So...whats for dinner?

ChiSandy

I use a plastic microwave popper, with a dollop of coconut oil. We just came home from dim sum brunch (in Chinatown North, a couple miles south of us). Dunno why, but we chose almost everything with pork in it except for the duck skins, Chinese broccoli, shrimp har gow and sesame balls. We each had one piece of each (3 to a plate), and Bob had wonton soup and a couple of Tsingtaos. Gordy will have a nice lunch waiting when he comes in (he is now the technical director for a comedy-magic club and there's a matinee).

85 and sunny. Rain forecast but not a cloud in the sky, so watered my tomatoes (which were drooping a bit). We now have enough basil to make both pesto and phô !

SpecialK

I also have one of these for popcorn popping in the microwave, made from lab glass:

https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/catamount-popcorn-popper/

ChiSandy

MIne’s the hard-plastic Nordic Ware one, with polyethylene vented lid.

Freya244117

842 posts to catch up on - you people like your food Hello to you all.

I like popcorn, but don't cook it at home, DH thinks it smells like vomit (we don't go to the cinema for the same reason).

As you can see I am still kicking, not quite a Can-can these days though. I hope you are all doing well.

illimae

Sunday night dinner and TV with friends is Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread and Preacher. If it wasn't for DH, I'd be living off hot dogs and ramen.

ChiSandy

Only now getting peckish (eating only 1/3 of each dim sum portion—and we ordered fewer dishes than before--filled me to bursting). But not hungry enough for a giant lobster, no matter how much of it we’d be bringing home. A light salad or appetizer at Cellars (where we’d be picking up that case of wine) would hit the spot—about an hour from now.

MinusTwo

Special - yes we did discuss popping corn in a paper lunch bag in the microwave. That's the only way I've made it for 20 years. My microwave actually has a button labeled 'popcorn'. It cooks for 3.5 minutes but I do stop it early if the kernels stop popping. I think the discussion was for Carole to try in her camper some time when they were still towing it back & forth.

Brunch was a bowl of raspberries drenched in heavy cream.

Supper was a frozen dinner - PF Chang Shrimp Lo Mein. Not bad since I forgot to take anything out of the freezer. Finished the last glass of a lovely Syrah wine.

Freya - glad to see you. Welcome back to the kitchen table.

susan_02143

I use my wok to make popcorn, and it is fabulous, plus it gives my wok a facial. Haven't made any in ages. I always worry that my guests will hate the smell.

Tonight was a leftover meal, of sorts. Leftover grilled salmon with a salad of lettuce purchased at market yesterday. Also part of our market buy were dainty, shall we say a precious zucchini and summer squash. I turned those into salad with ribbons of the vegetables, a basil, lemon juice and olive dressing, with parmesan and toasted pine nuts. This new-to-me salad was a really refreshing dish and I expect we will make it again, until the zucchini at market is more mature. Some carrots and radishes, plus one of those breads i made earlier in the week.

And the zucchini's close up:

Really easy salad which takes almost no time to make. Of course, I added my own spin but nothing that would make a big difference.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/shave...

*susan*

auntienance

I try to pick my zucchinis when they're in the baby stage. There are always a few that get away however. I picked several yesterday along with quite a few haricots verts. I'll dig a few potatoes and make a new potato green bean salad Tuesday to go with whatever I grill. Yesterday I also got a dozen ears of new local corn, which is delicious! I love summer produce.

Dad is in the hospital (sigh} with an intestinal blockage. He was very nauseated Friday and his nurse thought something was not right so sent him to the er where he was admitted. He's doing fine but has an ng tube (probably for another day or so) and complained that he was hungry when we visited him. But he wanted to know all about what we had for lunch in great detail lol.

Carole, even though dad can have his electric wheelchair, it's incumbent on his passing a "driving test." The reality is that he is really unable to get himself up and into a chair of any kind and is unlikely that he's going to be able to use it anyway. He's a good driver of the thing though.

My weekend is being spent fighting Japanese beetles! This is the worst year we've ever had. They've decimated the apple trees, several ornamentals, all of the roses and many more things, like a plague of locusts It's war!

