I have smoked turkey...

running out my ears! My other half's ex came over last night with the kids and they brought with them a smoked turkey they'd cooked and salad makings. The ex didn't think they'd eat it all and they wanted to share with us. She's a very nice ex, by the way! So, we all had turkey and then I de-boned the monster and put the meat in bags in the fridge. She didn't want to take any home with her, though, so we kept it all.

I really enjoy smoked turkey but we don't have a smoker and the price of pre-smoked birds is too high for us so I haven't bought one in years. Now I have a goodly amount of the stuff.

What do you do with smoked turkey leftovers? It's great in beans but I'd love some more ideas on how to use this bird.

Magic meat loaf and way too much rain

It's raining again! This is really getting to be ridiculous! The plants simply can't handle anymore but here it comes. My sister who lives in Dallas lost the tomato plants we'd given her. Too much water for them, we think.

Well, we did get a few goodies from the garden today. We got two large and fat cucumbers, a very small purple bell pepper that's been this size for weeks, two stunted ears of corn and a few small tomatoes. I'm thankful for those, though I'd like more and larger fruit!


Dinner tonight was an adapted version of Magic Meatloaf, green beans, and corn. I didn't have the dry soup mix so I used some powdered chicken boullion, garlic, and chopped onion. I made it with 1 lb of ground turkey and 1 lb of ground beef and made sure it was wet enough. Rather than cook it in the slow cooker, I popped it into a 350 oven for about 45 minutes. It was tasty and there's plenty left for lunch tomorrow.

Cheese enchilada stack and ranch style beans

Dinner tonight was Cheese Enchilada Stack served with Ranch Style Beans. We're very fond of Tex Mex food and we really liked this dish and decided it's a keeper in our home. I added fresh Sweet 100 tomatoes from the garden to the top of it about 5 minutes before it was done and the tomatoes are a tasty addition. I noticed that ours didn't look quite like the picture featured with the recipe but that's just fine. It tasted great and we'll have it again.

Do you have a favorite Tex Mex recipe? If so, would you share it with me? I'm always on the lookout for new ones.

It's raining again and we're likely to get a lot of rain tonight. The poor garden is just about to float away! I really don't think it can take much more of this and we might not get much more at all from it. But we've planted more squash and we're going to try more tomatoes from seed. Here's hoping we get a good crop!

Beef tips and basmati, carrots, and green beans

Dinner was simple;beef tips and brown basmati rice, carrots, and green beans. It was quite tasty! At 7 PM we left to pick up my son in a town about an hour and a half away and on the way the car overheated! What a blessing, though, that a young man with plenty of water and a container to hold more water stopped and helped us. We finally picked up my son and made it back home. We're all tired and I'm about to head to bed. It's been a long day and a longer night. Hopefully I'll be more inclined to post tomorrow.

Monday's Musings & garden stuff

Today was a pretty slow day. We ran some errands, including taking the 16 year old to the high school for testing. He's been home schooled for two years after a short stint in public school and since he's going back into public school they need to know in what grade to place him. He says the test was easy but we don't know yet just how he did so we'll see.

Dinner tonight wasn't anything particularly exciting. I took a late nap and woke up at 6:30 so we had chili dogs with onions and mozzarella cheese for dinner. It wasn't fancy but it sure was tasty and thrifty. The 16 year old had never eaten a chili dog! How he's made it this far without eating one I don't know but he had his first one tonight. And his second one..then he ate what was left of the chili. Ahh, the joys of bottomless pit teen boys!

We got our second ear of corn from the garden today. It's a beautiful white sweet corn but this one ear at a time thing isn't working well. But oh well, we can share it tomorrow at lunch! And the man person ate the first homestead tomato from the garden, too. He says it had very little flavor and was kind of mealy and waxy tasting, like a store tomato. Since most of the tomato plants are just dying from too much rain we're going to start some more from seed and see how that goes. I'm just so disappointed in the tomatoes this year! I had high hopes of canning some and eating plenty of fresh ones but that just isn't going to happen unless we can get more going from seed and they do better later this summer. But then we have the heat to contend with! And unless something really bizarre happens, there won't be much rain at all so regular watering will be an absolute must.

So that's about it on the garden news for now. The rest of it seems to be plugging along, managing pretty well and trying not to drown in all this rain!