Category Archives: Food

Costco Owes Me Thirty Minutes!!!

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Yes, it’s true. Costco owes me thirty minutes, which is how long it took
me to get this blasted can of Kirkland Tomato Paste Open!!!!
How is that possible and why was it Costco’s fault? Let me tell you. The story begins when my neighbors Sergio and David asked if I needed anything at Costco. I asked them to get me hamburger and they returned with a package the size of a large newborn baby..7 1/2 lbs! So, I divided it into 7 one pound packages and one 1/2  pound one. Click on pictures to enlarge and hear the rest of the tale.

 

made a meatloaf out of 1 1/2 pounds of the remains, and meatballs out of the rest.
Of course, meatballs screamed out for a sauce, so I tried to open this tomato paste,
but my can opener wouldn’t work,
and when I tried using my punch opener, the paste came oozing up but was too thick to pour out.
When I went to borrow my neighbor’s can opener, his wouldn’t work either, so he gouged it open, but it was impossible to get all the paste out.
Then he had a brilliant thought. Perhaps they had put the label on upside down and you had to open it from the bottom!
And he was right. The fault was not in my can opener, but in the factory. Turned over, the can opened like a charm.
And when the tomato paste was removed (careful, sharp edges) this bit of artistry was revealed.
And although it took me as long to get the can open as to prepare the rest of the sauce, After the sauce had simmered on the stovetop, I added the meatballs I’d made earlier
and popped them in the oven at a low heat.
An hour later.. voila!

 

My Sister Patti’s Stroganoff Pie. Yum.

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1953: My sister Patti and I. I was 6, she was 10.

My Good Sister’s Stroganoff Shepherd’s Pie

Almost everything I know about how to cook came from one of four sources:  my mother, my sister Patti, my Indonesian Cookbook, Pearl Buck’s Cookbook or my Australian friend Dierdre, who taught me how to make an authentic East Indian Curry.  But the recipe that follows continues to be my favorite, and one of the easiest. It is my sister Patti’s recipe for shepherd’s pie, with a few alterations for my own taste. Patti, any contradictions may be noted in the comments section!

My Good Sister’s Stroganoff Shepherd’s Pie

6 white or red potatoes
milk, butter, salt or garlic salt and pepper to taste.
2 lbs. hamburger
1 large chopped white onion
1 cup coarsely grated raw carrots
1 finely diced green pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

*Clean and cut up potatoes and boil until tender in lightly salted water.  No need to peel potatoes.
*Brown hamburger, green pepper and onion in skillet, chopping up the hamburger into loose meat.
*Add grated carrots for the last 5 minutes or so.
*When meat is completely browned and green pepper is tender, stir in the soup and sour cream.
*When thoroughly mixed and all ingredients are hot, place in a large cake pan.
*Mash potatoes, adding butter and salt or garlic salt and pepper to taste.
*Spread potatoes over the meat mixture and place in 250-300 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1/2 hour or until ready to serve, covering with aluminum foil and lowering oven if more time is necessary before serving.
*If you wish, you can place daubs of butter and/or grated cheddar cheese over top of potatoes and sprinkle with paprika to garnish.

(Patti’s recipe did not include carrots, green pepper, garlic or cheese.)

All amounts are arbitrary.  I never use set amounts, so I’m guessing–as is usual in most oft-repeated recipes. Vary the amount of ingredients to your taste.  The pieces hold together a bit better if it is allowed to cool slightly before serving.

I always think of my sister when I serve this dish, and those two years when I was still in college and she moved back to a house just a few blocks from my dorm. I remember many home-cooked meals and that she made the best Vodka Collins that I’ve ever had.  Hers was the only place I could drink in college without being carded!  Ha.  I thank her for all the comforts of family and home provided during those years and afterwards when I came back from Africa and she again gave me a home base for a year until I got settled on my own.

For. MVB Sister prompt

Good Enough: Mexican Street Corn Cheetos

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Good enough to warrant a second helping! A gift from Sergio, and David, just returned from the States. Not sure they have these in Mexico, but then they don’t have the king of Cheetos, Cheetos Torciditos !!!, in the U.S.

Ode to Cheetos

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Ode to Cheetos

If you’ve given up on lunch
and seek a substitute with punch,
Cheetos are my favorite snacks
that can be found sealed up in sacks.
Always flavorful and munchy,
crisp and satisfyingly crunchy
between lips and teeth and gums,
enjoyable from cheeks to tums.

Though they’re often underrated,
I feel that they have been berated
by makers of crackers and chips
as well as creators of dips,
due to envy and to spite,
for citrus drinks like Squirt and Sprite
complement their spicy bite,
setting all the world to right.

So buy a bag without delay.
Do not wait another day.
You’ll be elated that you did,
and also happy that you hid
the bag so as you start to chew,
you know that it is all for you!
(Hint: Get the bag marked “Torciditos.”
They’re the premiere type of Cheetos!!!)

For more Cheetos excitement, go here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2022/12/26/a-very-cheetos-christmas/

Prompt words today are citrus, spite, crunchy, crisp, delay, happy and berated.

