Kitchen

[Winifred]

Spix, so sorry to hear of your sister's loss. Such difficult times for everyone and am glad you are there for her.

Roast in the slow cooker will be a blessing for one and all - cannot do without my slow cooker. Swear by it. Past 20 plus years I have gone through 3 of those things. Well, once I loaned mine to a friend and she burned it up?????? Do not ask me how she did it but she did and am not sure she even knew she did?????? She returned it to me completely unusable. I never said a word to her as I was sure she was not aware of it. She was such an awesome person - little tiny thing who use to boss around Generals in the Air Force. LOL. She was unbelievably active up until her last year - she was buried at 95.

Have no clue what will be on the stove today - suppose to be about 10 degrees cooler than what we have been having. While that will still be quite warm, I will take the 10 degrees lower. It may be a roast in my slow cooker - sure an easy way to cook and the food always comes out delicious - in my opinion and I guess that is what counts. LOL. Haven't had a roast in a couple weeks. I usually buy several when they go on sale but there have been none on sale in over a month and am about out of them. Sure hate that and that rarely happens. I buy them - most of the time - at Foods 4 Less - they have very good beef and prices are livable when they put them on sale. I buy the boneless chuck, Very little fat, just enough to flavor it and it is never grainy. Cannot do any better than that. Lie I said, however, they have been really scarce. Again this week, none on sale. I do see, however where Fresh n Easy has large grade AA eggs for .2.99 a dozen - will pick up a couple dozen. I do not use a lot of eggs all the time but when I use them, they seem to disappear in a hurry.

Just saw on TV where Los Angeles is having rain Monday, Tues and Wednesday of next week. Says we will have it Tues and Wednesday - sure hope they are right but I think we should have rain for three days also. You are aware, however, these are only possibilities with 50 per cent chance being the best guess and our rain has certainly been scarce so I will not hold my breath waiting for it..

Hope one and all have a great day.

[Soushi24]

Morning,

Had a nice little rain this morning. Now the sun is out but much cool. This weather is so much easier on Nelson. He is breathing a lot easier right now.

Having lunch with DD for her birthday. Have my gift which I found just by chance as I walked out the door of a favorite little boutique. It is a throw in all her favorite colors. I'm sure she will like it.

Went to my water exercise class yesterday. I can sure feel a difference when I go there. It is in a new wing of local nursing home,beautiful. It is only about 2 miles from my house and it is free. What's not to like?

Have some leftover chicken to use up so that will be on the menu sometime this weekend.

Yock, I didn't make it to Carson's yet. Need to go Wednesday which is Senior's day. I like the Fort Wayne store so much better. Of course, it is much larger than the one we have here.

Enjoy the day.

[Classylady]

Nothing has been cooking in this house in September.  I've been in the hospital and hubby has had a bad case of gout in his knee that took him by total surprise.

His knee is all better now and I'm alittle better so still not much cooking going on.  Thank GOD for great friends that cook and bring it to us.

[Winifred]

Classylady, your household has had more than their share of health issues. Do hope you are doing better and same goes to your DH. I agree, thank goodness for friends who cook!!!!

Well I did not put a roast in the sloe cooker, I put some boneless chicken breasts in there. Don't have much of either in the freezer and I really need some more roasts. Sigh. Chopped up a huge sweet onion and about an hour or so poured some ranch dressing in over the onion and chicken. Have used ranch dressing before and it always makes the chicken taste really good. Will have some baked beans and corn with butter as go withs.

Got some fresh tomatoes given to me earlier - I love those things. Will NOT eat what you buy in the store - they are horrible. Of course there is one store that often carries REAL tomatoes. LOL.  The older gentleman who loved growing tomatoes did not grow them last year or this year - He was a sweetheart but elderly. His son helped him but did NOT like doing it. I hope the older man is OK but have not seen him and I keep driving by when I am in that area and now all the signs have been removed. Would love to know he is OK, or even if he is not. He was a sweetheart.  He also made the best homemade blue cheese dressing you could ever find. It was great dipping cherry tomatoes in it - never would have thought of that but he said to do it. What a sweetheart he was and I do miss him. This gentleman lived in Beaumont, the town down the road from me but it was always worth driving there to check on the tomatoes.

Need to run, overcast today but the humidity is horrible. Temps only 92 but hard to breathe - give me a break.

