Week Two

Well, I have still not regained the use of my left arm. But we have been eating quite well this week.

We started Sunday night. I tried Instacart for grocery delivery this week, no way could I try to load the conveyer belt with groceries at the checkout. Loved Instacart. The person texted me if things on my list were not available, I could get used to this.

Anyway, I had her pick up Fried Chicken. It is just the perfect comfort food for me.

Monday we had Burgers that were purchased at Fresh Market. I managed to make Annies Macaroni and Cheese as the side dish. Starting of slow…

If we have burgers on Monday why not have Hot Dogs on Tuesday.

And the week keeps getting better! Pat's King of Steaks Sandwiches.

Thursday we had a different Zuppardi's Pizza, 

Mozzarella with Fresh Tomato with White Sauce. 

Two thumbs up for this one!!

Take out Friday! This time we picked up from Quattros in Guilford. This is one of our go-to Italian restaurants. We had an order of Clams Casino and I had the Gnocchi which is the lightest Gnocchi I have ever had. They are like little clouds of air in tomato sauce. Chris opted for the Bolognese, which is always spot on.

No Friday Night Baking again….

Moving on to Saturday night. Started off with
a Cosmopolitan while dinner was on the grill. 

We picked up Bone-in sirloin steaks at Roberts. 

Chris got the temp perfect!!!! Some of Coles Corn rounded out the meal. 

And we opened a bottle of red to enjoy, which we did, with the steaks.

What has been up with the weather this summer? Seriously. Rain, Rain, and More Rain. And let's not forget the humidity. It was a pretty miserable summer weather-wise. Tonight was no exception. We were going to do burgers on the grill, but the pouring rain had us pulling out the air fryers.

Now about those burgers. Bacon Cheddar and Cheese Stuffed Burgers. I found this recipe on PlaysWellWithButter. I believe we may have a new "House Burger". 

Here is the recipe for 4 1/4 lb burgers. I was able to make the burgers… slowly coming back into the kitchen. 

Does anyone else have a problem with keeping the cheese on the burger when you use the air fryer?

Ingredients-

3 slices bacon

1 pound 85% lean ground beef

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method-

Par cook the bacon: Add the bacon to a skillet over medium heat (on the stove, not the grill). Cook 2-3 minutes per side until the bacon begins to render, but is not totally crispy. The goal is to par-cook the bacon since it’ll finish cooking in the stuffed burger patties. Remove from the heat. Once cool enough to handle, finely chop into small pieces.

Form the bacon cheddar stuffed burger patties: Add the chopped bacon to a bowl with the ground beef, shredded cheddar, Worcestershire, & ground black pepper. Using your hands, combine the mixture until the bacon and cheddar are evenly dispersed. Be careful not to overmix. Using a burger press or mold, form into 4 equally sized burger patties.

Labor Day!!! The Baked BBQ Chicken and the last of the Coles Farm Stand Corn.

We picked up 2 bone-in chicken breasts and basted them with Guy Fieri BBQ sauce and baked at 375˚ for one hour. I think we could have shared one of the breasts. I do not remember Chicken breasts being quite so large when I was little.

So I did do some cooking this weekend, not a lot. I made a recipe for Summer Bolognese from Bon Appetit for during the week and I air-fried tofu and zucchini for my lunch this week.

Hoping to be back in the kitchen at full capacity later this week. I have to say Chris did a fine job at the helm. The dinners were delicious and I did enjoy not having to do dishes!!!!

Perhaps it is Time to Repave the Driveway

Last Friday I walked to the mailbox before leaving for work. There was a piece of asphalt that was askew, and I tripped on it. I fell. While descending to the ground I cursed more than I have ever cursed at that hour of the morning. I was falling and I knew it would not end well. The whole day was going to be shot to hell and it was not even 7am.

Fortunately, Chris happened to look out the window and saw me reeling in pain. He runs out and helps me to my feet, looks at my elbow, and says you have to go to the emergency room Now!

Four and a half hours later I leave the ER with 12 stitches on my elbow. I had cut through to the bone. Nice work.

It has been, so far a week of antibiotics and Tylenol. 

On the plus side, it was my left elbow. But still, I have had limited movement. This past week at work has been such a bundle of fun. I will leave it at that.

