Memorial Day Lunch and Memories (photos)

Great stuff

I agree with your sentiments about this Memorial Day...the food looks delish as always DOg. Do you ever leave the house?????I wouldn't If I could cook like that!

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picante sauce in broccoli rice

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Old guy story time.

We took this to a covered dish supper at church when we lived in Alabama. I'm not all that trustworthy when it comes to this dish, because I might make it really zippy if no one is there to hold me back. The dish I made that day was one of those times. I had Pace HOT Picante sauce and used quite a bit of it because I like to be able to see the tomatoes and chopped stuff in my finished dish.

We happened to be at the table our pastor decided to use and he had a big Captain Jack portion of the broccoli dish on his plate. He was a big eater and took a man sized bite of my dish and his eyes got about twice their normal size, then he gasped for breath and drank most of his glass of tea before he could find his voice.

"Wow! That stuff is hot. Who in the world made that?"

I took a bite of mine and replied, "Don't know, tastes fine to me."

Then I apologized, confessed that I was the bad guy and offered to go refill his tea glass.

At least he didn't say, "That stuff's hot as Hell."



If you like it hot, you can make this one really hot.

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Do you ever leave the house?

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Actually spent most of the weekend working in the yard. Got my truck stuck yesterday in the very back and had to use my come-along to winch my way out. Took about two hours and lots of cussing myself.

Went out this morning and within fifteen minutes got stuck again - in a place I would have bet a hndred dollars was plenty dry enough to drive across. The second time, I pulled myself out in about an hour using the come-along.

Guess I need a winch on my drive to work truck, except both times I had to hook my chains to the hitch and winch it out backwards with the come-along.

I have maybe twenty trees on the ground limbed out and cut into logs I can stack in the truck if it ever gets dry enough to drive in and out without getting stuck. At this time, my burn pile is probably 15' X 15' and over 8 feet high. Almost all of that is limb wood with the heavy stuff still on the ground. It will be a wonderful fire when I burn it. Maybe we'll roast marshmellows and do a post that day (about two months out - when it gets dry enough to burn).

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pointers on how to prep that broccoli dish

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Make rice and set aside - you'll need 2X rice to broccoli. I use frozen florets and cook my broccoli unseasoned in the microwave. Dump the broccoli in the rice and set aside.

Make a light bechemel and start adding cheese. I use whatever I have, Cheddar is best. sometimes I'll add a little cream cheese. I have been known to use nothing more than velveeta (I know). Honestly I like this dish with velveeta.

I usually make more cheese sauce than I need and put the rest away for Mac and Cheese. You probably should use about as much cheese sauce as broccoli. Add your cheese bechemel to the rice and broccoli and then add as much Picante as you like. I add a lot of picante because I like the taste it gives. I like the sweetness of Pace, but use your brand because you can definately taste the picante and it might as well be one that you like. I'm sure you could use Rotel, but I never have.

If everything is cooked and hot, that's all you do. Taste for seasoning and add a little salt if needed. I usually like the taste and add nothing.

Obviously, you could add cayenne if you like. I never have.

This is one of a very few dishes like this that I don't season with black pepper.

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My flag is made of wood strips painted and then assembled. After assembly I painted the field of blue and added the stars. Then I signed it in the lower right corner.

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Pics?

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Pics?

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The first photo in this post is my wooden flag. It is mounted on the side of my barn.

Made of old salvaged fence wood. The holes in the piece are nails I pulled when I saved the fence wood.

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Make a light bechemel and start adding cheese.

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I will never forget that this is called a Mornaise sauce. I'm still kicking myself for missing that question on a trivia Sunday evening at the Londoner.