Nice veg box this week. Braising some beef short ribs so lots of choices.

Play-by-play short ribs. I Zoomed this morning. DH just out of a two hour Zoom meeting. We are home installing a new dishwasher that came two weeks early.

Dishwasher started burping mid summer that we helped stall the evils for a while. We are good at trouble shooting. Time for new without the expense of expensive parts and bone-head head-scratcher service folk.

(like the fridge repair person, fixing a recall part so no expense...and asked for a hair dryer). I can do that when needed once a year.

GardenWeb appliance forum is excellent. Often a fix is easy.

Just tossed in a cup of frozen cherry toms one hour into the pot. Off script, deciding about red wine and when to add the next veg. Not a usual cut for us and wish it had the bones....Always learning.

I am so far behind, and in just a few days. Whew.

Nekotish, that pasta is amazing. I might try for a holiday meal, but certainly not for everyday, I'm impressed.

One more thing Jasdip and I agree on, mashed potatoes and sausages. Or mashed potatoes and nearly anything, LOL.

Neely, I like your "one dish" meal serving idea. The fewer dishes, the happier I am!

sleevendog, good luck with that new dishwasher, my favorite one ever was the bottom of the line cheap one I had in my old house. I've absolutely hated all the fancier ones I've had! Nice Misfits box, too, I think those are the same purple sweet potatoes I got.

Lynda, I had to go look up Bundaberg and see if it's available anywhere around here. I found that my local Meijer has it, but only the ginger beer flavor. I'll look for other flavors when I go to Grand Rapids again. Meanwhile, potato soup AND mashed potatoes. Definitely after my potato loving heart!

Here I had that cataract removed from my left eye yesterday. For the first time since first grade, I can read, use the computer, see the clock, without relying on glasses or contact lenses. It's astounding. The downside is that I've now dusted and scrubbed in places where I never saw dirt before, LOL.

Shambo, one of my dinners looked a lot like your tamale pie, but mine was venison and black bean enchiladas. I've stopped rolling them, I just layer the tortillas into a pan, top with the meat and beans, more tortillas, my homecanned enchilada sauce and some cheese. Not as pretty as rolled enchiladas but the taste the same.

The 14th was Pi Day, so I baked Pi(e). I took a couple of bags of frozen cherries from the freezer, picked from our trees and dated 2018, time to use them. I added a cup of sugar but they were pretty tart. Elery said they were perfect, I thought it needed just a tiny bit more sugar. I did add some almond extract because I like that.

I made some pork chops, baked in sauerkraut with mashed rutabaga on the side, using a couple more things from the freezer and a quart of sauerkraut from the pantry:

I'm not a big fan of banana bread, or bananas in general, but Elery eats them occasionally. I had some over ripe ones and a box of bran cereal with a bit in the bottom and a recipe on the back. So I baked banana bran bread and actually liked it better than the other stuff, the bran gave it a molasses-y flavor. I'm going to buy more bananas just to make another loaf!

Yesterday Elery cooked while I slept off the anesthesia. (grin) In deference to my Irish heritage and St. Patrick, we had colcannon. And roast turkey. Yeah, he is NOT Irish, LOL. I will give him props, though, both for cooking AND for getting an entire turkey out of the freezer!

I did manage to get out my Shamrock table runner and my Irish coffee cups, though...

Of course, my Misfits box came on the 17th too. I woke up long enough to unpack it, take a picture, put it away, took some Tylenol for the headache and then napped for two more hours. At least I have a picture to remind me of what was in it! And the poblanos were HUGE...

And tonight, Elery cooked again. Well, we both did. I made the rice blend and he made beef and broccoli stir fry with some leftover beef that needed to be used.

And so, I think I'm caught up!

Annie

You have been busy! Big bok choy also. I use poblano in place of green pepper so it's nice to have it. Purple sweet potatoes are huge.

The fingerlings are excellent and so creamy. Used mine last night I from two weeks ago.

Excellent short ribs. Good call to not use red wine. Just the master stock and cherry toms, then later on, about hour 3 I piled in celery, onion, carrots, and the potatoes. Back in the oven until the potatoes baked soft. Veg slaw side. Forgot I had broccoli. It is so good with beef. Should have consulted my pic since the crisper is stuffed.

Sleeve, Your short ribs look great. So much goodness in there - a rainbow of colors!

