Neely, it does make a nice side.

Annie, your post was successful! lol. I hate the hit and miss, we spend time making comments and posting pics and having it disappear. Very frustrating.

This asparagus was from the States or Mexico, I forget. Like you, I love our local asparagus.......and yours is REALLY local, all 100 plants or is it 1,000? I know it's a lot, anyway!

Thanks, Neely! I’ll have to try that.

Jasdip, your rolls look just beautiful.

Sleevendog, I’m with Annie—wild rice and beans would be total luxury here.

I will have to try this belachan paste, too. With caution, because my DH has recently developed an averse reaction to shellfish. But it seems too flavorful and worth the risk.

LOL, Jasdip, it's 200 crowns. I planted 100 crowns three years ago, they grew so well I planted another 100 the next year. Now Elery is talking about expanding the asparagus beds, because the B&B across the road told me they'd buy any excess I have. Well, between my 2 girls and their families, and Elery's 4 kids and their families, there isn't much excess, so he thinks we should plant MORE!

Annie

Monte, I love black cod! My hands down favourite is smoked black cod, but it’s hard to find and is very expensive. Seems like whenever we acquire a taste for something, it always seems to drive the price up!

I've never seen black cod here (or sablefish), now I'll have to look when I go to Grand Rapids.

Supper here was roasted chicken with green beans. Right now the furnace is not working and the repairman can't get here until tomorrow afternoon, so I wanted to turn the oven on. Since it's currently 6F and will climb all the way up to 15F tomorrow, I'm glad we have a pellet stove. It's supposed to be "back up" in the case of power outages but right now it's burning happily on half power and the entire house is still at 72 although the furnace has been out since 4 pm. The perimeter of the house is slightly colder, as the heat isn't blown around, but we'll be fine until the furnace is repaired. Thankfully Elery is very "prepared" and we have a ton of pellets in the pole barn!

I'd love to bake something tomorrow but I think Elery is going to claim my time, helping him put shelves in the remodeled bathroom...

Annie

One of the admins in my cast iron group made Dirty Rice last week and it looked so good I had to try my hand at it. Today was a good day, as it's Mardi Gras, etc etc.

It has sausage and hamburger in it. I used brown basmati rice. All it needed was a salad and one of my big rolls that I made on the weekend.

Jasdip, that looks like something my family would enjoy. Can I ask what a cast iron group is... or is it obviously a group whose members like to cook using cast iron?

Jasdip, that looks really good, I like the sausage in there.

Here we had a low fat version of rouladen, made with turkey bacon and sleevendog's pickled mustard seeds, along with some roasted vegetables:

Elery really enjoyed the mustard seeds in there.

Annie

Feathers, it's a Facebook group where members cook using cast iron, and also collect it. Here is the recipe if you'd like it. I didn't put any chicken gizzards, etc in it.

Dirty Rice

• 8 ounces ground beef (or ground pork, turkey, or any ground meat)
• 8 ounces sausage, about 3 sausages
  • (Cajun purists would insist this be andouille or boudin, but any sausage will work.)
• 8 ounces chicken gizzards, hearts or livers (optional)
• The Cajun "Holy Trinity:"
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, chopped
  • 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• one small bundle of green onions or scallions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (Old Bay, Zatarain's, etc.)
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups long grain rice, uncooked
  Cut up sausages and other meats into small bite sized pieces, or smaller. Chop up onion, celery, green pepper, green onions, garlic. These vegetables can be added to the same bowl, because they'll be added to the hot cast iron pan at the same time.

Heat a large cast iron dutch oven, wok, or large skillet on the stovetop at medium heat for at least ten minutes, to get it good and hot.

When the pan is good and hot, Add or melt a few tablespoons of lard or cooking oil in the pan, and add the sausages first. Sausage has to be thoroughly cooked, so stir fry the sausage on its own for several minutes. When the sausage is close to being done, add other whole meats such as liver or chicken gizzards. Stir fry for several more minutes, then add ground beef. Mix it all together and stir fry until the ground beef is no longer pink. Remove the meat and reserve it in a metal bowl, leaving the extra grease in the pan.

Add the vegetables to the hot grease, and stir fry them until the onions are soft. Add the meat back into the pan, and stir it all together. Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and cajun seasoning. Stir everything together.

