So...whats for dinner?

MinusTwo

Hmmm, the picture didn't work. Sorry for the large size. I guess I really don't know how to insert pictures.

Edited to say, didn't work again. Anybody have some advice?

auntienance

Minus, I love those garlic knots, we get them frequently. They freeze well too.

Eric, seriously? You have hummers in the winter? What kind? Lucky you!

eric95us

I think it was an Anna's Hummingbird. This one was "yelling" at me and Anna's are the noisy ones. It is hard to focus on them when they are only a foot away and maneuvering in for "the kill"

SpecialK

minus - if you click, or touch, on the icon above the text box that looks like a little mountain in a rectangle it should pop up anotherbox that allows you to choose a photo of your own on your photo file, or browse the internet for an image. Is that what you were doing? I tried to post a pic the other day and couldn’t get that process to work, but that is how I’ve done it in the past. If you post a pic from a cell phone I think you can also copy and paste.

Yogatyme

minus two, if you click on the 4th icon from the right side it will take you to your files. Click on the photo you want to post then click done in upper right hand corner.

ChiSandy

Nancy, I've had good luck with indoor pots of basil in the past, but I put the last one outside and when I brought it back indoors in Oct. it didn't survive the transition past the beginning of Nov.. (Maybe it got root-rot). I am constantly on the lookout for basil plants. My mom used to be able to grow hers in a pitcher of water. I seem to recall that until recently, supermarket basil had long enough stems to root in a glass of water (that's how I grow green onions), but perhaps the point of short-or-no stems is to get us to have to buy it frequently.

Lacey12

Sandy, to have fresh basil on hand, I often have it sitting in a glass of water or keep s small basil plant near the window in my kitchen.

Food has not been a big priority for me in the past week as I’ve had a miserable sore throat and respiratory infection. Fortunately, there were leftovers in fridge so we could limp through the week with meals. DH has had a mightier role in the kitchen. Yesterday we trekked to the local “urgent care” for me to have a strep test, which was negative. Just a regular old virus that I (and DH now) have to wait out. On the way home, we stopped at Trader’s and picked up some of their prepared meals which will make dinner prep more tolerable over the next few days.

Loving the anti- depressant treats!

Eric, my love for hummers would be seriously impacted if they targeted my head! We only get ruby throated ones and are thrilled when we can get close to them on our NH deck.

Minus, our DS2 never picks up any food in our house without searching for the expiration date on it. I think he might have gotten “burned” by some very old canned items atthe lake house, and lost faith in his parents’ ability to protect the family from food poisoning. I am actually a compulsive date watcher, except for honey and sugar.

So tonight, we’ll zap some Trader’s Greek chicken with orzo and I’ll make a very basic salad.

auntienance

Eric, I didn't realize Anna's ranged that far east - cool!

Oh no Lacey, boo on that virus, feel better soon (Bob too.)

The only dates I worry much about are dairy - I'm one of those who won't touch milk even if it's ON the best by date. I did recently discard a package of something that was dated 2010 (can't remember what it was), don't know how that didn't get tossed sooner since I've cleaned out the cabinets several times since then lol.

Oven fried fish (cod) and chips (thick potato slices) tonight plus leftover coleslaw.

MinusTwo

Lacey - oh my I hate that you are sick again. Hope it's not too drawn out. Of course your DS2 & my DS must be correct. Every parent tries to poison their children, right??

Special - thanks for the picture tip. Yes, I was touching the icon & getting the window, but I don't have a smart phone. I tried dragging and copy/paste from the web. Maybe I'll try to save it as a word or pdf doc next time and try to copy from my hard drive. Or maybe it was a goofy day in the neighborhood.

Dinner was half of one HUGE chicken breast from Costco poached in Chenin Blanc. Served with Stove Top Stuffing (yeah, I know). I meant to whip up some green peas but I forgot. Left for the med center before 8:30am for a simple ankle blood draw, but ran errands on that side of town and didn't get home until after 4pm. If I hadn't defrosted the chicken breast on Wednesday, I would have had popcorn. Or nothing.

M0mmyof3

Making spaghetti and meatballs tonight. Going to use a recipe from my new Crockpot cookbook I got for Christmas for the meatballs and sauce

eric95us

Dinner was the left overs from today's lunch.

MIL had her left hip replaced and is home after 3 days in the hospital and 10 days of in-patient PT. She was happy to get out and was thrilled at the warm sunshine here (73F degrees today) when we took her to eat lunch. Of course, we ate outside.

