So...whats for dinner?

carolehalston

Hi, Bedo. Good to have you pop in. It sounds as though you're enjoying your life.

Dinner will be a very large grilled beef fillet. We will slice and share. Sides will be boiled small red potatoes and romaine salad. A favorite meal for this carnivore.

SpecialK

The last couple of nights consisted of leftovers - sandwiches from the naughty meatloaf and a chuck roast I cooked in my slow cooker. This is a new All-Clad slow cooker that DH got me Christmas before last. Ashamed to admit this is the first time I have used it - mainly because it was on a shelf in the garage that I couldn't reach (no room to store in inside) and I just kept using the old one. I like the feature on this one that shows a digital display countdown. Now that I have it in a more manageable spot I look forward to exploring the more user-friendly features on it, my old one was just a warm/low/high basic model. To the chuck roast I added beef broth and French onion soup and a whole sliced onion initially. At about the 2 hours to go point I added bacon (leftover from the naughty meatloaf - prob about 1/4 of the package) that was diced and cooked, then a package of baby bella mushrooms cooked in scant bacon fat. I served this with cut up russet potatoes, oven roasted after tossing in olive oil and part of a package of taco seasoning, plus carrots partially cooked then finished in a mixture of Jack Daniels, honey and a little bit of butter. Tonight is the last of the chuck roast - probably with steamed broccoli and buttered noodles with parsley. DH is having a vascular leg procedure tomorrow morning, so will be home but not NPO, so will use the rest of the taco potatoes as home fries and make him an omelet. I was at Whole Foods yesterday and got a package of four baguette bagels - they looked intriguing and were very good! Not as dense as a regular bagel and with good baguette-like texture, I will get them again.

bedo

Yay for us Special!!! I came upon another program, "None to Run" which looks way easier, almost like errrr, for lazy people who are OK with not doing much more than they are now and want to start, and have dreams.. and I bought some cute exercise clothes at Target today so I'm ready! Your meal sounds so good. I've been vegetarian since age 16, (and that's been some time) but it sounds like it tastes really good. Hello Carol! Arrrggghhh! Go for it! lol.

MinusTwo

Bedo - so glad to hear from you. We miss you when you're out on your job tours. It really does sound like you're have a grand time. Hope to see you more often.

auntienance

Hey Bedo - good to hear from you!

Tonight was a stir fry with onion, fresh asparagus and the remains of a sous vide boneless rib roast that I made over the weekend when the kids and grand dog were visiting. Also had brown rice and a couple of spring rolls from Costco.

Egads007

Busy work & life schedule has us working into the evening lately. I ran out and picked up a rotisserie chicken and salad. It had to be the DRIEST poultry ive ever had the displeasure of eating...the sands of the Sahara have more moisture than that ball of sawdust we ate tonight! I think I can still feel it stuck in my throat! *cough* l thought I'd find some relief in the salad until I saw 'it'. I won't go into great detail, let's just say it resembled something grown in a Petrie dish. Tossed it, fought back nausea. Drank a ton of water and ate some raw almonds then back to work. Tomorrow will be different....we will eat again!!

MinusTwo

Egads - good description. I buy grocery store rotisserie chicken occasionally. However when I can get out to Costco, their rotisserie chicken makes all the others look EXTREMELY dry.

I probably won't post for a week but I'll be thinking of you all.

ChiSandy

Nice warm day, so I fired up the gas grill to preheat my cast iron skillet screaming hot. Put in a grass-fed ribeye; on the cool side of the grill I placed a knob onion, slit down the middle. But it was so windy that the flame blew out, so I turned off the burners and cooked indoors on the stove instead. Win some, lose some. Served with leftover carrots, fingerling potatoes, and green beans.

Lacey12

Wow! Lots happening here...and good food, except for that take out you were stuck with, Egads. I find that no store take out and many restaurants cannot satisfy my expectations for fresh, clean crisp salads, so I can appreciate your horror about that recent one.

I am awake at this odd hour after sleeping most of the earlier evening due to feeling weak and exhausted post implant procedure and tylenol codeine to manage the pain.

So thought I'd check in, read up and post a couple pix....before re-crashing.

The first is of a wild mushroom soup with pickled ramps that was on the menu at an actually decent restaurant at TD Garden. Most of the food there is junk. I mention it because, the soup was nice, but the ramps were amazing....like little popping surprises throughout the soup. Oh my!!

