All food all the time

I love cooking and making good food with my favorite friends and family.  I love dining in way more than dining out most of the time. Saturday night we were going to go out with my Grandma for dinner but decided to stay in a grill some steaks.  It was only girls and I was scared to man the grill without some skilled manly professional - but Josh gave me some great coaching tips over the phone and I gave it my best shot - I must say they turned out pretty dang good!

Plus I was super excited that we only had 4 people for dinner so I could use my china!! Add some candle sticks and we had a real purdy dinner with some special ladies!  My sisters thought I was ridiculous for setting such a table - but you gotta eat of some sort of plate right? and everyone looks lovely in candlelight. : )  Something tells me guys don't throw together a BBQ quite like this......

After spending some time with my mother in law over the 4th of July weekend I realized how big of a difference there is between a cook and a baker.  I say this because she is a cook - very precise, exact and makes the most awesome anything that she decides to make - when I reach a size of ungodly proportions - just know it's her wonderful breads, cakes, cookies, pies and other delicacies! Me I'm a throw it together and guesstimate kinda gal.  Working with her on a few food prep projects it struck me how precise she was and how much I must rankle her with my "it looks about right ... I think"  Then I was considering it and realized there are probably a lot of us in life that are more bakers or cooks and we get annoyed with the other person for being to exact or too loosy goosy..... but to have a well rounded meal you need cooks and bakers - hows that for deep and kinda weird?

So on a cooking tip for the day: here's an example the recipe I sent my mom - I wanted to make some basil salsa and found a recipe online for it - but I didn't have all the ingredients or the right measurements for them so this is what I came up with - exactly as I sent my mother - it is awesome by the way:

1 large tomato (about to go bad so needed to use it quick)
1 package of grape tomatoes (on sale for $1)
1/4 of small onion (could probably do half - not sure why I was so chincy)
1 inch off the top of a bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic (last one in the kitchen....)
1 roasted polbano pepper for a little heat (out of jalapenos.....)
1 cup not packed of basil leaves (all i had left from my wonderful mother)
salt , pepper
2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar (I have 2 bottles of this if you need one?)

It just kinda cracked me up - additional endeavors I have undertaken since being abandoned are:

Boiled peanuts - a southern specialty i tried in New Orleans and had to try making some - they are good if you like mushy peanuts.....

 

And pickled okra - I do love me some southern dishes!

 

So if you wanna enjoy some southern cooken' come on down to McNabb Cafe - I'll even whip up some shrimp and grits for ya!!