So...whats for dinner?
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Oh well Susan, the microwave is my savior & it's only long enough to melt the cheese. it's still 90 degrees here so I don't turn on the oven for at least another month. Your sauce sounds great. Glad you're eating even if small portions.
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. Fever broke and feel almost human but weak. Was going to head in as i was getting dehydrated. But once that dropped I drank a couple of glasses of fluids today. Probably almost as much as I've had all Week LOL. Even had to pee. LOL! Walked outside to get my mail for the first since Wednesday. Lots of stuff good thing I thought to bring a bag.
Supper tonight was scrambled egg. With dry toast. And a popsicle! My neighbor had bought me a box of one that's just basically fruit. Or at least she said. Now that my eyes can focus enough to read a label I'll Check It out! LOL
And minus2, i use my Forman fir that stuff. Makes good quesadias! Oh. I'm glad I got this when I did.my trip is the 30th. I should be stronger. I'm hoping yours goes well! Will be waiting on reports.
Much love to all.
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Last night was baked oysters with tiny pieces of bacon, scallions and horseradish that were delicious and seafood gumbo that was so so. DH had pizza lol.
Monica, glad you're on the mend!
I'm sitting in front of my gulf view window, watching the pelicans, drinking coffee and waiting to spot the first dolphin of the trip.
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Hello all - just read all the posts to catch up! I returned from California over the weekend - long trip with a lot of hard work, but satisfying and always good to see my BFF. We cleaned out her garage (28 years of stuff) and organized cabinets, etc. Seven trips with the car full of donations! We didn't do fun stuff, but did eat at a couple of good restaurants along the way when we were too tired to cook - nothing too fancy because we were also too tired to get dressed up! Had good Greek gyro with fat slices of meat - best I have ever had, a brick oven pizza with prosciutto and golden potato with basil oil, and, of all things, a really good filet sandwich and cheese burger (we cut them in half so we each had both) at the happy hour at Ruth's Chris for almost half-price! Accompanied by a lemon drop for each of us
We also tried some cupcakes - she had a coupon for a new neighborhood place - two free cupcakes, so I got coconut and she got chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting. We decided to buy a gluten-free flourless chocolate one out of curiosity, and it was the best of all three! She also had another coupon for a free mini bundt cake with purchase of another, so we got one lemon and one white chocolate raspberry - and shared. They were good, but too sweet for me - I could have stopped after a couple of bites, but did I? Nope!susan - hope your appetite is back soon and sorry about the condo - sounds like a good thing to have abandoned. I keep telling myself that the one for sale we are managing here in FL that had the withdrawn offer just means something better is coming along soon. Hoping the same for you.
auntie, carole, minus, luv's DD and red - safe travels! And yay for pie!
moon - hoping your feel better asap, potatoes in any form were my savior during chemo - to me they are comfort food, therefore perfect for when you feel sick. Holding your friend/SIL in my prayers - I know this is hard.
I have not been to the grocery store since I have returned, my first foray out was yesterday to physical therapy, so dinners have been pretty uninspired - pasta last night with jarred sauce and turkey meatballs with a green salad, and turkey kielbasa the night before with parslied new potatoes and steamed broccoli. We had takeout Chinese the night I got home. I need to do a major shopping so things should get better from here! Hello to all I missed!
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Welcome home Special! Sounds like you were both productive and ate well.
Moon, glad to read you are on the mend. You must be getting very excited about your trip!
Well, tomorrow has turned into a big deal. The Turkish cousins are visiting Boston, and instead of only one child, they have brought all four, along with the nanny and two grandmothers. They are all coming to dinner tomorrow night. Dinner for 13! What was I thinking? And it turns out that it is a birthday, so we are making cupcakes. So the menu is, and I really did try to simplify with lots of make ahead items: 1 leg of lamb with a very distinctive marinade with all matter of things and 1 leg of lamb with a garlic-herb rub, 2 trays of spanikopita [not individual triangles], grilled eggplant, zucchini and onion planks with a tahini or simple oil dressing, marinated mushrooms, and oven roasted lemon potatoes. I might pick up some olives and nuts tomorrow, but no guarantees on that one.
Simple dinner again. Last night's ragu over pasta with a fresh green salad. Then we went to the farm for all the vegetables for tomorrow night's meal. Man the traffic into the western 'burbs is just horrid. I am so glad that that is not my life.
*susan*
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Susan, sounds like an amazing meal for the cousins.
Welcome back, SpecialK. Your food in CA sounds good to me.