Annie, Congrats on a successful surgery. I had lasik 20+ years ago, and was amazed at the things I could see. I had the same experience realizing my house was nowhere near as clean as I had thought it was.

Also, your cherry pie looks delicious!

I got a new toy yesterday. DH came home from Costco having seen it there and suggesting we get one. It took rearranging my 'machine row' but we made it work. To make room, my KA stand mixer got moved to the end where I have more working space. We don't eat much fried food, but are excited to have a second small oven to cook side dishes and desserts in. It also has a large temperature range including low temps which will allow for proofing and dehydrating.

Last night we had the carnitas which we had previously SVd in vacuum sealed packs with spices for 24 hours. Half an hour before we wanted to eat, we used the 'little oven' to reheat and broil, giving us a crispy top. They came out perfect. Previously, we would slow cook the pork and spices all day, and then broil in the oven on large sheet pans. It was a lot of work, made a big mess, and was done in large batches. Definitely, not a mid week dinner. This new approach allows me to freeze individual dinner portions and get them on the dinner table quickly. I don't think I will ever go back to the old way.

To go with the carnitas, I made salsa verde, pico de gallo and key lime crema. We buy the uncooked flour tortillas, which is a good shortcut when there is no time to make from scratch. We served with some fresh Mexican cheese. Yum!

Annie, hubby got his eyes both done 3 weeks apart. He woke up one morning and couldn't see out of one eye. We booked an app't with the optometrist and he had a fast-growing cataract. Got that one done within a few days and then the other done.

He loved the light show when they took his lens off to put the new one in. LOL!! He was amazed how quick and painless the whole thing was. And he never needed to wear glasses after that.

Congratulations on your successful cataract........just close the good eye, then you won't be seeing as much dusty corners! My advice of the day.

Annie, you reminded me that I've never had, but have wanted to try colcannon. I must have slept thru St Paddy's day since I missed all the Irish meals.

Look at all those handy dandy appliances! :-D

I have a Cuisinart as well; I use it all the time......very seldom my regular oven anymore.

Jasdip, I can't close the good eye, I had the right one done 2 weeks ago, the left one on Wednesday. So now I can't have any excuse for missing those dust bunnies. I spent last night scrubbing the handles on the bathroom sink cabinet, I never noticed that they had a patina of hair spray. Until now, of course, LOL. The doc does say that I'll probably need glasses to drive, but I can read and use the computer without them. I've worn glasses since 1st grade, so every time I wash my face or put in the eyedrops, I reach up to take the glasses off, it's so.....different.

Lynda, I love your row of appliances! The only things that live on my counter are the coffee devices like the electric kettle and Chemex and grinder, and my KitchenAid, I don't have a very long expanse and the end is a kind of peninsula where everyone seems to sit and watch me cook when they are here. I'm glad I have that big pantry because it holds the microwave, the Vitamix, the food processor, the air fryer, the sous vide, the Whirly Pop, the Insta-Pot, the clay baker, the Nesco roaster, the crockpot, the rice cooker, the bread machine. Oh, and an "extra" KitchenAid mixer because Elery had a smaller one than mine and we couldn't give it away because all of our combined 6 kids wanted it! Now 4 of those kids have gotten their own, so we're down to 2, LOL. I'm kind of thinking maybe The Princess should get it and to heck with the adults. My back storage room has the slicer, the food saver, the meat grinder, the Atlas pasta maker, the electric rotisserie oven, the Magic Mill. Geez, I never knew I had so many appliances!

Oh, but your fresh salsa looks so good. Here tomatoes are terrible, definitely not in season and shipped thousands of miles, it's like eating red styrofoam. Tomatillos are better, but still not ideal. Maybe I'll make some with the cucumber I just got and...something else.

Sleevendog, the purple sweet potatoes and the turnips were both huge this time, I was happy. The first two times I got turnips they were about the size of golf balls and I had to save them until I got more because they were too small to make a meal. This time they are nice big ones, more like softballs than golf balls. The only thing I've been unhappy with is the last bunch of red kale. I sauteed it, tasted it, chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Decided to add liquid and braise it. Three hours later it was still tough AND bitter. I dumped it into the chicken bucket and ate the beet greens, LOL.

