I decided to play a game this week, and I called it “Let’s See What’s Been in the Freezer the Longest”! These are some of the dishes I came up with: Grilled Ham and Pineapple with Stacked Potatoes; Chicken Saltimbocca and Crispy Polenta; Pasta Salad; Bombay Duck (which is fish!); Potato Leek Soup with Ground Turkey Patties; Veal Parmesan; and an Asian inspired meal consisting of Asian Prawns, Egg Drop Soup, and Pea Salad.

This week, it was Salad Week in the Kitchen! We started with my favorite: the California Cobb. Next we had Horiatiki Salata, which is the real Greek Salad. No lettuce, no heavy dressing, just olive oil and salt. Accompanying the salad was grilled lamb chops in a Croatian style. Following that, we had a classic Caesar salad straight out of my 1970s New Settlement Cookbook. I opened up a can of Wahoo — first time trying it — and fried some potatoes topped with melted Parmesan cheese to go with the salad. Day 4 was a Caprese Salad, served with marinated pork loin skewers and tzatziki sauce for the meat. For those who don’t know, the Caprese Salad represents the colors of the Italian flag: green, white and red. For lunch the next day, I took the leftovers from Day 4 and made us what I called a “pizza salad”. That evening, we had another of my favorites — Salade Niçoise. It is a “peasant” salad with the interesting ingredients of potatoes, green beans, and tuna. And lots of other tasty items. For Day 6, we had a yummy Waldorf Salad, accompanied by Aidells Chicken & Apple sausages. Perfect pairing. And for the final day, the salad we had been anticipating all week: Antipasto Salad! It was a week of colorful and wonderful eating.

This week was a culinary tour of the Philippines! On the menu we had: Sananglay Na Tilapia, Hamonado, Chicken Relleno, Beef Kalderata, Ukoy, Embutido, and Tortang Giniling.

Translated, we had tilapia and vegetables wrapped in bok choy leaves; fatty pork simmered in pineapple juice and tamari; a whole chicken deboned without cutting the skin, then stuffed with ground pork, minced ham, vegetables, hard boiled eggs, and Vienna sausage; spicy beef stew thickened with liver pâté; shrimp and bean sprout fritters; tube-shaped ground pork meatloaf wrapped around hard boiled eggs and Vienna sausage; and “flat” omelettes with ground beef and vegetables. That was sure an adventure in cooking!

Kentucky Derby Week! We did a tour of Kentucky Cuisine. We started with some basic fried fish, then Bourbon Wieners with Horsey Eggs and Cauliflower Cheese Chips, next was Smoky White Beans and Ham (I used bacon ends & pieces because I couldn’t find ham hocks), Kentucky Hot Brown – a favorite hot sandwich of the area, and on Derby Day we did fondue with “Little Smokies” and crudités (veg tray). We also had caviar from Seattle Caviar, and a nice bottle of Prosecco. On Sunday we had a Pizza Casserole, which was sort of like making lasagna, with mini pepperoni for a zippy and unique flavor, and finished off the week making what I call “Jumble-aya” – leftovers in the style of Jambalaya. I used up the Little Smokies, and the turkey from the Hot Browns, also the rest of the veggies from the crudités.

We were out and about a lot this week. Notable in the kitchen were Shrimp Scampi, lots of berries, BLT-A Sandwiches with Tomato Bisque, and Hot Dogs & Baked Beans up in the mountains at our favorite camp site that we built around 20 years ago. Both our dogs are buried there.

This week, I made Clam Chowder using powdered goat milk, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Beef Stew, Chicken Nuggets and fries, and Hungarian(ish) Stuffed Bell Peppers.

This was fun.  I used up leftover chicken wings to make my Ramen, and substituted saifun (mung bean thread) noodles.  Developing the broth reminded me of making Pho.  And I found another opportunity to use a couple of the super fresh eggs from the neighbors’ hens.  Which would you eat first?  The chicken or the egg?  😀

I don’t do breaded calamari.  If you haven’t tried it without the breading, I think you’re in for a surprise.  Don’t overcook it!  This recipe with the tomatoes and herbs was a new find for me.  Since tomatoes are my favorite food, I really enjoyed it.  The roasted beets were topped with balsamic vinegar, some pepitas and sunflower nuts, and crumbled feta.

This was a cool way to skewer zucchini and yellow squash.  I just used a vegetable peeler to make the thin slices, then zig-zagged them onto the skewers.  The meat and potatoes were already cooked, so these spent little time on the grill.  Fast, fun, and tasty!

Our 2nd artichoke, growing, and half eaten.

Taco salad bar — again, we each put our plates together differently.  I like mine all together, and he likes his with the hot stuff and cold stuff separate.  To each their own.

Carrot souffle — using up carrots and eggs.  It was super tasty!

Charcuterie platter.  Nothing fancy except the lox.  For the rest, I just raided the pantry and fridge.  So nice to have tasty cold food on a record-setting hot day!