Neely, I've been cooking here too, but it's been crazy busy. Springtime on the farm! I'd sure like one of those brownies right now...

Jasdip, you reminded me that I needed to bake hamburger buns for Saturday, Dave brought some equipment and a couple of guys and they worked on the pond. Again. Hate that pond, ugh. Anyway, I put some burgers on the grill, but no pictures because I was busy changing the shirt that I burned a hole in when I started the grill. Singed my hair and eyebrows too, and that's why I don't grill. I hate to do it, hate the process, hate the grill, I'm too impatient. Next time they get sloppy joes!

I made homemade buns, though, from the King Arthur Flour website:

Baked some chocolate chip cookies:

I made baked beans, no picture, and some potato salad, opened some home canned pickles and it was supper.

Earlier in the week we had pork chops, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots:

Some leftover pasta, with added cheese and baked:

Sadie gobbled up so much pasta that she just passed out, LOL:

The Princess spent the night Saturday night, working on a Mother's Day project for her Mom. Next morning she made breakfast, crepes and eggs. She had Nutella on her crepes, Elery had his with scrambled eggs. I had my usual egg over easy and a slice of toast.

Since it's been cold and rainy, we've had chili for two nights, and I might have it for supper tomorrow night too, over baked potatoes!

So that's dinner. Tomorrow night maybe beans, since I have a Planning Commission meeting at night and have to do Dave's books during the day. Elery has a dentist's appointment, so something not too chewy would be good, I think.

Annie

I thought most people get busy with Spring and then Summer round the corner and living on a farm must be even busier Annie. The pond you mention... is that where everyone had fun swimming and paddling last year? I guess the pressure is on so they can have as much fun again this year. I also hate lighting the BBQ. Anyway all the food looks yummy.

I baked again... I will get the hang of this oven eventually. Homegrown rhubarb from the country brought with us made into a free form tart.

Neely, I've been eating, but nothing at all worth taking a picture for. LOL

I love your brownies, it made me want to make some as well. I have one recipe that we really like. Hey, why is your rhubarb ready, when it's a spring fruit?

Annie, poor Sadie, but she's in hog-heaven!! Hahahahaa. That's the Princess? She's so tall and grown up. Is she in high school?

You sure make good use of the oven when you bake. That's a lot of cookies and buns. Like you, I don't have the patience for barbecuing. I don't want to babysit anything. I can't cook anything worth a darn on it. I'm quite happy with the little electric grill/griddle that we pop out onto the balcony when we're in the mood for grilled meats/vegetables. Hubby can sit out there with his 'ears on' and listen to music and play with the food.

Annie: if I lived in your house I would probably look like Sadie! Too much good food! The rolls look yummy and I want your recipe for the CC cookies. I can never get mine to look like that. And your Princess has grown up!

Yes, the Princess has grown up. She's 13 and starts high school in the fall. (sigh) I don't know where those years went, but at least she still wants to leave her brother with their parents and come live with me, so I'm not officially too old yet...

As for Sadie, well, she's the same age as The Princess, so I think she deserves her full tummy and her soft bed and her long naps. She's a good dog. She actually belongs to The Princess and Bud, but their Golden Tornado.....um....Golden Retriever jumps all over her, runs over top her and hurts her old arthritic joints, which makes her crabby. So now she lives at my house and she's happy and the kids visit whenever they want to.

So, what's for dinner? Baked chicken thighs and a stir fry with some soba noodles, Elery cooked while I was off doing Dave's books.

Annie

Well, breakfast, actually. For the grandkids

Death Star waffles!

May the Fourth Be With You

Jasdip, I'm glad that you are happy with your new oven. I'm impressed that it will bake two large loaves at a time. I have a Waring Pro that I have had for a number of years. I like it because it gets up to 500°F so I can roast chickens and small roasts in it. When it dies I'll be looking at the one you have, a Breville and the Waring.

Party_Music that is one of the best looking General Tsao's chickens I have seen. I can almost taste it.

Annie, it is like a feast every week in your house.

I can't believe that the Princess is already 13 and going into HS.

Neely, I would love your beef stew. I like that you left the carrots big enough for me to pick out. :D. I always cook the potatoes in my stew, but I think the next time I make one I'll serve with mashed potatoes instead.

A few of our recent dinners.

Last night's dinner for two.

This dish is on Moe's Top Five list. I've been making this recipe - Chicken Breasts Perigord

(With Mushroon Duxelles) for almost 30 years.

The recipe is one of Lucy Waverman's from her - 1989 'Seasonal Canadian Cookbook.'

