So...whats for dinner?

carolehalston

Amazing weight loss for Sharon! DH and I are blue grass music fans and the banjo is my favorite blue grass instrument. So I would be sitting there with the pets listening!

The pork steak was delicious. We had one side, corn cut off the cob and sautéed in butter.

Tonight's meat will probably be chicken thighs.

ChiSandy

Ate & drank WAY too much last night at the Mon Ami Gabi wine dinner--not only was it our 47th, but it was their 20th. Champagne & amuse-bouche out on the patio (perfect mild weather for it): gazpacho, pickled cauliflower florets with mini-peppadew peppers, English pea puree crostini with watermelon radishes. Indoors: smoked salmon & creme fraiche brioche toasts; escargots in choux (creampuff) pastry with romesco sauce; skate wing in browned butter with asparagus spears; beef tenderloin with souffle potatoes, baby carrots and potato puree; and locally farmed strawberries poached in white wine & brown sugar with sour cream "sorbet" (technically, a sherbet because sorbet doesn't have dairy). Full pours, full portions--this was no "chef's tasting" dinner. I am paying the price today for both the drinking (had to nap as soon as I got home, for 3 hrs, and then couldn't get back to sleep till 8 am--up again at 10 because Gordy's movers are here) and the overeating (been a "regular" gal). Doesn't help that the pollen/mold count is sky-high and my throat's scratchy.

And my baby is moving out as we speak (yeah, I know, he's 33, but still...); he will probably stay chez girlfriend tonight (rather than here, as I'd hoped) because his new bed hasn't been delivered and AC not yet installed. He & housekeeper are taking my car over to the new place to set up & unpack--I am sans wheels till tonight. Might walk to drugstore to pick up some Rx's and then perhaps Uber it to his new place to see for myself (with injuries to both upper extremities I'd be pretty useless setting up). Still in my PJs anyway.

For a few hrs.last night I was able to forget the ordeal awaiting me on 7/10: surgery to pin my L scaphoid together, debride the torn TFCC disc, and (yeee-OWCH) shorten the congenitally-too-long ulna that tore it (despite the falls, propping myself up w/my L hand, and wrenching pill bottles open, it wouldn't have torn had my ulna been of normal length). I'll be in a full-arm plaster cast for a week, then a "Muenster splint" (molded plastic or fiberglass immobilizing my L arm from palm to elbow) 24/7 for 8 weeks and then 8 more weeks wearing it to bed. Having second thoughts, but if I leave things alone they won't heal (at best) and could even get worse.

illimae

Tonight was rotisserie pork tenderloin with steamed cauliflower, squash and zucchini

Lunch was Hughies serving Vietnamese and a wide variety of craft beer and ales. This was my favorite meal Fried Rice Shaking Beef topped with an egg.

MinusTwo

Illimae - Funny coincidence. I was just looking at the "reader's choice" awards in my local paper that covers mostly Oak Forest and the Heights. Hughies won 1st place for the best Asian restaurant for 2018. Guess I'll have to try it.

ChiSandy

I am coming down with a nasty cold. (So is Bob). Had no appetite till lunchtime, when I had a fried egg and a piece of toast & jam. I'm depressed about Gordy moving out, but when I was his age I was already pregnant with him, so I have to get real. Those of you with grandkids probably think I'm being ridiculous, but he'd never even lived in a dorm--he commuted to college. That's why I freaked out last Sept. when he went incommunicado for an entire weekend--but relieved to learn it was because he'd fallen in love and was staying over at his girlfriend's place.

Dinner earlier was a mug of chicken broth ("souped up" with garlic, ginger, parsley & chives). Will slowly reheat that leftover filet mignon for a late supper. Slowly, because it's a perfect medium-rare and I don't want to ruin it (or eat it cold). With my surgery coming up, I am going to have to get used to increasing my protein to speed healing. Gotta make room for those extra calories--so it looks like the sugar and starch will have to go. But not yet.

illimae

oh minus, you must! I’ve never been disappointed. A friend and I go somewhat often and we treat our Hughies lunch date like a holiday, we even call it Shaking Beef Daaaay!!! Beware of very limited parking though, noon is a problem, try 11:30 ish.

