So...whats for dinner?
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Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
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Oh Lacey, how sweet! So happy for you all! But boo hiss on the jaw troubles - hope that resolves quickly.
More housework today - repairing some grout. The stuff is incredibly slow going. Ready to be done!
Chopped steak, mashed potatoes and some fresh garden spinach from a friend tonight.
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I saw the birth announcement/picture and I didn't read all of your post, Lacey. I, too, hope your jaw gets "rejointed". A chewless diet can not be any fun.
The "housework" is still ongoing here as well.
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Congratulations on the sweet new granddaughter, Lacey. Bummer on the jaw. Will the problem resolve itself without medical help?
Last night's dinner choice at LaPasta was a baked penne and cheese with Italian sausage. It was so hot from the oven that the dish should have "rested" for 10 or 15 minutes. Very cheesy and tasty but I was hoping for a bigger presence of the Italian sausage. The chianti wine was very good. There was birthday cake for dessert, thanks to the husband of the woman celebrating her birthday.
Tonight was hamburgers topped with blue cheese on wheat buns and potato salad. It's hard to beat good home-cooked meals. I cooked the hamburgers on the stove in a heated cast iron skillet instead of outdoors on the grill because it has been very windy today. The potato salad was warm and delicious.
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Lacey - beautiful baby. Congrats. Adding my commiseration about your jaw. Darn.
Drove 60 miles the opposite direction today to have lunch with my niece and her family who were in town from out by San Antonio. My nephew's family came too. Stair-step kids (2, 3, & 4) playing in the pool with their parents. I drank wine with the older crowd. I need to find out where the hamburger patties came from - maybe Perrys or Killen's. It was the best tasting beef I've had in ages. One of the neighbors brought Asian Ramen Coleslaw w/additions. Because my niece's B-day is Tuesday, the desserts were over the top. Two chocolate meringue pies, a key lime pie, a coconut cream pie and a mango cream cake. Needless to say I had to taste them all and will probably never need to eat again.
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Lacey, what a cutie. But bummer about your jaw. Refried beans, maybe? Omelets or decadent soft-scrambled eggs with lots of butter (and maybe truffle oil or salt)? Avgolemono soup (but with soft rice)? "Loose meat" sandwiches, hold the bun? Patés or rillettes? I'm flashing back to the days when I had wisdom teeth extracted--and then 40 yrs. later, when I had to cook for Gordy after he had his out.
Last night Bob got home too late for us to grill salmon (I'd planned to cedar-plank it again) before the storms. The Copper River sockeye I bought again was half the price it was last week, and was selling like crazy. (The $39/lb. Copper River king? Nobody was buying). So I cut the piece in half (froze the rest) and pan-seared it, along with roasted Romanesco florets (that crazy veggie that looks like a head of green cauliflower that sprouted fractals, and tastes like a nutty, light broccoli) and leftover corn-off-the-cob elotes. Dessert was the last of the Cassata Siciliana gelato.
Holy Cross hospital banquet tonight--way more downscale than its old glory days when the Archdiocese still owned it and enough Sisters of St. Casimir were still alive to run it. No more glam venues (top hotels, museums, Navy Pier--now in a lowbrow suburban "family travelers'" semi-hotel), passed-around appetizers, clergy delivering the benediction, keynote speakers, live bands (or even DJs), printed menu/program books or imaginatively-plated multi-course (salad, soup, entrees) dinners or sweet tables, full bar service with good wines. Nope--three boring non-vintage wines, a bartender who had to go to the kitchen to fetch a lemon slice for my club soda because there wasn't a lime in the place, two chafing dishes of serve-yourself pakoras & seekh kebab (not worth removing my Invisalign for); and a bland and boring dinner of plain green salad with the ubiquitous "creamy garlic" and "Italian" dressings, the entrees (choice of filet mignon or sea bass identically plated atop mashed potatoes and ringed with oversteamed and unseasoned broccoli florets--the vegetarians got mushy penne primavera), and a slab of fudge cake (simultaneously gooey & dry) with boring vanilla ice cream for dessert. Lukewarm coffee was served with (I kid you not) those little aseptic-packaged containers of "creamer." (Bob reports the Scotch was top-drawer, however). The ballroom was too small for even a tiny dance floor--so the "music" was whatever Muzak was piped in by the hotel. At least my Chilean sea bass, while unevenly cooked (parts were dry, parts were perfect), was a large enough portion for me to take most of it home. (No idea what to do with it--reheating it would overcook it, and not sure how good a salad it would make served cold). No keynote speaker. Saddest of all, no clergy, nun nor even hospital administrator to deliver the benediction--just one of the doctors who mumbled it perfunctorily as if he'd drawn the short straw.
