Happy Birthday to Mom, part deux

Mom's Birthday Dinner

Being raised on a farm in the midwest, it isn't not surprising that my mom would choose a simple, but tasty pork chop dinner for her birthday! Fresh sliced tomatoes & fresh green beans from the farmer's market. Baked Yukon Gold potatoes. And of course, grilled pork chops!

Everything was prepared pretty simply, which was the beauty of the meal. I rubbed a little toasted onion avocado oil on the pork chops, then dusted them with salt and Worcestershire black pepper from McCormick. Color me a convert, I LOVE that stuff on pork and beef! If you haven't tried it, it's only a few bucks a can, and has really nice flavor.
The beans were steamed, then Smart Balance, salt & pepper were added. The potatoes were baked and finished on the grill so the skin was nice and crisp and tasty! I love potatoes with a little butter (or Smart Balance, as the case may be when visiting my folks!), a little salt, lots of fresh ground pepper, and the secret ingredient: paprika! Yummmm!
And for dessert:

PIE! I only got a picture of the apple, but we had apple, pumpkin, and key lime!
Ok so, I promised I'd post the rest of the food stuff from that day and here it is. Enjoy :)

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!

Happy Birthday to Mom!!
Today is my wonderful, beautiful Mom's birthday...but since it is also a work day for most of us, we decided to celebrate yesterday, Sunday. My brother Jim, his wife Carrie and their children (Ashley, Emily, Ian & Hunter), as well as my brother Rick and his wife, Van were all there along with myself, Mom, Dad, brother Brian and his gal Deniece. Breakfast was the first plan of the day, so Jim & Carrie set to work on the stuffed French toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, and juice.

Now, let me just say, my brother and his wife share my love of cooking, so it was sure to be a delicious meal with all of us there, the progeny of such a wonderful cook herself, Mom!

Carrie made the egg batter for dipping the French toast using a dozen eggs, some condensed milk, vanilla, orange zest, and a tiny bit of sugar. The filling was Ricotta, cream cheese, sour cream, and a little vanilla sugar, divided then combined with peaches on one bowl, apples in another. The only left to prep was the bread itself, 2 loaves of French bread.

As you can see, it turned out beautifully. There was both stuffed and unstuffed, along with the breakfast meats, eggs, etc...and of course, we had to get some fresh fruit in there too! Cantaloupe and Honeydew melons, served sliced as you see above. The scent of the cantaloupe filled the air, combining with the sweet scent of the French toast, whetting everyone's appetite.
Later in the week I will get the recipe with measurements for the fillings, and post them. Also, I'll psot about the dinner we made after us gals returned from shopping! Happy Birthday MOM!

Happy Birthday To Me, from my Mom!

The beautiful woman above is my Mom. She's amazing. You'll probably see me talk about her a lot on this blog. On Wednesday, the day before my birthday, I went to her house and she made the most delicious meal! Swiss steak, a childhood favorite, plus mashed Yukon golds, green beans from the farmer's market, a veggie melange from TJ's (Trader Joe's) and salad...plus a Dutch Apple Berry pie for dessert! Well, maybe we should call it a tart.. lol! It was made in a sheet pan.

In our family, there are 2 versions of Swiss Steak. One that you see in the pic above, and one that involves tomato and onion and such...which is also delicious, but not as good as this one, in my opinion. This one involves pounding the steak in seasoned flour, sauteing until deep golden brown, then simmering until tender. It makes it's own gravy, and is a simple, but wonderfully flavorful dish. The mashed spuds are a perfect accompaniment, along with the vegetables.

The pie. Wow. That took some work! Peeling and slicing nearly 3 dozen apples was the hard part. My hands were cramping around the peeler! lol Mom made a triple recipe of her amazing pie crust (I'll post the recipe during the holiday season), which was rolled out and put into the sheet pan. Along with the apples, there was cinnamon, nutmeg, tapioca (for thickening), raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries. Such a combo! When it was done, we served it while it was still warm from the oven, with some vanilla bean ice cream. You can see in the pics how beautiful the color was, and it was so very tasty! I am eating the last of it as I type this in fact!

Thanks, Mom!!!