Tonight I needed to eat soft food after the procedure, so made my fave “little ear" pasta with a sauce of sauteed garlic, onions, chopped red pepper, chopped broccoli, tons of sliced and chopped mushrooms, basil and oregano. I used both evoo and butter, and once the mix was sautéed to my requisite softness added a bit of flour, chicken stock, then some milk. After combining with the cooked pasta ears, I added shredded mozzarella, and would have topped it with grated parm, but started to suddenly feel faint once the tylenol codeine I'd taken an hour before, kicked in. So I ended up lying down and sleeping for several hours. When I awoke, DH brought me a bowl of the “ears" and it tasted soo good! I had not eaten since a bit of cottage cheese for breakfast, so I might have just been starving, but there are leftovers, so I'll have another chance to evaluate!

Bedo, glad to hear that you are enjoying your jobs and time with your grandson!

Minus and Carole, your fish selections sound delicious! DH would be in heaven surrounded by the rawoysters you had, Carole. And I won't even allow myself to covet the wonderful sourdough bread you will be enjoying in CA, Minus, lest I gain weight by proxy. What kind of restaurant is Tadich? Your trip sounds packed with good meals.

Getting tired again so will post and crash....no more pain killers beyond Advil for me.

O

The “ears” pasta dish prior to generous cheese addition.

ChiSandy

Lacey, that orecchiette pasta looks really yummy. (So does the soup). What's the weather forecast for Boston this Fri-Tues? (Headed out there for an echocardiography course). Hope the pain from the implant procedure abates pretty quickly--remember it's easier to stay ahead of it and maintain a steady moderate level than to bring it down from severe to moderate.

MinusTwo

Oh Joyce - while I know you're glad to see Rick happy, it's a bittersweet time. Michelle was such a special person. Glad you're home and back in the Northern routine.

Lacey - Just to go on record - I HATE dentists. I'd rather have my arm cut off. Hope the pain doesn't last long.

Egads007

MinusTwo - Like you I found the Costco chickens the best going. Always juicy, even the next day, even the breast meat was juicy after being refrigerated! Always the best choice. It got me to thinking.....how the heck do they do it? So I did a little research and found that they inject their chickens with a brine of:

Water, seasoning (salt, sodium phosphate, modified food starch (potato, tapioca), potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar, dextrose, spice extractives).

Don't quote me on this, but I did read that the Costco US also adds soy oil.

Carrageenan(thickener) has been FDA approved, but studies show that it's an inflammatory and specifically notes it can cause gastro issues if consumed regularly, not what anyone wants, especially if you suffer any type of gastro issues (I do). Spikes insulin levels.

Sugar - well we all know that's not good....why the heck do I need sugar in my chicken?

Salt - see above, sodium levels are nuts per serving.

Ok so I realize I'm spoiling everyone's day here with what may seem like a fanatical rant on processed foods, and I realize that occasionally eating the chicken probably won't kill us. I'm only posting it as my reason for opting out of Costco chickens. I don't like a pile of salt, sugar and inflammatories as a side dish when I set out to buy a simple chicken. The one I bought yesterday was low sodium, no additives, hormone free organic, NO FLAVOR, NO MOISTURE (lol). I guess I better just stick to roasting my own, but oh yeah, the Costco chicken definitely wins the prize for juicy & tasty, hands down.

auntienance

Despite the rather depressing review, I'll continue to buy the occasional Costco chicken. It's convenient and it tastes good and as I said, it's occasional. I usually roast my own.

Lacey, ugh! Hope you're on the mend.

Minus, have a great trip. Eat lots of bread and real butter!

ChiSandy

I probably spend as much on gasoline going to & from Costco for chickens as I spend extra on WF chickens from around the block (even if I drive there too). I don't get the organic chickens, but the regular ones for a couple bucks less. True, the Costco chickens are bigger, but we often have leftovers we don't eat and forget to freeze. I do like to go Tod's BBQ (in-house) if I'm shopping at Mariano's: their smoked half-chickens are $5 and very large quarters $3. BTW, carageenan is derived from a seaweed. In Ireland, they even make a pudding out of it, similar in consistency to tapioca pudding.

