So...whats for dinner?

M0mmyof3

Think I need to make something hearty to help me get my strength back from being down with a stomach bug. Time to do a dive into the freezer for dinner.

carolehalston

Looking forward to homemade pizza tonight. The dough for two crusts is in the refrigerator. I used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 cups of unbleached all purpose, 1 packet of pizza yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1 T. honey and 1 T. olive oil. Oh, and 1 1/2 cups warm water. This is Mary Ann Esposito's recipe. I would have used white whole wheat instead of the all purpose but there was none at my Winn Dixie. Its offering of flour indicates that it's not an important ingredient for WD customers.

I made turkey Italian sausage this afternoon and and pre-cooked it. Also cooked fresh sliced mushrooms in butter. Another topping will be Kalamata olives. Yum. Yum. I will probably make a romaine salad as a side. Or maybe not.

Today was a gorgeous day, starting out in the 50's and ending up in the 70's. If only we had months of this same weather.

MinusTwo

Bedo - hey girl - we're thinking about you and those test results. Hope you check in soon.

Dinner was bagged Asian salad mix with avocado & chicken added. Meals will be more hit & miss than usual. My SIL has been in ICU since Sunday. Based on intuition - I drove down to see her this morning even though she is now sedated and likely didn't know I was there. Her husband & children decided this afternoon after I left to transition to Hospice & pull the trach tube. She will not be able to breathe with out the machine, and hospice is estimating about two days. I never had a sister and she never had a sister, so we decided to drop the "in-law" more than 30 years ago and just be sisters. I am the godmother to her two kids in their late 30s. This is very hard

auntienance

Oh Minus, I'm so sorry. (((Hugs))) to you

MinusTwo

Thanks Nance. My nephew just called. They pulled the tube and she slipped away within an hour.

auntienance

Minus, tears for you and your family.

DodgersGirl

Minus—. So sorry for your loss. Cyber hugs

eric95us

Hugs Minus.

Busy here.

illimae

So sorry for your loss minus.

Had to put my last baby down from a litter of 4, mom, dad and his 3 brothers and sister passed within the last 5 years. He was 14, which is amazing for a bulldog, been sad and unmotivated to cook at all. Hoping a getaway to the cabin will help me get refocused.

DodgersGirl

Illimae— sorry for the fur baby loss.

Lacey12

Oh, Minus, I am so sad for you. Losing a “chosen”sister has to be so painful. Sending hugs to you.

And hugs to you, too, Illimae. I always remember the words of our lovely vet shared with me when I was having our first mini schnauzer put down, that for as many times that she has had to say good bye to her animals over the years, it never gets easier. They are a big part of the fabric of our families. Cute pooch! Hope your trip to the cabin feels comforting.

Yes, Eric, I imagine you are wildly busy. Sending spirited energy your way.

Carole, your pizza sounds delicious!! And I'm impressed that you make your own turkey sausage. I saw some delicious sounding pizza choices on the menu at our friend's neighborhood Italian restaurant tonight, but resisted the pull and had a shaved brussells sprouts salad with chicken added. Feeling deprivedly virtuous! Fortunately, my friend's daughter joined us for dinner so I was busy enjoying catching up with her and paid less attention to our food

carolehalston

Hugs, Minus. Such a huge loss for you and your chosen sister's family.

My pizza was too good for my own good. I pigged out.

Lacey, several years ago I purchased half a pig from a MN farmer. Among the cuts of pork were quite a few packages of ground pork. I looked up home-made Italian sausage and learned that it was a simple matter of adding spices and seasoning. Fennel, red pepper flakes (to taste), onion and garlic powder, s & p. So easy. Now I use ground turkey with low fat content because of my weight control issues.

Michael was a monster. The devastation is terrible.

Beaverntx

Carole, I too make my own turkey sausage! The recipe I found calls for red, white, and black pepper -- way too peppery for the palates in my house. I'm still tweaking it a bit but add salt, black pepper, sage, fennel seed, garlic powder, ground cloves, nutmeg & allspice (just a little bit of each of the last three). We like this sausage with scrambled eggs and on our homemade pizza. Have also used it in recipes that call for crumbled crisp bacon. Glad to know someone else is doing this...

