So...whats for dinner?
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(((Monica)))—holding you in our hearts now.
Wally, when we lived in Seattle in the '70s nobody had A/C except businesses. On the rare days it hit 90, we fired up the box fans and swamp cooler. Our apartment in married student housing was on the second floor, shaded by a tall maple tree.
Haven't cooked much since moving in—mostly dining out and then nuking leftovers. We had a friend over for the 4th, so we grilled steaks (I made a Caprese and she brought tabbouleh) before going to the Skokie fireworks, which were spectacular. Tonight I cooked from scratch: whitefish in parchment with peppers & herbs, tomato-basil salad (the last of the Eataly heirlooms and our own backyard basil—which I pick when I go back to fetch mail and rescue ripening tomatoes from the squirrels) and steamed asparagus. Next door neighbors brought us a box of Dunkin' Munchkins (he's a district mgr for the chain), so I had a couple for dessert—the first pastry I've had since January. I figured since I'm now 2 lbs below goal weight…
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We have a dinner reservation at Boulders restaurant in Walker tonight to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary. We would go there more often but it's about a 40 minute drive. It has a relaxed elegance that we enjoy and is known for its cocktail menu. I plan to have their Cosmo which is beautiful and delicious.
The frozen pizza cooked "in" the grill last night was ok.
Now we know Sandy is doing well in her new circumstances. Still concerned about Minus down in Houston.
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Carole, Congratulations on your anniversary! I hope you enjoy your meal and cocktail.
Sandy, A sudden change like your unexpected move really disrupts your routine. Hopefully things will settle down in a while.
Minus, Hope you are doing OK.
Dinner tonight was chicken and asparagus in cream sauce (good asparagus still available.)
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Had a farewell dinner with friends tonight.
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My flight was cancelled. At least this time I received 24 hours notice. The last cancellation was made by the gate agent that arrived 15 minutes AFTER the scheduled departure time.
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Carole, hope your anniversary dinner was great and happy anniversary!
DH and I will go for Vietnamese for our 31st anniversary (we'll go tomorrow but our anniversary is on the 14th). I think I'll order beef basil.
I made frozen pizza tonight.
Eric, glad to hear you can sleep in :-)
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It was just the Show Low to Phoenix part of the trip. So, instead of a 30 minute drive and a 45 minute flight, it's a 4 hour drive.
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Eric, ugh….sorry on that.
DH and I hope to do a Vietnamese dine out/carry-out tonight to celebrate our tomorrow :-)
Carole, hope your meal was exceptional. Again, congrats.
Mommy, enjoy your adventure with a build and move.
Minus, thinking about you and hopeful you are safe and as comfortable as you can be.
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m0mmy, Every time I have moved there are people and things that I miss. It’s nice that you met friends for a farewell dinner.
Eric, What a problematic trip! Are the roads open?
Wally, Happy anniversary to you and your DH. Enjoy your celebratory meal.
Dinner tonight was stuffed peppers.
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Our meal is being pushed out…had leftover pizza last night. Hit 83, only an hour, but too hot to sit out and eat (for me).
Not sure what we'll do today (the official day).
I've been homesick for WI for some reason; strange since it is summer there and we know I hate that, LOL.
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I made it 12 hours travel time.
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Eric, you are amazing. You would not enjoy traveling with me. I whine too much. Congrats on your safe arrival.
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Wally, Happy anniversary no matter when you get to celebrate. The heat has put our planned anniversary dinner on hold since it has to happen outside. It’s Bastille Day so some French wine, maybe?
Eric, I’m glad you finally made it. You could probably have flown to Europe in the same amount of time.
Dinner tonight was an artichoke mushroom chicken casserole.
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Tomato tofu dish (first attempt. Love the tofu, the combo was just OK) over Basmati rice.
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First - Moon- so sorry to hear about your son. Holding you in my thoughts. Carole & Wally and Maggie - Happy Anniversaries. Eric - what a convoluted saga. Hi to everyone from the center of the storm recovery.
