So...whats for dinner?

auntienance

Eric, the bird is upright, alert and actually chirped today. If she continues to improve we're hoping to be able to release her when the temps warm up a little, hopefully next week.

We were scheduled to get 8 inches of snow today but instead got a dusting. Hallelujah! We didn't get ice and the 15 inches of snow on the ground has reduced to about 9. Bitter cold temps, so no more melting for a while.

Comfort food tonight.- Swiss steak, sous vide mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans.

Hoping you folks east of here weather the storm without losing power.

ChiSandy

We had 7" the first go-round last night till this afternoon; and we've gotten another inch since midnight. We might end up with over a foot if the winds keep coming in over the lake from the east, instead of blowing west and slamming northern IN and southwestern MI like nature intended (sorry, Gary, LaPorte, the Dunes and Benton Harbor-St. Joe).

CeliaC

Greeting to everyone!

We are feeling storm Harper's blast in the greater Cincinnati area. Airport (where I work) officially posted 6.5" snow, exceeding Gia's almost 6". Non-stop rain until 6pm yesterday cleaned out last week's snow, but drastic drop in temps has caused ice under the snow. Bitter cold today & into tomorrow, warming into the 40s on Tues. Envious of everyone in warmer climates.

Brunch today was an omelet w/herbs & mushrooms, 3 thin slices uncured bacon (pork raised without hormones - cannot totally give up bacon!) and a cheddar chive biscuit from Whole Foods, spread with a bit of butter. OJ and coffee with Chambord, as well. Staying inside and warm today - Not looking forward to venturing out tomorrow.

Everyone experiencing storm Harper, stay warm.

MinusTwo

I finally made the Knorr skillet meal - chicken, barley, carrots, spinach, lemon. I really liked the texture of the barley. I thought maybe a bit over lemony, which I partially cut by adding salt at the table. But if you like "bright" food (some chicken piccata has really heavy lemon), you'd probably like the lemon.
I cooked it an extra 10 minutes since I was using my electric skillet and the simmer cycles on & off instead of steady cooking. Also because I knew the neighbor I was sharing with wouldn't try the barley if it was the least bit 'al dente'. I only added 1/2 the spinach since she wasn't sure she would like that either.
I'll make it again, but I'll increase the carrots, add an equal amount of mushrooms and some sauteed onions. In fact I'll add onions & mushrooms & more spinach to the leftovers when I re-heat. I think you could easily make it with tofu or other vegetarian protein.

auntienance

Day 10 of no sun. This is unbelievable. And it's snowing. This resembles Alaska in more ways than one. If I had any ambivalence about moving, it has now vanished.

More comfort food - chicken pot pie. I have some pie crust already made but I like puff pastry on pot pie too, so there are choices to be made.

Where is Carole?

ChiSandy

Celia, pretty much the same weather situation here in Chicago (with the lake-effect, about 8" total). At today's high of 17F, going down to 4. No 40s in our forecast--just wintry-mix Tues. night and snow showers all day Wed. (my birthday--where I have PT up in Evanston, an orthodontia consult in Lakeview and a wine tasting downtown at the Drake--we booked a room, and I will be using rideshares throughout).

Brunch today was corned beef hash sauteed with onions, red, yellow, orange and poblano peppers and a sunny-side-up egg atop it. Was about to make a grilled cheese sandwich, but Bob just called: he stopped off at Cellars en route home and is bringing roast chicken with mashed spuds & peas.

KatyK

Like everyone else I’m reading about the storms and cold in some places. My sister in VT has really been getting winter. Been quite mild here, actually rain and sadly has also rained up at the ski area. We had hoped to ski tomorrow. DH’s back is getting much better and he thinks he could do a short ski - skate skiing is very low impact.

I just finished up a stew - chicken, butternut,apple stew. Also has onion and parsnip. You add fresh ginger and sage and it’s quite good. I made a big pot so there is enough for a couple nights. - unless I’m generous. I have a friend getting a hand surgery on Tuesday and may bring her some - or not! 😊. I’ll let you know.....

Some nice food pics

MinusTwo

Nance: I HATE no sun. I was having some 'blah' weather days with dreary grey skies last week. Decided to look up number of sun days a year. I looked up Seattle's average sunny days - only 152. The US average is 205. Houston is 204 (surprising). Dallas is 232. San Francisco is 259 days - really surprising. Hope you have sun soon. I just can't motivate to do anything with no sun.