Early this morning, we had Bob's mandatory arbitration in the subrogation suit GEICO brought against the guy who hit his car two years ago and caused >$5K damage. (Subrogation is when your insurer pays your expenses, whether via medical or comprehensive/collision coverage, and files suit in your name to get the liable party to pay up). The defendant was well >80, speaks only Polish, is mostly deaf, didn't understand the questions even when translated, and didn't remember seeing Bob's car until after he hit it. He was turning left (suddenly, no blinker) while Bob was going straight in the R lane in the opposite direction. The defendant's lawyer made several newbie tactical mistakes, and half his closing argument was his own speculation--no evidence or testimony had been presented for it, and he even misrepresented one of the answers his client gave. Not surprisingly, we (I'm the registered owner & named plaintiff) won the full amount--but the defense counsel will reject the award come the June deadline and insist on trial. The defendant's insurer is one of those dirt-bag substandard companies that's been featured on the consumer action segments of all three local network TV stations--it's notorious for never paying until it loses on appeal, and maybe not even then; and also not paying its own insureds' comprehensive claims. The defense attorney works for a "captive law firm," which is one that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an insurance company (usually substandard) and has no other clients.

We had to drive down to the Loop for the hearing, because Bob went straight to work after--I took the CTA train home. There's a sort of Zen to that: I pop in my AirPods, bring up the music app on my watch (I uploaded my music library to it so I can keep my phone in my purse), and sit back till I reach my destination. Since we had no breakfast, I was going to stop at Drunken Donuts inside the station--but then remembered Ann Sather's (branch of the Swedish restaurant chain) was on my way home and had killer fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. No contest. I had one with coffee when I got home--and later took a nap because I essentially had no sleep last night. There's something wickedly delicious about taking a nap in the daytime, with pillow & blanket, and actually falling asleep for an hour!

Bob doesn't have office tonight and we have a gift certificate for Eataly downtown; but they're calling for torrential downpours and severe winds this evening into tomorrow morning. Not sure if we want to brave that, whether by car, Uber or CTA. We shall see. Meanwhile, Gordy left this morning for the second weekend of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest (his gf will fly down Sat.). Talk about "what's for dinner!" (Expecting lots of Instagram food porn).

carolehalston

I've always liked the rotisserie chickens I have purchased. Those at Sam's Club are large, nicely browned and juicy, especially when you get them home and immediately rip off a leg or a wing. I'm usually hungry when I buy a cooked chicken. I realized that the chickens are injected with a flavoring solution that contains salt. DH is not a fan but he probably doesn't like chicken as much as I do. We both prefer the dark meat which is fattier and has more flavor. Chicken breast needs enhancement.

I bought two large chickens today in preparation for Mother's Day. I will be making a big pot of chicken and sausage gumbo.

Tonight's main dish is Tuscan Shrimp and Beans. It's an ATK recipe. I watched it again today, using the Pause button frequently to write down the ingredients and instructions. It's very simple. DH was taken with the dish so we're giving it a shot. I already had the shrimp and canned cannellini beans and some of the other ingredients but had to go to the supermarket for anchovies and basil. There was no basil to be had. I even bought a baguette since "crusty bread" is highly recommended by the chefs as an accompaniment.

ChiSandy

Sky turning a dull yellowish gray--severe thunderstorm/hail warnings just issued for neighborhoods a few miles south of us. Will need to unplug the computer if I want to stay online. There go our dinner plans.

Egads007

Carageenan - as I said it’s fda approved and widely used, deemed safe, but a dubious additive as its linked to gastrointestinal issues...and probably why I have horrendous episodes after eating Costco chickens. I’m not suggesting anyone stop eating them, heck go to town on them, it’s just not a wise choice for me.

ChiSandy

Just started pouring. Cat snuggling up to me.

eric95us

Hi Bedo. Long time no "hear". :-)

The cornea surgeon removed the contact lens bandage yesterday and scraped away the remaining tiny bit of rust ring off of my eye. I'm still using the antibiotic eye drops and a "low power" steroid drop was added to the mix. Amazingly enough, my vision has improved in the eye.

Best of all, I was told it was OK to run. So, today, I ran 3 miles. That felt good.

Chi, it sounded like your salmon recipe was not too critical, so I followed it "kind of closely". I used LOTS of vegetables, dill, thyme...etc and cooked them for about a minute in the microwave oven. I added the salmon and tried the 90 seconds but I ended up having to "microwave" it another 45 seconds--I guess the huge amount of vegetables slowed things down.

I still have some uncooked salmon left, so I'm going to look for some sort of glazed salmon recipe and try that tonight.

illimae

Last night was a crockpot pot roast and tonight I made the French dip sandwiches and boy, were they good. I used some beef broth and a few ladles of the roast juice for the au jus and served them with provolone on a baguette. From this day forward, every pot roast night will be followed by French dip night!

