So...whats for dinner?

Yum.  Sounds like a spectacular dinner out, Minus.  DH's favorite seafood (or one of his favorites) is scallops. 

Redheaded, the Hungarian sausage meal sounds good.  Susan's suggestion seems like a great way to cook the bulk sausage.  Maybe mixed with rice as a stuffing for the cabbage? 

Susan, that's a great looking pressure cooker ensemble.  What a good idea to have two pots, different sizes.  We have lots of Goya products in our Walmart.  And in other supermarkets, too. 

Nance, your cannellini beans will probably be fine.  Fresh Market had their canned cannellinis on sale recently and I bought several cans, but I would definitely buy some dry ones if they were available.  Great Northern white beans seem to be the preferred larger white bean around here. 

My older brother brought the dessert today to my mother's house.  King cake with a Bavarian cream filling.  The bakery employee asked him if he wanted baked or fried king cake.  He got the fried, which is like a giant doughnut but with the typical colorful sugary icing.  Looks just like the baked.  It was the best king cake any of us had ever tasted.  I had never heard of deep fried king cake.  The filling is injected into the center of the circular cake.  My cousin Iris, who lives near my mother, came for lunch and she brought two bakery cakes, a Mississippi Mud chocolate and a lemon pound cake.  An overabundance of dessert foods. 

Our dinner was a typical heavy hodgepodge of dishes.  Boiled smoked picnic ham, potato salad, garden salad, brussel sprouts, bowtie pasta with a white sauce.  At least we didn't have bread! 

Those deleted posts from Bedo intrigue me, too. 

Minus -- fabulous meal!! I so love eating vicariously through others lol! Lacey and I both have hand troubles so you weren't so wrong.

Carol - OMG, what a king cake! I ate a deep fried twinkie once (wrong on so many levels). I want to have Sunday dinner at your mother's house.

Hi! Been so busy post DH surgery haven't had time to read or post. I keep logging on and then have to put my phone down to go change a diaper/feed a hungry mouth/water someone/run to school!....Thank you everyone for your well wishes! Recovery is coming along slowly but surely. Have had a sitter to help me with the babes luckily, and my mom flew in for a couple of weeks too - I think mostly to take care of me. Moms are good like that : ) . Had a scare the morning after DH came home from the hospital - he got up to go to the bathroom and got lightheaded....sat down on the toilet and called for me...said uh-oh....and eyeballs promptly rolled up into his head and he tipped forward....right onto me! My poor 3 weeks post surgical chest took the brunt of his weight, but I was able to swing around and so we sat on the bathroom floor for a bit while he came to. Ai yi yi...but now he's up and having regular walks and almost completely off the painkillers. Hoping for life to settle down to some kind of new normal soon.

Many meals cooked in the last 10 days...my fav was a brown rice congee with mushrooms and poached chicken with sautéed greens. It's so comforting in the cold weather, though not much culinary skill required. I think DH's was when I made one of his favorite childhood dish of Chicken Otto - tender chicken breasts with white wine and oj! DH's aunt gave me a leather-bound binder of recipes - a mix of family recipes and her favorites as a wedding gift - a very old fashioned kind of gift that I'm not too modern to appreciate.

Wishing everyone a warm and cozy night...especially to those of us on the east coast facing more snow.

I wish I could catch a break on the snow. We have two more snow events coming on Thurs. and then again over the weekend!

So far we are managing one storm at a time.

Lacey, your evening out sounds delightful. 

I decided to make pita bread today.  The dough has just about risen enough.  I used 4 cups wheat flour and 2 cups white.  I thought I would make some pitas and some without the pockets.  To prevent the ballooning, you pierce the dough  with a fork.  I will use my baking stone instead of the upside down baking pans recommended.. 

Our dinner is totally western US.  I have 4 skinless bone in chicken thighs marinating in buttermilk.  I also have a breading mixed up, taken from Healthy Comfort.  I'll cook the thighs in a 400 degree oven.  Our side will be a mixture of quinoa and brown rice (out of a pouch) with sautéed shitake mushrooms and roasted pine nuts.  I bought a box of the quinoa and brown rice pouches at Sam's.  Have used one and it was quite good.  Very easy, too. 

