Picture Perfect Cooking

Happy Monday, everyone!  I just have to announce that my wonderful co-worker, A, had a beautiful baby girl last Thursday night and they are both doing great!  Baby B was 8 pounds 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long!  Congrats to A and her wonderful family.

We finally got some much needed rain last week from the leftovers of a tropical storm that hung around for several days.  This past weekend was glorious though.  I was able to sow more lettuce and carrot seeds and do a little more cleaning in the garage.  Hopefully slow and steady wins the race because I try to clean out there for a couple of hours at a time until I get so bored with it that I have to find something else to do.

Here is this week’s list…

Salisbury Steak with Butter Roasted Potatoes and Basic Coleslaw

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes with Bacon

Grilled hamburgers with Oven Baked Fries

Pizza night

Beef Roast Italiana

Southern Plate’s Apple Orchard Cake (new)

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Good Monday morning, folks!  I am so glad you could join me today for our little menu planning adventure.  This is a short work week for me because I am taking off Thursday and Friday to have a little extra holiday break before Labor Day.  My co-worker, A, is scheduled for a c-section at the end of next week so I decided to have a little “staycation” before she goes on maternity leave.  Good luck and God bless to A and baby B for a safe delivery and a healthy baby and mama!

On Thursday, I plan on going to Bowling Green, KY with my aunt and nanny to visit Jackson’s Orchard again.  I am so looking forward to some fresh apples!  On Friday, it is all about garage clean-out.  I have a few organization ideas to implement out there, but first there is a bunch of stuff that needs sorting and cleaning.  Wish me luck!!!  Hopefully, there will be before and after photos of the success.

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven baked fries

Taco ring (2 nights)

Burgers and fries

Pizza night

Shredded Pork BBQ with basic Cole slaw

Apple Butterscotch Brownies (new)

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It is Monday again?  The calendar says it is so I guess I had better work out my menu for the week.  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We sure did!  C and I took my dad to a Bowling Green Hot Rods baseball game on Friday night and then we stayed home on Saturday to catch up on a few chores.  Even though we have had some extreme heat. the grass sure doesn’t seem to be affected.  It has grown like crazy all summer long.  I got out early Saturday morning and trimmed back the Knockout roses and Compacta holly shrubs that are in our front yard for the last time this year.  Did you know that you weren’t supposed to trim roses or shrubs any later than this in Kentucky? 

If you cut them now, the ends have time to heal over before cold weather.  If you wait too late, the moisture in the air (rain or dew) will settle down in the open cuts, then when it frosts or freezes, that liquid expands and bursts the stems.  Not good!  So if you live in South Central Kentucky, get out there in August and trim those shrubs.  It is safe to cut them back hard during March to encourage new spring growth.  Just a little gardening lesson for you!

This week’s menu is pretty straightforward.  There will probably be only one new thing this week, but that’s ok.  I might change my mind and whip up something new and unexpected!  C’s cousin is getting married in a couple of months and we are going to their wedding shower this weekend.  Congrats to them!

Southern Plate’s Deep Dish Pizza

Grilled Hot Dogs & oven baked fries

Country ham & biscuits with butter roasted potatoes

Pizza night

Homemade sloppy Joes with oven baked fries

Hot Fudge Pie (new) with dairy free vanilla ice cream

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Well, well, well…here we are at the start of another week.  Where does time go? I know where some of my time has gone, to my new online addiction of pinterest.com.  I am sure many of you have already become hooked to this website, and if you haven’t tried it, check it out!  Pinterest is an online virtual bulletin board where you can “pin” pages from the web to your own board for safekeeping until you are ready to use these ideas, but the best thing is that you can look at other people’s boards as well to see what interests them. Then, if you really like their stuff, you can follow them and see what they add everyday.  Let me tell you, this can be a huge time-suck.  I can easily kill and hour or two just browsing!

Back to our menu…this week will be a little short.  One night I HAVE to go to the grocery.  I have cleaned out the freezer and pantry so much that there is very little left, which is good so all of the food can be refreshed but that means a big grocery bill this week and that is not good. We also are attending a baseball game with my dad one night so we will probably nosh on ballpark food then.  It’s free t-shirt night so we can’t miss it!!  I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful week!

Famous Pork Chops and butter roasted potatoes

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven baked fries (2 nights)

Basic Meatloaf

Grocery Night

Ballgame Night

Dairy Free Marshmallow Ice Cream with Hot Fudge Sauce (2 new recipes)

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Well, August is in full swing and school is back in session in our small town so it feels like summer is winding down.  It would be great if the hot weather would wind down a little too.  Hopefully we are nearing the end of the scorching heat and we will be able to enjoy being outside again.  I know my garden and strawberry beds really need some TLC because of this heat.  The weeds are bigger than the plants, but I have been afraid to pull them in case the good plants come up with the bad.  I have appreciated the rain barrels a lot this summer since the rain has been sporadic.  The collected rain water has kept everything alive and producing.