Back to the kitchen for a few minutes.

[Preds]

[Soushi24]

Afternoon,

Getting a slow start on the day. I had blood coming out of one side of my nose this morning. This is very startling for me. I have never, ever had a nose bleed. Took a while to get it stopped. Not sure what caused it and only on one side.

Saw this on face book and it looked so good. We like cube steak. Must try this;

SLOW COOKER CUBE STEAKS WITH GRAVY

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1/3 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. black pepper

6 (about 4 oz. each) beef cube steaks

1 Tbsp. canola oil

3 c. water, divided

1 envelope brown gravy mix (I use the reduced sodium brown gravy mix)

1 envelope mushroom gravy mix

1 envelope onion gravy mix

Hot mashed potatoes,  cooked rice or cooked noodles

Spray the inside of a 3-5 quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.  Place the sliced onions in the slow cooker.

Combine flour, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Add steaks, a few at a time; shake until completely coated.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the steaks, a few at a time, and cook until lightly browned on each side. Place the browned steaks on top of the onions in the slow cooker.  Pour 2 c. water over all. Cover; cook on Low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

In a bowl, whisk together the 3 gravy mixes with remaining 1 c. water. Add to slow cooker; cover and cook on Low for 30 minutes longer.

Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles.  6 servings.

[Soushi24]

yes, classylady, this is a good time to allow friends to help you. There will be a time you can help them in return.

Hope things get better soon at your house.

[yock]

Soushi hope your episode with the bleeding was just from all the dryness we have been having.    Merle gets the  squamous removed from his head tomorrow bright and early.     Will be glad to get it over with. He has had to keep it bandaged while waiting surgery.  The bathroom looks like an operAting room.  Have to leave that gauze, tape, Vaseline out in case you need it in a hurry.  Gosh gas was less than $2 a gallon with Kroger points.  Cheaper than Costco.   Gonna hurt when they start selling us winter blend

[Winifred]

Soushi, I agree with Betty - sure hope things get better for you. That can be very scary if it is not a common thing.

I just do not seem to find the time to cook decently each and every day. Today for example, started my day at 5 after sleeping only 3 hours. I was exhausted. Took Davey to school, then Tessa to spend time with her boy and got home about 1 in the afternoon. Sat down for an hour or so and then to Banning for Tessa to see her counselor. Then to Foods 4 Less - NO ROASTS I COULD AFFORD - so did get some pork, oatmeal i.e. rains, walnuts, etc - nothing sweet, bottle of Diet 7 up and Cereal. In the meantime Davey was suppose to get home via a friend as I could not be there but I was able to get his Mom to pick him up - amazing she showed up. At any rate, Davey was not where he was suppose to be - we were all panicking. I headed to the school and in the meantime Davey called Tessa. Bear in mind he has broken his second phone in 2 months - I will NOT get him another. And yet I feel strongly he needs something to stay in touch with but he breaks, breaks and breaks. Found him and picked him up - he would NOT look me in the eyes. Now is that any surprise?????. Came home and got their two cats out of the outside Cat condo - skies look stormy and we are suppose to have a storm. Told the "renters" they needed to get outside and cover up their JUNK and my response from their Mom was not nice. People are so disrespectful. Anyway, decided I would NOT cook anything for anyone - not worth the effort as my day had been spent doing for others. Pulled some BAgel Bits out of the freezer and told one and all that was it. LOL. And darn it all did NOT have the time for Curves - that is a first.

It is halfway nice - overcast, winds blowing and I am not sweating. Yippee!!!!

Tomorrow morning Plan to take Tessa on an errand a couple towns over - after of course taking Davey to school. then home in a few hours and to Curves. Then NOTHING - that is a lie, need to go to the laundromat and do some cat rugs/ covers problems. Those cats drive me insane - not mine, but Theirs!!!!

Say a prayer I get things done!!! Well of course I will.

As I said I plan to put some great lookikng pork in the slow cooker - of course will use the slow cooker. Go withs? vinegared cukes as I have way too many of them to let them go bad, potatoes of some kind and boiled okra - that okra will go over super well with everyone else. That's ok, I LOVE it. Born and raised in the South, what does anyone expect.

Hope ALL had a great day, ate well and hope tomorrow will be evern better, if possible!!!!

[Preds]