The weekend is a good time for grazing. This is a summary of some of the delightful Blog articles I have been reading during the week. I invite you to graze through these, and also through the archives of the creative writers who have written about appetizing recipes, food preparation, gardening, canning and preserving, aspects of nutrition, homesteading and life’s choices, hopes and lessons.
You can access the entire Weekend Highlights series to date by clicking on that category in the sidebar at left.
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I include The Flying T Ranch Blog in this weekend’s review not because of their kind words about Granny’s Parlour (blushing Granny thanks you), but because of the important values they share with the reader in a recent post titled “The Versatile Blogger Award” as they playfully offer seven random truths about their Blog, lifestyle and values. I do not want to reveal anything yet. You must read for yourself. [Go to it now!]
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Stew may be the best comfort food ever invented, though I do not believe it was actually invented so much as it took shape of its own volition and due to circumstances. In any case, for those who might be in a mind to use meat sparingly and wisely, making large batches of a meal with a succulent meat as its base is another way to use it with a healthy sense of restraint. It so happens that the chef at Frugal Feeding made rock cakes a few days prior to making Slow-Cooked Beef Stroganoff and I hereby suggest the two would constitute a complete feast if served on the same occasion.
“Rock cakes are probably the biggest running joke of the baking world. As a result of their name they are assumed, mainly by children, to be extremely hard and rather inedible. However, there is a reason why they have become both popular and famous throughout the world; they are utterly delicious…” [Read Rock Cakes]
“When I do decide to give in to my carnivorous tendencies, the best cure for an absence of meat is a rich, deep and delicious beef stew… Stroganoff often makes use of the slightly more expensive cuts of beef, which isn’t really favourable to my cause…” [Read Slow-Cooked Beef Stroganoff]
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In a recent post, Curtiss Ann Matlock offers blessings for a great week. This caught my eye while I was in a rather grumpy mood (I confess). Sometimes, great light emerges from a properly crafted thought. I give thanks for the subtle yet wonderfully startling “slap in the face. Starting Monday Out Right begins outright with this quote:
“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” – Arnold Bennett, British writer. [Visit Curtiss Ann Matlock's Blog]
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Greetings to John-Bryan Hopkins, of Foodimentary, who appeared at Granny’s Parlour about a week ago. Mr. Hopkins is an award-winning social media food commentator. His uniquely different Blog offers a rich balance of food lore, science and wit. From an invitation to taste some of Taco Bell’s newest (yet to be released) recipe to National Almond Day, if you are a foodie, or simply curious about food history, food science, food holidays and every food fact in between, you will enjoy this blog immensely.
Most articles include a very informative segment titled “Today’s Food History.” Did you know there is such a thing as National Gumdrop Day and that February is Canned Food Month? There is much to learn here. It would be difficult for me to present any one excerpt from this Blog to convey its true flavor, but here is a little taste. February 16, food fact and food history:
“Almonds are actually fruits, related to cherries and plums.”
“1937 – Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers received a patent for Nylon. (Which he discovered in 1935). One of its first uses was to replace the hog bristles that had been used in toothbrushes. Think about it: people used to brush their teeth with pigs’ hair.” [Explore Foodimentary]
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Thank you for stopping by to read this Weekend’s Review. Please take a moment to leave a few words on the Blogs you enjoy, if you feel so inclined that is.
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