Still Homebound…Week 45!

So as I wrote this entry for my blog site, I noted that this is our 45^th week in Covid-19 self-isolation.  Trips to doctor’s offices, the pharmacy, the grocery store, and even picking up take-out food from local restaurants are now considered social outings!

But the pandemic continues as does a nation divided.  It remains to be seen just how effectively our new administration in Washington D.C. can handle either issue, but we can at least hope for better times.  Neither major issue can be effectively addressed overnight, that’s for sure.

So I’m continuing to publish what is ‘real’ to us in our current situation…our home, our yard, its visitors and the food that we consume.

Laurie continues to take photos of our avian visitors.  When our Red-bellied Woodpecker visits our feeder, it is with a bang…with all other birds fleeing.  At over 9 inches long and with a wingspan of between 13 and 16 inches these birds are larger than a Robin and they are the largest birds that actually visit (perch on) our feeder.

Despite the continuing construction of several new homes within a couple of blocks of our home, the deer still wander through our back yard, nibbling as they go.  The only question is just how long their visits will continue as the number of new homes increases.  Apparently, the young deer in the second photo is noshing on the moss that grows in our backyard...

On to some food related photos… Laurie decided to try making up our own chicken wing recipe rather than just taking the easy way out getting takeout from a local restaurant.

As you can see, we’d purchased a large package of wings… We couldn’t find a recipe that we liked so we came up with our own mix of spices, the primary addition being from a package of Jamaican jerk seasoning.  She thoroughly coated the wings before baking them.  They looked great!  I thought that they were pretty darn good but Laurie thought that they were too spicy hot.

For dinner one night, we decided to have chicken cordon bleu.  No, we didn’t put these together ourselves.  They were a purchase from Fresh Market in Farragut Tennessee.  Chicken cordon bleu is made by pounding chicken breasts thin and then wrapping the chicken around a slice of ham and a slice of cheese.  We seasoned and baked these and sided them with some squash plus bread and butter.  

Verdict: Like the meatloaf that we’d tried from Fresh Market and despite Laurie adding seasoning, the chicken cordon bleu was really bland, with no ‘pop’ at all.  So much for pre-prepped dishes from Fresh Market…although we do love shopping there for many other top notch food items and treats.

On another night we reverted to one of Laurie’s childhood favorites…creamed chipped beef on toast!  In this case, this was a Stouffer’s frozen food selection.  The first photo is of my serving prior to the second photo where I ‘completed’ my entrée with Tabasco!  Hey…the green beans were healthy!

So what to do with leftover bland tasting chicken cordon bleu?  The answer was simple…Breakfast!  I sliced the portions up and seasoned them with pepper and a bit of garlic powder.  I then fried/heated the slices in butter in a frying pan.  After all, everything is better with butter.  The coup de grace was the addition of 2 easy over eggs. (Tabasco was added before consumption) The leftover chicken cordon bleu was much more satisfying than the dinner version…

As I said in my last post, we see a lot of robins here at this time of the year.  We’ve had flocks of literally hundreds of them in our yard and in the woods behind and beside our house.  They love our ‘watering hole’ mounted on the deck railing and our boulders with natural rain catching depressions are equally popular!

That’s all for now.  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