Lemon Salt

 I got a wild hare the other day and decided that with all the lemon we were using for ice tea that I was tired of throwing away the peels. 

All that lemon zest going to waste? 

Just sitting there, on the slices of lemon I was squeezing into my tea. 

Wasteful, wasteful, wasteful...

And somewhere I had read something about making lemon salt, I think it was on Facebook, but I could be wrong.

So, I decided to try zesting the lemons before squeezing them into my tea. 

Although I got the bright idea after I'd already cut a lemon, which just so happened to be the sole lemon my little lemon tree produced this/last year. 

I just sliced the peel very thinly from it, and proceeded to chop it even further using my mezzaluna.
Luckily there was very little pith, but even so, I took that off as well.

I then proceeded to zest another lemon, cause I decided that I didn't have enough peel to do much good to the salt other than irritate it.

Put them all into a container I just so happened to have, which was full of sea salt for my grinder, and shook it all up, together.

Recipe:
1/2 cup coarse salt for a grinder
zest from 1-2 lemons or more if you like.
Mix together and use.

*** I also spread the salt and zest out in a pan, and put it in the oven at 170 deg. for about 5 minutes, turned the oven off and let it sit.  I wanted to zest to dry out otherwise I think it would have gone mouldy.

I don't use a great deal of salt, but sometimes you just want to amp it up a little when cooking something. 

I'm thinking a few grinds of this lemon salt on a roast chicken, or some fish, maybe rimming a margarita glass or even a Bloody Maria.  (Tequila instead of vodka, so good.)

I'm going to add more zest to the salt container, but I can't wait to start using it.
 

Come to think of it, I've got a nice fat roasting chicken hanging out in the freezer.  

I think I'll introduce them soon.

Sea Salt

Healthy Solutions Spice Blends

Awhile back I entered a recipe contest.   I was sent my choice of a spice blend without salt and tasked with coming up with an original recipe using the spice blend.

The company was Healthy Solutions Spice Blends, and the spice blend I choose was their Pork and Poultry Rub.  

Well, time went by, I thought and thought and thought and couldn't seem to come up with a good recipe idea and then...

It was Tapas Night.  Well, I had some  Bok Choy hanging around from a trip to the 'big city',   I'd tried to find some Napa Cabbage, but as I think I've said, oh, ten or twenty times, my local store doesn't carry that fancy stuff.
So, I sat and looked at the Bok Choy, and some mushrooms along with the ground pork and got an AHA!!!! moment and proceeded to make Potstickers  and that was the recipe I submitted to the contest.

And I came in third.  Totally unexpected, and WooHoo!!!!  I came in third.   I was so happy.

And yesterday when I checked my mail, I saw my prize, 

and certificate had come.

I'm so excited.  I have plans for those spice blends.  So many delicious plans, giggle. 

And since we've got Tapas coming up at the end of the month, and Boat Club next month and of course random events here and there, I'll have a lot of fun playing with them.

And come to think of it, I've got a lovely big chicken in the freezer that maybe some of the spice blends would go good with.    I'm thinking out of the box here.
Sometimes you just have to escape...
For a little while.

I used to love playing with mud pies and pretending, but this is a lot more fun, I get to create and feed people real food.  

And look at all the 'mud' seasonings I get to play with. 

I can't wait...

All stocked up

I was looking in the pantry last week, trying to figure out something to make, but then fell into the same old, same old routine.
I'm sure I'm not the only one, I cycle a lot of the same dishes over and over and over.

In my case, it's Mexican inspired meals.

We do like our Mexican food.    From Taco's to Enchilada's to Chile Verde and even the Acapulco Chicken I'm making tonight.

These are our no-brainer, anytime is a good time, meals.

Last week we had Chile Relleno's one meal, I pulled some Chile Verde out of the freezer, and we also had some Chicken Enchiladas.

However I couldn't make most of the dishes without a well stocked pantry.

And I have that now.

I didn't get carried away much while we were on a recent trip, but I did stock up on stuff we cannot get here.  And believe me, I've tried to get the right stuff locally, but haven't been able to.

