Travels in the South

I’ve told you before my friends.  My mom and dad have lost it. Totally.  This past weekend was one of “those” adventures – snorts.  They were looking for some adventure and wanted to try a place they had never been to before.  So they took off in Albert, mom’s little Smart car, and hit the highway.  Almost sounds like a song huh – snorts.

They ended up at this place called Mellow Mushroom – it’s a pizza joint which was right up dad’s alley.  He ❤ pizza.  Mom was somewhat reluctant.  First off because they sat right beside exhibit A to the left.  Pardon me while I say this but does that ‘mushroom’ look psychedelic?  It was kind of disturbing in a weird sense of direction.  Mom couldn’t take her eyes off of it.  There was just something about it that was just plain weird.

 That’s when mom got up to take a closer look at the psychedelic mushroom.   

It’s not all its cracked up to be – double snorts.  You get it – cracked up.  It really is around the head area.  What kind of restaurant is this place?  Mom shook her head, snapped a couple of pictures and sat down preparing herself for a psychedelic adventure.

P.S.  If you are ever out and about and see some crazy lady taking pictures at a restaurant, just call her mom.  That will probably be my crazy mom – she takes pictures of *everything* as you will soon see in this post.

Shakes piggy head.  At least it’s not all about me now.

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Mom has been on this DIEt thing lately.  It’s going okay. As she says, it’s all about choices.  So today she choose a Greek salad to start her meal.

Exhibit B to the left here.  She says if she starts with a good salad, it fills her so she doesn’t eat too much of a bad thing.

Which is good – I guess if you are living a DIEt kind of life.  Mom did say that this salad was delicious!  It had everything she loves – lettuce, mushrooms (which didn’t look scary like exhibit A), olives, peppers and feta cheese.

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Dad on the other hoof, went with a cheese covered pretzel.  See exhibit C here to the right.  Not only was it delicious and cheesy, they served it with a beer cheese dipping sauce.  It must have been great because daddy licked the cheese sauce dry and there were no crumbs left from the pretzel.

 Which is good because mommy kept watching him waiting for something to drop.  So much for eating a nice decent sensible salad huh?

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Now came the main course.  Mom and dad can never agree upon toppings for their pizza.  There solution is to always get a pie 1/2 and 1/2.  That way mom can have what she wants and dad can have what he wants.  May I present to you exhibit D to the left.  Drum roll – tongue hanging out – deliciousness.

Mom got the top side.  She ❤ white pizza with cheese, garlic and tomatoes – what’s not to love right?

Dad on the other hoof got the bottom side.  He gets the works… something this little piggy can’t discuss and think about.  But it looks good.  Of course a lot of pizza made it’s way home for lunch the next day.

You have to admit though, mom had hesitation at first with seeing the psychedelic mushroom – or maybe it was because of the psychedelic mushroom – the food was delicious!

 

Shopping Around the World

This month we are highlighting easy dinner ideas for the summer months. Summer months are way too hot to be cooking in the kitchen making the house even hotter.

During these months, mom likes to go for ‘light’ foods that really don’t require a lot of cooking.  When mom/dad went to Chicago in May, my Aunt Tina got this salad in the picture below at Richard Walker’s Pancake House.  Mom was so amazed about the beauty of it and knew that she could do the same when she got home and she did!  So although this picture is not one of hers, she replicated it perfectly and has many times in the past couple of weeks.  It’s very feeling and I know that first hoof because mom has fixed me some too.  I’m a lucky pig, right?  So without further ado, mom will give you the breakdown below.  Enjoy my friends… I know I do!

Grilled or shredded chicken.  I buy a rotisserie chicken at our local Sam’s Warehouse on Sundays.  It costs $5.00 and I break it up into three different meals for two people each.  Part of the shredded chicken goes into this this salad.  Breaking it into three different meals makes it cost $1.67 for two people on this salad.

A head of lettuce costs $0.99 and again breaks it up into three different meals.  That makes this part $0.33 for two people on this salad.

Shredded cheese.  I buy medium block cheese and got a block on special for $0.99 a block.  It’s really hard to ‘cost’ how much it would be for this salad.  I use it on a lot of different things and shred some for this salad.  I’m going to assume I cut the cheese block up into four sections.  With that being said, this part in the salad would be $0.25 for two people.

Boiled egg.  A dozen eggs cost me $1.29.  If I know we will be doing several salads in the week, I will go ahead and boil 6 of them at a time.  That way I’m ahead of the game.  Two eggs (for two people) for this salad cost $0.11,

Avocado.  I love slice avocado but the hub doesn’t.  I buy one avocado and split it into two meals.  Avocados were on sale for $1.00 so the salad part is $0.50.

