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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...

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...

French Dips aren’t French afterall, but damn they are GOOD!!!

in cooking, Families, Still Life

Probably why they are an American thing not a French.  I read that French Dips originated in Los Angeles  .  There are two restaurants  that claim they were the birth place of the first French Dip.  Theory is that they are named French Dip after the style of bread they were originally served on.  Now that would not always be the case.  French Dips can and have been served on a variety of breads, buns and even tortillas and fry bread!  So lets get down to business and I will walk you through how I made my French Dip.  As I’ve said time and time again, it is hard to put down a firm recipe, I’m that person that takes and idea and twists it to fit what I want.  I’ve been pretty successful over time, but don’t try my French (I’m not sure if that is French either) Onion soup. I begin my sandwich with making sure I have wonderful flavored beef to go in it. ...

Fall calls ya’ll and ya’ll call for Tomato Soup

in Families, Lifestyle, Still Life

“A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits. E. Lockhart ”   I’m not someone who lives and breathes soup.  I think it  definitely has its place in the culinary world but soup is rarely my top choice for a meal (unless we are talking chili of course).  Fall days in Northern MN call for comfort food and on the particular day I made this soup, comfort was in high demand!   I started out with the ultimate food.  Bacon (because it really is a pork fat thing!).  I took about six slices of bacon and  cut and fried them all  in my All Clad stock pot. .While the bacon was cooking, I chopped up a few pretty red, orange and yellow peppers.  I’m not sure the exact difference between them and green peppers but I like their flavor and they add pretty color to almost all...

“Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken poop from chicken salad.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

in Families, Lifestyle, Still Life

Tonight we went with Buffalo Chicken On Sourdough.   Again, my husband is not a huge fan of chicken or buffalo sauce,  (Yiphee when he returns we will be blogging about Meat Loaf………)so tonight is my last chance for a few days to get something that’s more of a treat for me.   I’ve decided I’m going to add some avocado and smoked cheese to my sandwich.  I decided to do some research on keeping my avocado from turning brown so I could slice it up ahead of time.  This is what I found out.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/keeping-avocados-from-turning-brown_n_1196633.html  I’m going to try the pit and add citrus to it too. Also on the subject of Avocados, I often find it difficult in our smaller community to find ripe ones when I want them.  I bought a bag of them several weeks ago at Costco and had decided I wanted to make gauc later...

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