So...whats for dinner?
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Cream Cheese mints are made of cream cheese, butter, and sugar and you hand put them in little rubber molds and then let them sit a whle and pop them out. You can add favoring and food coloring to get an assortment. My mom used to make them all the time.
If you google it, some recipes will come up. Unfortunately, it must be at my Mom's house, I don't seem to have it here.
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Susan, this wedding planning is crazy. DDs wedding is going to be in May, we think. First it was "just the 2 of us on an island" Then "just the 2 of us on an island with immediate family" Then a small wedding at an old historic house in Jamaica Plain with games and croquet" Now "We want it in a bar that Dave played in last night with Nellie, DD's dog, in attendance" Dave is a sometime double bass player in the Philharmonic who is going away to Yale grad school of business this weekend. Now I don't know what to expect. Maybe sending out hologram invitations. Oh well, they know I'm pretty useless when it comes to cooking, arranging flowers or pretty much anything else for that matter. I hope yours goes smoothly. It is nice that they've found love, isn't it?
It's "Mussels Saturday!" a two year tradition with a friend of mine where we go to the same restaurant once a week on different days of the week for Mussels, veggie platter and that beer that you put an orange slice in . Moosehead? The waiter doesn't even bother to ask what we want, it's always the same.
Happy Weekend everyone
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Bedo, you put an orange slice in Blue Moon beer. The mussels-once-a-week habit is one I'd love to develop.
I have lots of tomatoes, too, because I can't resist buying them at the farmers' mkt. I have the purple heirloom plum tomatoes, yellow plum tomatoes and the slicing red tomatoes. Today I also bought lovely small leeks, beets, snow peas, green beans. A loaf of bread and cookies. Oh, and more cucumbers.
Susan, some of us would consider the purchase of a plane ticket for the BLT's!!! I would love to see you at work in your kitchen. I'm positive that your daughter's wedding will be special and you will help to make it so. Home-made corn chips?
We drove to Detroit Lakes today, about an hour's drive, to spend the day with rv friends who are full-timers in their motor home. (We met them in 2008 in Canada when we were both in the same rv park near Montreal.) We had lunch at a very ordinary little café in the small town of Frazee. Later we had yogurt at one of those serve-yourself yogurt places with lots of toppings and payment is based on weight.
So no dinner tonight.
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Hey Carol
I'm considering purchasing a Tab Trailer with shower and all, after this job is done and maybe another job, and taking off for about 3 months to travel I don't like New England in the dark winter. What have you heard about them? I guess that my dinners would be interesting and simple. What about cats? What do you think? Advice?
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Minus, thanks for the Hatch chilis tutorial. They sound so good!
Eric, happy to hear that DD will be fine. Quite the way to start the school year!
It is so darn not summery here at the lake, it's annoying! Great walking weather today, but at the beach it got too cool for my taste whenever the sun went in. Not sure we broke 63 degrees today.....
Attended a play at the Winni Playhouse tonight, (it was excellent!) and for ease bought our dinner there. It was simple and great...we shared a combo of a lobster salad plate (really good chunks with no celery!) that included an interesting salad of baby greens, dried cranberries and spicy walnuts, and also a turkey breast sandwich with lots on it, and home made potato chips. It was a good combo to share.
Mothers of the brides (and other wedding aged children)....do you think that the wedding trend is moving away from the big fuss 30 thousand dollar weddings. I certainly hope so!
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So, I think that the days of the $30,000 wedding are not really over. $30,000 is just the entry level these days, and I am seeing weddings that far exceed that level. Of the 8 weddings that my daughter has attended over the past three years, and the three that I have attended, almost all of them are in that very expensive range. And, quite a few of those weddings are far more expensive if you include how much guests are expected to pay for the required three-night stay at a resort! However, there is a backlash against this "canned"-industry-style wedding amongst some of the kid's friends, especially for those that are not making a ton of money. As with my kid, they would rather use those funds to scrape together a downpayment than get sucked into the ever-more-frantic wedding planning. And so they make their own food, build their own bouquets, forgo fancy rings, or something. But, from my vantage point, these couples are still few and far between.