Add 3 cups chicken broth to the pan, and mix everything together. Cover the pan, leaving the stovetop heat at medium. After a few minutes the broth will be boiling. Add rice and stir it all in. Cover the pan once again, and this time lower the stovetop heat to low. Simmer the rice for twenty minutes. Do not uncover the pan until twenty minutes have passed and the rice is done.

Stir it all together, and serve hot.

HappyMardiGras!

Dirty Rice, yum. Boudin is on my 2019 bucket list. I have the casing.

Rare event that DH is working late. I made a solo meal...always eggs when dining alone. Corn tortilla quesadilla, goat cheese/chard, pea shoot, radish greens...two eggs over easy. Avocado creme/sesame chili oil.

I’ve done my best to stay away – everyone’s meals are just far too delicious looking, tempting, and rather torturous right now : )

Annie, your venison stir-fry is gorgeous! Love all those snow peas, onions, mushrooms with the venison : ) I laughed aloud the instant I saw the empty waffle plate – I knew right away what it was! Not even commenting on that frittata… (which I want right now…)

Jasdip, amazing rolls… just amazing. I’m loving the idea of your orzo ‘recipe’! I will have to try it! And thank you for sharing your dirty rice recipe – DH will love it : )

Neely, I’m not familiar with a single item on your beef rendang dish, which makes me want it all the more – the beef looks wonderful and rich – the whole meal looks good!

Sleevendog, your sauces look fabulous and tasty, but it’s you solo dish that I’d eat this instant. Everything on that plate just works for me : )

Quick arm-waves to writersblock, dcarch, shirl, and of course Monty_Abby – and everyone else!

In rather a rush just now, being delegated to the bedroom for the next 12-15 days or so. I’ll probably come back stark-crazy, so you all might need to just ignore me ; )

Am posting a meal we had night before last… a couple of those salads from the grocery store salad bar (DH’s is the one with all the cubed meat), and a Panera soup… crab. Dolled up with some chili oil (thank you for the inspiration Sleeve!) and chives from the garden. I’m not saying exactly what I used to cut those chives but trust me, you’d all say “ew”. Yeah, our meals are not fun. Met a wonderful couple from Moldova and the wife also bakes her own bread – she took pity on us and brought a loaf – no pic but DH and I tore it apart like hungry wolves! Ahhh… home cooking. Nothing like it.

See you all in a few weeks!

Thank you, Jasdip, for sharing your recipe! After a mishap with my cast iron pan, I've been looking for recipes to help me slowly season it again. This looks good--appreciate your time in copying it.

Feathers, bacon is not something that you want to cook first, to try and re-season your skillet. Bacon nowadays has too much sugar.

If you like cornbread, that's one of the best things to cook.

If you do Facebook, I can invite you to the Cast Iron Group if you like, or you can just do a search. There are several groups but this one is huge.....almost 300,000 members. And the admins are great, they don't put up with any bad language or even putting anyone's meal down. (I've seen pics of frogs' legs, kangaroo tail, squirrel, you get the picture).

Jasdip, that recipe looks really good, thanks. Amanda loves rice, I'm going to have to make some. Her husband won't eat rice (I know, what's wrong with him?), but she'd love to have some to take to work for her "lunch". She has to take her own, she works the midnight shift at an assisted living facility, so there's nothing open to get lunch out at 2 am, she has to bring it with her.

Sleevendog, those quesadellas look good and your greens look nice and fresh. Like you, I default to eggs a lot when I'm just cooking for myself.

Feathers, I've found the best way to re-season my cast iron pan(s) is to fry something in them, something that needs lots of oil, like french fries or donuts. A couple of batches of french fries and that oil just soaks right into the hot cast iron and it's good as new (or is that old, lol?).

2many, the soup looks pretty good and I'm happy someone got you some good bread for a change, geez. So you've been sent to your room, have you? (grin)

I'm missing Monty-Abby, I hope she's here soon.

