Super Bowl and dinner

 It is Friday and 2 more days till the big game. Big game, big parties, and lots and lots of food. Every where you look, cooking sites on line and on TV as well as food magazines all that you see read and hear is Food Bowl. So do you have your menu planned?
  We do and I am super excited about it. Normally Super Bowl Sunday is just another Sunday. We don't go to or host a party because of the late start time and Bill's early start time the next day. This year however the game is starting earlier and we are hosting a small Super Bowl  get together.
  Appies are the food of choice for this gathering of friends. There are only 5 maybe 6 people coming but the menu at this point looks like 60 are coming. I need to pair it down and it aint easy.
   There are few dishes on the menu that are written in stone and can not be removed no matter what. They are tried and true and we can't party with out them. How can it be a party with out pigs in the blanket, and wings. A few of the dishes like the buffalo dip has to be on the table and the recipe our friend Rich uses is top notch but after reading a few different recipes for the fun of it while planning our Super Bowl feast, Rich came across a few he liked and he just may be trying a new recipe this time. There are a few new things  that I am looking forward to making as well as tasting like the Spinach and spaghetti squash quiche.
my menu

  I am still looking around to see if there are dishes or recipes I want to add to my menu but I am going to have to make up my mind once and for all soon so Bill can get the shopping done.
  " What Was Dinner "? I found a new recipe site. Not new but new to me and it is a bevy of good recipes without faces. I had pork steaks to use for dinner and I found pages of recipes that sounded good and were simple with ingredients normally kept in the pantry. I decided on a recipe that sent my senses reeling and my memories right back to Grandma's Sunday dinner dinner table. She loved this type of recipe and used it on every meat under the sun.

 Country Fried Pork Steak served with Mashed Potatoes, & corn. Not the healthiest dinner of the week but very good just the same.
country fried pork

   I get to spend the afternoon with my most favorite girl Miss Madeline. Always a happy way to spend my time.
   Have a happy and safe Friday. Thank you for stopping by.

Lunch Date Down Town

    What a great day it was today. First I read there is a chance of a MAJOR snow storm on my Birthday, it is really to early to predict but reading it still made me smile. Then just as I sat down to do my blog, Bill who is off work today and bored said "you wanna go walking in Reading Terminal"? I didn't waste words answering I just shut down my laptop and put on my warmest winter woollies grabbed my camera bag and headed for the car.

  A brisk walk through China Town brings us right to the front door of our destination.

     The Reading Terminal is in center city Philadelphia and has been around since the 1800's in one form or another right where it is on Market st once called high street. It has grown and changed many times over the years as the people and their needs changed. My first memory of this market is over 30 years ago and it was prominently an Amish farmers market with all kinds of farm fresh items as well as fresh  baked and canned goods available, as well as a few used and antique stands to titillate your senses. Now gone are the antique stands and while the Amish are still there they have made room for every kind of restaurant you can imagine ranging from Cajun style gator gumbo to Indian curry with a good ole cheese steak standing solid in the middle and lets not for get the oyster bar.

Where Bill got his lunch 

My first taste of Gator, not to bad.

Po Boy Sandwich 

Such a good guy letting me picture him eating. It looks like it was a good sandwich 

spicy hot fries.

Where my lunch came from

My lunch Coconut curry chicken. Yummy!

 The Terminal is the go to place for all the office workers in that area of the city as well as a tourist attraction not to be missed. You could go there every day for a year and not have the same thing twice and still have things you hadn't tried. Heck I could go there every day for a year and still not get all the pictures there are to take.
  I  love walking around just looking at the rows and rows of fresh cheese, fish, poultry,and meats of all kind.

 The best stands have to be the candy, chocolate, and bakery stands every thing is so so tempting, and the samples don't make it any easier to walk away empty handed.

   I have no idea what my blog would have been about this morning what do know is it wouldn't have been as fun as this one.

Art work out side the terminal on 12th st. That is the terminal behind the sculpture.

out side the terminal. Market street side

   "What Was Dinner"?  Well other then the fact my recipe came from somewhere other then Allrecipes there is not a lot about it that will WOW you. It is a good solid recipe and was good tasting, I will make it again because I like rosemary and lemon.

lemon rosemary chicken

 I will tweak it just a little and lighten up on the lemon, add garlic and onion to the sauce as well as the mushroom I added this time, I think also I want to thicken the sauce just a tad. Other then that the recipe is good as written. I served rice, Broccoli, & Tossed salad using spinach. All in all dinner was good.

   I hope Thursday was a happy day for you too. Thank you for stopping by. 

Dishes, Table Scapes,& Food

    I had high hopes for today's blog. Take note of the word had.
    With an idea for a color combination using my fiesta that I was sure would be brilliant, I had a dish photo shoot in my kitchen this morning.

 I was right this combination I call memories of fruit loops, is brilliant and Certainly brightens up a cold winters night table.

     After my  photography session in the kitchen I changed lenses and went out back for a walk in the cold fresh snow. As much as I love the snow and winter I am so very anxious for spring to get here so I will have some color to picture. The bright sun and the white snow make it impossible even with my glasses on to see what is on my screen so every single picture I took out side is blurry, well almost all, and the ones not blurry are so bland that everything blends in together and you can't tell if they are blurry or not,

 dashing my high hopes of some good pictures of the birds playing in the sun and snow.  You just know I won't give up trying but come on spring.
   "What Was Dinner"? Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup was the main dish and after a full day of asking myself what am I going to serve with the soup the answer finally came 5 minutes after I started the soup. Good thing my idea was quicker then quick. Talk about a last minute play. Well Mom and Bill got Fish Tacos and me the non fish lover got a grilled ham and cheese. This particular last minute play ended in a touch down and one very healthy dinner for mom and Bill.