Your shortribs look nice, I'm still working on how to get them not greasy. My usual process is to make stock, but that's really not the most optimal use for them. I've made them the night before, chilled them, skimmed the fat, reheated, but they were still greasy. I have a whole steer's worth, so I keep trying, the worst that happens is the dog eats them, but my son in law likes the grease, so I usually try, fail and send them to Dave who eats them happily, LOL.

What's for dinner? Leftovers, I have a refrigerator full of them. Plus the nice chef from across the street at the B&B brought over some butternut squash soup and zucchini bread. She said that's what happens when I keep giving her butternut squash, she'll send it right back.

Annie

I’m with the mashed potato fans, and the colcannon looks so good. So do the short ribs. I need to get some. They’re so easy to cook in the Instant Pot.k

But, I’ve got to say, the sour cherry pie really looks yummy. It’s my favorite pie. Actually, favorite dessert. Next in line would be blackberry pie. The mom of two of my former students used to bring me a homemade blackberry pie every year. Oh, they were just the best!

Well, this is not dinner but lunch. Tuna salad made with no-salt-added tuna — one can from the case I bought in anticipation of the pandemic. I dressed it up with celery, shallot, lemon, and capers. Served with Ak Mak, my favorite cracker, along with a side of asparagus and a couple of sweet pickles.

Annie I am still lovin' up on all the salsa and canned tomatoes that I put up from the seeds you sent me last year! Am about to get started again for this year . . .

Shambo I love tuna salad, so that plate looks yum to me. And it might also be because dinner is in the oven and instapot. Finally doing my Irish thing with smokey bean soup and soda bread . . . I'm not too inclined these days to take photos of my food. It's the downloading, and I'm disinclined to set my phone up to do it . . .

Lpink, I'm still working on that leftover pulled pork that I got out of the freezer. I stupidly froze a large container of it. It should have divided it up into two serving portions. Oh, well -- next time, right?

All that to say, that I finally gave up on getting around to cooking the corned beef I purchased. Stuck it in the freezer this morning. You reminded me of some bean soup I made a month ago. I divided it up for the freezer, but I think I still packaged it up in larger portions than needed. One of these days, I'll get the hang of it.

We only used two cans of tuna from the case of 12 all last year. Ak Mak I've loved since college days. And Finn Crisp.

Did not notice greasy on the short ribs. Maybe roasting in the oven helped. They did leave behind some puddles on the parchment. Spotted a package of beef shanks in the freezer.

Where is FOAS.?...I only have a home address, no e-mail that I know of. Last comment was Feb 15th.

Chili was a quick freezer meal. Made chips.

Soaked for a couple hours in water. Drained, then a bit of oil and Mexican spices. Single file on two sheet pans. Soaking makes them light and crisp. I just flipped and rubbed the spices to distribute. 30 second job instead of brushing, sprinkle, sprinkle...

So I made my first pot of bean soup in the Instapot. I like that I can saute and then pressure cook in the same pot, less clean up for soup. Usually when I do beans I just do the beans in the slow cooker and then add them when finished to the soup. This time the whole mess went into the Instapot. On the downside, now I have a whole mess of bean soup! With just hubs and I eating it, will take a long time to eat up, even if i freeze some. It was delish though . . .

Want to give a shout out to this recipe for Irish soda bread with oatmeal. It's a little fancier than the usual recipe, with the addition of an egg and oatmeal, but it is delicious. The fact that it is a tad less dry is a plus. I followed the recipe except I subbed 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for one cup of the ap flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is a marvel, so much better for baked goods than the stale-ish hard-wheat wwh flour I get at the grocery store. I ordered what I have from Bob's Red Mill and store in the freezer.
https://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/irish-oatmeal-soda-bread/

LPink, that is the big attraction for me with the instapot vs slow cooker. Sautee, cook, then sautee again to reduce liquid, all in one pan. I purposely make huge pots of soup and freeze individual portions in ziplocks. DH and I have "pick your soup night for dinner a couple of times a week.

Another easy meal...dumplings, salad. Laundry and matching sox...all good.

DH is doing back ribs on the smoker. I made mac and cheese and will make caesar salad to go with. I'll cook some peas as well as we are taking a plate over to our elderly neigbour who doesn't care for garlic so the caesar salad is out for him. Made an angel food cake and took some frozen strawberries, rhubard and cherries out of the freezer and heated up with a little sugar and cornstarch. Probably no pictures as getting the ribs in the house and then a plate made up and over to the neighbour will likely be a bit last minute busy.

