Whats for Dinner Sunday

Today, for us it was roast beef, mixed greens, roasted tomatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and taffy apple salad, with a glass of wine on the side. Hubby cooked the roast beef and the cornbread, the boys helped make the taffy apple salad, and the greens and corn bread was prepared by me. This is our typical preparation for Sunday’s dinner, getting the whole family involved. Saturday dinners are easier going, but we prepare them together often as well, while Monday through Friday’s is mostly me.

The beef got marinated overnight in a wet marinade of worcestershire sauce and garlic cloves, and set out this morning in a dry rub of organic thyme, fresh organic parsley, salt, and black pepper for a couple of hours. From there it went into the oven on low broil to each side, to brown. Next, it got wrapped in aluminum foil with purple onions and slow cooked outside on the grill. The tomatoes got cooked out on the grill as well. I used the beef juice from the broiler pan to make a gravy for the beef.

The greens were mustard and turnip‘s, mixed. Early morning I placed a nice sized smoked ham hock in the water. I know it’s not the healthiest choice of meat, one can use smoked turkey meat as a substitution, but we eat pork in moderation, although it’s such a habit. In the sink the greens got soaked, washed, and chopped. From there they went into the pot of water with the already cooking ham hock. I tossed in some vinegar, a chopped organic turnip, salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar and let them boil until they were tender, about 3 hours.

Now that the longest preparations were out the way, it’s time to prepare the taffy apple salad. The boys made the caramel with pineapple juice, sugar, flour, tiny bit of vinegar, and an egg yolk, over the stove in a small saucepan. I chopped and cored some organic granny smith apples, while letting the boys stir in some crushed pineapples, peanuts, apples, and whipped topping. It got covered and placed in the fridge until ready for dinner.

Hubby and I worked side by side as I prepared the macaroni and he prepared the cornbread, we both short cutted it. I used Kraft deluxe mac in the box with a little extra elbow mac, brought it to a boil with salt and butter, drained it and added in a pint of buttermilk, eggs, and the cheese pack. Afterwards I made a bottom layer in my casserole dish with the mac, then added some shredded mozzarella cheese, topped it with mac and topped that with some shredded mild cheddar cheese, from there it went off to the oven to bake. Meanwhile, hubby tossed a box of corn muffin mix in the bowl, added in some milk, eggs, more corn meal and sugar then off to the hot and buttered pan and in the oven along with the mac and cheese.

We sat down and enjoyed our Sunday dinner and hubby and I had a glass of wine, with a cherry dropped in it to drink, while the boys had some semi frozen apple cherry juice. It’s amazing how much my boys can eat, but they surely don’t give it to much time to stick. We were done eating by about 5:30ish, so we went out in the backyard and enjoyed the weather. Finally, we came inside and watched a movie I rented from blockbusters, The Secret Life of Bees. It went off just in time to catch the 4th round of the NBA Finals. It was fun to see the Lakers and Phil Jackson walk away with yet another Championship victory, that’s my favorite NBA team by the way!

Okay, that was my Sunday, Saturday was a seafood feast of lobster tails, scallops, and split shrimp scampi with ceaser salad, organic carrots and celery, with ranch dipping sauce, baked red potatoes, and fish sticks as my youngest have allergies to fresh seafood. I’m a seafood attic and can never get enough; well that’s the end of today’s rant!