Big and little meatball soup

Cooking from the freezer is an adventure.  Today I found a bag of Italian, medium- sized meatballs in the depths of the freezer and I had some zesty Bob Evans sausage which I then made into miniature meatballs. I plied the conconction with Rotel and diced tomatoes, a bit of corn, and some shaved broccoli and a handful of rice.  The result is simmering away on the stove as I write. It is colorful, new, and hopefully tasty. Andy will be home from class in a little while and I will be eager to interest him in this fuddy-duddy soup.

The latest picture of Nate in Austrilia with his new girl pal may be more that a pal situation.  He is looking smitten.  I wonder how they will work that out. 

Crabs and crab balls

These oven-baked crab balls look enticing to me today. There is a good site that posts every day interesting pictures and recipes, but be prepared for the begging of likes and shares and threats if you don't. THAT is annoying and several of us have posted to her about this very thing, but she whines on.
There must be a contest of some sort that I know nothing about. (Recipes and Cooking is the site.)

Yesterday was spring in Ohio and today the gentle snow is falling once again.  This is the time of year when property gets the "out our way" look. It is an expression of despair at the way some people take care of their property. Usually, we do not fall into that category, but this year the leaves got the best of us and it is sad to see. Just wait until the first day that feels like spring in March and watch us come alive again for another glorious season.

On a very different blog manger blog Medoc  (Life in Medoc: Manger) written by Mimi Thorisson about her life and cooking in France.  I love her books though I am not inspired to use her recipes and I enjoy her blog just for the pure, simple comfort of it.

Quick, sweet bread

I decided to use up the homemade applesauce, the cranberry sauce, and the candied orange peel into this quick bread.  It is my banana, no fault, bread that is the base for this load of goodies.  I have given you this recipe before, but if you need it, let me know.  This one has no bananas in it, it was not necessary for this fail-proof bread. It is dense with walnuts and the things in my refrigerator that need using.  I need the space.
Remember Kroger has the best oranges this week and I like to use even the peel.  It is easy to candy those remains and leave the results on the counter to grab when the urge hits.

It is rainy today and spring-like in temperature. But you can't fool an Ohioan into thinking all is well.  We still have February with which to deal.

Nate is enjoying Australia right now; even more so now that he has rekindled a friendship with a girl he met last winter while in the Galapagos Islands. I am glad Nate got to visit the islands last year, I read the residents are going to limit the number of tourists to preserve the nature of the area.

Like

Love

Haha

Wow

Sad

Angry

What's for dinner?

Andy and I went to Kroger yesterday and as you can see, they had great items.  One thing that is special this week are the bags of oranges.  They are sweet and juicy and just right.  I keep one sliced on the counter for family to pick up a slice and run. (They always come back for more.)  The green beans were wonderful in a nice full bag.  So firm, plump and crisp.  I put in the last of the pancetta, some potatoes, a little pepper bacon and they are burbling away as I write. The chuck roast is one of buy one get one free from a couple of weeks ago.  They are the nicest I have ever had.  I have red wine in the bottom of the slow cooker, some Lipton's dry onion mix also in the bottom as well as on top, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms (I will add more later as things cook down.) This will do the family for the rest of the week as Andy and I have eye operations to deal with this week and again in two weeks.

House journals

I've started my 2018 house journal.  When I get old, I will enjoy reading all of the journals and scheduled calendars of events that I kept.  All the trips, all the antiquing, all the gatherings of family and friends through out the years.  It's a good thing to do.  Also, it helps get out any aggression that that one might harbor.  The journals are fat with cards and letters and dates of events and observations, it's cathodic to say the least. I also have put together nine enormous albums of pictures and family histories, one being all the weddings that branched from the Lechler's unions. It takes time, but I do it when the mood hits I get in the groove and lose track of time in the tracing and arranging.  My niece, Nancy, came for the week end one time and we did our Anderson side of the family going way back in history.  She's better at getting it straight than I am but I remember one interesting relative that I would like to have known, Georgia Belle.

Every day I have a big pot of soup burbling on the stove ready at a moments notice.  I start it in the morning and it solves worrying about what to fix for dinner.  Everyone has such busy schedules, but the soup disappears and thoughts of the next take its place.

