While bustling around the house, I happened to stop and look out the kitchen window. What’s that I see?
A rat! I see a rat in the tree!
Black Squirrel
Looking closer, I noticed a long furry tail. No, that is not a rat I mused to myself. That is a squirrel. A black squirrel.
Black Squirrel
He was just resting and resting and resting. I watched him for a few minutes then left and came back again. Huh. He had turned to face the opposite way on the same branch.
Black Squirrel
And there he lay for quite a while. I thought “Maybe I should put some water out for him,” but I dismissed the thought as squirrels can be unfriendly even when they’re helpless.
Later in the day, I noticed the squirrel had left his branch. Then I also noticed something else.
On the ground lay our bird feeder. The squirrel (I’m assuming) had worked himself into a tizzy and tried to get to the bird feeder which is squirrel proof. Well, it’s squirrel proof if the squirrel doesn’t knock it down to the ground.
Well, I am certainly glad I didn’t offer our unfriendly squirrel any water.
And the bird feeder? It survived the squirrel attack and we hung it in a place that is squirrel proof.
This recipe is delicious but a tad bit expensive to make because it calls for flank steak. So … although I really enjoyed it, I probably won’t have it on a regular basis unless I can find flank steak on sale.
I started with the marinade which was pretty simple to make — just tossing a few ingredients together and whisking them.
Marinade
Next I combined the cabbage, carrots, mint, cilantro and basil together in a bowl.
After grilling the flank steak, we cut it into thin slices then halved them.
Sliced Grilled Flank Steak
Then it was just a matter of tossing it all together.
Thai Steak Salad
Truly delicious and great as leftovers also!
I did “paleo-ize” (adapt) this recipe as it had ingredients we don’t normally use in our paleo diet. Ready to try it?
Ingredients
1 1/2-pound flank steak, trimmed
1/2Â teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4Â teaspoon kosher salt
1/4Â cup fresh lime juice
1Â tablespoon honey
2Â tablespoons liquid aminos
1Â tablespoon fish sauce
2Â teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1Â teaspoon hot sauce (your choice what kind)
1 1/2Â cups thinly sliced red cabbage
3/4Â cup julienne-cut carrots
1/3Â cup fresh mint leaves
1/3Â cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/3Â cup fresh basil leaves
Directions
Sprinkle the steak with pepper and salt.
Grill the flank steak until it’s cooked to your level of doneness.
Remove steak from the grill and let it sit for approximately 5 minutes.
Cut the steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices.
Combine the lime juice and the next 5 ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk to make the marinade.
Combine the cabbage and the remaining ingredients in a separate medium bowl.
Add 6 tablespoons of the marinade to the cabbage mixture and toss it well.
Add the steak to the cabbage bowl along with 2 tablespoons of the marinade and stir to combine this well.
A little over 2 years ago, when we first moved into our house, we had a new septic system installed and the drain field was also re-done. It was quite a project and I was excited to see how it was all done as I had never lived on a property with its own septic system.
But — septic systems have to be cleaned every 2-3 years (in our county). So, being the dutiful citizen that I am, I called a sewer company to come clean it out.
The man reminded me of Gomer Pyle. hahahaha  His talking and motions were slower than Pyle’s but they were somewhat comical to me. But he was so good and explained everything he was doing in detail. My kind of guy!
We have two holding tanks and one pump station. The waste goes into the first holding tank then on to the second which has a filter. The waste is then filtered out so only the liquid goes to the pump station which sends it on to the drain field. Whew! Quite a process.
The cover of the first holding tank was taken off.
1st Septic Holding Tank
Yewwwwww!!! This is nasty looking! The sewer guy said “I see you have a problem already. Your tank is too full.” Wait. What? There’s only 2 people living in a 4 bedroom house and I’m cleaning my tanks out early. How can we have a problem?
On to the second holding tank.
2nd Septic Holding Tank
“The water level in this is also too high” the sewer guy explained. See that square thing in the picture? The sewer man took out the effluent filter and it was filthy.
Septic Effluent Filter
“The filter is too clogged to allow the water to go to the pump lift station,” the sewer guy explained. Okaaayyyy.
Lastly, we opened up the pump lift station cover. Not too bad.
Septic Lift Station
Our system also has a warning system that was not working. When the holding tanks are as high as they are the yellow warning light is supposed to come on but that never happened.
So — what is the source of the problem you ask? It’s the effluent filter. The sewer guy explained that they have had problems with these smaller filters and that some people are either 1) removing them or 2) replacing them with a larger one. Unfortunately, the larger ones will not fit in our tank so we have to go with option 1 — removing the filter.
The sewer guy will be returning to take out the effluent filter and rewiring the tank so it doesn’t go to the alarm as the alarm will no longer be needed.
Our sewer guy was really good. He called the gentleman who installed the system and discussed the situation with him.