Tonight, finally finished with the antibiotics I am enjoying a lovely and large glass of wine.

So What Did We Have For Dinner?

Enter Stage Right - Chef Chris.

Chris has done an amazing job of doing everything that I cannot do. Meal prep, feeding cats, doing laundry, dishes, changing dressings, making the bed, fixing coffee, grocery shopping, I could go on…  

Last week Chris surprised me with not one, but 2 deliveries from Goldbelly. Zuppardi's Pizza and Pat's Steak Sandwiches. Talk about planning!

We started out last Friday night with Zuppardi's Pizza. Just the best damn pie around!

Saturday night, Chris took to the grill with two porterhouse steaks. Delicious but I had to have him cut my steak. This whole limited mobility really sucks. We had a pasta side that my sister Lenore dropped off. Pasta with Zucchini! Delicious. Looks like that will be lunch for next week.

Sunday Chris went to the grocery store. He came home with a prepared meal. Porketta. Wow! Really tasty and the seasoning was perfect for us. We also had some string beans from my sister's garden.

Monday was a summer classic. Lettuce, Tomato, and Cheese Sandwiches. 

Tuesday was burgers and Green Bean Salad, thank you, Lenore. Sorry, not photos.

Wednesday, Chris stopped at the Big Y on the way home and picked up 2 servings of Chicken Parmesan with Pasta. Again, no photos, but I gotta tell you, it was delicious. The breading was nice and a little crunch to it. The sauce, yeah, as good as homemade. There was a bit too much pasta in the serving, but why get upset about that.

Now around here, we have a Fresh Market store. Thursday is $5.00 Roasted Chicken day. On the way home, I stopped off at the curbside pick-up and picked up our $5.00 chicken and a container of $9.00 mashed potatoes. Yeah, $9 for potatoes. WTF. But in their defense, they were damn good potatoes and we had leftovers. And I was so sure I took photos…

Friday, could this be a new house tradition, Zuppardi's again!

Saturday we picked up Pork Chops at Fresh Market and put them in our house marinade which consists of 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp soy sauce, Salt, and Pepper. On the grill, until the temp was at 140˚. We also had the leftovers of those $9 mashed potatoes.

Well, that was week one of Lucia not cooking. Let's see what next week will bring.

The Weber Grill and BBQ Ribs

mmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmm

Baby Back Ribs.

Chris made dinner.

He researched the best technique and 

the results were finger licking good. 

First, he seasoned.

On the grill for 2 hours.

More seasoning and wrapped in foil, and back on the grill. 

Wow. New favorite BBQ Sauce!!!

I think it was an hour back on the grill.

The aroma was intoxicating!

This is a text book example of a Smoke Ring.

A smoke ring refers to the pink-colored meat that remains after

the meat has been cooked, just between the crust and the

Interior brown-colored meat.

Delicious!

Spicy Pork with Zucchini and More

It's that time of year. My sister will stop by with quite a few zucchini. Chris will call and say he stopped by Cole's Farm stand to get corn, the best around, and also picked up some zucchini. There is no where to hide. It is Zucchini Time.

Sunday I spend a good part of the day making zucchini things.  Zucchini Patties, Zucchini and Corn Pie with Phyllo Dough Crust, Zucchini and Tomato Mini Tarts, Asian Tofu and Eggplant, the eggplant was from my sister.

Tonight we again used zucchini. Spicy Pork and Zucchini. This was something different for us. We loved it. Quick to prepare. One pan and one bowl to wash. 

We loved the spice. Just enough heat. And I didn't hear any groans about the zucchini

Beef Kebobs

Delicious! Meat grilled perfectly. The veggies were perfectly tender. Marinate was excellent.

I picked a boneless sirloin steak at Robert's. Cut the meat it into 1 1/ inch cubes and put it in a ziplock bag with the marinade for about 4 hours.

I google Beef Kebob Marinate and this one popped up. I did make one small edit.
This is my version of the recipe-

Ingredients-
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp Dijon
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Next, I cubed a red pepper, green pepper, sliced zucchini, and quartered a red onion.
Alternated everything on the skewers and handed it off to Chris.

Did I mention how delicious this was?

Grilled Pork Chops, and a Tasty Mac & Cheese

Picked up these Pork Chops on sale at Robert's. About an inch thick with the bone in. Marinated the center cut, bone-in pork chops in a mixture of 2 tbsp. Olive oil, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Chris grilled them to perfection.