At least good brunch tomorrow.
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Discovered a baby milk snake on the front porch yesterday evening. Very small and very pretty. After admiring him I explained the rule about no snakes on the porch and he very quickly, of his own volition, became a snake in the grass. He was so small, I'm glad I didn't have to "broom" him.
Grilled brats, corn on the cob and cole slaw tonight. Yawn.
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A nice snake, acting nicely.
I like watching snakes...the venomous ones from a greater distance. It's warming up enough that I should start seeing snakes when I run at night.
I keep finding "weird things" with the house that need to be fixed so that the small repairs will last more than a year. I have three left to do unless I find more things to do.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti and a marinara sauce that Sharon augmented with lots of other stuff and we ate the last of the sourdough rolls that I had made a few days ago.
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We played in the Pink Shoe golf tournament at Headwaters Golf Course yesterday. This is the second year we are members. On every hole a pink shoe designates an additional tee where the highest handicapped member of a fivesome tees off. Guess who teed off from the pink shoe in our pairing. Yep. Me. Our score was 8 under par but the winner was 10 under par. We did win a "skin" for an eagle on a par 5.
Lunch afterwards was a chicken salad croissant sandwich with chips. The chicken salad was visibly chockablock full of red onion. I scraped off the salad and ate the bread and a few chips with a glass of Black Box cabernet, which really is drinkable. That was lunch.
Dinner was the warmed up leftover from LaPasta, penne with cheese and Italian sausage. It tasted better than when it was served fresh. I think I was hungry. DH had warmed up spaghetti from LaPasta with green onions and a butter garlic sauce.
He is going to a medical clinic today. His coughing is horrible. I'm convinced he's having another bout of bronchitis. I have some sinus congestion with headache, thanks to all the pollen, but so far no cough. I started taking zinc daily after my pneumonia in January. Not sure whether it's helping with preventing colds but it's not expensive and not difficult to swallow.
No thoughts yet on dinner tonight.
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Thanks for the "lockjaw sympathy". It seems to be slowly resolving, and I can hardly wait to actually chew again. The hardest food, aside from meat, is salad since that really needs to be chewed thoroughly. Too painful!! I was really sad at a graduation party this weekend to leave every bit of salad on my plate. And I really appreciated the inclusion of Mac and Cheese on their buffet table (for the graduating students mainly
with other way more delightful foods that I couldn't eat. Last night I made my fave meal of cod in Rao's Puttanesca sauce with the addition of sauteed onion, mushroom, red peppers and yellow squash, over orzo. Am glad there are leftovers so I can enjoy it again tonight.
Carole, I always find that tomato sauced pasta meals taste better the next day as leftovers. It may not be that you were extra hungry!
This week, I have a crazy schedule, including coming up with ideas for, and making, several meals to bring to DS2's new family. I'm always stymied by DDIL's selective eating style. Oy! And the docvegans and co. may arrive to meet the new baby this weekend, so some serious prep needs to happen in case they stay here.
