Salad of Dreams....

 Try this at home! Every day! You don't need no stinkin' store-bought salad!

I recommend: Two types of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, red onion, radishes, olives, olives, olives, bacon, ham, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, boiled eggs, avocado, your favorite dressing, croutons....mmm...mmm...mmmmmm!!!!!!!! 

Rolls to Kill and Die for...

Quick, dreamy, "I could eat eight of them in one sitting" rolls...

These took less than two hours: including prep time, proofing and baking. Damn they were good! Rose like a dream, too. No problems at all...except that it was hard to stop eating them. Just like the old slogan from Lay's potato chips: "No one can eat just one!"

These were baked on my grandmother's old sheet pan, too.

See? Told you that thing was good luck! ;) 

Rolls to Kill & Die for

Noodle Art

Noodle Art

 

Accidental "Noodle Art," that is!

Because I was too lazy to look for the pasta machine. Well, when you're making homemade chicken noodle soup...the noodles should really be "rustic-cut" anyway, ha ha!

Noodle art on my grandmother's sheet pan. That pan has seen many, many, many, many kolache, bukta, cinnamon rolls and other yummy baked goods over the years. It's a lucky pan...brings good luck to the person using it. :)

Tex-Mex Tales

I haven't checked in for a while and shame on me! There have been many food adventures since I last posted and I have a lot of catching up to do. Today, though, I need to opine about Tex-Mex.

We recently heard some sad news about the state of  a couple of Tex-Mex restaurants in our little town of Sealy, Texas. There was a report of possible rodent infestation at two of our local restaurants. The sources which generated this information are credible.

I'm not going to mention any names...if you live in Sealy and you want to know, send me a private message. I will describe the incidents, though.

The first incident involved take-out containers. The recipients of the take-out containers are related to me, so I take their word on this. The containers had been gnawed on by rats (or other small rodents). I shudder to think of what else they might be up to in that particular kitchen. Why didn't the waitstaff notice the teeth marks? I don't know. Maybe they did and decided to use them anyway to save money. Maybe they thought no one would notice. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. Now the word is out.

The second incident is far worse. Witnesses described a scene right out of a horror movie...oh, let's say...like "Willard" or "Ben." Meat had been left out on the counter to defrost, (already a big no-no and food safety hazard). The worst part? Rats were gnawing on the meat. Oh, yum-yum! NOT!

That's a little too close to "Demolition Man" food for me. (Remember the burger?) Not that that particular restaurant would have substituted a few of the rodents to make up for the loss of the meat, but...well...my mind wanders.

So...even if there is an announcement that these problems have been resolved...I just don't see myself being able to dine at either of the places again. Ever. It's a damn shame, because both of them were good. Not the greatest ever, but good most of the time.

Now if we crave Tex-Mex, we're out of luck as far as dining out. Well, there is one other place here, but we haven't been in years. Their beans always taste "off," like they weren't held at proper temperatures. (My theory on that was that they must have used them for the lunchtime buffet and saved them for the evening meal.)

That leaves driving out of town or home-cooked Tex-Mex. We do it on occasion anyway, so it's not that much of a stretch. That's what we ended up doing yesterday, on a bigger scale. We did a "combo meal": salad plate with tacos & guacamole...then cheese enchiladas, tamales, Mexican rice and beans. All dishes were made from scratch, except the tamales. Fresh and delicious! Untouched by rodent lips! Win, win, WIN!!

Of course, some of the products had GMO ingredients...hard to avoid since GMOs have invaded so many of our crops. But, the good outweighed the bad, in my opinion. 

Cheese Enchiladas from the home kitchen

No need to boil your corn tortillas to soften them. There is a better way. We'll talk about that later, though.

Loaded Tacos! 

Fortunately, we had some sour cream on hand, too. Oh, and don't buy that nasty taco mix full of fillers. You can make it at home in a snap.

Cheese Enchilada Plate with a tamale, refried beans & yummy rice

All we needed for this was a little extra gravy...I should have made two batches. The beans were brined overnight before cooking. We've been doing this a lot lately...it really makes a difference!

Now our Tex-Mex craving has been satisfied...and we have leftovers!! WOO-HOO!!

Have a great day and may you enjoy "rodent-free" cuisine for the rest of your life!

Blueberry Hemp Cake-Part I

This experiment is part 1 of "The Blueberry Cake Series." The cake in part one is dense...more like a pound cake in texture. The batter contained blueberry preserves, about a cup of frozen blueberries and hemp seeds. The icing was made with cream cheese, chopped dried blueberries and toasted hemp seeds. It was good, not too sweet (even though the preserves were insanely sweet). It got good reviews from the "taste testers." ;)

The next test will be as soon as possible. Since it's "busy time" in the garden, I'm not sure of an exact date but here are a couple of ideas I've been tossing around:

1.  A blueberry torte...with a sponge made of dried blueberries and hemp seeds...filled with blueberry mousse. (And maybe a cream cheese mousse...I'm not sure yet.
2. A blueberry angel food cake
3. A chiffon cake with blueberries

We shall see. It's always an adventure in Dr. Frazier-stein's kitchen laboratory. Ha! :)

Blueberry Hemp Cake

Blueberry Hemp Cake-An Inside Look