So...whats for dinner?
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I have a large bookcase of cookbooks--some courtesy of Minus. The Joy of Cooking is in there, as is The Food Lab. I use those for a "where do I start?" if I don't remember seeing closer matches in the other cookbooks.
Also, is a paperback copy of The Betty Crocker Cookbook from the late 1970s. My mom and grandmother gave it to me and it's what got me started cooking. It's in 3 pieces now. There are penciled notes in the margin, in both my and Mickey's handwriting.
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I’ve gone through several editions of Joy of Cooking. It’s one of the select few I keep around on the cookbook shelf mostly for several go to recipes that you’d think I’d know my heart by now. I gave a current edition to each of my nieces when they married. Only one of five married a man who cooks (he’s Italian.)
It has been a frustrating day renovating with things not going smoothly, putting us behind in painting and culminating in my computer dying. I was lucky enough to find one in a store but I don’t have the time right now necessary to set it all up and customize it to my liking. Nor do I have the time to mourn all that I lost on there - pictures, word documents, etc. Some were backed up but not religiously. I know better. (Do as I say not as I do.) Oddly enough the most things I managed to recover are recipes.
I was so mentally fried that we ordered out gourmet burgers.
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illimae, thank you for the recipe. Just bought some Brussel sprouts so will be trying it.
My go to cookbooks are a Cooking Light cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens (3 editions!), Good house keeping and Fanny Farmer, plus the internet.
Agree with Sandy, after a while, one is less likely to rely on following recipes to the letter (although my DH says I never did that but often said something like" Oh, don't have any of that (usually a seasoning) but I can use this...).
Nancy, how stressful to have disruptions in your renovations and then to lose your computer. We too often talk backup better than we do it!
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After seeing Reader's Scalloped Tomato recipe, I ran across something very similar but with canned salmon. Onion instead of brown sugar. Hmmmm
Oops - still has sugar in the recipe, just white instead of brown sugar. And the onions are an addition.
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A flatbread caught my eye on the sale rack, so I brushed it with olive oil and topped it with mozzarella, Parmesan, a little feta, grilled chicken, red onions, thin radish slices, a bit of broccoli, garlic and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. So yummy.
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Yes, that does look good enough to eat!!😀😀
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Mae - I never think to do that and I've been so hungry for pizza. Now with your delicious looking picture, maybe I'll remember.
Dinner was chicken Florentine - white wine & heavy cream with a whole bag of spinach. Yummy. I have enough left over for one more meal - probably on pasta. And just enough rice left over to make rice pudding again.
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Illimae, that looks yummy and artistic. Great idea!
Was planning to make eggplant pizzas yesterday for dinner after a quick trip to DS2's to drop off an adorable used baby baby grand piano I bought for Mila. But after getting involved in editing my too long holiday letter, time flew and I decided real pizza sounded better. We ordered our typical mushroom/onion pizza and Greek salad. I especially enjoyed it since we haven't ordered out in a while. Tonight I'll likely use that eggplant.
She loved the piano....even with mittens and the freezing socially distancing in their garage!
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Ooooooh, Minus. Great idea for your rice! Love rice pudding...one of my favorites of my mom’s desserts. and your chicken Florentine sounds wonderful! Envying your leftovers.
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Lacey - adorable child. So glad you're starting music early. Do you use a beaten egg in rice pudding? I'm still trying to recreate my Mom's rice pudding and haven't gotten there yet. She made it in a double boiler and never wrote down the recipe. My last experiment tasted good but I decided she must not have used egg since in my memory, hers wasn't "custardy". Of course said memory is now 60 years old.
Nance - I can't imagine the confusion you're going through. Do you think you'll be "installed" before Christmas? Wishing you "fast" painting.
Special - After my continuing questions about Prolia, my MO had recommended I see endocrinologist & my Gyn has agreed. Who knew there was a specialty for bone endos... Unfortunately I'm dealing with three different medical organizations so I'm having trouble getting an appointment with the one I want. He has written papers about bone health in ballet dancers and several on osteoporosis so sounds like a winner.
Dinner is left over chicken fried rice with a couple of over easy eggs. I like Shiraz/Syrah so am trying a new wine - Oak Grove Petit Syrah. It's OK but will keep looking for my dream. As mentioned often before, that dream will not exceed $15 per bottle - or likely $12. There are plenty of good wines at decent prices that the average person can afford w/o going into debt. It will be interesting to see how the Napa Valley fires affect future offerings.
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Lacey - Love that little piano and happy to see Mila enjoying it. What a cutie! Very nice to introduce music to her at a young age.
A couple times a month I make flatbread pizza for dinner. I buy the long flatbreads from ALDI, cut them in half, wrap individually & freeze for later use. They are the perfect size for me. Use pesto + oilive oil or some marinara or alfredo as the "base". I like to use various chicken sausages & lots of shrooms + mozzarella for the cheese. Dinner tonight was a mix of riced carrots/cauliflower/broccoli, sauteed shrooms, chopped rotisserie chicken breast & tikka masala sauce plus some naan. Been awhile since I made this and it really hit the spot.
