Victory!

Are you familiar with the term "victory garden"?  They were vegetable gardens that the Department of Defense encouraged Americans to grow during WWII.  The idea was to help get commercial food product to the troops rather than being wasted on those who had the ability to grow them at home but it also became a wonderful morale booster.  More and more Americans  are keeping victory gardens now to fight obesity.

I keep a victory garden and today I really put it to use.  After a simple bowl of cereal in the morning and a lunch that consisted of a couple of spare ribs and a few buffalo wings my father had made (Ya killin' me Dad!) I set my eye on a healthy dinner. 

I went out to the garden to get a hand full of lettuce, red lettuce and butter crunch, and a nice fresh cucumber for a salad but was thrilled to find a beautiful yellow squash was ready to be picked.  I made the nicest salad with a balsamic dressing then had the squash sauteed with a petite sirloin.  I'd actually had the steak marinating since this morning in Lawry's Baja Chipotle Marinade, so it was perfect.  At medium-well it was perhaps over done for my taste, but it was delicious anyway. 

I'm actually thinking of going out and picking up a little desert.  Maybe a little sundae from Baskin-Robbins...

A Day Around the Table

Spent a lovely day with my mother and aunt.  Mom had spent the night with me here and we woke up to fresh baked scones, which was a real treat.  They're a real favorite of both of ours so we had scones and coffee for breakfast and then packed up the rest to take to my aunt's.

We spent the afternoon sitting around my aunt's kitchen table drinking wine. We didn't drink any wine in particular, just "drips and drabs" of different half finished bottles that had been hanging around.  Those darn Connecticut blue laws don't allow for alcohol sale on Sundays and the bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc that I'd been thinking of bringing along had been forgotten at home, so we enjoyed what we had.

My aunt, who's a wonderful cook, had made tortilla soup, buttermilk biscuits along with this wonderful dish that she described as "potato pancake loaf."  It was actually a potato kugel that she'd just gotten the recipe for.  It seems so easy to make and just make the house smell wonderful.

I'm not sure if these are entirely the right proportions as she used but I'd love to supply a basic recipe:

• 4 medium potatoes grated with skin
  
• 1 onion chopped and sauteed in olive oil
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 heaping Tbsp. salt
• 1/2-1 tsp. pepper

Mix the ingredients together, spread into a greased loaf pan and bake 45 minutes at 375.  This is great served with a little sour cream.

Since lunch took over most of the afternoon I'm thinking something very simple and low cal for dinner, but a slice of pizza that's left over from last night is calling...