Sunday Dinner, July 13, 2008

Yup, it's time for Sunday Dinner again, believe it or not. I struggled long and hard with whether I was going to cook this week or eat out. I wailed and moaned and beat my chest trying to come to a decision. It was really painful too, that beating my chest thing.

You ain't buyin' it, huh? Me neither, and I just typed it!

Actually, we've pert neart ("pretty near to", almost) used up all our "eatin' out" money, so I'll be cooking this week and probably for the rest of the Sunday Dinners in this month.

As a matter of fact, I've already cooked a portion of Sunday Dinner and it's ready to be warmed up and added to the rest of this week's offerings.

I bought a family size package of hamburger earlier in the week when I did some grocery shopping, and when I was dividing it up into smaller amounts to go into freezer bags I set some aside to make homemade meatballs.

I made up the meatballs and put them on nonstick foil on a cookie sheet and baked them until they were browned and done. After they cooled I placed them in a zip top bag and put them in the fridge to keep until time for Sunday Dinner.

According to how many are here for Sunday Dinner I can heat up the whole package of meatballs or just a portion of them. If I don't use them all for Sunday Dinner I'll freeze the rest for a quick meal later. They're good with brown gravy, which is how I'm going to prepare them this time, with spaghetti and any way you'd use meatballs.

I'm going to cook a big pot of rice to serve along with the meatballs and gravy. I'm kind of hazy on the rest of the meal. I have some okra fresh from the garden that a neighbor gave us, and if I get some more ripe tomatoes I'll slice those to add to the table. The okra I'll shake with cornmeal and fry until it's golden brown and crispy. If needed I'll open some canned veggies to round out the meal.

I made some of my homemade refrigerator pickles this week that I'll put on the table as well. They're my own recipe that I've tweaked over the years and Lamar and Jessica love them. I use garden fresh cucumbers, sliced onion and garlic, black pepper, salt, vinegar and water.

I peel and slice the bigger cucumbers but the smaller ones I leave whole. I like the teeny little cucumbers best, the ones that still have the withered bloom on them, about 3 inches long or even smaller. My Mama liked those too, and she used to say they were so tiny they were still cryin' for their Mamas.

Sometimes I get a little fancier with them and add hot peppers, fresh dill if I have it, mustard seed, bay leaves and sometimes celery seed. They're not canned and sealed so they have to stay in the refrigerator. This is one of the times I wish I had more refrigerator space because I can only devote so much fridge space to pickles!

That's the menu for Sunday Dinner at Diane's Place. What are you doing for Sunday Dinner this week? If you'd like to participate, just share your menu/plans in the comments.I know that not all of you read my daughter JESSICA'S BLOG, so you may not know that she's still having some pretty serious female problems. She's having a particular problem that I won't just put out here for all the weirdos to search and find. She can't lift anything and has to be really careful about what she does. She may have to take iron supplements because she's anemic.

All you ladies can figure out what's going on by the clues I've given you, I'm sure. If things don't improve soon she'll have to go to the local emergency room or on to Little Rock for surgery. Her doctor thinks it's all due to a reaction to the shot they gave her to put her into false menopause and that it should stop soon. The whole reason for the shot in the first place was to stop that but it's doing the exact opposite!

(If all that is too vague for you and you're scratching your head wondering what's going on, shoot me an email and I'll try to enlighten you in a delicate manner.)

Bless her heart, Jessica is indeed my child. Nothing can be simple or easy it seems. Hopefully she'll be better soon, before they have to take drastic measures.

Anyway, Jessica couldn't work Friday or Saturday because of her female complaints so I didn't have Emmy either day. I miss not seeing Jessica, Jason and Emmy but I've enjoyed the rest and the time to myself.

Jessica can't really enjoy the time off because she's not feeling her best, plus she'll miss that money on her next paycheck. Lamar went with his aunt to Ash Flat for the day. His cousin lives there and she invited him up to celebrate her Mom's, Lamar's aunt's, birthday.

So I've had the entire day to myself, to do whatever I wanted to do. That's as rare as hen's teeth for me and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's after 5 pm and Lamar's not home yet, so supper is in limbo. That's code for "I haven't started anything for supper, and if Lamar's already eaten I'll just eat a sandwich or something quick and easy."

Of course, even if he hasn't had supper we may still have a sandwich or something quick and easy.

I am a sly devilish one, aren't I?If you've read my blog for very long you know I have a Saturday night routine: I still need to study my Sunday School lesson and do some cooking for tomorrow. I also have to figure out what we're doing for supper when Lamar gets home.

I'll close this by wishing you all a great weekend. May God bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.