Rex and Ty's Food Blog

       I have a ten year old granddaughter "Lily". It seems like most of our conversations start out "back in my day ". I certainly heard that often when talking to my grandparents and parents. Well this past week we have been canning bread and butter pickles, sweet relish and beet relish. Of course I told Lily " back when I was your age" my mother had to can a lot of our garden or we wouldn't have had much to eat in the winter. We were only allowed to eat during meal time and the refrigerator was off limits to me until I was in  Junior High School and started watching my younger brother as mom went to work outside the home. But canning this week has reminded me of those times and my mother and family.       We don't have that big garden now but we do have generous neighbors who have shared some of their produce. And it probably cost much more to actually put food up this way than it would be to buy it at the grocery. But I do like that we know ...

       It has been a while since I have used my grille and I had some chicken thighs that I needed to use up. Now if I could overcome the nervousness of two things. One it has been raining a lot the last couple of days and I wasn't sure if I had time between gully washers and two, my worst food critic was expected for dinner. If my daughter sees so much as a speck of pink on her chicken she will claim it isn't done and refuse to eat it. Of course, I always use a meat thermometer when cooking chicken and I am confident it is done before serving. So I weighed my options, grille until it is as dry as leather or risk the family refusing to eat it. I took the risk.         First I found a recipe that might help me cook the thighs on the grille. It was from " Food Wishes " on Youtube . Chef John is one of my favorite chefs to watch and learn from. He had a recipe for Grilled Greek Chicken that I thought might be the answer for the "pink" phobias. A t...

          Today a thoughtful neighbor brought me some produce from their garden. Green, yellow and purple beans, cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash, and beets. So I spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning and preparing them for later use. I can't wait. But that left little time to make dinner. I needed to find something quick to fix. So I pulled a couple of steaks out of the fridge and looked for something to do with them. In the past I would have just grilled or broiled them. And then threw some frozen french fries in the oven. And called it a meal. It would have tasted fine but it is not too creative.                                                                                                       ...

      I lost my best friend Perry about a year ago. I think of him often. It seems like we did everything together growing up. The other day, while sitting at a Mexican restaurant, I was reminded of one of our "great " adventures. You see, we spent a good portion of the summer between our freshman and sophomore year of high school in Saltillo, Mexico. We stayed with a host family while attending a school to learn Spanish and Mexican History. The real motivation for this was to get credit for second year High School Spanish. IT WORKED ! But what brought back the memories was me thinking of trying something new at the restaurant. You see when I was in Mexico we ate with the host family. I wouldn't try anything. I ate re fried beans every meal. All these wonderful looking dishes they brought out, I turned my nose up to. I do not know whether I would have liked them or not, I wouldn't even try. Fortunately they served the beans with every meal. How naive I was. I should h...

    Sometimes, no matter what you do or plan for, life tells you differently.   Recently we planned and camping trip with some friends to Manistee National Forest on Lake Michigan. This was an off the grid camping trip and I was planning to have a few campfire meals prepared to show off my caveman abilities for the blog.  After a few days of camping the only thing I had prepared was coffee and few hot dogs. Not really blog worthy cooking.  Life had told me that cooking was not on the agenda.  We spent all of our time doing activities that you should be doing while camping. Only stoping for a few minutes here and there to grab a quick sandwich or fabulously cooked hot dog.  Time flew by and we could have not been more happy with our trip.      I was finally able to show off my campfire cooking abilities as we were packing up to leave.  We needed a lunch and we had a mixed bag of food that was left over.  I grabbed my club, po...

          Anybody that knows me, knows I am a baseball fan. I particularly enjoyed watching my two sons play throughout their careers. I also was honored to coach a little high school baseball on occasion. Tonight was the mid summer break for pro baseball which means it is time for the "All Star Game". American League against the National league. I have always been a National League fan. I just believe all the players on the field should hit for themselves. That's just me. I do like the "All Star" games because you have a chance to see most of todays stars playing at once. This year the American League prevailed, again.           I wanted to make a dinner that would work well on TV trays just in case it ran over to game time. Leading off tonight's lineup is Coleslaw. My new rookie of the year prospect. The recipe is from 12 Bones Smokehouse A Mountain BBQ Cookbook . We have made it before and all...

        I have been told that I am full of bologna. More than once, actually quite often. But I do like bologna and don't necessarily consider it an insult. No matter how it was intended! But there is a local restaurant that is well known for their bologna sandwiches, the G&R Tavern in Waldo Ohio. I have been known to make a trip there to partake occasionally. This made me wonder "can I make this at home"?  I found a recipe to try on YouTube , by Tim Farmer . I thought it looked easy enough that I would give it a try.        I used a blend of ground beef and pork and the spices the recipe suggested. Mixed the loaf in my stand up mixer as Tim did and put it in the oven. And although it came out tasting like bologna, and I really liked the flavor, I would still give the nod to the G&R's recipe. If anybody has that recipe and would like to share, please contact me. Or if you have a particular r...

       A few years ago two of my friends and I were struggling with obesity. We decided to start a blog to encourage each other to change our lifestyles and maybe, just maybe we could  achieve that dream of a healthier more fit body. In the blog my friend mentioned a book that might help us on our quest. Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat . By Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle. A couple of days later we were contacted by this incredible lady. She offered and did send each of us one of her books. This book tells the lifestyle of the Japanese woman and tells why they do not have obesity problems when they stay with their traditional diets. I will not profess that I stuck to the traditional Japanese lifestyle and diet but the encouragement from this complete stranger did have a profound effect.  Remember to encourage somebody today. No matter what the individual is trying to do a little spoken word, message or...

      Watching Uncle Ty and Grandpa cook and take pictures of their food creations has inspired Lily to try her hand at cooking. Lily is 10 and has helped grandpa a few times in the past but this time she wanted to make dinner for the family by herself. And she wanted it to go on the blog too. I agreed to this as long as she followed our simple rules. Whatever she decided to make had to be made following the recipe as closely as possible.       Lily decided she wanted to make sloppy Joes. She found a recipe in Fix-It and Forget-It Kids c ookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good. Recipes to make in a Slow Cooker . I thought this was great since she didn't have to use burners on the stove. A slow cooker seems much safer for children starting out. The recipe was labeled " The Best Beef Barbecue ". It listed the ingredients and equipment needed to complete the dish. I hovered in the area to help if necessary. She did ask for a little help w...

      Last year I was fortunate  enough to go deep see fishing with a few friends, during the 4 hour trip we caught an amazing amount of fish.  We landed six Wahoo,  two Mahi-Mahi and a few others. We kept two of the Wahoo and one Mahi-Mahi.  Later that night I made fish tacos from one of the Wahoo that we caught.  Without a recipe or any experience I fried up the fish and acted like I knew what I was doing. I made diner for 10 others that night. To my astonishment they turned out awesome and to this day everyone always ask me when the next fish fry was going to be.        On Saturday I gave my fish frying abilities another go.  Using a recipe out of the 2017 July/August issue of Martha Stewart  Living,  I fried up three pounds of Trout.  The recipe really caught my eye because in the batte...