Finishing up the French spring soup. This time with ham and cheese sandwich. DH really loved it. When I got home from golf today the first thing he said was, "you can't have any of that soup tonight." There's a whole quart of it left over. I think that's enough for two people! He said he thought it was the best soup I've ever made. This is so shocking because he doen't even like asparagus.

2many, I actually am pretty good at mudding drywall. I'm slow and meticulous, but it looks good when I'm done! As for that chili dog, well, at least once every summer I go to the local A&W. They still have the carhops that come out to the car and put a tray on your window. I get a chili cheese dog and a frosty mug full of root beer. Then I'm done for a year, but that one chili dog is sure good. As for Zaxby's, we don't have them up here so I'm not familiar, but Elery had their chicken when he went to Tennessee for Aunt Etta's funeral, and he said it was actually pretty good. He had chicken every day he was there, though, and was pretty tired of it by the time he got home. It's one of those foods that you can pretty much figure isn't too unhealthy, a grilled chicken breast, LOL, so he got it every time he had to eat out. Then his sister made chicken and dumplings, and his sister in law fried chicken and there was chicken salad and, well, he came home and wanted chili! Artemis, the best advice I have is to just do it. Don't watch, be sure you get in there and do it yourself. You can watch YouTube and watch someone else and read every instruction in the world, but you really just have to do it. The first one is slow, the second one is better. By the time you're on three or four, it'll take you a couple of minutes and you'll be done. I'm assuming you are plucking by hand, I have that handy-dandy chicken plucker that Elery bought me for my birthday and it is an amazing time saver, but with seven birds, probably not worth the price. Plucking by hand takes me about 10 minutes per bird, and cleaning another 2 minutes. Scalding is a minute or so, so about 4 birds an hour. The plucker will pluck 2 chickens in less than a minute, so that's very helpful. We did 28 birds in 2 hours, packed on ice and "resting" overnight. It took longer than that to break them down and package them. I always let them sit on ice for 24 hours or so, it seems to make the birds less stringy and more tender. And don't forget to save the backs/necks for stock. Feet too, if you can get past the thought and trim the nails! Like you, I'm offended by the life animals have in the commercial food chain, and so I have to raise my own in a humane and sustainable manner. It's not for everyone, but it works for me. Annie

WalnutCreek, I'll have to try pork chops in the Air Fryer. I have one but the only thing I've liked so far that I made in it was "fried" chicken". Beet chips just fell into the bottom and charred, fish was dried out, potato chips were fiddly and half were crunchy but the rest were not. (sigh) After the beet chip fiasco I shoved it onto a pantry shelf and haven't touched it since, I'll have to drag it back out. Yesterday I took Mother some roasted chicken and twice baked potatoes, the chicken was brined 24 hours and high heat roasted ala AnnT. It was really good, extremely moist and even the breast meat wasn't dry. I also made a big batch of split pea soup, Mother loves it. I had to use yellow peas because I had those and the store didn't have any green split peas (or any other dried beans) in stock. sleevendog, your garden is growing well, and Elery would love an artichoke pizza. Neely, stay well, I'm glad your sons are delivering food, I stopped and did Mother's grocery shopping yesterday and dropped off groceries along with her prepared meals. Jasdip, I'm glad you're just "hunkering down" and there's no reason for quarantine! As for that leprechaun, we didn't catch him, but he dropped some of his treasure, a couple of strings of beans, a few of those "gold" colored dollar coins and some glittery hair clips. Maci insists that she heard "tiny little footsteps in the night" and nearly caught the leprechaun eating all the chocolate, LOL. Annie

Wow, 4 years. Such a cute age. And a cute cake. We have 5 under 5 with another on the way via 3 nephews. I meant 'passive' haha. Meaning, "you do your thing vegetables. I have no time to babysit." Next day it had a lasagna vibe with the top layer of the pasta. I usually make a harvest lasagna every early Fall...right around the corner. Another pic of the shrimp salad lettuce cups fell from the clouds, A couple weeks ago i sous vide four small sirloins. An easy taco pulling two out of the freezer and thawing with a dry brine, then a cast iron sear. Tossed in kimchi. Next day made a sirloin Banh mi for DH. I had a sirloin salad bowl. Side bean/corn salad About to hit the end of the Summer thread...bummer.