May 26, 2011 - What's For Dinner?

"What are you having for dinner?" asks Zentmrs. She's having a delicious sounding Layered Chicken Cordon Bleu.

My answer.....

"We're having Italian sausage, sliced, browned and then simmered in marinara sauce (made from home canned tomato sauce, 2010 garden) and served over spaghetti. I have onions, parsley, oregano and some green garlic and shallots pulled from the garden today to add to the sauce, with dried basil from last year. I also harvested a big basket of spinach, so I'll steam that and serve it with butter and salt & pepper. Two heads of Austrian Red Butterhead lettuce are crisping up in the fridge for a salad. That's a lot of greens, but when we have a glut of them it's a necessary evil! I also have a fresh loaf of bread rising, so it will come out of the oven just in time for dinner."

I stuck to that menu, with the exception of the Italian sausage. Rather than slice it, I decided to remove it from the casings and then brown it for the sauce.

Mr. Granny is finally eating garden lettuce, rather than insisting on grocery store Iceberg. Of course, it has to be a wilted lettuce salad, with a sweet and sour hot bacon dressing on it, and lots of crisp bacon bits. We easily eat two small heads of butterhead or red leaf lettuce in one sitting when it's fixed this way. The green tops of the onions were also used in the salad, while the bulbs were diced up into the spaghetti sauce. Mr. G was also impressed with that sauce, which was made entirely with either fresh, canned or dried produce from the garden...not counting the sausage, of course. He had two huge helpings! I must say, the bread was exceptionally good tonight. It was light, with a finer crumb than I get when I use the bread machine. This loaf was mixed up in the food processor.

You can tell what my favorite part of the meal is. I usually eat my dinner on a salad plate, as half helpings are just plenty for my appetite. My salad is always larger than my entree.

Alicyn, my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, came to visit today. She spent the afternoon entertaining me.

Piano for sale. Cheap. ;-)