The only thing I do different is to add green peppercorns to the sauce.

This is the perfect dinner party recipe because the mushroom duxelles can be stuffed under the chicken skin earlier in the day and then roasted just before serving.

Ham dinner with sweet potatoes with caramelized onions. Potato gratin and Brussels sprouts.

Pollo alla Marengo

Love the Star Wars waffle momj47 ... Death Star what grandchild wouldn't be delighted.

Jasdip, rhubarb grows here from Spring to Autumn. This was the last harvest For 6 months... it was quite spindly but wanted to get the last bit.

Lots of yummy meals again AnneT. Everything looks good. I recall seeing you used green peppercorns a few years ago and I have since started using them again... flash back to the 70's. We like them as a creamy sauce on a steak and that's what we had the other evening. We buy them in a tiny green and black can Made in France.

We also had a pork stir fry with broccoli and bean sprouts on one night.

I love both of your chicken dishes, Ann, but the mushroom filling would be out of the question for hubby.....unless I just didn't tell him :-)

Your steak and fries is making me hungry, Neely! I love that pairing.

Up until a year or two ago, I'd never heard of Cinco de Mayo, I still don't know what it means (not much Mexican influence here), but I thought I'd try my hand at making something in that vein.

Of course, I can't make a burrito worth a darn, and you don't get the idea of what the filling is. You'll have to take my word for it......ground beef (I didn't use shredded beef as the recipe called for), cumin, jalapeno, chipotle, lime juice, etc, rice with lime juice and minced basil (we hate cilantro), salsa, avocado. It was terrific, and a keeper. There's a lot more rice, than the picture shows.

I see what you did there, Jasdip.

On the road the last few days, and I'm already sick of restaurant food.

So I'm here to see what's cooking. And now, I'm inconsolable.

Sol

Your burrito looks great Jasdip. I say this as if I know about burritos when in fact differences of all the Mexican foods are a bit of a mystery to me but I do like the food.

DH cooked us pork chops with noodles, apple sauce and broc.

And I made some blondies. They were OK even with white choc chips but not as yum as a good brownie

Neely, would be happy with both your meals, the peppercorn steak and the pork with bean sprouts. Green peppercorns are a favourite in sauces for beef, chicken and pork. I prefer dried peppercorns though over the ones canned in brine. I soak the dried peppercorns in chicken or beef broth depending on what I will use in the sauce.

Jasdip, your mayo in the sink cracked me up. :D

Ann, I've been toying with the idea of making stewed green beans, Greek style, for several weeks now. Your picture inspired me. One of my dad's favorite dinners was beef stew with potatoes & green beans in tomato sauce. He also loved the same basic dish but made with okra instead of green beans. It was definitely home-style Greek cooking and what he loved the best.

Neely, your blondies look good to me. I wish I was more of a dessert maker because I'd love to give them a try. Same with your chocolate chip cookies, Annie. Jasdip, I'm impressed with your countertop oven baking two regular sized loaves of bread. That'll be great in the summer.

I've been cooking away, though nothing particularly noteworthy. For my husband's birthday, my daughter made 3 recipes worth of stuffed grape leaves for him. We ate one container and froze the rest for special lunches and dinners until Christmas present time. I made a kreatopita, Greek meat pie, for him. It's his favorite, tied with the grape leaves.

One night I fixed some homemade low sodium breakfast sausage gravy to serve over biscuits along with a fried egg on top. Then there was vegetable beef soup and 3 bean salad.

Neely, your hubby makes such good meals! He makes a dynamite roast beef, and I love your pork chop dinner.

Ann, those are some killer BLT's. Every time I see your Greek ribs, I keep remembering that I want to go to your site and find the recipe. Wow, they look so incredible.

Shambo, the only thing that I eat that's Greek is souvlaki, which I love. I prefer the chicken, over pork, which probably isn't even nearly authentic. I admit, I've never had lamb. Some day I'll have to have something in grape leaves. :-)

We're finally getting some warm weather this week. I much prefer cooker temps and I've been luck so far. The heat and humidity will be coming soon enough for me, yuck.

Anyway, I made peri-peri chicken which marinates in a spicy paste all day, and hubby cooked them on the little griddle outside. With it I made a white and wild rice pilaf with dried cranberries. Butter tart squares for dessert. A killer dinner :-)

I didn't take pictures of most things for my weekend event, as I was too busy to care about the camera. This was cooked two days in advance. When it was less hectic...

