To Go on Vacay or Not?

Tags

Food, LA, Life, Renting, Video, YouTube

Well, the weather here in Southern California has been reasonably gracious for most of the summer. That is, until three or four days ago. It’s predicted to be 105F+ for the next ten days. OMG. Here in my neck of the woods that means at least 110 to 115F.

I’d gotten away with waiting till about 3 or 4 p.m. before having to turn on the living room window AC unit. Not today though and probably not for the next ten days either. I turned it on today at 1 p.m. Yep. We’ve entered Hades and will probably be here for the next two months, the hottest here in So Cal.

The grocery service I use had cans of Progresso soup on sale about two weeks ago for $1.09 per can vs. $3.79 which was great! I bought about ten cans. Guess what’ll be the source of my meals for the next week and a half? You guessed it, cans of soup. “No effort food”.

I didn’t even put the cans away in the pantry since I knew I’d be using them soon and figured it was just as easy to fish a can out of a bag on the floor, use it, rinse it out and then toss it. Again, “no effort food” when the temps soar. Each can will be two meals. Easy peasy as they say.

I really need to find some free photo editing software, that image is just way too big for this column. But it’s all I’ve got so there we are…Progresso soup.

I’d like to have some salads but in heat like this, I find bags of salad have a very short shelf life so ordering two at a time is a waste of money and food. By the time I get to the second bag, it’s starting to “melt” into rot. Again, a courtesy of the cheap ass landlord for buying used junk for his rentals. In this case the refrigerator. Supposedly it’s new but I think not because it drips incessantly all over the food from the top of the refrigerator compartment.

The last three or four days, I’ve also started sleeping in, while it’s still cool in the morning. Then getting up and working and watching stuff on my computer from about 3 p.m. till almost 2 a.m. just because of the heat. This way I can sit in front of the small fan in my office/front bedroom so I’m not so hot, nor am I an ice cube from laying in my bed.

This is a really crumby junk of a rental. The tiny AC window unit in the bedroom is a piece of broken down trash that the landlord put in when the previous unit broke. Air only comes out of the left side of it and blows right on my head. Nothing on my body. The louvers are all broken so there’s no using them for any kind of directional aim. Yes, Eric Westrope is a cheap ass landlord who gets by with spending as little as is humanly possible on anything. If you knew what I pay for rent, you’d die. But then it’s the way all of L.A., San Bernadino and Orange counties are.

I’ve been watching Dale Calder videos on YouTube

because he lives in Canada and I can enjoy snowy weather in this heat. He has a tiny cabin on his property and often treks out to it and spends the day. He puts up cooking and gardening videos among other things. The video I put up is of him canning his sweet and hot homegrown peppers. He has a very nice, relaxing voice and I often listen to him before bed instead of a television program.

It’s about 6:30 in the evening now and 96F! Ick. To my disbelief, something going by outside just caught my eye…a woman jogging. To each their own I guess.

Well that’s it for today. Will let you know if I decide to take a vacation from blogging (which as you can see from the dates on my last two posts, I already have done this month). Sorry about that. Enjoy Dale’s video.

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Let’s Conga!

Tags

Health, Humor, Let's Conga, Life, Music

I try not to talk about my health too much here since we all have problems but today just takes the cake or in this case the Conga. My day started out okay, I had a slice of Oroweat Jewish Rye with cold butter (yum) and a glass of V8. Seemed innocuous enough.

Well, it took on a life of its own. I’ve always had a spastic stomach and colon but it hasn’t bothered me for some time. Till this morning.

Photo Source.

I spent the entire time (all morning and into the afternoon) less than ten feet from the bathroom. During this time, every cartoon and image of Conga lines I ever saw in my life popped into my head.

Photo Source.

Yes, my stomach and intestines were doing a wild Conga gone horribly wrong. I didn’t dare step away from the bathroom. Even going to lay down was risky.

Photo Source. Chaos ensues.

Sad thing is I’m now totally empty and starving even though I lay in bed all morning, moaning of an upset midsection. Colonoscopy anyone? I’m empty, it’d be the perfect time.

But I don’t dare eat a thing since I have no clue what set my bod off. It’s like having about 50 hands squeeze your stomach and intestines off and on, but all at different rates…kind of like the photo above. And they’re doing it horribly wrong to Conga music! I had planned to have chili for dinner but I wouldn’t dare now!! This hasn’t happened in quite some time.

I used to be a really “fun” date. A guy’d take me out to dinner and half way through it, my whole midsection would take on a life of its own and I’d be in the restroom for a half an hour or so. See? Real fun date. And it wasn’t like I was upset, it just seemed that anything out of the ordinary that caused me anxiety (good or bad) could do it and without any warning. I just learned that I’d better find the W.C. FAST.

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.

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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:

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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.

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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!