Not sure if I mentioned here that for my imminent birthday, I'd like to ask my boys and spouses to give me the gift of writing down all the foods they do and do not eat (!) to relieve me of all the guess work I struggle through when making or sending food to them. I really hope they will do that for me. As I am approaching 74, I find that I do need some things to be less challenging! And it seems that my kids and their spouses really have widely varying diets.
DH is at a physiatrist appt for a debilitating leg pain and muscle weakness that has stopped him in his tracks....poor guy. He rarely complains, but this has been a real problem for a while. It may be hip related more than a nerve issue emanating from his spine. That would probably be a good thing. We'll see.
So new grandbaby is home with her parents since yesterday, and I have yet to check in today as I always err on the side of leaving be if not needed....
Oops....just had a text from DS2 that they are already at the pediatrician since baby stopped eating and has gotten jaundiced. Reminded me of how jaundiced DS2 was when he came home from the hospital...and my peds said only to bring him in if he got as bright orange as a pumpkin! But then.. this is a first baby.....😉 Let the parenting fun begin!
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My nephew Jacob was a jaundiced baby. He was exposed to the light of a special lamp to help with the condition. He was a little gold infant. My sister had a caesarean so I had to take him to pediatrician's appointments. That felt odd.
Hope your dh gets an accurate diagnosis and treatment, Lacey. Getting older is such fun. Just this last year, I have begun feeling my age, 76. I like the idea of the pill that gives the same benefit as working out at the gym.
Our new grill came in a big cardboard box and is in pieces waiting to be assembled. I used the old grill last night as an oven to cook a version of chicken salsa. I used boneless chicken thighs, rinsed black beans, a small can of mild chilis, and two kinds of salsa, Paul Newman's mild and Marketside fresh jalapeno salsa, medium. Including the latter was a mistake because the fresh salsa has too much liquid. I heated some corn tortillas and got out the light sour cream and shredded Mexican cheese packet.
We were soon full and satisfied. I like a dinner that can cook while we're next door at the neighbor's deck enjoying Happy Hour.
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lacey, Congratulations! Shes beautiful. Im sure they are treating her with the lights by now. It helps fast. If they dont send a light home, do what we did in the old days, go out side and let them in the sun for a bit. Let them sleep in front of a window too.
Sorry about your jaw, that sucks. But try a milkshake with baby food for the hunger, or even just eat the baby food, the meat is nice and soft and not stringy. Youll have to add seasoning though. LOL
Here's who's visiting Port Washington right
now. Pelicans. Pretty cool!
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Carole - great minds...I took some left over frozen rotisserie chicken out of the freezer this morning with the intent to make Lori's Mexican Chicken. Instead I had the last hot dog and some strawberries my favorite way - rolled in sour cream and dipped in brown sugar for my noon meal. Saturday my niece gave me fresh eggs from their chickens so I made deviled eggs with the older eggs for supper. Tonight I'll have a couple of those and some slices off the big hunk of Jarlsberg I bought at Costco.
Sunday I sauteed onions & fresh mushrooms with lemon & oil & spices and then added 4 thinly sliced zucchini and steamed. Delicious served with club crackers. Yesterday I had a large green salad with everything left in the fridge (including left over Brussels sprouts) and added black olives and shoestring beets.
Lacey - I love your cod dish. I bought a package of Campari tomatoes and a green pepper so it's on my list for this week. I looked back & noted you were getting Rao's on sale for $6. I haven't seen it for less than $7.99 lately. But I haven't been to WalMart either.
Moon - gorgeous pelicans. Vanilla Baby Custard used to be one of my favorite quick treats - until they reconfigured all the recipes & took out the salt.
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I would like a pill, some days, for food and every day for exercise.
Love the pelicans Monica, we get them in the winter along with the eagles.
Today was second cataract surgery. Yay! Dear friend brought dinner of pulled chicken, cole slaw, jello salad and best of all, freshly baked apple turnovers.
