Summertime

      I am really enjoying summer this year, even through the heat, even though I keep putting off the yard work and it's getting pretty shaggy now.  And now that Eliyah comes three days a week, I am sure I'm going to play some every week.  Last week he beat me roundly at checkers!  I am enjoying the garden produce and the flowers too.  Here are some Zinnias in the yard of a friend who has a green thumb.  She has lots of tomatoes too and I took some home and canned Salsa for her and for us.

In my Friend's yard are many flowers.

Some people don't realize how pretty Hydrangeas are in alkaline soil.

 

There were six jars of salsa but we have already eaten one!

     Here is a new cookbook I bought last week when I was Not-buying antiques with a friend.  It's a Russian cookbook from 1969, a Time-Life series. (it cost me a grand $2) It has a number of recipes in it so I was surprised to find that it's not actually the cookbook, but a story-line that goes with a spiral bound cookbook.  Bill has ordered me the other part but in the mean-time, I have begun to use the recipes in the book  This one is Kulebiaka, salmon in pastry.  I try to have fish about once a week but Bill is not very fond of seafood, unless you mean shrimp.  I liked the look of this recipe and the fact that the filler was rice rather than my usual oatmeal when I make salmon patties.  Herbs made the taste memorable and really, I was surprised that canned salmon could taste so good, and ordinarily I like it anyway!

Here is the book

Here is the pie, well, one-half the pie

    

A better view

Here's the picture in the book.  It was not difficult to make.  Recipe follows.

     Here are my menus for the week:
Thursday-  Hot dogs, roasted garlic potatoes, sliced tomatoes, watermelon
Friday-Sandwiches only as we had eaten lunch out and were not very hungry. Later we had popcorn.
Saturday- Kulebiaka, fresh corn on the cob, tomato salad with blue cheese and watermelon
Today- Spinach dip and toast squares, pasta with red sauce, salad, almond cookies
Monday-Anniversary dinner at Scholar's Inn, It's been 11 years since Bill came to stay with his little suitcase!  In October we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.
Tuesday-left-over Kulebiaka, steamed mixed vegetables, Cherry tomatoes with blue cheese, watermelon
Wednesday-Chef's salad with cheese, egg and meat, baked potatoes, watermelon, if there's any left!
Thursday-Hamburgers with lettuce and tomato, garlic roasted potatoes, cookies, if there are any left!

Kulebiaka, or my version of it.

1 can salmon, 14 ounces
1  1/2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
1 small onion, minced finely
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 scant teaspoon salt
some ground pepper
4 large pats butter
1 recipe best piecrust

Piecrust: 2 cups plain flour, 1 stick butter, 1/3 cup cold water, 4 tablespoons cooking oil
Work the butter into the flour, first with a knife, then with your fingers.  Measure the cold water, add the oil to the water and pour into the flour and butter mixture.  Gently mix until barely sticking together.  Divide in half and roll out each half into a long thin oval, one somewhat wider than the other, make it about 10 or 12  inches long and about 6 or 7 inches wide.  Mix the salmon, with its juice but picking out the backbones, the rice, eggs, onion and flavorings well.  Spoon onto the wider piece of pie crust, piling it up high. Dot with butter.   Lay the second piece of crust over the first and the fish pile and press the edges down, then fold the bottom, wider portion over the top edge and crimp.  Cut a steam hole in the middle. Transfer carefully with two spatulas to baking sheet.   Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes, watch the browning at the end.  Makes about 7 or 8 generous servings.

For the tomato salad, I just chop up tomatoes, sprinkle with bits of blue cheese and drizzle with a little salad dressing.  Cherry tomatoes can be cut in half.

     I am always on the look-out for a good recipe.  I don't mind paying for a cook book that has several recipes that become family favorites and end up being used frequently through-out the year.  Of course, the internet has an endless supply of recipes and I do use it and keep a loose leaf notebook full of print-outs, but to do a search you need to have a recipe in mind.  A cook book with a regional theme, or an opinionated author may have something I haven't even thought of.  And yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

It's much cooler here now!

