Conroe Saturday AM market

Now that my wife and I are empty-nesters I have returned to a passion of mine. 'Preparing affordable delicious meals for the two of us.' I shop Conroe Saturday am Market{SamM} looking for the freshest ingredients to please our tastes that have evolved during our child rearing years.

Let me share a few basics that I use regularly when creating our daily menu items.

1) I have learned to use meat first bases instead of salt to flavor our dishes.   {with the newest craze for Sea Salt I do experiment with this product}

2) I scour the grocery stores for the best price on Balsamic vinegar and buy fresh tomatoes, onions and different varieties of peppers from SamM for another flavor enhancer that I create.

 Recipe is as follows:2cups diced fresh tomatoes

                                  1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

                                   1/4 cup diced onion

                                    {Spanish, red, green, or white onions--you decide}

It is good to experiment and with this mixture I get creative. I may add diced apples,peppers, or Mango. Once I even added burnt bacon.

3) I fry rice , add liquid from containers in the fridge, cook until the liquid is absorbed and save it for a dish later in the week.Normally the rice is purposely undercooked. When the rice is reheated in a dish a few days later it is fully cooked and has full flavor from marinating.

My wife at this time is my only critic.So when she says,"Fabulous meal" I am happy and feel I have accomplished what i set out to do. Make her happy so she can say one day, " I have enjoyed our time together"

Fred

Quite the unique combination of ingredients for a special entree tonight. Let me mention that once a week on Wednesday the wife brings home a loaf of bread from a job networking program she attends. This week it was a bread bowl. I started this evenings meal with a hot oil in an egg pan. I added stirred eggs and after I saw most of the egg cooked I added last night 's snack  {Chicken tenders, Greek dressing, Adobo sauce, and Fresh Mozzarella} I flipped and tossed the ingredients in the egg pan until I had picture perfect Omelet. Placed the omelet in a bowl to one side. On the other side I added  bread pulled from the Bread bowl. To finish it off I added smokey mustard sauce from a recent restaurant doggie bag. The mustard sauce was a perfect condiment to a fabulous stringy omelet. The only other entree I would want to create with last night's snack would be a Quiche. Dijon Mustard on the pie crust and shredded Mozzarella