Category: bacon

Thanksgiving food

This Thanksgiving I was very grateful for . . .

1. A roof over my head

2. Good family and friends

3. Kitchen to cook

4. So much awesome food.

Zero, turtle and I took over the kitchen and cooked so much.

We had so many sweet potatoes.. .we baked some as wedges and made sweet potatoes fried with cinammon glaze. We also made sweet potato skins.

We made two stuffed turkeys

We made dark forest and punkin cakes.

We had a huge spread.

  • Turkey
  • Stuffing
  • Awesome gravy
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes in three different ways
  • Green bean casserole with bacon
  • Cream corn casserole with bacon
  • Baked beans
  • Cranberry sauce
  • Rolls

It was a very nice holiday.

Salads

Today with dinner, I had a salad. . . It was simple ice burg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarrella cheese and a poppyseed dressing. It was light and comforting.

I also love my loaded salads. Croutons, bacon pieces, lots of cheeses, even sun flowers or pecans. . The combinations are endless. . .each salad is its own piece of edible art. It is a fun, mostly healthy enjoyable piece of meal.

I grew up with having side salad at meals with extended family. I have always enjoyed them, sometimes they are my favourite part of the meal.

Comfort food: grilled cheese and tomato soup

I made grilled cheese and tomato soup the other day. It was always a comfort food and something I remember as a kid.

I love the many combinations with grilled cheese.

There are so many combination s

  • Munster
  • Honey mustard
  • Grilled chicken
  • Grilled onions

Or

  • Swiss or Mozzarella
  • Roast beef
  • Mushrooms

The combo we had

  • American cheese
  • Bread n butter pickles
  • Bacon

I added rice and bacon and golden fish crackers to my tomato soup.

Its just yummy comfort I had from my childhood.

The Smell of Good Food

I love cooking when I can make the entire kitchen smell like whatever I am cooking or baking.

One of my favorite moments is when you open the oven door or take the lid off the pot and just have the overwhelming aroma of just awesome food.

Today we were cooking BBQ ribs in the slow cooker and the smell drove me crazy all day. However it was so worth the smell all day and wait. They were really good.

The sight of food and smell of food will easily bring people in. (personally my food doesn’t have to look like art, but just look like it’s not burnt or all smothered together, unless supposed to be.)

My favorite smells. . .

  • Chocolate chip cookies
  • Steak on a grill
  • Vanilla or Mocha Coffee
  • Chocolate
  • Roasted marshmellow

Another Huge Feast

Turtle, Zeroman and I take advantage when we can get access to the kitchen. We had access yesterday and we made a feast.

Zeroman made . . .

  • two type of meatloaf (Plain and BBQ Candied Bacon with a mountain of cheeses),
  • seafood pasta salad,
  • BBQ and Mayo chicken,
  • mashed potatoes
  • Potato salad

I made . . .

  • Lasagna: two sauces, seven types of cheese and layer of meatballs.
  • Cheese rolled Lasagna with a cheese sauce
  • Soured beans
  • glazed and roasted carrots
  • chopped Mac N cheese

Turtle helped with both.

We also baked. . . chocolate pudding cake and very chewy brownies.

The lasagna and the lasagna cheesy rolls.

Here is the plain and candied bacon BBQ meatloaf.

Roasted  and glazed carrots

glazed and roasted carrots

The soured beans had bacon and were sour and yet tangy. It was grandma’s recipe and my mom had asked for them, so we made them just for her.

The brownies were chewy.

The cake was soft with the creamy pudding on top. . . yum.

It was a nice way for us to celebrate Mother’s day as Turtle, Zeroman, and I got to cook for our mothers.

We had three days worth of food as we also have leftover for tomorrow as well.

Leafy Salads

I knew if I just posted “Salads” that someone would say there are so many out there. . . (from leafy to protein like chicken or tuna to potato and pasta etc.) I love many different salads.

However  over the weekend we made an awesome leafy salad. . .

I had few salad mixes. . . it ice-burg lettuce, Kale, greens, spinach, shredded carrots, and red cabbage. We added tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, and shredded pork and shredded cheese.

We have a south-western ranch or Italian dressing.

When I go to a restaurant, I don’t mind a simple salad before my main meal. However when I am at home everything is in my leafy salads. . .

I love fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, snap peas, black olives (sliced), shredded cheese (prefer white cheeses), sunflowers, flavored croutons, and whatever else will work. Plus I will cut up lunch meat or cube or shred chicken. My salads usually become a huge part of the meal. I even love having bacon in my salads.

Whenever I make a salad and my family is home, I usually end up making them salads too. I like to think of myself as a creative salad. . . I’m not sure if I am to master level yet. LOL

Growing up, whenever I would visit my grandparents for dinner, they could always have some kind of salad with dinner. My grandma got me into sprouts, poppyseed dressing, and adding chopped nuts in salad. I love the crunch and freshness.

I try to eat salad at least once a week.

Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

 

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

  • You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
  • You can add into bean or split pea soups.
  • Add it to Mac N Cheese
  • Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.