Along with the rest of the country, we are in a deep freeze here in Columbus,  The sun is shining, but it is deceivingly cheerful. Nonetheless, we know spring always appears and that is something to look forward to.  Next week we must get out of this warm cocoon and prepare for busy several days.  Then we have to deal with February and then spring will be on the doorstep. (I don't want to rush time, but can't help looking forward to the next season because I am cold!)

This is a sample of my trip and show and entertaining journals from 1979 to 2006. How did I do it?

Show more reactions

Chanel and Dr. Shoe

I want to tell you about a shop in Columbus that you might need one day.  It is Dr. Shoe in Worthington run by two Russians, one grumpy, and one fairly pleasant.  If you are looking for warm and cozy, then don't go in to put yourself through it; but in the end you will wish you had.  I am not showing you the two Chanel purses to brag, I am showing you the work these two men can do with two frazzled, workhorse purses.  I have made over one hundred trips to London and Paris to collect and to buy antiques to sell...for a long time just for my pleasure and collections and for the research material for my books.  All of these trips were stressful, fun, disappointing, exhilararting, tiring, eventful, uneventful, stimulating, anxious, calming, dangerous,  and profitable.  But, these trips were not larks and they sound more glamours than they were. Still a lot of people would have dropped everything to be able to make these trips and make them work for them once they got home safely.

I like nice purses and I don't just keep them on the shelf.  They have to pay their way just as the antiques had to pay for their ride to America.  I found in these two purses just exactly what I needed for those trips and for the antiques shows that Andy and I did for years after I retired. These purses hung around my neck mail pouch style for several hours every day that I was away from home. The chains were still good but the leather was completely worn through the layers of black.  The zippers needed repair, one seam was slightly torn, they had lost their luster and after twenty years of use I just could not use them any more.  I went back to Chanel in Paris and they did not carry that style any more, or so they said at the time.  Fast forward to today, I got on line at a vintage store and saw one of my purses, slightly used cost $2700. I had not paid that much for the purse originally, but it was still costly and to think I can get my money back and then some; that's a good investment.  (It was the rectangular one, the one I used the most.) I decided it was worth a shot to try to get them restored and workable...the little pouch one was not as worn and needed only zipper grips and leather luster regained.

Beth found the shoe shop and we went over.  She warned me about the guys but I was desperate and put on my best smile.  The nicer man shook his head and tsked tsked and sighed and finally said he could do the work but it was going to cost me.  Now how did I know in advance that that was going to happen? It would take two weeks and stringing the leather was going to be so hard and on and on and on.  I did not care.  I did not want to have to send the purses to a place in New York (which would have cost three times as much.) I wanted it done here at home and so it was done and beautifully so.  I am now carrying my favorite and both of them look fabulous. Thank you Dr. Shoes.

Winter's hearty meals

Andy and I went to Carfagna's yesterday and I never get out of there with two or three items.  We left yesterday with a load, so today so far, I have two meals ready to go.  One is a hearty winter soup with Bob Evans zesty sausage and a meatloaf with Carfagna's ground chuck which was only $1.99 a pound yesterday.  A real bargain for quality meat. I have a lovely meatloaf in the oven with fresh herbs from the conservatory.  How they have made it in this cold snap is beyond me, but they seem to like it.  Note the new offering in the copper loaf pan with drain holes keeping the loaf from stewing in the fat.  I also bought two bags of unusual dried pasta.  You can see it in the soup.  I used that rather than beans this time.  My husband calls them my concoctions and we never know how they are going to turn out.  That's the fun of winter cooking.

It is too bad I did not write down the recipe (that I made up) for this soup.  It is one of the best I have ever done.  Not humble, but true just the same.  I just threw things in the pot with the chuck and the zesty Bob Evans sausage and so many other things that I wish I had noted.  Oh well, it is a big pot of soup to enjoy. Andy will love it when he comes home from class today.

Now I see yeast.  I'm inspired to use it.  It is too cold to stir outside and the snow is beautiful and undisturbed...I, for one, will keep it like that.

Hasselback potatoes

Why these delicious potatoes are called that, I have no idea.  But I know my man is wild about them.  We have had them two days straight and now I am making 8 of them for Beth to take to work tomorrow.  They are having some kind of potato feast. There is really no recipe, for just as you can do anything to a baked potato, you can do the same with the Hasselback.  Just take a potato of the size you like and cut thin slits almost to the bottom, but not quite, and carefully fan out the slits.  I put a lot of stuff in between the slits to bake, actually, for more than an hour. Do just as you would a baked potato.  The video of someone making these is on my Facebook, so I won't repeat the recipe here.  (The word Hasselback is because of the restaurant in Sweden where this type of potato presentation was first offered to the customer.)    

