Home Cooked Green Beans

Last night Charlcie and Abi went up to the church to have worship prep; to get ready for worship on Sunday. So I had some time on my hands and I decided to make fresh green beans like my mom used to do.
But first things first, I had to heat up my wonderful bowl of ham bone soup. While it was heating I took 2 cups of stock I'd made with the chicken Charlcie had boiled last week and the ham bone and set it aside. Oh by the way, I forgot to say to snap the ends off the beans and wash them. some people snap the beans in half but you don't have too.
In a large oven pan I melted a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter and lightly browned 1/4 pound of sliced salt pork. Then I tossed the green beans into the pot and stirred with a wooden spoon to coat them. Now, add the the broth, bring to a boil and add a palm full of salt (I used kosher salt, and a little less), 2 tspns of garlic powder and black pepper. Let this simmer over medium low heat (emphasis on the low) for about 30 minutes, covered.
While the beans were cooking, I ate my soup and man oh man was it good. Then I cut an onion into slivers and peeled the potatoes. You'll want to use 10-12 depending on the size. Add the potatoes and onions at the end of the 30 minutes and cook another 30 minutes, covered. You'll need to check every once in a while to make there's still some stock. Add a little if needed. When the potatoes are tender add 1/2 stick unsalted butter and cook with the lid tilted for another 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
When Charlcie and Abi got home about 9:30 PM we all had a little bowl of green beans. Oh my goodness were they ever good. There's just something about fresh stock, green beans and potatoes.

Back AT It

Back at it, cooking that is. I spent the weekend in Galveston on a men's retreat. We had a great time. The weekend started out at Shrimp In Stuff, a great little unknown restaurant. It's mainly fried seafood, but the gumbo is cooked great and so is the fried seafood. The prices are even better, well not really. They're great but the food is better.
After some great seafood we had a wonderful time of worship in the old bar the restaurant now owns. They let us use it free and that was a great blessing because we had no place to meet where we were staying.
After getting a good nights rest, at least most of us, we went to the airshow. It was great! This was the first time I've ever been, after living in Galveston for a year and in Houston all my life, you'd have thought I'd made it by now. I haven't, but it was great. I enjoyed the WWII planes as much as anything. The museum and plane display was great too.
It seems I've been out of pocket for a long time. Last night I decided to get back at cooking. We were hungry for something different. I remembered we had a ham bone and decided to make some ham bone soup.
While I was at the store I saw some frest green beans. I knew I'd have left over stock, so I decided to try and make some fresh green beans. I remember growing up my Mon's were the best. It seemed she let them cook for hours, but they sure were flavorful. I'm gonna give it a try tonight so they'll be ready for tomorrow. But tonight, I'm planning on enjoying a heaping bowl of ham bone soup.

What Beef Makes the Grade Part 2?

Well I hope I'm finally back. It's been a challenging 10 days. I think I left off talking about what grades of beef are, and how they relate to cooking. Last week I covered Prime. Recently, I had a prime steak at a restaurant in Spring. it was wonderful, but I'm not sure the price difference was worth it.
When I was in Phoenix last week I had a Choice steak. Since I wasn't paying, I don't know the price, but it sure was good. The grade makes a difference, but the cook and the spices do too.
I know this is only anecdotal, but from personal experience I don't know that I'd pay the price difference between Prime and Choice. I would when it comes to Choice and Select though. But let me give you the run down, you do your own taste test and make up your own mind.
Choice is a high quality beef with a little less marbling than Prime. It's generally available at the grocery, but you might have to ask for it at the counter. Select has a lot less marbling and is easy to make tough and dry if not prepared right. It might be best to use a marinade to cook with. Choice is very available at the grocery store.
Standard and Commercial grades are usually your store brand, or marked as ungraded. If you don't see a grade name it's more than likely one of these. These definitely need to be marinated.
Utility, Cutter and Canner are not usually sold as cut meat. They are used in ground beef or in canned products. Things like canned chili, soups to dog food. I know, that sounds yuck. You may want to check with the butcher to find out what grade of meat you're buying.
There you have it. I usually buy Choice when it's on sale and Select most of the other time. It's what fits the budget. Using a little marinade or rub sure makes a great tasting steak.

Out Of Town

Hello friends and neighbors, Charlcie and I have been out of town for several days and haven't been cooking. We were in Phoenix, AZ. for a Vineyard Leaders Meeting. We had a great time, but it's great to be back and I'm looking forward to cooking some home meals.
As part of our being in Phoenix we were treated to a special dinner at a place called "Firebirds." This is a very nice restaurant and the meal was excellent. The atmostphere was great and the fellowship with the other pastors was even better.
Charlcie and I had what they called an "Aspen Steak," which was a NY Strip, cooked with certain spices. They were cooked to perfection. The meat and flavor was so good that I thought we were eating prime, but it turns out it was a choice cut of meat.
It's not very often that I have a glass of wine, but I decided I'd like to try some with the meal. Our leader, ordered a bottle of Merlot. I use an inexpensive Merlot to cook with, but this was not an inexpensive wine. I generally like a little sweeter wine and as I tasted this I thought it was just okay. But when I got my steak and drank some along with it, I found the taste to be much better. Some how or another the steak enhanced the taste and flavor of the wine for me. So now you have my experience in Phoenix.