We had linguine and a tomato sauce with bulk Italian sausage and a can of deLallo whole tomatoes, also a squeeze of tomato paste. The sauce was thin but very delicious with heavy sprinkling of grated Pecorino. Salad of romaine, cucumbers, tomato, kalamato olives, and sweet onion for dh.
Hope you're winning at the casino, Nance!
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After spending the day unsuccessfully hunting for a medium sized carry on for the trip, I picked up chicken breasts and made a NYT stove top chicken in chunk tomato sauce with onions, garlic, mushrooms, capers, wine, etc. etc. it was very nice and was served with a side of penne. Made a romaine lettuce garden salad to go with it.
Given my unsuccessful carry on bag hunt, I decided not to make the trip to TJX a waste of time, and found some slacks and tops that will add to my indecision about what to bring to Chicago. No matter what, it will all be decided by tomorrow night at this time!
Susan, I agree about the horrendous traffic of late. I feel like I live in Atlanta or LA, where there is just never a quick trip to anyplace local. So annoying! On a more positive note, your meal sounds wonderful....but WOW....13!!!!!
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Broiled oysters and black grouper yesterday, along with some royal reds. Don't know what's on the menu today, but I'm sure it swims!
Carolyn, the casino is a cruel mistress lol!
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Yum on your Gulf coast dining, Nance.
Dinner tonight is lamb stew made with a package of kabob chunks. Veggies are carrots, potatoes and frozen green peas. Side will be warmed up braised red cabbage.
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Brats and tater tots
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Doing some small steaks, broiled, with sweet potatoes that have brown sugar/warm spices/pecans, and sautéed spinach with a bit of garlic/onion then a stir of a small amount of sour cream and a little nutmeg. I actually still have not been to the grocery store, and am now trying to see how long I can go without going - a weird kind of challenge. The steaks, sweet potatoes and spinach were all in the freezer. I literally have nothing in the fruit/veggie bins of my fridge, lol! Probably a good idea to eat as much of the freezer up as possible and then restock it, nothing in there is very old but it is a side by side and I lose stuff in the back. I am almost of out meat, but still have some lasagna, meatballs, some mahi mahi and tilapia, thick cut bacon and a couple of burgers. Also some frozen chili - we had one of the small-ish containers last night over kale tortilla chips, with salsa, grated cheddar, sour cream, and guac.
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I found a lamb tagine recipe sent to me in a bunch of fall recipes. I know weird but I might make it with beef, apricots and beef. DH I don't think has ever had lamb and the only I ever ate was mutton curry in Hawaii grade school. Don't think I will be experimenting with lamb at our ages. Dinner last night was shake 'n bake legs/thighs, horrors instant mashed potatoes and a giant broccoli stalk. The new potatoes has rotted, never had that happen and I had one leftover from something else and it was fine. I think they basically came from local grocery, not organic, untreated.
OK DD finally sent email yesterday late. They ate at Santouka Hokkaido Ramen on the way home Friday. Saturday was lounge day and went to Algiers Coffee House. Sunday ate at IHop and went to the Museum of Fine Arts. Had dinner at Daedalus on the roof deck "really good fish and chips". Monday they went to the aquarium, sat by the harbor, strolled thru Chinatown and ate at a dumpling place. Tuesday they went to the museum of science and saw the largest van de graaff generator in the world. Ate at Sarma in Somerville. I searched back Susan and read your reviews. She was very impressed - skewers of quail, seven layer hummus, corn cakes with goat cheese and pecans on top, their house beef jerky, summer squash borek with ricotta cheese, and olives stuffed with lamb. This was the "appetizer" restaurant lol. They were planning to do the freedom walk today or just walk thru Harvard. Says the city is pretty, buildings are "neat looking", weather nice. Not impressed with public transportation. Not something she's ever had to deal with. I have, both in Ft Worth and El Paso. After one particularly bad winter DH took a job in Ft Worth and we promised we would be on a bus line and we rode for a long time - me until I went back to school for my nursing license. He did and continued for a long time after we bought another house even further out. I know you just loved DD's travelogue.
Carole - I don't know what weather you're going home to but I think we barely dip below 90 for the next 15 days with little chance of rain.
Mommy - mmmm brats and tater tots.
Nancy - have you grown fins or appendages yet? Glad you're enjoying every bite.
What an ambitious cooking project Susan. Hope you get some time to enjoy your company. (((Hugs)))
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Luvmygoats: I hope this comes out sounding as diplomatic as I intend it to be--if your only experience with sheep of any age was mutton curry in grade school...should you desire to do so, it might be worth trying genuine lamb. Lamb's definitely got a different flavor from beef, but mutton's out there somewhere. Lamb's got a gentler taste and texture than mutton.
