I knew Mcgyver for 2 years before we ever went  on our first date.  We rode around in the same motorcycle group.  I was dating another fellow but McGyver claims he had his eye on me the whole time.  I enjoyed McGyvers company even though he was the oldest member of our group.  He also turned into a pumpkin at midnight.  You could always count on McGyver to look at his watch at midnight and say his farewells to everyone.  One of his most famous quotes was “nothing good ever happens after midnight”.

McGyver got his nickname after the TV show MacGyver because he could always fix anything with whatever he had on hand or with whatever he could rustle up.  He also had a penchant for gadgets.  Even at the roughest motorcycle rally camp out, McGyver would whip out a mini espresso maker and cooker, he saved many of us from a bad hangover (he also seemed to have an endless supply of Motrin).

My other relationship ended after 2 years and McGyver waited a bit then asked me out.  I wasn’t keen on the idea at all.  I mean, it was McGyver.  But my teenage daughter said “Mom, go ahead, it’s a free dinner”.  So I accepted his offer.  He took me out to dinner at the restaurant his landlord owned.  It was a nice meal, awkward though.  McGyver was  a perfect gentleman, thanked me for having dinner with him and dropped me off at home.

I wasn’t sure I would go out with him again.  He called and asked me to go to the movies in Luxembourg.  I told him I couldn’t go because I didn’t have a babysitter for the Baby Boy.  He stepped right up and said bring him along, we’ll go see A Knight’s Tale.  Now I couldn’t refuse, oh well its a free trip to the movies, so why not?  I enjoyed the movie, I mean really…a movie in Luxembourg…could it be bad?  Before the movie, we had a little time to kill so we went to a restaurant at the theater, got a couple of beers and order the Baby Boy some mac n cheese.  I was mortified…the Baby Boy immediately announced he didn’t like the mac n cheese and promptly asked McGyver for change so he could play a video game (this was just the beginning of a pattern to come…).  Embarrassed, I decided to taste the mac n cheese for myself.  He was right, it was awful!  Basically, it was boiled noodles with warm milk poured over it and a small sprinkling of some kind of cheese.  McGyver tasted it and agreed, now I didn’t feel as bad.

Again McGyver was the perfect gentleman, he took us both home and said good-bye.  It wasn’t a bad date, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  It didn’t take long and McGyver called me and asked me out again, only this time it was for a Saturday Harley ride along the Mosel river.  Since my previous boyfriend and I broke up I hadn’t been on a bike for months and it was killing me.  Despite my reservations about dating McGyver, I couldn’t refuse a ride on his Harley so I said, yes…again.  I was sharing my weekend plans with one of our German dental assistants and she suggested that we try the Zwiebelkuchen and Federweiβer.  I’m not too smart, but I have learned a few things.  One of the most important is that you listen to the locals!

I mentioned it to McGyver before we set out on our ride and he was all for it.  It was a beautiful fall day and we headed off to ride along the Mosel river, we stopped at a little local winery and ordered us some zweibelkuchen and Federweiβer.  It was marvelous!  Zweibelkuchen which is literally translated to onion cake, it more of a savory tart with a yeasty crust and the most luscious onions.  The Federweiβer is called “new wine”.   It was at once sweet and dry.  Because it has something to do with the first fermentation process, it was also bubbly, similar to a sparkling cider with a kick.  Most Federweiβer have anywhere from 4% to 11% alcohol.  Because it’s so bubbly the bottle are not corked and have to be transported upright.  We bought a couple of bottles and hoped they wouldn’t explode in the saddle bags!

McGyver rode along the Mosel and we stopped at all these little places where we continued to do some wine sampling and enjoy the sites.  This is when I started to fall in love with him.  It couldn’t be more perfect for me, a Harley, food and wine with a biker who turned out to be romantic and intelligent.  The trip didn’t end there, he took me to visit Cochem Castle.

Photo Source

This is when I found out that this previous Helicopter pilot was afraid of heights.  I was walking on the wall of the castle and about gave poor McGyver a heart attack!  Once again McGyver, the perfect biker gentleman took me home, only this time, we hung out and finished off the bottles of Federveiβer.  A perfect day to fall in love!

Originally this post was for the second challenge of Project Foodbuzz, which challenged the contestants to tackle a classic dish from another culture: “Challenge Prompt: Ready to tackle a classic dish from another culture? Pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post.”