MinusTwo

Illimae - I love lunch at 11am. Or 1pm. Maybe after we all get through the upcoming holiday we could arrange to meet there for lunch one day.

carolehalston

Dinner last night was boneless, skinless chicken thighs lightly breaded in Italian seasoned bread crumbs and baked in the grill/oven. I had to use two 9 in square aluminum foil pans. My side was inspired by Illimae. Yellow squash, zucchini and onion saute in olive oil. I cut the onions in large slices and pushed them aside from my serving. DH kept reaching over with his fork to take my discarded onions!

The thighs were juicy and tasty. I seasoned them with s & p, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne, light on the cayenne.

Tonight will be dinner out at the Y restaurant following couples golf. I am regretting signing up for the golf because it will be hotter than normal at noon, in the 80's. I'm hoping for a breeze. The Y restaurant is so named because of its location in the triangle of two highways intersecting. For this area it's a more "upscale" restaurant featuring steaks, but there are fish and other selections on the menu.

auntienance

Carole, that sautee with a few tomatoes thrown in is my DH's favourite veggie dish. Does the area you're in have "supper clubs?"

Sandy, I marvel at your ability to overeat/drink with your current disabilities. You must be more agile than I'm picturing from your description lol. I do hope you can get fixed up soon.

Going to be a scorcher today near 100. Ugh. I need to get out to pick beans before it's too hot and go grocery shopping. Spent yesterday making meatballs and sauce for the freezer, so meatball sandwiches for dinner.

MinusTwo

Some of you might know Jazzy from other threads. She gave me permission to share this veggie. It's a New Mexican dish called Calabasitas. Obviously squash, zucchini, onions, corn, and garlic. The traditional version calls for green chili. She used green chili flakes. My plan is to add a small call of fire roasted Hatch green chili. There are lots of variations, and yes - tomatoes or tomato paste are in some of them. Green or red peppers are added to others. I'm going to go the decadent, calorie added route - when all the veggies are done, top with cheese (anything from Cotija to Monterrey Jack to Cheddar) and cover with the lid just until the cheese melts.

Carole - My son would like the idea of onions in large slices so he could pick them out.

carolehalston

Nance, there were "supper clubs" in this area. We ate at one in Walker that is now a restaurant. The dining experience wasn't good enough to entice us to return. They were known for their popover rolls, and they were delicious. The special was prime rib and it wasn't up to par.

carolehalston

Minus, my alternate treatment of onions is to chop them in the food processor until they are mush. Or by hand until they're very fine. Onions add flavor in cooked food and I use them a lot. I just don't like disgusting hunks in my food. My sister Linda chops her onion into a large dice.

Tomorrow our neighbors Mary and Lyman are having an outdoor wedding with about a hundred guests, including weekenders in the resort. She is preparing the food (with the help of two sisters) and it will be a MN/ND kind of spread with lots of cold salads and a couple of meats. I will bypass all the salads because they will all contain raw onion.

M0mmyof3

Hubby requested that I make spaghetti today for tonight. Gonna make it in a bit, so all we have to do tonight is nuke it!

illimae

Minus, count me in. I going to be among the retired folk soon, so I’ll be flexible with lunch times too.

bedo

Minus Yay on the scan.

Carol and minus, I lived in Georgia for 11 years. Boiled peanuts are a Southern thing and are sold on the side of the road, mostly in the mountains. Here's the recipe. You'll like them! I've been eating them not boiled lately though, I miss the boiled version.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/boiled-peanuts

Not much fiddling, I only get one carry on with my travels and it's way too hard to take a cat and a violin on board, so the cat gets "stowed under the seat in front of me." She just goes to sleep, she's used to it.