I tried my hand at making pizza. I got the dough recipe out of my Cuisinart countertop oven manual. I thought I had it rolled and stretched out thin enough, but it sure puffed up. It's beautiful dough, I just have to get the hang of it, and stop it from springing back, too. I'm just thrilled that the oven holds a large pizza. I couldn't get the pizza off the metal tray onto the stone, so I just cooked it on the tray on the stone.

OK back again with plenty of yummy dinners to see and take note of. That club house sandwich looks amazing Anne T as do the other dinners. Shambo I would love some of that kreatopita. Jasdip plenty of lovely cooking going on and I am especially wanting a pizza like that. And Artemis Congratulations on your first cook in your new oven, I guess you used ground almonds in your flourless cake. ?.

We had a spaghetti Bol with lots of Parmesan one night.

Also, I had a craving for this crab and creamed sweet corn soup which we hadn't had for years. I was making some chicken stock and I remembered this soup so bought just a can of the crab. Served with just a touch of soy sauce.

Also, I made coconut and blueberry muffins which DH demolished pretty quick.

Ann T, shambo, jasdip, artemis, neely... I was looking at the posts and photos, and DH walks by, screeches to a halt, and suggests I make at least three or more of these pictured for dinner tomorrow! I didn't dare let him see the entire thread or I'd be cooking without stop! LOL

Here's what we had tonight, along with a tossed green salad and a side of steamed petite peas. It's *new-to-me* recipe from America's Test Kitchen (saw this recipe demo'd on KPBS a few Saturdays ago)... I practically swooned at first bite! I do like scampi and have posted pix of such meals before...but the flavor on this was outstanding!

Smiles,

Sooz

Hahaha, Sooz, your post about your hubby made me laugh right out loud and I shared it with my hubby. He completely agreed!!!

We saw that episode too, on how they made their shrimp scampi. I have shrimp in the freezer, but hubby isn't too keen on making me make scampi with it. What's with that? He's nuts.

Too funny, Jasdip!!! You could give hubby the opportunity to make it for you both, or you could make it for yourself and announce there will be no sharing! LOL !

One thing I noticed with the recipe is that I did NOT get even close to 2/3 Cup of reserved liquid. I just added more white wine to get it up to 2/3 Cup and it worked out great. Yay, wine!

Smiles,

Soon

I picked a huge bag of rhubarb today and the first thing I did was make muffins and a pie. I have a ton more to do something with. I also make rhubarb cake and another muffin recipe, but I don't have room in the freezer :-( We'll have to persevere and do some heavy eating so that I can make more goodies.

Dinner was a new recipe.......home-made chicken burgers (tenders ground in my food processor). The recipe called for cranberry mixed with dijon mustard as a topping, but I used apricot jam with dijon and it was perfect. Served on homemade buns, which doesn't hurt either. This is definitely a keeper.

I've got oatmeal soaking in buttermilk, and rhubarb stewing in sugar, for my next batch of rhubarb muffins. I have to use up my rhubarb!

I cut up chunks of chicken breast when I made my chicken burgers, and marinated them in Italian dressing along with peppers and onions. My intent was to kebab them, but then I got lazy. Also, it's drizzly and cool today and hubby didn't feel like sitting out on the balcony with the little griddle in the drizzle. I don't know why not!

So I cooked them loose, in the little countertop oven. As well, I roasted asparagus and more onions and peppers and put them in some quinoa with a citrus dressing. Totally delicious meal. Those are chicken chunks, not potatoes ;-)

Wow Jasdip, lots of baking going on including the hamburger buns, but it is those rhubarb muffins that have got me going. Also your dinner above looks great. Yep funny with your husband viewing the posts Sooz, and the scampi look delicious.

We've been back and forward from the country to the city lately, so meals have been pretty much thrown together and transported leftovers ( not real good) but we managed to have one of DH's roasts on Sunday. This time he roasted a duck and he did well. He has this method of upside down for half hour then one side then the other then normal. The result was well cooked and still juicy. He always serves duck with an orange and red onion salad, which I like a lot.

Thanks Neely. I had duck once, and didn't care for it. I recently learned that it doesn't have salmonella that chicken has, so it can be cooked on the more rare side. Who knew?!

Today's a holiday for us, so we had steak, twice-baked potatoes and I sauteed some bok choy that needed to be used up. Put a drizzle of balsamic and maple syrup reduction on. Steak is a rarity for us, it's not one of our favourite meats at all. Most people go nuts for one, but once a year is okay for us. My treat was the mushrooms. Hubby despises them.

omg, all of these food photos look so yummy!!!!

I've been busy, working hard, making all kinds of progress, so I'm always hungry and when I can finally eat the meals need to be quick. :) One night I had the weirdest combination of cravings, but the combo turned out to be perfect... blackened haddock, greens & beans, sweet potato, and a salad.

Last night I craved this... chicken tenders sauteed w/ OO, garlic, & rosemary... perfect w/ honey-mustard and ranch dressing!

Tonight I crave eggs w/ blueberry pancakes. :)

Party and Jasdip yummy looking meals there.

I made a duck pie with the left over duck. Oops started cutting then remembered photo.

And we had it with a salad with the very last fig.

I have come to understand that some people here on this terrific forum don't like lamb and when I look at this lamb chop, I can understand why... ugly, very ugly. Still with lots of veg on the side it was a good dinner for us.

Easy baking, free form apple pie that gave us dessert for two nights.

LOL, I've seen some photos of lamb that truly make me want to crawl into the screen and devour it. I've honestly never tried a lamb roast.

Neely, that's how I make apple pie most often; a free-form crostata. So much easier than 2 pie shells.

Neely, I'm not fond of lamb, but it's not the appearance, it's the flavor!

Here there has not been much cooking going on, as our pump quit working and the well man has not been able to get here due to the holiday. So it's strictly sandwiches and paper plates until we get our water supply repaired. I've cooked a couple of dinners at Amanda's house but didn't take pictures.

Annie

ANNIIE- MAKAYLA IS 13 and starting HIGH SCHOOL?? How did that happen? What year does High School begin in White Cloud? I thought she was only a year ahead of my J in school. But apparently she's 2 yrs ahead. Yikes! I remember when Amanda and family got Sadie. It's difficult to believe she's 13 too. This goes along with the OT thread. I've known you since Makayla was a few months old. Aww, they grow so fast-- TOO FAST!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to YOU! Wishing you a day out of the kitchen surrounded by loving family.

Ellen, high school starts with 9th grade, and Makayla isn't just 13, she'll be 14 in November! She doesn't go to White Cloud, remember, we moved out to the farm and sold the White Cloud house.

Yes, Sadie is just about the same age as Makayla, and time just flew, didn't it?

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Elery made a pot of beans and bought a carrot cake from the local Meijer's. We had the cake and some ice cream at Amanda's.

Tomorrow we'll go to Grand Rapids, Elery has his 6 month check up on that knee replacement, and we're going out for lunch then, I really want to check out the Downtown Market.

There will be no pictures, though, since my camera stopped working. It was still covered by warranty, so the replacement is on its way, but won't be here until day after tomorrow.

So, no pictures of this weekend's meals, no pictures of my birthday beans, and unless I take my old camera along, no pictures of the Downtown Market. Well, maybe I'll remember how to use my old Canon and at least take pictures of the market!

Annie

I'm glad you had a great birthday Annie!!! You deserve that and more :-)

I made another pizza this evening, and this crust was nice and thin. Typical toppings; onions, peppers, olives and bits of pineapple. Also kefir cheese (the white globs)

Well Annie I've clearly lost track of time. Now I understand why Makayla looks like a teenager! Bud must be closer in age to my J. Glad you're celebrating in one way or another. I hope you had a nice day in G.R.!

I've finally reached the end of my rhubarb, and it's another pie. Man, I love this little oven!

That's a 10" pie.

Jasdip, I love your little oven too. Because it really isn't little. So much room in it. I would seriously consider the same one if and when my Waring dies.

Rhubarb pie is my favourite and yours looks perfect.

So many great looking meals.

Neely, that Duck Pie is a beauty even with the first cut.

Sue, would love a piece of your meat pie.

Annie, happy belated birthday.

A few of our recent meals.

Honey Garlic Chili Chicken.

Dungeness Crab Feast.

Still baking bread. A little snack for Moe.

Found this recipe for a simple version of Butter Chicken. Would definitely make this one again.

Italian Sausage and Mushroom Pizza.

Jasdip, your pizza and rhubarb pie look great, as do all your meals Anne T as usual. I must make a pizza!

We had moussaka... I love the waft of cinnamon in the kitchen... not too strong though.

Also we had a burger for lunch.

Everything looks delicious. Ann T, that crab looks amazing and so does the butter chicken. Neely, I can nearly smell that moussaka...

Here I've been cooking AND eating. I made some of the Milk Street Hummus, which Elery loves so much:

I broke down and fried some chicken, something I only do every couple of years. Potato salad on the side:

Madi and Maci were here on day, so I made "Farm" waffles, shaped like barns, horses, chickens and pigs.

Madi is a budding cook, made a "bacon guy" from her two favorite foods. Bacon and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, LOL.

