Radically Retired

Category: Food

  • It’s a Norwegian Thing

    It’s a Norwegian Thing

    Hubs is Norwegian as far back as he can trace his roots on both of his parents’ sides.

    One of their typical pre-Christmas activities is to make lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with mashed potatoes and flour.

    My mother-in-law made beautifully thin and soft lefse. In their family, good lefse is defined in comparison to their mom’s. She taught me how to make it, and I passed the skills on to our daughter, who will, in turn, teach both of our grandchildren.

    I hadn’t made lefse since we started coming to Texas, but decided it was time, so purchased all of the equipment and yesterday, made a big batch (192 rounds), along with my sister in law, Lori. Hubs’ brother is also wintering in our park now and he loves lefse too. Lori had never made it before so wanted to learn and practice every step.

    This was our Christmas gift to our guys.

    It’s not an easy task and took us 8.5 hours of rolling and frying to make the amount we did. My feature photo is one stack of many we made yesterday. This amount used a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bag of potatoes.

    One Christmas, many years ago, my mother in law famously made lefse from 100 lbs (40.5 kg) of potatoes!

    The two- day process involves:

    Day 1: Boiling the Potatoes
    Ricing the Potatoes
    Mashing the Riced Potatoes
    Day 2: Making and Rolling the dough
    Frying the rounds
    Cooling, then bagging the rounds
    And flour everywhere!
  • A New Cup

    A New Cup

    Last week, for our wedding anniversary, hubs and I spent the day visiting our fave stores in the RGV in search of things both useful and whimsical as a part of our anniversary and Christmas gifts to each other.

    For the next couple of weeks, as a departure from my usual Mon, Weds, and Fri posts, I’m going to just stop in randomly, and likely more often, to post things about our Christmas season here in South Texas.

    This cup caught my eye at the World Market Store near here.

    My Mexican Hot Chocolate actually tastes better from this fancy cup (the mind is a powerful thing).

    That’s cinnamon you see floating on the top. I stirred it in after the photo and enjoyed every last sip from my new cup.

  • Family Tradition

    Family Tradition

    December 1st is traditionally when I start my Christmas cookie baking. It’s when my mom always started hers, so I guess the date is firmly ingrained in me from an early age.

    I bake the cookies that both of my grandmas and my mom made over the years, plus I always add a few of hubs’ faves from his memories of his mom.

    My feature photo is of sugar cookies – a must every Christmas.

    Each year, we exchange gifts with friends here in our park, and my gifts always include a selection of my home made cookies.

  • Getting my Popeye On!

    Getting my Popeye On!

    Carrying on with my prepared salads reviews:

    This one is by Marketside and is called Spinach Dijon.

    Ingredients: spinach, eggs, shredded Monterey Jack-Colby Cheese, chow mein noodles, almonds, sweetened dried cranberries, and sweet onion dressing.

    The dressing is just sweet enough to cover the earthy taste of the spinach.

    This salad is one of my faves in the line. If you like raw spinach, you’ll love this one!

  • Berry Nice

    Berry Nice

    This salad, by Marketside (a WalMart brand), and very likely sourced from Taylor Farms has a fresh, and only slightly sweet flavour, despite the sweetened ingredients.

    This one has: Spring mix (leaf lettuce and arugula), feta cheese, herb seasoned flatbread strips, sweetened, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

    Although arugula isn’t among my fave greens, the sweet bits in this salad nicely mask it.

  • Back in the Groove

    Back in the Groove

    Yesterday, I finally found enough time to get back into my macaron groove again.

    I especially enjoy making them when we’re in Texas because there are so many special occasions we’re here for, so I can make a great variety. Our friends here also enjoy them, so there are several birthdays to make them for as gifts.

    I wanted to make these for Halloween but we’ve been extremely busy since we arrived, so, because I brought the candy corn with me from Canada, I decided to make them anyways. Hopefully they’ll be acceptable as my dessert contribution for our table at the big Thanksgiving pot luck here in our park.

  • Winter Staples – Everything Chopped

    Winter Staples – Everything Chopped

    Each winter, we eat far more salads than in the summer.

    Why? It’s because prepared salads are abundant here in south Texas.

    Taylor Farms makes a variety of single serving and double serving salads.

    The part we enjoy the most, is that we can enjoy a variety of salads without having to buy all of the ingredients separately and then risk them going to waste if not used in a timely manner.

    For the next few “foodie Friday” posts, I’ll feature and review different pre-made salads that we enjoy.

    My feature photo is of the single serving Everything Chopped Salad from Taylor Farms.

    Ingredients: Romaine lettuce, grilled white meat chicken, carrot, red cabbage, sharp white cheddar cheese, cheese and garlic seasoned crouton crumbles, everything bagel seasoning, and ranch dressing. *No synthetic colours or high fructose corn syrup*

    These salads, available at WalMart, come in a disposable plastic bowl, but I prefer to plate them.

    My review: I love that all of the ingredients are separated in the packaging, so nothing is soggy. This one had great flavour and crunch. Although they contain some cooked chicken, don’t expect more than a tablespoon or so of small cubes of meat in the single serving size. The cheese adds extra protein.

    At under $3 USD, it’s good bang for your buck.

  • Ahhh … Back to Mexico

    Ahhh … Back to Mexico

    This week, we’ve been going over to Mexico for dental appointments.

    It’s only a 20 minute drive from our home.

    My favourite part of this is that we can once more enjoy authentic Mexican food. We didn’t get across once last winter, so now we’re making up for lost time.

    I had some problems with my feature photo because of the shadows cast on the plate. I’ll be sure to avoid that next time.

    Each of us ordered our fave dish : enchiladas for hubs and chile relleno for me.

    We forgot that we could order one dish, split it, and easily have enough food for lunch.

    Practise makes better.

  • When in Texas (2) …

    When in Texas (2) …

    Because the price of avocados and the variability of their freshness at home in Canada is more than a bit prohibitive, I look forward to our winters in South Texas.

    We live close enough to Mexico that the avocados are reasonably priced, fresh, and don’t spoil in a day.

    And … I can make guacamole… my favourite dip.

    Easy Guac Recipe:

    2 ripe avocados

    2 TBSP Salsa

    1 Small Red Onion (or 1/2 medium), chopped fine

    Juice of 1 Lime

    1 TBSP sour cream

    Salt and Pepper, as desired

    If you like it a bit more spicy, seed, finely chop, and add one small jalapeño pepper.

    Mash avocados and salsa together in a medium bowl, then stir in all other ingredients until well blended. Store in tightly covered container in fridge for at least an hour (this will keep up to 1 day in fridge)

  • When in Texas …

    When in Texas …

    From our first taste in 2019, hubs and I became seriously attached to Blue Bell ice cream.

    Made in Texas, this brand is the next best thing to home made ice cream and we love that every year, new flavours are added to the line.