Lapping Around the Sun

      When I was having fun making this, I had a few objectives in mind. 1) Use that square red copper skillet; 2) use up leftovers that were in the fridge; and 3), of course, enjoy a good time!       I didn't know we didn't have any store bought lasagna noodles!  Oh darn!  I guess I just have to make some!  Let's put some bread flour and eggs to work!       I had some herbs growing from pots out on the porch, so I got to enjoy using them!  I cleared the fridge of some leftover chicken, ground beef, and pork cutlets.  Chop, chop, chop!  Heat, stir, taste, correct with herbs, spices, and seasoning.  Repeat if necessary!      Did I mention we had some left over sour cream and ricotta cheese too!     We ate about half of it on the first go around!  I love, love, LOVE left over lasagna!

     For me, cooking and eating are recreations I enjoy immensely! Grocery shopping is a recreation I enjoy immensely!  My kitchen will always be a workshop where I enjoy myself!        I don't own the kitchen where I've been cooking lately, so I can't have everything where I want it to be all the time. So, I make do and do the best I can to enjoy myself and I hope the folk with whom I share my cooked goods enjoy them.  If they don't it's okay for them to say so.  Bombing out can be a teachable moment!  Usually, they like it, but they know I'll make it different the next time, so they should expect surprises!      I know how to do simple cake decorations, but it a rare occasion when I decorate a cake.  I make cakes because I want them to eat.  When I want fruitcake, whether in June or November, I make fruitcake.  When I want yellow cake, that's what I make.  On this day, I wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I didn't care any

     I had been glad to see the old Sonic Drive-in remodeled and turned into a successful business!  Traffic flow just didn't work well enough to keep Sonic alive!  Some good folks tried to succeed at making it into a doughnut shop, but to no avail.        Hopefully, Chicago Pizza will be able to manage their operation into a thriving business!  I hope so, but I'm sure they will have to work at it and not screw up!  After all, they're not the only new pizza place to have opened up in the area!      They were located in a small shopping strip not far away from this new location.  They put a lot of money into redesigning and making the building (inside and out) and parking lot attractive.      I had visited Chicago Pizza some time ago.  I was disappointed!  Why?  Because the spaghetti and meatballs I ordered tasted like it had come out of a can, and the meatballs were just soooooo small, and my server just didn't seem to have much passion for his work.  I

      "Do you think we should have him put to sleep?" she asked on the day after we took Tucker to the vet for an emergency visit where our suspicion of tick paralysis had been confirmed.  Within a few hours Tucker went from being a bundle of energy to being nearly lifeless.  We ordered a full blood panel, and the results showed he wasn't in bad shape except for the paralysis of his body.  We ordered a flush treatment to help rid his body of toxins, and drops placed on the back of his neck to kill fleas. The good news was that tick paralysis usually reversed and the body recovered once the ticks and toxins had been removed.  It can happen to humans too!  It can be deadly!  We knew we'd have to keep an eye on him in case he began having difficulty breathing and he would need us to change his position every couple of hours.  Doing so was no chore!  I was glad to help Tucker as much as I could!      On two days after his visit to the

     I believe that food prep, cooking, and eating are recreational activities.  Also, I believe twisting customary ways of enjoying food can be exciting!  This venture was exciting to me from beginning to end, and I'm already thinking of another way to twist it all up a bit!     I'm not trying to instruct anyone.  I'm simply sharing a bit of my own journey as I lap around the sun!       "Donkkaseu" is how I've seen the spelling to the name of pork cutlet dish I've enjoy so many times while living in South Korea.  I've always pronounced it "Doeng gahs seh" (the first "o" sound is like the "o" in "home," the middle "a" sound is like "ahhhhhh," and the "eu" at the end is like "eh" to my ears).  The hard "g" and the "k" sounds are made with the same Korean letter.  So one could say it's pronounced like g/k combined.      I'm not a

     I've been cleaning out the fridge lately by using anything usable to make other stuff to portion out and freeze.  That has included milk, mayonnaise, cheese, and left overs (anything not spoiled).  I think I've done a good job, because I haven't had to throw much away, and there is much more room in the fridge than there was.       Since I was making stuff, I saw that on a counter we had bananas whose peels were turning brown.  I mashed up some and portioned it all out into quart freezer bags.  The rest I placed in the food processor with some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, rolled oats, peanut butter, and eggs.       From the processor into a mixing bowl I poured that mix and added chopped peanuts, a/p flour, baking powder, and salt.  I mixed all that with a large rubber spatula.       I baked it for 45 minutes at 325 degrees, let it cool, cut it into portions, plated some, and freezer bagged the rest.  Bravo!

  So I saw a pack of uncut pork center cut tenderloin at the supermarket!  When that happens, like during most times when I visit a supermarket, my mind enjoyed wondering what all I could do with the food supply!  As you can see in the picture above, I cut some of the loin into chops and freezer bagged them.  I packed them by 3's, because in this house lives my Father, my Mother, and Me!      I bag leftovers in freezer bags and, you guessed it, put them in the freezer.  I buy large quantities of meats, fruits, and vegetables and portion them all out into ziplock freezer bags.  So much good food is in season now, and our freezer is looking better everyday!      Already, I had it in mind to make a pork cutlet meal I enjoyed while living in South Korea, so I cut some of the loin like butterfly chops.  Then, with the back of my knife, I wacked then many times to enhance tenderness.       After tenderizing them, I coated them with salt, pepper, and all purpose flo

      I will use the back of chunked plums and apple to make plum sauce, sprinkle on top of oatmeal, ice cream, cereal, etc.      I put the cores in some water, added a splash of apple cider vinegar, a shake of ground gloves, a shake of ground cinnamon,  and about 1/8 cup of brown sugar.  After simmering that for about 20 minutes.  I let it cool, because I wanted to go take a nap.       I mixed about a cup of the cooled mix with about 1/8 cup of corn starch and a few teaspoons of tapioca pearls.  It all thickened with 15 minutes after I brought it all up to a simmer.  I poured the batch into a shallow dish so that it could cool faster.      Canning jar come in so handy.  You can see that I added some fresh blueberries to the cooling mix.  I think this will make an excellent topping for ice cream, cheesecake, oatmeal, etc.