Her cat was happy to see Sharon and I, but is "punishing" MIL. :-)

carolehalston

DH is so tired of the cook's being MIA that he's cooking pot roast for dinner. First he had to go buy the beef roast. He took along a grocery list.

I hear him opening the kitchen door. He's back...

SpecialK

I did not make dinner last night, DD stopped at our local Greek place for a pita for DH and salads for everyone else. Tonight I am considering fried chicken salad (green salad with fried chicken pieces and a garlic buttermilk dressing) and will also use up some turkey meatballs in marinara with penne for DH for lunch at work tomorrow. It’s a beautiful sunny day, I’m sitting outside getting some Vitamin D andDH is paddle boarding down in Sarasota.

MinusTwo

Carole - oh what fun. We'll look forward to hearing about the pot roast. And about the state of the kitchen.

Edited to say - hmm - this probably sounds sexist. Apologies to Eric and any other chef husbands.

eric95us

I may have told this before....

Mickey was a microbiology/pre-med major and she knew I worked hard to keep a spotless kitchen. For a lab assignment, she had to go collect bacteria samples from surfaces and "grow" them in the lab. So, she brought over a few of the kits and collected samples from the kitchen.

EEEEWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Edited to add

eric95us

I'm getting ready to make orange marmalade....good fruit juice made "bad" (with all the added sugar) :-)

This will certainly make a "needs to be cleaned" area in the kitchen.

I also have the sourdough bread dough working on its first rise.

MinusTwo

I've been thinking of Susan as I ate the leftover Three Cheese Garlic Knots from WalMart. She would have been whipping them up and kneading them down and letting them rise again before baking and served warm to her B&B customers, or to her family. I do miss her and wish her well.

M0mmyof3

Last night was leftovers

SpecialK

I miss Susan too and hope she is holding her own!

Tonight was reverse seared sirloins, steamed green beans with lemon pepper, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes. I bought a clam shell of cut chives for my scalloped potatoes when my SILs we’re here and have been “chiving” as much as possible to use them up, lol

MinusTwo

Lunch as raw carrots & radishes with Hidden Valley Ranch dip. I had to make up a batch with sour cream for a neighbor & kept a bit for myself.

Dinner was half a baked potato smothered in butter.

One of my favorite restaurants from 1957 is closing for ever on 2/21. The parents died, the kids fought, the son who won is selling the land to a developer for low income housing. I'd planned to go each week, but only made it once in January. I'll try again tomorrow.

Lacey12

Minus, it’s so easy to get used to having a restaurant in town...like a regular nurturing fixture...,so it’s always sad to see it close. But as folks know, family businesses are a challenge, as is the restaurant business, so I guess we should appreciate the ones that survive as long as they do. Hope you get there before the 21st!

I noticed on Facebook that Susan posted one of her beautiful breads. Glad she is back to baking, which she loves!

I am still struggling with this respiratory infection, even called for a doc appt, landing with her NP yesterday who is wonderful. Seems as tho the little germ bug is heading to my lungs, so she prescribed a Z-pac, which I started yesterday, much to the chagrin of my stomach! Tonight it’s a little better. So hoping the meds does its trick....especially b/c we are having little DGD here overnite on Sunday/Monday to cover her for parents working on the Mon holiday. She is such fun to be with now that she crawls, searching for stable floor anchored items on which to pull herself up, and totally tires herself out so her sleeps are long! I really don’t want to give this little peanut a respiratory infection.

Yesterday, after my doc appt, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some turkey legs and breast on sale, roasting them tonight. Sides were sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, bought gravy, and sour dough bread. I was too tired to make a salad (horrors!), so that was it. DH was happy just to see me cooking something! And we have lots of leftover turkey meat now....easy sandwich and soup option for tomorrow. Thursday we’re slated to head to the Celtics’/Clippers game, so will likely enjoy salmon and veggies for dinner at The Harp. It will be my first big venture out since this darn infection. Hoping for some spurts ofenergy...

I hope everyone else is enjoying good health!

auntienance

Oh Lacey, I'm so sorry you're fighting the bug too. Hope the antibiotics do their job.

Tonight was chicken and dumplings. Plenty left over for lunch.

MinusTwo

Lacey - fingers crossed for the Z-pack.