Eric - great for the new fiber optic 'lines'. I'm still using a DSL connection. I know I'm a dinosaur, but I've kept my hard wired land line because of the hurricanes, my son provides my old fashioned flip phone cell service, I don't watch TV and I don't share pictures on FB or other sites - so really don't need faster service.

Celia - your omelette sounded delicious but I had to eat salad or throw it in the trash. Included everything but the kitchen sink in the salad - served with club crackers & butter.

eric95us

Mine is DSL as well. It's 60 down and 5 up. Before it was 1.8 down and less than 1 up...these are all megabit per second

Not to be outdone, the cable company upgraded things as well and I can get 100 megabit speeds from them, but it's about 1/2 again more expensive. Since there is just two of us and we aren't heavy duty streaming users, the 60 is just fine.

illimae

Tonight was tacos, so many tacos and beans in little corn tortilla boats while binge watching the Good Place and drinking wine. A near perfect night.

carolehalston

2019 did not begin well for me. I woke up on New Year's Day with a horribly painful sore throat from sinus drip. It was downhill from there. Despite a visit to a walk in clinic and steroid pills I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia in both lungs the following Tuesday. Meanwhile DH was developing bronchitis but managed to avoid being hospitalized. I was discharged last Monday and the two of us have been convalescing together.

I feel good but am weak.

Tonight's dinner will be the corned beef brisket with cabbage, carrots and potatoes that was our menu for New Year's Day that did not happen. We didn't have black-eyed peas either.

auntienance

Oh no Carole, I am so sorry! Glad you are on the mend now anyway. Wish I was there, I would bring you some chicken noodle soup. Feel better soon!

We saw the soon for a couple of hours today so there's that. Doesn't quite make up for the 15° temperature, but I'll take it.

Semi homemade pizzas tonight on crusts bought at the Italian market. Toppings will be Canadian bacon, green pepper and scamorza because that's what I have. I also have some homemade sauce available.

ChiSandy

Oh, Carole, what an awful start to the new year. Rest up (goes without saying), stay hydrated, let nonessential tasks slip. I always shudder when friends toast with "Good riddance, (year)--the new one has got to be better." (I try to avoid jinxes whenever possible).

Didn't see any of the moon, thanks to the lake effect snow clouds.

auntienance

Oddly enough, our skies cleared just in time to see the eclipse.

eric95us

Carole, I'm glad you're out of the hospital and starting to feel better.

GreenHarbor

Dinner tonight was linguine with kale-walnut pesto. I’m trying to eat more vegetables, but don’t like a lot of vegetables, so I was happy to not taste the kale. Our high temperature in southeast MA today was 5 degrees. Tomorrow is supposed be be a balmy 29 degrees!

MinusTwo

Dinner tonight was two Oscar Meyer Bun Length hot dogs served with coleslaw. I got home too late from Chair Yoga to dig into cooking - and beside I was sooooo relaxed I didn't want to. I had planned to make an omelette after reading about Celia's dinner the other day - but I totally forgot. Maybe tomorrow.

Kayak2

Hi Green - When I left Western MA around 11 AM today, the high was -4 degrees! Funny that you mentioned kale. That was my dinner tonight - (kale salad with some roasted sweet potato slices on the side, and a piece of cranberry tart made some time ago but defrosted today). Yum..

KatyK

Carole, hope you and DH are feeling better and that the rest of 2019 treats you better! So glad there was left over stew for dinner tonight. So nice to not have to make dinner.

MinusTwo

Oh Carole - what a horrible way to start the year. Glad you're on the road to recovery.

My son reported 7+ hour delays at the Boston airport earlier today. He's stuck overnight, and walked several blocks to a restaurant w/o a stocking cap. Brrrr. When you don't live in snow country, it's easy to forget how fast your ears can get frostbite at close to "1" degree.

Lacey12

Oh Carole, I’m so sorry to hear about your illness and hospitalization. Hopefully 2019 will improve along with your lungs! Thanks for posting so we know how/where you were.

We are in serious deep freeze here along with the rest of the east coasters. The only good thing was a relatively clear drive into Boston tonight...few people venturing out given the single digit temps, terrible wind, and the holiday. Minus, we could have given your DS a lift somewhere tonight on either end of the game..not a night to fight the icy wind tunnels of the Boston streets on foot! Hope he is fine....

