Shelby

Thank you @rotuts and @patris ! I will definitely try again. Need to get some cereal.

Turkey sandwiches for lunch

I love RK treats and I can't make them. They always suck. Hard as hockey pucks.

Everything is about a month behind here. We had very little spring. Went from cold to summer in like a day.

This mornings pickage

I like your way of thinking....

You may have hit the nail on the head

Oh good job!!!! I truly know how hard it is to keep up with the weeding. And yeah, the damn bermuda does awesome in the middle of the garden sigh. I need to get out there. I weeded Tuesday morning, but it's already needing it again--this poison ivy is in a spot on my leg that makes bending over and weeding extremely uncomfortable.

Thank you!!! Our existing grill....is pretty sad looking. It will be so nice to have this one. I still can't believe he did this for us.

Well, yeah, I could, but I'm hoping they will take some time off and go fishing tomorrow.....I am hungry for fried fish...and I have some frog legs...... So much food, so little time lol. I forgot to mention this, but Tuesday, just after our friend arrived, my UPS man pulled up and out of the brown van came a Weber grill! Our friend bought it for us. Yes, he does waaaaaaaaaay too much for us. So, I think we will have venison burgers on Saturday night. It's been quite a long time since I've had a burger from the grill. I'm already dreaming about it.

Good morning! I can't believe how fast this new porch is being built. Not sure where the guys are right now.....we've had a raccoon infestation here and they have been setting live traps to catch and relocate them so that's maybe what they are up to. Anyway, on to the food They really liked the ham and egg sandwiches that I made yesterday, so I did the same thing for this morning. They haven't eaten them yet and it's all I can do not to go get one and eat it myself. I'm hungry. So, as you know, last night was spaghetti night with venison meatballs. I hauled out the pasta maker and made some dough. I used to drape pasta all over the kitchen. This holder is much much easier. Sauce and meatballs The usual salad Our friends' plate My plate I am debating.....pork roast in the slow cooker, or @Ann_T honey garlic chicken and some pork belly and egg rolls...pork roast is easier....but.....hmmm........

Today's appetizers.......

Yes! They really come in handy.

Even though the guys didn't get up super early, I still decided to go ahead and make them their breakfast last night. Toasted bagels, thinly sliced ham, eggs from the chickens down the road and pepper jack cheese. I broke one of the yolks so someone got two eggs. For appetizers I made some queso using some Rotel tomatoes--I did add some real cheese to the fake Velveeta.....does that count for anything? And I opened up a jar of this salsa. If you don't have good tomatoes to make your own, this stuff is the next best thing, IMO. I decided to make taco salads--I needed something easy. A couple of packages of venison burger were excavated from the freezer and thawed. I added the usual taco meat seasonings and fried it up. I used flour tortilla shells and baked them in the CSO at 350F for about 10 minutes. The toppings were the usual--lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, olives, cheese. To go with I roasted some poblano peppers on the stove (I got my new stove dirty ) These got peeled and sliced open after they cooled. Then I put them in a pie plate and stuffed them with sharp cheddar. I doctored up some canned enchilada sauce and poured it over the top. Baked until bubbly. Easy peasy, but super good. OH and I also did some RG beans in the Instant Pot. Love me some Rancho Gordo. So that's yesterday. I'm now looking at the clock and realizing I better get a move on so I can start lunch in a bit. See you after while

Then, I texted the guys and asked them if they wanted Italian or Mexican for dinner. I didn't get a response so I opted for Italian. I was just starting to make the sauce when I I got a text back. They wanted Mexican. Of course lol. So, I decided to continue and get the sauce done. We'll have it tonight. It's better the next day anyway. Last summer I dehydrated a bunch of zucchini. I opened a package of that and threw the "chips" into some hot water to hydrate them. I'm not sure if that step was needed because the sauce might have done the job on it's own. Anyway, here they are in some butter with some onion. I like to roast an eggplant over the flames of my stove burner and add it. Gives the sauce a bit more depth (that sounded super chefy). Also, I keep those little bottles of red and white wine for cooking with. Italians and others who make their sauce the traditional way may not want to read further lol. After cooking the squash and onions down, I added the wine, cooked it down and then added the eggplant. And two beef bouillon cubes. Gives it a little something. Garlic, oregano, basil, black pepper were the spices used. Next the tomatoes were added and the heat was turned down to let it merrily simmer away. It needs to cook down more which I will do here in a bit.

I think this poison ivy has infected my brain. I had the hardest time remembering to take pictures yesterday. But, I did get some The guys have ripped off my old porch and are starting to rebuild it. It will be nice to be able to use the railing without fear of it falling off. I haven't planned very well--but I guess that will make it a more interesting week lol. Because the guys are working around here so much, I needed to have sandwich fixings for lunches. If it was winter time, I'd do chili or a soup, but no one wants a big steaming bowl of soup after working in 90 degree weather. Anyway, I had Ronnie brine and cold smoke a couple of domestic turkey breasts and then I sous vide them. He smoked them at 170F for about 4 hours and then I sous vide them at 142.5F for six hours. Perfect for slicing thin for lunch meat. Then of course I needed some bread, so yesterday around noon I made some white bread dough and let it rise for a couple of hours. This is before the rise. Then divided into the pans to rise again I baked them in the CSO.

Yeah.....more healthy....yeah..... . I used something that would probably make a lot of EG people run screaming--it's called Cheesy Melt (it's an off-brand of a Velveeta like substance). I just didn't have the energy to make a "real" cheese sauce. I know your husband would love a sous vide steak. I like mine very rare. Ronnie likes his on the rare side of medium rare so I do 125F for 2 1/2 hours. If I had made these when our friend is here, I would have had them fire up the grill and sear them on that, but because it's just us, I used a cast iron skillet and got it super hot. I barely sear mine....I'm always afraid I'll over do it. Ronnie gets a good sear on his.

I guess this isn't such a smallish blog anymore . Our hunter/fisher friend will be here in a few hours. The boat is hooked up to the truck just waiting to be taken to a lake . Along with fishing I think there will be some bigger type chores that he's going to help Ronnie with around here. Poison ivy absolutely loves me--I don't absolutely love it--and I found myself immersed in it while trying to cut a tree out of the front by the porch. I usually have a few patches on me, but this is an epic bout. So, that will add to the fun lol. I even have it in-between my fingers. Anyway, that's my poor me story for the week lol. We went to Sam's yesterday to stock up on some food items and then did some stuff around the house. Ronnie spotted these steaks in the meat section and I had thought to save them for sometime later this week, but they looked so good and it's so easy to toss them in the water and then have dinner in a couple hours. So, steaks with baked taters last night. I'm off to do some weeding in the garden...it never ends. I'll be back in a bit

I was trying to be seductive.......

Scallops that I didn't get a good sear on And quail from the Asian market

Planted more yesterday. 2 eggplant 2 basil 5 more cucumbers 35 or so tomatoes Then I weeded. Have I mentioned how much I hate weeding lol. The corn, okra and beans are all poking through the ground.....they germinated very quickly this year. The soil must have been at optimal temps.

Asparagus salad and pizza (to break in the new oven )

I know...I know.... you enabler lol. Thank you! I hope it stays working.

Good idea. It came with three--which kind of surprised me. I have been baking cookies in the CSO--I won't know what to do with myself with a whole big oven and three racks lol.

Thank you! I didn't realize how relieved I'd be to get this all done.