ChiSandy

Bob made it home after sitting in Lake Shore Drive traffic downtown for half an hour...while the first bridge opening of the year took place. During rush hour. For a pleasure sailboat. (Ya think the bridge tender could have just told the skipper to hang loose and have another cold one till rush hour was over)? We both agreed that neither of us wanted to go back downtown, so no Eataly. But we do have a case of wine to pick up at Cellars, so we drove over there. We split a house salad (steering clear of Caesar for awhile till we get the all-clear on romaine). I had tonight's ten-buck special--half a roast chicken with peas & chardonnay gravy over mashed spuds--for which I subbed out sweet potatoes. Just as we were finishing up (and packing my leftovers) and about to ask for the wines, it began hailing. Then the heavens opened up, with lightning & thunder as well. We decided the wine was safe in their cellar, but the box might not have held together had we tried to bring it outside.

Lacey12

Sandy, the weather here should be nice this weekend, after our sudden current heat wave, which will be less than pleasant tomorrow given the forecast for nearing 90 degrees with humidity. But it suppised to cool down nicely for the weekend. That said, if you don’t like the weather here.....just wait a minute! So who knows what will happen! I hope it is nice for your trip. The city is finally blossoming so it should be pretty.

Tonight I made stuffed portobellos with lentils (cooked until soft for my mouth surgery compliance), butternut squash, onion, garlic, chopped kale, balsamic vinegar, topped with mozzarella and parm. It was hearty and tasty...and soft! ;/ It is killing me to have to avoid chewing crispy salads until these stitches heal up. My face is swollen but the pain has subsided nicely. No need for even Advil today. Minus, I’m also a dentist averse person. Fortunately, the guy doing this implant prep has been very kind and sensitive to my almost phobic approach to the procedure. My regular dentist is also wonderful, so I will get through this process. A small hurdle in the scheme of things!

Eric, I’m glad your eye is “coming along” and that you can get back to your regular activity!

Joyce, welcome back! Did you bring homethis hot weather?? Suddenly summer!

ChiSandy

Lacey, will just have to travel with the light leather jacket and an umbrella--and pack layered separates. Not planning to eat at any jacket-and-tie places (we MUST go back to Summer House--awesome inexpensive lobsters); on the fence about Mama Maria's or anywhere in the N. End as we have great Italian food here--and I was just in Rome. What was the name of that Back Bay oyster place again (we'll be in one of the two hotels in the Pru this time)? Bob says he wants to go to Union Oyster House for old time's sake, but I know it's gone way downhill and no locals eat there any more. (Still can't get past seeing a roach on the bar counter 20 yrs ago). Probably Luke's Lobster again, though they now have two branches in the Loop (but weekday lunch only). Bob will be tied up in course sessions morning and aft., so not planning to do much sightseeing.

Not happy about the choice of hotel (Marriott Copley Plaza) , but that's where the echo course is given and thus has the block rate. I hear it doesn't even have bellhops any more and the whole chain is eliminating bathroom toiletries other than bar soap. Now, I travel with my own sulfate-and-salt-free shampoo & conditioner, but that's beside the point. Even cheapo Red Roof Inn (which decades ago boasted its low prices were due to no freebie toiletries) now provides shampoo & conditioner--and their room rates are 1/3 the price of Marriott. Since we must be in that part of Back Bay I would much rather have stayed in the Westin Copley Place (same bldg., more amenities, higher price) or my Boston fave--the (now-Fairmont) Copley Plaza. Even loved the boutique Hilton Faneuil Hall from last summer, but this time it's the wrong end of town (Bob wants to roll out of bed, grab the course's free breakfast & lunch and do his class sessions and I don't blame him) and insanely high-priced this week. (One reason why we're flying home as soon as the class sessions wrap, instead of taking two more days to sightsee).

At least we're not renting a car. I refuse to drive in Boston, unless I can rent a car with a driver's seat that flushes. (And I grew up with NYC traffic)!

carolehalston

We're having veal scallopini tonight. I had veal in a restaurant some months ago and it was so delicious that I decided I should probably start cooking veal myself. Our Winn Dixie always has a good selection of veal cuts, My recipe is a WW recipe, Veal Scallopini with Lemon, Garlic and Pine Nuts. It doesn't call for mushrooms but I have mushrooms and will probably use them. The side will be fresh green beans with some large chunks of small red potatoes. Yep, I bought more of the potatoes today. I'll cook the green beans in chicken broth. We will probably have a salad, too. We're still eating CA romaine with no ill effects.

Sandy, the weather forecast for this weekend is great for Jazz Fest.