Our power mysteriously went out lat night between 11 pm and 12:30 am. This caused me an undue amount of stress due to having to get up at 4:45 am faced with no alarm clock and a depleted phone battery. Even after it came back on, I was so keyed up that I ended up getting only 2 ½ hours of sleep.
DHs falling apart! My DH went to the doc today with a very inflamed sore toe. Seems trivial compared to Carole and Lacey's husband issues, but with diabetes, around here we don't mess around with foot issues. He came back with a round of prednisone. Hope everyone else's hubs get better soon.
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Lazy day today--spent most of it online and playing with my new toy: an ultrasonic cleaner. Trying to see if it will have any more luck than Retainer Brite, Invisalign crystals or 50-50 water/peroxide in getting the yellow out of my previous aligners. (Not gonna try to mess yetwith the one I'm wearing, as I don't get a new one till next Thurs.). Bob is slowly getting over a cough from what he swears is a cold, but considering the tree and grass pollens (and until today, mold spores) are sky-high, I think he may have developed an allergy. He says he feels fine, though.
Cool pelicans, Monica! Didn't know they live this far north.
Probably going for pasta primavera & salad tonight--nothing's defrosted, don't wanna grill in the dark, so pasta & salad are the path of least resistance. Haven't had pasta in over a week, and I have some nice ripe organic slicer tomatoes, romaine and a bottle of Green Goddess.
EDIT: Decided to give cacio e pepe one more try, now that I have some cornstarch, per the Milk St. TV recipe. Voilà: instead of a clumpy mess, a creamy, cheesy sauce. Used what little pecorino I had, plus asiago and Parm-Regg, lots of black pepper and both black truffle oil and a drizzle of truffle salt over Dreamfields carb-controlled spaghetti. The Green Goddess salad was great, too. (By this time next week I will likely be back on low-carb, if not outright keto--my MO insisted I see the N. Shore cardiologist who specializes in bariatric medicine, and I see him Monday. I draw the line at surgery, however. Nobody of my acquaintance was happy they had it--and one friend was so terrified of dumping syndrome and possibly regaining the weight that he couldn't keep losing--and died at only 57 of liver failure).
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Sandy.....DIET NEVER WORKED FOR ME
.I am one that has had bariatric surgery when I was 54, that was 18 years ago ...I lost 129 lbs....it was a bit too much weight lost since size 0 is hard to find and so ended up wearing boys jeans....I now wear a P2 or P4 in jeans/slacks...medium-to large tops due to two BIG IMPLANTS! 😣 I can eat most anything....but I am lactose intolerant.....I did have my tummy skin, ( that hung almost to my knees), removed a year after my weight loss surgery.
Di
Waving HI to Carole, Moon, Minus.....and that beautiful beautiful baby....
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The key thing to "eating anything you want" is what it is you want. (For me, that'd take major hypnosis). Gastronomy, travel (which includes gastronomy) and music are my passions. Had to give up playing music while my hand, wrist and arms healed last year after surgery necessitated by a couple of falls, and it nearly drove me off the deep end. I suspect I am also not the greatest surgical risk. (Although a lipo & tummy-tuck would go a long way toward normalizing my weight--I have the infamous abdominal "pouch" caused by lower abs weakened by C-section; would also eliminate the intertrigo--blistering yeast infections--that pop up from time to time in the groin and lower ab creases).
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We have white pelicans up here in northern MN.
We made use of the new grill last night. I roasted a pan of sweet potato fries tossed with olive oil. I love sweet potatoes cooked this way. I peel the potatoes and cut them into shapes like home fries, not too small. DH prefers baked whole potatoes with butter. He grilled a pork steak to perfect doneness. I sliced it into strips. He got out a jar of apple sauce but I like my pork as it is. I enjoyed the meal.
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Things are quiet here!
Dinner last night was linguine with Rao sauce enhanced (?) with sautéed ground beef and a good tossed salad with avocado and blue cheese. Very satisfying meal. A large container of leftover sauced pasta since I cooked a whole package of linguine.