MinusTwo

Bedo - Thanks for the recipe for boiled peanuts. I have never tasted them. But oh my goodness, what a LOT of salt. I've been trying to eat 'dry roasted'. They still have some salt but not much oil. If I keep a jar on the cupboard, I can swing by & eat one handful and it satisfies my craving for salt. (most of the time)

I hate that you're not playing your violin but I do understand the space constraints. Maybe next fall.

Dinner was a large salad w/lots of additions. Tomorrow will be the last of the leftover beans. I bought some fresh corn (7 for $1.00). Looks OK but flavor may not satisfy on it's own, so I'll try the Calabasitas on Sunday.

ChiSandy

Well, my current "disabilities" aren't that bad--I can cut stuff standing over the chopping block, using my upper arm as the "prime mover." I have much more ROM in my R arm than I did last week, and hardly ever wear the sling. I just have to remember not to push down on stuff with my hand, nor to pull anything without some leverage. (I found a steel spatula makes a good lever for propping up dishes at the top of the stack, and using a silicone grip mat to pull one out from below. I prefer to use the regular plate as a base for paper plates, to cut down on dishwashing). Did order some assistive devices: doorknob covers, long-handled shoehorn, pill-bottle opener, etc.

Too hot out to cook. Too hot to walk to restaurants, too. (And we both have summer colds--ugh). Bob picked up some stuff to go from the restaurant in the Oak Lawn Hilton: Buffalo wings and deconstructed chicken breast lettuce wraps. Had an iced almond milk latte earlier (the Nespresso capsule machine and the Aeroccino frother work well--I really shouldn't be operating my big espresso rig for the time being, as it takes some force to lock the "portafilter" into the grouphead and work the steam knobs--ask your barista what that means). Treated myself to a mini-Magnum ice cream bar--no scooping necessary. Tried to pull the foil off a pudding cup last night--just don't have the strength to get a grip. I had to cut the foil off with a knife.

carolehalston

Dinner at the Y Restaurant was not great. The room was nice and not noisy. My bloody mary was outstanding, almost like a liquid salad with all the goodies on toothpicks. Bloody Mary? you're thinking. I was done in by the heat and humidity yesterday and a bloody mary sounded refreshing. It was.

DH had the 10 oz prime rib and so did the other couple at our table. I had the blue cheese burger, wrongly thinking that a burger is always a good choice in MN. It was overcooked and the blue cheese melted to a brownish color. My Caesar salad was not what I expected but I enjoyed its crispness and fresh flavors. The baked potato was not good. How can a restaurant miss on baked potato? The prime rib was cooked past the requested doneness. Robin, one of our dinner companions, complained to the waitress, who apologized and said they had run out of prime rib.

Needless to say, we won't be going back to the Y!

Dinner tonight will be the wedding reception under a white tent out on the lawn. I may have mentioned that our neighbors here in the resort, Mary and Lyman, are getting married (for the 3rd time!) after living together 20 plus years. Earlier in the year they had to present a marriage certificate to apply for a VA house loan (just in case they found a house to buy in the FL panhandle!). Afterwards they had a small religious ceremony. NOW they're having a to-do with a hundred guests. Mary has thought of nothing else and talked of nothing else for a whole year. The theme is Hawaian and we'll all wear artificial leis.

The food will be typical MN, various pasta salads and bean salad, etc. All with...you guessed it! Raw onion. I'll have a sloppy joe or two. The good news is that tomorrow the wedding will be OVER! Mary didn't have a big wedding the first go round when she was married at 17 and she's indulging herself (on a budget) these many years later. I hope everything goes according to what she envisions.

The music and dancing willing be at nearby Clancy's. Originally it was to be here, outdoors. Thank heaven for the change because there will be a lot of drunk folks before the night is over.

Today I will do some chopping and prep for a breakfast casserole I'm making to contribute to breakfast for Mary's guests tomorrow morning. Some family members are here at the resort and others are nearby. Her plan is for them to congregate for breakfast.

SpecialK

Haven’t been cooking too much this week, DH had a vascular procedure on his right leg on Mon, so was keeping it elevated Mon/Tues. I made some chicken chili at the beginning of the week. He returned to work on Wed and I made a nice salad of butter lettuce, roasted chicken breast, halved strawberries, goat cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds, and poppyseed vinaigrette for dinner. DH ate his lunch very late at work yesterday so he had cheese, crackers, an apple and some almonds while watching the Ray’s and Astros baseball game, I had a salad. Not sure about dinner tonight except that it will not be chicken - I have some red potatoes, so may make a sour cream and dill potato salad and some small sirloin steaks I will reverse sear. May also make a broccoli salad - the one with bacon, slivered almonds, dried cranberries and sweet and sour dressing - you’ve probably all eaten it. It’s hot so cold dinners are appealing.

Chisandy - so sorry about your injury and the need for surgery, but glad you’re finding ways to work around the limitations. Never a dull moment

ChiSandy

Carole, summer must be the only time you won't find hot-dish at a MN dinner party. As for burgers, I've never had much luck with blue or Gorgonzola cheese melted over the top--it cooks unevenly. But as an inside-out "juicy Lucy," St. Paul-style? Now you're talking. About the prime rib--that is always a problem when it's a special, because the restaurant's decision how much to buy and cook is a crapshoot. (Our local restaurant way overbought brisket for corned beef this March, having run out of the St. Pat's corned beef & cabbage special after only 90 minutes; so for a couple of weeks they were pushing Reubens on special and adding it to the chorizo hask as an option for brunch).Very hard, unless they specialize in it like Lawry's, to get an entire roast to medium-rare (much less rare); usually, for more degrees of doneness, they dip a slice briefly in the hot au jus. When it's late in service and the roast has been sitting under the heatlamps for awhile, it overcooks, especially the end pieces. Sometimes I ask for medium rare but if it's late or they're running out, I'll accept medium. Baked potatoes, if done en masse, are also tricky--have to bake them just short of all the way so that when "fired" they'll turn out right.

Until I visited the U.P. for the first time, I'd never really encounterd "supper clubs." (We have in nearby Lincolnwood, as part of the Lettuce Entertain You chain, "L. Woods Pine Lodge & Tap," modeled on one. Portions are too big, taste too often bland). But I found a good one last year in Rice Lake, WI--even had proper-sized crystal wine glasses. Excellent food, too.

carolehalston

The wedding food was ok. I had coleslaw, hot beans dish (basically canned baked beans with hamburger and possibly some additions), a small piece of pork loin cooked until it was falling apart, and two sloppy joes. The meat was ground beef but tasted good. The wedding cake was the best I've ever had. Mary found the recipe and she and her sisters baked the sheet cakes. The sisters decorated them and each cake looked different. I think the batter contains yogurt but the cake was very moist and a little heavy.

As dh reminded me, the food at most weddings is mediocre. Or at the weddings of ordinary folks. Upper crust catered affairs are probably better.

The good news is that the wedding is IN THE PAST. I hope the effort was worth it for Mary and Lyman. Now I'm looking forward to the departure of all the wedding guests.

Not sure about dinner tonight.

auntienance

Next to Popeyes fried chicken, wedding cake is my favorite food. It's what I always want for my birthday cake.

I have some leftover brown rice so will be making jambalaya with andouille and shrimp tonight. Skipping the chicken that I normally include because we've had a lot of it lately. DH's chicken tolerance is low.

MinusTwo

Not sure what got into my brain this morning, but I couldn't sleep so I cooked.

Boiled eggs for both deviled eggs & potato salad. After I assembled the eggs, I put the potatoes on to boil and went to check the sprinkler on the front lawn. It was broken & took some time, so oops, the potatoes got too soft. I went ahead since everything else was already chopped & I have almost 'mashed potato' salad. Oh well, it doesn't feel right in my mouth but it tastes good.