Not fiction. I am addicted to these little devils and everyone I’ve introduced them to has become hooked as well. I guess I do you no favors in sharing my favorite vice. I may have to go buy some now. Fortunately, (regrettably?) a little shop I must pass on my way to or from home sells them.

Dietary Doldrums

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Dietary Doldrums

Her eating habits, luckily, were found to be most corrigible,
for her personality was found to still be porridgeable.
Oatmeal formed her breakfast and salads formed her lunch
as she foresook the bad foods on which she used to munch.

Buttery popcorn banished as an unhealthy mistake,
she snacked instead on kale chips for her figure’s sake.
Rare steak was  soon banished, for she relished it no more
once she foresook flesh meats, shuddering at their gore.

Her electric grinder ground chickpeas up instead
and this was the protein upon which she fed.
Healthy ever after once her war with food was won,
meals sugarless and greaseless, alas, were not much fun.

 

\Prompt words today are buttery, personality, gore, corrigible, Steak and electric. Image by Deryn Macey on Unsplash. 

Strange Conglomeration

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This is probably the strangest conglomeration of close-ups you will ever see. What they have in common is simply that they were all taken within a 24-hour period and I like them all.

For Cee’s CMMC Close-Up or Macro Challenge

Wild Turkey

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Wild Turkey

Grandpa’s going ballistic, because in place of turkey,
my vegetarian sister is serving us tofurkey!
Grandma lost her lower plate, her jaw dropped down so far
when Sis brought in cranberries served from their store-bought jar.

All the usual “ooohs” and “aahs” were just replaced with sighs.
Milk-and-butterless  potatoes and no whipped cream on the pies?
The food that we partook of was devoid of any beast.
Only plants were massacred to engineer our feast.

It was mayhem at the table and I flinched from the barrage
of complaints when all my family’s men took off for the garage
to imbibe in liquid turkey of their own variety,
“Wild Turkey” likely  being the only bird they’d see.

Sis smacked her lips with relish and devoured the whole meal,
it being most unlikely that the rest of us would steal
even a single morsel. We’d already made our plans
to hop into our Hondas, our Buicks and our vans

and all stop by for pizza and some ice cream as a way
for us to put Thanksgiving back into our day.
Meanwhile, in the dining room, Auntie popped a cork,
declaring that next year she’d cook, and she’d be serving pork!!!

Prompt words for the day are chorus, mayhem, tofurkey,cork and garage.

Weight Watcher Coup

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Weight Watcher Coup

Why would my Weight Watchers meet in a restaurant
that’s a buffet where diners can eat all they want?
I guess it’s to practice resisting temptation,
but instead I am feeling severe perturbation.

Potatoes and gravy and chicken and peas
and desserts where a person can eat all they please
are simply not kosher when one should be dieting.
Instead of resisting, I find myself rioting.

I charged up to the counter and filled up my plate
with a pile of entrees I’m ashamed to relate.
Then muffins and crepes and strawberry pie
spilled over the sides and reached up to the sky.

Something about me was slightly off-kilter,
and I found I was eating without any filter.
If they’d pared down the menu, I’d have much less naughty,
and the folks at my table might have looked way less haughty.

My table mates clucked and looked sad and disgusted.
It was  clear at buffets I was not to be trusted.
Yet I noticed also some looks of regret
as they surveyed these goodies that they, too, could get

if only they had the nerve to break ranks:
scalloped potatoes and baked beans with franks,
chocolate eclairs and ice cream with hot fudge
all could be theirs with nobody to judge.

Yet what could it hurt, just one serving of gravy?
Just one piece of chicken, one biscuit and maybe
one serving of pudding without the whipped cream?
Would one scoop of vanilla really be extreme?

I saw resolve falter as one after one
they returned to the line for a muffin or bun,
chicken fried steak or some pork or some shrimp—
first with restraint, then ceasing to scrimp.

And that’s how I broke up our Weight Watcher’s bunch
after a single ill-fated lunch.
I’m not proud of my actions and the resolves I’ve killed,
but at least for the present I’m sufficiently filled!

 

 

Prompt words for the day are filter, naughty, meeting, pare and menu.

Fasting Diet, Day 6: How good does this pizza look that I made a week ago?

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The rest of the story is that I have 16 hours to go until I can eat again! So I’m torturing myself more than you.

Here’s a closeup:

 

Day for Night

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2:45 P.M. Sent a message that I was coming up from the studio to get some lunch and evidently lay down for a minute on my bed to rest before going back down to the studio.

8:15 P.M. Awakened, not sure if that was the sunset or the sunrise. Discovered it was the sunset of the third longest day of the year and went to the kitchen to feed the cats. Raining hard. No swim tonight.

10:25 P.M. Sent a message to Forgottenman that somehow the trip to feed the cats had resulted in my cooking a chicken curry, now in the oven and a pot of barley, now in the steam cooker. (Yes, it really did take that many dishes to create the chicken curry and barley!)

11:11 P.M. Sitting down to chicken curry and barley 

11:23 P.M. It was delicious!  Now, do I go to bed or am I up for the day?