What are you Cooking the Week of July 10, 2022?

[Joan Simpson]

I made a Mexican casserole and it was a little soupy on the edges so I had mine over tortilla chips and it was like extra loaded nachos so good.My husband just had his with bread and butter.
Grocery shopping today and you can tell everything is on the rise.Between Publix and Target we spent $279.00 but I haven't been in three weeks except to the Dollar General and the small vegetable stand down the road from us.I can only imagine what people with 3 or 4 kids are spending.I'm very frugal and look for the best deals when I can find one.

[BakerAunt]

I was able to buy some lovely organic red potatoes at the farmers' market last Saturday. For dinner on Wednesday, I cut them into chunks, tossed in olive oil and Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning before roasting for 45 minutes at 400F. The seasoning had been included in a gift box, so this was the first time I tried cooking with it. We all agreed that it is delicious, although my husband found it a bit heavy on the black pepper, of which he is not fond. We had the potatoes with pork that he pan-cooked and microwaved fresh green beans from our garden.

[Joan Simpson]

We had pan fried chicken breast with green lima beans and macaroni and cheese.

[Joan Simpson]

We had tuna salad sandwiches and fries tonight...my husbands request.

[BakerAunt]

For Friday night dinner, I made a stir-fry using cooked farro, leftover pork and drippings, broccoli, green onion, mushrooms, snow peas, and red bell pepper--the latter two from our garden.

I also made yogurt today.

[Mike Nolan]

I did a slab of baby back ribs on the grill tonight. For a first-time attempt at ribs on the new grill, they were good, but I'm sure I can do better. They were tender but not quite fall-apart, another half hour would probably have helped.

The rub I made was a little too peppery and probably needed more brown sugar and cinnamon. The sauce I basted it with was a little too thin, I need to cook some of it down a bit so it is thicker but still not a paste, maybe adding a teaspoon or two of honey and possibly a few more dashes of hot sauce to kick it up a little.

We also had BBQ beans done in a pot in the grill. This is a recipe a friend of ours makes in the oven, it needed more time to cook down and I think I forgot to add the onion.

[Joan Simpson]

Your grilling sounds good Mike.My cousin and my son will hit the ribs with a little vinegar at the end of smoking then wrap them in foil for about 30 -45 minutes more on the grill and they will almost fall apart.The vinegar does not have a taste on the meat.

We had hamburgers and pork-n-beans.

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen vinegar used as a marinade prior to putting the dry rub on, that is supposed to help the ribs tissue break down faster, making the ribs more tender.

Wrapping the ribs in foil (called the Texas crutch) is something that seems to be one of those love-it or hate-it things. A friend of ours does a lot of smoking (he's thought about opening a food truck more than once), I think he's in the 'hate-it' camp.

I need to experiment with my ribs technique, the Texas crutch will be in my tool kit at some point. I think I learned a lot about my grill today, hopefully that will show up in future meals.

Tonight's ribs didn't have quite the flavor profile I'm after, not sweet enough and, while peppery, not spicy enough, either. (At least for me.)

Back when Lincoln had an annual Ribfest (it died in part because of the pandemic), my favorite vendor was Awesome Aussie, they had a mild fruit-based sauce that was just fantastic.

[BakerAunt]

You are having lots of fun experimentation with your grill, Mike!

I made salmon patties on Saturday afternoon. I packed some of them, along with the rolls I baked yesterday, and some condiments and carrots, and we drove to a state park for an evening picnic and a bit of hiking, although we mostly drove to various areas of the park. It was warm and humid, so the hiking had to be limited. We then drove home leisurely. Our town had an annual festival this weekend, and the fireworks were Saturday night, so the trip was to get our dog out of town and away from the fireworks. The last time she was around major firework activity, over a year ago, she was close to catatonic, and we never want to see that again, nor do we want to use strong medication to drug her. Leaving is the best solution, although living in a rural area limits where we can go without an overnight stay.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't done a beef roast in it yet, so if I see a good looking eye of round that isn't outrageously priced, that'll be something I do soon. I've got a turkey in the freezer I'll probably defrost it at some point, but no hurry there, even a small turkey makes a lot.

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