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Where have the last few weeks gone?  Although the weather has been rather warm and humid the last week or so, I've been cooking. The other evening I made lemon risotto with chicken.
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My daughter gave me a head of cabbage recently that I had to use fast. A recipe that came to mind was pulled pork.
 
The recipe I have is from my husband’s aunt that she found in her local paper in Suffolk, Virginia. I’ve had it for over 25 years and usually make it once or twice a year. It’s done in a crock pot, which is great. The ingredients are pretty common and the initially cooking instructions are to place the meat in the crock pot between 7 and 8 p.m. in the evening and have it cook through the night. However, the day that I made it I was home, so I started it at 11:30 a.m. The first round of cook was done at 7 p.m.

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My husband had a craving for pot roast. He thought I had his mother's recipe, I didn't, however, I did remember she used to  purchase rump roasts. My husband suggested using Lipton onion soup, but that didn't appeal to me. He wanted me to call his sister in North Carolina to see if she had their mother's recipe, but instead, I dug through my trove of recipes and found a basic pot roast  recipe that I haven't made in ages. 
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How are you adjusting to seeing the sunrise at approximately 6:30 a.m.? My husband and I are normally up at 5:30 a.m. and it's pitch black outside. There's only about 12 hours or so of daylight  during September it's decreasing each day.
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Recently I did some food shopping for the new parents. On my son-in-law's food shopping list for ShopRite, was a cut of meat called skirt steak. Skirt steak is from the diaphragm muscules of the cow. It is a long, thin cut of beef with more beef flavor than a flank steak.  I purchased Nature's Reserve grass fed beef (all natural, all vegetarian diet) for $4.99/lb. I've had skirt steak before, but I've never prepared it. ​

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Chocolate chip cookies are both mine and my husband's favorite cookie. However, sometimes we find them too sweet.  How do you keep your chocolate cravings satisfied yet tamper down the sweetness?
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​Side Note: I originally posted on June 29th on Facebook, "If Baby Santo doesn't arrive today, I'll be making this for supper." Well I'm delighted to say that little Emilia June did arrive on Tuesday, August 29th at 12:11 pm. I am currently at her home watching over her as she naps and Mom and Dad have a quick lunch in town.

Recently, I popped into Whole Foods to pick up something for dinner. I glanced over to the fish counter and saw that they had scallops on sale for $14.99/lb. I hesitated to purchase them as I thought Wegmans may have a better price.
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I went Whole Foods yesterday in hopes of being able to take advantage of the great price they had on scallops on Sunday. However, when I went up to the counter on Monday and read the placard, I discovered the scallops were previously frozen from Canada! What a disappointment, I was hoping for local scallops for my supper last evening.

I  perused the local meat counter and refrigerators for ideas for supper. What was a great price yesterday was the Bell & Evans whole chickens for $1.69/lb. Bird in hand, I was off to now find a recipe for last evening.
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As someone that usually purchases chicken sausage, I recently tried Pat LaFrieda's sweet Italian pork sausage that I found at ShopRite of Wall Township. You get four links, one pound of sausage, for $3.99. The sausage isn't fatty, in fact, I added about a tablespoon of olive oil to a fry pan before browning up the sausage. There was little if any fat left in the pan after I was done sautéing. The meat was perfectly seasoned and included fennel seeds.

I was at Wegmans yesterday. Local scallop prices have now come down to $16.99/lb. My son tells me that last Sunday, he was able to purchase scallops at Wegmans for $14.99/lb.  Perhaps the price came down further as it was Sunday and these scallops were part of a Friday shipment. I'll be at Wegmans on Sunday to test my theory.
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Early in the season, my daughter had in her CSA box, a kabocha squash. What is kabocha squash? Kabocha squash is a variety of winter squash, based on the Japanese variety Cucurbita maxima. Since my daughter didn't want it, it was passed along to me.

​Last evening I finally had a chance to cook up this squash. Based on its shape it provided a bit of a challenge in slicing into pieces for baking. Internet research brought me to a recipe found on www.food.com for sweet & spicy roasted kabocha squash. The reviews by other cooks seemed positive, so I gave it a try. All the items for this easy recipe were in my pantry, including sesame oil. Once I cut the squash, I made the seasoning mix and placed the squash slices in a large plastic bag to coat the squash. Once done, I placed the slices on two rimmed cookie sheets lined with silicon baking sheets and baked for approximately 30 minutes.


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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