But — I’ll be checking the holding tanks once a quarter just to “make sure” everything is flowing properly. I’m glad I decided to have the tanks cleaned after 2 years instead of 3 or we might have had sewage backing up into our house. Bleh! That would not have been pretty.
Egg salad is always a good lunch meal to have whether its as a sandwich or on a bed of lettuce. This recipe is really quite good. You can spice it up more than I did but I think it had enough “kick” with what I added.
Here are the ingredients I used …
Ingredients
I made my own paleo mayonnaise for this using this recipe although I replaced the canola oil with olive oil (not extra virgen olive oil).
Ingredients
2 Turkey bacon slices, cooked
1/3Â cup thinly sliced green onions
2Â tablespoons paleo mayonnaise
1 1/2Â teaspoons hot sauce (I used Tapatio)
1/4Â teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8Â teaspoon kosher salt
6Â hard-boiled large eggs, chopped
Directions
Cook the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until crisp.
Remove bacon from the skillet and crumble it into small pieces.
Place bacon in a large bowl.
Stir in the onions and the next 5 ingredients (through salt).
Gently stir in the eggs.
That’s pretty much it! You will enjoy this recipe!
Ooohhh … what a nice recipe for drumsticks. I remember growing up and taking the drumstick in my hand and just chewing on it. It was a little messy and more cave-man like but  no utensils to clean.
These “Fine Chicken” drumsticks will be coated in a marinade and baked. Very easy and very tasty.
Baked Chicken Drumsticks
I served them with a new brussel sprouts recipe that was also easy but made the sprouts more palatable to me. I’m not a big fan of sprouts — normally. The sprouts are cut in half and baked.
Baked Brussel Sprouts
They came out nice and crispy.
Baked Brussel Sprouts
Ready for a couple of easy paleo recipes?
Ingredients
10Â drumsticks (I used 7 as that’s what came in my package)
2Â large shallots, minced
3 onions or scallions, thinly sliced
3Â tablespoons red wine vinegar (original recipe calls for sherry vinegar)
3Â tablespoons olive oil (instead of coconut or avocado)
1Â tablespoon liquid aminos (instead of coconut aminos)
1Â tablespoon fish sauce
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Directions
Mix the shallots, onions, vinegar, oil, aminos, salt (2 large pinches), fish sauce, and pepper in a large bowl.
Add the drumsticks on top and coat the chicken in the marinade.
Allow the chicken to marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
When you’re ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 375 F on convection bake or 400 F non-convection. Arrange the chicken in an oven-safe baking dish and put it in the oven.
Bake the chicken for 40-45 minutes and turn the pieces over halfway through the cooking time.
Cut the brussel sprouts in half and place in a medium sized bowl .
Drizzle with olive oil and add a few dashes of salt and pepper.
Mix the brussel sprouts in the oil to ensure they are evenly coated.
Put the brussel sprouts on a baking sheet and make sure they are evenly spaced then place the baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven.
 Bake for 8 minutes, stir the brussel sprouts around the pan, and bake for another 7 minutes. Make sure to watch so you don’t burn them.
The brussel sprouts recipe was one that I had a good laugh with as Paleo Cupboard ended her instructions with “ Enjoy brussel sprouts for the first time in your life. Send me thank you letters and praise.” I just found that so funny and was glad she ended her instructions in a fun and light note.
Because we had cucumbers and tomatoes in the fridge, I sliced them into large pieces, added a small bit of olive oil and basil then tossed it all together. I enjoyed the combination of these three for dinner.
Below are a few pictures that I scanned from slides to photos and transferred to my Mac computer from my mother-in-law’s old slides. You’ll notice that they aren’t “perfect” because there are small bits of dots throughout. The dots are dust particles. The slides had a lot more of them and even though iPhoto has a “retouch” option that allowed me to block them out, it would have taken me a lot of time to get all of the dust “dots” off.
St Basil, Circa 1970St Basil, Russia Circa 1970Moscow Hotel, Russia, Circa 1970GUM (Department Store) – Moscow, Circa 1970English Club – Moscow, Russia, Circa 1970Yuri Statue – Moscow, Russia, Circa 1970
But — overall they came out pretty good, no?
I’m hoping to create a Youtube video with the almost 76 slides of Russia from the 1970’s. I’ll let you know when that happens. I have other countries that I’ll be posting pictures of also like Iran, Afghanistan, Greece, etc. from the same timeframe.
Between cooking, yard work, regular “work” and hoping to learn how to sew on my new Brothers sewing machine, well, I’ve got my hands full. But they’ll be coming so stay tuned.
Well, I recently found a chicken salad recipe to tweak to make it paleo friendly. It’s easy to make and quite tasty. Really. Quite tasty. Perhaps it’s the hint of red pepper flakes and the olives. Yum!