I didn’t make it to the second round (but my daughter did…so please, please vote for her).  I decided to do the challenge for myself.  I haven’t had Zweibelkuchen or Federweiβer since that date.  I thought it would be a lovely romantic gesture for McGyver (he’s the romantic, not me).  I make very few German dishes, knowing that it’ll never be same as dining in Germany.  For the sake of love and a challenge, I will do it.  I had to search the internet to find a recipe and after much review I decided to make one from a fellow foodbuzzer.  The recipe comes from Steffen’s Dinners.  Federweiβer is impossible to get here so I decided to make a mock Federweiβer.

Ingredients—Kuchen part

• 1 lb 8 oz flour
• 5 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 packet of active dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk (divided)
• 2 tbs softened butter (to grease pans)

Directions

If any of you follow my blog at all, you know I’m not a big fan of baking.  I especially avoid anything that requires the use of yeast.  It’s so intimidating. That being said, I struggled a bit making this dough.  Steffen gave only 3 steps:

Dough for the crust

1. Dissolve yeast in half of the milk.
2. Combine flour, yeast (or sourdough starter), 1 egg, sugar, salt, milk, milk with yeast, water and melted butter. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Form a ball, coat thinly with oil, let rise in a warm place until volume has about doubled.

So, I followed my limited instincts and ventured forward.  I chose to use my Kitchen Aid blender.  I started with the egg, and beat it lightly.

Per Steffen’s instructions i dissolved the yeast in 1/2 the milk, but I decided to warm the milk in the microwave first.  I think that’s what you are supposed to do.  I really should have looked it up on some baking site, but that would take time and it was 3:00 pm already and I knew I was on limited time.

I added the melted butter to the egg.

Then measured out the remainder of the milk and the 1/2 cup water.

Into the bowl it went along with 1 tsp of sugar.

And a tsp of salt.

When I had checked my flour bin, I knew I wouldn’t have enough…fortunately the Baby Boy had just rung me from Wal-Mart.  “Mom, do you need anything?”

Flour!  Remember, I don’t do much baking and what does the Baby Boy bring me?  A gargantuan bag of flour “it was on sale”.

Thank you, Baby….now I’ll have to do some baking.  Was this part of his evil plan to get homemade cookies?

I added the flour to the liquid mixture 1 cup at a time.

My dough wasn’t looking promising.  I had expected it to form a ball or something like that.

I ended up not adding all the flour, the dough already seemed dry.

So I used it to flour my counter.  I kneaded the dough…it never got that nice elastic look but I was in to deep to stop.

I sprayed a bowl and plastic wrap with Pam and set it in a warm place to rise until doubled.

Rather then using pizza pans, I had bought some tart pans just for this recipe.  Any excuse to go to the kitchen store!

While the dough hopefully rises…on with the zwiebel part of this dish.

Ingredients–Zwiebel part

For the topping

• 3 lbs/ 1.5kg onions, sliced or coarsely chopped
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil Bacon grease
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• ½ – 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup / 250ml heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup / 125ml sour cream
• 5 eggs
• 4 oz / 125g bacon, diced
• 4 stalks of green onions, chopped
• ½ cup / 125ml milk
• ½ tsp white pepper, freshly ground
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Directions–per Steffen

Topping

1. In the meanwhile, heat butter and oil in a large heavy pan over high heat. Add caraway seeds. Add onions, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp of pepper. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently and making sure the onions don’t brown (turn down heat if necessary).
2. Add wine, cook for another 10 minutes until the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.
3. Whisk together cream, sour cream, eggs, pepper, nutmeg and salt. Add cayenne pepper and stir in chopped parsley. Set aside.

The Onion Cakes

1. Generously butter 2 large pizza pans, 1 tbsp of butter per pan.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C
3. Divide dough into two equal parts. Stretch or roll out each part and put on a pizza pan. Spray with a bit of water or cover with damp cloth and let rise for another 15 minutes.
4. Top each pan with the onions, pour half of the egg-cream mixture on top and add the green onions and bacon.
5. Bake for ca. 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the egg-mixture has set. (It is easiest to bake both pans at the same time in an air circulation oven, alternatively, swap the pans from time to time between upper and lower rack.

Directions–Step by Step

I couldn’t find anywhere in Steffen’s instructions about cooking the bacon, but I thought it would be best to render some of the fat.

I cooked the bacon, till it was lightly browned.  Drained it on paper towels.  Poured off the fat leaving 1 tbs of grease.  I used this versus the vegetable oil called for in the original recipe.

