Sylvia's Scenario

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...

Last night, we had this interesting beef stew that we both loved so much that I am doubling the recipe for my blog.  I'm not sure why Hannah Freese, RD only made it for two people but we both definitely ate 100% (minus the amount that Bruce dribbled down his shirt when he tried to tip the bowl up to his mouth to get every last little drop)!   It would have been nice to have some leftover so we could experience this lovely dish again today.  I'm sure the flavors would have been enhanced as it sat overnight making it a great leftover meal.  It has turmeric and dried pitted prunes, a persian-inspired mixture of ingredients.  We loved it.  It is from my collection of Hannah Freese, RD's recipes that I never got around to making.  She is no longer doing her online diet program but I joined her program during my joint replacement saga of 2019-2021 and it made a big difference in lowering my inflammation.  She basically substituted healthy fats and carbs...

I've made this recipe a few times but I've never posted it so now I am finally making it official.  The combination of lemon and rosemary together on pork really makes this recipe a keeper.  Our local Metropolitan Market has a coupon this week to buy-one-get-one-free for pork tenderloin so once again I made this recipe. We like to barbecue it but you can also cook it in the oven as the recipe instructs. It only takes about 20 minutes to cook so it's a pretty quick meal.  It's also special enough to serve with guests which we've also done in the past. This is a recipe I got from   Hannah Freese, RD  who is actually discontinuing her nutrition business so there may not be a link to her page soon.  I've enjoyed following her nutrition advise these past three years and plan to continue with everything she has recommended to me.  I feel the best I've felt in ages so, of course, I will continue.  I realize getting three joint replacements also has had s...

Tonight, I made another  Hannah Freese, RD  recipe and it was so good that I'm immediately posting it.  I think it might be more of an appetizer-type recipe but we ate them for dinner with a salad.  There was no dipping sauce recipe with these chicken nuggets but you could use soy sauce or a chili sauce like we used, as shown below.  The sweet potatoes in this recipe gives them a sweetness that makes them go down very easy because they are so good.   I ended up using white-fleshed sweet potatoes but if you used orange-flesh sweet potatoes then they would be orange colored.  I would like that color, especially for Halloween so I'm putting a Halloween label on this recipe. What a perfect Halloween party appetizer these would be.  I could go into the whole discussion about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams but there are so many different kind of each. Their names are used interchangeably and there are white- and orange-flesh types of bot...

I've made this recipe twice already this month (and there's only been 3 days in May...!) so I thought I better post it. I got it from the Seattle Times last week and decided to try it out and I'm glad I did. It was so good that I invited my sister and her husband over for dinner and made it again the next day.  It's a perfect dish to have with guests over because it will totally impress them and it did.  The funny thing is that my sister saw the recipe in the newspaper, too, so she was delighted to come over and try it out.  This recipe is from a cookbook called The Complete Book of Greek Cooking and was originally called Shrimp Scorpio from the Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The book, published in 1990 and still available, is full of dozens of homestyle Greek recipes. This recipe is brimming with nourishing ingredients, too, like spinach and has all at the Mediterranean flavors we love. It really is a true winner. I am slowly getting b...

Happy 2023.  We started our New Year with the most delicious dinner on New Year's Day at our house watching the Seahawk football game (they won- Go Hawks!) and then we had a few people over for dinner.  It turned out to be a really fun day and a good opportunity for me to cook up this ham that we get every year from a vendor that Bruce works with.  It's an Amana Ham from Iowa.  Amana is a quaint German town in Iowa that we visited many times when we lived in Iowa in the 80's.  Bruce had a friend from college who was from Amana and his family owned the restaurant in town called the  Ronneburg Restaurant  that is still there.  We had many good meals and lots of fun memories with the Oehler family at that restuarant.  Now, we still get a taste of Amana every year with this ham that we receive.  I try to cook it when we will have a lot of people over.  In past years, we've served it for our Super Bowl parties that we would host before t...

Here is a nice flare to your favorite steak only with a Fall twist to it.  This recipe reminds me of  beef stroganoff , one of my favorite dinners except this is from  Hannah Freese, RD  so there are no "white" carbs. added.  You can still add your own noodles, potatoes, rice or whatever you'd like.  Bruce had a baked potato with his and I had a green salad so it made for a wonderful dinner.  We are still having lovely fall weather and it's predicted to hit 80 degrees this weekend again.  Amazing.  We are thrilled about it because the Seattle Mariners are in the baseball post season so we still have games to go to.  Yesterday, we had rehearsal at the ballpark for tomorrow's game because we will be holding up the flag for the national anthem.  They selected some season ticket holders to participate and we eagerly accepted!   We beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card series which was the best out of three games and we immedi...

We had our first "fall" meal this week and it was a good one. I saw this recipe from  Ina Garten  who always has good recipes so I knew I had to try it and it was a winner. I'm sad that summer is over but I'm happy to be eating fall foods again - my favorite eating time of the year.  I think everyone is ready for fall after a very busy summer of weekend activities, going to new places, seeing new things, all the fresh air and non-stop activities. Do I wear out my family or what? They don't mind getting wore out as long as I keep cooking them yummy meals which they always know will be coming.  On this particular day, the grandkids requested one of their favorites... hot chocolate  in the evening around the fire.  They just LOVE doing this.  Of course, it has to be my homemade hot chocolate; instant will never do and there is no comparison, in my opinion.    This kielbasa recipe has many versions but they all use onions and bell peppers....