Anyway, what's for dinner? Baked chicken thighs with some BBQ sauce and mashed rutabaga:

I actually had a salad the day before, a little lettuce topped with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, a few pecans and one ripe fig. Honey mustard dressing:

And, because I miss baking, I made Mother a loaf of pumpkin bread. Well, kind of pumpkin bread, I made it with one of those butternut squash that are still hanging on in storage:

Tonight Mother wanted to go to a local restaurant for frog legs, she loves them and you can't find them very many places anymore. So, she had frog legs, baked potato, corn muffin, broccoli and a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie. She had to take the muffin home as she was full, she ate all the frog legs and all the potato, refused the broccoli as it "wasn't done" (and it wasn't, it was still hard, ugh). She says she's having the corn muffin for a late night snack and the pie for breakfast, LOL.

I had lake perch, very lightly breaded, and it was amazing, so good. It's my favorite fish. I passed on the potatoes and muffin, and had no dessert, but the two large filets of fish and a side of corn was enough, although I really hoped they would have coleslaw.

Annie

Terrific to everyone’s meals and recipes. Your mother Annie has a fun idea of eating just what ever suits her and good to see or rather hear about.

So we had Spicey Asian broth with pork. Also had corn and broccoli.

2Many, you and your dear hubby must have cried eating that bread. What a treat!!!!

Annie, I'm in awe of your perseverance with sticking to your new eating regime. I'd have sacked it in a long time ago, I really, really love carbs.

Neely, that's a great looking soup!

I just made breakfast. I posted it on the cast iron group because it was cooked on iron, and of course the comments were that it needed more bacon! LOL

I made 2 big pancakes instead of 4 little ones, and the bacon was leftover of some that I made earlier this week for another recipe.

The scent of bacon gets everyone out of bed and it is mostly gone before anything else gets on the plate unless I hide it.

Pizza Friday. Artichoke hearts, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, three cheese. Made three so we will have for brunch with fried eggs on top.

Yes, that soup looks good. We don't mind repeats. Last Sunday Monday we had the wild rice and beans w/ ...shrimp was with some lamb sausage and chili oil/sesame....salmon had a white miso glaze.

Sleevendog, those look so delicious, especially the shrimp with the wild rice/beans. Do you make your chili oil the Liziqi way--toast the chilis and add hot oil, or do you just infuse chili in the oil?

I'm just about to make another batch. This one was from last Saturday. Clearly I did not make enough but was fussing with the quantity of sesame seed...

I'll update a pic this afternoon.

Jasdip, thank you for the CI information. I had to reseason one after my husband used it and got a bit overzealous with the flax seed oil. I scraped it off and am just doing it the regular way by frequently using it. I've been making weekend frittatas and sauteing veggies etc. I'll add cornbread to the list--I forgot how good that is in a pan. I'm rarely on FB but appreciate that offer! Thank you.

Thanks, sleevendog, that's very clear from the photos.

This page is a feast for the eyes. So many wonderful pictures.

Sleevendog, all of your meals just burst off the page. So vibrant. I can almost taste them.

My son the vegetarian would love your pizzas.

Neely, your meals are always so appealing. I love eggplant and cook it occasionally, but not n

early enough..

Jasdip, I haven't made Dirty Rice in years. Yours looks great. I could eat that just all by itself.

2ManyDiversions. You amaze me. Through everything you have kept your sense of humor. Looking forward to when you are back in your own kitchen.

Annie, I'm here. Just been busy. . M's second surgery is scheduled for this coming Wednesday. Needless to say we are both a little stressed. But I have been cooking and baking.

A few meals since I posted last. I might have to do a couple of posts to get caught up.

Cooked a Prime Rib one morning and M had a beef dip sandwich for breakfast and I took one to work for lunch.

We spent a day in Victoria for M's pre surgery appointment. Was a long day with a variety of tests, blood work, EKG, xrays , etc... and various people to meet with.

So on the way I picked up halibut and made Halibut Fish and Chips.

Peppercorn steak one night. I splurged and bought steaks that had been dry aged for 58 days.

Very enjoyable!

I chose to use sourdough bread from a local bakery.

Trying to organize photos in files I made a spice blend/sauces/pickles/ferment file this morning to keep track of methods and recipes.

I always think of Annie's Every and Ann's Matt when I get spicy and vegetarian.

I'll post these pics anyway since this method is easy.

