There are so many wonderful things about Summer!  100 degree temperature days are not the wonderful part, but what goes with them is pretty great. That would include sunflowers, tomato plants, blueberry plants, and many other beautiful, living, breathing things.

Here are the latest picture of my sunflower, and it's getting so pretty.  This was a gift from my friend, Patricia.  There's my chocolate cherry tomato plant from my friend, Renee, that has so far grown one chocolate cherry looking tomato, and it was very tasty.  It has many green tomatoes on it.  I call it Audrey 3 because it grew so big in a short period of time!  And then there's my kitchen window herb garden, and the herbs I bought from Walmart.  They are very pretty and my kitchen smells really good!

So what can you do with an abundance of Summer tomatoes, besides salsa, that is? Tomato pie, with basil grown in your very own kitchen window!  This pie is delicious.  I will admit, though, with all due respect to the tomatoes, the cheese is my favorite player in this dish! Next time I make them I believe I will leave the mayonnaise out, or at least part of it. I didn't like all of the mayo.  Click on the picture of the pies for the recipe!

Then there are the blueberries!  I've always said I didn't like baking because it's so precise, and I'm not, but I understand why people enjoy it when they yield the beautiful and tasty results of baking! It's so much fun to see what comes of putting all of the ingredients together, and then eating it, especially when it turns out as pretty and delicious as this blueberry-lemon bundt cake.  Even more fun is sharing it with family and friends!  One day I'm going to attempt a layer cake, which I haven't done since culinary school. 

I started to make this cake with Splenda, but before I finished mixing it with the butter and eggs it started looking a little lumpy instead of fluffy so I started over with real sugar.  If anyone has any experience in baking with Splenda, please share with me!

Well, this has been an eventful week.  I did some doggie/housesitting for some new friends, Jazz and Mattie Belle.  Their pictures are in the slideshow on the upper right part of this page,   Doggie sitting has some major perks, like relaxing at the pool while working! That was a lot of fun!

P.S.  I saw this on Twitter after I published today's blog and got VERY excited!  I LOVE college football!  Woohoo!!

My little friend, Sawyer, to whom this blog is dedicated and who was born the day this blog was born, is successfully recovering from heart surgery this week.  She and her parents have been through a lot the last few weeks but the outcome now looks sunny, thanks to our good and faithful Lord Jesus Christ and prayers from a lot of wonderful people!  I hope I will be able to get new pictures of Sawyer to post soon!  Isn't that a beautiful face!!

This upcoming weekend I'm going to a cookout with friends while they plan a cruise in October.  My sister has requested the baked beans, I'll be making a cake, and I'll be doing a bow-tie pasta salad that we did in school that's a big hit.  

Stay cool, Friends, it's hot outside!  Until next time,

Dished With Love, Denise

I got a part-time job as a prep cook (my favorite thing to do) at a new restaurant in town and we may start training next week, but the restaurant is not ready yet.  I'm excited to work with some good people and use my skills that I learned in school, and I'm excited to keep learning!

I have been a fan of Beamer Ball since my friend Lynette's son played for the Hokies in college for the 2005-2009 seasons!  Great team!  But, I'm from Georgia, so I have to love the SEC, too, except for the Florida Gators!  Can't wait until football season! Now that's about friends, food and fun!!

Last weekend I did one of my favorite things, having friends over. My favorite time of year is college football season and watching football with friends, but for now, in July, I'll just settle for grilling out with friends, even though the real feel outside has been over 100 degrees!  My friends Amanda and Lisa came over this weekend so I tried to fix a couple of special things for them because I haven't seen them in a long time.  Lisa is a hard working nurse and Amanda is a student at Mercer in Macon, Ga. and home for the Summer.

I saw this man cook this burger on Guy's Grocery Games.  He was from Minnesota where the "Jucy Lucy" originated.  No, I did not spell it wrong.   It's two patties stuffed with American cheese and I put an extra piece of cheese on top.  You can't have too much cheese, can you? 

So prior to cooking, my version has two 4-ounce ground chuck patties with a slice of American cheese folded in quarters in the middle.  I kinda mutilated the bun while I was trying to get it to stay together to take a picture.  Amanda, the college student, says, why don't you use toothpicks?  Why didn't I think of that?  Don't forget, you can click on the pictures for the recipes!

These were sides that I've done on here before, the Pioneer Woman's Best Baked Beans Ever, and a Crack Dip served with chips.  Click for the recipes!

As much as I loved the cheeseburgers, the Mini Blueberry Galettes were the crowd favorite.  Half of them were eaten during dinner!  They were easy to make and very delicious.  This is another Pioneer Woman recipe.   She just makes things look like so much fun to make and eat, and her recipes are usually pretty simple.  You'd think she'd let me win a Kitchen Aid mixer in her give-aways, at least once!  These were filled with fresh blueberries, but I guess about any fruit will do.  Click on the picture for the recipe!

We finished the evening by watching a movie.  We started an awful one that Amanda picked out called The Voices, which looked promising because it has Ryan Reynolds in it.  Lisa said his pink coveralls on the cover should have been a dead give-away that it was not going to be a good movie!  We didn't finish that one.  I was happy Amanda picked it, because the same week I rented Paul Blart, Mall Cop 2.  Let's just say that one went back to Redbox, too, without finishing.