     Last month was very hot in this house.  I found I didn't have much energy, not even to blog.  Then we got a new air conditioner.  Though it's not very big, it cools most of the house very efficiently and we are enjoying it very much.  I admit to being somewhat of a baby about being too hot.  Crabby and inefficient!  And only marginally better now because I quite got used to being lazy!  However, it's time to go shopping.  Last month I only spent $100 at the grocery store because of O'bama's threat that there might not be Social Security checks in August.  I know it wouldn't have made any difference but at least I was doing something!  I did buy vegetables at road side stands and some fancy hot dogs and lunch meat at Aldi's when they came unexpectedly on sale.  We're still enjoying those things.  Now it's time to do some serious shopping!  Here are my shopping bags, all 14 of them, ready to be put in the car and hauled out at 3 different stores.

     First we went to the Butcher's Block, on the east side.  I spent about $30 there and got 2# of ground sirloin, 2 # Indiana Platter bacon, 2# of stew beef, 1# of Italian sweet sausage and 2 boneless pork chops to stuff.  Enough for about 18 meals plus many breakfasts.  Remember we have Kosher hot dogs, lunch meat and chicken breasts already, plus canned salmon and tuna and cheese.  28 meals coming up.  I spent almost exactly $200 for the total.  Counting my additional purchases we spent about $125 for last month's.  Monthly shopping takes us about 2 hours.

     The menus for this week are:
Thursday-   Pork Fried Rice, tossed salad with blue cheese, fresh baked bread and butter, Mandarin oranges
Friday-     Tuna noodle casserole with mushrooms, tossed salad, Cantaloup
Saturday-     Birthday party, I went and had a taste of everything and brought home a plate for Hubby
Sunday-     Stewed stew beef, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes,  mashed potatoes, chocolate bar, almonds
Monday-     Chicken Fajitas, rice and refried beans, salsa and sour cream, Melon
Tuesday-     Tomato soup and hot dogs, Melon
Wednesday-     Fajitas leftovers with oven baked chips of the tortillas to dip in the 7 layer dip
Thursday-     Hamburgers and oven roasted garlic flavored potatoes, Melon

     On the day I went to the grocery, I had in the fridge, as left-overs, about 3/4 of a package of Lite cream cheese and about 4 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese.  I combined these with some Worcestershire sauce and some onion powder and made a cheese ball, which we had with crackers when we got back from the store.  My husband asked me why I had made it and I began to reminisce about snack foods and things we used to serve company.  In those days, everyone had company, sometimes several times a week.  For instance, my Not-Grandmother always served Ritz crackers with a dollop of cream cheese in the center of each and sometimes a spot of jelly in the center of that.  It was her stock in trade.  Along with that she might pour small glasses of Coca Cola or my Grandfather would make high balls, drinks with whiskey in them.  As a child, I always got prune juice!  It took me a while to figure that out as it was the same color as Coke.  Bill called to mind the people in his neighborhood too.  Patrica Renee', who always made drop biscuits, served with butter for non-purists, but eaten dry  with coffee by aficionados.  She was a painter of lovely pictures, and she signed them 'Patricia Renee'.  Peg Wentworth made diminutive loaves of white bread, served hot with butter and a small sprinkling of brown sugar, which Bill says were to die for!  Mrs. Eckert baked cakes and pies for her family's dinners but visitors got cookies from her always stocked cookie jar.  His Mother made popcorn in summer and Chex mix in winter and she also served small glasses of soft drinks of various brands and flavors.  Now that Eliyah is going to be visiting three days a week, I am thinking of making melon balls as an afternoon snack.  I am tempted to make some cookies too, but maybe I'll hold off a few days.  We'll just eat them!

     I had out my 1930's binder of A & P menus a couple of days ago and was reading off unlikely-sounding combinations from recipes but Bill responded to one:  noodles and eggs scrambled together.  He said it would be good if it had say shrimp in it and maybe also mushrooms, and how about green onions.  I thought his version sounded much better than the 1930's one and made it for breakfast this morning.  It was nearly 11:30 when we sat down so maybe Brunch would be a more accurate description.  The new recipe did not disapoint, and served with fresh hot biscuits and hot tea was a delightful start to our Sunday.