I found the brand I purchased last October. (thank you amazon for saving past purchases). Nicely flaked and not too spicy. Think I was watching a MarkWeins travel video and noticed many restaurants have their own version. SOo many recipes via a google search. I also was watching Maangchi videos back then. She taught me my first kimchi recipe.

I don't want or would use a strained 'chili oil'. We like a very nutty Tbsp scoop. Toasted seed/oil combo. It does settle out a bit so I could just take some oil off the top. First time I made it a year or two ago I must have had a off/old bag of chili flake as It was a bit bitter and super hot.

(to be continued next post since we are loosing posts lately)

I had to correct most recipes that pour hot oil over the flake/seed. Pretty dangerous. My recipe is-

1/2 cup avocado oil, 1/3rd cup toasted sesame seed, 1/3rd cup flaked Korean chili.

I toasted the sesame seed, (easy to watch in a white enameled cast iron pan) Heated the oil low and slow then added a slice of fresh garlic until it started to sizzle/bubble. Turned off the heat and added chili flake and sesame seed. It fizzed and bubbled like it should. Then sat the pan on a back burner to come to room temp.

(pouring hot oil into a cold bowl is just stupid, lol)

Finished products so pretty. DH has one to take to work.

Now I can look and catch up above.

Ugg, another surgery for M. Amazing meals Monty. Cooking is such a stress reliever in this home.

Love cauliflower but so bleeping expensive now. Decided try and grow it again after failed attempts in the past. (darn you cauliflower rice people, lol)

Open face toast is a favorite here for a light meal. That looks like a great combination. With a salad and fried egg or a scramble...pretty much perfect.

Made a winter succotash from the freezer last night with burgers. Only one pic.

Thanks for the tutorial, sleevendog! Yeah, I have to agree about pouring boiling oil into a cold bowl.

Monty_Abby, that sandwich makes me drool.

Artemis, that tikka masala looks amazing.

Neely, I figure Mother can eat what she chooses. She's 83 and I'm not going to worry about her nutrition as long as she eats SOMETHING. And, as Grandpa used to tell me, pie for breakfast isn't much different than toast and jelly, except it has more fruit!

AnnT, I knew Moe's surgery was coming up, and I've been thinking of you both. It'll sure be good to have this past you, I know.

Your beef looks perfect, both the steak and the sandwich. And you always cook it just so nicely rare, exactly how I like it. And, of course, I always love halibut, it's my favorite fish, but to borrow an expression from Sleevendog, it's so bleeping expensive here.

Artemis, Elery thinks that sandwich sounds perfect, but he'd use my homemade tomato marmalade for jam. And now you have him thinking about it, LOL.

Sleevendog, that shrimp looks amazing, and now Elery wants me to make chili oil, along with your pickled mustard seeds. See what you've done? If it helps at all, I can't grow cauliflower either. I've tried, and it's always beautiful but tastes so strong no one can eat it. So, I just buy it from the local farmer's market when it's in season and buy Elery that frozen riced cauliflower during the winter.

Jasdip, my diet has now changed a little again. I hadn't been to a doctor in 3 years, it's impossible to get an appointment here and I felt fine. However, this visit resulted in a referral to a cardiologist, who told me to ditch Weight Watcher's (thank you!) and eat a more heart healthy diet. He heartily approves of my grass fed beef and tells me eggs are fine, but I need more whole grains and some low fat dairy, which WW discourages by giving them high "points". So oatmeal is back, and breakfast was a piece of toast with a tablespoon of guacamole topped with an egg. Last night we had burgers and right now barbacoa is simmering for supper. It appears that I have a "mild" valve issue, probably genetic, and that repair is in my future. We're trying to hold that off as long as we can, though, and so "heart healthy" is the name of the game right now.

No pictures of last night's burger, but we'll see if the barbacoa is picture worthy, LOL, in spite of the fact that it's made with an oddly shaped "rump roast" that included the hip joint, and not with beef cheeks.

Annie

I just took more buns out of the oven!!! You know I love making bread and rolls.

I recently picked up an item from Freecycle, and as a thank you I took her a fresh roll (from my last batch that I posted recently). I told her I was going to bring one and she thought that was great. Hmmmm, not even a thank you reply, even though I wrote and thanked her for the item. I always, always thank my people I receive things from Freecycle. One girl even gave me a bottle of wine for a mattress pad that I had, and she had been requesting (excellent condition of course). Geez.