Clam pie and pickled beet salad here on the first day of spring. A cold day on Cape Cod.

seagrass

So much good looking food! I love to follow along and get ideas for meal choices. I Pink: I love Irish soda bread and thought I would try the recipe you linked, but see the 2 reviews are both negative, saying it is too wet/soupy to form into a loaf. You didn't have a problem with that?

No it was not "too wet" and soupy. I'd hazard a guess those folks didn't even make it. On the other hand, I used soured milk (1 cup) and some home made yogurt for the 3/4 cup. It was "sticky" but that's about it. I would hardly use the word "soupy." I didn't overmix it and I didn't spend a lot of time shaping it. I used a curved spatula to mostly shape it as I mixed it in the bowl. Also, I used some whole wheat flour (1 cup) which also tends to absorb more moisture. And I used a large egg, which IMHO are not actually that large. Mine came out looking just like the photo. Oh, also I have a pastry cutter to cut in the butter. I followed the instructions and mixed all the dry ingredients, cut in the butter, and then added the sour milk/yogurt and egg mixture. I had mine in a 2 cup measuring cup so it poured in easily. You could easily just pour in some of the milk mixture and stop at some point if it seemed too wet to you. However, as I said, I would not use the word "soupy" but rather "slightly sticky" and you don't want to overhandle it anyway. I formed it into a loose ball, it wasn't perfect.

Edited to add that if this recipe was the least bit fiddly/problematic as far as shaping I would have quickly gotten frustrated and not recommended it. I hate fussing with doughs. The dough did stick a bit to the knife as I slashed it so it was more of a chop chop than a sawing. Use just the sharp pointed tip to score it.

Here's a photo of the bread in a plastic bag. As you can see, it looks like the picture in the article to which I linked. I tried taking another picture of it out of the bag but my phone started acting up. This is why I don't usually post photos anymore . . .

Thanks, Pink! I felt sure you would have commented if that was an issue.

Your loaf looks delicious!

Jasdip, I am looking forward to baking in my 'little oven'. I'd love to hear any tips you have for me.

Yesterday, we drove down to visit my father-in-law in Orange County. DH and I both grew up in LA, and it was sad for us to see homeless camps and graffiti along our drive. It was a six hour drive round trip, but he is by himself and I know it was important for him to see his only child, and only grandson. We also introduced him to his grand dog, Zac, and they bonded instantly. We took our homemade bratwurst, mustard sauce, caramelized onions, the rolls I made that morning, and some craft beer. They were a huge hit with my German FIL, a little taste of home.

Tonight's dinner was steak fajitas. I air fried the veggies in the little oven, while DH cooked the steak in the main oven. We finally used these cute cast iron fajita pans I bought a couple of years ago on Amazon.

Love hearing stories about visits. So important for everyone.

Steak and all look perfection.

We had some nice dawgs. Not something we have often but love the Teton grass fed beef.

Thought about 'chili' dogs but preferred quick pickles and mustard. Made a big pot of red beans and lentils for the next few days and a wild rice/riced cauliflower. Steamed the broccoli in the same pot. (habit combo cooking when the dishwasher became grumpy). I hash-tag my dogs as a velcro for mustard and hot sauce.....just one side. They griddle nice and crispy.

This may be early in my rotation?...just seemed right today. Frittata. Three cheese, a few meats...taso, chorizo, prosciutto. rhubarb chard, then broccoli.

Sleeve, I like your chips that you made, up-thread. What did you make them out of and how did you do it?

Your meals are really drawing me. I like your frittata and your hot dog meals.

Beautiful fajitas Lynda, and I'm sure your loved your visit with your FIL.

I gotta tell you about my fun thing that I did on the weekend. I do a workout You Tube video, mainly because the guy is just so damned cute! It's for cardio and steps. It turns out that my next door neighbour also does it, and I asked if she'd mind if we did it together, outside. She thought it was a great idea.

So I rounded up 2 more friends, took my laptop outside and perched it on a chair and the 4 of us were bouncing around in the parking lot.

The other 2 haven't done any videos so I found an easier one than the one I do....3,000 steps. Then we went right into a 5,000 step video. So 8,000 steps right there.

