 I realize someone will tell me that making butter is so easy. But why should I make it when it is readily available at my local grocery store? Because it is easy and delicious! The topic came up one day when Big Guy was reading one of his many books on cooking and gardening. “Hey, did you know we can make butter with our Kitchen Aid?” I was certainly interested as having no butter in the Carondelet Kitchen is a crime! The hard part was finding heavy whipping cream since it was on the list of items hard to find in our local grocery store. I got lucky and found a carton and we were off to the races. Big Guy put the whipping cream into the Kitchen Aid and whipped it until it became butter. Yes, that simple. He added a little salt just to flavor it but not enough to make it too salted. After all, we can always add more, right?! It is a good thing Big Guy bought a fresh baguette from Parker’s Table. I suspect it will be gone very soon! 
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 Do you want to have fun with your friends? Get a raclette grill, simple ingredients, and good bottles of wine. The entertainment value is high, and the workload is low. We were introduced to this meal many years ago when you had to go to a specialty shop and rent the grill. Once the grill heated up, you could melt your raclette cheese under the heating element while cooking your meats and vegetables on the top grill. Most grills came with 6-8 cooking pans so everyone could make their own meal. The amazing thing is the amount of food you tend to eat because it is so simple and yet so good. Today you can still rent them or just buy one. It stores well and makes any meal with friends a celebration!    We have haunted markets for years and Soulard Market is always a favorite for fresh produce. Our other favorite stop there years ago was the bakery. They specialized in making a “mountain” cookie which consisted of oatmeal, chocolate chips, pecans and raisins. They were so good and so huge! You would think one cookie would be enough, but we would buy a half dozen to enjoy for several days. One Christmas I decided to try and make a similar cookie to contribute to the family collection for the holidays. My recipe came from the Quaker oatmeal box which was their basic oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. I added the chocolate chips and was pleased with the outcome. It has become a main stay in our house over the years. One twist I have done in recent years is to make it into a breakfast bar by spreading the dough into a cookie sheet and cutting it into blocks. Another version is the addition of white chocolate chips with cranberries instead of raisins. Obviously, we don’t do this too often but what a fun way to jazz up the breakfast bar option with fresh ingredients.
 Big Guy knew coming into our marriage I had a love of Little Debbie treats. I don’t consume them like I did as a child, but they certainly continue to be a part of my life.
The specialty cakes really become a touch point especially with my former neighbor. It seems every Christmas we have an unspoken contest to see who finds the Christmas Cakes first. I don’t mean the brownie ones, but the white cream ones. This past Christmas we even went on the hunt for the elusive Christmas Cake ice cream! We are coming for you next year! The best part of Little Debbie treats is they tend to be featured in most of our vacations. We would indulge our love of these treats by buying them in bulk for breakfast. After all, we are on vacation, and it would not be the same without them. Perhaps, now that I am retired, I am indulging in my forever vacation by keeping them in the house from time to time!  My mom was a dip connoisseur. She was always making various dips throughout the week which I am sure is where my love of mixing up different ingredients started in my youth. remember vividly the first time I was allowed to mix the dill dip. Granted, this was not a complicated recipe. You used cream cheese, garlic salt and dill. The trick was to mix the right amount of milk into the mixture to give it a consistent creaminess. No small feat for a kid, but I mastered it right away. Over the years, my mom and dad would make crab dips, spinach artichoke dips and, at a minimum, three different types of onion dip. I didn’t follow in the hot dip mania, but I did with the onion dips. My favorite came from Hidden Valley. 16 ounces of sour cream, a Hidden Valley package, cheddar cheese and bacon bits. It takes seconds to mix together but is so good with pretzels and potato chips especially during a good basketball game!   I have fallen in love with sandwiches again. Retirement can do that to someone who ate a lot of sandwiches in my 40+ year career.
They can be so simple and do not require a lot of prep time to get them to the table. In my case, I prefer an aged salami and pepper cheese with honey mustard. The Big Guy will always go for a ham or turkey sandwich. Better yet, we stop by Mom’s Deli, Blues City Deli or Southwest Market to get a sandwich to go! Our Doodle doesn’t care as long as something hits the floor with her “name on it.” Unfortunately for her, it doesn’t happen often, but you can’t deny the sheer joy of a “stolen” piece of ham on her furry face!  I admit potato salad is still my nemesis with the exception of the bourbon related drink I used to make for the office whose code name was potato salad. I either overcook the potatoes, ending up with mashed potatoes, or worse, I undercook them and don’t enjoy the flavor. SIGH! Off to the market again!
I will always try another recipe if it seems foolproof. I recently read a recipe in the Wall Street Journal that inspired me to try it again. Full disclosure is important here as I didn’t try the recipe as written. I took the cooking time to heart and did get a good consistent potato. I did make a few substitutions for ingredients I had on hand and added a block of my saved frozen pesto. It turned out pretty good, but I’ll probably still be on the hunt for the perfect recipe. Time to start pulling down my cookbooks!  I am one lucky woman! I do not shy away from household chores, but I have never been patient with the cleaning of the oven. I guess with the meals I have been preparing for us, Big Guy has taken pity on me and cleaned the oven.
I realize this is another one of our first world problems, but I find it amazing how dirty an oven can become in a short time frame. I do cover my food and I try to wipe down any messes immediately. I guess this is just another mystery like why I have to clean my washer and dishwasher monthly with Affresh. Sigh!  You may recall I decided to make vegetable stock amid canning my marinara sauce this past Fall. I fully admit it has been sitting in my freezer without any further thought on my part. I was so busy making my usual fare of soups, and then the holidays came along, that I honestly forgot about it. I decided I better survey my freezer this week so I can purposely plan meals. There were the lonely vegetable stocks in the basement freezer. I at once started to review my various cookbooks for ideas. In the end, I made a “kitchen sink” type of vegetable soup with our favorite vegetables such as onions, celery, carrots, yellow pepper, mushrooms, lentils, butter beans and ring noodles. I will say this is not a vegetarian vegetable soup. I had prosciutto in the refrigerator for another recipe I am trying later this week, so I opted to sauté my onions with the extra prosciutto. In addition, I added two cans of chicken broth to tone down the strong tomato taste in the broth. We added plenty of salt and pepper and placed the entire thing in the oven to cook in the Dutch oven for three hours. It was not traditional, but it turned out to be an outstanding soup. It gave me great satisfaction to have the “meatiness” of the various items to give us a hearty soup.   There is something special about chicken in a hot wing sauce. I can feel my salivary glands already starting to water thinking of this dish. Big Guy and I were first introduced to a chicken wrap at Syberg's Restaurants. The dish is always perfectly balanced with the right amount of chicken and hot wing sauce. Obviously, with the pandemic, we have opted to do more take out than eat in, but we were challenged to try and make our own version of this delicious meal. We did use Syberg’s wing sauce and baked chicken fingers from our local grocery store. The Big Guy took over creating the perfect filling for our tortilla wraps. We had leftover bacon, surprise, so he added that as well an avocado ranch dressing. We can’t wait to have it at Syberg’s again, but we certainly felt we created the perfect homage to one of their signature sandwiches.  |
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