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Linguini in Clam Sauce….Simply delish!

in Children, cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

Meet EV!!!!  I just realized it has been 6 months since my last blog!  YIKES!!!  I have actually prepared some good food in that time………we might have to address the air fryer poutine in the future.  Yet again I am sidetracked.  So this is our new forever friend EV_OO.  I wanted a name that would have some “nod” to our previous forever friend Olive whose time cut short from complications to Addisons Disease.  EV came to us from a wonderful breeder near Brainerd MN and if anyone is on the look out for a Poodle, a Cavapoo or a Cavalier Spaniel I can hook you up!  OK lets get to the food…. I first fell in love with linguini and clam sauce when my oldest son was a baby.  We had recently moved to Connell, WA and I was watching Regis and Kathy (that was back in the old days like 31 years ago) and Regis shared a recipe his wife Joy always made.  Well I was hooked...

Let’s Talk Pressure……….electric pressure cookers to be exact!

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle

Alright so the most recent craze in cooking gadgets (at least to my knowledge) is something called an instant pot (or in my case a Pampered Chef Quick Cooker). It is essentially a multi purpose tool. Any brand that makes them has several features. Generally they sear, slow cook, and best of all take old time on the stove pressure cooking into a much safer realm!!! No green beans on the ceiling in this house!!! I think calling them instant pot is a bit misleading. When you are cooking a roast and other things it is quite quick compared to other methods but it is not INSTANT dinner! The ingredients need to be prepped and placed in the cooker, and it does take some time (all depending upon what you are putting in it) for an electric pressure cooker to come to pressure and seal. I’d say generally it is upwards of 15 minutes! SO calling it instant is sort of wrong, but on the positive they...

HuckRaspberry Vodka Martini

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

Ok so enough with the food.  It is another very cold (but very sunny) Northern MN day and so I think we need to get our feel good spring and summer feel on!  I have noticed that this year, the fresh raspberries and blackberries have looked good in our local Walmart even!  Costco always has a nice selection of fresh lemons and limes!   All that  is a bonus considering when I woke up it was -9 with 40 mph winds and the forecast for the next ten days is not any better. How I came about making this Huck-Raspberry Martini is a combination of two things.  One I love to watch Twin Cities Live during the winter months. A few months ago they featured a raspberry martini which has now been twisted!  On a recent trip to a local liquor store (isn’t there a more flamboyant term for that …..I looked thru the thesaurus and the best I can come up with is Spirits. For this blog it will be the...

Luscious Asparagus Soup

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

I spent a large portion of  my life in Eastern WA.  I don’t think during those years (1979-1995), I appreciated exactly what that area has to offer on so many levels.  Some of the best vineyards creating award winning wines , beautiful flowers whose season lasts  more than two months and the produce.  OH THE PRODUCE!!!!  Last fall, when my husband and I were in the Tri Cities for a visit, we finally made it to the Richland Farmers Market.  https://www.facebook.com/MarketAtTheParkway/ I was just in awe of everything I saw.  And the end of September with no concerns that it would be over tomorrow!  I think there last weekend was the end of October but don’t quote me on that .  You can follow them on facebook.  The stuff that dreams are made of!  OK three more images………..because I can……… (these were taken with my cell phone so ya) And this last one from...

Tator Tot Carnitas Half Boil

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

Yesterdays lunch got switched up a bit today.  I removed the fries and went with Tator tots (or roundabouts as they are known in my Lamb Weston family).  Roundabouts (the potato kind not the devil ones you encounter on the road these days) are flatter than your tator tot and this lends it to a really good base for lots of things!!!https://lambweston.com/product/detail/A26 I made pork carnitas the other night and we had a lot of leftover pork.  (Not a bad thing it is REALLY REALLY good and someday I should add that recipe to the blog!) I was watching the new episode of WA Grown (shameless plug for my Hashbrown Casserole possibly……. http://www.wagrown.com/recipes/pattis-hash-brown-casserole/ ) and they made a Kahlua Pork French fry dish.  I thought ya, good ideas and lets twist it up a bit!  So this is my twist! I put about a cup and a half (roundabouts are not easy to measure) in...