What Beef Makes the Grade?

Seems like I've lost my sense of humor of late. So I thought I'd start off with a bad cooking joke my brother told me yesterday. What is orange and sounds like parrot? Give up, it's a carrot. I know, I know that's really bad.
Now to more important things. I've been talking about different grades of beef. I've found this fascinating because I didn't know anything really about it. So I've done a little investigating and I thought I'd share it.
Here in the good ole US of A we have the good ole USDA that grades our beef. Now I found out this a voluntary thing, but it's good as a promotional tool for the beef growers, as much as it is a quality check for the buyers.
Some things to keep in mind about grading, I know this is obvious but I'll say it anyway, the higher the grade the higher the price. The growers pay for the grading; isn't that interesting. The ranchers and packers pay the USDA. Of course they pass the price on to the wholesalers who pass it on to the grocers who pass it on to us. You might call this the beef graders food chain. Anyway, a lot of the beef sold in the US is sold as ungraded.
With that in mind let's talk about the grades. Most of us know about Prime, Choice and Select. But there's also, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. We'll talk about these more later. For now though, let's focus on the top 3.
As I said, Prime grade beef is the most expensive. It's made from well fed young cattle. Also, it has a lot of marbling, is tender and has a lot of flavor when you cook it. Of course when you over cook anything it's going to lose some flavor, but with Prime you stand a better chance of getting away with it. Prime makes up a very small amount of beef sold. You'll mainly find it in really fine restraints or in specialty shoppes. So for most of us Prime is not going to be commonly cooked at home. Watch out for marketing like "prime buy" or "select choice," when you're shopping and check the labeling so you know what grade of beef it really is. Real Prime beef won't need much if any marinade to cook a tender and flavorful meal. Next time will look at Choice.

No Cooking Weekend

You've heard the saying, "every dog has its day," unless it has a broke tail then it's a weak-end. I feel like a dog with a broke tail this weekend as my girls at a church retreat. Aaron is busy all weekend and so I'm on my own. Don't you feel sorry for me?


That means this will be a no cooking weekend. I wish I could say I was relaxing and had all this time to cook up some wonderful meals. But alas, I have a wedding tonight and will be at the church tomorrow from 9-noon. I should have some time in the afternoon to do some relaxing.


I do plan to cook myself a good rib-eye steak tomorrow evening. I already have it marinating. This is my favorite steak. What little research I've done leads me to think that grass fed cattle are the best. The marbling may be a little less but the flavor is better.

Marbled simply means meat that has fat running through it, is more tender and flavorful than other meats. The front part of cattle has more marbled meat (shoulder, ribs) than the other end. For stews and roasts use chuck, it comes from the shoulder. You'll need to stew, boil, or braise the rump or round cuts to make it more tender and flavorful. It doesn't hurt to do it with chuck as well.

Pesto Talapia

We've been cooking alot of talapia lately. I wanted to try something a little more challenging. So I had looked up some recipes on Saturday. I found one I liked and emailed it to myself.

On the way home from work I was trying to figure out how I was going to cook it in the oven along with some aspargus and mushrooms. I decided to cook the aspargus first. While it was cooking I prepared to cook the Talapia.

I ran into a problem though. The internet was down and I couldn't get to my recipe. So I decided to wing it based on my memory. First, I took 8 oz of pine nuts and put them in the blender and tried to turn them into powder as best I could. It turned out better than I thought. Then I took about 4 oz of parmesean and 2 tbsps of pesto and blended them with the pine nuts.

Next, I rinsed the fish off and placed them on a pan with cooking spray. I spread the pesto mixture over about 8 pieces of fish, covering them as best as I could. The oven was preheated to 450 degrees and I baked the fish for 12 minutes. I like mine a little crispy so I brioled them for about 2-3 minutes. Oh, I forgot to say I salt and peppered the fish before I put the pesto on. I probably could have used a little more salt, but Charlcie thought they were fine just the way they were and so did Abi. Another successful cooking event.

Now that the internet is working, I'll have to check the recipe and see what I left out. I know there were some spices mentioned. Everyone liked the meal so much that I'm sure I'll do it again and do it the right the way.

Sausage And Sauerkraut

Something I haven't cooked in a long time and I really like is sausage and sauerkraut. It's so simple. I quartered an onion, chopped up 4 or 5 carrots and put a 32 oz bag of sauerkraut in a pan and turned the stove on high. I think Vlasic makes a good sauerkraut. I use the jar or the kind that comes in a plastic bag. Then I mix it up. While this was heating up, I chopped up 2, 14 oz bags of Chappell Hill Pork and Deer Sausage. Man oh man is this stuff good. I don't know if you can get it anywhere but southeast Texas, but if you can ,you outta try it.


Place the sausage in the pan and mix it up. Then I turn it down to low and let it cook for 4-5 hours. It's best to stir it every so often. You don't have to wait this long to eat it, but it tastes a whole lot better if you do. Most of the liquid will boil out and the flavor and taste will be awesome. Add this one to the cookbook.