Today is grass mowing day at the resort. We'll mow about noon after the dew has dried.
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The drywall work over 1/2 the porch is done. I purchased a hopper sprayer and mixed my own "spray stuff" for the textured finish. The hopper sprayer and the mix was around $80. Spray paint can looking things are made with the same stuff, but they are $18 a piece and I'd need 11 of them. The hopper sprayer is powered by an air compressor, which I already had. If I had to get an air compressor, then the cans would have made more sense.
As soon as the stuff dries, I'll paint it (using a roller, as it's too breezy to spray paint) and then move everything over to the finished side of the porch so I can get that all done...and *finally* get everything back to its normal place.
I did find a door threshold that needs to be replaced and I'm waiting on a company about finding new garage door sections to replace the ones that DD dented. All that can be done when it's hot, but if it's too breezy to spray paint, I'll start in on that stuff until the breeze calms down..
Sharon said she'd cook tonight.
Funny running story last night......
It's been warm enough that I've been running in the late evenings. Last night, had I not had a cat already, I would have brought home a stray I saw on the running path. This grey short hair stray was sitting in the running path and did not leave as I approached, so I stopped and rubbed her neck. The whole time, she was meowing happily and was wanting to climb up on me. When I went to continue running, she kept placing herself where I would step on her if I didn't adjust my stride. I finally got by her and she followed me for almost 1/2 a mile. I'm assuming she was stray as it was over a mile from any houses and the river bottom would supply water, shelter and plenty of lizards, birds, rodents, etc. for food.
When I came back by that spot, I got the same treatment. :-)
Another jogger was "kind of looking for a cat" and they, too, started petting her. When they started walking toward their car, she followed them and didn't resist when they picked her up to put her on the car's passenger seat.
For a stray, she was certainly friendly toward humans. I hope it works out.
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Awww, love that story Eric ❤
Well of course the air conditioner quit today and of course our hvac guru is out of town until Monday. Thankfully it's only 80 today with about the same percent humidity. Three weeks ago it was the furnace. Wth?!
Reverse seared tri tip, baked potatoes and roasted tomatoes - all on the grill since any additional heat in the house is out of the question.
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The cat acted just like Pest did when she adopted me when I was in college. :-)
The air conditioner going out and no one there to fix it...that stinks. I'm glad it's not one of those "you've got to be kidding me" days.
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Went to a little theater play as a fund raiser for a friends church - the Catholic daughters. Truly "little" theater. Everyone involved is a volunteer and the plays are in a strip center small warehouse. But the show was thought provoking.
We tried a place by us for dinner that's been there for a long time- but none of us had been there in years. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't good. Now we all collectively know why we hadn't been back. I had a salad with 'crunchy' chicken, another had catfish, a third had chicken tenders and the fourth friend had fried shrimp. She said the shrimp were fresh. It might be a fun place in the winter since there are 100 year oak trees shading an extensive deck - but inside had extremely loud music and baseball at full volume on 10 screens. 90 degrees in the shade was more than we wanted to brave in our dress up clothes. (for me that meant tan levis instead of standard blue. More dressy means black levis)
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Tried a new recipe for dinner last night and we decided it is a keeper. Made only half a recipe for the two of us. It is online at
https:/www.cookinglight.com/recipes/salmon-with-green-beans-and-smashed-potatoes
Title basically says it all, except for the sauce. Liked the one sheet pan idea too.
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OK...I’ll be first in line for sure when that special diet/exercise pill is on sale!
I spent thenpast two days preparing meals and treats that DS2 and DDIL2 can have on hand, and delivered them yesterday afternoon when we drove to their place to have dinner with the new family. It was 3PM and with the traffic, it took us over an hour to get into Dorchester (about 12 miles away). I cannot wait until they move to the burbs. I’m silently hoping they tire of city living with a baby and bite the bullet to buy a ridiculously overpriced house somewhere a bit closer to us. At this point DS2 would love to stay there until she starts school. We’ll see.
