JULY 16, 2012–FRIED MOZZARELLA, RIB-EYE STEAK WITH ONION-BLUE CHEESE SAUCE, AND SPICY CAESAR SALAD

July 16, a Monday.  A stillness reigns.  Baseball is over for another year.  Really?  All we have done this summer is take LBG to practice, watch his games, drive home from practice, drive home from games, drive to the batting cages, drive home from the batting cages, etc. . . .

Scout and Eloise still have a week of Swim Team practice left, but then sports will be DONE until soccer in the fall.

Well.  Baseball isn’t completely over.  There are still “pick-up” games every Thursday and Friday, but the pressure is off.

Let’s celebrate!!  Let’s cook!

So lunch is a celebration for the kiddos–corndogs, FRIED MOZZARELLA (pg. 104), and smoothies.  And dinner is a celebration for the Momma and the Papa–RIB-EYE WITH ONION-BLUE CHEESE SAUCE (pg. 204), SPICY CAESAR SALAD (pg. 40), sliced home-grown tomatos, and corn on the cob. (Psst.  The Caesar Salad link isn’t the exact recipe but the closest I could find.)

LUNCH:

The Hunni and kiddos are huge corndog fans.  I guess it goes with the whole baseball thing.  Not only do they love sports, but they love the foods sold at sporting events.  Pioneer Womans had a blog post about home-made corndogs, so we followed her recipe.

The Hunni grilled up some hotdogs on shish-kabob sticks.

While he was grilling hotdogs, I started the MOZZARELLA STICKS.

Panko crumbs, fresh parsely, and season salt are the coating.

The hotdogs arrived and I fried up the mozarella.

It was hard not to “sample” each and every Fried Mozzarella stick that came out!

The Hunni was having a little trouble getting the cornmeal dough on the hotdogs.  He tried to “spoon” it on, but it just slid off.

Then he had the great idea of putting the batter in a large glass and dunking the hotdog.  This method worked well.  I love having a male mind in the kitchen.  They think differently and sometimes it leads to a new invention.

The oil was still hot from the Fried Mozzarella sticks.

Now all this gloriously fried food was beginning to make be feel guilty, and when I feel guilty, this is what I do. . .

I put a bunch of fresh or frozen fruit in a blender and make a smoothie.  This cools my burning guilt about all the fried food.

However, it doesn’t take the burning out of my cheeks on being caught wearing these two prints together.  Opps.  (I think Scout got my camera for this shot.)

So here’s lunch.  The nectarine on the paper plate is also to help with the Whole Guilt Thing–not to be confused with Whole Foods Thing.

Now that we were all in a food coma, this is how the kiddos spend their afternoon.

LBG (Little Big Guy) read a book.

Little Man took a nap.

Eloise added some drama, and Scout stole my camera and took 30 pictures of Eloise making various faces.

Supper time arrived and with it the smell of grilling steaks.

Pioneer Woman suggested an Onion-Blue Cheese sauce for these rib-eye steaks.  The sauce is made by sauteing onions in butter, adding heavy cream, salt-n-pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and 3/4 of a cup of blue cheese.

To accompany the rib-eye, I make Ree Drummond’s Spicy Caesar Salad.  The spicy dressing inclues 2 cloves of garlic, 1 T. Dijon mustard, 2 egg yolks, lemon juice, 1 t. Worcestershire sauce, 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and 3/4 c. olive oil.  I only included one chipotle pepper as I find most of Pioneer Woman’s recipes too spicy.

Dinner is served.  Tomatoes from my garden, and watermelon and sweet corn from a local produce stand.

Summer.  What a glorious season.

–rebecca