So...whats for dinner?

SK - good plan on the cupcakes!

Bedo, lol I definitely remember Chun King chop suey and chow mein. That and the Chef Boyardee spaghetti dinner that came in a box were my only early experiences with "Chinese" and "Italian" foods. Salads were a chunk of iceberg lettuce with maybe a piece of tomato and French dressing from a bottle. DH still loves iceberg and would take it over all others if I would consent. I do like a good wedge salad and I will serve it with blue cheese and bacon or a homemade thousand island dressing for DH occasionally. Iceberg really does give you a nice "crunch."

It is 95 here today. DH and I started early this morning sanding and cleaning the deck for refinishing. It was totally in the sun (of course no clouds today!) and extremely hot. We drank so much ice water that we depleted the ice bin in the automatic ice maker. I put a fan on us and wet towels around our necks to keep cool. Fortunately it was easy to step into the house for a/c. A lot of folks who work outdoors in this stuff don't have that luxury. My energy is now officially sapped. So dinner is simple.

When I went to pick up eggs from the egg man this morning, one of the locals who grows corn and peaches was out selling. I bought a bag of peaches, which are wonderful, and some fresh corn. So dinner will be some grilled bratwurst with a potato salad made with a few of the potatoes I dug yesterday and corn on the cob. Maybe a little carb heavy, but I think I deserve it. Corn is just coming in here so I see a Frogmore Stew in my future. DH will probably want the peaches baked in something resembling a pie, but I hate cooked peaches, especially when they're so good in season. I much prefer to eat them just as they are, with the juice running down my arm.

Bedo - Hooray for the brown bread from a can. I still try to keep B&M Brown Bread w/raisins in my cupboard. When I can't find it locally, I order it from Vermont Country Store. And now I'm hungry for Chinese. We had a small, hole-in-the-wall Chinese take out place in the town where I lived and my Dad occasionally picked up some cartons on the way home from the train station.

Lacey - of course we're dating ourselves, but hooray we're still here w/the memories. When I was little my Aunt Hazel served spam - left over from WWII habits I guess. My Mother wouldn't have it in her house.

Special - sounds like you've been working around the house extra hours now that you have AC again.

Spinach salad w/dried cranberries, grape tomatoes, purple onion, hard boiled eggs, grated cheese, & poppy seed dressing for dinner. OK - I cheated. I got the salad at Costco since I spent the day at the med center w/an 87 year old neighbor who needed Mohs surgery for a squamous cell cancer.

My dinner today... Zucchini "Alfredo" pasta with roasted garlic/basil chicken sausage

I have no grill at the moment but grilled peaches with vanilla ice cream sounds really good to me! I guess one could use a grill pan in the house too.

Tonight is rotini pasta with turkey meatballs and marinara, and a green salad. Not very imaginative but I have been having some headache issues that seem to have abated but have left me really tired. These are ice-pick migraines - I have probably had 10 in my life, but this week I have had one every day - I don't know how people with frequent migraines get through it, it is awful. Today is the first headache free day and I am crossing my fingers. I had a hard PT session yesterday - no hip pain but my left quad is screaming - feel weird to be one sided workout-type pain! I just want DH to come home, eat dinner, and I want to go lay in bed and watch TV, lol!

jazzi - did you use one of those vegetti cutters to make the zucchini or do it by hand?

Special, I feel for you. One of the best things about menopause was no more migraines. I suffered from them for years. I'm guessing yours are not triggered by hormones though.

Jazzi, looks like a healthy yummy meal!

Grilled peaches--yes!

Special, I do hope you get relief from that headache induced fatigue soon!

Nance, I happily recall your description of the arm dripping peach eating ...OMG! And peach clafoutis....double OMG!! Lucky DH!!

Minus, I actually love all those age dating memories.

Jazzi....welcome! And what a great salad!

Tonight DH and I went to a local bar/restaurant where I had scallops, broccoli and cole slaw. DH had the lobster dinner which included clam chowder, steamer clams, corn on cob, cole slaw, french fries and watermelon. He is stuffed!! But happy!

Bedo, I do recall salisbury steak when growing up, but do not recall ingesting it.
And yes, jello salads prevailed. I like the idea of the gazpacho salad.....please share that recipe!

We obscenely brought a piece of carrot cake home to eat while watching TV. Yes, Obscene!

Bedo - take kleenex or grab a bunch of napkins for Spy. I laughed so hard, tears were running down my face for much of the movie. At one point my girl friend and I about peed out pants laughing. Perfectly silly, but a riot. Even more funny if you remember the early James Bond movies. Qualifier - lots of "F-bombs" in case language bothers you.

Bedo, those mussels sound good! I actually have a fave gazpacho recipe that I use, but never jelled it. I suppose that I could just add gelatin to the mix?

Nance, your dinner sounds delish, too. My DH would be delerious, and about ten lbs heavier , if he ate at your table nightly with all of your wonderful bread varieties! Garlic knots? Oh my!!

I actually cooked tonight. We first needed to trek to the local food store....along with every other person who was thinking about food on this cool, rainy day. It was amusing to see nine people lined up next to each other in the junk food (chips/dips/pretzles, etc) aisle eyeing all the chip choices. Tomorrow's sun will be a happy change for our diets!

So since DH selected chicken breasts and I had imported some basil and prosciutto from home, I made sauteed chicken stuffed with those two imports, a bit of white wine added and provolone cheese melted over top at end. Those little babies were good! I marinated the leftover breasts for grilling tomorrow night. Our sides tonight were a vegetable/orzo sauté and a huge red lettuce and arugula salad with tomato, onion, kalamata olives, carrots and cukes. We were quite sated!

