What's for dinner?

[maki2]

The easy part of retirement has been not spending a lot of time on cooking

 

[vanbrat]

Evening all.

Busy day today, Saturdays are my house cleaning and puttering about the yard day. No walks because I need to get started early while it's still cool. Watering is the first order of the day followed by fig picking. My tree has started producing ripe figs in bulk and they don't last long so they need to be immediately picked when ripe and eaten, processed, or frozen quick. Summer tree ripe figs are one of summer's biggest treats and when perfectly ripe, they literally drip honey. As you can imagine it's also a race to get them before the birds and critters do. I always leave some for them too, they've gotta eat like everything else. I also keep a big bowl of fresh water out for the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. It can get pretty dry here come late Jul and Aug. They actually politely wait in line to water!

Anyway, I can't use everything coming off the tree - Think 100 POUNDS of fruit! So I try to give it away to folks who'll use them. I'll trundle big bags over to my neighbor Margie (Her hubby's the city public works director) who makes fantastic fig preserves with them (I always get some - it makes me put in the work to bake fresh, hot biscuits to smear it on along with plenty of butter - the BEST), I also freeze a store for myself to make ice cream (Fig / Banana), pickled spice figs, fig syrup, and just enjoy them fresh w breakfast. "Waste not, want not".

Tonight I had to figure out what to do with the last of the latest batch of mung bean sprouts I had started several days ago (try it on the road. VERY easy to do and loaded with great stuff for you). I settled on an old favorite - Egg Fu Yong. Basically a savory egg pancake loaded w veggies and a little meat (optional) that's an old standbye in about every Chinese restaurant back home (usually covered with a brown gravy) - except maybe fancy ones like Kirin in Waikiki. In old school places like Tasty Chop Suey in Kalihi. Hawaiian Chinese food is something that's a mishmash that has dishes not found on the mainland, in China, or anywhere else except good old Hawaii. Things like Crispy Gau Gee, Minute Chicken, Cake Noodle (Dang... I'm getting hungry again), and Pork Hash. All based on what was available in Hawaii and CHEAP!

Tasty Chop Suey - Honolulu, HI

Delivery & Pickup Options - 89 reviews of Tasty Chop Suey "Tasty is about as average as you're going to get with Chinese food. Don't get me wrong, it's good but pretty similiar to any Chinese restaurant you might find when you're not looking. They have good salt/pepper squid and very "tasty"...

www.yelp.com

I actually wrote about these a while ago but used them in the mighty St Paul Sammie that's only sold in the St Louis Area (think EAST St Louie) and no ones ever heard about them in St Paul!

St. Paul Sandwich Included in Lucky Peach's First Cookbook

Allegedly created in St. Louis, the St. Paul sandwich finally gets some notoriety.

www.stlmag.com

No bread and L/T tonight. Just a simple bowl of rice and a couple of these tasty babies (no gravy, not a fan with these). Very filling, very easy and VERY cheap! A little shoyu and a drizzle of Sriracha and I'm good to go.
I gotta cut this short, Sam is barking up a storm outside and he very rarely barks.

Cheers!

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I so miss the tree ripened figs from around my Grandmas house waaaaay back when.

 

[vanbrat]

I just finished 4 batches of fresh peach and pineapple jam and three bags of peach pie filling in the freezer and 4 bags of smoothy mixes in the freezer and 3rd batch of fruit leather and now I am looking to get more peaches and make some more pie filling as that was my first try and I loved it. I love this kind of cooking. And now that I am retired I can spend as much time as I want on it....
Hubby thinks it is good food and all, but he doesn't always get why I like to do this stuff.

 

[JDub]

The easy part of retirement has been not spending a lot of time on cooking

But I LIKE to cook! It's all the house and yard stuff that gets old!

Cheers!

 

[JDub]

Evening all.

