Sylvia's Scenario

 I love corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  This year, I made  my favorite recipe  by local chef  Brendan McGill .  I've been making this recipe on St. Patrick's Day since it was featured in the Seattle Times in 2018.  Even if you don't completely follow the recipe in detail, it still turns out GREAT.  That's how good a recipe it is.  I know this because that's exactly what  happened this year.  I only followed bits and pieces of the recipe and it was still outstanding.  We celebrated our St. Patrick's Day on Saturday because we were with Lauren and Dustin in Oregon for a little ski trip over the weekend.  It was a Christmas present from them so they rented a really cute A-frame cabin in the woods close to the Mt. Hood ski areas.  Unfortunately, the snow conditions were not that good but they had one day together skiing and had a wonderful time together.     My ski days are over since I've ha...

We received some Iowa pork chops from Bruce's brother this year for Christmas so last night we invited my sister and her husband over for dinner and I made a lovely pork chop dinner.  I decided to brine the chops since they were very thick and also because our Thanksgiving turkey always turns out so great when we brine it.  And, as I expected they would, they turned out perfectly seasoned and wonderfully tender.  That's why I love brining.  The meat turns out so tender and you don't have to add salt and pepper at all because the brine seasons it for you.  I adapted this recipe from my favorite kitchen store's recipe, Sur la Table .  I used my  Plum Good Pork Chops  recipe after I brined them and used my  orange marmalade  instead of plums.  I have six jars of orange marmalade I'm trying to use up after experiementing with those oranges from Seville last month and we're having a pretty delicious time of it.  The marmalade i...

I call this recipe non-rotisserie chicken because it tastes just like a rotisserie chicken but you can make it at home in the oven whenever you want.  Plus, it is so much more healthy than store-bought rotisserie chicken since it has a lot less sodium.  Store bought rotisserie chickens are injected with salt heavy solutions,  added sugars, flavorings, phosphates, preservatives and stablizers, not to mention the plastic it is wrapped in leaching more chemicals from the plastic into the chicken.  This recipe is one of our most often consumed dinners that we eat at least once a month.  The magic is in the rub.  I like buying a half chicken when I see them in the store because a half chicken is perfect for two people.  But you can use this recipe for a whole chicken (it looks more like a rotisserie chicken) or cut-up chicken.  Anyway you choose your chicken, the rub still works with baking it in the oven.  This is one of our comfort food dinners ...