Some Cutlets!

Today has been great. Around noon, when Tony and I were just finishing up our outdoor chores—Rooster Cogburn spread his wings and cock-a-doodled-do and The Golden Girls totally ignored him. It made us laugh. "He's telling us that it is time for us to eat lunch," Tone hinted. "What are you fixin' us for lunch?"

"I don't know."

"Nance, I love those healthy meatless cutlets that you've been making us, but could you please fix us something else. We've been eating them almost every other day and I'm...." Even though Tony was right about getting tired of eating the cutlets so often I still didn't know what to cook us for lunch.

Then it hit me—hamburger soup. Last week my dear friend Mari had sent me this link to The Pioneer Woman's Hamburger Soup recipe and she had told me that it was easy to make and was totally delicious and that I should give it a try. So after I checked it out I bookmarked Ree Drummond's Hamburger Soup recipe for future reference. Click Hamburger Soup to check out her recipe.

After I reread The Pioneer Woman's Hamburger Soup recipe I got busy cooking it in the kitchen, sort of, because I didn't have all of the ingredients and I had to make several substitutions. While I was sauteing the mushrooms, zucchini, onion and garlic, I filled a big pot with six cups of boiling water and then I dumped in leftover sacks of frozen mixed vegetables and Brussels sprouts.

Then I chopped up some celery and tossed it into the pot. Then I added the beef broth, a can of tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce and a can of Rotel tomatoes and green chiles.

Then I substituted the potatoes for pasta and started cooking up some linguini. Then I stirred up some Jiffy corn bread mix and slid that into the preheated oven. It was sort of like a three ring circus, on the stove top. Then I poured in the rest of the jar of my homemade Serrano pepper salsa and then added the salt, pepper and parsley.

I then cooked the hamburger meat with some leftover pinto beans and then I added it to the pot, along with the drained linguini—"Tony! Lunch is ready. Tony!"

Omg, it was absolutely delicious and Tony loved it, too. Even though I cooked it differently than the recipe and had to substitute several of the ingredients and then added some extras, I want to thank Mari for turning me on to this tasty recipe. And I think that in honor of Mari I am going to call it Cousin Nancy's The More The Mari Stew.

After lunch, as I was dividing up the 1/2 pot of leftover soup/stew into six quart-sized Baggies, he said, "Thank you. That was a really good lunch." Then he chuckled and jokingly said, "I guess we'll be eating these leftovers for lunch, for the next five or six days, too?"

"Yes," I replied. "And by then you'll be begging me to please cook you up some cutlets."

This afternoon I checked my e-mail and sweet Eileen had sent me this note:

I told Nancy Bailey you blogged about her book & got a mutual fan comment from Fay!  She had already subscribed to your blog feed & she read it & was thrilled!  She thinks you are a cool person and can feel the energy from your blog!

 

So, two writers complimenting each other - that's great!!!  Eileen

Omg, Eileen's note about her good friend, Nancy J. Bailey, a super talented author, artist, actor, horse and dog trainer, etc. put a really big smile on my face and it literally made my day great, because she is one fabulous author and I can't put her book The North Side Of Down: A True Story Of Two Sisters down. 

Feeling so complimented that Eileen's friend, Nancy J. Bailey, follows my blog, I Googled her and was instantly blown away with Nancy's beautiful art. And her incredibly great watercolor Fall Trail Ride is so awesome, it blew me out of the saddle, so to speak. So I suggest that y'all Google her too, or at least check out these two links to Nancy J. Bailey: Paintings and Books.

So as I wind this up for tonight, I hope that Nancy, up there, reads this post, because she now has another big fan, from Texas.

Y'all have a great evening!

Recipes!

Saturday and today have been great. Yesterday afternoon, Carol and Bill came over for a very fun visit. While we were visiting we started talking about our love for kitchen gadgets and some of our favorite cookbooks and we all agreed that we loved the recipes found in Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Grady Spears and Robb Walsh's A Cowboy in the Kitchen: Recipes from Reata and Texas West of the Pecos cookbooks.

When I told them that, last week, I had cooked five, different, delicious recipes found in Grady's and Robb's cookbook, Tony spoke up and said, "The recipes were really tasty, but Nancy cooked two different soup recipes, two days in a row. I like soup, but I like something in it, that you can chew." And Bill quickly agreed with him.

Then Carol laughed and said, "Tony, you mean that you want something to eat that makes you have to put your dentures in." And that made me laugh so hard—my dentures almost fell out of my mouth.

After we had quit laughing I went back to the bathroom, to add some Poligrip. And when I returned to the big room, I picked up my copy of Cowboys & Indians August/September 2014  magazine and told them about wanting to try Lisa Fain's recipe that I had found in the magazine which I bet is included in her new cookbook The Homesick Texan Family Table. Click here if you want to see the the recipe.

Before we adios-ed each other, Carol invited me to go with her to The Apple Store, at La Cantera, in San Antonio today. When I heard her say San Antonio, I said, "Let me think about it. Tony and I have been to that Apple Store several times and I know that I will instantly fall in love and want to buy their latest products—that I can't afford. Let me call you in the morning."

This morning when I called Carol, I felt a lot better after telling her, "I can't go with you, Carol. Tony and I have to go to Kerrville today to get groceries and the ingredients needed for that recipe, in Cowboys & Indians, because I am want to cook it for our lunch...."

This afternoon after going to the big H-E-B, on Main Street, I cooked Lisa Fain's Tuna With Avocado and Red Pepper Baked in Parchment recipe. It was very easy to make and Tony and I loved her delicious recipe. And now I'm so glad that I didn't go to San Antone, because Tony and I now have a new, favorite recipe.

Y'all have a great evening!