Anyway, someone on the cast iron site said I should brush the rolls with melted butter last time, so this time I did. It sure makes them look pretty. I'm just waiting (impatiently) for one to cool so I can give it a hearty taste test.

**Heres**hoping everything works out well for you Annie.

Thank goodness your ditching WW. My doc told me a long time ago she didn't agree with WW but didn't go into it. I know nothing about it myself.

Heart healthy will make much more palatable meals for you. Most things that are fresh fall into heart healthy and all of your cooking is fresh.

Good luck Annie.

I tried another new recipe tonite. I've only been able to cook one recipe out of our keeper binder. Linda's (doucanoe Marinara Sauce).

If I may, I'd like to share a little something with you. Tom has sent me a 'sign ' since he passed. A year or so we were watching some tv show, and one of the songs in the show was a version of Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind. This one was a duet with Stevie Wonder and one of his backup singers. It's absolutely amazing.

I don't like Stevie Wonder much at all, but we both were blown away by this song. It's not played on mainstream radio........we heard it once, maybe twice since that tv show.

I've heard it about 10 times (really) since Tom died; on the radio station I regularly listen to. That's his sign to me. The latest was a couple of weeks ago, when I was making the marinara sauce. He loved making it, and I was talking to him as I was doing, and telling him I hope it would live up to his. Sure enough, as it was almost done simmering, THE SONG came on the radio. Of course I bawled as I always do when I hear it.

Soooo, I'm still making new recipes. This one is going in my *new* keeper binder.

It doesn't look pretty from my camera......it looks too green! But there is a lot of chopped baby spinach in it.

Lemon, butter, parmesan cheese, all the good stuff, in the sauce.

It's a Keeper

Jasdip, sweet memories are so precious.

I've made that butter chicken. It's really good! I double the spinach.

Thanks, mamapinky. My cardio guy didn't say it was BAD, just that it didn't have enough whole grains or low fat dairy, and that people should be eating "soluble" fiber, like oatmeal, even though Elery and I eat enough beans to make up for it, I think!

Jasdip, the chicken recipe looks delicious. I'm glad you still have that connection to Tom, and good memories.

Here I was pleasantly surprised by the barbacoa, it was good and Elery and I both enjoyed it. Not too spicy, in fact I think it could have used another chipotle, and I'm the heat wuss, I added a couple of tablespoons of guacamole and some homecanned peach/pineapple salsa. I simmered some home canned collard greens from last year's garden and mixed a jar of my homecanned southwestern corn salad with a can of black beans and called it a salad, LOL. Yeah, that's a fake low carb tortilla, but everything else was pretty good.

Annie

Annie, I had a mild heart attack over a year ago the night the Astros won the world series. I switched to the Mediterranean diet and lost 30 pounds in three months. I know you like brown rice and that's a mainstay. You should check it out. I love it and so does my heart. Good luck to you! I can't seem to post pictures anymore.

Cookebook, is there a particular book or blog or site that you follow for Mediterranean food? The thought of it has always intrigued me, but I eat very little fish. I would think incorporating much if not everything of the diet would still help.

There's a great FB page called Mediterranean Diet Followers. Great ideas there!

TacoNight, w/adobo chicken, and Monday's lunch.

OMG now I want chocolate cake and I'm not a big sweet eater. That looks absolutely delicious, Elvie!

Cookebook, I just downloaded a Mediterranean Diet cookbook. I'm thinking that when DH gets home from the hospital that I will lean more towards this diet. I will check out the FB page as well. Thank you.

Jasdip " Lemon, butter, Parmesan cheese, all the good stuff, in the sauce.". . Your picture and this sauce has me sold.

It was my grandfather's birthday recently. Grandpa would have been 122 years old.

I think of both of my grandparents often. I lived in their home until I was four and then

my parents bought the house next door. I spent more time at their house than I did my own.

Up until my grandfather was put on a reduced sugar diet, my grandmother always had some sort of baked good on hand to satisfy my grandfather's sweet tooth. And often it was a chocolate layer cake.

