Rex and Ty's Food Blog

     Lily and I are continuing our virtual trip. Visiting places around the globe where our DNA originates. We are going from our lowest percentages up. We are visiting by making recipes attributed to those areas. From the last story we visited Spain where 1% of Lily's DNA was from. This time we are visiting the Baltic states and Sweden.     My report said that 1% of my DNA was Baltic. Of course I had to find out exactly where that is. This is an area on the Baltic sea now comprised of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. So I looked on the web for recipes from that area. I decided on Baltic Lamb and Rice Meatballs .  this recipe was from Women's Weekly and Food to Love . The recipe featured ground lamb, jasmine rice and egg plant cooked in diced tomatoes. (I was able to find fresh ground lamb at Blues Creek Meats not far from where I live. I recommend their shop). I made and shared this recipe during our Christmas celebration dinner with my children and gran...

    My granddaughter Lily and I have been traveling and yet haven't left the neighborhood! You see we both took DNA test with Ancestry.com. I wasn't expecting to find much I didn't know about my family and my family roots but since Lily only knows a couple of people on her dad's side of the family we were anxious to see where her DNA originated. When I took a look at my results it was indeed as expected. Most of my DNA is from a small circle of places in Northwestern Europe, England, Wales and Ireland and Scotland. Now where I was surprised with my results was with  the percentages of each of the areas. From family stories, I thought I would be mostly German (10%) and Scottish (14%).  I am (64%) English, Welsh and Northwestern Europe?     Lily's results were much more interesting. Of course hers would mirror mine but what about the other 75%? Well it spanned two continents and many varied regions on those continents. And that's where our travels have been....

    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...