Thanks everyone for thinking of me. I'm OK. No power for a full 7 LONG days. Finally restored last night at 6pm but no internet until today. The solar generator my son sent was great for keeping the cell phone and the light bars charged and for running a fan for an hour in the late afternoon. We had several days of rain so I only tried to charge it outside with the solar panel one time. PITA… You have to keep moving the long panel so the sun's rays provide the correct angle to charge. It did work, but it also burned the grass. Never-the-less I was grateful to have it instead of driving around trying to charge my phone in the car. My ex-DH has a generator & two freezers so he drove across town brought me a bag of ice every other day that he'd stored from the last outage. I was able to sleep OK except one night when the house got stuck above 85 degrees no matter how I pointed the 8" battery operated fan. (Outside days were up to 96, most nights 79-80 and humidity of course 99%) Thinking of Wally at this point.
All of your meals for the last week sound delicious. I've been through a number of hurricanes so I had plenty of water & canned food. The first couple of days I ate what would ruin first - frozen rotisserie chicken & asparagus over fried rice, then TJ's flame broiled meatballs in Rao's marinara. Cheerios worked one day before the milk turned. Luckily I have a gas stove so I was able to manually light the burners and make such additional delicacies as boiled hot dogs and fried egg sandwiches and mushroom omelettes. Most of the time it was too hot to eat but I had to cook by 4pm so there was at least some light to see what I was doing. The saddest thing was tossing food again - a lovely pork roast, a couple of T-bone steaks, salmon & cod, and Haagen Dazs Ice Cream - SIGH. At least I hadn't fully re-stocked from the 6-1/2 days we were w/o power in May. This is getting old.
I pulled my old blue Rubbermaid ice trays out of the attic last night once the power came on so at least I have ice for my gin & tonic tonight. I'm not used to drinks with no ice like the British. Now that I think the power might last, I'll turn on the ice maker.
Today I'm just basking in the air conditioning, cleaning out the Igloo coolers, throwing away more food (looking at ya cottage cheese), and starting to consider multiple loads of wash. Tomorrow I'll hit the grocery store but I still have an Auntie Chun's Yakisoba to eat today. (or I could do the last of the hot dogs).
Interesting aside - how we shop for food. My Mother went to the grocery store one day a week & bought what she needed for the entire week. My BFF's mother lived in a tiny town, decided every day what that day's dinner would be and the ingredients were delivered. Both of them baked their own bread & pies & cakes. I've stayed pretty close to my roots. I rarely shop more than one day a week (unless I'm going for a special treat like Nothing Bundt Cakes) and once a month for Costco and Total Wine. But sadly I rarely bake anymore.
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Trying to use up as much of the meat and produce we have here before the move. Gonna take as much non-perishable stuff as we can! Started packing up my small appliances that we aren’t using, only have the can opener and coffee maker out until the movers come.
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Minus, Happy to see you back finally. Sounds like a very unpleasant ordeal, I would not have lasted that long with those temps.
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Wally, The tomato tofu recipes I've seen all crumble the tofu or start with tofu crumbles. I've never tried any, though. I usually stick to asian inspired recipes when cooking with it.
m0mmy, Good luck with the packing. My many moves taught me to label the outside of each box with its contents in detail so you can find the things you really need right away.
Minus, I’m glad you made it through the hot week long power outage and the solar generator was a help. I guess all your experience has made you an expert at using the supplies you have in an efficient way. It’s a shame that you lost food in your freezer that you had just replaced. Hopefully there will be no more adverse weather events in your area for a long time.
I’m used to infrequent grocery shopping because I’ve lived in very rural areas for long stretches. At times the nearest grocery store was 30 miles away and there were no convenience stores or gas stations any closer. I had to be creative with what I had on hand. One winter when we lived in a farm cottage in Scotland we were snowed in for three weeks. After a couple of weeks a helicopter dropped supplies in one of the fields. Being on a farm with sheep, cattle, chickens and ducks meant that we had a nearby food source. We ate lots of turnips since they were stored as animal feed. Of course we had to work to eat; that’s where I learned to milk a cow by hand. Now that I live much closer to civilization I just go get something if I really need it. I don’t bake much any more to avoid eating more goodies than I should.
Dinner tonight was beef with artichokes and tomatoes.
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Minus!! Elated to see your post and glad you are hanging in there. I tossed so much frozen food when we moved…i'll spare you DH's dragging his heels on decisions…tenderloin was the hardest to toss. I bet the coyotes loved what I threw out.
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Minus…glad you're okay, your power is back on and you're back to posting.
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Maggie - love your rural "shopping" experiences. I learned to milk a cow visiting my grandparents when I was a kid but that was a LONG time ago.
Wally - I can imagine your DH's decisions on tossing food.
