So...whats for dinner?

MinusTwo

Yum Special. I never have luck with crispy fried in the oven.

I'm almost embarrassed to report about last night's dinner - but you all know I eat crazy anyway. So the deja vu dinner was macaroni with butter with leftover Brussels sprouts tossed on top. This afternoon I'm cooking another pork tenderloin. I put the fried rice on hold to have some leftover pork.

SpecialK

minus - I would totally eat the macaroni and Brussels dinner, lol!

The potatoes were easy - I cut the russets in wedges long way - half, then half, then half so I had 8 long wedges. I soaked them in hot water for ten minutes, then left them to dry on paper towels. I used a sheet pan with some olive oil already on. Tossed the potato wedges with more olive oil and garlic salt and pepper. Placed the wedges with a cut side down and put in. 400 F. oven for 20 minutes. Turned the wedges to the other cut side and put back in the oven for 20 more mins. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I put the chicken in at the same time and then the broccoli at the end - so all the food was cooked simultaneously and done at the same time. This is not the best time of year for roasting anything and the oven being on so long, the remediation factor was that everything cooked together and I didn’t turn the stove on at all

Beaverntx

Special, your crispy potatoes sound much like what my mother called "finger potatoes" only hers were done on the stove. Wedges seasoned and put in a nonstick skillet with a bit of oil, browned on one side, turned and browned on the other. They cook while tending to the rest of the meal and we used to have them fairly often but I've been making yet another version in the air fryer more recently.

We got take out from a favorite Mexican restaurant a few nights ago. I got a new dish, chicken olivia--chicken breast with spinach and a white wine sauce. To my surprise, there were two huge chicken breasts so I got four meals out of it! Did have to supplement with a bit of beans and rice at the last serving.

Tonight will be deja vu meatloaf and ???.

auntienance

I'm here too. Meals have been too unexciting to report. I almost had macaroni and butter for dinner too as my stomach was not behaving last night (stress). I like the addition of leftover broccoli and/orparm but plain old butter is just fine too.

The stress was caused by our air conditioning quitting on us last night (during a heat wave of course) but the advantage of renting is that we called the maintenance guy and he zipped right over and got it running again. It may require further evaluation on Monday but for now we're cool.

Tonight will be something easy on the grill - smoked sausage I think. I picked up homegrown tomatoes, green beans and corn at the produce stand yesterday so there's dinner.

I like the deja vu designation.

Lacey12

Minus, that Olathe corn sounds so good. Is it just locally grown? I’ve never heard of it. And I could go for the macaroni and leftover brussels sprouts too!

I’ve been one of the missing members this week....
We’ve been having weird modem/router issues at the lakehouse, so I’ve been avoiding trying to post lest I have to deal with the frustration of it not being sent since our internet connection goes in and out. Apparently our system needs a new integrated modem-router unit which will be delivered next week, (after our calls to company)so we will again be technology compatible. I find it weird that the local cable company never notified customers that they were switching out the hardware, leaving many with incompatible units and unreliable service. We’ve spent an annoying amount of time on hold with the cable company, listening to ear piercing “music”. Unfortunately, this area has just one telecommunication company option, so we’ll just cross our fingers whenever trying to use the internet until we can get the new unit delivered later this week.

Heading home again tomorrow for some appts., and to be there for removal of one of our 100 year old maple trees before it lands on our next door neighbors’ house in one of the crazy storms we’ve had this summer. Several huge trees in our neighborhood have come down this past month during storms.

For dinners this week we’ve had both take out food (pizza, shrimp po boys), and grilled chicken and balsamic vegetables and saladsat home. Tonight we’ll make BLTs which we’ll have with an Alessi soup...probably Sicilian lentil. I really love BLTs in the summer!

Lacey12

Oh, just seeing Nance’s post re air conditioning repair reminds me I forgot to update on our 33 yr old refridge...But, first, glad your repair guy came, Nance!