This upcoming weekend I'm going to be house/doggie sitting for friends, with a pool.  Yay!  Next weekend I'm visiting friends in Canton and we're having a cookout.  My sister has requested the baked beans, and I'll have to come up with something else special to take.  I won a pretty trifle bowl in a thrift store auction so I need to use it!

Friends, thanks for stopping by!  I hope you found something you like and can use.  If you do, please comment and share this blog and my Facebook page, Dished With Love, with your friends.  I am also on Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

Stay cool!  Dishing with love, Denise!

Some of you may wonder why I put so much food on my Facebook page and why I get so excited over cooking.  Well, those of you who have been around me know that until I retired, a very young retiree, I didn't cook.  Really, hardly at all.  I sat at a desk for over 30 years. I did the survival cooking thing, you know: breakfast of course, spaghetti, frozen dinners, and I ate out a lot! I actually grilled a little, but just a few things. I was the one who always brought the paper products to the party! Then I started culinary school!  Surprise!

The best explanation for this new love interest in fresh food and prepping and cooking and trying new dishes is the togetherness that food brings for friends and family, and you can't beat the smiles and looks on the faces of those who are truly enjoying your food. I believe you can taste love in food, don't you? I'll share with you later some of my "beginning" dishes that may have started all of this. In the past my scope of dishes was very, very narrow and now I want to try new things.  I hope you'll enjoy this work in progress with me!

I added this picture at the top of the beautiful fried green tomatoes because I'm trying to control what picture gets posted on the blog introduction.  We'll see what happens.  And now for the main event!  

Aren't those spices beautiful? I may edit that picture and have it blown up to hang on my wall!  This was my second brisket ever and I used a Cajun Brisket recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I wish I had taken a picture of that beautiful cut of meat before I smothered it in spices!  If you live in Rome, Georgia or nearby you can order your brisket to size at GMC Food Store on the Alabama Highway. 

Don't forget to hover over the picture for a description, and click on pictures for recipes!

Just for the heck of it, here's a picture of beautiful hand-painted and carved maracas I got for $3.50 at the thrift store! The little plant is a sunflower that my friend Patricia gave me.  I am enjoying watching it grow!  I stand in the kitchen a lot, so it's nice when I get to see the Berry College deer occasionally, but you'll have to look closely in the picture.  The wooded property behind me belongs to Berry College so we see many deer here.

Prepping food is the beginning of a great dish and the first hands on thing you learn in the kitchen in culinary school, along with knife skills.  It is an entry level job, if you know what I mean, but I just love it.  I love beautiful food and making it into something for friends and family to enjoy!  These were fresh vegetables that covered the brisket while cooking. I splurged (with my sister Janise, who pays half the grocery bill) on canned San Marzano tomatoes because I was curious about them and if you have a little extra money, they're delicious!  They have much more depth of flavor than other canned tomatoes.  I haven't tried organic, but only because of the cost.

Here's a little side dish I fixed separately.  I HAD to stop at the farmer's stand on Hwy 53 just because I was riding by and bought some green tomatoes.  I almost let some of them get too ripe, but they all turned into delicious fried green tomatoes! Click the fried green tomatoes picture for Paula Deen's recipe!

So far, two uses for the brisket!  After I took the brisket out of the veggies and stew it cooked in, I shredded it and separated it to make barbecue sandwiches!  Goodness, it was so good!  I have discovered now that the ONLY way to heat cooked meat and sauce together is in an iron skillet.  The flavor is indescribable!  Last night's dinner was the original Cajun Brisket, topped with the beautiful vegetables it cooked in!

Well, Friends, that's all for now.  I'm going out of town with some friends so I'll be eating someone else's cooking for a few days.  Then we'll see what we can come up with next in the kitchen!

Dished With Love, Denise

P.S. Click on the icons at the top right of the page and join me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!  I'm also on Instagram at lorettadenise1221.

Here's another dish using beautiful Summer tomatoes.  This dish is so easy, and following the crock pot recipe you would use a marinara sauce.  I made my own sauce, because I like to do that, and a Pomodoro sauce is really just a basic tomato sauce.  Click on the photos for the recipes for the chicken parm, tomato concasse, and the pomodoro sauce.   

I had to show you the picture of my food mill just because I like it, but honestly I'm not sure if I was using it correctly.  I'll figure it out, though. I made the tomato sauce a couple of days earlier so all of the work and clean-up had already been done. When I got ready to make the Chicken Parmesan I just put all of of the ingredients together in the Crock Pot.  So wonderful for easy clean-up.

This dish is going to have a little different texture from baked chicken parm just because it's made in the Crock Pot, it's a different cooking method.  The breading did come off a little but it was still very yummy, and the chicken breasts were fork tender and covered with melty Monterey Jack cheese. That's what I had instead of mozzarella.  Place it on top of your favorite pasta and you're ready to go.  I used a whole grain pasta.

Try it and enjoy, and dish with love!