Just another update, nothing serious

 We are still surviving on what we can get. Still have a roof over our heads and food of subsistence level in the kitchen. I wanted to post my latest creation in cooking and start trying to do more creative cooking posts, peppered into my usually uneventful life.

We are down to the last tube of ground turkey from the food drive, some chicken thighs thanks to a friend and that's it for meat. Luckily I get money this weekend and we can use a bit of that money to get more. The food drives are drying up now that the pandemic is over and school is starting so we have to buy more bulk to last us the month.

Previous dishes have been canned salmon mixed in with rice and flavoring of lemon and a few other seasonings. That was rather tasty. The other picture is fried chicken thighs using my Mexican Dry Rub #2 (recipe following) and stove top stuffing with added onion, celery and Italian seasoning with a little extra sage. That was extremely tasty with the added splash of ranch dressing drizzled on top.

The Mexican dry rub recipe I got off Pinterest and it's been a staple in my cupboard ever since to add actual FLAVOR to dishes. Case in point; this number.

We have large yellow potatoes from the food drive and that tube of turkey. I've been scouring Pinterest for recipes and found this one that called for ground beef. Easy change out. The issue is, this is such a Midwest mostly bland recipe I had to add stuff to it. The only spices were smoked paprika, salt and pepper oh and Worcestershire sauce and beef broth. Excuse me? No onion, no garlic, nothing else? Oh and it had two eggs as optional mixed in there somehow. Right.

Okay here we go... diced up some yellow onion first and tossed that in the pan with some canola oil before I put the ground turkey in. Which, by the way I've learned that it is more water than fat and definitely needs oil or something to cook it in. Stirred that up and added the smoked paprika (game changer folks for just about everything!) along with salt and pepper. Cooked that until everything was done, dumped that out to a bowl and then did two or so heaping tablespoons of butter in the pan and added in the potatoes. So far this is pretty much the original recipe except for the onion.

Now ... added more salt and pepper to the potatoes, cooked them as much as I considered good then added the meat back in. Stirred everything well and then looked at my spice choices.... Italian seasoning, parsley.... stir it around... it was smelling okay then I remembered the packet of mushroom gravy in the cupboard. Added in the broth, only a half cup? Tossed in the gravy mix and then stirred everything with an added half cup of water and a clove of garlic. Another stir and covered it while I considered other options. Mexican dry rub it is! It was very tasty! Not a do over but it was good. Could have benefited from some green bell pepper for sure.

Mexican Dry Rub 2 (because I found two recipes for the same thing and liked this one better)

2T Chili Powder

1T Garlic Powder

1/2 T Onion Powder

1 T Oregano

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1 1/2 T Cumin

1/2 T Salt (Sea salt if you've got it)

1 T Black Pepper

The original recipe called for 1 T of regular paprika, I did half and half with smoked and it specifically calls for sea salt but I use whatever I have. I also usually have ground Oregano but was gifted a huge bag of regular leaf oregano and am using that. No big difference.

So there you have it. I have also made a Tex-Mex Goulash with elbow macaroni, same recipe another time but with rice and mixed veggies.

A lot of cooking on the stove during the summer along with some crock pot cooking when I can. Been doing a lot of fried chicken, rice dishes, sandwiches and salads. We got over a dozen small ripe avocados and two heads of romaine at this last drive along with a Butternut squash which I am regretting after seeing recipes involving mostly ovens. I also got two dozen of local fresh farm eggs for free from a local garden group member. I boiled up some eggs for egg salad then remembered the quick recipe for 1000 Island dressing. Bingo! Quick Cobb salad sort of. Avocado, egg, romaine, tomatoes and I was set! 

Oh yes, I have lots of tomatoes but from different sources. My tomato plants have given me about six or eight so far and there's tons more still on the bushes. Roma tomatoes have been super productive and I'm looking forward to plenty more.

I also have two cucumber plants and the lone garlic that is still plugging along. Poor thing. 

Hoping that garlic will bulb and the cucumbers will give me a few before the Fall weather moves in. Full mental spewing of my garden adventures is here: Greendini Garden Guru

 

That's pretty much my life right now, oh I picked up knitting again and am making a pair of socks. Good, easily transportable and small project with a quick turn around. Usually. That's it for now, might do another post when I fix something amazing for dinner.

Take care y'all! Everyone.... all y'all.