Great Aunt Pitty Pats attempt at CHICKEN & WAFFLES

in Children, cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life

I’ve traveled here and there over the years.  I’ve watched a lot of cooking shows and it all kept coming back to this southern phenomenon I could not shake.  I’d thought about it for years, seen it on billboards and finally this winter in the winter of #eatingmywaythruwinter I made it a reality!  I have to say I was pleased.  It is a good comfort food on a cold MN winter, so I think the southerners are going to have to give it up for Northern Chicken and Waffles.  Trying to decide what vegetable to side it with was a little tougher.  I don’t, according to the rumor vine, do brussel sprouts well, so I went with something that seemed southern that I do do well!  We had the always favorite Wilted Spinach salad.  I might need to blog that on another day. I started with the chicken (seems to make sense since that was going to take a lot longer than cooking up a...

Armadillo Droppings…. a Ryan Holiday Tradition

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Still Life, Uncategorized

First, I’d like to start by talking about blogs.  I have a sister who says she hates blogs.  She just wants to get to the recipe and get on with it.  Doesn’t need to read a lot of inconsequential fluff.  I do agree with how she feels, I find myself scrolling down to find the “meat and potatoes” of the blog and what I am looking for.  That being said,  I’m blogging and jabbering.  Feel free to scroll down to the “meat and potatoes” but I must warn you…unlike most recipe bloggers, I rarely have the actual recipe in one convenient spot.  If I  do, you found the prize in the Cracker Jack box!  This may or may not lead me to lose 3 out of my 5 readers. So on with the droppings.  Back when the internet was fairly young and Facebook wasn’t even a gleam in Zuckerbergs eyes, I found a site called “Iwon” and well along with trying...

Homemade Macoroni & Cheese , from the ground up!

in Children, cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Uncategorized

Today lets talk Cheese.  I talk a lot of cheese, it is one of my most favorite food groups!!!  So let’s talk Mac N Cheese and homemade like pretty much from scratch!!! I went to the work of making homemade macaroni noodles!  It is a little time consuming (ok pretty much a lot of time consuming but it is cold out so I had time!) but the bite that you get from homemade macaroni noodles so much better than the boxed.  Boxed works just fine as well though. I won’t bore you with the details of how to make those, that can be for a new day but they were made! So on to the meat (so to speak for this vegan…….actually I’m not sure if it is actually considered vegan……I’m not real versed on what constitutes a vegan dish) of this hearty, feel good food! I began by  assembling the ingredients for the Roo, no no not that but a ROUX! A roux is typically a...

Pineapple Upside Down cake with a twist!

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle

Yesterday was a very pleasant mid fall day.  The sun shone bright, the wind was lite and the temps managed to squeak up higher than the predicted 38F. I decided it was a perfect day to make a pineapple upside down cake in my favorite vessel for this.  My trusty Cast Iron Skillet. I remember the first time I made an upside down cake in the skillet.  I was terrified that it would get stuck.  I’m pleased to report that has never been an issue.  I have lost a couple pieces of pineapple on occasion but it is an easy fix to pat them back in. My problem on this particular Saturday, I did not have sliced pineapple but I did have a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple.  OK so hmmmmmmmmmmm….well we have google these days and sure as I’m a Packer Fan, there is a recipe for that!  I took said recipe and tweaked it for my own tastes!  And this is how we do it!!!   First I assembled what...

Wildrice Cranberry YUM YUM Bread

in cooking, Families, Lifestyle, Uncategorized

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” ― James Beard The bread shown in the above picture is not actually Cranberry Wildrice Loaf, my bad.  Actually, it is my good!  Earlier this fall, I started playing with Wildrice Cranberry bread and figured it was such a GREAT recipe, I’d like to see what it does with blueberries instead of the cranberries.  I remembered to grab the camera and I’d been promising to blog about that recipe so here it is………this time with blueberries in place of the cranberries.  They both work equally well, the cranberries have a little bit more of a tang than the blueberries but both serve a great purpose in our cooking! It all begins with the gathering of the ingredients. Most recipes call for bread flour but I’m not holding anyone to that.  I’ve...

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