This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Tasty Eats’ Category

Keith and I have always liked to cook.   Something sounds good?  Let’s try it!  Alton Brown can make it?  So can we!

But I dunno – lately – we’re just kind of bored with everything we cook.   The guaranteed daughter-pleasers haven’t changed:  hamburgers, Sloppy Joes, mac’n'cheese, tacos, spaghetti, pulled pork, baked chicken, waffles – but our enthusiasm for them has.   Somehow the “Joy of Cooking” has morphed into scanning the grocery ads and Food Network for what might give us an idea of something worth making.

Today I resurrected a dish I’ve not made since I was single – a rice casserole with Swiss cheese, crumbled bacon, chopped green onions, garlic salt, Italian seasoning and white wine.  I made it one night about 30 years ago when friends were coming over unexpectedly, and those were the ingredients I had in the fridge.   Everybody liked it, so I made it fairly often for pitch-ins and whatever.  But not since we’ve been married, as Keith is not a big casserole guy.

Julia and Lois would eat dirt if it had bacon crumbled on it.

I think when I was single, cooking was all about fun and friends.  I had the money for those unusual cheeses, and the time to prepare those complicated pasta recipes.

Today, it’s all about management and motivation.  Who’s home for dinner which nights?  What do I need to buy at Costco/Sam’s/HEB, and when do I have to have it?  How many room is in the fridge?  How long does it take to make, and will there be any leftovers for our lunches?  And am I “up” for lugging the groceries, fixing it and then walloping supervising the teenage clean-up crew?

You eat food, but you share a meal.  We’ve always found mealtimes the most enjoyable, informative and entertaining part of the day.  Keith and I love to hear about Rachel’s art class, and Lois’ Latin competition, and what new fact Hannah’s learned about the upcoming Twilight movie, and what Julia saw on the school bus.

So as long as that’s true, we’ll be cooking.  Something.

If you’ve got any recipe suggestions, send them our way.

We’ll be in the kitchen, scanning the HEB ad and thinking, “Maybe….ummm…maybe…..”

My Fellow Americans:

I played hooky today to take the girls to the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin.  There’s a Walter Chronkite exhibit in addition to the permanent Presidential/Texana displays.  Awesome!

Not a bad drive – less than two hours.  And blessedly overcast as Texas awaits the arrival of Hurricane Alex.

Great Minds

I explained to Hannah:  I was in second grade when JFK was assassinated.    A neighbor – Bobby Dyer – shared the news as I rode my bike home.  I called him a dirty liar and beat him up.    A few years ago, I entered the Kwik Copy he managed with his wife.  He recognized me and quickly hunched and raised both fists.

We talked a lot of WWII history on the way home, including PT109, LBJ and his fellow Congressmen called home after a few months of military service, the role of the GI Bill in post-war America, etc.

A wall of campaign buttons.  I have dozens (hundreds?), the oldest of which is a 1900 McKinley/Roosevelt.  At the 1984 RNC in Dallas, I had an opportunity to buy a Lincoln  Daguerreotype for $125 – and I didn’t.  I wish I had.  Those were the days when I had time and money.

The Civil Rights displays totally mystified and captivated Julia, whose best friends (and our next door neighbors) are black.

Tricky Rachel, who says she’s not a crook – though not all my change comes home from the grocery store

Animatron Lyndon cracking jokes freaked the herd of daycare kids.

Lois liked the memorabilia in the Cronkite exhibit, including NASA models of space craft.  My dad worked at NASA and we had two of those models.  I have no idea where they are now.  (sigh)

Lots of Cronkite’s notepads, teletype sheets, spirals, etc. on display.  Julia said, “Mom, his handwriting looks like yours,” to which Rachel responded, “No, you can read it.”

A little post-museum break for Hannah.  Julia was confused by the fountain geyser, thinking it was somehow related to the coming hurricane. Lois somberly confirming with a “Yes, Julia, it is – and we’ll probably have a tornado, too” didn’t help.

Many out-of-state plates in the parking lot, including those belonging to Twilight fans.

