Coffee, you need not apply, and other food stuff....

Some people like coffee in the morning. Some even like soda. But me, well for me there's NOTHING in this world that compares to a glass of OJ.... Especially FRESH SQUEEZED....

Look at that.... don't get me wrong, frozen concentrate is ok, that Simply Orange stuff is even better. However fresh squeezed, particularly when it's winter - when the oranges are best, well there's just nothing like it.

This little baby makes fresh OJ a breeze!! My mom got it for me more than a decade ago..... I absolutely LOVE it. I love most that it gets ALL the possible juice from an orange. From just 4 oranges I can get 24 ounces of liquid gold.... mmmmm I love this stuff!

Then, I perused PW's recipes.... I made her sausage gravy from the website and from her cookbook I made chicken fried steak. LOOK at this gravy. Holy moly. Sausage & cream.... mmmmmmm....... by the way, this IS phenomenal over biscuits... but we didn't have biscuits today....

Dale is a Chicken Fried Steak connoisseur.... Every time we've ever gone out to breakfast at a new place, he always tries the Chicken Fried Steak. So far, according to Dale, the BEST EVER Chicken Fried Steak is to be found at Mel's Diner in Reno. I'm not a big fan of this dish, I just can't justify beating a good steak to mush, breading it and then drenching in gravy... But who am I to deny a guy his favorite breakfast?

After eating this (along with eggs and my country potatoes) he says, "this is ALMOST as good as  Mel's." WHAT??? OMG really? I was excited because I tasted the Chicken Fried Steak at Mel's, and even though I am not a huge fan of it, it tasted really good. Like any mom/wife, I really LOVE it when my family likes what I cook. The only thing I don't like about cooking is the mess:

After we stacked a bunch more wood, I started thinking of dinner.... and opted for Spinach Salad and Olive Cheese Bread.

Let me start with the Salad.... I've had spinach salad before.... but at home it was always made with the store bought dressings & raw onions. The sauteed onions and mushrooms? That was just too much good stuff. Ok, there's NEVER too much good stuff. The dressing made from scratch was amazing. It was PERFECT!!!

And the Bread??? Oh man. This stuff is really great. It was a touch on the salty side, and I think the next time I make it (and there will be MANY next times for this bread) I will use fewer olives - particularly the green ones. It was salty enough that I'm really glad I didn't serve it with anything BUT a salad.