Tomatoes.  I bought six medium sized Roma tomatoes at the market for $1.39 – that’s $0.24 per tomato and we use one per meal for two people.

Broccoli – a head of broccoli was $1.59.  Again, we break it up into many different snacks/meals.  It probably ranged $0.40 per meal for two people.

Dressing for the salad – the hub uses 1000 Island and I use Italian.  We pay $1.50 per bottle and it breaks down to about $0.25 per salad for two people.

Now the fun part – putting the salad together.  The only thing I didn’t put in the salad was shredded carrots.  Jim is not a huge fan so we left them out.  To build the ‘salad’, we put shredded lettuce on the bottom.  And when you do this, I make sure all of it is ‘bite sized’.  I hate it when you order a salad in a restaurant and you have to use a knife to cut it up because everything is cut too big.  Don’t you?  After the lettuce, I then place the items above on top like the picture. I add the salad dressing and then toss to get everything coated with the dressing.  Then it’s time to jump into that delicious salad and enjoy.  Final cost $3.64 for two people.

 

Shopping Around the World

Mark Your Calendars Friends!

Shopping around the World will be hosted on Friday, June 29th.  This month we will be highlighting easy dinner ideas for the summer months.  Summer brings heat and who wants to be in the kitchen cooking, right?  So this month, let’s concentrate on what you prepare for dinner in the summer months.

Post your meals and prices on Friday, June 29th and link back to my blog so everyone has a way to your blog to check out your menu’s.

Hope to see you here!

 

 

 

Travels in Chicago –

 Did

 you think I was done highlighting some of the wonderful food mom/dad tried when they were visiting Illinois last November?  Of course not – snorts with piggy laughter.  How could

any visit be complete to the Chicago area without trying some of their famous Chicago deep dish pizza?  And of course, there was only one place they had to go for that –

Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

First up, Aunt Tina said they had the best calamari.  So everyone ordered the Calamari Fritti which was lightly breaded and fried to perfection.  They serve this delectable appetizer with a side of cocktail sauce.  Of course, Aunt Tina made sure to spritz lemon all over these yum-yum’s before everyone dug into them.

And then everyone dug into some salad.  See even Aunt Tina made daddy eat some vegetables – mom was so proud.  Of course mom told daddy he had to eat the salad because the pizza takes time to cook.  That’s right.  Deep dish pizza takes longer to cook than the regular pizzas you might order from your fast food place.

 Then after a while, mom/dad/Aunt Tina said they heard angels singing and their individual pizzas were delivered.  Instead of getting one huge pizza, they all got individual ones with side salads.  These pizzas had sausage and black olives – and lots of sauce.

What did mom/dad think about this Chicago style deep dish pizza?  Dad is a huge pizza person.  He said that he ‘thinks’ he liked it but he would have to try one again to be sure.  That sounds like dad, huh?  But in the end, he said he would give it about an eight.

Mom said it was okay.  Mom is not a fan of a lot of sauce on her pizzas and of course this one is fully loaded with sauce.  And the crust is thick and a there is a lot of it surrounding the pizza.  Mom said the crust was kind of hard too.  There was lots of flavor but this pizza left mom on the it was okay side.  So for these reasons, mom gave it about a four.

But overall, everyone had a fantastic time at a famous landmark.  Would they go back again – of course they would!  There is more to the menu than just pizza.  And if you know anything about my mom/dad, they are professional eaters – snorts with piggy laughter.

 

Shopping Around the World

Hello Friends!! ❤  It’s that time for Shopping Around the World for March.  For March, we are highlighting ‘go to’ meals that you always prepare when you have nothing else to do.

This one is right up mom’s alley for sure.  Her ‘go to’ meal will always be some sort of chicken dish for sure.

In fact, she made her favorite ‘go to’ meal this weekend for all of us – and we all enjoyed it.

So without further ado, take it away mom!

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You will need the following:  four chicken thighs ($4.38); a pack of english peas ($0.88); salad mix ($1.00); salad dressing of your choice ($0.25); flour/spices/oil ($0.50) = Total cost $7.01 – Could possibly be a bit more 🙂

We all know how to fix your salad mix and peas so I will start with my ‘go to’ spice mix for my chicken.  And although I’ve been using my air fryer a lot these days, I decided to go old school and do this chicken the old southern traditionally way.  First thing – an iron skillet.  Every good southern cook here in the south will have different sizes of iron skillets in the cabinets.  Yes it makes a difference.  Put that skillet on the stove to medium heat and pour some oil in it to heat.  While it is heating, prepare your spice mix.  In a mixing bowl, put two cups of flour.  To that add:  salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste (make it as hot or leave it out altogether).  Mix it together.  In another mixing bowl, add a touch of milk, two eggs, and again season well with salt, pepper and a touch of cayenne pepper.  Mix it together.