So we had a nice dinner of homemade lasagna with chicken sausage, and caesar salad with dressing I made from a recipe on the internet. We had black olives, and a baguette from Volantes. Way too hot to bake bread yesterday with no AC here. The lasagna was my mother, Amelia’s, (baby’s name) recipe I that I grew up enjoying. We enjoyed some champagne and basically celebrated our little sweetpea’s finally being home. Her bilirubin levels are now normal after her “sunbathing” stay in the hospital.
It has been a rough week for DH (thanks for your supportive comments!). Good news is that the physiatrist believes the muscle problems in his leg are derived from his arthritic hip, so first, trying a cortisone shot to see if that helps, but in reality he is likely facing hip replacement (on his “good”:hip....not the one that had hardware put in it after the ladder fall several years ago). So he was eager to get the shot. Unfortunately, a few hours later, his pulse and BP spiked, and we landed at the docs the next morning after monitoring it all night. Turns out it was a reaction to the drug, and it subsided gradually the next day. Whew! He is also going to start PT. If none of this alleviates the problem he’ll probably get the hip replacement. The scary part of his current condition is if the leg gives way on stairs, causing a dangerous fall. Lots of stairs here!
I hope all the other DHs are doing well today.
My jaw has been getting better really gradually, but not consistently. I probably need to start to pay attention to it more seriously since my eating options are really limited. I’ll call the dentist next week. What a pain! All due to a yawn!!! It produces a headache most days, so I’m taking ibuprofen then, which I’d prefer to avoid. Yes, getting old leaves us with some challenges, but compared to what my brother is dealing with, I can’t complain. I can’t believe he is still hanging in. I keep thinking that his Marine physical fitness regimen for his whole life keeps his heart ticking.
I enjoyed the snake and trail cat stories....and chuckled when DS2 showed me a pic of a snake that he met on his front stoop this week.
Minus, I’m in awe of your wardrobe choices....and your social schedule! Re: Raos, my local supermarket had them on sale for 4.99 two weeks ago, with a sticker saying “discontinued” in front of the display. So I scooped up several jars of the Puttanesca. Then saw the same display back to their 6.99 price this week. Who knows what’s up...but I am stocked up! Tonight we’ll have a bit of leftover lasagna and some leftover grilled balsamic chicken (unless it’s too hard for me to chew). Going nuts having nonsalad...tho.I make one for DH every nite.
Can’t resist sharing pix of our little week old cutie:
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Awwww!
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Lacey - adorable. Thanks for sharing. How nice that the baby shares your Mother's name. Keeping my fingers crossed that cortisone works for your DH.
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I tell people, "I never thought I could Love a child more than my own." The Grandchildren are a whole new reason to Live. Congrats!! Made Squash casserole to go with ribs and corn on the cob.
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Beep - welcome to the table. Your dinner sounds delicious. What part of the country do you live in?
I made pork medallions with mushrooms in brandy cream sauce served on noodles. I rarely eat two courses, but I had some greens that needed to be used so I added Panera 'at home' Asian Sesame Dressing and had a first course. Every time I make the brandy cream sauce, I am trying to replicate a veal dish made at an Italian restaurant that has now closed since the owner retired. Every time it is different. Not bad, just different. Sigh. Maybe partly because I am usually using left-over meat that is already cooked so I don't have the juices from sauteing or frying the pork or chicken or whatever?
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Eric: I'm a bit behind in my reading, but did you see the article about the Mediterra Bakehouse in the April Arizona Hwys? The descriptions of feeding the starters and the process of making & baking the bread reminded me of you. Oh and the pictures of the finished loaves...yum. Though it appears the original & main bake house is in Pittsburgh, I'd love to go on a road trip to the one he opened in Coolidge in 2012.
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