It's so mild today I've had the kitchen door open.  Will be cooler tomorrow, high about 62.  I'm signed up to play in a women's golf event. 

I was just emailed by the state that there is a Meningococcal disease emergency and asked if I could come in to help cover the 24/7 shifts that are needed.

I am not sure if I'm the best one to ask, as I ate raw pizza last night. I was hungry at 3am.

I will be happy to help as my "real job" does not start until Monday.

I remember the velveteen rabbit a little bit, and without looking it up, am sure that I am "as worn"

Bedo - since we're "worn" we must be really lucky because we've been loved!!!

Joyce sorry to hear about your father's passing and your mother's mishaps. Wow you have really had a load. Glad you're going to take a break for sun & golf. Hope you have fun with Michelle's DH. Post whenever you can.

Oh My DD and I loved the "Belbeteen Wabbit". I think I still have it in the closet with some of her other books. I remembered the part about the hair being loved off.

Bedo be careful out there. Hope your travel distance is not far. Is the "real" job the 4 day/week one or is that still another one you were considering?

Joyce - lovely to hear from you but not so lovely all the sadness in your family. Enjoy your visit with Michelle's DH. Sun and golf sound nice.

Susan - I keep seeing hints of a pattern shift mid to late month on the weather board I lucked onto.

Lacey - hope your DH was able to successfully clear the worrisome roof. We had a turbine vent go wonky last year with ice coating one side. DH said "I'm going to have to climb on the roof". HaHa couldn't even walk outside on concrete without holding onto the fence. DH managed to get in the attic and block the updraft into it with cardboard stopping it from turning. Then we ordered vent covers. This year only a smidgen of ice on New Years. Cannot imagine how one clears a roof of snow.

Tonight is rerun of pork stir fry. Had talked myself into going shopping tomorrow, now half talked myself out of it. Need some new dress pants and hoping for a good sale at Macys or Dillards (comparable store). Well Macy's is having Presidents' Day Sale. Might have made up my mind to go. DH would probably like a quiet day without me.

Carole waiting to hear how your pitas turned out. KAF is persistent in sending me baking stuff. LOL if only they knew how little I baked.

Carole: I took a Children's Lit class in college just for fun & had both The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince before I was even married. I think you'd enjoy both. I did read them to my son but it turned out he's not a big reader. Oh well. I still read them periodically to make sure I remember to keep some wonder in my life and haven't become too "stuffy" or hidebound or...dare I say OLD?

OK - sorry for hijacking the thread. I'll move back to 'book lovers' for reading matters.

The Velveteen Rabbit was my favorite childhood book!  Loved it and read it to my children too.  I did a writing/speaking workshop with other cancer patients and we then gave an "inspirational" 20 minute (without any notes, um....what?) presentation to patients currently in treatment, and their families, who were gathered for dinner at the Hope Lodge next to the NCI cancer Center.  The other people doing presentations were at least ten years out form treatment, but I was still bald and receiving Herceptin.  It was an interesting experience.  I included the Velveteen Rabbit in my remarks as part of the beginning narrative about how I would go out in the backyard with the book and lay on a blanket and read it by myself as a very little girl.  My talk was about being an independent person all of my life and then realizing how many people I needed through cancer treatment, and how great it was that I had so many who wanted to help me.

Had a fun weekend with the SILs - their race was fun and the weather was excellent - sorry all of you freezing, snowed-in northern peeps!  I am agog at the amount of snow!  I spent four winters (yes, I counted them!) in upstate NY, I remember well bringing my newborn son home from the hospital in 3' of snow and 35 below with wind chill - I was sure he would freeze between the door of the hospital and the car, but he didn't.  He was wrapped up like a super burrito.  Stay warm and be careful all of you!

The amount of snow that has fallen in the last month is now more than my height. Mr 02143 has been outside since 7am clearing the latest output. The boy went off to work however. The girl was supposed to head to class but her teachers can't make it so she gets another "found" day.

*susan*

I wish you all could come down to FL and get warm!  During the time we lived in NY the small town we lived in had a parade of the snow equipment in the fall before it started snowing so we could see what our property tax dollars paid for - I found that pretty amusing.

Special, where were you in New York?