On the other hand, should you NOT desire to do so...great! all the more for me and my husband.
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Thanks Queenie. No offense taken. It's just that at 63 and 65 I don't see us taking up eating lamb. So feel free to eat our portions lol. Actually the mutton curry turned me off curry for a long time. I had some that was delicious and use it occasionally. I bought some powdered coconut curry at Central Market (similar but 5x as big as Sprouts). I need to make something with it but again not something my DH particularly likes. My DM/GM/aunt - nobody I know cooked lamb. Texas is still beef country though with the Boer goats which are huge and the ethnic markets it is more readily available.
http://relish.com/recipes/apricot-and-lamb-tagine/
This was the recipe that came in my inbox today. Sounded pretty reasonable I could sub beef - maybe cubed roast - in there.
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Luv - horrors, I've been known to use instant mashed too - especially during chemo. I loved the DD's travelogue. Thanks for posting.
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I for one, love hearing about your daughter's Boston experience. Sarma is a wonderful restaurant. In fact, I have reservations there for next Thursday following my hospital day. I can walk both ways and eat as little or as much as I want. This young man has very good taste! Well, except for that iHop. The Brighton iHop is not one of the ten top iHops out there. I had a good friend that used to take me there regularly. He liked the tuna sandwich. Who eats tuna at an iHop?
Dinner is done.... everyone has gone back to their hotels. My feet hurt, but I love these people so much, I would do it again. The lemon cupcakes that the kid made to celebrate the birthday were amazing! No one could believe that they had not come from a high-end bakery. I think she was offered capital to open a bakery in Istanbul. She politely declined. :-)
*susan*
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Luvs: no, I rather imagine that at mature years, you and DH wouldn't particularly care to go out of your way to try lamb. Or mutton. Or even curry. School lunches are like that.
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Dinner was a piece of left over rare rib eye steak sliced thinly & eaten cold; raw carrots, radishes & cauliflower w/ranch dip; fresh raspberries w/cream; maybe later a piece of chocolate cake.
Susan - glad your relative dinner was successful. Hope you can rest tomorrow.
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Minus, it really does help to care so much for the people who will eat your food. And we have GREAT leftovers.
The kids stocked their lunch boxes with lamb, grilled veggies, and spanikopita. Happy lunch boxes for sure! I have some bread pate fermenteé that should have been turned into bread today, and tomorrow it will need to be turned into some kind of bread product. Not sure just what yet. I suspect whatever is the easiest. At least I don't need to make dinner!
*susan*
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Luv, I also enjoyed the travelogue! So glad our weather has cooperated so nicely for her visit. I almost hate to leave town, but I think we are to have more of the same in Chicago.
Susan, it is great that the dinner went so well....and not surprisingly! You have piqued my interest with mention of DD's "lemon cupcakes". Yum!
We had the leftover chicken/penne in tomato sauce and a salad tonight.
Special, I have also been enjoying the food store avoidance challenge when returning from trips this summer. However, yesterday our weather was a bit cooler and I immediatly wanted to cook, so off to store I went! I'm impressed that you make the effort to search out and use up frozrn meats. Mine tend to die a slow death in my side by side fridge after being lost in the back. I would do well to attend to freezer mgmt...or just not use it at all.
Better get some shut eye so I can drive to Providence Airport at 7AM. Probably a Chicagosteakhouse tomorrow night....going with DB and his wife.
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Luv, I first ate lamb at a dinner party when I was in my 40's. I enjoyed it. DH (from IL) grew up eating lamb. So lamb became a meat we enjoyed when we could find it in supermarkets at an affordable price. It's very pricey in the south and I haven't seen it at all here in small town MN supermarkets. My mother has never tasted lamb. Rural southerners eat beef and pork and chicken. A lot of the beef I ate growing up wasn't aged beef but young beef. We never had grilled steaks. My parents never owned a grill. Beef was stewed, smothered in a cast iron pot with gravy, cooked in the oven in the form of pot roast or fried. It was always well done. And served with rice or potatoes, mostly rice.
The lamb stew last night was delicious.
Tonight's dinner as yet undetermined. Maybe turkey meatballs or meatloaf. I have a package of ground turkey in the freezer and a pkg of spinach and some green onions in the veggie drawer. Yep, turkey meatloaf cooked in the grill/oven. DH won't like it as well as he likes beef meatloaf but he'll eat it without complaint because it will be tasty.
