while ago.  House was dark and chilly (heat was turned back).  I'm pretty sure the dogs were sleeping most of the day, since there is no evidence that they had any intruders to bite.  Poor dogs were crossing their legs big time, since we were a bit later than usual.  It was kind of bleak actually.  Well, then the humans sweep in, turn on the lights, turn up the heat, and let the dogs out to frolic a bit and empty their bladders.

Before you know it, there are onions frying up with some pork in a skillet, filling the whole house with it's warm goodness, the heat is coming up from the radiators, and the cat is demanding to be fed.

Now a short time later, there is black eyed pea jambalaya simmering on the stove, Big Steve is singing and playing the crawdad song on his guitar, Tuffy is looking content and Elsa is throwing her toys around the house like it's her job.



Nope, ain't nothing like the preparation and prospect of a nice meal that turns a house into a home.  Just my musings tonight.

You can find our black-eyed pea jambalaya here: 

http://thehaneyplace.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-eyed-pea-jambalaya.html

Tonight, we used leftover ham and pork.  Yummmmm!!!!

Sunday -- November 14, 2010 - Recipe alert - Horseradish

So, ok.  We got yelled at for not blogging enough.  Apparently the day-to-day mundane stuff around here is interesting to some?  That is awesome to us, and at the same time, we just figure that everyone else is doing what we're doing...

At any rate, we had a productive, if non-interesting day here.  Big Steve is bemoaning the fact that we only took "after" type pictures today.  But we dug a ton of horseradish at my mom's yesterday.  Again, no "before" pictures, but we did end up with three really full quarts and one gift-size jar of the good stuff.  And we've still got to dig our own:

And I can assure you -- this stuff is for real.  Here's the method:  Dig your roots, and as quickly as possible (like don't let it sit in the fridge for days) peel these roots, and then cut them up and wash them well.  Then put the chunks into the blender, or you can grind it by hand, but only if you have a death wish.

So Horseradish is like a skunk.  If you threaten it, it will give out noxious and harmful, even sickening fumes.  It is a plant with a protective defense.  One of the few.  It is, however, a very healthy root to consume.  So you will need to decide where your need for heat meets your need for self-preservation.  No, seriously.  If you have never ground your own fresh horseradish roots, you have no idea what I am talking about.  But you soon will. 

Now think about liquid.  Water is a good liquid.  Then there is vinegar, plain white vinegar, which stops the enzymatic sinus killing (brain cell killing) action we mentioned before.  Here at the Haney Place, we add a mixture of 2 parts water, 1 part vinegar to the roots in the blender (in our case, the VitaMix).  We have heard that there are folks who will grind their roots and allow the roots several minutes of killer enzymatic activity before they add the vinegar.  We, however, have no such blind ambition.  (Get it?  BLIND ambition???)???

So....we add the roots to the water/vinegar mixture and grind it all together at the same time, and let me assure you, nobody will have a stuffy nose tonight. 

So everybody happy now that they know how to make their own horseradish?  It's really such a simple thing.  And very fulfilling when you have won out over a root. No seriously, it is a race for preservation with this stuff.

So once you have your freshly ground horseradish safely tucked away in the fridge, you can think about breakfasts for the freezer.  Tonight it was wraps, which seem to be a staple here.  Flour tortillas, filled with corned beef, scrambled eggs w/cheddar, and safely wrapped in waxed paper and then sturdy freezer bags.  Hmmm...I wonder how they would be with horseradish???

Breakfast security-- a very good thing aound here!!!

Turkey Pot Pie at the Haney Place

We used up the refrigerator tonight, and made a mad turkey pot pie.  Only trouble was, nobody showed up.  So guess what's on the menu for tomorrow, LOL!!!

It really couldn't be easier...if you want a method (not recipe -- we're much more about method here) -- just let me know.  It's RARE that I cook and nobody shows up to eat...

It's a Very Busy Time of Year!

Seriously, it really is.  From now till, well probably, mid-October, it will be a frenzy of activity around here.  Bringing it in.  Bringing it all in.  I have a table full of green tomatoes tonight, a field full of jalapenos, green beans needing to be spoken for, and the tomatoes and bell peppers haven't even started.  Then there is that tree full of peaches...  I'll stop now because there isn't time.  Suffice it to say we had a wondrous meal last night...steak on the grill, monstrous baked potatoes, and best of all, fresh tomato salad.  Fresh red tomatoes from the garden. Yummy!!!!

Tonight, it was a cooked meal with the fresh stuff....bracciole cooked in a fresh tomato marinara in the slow cooker, and a wonderful tray of eggplant parmagania with the eggplant and tomatoes (and herbs) from the garden.

