Anne McAlpine: August 22, 2019

I really enjoy a nice tossed salad and I have been making my own salad dressings lately. I sometimes bake up a batch of croutons and had run out of them, so I decided to bake some tortilla chips. I simply cut them into strips, tossed them in a bit of olive oil, and then sprinkled some spices over them. This is the recipe for the first batch that I made. When I made a second batch, I used some of my own Italian seasoning and they also turned out well. They keep well in a covered container in the cupboard.

My grandson, Aaron, has taken on the task of cutting both my neighbour’s and my lawns this summer and of course that also means lunch and/or treats when he is here. I suggested that we go downtown and grab a treat and he said, “We can go – or we can make chocolate pancakes”. His dad loved making and eating pancakes when he was a kid (Jason makes better French toast than I do). I often made them for him, but I had never made chocolate ones. I simply added a couple tablespoons each of cocoa and sugar and they turned out really well. We threw in a few chocolate chips and smothered them with maple syrup. Delicious!

I saw a recipe for barbecue sauce in a magazine and thought it would make a good sauce for chicken, so I changed it a bit and poured it over chicken thighs in the crock pot and it turned out really well. I left my green beans whole and they cooked up nicely. They were really tasty and still had a bit of a crunch.