Ever heard of Flip Happy Crepes?  It’s about two miles from the museum.  Keith watched a “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” episode featuring the Flip Happy trailer, crew and delicious crepes!   We messaged poor Keith several photos while he slaved away at work, munching the lunch I packed before we left.

Flip Happy’s owner – Tessa – featured on the Bobby Flay program graciously stepped out for a photo.  Nice lady.  And tasty, tasty eats! Necessary to build our strength before an afternoon stop at the Tanger Outlets on the drive home. Everything at the Old Navy Outlet – 40% off today.  We did damage.

A great museum, fantastic exhibits, wonderful lunch and jaunt through the outlet mall – well, my fellow Americans - “That’s the way it was.”

Keith’s Big Green Egg stand/table/holder/thingy is now in use.

It’s simply gorgeous.   The concrete top flecked with broken glass and rocks looks and feels like marble or granite.

The top is smoooooth and cool and beautiful.  Never guess it was concrete.

The stand even rolls.  Right now, it’s flush against our deck Keith rebuilt a few  years ago.

The deck, the stairs, the cobblestones – all his doing.  My job is to bring ice water.  I’m such a help.

Let’s see it in use.  Ribby, briskety use.

Ummm.

Dinner is served.

Keith wanted to try an all-day turkey smoking on his Egg, so we did a “dry run” of Thanksgiving tonight.

The turkey – brined for 24 hours – was anything but dry.  Keith boiled Kosher salt, sugar, allspice, cloves, peppercorns and onions in water, plus added herbs from his garden-  rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano – to complete the brine.  That’s butter dotting the skin to give it that lovely golden glow.

This fragrant still-life is entitled, “View of Turkey Through an Egg Vent Hole.”  I keep telling the girls – Marry a man who can cook!

A-well-a Everybody’s Heard About the Bird…but those onions are m-i-n-e.  Forget flowers or chocolates.  Keith romances me with extra onions any time he grills or Eggs meat.   The way to my heart is strewn with 1016′s.

Our favorite Julia Child quote:  “The food was just lovely.  You could tell someone’s hands had been all over it.”

Turkey gravy, made with those luscious drippings, which Hannah described as, “All my hopes and dreams in a pan.”

If you ever suspect I’m dead, wave a serving spoon of Spinach Madeline under my nose.  No response?  Dig a hole.  Judy’s slightly-spicy creamed spinach recipe is an absolute family favorite.   Well, except for Julia – who suffers through the one bite she must ingest.  Here’s the recipe – I’ve never served it or given the recipe to anyone who didn’t rave about it.  Rachel, Lois and Hannah stand at the counter with crackers when we prepare it, eager to scoop any time I’m not looking. I leave plenty clinging to the sides of the huge mixing bowl for my “laborers” to enjoy.

Some of my best recipes are from my sister Judy – and the very, very best ones are given over the phone beginning “Well, I don’t really have a written recipe for that.  I just sort of start with….”

Dinner time!  Monday night is almost always tacos, hamburger stroganoff, red beans and rice, or spaghetti – so turkey, mashed potatoes and Spinach Madeline was really uptown.  Keith built our kitchen table, BTW, about 15 years ago from the red oak floorboards of a friend’s sagging tear-down house.    For Thanksgiving, we break out the china, plate chargers, cloth napkins, etc. but antique Fiestaware (which I bought at garage sales when it was cheap, believe it or not) and Costco paper napkins are in use every day.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll call Lackland Air Force Base and reserve our two airmen trainees for Thanksgiving day, as will our good friends John & Linda, with whom we’ve shared Thanksgiving for several years.   Keith and I will start compiling the menu, and dropping grocery lists into Excel by day/store.  I’ll look around with dismay – figure out how much of the house we have to shovel out – and sigh deeply every evening.

But you know – we do have a house to shovel – and friends – and nearby grocery stores – and jobs so we can shop in them – and a family that is my heart clustered at Keith’s hand-crafted kitchen table.  So I will rinse the plates tonight, and repeat next month.

Because I’m already thankful.