Sunday Dinner, June 24, 2007 & A Meme

Wonder of wonders, this Sunday I'm actually cooking again for my Sunday Dinner. No matter who or how many show up, they can eat it or not and eat until we run out. It's so hard to plan my menus because I never know who will be here or how many. Even so, we can't eat out every Sunday. Or so I've been told. The "why" of that hasn't been explained completely to my satisfaction though, I must say.

To get to the actual point of this post (you thought I'd never get around to it, didn't you?!) for my Sunday Dinner I'm making Texas Hash, which is a fancified way to say hamburger, macaroni and tomatoes seasoned with onion and some spices. I'll try to find time later this evening to add the recipe to my RECIPE BLOG. Easy and simple, but a very satisfying main dish and a family favorite.

EDITED TO ADD: I added the recipe for my TEXAS HASH to my RECIPE BLOG for those who are interested.

I'm also frying fresh corn. Lamar's Mom and stepdad brought over a big mess of fresh corn straight from the garden this morning. I just cut it off the cob and fry it briefly in a little olive oil, vegetable oil or butter, then add salt and a little sugar if it needs it. For cream style corn I scrape the cobs and also thicken it with a little corn starch if it's a little too loose. My mouth is literally watering just thinking about it!

To complete my menu for Sunday Dinner I'm also frying then steaming some garden fresh cabbage. Lamar's Mom brought the cabbage when she delivered the fresh corn. I use a little oil or bacon grease and stir fry my cabbage to get a little brown color on it then add some salt and black pepper and some water, put a lid on it, turn down the heat and let it steam until tender.

That's my menu. Your turn now. What's on the menu at your place for your Sunday Dinner? Going out to eat or to Grandma's? Share that in the comments as well.I cooked some corn on the cob tonight for our supper. It was the first fresh corn of the season for us. It was delicious! The best I've had in ages as a matter of fact. I had my butter and salt ready, and that's all the seasoning it needs in my expert opinion. I base that expert opinion on the fact that I like to eat. Corn on the cob ain't good unless you have butter dripping off your chin as you eat it.

I floured and fried a pork chop for me and a beef cubed steak for Lamar, then made him some cream gravy. That was it for our supper. The corn made the meal.Clemntine at What's Up, Buttercup tagged me for a meme about my favorite restaurants.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to name of person that tagged you.
2. Include state and country you live in.
3. List top 5 favorite local restaurants.
4. Tag 5 other people and let them know they’ve been tagged.

Arkansas, U.S.A.

1. Ron's Catfish -- Now if you know me very well at all you know that Southern fried catfish and shrimp are my favorite eat-out foods. Ron's is the place I go when I want regular or Cajun fried catfish, and their breaded fried shrimp is excellent. Not to mention the rest of their buffet offerings. Their advertising slogan is "100 Feet of all you can eat!" And they ain't lyin' either!

2. Fat City Grill -- When I'm hungry for steak I head to Fat City Grill. They have the best and most tender steaks in Jonesboro, in my humble opinion. I will concede the fact that I haven't tried every restaurant's steak because I stopped looking when I had my first steak at Fat City Grill on Mother's Day 2006. Jessica took me out for Mother's Day and bought me a steak dinner, complete with steamed broccoli and veggies and their homemade soft breadsticks. YUM!

They do serve other things but I always order the steak dinner so I can't give you an honest review of anything else on the menu.

3. Lazzari's -- For Italian food at it's finest, Cecil, Sue and I love Lazzari's Italian Grill & Oven. Before you even order your drinks they bring a hot fresh loaf of Italian bread and butter to your table. I have heard of them bringing as many as 3 loaves of that bread to a table throughout the course of a meal. AHEM!...

Because of my love for seafood I almost always order the Tute Mare. It's your choice of pasta with creamy seafood sauce and clams, shrimp and scallops, fresh spinach and mushrooms, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese over all. Their servings are huge and I rarely eat the entire entree. That might have something to do with the amount of fresh, hot bread and butter I consume before the entree arrives. AHEM.....

Their grilled rosemary chicken breast is wonderful and they make the best Caesar salad dressing I've ever eaten. The shrimp scampi appetizer is the BEST, second only to Red Lobster's if you ask me.

4. TaMolly's -- For best Mexican food TaMolly's gets my vote, hands down. I like their combination platters because I always have trouble making up my mind what I want. I've never gotten anything that wasn't good and they always have good service. Cecil and Sue like their iced tea. I usually get Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke so I'll take their word about the tea.

They have some luscious desserts, including their Chocolate Spoon Cake. I occasionally break my own rule of not caring for chocolate to share a piece of this cake with Sue or Cecil. It is so rich and chocolate-y that I only order it when I want a serious chocolate fix, which isn't very often at all. Sue and Cecil make up for what I don't eat, though.

5. China Buffet -- Cecil, Sue and I love the coconut shrimp at this restaurant! It's the best I've ever eaten, bar none. They have a huge buffet with a mixture of Chinese, Japanese and American offerings. I love their General Tsao's chicken, moo goo gai pan, seafood delight, pork and mushrooms, chicken on a stick and crab rangoons.

6. Diane's Place -- I have to be honest here and say that as much as I love to eat out occasionally I really am a homebody. I get tired of eating out sometimes and just want an old fashioned home cooked meal. I was raised on beans and taters and I still want a simple meal of pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread every little while. Sometimes nothing else tastes as good as a simple meal that I grew up eating most every day.

Now to tag 5 of my blogging buddies. Hmmmm.......

1. GreenEyes -- in Newfoundland, Canada.
2. Barb -- in Grand Junction, Colorado, U.S.A.
3. BooMama -- in Georgia, U.S.A.
4. Dawn -- in Colorado, U.S.A.
5. Early Bird -- in Ohio, U.S.A.

Okay, ladies, your turn!I've been working on this post since 4:30 this afternoon. It's now after 10 pm. Cooking supper slowed me down, then Jessica brought Emmy over for the evening while she and Jason went out. Between feeding, changing and just generally playing with Emmy it slowed the completion of this post down even more for some reason.

Emmy's now sleeping peacefully as you can see by the picture I just added. I just took the picture a few minutes ago and uploaded it just for this post.

Jessica just called and asked how I feel about keeping Emmy all night then taking her to church with me in the morning. Now what do you think this Grandma said? This will be the first time I've kept Emmy overnight. I may not get much sleep but my heart will be full even if I do have bags under my eyes Sunday at church.I think that's going to do it for this post. I may have set a record for longest post ever as it is. I was tagged by DAWN for another meme but I'll try to get it done in my next post.

May God bless you all, dear family and friends, with all you need and enough to share.