Y'all just don't know how tough it can get around here when it comes to photo-documenting all the food I make. You know how it is -- when you're makin' do with what you've got and what you wind up with, a lotta times time is the first thing that flies out the window.
I am creative, improvisational, and resourceful, if nothing else.
So anyway -- my latest "nobody knows da trouble I seed" is about the collision of tragically dying computers, gleefully gifted substitute machines with turtle-like tendencies, creeping internet speed that rivals the rural Republic (the similarities are profound), and tons o' bona fide paying work. Recent days have been filled to the coughing brim by my frantic dashing between two laptops with 10-year-old operating systems, abundant photographic inspiration, and a palpitating heart. The result: here's a few recipes without a single photo to show you how the dish looks.
You'll just have to trust me.(I'm worth the investment.)
And while you're cookin, you can visually enhance and beautify your kitchen environment with this lovely photo shot from my back yard. At least IT made it on to the machines...

The other night, we had this (not the picture -- I mean, the recipes below) for dinner on a night when the last thing I wanted to do (well, maybe second to last) was cook, our cupboards were thinning, and I was hungry for healthy food. Turned out to be a good thing -- we're getting back to the better-for-you-in-so-many-ways meal habit of making meat a highlight instead of a main course. A buncha veggies, a taste of animal flesh. The Editor raved. I mean, really. He convinced me to g'head and write it down.
Fancy Ground Chuck Burgers
Nothing special here (just 2 store-shaped chuck patties that were way on-sale) but the marinade:
1 tablespoon each - soy sauce & Balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Stir ingredients together til the sugar dissolves, pour on the patties and let them soak for an hour or two. Then I just fried 'em up in a non-stick skillet. Nom.
Crunchy Curry Broccoli Salad
1 small bunch of broccoli
1/2 medium onion
1 large carrot
Balsamic vinegar
soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 - 2 tsp curry powder
pinch of Kosher salt
white pepper to taste
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
Chop, grind, process, or blend (take your pick) the broccoli, onion, and carrot until it's coleslaw small. Combine all of it in a bowl.
Splash some of the vinegar and soy sauce over it all -- not enough to soak it, for sure, just enough to dampen it all when you stir it together. I'm gonna guess it was about a tablespoon and a half for each. Let it sit while you make the rest...
Put the olive oil in a little saucepan, sprinkle in the curry powder, salt, and pepper, and heat on medium just til it starts making noise, about a minute or two. Then dump in your sunflower seeds. You should get a little giggle outta the crispy sizzle sound. I always do.
Keep stirring the seeds in the oil or they'll burn, and do it until they start looking toasty brown. Then remove from heat and immediately dump it on the broccoli/onion/carrot stuff. More exciting sizzle commences! You start feeling like a chef on TV.
Stir it all together and serve immediately.
Frozen French Fries From A Bag
Yes. This is what we had to compliment the above. But only about a handful each. One does what one must. And besides, when you undercook them just a smidge in the toaster oven, they taste almost as good as monkey fat fries from the fastfood places.
All in all, a nicely rounded, satisfying, and tasty meal. (Yes, Ed. I said "tasty.")