It was a blast, and the one friend who is the bldg manager across the street said she got a number of phone calls from some tenants thanking them for the entertainment! (They overlook my bldg/parking lot). 2 of the girls were tied up on Sunday but we definitely plan on doing it again.

I also bought a FitBit Inspire2 yesterday, since the girl told us how many steps and calories we burned. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to figure the darned thing out, but there you have it.

I bought some asparagus for .99 on Thursday and roasted it yesterday with some chicken and mashed potatoes. For the potatoes I soaked chopped onions and salt in olive oil for several hours and mashed them into the potatoes, German style mashed potatoes. No need for cream and butter.

Tonite was leftover chicken (I'm real sick of chicken), but I enjoyed the creamy orzo and asparagus. I steamed the asparagus over the orzo and stirred in parmesan cheese and some half and half.

Jasdip, What a great way to get exercise and socialize at the same time.

Sleevendog, Great dawgs, what do you do for buns? I ask, because we have lots of sausage, and have yet to find buns that do them justice.

Dinner tonight was cedar plank grilled king salmon, with a lemon dill rice and asparagus.

We finished with some guava wine. DH made this wine out of the strawberry guava we have growing in our front yard. It is lovely, but too sweet to have with the meal.

GroupFitness, what fun!

Missing chicken. Thought I had a small whole bird in the freezer but was mistaken.

Months ago I picked up a stack of corn tortillas. Froze six to a pack for the freezer. When I want tortilla chips I soak a pack in water for at least an hour. (up to four) Then drain, rub with a smidgen of oil, then spices. Bake about 350ºF until crisp. Strips or triangles. Single layer on a sheet pan.

We use the NYTimes recipe LightBriocheBuns. It is under a paywall but google. The first page has many bloggers that make them. We don't use the sugar, just a pinch for the yeast. This an older pic. I now do the shaping. DH is the bread baker. (I now make them smaller)...and we make two batches as they freeze beautifully. (The above dogs are on Martin's potato rolls from an emergency frozen pack). The recipe is fantastic and uses a stand mixer...so easy.

How do you do your lemon rice Lynda? It looks delicious!

Sleeve, I bought a package of small corn tortillas like you have and neither of us liked them. Wonky flavour to us. But I'll try making chips out of regular flour ones, or even my homemade ones.

Sausage, potatoes and asparagus. I covered half the bottom of the pan with asparagus but they shrunk a lot!

miso/bone broth...bok choy, chard, ...lamb sausage meatballs...toasted tofu

I’ve missed so much of all the great cooking going on this past week.

Home and to prove what creatures of habit we are, our meals were

Crispy skin salmon

And

Stir fry pork

I was wanting chocolate so made Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Olive Oil cake... was very good with just powdered cocoa. Forgot to take photo until only this little bit left.

Neely your stir-fry looks amazing! And your stand-by of salmon and sweet potatoes :-)

We watched a Nigella show once and it featured a very quick chocolate cake, just enough for 2 servings to satisfy a sweet crave. I made it once, and it was good if I remember.

Neely, That chocolate cake looks so good.

I am totally a creature of habit. If I am busy, tired or stressed, I go to my tried and true meals. I have to be relaxed to be up for experimenting. Your crispy salmon always looks good to me.

Jasdip, I make lemon rice by sauteing shallots and garlic in olive oil, then I add spring onions and dill. After a few minutes, I add 1/2 cup basmati rice and 1 cup broth. When the rice is done, I add the zest and juice of a whole lemon and mix well.

Sleevendog, thanks for the tip on buns. We decided to have bratwurst again (2nd time this week!) and give your recipe a try. Garrett says they are three times better than my last attempt.

We made some potatoes in the air fryer and also had a salad from the garden.

Looks good. Definitely hard to get a system down for the dog shape. This recipe has pics for the pinch and folding under, (like a ball of mozzarella)...then shaping long needs to be invented. HERE

Salmon with dill cream. Wild rice, riced cauliflower, edamame, split peas.

Used the last of my wild rice. I like this brand. Women owned farm, solar hydro, California mountain grown using snow melt. TJ's is also Cali/mountain grown.

My attempts at making hot dog buns is laughable, but I still do (try).

Lynda, those are air-fryer potatoes?? Wow. That right there would tempt me to get an a/f. Thanks for your lemon rice recipe. I'll be making that soon!

neely, your last pic's look scrumptious. I want to make the chocolate cake and located the recipe. Did you make it with almonds or flour?

