Cooking too

I realize I haven't told you all about my culinary feats of late. After the chicken pot pie, I was not cooking for a while, until after I felt better. Since then I've gotten good feedback for a few new dishes. 

No surprise, the boys like hearty, put meat on your bones types of meals. I have tried a couple of chicken casseroles with stove top stuffing in top - that was a big hit. Also an awesome salmon sandwich with sriracha mayo, fresh greens and salmon grilled with a rub made with brown sugar, cumin, red chile. There have been countless pasta dinners and I even made meatballs from scratch! I'm not sure I would follow that recipe again, very fatty meatballs, but the boys enjoyed it. We were working when dinner was ready, so I pulled the cooked meat balls out and placed on paper towels to drain. By the time we got to eat 5 hours later, they were a little dry but tasted great. 

I've come up with a pretty good egg scramble for the mornings. I much prefer savory breakfasts to sweet ones. Lately I have been perfecting my breakfast sandwich. Scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon in Texas toast served open face with cheese on top. This was a hit too. 

Perhaps one of my favorite things to cook is taco meat. Ground beef and onion cooked, drained and then add the taco seasoning with water and let all those flavors come together. Whenever I'm making taco meat, the boys seem to instinctively gravitate to the galley more. They peer in, asking what's for dinner. Once the meat is done, I mix in rice and black beans for burritos or pull out the taco shells. This all usually comes with the regular garnishments, hot sauce, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and avocados. 

Yesterday, I harvested a bunch of herbs from my little herb garden and blended the with butter, olive oil and a little salt. It was delicious on toast but I added it to the mashed potatoes. I loved it but I fell asleep before I could get feedback. 

The way I know if a meal is a success is by asking the boys if it's worthy of eating again. So far only only a few dishes haven't made the cut. There have been so many meals by this point, I forget which ones they didn't like. Oh well. 

The cheeseburger pie is another favorite, again, ground beef gets their attention. It's and incredibly easy recipe I found in good old Betty Crocker. But that book makes me think of another Betty, my grandmother, Betty Jo Kelley. She passed away this last January and I miss her terribly, especially when I'm cooking. I haven't written about her death because it still hurts too much. I worry about Pa, on his own, but we found his dog Sandy a few weeks after she disappeared. 

We are headed out again. 

Aloha