Not sure that is succinct enough, or even clarifies. Even me, who is pretty frugal, has already increased the budget to accommodate reality.
*susan*
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Bedo, I'm not familiar with a Tab Trailer. I'll google it.
Anyone have a good recipe for potato and leek soup? It rained last night and folks are walking around the campground in long pants and long-sleeved shirts. It's cool and overcast, a good soup-for-supper day. I took a ham bone out of the freezer and it is thawing.
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Oh, I do! I love love love potato and leek soup. Let me see if I can find an online link, otherwise, I will get to typing.
*susan*
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Good, Susan!
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So, I had to type it. All kinds of web recipes claiming to be this one, and they are all just WRONG!
http://www.pepperplate.com/sharedrecipe.aspx?id=73...
Pepperplate ate my notes, so here they are:
If using store bought stock, be careful about the salt content. Julia is seasoning water after all.
Sometimes after adding the flour, I cook for two minutes and deglaze with a bit of vermouth or white wine before adding the water/stock.Other garnishes could be garlic croutons or roasted pumpkin seeds. I love the soup as is. My husband likes the richness of some cream. I give him between 1 and two tablespoons of cream for 2 cups of soup. [Aren't I mean?] When adding cream, I add it to the bowls and then pour the hot soup on top so if I have leftovers, I don't have to worry about boiling a milk product.
*susan*
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We are now officially in tomato-triage. Separating our tomatoes into must-eat-now, can-eat-tomorrow, need-a-bit-more-ripening. Here is today's harvest. Just today. Still have some left from previous day's bounty. HELP!!!
*susan*
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Eric, I hope your daughter is recovering well.
Bedo, thanks for the video. It helped a lot when I got up to hula.
The LUAU was very nice lots of food.
Back home getting kids backpacks prepared. They have a 2 page list of needed supplies.
Specialized I'm feeling ok. It's great to see a lefty again and so much easier to dress. I still have some pain and will be asking for PT referral I definitely need.
Hello to everyone
Vivian
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Greetings to all! What a lot to catch up on -- I've been reading everyone's posts just been too busy to sit down at the computer and post myself. Had the DSIL and DBIL here for a while - DSIL's birthday so we had a dinner of Frogmore Stew, green beans and cherry pie. The roasted cardamom plum ice cream was perhaps the best ice cream I've ever made. Served it with an olive oil peach cake. Good stuff. Also during that period was a party with my DH's side of the family. They have decided that it's too difficult to get everyone together at Christmas so now we'll be gathering in the summer. Suits me, since it's always in the city, the weather is less of a factor. My contribution was a roasted corn, tomato and basil salad. The corn is winding down here. Got some of the last of it on Friday. I managed to freeze quite a bit. Still getting lots of tomatoes, but they are getting smaller. The deer are finishing up the tomato plants, so there won't be many more. Now the peppers are starting to come in. Holy cow, what a harvest! Lots of cooking here, but for the life of me I can't remember it all. I think last night was pan fried pork chops with a tomato gratin. I do know tonight is individual pizzas with roasted tomatoes and peppers. It will barely make a dent in the produce supply though. I also had an abundance of cucumbers today, so made some sweet relish. Six more inches of rain today. Ugh. Too much of a good thing! Last week I did manage to get in my six month appt with the MO and mammogram. All is well on that front. I can breathe for another six months. Hemoglobin normal, but on the low side. This has caused the MO to start nagging me about another colonoscopy. Double ugh. I have another six months to procrastinate on that.
Monica -- hope your knee is healing and you are moving about better. I've been struggling with some plantar fasciaitis which is making my knee hurt from walking funny. It's hard to remember when I last got up and nothing hurt.
Eric - glad DD is doing ok. Scary stuff concussions! What exactly is a trash can race???
Lacey - how do you do it? Your culinary adventures always make my mouth water. I don't know what I'd do if I had all the opportunities you have! Well I do know, I'd have to live at the gym!
Carole -- I'm always amazed at how well stocked your travel kitchen seems to be. How did you like the crappie? Probably more "fishy" tasting than you're used to?