M0mmyof3

Going to make a beef roast, roasted butternut squash and a salad for tonigh

carolehalston

Beaver, I may try adding a little sage to my mixture.

Last night's dinner was eggplant casserole out of the freezer and a romaine salad with tomato, cucumber, avocado, and blue cheese.

Today I'm working at the Woodworkers Guild tent at the Madisonville Wooden Boat Show. So I'll be tired tonight. Dinner will be easy. Will thaw out some fish brought home from MN.

auntienance

I often make my own breakfast sausage using a recipe from Alton Brown that I tweaked to suit our taste. We like it a little spicy. I haven't made Italian sausage though the meatballs I make use all the same spices. I've never liked turkey burgers, turkey bacon and the like but I might try my own sausage with it.

I have no idea what dinner is, although I have a thick rib eye ready to sous vide. I also have half of a container of marinara thawed that I need to use in something.

Illimae, I'm so sorry about your fur baby. They leave such a hole in your heart.

eric95us

I can't say "wildly busy". But, "quite busy" would be accurate.

We're set up at the 'closest to the damage zone' hospital and the number of folks coming here to the emergency dept has increased to much higher than normal levels...so we're here to augment the hospital's emergency dept capacity.

We're doing two 12-1/2 hour shifts a day, 7 days a week, so food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) has been pizza, cookies, coffee and donuts.

ChiSandy

(((Minus))). May your sister-by-choice's memory be for a blessing.

(((Ilimae))). Though 14 is an amazing run for a bulldog (even a Frenchie), it's always too soon to lose a furbaby.

Been offline the past two days here in the western Berkshires. Fall color is near-peak (will take pix tomorrow, rain permitting). We're in a timeshare condo, so we have to supply our own food. Last night we went to Williamstown and the 6 House Pub. (In an 18th century barn). It was prime rib night and they had only 2 pieces left, both end cuts. Normally I insist on mid-rare but we'd travelled all day and could have eaten the furniture. The outside was salty but the thickest part was a perfect medium—the end medium-well. Each portion was the size of a calf. Needless to say, we brought back leftovers. And they gave us a first-floor unit with full kitchen—only thing missing was a teakettle, which we got at Target for $9. Today we drove down to the Berkshire Mall in Pittsfield to see “A Star is Born,” which was wonderful, but the mall was depressing—a ghost town with only 1/3 of the shops occupied (only 3 stalls in a 10-space food court and one was closed today) and most of the rest shuttered on Sunday. At least Target was open, where we got some rudimentary staples for the fridge, (No breakfast buffet, no eatery on-premises). We stopped at the package store en route to dinner and home-away-from-home, just as it was closing.

The only open eatery was a tavern in Lanesborough—and it was far better than we expected. So-so salad bar, but fresh & adequate. Bob had a surprisingly authentic shrimp etouffee (good dark roux, albeit none too spicy—this is New England) and I had broiled sea scallops in a garlic “nage” (spoon & bread provided). I asked for double veggies in lieu of spuds or rice, and the veg was an entire quartered roasted acorn squash. Between that, some asparagus from Target, half a baked potato and half of one leftover prime rib portion (each leftover portion can feed two), tomorrow night’s dinner is set. Had to buy salt, pepper & olive oil—gotta remember next time to pack some, along with Panola sauce. I have a bunch of tiny bottles of Spanish & Italian olive oil & balsamic I swiped from business class on Iberia & Alitalia. Should’ve packed them

Lacey12

Sandy, it's always a challenge to know what to bring for a time share stay. Years ago I used to bring half my kitchen to our summer TS in P-town b/c I needed to do some cooking since the kids were little and eating every meal out was expensive and not very relaxing. ;/ I had all sorts of small bottles and containers of condiments, oils, sugar, etc. prepped to bring every year. Now I bring practically nothing but snacks for the beach and some yogurt for breakfast since we do eat out daily. What a welcome routine change! And Provincetown has such a nice variety of restaurants. Parts of western MA are pretty depressed like you saw, but if you are not too far from the Lenox area there are some very nice restaurants there. And I sure envy your peak foliage viewing! Our trip to the lake Columbus weekend was just a week too early for gorgeous bright color. It was just starting. Please do post pix!

