Good morning GUSdudes/dudettes!!! Today is my inaugural Sunday morning GUS diary. I have to post but leave around 10:30 a.m. EDT because I am going to see Hedda Gabler at the Hartford Stage Company. w000t!! I was a member of the HSC for a couple of decades until they had a new director who sucked (sorry, but the choices of plays were mega disappointing). Now, a new director is bringing back classics mixed with contemporary theatre.
Sooooooo --- I missed two Tuesdays because of preparation for, executing and recovery from my Mom's 86th Birthday bash in her beautiful backyard in Southern California. Helllllooooo -- 104 degrees is hot -- do not use the words "dry heat" ever again. It is hot. No one died -- even though the multiple umbrellas, a wood slatted canopy thingy and an Arizona mister did little to alleviate the heat.
Buffet was inside (and so was I because I was the master puter-outer of food). My Mom made 6 cakes plus we had a COSTCO sheet cake. All her cakes disappeared. Today, I'd like to offer some of the very easy recipes we used to make this marvelous day a success.
And I love my Mom more than anyone in the world.
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This first recipe has always been 100% perfect everytime my Mom makes it. Me -- I screwed it up once. While it calls for eye of the round -- my mother bought the wrong cut and it turned out even more brilliantly -- we think she bought bottom round at COSTCO (two huge ones). We threw away the wrapper before we realized it wasn't eye of the round.
I'm going to provide the eye of the round recipe -- with the bottom round, after the recipe cook and rest time, I just put the roast back in the oven at 300 degrees for 20 minutes longer -- checking every 5 minutes with an instant read thermometer. Also, too -- we had two 2 1/2 pound roasts in the same pan. Instant read thermometers are your friend. The final result was medium rare -- beautiful pink. The meat was cut on her 30 year old food slicer and it was melt in your mouth delicious!
Easy Roast Beef
3 lb. eye of round (or comparable bottom round and follow my further directions above)
Remove from the fridge and let stand until room temperature.
Season to your taste....I use kosher or sea salt, pepper and thyme leaves.
Heat oven to 500 degrees.
Bake roast four minutes to the pound.
Turn off oven; do not open door
Eye of the round roast should be pink inside and ready to cut after 2-1/2 hours.
My mother has made this cole slaw since she was married. Before that -- she had her mother's slaw. I love this recipe and tried to adapt it without the sugar or sweet pickle juice. It does work with dill pickle juice and no sugar -- but, honestly, unless you have a medical reason, the original recipe is absolutely perfect and doesn't taste sweet.
My Grandmother's Cole Slaw
Shred one head of cabbage (fine)
Finely cut 2 stalks of celery and one onion (I use the food processor for all shredding and cutting)
1 cup mayonnaise
one tsp. good mustard
thin with vinegar and sweet pickle juice
1 tsp sugar
Toss shredded/cut veggies together. In separate bowl, whisk mayo, mustard, vinegar, pickle juice and sugar together. Slowly blend liquid into veggies until just coated. Adjust seasoning if you need salt and pepper.
I admit to modifying a Paula Deen potato salad recipe. I can't help it -- her over the top fatty foods are delicious. I don't eat like this every day -- in fact, I had exactly 3 potato chunks just to test seasonings. I then prayed that the octo-generians wouldn't drop dead on the patio. The benefit of this recipe is that you don't have to peel the potatoes!
Red Potato Salad
8 red potatoes
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 cup chopped celery
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 cup bell pepper -- any color
1 tblsp. dijon mustard
1/4 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to tate.
Boi potatoes in skins until just tender. I cut the potatoes into chunk sizes first and then cooked as directed -- perfect.
Cool to touch -- if didn't cut first, cube.
I used a mini mincer for the onion, celery and pepper so the pieces were very small.
Place all veggies in bowl.
Mix mustard, mayo and sour cream together.
Gently toss the potatoes with the eggs, veggies and then the wet mixture. Add salt and pepper as needed. I found that salt is definitely needed to bring out the brightness.
This salad can be served warm or cold. We served it cold -- but the 104 degree temps outside didn't help!
We also had sliced turkey, spiral cut ham, rolls, spinach salad (that disappeared immediately), and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. Somehow, we nailed the proportions and had only enough leftovers for us to have a couple of dinners.
Who's your little buddy?
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Remind me again why I have to bold citizenx???? Is there a payoff about which I haven't been included???
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Did I mention how much I love my Mom? As of now, well over $2,000 saved helped me spend a week with my mother. My plan was to pay for the extravaganza for 100 plus but she bought 99% of the stuff before I got there. Soooo, I cleaned her storage cabinets in the garage. Lots of outdated cans hit the trash. And I do love my Mom.
After I finished this diary last night, I browsed the Southwest Airline options for next year. Damned if I didn't find a round trip for $241 coast to coast. Yippee! Booked for January. Hopefully no snow storms to wreck things.
Cheers!