We start with our cast of ingredients …
Mediterranean Chicken Salad Ingredients (chicken breasts not shown)
Next, we’ll be dicing up the red onion and adding it to the vinegar.
Mix onion and vinegar
That’s the hardest part … (laughing) Â Ready to try it?
Ingredients
1/2Â cup minced red onion
2Â Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1Â pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt
2Â Tablespoons olive oil
1Â Tablespoon capers
3/4Â cup green/black olives, sliced
1Â pinch of red chile flakes
1Â Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 Tablespoon basil
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Black pepper to taste
Directions
Mix the minced onion with the vinegar in a bowl and set it aside.
Bring 1 1/2 quarts of water to a boil and add about 2 tablespoons of salt.
Cut the chicken breasts in half crosswise and place them in the water.
Reduce the heat to low and let the chicken cook very gently, at barely a simmer, for 10-15 minutes, until it’s just cooked through.
While the chicken is cooking, mix the olive oil, capers, olives, chile flakes, and oregano in a large bowl.
When the chicken is done, place it on a cutting board to cool.
Add the onions to the olive bowl mixture.
Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle, cut it into small pieces or shred it.
Gently mix the chicken and parsley in with the olive mixture.
Greek Salad, anyone? This one went perfectly with the Greek Lamb Chops that I made. And so easy! I did use feta cheese although we haven’t introduced too much cheese into our paleo diet yet.
The ingredients are simple enough …
Greek Salad Ingredients (olives not shown)
And for the dressing …
Greek Salad Ingredients for Dressing
It all looks so healthy, doesn’t it?
Then you’ll just follow the directions (which are few), toss everything together and … whala! A wonderful Greek Salad.
Greek Salad
And here’s the recipe for you to try …
Ingredients (for the dressing)
Red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon
Olive oil, 2 tablespoons
Salt, 1/2 teaspoon
Oregano, 1 teaspoon
Garlic, 1 clove, chopped
Ingredients (for the salad)
1 cup of Spinach
2 medium Tomatoes
1 Green pepper
1 Cucumber
1/4 cup chopped Red Onion
Olives, 10
Feta cheese, 1 oz
Directions
Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together.
Peel and remove the seeds from the cucumber.
Chop all the vegetables coarsely.
Toss the vegetables, cheese and dressing in a large bowl. (Side note: I usually serve my dressing on the side so people can add as little or as much as they want.)
That’s pretty much it! Positively, absolutely delicious!
I really enjoy having lamb — it’s a favorite of mine for dinners.
This Greek Lamb Chop recipe is a marinade that I really liked because of it’s simplicity and tastiness. There are a few ingredients you’ll need …
Greek Lamb Chops Marinade Ingredients (lamb chops not shown)
Although I don’t normally like spicy food, the amount of red pepper flakes that are used, 1/2 teaspoon, wasn’t enough to make it too spicy.
The lamb chops will marinate for 8-24 hours in a plastic bag in the refrigerator so the juices can blend into the meat.
Then you’ll be pan-frying them … Don’t they look delicious?
Greek Lamb Chops
Here’s the recipe for you to try …
Ingredients
1Â package lamb chops, 4-5 (I only used two since there were only two of us)
1/4Â cup organic olive oil + 1-2 tbs for cooking
zest and juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup juice)
1Â tsp oregano
1Â tsp basil
1Â tsp garlic powder
1/2Â tsp rosemary
1/2Â tsp red pepper flakes
1/2Â tsp sea salt
Directions
Rinse the lamb chops then pat them dry.
Trim the fat from the sides of the chops then place the lamb in a large ziplock bag.
Add the lemon juice, zest, and organic olive oil to a large bowl.
To the lemon juice mixture, Â add the oregano, garlic powder, rosemary, red pepper flakes and the sea salt.
Whisk the marinade then pour it into the bag with the lamb chops.
Remove the excess air from the plastic bag, seal it well then massage the bag with your hands to distribute the marinade on the lamb chops.
Put the plastic bag that has the marinade and lamb chops in the refrigerator for 8-24 hours.
Remove the plastic bag with the lamb in it from the refrigerator and set it on the counter for at least one hour before cooking to bring the lamb closer to room temperature.
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick pan on medium-high heat.
When the oil begins to bubble, add the lamb chops with some of the marinade.
As soon as all the lamb chops are in the pan, start a timer for 4 minutes.
After 3 minutes, put a lid on the pan for the last minute.
When the timer sounds, flip each lamb chop with tongs, then restart the timer for 4 minutes.
After 2 minutes, put a lid on the pan again.
When the timer sounds, remove the pan from the heat.
With tongs, remove the lamb chops from the pan and place them on a large dish to rest for 10-15 minutes.
Then enjoy this wonderful meal. I served my lamb chops with a Greek Salad. I guess I was just in a Greek mood.   (hehe)