So...whats for dinner?

Carole, dad would have turned 92 in August.

Chicken and dumplings is one of my favorites too :-)

Nance I am so sorry for your pain

Tonight was Grouper and it was fantastic! (Dined out while on vacation)

Minus, I know about that having to move and time sprinklers it's exhausting especially in heat. How is that PF Chang fried rice? My local grocery has just started carrying it.

Illimae, oh how I love grouper!

Brats, baked beans and cole slaw tonight. Easy peasy. DH made jumbo chocolate cupcakes for mothers day so I'll probably have one of those too.

Thanks again for all your kind words. It really helps.

I love grouper, too. It's often on the menu in Florida.

Last night was pork steaks lightly breaded and cooked to a crispy brown in the air fryer. Fresh okra and tomatoes seasoned with garlic and a romaine salad with additions and dressed with oil and vinegar and a little Caesar dressing from the bottle. My sister was a dinner guest. She stayed overnight and will go to the nursing home this morning to help me with getting my mother into my car.

Yesterday morning was busy with the first stages of making the chicken and dumplings. The dumplings are laid out on a tray between sheets of parchment paper. The chicken meat is in a large plastic bowl and the chicken broth in a large pot. I will finish up the dumplings at my younger sister's house where the family will gather. There's also a carton of cream and a block of butter that will make the dumplings lower cal and lower fat. LOL.

For anyone interested, the dumplings recipe I used is as follows. 3 cups cake flour, 4 1/2 T. butter, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 cup milk. Mix up the dough. Separate into portions and roll each portion very thin. Cut into strips and cut strips into dumplings, squares or rectangles. They don't have to be exactly the same size. Drop the dumplings one at a time into simmering chicken stock.

Oh my, carolehalston, your dumplings or, as auntienance calls them, "slicks," sound just like what my French-Canadian grandmother used to make - she's make up a batch, roll it out and cut into squares and rectangles and then lay them out on brown paper sacks all over the kitchen. They'd kind of plump up and then dry in the time between the cutting and the boiling. Grandma had a pot of boiling beef, as she called it, simmering and when ready, she'd drop the dumplings in to boil and soak up that beefy broth. My mom never did get the knack of making the dumplings. And Grandma's recipe - oral - always started with "Get out your blue cup and..." Well, THAT was not help! I'm going to try your recipe. Comfort food and all that jazz.

Nance - My condolences about your father. Keep the good memories and let go of the rest as much as you can.

Minus - It was great having drinks with you here in SF! I'm so glad you enjoyed the rest of your trip.

I had oral surgery about a week ago so was on a soft diet for several days. Made risotto Milanese one night, which I hadn't done in ages and it was lovely. Applesauce with added cinnamon & nutmeg for "dessert" a couple of nights. Grilled calamari with olive oil & lemon and watermelon salad with feta & mint. Split pea soup I pulled from the freezer, and I can't remember what else.

We're making pizza on the Weber tonight with caesar salad. I've also got a huge pot of carne adovaba (New Mexico-Style Pork With Red Chilies) going for tomorrow night. We're able to get wonderful thick, handmade corn tortillas from our local market to have with it.

Photos look yummy!

I spent the afternoon and evening packing boxes at DD's apartment, just got home about an hour ago- so by the time I got home DH had fed himself - and put himself to bed, lol! So, I had breakfast for dinner - yay!

Gordy took me to Furama for dim sum lunch today. Even after the carts stop rolling at 2pm, the restaurant switches to menus with photos of the dim sum, including portion sizes, and check-boxes. We had shrimp & scallop dumplings, beef fun (rice noodle dough) rolls, spare ribs, BBQ pork bao (buns), steamed baby bok choy, shrimp toasts and red bean-filled sesame balls for dessert. There are leftovers that won't freeze well, and I made spaghetti cacio e pepe for dinner, so maybe I'll start low-carb on Tuesday...or tomorrow night. I was going to use zucchini spirals that Peapod delivered on Friday, but by yesterday they were weeping liquid in their sealed container and by today the unopened container had puffed up, so out they went. Will just have to buy zucchini and haul out my spiralizer.

minus - kind of, lol! Her lease is up at her cute apartment, but since they have now renovated the other three units they are raising the already steep rent out of her budget range. Simultaneously two things are happening - she is embarking on a training period for the new devices her company is launching and will be training all around her region (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky) for 3 weeks out of every 4 for the next six months. Her best friend is a Delta flight attendant and has added her to benefits status for the next year so they are traveling together during that 4th week to various spots around the world. Their first trip was to Arizona to hike Horseshoe Bend and to Utah to hike Angels Landing, and they leave for Japan, Singapore and Bali next week. She and I are moving her stuff into a climate controlled storage unit near our house, and she will stay here in one of the guest rooms now and then when she isn't somewhere else. Didn't make sense to rent another apartment during the next six months when she really won't be here.