How do the rest of you shop? Day by day? Or at longer intervals? Of course I expect most of us have freezers now, which my mother never had, and that would change our shopping patterns.
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I shop for food often. We keep a list going. My problem is sticking to the list. I tend to browse. We live about 9 miles north of Park Rapids and one of us drives to town most days. We go to the gym on alternate days. DH plays golf MWF and I usually go to the gym those days, driving our one vehicle in MN, dh's truck. He goes to the gym on TTh. On Saturday we do the farmers market. Sunday is a rest day.
Dinner last night was a grilled ribeye and a huge delicious salad with heirloom tomato, cucumber and lettuce from the farmers market. The fresh ingredients were so good I didn't add blue cheese or kalamata olives.
So happy that you are back Minus, with the power on. I hate to think of wasted food.
I realize it's an expensive proposition, but the power lines will need to be underground as there are more storms on planet earth.
No clue yet about dinner tonight.
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Been labeling boxes by room. I have a mental inventory of what is in the boxes so I will know what I need and when.
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moon - I have no words other than to say I am so sorry, and am sending you strength.
minus - whew! I was worried about you! I was in Canada for all of that weather. Glad you're back and have power - that is a long time to be without! We are very fortunate here to have still had power despite several hurricanes. I think we have been lucky, as DD has lost her power when she lived in the downtown house. We have buried lines, and those lines were above ground.
On the shopping question - I shop every two to three weeks, for the most part. I have a fully stocked pantry and freezer, and usually shop when I run out of fresh perishables.
mommy - good luck with packing and moving!
Congrats on anniversaries, birthdays, and eric for making it to his destination, lol!
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Carole, You know the veggies are good when you don't have to add other things to the salad. My local farmers' market is not very good this year because of weather related issues.
Minus, Buy yourself something delicious while out grocery shopping to make up for the emergency meals you had to eat.
Special, Canada was a good place to be during that bad weather. Our weather is currently hotter and more humid than in FL as well as lasting weeks rather than days. We lost power this evening but only for hour, the advantage of living near the hospital. It makes up somewhat for the helicopter traffic and ambulance sirens.
Dinner tonight was meatballs and spinach in onion sauce.
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Minus, because we live so far from anywhere, I do the bulk of our shopping every 3 weeks when we’re in El Paso for my treatment. I go to a local (an hour away) tiny grocery store 2-3 times per month, if I’m in town for another reason or if I’m craving something worth the drive. Prices are high and selection is pitiful, so it’s rare. I love it here but miss kroger and HEB desperately.
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I'm thawing rockfish for tomorrow. We've finished the tofu/tomato dish and I fleshed it out with bok choy tonight.
I shop once/week if I need anything or if the sales offer something I can stock up on, otherwise, I can go every 2 weeks. My freezers and pantry tend to be stocked. I prefer the texture of fresh produce but happily use frozen if I need to.
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It's 30 miles, round trip, to go into town, so grocery trips are every few days and it's "groceries, plus as much other stuff as possible" getting done in one trip.
Dinner tonight was a baked potato cooked in the microwave oven and mixed vegetables cooked on the "2 top" stove.
It's been more busy than usual…due to last Friday…..
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Maggie - good idea… Maybe chocolate eclairs? Phone finally got fixed at 8:45pm tonight after 9 days, so now I don't have to wait around tomorrow.
For dinner I opened a can of Mackerel Fillets - boneless/skinless in EVOO. I had wanted to try these but was afraid they would be really salty like sardines. The can is shaped like a sardine can but twice as deep. They were delicious. Not much salt and lovely firm fillets. I love smoked oysters and always have a few cans on hand. I have two similar size cans of trout that I'll try another time - one smoked and one not.
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Dinner was a hot dog and a large salad.
We spent most of the day in the ER in the hospital in Park Rapids. DH was concerned about shortness of breath and not feeling good for about a week. We didn't expect an answer from the ER but rather a referral to a doctor or doctors. Instead they put him through basic testing including a chest scan that revealed a small blood clot in one lung. He will be taking Eloquist to dissolve the clot and will be following up with a doctor. We left the ER very grateful for the care.
DH just left in the golf cart, headed to the nearby golf course for his Wednesday men's golf. I will head to the gym a little later. Sigh of relief… The devil we know is preferable to the unknown.
Now. What's for dinner tonight?
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