Sup_Per_Time

"Sup_per_time, and the cookin' is easy" I can imagine Ella's voice singing that!  It's the perfect song for hot summertime cooking, because easy it one of my key aims when it is hot as blazes outside and I don't want to create more heat (or a bigger mess) than necessary.

I try to think of  what will sound tasty for dinners during the week, and at the same time will use the food I have in storage. Sometimes it hits and sometimes it misses since there are 4 of us eating right now and everyone has their own personal taste and wants. It is usually pretty easy to punt since I do have a lot of food stored, but there have been occasional unplanned trips to the grocery store when we just don't want anything I had thought might sound good.  I am seriously trying to limit any exposure any time I have to be out of the house, yard or car because wearing the masks in the heat tends to be suffocating. On those days, I often turn to a takeout meal. As usual I did not stay on plan, but we ate, had fun, and are using nothing from the entertainment budget so I am calling the excess takeout acceptable.


This is what I thought might happen for the week:
1.  Take out
2.  Take out
3.  Big salad and rolls
4.  Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots
5.  White bbq chicken, caulitato salad, green beans
6.  Grilled steak, baked potato, tossed salad
7.  Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad, garlic bread
8.  Soul food dinner

And this is what we actually ate:
Monday: When Son3 and DIL3 were here pre-Covid, we had taken them to The Red Pearl for dinner. It is our all time favorite Chinese restaurant, and it has a wonderful Asian market attached to it. They asked if we could get something from there again. Normally We would go to and eat, then shop for things I can't find in a traditional store. Now? I call it in, and TheHub runs in to grab it as I sit in the car waiting to hold it and keep everything upright until we get home. No in store browsing!
Assorted entrees with rice, pea leaves, sautéed mushrooms
Harvest: A smattering of green beans

Tuesday: I had ground chuck in the fridge that needed to be used and a husband who loves spaghetti and had asked to have it.  Since I had everything on hand to make the sauce, and had to cook the beef immediately, it was kind of a no brainer.
Spaghetti, meat sauce, tossed salad, toast
Harvest: 1 cucumber, 1/4 pound green beans, a handful of okra

Wednesday: I had an appointment late in the afternoon so I stopped at a small open air produce stand on the way home and bought some veggies from local farms. TheHub and I grew up in Alabama and during both of our childhoods most summertime meals were vegetarian, because the produce was abundant, inexpensive and delicious. (His mom was a much better cook than my mom was, so his veggie meals tasted better than mine!) We still love veggie meals! So does Son3 who also was raised on them during the summer, and DIL3 is a good sport and goes along with it.
Lady peas, air "fried" okra, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and cornbread.
Harvest: 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1/4 pound green beans

Thursday: Friday is garbage day here, so I try and clean out the fridge on Thursday. The aim is to have nothing to add to the garbage, but my aim and actuality rarely coincide. This week I still had an entire container of rice, half the mushrooms, about 1/2 of the pea leaves, left over and a little more than 1/3 pound of green beans, and a half of an onion in the fridge. Add in 1/2 (ish) pound of frozen ground chuck and some seasonings and we called it dinner.
Garbage rice pilaf, or Variation on a theme of leftovers, ham muffins.
Harvest: 1 cucumber, 1/3 pound green beans, 1 tomato, 1 bell pepper, 1 lime

 Friday: We drove DIL3 to Tuscaloosa for a little sight seeing. Before we left T-Town we stopped to pick up our supper at the original Dreamland. They have other restaurants but nothing beats the original. I am guessing it had something to do with the aged hickory smoke pits. The building is a true dive and not somewhere I want to dine in, but I will do take out from there anytime we are in Tuscaloosa.
Ribs, potato salad, white bread, banana pudding


Saturday: It is now food festival season, though all of them are changing to drive through only. I guess it means they are no longer festivals__just food. Saturday was the annual Lebanese Food Fest, and we were thrilled to be able to do a quick drive through the St. Elias parking lot and fill our car with deliciousness.
Spinach pie, meat pie, green beans, rice pilaf
Harvest: 1/2 pound green beans, smattering of okra pods

Sunday: I had planned Sunday's meal for Friday, but we decided to do a little road trip ending with the ever famous BBQ. Not that I minded eating something delicious and not having to cook, but it meant I absolutely had to cook what I had taken out of the freezer  to thaw Thursday afternoon.
Corned beef, cabbage, new potatoes, tomato slices, cucumber slices
Harvest:  1 pound green beans, 2 okra pods

Over all it was a good week with too much take out, but honestly until Friday morning I did not realize it was time for the Lebanese festival and I would have planned it in the weeks menu anyway. We go there every year, so it was traditional for us anyway. (I guess it means I am spending too much time at home. Every other year I would have seen the yard signs about the festival everywhere I drove. Another way Covid is changing my life.)

Now going forward, but in no particular order, here are this weeks possibilities:
1.  Hot Dogs and fixings, baked beans, coleslaw
2.  Veggie dinner, squash, okra, tomato slices, cucumber slices, cornbread
3.  Pulled pork, corn on the cob, tossed salad
4.  Marinated chicken, broccoli, rice, something else but unsure what
5.  Risotto (Son3 and DIL3 plan on cooking the meal, but this is all they have mentioned)
6.  Grilled grouper, sliced potatoes, green beans, tossed salad, crescent rolls
7.  Smoked brisket, some green veggie, salad

Hope you all have a good week staying on plan, going off plan, or having no plan at all