Just leftovers again tonight. Rice and Shoyu Pork with a bit of salad. I'm getting back in the habit of cooking several different things and going through them during the week. Besides the above, I've got a skillet of chorizo pork for taco salad, burritos, and scrambled w eggs for breakfast. That's what I had this morning. 2 eggs scrambled with chorizo, cheese, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes. Served with hot salsa and some warm corn tortillas along with OJ and coffee. Stick to your ribs stuff. Lasted till dinner.

I quick roasted a small Rump Roast tonight I bought yesterday on sale ($3.49 lb - good deal) at our "Not the WM". With salt, pepper, and garlic powder. It's cooling in the fridge and I'll slice it tomorrow for sammies and teri beef. I still have a bit of pasta sauce I'll have to figure out what to do with - maybe boil up some zitti and combine w cheese and freeze for lunch sometimes. Tomorrow I'm planning on having grilled Viet style porkchops marinated in lemon grass, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, shrimp paste, and S&P. I'll serve it w rice noodles, dipping sauce, and a plate of fresh herbs and veggies- Basil, Mint, Cilantro, cukes, scallions, and tomato.

I had to go to our closest large town today for a Lowe's run and I gotta tell ya, "Ain't NOONE gonna be able to afford those prices for long"! Seriously, the price of hardware and gutter toppers has basically tripled since I last bought them... Even worse the price of plate lunch back home is soaring. My favorite mixed Asian BBQ plate was 17 BUCKS when I was home back in May! This is a NATIONAL (OK - Hawaiian) Emergency! Don't mess wit our PLATE LUNCH Bra!

‘We have no choice’: As inflation rises, plate lunch prices are ticking up and up

“We have to raise the prices, the prices are raised on us."

www.hawaiinewsnow.com

Hopefully you guys are surviving this without having to make some really tough decisions but i know many are... Hang in there.

Stay safe, sane and well fed out there folks.

Cheers!

 

[Carla618]

I just finished 4 batches of fresh peach and pineapple jam ...

I have a dwarf peach tree that my son gave me for Mother's Day 3-4 years ago. It is completely filled with peaches, but I'm sure they will all fall to the ground before they are ready to harvest. Happened the past two summers.

 

[Frood]

I have a dwarf peach tree that my son gave me for Mother's Day 3-4 years ago. It is completely filled with peaches, but I'm sure they will all fall to the ground before they are ready to harvest. Happened the past two summers.

You may need to cull some of the fruit... I read somewhere (or maybe it was on YouTube) that if you have a fully loaded tree you should cull up to 2/3 of the buds/fruit...

 

[Carla618]

You are probably right. I hard pruned it (goblet shape) the first couple years, but missed pruning the 3rd year and it got huge (too tall). Last night I noticed a branch so heavy with fruit it was drooping to the ground. I'll go out and prune it when it cools off. Thank you.

 

[JDub]

OK, Evening all. Happy Friday! I received the Bluetti Power Pack I ordered today. It seems to be a nicely made piece of kit. I've got it charging to 100% right now (it came at 67%) and it's doing so quickly. Very similar in size to my 2 GOLABS but a more powerful battery and ~ 3 hours more moderate AC duration. Comes with a built in light as well.

For the price it's very nice but I'm not crazy about the proprietary 12v solar input. Looks to be a coaxial cable type (think your cable TV connector) and the single (thin) center pin could easily be damaged if you jam it the wrong way. Aside from that, I think the recipient will be happy with it since she isn't going to be using any solar with it. Just charging it off the wall plugs to keep a CPAP (and other odds and ends) operating during a power out.



I also grilled up the Viet pork chops I started last night on my trusty little Coleman gas grill (under my vented range hood). They turned out nice and juicy with that great taste that Vietnamese food has (I'm a big fan). They're keeping warm in a 220 f oven. Just not that hungry right now but I'm thinking that'll change! I actually have a couple of guests hunting herbs out in the garden (told them to avoid the Wolves Bane, Nightshade, and Hemlock...) Hey! If I can get them to do it, it's one LESS skeeter bite for me!





That's it for tonight! Stay safe, sane, and well fed folks. Be careful out there.

Cheers!