Nance, I love the bird story! And yes, winter without sun is no fun!! Today at 8 degrees a few hours of sun melted the thick frost on my upstairs windows. Sadly I missed the lunar eclipse due to that opaque window status last night.

Green, the kale walnut pesto sounds delicious. I bet you’d do fine with kale in soups with a tomato base and lots of veggies. It softens nicely and taste is hardly detectable.

Enjoying reading about everyone’s meals!

Last night I defrosted the last of our turkey chili and made a big platter of nachos grande to eat for dinner while watching the footbal games. The games (due to my concerns about brsin injuries) and nachos (don’t need the calories) are a real departure from my typical habits, but DH was in heaven.

Tomorrow I might make omelets for dinner to avoid a trip to the store.

The salsa started out looking like football laces....haha.

Stay warm and dry, everyone!

carolehalston

Last night was two chicken legs prepared using the NYT Braised Chicken Legs recipe with a side of brown rice. We spooned some of the lemony pan sauce on the rice.

Tonight will be jump ups.

I finally opened the big box with my order of copper cooking products that I ordered before Christmas. I was too sick to care about opening the box when it arrived so it has been sitting there.

An ugly day here, rain earlier and very gray outside. Good to be cozy indoors.

MinusTwo

Carole - glad to hear you are continuing to 'mend'. Nothing wrong with Christmas in January!!

Took a friend to lunch at PF Changs. Her choice since she has lots of dietary restrictions. I hadn't been in 8 or 9 months but it was always a reasonable lunch deal & decent food. The food's still OK (note - OK but not great), but they have removed the "soup included" from the lunch menu items. The base price stayed about the same, but now you have to order separately & pay extra for the soup. 44 degrees here today so the soup would have been welcome. On the other hand, the Tempura Bowl was enough for two people. Rice topped with tempura shrimp, beans, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes. My only real complaint was that the food was served in a regular bowl and didn't stay warm enough while eating. Delicious sriracha/honey sauce.

auntienance

Carole i'm so glad you're feeling well enough to post and more importantly, cook!

I, on the other hand, woke up with all the trappings of a head cold. I decided something spicy was in order so threw a frozen half chicken in the pc and started chopping up veggies for gumbo. The chicken is done and I've started on the roux (my back hurts already from standing at the stove.) I have some jarred roux so I don't know why I decided to make it from scratch when I don't feel that great, but here I stand. I hope I still have some frozen okra.

Lacey, glad you checked in and hope your temps warm up. We actually saw the sun today 🌞

MinusTwo

Lacey - thanks for the thoughts about my DS. He did have a stocking cap in his suitcase. Just didn't take it from the hotel. I don't know where they stay when they are RON, but apparently he has a restaurant that he particularly likes. He doesn't eat fish or crustaceans, so it won't have been chowder.

MinusTwo

How about a survey on cooking oils? Many years ago I switched from plain old Wesson Oil (which my Mother always used) to Canola Oil. Now I'm looking at switching to Safflower Oil. That said, I don't ever cook fried foods. Again, my Mother never did either. We just weren't raised in the South. I do saute some and might use it in baking. Often I use EVOO to saute.

What oil (s) do you all use?

GreenHarbor

I use EVOO for sautéing and salad dressing and canola oil for baking. I just bought some avocado oil, as it’s supposed to be good for sautéing at higher temps like in an Instant Pot

illimae

We use sunflower oil for frying and olive oil for the sautés and such.

Soup (chicken and lots of veggies) and salad (Cesar) for us tonight. DH made the soup and it was perfect.

auntienance

Minus, I use canola for the occasional frying I do, evoo for sautees and salad dressing, peanut for wok cooking, chili and sesame for Asian cooking, I have some blood orange oil and walnut oil that I use for salads mostly.

ChiSandy

The only seed oil I use is grapeseed—it is neutral (no fishy-linseed oil aroma like canola) and lower in omega-6s than safflower, sunflower, cottonseed or corn oil. For frying Asian foods I use peanut (especially on the rare occasions I make shrimp chips), but I’m careful about what pot or pan I use in case a dinner guest has a peanut allergy. I sauté with EVOO (California Olive Ranch Everyday Blend) and dip breads or dress my salads with either EVOO (a Ligurian brand I bought at Eataly) or infused olive oils I get at Old Town Oil or Vom Fass.