While the bacon was cooking I got to work on the onions.  I was fortunate enough to have my friend Samantha share her parent’s bountiful garden with me.  I ended up bringing about 6 lbs of onions home.  Which was part of my inspiration for making this dish.  I peeled and sliced and cried…

I could have used a food processor.  Come to think of it, why didn’t I use a food processor?

Next up, the green onions.

Followed by the parsley (home grown by your truly).

I added the tablespoon of butter to bacon grease.

Then I cooked on a med hi setting the caraway seeds for about 30 seconds…very aromatic.

In goes all the onion.

And salt and pepper.

Steffen instructed to cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently and making sure the onions don’t brown (turn down heat if necessar).

I used a method that I just recently saw on America’s Test Kitchen.

Put a lid on it, it’ll help cook the onions down without browning them….brilliant….worked like a charm!

While the onions were cooking, I started to clean up a bit.  I tried to grind up the onion skins and, well, my disposal clogged up.

Fortunately, McGyver had just come home from staying up at the cabin and hunting. ” Hi honey, I’ve planned a romantic evening for you, as soon as you are done fixing the garbage disposal”.

I couldn’t do anything in the kitchen.  I had already cracked open a bottle of white wine, so I thought why not enjoy a cuppa while he works.

I had found a couple of wine glasses that we had picked up from a medieval dinner party in Germany and thought, hey this is perfect!  I left them out in the garage and when I went to retrieve them I found a surprise.

Ewwwww, after I washed, decontaminated and sterilized the cup, I enjoyed myself a nice glass of wine.

I added the wine and let it cook until it evaporated.  Then I added the bacon back in.

Next I whisked together, the whipping cream, milk, sour cream, eggs and the remainder of the seasoning.

Note:  I used 4 duck eggs instead of 5 chicken eggs because my dear Brad raises ducks and gave me the eggs, yeah for free food.  Also in Steffen’s instructions he didn’t mention adding the milk but it was in the ingredient list for the topping.

It took forever to get the dough to rise.  told you I wasn’t good at this.  I divided the dough into one 2/3 part and one 1/3 part because I was using a large and medium tart pan.

I apologize for the next pictures, by the time I got to this step (after the disposal rescue) it was dark and light was baaad.

Before I put the onion mixture in the tart pans, I added the green onions.

Then I whisked the parsley into the cream mixture.

And poured it into the pans.  I had some left over as you can see in the background, right side.

I baked them one at time in a 375

Fresh out of the oven, it looks perfect.

I actually thought this tasted better than what we had on the very romantic day!

Mock Federweiβer

Federweiβer as I remembered it, was bubbly and dry yet slightly sweet.   What is dry and bubbly?  Champagne.  Of course federweiβer is made from green grapes, so white grape juice seemed the natural “sweet” part.

So I mixed, and tasted, and mixed and tasted until I hit upon the right combo.

Simply mix 3 parts champagne to 1 part white grape juice.

Not the real thing, but it filled the bill!

Did you notice the glasses came from Cochem castle?  The very same castle that McGyver took me to on the date that I started to fall in love with him.

Vielen dank, Steffen for letting me relive a special day in my life.

When I moved to Montana 2 years ago, I had never ever been to a Rodeo.  I watched it on TV and even road a mechanical bull.   After watching the movie 8 Seconds I knew I wanted to see a real live rodeo.  When you move out west and into cattle country, a little desire like seeing a rodeo is anything to do.  My first rodeo (everyone has to have a first or you can’t say “this ain’t my first rodeo”), was at the Great Falls Fairgrounds for the Montana PRCA finals.  I had a blast, after all what could be better than gorgeous cowboys in their wranglers and chaps and a nice cold beer in hand?

What got me thinking about the rodeo and those cute cowboys, were beans.  Pinto, kidney, navy, pork and beans.  More specifically all those beans mixed up together slow cooked with bacon, sausage and onion in a barbecue-ish sauce.  I had my first taste of this traditional southern dish in Germany.  My best friend Jen had a made a big pot of them and they were so good.  Typically they are served as a side but this hearty bean dish could easily be a main course, just whip up some cornbread on the side and dig in.

You may have already guessed what they are called, certainly if you read the title, this bean delight is called–Cowboy Beans.  The old chuck wagons were well known for fixin’ a heck of a lot beans.  They were cheap, light weight, lasted forever, provided protein and were filling.  A big pot of plain ol’ beans isn’t really that tasty, the chuck wagon cooks remedied that by adding a variety of ingredients, leftovers and whatever they could get their hands on.  Anything to make the beans palatable.  I imagine that the Cowboy Beans may have been the result of having a little bit of every kind of bean leftover but not enough of one type to feed all the hungry cowboys.  Like all imaginative cooks, they threw them all together, crossed their fingers and hoped one of the cowboys wouldn’t be upset and whip out his six shooter.