Susan - I so enjoyed reading about your relatives visit. And how wonderful about your DD. I agree that you will make the occasion very special indeed. The tomatoes are beautiful! I have them in every sunny room of the house in various stages of ripening. I eat them breakfast, lunch and dinner. They'll be gone so soon :-(
Luv, I'd like to send some of this rain your way -- 12 inches in the past 10 days!
SK - I agree you need to rest up. You have been busy!
I apologize for those I missed, I can't seem to remember it all.
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Nance, glad you were able to check in. I've been missing you and was hoping everything was ok at your house.
Susan, the soup was delicious! I followed the recipe to the point of measuring and timing. One modification was the use of ham broth instead of chicken broth or water. I boiled the hambone until the meat was falling off the bone and used the broth and added the ham meat. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
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oh ham bone! What a wonderful addition. I have been known to add bacon, but ham stock sounds even better. So glad that you enjoyed it.
*susan*
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Nance, so good to have you back from your entertaining stint. That peach cake and cardamom ice cream combo has my mouth watering!
You are correct to assume that all these meals out drive me to the gym!
Today we met friends for a brunch buffet which was lovely except just when I was enjoying my first course of shrimp and baby greens salad, and a taste of their popular mac and cheese, my fork got "tangled" in a long hair.....bye bye salad. Everything else was good (and hairless) and I successfully ignored my initial disgust as I plowed through fresh fruit with yogurt, poached eggs over hash (I opted not to wait in line for an omelet), a toasted bagel, carved turkey, and the most deliciously sinful bread pudding. I resisted getting up for another dessert tho they looked wonderful and varied.
So when we returned home, we both knew some exercise was in order! We decided to hike two miles away to Fred's Farm for corn (food always the objective!) and tomatoes (SUSAN I have SUCH TOMATO envy after seeing those pix!). Well, the long walk felt great, but the mission was a failure....no more corn today! Bought some smallish yellow tomatoes which were described as "not as acidic" as red ones....my discovery was that they were tasteless! Used them along with some nice red ones I picked up at another local farm stand in a caprese salad over arugula (yes, again;).
Marinated and grilled a flat iron steak (very flavorful but a bit chewier than I like) for dinner and tried two local corn varieties.....truly disappointing! But more disappointing was that as I started to chew my first piece of steak, I felt this sharp pin like item in my mouth. It was a piece of metal from the grate scrubber DH used to clean the grill grates. Yikes! So I was really careful for the rest of our meal. We have to find another way to clean the grates....all of these wire brushes can shed after a few uses. Any ideas...
Speaking of ideas....I think I mentioned that DH and I are going to Italy in mid -September. We have most of it planned, but I would love to find a cooking course to take in the Lucca area of Tuscany while we are there. I can always connect with one online, but thought if anyone had done that before, I'd love to know about their experience. The man who owns the villa we are staying in insists I should not spend the money on a course....that the lady across the street is a great cook....as is his wife who he offered to cook for us. Oy! I'm sure she is dying for us to show up now!!
Anyway....any ideas....or I will get busy researching places online.Viv, glad you are feeling okay.
Carole, I am also impressed with how mich you create in your RV kitchen!
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We just returned from Bemidji where we rode with another couple to Giovanni's to have pizza for lunch. DH and I shared a thin-crust pizza with Italian sausage, green olives and mushrooms. The other couple didn't give the crust a good grade but I enjoyed the pizza. Pizza is a treat for us since we don't eat it often.
Afterwards we stopped at an ice cream place and I had a small hot fudge sundae made with caramel latte ice cream. This, too, tasted good.
But I've already had my calorie allotment for today!
Dinner will probably be a bowl of leftover potato leek soup.
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Finally, sunshine today (although way humid). Tomorrow we are going on an overnight trip to visit the farm where the Budweiser Clydesdale are raised and trained. it's a little late in the season to see the newborns, but there will be plenty of young ones to see. Should be big fun ( I think free beer is part of the deal). After that we'll spend the night at a local casino.
Tonight is inaina garten's perfect roast chicken, baked corn and green beans with ham hock.
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Dinner tonight was seared tuna on the grill, a water spinach stir-fry, pork-leek dumplings, and jasmine rice. Hello? Where has water spinach been all of my life? This stuff is DELICIOUS! I will buy more at the Farmer's market week after week. I had no idea that there was such a wonderful and healthy vegetable out there waiting for me.
7 more tomatoes today, so i have begun roasting some. This year, I tried something new with the overripe tomatoes. I cut each in half on the equator, and then spooned out the insides, salted, and let sit over a colander. After several hours, I coaxed the last of the juice and seeds out of the shells and cut the remaining shells into slices. Roasted with olive oil and unpeeled garlic. at 450º for 45 minutes. I have tomato jam of sorts. Wow. This stuff is good! My plan is to save the tomatoes that are getting too ripe and treat them this way. Imagine in the middle of the winter pulling out these tomatoes to add to a braise or use as a pizza topping? The trick seems to to be using very ripe tomatoes and pulling the cores. I have saved the tomato juice and am thinking bloody Marys.
Brunch anyone?
*susan*
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Susan, I'll be there. I like mine spicy.
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Susan: I had to google Water Spinach. Read some very interesting articles about the stuff. Since it's grown as a mostly clandestine crop south of Houston, maybe I'll be able to find some. One article said BokChy is the Toyota and WaterSpinach is the Mercedes. I expect I'll love it since I love BokChoy, but have a hard time finding decent crispy product in my part of town.
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Bedo - I looked up tag trailer since I'd never heard of them. Looks like fun. You are so adventurous. Laughing about being your personal chef. I really did cook once upon a time. Even baked my own bread. Now with my taste buds still iffy & neuropathy effecting my chopping ability (I could chop off a numb finger) & assorted continuing LE issues - I try to eat what's easy and fresh. Since it's only me, I figure it's like they say about feeding babies - don't panic about the peas. Let them choose what they want from a good assortment and they'll get a balanced diet over a weeks time. Except I allow myself junk food choices too. And thanks for asking how I'm doing. Only two more Herceptin treatments and then I hope I'm through... again.
I still clip recipes and LOVE reading about all the meals on this thread. Thanks to all of you for posting.
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Oh Susan wouldn't it be just like you to make an insanely delectable variation of roasted tomatoes! Yummmmm!!!
We almost froze our keesters (sp?) off here this AM. Where did the warm temps go!!?? Needed to be up early for the plumber to fix our "latrines". I tend to be a germ phobe, so having a plumber doing his work in both the bathrooms left me in a bit of an OCD state. After his work, he discovered that the toilets were still running and needed another part (Oy!). He said he'd come back later in the day.....meaning that I had to wait to sanitize "my" bathroom until the end of the day. Meanwhile it was NOT a beach day, so we just hung around the house and got some things done til after he finished later in the day.
Took a long walk, then didn't feel like rustling up dinner so we ordered a veggie pizza (great minds and appetites, Carole)and some crabcakes (which were amazingly good for this little local pizza and fish shop), and I made a spinach salad. We also had red wine and enjoyed some candy tonight while watching House of Cards. We both feel like stuffed pigs, and will get back on the wagon tomorrow.....when I hope we will have a sunny, at least somewhat warm day.
Nance, have a fun excursion!
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Minus, we crossed posts and I want you to know how I admire you for dealing with those health challenges and managing a healthy diet nonetheless. Hope your house repairs/updates went well.
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Bedo - DH and I have thought about a teardrop trailer which is the generic term for what a T@b Trailer is. We saw one a long time ago at RV dealer. Very tiny but I've not seen the little bit larger ones. Wish we could get a Casita. They make 13' ones. Also another brand is Scamp with 13' ones. Don't know what you'll be towing it with. DH says either Casita/Scamp could prob. be towed with midsize vehicle. I think they are super light.
Not much cooking around here. Did make the chicken/dumplings again. We were supposed to go to Mex. Food Sat. night but DH's tummy acting up so we stayed home. We made up for it yesterday and made fajitas and DH made stuffed jalapenos. I got one that was like a bell pepper and the 2nd lit up my innards. Tonight was finishing up all of those. Tomorrow is pizza night. I think Wed. is crockpot night, prob. chicken of some kind - DH has to work super late.
Nancy - I'll take any rain you want to send. Record rainfall at DFW yesterday. We got a smattering west of Ft. Worth. I actually watered the yard by hand this evening. And guess what, showers have popped up but looking like they're falling apart as they progress our way.
I had the best hot sweet pepper jam over cream cheese at a church party. I think I found the recipe, it was electric green colored. A Paula Deen recipe. Friend said she would share recipe; might have to ask again. She's a pretty good cook. Teaches home/family consumer classes - I think that's the name. What they call Home Ec now.
Yay, Minus, two more treatments. Partay time.
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Lacey, I'm kind of the germophobe as far as the kitchen goes. I have the Simple Green in a spray bottle to clean the kitchen and then I make up a 1 to 4 mix of bleach and water in another spray bottle for the "final rinse".
I thought I kept a clean kitchen in college until Mickey took some sterile swab samples for a class of hers....and found the counters as germ free as public bathroom seats. It was then I went to the bleach water mix and used paper towels. The next set of swabs were less disconcerting... :-)
The rest of the house is "if it doesn't require I use the 'space suit' then it's clean enough". Put "BSL-4 suit" into Google and you'll see what I mean.
I used to get overwhelmed with yellow pear tomatoes. I'd usually grow four plants and let Shadow (our first dog) keep the birds away. He'd tax us accordingly--he loved the little tomatoes. I never did the tomato jam trick. The next time I grow tomatoes, I'll try that.
I'd either freeze them or pickle them with some hot peppers.
I'm being paged for homework help.
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No question, New England is chilly this summer. I am sitting here at 8am with a sweater, shivering. I am starting to think my habenero plant experiment will be a failure. The bush is just starting to flower which I don't think will give it time to give me fruit. That is the life of a small time farmer I guess. But we have enough tomatoes to feed a small village!
Can't imagine getting into a Northern lake right now at all.
Lunch today at La Voile with all four of us. It is restaurant week so we can see how we like the food and the room without too great an expense. Would have preferred tasting the evening menu, but this is what we could manage with all of our conflicting schedules. Then the kids head off for a suit fitting for him. Did I mention the ever spiraling aspirations of the bride?
As to the water spinach, I don't like bok choy [it is a textural thing] very much and just loved the water spinach. I just love when I find new things that are both healthy and enjoyable.
*susan*
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Eric, your routine sounds similar to mine except I use a homemade cleaning solution followed by bleach and paper towels. Ever since dh got a bout of food poisoning I've been paranoid about food borne illness. I don't want to be the source!
Minus, so happy you're finishing up. I say eat what tastes good.
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Susan, my garden is replete with peppers of all colors but I have one plant that hasn't borne one pepper all summer. It blooms and blooms but no peppers. What's up with that?
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I'm sitting here waiting for the rain to stop. Visibility is less than 50 feet and the roads' right lanes are covered with 6 to 12 inches of water. I got two blocks from home and decided to head back to the house until things settle down a bit. I suppose I could drive in it, but taking a road lane away during rush hour makes things SLOW.
The TV weather radar shows one of those purple spots over where I live and the phone flash flood warning has just sounded.
The dogs are busy announcing their willingness to defend the house against the evil forces of lightening and thunder. And, it must be working...lightening and thunder have not set foot into the house! :-)
I won't be able to start growing tomatoes until late September. The peppers, if I keep them in the shade, do well all summer. I've kind of given up on the habenaro peppers. They don't seem to like the dry heat, like anuties' and Susan's, they grow nicely, flower like crazy and won't set a pepper. Serrano peppers seem to thrive here, so I grow lots of those. They are about half as hot as the habenaro and are an all around awesome pepper.
The rain has quit and the roadway storm drains look to be catching up, so I'm going to try the 43 mile drive to work.
Eric
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