Rex and Ty's Food Blog

    In different parts of the world cold weather can mean different things. Perhaps in Florida a 60 degree day may be really cold where as a 60 degree day where I live is tolerable. To Donna it is "cold" when her friends the raccoons no longer come to the back deck for their nightly treats! This happens when the temperature drops under 32 degrees. No judgement here, she knows she shouldn't feed them but can't resist. When the temperature doesn't go above freezing for a couple days I also look to hunker down. Most likely in front of the fireplace eating some comfort foods. Comfort food to me means thick soups and stews!     I was lucky growing up with my mother and had two grandmothers that lived close and knew how to make wonderful soups. My favorite from grandma Francis was her Beef Vegetable Soup. My favorite from grandma Mary Ida was her Chicken and Homemade Noodle soup. I do not have either recipe and I suspect that they really didn't use one. Both grandm...

     Recently Ty said he was going on the " Keto " diet. Now the Ketogenetic diet was once explained to me by my co-worker and friend Chris. Unfortunately I probably was to dense to understand what he was telling me. But I believe the premise is, it is a high fat, moderate protein and very low carb diet. It is supposed to make your body burn fat as fuel instead of protein or carbs. Again this probably over simplifies it and I may still not understand fully. But I do know that I can get on the internet and find " Keto " recipes to try.      I decided to try a pizza recipe. It was on " YouTube" and the crust was made from ground chicken. Katherine Michelle shared it. Now the ground chicken crust didn't exactly sound very appetizing but I was game. The "crust" was basically just ground chicken with a little cheese. Rolled out the shape you prefer. I baked it for about 20 minutes then added the pizza toppings and baked 10 or 15 more minutes. It...

Recently, I have been reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver titled "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."  This book is truly inspiring and focuses on harvesting local foods to reduce the amount of fuel used to transport foods all over the U.S.  She also emphasizes eating foods only when they are in season. Over Labor Day weekend, we took a trip back home to Jeddo, MI for my cousin's wedding (shout out to the beautiful bride Sarah Lawson!!).  While there, my uncle Mike invited us to his house to pick fresh peaches, apples and pears.  I was thrilled! This was my chance to eat locally and harvest fruit while it was in season! No more California fruit for me!  I took my husband and kids and we picked away. We filled boxes full of fruit and ate the fruit right off the tree! It was a special treat for me. Then it hit me, sadness...see friends, growing up my family helped operate Birch Creek Orchards in Jeddo, Mi.  Everyone in my family helped!  Even the smalle...

     I like to try new foods or new ways to prepare foods. This last week while visiting my Bristol Tennessee family I decided to try Farro. I didn't know what farro was but had a recipe calling for it. A little research on Wikipedia and I found out it is " a food composed of the grains of certain wheat species, sold dried, and prepared by cooking in water until soft. People eat it plain, or often use it as an ingredient in salads, soups and other dishes."      My recipe was from Southern Living Magazine January 2018 edition. Farro Bowl with Curry-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts. Using curry to flavor roasted vegetables was not new to me. Samantha first introduced this to me a couple of years ago. I used light and dark sweet potatoes and onions with the brussels sprouts. I have always used an oil on the vegetables to roast but this recipe called for melted butter. It also called for a lemon yogurt sauce along side for dipping and toasted pe...

    Ever since I was a youngster I have been overweight. I have blamed it on a little bit of everything. I have blamed it on my mother, she fed me all those meals full of starches. Potatoes, bread and pasta. It didn't help that she had a limited budget and those were the cheapest choices. I blamed it on big bones! After all I heard people, politely, call me big boned. AKA fat. I would like to say it was a lack of exercise caused from too much television . But we didn't have television in the house for much of my youth. Maybe, all of the above? All I know is, it isn't my fault! ha ha      I have over the course of my lifetime lost maybe a half  ton or more. The trouble is, I have gained it back and more. It's not that I don't know how to lose weight, in fact I may be an expert on the subject. I have Counted Calories, followed the Zone, went Vegetarian, won Challenges and on and on. Now all of these plans work if you are consistent. and disciplined enough to...

      If you look in a modern dictionary you may find that the word SPAM is a noun describing irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the internet to a large number of recipients or as a verb; the act of sending the same message indiscriminately to large numbers of recipients on the Internet. I believe all of us have had spam in our inboxes! I do not enjoy that spam. But if your dictionary was printed before the computer age you may see a different description!      I was introduced  to that older description by my father. The SPAM he referred to was a canned meat product introduced by the Hormel Company in 1937 and popularized during World War II. My dad was a navy man and claimed that most of the C-rations or emergency food packs on the ship were missing the canned meat that was supposed to be in them. He claimed it was popular to remove and eat it, even if there was no emergency at the time. It later became a staple in our house while I was...

     I remember the first meal I ever made and the instructor that was teaching me. I was eleven years old and camping with Boy Scout Troop 184 in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. My Scoutmaster showed me how to make soup beans in a Dutch Oven on a campfire. The Scoutmaster was Scoutmaster Herriott, Mr. Herriott, or John when no other adults were around. Or to me, Uncle John. He always insisted that we scouts address him formally in the presence of other adults. I realize now that this was not for him, but so that these other adults would see that we were respectful. The Allegheny Forest was dear to him. He owned a cabin abutting the forest that he used for vacations and hunting etc. But this trip we were not at his camp, we were in the park at a campsite provided by the forest service.      The park service had arranged for our Troop to visit a fire tower in the park. We were able to climb to the top and see the view that the Rangers had o...