A few days ago, a co-worker brought red beans and cornbread for his supper at work. He brought enough to share them with me and it was all super delicious. He had used smoked sausage in the red beans and the cornbread was the sweet, yellow kind - my favorite.

So, since I’m off work today, I’ve got a pot of white beans on the stove, simmering. I added sliced onion and smoked sausage to them. When they’re near done, I’ll cook up a batch of rice, some sweet cornbread, and leftover poke salad greens. I might even fry up some potatoes. It depends on just how hungry we are when it’s getting toward supper time.

Now, I like almost any kind of beans. Pintos are my favorite and garbanzos or kidney beans are my least favorites. I’m not crazy about beans that have a mealy texture when they’re cooked. I much prefer them to be creamy inside.

Leftover beans can be served again as is, mixed into salads, or mashed and used as a sandwich spread by adding things like finely chopped onion, finely chopped celery, chopped black olives, or anything else you like in a sandwich spread. I also mash pinto beans and use them as frijoles refritos (refried beans) for Mexican meals.

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Our Memorial Day cookout actually went pretty well after all. It did rain a little, but not enough to prevent me from firing up the grill so the guys could cook. Younger Daughter and I stayed in the kitchen, preparing some foods. For example, we wanted to have kebobs but Youngest Son couldn’t find any skewers at Walmart. He called and said there was one package of four steel skewers, and it was expensive. An associate told him they were sold out!

Apparently, everyone in the county did kebobs yesterday. So, we opted to cut up the vegetables and meats as if we were making the kebobs, but we put them in a baking pan with some pineapple and seasonings, covered it with aluminum foil, and baked it instead of grilling it. Surprisingly, it turned out really delicious and the meat was fork-tender.

We also put burgers and brats on the grill along with a nice salmon fillet Youngest Son picked up while shopping. Everyone brought food of some kind with them - chips, drinks, burger patties, dessert. The children had fun upstairs in Son’s room, playing Guitar Hero. It was a bit too rainy for them to play outside very much.

It was a wonderful day, though, and I’m eager to do this again around Independence Day!

Technorati Tags: Memorial Day, cookout

I know it’s the middle of the night, but I was still hungry after not having eaten since around 5 this evening. So, I decided to whip up a little late night supper.

First, I peeled a few potatoes (red skin variety), then sliced them about 1/8 inch thick. I place the potatoes, 1/2 sliced onion, a couple tablespoons of butter, and water in a saucepan. I added a dash of pepper and sea salt, then let it simmer while I did some other things.

I sliced up a few yellow squash and about a pint of fresh okra, along with the other half of the onion. I mixed it all together in a bowl with yellow corn meal, salt and pepper to taste. I then fried it over medium heat.

While the other things were cooking, I made a small batch of home made biscuits. Everything got done at the same time, so there was no waiting. I added butter to the tops of the biscuits and sat down with a generous helping of everything on my plate. This was all extremely tasty and satisfying.

When I was finished eating, I made dessert of a biscuit with butter and fig preserves.

This tummy-warming late night supper is just what I needed to get drowsy and go off to bed. Nighty-nite, folks!

Technorati Tags: supper, biscuits

A couple of nights ago, I fixed some barbecued ribs for our supper. These were “country ribs” which means they had a lot of meat and little bone, because most of the bone had been trimmed away. They turned out delicious! Here’s what I did:

I placed the ribs, fat side up, in a baking dish. I poured a cup of ketchup and a cup of Coca Cola over them. I covered the dish tightly with foil, and baked them about two hours.

When they came out, they were fork-tender and tasty. No other seasoning was needed. I had mashed potatoes and succotash with them, so the meal was heart-warming and hearty fare for us all.

Technorati Tags: barbecued ribs, country ribs

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a luscious lunch using rice, boneless pork steaks, corn, and salad. Today, since there are leftovers of that lunch, I’ll make a House Fried Rice.

All I have to do is thinly slice the leftover pork, make fried rice from the leftover rice, and throw in a few frozen mixed veggies, soy sauce, and egg to make a delicious new meal. What I don’t have with me right now is sesame oil, which is delicious added to the fried rice. However, I’ll make do with what’s on hand and remember to pick up some sesame oil on the next grocery shopping trip.

Because I’m off work today and everyone else is at work, I’ll make this for our dinner instead of lunch. House Fried Rice incorporates everything we need for a well-rounded meal. I’ll put salad fixings out, of course, for those who want it.

House Fried Rice

Ingredients

• About 2 cups cooked rice, either brown or white
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables or leftover vegetables of your choice
• 2 cups thinly sliced cooked meat (chicken, beef, pork); small cooked shrimp if you have it
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sliced almonds, mushrooms, pine nuts, sunflower nuts, water chestnuts, or Chinese noodles add crunch and dimension.

Method

Heat oil in a wok or skillet until very hot. Add vegetables and cook until tender-crisp. Remove vegetables to a warm bowl and put rice in, cooking until it’s heated thoroughly. Remove rice and put in the same bowl as the vegetables. Put meat in and stir fry it until it’s warmed through. Add to bowl of veggies and rice. Put eggs in and scramble them, making them more flat than fluffy. Put all ingredients back into hot skillet and stir together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve piping hot with soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, duck sauce, or any other condiments you prefer.

