Oh Why?

Tags

Cream of..., CTS, Food, Pork Chops

With my left wrist out of commission I amaze myself with the stupid and sick sudden  need I seem to have to write posts. Yes, the one-handed typist is out of her mind. Must be the heat which is starting to rev up here in So Cal. As you may or may not know, I hate summers here. Lately the days have been very humid, like 50-60% humidity. UGH.

On a totally different subject, I’ll never understand why people continue to use “cream of X” soups when making recipes “from scratch”. Boggles my mind! They go on and on about how they use seasonal ingredients and make meals from scratch for their family’s well-being and blah, blah blah and blah. Excuse me, but how is adding something whose label reads like a who’s who of ingredients that aren’t found in homemade soups meeting these goals?

Hmm…I guess I get grumpy when I’m in pain. Didn’t mean to rant like that. It all started when I saw a pack of “assorted pork chops” for sale while placing my Vons.com order last week. They were listed as “pork loin chops assorted ends value pak” for $2.49/#. So I called and asked what they meant. Turns out, it’s exactly that…a bunch of loin, shoulder, rib, blade chops.

Of course, my new rule for buying food, especially meat, is that I must have a recipe in hand or at the very least, in mind before buying. Keeps me from complete impulse buying. So often, I buy something with a vague memory of making something yummy but don’t think it through any further which means it languishes in the fridge till it turns bad and has to be tossed.

So I went on a little online hunt. Here’s what I found:  Easy Crockpot Pork Chops with Onion Soup Mix. Sounded good except for the onion soup mix. So off to find a recipe for that without the package aka “from scratch” and found this.Looked good and had positive reviews but I still wanted to include some cabbage and kraut.

So my little (hah!) search turned into an entire afternoon safari where one thing led to another and I wasn’t even on Pinterest! 

This continued till I was so overwhelmed by the variety of recipes I found that I gave up. Way too much to think about in this heat! It was 84F in the house. Time to turn on the living room AC. It’s so much more efficient than the cheap-ass landlord’s used piece of junk in the bedroom. That can be on and set at 70F all day, turn it off and five minutes later…walk into a hot room. My electric bill for half of June and July was $96+! Hate to think what August, September and October will be (hottest months of the year).

Anyway, back to pork. Whatever I do to it will have to occur in the slow cooker, since no oven is going on until November rolls around. I must close for now due to my left wrist and hand but I’ll leave you with this Pin. Actually two pins since I’m in a really grumpy mood but hate being totally negative.

Me…grumpy

Much happier.

 

 

Just Have to Laugh

Tags

Food, Humor, Italian Sausage, Links, Recipes

Found a new food blog and it had some good recipes. But I really have to wonder what goes on in some people’s minds. The recipe involves thin, sweet Italian sausages like this:A person commenting on the post, wondered where to get such sausage. The blogger simply replied “You can probably find these sausages in most Italian pork stores.” Funny, I didn’t know there were “Italian Pork Stores” out there! Italian delis, yes, but a store devoted just to Italian pork? News to me.

So, did you ever note something like I did with the above info, only to leave a salient element like the link to the info out? Very annoying. But I will share with you a link to a truly yummy salad that I’m going to “have” to make.

Photo Source.

Yes, this is one where I don’t have everything on-hand, so it’ll have to wait till the next grocery trip but I think you’ll agree it’s a keeper for upcoming hot summer days.

 

Salmon and Other Sirens of the Deep

Tags

Favorite Things, Food, Holidays, Links, Memories, Salmon Patties

Seems I always have a can or three of my favorite oil-packed tuna in my pantry. Love tuna salad in almost any form as well as most casseroles. Think it’s my Midwestern upbringing. Yes, over thirty years in Southern California and I’m still a Wisconsin girl at heart.

The number of containers of canned tuna grows slightly in numbers every spring (often it’s on sale) but starting a number of years ago, it got some company in the form of canned, red sockeye salmon. Oh and let’s not forget the 6 oz. tin or two of crabmeat and Trader Joe’s smoked trout. Gosh, love that stuff !!!! (No affiliation at all BTW).

So, back to the canned salmon in the pantry. Never had canned salmon in the pantry till, as I said, a few years ago, when I saw it on sale and it jogged a childhood memory. My Mom ALWAYS had it on hand and it often resulted in salmon patties for dinner. OMG…isn’t it bad enough to flat out l.o.v.e. sockeye, but to go as far as canned salmon? Yum. Oh, I mean, yes.

In my search for slow cooker recipes over the last months (no, I’m no longer Catholic but some of its trappings have just hung around…like Lent and fish). Anyhow, I came across a number of recipes (though not slow cooker) that looked interesting enough to bookmark and share.

Photo Source.

First, I’d like to point out 2 things about this first recipe. The cost of this particular dip noted by the author at the bottom of the recipe/post is from 2010. Currently I bought an 8 ounce tub of pre-made Philadelphia Cream Cheese Soft Salmon spread on sale for $3.99. Not very “salmon-y” tasting if you ask me, but still, I’ll eat it.

In reviewing the ingredients for the delicious Salmon Spread/Dip, I thought it’d be much more flavorful than the store-bought version. For this, I’d use the 8 ounce blocks that Philly comes in, not 12 ounces and just cut back on the salmon a bit, maybe to 1.5 cups of it. I’m torn on using Liquid Smoke. In the past, I’d read about negative health issues so I googled it. You can look into it further here.

To get the smoked flavor, I might throw in part of a pouch of smoked salmon from the grocery, like this:

Photo Source.

Well that pic is certainly large enough…lol…will have to check WordPress for info on altering images. Sorry.

Anyway, I could probably easily eat a bowl of this spread/dip and by the spoonful, it just looks so good! Even thinking about it has me salivating. Lol.

And, yes that would leave nothing else to nibble on and put me way over my daily caloric limit! But, hey, it’s the holidays…I mean, it was “just” Easter wasn’t it?! Don’t judge. At least it’s fish. You can also make a similar dip with Trader Joe’s smoked trout in a tin or their crabmeat.

Photo Source.

OMG to both. Seriously, what can be made with cream cheese that isn’t to die for?

I also found several chowders that also looked quite good:  first, is Smoked Salmon Chowder which uses smoked salmon. Now if you think the cash outlay to buy enough canned or fresh salmon might be too much, check this website (quite informative) out for smoking your own salmon and this for canning your own salmon.

Frankly, once I took into account all the equipment and labor involved, the store-bought salmon seemed pretty “cheap”! Yes, I’ve seen those videos where someone puts a DIY foil tray in the oven, grill or even in a fry pan. Trust me, they do not work for smoking a fish like salmon, nowhere near the same.

Another recipe that looked good is this one . But are we ever satisfied with what we have? No. And further “research” yielded this one which looks unbelievably yummy!

Photo Source.

Delicious, no?

Well, I’ll end this missive on fish for now, but it will be continued later :). In the meantime, enjoy tinkering in the kitchen!

Oh, and big B-day hello to my childhood friend whom my Dad often called Susie-Q. Happy birthday dear one!