Posted on 02/02/2021 4:28:15 PM PST by Jamestown1630
We had a 'snow day' yesterday. It used to be that snow days were an unexpected and very welcome respite from the workday routine, perhaps coming along once or twice per year here (though I remember one year when we were 'locked down' for over a week with huge snow, and then rain on top.)
But yesterday, we were still expected to 'telework', since we'd been doing it for a year anyway; and it wasn't quite the same :-(
I haven't been eating well, during the past year of lockdown. It's been too easy to just order lousy food for delivery and not bother cooking - and then throw half of the lousy food away. But this past weekend, I decided to change that, and made a couple of old favorites.
I know I've posted this before, but it's my favorite recipe for 'Spanish Rice' - I began making it as a kid, from the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls - though I think I've upped the bacon, onion and green pepper somewhat :-)
Spanish Rice
1. Prepare One Cup of Raw Rice
2. Heat Oven to 400 degrees
3. Fry: 6 slices bacon until crisp; drain and crumble
4. Pour bacon grease from pan, leaving about 2 T.
5. Add 1/2 C. minced onion and ½ C. diced green pepper
6. Cook until onion is yellow
7. Add in fry pan: 3 C. Cooked Ric;, 2 C. Canned tomatoes, chopped and drained; 1-1/2 tsps. Salt; and the crumbled bacon.
8. Turn all into greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with lots of grated Cheddar Cheese.
9. Bake 25-30 minutes.
***********************************************
I've become a great fan of Chef Jean Pierre - he's been on the Internet for a long time, but I never knew anything about him until recently. He has a great idea for preparing and preserving chopped garlic for future use (this is one of his earlier videos, but there are lots more, all funny with wonderful recipes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv67FKqvjqI
***********************************************
I remember the night when we were locked down by a blizzard. The electricity went out, but we had candles, a gas stove that still worked, and things in the pantry.
We tried roasting garlic, and spread it on good, buttered bread. I will never forget how beautiful that night was, with the storm raging beyond the windows, the candlelight, the smell of caramelizing garlic in the oven, a little red wine - and good friends all stuck together for the duration.
http://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-make-roasted-garlic-4-easy-ways
(The painting at the top is by the Austrian artist Richard Drasche-Wartinberg, and appears to have been one of his very last. It's entitled 'In Deep Winter'.)
Thank you.
Keeping you warm and safe, I hope!
When my first Black Lab, Cinder, got to be about 12, she started to gain a lot of weight; mainly because the kids gave her a lot of treats and snuck her table scraps.
We called her a ‘Flabrador.’
We switched her food; she lost the weight, but we lost her about a year later to cancer. Best. Dog. Ever. :)
I can’t, either. But when I’ve tried, I’ve gotten a lot better.
A good book is ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’:
Gorgeous painting! Thanks for sharing that artist.
I love Spanish Rice. Thanks for the reminder to make it. I’m going to dig out my recipe and see how much it differs. ;)
Good names.
My best wishes for Winnie.
My pleasure.
I was 16 years old in 1976. We had a horrific ice storm that winter and were without power for nearly a week. This was in the Madison, WI area.
Mom was freaking out about all the meat in the freezer going to waste, so dad dug off and chipped away at a portion of the patio, and we had something on the grill every night for a week.
There was so much ice, and so THICK, that we had to crawl on hands and knees, or slide on out butts down the driveway to get across the street! School was canceled, which was fine with me, but the worst part about it all?
A teenage girl with no telephone, LOL!
“The Great Ice Storm of March 1976 knocked television stations off the air, caused Madison’s reservoirs to dry up and left more than 600,000 Wisconsin residents without power for days. It started as rain on Monday, March 1, and kept up all week. Temperatures near freezing were too cold to melt the ice.”
“In the end, 21 Wisconsin counties were declared Federal Disaster Areas. Newspapers from the time say estimates of the damage were more than $8 million dollars, which is more than $34 million in today’s money.”
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wisconsin/massive-blizzard-1976-wi/
Tonight I just used up my last package of frozen clams to make clam chowder. They smelled and tasted just as fresh as when I vacuum packed and froze them 20 months ago.
Clam tide coming up this weekend. I am also following the earthquake thread, so if those guys could hold off any big stuff till I get off the beds.
My sympathies. We’ve had bad luck w/ cancer in Labs.
check your FRmail
Great story.
I’m a little older, and remember a winter when we were stuck in a blizzard back in the early sixties.
I don’t think we lost electricity, but there was nothing much to do, after going out periodically and playing in the snow; but I had always been interested in miniatures and dollhouses (still am!); so I spent the lockdown week building a little ‘mountain cabin lodge’ for my tiny dolls out of cardboard.
It engaged me even more than the fancy pre-fab dollhouse had done in the past.
Are you in the NorthWest?
I recall reading some history of clamming in that area.
(I discovered canned, pasteurized crab meat last year. Been keeping a few cans in the fridge since then.)
Good Dog.
North Oregon Coast. I’ll be going after the quahog (butter) clams. Razor clams are closed now because of seasonal toxins.
We usually never store crab. It’s gone the day we catch it.
:(
Maybe I should ask for a recipe for homemade dog food.
We've been *gluten-free* for quite some time; and I do make dog biscuits.
We had grilled hamburger steaks, yellow hominy and veggies for dinner tonight. Wife worked late at the bank, they recently moved it. I had it ready when she got home. We share the kitchen daily.
LOL!
I’ve never owned a dog, though I’ve taken care of a few; and I’m hoping that there’s one in my future.
We’ve always had cats, and I guess making homemade food for them is more difficult than making it for dogs. Let me know if these are actually good:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/homemade-dog-treat-recipes/
Or you can skip the cheese and the baking, add a can of drained and rinsed black beans or black eyed peas, a little chopped tomato cooked with the onions and pepper, some oregano and marjoram. A bit quicker and lighter, still cheap and good. And easy.
I made this last week. Instant Pot 15 bean soup with ham.
https://hurstbeans.com/recipes/instant-pot-15-bean-soup
For the ham and ham bone, the wife had added a Honey Baked Ham ham bone to the Christmas order, I had pulled it out of the freezer a couple nights before. There’s a ton of meet on those things. Trimmed all that off, and it provided the ham bone for the cooking phase, and lots of ham for the “add cubed ham” phase. Much more than 1 C.
Solid recipe, will make again.
Oh, and I added 1T each of beef and chicken Better Than Bouillon with the 2q water. I think that added a lot of flavor/mouth feel.
I meant that previous for you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.