It is from my grandmother that I get my love of cooking and I'm pretty sure that my love of chocolate comes from my grandfather.

So in memory of my grandfather I decided to bake a chocolate cake.

I can't remember the last time I baked a chocolate layer cake, but it had to be 10 years ago at least.

Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake

I made two dinners recently out of Donna Hay's The Instant Cook, Cook book.

The first was just a soup.

An Asian Chicken Soup.

And the second one was Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Stacks. Moe really loved this dish. Grilled chicken breast (sliced horizontally into three slices) grilled eggplant, zucchini and red peppers served warm and topped with Arugula and a dollop of a homemade pesto in mayonnaise sauce.

My sourdough starter is going strong and I'm feeding it at least once a week.

Trying to be a good "mother".

Something I haven't made in a few years. Gorgonzola Garlic Bread. Ready for the oven.

Served with my favourite pasta sauce.

Italian sausage and rosemary .

OK, Houzz is going crazy again, Elvie's chocolate cake is all mixed in with Monty's post about the Mediterranean Diet. That cake looks amazing, though, yum.

Cookebook, I've looked at the Mediterranean Diet and am trying to incorporate some of that into our diet. Thanks for the encouragement, I need a change, I lost 35 pounds on Weight Watchers but it's driving me absolutely crazy, I hate it. But with Mother's pickiness and Elery's Weight Watchers crash diet obsession, there isn't a way I can just make three separate meals. So, I can make brown rice and freeze it, but neither Mother or Elery will touch rice in any form. I refuse the cauliflower nastiness they try to pass off as rice. The real sticking point in all of this is whole grains. Mother and Elery will not eat grains, not whole wheat, not oatmeal, not rice, not barley, so I'm on my own there and neither of them will eat any nuts either. It becomes tiresome to just try to figure out any meals at all, let alone something healthy.

I do admit that if I eat a salad at supper, I eat less of everything else, mostly because I'm just so disgusted that I'm all done eating, I don't want anything after that, LOL.

Monty, that cheese bread looks wonderful, I'll bet your guys loved it, and the chicken stacks look good too, those would be a good summer meal here when I'm overloaded with garden produce. And probably Mediterranean will mesh nicely with your son's vegetarian diet, so that might actually be workable to merge those two. Good luck to your DH tomorrow, I'm thinking about him.

So, what's for dinner? Yesterday we had Jacque Pepin's easy version of duck cassoulet, he calls it duck casserole. I used half a duck instead of a carcass and some of the beans we grew and had orange glazed beets on the side. Probably not prticularly healthy as there was a layer of duck fat on the remainder this morning, and the duck did not stay in pieces, it just fell apart, so it wasn't pretty, but here it is:

Annie

Monty, that chocolate cake looks outrageous and I don't even like sweets.

Great looking chicken and garlic cheese bread as well.

Annie, we loved watching Jacques Pepin and one of hubby's favourites is a shrimp and orzo dish which I made for his birthday as requested.

I made nachos last night but they didn't look great in the pictures, so I deleted them. :-) Nothing but the best for the CF!! LOL

There's a popular potato dish on the cast iron group.......Fondant Potatoes or Melted Potatoes. Kind of a PIA to make but they are good! Roasted potatoes browned in a skillet then braised in chicken broth. The recipe calls for a thyme sprig and I never have fresh herbs so I sprinkled some dried rosemary instead.

Asparagus is generally $2.88 for a 375gram bunch, less than a pound, so when one of our stores had it for $1.50/lb I raced over. My goodness they were the skinniest things I'd ever seen!!!

Annie didn't you say that skinny ones are a sign of old stalks, past their prime kind of thing? I bought them anyway and figured I'd be able to saute them. Roasting would be too iffy, they were are so thin.

I made a meatloaf as well. I like to put minced carrot, onion and celery in, to ramp the veggie intake and I also mashed in some black beans. Having said that, and no surprise the meatloaf fell apart when I tried to take it off the baking dish. But it was tasty!

Monty, I'm thinking of Moe and hoping he is feeling much better.

Jasdip, it looks good to me. My meatloaf always fell apart, I put so many veggies in there. Now I "cheat" by putting all the vegetables in the blender with a little chicken broth. All the flavor, but the meatloaf stays together! Those potatoes look really, really good.