Tonight dinner will be meat sauce over spaghetti squash!

Nance - Deepest sympathies to you on the loss of your Father. May you find comfort in your memories of the good times.

Just returned from vacation in Isle of Palms, SC yesterday afternoon. Many wonderful fresh fish and seafood meals - grouper, red snapper, lobster flown in from Maine, crab cakes, shrimp, scallops. Treated myself to crab cakes benedict for 2 breakfasts as a reward for 1 hr early morning walks on the beach. Heavenly!

Avocado-tomato-arugula bruschetta with an olive-oil-fried egg for brunch. Leftover dim sum for dinner, with scrambled eggs a bit later.

Dinner was a return to Crabby Shack last night. DH and I each had a dozen raw oysters and a draft beer. Why is draft beer so much tastier than out of a bottle or can? Then we shared a thin catfish basket. Their thin fried catfish is the best we've had. It melts in your mouth. Better than New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood, which we previously considered the best. The fries were mediocre at best. I ate less than my half of the basket.

Tonight is Spring Fling at the nursing home from 6 to 8. I am sparing dh from attendance this year. He went the past two years. There will be food and several bands. The band in my mother's section of the nursing home is always a group of nice old guys playing country western. My mother is normally in bed before 6 pm but she seems to enjoy this event so I will go and endure at least an hour of "entertainment." I'm thinking we will check out one of the other bands.

I was up .2 lb yesterday at WW. Not bad with two dinners out, one lunch out, and Mother's Day with all the carbs.

april - yay! We’ve missed you! Your cream puffs look amazing - I want one right now!

Here is a Martha Stewart recipe for creamed spinach that uses cream cheese and milk. When I make creamed spinach I use sour cream instead of those ingredients - which when combined would be about the same consistency. The recipe is otherwise the same as my method. Here is another steak house recipe that uses a bunch more cheese, and I imagine would be pretty decadent. Good luck and have a great dinner celebration

https://www.marthastewart.com/317508/easy-creamed-spinach

https://dinnerthendessert.com/classic-steakhouse-creamed-spinach/

April - so good to see you. Come back when you have more time & tell us about your new job.

Here's the spinach my DIL always makes for me.

~30 oz. frozen spinach (two bags or three boxes -- I prefer the bagged spinach because it doesn't have to be defrosted and is less wet)

4 TB butter

2 TB flour

2 TB chopped onion

1 can evaporated milk (12ish oz?) -- or a smaller can if you can find it, but I haven't been able to in California. The original recipe called for a 5 oz can.

3/4 tsp celery seed

2-3 cloves diced garlic

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Jalapeno cheese, cubed -- the recipe calls for 4 oz; we have been known to use an entire small brick (8 oz?)

Sharp cheddar cheese, cubed (optional)

Other heat sources to taste (diced habanero, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, etc.)

The original recipe also called for artichoke hearts. I don't like them so I leave them out, but if you're a fan you might want to include them.

1) Make rue with butter and flour. Add onion, garlic, and celery seed.

2) Add about half a can of evaporated milk and set the rest of the can aside. (This is assuming you're using the "large" 12 oz can. With a 5 oz can, dump in the whole thing.) Blend mixture smooth on low heat.

3) Add spinach. Since it's frozen it's best to add a bit at a time to let it heat up. If you use the boxes of spinach (which are like frozen bricks!) you might want to defrost them first in the microwave. If so, squeezing them after defrosting helps keep the dish from getting too wet.

4) Once the spinach is thawed, add worcestershire sauce. If needed, add more evaporated milk to give it a creamier consistency. Keep in mind that it gets soupier as the spinach heats up, so resist the urge to dump in a lot of milk. You can always add more at the end if you want it wetter. (Even so, you won't need the whole can -- I always have some left over.)

5) Start tossing in cubes of cheese. I usually put in a couple of handfuls and wait for it to melt before adding more. If you want you can do a mix of jalapeno and cheddar, it gives it a nice flavor. Continue adding cheese until you're happy with the consistency.

6) Taste it (yum!!). Add red pepper flakes, habanero, or hot sauce if you want it spicier.