Carole, I'd forgotten about your half pig purchase! I'm curious now about trying to make my own turkey sausage...are they patties or encased? I rarely use ground turkey tho. The color and texture of it kind of bother me, (sensory aversion, I suppose)so I'd have to get over that! If I made a nice sausage, I suppose I could add that to my turkey stuffing, instead of my usual purchased pork sausage, so DS2 could partake. He doesn't eat mammals, and I noticed last Thanksgiving, his wife made her stuffing with turkey sausage.

Meals....I may have gotten over my resistence to meal prep this weekend, which feels good. And we are back to healthful eating. Yay!

I'm feeling motivated to make a shaved brussells sprout salad after the one I had last Friday. So I have tons of them in the refridge awaiting.

We had haddock from Traders last night, which was inexplicably fresh tasting (if a bit on the wet side) coming all the way from Norway! I'd never bought fish from them before, but the price was way more reasonable than any fish at our regular supermarkets.

Tonight we had some leftover chicken, a salad with balsamic dressing and the absolute last ears of corn from the farmer's market. They are clearly moving into the “cow corn" category. I also made DH a piping hot bowl of Alessi chicken soup to which I added some chicken bone broth for more protein. He has a very bad URI which is odd for him, so I'm doing the grandma “cures thru food" choices as much as possible. But tomorrow I hope he calls the doc as his cough is awful.

Also tomorrow we have our first Celtics' game, so will probably have my salmon over sauteed veggies meal before the game. Will probably see part of the Red Sox game during dinner...so many sports teams here, so little time! HaHa.

Today I had a clear mammogram for which I am truly grateful!

Eric, I wish we were all closer and could bring you some meal variety. Much as I love pizza, I think I would start to dislike it if it were the only constant repetitive meal option. Carry on....folks in your role are so important to that population who lost so much.

carolehalston

I first tried ground turkey because of WW influences. I was hesitant because I'm not a turkey fan. It's such a bland taste, and I have never found a deli turkey for sandwiches that I like. To my surprise ground turkey lends itself to tasty cooking and serves well as an alternative to ground beef. On the current WW program, it's a zero point food, which also encourages me to choose it over beef or pork. LOL, Lacey, on not liking its appearance. Google Italian sausage recipes and you'll find one with seasonings that sound good to you.

Yesterday I played golf at Carter Plantation in Springfield with two women golfing friends. One now lives at Carter, and her husband, a Cajun, loves to cook. He gifted me and Linda, the third golfer, a container of shrimp and pasta out of their freezer, which is loaded with his cooking. DH and I had the shrimp and pasta for dinner, and it was delicious. Rixby cooks with a lot of seasoning. I had to add a little milk for the right consistency since the pasta soaks up the sauce. I was surprised to discover that pasta freezes.

My big food story for yesterday is lunch at Carter Plantation. The small restaurant is a nice room, always a plus. It was very hot and humid yesterday, and I had sweated buckets out on the course. Even rode out the last few holes. I decided to splurge and ordered a burger and sweet potato fries. The burger was wonderful. I enjoyed it to the last bite, feeling rewarded for my endurance of the golf round under such uncomfortable conditions.

If it weren't for health considerations, I might just eat whatever I wanted to eat and waddle around. And buy a bigger size clothes every few years. NO, NO, NO.

M0mmyof3

Leftover roast from the other night tonight, along with the leftover butternut squash.

On a very happy note, I heard that my friends in FL that got hit with Michael are okay.

april485

"If it weren't for health considerations, I might just eat whatever I wanted to eat and waddle around. And buy a bigger size clothes every few years. NO, NO, NO."

Carole, I have been doing exactly the above and it is not pretty! I agree with NO, NO, NO!

Hi everyone, long time no "see" I have been very busy at work and too dang tired to get on the computer for anything much in the evenings.

Minus, sorry about your sister.

IliaMae, sorry about your pooch. My daughter has an english bull-dog that she got at a rescue. Dexter is so sweet. He is only around 2 and he is such a ham. He is always the center of attention. I will post a photo at the end of this post.

Eric, hope you get a better meal soon. Thanks for helping all of those poor people down there. I am sure they are scared to death.

Anyway, tonight is eggplant parm with linguini and salad. I have some nice shiraz and tonight I will indulge in a glass. It has been a bummer of a day.

