I killed The Mailbox

Yesterday my local market was advertising

chicken thighs and legs for .69 a pound and pork roast for $1.68 a pound,

both great prices so I was all over it.

Steve and I headed into town to take advantage.

We made it to the store, loaded up on the deals and

proceded to the checkout.

OOPSIE!!!

No checkbook, no ATM card, no cash.

Crap!

I explain the circumstances to the clerk and ask,

 "can you wheel our cart into the cooler till we get back"?

"No problem she says".

Well....

We get back home and hubby says

"just pull in the drive and I'll walk to the house so we don't have to open the gate".

10 minutes later...

Checkbook in hand, he hops back into the truck and I back out.

Let me just say,

I've never backed out of the driveway before.

Seems there's a mailbox right behind the driveway!

I know it only brings bills but let's have a little respect!

So what we ended up with was,

what should have been a 24 mile drive turned into

a 48 mile drive and one dead mailbox!

I guess we paid a little more for the "deals" than we expected.



Till next time, be kind to your mailbox,

Bonjour

Pancake Zingers

Pancake Zingers

?????

You might be asking,

what are Pancake Zingers?

Well, I'll be glad to tell you!

They're a full meal deal.
 Meat, veggies and sometimes cheese,

all combined to make a yummy disk shaped treat!

No syrup needed!

I'm always searching for food to go.

I have to leave for work early in the AM

so on the road food is my only choice.

I try not to do the fast food places,

not good for my health or my pocketbook.

So here goes.

These are delicious.

Pancake Zingers

Ingridents for the filling:

1 small onion, minced

2 ribs celery plus some leaves, minced

1 small bell pepper, minced (any color)

1 small roma tomato, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup cooked ham, minced

oil for sautéing

Ingredients for the batter:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions for the filling:

Heat oil in a sauté pan, (about two turns of the pan)

add onion, celery, bell pepper and tomato.
Sauté  till limp, then add the garlic clove and ham.
Warm through.
Remove from the heat.

Directions for the batter:
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
In a large measuring cup, measure milk first, then add the egg, then the oil. Blend.

Add the liquid to the dry, lightly mixing. Now add your sautéed veggie/meat mixture.
At this point you can add any grated cheese of your choice, about 1/4 cup.
Use a light hand to incorporate.
Let the mixture sit a few while you're heating your griddle.

When a few drops of water dance on the griddle you're ready to go.
I use a small gravy ladle to spoon out my batter, and I can fit three cakes on my griddle.
(I have a seasoned cast iron griddle so there's really no need to grease the pan).
When bubbles form on the top of the cakes, flip and cook for another a minute or so.
Remove to a platter and continue on.
Makes about fifteen cakes.

You could sub cooked ground pork, diced cooked chicken or any meat of your choice.

I package these up three to a baggie and eat them cold.

Sweet and savory!

If you have any suggestions for one handed, on the road food, let me know.

I'm always looking for something different!

I mean it!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour

No Rain, No Problem! Farmer's Market To The Rescue!!!

So....

Since we had to quit the garden
 due to the  no rain issues/fines for using too much water,

a trip to the farmer's market on Friday was in order.

There was no arm twisting involved, I love to go,

only,
 I would rather not have to buy my produce.

Oh well,

the bright side is,

 I'm helping out a south or East Texas farmer.

(Gotta take the positive notes where you can)!

Anyway...

We scored about 20 lbs of roma tomatoes for $8.00

4 giant, red bell peppers for $1.00

okra @ $3.oo a pint (got 2)

green beans @ $3.00 a pint ( got 2 also)

new potatoes @ $2.00 for 2 pints

and, 2 fairly large cantaloupe for $5.00

Some of the goodies

Not too bad, especially compared to the supermarket!

We canned some of the okra yesterday for Steve's mom

and saved the rest to fry.
We'll do that on Sunday.

My Steve does enjoy his fried okra!

He also enjoys green beans and new potatoes,

Sunday on that one also.

Today I got started on or meals for the week.

First up was spinach/lasagna roll ups from Rachel Ray's kid cookbook.

Rachel Ray's cookbook

Naturally, I put my own spin on the recipe using ingredients I already had on hand.

Here's my take!!

Mince, mince, chop!

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

3 ribs celery, with some leaves, minced

1 red bell pepper, minced
1 roma tomato, seeded and minced

1 package spinach, drained and chopped (about one lb.)

(I had a package of blanched mixed greens in the freezer, swiss chard, spinach and beet greens)

about a 3/4  lb. of queso fresco, divided use (fetta or ricotta would work)

medium thick rue, about 1 and 1/2 cups  divided use (made with turkey broth)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

6 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained

olive oil for sautéing

Directions:

Sautee first 3 ingredients in heated olive oil about 7 minutes.

Add spinach/greens, 1/4 lb. queso fresco, 1/2 cup rue and nutmeg.

Stay with the skillet at this point.

Cook, stirring until queso fresco starts to melt.

Remove from heat.

Lay out your cooked lasagna noodles on a cutting board.

With a rubber spatula coat the noodles with your spinach/queso fresco mixture.
I added extra, crumbled, queso fresco at this stage, a little for each roll up.

Fill and roll up all noodles and place seam side down in a casserole dish.

