Labor Day

Beautiful morning just sitting out on the porch and drinking coffee.  Someone must be having brisket today. I can smell the fire from someones pit floating in the breeze.  There aren't to many people stirring in the neighborhood yet.  I love this time of the morning. The sun's just barely up and its quiet.  There aren't any traffic noises yet and the birds are all starting to sing.  I can hear a squirrel making those chucking noises that squirrels make. It won't be too long though before the sounds of a small town coming to life will be heard. Kids playing, grown ups laughing and chatting around the pit.

I have always enjoyed Labor Day.  Its one holiday that that really doesn't have to be made a big fuss over. On the other hand, if you feel like it you can go all out too!  For me it has always meant good friends, good food and time to just relax.  It signals that the steamy hot days of summer are mostly behind us now and that the cooler days of Fall are on the way. Labor Day is one the few holidays that just demands (for me anyway)  a fire on the BBQ pit and some type of meat on said pit. We are having what I consider a traditional Labor Day meal this year.  Hamburgers and hot dogs!  Only we are going at it in a little bit of a different and sure to be yummy way.

Mushroom has found a wonderful old fashioned meat market over in Tulsa. They cut their own meats to order and still wrap the meats in butcher paper!  They also grind their own hamburger meat and make their own versions of polish sausage. You just can't find many places these days that go that extra mile. 

Speaking of going the extra mile, our meal today is sure to be a wonderful one.  And my friend Mushroom sure knows what she is doing. With good planning we are going to be able to enjoy the day just relaxing and being with friends.  All the "hard parts" have already been done over the last two days. I wanted to share with you just how this weekends foods all came about. That lady certainly knows how to plan things so that it almost seems effortless. I am doing all I can to learn from her experience in the kitchen while we are here with them. It would be silly NOT to!

 Mushroom defrosted a nice roast and put it it the solar oven earlier in the day on Saturday along with some nice carrots. We cooked the potato's for the potato salad and tossed in a few extra to make mashed potato's for Saturday's pot roast dinner.  We chopped up all the vegetables like the onions and celery that we would need for the next couple of days, including the carrots for the roast. We stirred up the potato salad and put it in the ice box to "set". I say that because we all know that the longer Tater salad sits the better it is!  The beans were put on to cook overnight. After all this stuff was done, she whipped up the extra potato's and made some excellent brown gravy from the roast juices. So we had a yummy pot roast dinner on Saturday night and marked the potato salad off the to do list!

Yesterday was another interesting day in the kitchen. The baked beans were still cooking and I was going to learn how to make some homemade bread.  I know some of you will be shocked to know that I DID NOT use my bread machine!!  As a matter of fact, after this weekend I might be using my beloved bread machine for kneading dough only. We made two different batches of bread.  The first one is a Rustic Italian Bread that is one of Bud's all time favorite breads.  It made the biggest loaf of bread I think I have EVER seen!  And OMG was it wonderful.  Then we made Onion Roll Hamburger and Hot-dog buns to go along with our Labor Day Feast. Dinner last night was pretty simple but oh so yummy.  Salomi and Provolone sandwiches on Rustic Italian Bread with a side of potato salad.

Today is the girls day off!  Our work is done.  Other than to heat up the beans and take the Potato salad out of the ice box. The menfolk are going to fire up the pit and toss some big ol hamburgers on along with some of that killer polish sausage.
So there you have it!  Hamburgers and Hotdogs on homemade onion buns, Yummy Potato Salad and homemade Baked Beans!
What are you having for your Labor Day Celebration?

                        ~~Hey...I'm Just Sayin...~~