CHEF NANCY AND BUN #2

 Just another crazy foggy day in California.  You've seen the pictures before.  On this day, since there were no football games to keep me occupied I opted for a COOKING day.  I've no idea what got into me, because I paid for it substantially at the end of the day when I could hardly walk I was so full.

But first ... let's go to Wally World VERY early and miss the crowds.  Here's my tip of the day.  If you are ever stuck driving in tulle fog, and if you have polarized sun glasses ... put them on.  You can actually see almost twice as far ahead.  That's what I did at 7:30 in the morning.  Here's one more.  If your headlights are set on AUTO, turn them ON instead.  When ON, your taillights will show up and people will know you are there.  Leave it an AUTO and you might get smashed because your taillights do NOT turn on in that setting during the day.

I only came upon maybe four cars the entire way, and got a primo parking spot.  It was a little funny when I entered with just a shirt, to see people bundled up like they were in a North Dakota snow storm.  At any rate, I got my stuff and headed back home.

Here's number one for the day.  Quiche.  I love this Cowboy Quiche recipe ... and you can put anything in it you want. Trouble is, SHOCKER, Wally World did NOT have my premade froze pie shell.  What's up with THAT?  My veggies won't last any longer and require cooking .... so I'll make it myself.  

I don't remember the last time I made pie dough, but HEY ... I can do it.  I picked out a recipe that called for a FOOD PROCESSOR.  That's the name that escaped us in my phone conversation with Patty and Dan.

I cut up two cubes of butter into 1/4" chunks (what a pain that was) and dumped in the flour.  Who knew that when you turned it on, flour came blowing out the top cracks, even with the lid in place?  The counter, the floor and I were covered in white.    

This recipe has something like 10,000 five-star likes, so it can't be all bad.  I wrapped them in plastic wrap and into the fridge they went for an hour.

I only needed one ... and it came out hard as a rock.  I don't think this is going to work out so well for me.  But SURPRISE ... after some rolling with my 65 year old rolling pin, it came out pretty good.  Not my best, but not bad.  Back in the fridge it went while I cleaned up the mess of flour and pie dough on the counter and floor.

The ingredients ... I even fried up some mushrooms in a big pan of butter.  I mean really, how could this possibly go wrong!

IT DIDN'T!  That's why I love this recipe. Here's another tip of the day ... place a metal pan in the oven while it heats up.  Whether it's pie, pizza or casserole, placing the ready to bake pan on a HOT metal pan will give it the perfect crust on the bottom.  That's a tip from my mother.  Even if using a frozen pie shell, it will NOT be soggy.

I was on a roll, so I kept going.  I had a bag-o-little red potatoes that was going south faster than the folks trying to escape the snow.  Potato salad sounded pretty good, so I whipped up a batch for dinner.

OH BUT WAIT ... there's MORE!  This is what happens when you leave that ice cream bowl in the freezer.  You look at it every time you open the door, and you want to make MORE.  I was really curious to try peanut butter.  I called Patty.  Did we EVER make peanut butter ice cream?  Well we SHOULD have.

Milk (luckily not sour yet), cream, a little sugar and a big cup of peanut butter.  I used chunky.  Guess who got to lick the bowl?  Chef Nancy was in HEAVEN!  This is the best ice cream EVER.  Creamy smooth, crunchy peanut chunks and OH SO PEANUT BUTTERY!  It's probably a good thing I just discovered this, because I would be 40 pounds heavier.  

I put it in plastic containers in the freezer for later.  Okay, that didn't last more than an hour before I had it out taste testing once again.  You know, because I have to be absolutely SURE it's really THAT good.

On to the next one .... I've been trying for some time to replicate BILL'S BURGERS.  Every time I visit Patsy and Bill, they fix an amazing cheeseburger for me.  Let me just say, it's all in the hands of the cook.  

It took me 30 minutes to finally get the barbecue clean enough to use.  I even remembered to thaw out the meat this time.  It stuck to the grill like glue.  It took a good metal spatula to find freedom.  A little cheese on top and a toasted bun too.  Okay, a burned bun.  Bun #2 came out much better.

VOILA!!  Dinner was finally served.  A barbecue bacon cheeseburger with  tomatoes and avocado, alongside some homemade potato salad.  Before I even got halfway through, I was stuffed to the gills.  Probably because of all that ice cream tasting that went on.

Can you believe it?  An entire day of cooking and NO disasters ... well except for all the flour I had to clean up and one burned bun.  

It was a great day for Chef Nancy!!  I'm recounting it here because it will probably be the last good cooking day of my life and I want to remember it in my "later" years!!

What's for breakfast?  Why quiche of course ... with a side of potato salad, finished off with a palette cleansing bowl of PEANUT BUTER ICE CREAM!!!