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Arby's
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I love lamb, I doubt my parents ever had it. I certainly never had it as a kid although we had some Greek friends so they must have had it with them at some point. DH for years assumed he didn't like it (lamb chops anyway) but now he loves lamb shanks and the lamb tagines I've made. I recently bought some free range chickens from an Amish farmer that are wonderful. Apparently he sells pasture raised lamb too. I'll have to check into it more.
Lunch was a delicious fried grouper poboy dressed on a French loaf. You would approve Carole, they bring their bread in from NOLA daily. It was just as it should be. Dinner was another round of royal reds, steamed and spiced perfectly. I can't get enough.
The weather has been absolutely perfect -- 80's, tolerable humidity and a fine gulf breeze. We spent the day at the beach and the hotel pool overlooking the gulf.
Tomorrow we leave for home. Bummer. Hi to all!
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Susan, that sounds like an amazing time with family. Luv, sounds like your DD had a great time.Lacey, I'm bummed you will be in Chicago while I'm in CO. Otherwise I'd drive down or take the train to meet you. Timing is everything. LOL
Nance sounds like seafood agrees with you.
I never had lamb till I was on NY state. I like it but it was expensive so not often.
Supper was sweet potatoes and potato slices baked with a little chicken stock. Tasted good. Really finally started feeling better.
Before all this illness started my neighbor and I ate a last meat at our local diner that was closing after 80 years in business. It saw a lot happen. J F K stopped there. Lots of other important people too. But they are building all around it and I guess someone made them a good offer so they retired. Anyway, I ordered biscuits and gravy to freeze (that is something my DH brought home for me during chemo, i could eat it all through tx) and to eat there, a oatmeal sundae with strawberries and ice cream. Never saw that anywhere else and had to order it one last time. Of course both my neighbor and I got sick after. LOL. And no, we didn't have the same thing. Pretty sure it wasn't the diner food. LOL
Much love to all.
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You all post such good things to eat...I find it difficult with working and finding good things to eat.. How do you all do it??
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Nance, glad you've enjoyed the food down south. Hope that tolerable weather continues.
The ice maker in the refrigerator has been "blown" free of water and turned off. The freezer is full of bags of ice cubes. A package of ribeyes from Thielen's meat market in Little Falls, MN, will come out to thaw for dinner tonight. Whatever frozen food is left on Sun. morning will go into an expensive cooler that's supposed to be as good as the even pricier Yeti coolers. I'm ready to finish up the winterizing and head south but dh's plan is to depart on Sun.
Next summer he (and I) are to be resort managers in charge of enforcing some new rules in the lease contract. It will be interesting to see if some of the current folks pull out. Things have been lax with people bringing in guests and not paying fees. Next summer the guest fees will increase and so will the yearly fee. Do prices ever go down? Yes, fuel, temporarily.
Back on topic. Ribeyes and green beans out of the freezer for dinner tonight.
Moon, that's too bad about the diner closing. I like eating at places like that.
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When DD was moving and coming back to Tampa we had breakfast at a diner in a little town next to her little town in Georgia - funny because I had biscuits and gravy! So quintessential! This place had been there, family run since the 40's I believe. It is on the way to my in-laws, at about the half-way point, so I will be making DH stop there - wish we had known about it sooner!
thinking - I know for me, having a smaller repertoire that can be easily cooked from pantry staples and the freezer makes cooking easier when you are busy. I make a lot of main dish salads - particularly in the summer, or long cooking dishes that can use a slow cooker or low oven when it cools off. Also, I make things that have lasting power and can be eaten over several days, in variations. I might cook a roast one night, then freeze part for later use, and have part of another night in a re-invented dish. If I do a beef roast I will make a recipe my mom cooked with a layer of thinly sliced beef, a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, a layer of thinly sliced onion, a layer of gravy with a lot of black pepper, then with those layers repeated. You put it in the oven until the potatoes are cooked - so good, tastes like my childhood! I think taking a day, or evening, to cook ahead - I do ground beef or turkey, and always roast chicken breasts on the rib, then pull the chicken off and bag it in portions so it is ready for use, then freeze the portions. If I am making spaghetti sauce with meat, I just cook extra meat at the beginning and remove it, store it, and continue on with the recipe for that night. That way I can have the protein ready and just add fresh ingredients. I make things in double batches and freeze half too. It takes more thought and organization initially, but I find it really helps save time. Hope that helps!
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SpecialK ... thanks for the tips.. I will have to try it out.
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Just a note, my SIL passed away peacefully this morning in Montana. Her struggle is over.
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Oh Monica, I'm so very sorry for your loss.
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