 I was craving a home cooked meal of steak and potatoes. I am lucky that Big Guy is a fan of both, so it was an easy sell! He found a recipe for garlic steak bites and modified it for our meal. This is an amazing pan sauce that is made from roasted garlic, butter, Worcestershire sauce and we adapted by adding sauteed onions and roasted red peppers along with our secret sauce: Wicker’s Black Label steak seasoning. For the original recipe check out: Steak Bites Recipe with Garlic Butter The meal was simple, but so delicious. It is beautifully paired with the Sean Minor Cabernet Sauvignon we just received in our quarter wine delivery. Our evening was off to a wonderful start followed by “garden bathing” in the backyard watching our songbirds fly in and out of their feeders. Everyone was happy!
0 Comments
 We love sandwiches and they tend to be featured in our menu lineup every week. Instead of buying a sandwich out, Big Guy decided to make club sandwiches. He started by toasting @artesanobakery bread and making basil mayo using basil from @carondeletgarden and @dukes_mayonnaise. It has to be Dukes... it has the twang! The rest of the fun was piling on ham, turkey, bacon, cheese, and lettuce to make the perfect sandwich. I grabbed a bag of @oldviennallc honey BBQ chips and we had the perfect summer meal to share with @abrandt1026. Great food and great conversation made for the perfect evening!   Big Guy and I recently watched the excellent @ninepbs series The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a spellbinding series with twists and turns to the plot line making us sad once the final episode aired. I do not know if watching this show planted the seed for the delicious Monte Cristo sandwich, but I never turn down a good idea. The traditional sandwich has ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese slices dipped in an egg and milk mixture that becomes golden brown in the pan. We did our own version of the sandwich where we doubled the ham and used Vermont cheddar cheese slices, or some may say, the perfect ham cheese French Toast. It certainly amps up the flavor and makes a sandwich much more interesting for lunch!   One of the greatest joys of getting older is the ability to sit, relax and do a bit of backyard bird-watching while enjoying the garden on a summer’s evening. The weather finally broke last week and we had some lovely evenings where we could simply be in the garden and listen to the songbirds in summer. What a bit of grace in a chaotic world. The heat has returned to our little garden in Carondelet, but the ‘ber months are just around the corner. For now, we will be enjoying the birds from our kitchen window.  I stopped by @legrandsmarket to pick up lunch as you can never go wrong getting their sandwiches for a great meal. As I waited for my sandwich, I could hear the “siren’s call” of the meat counter. As I surveyed the countered, I knew I was going to walk out with more than sandwiches. I picked out a chicken breast, two mini filets, and two chicken sizzlers. Big Guy could not wait to make meals out of my purchases. We decided to make the sizzlers first. They were chicken wrapped with cheese and bacon which Big Guy decided to serve with a side of garlic butter noodles. He marinated the sizzlers with @motastespices and placed them in a pan for cooking in the oven. It was the perfect meal, and I can attest there were no leftovers on this meal!  Time flies when you are having fun, but I admit my time with @carondeletkitchen has been a wild ride! I started this project shortly after retirement to share my family recipes, but to also sing the praises of St. Louis. I find too often we as a community lack this spirit of celebration of what makes our hometown great! I have truly enjoyed getting back into my “granny” hobbies of writing and taking photographs. Big Guy too has returned to his first love of producing media by pulling out the stops not only on his graphic work, but now his foray back into creating reels and planned events. We are having a blast working together to bring you the best of what we see in our amazing city! We hope you enjoy checking out these two #supercoololdpeople. We are looking forward to the continuation of the journey!  I predicted our banana peppers were going to be winner for @carondeletgarden this year, but my goodness, the harvest has already been rich and plentiful. I decided to try pickling the peppers this year as additions to salads and sandwiches going into the Fall. I found a couple of recipes online, then decided to put my @carondeletkitchen spin on them. Big Guy was kind enough to use the mandolin to slice the banana peppers into rings while I made the brine of white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, sugar, celery seed, and mustard seed. While the brine was heating up, we packed mason jars with sliced banana peppers and garlic. Once the brine began to roil, we filled each of the jars with brine and prepared the jars for canning. I am excited to have a new item on my pantry shelf to remind me of the flavors of summer. I still have peppers growing, and short of annoying my neighbors with the bounty, I will have to seek out a few more recipes!  Carondelet Kitchen Weekend Wine
Sean Minor Wines Nicole Marie Red Blend – North Coast – 2024 Southside Wines | @southsidewine $22.99 (before half case discount) A favorite here in the Kitchen. We have been enjoying Sean Minor Wines for quite a while now and have never been disappointed. This North Coast Red Blend is a full-bodied wine with notes of dark cherry, black pepper and a touch of oak and spice. This is a fantastic wine at a great price under $25.00. You can’t go wrong with any of the Sean Minor wines, but this one is truly special. We paired this with our homemade tomato sauce pasta for a wonderful weekend meal. Check it out @southsidewine where they carry many of the Sean Minor lineup. Get a six-pack and enjoy a 10-percent discount. |
AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
August 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed
