This little trip down memory lane started because I mentioned that I was sitting out here with a cup of coffee and my cobbler. A year ago, the man I love invited me to come live with him on his farm in NorthWEst Ks. If you would have told me I would ever leave nebraska and a job i intended to do for the rest of my life to come to Kansas, live with a man on a farm of all places and work in a sandwich shop I would have laughed you off the planet. Yet here I am. and not only am I loving every minute of it (if I have any say in it I will never leave), but suddenly I am drinking coffee. I have never liked the taste of coffee. When I was a kid, my dad always had a cup of coffee in one hand and a can of budwiser in the other and a winston cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was a bodyman (fixed the dents on wrecked cars) and it was not unheard of for the men in the shop to keep beer in the fridge and drink all day long while working. So the smell of hard working sweat mingled with the essence of beer and coffee peppered with cigarette smoke just made me hate all those things. I tried over the years to like coffee and beer and I even tried smoking, but for me I never could enjoy any of them. I guess that is a good thing, because honestly who sets out to try to get an addiction and there are 3 of them there I didn't need.
The oddest thing happened a few months ago. I had this migraine from hell. I get bad ones but never one that lasted 3 weeks and got worse everyday. At some point it came to me that perhaps my blood pressure was up cuz nothing I would do would control the migraine or make it any less. I was popping some pretty potent pill coctails and it was not touching the pain. It really is a wonder I didn't kill myself. So about that time I suddenly could not stand the taste of pop anymore. I have tried them all trying. I can occasionally stomach a little root beer or a swallow of regular coke, but for the most part sierra mist is the only thing i can handle on my taste buds. Don started making me coffee. with splenda packets and caramel creamer and lo and behold, I love a morning cup of coffee with him and occasionally without him. I am far from a coffee addict, though. If he is not having a cup or forgets to make me a cup or he is not home, I don't even think to have coffee. The only reason I thought about it now is because i walked past the pot and realized that he had made a fresh pot before he walked out the door.
I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot; i put it in at 5 a.m. when we went to bed thinking we wud have it for sunday dinner before he gets called to work with some au gratin potatoes and some green beans, but alas as you already know he was called to work early. so I turned the pot down and am working on other things. I am trying to eat left overs out of the fridge. It is funny cuz I make large batches so we have left overs for the week, but he seems to have an aversion to eating leftovers. Neither of us really are home to eat, but it seems that he is always thinking the food is old and wants to throw it out and I am saying it is just fine and we are not wasting food, so I find myself eating leftovers over and over and over. good thing I love what I cook. So my breakfast today was a cup of beef stew warmed in the microwave. I really want to make the zucchini chocolate chip scones i fouund in the diabetic magazine last week. I have enough zucchini to make scones for the population of the maiden voyage of the titanic but i only need a cup for these scones. I was going to find out what exactly the history of a scone is and give a little back ground here, but then i realized I don't really care that much and probably neither do you and if you do you will go google it for yourself anyways. That and I turned on the foodnetwork. I am obsessed with the food network. There was a woman on there today Ree Drummond on a show called Pioneer Woman. I almost turned it off because I didn't want to watch little house on the prairie or one of those "Love comes softly" Jeannette oak stories they play over and over on the hallmark channel. But then I realized it was a cooking show and is a writer, a blogger and lives on a ranch so the food has to be approved by working men and her family I was like...'ok, i'm interested now.' I got a couple good recipes from here today so I am going to post them. I have not tried them and not sure if I ever will but they seem like recipes I should try. It is hard for me to find things don will eat. He is a traditional farm boy and likes the old fashioned fat laden foods his mom and aunt used to prepare. I used to cook like that before I lost 82 lbs and learned to eat chicken and fish and tons of fresh veggies. The trouble is don does not eat how I eat so the pounds are starting to creep back up on both of us and I find myself giving in and saying what the hell I will just weigh 300 lbs again and cook all the yummie stuff I want to eat. The interesting thing I found about Ree DRummond this morning is that the olive cheese bread she prepared, with i am sure enough calories to put the devil in a coma, she served it with a spinach salad and that was the meal. If I served a salad as a meal don would look at me and say where is the rest? I get it in my head to eat how I am supposed to and buy all the right foods but then they tend to go to waste. I wish I could find the happy medium.
So today I really need to process zucchini. I should go out to the garden and check and see if there is more before I start so i can do it all at once, but honestly I don't want to know the answer to that; as if I didn't already know. also I know there were 2 garter snakes out there yesterday and frankly it will be a cold day in hell when i get in the garden if i think there is a snake. I need don to verify a snake free garden before i go in there today.