I made it to the restaurant just before 2 pm and had the lunch size "spaghetti works". That includes noodles, meat sauce, meat balls, mushrooms - all sprinkled liberally with cheese & popped under the broiler to melt. Oh my do I love their red sauce. And of course two pieces of garlic bread. Thank heavens I ordered the lunch size w/only one meatball. I'm still so full I can hardy move 7+ hours later. I never even bothered to pour a drink this evening.

The original owner's son has given the long time chef permission to use the recipes in another restaurant which he hopes to open. As well he should, since the chef developed most of them. I talked to the chef's daughter for awhile today. They really want to do this but are having trouble finding a place to fit their budget. I did confirm I can still buy sauce by the quart so I think I'll get a couple to freeze.

carolehalston

Lacey, my respiratory illness kept me down for 2 weeks. The antibiotic upset my stomach, too. I'm finally getting back to normal but still using a lot of kleenex and doing some coughing. I had just celebrated getting through January this year without pneumonia when we went to OK to visit my youngest brother. Along with their surplus yard eggs I brought home this virus or bacteria, whatever it was.

I went to Fresh Market yesterday in search of lamb shanks. None to be had but on Tuesdays their whole chicken breasts and ground chuck is on sale. I bought some of both and also bought some very pricey lamb chops. This is not lamb country. One year I ordered lamb from a farmer in a state farther north.

My cleaning angel has arrived. I should make myself scarce and go to the gym.

carolehalston

Last night was chicken breast cutlets breaded in panko and browned in small amount of EVOO. Leftover sweet potatoes browned in skillet in small amount of butter. Salad of compari tomatoes, cucumber, avocado (on verge of too ripe), blue cheese, onion for dh. My salad dressing was fresh lemon juice. The cucumbers don't taste like cucumber this time of year. I should give up on buying them.

The panko was too coarse. I should have crushed it.

Tonight will probably be eggplant layered dish. Which reminds me that I saw RAO's at Fresh Market for $4.99 but have so many jars on hand that I didn't buy any.

Lacey12

Minus....sounds like your visit to the closing restaurant went well!

Carole, glad you are on the mend. I’m hoping to start feeling significantly better soon. Am pushing myself to get to the Celtics’ game tonight. At least I shouldn’t be contagious since I am full of antibiotics and cough suppressant.
I chuckled at your passing up the Rao’s deal since I’ve been doing the same thing given the stash I currently have at home.

Last night we used leftover turkey breast meat for sandwiches on sour dough bread with lettuce and a mashed avocado flavored with garlic powder and blk pepper. We had a side salad and Alessi’s chicken noodle soup to which I added fresh chopped kale. We‘ve been enjoying several meals with that soup over the past two weeks since DH has been contributing a bit more as kitchen staff while I fight this infection.

Speaking of Rao’s sauce inspires me to use the ground turkey I bought to make meatballs, sotomorrow we can have pasta with meatballs in a marinara ssuce.

auntienance

Costco has been having good prices on Rao's. I think it comes out to about 4..99 a jar. Multiplie jars of course.

I have leftover chicken from a batch of chicken and dumplings earlier this week so tonight is chicken enchiladas. Four inches of snow yesterday and bitterly cold today so a good afternoon to stay in and figure out my new iPhone. I've always had android so I'm feeling like a techno idiot right now

MinusTwo

I too passed on the last Rao's deal. However, on top of the (six) jars of Rao's in my cupboard, I AM going to buy at least 2 quarts of fresh, homemade red sauce from the restaurant that's closing. I'll freeze them in pint containers. I was going to get 3 quarts, but REALLY, ya think that might be a bit excessive for one person?

SpecialK

carole - glad you’re on the mend!

lacey - hope you’re on the mend soon! Good for you getting out to the Celtics game!

minus - I would get all the sauce, lol! If you have any old ice trays those are good for freezing things and then keeping the frozen cubes in a ziplock in the freezer. I often freeze leftover pesto that way and it allows convenient portioning.

I feel bad for anyone in the cold temps - we are weirdly hot and humid here for February. This is the time of year that usually makes up for our summer misery, but the nice days have punctuated by some really warm and sticky ones. Very strange.

auntie - I was worried about changing to an iPhone but I found it pretty intuitive and easy to use. Now I wouldn’t go back. My husband has an android phone (work issued) and it seems not user friendly - too many steps to do things. Another strong possibility though is user error, lol!

carolehalston

Dinner was the eggplant casserole/hot dish I had assembled earlier in the day. Delicious as always. Side was a Caesar salad with the addition of avocado. I am paying $2 each for the eggplants but they are sweet and not too long off the bush. I assume they come from FL.