This week’s list seems to be a “clean out the freezer” list, but hopefully everything will still be yummy.  I am still making dairy-free ice cream like crazy and most of the recipes I have tried have turned out really well.  I will be sharing with you all very shortly.  Have a great & blessed week!

Pioneer Woman’s Murphy’s Hot Hamburger  (new)

Grilled hot dogs with oven fries

Cheesy beef corn chip skillet

Grilled steaks & roasted potatoes

Pizza night

BBQ Ribs with oven baked fries

Homemade Fudge Rounds (new)

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Good Monday morning to all of you!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to a great week!  We are still fighting hot weather here in the Land of the Bluegrass and it looks like there is at least one more week of it.  We were blessed to receive a little rain on Saturday and the plants just soaked it up.  My second generation of cucumber plants are actually doing pretty well since I have tried to be diligent about watering, so hopefully we will have fresh cucumbers well into fall if everything goes well.

The green peppers have LOVED this weather!  There are only 3 plants in my raised bed but they have produced like crazy and are still hanging full.  I have frozen almost a gallon of diced pepper to use this winter and we have also enjoyed a lot of carrots, too.  There is just something so fulfilling to me to be able to go out in my backyard and come back with a bowlful of fresh food to feed my family.  It just tastes better!  If you have a little plot of ground or even room for a few pots, I highly recommend growing a few fresh things.  You will be amazed at the flavor.

I stuck to last week’s menu pretty well except for the dessert.  It is just too hot to bake and I received an awesome birthday present from my in-laws…a countertop ice cream maker with a dairy-free recipe book since I am extremely lactose intolerant. I will have more details with several recipes in just a few days so please check back.

Cheesy Steak Sandwiches & oven fries

Taco Ring (2 nights)

Grilled Hamburgers & oven fries

Pizza Night

Honey Pork Chops (new) with roasted potatoes

Southern Plate’s Yellow Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (new-I know I have teased you with this one before, but I hope to actually get it made this time.)

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Here we are again…another Monday and this happens to be the last one in this month which seems incredible.  July has just flown right by!  This week is supposed to be a little more bearable weather-wise around here and I am glad of it.  Last week, south central Kentucky saw temperatures in the high nineties with heat indexes well over 100 degrees and sometimes over 110 degrees.  I know I was very thankful for my office job and air conditioning.

Since this week may be a little cooler, I plan on cooking a little more this week than last week.  I am planning on trying about three or four new recipes this week so stick around for the results.  My in-laws (best ones ever) bought me a countertop ice cream maker for my birthday so I am anxious to try different recipes for that as well.  To show you how thoughtful they are, they also included a vegan ice cream cookbook since I am extremely lactose intolerant.  I can’t wait to try some out and see how they compare to the real deal.

Southern Plate’s Deep Dish Pizza (new)

Ham Biscuits with roasted potatoes & cucumbers (2 nights)

Basic Pancakes with bacon (new)

Salisbury steaks with roasted potatoes

Homemade Fudge Rounds (new)

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Here we are again…it’s Monday!  Time just seems to fly by, doesn’t it?  Sometimes I would like to slow down the world a little bit.  How about you?  There are so many things that I would love to see and do but there never seems to be enough time.  Oh, well.  I guess that means that I need to slow down myself and enjoy doing what I am doing and not think about the things that don’t get done, but that can be hard for a type-A like myself!

I was a little ahead of myself on our schedule last week.  For some reason, I had it in my head that we had to attend a baby shower yesterday.  It’s next Sunday! (Slaps head)  At least I have the gift ready on time.  Other than that, there shouldn’t be much going on around here this week and I am thankful for that.  Our house is showing signs of neglect and a good housecleaning is in order before long.  I hope all of my readers have a blessed and successful week in whatever they are doing!

This week’s list looks a little short because we may eat out a couple of times, but who’s complaining?  I am not, that’s for sure!

Cheesy corn chip skillet

Grilled burgers and fries

Pizza night

Steak & Seafood night

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mallow Bars (new)

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Another week has passed and Monday is here again which means it is back to work and routine after a shortened holiday work week.  I survived my 20 year class reunion Saturday night. I, along with three other classmates did most of the planning which means we had to get there early to set up and stay ‘til the bitter end to clean up.  We had over thirty classmates plus their guests and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I HAVE to go to the grocery this week to pick up some essentials and we are attending a baby shower for C’s cousin and his wife this coming weekend so this week’s list is, again, a little short.  The taco ring did not get made last week so it gets pushed to this week which is great since it makes enough for two nights.  Happy hot July to everyone!

Grilled pork chops with roasted potatoes

Taco Ring (2 nights)

Grilled hot dogs and chips

Southern Plate yellow cake with peanut butter frosting (This didn’t get made last week either.)

Grocery night

Baby shower

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