Pantry Revisited

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and it is just around the corner!   Why is it my favorite?  First, it is an opportunity for me to reflect on all the good in my life and be thankful.  Thankful for my family, friends, good health, and another day to celebrate just being here!  Second , it is the one day of the year that I get to eat the most delicious foods and nibble all day long if I choose!  It is also my birthday.  I was born the day before and this year it falls that way again.  At my age, I am past needing recognition of my day, parties, cakes, presents, though they are very much appreciated if they do happen to come my way.  Just so happy to be starting another year!  Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving filled with peace, joy and love. Our vegetable this week in our GRGF group is cauliflower.  I was excited because it is one of my favorites.  I made a very simple recipe and it was oh so mouth watering g...

  It’s that wonderful time of the year across America when people are packing up their bikinis, getting out their sweaters, and decorating with all things pumpkin.  To me it’s the coziest time of the year!  However, here in Florida it is still quite warm.   I don’t mind because I know I do not have a harsh cold winter ahead of me!   There were so many wonderful recipes to choose from when it comes to pumpkin.  There are pies and cookies, breads and cakes, and let’s not forget those delicious lattes.  I chose to do some mini-pies.  A bit larger than tarts, but not as large as a regular pie.  Please, no judgment on my crusts!  I have never learned the art of crimping pie crusts.  My friend Kayte gave me a wonderful recipe for them several years ago and it is still my go-to.  Now if I could only master the crimping!  For this recipe, I used Pillsbury's pie crusts. These are so delicious.  If you love pumpkin pie, you wil...

We are focused on zucchini this week in my Good Friends Good Food group.  I had a hard time choosing a recipe because zucchini is one of my favorites and there are so many ways that you can use it!   I thought about muffins and zucchini bread - both favorites especially this time of the year!  But then I narrowed it down to two chicken dishes and I ended up making both of them this week!   For purposes of this group and this blog I chose to highlight the chicken zucchini casserole.    I found a recipe on Pinterest that really sparked my interest and then I tweaked it a bit to make it more to our liking.  And liking we did!   Honestly this was so good and we enjoyed the leftovers just as much as the first dinner.  I will definitely be putting this in our dinner rotation.  It is the perfect weeknight dinner.  I found it easy to make and only uses a few ingredients.  I cooked my chicken breasts quickly in the instant pot and then...

This week in my GFGF food group we are focusing on tomatoes!  There is nothing tastier in the summer to me than a fresh tomato pulled right from the vine.  While I do not have any plants of my own, I do try to buy Organic vine-ripened tomatoes.  The thought of tomato season coming to an end is sad.  But as with everything else in life where one door closes, another door opens and we will have pumpkins coming soon!  There is a place that we go camping in Alabama that has a wonderful tomato pie on their menu.  In fact, it is the only place that I have ever ordered tomato pie!  I know they have been recommended by Southern Living Magazine.  If you get a chance to visit there you should.   It’s in a quaint little town called Mentone.  It’s called the Wild Flower Café.  So that menu item was the inspiration for my tomato dish.  I do not have their recipe so I just adapted one of my own. I am sure that this would be much better with ...

This week in our Good Friends Good Food group we are focusing on green beans.  I searched many recipes and had my eye on a casserole, but then I decided to make salad.  I love salads that are chocked full of “stuff.”  So, I started with green beans and then added this and that.  Then more this and that.  I was extremely happy with the end result and cannot wait to eat the leftovers!  I have named this recipe “Not Your Granny’s Green Bean Salad.” My DH does not care for green beans.  He will eat them, but it is not his favorite.  After we ate and sat down to watch tv, unprompted he said this to me.  “Now you know I do not love green beans.  But....these were possibly the best green beans I have ever eaten.”   After my shock wore off, I realized a compliment from him for me was the greatest.   We had grilled steaks with this and it was a delicious meal!  Truly, I think I could have eaten a large bowl of this for my entire me...

It has been a while since I posted.  Yes.a.while.  This week I reconnected with some friends and we decided to cook together again!  Even though we are miles and miles apart, we have fun connecting.  We have named our group Good Friends Good Food .  Check out grandmaskitchentable.typepad.com and teaandscones.wordpress.com for more squash deliciousness!  If you would like to join our group, we would love to have you!  Just leave a message in the comments below. We plan to be creative and have fun with  green beans on September 25th!  Come join us! I think with the Covid virus keeping us more homebound, more of us are cooking at home.  I know I am!  We decided to do a squash recipe this week.  I had gotten some delicata squash in my vegetable co-op last week so I decided to use that.  I had never heard of this kind of squash.  Apparently, the skin is thin so its edible.  Just a good wash and you are ready to...

 OK I am just making a short post today because I’ve been unable to get into this blog for at least three years.  Today for some reason lock was with me and I just hit the sign in button and it worked!    Welcome back Peggy!