robirdstx

We are having record low temps here in Houston so Comfort Food was on order! Meat Loaf with buttered corn and potatoes.

Saturday night was a burger with caramelized onion and fries. And Sunday was roasted rack of lamb with saffron risotto (not pictured) as the starter. The risotto was so good I forgot to be bothered with the camera.

Roast Goose with Apple-Prune Sauce - based on the recipe in Cooking At Home with The CIA.

Well, Thursday is my usual weekly shopping day and after skipping a week it sure was fun to be doing it again. I had been making a list of the things we had run out of during the last week and am proud to say I stuck to my list, although I was tempted by the specials on wild caught gulf shrimp and a really great price on boneless chicken breasts. I went to two stores, the first is where I get most of my fresh produce and the second is where I get most of my staples. I only bought nine items at the first store for $18.00 and twenty items at the second for just over $36.00.

Wednesday – Day 7: This morning we had breakfast tacos again. Lunch was the last of the turkey salad with sliced tomato on dark rye. Dinner was a chuck roast (from the freezer) with the last of the carrots, half of the last onion, and four russets (leaving 5 or 6 to go from a ten pound bag). I made gravy from the pan juices and a batch of dinner rolls from scratch. Dinner tomorrow night will be leftovers from tonight. I will be shopping tomorrow but only for the regular items we need to replenish. I still have enough meat in the freezer to go several more weeks so will not be buying any this week.

Avocado Salsa 2 ripe avocados - peeled, pitted and diced 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced 1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped 1/4 cup red onion, diced 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste In a bowl, gently stir together all ingredients. Do not mash the avocados. Cover and chill for at least one hour so that flavors can meld.

And another, one of my all time most favorite comfort food dishes, half an avocado filled with a scoop of cottage cheese and sprinkled with seasoned salt.

Avocado Soup!

Tuesday – Day 6: First, I forgot to mention yesterday that I had made a batch of breakfast taco mix (ground pork sausage, russet potatoes, pico de gallo, and egg) that I used to fill my last six whole wheat tortillas. We each had one of these tacos (reheated in the microwave) for breakfast this morning. Mine with my tea and hubby’s with his orange juice. (I did have to replenish his supply of oj when I shopped for cleaning and paper products yesterday. Think of it as getting milk for your child!) We have four more premade tacos that will take care of breakfast for the next two days. We both had lunch at home today – most of the rest of the turkey salad on dark rye with tomato slices from one of our two remaining romas. There is now only about a quarter cup of the turkey salad left. Dinner was meat sauce from the freezer over rotini and a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. The salad used up the last of the romaine, one of five carrots, one stalk of celery, half of the last tomato, and the last two marinated artichoke hearts that have been hanging out in the fridge for some time. Both the pasta and the salad were sprinkled with grated parmesan. My husband usually has garlic toast with his pasta but since we didn’t have any he slathered a piece of the dark rye with butter and had that instead.

Monday – Day 5: I was able to move the remaining items in my small upright garage freezer into the kitchen freezer today. The garage freezer is now all defrosted and set on low to keep it cool until I get more stuff for it! Actually, I don’t need the extra space and may try to sell it. I had bought it about 10 years ago when I was breeding dogs and used it to store the 40 lbs of chicken necks I got every couple of weeks. Today’s Meals: I wasn’t hungry this morning so only had tea but my husband had the last English muffin with butter and grape jelly and his usual large orange juice. He eats lunch out every day during the week so it was only me making a dent in the turkey salad today, again on dark rye. Dinner tonight was tilapia fillets dusted with flour, salt and pepper and pan fried in a bit of olive oil. I used the last of the fresh mushrooms with some butter and parsley (from the garden) to finish the fish. For sides we had green peas and steamed russet potatoes dressed with olive oil and thyme leaves (again from the garden).

Sunday – Day 4: Breakfast was some more of the banana nut muffins with butter, hot tea for me and orange juice for my husband. For lunch we each had half a turkey salad sandwich with dark rye. We had a late afternoon snack that used up the last of our cheddar cheese and some water crackers and salami. Dinner was a break from turkey! We grilled our last three bone-in pork chops; they were seasoned with sesame oil, five spice, salt and pepper and finished with worchestershire and the last green onion. Along with the chops we had the rest of the basmati rice from last night and steamed broccoli.

Saturday – Day 3: Breakfast for me was a buttered banana nut muffin (from the freezer), coffee, and a 3 mile walk. My other half had a toasted English muffin topped with butter and grape jelly and a large orange juice. Lunch for me was half a grilled cheese with dill pickles on dark rye. Husband skipped lunch. This afternoon I cut up the leftover turduchen roll and the turkey thigh from Thanksgiving and made a couple of quarts of gumbo, using andouille from the freezer and other ingredients from the fridge and pantry; and two and half cups of turkey salad, also using fridge and pantry items. Dinner tonight was the gumbo with basmati rice. We still have a quart of the gumbo left for later in the week.