Hi lizbeth-gardener, I made it with the ground almond meal/flour. It really was good, moist and chocolaty. I couldn’t taste the olive oil but maybe that’s just me.

Thanks, neely!

Quickie weeknight freezer shopping. Pint of braised chicken thighs frozen in stock, pint of chili, = Chicken Chili

Another try at unstuffed cabbage rolls. This time with Greek seasonings — dill, mint, & oregano. Served it with avgolemeno sauce. The sauce for vegetables, stuffed grape/cabbage leaves, fish, etc. is different from what’s used for avgolemeno soup or stews.

The vegetable sauce is basically a veloute sauce using the juices from whatever is being served plus eggs & lemon. Because of the roux, it’s thick and easily reheatable.

The soup or stews are brothy and frothy. No thickener. The eggs are separated, and the whites are beaten until foamy. The resulting soup has a bit of froth/foam throughout when served immediately. Leftovers, are just brothy. This method really isn’t peculiar to our family since all our Greek friends made avoglemeno soup the same way. But it’s quite different from what you get in Greek restaurants.

Really wanted Shrimp-N-Grits last night. With a fried egg. Bacon chunks.

DH was late home after getting his second vaccine shot. No grits to be found so I began the process and ended up making a grain. (he found the second bag of grits this morning). Still a good outcome.

We are having an easy night of charcuterie. Something I had previously planned for 2020 lockdown that we never utilized. This-and-that. Most is in the freezer. Pate, cheeses, salami. Smoked salmon, prosciutto....fancy cheese from the humbolt fog people.

My first vaccine is Monday. I've written to Joe, our president, a few times, to stress the help and extend help to our neighbors having trouble getting them. Canada seems to be way behind. We seem to have an excess. I'm sure that will happen soon. We are about to include 50years+ and the next week 18yrs+

We have thousands of vaccine reservations not used, months ahead of predicted. Co-workers in there 30's are getting a vaccine because of excess availability.

Oh dear, I'm so far behind I'll never catch up!

Neely, that chocolate cake looks good and I love Nigella. She's not afraid to go on TV eating a cold pork chop in her pajamas, LOL, I like that!

Shambo, I never thought of adding a sauce to the cabbage roll casserole, I'll try to remember that

Lynda, you do a better job on hot dog buns than I do too, mine are never long enough and always too wide. And I've never heard of anyone making wine from guavas, it's a very pretty color.

Sleevendog, you lost a chicken, LOL. Usually they're alive when that happens to me! All the frittatas look good too, I'm never that creative.

Jasdip, I had to laugh, thinking of you and your "exercise class" out in the parking lot, serving as entertainment. You should get someone to film it, you could have your own YouTube exercise channel!

OK, so what's for dinner?

I made a version of those peanut butter noodles they serve at Asian restaurants, but I had a box of soy spaghetti in the pantry, so I used that. It was not as bad as I expected and Elery actually liked it a lot. I roasted a butternut squash to go with it, I still have a lot of them in the store room.

In my quest to make freezer room, I pulled out a bag of chicken legs from the chickens we raised last year. They were HUGE, so I put 4 of them in the air fryer and the other 4 became chicken noodle soup. I mashed some potatoes and celeriac, roasted parsnips and beets and steamed some brussels sprouts. The celeriac, beets and sprouts were all courtesy of Misfits.

I decided to try a new dish, Pasta a ceci. I was not a fan and even Elery wasn't all that crazy about it. The recipe came from Serious Eats.

One day we spent fixing fence getting ready to put the cattle out onto pasture, so I just scrambled some eggs and made that salad with peas and peanuts that I like. We stuffed the eggs into flour tortillas and topped them with home canned peach/mango salsa:

Time to cook for Mother, so I made some potato cheese soup which she likes a lot, and some split pea soup, which she likes sometimes. Bread pudding to use up some eggs:

Still trying to make freezer room, I put a piece of pork butt in the small Nesco roaster, and baked the purple sweet potatoes I got from Misfits. We had the rest of the pea salad.

I also took 3 bags of chicken wings out of the freezer and started a big batch of stock, no one in my family will eat chicken wings. I don't like chicken skin, so there's not much left after skinning a chicken wing, LOL. I'll can the stock tomorrow, after it simmers all night in the big Nesco.

