Why Don't I Just Open A Restaurant?

This is what I work around in the kitchen all day. Dixie is a kitchen dog. You never know when I'm going to spill something which, of course, is fair game for her. Plus you have all those wonderful aromas going on. But especially now, with Junior in the family, she has to guard her food and water.

She doesn't have much tolerance for puppies.

Poor Junior. Which, by the way, is pronounced Jooner.

It's Wednesday afternoon and Youngest Hawthorne just came in about 4pm and is hungry for dinner. "What do you want?" I ask. "I'd like those scallops you sear and put on a bed of risotto with spinach and sun dried tomatoes, with the parmesan crisp and the caramelized onions and the pesto on top." Truly, the lad has high expectations of me. Me: " Uh ... Ain't gonna happen. But I have frozen beef tenderloin, pork loins, shrimp, chuckers, pheasant, deer, and chicken. Which is it?" YH: "That would be pork tender loins, right?" RH: "Yes." YH: "Cuz I just didn't think you'd buy just regular pork." RH: "It was pork tenderloin on sale at $2.99/pound." YH: "I'll take the pork tenderloin and the fillet mignon." RH: "I don't think so." YH: "But I want both." RH: "You'll have the beef." YH: "Then I want two." Well, as luck would have it, when Mr. Hawthorne vacuumed packed this meat he packed two at a time, so YH is getting two fillet mignons.

And here's Precious Jooner.

Taking a nap after a busy, exhausting day at the beach.

I baked up one of Schwan's baguettes which my boys love. They'll easily eat a whole loaf apiece.

Salted water was brought to a boil and FROZEN peas were added. Cut off heat and let peas heat through.

I thawed out my fillets, brought to room temp, then salted and peppered.

I cooked the fillets 3 minutes on each side, then added in water to deglaze and scraped up the goodie parts.

I didn't need to add in this picture, but I did, 'cause I like the steam.

What a meal. FROZEN green peas in front. Two Fillets Mignon in the back. And Schwan's baguette slices in the far back. With buttah.

This is a very lovely meal. Too bad I didn't get any.

This is a little overdone for me ... OK - a lot overdone. But YH seemed to like it.

Yup... I think YH liked it. "Mama, the peas would have sent me over. Just too much." Now, let me tell you something about YH.

Right about 1:30 pm this afternoon, whilst I was afixin' my salad, YH tooled in. "Mama, I'm ready for breakfast now." I've mentioned this before in my blog. My two boys, irregardless of what time they wake up, whether in the morning or afternoon, MUST have their meals in ORDER. That means: Breakfast Lunch Supper. YH can't eat breakfast when he first wakes up. His stomach is all discombobulated at the early hours and he just can NOT eat then. So, this morning, he gets up about 8:30, takes little Beau Junior for a walk and evacuations, comes back in, then leaves, and comes back at 1:30. I'm getting ready to do my salad dressing. But YH comes in. "Mama, I'm hungry. I want 4 eggs. But you go ahead and fix your lunch and I'll wait." Well, NO! That ain't how stuff works with me. I can't finish cooking mine and eat it and ENJOY it knowing I gotta cook something else. So I put all my salad stuff back into the fridge, broke 4 eggs, threw in some heavy cream, mixed it up, melted butter in my hot pan, poured the egg/cream mixture in, then sprinkled in a bunch of cheddar cheese I'd already grated, and slowly ... very slowly ... over very low heat ... mushed his eggs around. I didn't scramble them. I mushed them them around a bit. And mushed, very well indeed. At 1:45 pm, YH ate a delicious meal of eggs and cheddar cheese with bacon on whole wheat toast. After fixing his eggs, I continued with the preparation of my 4-pepper salad and my arugula salad with bacon dressing. He decided to stay around ... noshing on the pepper salad, loving the ricotta salata and the Il Villagio Feta cheese and picking off my arugula salad. Finally, he looked up at me and said, "You know, Mama, You ought to open up a restaurant." I think I have. I just don't get paid for it.