patti

Absolutely! We’ve lived in this house for 28 years and the first 23 were with a cramped and poorly functioning kitchen. We remodeled five years ago and it is a pleasure to cook in our new kitchen. The pull-out shelves are a dream. One of my favorite features of the kitchen, though, is that instead of lower cabinets, I have drawers everywhere except under the sink.

Our pantry has gotten more disorganized during the pandemic, which makes no sense, since we’re both at home and have time to organize. I took some close-ups, but they made me want to go in and arrange things properly, and we can’t have that, so I’m not posting them. Spices. The rack on the upper shelf can be pulled down for easy access. Oh! We added these door racks during the pandemic, so at least I organized SOMETHING. I had no idea we had three boxes of Morton’s salt till I put them on this rack. If I pulled out the four drawers, you’d see that ... well, I’m not pulling them out.

I had a craving for southern style green beans with ham and potatoes, so I cooked a pot. Served with rice dressing.

Thank you! The recipe called for bread crumbs, but I used some homemade croutons. Should’ve “crumbed” them in a consistent manner. (Rolling pin used to bash them in a ziplock. Needed more muscle power from me.) Gorgonzola cheeseburger, crispy crowns.

Leftover ribs with a freshly made side of spinach Madeleine.

I had plans to do some ribs in the oven and make potato salad and rice dressing (aka dirty rice) to go with. Once the ribs were in the oven, plans changed and I did not have access to the kitchen for a few hours. My husband saved the day and picked up sides at the supermarket deli. Oven baked pork ribs with a hoisin based sauce.

Thanks, Kim. I dipped the shrimp in egg/water and then in seasoned flour with a little bit of corn meal. I know lots of people do two rounds through the flour, but I only do one. I'm with you on the Costco chicken. Still reasonably priced and a nice size. From that one chicken, I made a chicken flat bread for lunch, the pot pie, which was enough for a dinner meal and several lunches, and yesterday I made some chicken stock from the carcass. Well worth it!

Last night, chili and garlic bread. ETA: I've got to make these pics smaller before posting. Apologies. Can it be done after posting? A few nights ago, my husband made spaghetti with meat sauce, also with garlic bread.

Sigh. Maybe I’ll learn how to make my own crust.

Chicken pot pie. Store bought crust and rotisserie chicken. Veggies were sliced, diced, cooked, seasoned and combined for filling by me. ETA: Is it hypocritical to be okay with using store-bought crusts and rotisserie chicken, but not okay with using canned cream of chicken soup to thicken the filling?

Cod with lemon and capers, roasted cauliflower, salad.

Took some gumbo out of the freezer and made a little potato salad to go with.

Leftover roast beef, freshly roasted potatoes, carrots, squash.

Fried shrimp, baked fries, and salad. I have misplaced a small ziplock bag of dried figs and I really wanted a couple for my salad. The last I saw them they were in my husband’s hands while he was asking me a question about them. 🤨 He was allowed to have some of these (and potatoes), regardless.

Tonight a hurricane is a blowin’, but we still have power. I had two servings of salad with homemade croutons, dried figs, Gorgonzola, pepper jelly vinaigrette. The supporting players were arugula, spinach, red onion, butter lettuce. Last night I had leftover soup with non homemade croutons. And roasted delicata squash.

Roast, stuffed with garlic and jalapeños, chowchow, black-eyed peas, rice and gravy. Salad. Spinach, butter lettuce, arugula, red onion, radishes. My serving included Gorgonzola cheese, dried figs. Pepper jelly vinaigrette not pictured.

My future daughter in law sent over a Lebanese dish her grandmother used to make for her. Sabanegh (spinach and ground beef) with rice. She told me to put the spinach and meat mixture over the rice, add a few squirts of lemon and a little vinegar, and eat! I had some for lunch yesterday. I had more with my dinner last night. My husband picked up a poboy for himself and some fried catfish for me. With a cup of leftover soup.

Shrimp and cannellini bean soup and garlic Parmesan naan. And before parm.

It was sweet, so I added sriracha to sort of counterbalance it. Maybe I'd also increase the fish sauce next time. I thought it was tasty enough to be worth playing with the salty, sweet, and heat to find the right balance. Maybe lime juice to add sour?

True! I did add lettuce, but the bacon and tomatoes were too pretty to cover up. I didn’t even think of that when I posted. 😂

So many beautiful meals to look at! I will go back through them again and linger more. This group has access to such a variety of ingredients! Several different dinners, from super easy to complex (for me). Good old reliable, never disappointing, BLT. Vietnamese One Pan Caramel Chicken. Recipe from Marion's Kitchen. I regretted not taking the sauce a little further, so after supper I worked on it a little more. Here's a pic of leftovers packed up for my son's girlfriend and you can see how much darker it is. Mexican pizzas, Taco Bell copycat. Tonight's dinner was chicken rendang. By far the dish that took the most work. There were a number of recipes with varying ingredients, so I sort of used one as a base, and then added a few things from others.

Tuna on rye and baked sweet potato fries.

Last night we had our dinner delivered. It included Pom Bom chicken livers. The pomegranate sauce is so good. Lahm bi ajin pizza, which I’ve never tried, was included. I don’t think I’d have known there was any meat, if not for the menu description. Regardless, I liked it. Tonight I made hamburger steaks with mushroom gravy, more my husband’s style than mine.

@mgaretz and @CantCookStillTry, thanks for making me less self-conscious about my low brow food effort! @Kim Shook- The biscuits were just a house brand from Albertsons, 8 in the pop open can. Stuffed peppers for supper tonight. I get the credit for the peppers, Costco gets the credit for the Mexican style corn. I also made a chickpea salad, but it lacked personality. I’ll fiddle with the seasoning and spice tomorrow.

My original plan for last night's dinner was to have leftover pot roast and trimmings, but then my son was kind enough to add my Costco list to his and also delivered to my house. For that, he deserved to take home the pot roast and gravy for his supper. I might should be embarrassed to post what I decided to make. It's kind of below the standards of this board, but I made calzones out of canned biscuits. I saw it on YouTube! 😛 Shishito peppers Tonight's dinner was actual real cooking. Chicken and sausage gumbo. Baked peaches.