It's So Hard To Say Goodbye

Easy Beef & Broccoli

There has been so much going on around here. One item top on our list has been deep cleaning. We've lived in this house (the one where Daddy-O grew up) for over 20 years. Pretty sure there are items that haven't been moved since we carefully placed them on a shelf when we moved in. 

Well, no more. Things are getting shuffled around. We've moved paintings from one wall to another. I've "shopped" the house for decorative pieces to restyle some spaces. And goodness, what we've thrown away! The "why did we even save this" kind of stuff. And some things are just no longer useable. Mini DVDs anyone? Still, we have to work at telling these things goodbye.

We are not done but already the house feels fresher. It feels like it can breathe again. This will be a forever project. Because as soon as we feel like we've finished, we need to circle around again. This kind of work is so dusty as we've dragged things out of closets and cleared shelves. So we've been dusty—too dusty to go out to eat, but we've also been too tired to dirty up the kitchen.

Which brings me to a new recipe I made this week. Incredibly simple. Delicious. And the leftovers were good, too. It was the perfect quick lunch while we were working. See the recipe at the end of the blog post.

It's so hard to part with old cookbooks. 

The copyrights are from 1970 - 1976.

Did we really cook like this?

Successfully making a molded jello was a desirable skill in the 1970s.

Spam casserole...look at the ingredients. 😂

I also own a few really old cookbooks.

It would be fun to do a little recipe archeology. 

Might be a Mimi Camp project.

 The reward at the end of busy days—time to sit here.

This is a recipe I'll make again.

EASY BEEF and BROCCOLI

1- lb lean ground beef

1/2 yellow onion, diced

8-oz fresh broccoli florets, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon minced garlic 

1 teaspoon minced ginger

2 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)

Brown the ground beef and onion until cooked through. Add the sesame oil and chopped broccoli and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add soy sauce, hoisin, garlic, ginger and brown sugar. Stir until everything is well coated. Let simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes until broccoli is tender. 

Serve over rice, in lettuce wraps or in a bowl.

To make this even quicker, I used minced garlic from a jar and minced ginger from a squeez bottle. You'll find both in the produce section at the grocery store. 

Red Beans and Rice, Peach Cobbler—Life Is Good

Easy Red Bean and Rice

Another month has disappeared! Where do the days go? Your guess is as good as mine. But we're still here. Still kicking. And still eating.

We have a peach orchard local to us. Nothing like fresh-off-the-tree peaches. The weather was brutal to this year's crop. But there were enough of a harvest for us to have our two favorite summer recipes. I'll link them below instead of rewriting the recipes. 

 

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

I asked Daddy-O to stop and get peaches on. his way home from the lake this week. I really wanted homemade peach ice cream. I have a countertop 1-1/2 qt electric churn. It's so quick and easy. Stir the ingredients together, pour the mixture into the churn and push the button that says ice cream. (Gelato and sorbet are the two other buttons.) And 25 minutes later, you have soft serve ice cream. Of course, we eat it soft the minute the churn turns off. The rest goes into the freezer and I'll need an ice cream scoop next time.  

      Click "homemade peach ice cream" to find the recipe.

Peach Cobbler

Daddy-O gets credit for baking the cobbler while I was in a piano class this afternoon (on zoom.) I could smell this baking while I was trying to pay attention to the class. It had just come out of the oven when I finished. It tasted as good as it smelled. We've used this recipe for ages and ages.

Click "peach cobbler" to find the recipe.

  

And glory be, here's a new recipe. Needed to find something for supper a few days ago. Of course, I had not been to the grocery store yet. But I had a turkey smoked sausage in the refrigerator. There was the first green pepper ready to be picked in the garden. Thankfully I had two cans of kidney beans in the pantry. If you are a true red beans and rice connoisseur, this is not authentic by any means. But it was quick and it was easy and it was delicious. 

RED BEANS AND RICE

2 cups water

1 cup uncooked rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 (16-oz) package of smoked sausage (I used turkey) cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon minced jarred garlic

2 (15-oz) cans light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (16-oz) can whole tomato, chopped (use the juice, too)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet. Add sausage slices and cook about 5 minutes. Stir in onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook until tender. Add tomatoes with juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered about 20 minutes. Serve over rice.

If you don't find a 16-oz can of whole tomatoes, you can do like I did and use a can of diced tomatoes. The recipe says to chop the tomatoes anyway. So what's the difference? I can tell you. There is not nearly as much juice in a can of diced tomatoes as there is in a can of whole tomatoes. So I added some water as it started to look dry while it was simmering. If I'd had tomato juice I would have used that. But we work with what we have. 

I put 2 pint containers of the bean sausage mixture in the freezer for another time. I'd be happy eating it without the rice even. But the name is so classic—red beans and RICE. 

I'm posting this supper photo from earlier in the week just for fun. About once a year I fry chicken and make gravy so I don't completely forget how to do it. Roasted green beans and mashed potatoes finished the plate. Daddy-O usually has clean up duty when I cook. As much as he loved this meal, I think he might be glad he only cleans up after this meal once a year! Frying anything is messy. But, oh, it was so good.

I'll leave you with a couple of summer photos. We have been so lucky to have had days to enjoy being outside. The screened porch is my favorite spot. And this week it hasn't been too hot and the humidity hasn't been too high.  A cup of coffee in the morning. A book in the afternoon. Every now and then a glass of wine in the evening. There's no place like home.