I have a number of cookbooks, including Joy of Cooking, Silver Palate, Weight Watchers, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum plus a couple others. Rarely use any of these. DD and DH used Joy of Cooking to make a TG dinner, including homemade gravy a few years ago when I was out of town for a funeral.
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Tonight's draw was Baked ziti and salad; tomorrow the plan is Turkey Tetrazzini using turkey in the freezer. I have a 6:30 zoom church meeting so I want something I can assemble early in the day to pop in the oven. We usually eat about then so this monthly meeting is a slight juggling act to get things all done a little earlier.
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Dinner was fried chicken & spinach salad Bob brought home from the office. He had the fries, I had a little tabbouleh salad.
Think I'll take a 4-cheese cauliflower pizza out of the freezer tomorrow, supplementing it with tomatoes, green peppers & mushrooms. My basil bit the dust, despite having sprouted roots it got rotten seemingly overnight--maybe I should have taken the plastic bag off the glass of water once the roots developed. My mom used to keep basil going in a glass pitcher of water for months. Maybe I'll see if WF can deliver some more with my grocery order tomorrow. I started some from seed today in a hydroponic planter, which will take weeks.
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The piano is really cute! Especially with the cute child.
Last night was a fried brown rice dish with fresh shrimp. The prep was longer than putting it together in a skillet. Side was a tossed salad with many ingredients.
Minus, I'm impressed with your creative cooking for one.
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Carole - thanks. It's been a fun Covid challenge. I still make too much for one meal. But I've gotten better about making just two portions of the things I can't freeze for another week.
BTW - I pulled the frozen experiment - fried rice - out of the freezer and let it sit in the fridge overnight to defrost. It was OK. The broccoli wasn't too mushy, but the texture of the fresh mushrooms suffered. I must admit it would probably have been better re-heated in the oven or re-fried, but I was starving so into the microwave it went.
Nance - thinking of you.
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Dinner might have been the cheesy breadstick I made as a snack. I rolled up some cheddar and mozzarella in a leftover 1/3 sheet of puff pasty, rolled it in Italian and garlic seasoning and baked it. Out of the oven I glazed it with butter and a sprinkle of sea salt and parmesan. Well, I ate the whole thing, oops. Not hungry now 🙂
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Thanks for thinking of me Minus - I’m plugging away packing and moving things we don’t want the movers to handle. I have a stomach ache most days and no interest in food. This too shall pass I suppose
We found the Christmas tree in one of the storage units but not the ornaments so had to buy some cheap ones. I don’t even know if we’ll find time to put the thing up. I did find the door wreath so at least should be able to get that up. I’ll probably have to take it down again Monday when the movers come. Sigh.
The piano is adorable Lacey as is the grand. What a cutie!
Dinner tonight will be cheese and onion omelets and toast. We’ve been watching lots of British productions lately and it seems they’re always eating toast, causing me to crave it. So toast it is. Wish I had some of Eric’s sourdough.
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No pun intended I assume Nance? piano is adorable ... as is the grand. No one's coming to my house so I got out one or two small table decorations & a wreath for the door - done!
Dinner was a mash up based on Reader's tomato souffle. Added sauteed onion, a can of salmon, peas and some dill. It was good, but I only had 4 smallish Campari tomatoes on hand. Would have been even better with more tomatoes. Oh - and maybe next time the cook can remember to put shredded cheese on top (perhaps on the leftovers). Served with carrots so I have both peas & carrots leftover for fried rice later this week. Or maybe soup.
I only walked 3 miles today instead of 6. I guess I was in a cooking mood - instead of a walking mood. Made cucumbers & onions marinated in tarragon vinegar then drained & added sour cream. With dill of course. It's curing in the fridge. Made rice pudding w/o the egg but 1/2 milk & 1/2 heavy cream. Still thicker than I remember as a child.
Last night I opened my box of See's Peanut Brittle. See's is a taste of home since I was raised in CA. Ate a plate of it last night & eating another helping as I type. I ordered myself a box of See's Victoria Toffee too - both when they offered free shipping over Thanksgiving. No calories in either of course - LOL. Oh - and the peanut brittle is better with red wine than white.
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Minus, I just ordered my See’s too! I got a mixed box, a box it dark chocolate molasses chips and peanut brittle, can’t wait 😁
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Minus i have to say you gave that tomato scallop recipe more mileage than I ever have. Bravo!
