I can’t believe it is the end of January already. The older I get the faster time goes, or so it seems.
I mentioned last week about doing some spring cleaning. Well, after three years of retirement and lots of nudging (aka nagging), my hubby finally started sorting out his 40 years of work ‘stuff’. There are three file cabinets and at least a dozen boxes full of ‘seed corn industry’ history. Some is being donated to a friend who is writing a book and will then pass it on to the Iowa State University agricultural archives. The rest is filling up the recycling dumpster.
On Thursday I started a new challenge combining my love of food, reading, mysteries and 1000 piece puzzles. With no picture to follow, I thought this puzzle would be much harder. But, I finished it on Sunday evening and solved the ‘whodunnit’!
Matthew loves chicken fried rice. So we decided to pull out the wok to celebrate the Lunar New Year…
Monday in the Kitchen with Matthew: Chicken Fried Rice.
On Monday afternoon we also put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot. We prepped the potatoes, carrots and onions. On Tuesday morning the veggies went in and I turned it on. I forgot to take a pic.
We then got creative…what to do with leftover pork tenderloin & potatoes?
Thursday in the Kitchen with Matthew: Create a Cuban Reuben casserole…diced pork tenderloin & sauerkraut, deli ham, sliced potatoes & onions, a Swiss cheese sauce, sliced Swiss cheese and dill pickles.
Friday’s pizza was like two pizzas in one. Matthew made two doughs, one for the knots and one for the pizza.
Friday Pieday: Garlic Knot Pizza (a copycat Alberto’s Pizza Shop Port Orange, Florida)…a Neopolitan crust edged with garlic knots then topped with sauce, Parmesan, mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage and mozzarella.
With another Winter Advisory on Saturday, we decided soup was in order. This one made me sad though, because we used the last of the eight whole chickens we roasted and smoked last summer. It has been nice having the chicken ready in the freezer for soups or casseroles. Unfortunately, with the avian flu, the price of chicken (and eggs) has skyrocketed. Hopefully, I can find a sale in the near future.
Saturday in the Kitchen with Matthew: Perfect for a cold, snowy day…White Chicken Chili and Jalapeño Cheddar Corn Muffins. (The last of the chicken was smoked, so the chili had a smoky flavor.)
Sunday I made a copycat pizza from Fong’s Pizza….a ‘Funky mash-up of an old-school Polynesian cocktail lounge & a red-sauce Italian joint’ here in Des Moines.
Sundays Creation: Kung Pao Chicken Pizza…pan crust topped with kung pao sauce, Parmesan, Asiago cheese, chicken, red & green peppers, mozzarella then garnished with green onion, crushed peanuts and a drizzle of Kung Pao Sauce.
Till next week,
~Peggy Palmer-Johnson