Next my lentil foray. Sauteed diced carrot, onion & garlic until soft. Added organic green lentils & chicken stock instead of water (since I had an open container of Swanson's in the fridge. I'd been warned not to cook them too much to avoid mush, so I set the timer for 15 minutes although most recipes said 20-25. Even that could have been less, but the result is good. When I get ready to eat, I'll saute some spinach & add the lentil mix. (recipe called for Kale but I don't eat that).

And last but not least - the Calabasitas. Zucchini, yellow squash & onions all thin sliced. I'll add fresh corn - I found some 7 for $1.00 on Friday - and a small can of Hatch chilies.

Who I'm cooking for is a mystery. It's just me & I haven't invited any guests. I can take some squash to my shut-in neighbor if I pull it out of the pan before adding the corn or chili. Maybe she'd try the lentils?? Otherwise at least 3 or 4 days of meals & none of them freezable.

M0mmyof3

Probably Brats on the grill. Not cooking inside today!

ChiSandy

Going out as little as possible—93, muggy, storms coming. Will order in

illimae

Tonight will be easy, grilled burgers with potato chips and a sugar free cheesecake (diabetic houseguests birthday) for dessert. It’s my first cheesecake, hopefully it turns out ok.

PatsyKB

We were in Seattle for a family wedding for a few days, so I am thrilled to be eating MY FOOD again. I managed to stick to my vegetarian/flexitarian ways when in Seattle but it wasn't always easy given that we were at restaurants, Pike Place Market, a wedding....

Tonight we're having our usual Sunday supper which is always one of my homemade soups plus some kind of vegetable or a dark-leafy-greens salad. DH has his grainy bread toast. I sometimes toast up a slice of Dave's Killer 21 Grain Thin Sliced bread and embellish it with tahini or smashed avocado or sunflower seed butter or almond butter.

Tonight's soup: Carrot Orange Fennel Soup with Cashew Cream and toasted pepitas. (Rebecca Katz's Cancer-Fighting Kitchen cookbook.)

carolehalston

We had dinner at La Pasta last night with the young owners of Pine Hollow Resort. Not sure of the ownership details but they share ownership with the man's parents, the "older owners"! I had a chicken and pasta dish in a butter sauce. Small chunks of chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts and pesto over linguine.

DH had his "usual," Italian sausage and sautéed onions and green peppers over linguine. Instead of the olive oil sauce he had tomato sauce. Didn't look as good to me.

Afterwards we visited the ice cream place across the street where I had a hot fudge sundae. MUST get back on track with my WW program.

Tonight will be a steak.

SpecialK

Last night was marinara with small turkey meatballs and mushrooms over spaghetti squash and a small green salad with balsamic dressing. I think tonight will be sweet and sour with turkey kielbasa, peppers, broccoli, carrot, onion and pineapple over brown rice. Not sure of our plans for the 4th - mine mostly entail sitting with the terrified dog watching a very loud TV. If you've never been in FL for the 4th it is quite the experience - there are fireworks for sale on every street corner - and these folks also like to celebrate with gunfire on top of that! It's pretty crazy!

ChiSandy

I have had to make some accommodations to my cooking technique, seeing as I basically have only a hand-and-a-half through the end of summer. Yesterday I was about to fry an egg. When I cracked it, I couldn't separate it at first, so I delicately dug in. My fingers began trembling so that I actually ended up dropping it into the pan, shattered shell at all. I picked out the near-empty hull (the last bit of white was sticking to the inside) and the larger pieces as best I could. So I had a bit more calcium in my diet. Gonna probably do caprese (have an heirloom tomato and fresh mozz. to use up, plus have to pinch off the basil so it won't go to seed like my cilantro did) and maybe either a little spaghetti aglio e olio or take the path of least resistance and put together one of those already-cooked quinoa salads. But that may be a challenge, as I have trouble peeling foil tops off of things (hurts my R arm too much, and not enough ROM in my braced L hand). I've had to take steak knives to pudding cups, yogurt & ricotta container seals, pill bottle inner seals, etc.