Sunday Dinner, August 17, 2008

After frittering away most of the day reading and commenting on blogs and playing Canfield Solitaire on THIS SITE, I'm now feverishly working on making preparations for Sunday Dinner tomorrow, doing at least 3 loads of laundry and trying to decide what's for my Saturday Supper.

Okay, feverishly is probably not even close to being accurate since I don't move too fast unless there's an emergency, and even then it has to be a whopper of a crisis.

I have a big pot of pinto beans simmering on the stove (I'll bet my regular readers didn't see that one coming at all!) and I have some garden ripe tomatoes to slice and serve.

I'm going to make a couple of pans of homemade Mexican cornbread for dinner tomorrow. I'll shred my cheese, brown my ground beef and onion, peppers, etc. tonight so that when I get home from church tomorrow I can just make the cornbread batter and assemble the Mexican cornbread, then toss it in the oven.

I suppose it'd be okay to make it ahead tonight and then warm it up Sunday afternoon, but it doesn't take that long to make it and bake it, and I really prefer most foods fresh rather than warmed up.

I like my Mexican foods spicy, so I'll make 2 pans of cornbread and add some jalapenos to one pan. Most of my family doesn't like their food hot and spicy, but a few of us like hot stuff so it will be eaten sooner or later if it's not all eaten for Sunday Dinner.

I don't really follow a recipe for my Mexican cornbread. I just throw things in a bowl and mix them up. The recipe varies according to what I have on hand but always includes either cream style (which is what I'm using this time) or whole kernel corn, browned ground beef, some type of shredded cheese (Colby this time) , diced onion, green chilies if I have them, and most of the time I add some diced green bell pepper.

If I'm making it for me and Lamar and others who like it spicy I add diced jalapenos. Sometimes I add taco seasoning to the ground beef, other times not.

I have some green beans I can warm up if anybody extra shows up or if anybody wants green beans with their Mexican cornbread, pinto beans and sliced tomatoes.

I think that's the final menu for my Sunday Dinner this week. What about you? What's on the menu at your place? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.
A couple of weeks ago a generous neighbor gifted me with a large portion of jalapeno and sweet banana peppers fresh from his garden. I had a feeling that the jalapenos were pretty hot because of their pungent odor even before I sliced them to pickle them.

I put up 3 pint jars of sliced, pickled peppers; 2 jars of straight jalapenos and 1 jar of half jalapenos, half banana peppers to make a full jar. I wore rubber gloves to wash and slice the peppers, then pack them in the jars. A couple of years ago I literally blistered my hands making pickled peppers. Now I may not be the fastest pig in the race, but I ain't the slowest either.

Just on a hunch, before I sealed one of the jars I touched just the tip of my little finger in the vinegar brine on a jar of the jalapenos.

Holy Cow! Those things are practically combustible! I think the jars are giving off heat and glowing in the dark! And I like hot peppers! I even eat habaneros occasionally, but I think those jalapenos rival them for heat.

I just posted my recipe for DIANE'S ZUCCHINI PARMIGIANA and my recipe for DIANE'S HOMEMADE ZUCCHINI BREAD on MY RECIPE BLOG. I shared these links on my last post, but some people only visit for my Sunday Dinner posts so I thought I'm mention them again.

SAMMY asked me to share my recipe for bread and butter pickles, so I typed it up this morning. You can find DIANE'S BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES HERE.The weather here over the last several weeks has been a lot cooler and less humid. It's been a welcome reprieve from the typical Arkansas Summer weather. It's been dipping down into the low 60'sF for our night time lows, and a few days the highs never made it out of the 70'sF. It hasn't been above 90F more than a couple of times in the last couple of weeks.

Mind you, I'm rejoicing, not complaining! I'm hopeful that the last of the really torrid Summer heat and humidity is behind us, but realistic about the chance of still seeing some upper 90'sF to over 100F temps still yet.

But if you sniff just right, you can almost get a whiff of Autumn. And I even smelled burning leaves the other evening, so Autumn isn't too far in the future. It can't get here soon enough for me!I mentioned earlier that I was doing laundry. I just cleaned out Emmy's playpen, washed all her bedding and Feb*rezed her playpen and the 2 stuffed bears she sleeps with within an inch of their lives. Well, pretty thoroughly anyway.

Isn't it amazing how many crumbs a few froot loops, che*erios and animal crackers can generate?

Emmy's playpen will be fresh and ready for her to nap in if she and Jessica and Jason are here for Sunday Dinner. Usually by the time we finish dinner Emmy's about ready for a nap.

Well, the adults are too, but I don't think there's enough room for all of us in Emmy's playpen with her. We'll have to settle for crashing on the couch, in the recliner and on my bed if needed.
Still gotta study my Sunday School lesson and find something for my supper. I'm leaning toward fried eggs and toast, maybe a little bacon. I also have a load of laundry drying and another that just finished washing to get dried, folded, hung on hangers and all put away.

I also have to take my Saturday night shower, Sister and CECIL. ;-)

But I did manage to get my Sunday Dinner post up earlier than usual this week!

My prayer for all my friends and family is that God will richly bless you by meeting all your needs according to HIS riches in glory, and may you have enough to share.