Turkey Tetrazzini and the last of the cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving was on the menu. DH does not love turkey outside of carved and on a holiday table. He has a number of these food quirks but often he won't like my description of a dish but will like the actual dish. Huh?? Anyway this was the case tonight. I think cheese and panko sprinkled on top made everything better 🥰
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Well, I stepped on to the scale this afternoon and...it's back to near-keto again. Not a "quarantine 15," but pretty awful nonetheless. I can still fit into my size 10s, but they don't "drape" on me like they did last month before my back went out and started my sedentary slide. (Still nags me now, but--knock wood--haven't had to take an NSAID in a few days). I let myself eat what I craved (even bedtime snacking on carbs), reasoning that portion control would prevent any damage. Nope. So it's back to peeling all the breading or batter off fried things, eating only the toppings of pizza (yup, even cauliflower-crust, which due to tapioca & rice flour is high-glycemic as hell), limiting myself to one piece of keto bread a day, eating only the innards of egg rolls, and leaving over the crust from quiche (with Cellars closed for the pandemic winter, that's one brunch temptation I won't have). And no wine with dinner when dining alone--and when eating with Bob, no more than 2 oz., either. (Winter plus no indoor restaurant dining means no wine tasting dinners to tempt me). My next official weigh-in is Jan. 28, so I'd better lose at least 5 lbs. by then.
So brunch this morning was eggs Benedict on a Mikey's keto "English muffin;" my cappuccino this aft. was made with unsweetened almond milk, not even the ultra-filtered dairy stuff. Dinner was a four-cheese cauliflower crust pizza, adding diced bell pepper & a mushroom--and I discarded the crust after eating the toppings. Later I had a no-crouton Caesar, a thin slice of salami, and a stick of string cheese. I SO want to snack on something crunchy that isn't a nut or a vegetable, but it'll take a few days before the carb cravings begin to go away
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Sandy, weight control isn't fun. Unfortunately for me, I've relinquished control the last couple of years. Never thought I would be this heavy. I'm grateful for some height for weight distribution.
Dinner last night was the last of the chicken and andouille gumbo which might have been the best I've ever cooked. The salad was most of a small bag of kale crunchy salad with the addition of an avocado. The bag comes with raisins and seeds and the dressing which is rather sweet. Good for an occasional change. One other side, speaking of loss of weight control, was slices of buttered French bread heated in the oven.
I took out a pork roast last night to thaw and stuff with garlic and green onion and cayenne. I will roast it in the oven. Creation of more jump ups!
We're having a string of nice days, sunny and warming up during the day. Then temperatures falling at night for great sleeping under covers.
I haven't put up the lighted artificial Christmas tree but we are "decorated" to some extent.
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Will likely grill a pork chop (with just-picked rosemary) tonight--it's mild & dry out, and I hope Bob can make it home for dinner. Lots of veggies in the crisper. Brunch was a 2-egg French omelet: gruyere, Boursin, chives, plus some freshly-picked thyme and the last of the parsley that didn't go to seed. (I still have enough mint growing to make mojitos for the entire neighborhood--but mine today will be a "faux-jito," with fresh lime, monkfruit/stevia instead of simple syrup and no rum).
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ChiSandy - thanks for the Boursin reminder. I have a three pack and it will be good with an omelette and fresh mushrooms.
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I had stomach issues yesterday and had canned cream of chicken soup for dinner last night with a few slices of French bread.
DH warmed up the last of the chili he cooked days ago and had some warmed up leftover cornbread. He didn't seem overly enthusiastic about his meal but didn't complain. There are times when the "every person for himself/herself" policy comes into effect.
I did cook the pork roast yesterday but didn't feel like dealing with making gravy. I'll do that today. The good thing about refrigerating the roast with its drippings is skimming off the congealed fat.
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Dinner has been rather uninspired around here recently. There was a construction incident near the water treatment plant and we have been on a boil water order for the last three days, so dinners involved making what I could without too much water, or having to generate dishes to do. Luckily my dishwasher has a sani rinse cycle, so that was helpful but I discovered I use a number of things regularly that I can't put in the dishwasher! Also, had to boil water for the pets to drink - I had never really thought about that previously. The city handed out cases of water for the last two days so I was lucky to score some yesterday afternoon and that helped. Thankfully, the order has been lifted late this morning, so back to regular dinner prep! I made sausage pepperoni flatbread pizzas with pesto, red onion, pepper flakes, and cheese for DH and DD the other night and have leftover sausage. I think I will combine with some thick cut pepper bacon and make carbonara tonight, with a kale salad. Both are faves of DH and today is our 37th anniversary!
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Specisl, Happy Anniversary!
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beaver - thanks! We had that conversation last night about how it seems like it has been five minutes since we got married and where did the time go? I have a harder time with my children's birthdays now - how could I possibly be old enough to have children in their 30's when that is how old I am too? Lol! Also discussed how 37 years ago on Dec. 9th I was making food for my own wedding reception - which consisted of about 20 friends, no family - too far to travel - in our overseas apartment - while DH was out with his military buddies drinking far too much. Let's just say he has had no Wild Turkey since that night. Our wedding photos - taken by a friend - had to be re-done later because he wasn't feeling so well.
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Happy anniversary Specialk! Know what you mean about the grown kid thing except then my body reminds me I’m not thirty after all.
Last night’s jambalaya was one of my better incarnations. I used leftover cilantro lime rice which seemed to brighten it up somewhat. Tonight is stroganoff sans mushrooms made with flank steak. DH is intolerant of fungi.
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Carole my frequently jumpy stomach sympathizes with yous.
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