Of course I don’t know if any of that is true, but if it didn’t happen that way, it should have!  One thing I do know is true, a chuck wagon cook often used left over coffee in place of water for cooking.  Waste not want not, besides water sources were often scarce and not reliable, which meant boiling the water before using it.  If it was already boiled in the coffee, hey, two for one deal.  I tell you, those cowboys were pretty smart.  Even if they didn’t realize that the coffee added a richness and deep flavor, I’m sure they knew it just tasted good.

Ingredients

First let me warn you, there is a long list of ingredients, but don’t worry, this is an easy dish to prepare.  I used canned beans, their easy and with all the other flavors going on they taste just as good.

• 2 pound lean ground beef, venison sausage (because that’s what I had)
• 1lb. bacon, cut into small pieces
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 c ketchup
• 1/2 c barbecue sauce
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c Buck Wheat Honey, sorghum or other molasses
• 2 tbs chili powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 c mustard
• 2 heaping tbs instant espresso
• 2 can (approx. 16 ounces) pork ‘n beans
• 2 can (approx. 16 ounces) butter beans, navy beans, drained (I had to substitute since my store didn’t have any)
• 2 can (approx. 16 ounces) kidney beans, drained
• 2 can (approx. 16 ounces) pinto beans, drained

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Brown ground meat in a large dutch oven or other heavy pot over med high heat, breaking it up and stirring as it cooks.  Drain and set aside.

While the meat is cooking, chop your onion, green peppers and bacon.

Cook the bacon and drain all but 2 tbs of fat.  Add the onion and green pepper until tender.

Open all the cans of beans, drain and rinse.  Add the beans to the bacon, onion, green pepper mixture.

Next add all the remaining ingredients.  Stir well.  Pop it in the oven for 1 hour.

Ring the dinner bell and tell your cowboys to saddle up to the table because there are some good eats!

Speaking of Cowboys and Rodeos, in August I had the opportunity to go to the Augusta Montana Rodeo.

I’ve just been waiting to for the right time to post it.

All the locals said it’s a good one, if not the best.  Being one to listen to the locals I made sure it was a must see.

Let me tell you I wasn’t disappointed.

Along with all the cowboys out there bustin broncs and roping calves, there has to be a Miss Rodeo.

It just like Miss America, except she wears jeans and rides a horse.  Maybe it’s not quite the same but I guarentee she’s just a pretty.

Miss Rodeo Montana starts the procedings, she rides the American flag around the arena during the National Anthem.

It just warms my heart and makes me proud!

Then the riding begins.

Hats fly off, and hey, is he lying down on the job?

It just amazes me what these guys do!

If you are lucky/talented enough to stay on for the full 8 seconds, a couple of these nice guys come around and give you a lift.

I spotted this future cowboy across the way.

I hope his mama put lots of sunblock on him.

Burnt baby cowboys are bad.

There was more bronc riding, this time with a saddle.

Look at the muscles in that horse…his hooves aren’t even touching the ground!

There was some, actually a lot of this.  Ohhhh, I know that’s gonna hurt.

I did a little photo experimenting.

Watched some calf tackling or what ever they call it.

Then somewhere between calf tackling and a couple of beers I needed to use the little cowgirls room.

That’s right girls, just a little plywood and a pot…no privacy.

Maybe I didn’t have to go so bad after all.  But they were clean.

Back to the rodeo….

and some calf roping.

What is a rodeo without a rodeo clown or two?

There was a flag team that performed.

And some gals did barrel racing.

Then what every one is dying to see.  Riding the Bull!

Run, run away, for gosh sakes get out of there man!

I think the bull heard me, and boy is he maaad!

You see this too.  I think this look is called the agony of defeat.  Or he could be praying.  Or both.

Of course this is the Rodeo Clown’s real job.  Barrel or not, no way, no how would you ever get me out there.

There’s my cowboy, tending his live stock.

After we watched the rodeo, we went into the town of Augusta and listened to Elvis sing Karoke.

Then on this 90° hot August day…guess what it did.

It snowed.

Can’t believe it?  I couldn’t either, I just didn’t know how it could snow when it was 90° out.

Then McGyver told me it was cottonwood. Well I’ll be….

