My Saturday Six

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dawnnys

Well-known member
Sympathies going out to you in the west! Michael, Lisa, Steve, you all keeping cool?! It's a nice day here, a little gray and then some rain, but it's beautiful now. 'Should be outside.

Made salmon patties for dinner last night with dill-cream sauce and lemon butter. Very good with brown rice and lemon pepper (we find brown rice too blah without spicing it up), biscuits.

I, too, cleaned out my freezer, and found some chicken thighs that needed clearing out. So I am making blackberry-chipotle balsamic chicken in the crockpot. 'Sounds more difficult than it is, just from a couple of bottles I had. Serving with sweet potatoes and asparagus.

I'm thinking I'll try charlie's margarita-strawberry pie tomorrow. Going to a cake-and-coffee birthday party for SIL and she asked me to bring a "light dessert". Maybe I can redo the recipe and make individual parfaits?

Also going to a neighborhood jewelry part tomorrow earlier in the afternoon. 'Should be nice, but I'm not particularly a jewelry-wearing person. At least there will be a/c and little finger food!

I think tomorrow night's supper will be easy lasagne from those no-boil lasagne strips... has anyone ever used them with much luck? I read/heard something about them but I can't remember what the consensus was.

 
You know it's going to be a hot day when the AC kicks on before 9am...

And today isn't even going to be the hottest day. Also, how is it the internet says I'm 10 degrees hotter up here than LA right now???

(Ok, the internet says here/Burbank are both 100F, but the day is still young. The thermometer in my glassed in sunroom/patio hotbox is maxed out at 120F.)

For Pat and some of the others in the outer areas, I'm sure it's much hotter. You gotta love our micro-climates...50 degree differences within an hours drive.

Can't do much towards Sat six. I woke at 4 something and watched 2 movies. I also dusted, found a fan to hook-up, and vacuumed, which is just dorky to try to do in a wheelchair. Food is still simple fair more of a snackable nature, so got nothing there. I'm currently munching on Kettle Corn from TJ's.

 
I just drove to Fullerton with my sister and her car was in the shade. . .

at my house and the car's outside thermometer said 107º. Yep, it's toasty down here plus we have haze and humidity.

 
We were supposed to be 90 today, but barely hit 80. Not complaining, mind you!

We were invited to the Dodger game tomorrow, but I begged off because of the temps. Can't picture sitting out for hours on end at a game in these temps.

Cooking/food related:

- Making bratwurst, saurkraut and corn on the cob for dinner tonight.

` Went to our town bakery (luckily, or unluckily, is just far enough from my house to make it a special treat) we got treats for later tonight, and some pastry for the morning.

- I might take the kids to our local street fair tomorrow, so I'm sure there will be some special foods being eaten while we're there.

- We went to In-N-Out burger for lunch today - I splurged most of my daily kcals on a Double-Double and extra crispy fries, and a chocolate cupcake from the earlier bakery trip.

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LOL!

 
Well since I started the freezer clean out today....

You know those little bits of this and that leftovers you throw in the freezer thinking you will eat them - they all went in the crockpot (meats, mostly beef). Cooking in the slow cooker so they fall apart. Pretty tasty so I'll figure out how to make a casserole or sandwiches with that.

Went to Costco to get prescriptions (and DD started as one of the samplers last weekend so I have to go give her a hard time). Dang if I didn't get down there and taste these turkey and provolone pretzel bakes that were KILLER - I even asked for a second sample. Then I bought some.

DH hasn't felt good today so he called wanting me to pick up General Tsao's chicken so I went to Panda Express and came home with an assortment of SPICY things and now I am paying for it.

Tomorrow the pork skin (didn't really have meat on it so no crispy belly this time) will be made into tasty cracklin style chicharonne.

Think it's time for a batch of potato salad to start staying in the fridge so I'll be making that.

And think I will stay inside and work on resumes/applications and do some genealogy - just loved finding that our 2nd great grandmother's surname is the same as my cousin's married name considering she's getting divorced and her soon to be ex is a jerk - sent her a text teasing her about it at 11pm last night.

 
I've never made my own chicharonnes. Do you just deep fry the skins?

My favorite Atkins indulgence is the hot & spicy ones dipped in sour cream.