Now clean your chicken.  Then they are going to get all seasoned.  Make sure your oil is hot.  How do  you do that?  Take just a pinch of flour and sprinkle it in your hot oil.  Does it bubble?  Yes, it’s ready.  No, give it some more time.

Take a chicken thigh and put it in the flour mixture, then to the ‘bath’ egg mixture, then (this is what a lot people forget) back to the flour mixture.  Yes your fingers will be messy.  Get over it.  After the flour mixture, then the chicken goes into the hot oil.  You should be able to put all four thighs in your pan.  Then wash up those fingers.  I usually do mine chicken around 10 minutes on one side and then flip to the other side for another 10 minutes.

Then serve with peas and a salad – there you go.  Southern fried chicken at its best!

 

Travels in the South

Surprise – surprise – surprise.  Just goes to show you that every once in a while mom listens to her body…. especially when it screams, “Eat a salad sometimes!” LOL

Last weekend, mom/dad went out for brunch.  We won’t discuss what daddy ate – probably another hamburger – snorts with piggy laughter.  But mom got a salad and I have to say it looked pretty darn good to me.  It had all of the regular stuff – croutons, red onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded cheese with light Thousand Island dressing.

See mom can be good…. at times.

 

Travels in the South

These days, mom/dad often will go out and share a dinner.  Neither one of them want a full meal but yet both of them want something good – makes sense huh?  Let’s look at this nights decision.  Mom/dad ordered a steak with grilled shrimp.  Looks awesome, right?  How did they split the meal?

Dad went for the steak and baked potato.  Mom went for the grilled shrimp and a side salad.  Perfect decision huh?  See mom can make somewhat good decisions in her food choices.  I was beginning to doubt her – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.

Do your parents split meals too when they go out?

 

Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another week of Travels in the South.  You know my daddy, he loves his hamburgers.  A couple of weeks ago he and mom found a restaurant that was a little hole in the wall.  It wasn’t much on the outside but they were known for their burgers.  And dad said they were right.  Their burgers were out of this world delicious.  Now, this is not something you should eat everyday for sure, especially when someone – snort mom snort – is suppose to be watching those calories.  But I had to share their meal.

Both burgers had eight ounce angus beef patties.  And that is the only thing they had in common – snorts with piggy laughter.

Dad’s had a hard fried egg, bacon (gulps), melted Jack cheese and pickles on it.  Mom had bacon (gulps), a portobello mushroom, red onions and pickles.  I couldn’t believe the size of mom’s burger.  She couldn’t even wrap her mouth around it – HA!   And of course she had to get daddy to help her finish it.  Dad had onion rings with his burger.  Mom had a salad so at least she *tried* to somewhat healthy.

  

 

Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another week of Travels in the South.  My dad says that sometimes you just need a good hamburger, something solid and substantial.  This week he wanted just that – an awesome hamburger.  You’ve heard us talk about the great pizza that a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom has but did you know they have build your own burgers?  Daddy saw it on the menu and just had to try it… of course while mom had a wonderfully delicious salad – poor mom.

The burger is 100% black angus beef topped with dad’s favorites:  pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar and swiss cheeses and bacon – gulps.  Dad said it was a handful and was so delicious.  Of course, it did take two hands to eat and plenty of napkins.  I guess that’s a good sign to a great juicy burger, huh?

So if you have a Mellow Mushroom close by, check them out for their burgers.  They also have vegan burgers which mom says sound delicious.

 

Shopping Around the World

Hello sweet friends.  Welcome to another edition of Shopping Around the World.  This month we are highlighting things that we cook in this hot weather outside.  So without further ado, here is mom – take it away mom!

What we have this month is a meal that keeps on giving – LOL.  Friday morning before work, I put a beef roast in the oven.  I got a nice beef roast (around 3 pounds) at the market for around $14.00.  That night when I got home, I cut all of the meat up and put it aside.  In the meantime, I took a head of lettuce ($0.98 head) and chopped it all up placing it in a huge bowl.  On this date, I didn’t add anything extra – just the salad mix so far.  I then poured in some 1000 Island salad dressing into the lettuce (probably 1/3 bottle for the entire salad $0.34).  I tossed and coated all of the salad with the dressing.  At this time, you can add a little more if you need it.  Just make sure your lettuce is coated.

I then used some big plates and put some salad into the plates.  Next up, the beef that I had previously sliced was put on top of the salad.  Just as a garnish, I took some barbeque sauce I had on hand and drizzled it over the beef.  There you go – dinner is served.  The entire meal cost $15.32 and we had salads for two all weekend in this heat.