Fall  bounty abounds and from the earth comes the turnip.  A friend told me once that he heard that when God made the turnip, he looked at it and said “this is not right, I am going to bury it underground so hopefully no one will find it”.   Looks like burying it wasn’t enough, although many people wished the poor turnip would stay in the ground.

I always thought of the turnip as an old fashioned vegetable.  Only served by depression era grandparents.  The same grandparents who put it in any soup or stew they thought they could get away with.  As a child I didn’t care for turnips, actually I detested them.  They had this sharp overpowering flavor, too strong for my sensitive child taste buds.  Every Time my grandmother made soup or stew I was suddenly not hungry.  I didn’t eat another turnip until, well, until just recently when Sam brought a bunch to work and declared they were free for the taking.  If it’s free its for me!  I couldn’t resist free homegrown veggies.  It was time to give the maligned turnip another chance.

Not ready to go full on turnip, I went halfsie with potatoes and then smothered them in cream and Parmesan cheese, I dotted it with some pancetta and I just have to say “ Hallelujah”!  Welcome back to my life…

 Ingredients

 2 cups heavy cream

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 Tbs dried thyme

pinch of cayenne

Kosher salt

1/2 stick of butter

1 pound turnips, peeled and sliced very thin

1 pound red bliss potatoes, washed and sliced very thin

6 0z pancetta, diced

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan

Directions

Butter a 9 x 9 casserole pan

Smash and peel cloves.

Put cream, garlic and salt in a medium sauce pan (be careful with the salt since the Parmesan and pancetta are both salty).

Fry the pancetta until nice and crispy.

Add the thyme and cayenne to the cream.  Bring to a boil, turn off heat and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, using a mandolin or food processor, thinly slice the turnips and potatoes.

Drain the pancetta and set aside.

 Please bear with me…I was losing light very quickly.  I prepped at my dining room table to squeeze the last little bit of light out, but I didn’t take a full array of photos.

Darn the fall, please don’t take my sunshine away!

Okay enough ranting and back to the job at hand.  Take one third of the turnips and potatoes and layer them in the pan.

Then take one third of the grated Parmesan cheese and pancetta, and layer on top of the potatoes and turnips.

Dot with one third of the butter. 

Continue with the remaining two thirds of the turnips, potatoes, cheese, gratin and butter.

Remove the garlic cloves from the cream mixture.

Pour the steeped cream over the layered turnip/potato mix.

 Cover with foil.  Bake in a preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove the foil and cook for another 20 minutes until golden.  When it’s finished a knife should slide in and out of the center of the dish easily.

Let the dish rest for approximately 10 minutes prior to serving.

Enjoy layer after layer of pure goodness.  I can’t tell you how great this dish is.  The salty pancetta and cream was a perfect compliment to the “sharp” taste of the turnip.  If you have a chance to score some turnips, you must make this dish, no question about it!

I posted my entry a little early so I’m just adding a little reminder to vote for me for Project Food Buzz.  You can vote by clicking on the link on the right hand side of the screen or you can follow this link:  Food buzz voting.

I appreciate all your love!

Here’s a hint of what is coming up….

Yep, that all time favorite…Turnips!

If you remember my post on The Saltine Cracker Elevated   I promised I would get the reciped refined for my father-in-law’s Shrimp Dip.

  McGyver was the official taste tester, after all who would know his dad’s recipe better?   See we only had a list of the ingredients and not the quantity.  McGyver had a general idea of what the recipe called for, and at one time in our married life I had actually got the exact recipe from Grandpa HoHo.  But I put it somewhere safe and naturally I can’t find it now.  Not wanting to call and ask for it again, (I didn’t want to appear as scattered brain as I am) I decided to keep making this dip until I got it right.

Good news, McGyver knew immediately what the difference was from right away after my first attempt.  “More Shrimp and chop them up” he says, “the dip should have a slight pink color”.  So I followed his words of wisdom and ba-da-boom-ba-da-bing, it turned into a beautiful thing.

Not sure if was really a good thing, because now I don’t have an excuse to make it every week….

Ingredients

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

8 oz sour cream

Juice of 1/2 lemon

3 green onions, minced finely

2 4oz cans tiny shrimp, rinsed

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Mix the cream cheese, sour cream and lemon juice on med speed with a mixer.

Unless you are Grandpa HoHo, then mix it by hand.

You can mix it my hand even if you aren’t Grandpa HoHo if that’s how you like to do things.

Mix it till it’s smooth and creamy.

Mince up those green onions.