Those skinny stalks are either young crowns or old crowns. All the fiber in asparagus is in the outside peel, so the thinner the stalk, the tougher, because it's all peel and no soft middle. Sometimes, though, you just have to take what you get, and sometimes it's worth it. I did roast the thin stuff I bought for 99 cents a pound and it was edible, but it was chewy!

Here we had the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef, which I served with Chloebud's horseradish sauce, and that was very, very good. I made scalloped potatoes, cabbage and pureed butternut squash, to get the traditional green/white/orange of the Irish flag and added some home canned peaches and home canned green beans, just for good measure Cheese buns were made with Dubliner cheese and had a cross cut in the top to "let the leprechauns out" just like Grandma used to tell me to do. I made a loaf of gluten free bread with nancyofnc's recipe, but forgot to take a picture. Amanda took the rest of it home so she could have corned beef sandwiches, so it passed inspection, LOL. Dessert was sugar cookies, including a gluten free batch for Amanda. The regular cookies were frosted green and Amanda's were frosted white with green sugar, so we didn't mix them up. We even used the special Irish coffee cups and did it up right, LOL.

Corned beef, obviously:

Scalloped potatoes:

Cheese buns:

And, of course, cookies:

Before that, I made meatballs, lots of them!

And we had a smoked brisket, which we sliced on the slicer and then Foodsaver sealed the extra for the freezer. I think Chloebud's horseradish sauce would be really good with this too. We also had some smoked chicken leg quarters, which I served with brussels sprouts, but I can't find the picture, which I know I took.

And, of course, I had my "supervisor", making sure I did everything right!

Last night we had pork chops and green beans and it wasn't pretty enough to take a picture. As Jasdip says, only the best for the CF. (grin)

Annie

Thinking of Moe.

Kitty looks content, or hoping you might drop something.

Meatloaf looks good chunky! I don't make it often but I do add some yogurt soaked quick oats and a few rehydrated dried shiitake, then all chopped veg and mushroom goes in the food processor to mince fine.

Not very Irish but storm prep and aftermath kept us busy. What thought was a brisket slab in the freezer ended up being a SousVide London broil, lol. Excellent tacos Friday.

So I made an appy of baby artichoke/leek/goat cheese tart. Greek style seafood salad entree.

Annie, you hit the nail on the head with my asparagus!! Even though I sauteed it, it was still chewy. It wasn't all that enjoyable, although I did eat it. That would be why......all stalk, no innards. Now I'm wondering what to do with the rest of the bunch. The heads are so tiny, they may not last much longer anyway.

Hmmm, processing the veggies. GREAT idea Annie and Sleeve. Either way, meatloaf is always good, whether falling apart or in nice slices (I can't remember the last time THAT happened!)

Your meatballs look like when I do mine. I typically did 5 lb of meat all at once, so I had a good amount in the freezer. I can certainly cut that back to say 3 lbs now I guess, when it's time to do it again.

I love, love your supervisor!!!! Cats in boxes is an instant tug at the heart.

Made a similar shrimp salad last week served in avocado halves . New England Style. DH has been bugging me to write down some loose recipes. I always do a head scratch, "what did I do last time?"...loose meaning no biggie if I don't have a shallot or green onion. (I have dried and frozen chive rings and usually a red or white onion)...Tbsp is a cutlery spoon scoop so nothing exact.

Started recently printing out hard copies for a binder. I made our favorite corncake recipe yesterday for breakfast after finding some cherries in the freezer...looked everywhere...gotta write that one down.

sleevendog, you should DEFINITELY write down your favorites. Like you, I forget what I did "last time" that we liked so well and sometimes I can never remember again. (sigh) I did have to smile about the corned beef London Broil, because that's also something I do. I think I'll remember easily what it is and something turns out to be a moose loin or venison sausage when I'm trying to figure out what the heck it is.

I do like that your seafood salad has just a tablespoon of mayonnaise, so you can still taste the seafood in there...

Jasdip, I hate it when I'm expecting good asparagus and I get that, but you can always make soup!

Annie

OK, this is post #100, and I was hoping Monty-Abby would be back to start something pretty, but I guess I'll do it instead. See you there!

Annie