Eats!

November 15, 2017

Skillet Lasagna:

One of the first meals I concocted while Eric was spending the week with his family deer hunting was this.  Eric doesn’t really love lasagna and I have made something similar in the past, but it seems something as simple as cooking this dish in an iron skillet makes a difference.  Baking requires the process to be an exact science, this does not.

There are some that want specific measurements but I tailored this to my taste and Beverlys.  I have found a darn good Plum Tomato sauce so making that from scratch is not on my agenda – at the moment.  The five ingredients pictured above is pretty much it.  I spray the iron skillet with Pam, spoon some sauce on the bottom, then starting building the layers: meat, ricotta cheese, shredded cheese, tomato sauce then noodles, being sure the last topping is the shredded cheese.  We had some French bread from the French pavilion in the freezer and voila, supper was ready.

One note of interest, the recipe called for the noodles to be broken up, not kept whole.  I actually liked that idea since it makes it easier to cut.  Another big factor with this meal…………….leftovers!  With only serving the two of us, we both had enough for another meal.

An old standby for me is breakfast for dinner.  One evening Beverly was going out so I made pancakes for my supper.

The ‘new’ culinary Ginny had to make an improvement upon store-bought syrup, so I jazzed up my meal by creating a walnut & banana topping.  The final product included a side of bacon as part of my meal.

Again, a component of this meal was leftovers.  I made extra pancakes and took them to work, using a toaster oven to re-heat them.  This time I brought along some bananas and raspberries to accompany the pancakes (plus syrup).  Eric will notice I didn’t type ‘maple syrup’.  Don’t like the stuff – its too sweet.  I have found a ‘light’ store brand that suits my taste buds and is just fine for me.

 

 

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November 14, 2017

Another adventure is our culinary journey.  This is an old, well-traveled road for Eric but not so much for me.  Sure, I can bake (mostly sweets) and can whip up most any breakfast item (love breakfast for dinner!), however creating dishes more traditional for the evening meal hasn’t been a desire or a strength for me.  That had to change a bit when I lived in China but once home, I wanted to do a bit more exploring and expanding of my newly learned culinary skills.

Recently I’ve been cooking dinner on Sundays nights and for the most part have been happy with the results.  I’m tracking the journey to remind myself of the successes and/or the dinners that leave something more to be desired.  Eric is being entertained and occasionally called upon for advice.  But to go along with that………….sometimes we do eat at a local restaurant that has something unique.  ‘Farm to table’ is SO popular now, along with ‘artisanal’ that every once in a while we take a (local) trip to eat out.

Speaking of which, we headed to downtown Orlando and found Artisans Table one Sunday morning for breakfast.

After driving around the block several times just to find a place to park, it was not starting out on the right foot.  We step inside the door and the hostess asks for our reservation – really.  The place had only been open for 30 minutes-ish, 5 tables were occupied and the entire place held 46 tables – yes I counted, after we were seated.  Hmmm, maybe breakfast at Chez Darden would have been a better idea.

While I started with coffee, Eric discovered that their bar makes a daily, flavored seltzer drink (non-alcoholic) and found one to his liking – which is a whole other story.

I had the most amazing stuffed French toast with seasonal fruit.  OMG.  The flavor melded together and the cream cheesy concoction layered between the bread was absolutely perfect.

Eric also enjoyed his selection, a biscuit with a fried chicken and golden nuggets of potatoes.  I won – just saying.

The following weekend, Eric made a version of the stuffed French toast.  While very good, it wasn’t exactly the same.  Love all the extra fruit though.  🙂  And the bacon.

Should be some interesting photos and recipes coming shortly.  Eric is going on his annual trip back home for deer season and my pride ensures that we eat at home every night.