Rinse the little shrimp, rinse them really, really well.  They are really, really salty little guys.

Add the shrimp and green onions to the cream cheese mixture.

Now I didn’t chop up my little geisha shrimp (isn’t that name so adorable?).  I knew my mixer would take care of it for me! 

Add salt and pepper.  If you add salt, be very careful…those salty little shrimp were enough for me!

 I served it this time with some celery…thought if I was going to make it every week I better serve it with something healthy.

How was I to know it would be perfect on the second try?

So this is it!  My very first entry, a chance to tell the world: what defines me as a food blogger and why I should be the next food blog star?   

Confused?  I belong to a food blogger community called Food Buzz and currently they are having a contest called Project Food Blog.  I wasn’t really sure that I would bother to compete, but I went ahead and registered ‘just in case’.  I got the emails and I followed the links, I filled out my profile, uploaded my pictures and somehow I have found myself here, competing.  I usually don’t enter contests, because the truth is, I hate to lose.  No, it’s true.  It’s also why I don’t play sports (okay, I don’t play sports because I’m to out of shape and any sport would probably kill me).  Still, you would think by the time I got to this age that I would put “my big girl panties on” (my bosses favorite saying) and get over it.  I do hate to lose, but the truth is that you can never win if you don’t enter.  

After I got myself psyched up, I read the first entry criteria and thought, “No way!  How can I define myself as a food blogger when I’m almost 45 years old and I still struggle to define myself?”   

This is what I do know (about myself and food blogging)…. 

1. I love to ride my Harley,  

Mmmmm, avocados.

 2. I love my food, and  

Ring Bling....Love it!

  3. I love all things girly!  

I think what defines me as a food blogger, truthfully is that I don’tdefine myself.  I blog about food that I love and enjoy.  I blog about whatever I am into at that time, that moment.  It’s that time and that moment that defines me.  Wow, that sounds deep and philsophical, when did I get so complex?  

There aren’t any limitations to the food/recipes I choose to post about, but I do have a style.  I like to post photos, step by step, of how to prepare a dish.  I enjoy each step of the process and I know that what comes naturally to some, doesn’t come as easy to others.  I hope that seeing each step will help make the whole experience easier and more enjoyable.  Hmmmm, can I add a #4?   

My friend LuLu at our photography class.

 4. I really enjoy taking pictures. Every step of the way.  

Oh yeah, one more thing…  

Hummus

 5. I love food! I know I already said that, but if you love something that much…you should be able to mention it twice!  

There is only 1,800 contestants, so there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t be the next food blog star.  Did I just say only 1,800..what am I nuts? 

As you all know, I got star power!  So Bring it on! 

The Kitchen Witch

 Just a side note here, I’d like to make a shout out to my friend Lulu.  She’s quite sick…and not just in the head like she usually is.  In addition to being out of service, my poor Lulu is also single parenting this week.  I decided to help her out with a get well basket.  Complete with a fuzzy blanket, magazines for Lulu and her daughter, a couple of sweet treats, my Creamy Chicken Noodle soup (from one of my first recipe posts), biscuits wrapped in a kitchen towel (to match her rooster motif) and beautiful flowers from Lana’s Garden (FYI, Lana is my logo artist, see picture above). 

I think I was channeling Martha Stewart…. 

Maybe just a little?  Maybe not enough? 

Get better soon Lulu, we miss you! 

Country Fried Fingers.   No they are not fingers of country folk, but they are definitely country fried delicious.  Basically it is country fried steaks sliced into nice finger strips.  When you have a 3 year old staying with you, you try to come up with ‘kid’ friendly foods.  I didn’t want to serve the standard American kid fare…pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.  Not that any of them are particularly bad, just that if you have a foodie type grandma maybe you should get something a little bit different. 

 Are lil’ Alligator is unusual.  No, really he is.  If you serve him veggies or fruit (especially broccoli or strawberries), he’ll totally ignore the meat and starch that is served along side of it.  One night I fixed him up a plate of broccoli and pork steaks, the broccoli disappeared immediately and he barely picked at the meat.  Weird, huh?

I found the exception, much to my surprise when I served up a plate of these Country Fried Fingers, green beans and potatoes Au Gratin, he went crazy for the main meat dish instead.  That’s how good these are. 

If you are worried about your health, cholesteral and fat intake you’ll need to find another dish to eat.  But if you want some country comfort, it just doesn’t get better than this and it’s so easy to prepare too!