Joyce, your family dinners on Sunday sound very nice. For many years my mother cooked a huge meal on Sundays and family members gathered. Her last five or more years in her house, I cooked food and transported it to her house for family gatherings. Now she's in a nursing home but still able to attend a few major holiday get-togethers.

ChiSandy

Went to dinner at a new-to-us (well, I ordered out from it once) restaurant about a mile north--Taste of Peru. It's been on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, and has gotten rave reviews on local dining shows & news segments. BYOB, but they make virgin Pisco sours by the pitcher ($13!), and patrons are encouraged to spike them from their own supply. So we bought the last bottle of Pisco brandy from the neighborhood liquor store and headed up there. We started by sharing chicken & beef empanadas, and then had the combo dinner for two: boiled potatoes with cheese sauce (tastes better than it sounds), ceviche (shrimp & corvina) with sweet potato and whole hominy, a chicken tamal (steamed in banana leaves and made with marinated chicken) and their version of paella--arroz con mariscos (crab legs, shrimp, scallops, mussels). No room whatsoever for dessert--in fact we had leftovers. So we'll explore dessert the next time.

carolehalston

Dinner tonight is an eggplant casserole or hot dish. I made a tomato sauce with ground turkey breast seasoned to taste like Italian sausage. In addition to tomatoes, onions and garlic, I dumped in the remainder of a jar of Rao's marinara. I peeled and sliced two eggplants and cooked the slices in batches in the air fryer. Then layered the eggplant with tomato sauce and grated mozzarella and romano.

In the future I will buy the regular ground turkey, not the ground turkey breast, which is too dry. Not surprising given the lack of fat but I gave the ground turkey breast a shot since it's on the WW "free food" list.

Tonight's side dish will be more of the green beans and potato chunks. The bag of green beans was large and I cooked only part of them last night. I find I don't like leftover green beans.

Lacey12

Sandy, yes, with layers and an umbrella you should be set.

Not sure I would go to the North End either after just returning from Rome...and remembering a cockroach at a restaurant wuld have me steering clear, too. Tho DH always reminds me that all restaurants have roaches and mice....but my favorites don’t let them show their faces in public!! I haven’t been to UOH in decades, and I never even witnessed a roach! 😏

There are soooo many new (and old) restaurants in Boston, it’s hard to choose. We do enjoy La Voile on Newbury St.(casual French), erbaluce in Bay Village, near theatre district. Are you thinking about Neptune Oyster, B and G Oysters, or Island Creek Oyster Bar? There are lots of them these days!

We are thinking of taking a quick trip to Philly to see the Celtics face their opponent on their home court. We so enjoyed last night’s game, and the spirit in the Garden. Plus we got to visit with DS2 who was also at the game. They play tomorrow evening and again on Monday in Philly. Unfortunately, plane fare is ridiculously pricey, so DH wants to drive down. Since I’m the one who does most of the driving, I need to decide about that! That route was one I traveled often when my mother was still living, and over the years, the trip extended from 5 hours to 8 or 9 given the crazy traffic. So, we’ll see...

Tonight, we are going to have that leftover veggie pasta I made the other night, but I will add some sea scallops and whole mushrooms to it since scallops are being featured on sale in all of the food stores here this week.

Last evening’s dinner was my fave salmon over veggies. I love that the chef loads us up on the veggies, since we skip the rice.

illimae

Tonight was a seared 1/2 chicken breast with a white wine sauce on sautéed spinach with a side of garlicy sautéed squash and zucchini.

Egads007

Love the food pics! The salmon has beautiful color, and Illimae the garlicky squash and zucchini is one of my fave side dishes!

It's been foggy and damp cold and rainy here for what feels like a week...ugggg. We needed warming up so I made a spicy but mildly hot texas chilli to serve with homemade chipotle, lime & onion paleo bread, toasted it....now that was hot (which we love). Found a neat recipe for habanero & honey whipped butter for the bread. Turned out to be quite tasty. Finished it up with a spinach salad and threw together a dressing with lime zest, juice, garlic and evoo. We rarely eat dessert, but I felt the need to carb up with the yucky weather, so earlier in the day I made a paleo pear & cardamom upside down cake. Will have to freeze the leftovers so that I won't eat it all. I have a sweet tooth the size of Wisconsin! We were warmed, full and happy. Made up for the chicken fiasco. )

auntienance

Fish tacos with a chipotle slaw, Mexican street corn and black beans. Happy Cinco de Mayo!