Time To Roll!!!

Spoon extra rue over the rolled noodles, sprinkle with extra queso fresco or parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven till cheese melts and noodles heat through. About 15 minutes.

When I make these in the summer I stop at the baking step. I just cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat just spoon out a noodle or two and microwave.

Great for gourmet, lunch box treats !!!

Yummo!!!

I'm curious...

Have you been restricted on your water usage,

fined for using too much?

Do you  recycle your water when possible?

Tomorrow we'll be canning the tomatoes,

frying okra and making the green beans and new potatoes.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Mock Fried Meat Pies

Let me tell you....

Texas is starting to warm right on up, which means no turning on the oven.

My husband Steve AKA  the fruit tree guy, has been selling fruit trees like crazy.

Not just your normal ones either,

customers are looking for things like Quince, Mulberry, Persimmon, Pomogranate....

He's been doing a lot of Goggling and phone calling to find these unusual

(at least around here) types of trees.

He's a very busy guy in the spring.

Did I forget to mention he works at a nursery?

What does this have to do with ovens and meat pies you might ask?

There's no time for him to eat....

I'm not kidding, no sitting down with a plate or fork.

He needs portable food, something he can eat on the go.

So on my days off I've been making him big batches of meat pies, fruit pies and fajita rolls.

I package them up into meal size portions and freeze them.

They need to be done now because in a few weeks there will be no turning the oven on.

I can do the fajitas on the grill but not the meat or fruit pies.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing instead of blogging, (oh yeah, I've been making soap too).



FRESH BAKED PIES



 I call them mock fried pies because I bake them instead of frying them.

I lightly oil the cookie sheet, lay down the pies,

brush the tops with oil, bake for 10 minutes,

flip and bake for another 10 minutes.

They come out nicely browned on both sides.

All they consist of is meat mixed with veggies and gravy in a pie crust round.



CUTTING ROUNDS WITH A CEREAL BOWL

 I do a double pie crust recipe times 4, roll it out, cut it into rounds,

then fill, fold in half, seal. and bake.

Basically I'm doing  hand held pot pies.

(I add chopped herbs to my pie dough for added zing)

The fruit ones are made from canned fruit preserves that are heated

and thickened with corn starch.

This last batch of fruit pies was made with papaya/cantaloupe preserves.

The fajita rolls are cheese, sautéed meat and veggies rolled up

in a flour tortilla and packaged the same as the meat pies.

(Forgot to photo those).

About 45 sec. in the microwave and he's good to go.

A lot of work but worth it.

Nathan helped me make these,

he's learning how to stay away from the fast food places.

After we finished our baking,

Nathan and I took a walk down to the creek for a little R&R.

The scenery was nice as was the quiet.

 (As much quiet you can  get with a 12 year old anyway)!





NEIGHBOURS COW





CHECK OUT THE BARBED WIRE REFLECTION ON THIS COW



NATHAN CLEANING HIS FOUND SHELLS



NATHAN EXPLORING

We found shells and some cool rocks at the creek.

Nathan and I are big rock collectors.

We stayed for about an hour or so at the creek then it was back to the Casa

to fry up some fish and hush puppies.

I'm telling you, we are some food cooking fools here.

It was a lovely day spent working and playing with my grandson.

Hopefully he will know something other than fast food and video games!!!

WELL,

It's way past my bed time, so......

Till next time,

Bonjour

Candied Citrus Peel Cookies AKA Super Yummy Lunch Bag Treats



CANDIED CITRUS PEEL COOKIES



SO.....

Are you sick of recipes yet? I hope not because I have another one.

We're going to be using those fruit peels we candied yesterday.

This is a super yummy cookie recipe that
bakes up fluffy and moist, biscuit style.

This recipe is from the Doubleday Cookbook circa 1976. I

 can't believe I've had this cookbook for over 35 years. OMG.

A little  lot frayed and stained, but still useful.

Brown Sugar Drops, makes about 8 dozen

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup butter or shortening, softened (can do 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortning)
2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk  or (3/4 tsp. lemon juice with enough milk to equal 1/2 cup. Let sit for a few to meld. I make the lemon juice milk mixture first thing so it's ready when I am.)

2 tsps. orange extract

2 cups candied fruit peel

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Combine flour, salt and soda and set aside.

In a mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream butter,
sugar and eggs until fluffy.

Mix in sour milk and orange extract.
Slowly add dry ingredients till blended.

Fold in fruit peel.

After everything is mixed/folded, drop by rounded  tsp. 2" apart onto a greased baking sheet.
I use the wrapper the butter came in to grease my cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Transfer to racks to cool.
Raisins, apricots or most any other dry fruit can be subbed for the orange peel.
Feel free to experiment with the extract also.
I keep my dough in the fridge between batches
and also let my cookie sheet cool before the next batch.
This makes for a more biscuit like cookie with very little spreading of the dough.



ABOUT 80 CALORIES PER COOKIE



These cookies can be eaten for a quick breakfast or as a snack between meals. (very filling.)

Much better, less calories, than anything Mickey Dee's has to offer!!!!

I hope you try these and let me know what you think.
Sue, you might try these for your coffee drinkers!
Now I'm off to the kitchen to can up the pineapples.

Till next time,

 Bonjour