Thanksgiving Day is Day One for us. Breakfast was breakfast tacos – potatoes and onions fried in duck fat (see photo below), scrambled eggs, bacon, and shredded medium cheddar wrapped in whole wheat tortillas – and orange juice. No lunch today as we would be having our T-Day feast by 4 pm. Dinner (photo of my plate below) was a turduchen roll cooked in my brand new Cuisinart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven (did a beautiful job!), roasted turkey thighs (buttered and seasoned with rosemary, sage, and thyme), herb and mushroom bread “stuffing” cooked in the crockpot, perfect mashed potatoes, turkey pan gravy, green peas and scratch made dinner rolls. Day Two: Breakfast was leftover mashed potatoes with gravy (one of my favorite foods) and buttered rolls. Lunch was individual casseroles with a slice of turducken topped with “stuffing” and pan gravy. Dinner tonight will be a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner. By Saturday we will be moving onto other uses for the leftover turkey. Plans are to make turkey salad for lunches later in the week. Turkey enchiladas, using chile verde sauce and corn tortillas from the freezer, and a turduchen and andouille (from the freezer) gumbo are also on the menu for dinners this week.

Thursday would be my usual shopping day, so Thanksgiving will begin my week without shopping. Here is the inventory I took of the proteins and home-made items in my freezer. It looks like we could definitely go a good month without using it all up as there are only the two of us here! Number Weight Item 1 4 lb Tur-Duc-Hen Roll 2 Turkey Thighs (1 lb each) 1 6 1/2 oz Chicken Breast Half, Boneless, Skinless 1 4 lb Chicken Thighs, Boneless, Skinless 3 1/2 lb Pork Tenderloin 2 Ham Hock, Smoked (10 oz each) 3 Pork Rib Chop, Thin, Bone-In (1/3 lb each) 4 Pork Loin Chop (5 to 6 oz each) 2 1/2 lb Pork Sausage, Ground, Regular 1 2 lb Pork Spareribs, 12 Ribs 1 1 1/2 lb Pork and Green Onion Gyoza (about 28 pieces) 2 1/2 Andouille Link (4 oz each) 1 3 lb Beef Chuck Roast, Boneless 3 1/2 lb Beef Chuck, Ground 1 1 1/4 lb Lamb Rib Rack, 4 Ribs, Frenched 7 Tilapia Fillet (3 to 4 oz each) Size 1 12 oz Minute Marinara 3 12 oz Meat Sauce for Spaghetti 3 12 oz Pork Chile Verde 1 12 oz Chile Verde Sauce 2 6 oz Basil Pesto 1 6 oz Tikka Masala Curry Sauce 1 20 oz Bean and Bacon Soup

Just the two of us this year, so no big turkey. Turducken Roll with Pork Sausage Roasted Turkey Thighs Herb And Mushroom Dressing Mashed Potatoes Gravy Green Peas Dinner Rolls Cherry Pie

We had these grilled lamb chops with leftover green beans, basmati rice, and a small Caesar salad.

Prawncrackers - I Want Those Duck Legs! Will have to make some real soon. And the Tonkatsu! Ditto. Tonight we had bought in pork tamales with salsa verde for dipping and duck fat potatoes and onions. That's as close as I could get to the duck legs with what was on hand.

Chicken Tikka Masala over basmati rice.

Thank you Richard. I spoke with my mother today to see if she could remember when and where she purchased the tea set. We have narrowed it down to the mid-1970s when she was living in Carson City, NV. She says she bought it used from an antique shop. One thing I have noticed is that the cups have the horse motif in the bottom of the bowl and I have not seen that on the new cups I have found on the internet. Does your tea cup have the horse in the bottom of the bowl? Thanks again.

I don't know much about the different teas but I do like teapots. Here are photos of my two Japanese ceramic pots. The little blue one was purchased from Pier 1 over a decade ago, along with 4 matching cups. The other pot, along with matching cups was given to me by my mother several years ago. She knew I always coveted the set but I have no idea where she got it nor how long ago. All I know is that I have found similar tea items on the internet that have described it as somayaki.

Tonight’s dinner was going to be cannelloni, made with homemade pasta. I had never made pasta before but had been planning to for a long time and today was the day. After I made the dough and put it in the fridge to rest, I brought my stand mixer down out of its cabinet and got ready to attach the pasta roller but the attachment knob was missing. I tore the kitchen apart but still no attachment knob. I called KitchenAid and they are sending a replacement, free of charge, which will arrive in 7 to 10 business days. So, the pasta dough went into the freezer and we had meat sauce over rotini instead.

I’m in but won’t be able to skip my shopping day until next week as I did my holiday shopping just two days ago. I followed the week without shopping thread last winter and have kept my pantry and freezer from getting overloaded again. I keep a wrtten inventory of all the proteins in the freezer and try to plan meals with the idea of rotating the various meats and seafoods throughout the week. I watch the ads for specials but only buy more when I’ve used up what I already have on hand. When I make marinara or chili or soup I make them with the plan to freeze some portions so I label and date the containers and place these new ones at the back of the shelf that I have dedicated to just these types of items so that the older containers are usually at the front. During this week before Thanksgiving, I am trying to use up some of the items that have been hanging around since summer. The other night we had linguine (last of the open box) with hot Italian sausage (used the last two links bought in July) with roasted red peppers (from the freezer) and homemade basil pesto (made a big batch and froze it in August). Tonight's dinner will be baked potatoes topped with the last container of chili (dated 7/29). Thanks for doing this again!