 All that was on the fish tacos besides the fish was vegetables like Bok Choy, Spinach, Green Onion, Avocado, and Tomato sprinkled with a little lemon juice.Mom just kept saying how crunchy and crisp they were and Bill he said very little he just kept eating.
    Well I am off to find a recipe to WOW my family with tonight and totally amaze you all tomorrow.
    Wishing everyone a wondrous Wednesday! Thank you for stopping by. 

Flash Back Tuesday

 Good Morning everyone. Yes I know EARLY, well I woke up this morning knowing what my blog would be about today so I figure why not do it now before I start my day and get into a project and lose all track of time.
 We are having Bill''s Everything but the Kitchen Sink soup tonight and I need to figure out something to go with it. That is not what I am going to write about but that thought just keeps popping up in my head so I wrote it down in hopes of making it stop.
 Today subject is as always walking, photos, and food. The walk was a long one and took 6 hours to drive to. Totally worth the time and the drive.
     In October we like to go away for our anniversary. This year was no different other then I had to hire a sitter for mom. We took a long weekend and traveled to Corning NY. Let me just say this is the perfect time of the year to visit that part of the country. The cool brisk air a nice treat after a   stifling  summer heat  and the colors are absolutely breathtaking. We walked and drove all over the little town of corning and the surrounding area.

There were water falls everywhere we went

With little or no warning you drive right by some very pretty waterfalls. Bill spotted this one just as we almost passed it.

 We found cute little towns every where we went with some extremely good restaurants.We saved a little money by staying in a hotel with a kitchen suite and only eating lunch out. Thanks to the grill at the hotel and some very flavorful olive oil we had romantic delicious dinners every night we were there. Our lunches were all real real good and different then what we normally eat with both of us deciding to try new things. My favorite restaurant had nothing to do with the food and more to do with the 50.00 I won while having lunch there. The restaurant had a lottery game you could play while you dined. I smile every time I think about it, Bill will never go to the bathroom again when playing this game. He came out of the men's room just as the waitress was handing me my winnings. I do wish I had a picture of his face he never knew what hit him. I am still now giggling as I write this.
   During one of our many drives we found the Gorge. The first day we saw it we couldn't go in because with all the danger of the trail no dogs allowed and we had the boys with us. As close as we could get to the trail with the dogs was on the back end of it.

 That little preview had me drooling at the thought of walking this trail. Had we done a little homework we may have done the trail differently and I for one am glad we didn't do our homework. The trail is not a complete circle like so many, this trail you either walk up it and take the shuttle or walk back down, or vise versa, we walked up and took the shuttle back down. The walk was I don't know how many miles and 832 steps up some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. For a great deal of the walk I was more then scared being so high up and so close to the edge but this is one time it was worth pushing my comfort zone.

The back side of Bill as he climbs one of the  many  sets of steps

This was one of my heart stoppers you notice there is no ledge on the edge of the step. My back was against the wall taking this picture.

Now I know how many miles

 If you are ever in corning you just have to go visit the Corning Glass Museum, it will take 2 days to see it all and the admission you pay the first day covers the 2nd and much of the museum is free.  Nothing I have ever seen compares to this place and they are right now in the process of making it bigger. Even if your not into pretty dishes and glassware this museum will hold interest for  you with its magnifying glass, and bending glass, displays on how to make different types of glass and fiber optics I could go on for hours  there is just so much to see and do there.

I only took 1 photo in the museum and I only took this because the glass pumpkins where everywhere you went. One followed me home from an artist shop in the town of Corning.

 Just don't use your GPS to find it if your hotel is directly across the street from the museum. I noticed as we pulled into the hotel that the glass museum was right there ( the only way I would have known about the museum was seeing it. I did not do my home work for this trip.) Bill to busy navigating traffic and didn't notice the museum, he saw the flags and buses in the parking lot and thought it was a bus station. So when I said we would do the museum first thing in the morning because we could walk there Bill looked at me strange but agreed. When he pulled out the GPS I was more then a little confused we literately had to walk across the parking lot, across the street and into the museum door. The GPS takes us in the wrong direction and tells Bill it is a 14 minute walk. I say no and I point right at the museum but Bill is a man and you know men and directions so off we walk. We get a nice little tour of the area and all the corning office buildings and factories, finally I get tired of this and ask some one on their way to work for directions. Sure enough we back track the way we came and once again I wish I had a picture of Bill's face when we stood on the corner and looked at both the hotel and the museum all at the same time. You just know that was a laugh that lasted a good long time. 

On the way home we stopped to water the dogs and this baby with it's mom walked right by us not caring a bit that we were there.

  " What Was Dinner"? Homemade freshness. I had a bowl of tomatoes that were about to become compost so one of my projects yesterday was to find a use for the tomatoes. I found a use for them they became spaghetti sauce. I cooked them down all afternoon in 2 cups of red wine and then strained them in a cheese cloth squeezing as much liquid from the pulp as possible. I added onion, garlic, bell pepper, carrot, mushroom, and okra to the pot and then put my tomato liquid in as well and let it simmer all evening long till dinner. I made meat balls and baked them adding them to my sauce for the last half hour or so. Last but not least I made garlic bread and served dinner buffet style.

 I have to say it was really very tasty and I will do that again. 
    I hope you enjoyed flash back Tuesday as much as did and I am wishing everyone a happy day. Thank you for stopping by.