So...
Since we were out west, I stocked up.  
Just a little.

I bought Taco Sauce, we happen to like this brand.  La Victoria Taco Sauce in Medium.   I can get the mild version here, but then I have to doctor it a little, and while I don't mind the doctoring part, I really prefer to just be able to use it straight.   And, I just realized, I've never shared how I make my Taco's, so I think that I will as soon as I can get the 'right' kind of corn tortillas.  sigh.
It's a challenge living on the Redneck Riviera sometimes...

Rosarita Enchilada Sauce, although La Victoria also makes a great Enchilada sauce as well, I just couldn't find any that day.    I also have to have some Stokes Green Chile Sauce, otherwise my Chile Verde just doesn't taste quite right. 

as well as Whole Green Chiles and Tomatillo's. 

And believe you me, I've been having fun with them.

I don't think I got carried away at all, not one little bit. 

For tonight I'm going to make some Acapulco Chicken.   It's been marinating since yesterday and all I need to make is some Pico de Gallo, and we're good to go.  

Senior Lunch for May, so far...

I can't believe it's the middle of the month already.  

And I'm trying to figure out where the time went.   

As soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know. 

But in the meantime, I thought I'd share the lunches I made the past couple of weeks for our weekly Thursday Senior Center Lunch.


To start the month off, I made Hamburger Steaks, Macaroni and Cheese, Green Beans and a lovely lady brought some Carrot Salad for us.   We also had some cornbread.   Lisa made a really good Apple Cake which we topped with some leftover Caramel Apple Sauce I'd made a few weeks ago.

And yesterday, I made some Pork Roasts, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Glazed Carrots and Stewed Squash.   We served it some more of Lisa's home made desserts.  She made a couple of Peach Pies, a couple of Sweet Potato Pies and some Gingerbread.  
I managed to get a shot of the Peach Pies, but the Sweet Potato pies disappeared in short order.

Pardon the poor quality of the last two pictures, my camera died and I had to take pictures with my phone. 

So, onward and upward, and sally forth...

I'm heading into NPA tonight and have a idea of something to whip up for the ladies.   I'll let you know how that works out.

Boat Club for May (and April)

Another month, another Boat Club...

You may have noticed I didn't post anything about a Boat Club gathering in April, mainly cause I wasn't even in town, but a good friend was in town and took pictures for me.

I was in town this month though...

So we attended the Boat Club Potluck last night. 

There was a light turnout, but still a lot of fun.

Since it was so hot yesterday, I didn't want to turn on the oven to cook anything so I just put together a nice big Caesar Salad with the Home Made Caesar dressing I told you about before.   I also added some sliced, cooked Chicken Breasts that I make by the panful and freeze for just such occasions such as this.
In other words, I didn't have to cook the chicken at all.

Without any more words, here are the dishes that were brought last night...

Pineapple with Santa standing guard over the toothpicks.
I have no idea how Kathleen manages to pick such wonderful pineapples each month, but she does.








We also had some carrots and celery and a dip for them.

 Peppers and Sausage, such a great combo

And some home made chips...

 Chicken Wings, and I wish I could get mine to taste like this.

Baked, stuffed Potato Skins, and with a dollop of the dip from the veggies, they tasted so good.

I mean bacon and cheese on a potato, life just gets better and better.

 I made a Caesar Salad and topped it with some sliced Chicken Breast and a nice sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese.   (there was a little left over, and I'm having it for blunch today.)

 I don't know the name of this dish, but it had chicken in it, and was mind blowing good.  Nice and spicy.  

And then there was dessert   A lovely sweet Coca Cola Cake.

I'd never tried one before and it was good.











And in case you were wondering about last month's Boat Club, here are the dishes.

Pineapple...

And Santa's guarding the toothpicks.

Chips and Dip

 Coleslaw

Meatballs in gravy

 Crawfish

 Chicken









Potato Salad

Cowboy Caviar

Roasted Vegetables









And for dessert, an assortment of tarts.

I think I missed a few good dishes last month, but at least I got to see pictures of them.