I picked all those banana peppers yesterday to make my pepper butter so that needs to be done. and I have basil growing that needs to be picked. I also want to make herb butter and basil jelly with that. I planted a few herbs on mothers day and since then. What I have learned is that I can grow dill and basil and apprently it don't matter if you harvest them or not they continue to grow.
I learned the basil.. if you pinch the leaves off the plants grow as fast as you pinch off the leaves. I can make the plants totally bare and two days later I have more leaves. I really need to use it for some stuff. right now i just have it in the freezer. I take it in the house, don't even wash it, just drop it in a freezer bag and freeze. I figure I will wash it just before I use it.
I think it might be too hot outside to heat up the house for scones, but man oh man do I want to make them.
I see the computer only has 14 mins of battery time left out here so I need to get down to business and post these recipes.
Ingredients
- One 6-ounce can black olives, drained
- One 6-ounce jar pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained
- 2 stalks green onions
- 1 stick butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
- 1 loaf crusty French bread, sliced lengthwise
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Roughly chop both the black olives and pimiento-stuffed green olives. Slice the green onions into thin pieces.Combine the butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined.
Spread the mixture onto the French bread. Bake until the cheese is melted and browning, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cook's Note: The mixture can also be refrigerated (up to 2 days) and used as a dip. Great with crackers
I don't know how I will like this recipe bec I am not a fan of green olives, but I really do want to try it. It reminds me of a cheese bread recipe that my mother got from one of those monthly mail order recipe card clubs. She made very little from those cards and I have yet to find the recipe for myself, but I have just adapted one of my own over the years.
KIM'S CHEESE BREAD
3 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 TBS parsley flakes
1 tsp oregano flakes
1 tsp sweet basil flakes
1 loaf french bread
In a double boiler, melt the cheese, add the parsley, oregano and sweet basil. when cheese is melted and all is blended, cut the bread into slices, but do not cut all the way thru the bread. spread the cheese mixture evenly over the slices and put the left over across the top of the loaf. place loaf on aluminum foil and wrap foil, tenting it a bit above the bread so the cheese topping does not stick to the foil. Or you can spray the foil with some pan spray. This is supposed to keep cheese from sticking, but I have not tried it. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes until loaf is crusty and cheese is melted into the bread.
Another recipe from Ree Drummond this morning.
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 1 pound linguine
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- Three 14.5-ounce cans diced (or whole) tomatoes
- Salt and fresh ground pepper
- Red pepper flakes
Seafood:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound jumbo or large shrimp, peeled and deveined, rinsed and dried
- 1 pound scallops, rinsed and dried
To Serve:
- Warm cream
- Fresh basil leaves, torn
- Fresh parsley leaves, torn
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the sauce: Cook the pasta for half the recommended cooking time; the pasta should still be very firm.
In a skillet, cook the garlic in the butter and olive oil for a few minutes, and then pour in the wine. Allow this to reduce for a couple of minutes, and then pour in the tomatoes. Stir the mixture together, season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, and allow to cook for 10 minutes.
For the seafood: In a separate skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Sear the scallops, then the shrimp, until they're nice and black/brown.
Meanwhile, grab 2 large sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and overlap them in a platter with a little depth. It should be large enough to hold the entire pasta dish.
Mix the drained pasta with the sauce and tip it onto the foil. Then arrange the sauteed seafood on top. Tightly wrap the foil into a package.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep warm until serving.
To serve: Open the foil package right before serving. Drizzle warm cream over the top and sprinkle with torn basil and parsley.
ZUCCHINI-CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES
1 1/2 CUPS all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat lour
3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter cut up
1/2 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed or 2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk or fat free sour milk (to make sour milk, pour 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar into a glass measure and add milk to equal 1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate pieces
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees. in large bowl stir together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in center of the flour mixture. ( I personally do not use a pastry blender. I think fingers are better. I believe you should feel the textures of food and not be afraid to touch it. I feel this helps you know if the product is turning out right or if you need to change something. do not be afraid to get messy with the food. It really is part of the pleasure of the food if you touch it and enjoy it while you are making it and you really do have much more control over what size or shape or amount of stickyness,etc this way).
2. In a small bowl, combine eggs and buttermilk; stir in zucchini and chocolate pieces. add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the flour mixture. using a fork, stir just until moistened.
3. turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. knead dough by folding and gently pressing it for 10 to 12 strokes or until nearly smooth. pat or lightly roll dough into an 8-inch circle. cut dough circle into 12 wedges
4. place dough wedges 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove scones from baking sheet; serve warm.
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