That meat above be lookin' damn good (I love dark meat chicken)!

I had to give the sardines a break so today for lunch (we can do lunch too, yes?) I tore me up some chicken breast on a bed of spinach with just enough slightly melted Colby cheese to be a tease, and wit healthy fixins on top.

Waiting for my egg to boil (plus one for next time)...




Oh yeah!...



I really need to learn how to cook.

Spoon Salad.

A fast stew made with chicken leg filet, onion, small potatoes, leek, haricots, mustard and Cr�me fra�che. I thought it was very tasty, but the wife didn't really care for the rich creamy flavour - she thinks that cream and meat don't mix.

There was a sale on frozen food and my wife got too enthusiastic.

I hope she doesn't expect us to eat this stuff!

It's full of salt and sugar and preservatives and coloring and questionable meats!

It's why we are a bit choosey in what and where we buy, we add little or no salt to our food and when we get some packaged foods it is so salty it is just about inedible.

Edit: it is just about that time of year again for the annual turkey slaughter. Time to go fill the freezer for next year

For lunch today, wife and mom tag teamed up a seafood gumbo with brown rice.

Starting with a homemade vegetable and shrimp head stock (floating shrimp heads...eh, gross looking but smelled really good) with a roux made from scratch in the healthiest way possible, all fresh ingredients and VERY little salt...





My bowl is to the left, I'm bigger so I get a little bit more.

MarkG, that is proper food! I once tried to make a gumbo with crab claws, sweetcorn and okra, but it didn't look as good as that! The secret is obviously in the stock.

Do you still use sassefras for seasoning? I understand it's not particularly good for you (a la wormwood). It's not an ingredient found over here.

As for us, we had roast pork with roast potatoes cooked in the same tray, with a slew of other vegetables to please the varied tastes of my kids.

U-96, I was told...

"No sassafras, we just used okra to thicken it." I think we were just out of it though, didn't know it was considered questionable.

Along with an answer I was granted permission to post a *very* casual pic of making dessert...



Years ago this might have been a hot pecan pie with Cool Whip or vanilla ice cream on top, or a cream cheese frosted pumpkin spice cake. Now it's a usually a simple small bowl of pineapple cubes (although sweet), watermelon, kiwi or some other fruit.

++++++++++

Just down the road from us is a 4-H facility run by the LSU Agricultural Center, we just bought a 40lbs. box of awesome looking sweet potatoes for only $25.00!

We scrubbed them under a rinse, baked them in the oven and then froze them all (guessing about 100)...



So whenever I need an afternoon snack and I've already had my fill of nuts, I just nuke me a sweet potato then add a little butter, cinnamon and honey. This Thanksgiving she's going to make me a genuine sweet potato pie from scratch (and with no fat-free/sugar-free chemical crap, either)!

Man, I can't wait to grow my first vegetable garden this Spring with my father!

Introduced my wife to sweet potatoes when we were over in Scotland, also to swede, turnip and parsnip, all of those are hard to get here and expensive.

One day when I had to pop across to England on business I stopped off at a green grocer and bought a dozen swedes to take back with me, on this trip, of course, I get randomly picked for the customs inspection - Brit driving a Belgian car etc. and I got a raised eyebrow from the customs officer when he looked in the boot and seen the turnips sitting there, thankfully he just laughed and waved me on. Carrying raw vegetables like that across international borders is illegal and you can get fined for it.

But when you pay about a euro+ for a single small parsnip it just seems logical to stock up when we are over by car

Well we have had our first frost now so the swedes should taste a lot better now!

I love good fresh seafood!

Mmmmmm! Smakelijk!

ik ga akkoord (google translate)

Is there anything in Belgium that isn't expensive? Reading your posts over the years it seems that Belgium has one of the highest costs of living in the world.

You are not too far out in your thoughts good thing is that beer is cheap

I know that folks in the UK think that it is "rip off Britain" but after living in Belgium for a while they don't know how good they have it.

Being so close to the borders with Germany and Holland we nip across there to get things at a good discount compared with here.

I want!

EDIT: I'd have to go back to make sure, but IMO we have a winner!

Yeah CG2015, that's the most appealing thing to my own taste you've posted in a while. I love seafood and pasta. Looks fantastic!

Thank you Alicatt, MarkG and U-96.

So....my last Thanksgiving on the beach for awhile.

Just me, tried to invite a couple of folks who I figured had no other place to go, but I was too late. Just me and lovin it.

The view, as always, is awesome. A bit breezy but nice and warm around 76 F.




Damn slow waiter, cook, busboy/dishwasher....better just go get it myself!



Didn't wanna spend any time trying to make it pretty, time to eat! Been at this since last night! Just roasted turkey with my grandmother's dressing, mashed potatoes, all with too much homemade gravy. A little roasted butternut squash and escalloped green beans and pearl onions.

The biggest meal I have attempted in like 6 or 7 months, I got about 90% of it down. I just adore turkey leftovers and will be happily eating the rest up for a week!

Happy Thanksgiving folks.

Looking good, Nixer. You can't beat that atmosphere.

Want a little dessert and coffee with that?



"Song, song of the south
Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth
Gone, gone with the wind
There ain't nobody looking back again"

Alabama - Song Of The South