My Mom is a certified Master Genealogist and is very active in DAR & The Daughters of The Republic of Texas. She has tried to get us involved for a long time but I just haven't done it. If I lived in my home town I might attend her local chapter. Maybe some day. It is a lot of work.

 
Several ways to make them.....

In Louisiana they have these cracklins - not like cracklins for cracklin bread - that are the skin with a good bit of fat and meat left on them. There is also a more commercialized (but small and local) one made in north MS by Kim's. To make these they typically cut them into squares - they are probably about 1"x1" by 1+" thick. Place all those in a kettle with about enough water to cover. Boil/simmer until all the water cooks out and they render a lot of their fat. Remove from the rendered fat and bring the fat up to frying temperature. Then fry them in batches. Remove and toss in spice blends (red pepper mainly).

Others just cut them up and fry them in oil. I believe Kim's just wok fry theirs in oil and don't render them.

The type I am cooking are thick - not like what you buy in stores which is manly just the skin. To get the skin meltingly light I think I have discovered a trick that I saw on Best Thing I Ever Ate - Michael Symon went to Publican in Chicago and they boil their rinds then sort of let them sit and dry a little before frying. 4505 Meats in SF makes the best I have ever had - so light they are like porky cotton candy and just melt in your mouth. I think that the boiling might be their trick too. This chef I know that works for Marlow & Daughters in NYC played around with some and I really think from his experimentation and everything else, cooking then drying and frying is key.

 
Saturday Six...

Dawn, I think my mom uses those noodles, but she usually boils them first (don't ask me why) or makes sure there's a lot of sauce on either side of each noodle, stacking, if you use them dry.

1. Made my mom's breadcrumb-dipped chicken last night. It did not turn out brown and crunchy, and I think it's because it's actually her cornflake-dipped chicken. smileys/frown.gif Boo. I wasted a half a package of panko!

2. My brother babysat, this morning, so J. and I went to what used to be our regular place, Nizza, and had brunch. Primavera Salad (shaved asparagus, mixed greens, fava beans, great vinaigrette) for me, crostini with prosciutto and ricotta and balsamic for both of us, and spicy baked eggs for J. And a large iced mocha, on the way back, to take to my brother! (Babysitting per hour in Manhattan: $25-$50; family in town: priceless.) smileys/wink.gif

3. The season of iced coffee is upon us. I'm not sure whether to make coffee ice cubes, do the fridge French-press method, or something else.

4. Not sure what to do for the Fourth. I'd thought we would have leftover chicken (yes, sad, sorry), but it doesn't look like it. It may just be burgers, chips, salad, but since it's just us, I'm disinclined to stress about it. (Instead, I'll stress about what all the fireworks noise will mean for our normally peaceful nights...)

5. I have to make another half of the Spiced Nectarine Cake I made last week, since half mysteriously disappeared (and, of course, you can't make half a cake).

6. Had a limoncello Collins at brunch. smileys/smile.gif Best thing about brunch on 9th Avenue this weekend (today is the Pride Parade in NYC) is watching all the happy couples walk by! smileys/smile.gif

 
It's uncharacteristically cool in Oklahoma.

I opened some windows this morning to let in the 64F air. Unheard of here this time of year. I know it won't last but I am sure grateful. Your heat is probably headed our way.

 
I haven't worked on the Presley branch in a while so not yet though this one person said it is there

I just need to go through all of his stuff - he has a whole website and he said there are a lot of BAD trees on Elvis out there. He has sources with all of his information.

If you only knew what all we have found so far - LOL!!! It forced my dad to tell me the truth about his father that BLEW my mind - he killed a man and got away with it. The sort of famous Revolutionary war captain turned head scalping pirate Samuel Mason/Meason. And Somerled King of the Vikings. Still can't make the family legend that the Clintons were originally Stephens/Stevens either. But finding that I was part of the McNairy family whose home is 'preserved' in Guilford Co. NC and were among the first settlers/prominent families of Nashville has been cool.

Guess I had the most fun finding out that my 2nd great grandmother was a Reed Friday night and then picking at my cousin about it as she is married to a Reed and currently trying to divorce the jerk - she can't get away from them and sort of my jokes about the fact we are all inbred.

 
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