Hoping to spend sunny time at the beach tomorrow, then Monday we head back home and re-pack for Tuesday's trip to the Vineyard. I did love doing practically nothing today.

I would like to see both of those movies mentioned....pure silliness with clever lines and delivery, given those actors! This summer, DH and I started watching the old seasons of Scandal and are now up to season four. Lordy, the twists and turns! We have been hooked enough to watch an episode or two almost nightly. And there are other series that we used to watch that we need to return to. OITNB, TRUE DETECTIVE, and some new ones that we would like to check out. Hope our brains don't turn to mush!

Susan,, bet you saw this today. Reminded me of you and our pizza with egg. Hope you are feeling well today...

http://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-nyt-cooking/1409877-in-praise-of-a-runny-egg-9-recipes

Spending an indecisive day given hourly weather changes from hot steamy sun to showers and back again. Think we will pack up and try our luck at avoiding the NH raceway traffic on ourway home, where we hope to arrive for dinner hour. Ha! I make it sound like someone is preparing it for us.

DH put up our four hummingbird feeders this AM so it has been fun to see how quickly the call got out to the local hummers. We have few enough that it is still an "event" to watch them zip in, hover or perch, and then zip back out through the pines.

Eric, boo hiss to The Boss.

Bedo - wow, you're on a roll. The Monkfish recipe sounded good. And what are refrigerator beans? Yum to the watermelon salad. How's the DD new bride doing?

Eric - Thanks for giving of your time. I agree, just keep smiling or give him a phone number to call if he keeps on being pissy.

Lacey - if I'd seen your NY Times egg recipes 5 minutes sooner, dinner would have been different. Rao's marinara was simmering w/mushrooms & poached chicken already done. I put the pasta on to boil & came to check this thread really quickly. I never thought of eggs in marinara. I guess I could have thrown out the pasta, but I have just enough Rao's to try the eggs later this week. Several others look good too.

Huevos rancheros--yes please!

Leftover lasagna tonight. Spent the day making Lithuanian bacon buns and a peach rustic tart instead of the clafoutis. It started out with a recipe from the KAF weekly recipe newsletter. Was supposed to be a humble pie with an eggy pastry crust. Turns out it was the most horrible crust I've ever made -- very difficult to work with, terrible texture. I ended up trashing the thing and taking out a frozen pate brisee that I made a couple of days ago. I hate wasting perfectly good ingredients, but the replacement crust was a dream.

Tomorrow is my birthday. We're spending it going to the city to track down ingredients for Frogmore stew (low country boil) -- specifically fresh shrimp and some good smoked sausages. We may take in a movie and make a Costco run too.

Got 3 ripe tomatoes, a few small cucumbers, yellow squash and a purple pepper from the garden today. A good day!

Since it's well past midnight....HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCE!! Sounds like you have a good plan for your day. Enjoy! I'm envying your beginning harvest....but then again she who doesn't plant can't expect to harvest! Oh well! Once I'm planted in one place For a while, I will check out the farmer's markets which is the next best thing to the fun of harvesting one's own crops.

We had a long ride home from the lake this afternoon, merging with the race enthusiasists for much of the way...only took an extra 45 minutes. I'm glad we left when we did since our lake area had some pretty bad storms tonight.

DH grilled our balsamic and basil marinated chicken and portabellas for dinner which we rounded out with a nice garden salad and some pretty good corn on the cob. Tomorrow will be a whatever is left in the fridge meal since we leave again Tuesday morning (maybe eggs in salsa!). Another laundry, organizing and packing day....before heading to the gym for stretching class. Taking the ferry Tuesday makes the packing that much more of a challenge for me. Would that I could be a one bag girl.....HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I AM THE WORLD'S WORST PACKER!! Yes, I know I have. ;/ So tomorrow's challenge.....

Susan, your guest will be happy to be sloshing around in "Water Country" with our steamy weather!

auntie - Happy Birthday!!! Enjoy your day!

Last night was a beef and broccoli stir fry over brown rice - I am headed for the grocery store today since I have Mother Hubbard syndrome - which currently applies to the freezer, the fridge and the cupboard! DD just left with her friend for a couple of days of vacay in Sanibel, so just DH and I, and the dog to feed. I sent them on their way after feeding them scrambled eggs and chicken maple sausage on English muffins with melted provolone.

OK - I just read the whole Mother Hubbard nursery rhyme, it is pretty weird.

Happy birthday Nance---

Catching up since Friday. Remember the "beanie weenie" TV diner with the baked apples in the corner and petrified cornbread in the other????

Saw my MO on Friday for my check up. Said my blood work was perfect (no red indicators) in any of it this time. So we wait till this week to see if the cholesterol is ok. My guess is not, since I am craving SUGAR from every direction and have piled on 13 lbs in about 3 weeks. Even buying wine (looks like I want to sart my own cellar). He said that is the Arimidex........and I said am I gonna get FAT (ter) and he laughed and said that was up to me........

Been eating SAMS club Rotisserie chicken a lot since it's quick and I don't have to cook. Bob Evans mashed and a can of cranberry sauce......I"m good. However, they had these Nutella stuffed mini-beignets that are my new "WEAKNESS".... OMG, why did I even walk past the bakery----its not like it was to get to the HUMMUS or anything........