We've been busy gardening, mowing, fencing, spraying pond weeds. While working on the pond, we found this little guy sharing our yard:

He didn't budge, just stayed "hidden". Later, when we walked around to the other edge of the pond, he took a walk, then laid back down and waited for Mom:

In spite of the intense dislike I have for those rats on hooves, I let him stay. I only hope it's a him and not a her, we don't need any more breeding stock, we're over run with the darned things. On the other hand, this visitor was fishing in the pond and I enjoyed seeing him right outside my window:

Oh, and we had pork chops one day too, no pictures, and I baked some gluten free brioche. We had beef with a rhubarb BBQ sauce, and there are leftovers in the fridge, so we will probably have sandwiches tomorrow after Makayla's cheerleading competition. I cut garlic scapes today and made pesto, I'll go take some pictures now, before I put the stuff in the freezer!

OK, I'm caught up. I think...

Annie

I never come here - don't usually take pics of food - must be too greedy!

So lovely to see your photos Islay Corbel. Those langoustines look great. They're fresh water aren't they?

Annie good to see your photos...fried chicken...yum. Dear little deer!!

Well I did make a pizza and some rolls with the left over dough.

Islay, Elery would love your artichoke dish. He LOVES artichokes. Me? I'd go straight for the langoustines!

Neely, your rolls look perfect, and pears are one of my favorite fruits. Here they seem to take second place to nearly every other fruit, from bananas to grapes to apples, but I still like them a lot.

The Princess had a cheer competition today that I had to drive her to, so we had supper out, quesadillas at a Mexican place.

Annie

Annie, I made fried chicken a couple of days ago too. Like you, it'd been almost 2 years since the last batch. After brining in buttermilk overnight, dredging the pieces in flour, frying in hot oil, and basically getting both flour & oil everywhere, my husband announced that he liked oven roasted chicken wings just as much as he liked fried chicken. If I had known that, I'd have just done chicken wings. A whole lot easier.

Neely, the langoustines are seawater.

The food here looks wonderful. How do you think to take pics all the time? LOL I just dive in too fast, I think.

You just gotta old fashion fry chicken every couple or so years. Early on in this marriage and kids were little we had fried chicken every Sunday. We raised our own..the deep freeze full for the winter. It tasted so good and the smell of chicken frying was out of this world. Time went on, kids grew up left home...we change our eating style. The chicken you buy in the stores now are lacking something. Chicken out in resturants the pieces are so big, they do not get a cook on them.

So this past Sunday I found a couple 2.75 pounders. Fried one up in a Crisco and butter combination. It was very tasty and looked like real fried chicken, but sure I will be going back to the healthier cook of oven baked or air fried. I cut mine up like Mother use to, a pulley bone and a couple back pieces.

It is 4:40 pm and I have been going thru this current WFD and all I am doing is getting hungry from all the excellent looking food and variety. Gotta leave you all for awhile, till at least after supper.

Shirl, the chickens were ones we raised ourselves, but they were smaller than the last batch, which averaged 8 pounds each, dressed! These were closer to 4 or 5 and it made a huge difference. I spent my teenaged years working at a fried chicken/sub sandwich joint, so I learned to "break down" a chicken in less than 2 minutes. From whole chicken to 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breast pieces and a back. The breast pieces weren't as big 45 years ago as they are now, so they stayed a single piece. Now I cut the breast pieces in half and so I get 10 "edible" pieces per chicken plus I use all the backs, necks and feet for stock.

OK, we raise beef, pork, chicken. What did we have for supper? Kale enchiladas, LOL. Elery made them with a lot of cheese, some kale, some of my home canned tomatillo enchilada sauce/salsa, some kind of Mexican rice on the side. I spent the day at the shop doing Dave's books, so it was nice to not have to make dinner, and I didn't complain at all, even without meat!

Annie

This was my attempt at a seafood platter only with just fish, chips and garlic prawns.

One other night we had little bow ties - farfalle with steak and a good sauce.

Not dinner this time, but dessert! My 82 y.o. Italian girlfriend shared her recipe with me for Tiramisu. I made two 9 x 9 pans--one went into the freezer (she said it freezes well and defrosts great!) and one went to a small pot luck this past Saturday night. I think next time, I'll just make one big pan and see if I can get a thicker layer of the mascarpone! It was delicious!

Yum, sooz, that looks delicious!

Annie

Thanks, Annie! It WAS delicious!! but I think next time, I'll dip the ladyfingers a bit longer in the marsala (bottom layer) and also a bit longer in the espresso (top layer).

I am in a rut, am going to read this thread for inspiration. :)

Yummy sooz... Your tiramisu looks great