Slow Recovery…plus Dining at Home

I had knee replacement surgery about 2 weeks ago…and when you add that temporary disability to Covid-19 self-isolation, not much is going on at our household…at least not much worth writing about!

A couple of days after returning home from the hospital, (a one night stay), Laurie took this photo of me with my post-surgery walker slowly moving along the street in front of our house.  Things were looking up!  But then the hospital related surgical anesthesia wore off…and the ‘real’ healing process began.  I’ll spare my readers by not sharing the details…

So…going back in time before the surgery.   

As I’ve mentioned previously, we have 3 Mennonite operated farmer’s markets within easy driving range of our home.  This assortment of fresh vegetables and baked goods resulted from a recent visit to the market located in the countryside near Englewood Tennessee.  We scored a couple of zucchini, some heirloom tomatoes and an amazing bunch of radishes along with a loaf of whole wheat bread as well as a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. 

I almost forgot!  We also picked up this luscious blackberry crumb pie… It was excellent on its own but when heated and paired with vanilla bean ice cream on the side, it was perfection.

This was part of one of those heirloom tomatoes…sliced and slathered with blue cheese dressing.  Laurie used a healthier vinaigrette dressing.  The next time we purchase some top notch tomatoes, I’ll have to try making a tomato sandwich…

We’re staying simple when it comes to meals.  Minimal prep, minimal cooking, minimal effort!  In this instance our entrée consisted of a ‘value size’ box of TGI Friday’s Crispy Buffalo Style Chicken Wings.  I think that there were about 13 wing segments for each of us.  We did enjoy them!

On this particular morning, I found a leftover Italian Breaded Veal Patty in the refrigerator.  It had been part of one of our gift packages YTD from Omaha Steaks.  I reheated the patty, placed it on a slice of toasted buttered bread and then topped it with an over easy fried egg.  Very fine indeed…

Another evening and a simple and yet one of our favorite meals.  There is nothing like a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich…especially when it’s constructed with some decent bread and it includes slices of fresh picked heirloom tomato and Benton’s bacon. (Benton’s hickory smoked bacon makes the very best BLT!)  https://shop.bentonscountryham.com/.

Note: The potato chips were a Lay's variety that we hadn't tried before.  They're the Nashville Hot.  We didn't care for them...

Laurie had spotted a recipe for Cheesy Scalloped Zucchini on Pinterest that was from delish.com, and she wanted to give it a try.  So she sliced up 4 zucchini and made a rue with butter, 2 cloves of garlic, onion flakes, pepper and thyme...with a couple of tablespoons of all-purpose flour.  Then we added in 1.5 cups of half and half milk, 2 cups of Gruyere cheese and a half cup of Parmesan.  The mixture was poured evenly over the zucchini and then it went into the oven.

The photo above shows the finished product.  Laurie enjoyed the results but despite all of her work and as well as the fact that I really like zucchini, I wasn’t a real fan.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

Here was yet another ‘gift dinner’…chicken fried steaks courtesy of Omaha Steaks!  First they went in the oven and then we topped them with some sausage gravy.  Minimum effort easy and tasty comfort food was the result!

One last evening meal…but this time it was take out from a local bar-b-que restaurant.  We purchased 2 racks of nice meaty pork ribs from Taste ‘O Texas.   We each had half a rack to start and then I had a couple more ribs to top off my meal.  The ribs were almost ‘falling off the bone’ while we prefer our ribs a bit more attached…thereby requiring a little effort on our part.  In any case, these ribs were nicely seasoned and they are better than any other restaurants in the area.   Best yet, I ‘had’ to eat the leftovers for 2 lunches!  https://tasteotexas.com/. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave