okay
okay now as you were saying
i said one thing we've been doing around here is trying to find ways of having uh
my husband likes gourmet food
uh-huh
and i'm trying to figure out how how to feed him so he'll eat this stuff and the kids will eat it too and it's not going to be fattening high in fat or high in cholesterol
get's to be a a real chore with little kids who basically want every thing covered in cheese
right that's true um i have the same problem i've uh in fact both of us like cheese uh my children are grown now um and i also like ice cream so
i just have been fortunate with that i have never really had an ice cream fetish but i'm married to somebody who just feels that you know if you offer it to him he'd eat a hot fudge sundae every night of the week
oh
and i hate him for it
yeah well
everyone has their own little things right his is ice cream or hot fudge sundaes but i tell you what we use to do even when the children were growing up every Friday night
oh yeah
would be our night that um
uh put to kids to bed when they were younger and my wife and i would would uh she'd set the dining room table with candles and
no one disturbed us no one called on Friday night and we would just have this quiet dinner for the two of us
and that uh that's held up until our youngest is graduating college in the couple of weeks and we still do that
wow
um
well we also like to do is we like to cook out a lot even in the winter time we got we got a grill and i've got like a wood shop off the garage and i've got a
a like an over hang and we keep the grill out there so i just out and we you know grill steaks or salmon or whatever
uh-huh
um so um so i can give you something that we like to do
give me something that's really easy to do
or
well clams casino if you like clams casino
i love clams but i'm not sure what clams casino are and i don't know if i could find clams that i would eat down here in Texas
oh yeah well but well i like well you lived in Boston so you know a little about you know
uh-huh
and in a restaurant they they just kind of serve them on a half shell with a little bit of uh stuffing
what we like the to do is uh
is to cut them out and then cut them into little quarters or eighths you know not so much just one big bite
uh-huh
and then cut up fresh peppers and fresh tomatoes and fresh celery and bread crumbs and mix it all together
and
pre cook bacon so it's kind of soft
uh-huh
and put a strip of bacon over the top of that and then and then pop them in the oven
God that sounds good
and we usually have that and then we'll have a salad
and i'll throw a steak on the grill with uh what i call a potato bake
i buy a uh
couple of yams and some either red potato or either white potato
and i put them in a microwave and cook them
so they're fairly soft and i slice them i peel the yam slice that
uh-huh
i slice the white potato with the skin on
i slice up a mild onion preferably a onion
now in Texas it would have to be ten fifteen
oh
and then i put it in tin foil and i interweave put a i put a slice of white potato and slice sweet potato and slice of onion
and then i do that until i got
the size of a baked potato
put butter and salt on it garlic
close the tin foil and i throw it on the grill cause i like it a little crispy on the bottom so i throw it on the grill maybe about
uh
ten minutes before i put the steak on
and then once once the steak is done that's usually done
and then we have uh
God that sound wonderful
and then either spinach i like spinach or uh asparagus
because we grow own asparagus we have asparagus patch so in fact right now it's it's in season so we just go out and there
lop off a few
and then whatever you want for desert
well i'll give you one that that that i i put together modified out of a Heart Smart Cookbook
now my husband really thinks that this is one of those French fancy French sauces
oh
so when he when he request this i always tell him he has to take the kids for an hour
and it really only takes about fifteen or twenty minutes to do but it gives me forty five minutes to sit by myself where it's quiet
that's nice
but what you do is you go take you can use pork tender loin it's more expensive but i and i like the leaner cut of pork
yeah
the um like the center cut pork chops
uh-huh
and you you need to have them thick at least a three-quarters of an inch think
okay
and all you do is take those things and coat them in lemon pepper marinade
okay
on both sides
um when you say lemon pepper marinade you put lemon juice and pepper together
no just the uh the you know you can do that just that you buy just lemon pepper
the spice that you buy
okay all right
and then you take about two tablespoons of butter
which you know most people kind of go you know this is a low fat recipe but it is
oh yeah
and you just melt that in a skillet
okay
you broken the uh the pork chops or the pork fillets
okay
uh-huh
you just brown them on both sides and i like to get them at a good golden brown
yes
and then just take them and stick them on a plate and keep them warm and into that same skillet add the juice of lemon about anywhere from a quarter to a half a cup
to that you add two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
two
and one teaspoon to a tablespoon depending on how much you like it
two tablespoons wait wait a minute that was two tablespoons of Worcestershire
uh
yeah Worcestershire
okay
and then
anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of Dijon mustard
and what you do is you just cook this down and it makes a a really pretty almost dark black brown viscous sauce
uh-huh
it's pretty spicy now i like to throw in just a you know a shot of white wine
and then you just take the pork chops put them on a serving platter pour this sauce over it and i garnish it with fresh cut chives
it really is a really pretty entree to look at
um
uh-huh and the sauce i mean it has kind of this nice complex flavor where you feel that somebody's you know played around with this all afternoon
yeah
that
and i have served it to company
so so you cooked the the pork is cooked at that point then okay
and
uh-huh
but you know the trick with pork most people think you have to cook it at a hundred and eighty five degrees well done
oh no no
you don't have to do that
it can still be pink in the middle and that makes all the world of difference
oh uh um
the other thing that that i've really got into down here in Texas is fresh uh herbs
that's what we do we we grow our own and dry them and
oh yeah
um
well see i don't have to try them cause they'll they'll pretty much grow all winter long and if
yeah you guys are kind of lucky down there
oh i don't know we also have you know foot long roaches all year long too
yeah yeah
hey don't laugh
don't laugh but what makes a really elegant um just a side dish and most people don't have any idea what it is why they don't i don't know and you can make it a day ahead of time
because i just take about a cup of fresh cut basil i mean i really like basil
yes
and then cook spaghetti and i the the this is smaller thread spaghetti it's like the cappelletti is the better
okay yep
add and i add almost equal parts parmesan cheese
a a healthy balance of garlic i mean i really like garlic
oh that's what we do we yeah
yeah so you're basically makes a kind of a a pesto
like a pesto yeah
yes but if you serve it cold it really is just a wonderful
so is it a cup of basil leave fresh basil leaves
uh-huh uh-huh and pine nuts and if you can't get pine nuts because to me they're always kind of mushy i just grind up walnuts and use that in it
uh
it really is nice
yeah
that's uh
and even my kids will eat it
and they've gotten to be kind of food snobs one of them went over to
we're going we're going to have that Friday we're going to do the pork and
we don't have the we don't have any fresh basil but we've got dried well we'll have to go down to the market
dry basil doesn't have quite the taste
it doesn't you can't pesto out of it they've got some pesto frozen though
yeah i keep i do that and i find that it tastes just about as good
and i freeze it in like little half cup quantity so i can even pull it out whenever i want to
but i like that i like those uh-huh i like that sauce with the pork
you you'll be surprised you'll be really surprised at just how simple it is and and it's not a a clear cut you know this this this and this it's kind of to taste
and
yeah
that's what i'm going to do because we each take turns doing it
you know i usually do the grill work and you know it depends if she makes uh uh anything with shrimp on it or not you know she'll do that but i'll do the grill stuff but this is nice this is i can cook the pork on the grill
uh-huh
and just make the sauce
you know what also is really good just really really good and really really simple if you like to do grilling
if you can get a hold of fresh sage
yep yep
have you ever worked with that
just take the fresh sage and and you know
crumble it so that you you release the oils
yep
pour you know put that stuff over fresh pork chops
and if you've got balsamic vinegar there
we do we make all of our vinegars in fact we do canning too we do all of our own canning and
oh i love that stuff
oh
i do my own vinegars too but just put a a touch of balsamic vinegar on that until