Ok, wanted to say hello and leave Iliamae a photo of my grand-dog Dexter. See you all soon!

eric95us

"Yesternight" (working nights) was Whataburger.

We're hoping to get some fruit soon. We've been innundated with cookies, cakes and cup cakes. My blood sugar has been likely running 20,000 mg/dl . Maybe that's why the ants keep trying to carry me off.

carolehalston

The meat course tonight is a beautiful rib eye steak. Side will be frozen whole green beans cooked with garlic and rotel tomatoes and sprinkled with romano pecarino. Maybe a salad. Maybe not.

MinusTwo

April - great to see you. Thanks for the update & the cute dog picture. Do I remember correctly that you live closer to your daughter now?

Carole - Unfortunately I have to agree - no,no,no. If I eat out too often (oh that prepared food) and/or indulge in lots of bread - it's immediately up two pounds. That's not so dangerous in the summer when I'm doing water aerobics 3x a week, but it's scary this time of year after the pool has closed. Two lbs, and another 2 lbs, and then another 2 lbs and....before I know it it's 10 lbs. I'm still basically still eating one meal a day and something at night like popcorn & apples. It works OK if my meal is in the afternoon. Not so much if I eat a meal after 5pm.

illimae

Dexter is very handsome 😀

carolehalston

As always (or nearly always) the rib eye steak was delicious last night. I really enjoyed the green beans, more than dh did. I poured a little EVOO into a skillet, threw in thin-sliced garlic and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. After some stirring, I added diced red tomatoes with some of the juice, then added the frozen whole green beans and covered with a lid for a few minutes. Before serving I heated uncovered on high with lid off until most of the liquid was gone. Sprinkled heavily with grated cheese.

ChiSandy

The culprit for me is carbs—I lose and maintain quite well on low-carb (far better than low-cal or prefab food plans), albeit being a PITA at restaurants: but eventually I get bored and fall victim to some special occasion. I have a large attic and lots of clothes racks. Because I usually buy classic pieces that accessorize easily, I am a pack rat and have sizes on hand from 4-22. I throw out only what can’t be cleaned or fixed, and give away occasionally to clothing drives

Last night was our one fine-dining meal this trip: Mill on the Floss in New Ashford, MA very close to our resort. The bldg. dates back to the late 18th century, and the cuisine is old-school classic French—not “nouvelle.” Started with Laurent-Perrier champagne. App. was escargots for me, Manhattan corn chowder for Bob (ok, not so trad.). Shared a salad with classic Dijon vinaigrette. Bob had baked haddock with scallops in a lobster-scallion cream sauce; I had pan-fried sweetbreads in brown butter, with capers, roast potato and seasonal veggies. We each had a glass of Pouilly-Fuisse with our entrees. We shared dark chocolate mousse with dessert; I had a cappuccino. WIne prices were half of what they’d be in Chicago for the same pours, and dinner tab was just a bit over half big-city prices. No leftovers.

Made scrambled eggs, bacon, and 7-grain toast for breakfast. Went almost to summit of Mt. Greylock yesterday after the (very soft-sell) timeshare presentation (they served us Panera lunch), but stopped 2 mi. short as the sun was starting to set low enough to have been blindingly in my eyes on the way down had we taken the 10 min. to get to the top, take pix, and then head back downhill 8 mi. along a narrow steep twisty road. View was spectacular from our turnaround point anyway.

Today we’d planned to leaf-peep in VT, but it’s clouding up and the forecast is for rain/snow showers to roll in about 3-ish. So we’ll do that tomorrow (cold & clear) and go down to sightsee in Lenox or the Rockwell museum in Stockbridge this afternoon. Leaves not yet at peak down here in the Pittsfield/Williamstown area, but peaking in VT

carolehalston

Tonight will be shrimp out of the freezer, prepared scampi style and served with linguine and a salad.

Lacey12

Damn!! Just lost a newsy post and no time to redo. Catching DH’s virus so will skip grocery store trip for protein, and make eggs to go with already made ratatouille, salad, and baguette. Then hunker down on the couch later for the Sox game. Nice meal of salmon over cauliflower with red pepper relish and side of broccoli last nite on way to Cs’ game. You get to miss my boring details of getting to game given my vanished post.

Carole, the shrimp sounds delish!!