I haven't put down the recipes because I don't have time unless I know someone wants them.  You know how to get me for the recipes.  If all else fails, leave a comment!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Green Tomatoes & Such

It really is the most wonderful time of the year.  Time for fresh stuff to come from the garden to the table within an hour or less.  And time for canning, freezing, drying, you name it.

Tonight it was green tomato rice (recipe following), broiled bay scallops, and freshly picked green beans.  I meant (I really did!) to take a picture of a plate of it all, but I was really hungry, got really excited, and well, you know the rest.

So anyway, Big Steve was out doing some thinning and pruning out in the garden and we ended up with a mess of green tomatoes.  What to do?  It's tough to preserve on a moment's notice after a full day at work, especially when you have dinner to prepare ahead of you.  So we did what anyone would have done...we made green tomato rice as a side dish tonight.  Now...green tomato rice would be fine and dandy on it's own if you didn't have any meat.  You could just stir in some cheese near the end and it would be a meal in itself.  As it was, we had broiled bay scallops with garlic, parsley and oregano, along with some green beans freshly picked from the garden.

So anyway, whilst Big Steve was snapping away at the green beans, the green tomato rice was being prepared.  So here's how you do it:

Just take some bacon (we used "about" four slices)and fry it up in a nice saucepan till it's brown.  Then take out the bacon and set it aside to drain.  Then, to the bacon fat, add about one chopped onion, and cook it up for just a minute or so, until it's just getting soft.  Then throw in some finely chopped green tomatoes (2 or so) and cook for another minute or so.  Then you finely mince a nice jalapeno (we had a ton in the garden - just see it minced in the top photo) and a chopped clove of garlic (or whatever you have).  Bring it all around to a nice soft sizzle.

Now, add 2 cups of chicken stock, one cup of white rice, and a dash of tabasco sauce...a little freshly ground salt and pepper, a bit of thyme...and set the timer for 20-25 minutes.  When it's ready to serve, crumble in the reserved bacon and sprinkle the whole mess with the parmesan.  It's deep of the summer nirvana, friends.  A really nice kick, and yet, it's real comfort food.  And gluten free, to boot!

Happy eating!!!

 

Sunny Sunday

It wasn't supposed to be sunny today.  In fact, the weatherman promised us thunderstorms for most of the night and lots of rain today.  Yesterday, the heat index was around 100.  The humidity is stifling.  It only cooled down to 76-77 last night, and the humidity just kept hanging around almost 80%.  Thankfully, the weatherman was wrong.  I say thankfully because our dryer went kaput yesterday.  Big Steve has it in several pieces in the laundry room, and the parts store won't be open until tomorrow. 

So....I'm truly thankful for our big generous clothesline to help us get our laundry all clean and ready for the workweek ahead. 

In the meantime, we had sausage, eggs and grits for breakfast this morning.  Yummy!!!  And I believe I'll make up a batch of sausage/egg/cheese breakfast sammiches for the freezer.  I had a thought about a loaf of grits/meat/eggs that could be sliced up and frozen for individual servings.  I might just have to try that.  Wouldn't it be good heated up on a skillet with a little bacon grease?  Oh boy....

At any rate, it's sill morning, and already Big Steve has deposited some monster blueberries and lovely purple
eggplants in the kitchen for me to figure out what to do with.  Oh boy -- it's really going to be a great day!!!

Now, to figure out what to do with the eggplant now that it's coming in  hot an heavy...

Barbecue!!!

I don't know what a sunny June evening means to anyone else, but here at the Haney Place, it means BAR-BE-CUE!!!  Stiva did the boneless pork loin chops to a tee, there was fresh broccoli in the garden to steam, and then there was the rice done in chicken stock.  It doesn't get better than this, does it friends?

Hoppin' John

I started with the Goya recipe on the bag of black eyed peas, but mightily modified it as follows:

Take a pound of black eyed peas.  Put them in a big pot with about 4 cups of water, and bring to a boil.  Shut it off, and put it on the back of the stove.  Meanwhile...

Fry up some sausage.  Tonight we used about 1/2 lb. of chorizo and 1/2 lb of smoked sausage.  Use whatever you have.  Fry it up, take it out of the pan, leave the fat in the pan, and then...

Chop up the following:

• at least one large onion
• at least two stalks of celery
• about one pepper, green, red, whatever you have.

Throw the vegetables into the pot with the fat (and some olive oil, if needed) till somewhat tender.

Throw everything into the pot with the beans and water.  Also, grind in some sea salt or kosher salt, and some freshly ground pepper.  A splash of green picante sause gives it just a little kick.

Cook it all up till the beans are almost tender.  Then throw in a cup of uncooked white rice, and simmer slowly for 15 more minutes

It's healthy, tasty, warm, filling, CHEAP, oh, excuse me, frugal, gluten-free, and best of all, AWESOME!!!