Saturday, June 23, 2007

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.

21 comments:

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

Awe...Emmy is beautiful and you cook just like my MIL used to...for whoever showed up. I wish I was in your family...Sunday dinner sounds great.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

I forgot to mention that I really liked #6 of your meme. That would be my first choice although the other 5 sound pretty good too.

Myrna said...

That Emmy is so cute all dressed up in her pink--Looks like a real girly girl!

I think I'll just show up at your place for Sunday Dinner. Your meal sounds better than anything we might have here! If that doesn't work out :-) we'll be having chicken casserole, salad, green beans, and rolls.

Anonymous said...

yummmmmmmmmmm sweet corn

hope you enjoy your night with your beautiful princess be nice for Jessica too a bit of a break

Granny said...

Hope that darling baby isn't keeping you up all night.

I make a dish like that only I usually throw the corn right in with the rest of the mix.

Elcie decided to choose our menu tomorrow. White beans with ham, rice, and maybe cornbread depending on how hot it gets here. Too hot, I'll steam some tortillas. In this part of CA, tortillas are used for everything.

Sounds like Jonesboro has expanded its gourmet food since I lived there.

We used to eat at Holiday Inn and that was about it for anything approaching fancy.

Of course it's been 30 years now.

Lyndy said...

Not sure what will be the menu here but that corn sure sounds delish. I like how you view your "expert opinion" since I too love to eat, I guess I could be considered an expert of sorts too. (lol)

Enjoy that baby and have a wonderful Sunday.

Love and Hugs, Lyndy

Susie said...

Your Texas Hash sounds good! I make that with the corn in the recipe. It's called "More"
Dinner today is pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes. I'll also make a salad and rolls. My daughter is bringing dez.
Yay for sleepovers! We love them here at this Grammy's house!
Emmy looks so peaceful sleeping...
love and ((hugs))

kansasrose said...

I am making your Texas hash today hon! This sounds so yummy! And that corn! My corn is just barely up and you all have ears now???? Baby Emmy looks like an angel sleeping. What a precious photo. Your Sunday menus always get me soooo hungry D for that homegrown cooking I remember as a child. Love your recipes! Have a lovely Sunday dear. HUGS, Jen

Pyjama Diva said...

Is there anything more beautiful than the sight of a sleeping baby? And of course, this particular sleeping baby is especially beautiful! :)

I make the equivalent of your Texas Hash quite regularly. We just don't have a real name for it - "can you make that hamburger and pasta thingy tonight?" :) Quick, easy, nummy, and filling. Perfect!

Hubby is cooking for us today. How lucky am I?! A boneless pork loin roast just went into the oven, and he'll do up some veg to go with it later. Mashed potatoes and gravy for sure, and maybe some cauliflower or some other goody lurking in our fridge. I'll wander out to the garden later and pick some lettuce for our first "homegrown" salad of the season.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday ... and that Miss Emmy let you get enough sleep last night to be able to enjoy today! :)

Gran said...

Emmy is such a little angel in your photo. I know that grandma is loving every moment of having Emmy over for the night. :)

I hope that your night went well and that you were able to catch a few winks.

Sunday dinner sounds great. I am eating light today...it's just me so a small chicken salad and dish of fresh fruit will work for me.

Have a great week !
Angela

Dawn said...

MMMM. That corn looks so wonderful. So far we've had corn from Florida. We don't get our own until late July, early August.

I'll have to check out that Texas Hash recipe - sounds like something I make that I just call Macaroni Casserole.

I'll bet that was fun taking Emmy to church with you today!

Dawn said...

Oops - I forgot our Sunday menu. We grilled ribs - it was really hot this week-end. We also had herbed new potatoes that I made in the crock pot. And fresh green beans (from the store, not the garden, unfortunately), French bread, and some ice cream.

Linda said...

That is a sweet picture Diane. I know you enjoyed having that precious bundle overnight.
I don't know a single one of those restaurants - but they all sound great. It's fun hearing about different places. We seem to be in a bit of a rut.
I really do think your dinners sound best though. The corn is making my mouth water too.
We had pork chops, baked potatoes, asparagas and salad for sunday dinner.

Dana~Are We There Yet? said...

Your posts are always like a nice visit and a glass of tea with a good friend. Thanks for playing along with the dining out meme, and I'm sure your #6 is a great place to eat any time!

Kiss a blister on that baby, now, y'hear?

Belizegial said...

It's always nice to see pics of baby emmy and how nicely she is filling out :)

For our sunday dinner, we had stewed boneless chicken breasts with cubed potates and gravy served over white rice and avocado on the side.

Tammy said...

This post has me starvin to death gal!!
I was wonderin' what to make for supper and your Texas Hash recipe just solved it for me...I just need to run to the store for a few ingredients and some corn and cabbage...lickin' my lips here!!
Emmy is a doll baby!!!
:)

Tammy said...

Oh...and I'll try to get on that meme sometime this week...I still have several Mountain posts to share...remind me m'kay??
;)

Barb said...

Boy, am I late! Geez, wonder why. LOL

Uhm. We had wedding breakfast for Sunday dinner yesterday. Yep. We ate the breakfast feast I cooked for 40 people, all day long. And we're eating it again tonight. LOL

I'm working on the tag and I thank you - I did this one several months ago but that's OK - I can easily come up with five more places I love to eat.

I have to say, out of all the ones you listed, my first choice would be Diane's place. I swear, I gain weight just reading about the great stuff you cook.

That baby sleeping under the blanket I made brought tears to my eyes. Sniff.

I'm getting ready to bestow an award on you, so stay tuned!

xoxoxo

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

Well, the world wide web just shrunk a little when I realized that you're from Jonesboro. Me too! I live in Colorado now (and I think I'm stayin' put in this naturally air-conditioned state!).

I've eaten at all those places you mentioned...and love 'em all!

Try and stay cool today!

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Yummy, I loooooove corn. Never tried it fried, though ... hmmm, something new to experiment with.
The photo of Emmy is just precious. She is such a gorgeous baby. She's growing heaps, gosh !!
Take care, hugs, Meow xx

MightyMom said...

too sweet!! I used the very same bassonet!! What precious gifts these babies are!!
Enjoy every second. If you're like my mom, you never get to spend enough time with her!!