 Ingredients

2 pounds round steak, or chicken or pork, sliced into 1/4″ strips

2 eggs

1 tbs sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

2 cups flour

Directions

Place eggs in a bowl and lightly beat.  Add sugar, baking powder, salt, garlic powder and pepper, mix.    

 Add the flour and mix well, so that all the ingredients are incorporated.  The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy.  Don’t worry about the lumps they add to the crispiness later.

 Mix in the sliced meat until it is well coated.  Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.  The juices from the meat will blend with the batter.

 In a skillet, heat 1 to 1 1/2 inches of oil to 350° F.  Fry a handful of strips at a time.  Fry for 5 to 7 minutes, turning half way through.

Cook until golden brown and drain on a paper towel.

If you are 3 years old, you convince your uncle to have a “picnic” even though it is only 50° F outside!  That’s okay, you can always wear a coat.

 You must eat Country Fried Fingers with your hands….why else would they be called fingers if they weren’t finger food.

Simple, comfort, country and Alligator approved!

Can I tell you that I love being a Grandma?  Not interested?  Sorry but I am a doting Grandmother, and I can’t help but share this last Labor Day Weekend.  This, our first, our most special weekend.  I want to be a Grandma, I want to have my grandchildren come spend time with me and look back and remember the fun times, the things we only do at Gramdma’s and Papa’s house.  I have 3 grandchildren, the oldest is too old to really enjoy being with her Grandma and Papa.  She came to us later in life, and she is in absolute joy, but we missed some of the formative bonding years.  Our youngest is just a baby and not old enough yet…..to remember any lasting memories.  Then there is our ‘Alligator Monster’.  Our grandson’s middle name is Alexander but it was too difficult to say so he replaced it with “Alligator”; now he is our special Alligator Monster.

 I had the hardest time trimming down my 500 photos to just a ‘snapshot’  view of our weekend together.  See, we were lucky enough that Mom and Dad were ready to  let their little alligator spend a few days away from the parental units and spend time with grandma and papa at their cabin.

I can’t tell you how excited we were! Papa was at the ‘cowboy’ store and found this incredibly cute  red union suit.  Papa tried to explain why it was named a union suit, but our alligator just said “huh?”.

 Papa also bought a cowboy hat, because every boy should have one.  Only our boy has a huge noggin and for a 3 year old the standard hat was, well, just too small.  He obviously didn’t take after his Mom, Aunt or I, who are the only pin heads in the family!

 It is so important to find a special rock, “Grandma, take a picture of my rock.  Pleeeease?”

 Papa shows the alligator that there are fish in the pond.

Alligator insisted that grandma take a picture of the fishy! 

Not an easy shot, to be sure, but if my grandson wants a picture, I’ll do it! 

 Here he is sporting his new Moose Rules in Montana T-shirt grandma bought him.

One thing that Alligator loves is his “fishy” pole.  Papa bought him his Scooby Doo fishy pole last year for our vacation last year in Yellowstone Park. 

  Never mind there isn’t any water, there is always a place to go fishing when you are 3 years old.

Alligator, says to me “Grandma, see that beautiful blue water down there?” 

 I love his imagination, because grandma could see the beautiful blue water.  And the bright orange fish he ‘caught’.

Nothing like back deck fishing, very convenient you know. 

 Course Papa and Grandma couldn’t bring Alligator up to the mountains to deck fish, we had to take him to our ittty bitty creek to try to catch fish.  Good news, is that when you are 3 it doesn’t really matter about the kind of fishing you are doing, as long as you feel like you are having a good day fishing.

 I think we could learn a thing or to from him!

It’ s a good thing our lil’ alligator doesnt’ know that dogs wading in the water scares all the fish away.

Papa wears gloves when ever he does work, so naturally our Alligator had to have gloves too! 

 He donned Grandma’s work gloves and he was happy.  Now if mama and dada would cut his hair so he would be more photogenic from the left side….

I’m just sayin, it’s a gramdmother’s peragotive!

Can you believe that it was 80° F one day and snowing another?

If your are 3 years old and it’s snowing what do you do?  You do some more deck fishing! Only this time with your hoody on.

And when you are not fishing?  Cleaning off the snow that has barely accummulated on the porch rocking chair is just as much fun.

 At the first spot of snow/cold weather, papa was Johnny on the spot and cut up some wood.  Alligator couldn’t wait to help his Uncle Ryan stack the wood, as long as he had his Thomas the Tank Engine Backpack on.

Our Alligator found a great playmate in Summer dog, they are about the same size so a little WWF body slam was on his agenda. 

