no cause for concern

I think that I have the Christmas Day dilemma solved.  I am going to sample meat from two different butchers that are about 1.5 hours away, in totally different directions.  I have to go north for both, one is northwest and the other northeast, I am going to take a day to go to them, then I will come home and prepare the dishes for a side by side taste comparison.  I think I will have no problem getting Mike to come to taste for me.  No worries, no worries at all.

My Mom and Dad were here for a few days last week, so my Mom and I went shopping for the things that she misses and can't get up by her.  I bought two family packs of chicken thighs and so I am making the ever popular and delicious Whiskey Chicken.  I think I will make it over mashed.  I love mashed potatoes.  I have Honey Jack Daniels and Honey Evan Williams, I want to taste to see which is better.  I just hope that it agrees with my belly, cause I am going to take my sick pills today, maybe I will just wait til tomorrow.  This chicken dish is one of my favorites, I just love it.  I think it's fantastic.  Thank you Pioneer Woman.  I was thinking that I would not mind having her "lodge" as my home. 

 I took this picture while I was gathering my ingredients for the chicken dish, I thought it was a lovely picture of garlic, I do so enjoy garlic.   Andrew makes the best macaroni with garlic & oil.  I think that is what we should have on Wednesday, which is today already.  I digress, back the the Whiskey Chicken.

 I cleaned and dried the thights, then seasoned the chicken with salt & pepper.

 Next I browned them skin side down first, then when they had great color I turned them.

 When I finished browning the thighs, I removed most of the oil, then I added the shallots and onions to the pot and sauteed them till the were just soft, added the garlic, while scraping up all the wonderful bits, being very careful I added the whiskey, oh the smell was wonderful, cooked it for about a minute, then added the rest of the stuff, and finally the chicken with the juices back into the pot, and placed it in a preheated 300 degree oven, then cooked it for 1 1/2 hours.  I could smell the deliciousness outside because the vent fan was pulling it from the house.

 I also decided it would be a treat to make potato pancakes.  I had about 6 russet potatoes, I grated them with onion, and squeezed out all the liquid, added the starch back with eggs.  The rest was a treat with sour cream and apple sauce.

I made fake potatoes, yes I do serve them sometimes, they can be enjoyable if you "up the ingredients".  We sat down to a most delicious Tuesday Dinner.

When I was cleaning up I realized I had been forgetting one ingredient, fresh/frozen peach slices, never again will I forget.  I made lunch for the girls for Wednesday with what was left over, and still had 4 pieces left for us to nibble on later in the week or maybe a 4 am breakfast.

We are truly blessed. 

scrambling again....

I was thinking about Christmas Day Dinner, and really looking forward to the festivities, noise, food, family, and happiness that comes about.  I was looking over my lists from forever ago, that have never changed and the feeling of ritual that they bring.  I started to talk to my Mom about it, when she dropped the bombshell, the butcher closed.  Closed, closed....packed up.....the Butcher retired...gone forever.   This is terrible, terrible, terrible.  Now what am I going to do?  I really am sad over this.  I have to work on a solution to this.  Maybe there will be a road trip....or plane trip.  Maybe not so bad.  I hope.

We did get the very last upper cupboard up, no drawers yet, but we do now have almost all the doors.  It is a work in progress.  It did not take more than 5 minutes to put all the contents into the cupboard and I need that library ladder more than ever.  It is a beautiful cabinet.

The shelves are fixed.  I am so very happy for this cupboard.  Now all we need is the trim, drawers, runners, trashcan thing for the bottom cabinet, and all the rest of the stuff so it will be complete. 

all the time

I grew up always having plenty to eat, not necessarily what I wanted, but there was always plenty to be had.  I thought and still do think that my Mom is a wonderful cook.  There are really not that many things that I don't like, we were not allowed to leave the table if we did not finish our meal, that was the rule.  We each had our likes and dislikes, Stew....I hate stew, I really hate stew, I never liked it, still don't like it.  Yuck, stew...there is nothing I like about it, I don't know why because I like everything in it, I just don't like the way it tastes together, and it is not just my Mom's I don't like, it's everybody's Beef Stew.  Kiki and Johnny loved it.  My kryptonites were stew, kitchen cut green beans with these noodles that looked like caterpillars, hamburgers in the cast iron pan(I like beef medium rare, they were black), and LIVER (double yuck).....  We could drink, talk, laugh, and do almost anything at the table, except sing, we were not allowed to sing at the table, I never knew why, we were just not allowed.  It was not as easy as it seems because there was always music on, and it was inevitable a good song would come on and Kiki and I would be busting.....  Even now when we are eating a song comes on that I like, I smile and sometimes I even sing.

Here is what has been going on....

There were burgers with veggies from the yard cooked on the grill with tomato salad also from the yard.

Then I went a wee bit, ok a whole lot, over board with the Broccoli Rabe & Sausage Risotto.  I need to cut back on the Cruciferous vegetables.  You know that is not fair cause we are going into fall artichoke and cardone season.  Not right at all....