The Mac and Cheese side was purchased from Chapter One in Guilford. We had a delicious dinner there last night.

 

This is my favorite summer dinner

Do you remember the Meat Pies I made at Easter? Well, we had 1/2 a pie in the freezer.  It was as delicious now as it was at Easter. We ate the whole 1/2! We had a Caesar Salad too. We were hungry! The dressing recipe is further down the page.

The dressing recipe we use is from Lidia Italian-American Kitchen.

I do make a couple of edits to the original recipe.

Ingredients-
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4 cloves of garlic
4 anchovy fillets
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
fresh ground black pepper
Romaine lettuce, or anything you prefer

Method-
Combine the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and anchovies in a blender or work bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth, adding some of the 1/3 cup olive oil if there is not enough liquid to move the mixture around the blender jar. Add the mustard, hard-boiled egg yolk, salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and remaining olive oil if any.  Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste the dressing; if it's a little too tangy, pour in a splash or two of olive oil and blend until it's incorporated. Pour over greens and toss to cover the lettuce.

 

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato

Not that there is ever a wrong time to have a BLT, but this time of the year is the BEST time to make one. The tomatoes are coming in nicely. The selection is growing at the farm stands.

It is the taste of summer.

Side dish - Air Fryered Smashed Potatoes.

Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients-
1 1/2 lb baby Yukon Gold potatoes 
2 cups chicken stock 
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick) – melted
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp paprika
Kosher sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method-
Place the potatoes in a medium-sized pot.

Pour in the broth, enough to cover the potatoes.

Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are fork-tender.

Drain the potatoes and transfer them to a cutting board.

In a small bowl combine the melted butter, olive oil, parsley & paprika.

Dip the bottom of a small drinking glass in the butter mixture and gently press the potatoes with the bottom of the glass. 

Dip the glass into the butter as needed while smashing the potatoes.

Be careful not to smash them too hard so they break apart.

Just enough to flatten slightly.

Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees.

Spray or lightly coat the air-fryer basket with a little bit of olive oil.

Gently transfer the potatoes in one layer to the basket of the air fryer.

Brush some of the butter mixtures with a basting brush over the tops.

Sprinkle salt & pepper evenly over the potatoes.

Air fry for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove the basket & gently flip the potatoes.

Brush with more of the butter mixture. Season again with salt & pepper.

Continue to air-fry for 8 minutes at 400 degrees until crispy and browned.

 

30 Minute Chicken with Zucchini and Orzo

I stood in front of the open fridge and said what the hell am I making for dinner.

Well, this was pretty darn good.

Chicken cutlets seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan.

Add chicken. About 4 minutes per side.

Place chicken on a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add a touch more oil to the pan. 

Add diced shallots, sliced zucchini, and halved cherry tomatoes. The amounts depend on what you have in your fridge.

Sauté the vegetables for about 5 minutes until the veggies are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add white wine. Cook the wine down.

Add some tomato sauce and heavy cream.

Add chicken, along with the juices on the plate, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. A meat thermometer should read 165˚.

Serve on top of orzo. 

I topped the chicken with sliced Burrata Cheese and chopped basil.

Meanwhile the cats were asking me the question "So what are we having for dinner?"

Grilled Pork Chops and Zucchini Fritters

Pork. My favorite Saturday night protein. Tonight we grilled. I marinated the center cut, bone-in pork chops in a mixture of 2 tbsp. Olive oil, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, salt, and pepper. 

They were grilled perfectly.

We had Cole's corn on the cob because you have to eat it whenever you can. It is just that good.

Then I decided to add Zucchini Fritters to the table. Easy and quick and really good. 

Simple preparation-

One zucchini, chopped pretty small and one shallot also chopped small. Mix them in a bowl with 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/4 Parmesan Cheese, 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (or you can use dried parsley), salt, and pepper. The batter should be thick enough to drop spoonfuls.

Heat vegetable oil, or whatever oil you like to use, in a large sauté pan and heat the oil. Drop the batter into the hot oil with a soup spoon. Remove the fritters when they are browned on all sides to a dish lined with paper towels. Salt them immediately after they come out of the oil.