Simple supper of grilled pork burgers and fresh corn.

susan_02143

Nance, your Dad is quite the trooper! You should try this zucchini salad.... it is a real change of pace for this vegetable. We are at least a month away from good corn. And then Fall is upon us. It is all so short.

*susan*

SpecialK

Helping DD move the last of her stuff into the condo, so we got some takeout - I had a chopped salad and gazpacho, she had chicken tacos and tuna poke. I made a grilled cheese and andouille sausage and tomato rice soup for DH before I left for the condo. We also stopped at the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM, got a salted caramel and a strawberry. It's pretty hilarious - I had just a bite of the strawberry and DD kept the rest.

illimae

Joycek, you mentioned all my favorite things in your post chicken pot pie, watermelon, pool and puppy, I wanna hang out at your house, lol

susan_02143

We are smoking up some ribs tonight. Three racks to be precise. They have been brining in my special rub for two days. Mr. 02143 will mop them at the very end with a mustard-hot sauce that we will make up this afternoon. Serving with a tortellini-pesto salad, and who knows what else. Will head to the Monday farmer's market and hope that I see a vegetable that my picky kid will eat and some good berries for dessert. We will be joined by our daughter, her husband, and of course, Miss O and Miss O's godmother, who is very much part of the family.

Should be fun actually.

*susan*

susan_02143

Found some English peas at market!!!! I will sauté some shallots in butter, add mint and the peas with just a bit of butter, and serve. Really perfect summer meal, and the peas only last for a week or two, so we must eat!

I have some Almond Shortbread dough chilling in a log and will slice and bake to eat with our fresh strawberries. I got some extras so that I can make a rhubarb-strawberry compote. A new-to-me recipe that I am dying to try And a salad for the son in law. He loves salads and his family doesn't share his love. Plus he doesn't love peas.

The ribs just hit the grill and smell amazing already!

*susan*

ChiSandy

Last night at Cellars (I drove--teetotaling for now--so we could bring home the case of wine we bought) we each had Crab Louie--only instead of crabmeat, the salad was topped with asparagus and a tempura-battered soft shell crab. Not bad for fifteen bucks. Bob had contemplated Steak Oscar, but the sight of it on someone else's plate sorta creeped him out: the tempura soft shell straddling the filet mignon looked like the Alien sucking the life out of the steak! And seltzer with a squeeze of lime in a flute didn't taste that far off from an extra-brut bubbly

Will see how I feel after training tonight--might walk there for five-dollar burger night.

ChiSandy

Nancy, hope your dad can “get going” again (in both senses of the word).

auntienance

I'm with you Illimae!! And I love the notion of a cupcake ATM lol!

Red beans and (brown) rice tonight in the pressure cooker with cucumbers and onions and some garlic bread.

Sandy, dad seems to be a tough old bird so I imagine he'll be back shortly. Don't know why we have to go through such extremes though, from c diff to a blockage in such a short amount of time!

I need to get a spiralizer. I'm drowning in squash already!

HappyHammer

Oh Nancy, YES, get a spiralizer...they are great at helping to deal with extra zuchinni...I made several "baked spaghetti" casseroles using zoodles instead of pasta this week and put them in the freezer.  Also, took one to a friend and she called to say it was really tasty and her fam didn't realize they ate zoodles.  (I bought an expensive one but before needing to use it, found a really cheap one ($8.00) at TJMaxx.  Returned the expensive one as there was no need for it.)

ChiSandy

I’ve got the kind with a crank. Used to use a cheap one with no moving parts that looks like a Picasso-designed hourglass crossed with a pencil sharpener, but it made irregular zoodles that broke off too easily and took parts of my fingernails & knuckles with it.

MinusTwo

Finally - got rid of enough leftovers. Late lunch was two soft boiled eggs. Late supper will be popcorn.

eric95us

Minus, Sharon used this recipe from allrecipes.com

SpecialK

auntie - 2nd trip to the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM tonight after dinner downtown with DD, so DH could check it out. The cupcakes are actually pretty amazing. We even got two tiny dog ones for Toby. They had little fondant bones on top!

ChiSandy

Those cupcake vending machines are adorable! Fortunately, in order to obtain cupcakes in my neck of the woods, I would have to interact personally with at least a cashier (ok, maybe a self-checkout line at the supermarket). So that’s a measure of dietary safety.

For dessert tonight, I had half a cup of Halo Top low-cal/low-carb “ice cream:” both the Birthday Cake and Sea Salt Caramel (by far their best) flavors. Both are under 300 calories for an entire pint. The Sea Salt Caramel is 280 and the Birthday Cake is, I believe, less than 200. (Their chocolate-based flavors taste weird and have bizarre textures. Such is the downside of not using actual sugar). The Talenti Sicilian Pistachio Gelato and Dark Chocolate Sorbetto are sitting in my freezer, unopened, rock-hard, mocking me. I will try not to let them attack me.

peaches1

Hi Sandy- I highly suspect that you never go to Jewel, but about a month ago at Jewel, I got a catalina for $4 off Halo Top ice cream. When I looked at it, I began wondering how much it was. It was on sale for $3.99, and so I could have gotten free ice cream. I don't know now where the coupon is. Apparently lots of shoppers at Jewel Mariano's and Meijers are receiving free coupons for Halo Top ice cream when they check out. One person said a coupon printed out when she paid for a prescription., and none of the grocery stores in the Chicago area have self checkout lanes anymore. Jewel just took all of theirs out last year. They had too many problems with shoplifting. Target and CVS still have self checkout though.

peaches1

Hi Sandy- I highly suspect that you never go to Jewel, but about a month ago at Jewel, I got a catalina for $4 off Halo Top ice cream. When I looked at it, I began wondering how much it was. It was on sale for $3.99, and so I could have gotten free ice cream. I don't know now where the coupon is. Apparently lots of shoppers at Jewel Mariano's and Meijers are receiving free coupons for Halo Top ice cream when they check out. One person said a coupon printed out when she paid for a prescription., and none of the grocery stores in the Chicago area have self checkout lanes anymore. Jewel just took all of theirs out last year. They had too many problems with shoplifting. Target and CVS still have self checkout though.

ChiSandy

Thanks. I will examine my receipts much more carefully now for coupons (I occasionally manage to use some that I tear off CVS receipts, provided I do so before they expire).

peaches1

I get emails from CVS with coupons good for 25-30% off your order. They will not let you use the coupon on anything that is on sale though. You can then apply the coupon to your card. I saved a ton of money when I went to CVS to buy all the stuff I needed for chemo and used a 30% off coupon. Jewel has at least one freebie every weekend, and most of the stuff is processed food that I don't eat, but this last weekend you could get a free box of chloe frozen fruit bars that only have 6o calories if you went into your mymixx account, and applied the coupon to your account. Supposedly a lot of people that went to Jewel to get their free bars, also got a coupon for a free Halo Top ice cream when they checked out. Somebody on mashupmom that I also post on, was asking what flavor of halo top was the best. I will have to post over there and tell them what you said.

ChiSandy

Haven’t tried the Red Velvet yet—it is the highest-calorie. The chocolate tasted like a stale Frosty Malt. Vanilla was just “meh." But the Salted Caramel tastes as good as Talenti gelato, and has a decent (not gritty or gummy) texture. Hope they come up with a pistachio version (even better, the maraschino-cherry pistachio that NYC outer-borough Cantonese restaurants served for dessert when I was a kid). Of course, I could always fold in pistachios and fresh cherries...

illimae

I find the halo top mint chip quite good too, if your into that flavor. My DH isn't, so that one is all mine.

DH will be entertaining out of town guests tonight (taking them out to shoot guns) but as I am recovering from surgery and it being the 4th, I'll be making myself Hebrew Nashional hot dogs with a few chips and French onion dip.

bedo

Working in Bristol RI this summer, home of the oldest Forth of July Parade. The town is mobbed for the Parade today, and I'm eating lots of veggies. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Sorry about the size!!