Plus a little chase here and there.

 But his most favorite thing? A ride in the Rhino.  So much so that he constantly asked “can I go on a ride?”.

 He would even climb into the Rhino and wait, “please, somebody take me for a ride!”.

Okay, no one is taking me for a ride, “Uncle Ryan, pleeeeease help me out!” 

 There are just some things that we found our grandson loved.  He loved berries, as evidence by his “Joker” face; and he discovered the Walkie Talkies.  Fortunatly for him he had a ‘pocket’ in his union suit to hold one.

Mostly Alligator wore his Crocs® which meant that his feet got dirty, really dirty!  Grandma wiped his feet off regularly but who can fight the ground in dirt?

A bath in the kitchen sink is the perfect solution.  Who would have thought that anyone would fit into our small sink!   He enjoyed it so much that I could hardly get him out of there, even when he turned pruney.

You have to love this about little boys….playing in the dirt. 

We roasted a marshmallow, but when we found out that our little Alligator didn’t like marshmallows, only roasting them; it was the first and last roasted marshmallow of the weekend. 

Before Iknew it, it was time to go bye-bye with our cookie chip, we are going to see mama and daddy.

I know, I’m a doting grandmother, but our Alligator was such a good boy the entire weekend (minus one accident which I’ll share later).  His Mom and dad have done a great job with him.  I couldn’t be more proud or more more happy.  T. Alligator L. we can’t wait to have you come and spend more time with Grandma and Papa! 

 Summer Fruit, yeah for fruit!  Honestly I don’t eat much fruit, mostly because I a fruit snob.  I am seriously picky about eating fruit.  It must be fresh and taste intensely of whatever type of fruit it is.  When I first heard of fruit based salsas, I was skeptical for sure.  I am a sucker for sweet and savory, so I gave it a go.  Unfortunately it was a jarred sauce and I didn’t like it one bit.  It was quite awhile before I decided to try it again.  I decided to make it fresh, oh what an epiphany it was for me.  Fruit salsa, manly peach and/or mango salsa is my favorite.  It is the perfect topping for fish, chicken, pork or with the standard chips.  If you haven’t ever tried it, you must do it right away, only make it fresh and don’t ever, ever try any that come out of a jar!

This started off as Mango Peach Salsa, but I had to change it to Peach Mango Salsa because peaches ended up being my star.  Soon you’ll see why.

Ingredients

2 1 Mango

2 peaches

1/2 c diced red onion

1 lime zest and juice

1 jalapeno

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt to taste

Directions

Peel and cube the mangos….

Here is where things wer just wrong!

I ever so carefully picked out my mangos, waited a couple of days to ripen them, just waiting for Mango Peach Salsa.  I was cheated I tell ya!

 Can you see how brown my mango is?  It looked perfect on the outside.  It was slightly firm yet gave slightly to pressure.  It should have been perfect.  I didn’t have it too long, nope, not a bit too long.  There was no indication from the outside that something terribly had gone wrong inside.

It’s just brown I told myself, not that brown actually.  Maybe it won’t look so bad mixed in with the other ingredients?  I desperately wanted to use my mango!  I cut the peel off the other mango that was purchased at the same time with just as much care.  I couldn’t really convince myself the other mango could be disguised.  See the contrast?  One is a beautiful bright yellow and the other, bad, bad, bad!  Just to be sure I tasted it, yuk!  No way was I going to serve that!  I also wasn’t about to run out to the store and see if there was a perfectly ripe mango ready for me to purchase, plus I was feeling a little mango purchase shy at the moment.

Time to pull on my big girl panties and get over it and move on, can’t always judge a book by it’s cover….

 Dice up your mango, 1 or 2 of them.  Put them in medium bowl.

 Peel your peaches.  You can drop them in boiling water for a minute to loosen the skin, or if you are a lazy cheater like me, you just cut it off with a paring knife.

 Slice and dice your peaches, add to the mangos.

 Finely dice a half cup of red onion and add to the fruit mixture.

 Zest your lime.

 Then squeeze every last bit of juice out of it that you can.  Add the lime and zest.

 Chop up your cilantro, throw that into the bowl also.

 Mince up your jalapeno.  Leave the seeds in if you like it spiiiiiicy!  Add it to the rest of the stuff.

Add some Kosher salt, about 1/2 tsp was good for me. 

 Drizzle with a little EVOO.

 Mix it together, put in the refrigerator at least an hour before serving.

Then enjoy your Mango Peach Mango Salsa on top of whatever your little heart desires!