This is another recipe I got from my sister-in-law Gen. In the past I spelled her name Gin, not thinking. That's what you get for being in a hurry and not paying attention to important things. The important thing here though, is this is good cooking and eating.

Cooking For Friends

Last night we had some friends, we've known for a long time, come over. Since it was Friday, we needed something quick and easy to cook. Charlcie mentioned pesto chicken. On the way home I went by the grocery store and got some chicken breasts and pesto. While I was there, I thought I'd get some things to make a great salad.
We got some fresh spring mix, a yellow and red pepper, mushrooms and some walnuts. When I got home I brined the chicken for 20 minutes and then put a rub on it and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. While I was waiting I made the salad. I used about a half a head of iceberg lettuce, 4 ounces of spring mix, half of the yellow and red pepper, green onions, carrots, and celery. I chopped up some tomato for individuals to use in their salads, so the leftovers wouldn't get all watery. The walnuts were chopped up and put in a side dish for people to add if they liked as well.
Since I had too many mushrooms I decided to saute about 75% of an 8 once container and put the rest in the salad. First, I put some noodles on to boil and cut up the chicken into a good bite size chunk and sauteed it in olive oil. When the noodles were done (I cooked enough for 8) I added about 2/3 cup of pesto and the mushrooms and chicken and mixed it up. If I had to do it again, I'd mix the pesto and the chicken and mushrooms and serve them in a separate bowl to add on top of the noodles. But it worked and everyone really enjoyed.
For dessert we had left over strawberry shortcake. We used the muffins I had made for pot luck. I had put a little splenda on the strawberries and they were very good. To top it off we added a little cool whip.
We had a great time eating, remembering old times, sharing our lives and praying together. You can't have a better Friday evening.

Strawberry Shortcake

I needed a diet dessert for our potluck last night since I'm trying to eat healthy. I knew there would be lots of temptations and that would help. I found this low carb, low cal muffin mix for strawberry shortcake.

You take 2 cups of almond flour (I found it in the specialty food section at Kroger). Then add 2 tsps baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt and mix it all together. In another bowl mix 1 stick of melted butter, 4 eggs, 1/3 cup of water and about 1/3 cup of spenda. Pour this mixture into the first one and stir well. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, place mixture in muffin tin ( about 2/3 full) and bake for 15 minutes. I'd check it after about 12.

Next cut the tops out of the strawberries and wash. Then slice them and cover with a little spenda and refrigerate. When the muffins are done and cooled put one in a bowl and cover with 1/12 of strawberries and add a little cool whip. The muffin has about 1.5 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber and about 185 calories.

This was very good and you could add blueberries or apricots to the mix for an alternative. The mix is a little grainy, but everyone liked it. I think I may experiment and try and mix the almond flour with some regular flour and maybe something else low carb. I'll let you know.

Roasted Asparagus & Mushrooms

My dad and I used to grow asparagus in our garden and we really loved cooking it. More than that though we loved eating it. It was a favorite in our family. But since my parents have been gone we have seldom cooked it. I don't know why because Charlcie loves it dearly.

Recently, I've seen it in the stores and we've been trying to eat more vegetables. So a couple of weeks ago I picked up a bunch and pan roasted them with olive oil. They were good but I thought we could cook them better. So I googled asparagus and found some recipes.

We had a pound of asparagus and trimmed off the woody stalks. I put them in a food storage bag along with 3 tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms and 1 clove of minced garlic. On a large baking sheet I spread out the mixture and sprinkled with sea salt and pepper and a little more olive oil. Into a preheated oven to 425 degrees they went and baked for 20 minutes. You might want to check it after about 15 so not to over cook. You want them to be tender and lightly browned. This was enough for 3 of us last night and Charlcie and I finished them off tonight. I'm really loving this and this is one for the cookbook.

Success How Good It Is, Cooking That Is!

Sunday was a great day. The worship service was great and so was the spaghetti dinner for the garage sale team after the service. We didn't have any leftover but I was sure glad I added the leftovers from cooking earlier in the week or we wouldn't have had enough.
It really is a good feeling when things turn out. The sauce was hearty, tasty and delicious. I was challenged though, by a great salad that Barbara Smith made. This salad was colorful and crisp, with a wide variety of fresh vegetables. Then Barbara made a rice pudding with brown rice for dessert that was delicious and healthy. It was hard sharing the compliments - not!
Really though, I'm a little insecure about my cooking and I need all the positive feed back I can get (can you hear the violins playing in the background). You'd think at age 55 I'd be past all that but I'm not (am I getting any sympathy yet). I'm being a little silly but not totally so keep up the encouragement.
Last night I made some oven fried eggplant and it turned out great. Believe me, if my 2 kids like something that has to do with a vegetable then I'm doing good. They both loved it and it was so simple. This was the first time I made it and I didn't know how it would turn out. I may have cheated a little because after I baked it I had some hot grease and I quickly fried it to keep it from being so dry. You gotta watch that though, because they can brown really fast. We also had pan fried fish and coleslaw.