While digging for the chicken wings, I found some bags of raspberries from 2019 in the freezer and made jelly. I used to make jam, but the seeds get under Mother's partial plate and so she only wants seedless now. Seven of the 8 ounce jars and one 4 ounce jar are cooling on the counter, Mother likes it on corn muffins. At least she does today, who knows about tomorrow. (shrug)

I know I made a batch of potato salad in there somewhere, but I sure don't remember what we had with it, and so, I'm caught up!

Annie

Pea salad looks good!. We have never cared for wings either. They go into stocks. Unearthed a couple roasted turkey wings when I could not find that chicken. Big stock day in my future...need to make a few dozen freezer meals for my parents...easy soups and braised chicken thighs with greens...Mom likes the little raviolis I put in some of the soups...(Costco asian dumplings,😂) Once the soup is chilled cold, I tuck in a few dumplings straight from frozen.

Just rented a cute little beach house for a week near them mid May. Pup friendly. That way we can visit all week but not have the pups underfoot to possibly injure or knock them over. Just called and they are thrilled.

My DH has been venturing into the world of smoking meat for a few years but was initially so heavy handed with the smoke, that I asked him to stop smoking things. (I don't think your dog should smell like smoke after a smoking session!)

He has cut way back on the amount of smoke and the time smoking and things are looking up.

Where we live, pork belly is not a readily available thing, but oddly enough, our discount grocery has started selling thick slabs, about 4-6 per package. Since people don't seem to be buying it, it is often marked down 50%, so DH has stocked up. He made bacon last week with applewood and just a light smoke. It is so good. I made carbonara last night and have to say it was my best ever. Lots of trial and error and gleaning tips from different recipes. It is an indulgence for sure, but for so few ingredients, it was a great meal.

I sauteed mushrooms and onions and made a mustard cream sauce with a splash of white wine, with 2 pork chops.

I made my sweet and yellow potatoes casserole. A handful of whole garlic cloves and olive oil.

sleevendog, have a nice visit, it's the thing I miss most during this awful pandemic. (sigh) And a cute little house too!

nekotish, my husband uses the smoker here too. I've been trying to convince him to do another brisket, but he says it's still too cold to spend that many hours fiddling with the smoker, LOL. I know what you mean when you say slabs of pork belly, here it's called "side pork". It doesn't sell very well, as most people want their bacon smoked, and I've threatened to buy it on sale and have Elery smoke it, I just haven't done that. I'm not a big fan of pasta either, but I LOVE carbonara, yum.

Jasdip, your pork chops look nice and saucy, but your asparagus looks perfect, nice thick spears with the tips still closed, I'd be happy with just that. And a few potatoes, of course. (grin)

Still cleaning the freezer, so we had venison taco salad. It wasn't pretty, so no pictures!

Annie

Annie and Nekotish. Your hubbies need to try this recipe for Pork Belly burnt ends sometime. I've made it 4 or 5 times so far and it's always a big hit.

I have to get my first covid vaccine on Wednesday and the location is just a couple miles from the Mexican grocery where I get my tamales and pork belly for a good price. I'm going to buy about 10 lbs. while I'm in the area. I do about 5 lbs. in a batch.

Annie, thanks to you years ago, I learned to choose thicker spears. I watch other shoppers pick the thin tough ones.

I made pasta primavera tonite. Feels weird not to pour myself a glass of wine, but since I work evenings, weekends are my wine treat.

I am really behind! So many great meals.

It is Garrett's spring break, so we have been enjoying some time off. Dinners lately have mostly been old favorites.

We visited the otters in Morro Bay, but Zac was more into the squirrels.

We had planned to have Thai green curry chicken tonight, but I forgot to bring coconut cream with us, so we had to go to plan b. These are Costco's chicken cordon bleu. We keep them stocked in the freezer, for when our dinner plans go awry. We paired with pearled faro, our homegrown red Russian kale and shallots. It was pretty good for a plan b.

Today's adventure was all about the elephant seals. We also saw a few whales, an otter and two zebras (on the Hearst estate). PCH is closed from the north, as a mud slide took out the highway, so we mostly had the area to ourselves.

Beautiful Lynda and the food is great too.

Love your pasta dish Jasdip.