Some good finds

I am always looking for new things to try and over the holiday I found several delicious things. I was afraid to open the refrigerator on the 5th of July since I did not do any clean up or package any of the left-overs.  When I did get up the nerve to take a peek the first thing I saw was a big bottle of Turkey Hill Blackberry sweet tea.  Who knew you could buy iced tea in a ready-made jug. I was thirsty and in the mood to try the tea and to get it out of the fridge to make room for current cooking items. I found it delicious.

For the party, I noticed in my pantry a jar of Amish Jake and Amos baby beets. Now I knew they were good so I put them in the fridge and planned to serve them with the cheese platter sprinkling blue cheese crumbled on the beets.  That turned out well--not for the men though who were busy beating their chests over Sams ribs and my chicken and noodles.

On the 6th, today, I am still afraid of the fridge so I started watching the Food Network in my night clothes and saw Trisha Yearwood making something scrumptious which I wish I had seen before the party.  She made a recipe of mac&cheese and a recipe of firm chili (not soupy) and mixed the two together and served it with a bag of Scoops.  Her guests went wild.

David, our son, was here for several days and had me get out the Instant Pot pressure cooker thing that I had been avoiding using because it is a pressure cooker thing.  We made the best beef stew in thirty minutes.  We cut the chuck roasts into chunks cooked that in about 20 minutes, let it cool down and added the carrots and potatoes and in a few minutes it was completely delicious.  I will be using that much more now that he explained the workings of this new machine.  I learned a lot this 4th of July holiday weekend, not all good, but mostly good, like life itself.

Oh well, another day, another party...but not for a while. We were so lucky to have a lovely sunny, hot day and that put the pool to good use. And now, it is time to get into the pool and cool off. I love to float around, pure joy.