Here is the mouth of winter at our house:

Sheet pan dinner

Sometimes when you are really hungry but too lazy to fix a big meal or to even order take-out a sheet pan appears in your hands and you begin to load it up with everything you are hankering. Last night was such a night.  The last of Christmas has finally left Many Branches, along with the snow, and Andy was even sitting outside studying yesterday, so he was ready for a good meal too. First, one of Trader Joe's marinated pork loins went on the pan--it is like a little long log, just enough for the family for one meal. (When finished it is cut into medallions.)  This one had been marinated in peppercorns and garlic and it was at room temperature so it would roast fast and thoroughly.  Next mustard covered potatoes with salt and pepper, cut into quarters hit the pan.Then big florets of cauliflower nestled beside the pork.  Then carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper and sliced onions finished it off along with fresh herbs.  A slice of pepper bacon topped the pork and another slice cut in bits scattered over the potatoes and Bob's your uncle, in it went at 375 degrees and strangely enough the meat came out first and was put to rest while everything else roasted to perfection. Everyone was satisfied and it was effortless. If there happens to be anything left, it will morph into a soup the next day.

Tonight pasta alfredo with shrimp and chicken.  I am cooking from the freezer so the first things I see when I open the door determines what's for dinner.

This is not a pretty time of year, so the meals should be pretty to cheer everyone up.  That is not always possible with various schedules, but it's a try. Andy is back at OSU with a big schedule. He is once again the teachers' pet.  They do love having him in class and I love having him current, alert, and on foot.

A classmate posted this picture of the town square where I grew up. Thanks, Sarah.

Fish Chowder rings true today

Enough already!  This cold spell has the facets running (when we are lucky) the plumber visiting (when we are not lucky) and we are tired to death of this cold snap. I usually don't mind winter because it means I do not have to work outside making things pretty, but enough is enough.  I have finished K.L. Slater's book The Mistake, which was really good and ordered The Liar from Amazon Kindle.(Liar was excellent; I have found a new author to pillage.)   Also finished the second book of Mimi Thorisson and have started the first one.  I go cover to cover, every word with these tomes, but seem to be sticking to my old tried and true recipes and adding and subtracting as the mood hits me.  I am going to try to cook from the freezers which are loaded and the pantries which are screaming to be relieved.  I have enough food here in this house to feed an army for several days straight.  I could call the Cincinnati Lechlers and they would rush to relieve me of some of those lovely products provided they are cooked and ready to consume.  They are my most appreciative eaters and I enjoy cooking for them.

It's sad that the trees are down and the porch lighting is ready to be dismantled, but saddest of all is when the wreaths go down.  The house looks so merry with the big red bows waving at passers by wishing them Merry Christmas as they rush home from work.  BEfore we know it we will be hanging them again, God willing.

Here comes Andy with the white fish for the stew and the McDonalds breakfast to get me through while assembling everything.  I have the salmon and the shrimp ready to go.  Talk to you later with maybe a picture if I can get it done.

Books and Baked Steak

For some reason I have a craving for baked steak.  I rarely have it, but this below zero weather, for some reason, has made this dish a priority to produce.  Never mind I don't have the steaks which are needed, but I will get there this week for sure.  This recipe is on my Facebook, but if you cook much, I am sure you have a good rendention of this in your files.  I know my niece, Nancy, always made this for her sister for her birthday, so I may try her version since her soup recipe stole the show December 23rd.

I know it is cold everywhere, but this is lasting a bit too long for my taste.  David said they closed schools in Gainsville, Fla. for two days.  He said, however, it was not that cold there--they simply over-reacted.

I have finished Mimi Thorisson's second cookbook and am loaning it to Beth.  She is eager to read this too.  Today I will start the first of her books.  She is becoming very famous and is already busy as can be, so we will see how long she lasts in this world of cooking fever.  I have just added a book to my Kindle that I am eager to read.  I saw it on Amazon while looking for new releases and read a bit of it before buying.  It's called The Mistake by K.L. Slater.