Technorati Tags: House Fried Rice, dinner, wok, skillet

I am moderately settled in at our friend’s house. Enough so that I bought groceries and fixed a nice lunch for us all on Saturday.

For the salad, I prepared sliced, raw yellow squash, zucchini, sweet onion, and sliced mushrooms to toss into a salad base of sweet buttercrunch lettuce and baby spinach leaves. I topped my salad with extra virgin olive oil and a splash of Balsamic vinegar, along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Yum!

I keep a variety of olive oils on hand - extra virgin, virgin, and light - for various cooking and eating needs. Olive oil is good for your heart health, too, so that’s a real bonus. I love the floral fragrance and flavor of extra virgin for both vegetable and fruit salads. It’s a lovely thing, to be sure.

I have even used olive oil as part of a beauty mask by mixing it with beaten egg yolks and a dash of lemon juice. This really helps my dry, aging skin to feel revitalized, though it may not be the best acne treatment for those who have that problem. However, by mixing only egg whites and olive oil, your problem skin could benefit. I’m not saying it can cure acne. It certainly can’t. It just makes the skin feel good.

Technorati Tags: groceries, lunch, salad, beauty mask

Even though, in a previous post, I expressed some misgivings about our nation’s beef supply, the fact remains that I already had a corned beef brisket in the freezer, and I’d already cooked it before that bit of news. That said, I want to tell you a little about why I like corned beef.

Besides tasting wonderful, a home cooked corned beef brisket is economical. The price is good for a fairly large cut of meat, and buying the flat cut brisket means you get a lot of great slices from it with very little fat. I can trim off the wee bit of fat along one edge, and have lean slices to eat.

Corned beef brisket comes with a little packet of seasonings and spices. I only use half the packet so it’s not so overpowering. By itself, the beef actually has plenty of flavor. I put the corned beef into my crock pot with carrots, unpeeled red skin potatoes, and onion halves. I let it cook for at least 8 hours. Ten hours is better. Corned beef doesn’t fall apart like some roasts do, so you have fork-tender beef that you can still slice nicely.

Leftover corned beef goes into home made corned beef hash (which I made yesterday) or into sandwiches. It’s delicious eaten cold. As you can see by my sandwich plate picture, you get beautiful slices from flat cut corned beef brisket. I trimmed off only about 1/4 inch or less of fat from these, so it worked out really nicely. The sandwich is made from honey wheat bread, spread with spicy brown mustard, and layered with romaine lettuce and sliced mushrooms. The grape tomatoes added a nice taste and texture when eaten out-of-hand with the sandwich.

There is still enough of the brisket left to make several more sandwiches or another round of hash!

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As promised in my previous post, here is a picture of the pork roast and sides after I plated it. The stemware is holding the honey mustard sauce (simply equal parts clover honey and Grey Poupon Coarse Ground Mustard), which I dipped out with a honey server and drizzled over the pork roast slices. I poured the glaze made from the drippings over the rice. The honey mustard sauce was an excellent complement to the brown sugar glazed green beans.

Technorati Tags: pork roast, stemware, honey mustard sauce, Grey Poupon Coarse Ground Mustard

I’ve got a small pork roast in my tabletop roaster oven now, and have just added green beans to another pan in the roaster. I really haven’t utilized this appliance nearly enough, so today seemed like a good day to give it another trial.

I had some drippings from another pork roast, so I just added them to the pan with this one. It’s really smelling yummy now and I’m getting hungry!

I put the green beans in a pan in the roaster after the pork roast was beginning to get pretty well done. It still has enough time left on it to cook till it’s fork-tender, and that gives the green beans plenty of time to finish cooking to a turn, as well. I’ll get rice into the steamer so everything gets done at the same time. It takes about 30 minutes for the rice. By the time it’s done and I make some sauce from the drippings, we should have a lovely, hearty meal for this chilly winter’s day!

I’ll make a nice honey mustard glaze to go on our slices of pork roast when it’s all ready to plate up. I’ll add another picture of this feast on the plate later today!

Technorati Tags: pork roast, tabletop roaster oven, steamer

I have sweet potatoes in the oven, and they’re nearly done now. Last night I picked up a rotisserie chicken from Walmart - the chipotle barbecue one (about $4). I love chipotle barbecue! I serve it sliced, cold, along with the sweet potatoes and some kind of canned veggie to round things out. Might make toast and butter to have with it.

Anyway, it’s really getting late and the sweet potatoes were large, which is why it’s this time of night for supper. Still, they’re smelling awfully good right about now, which is an indication that they’re about ready to eat.

I like sweet potatoes baked until they are totally mushy and juicy. They get to the point where any juices that leak out into the foil wrapper actually caramelizes.

I think I’ll have hot chocolate or hot herbal tea with my supper. Either of those will go along with this luscious meal and help me get sleepy. See, I have to get up at 3 AM and go to work, so I really need to sleep soundly tonight.

Technorati Tags: sweet potatoes, rotisserie chicken, Walmart, hot chocolate, herbal tea