DH thought it died in front of us when we returned on Tuesday, but I thought it was just “catching its breath“. So (thanks for the advice Eric) we vacuumed under the bottom grill (and found treasures like dog food pieces from our last pooch who died 8 years ago) and whatever DH could reach in the back without having to pull it out of its tight space. And as Eric predicted, it is a happier refridge. However, still on the way out...and we have one on order to be delivered in a week or so. We tend to be so easy on appliances that it didn’t seem odd to us to have a 33 year old refrigerator. Our research had us laughing at our assumed life expectancy for this appliance. Fortunately, if it does totally conk out before the replacement arrives, we have a 70 year old Fridgedaire going strong in our basement here. Will just need to move the beer and wine over for some interloping food. We could start a refrigerator junk yard up here!

Beaverntx

Nance, ironically, we had an air conditioner conk out late on Thursday. We are in the process of getting three bids on a replacement unit, third one should be tomorrow. Our saving grace is that it is common in this area to have two units and the one that conked covers the master bedroom, laundry, and upstairs bonus room so we have a place to sleep that is cooled. Hoping your repair holds up. It is no fun to have A/C go out in a heat wave.

eric95us

I got diverted by some special projects".

A few weeks ago we bought a Ford F350 truck from "test daughter's husband's uncle" and on Thursday we bought a truck camper for it. The truck backup camera is in the truck tailgate and that was removed to fit the camper. That eliminated the backup camera and with the camper, the need for the camera is even greater. None of the aftermarket cameras will show the image on the screen in the dash and the Ford parts needed to make it work are unavailable until Covid is over (supply chain disruptions). So, I'm building a Frankenstein "thing" with wrecking yard parts from a Ford Focus and a Ford van, along with some Plexiglass and a waterproof electric box that would normally hold an outdoor floodlight. None of it is supposed to work together, but with some "field fabrication" and switching around of some wires at the camera, it will do the job just fine...and for about $40 instead of $400.

It should be done later today. The camera image will show up on the truck's in-dash video screen and I can unplug one camera and plug in the other when I switch between having the camper and the tailgate.

The only problem I'm having is that I keep having to wipe sweat off of my safety goggles. In the garage/workshop, it's 107F degrees with 36% humidity...which gives a "real feel temperature" of 122F degrees. It only takes a few minutes out there before I wonder if I'm in Houston! :-)

If I don't get called for deployment (Covid or hurricanes) before the end of the month, I'll be, again, at the Grand Canyon and we can test out the camper. I thought I was done, but they decided to add to the project. The folks are aware of my deployment status and are OK with it.

Reader425

I'm here too and reading but just lost my long post. Argh. Will post later when not aggravated 😘😉

Beaverntx

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Used up all planned overs so created some more tonight: salmon, rice pilaf(brown and white rice with red quinoa and onion, craisins, pecans), peas, and cole slaw.

ChiSandy

Looks yummy, Beaver! My dinner was a fridge-forage: an insalata Caprese made from the heel of a tomato and the last mini-ball of buffalo mozzarella with basil from my deck garden; the remaining asparagus that hadn't gone bad, pan-seared in olive oil; and whole wheat spaghettini cacio e pepe. Dessert was Enlightened keto butter pecan ice cream. The pasta is Bionature, which is the only whole wheat pasta I've found that cooks up al dente--most other whole wheat (or non-conventional) pastas go from raw in the middle to suddenly mush.

carolehalston

We drove two hours yesterday to Fargo to shop at a Sam's Club, which is at least twice as large as our Sam's Club at home. However, it has no pharmacy and no liquor department, deficiencies larger size cannot overcome. I bought 6 cartons of the pricey chocolate protein drink that I use as a breakfast beverage. Some other items, too.

Dinner back at home was hot dogs with the last of a batch of home-made chili.

Cherry-sw

Hi all, I need to check in more often, takes time to read about your yummy meals😊

I have been working the whole July backing up for my group and supervising two summer interns. It was easy though, Sweden is usually on vacation during July and I have been working from home since March anyway.

Latest update on the foraging situation, I stopped picking blueberries, have no space left in my frige and freeze, also informed my kids that No more gem from the store, we have to eat what mom cooked, dammit. But today doggo and I went picking wild raspberries. Not much berries but I will dry them and drink as tea in winter, good for the times when one catches cold and is coughing, btw! The aroma is killing, it is like a summer in a bowl😊

Last couple of weeks I learnt how to cook Uzbek plov, the most famous Asian dish across the former Soviet territory, rustique one pot dish made of fat lamb chunks, onions, carrots, lot of cummin and rice. Nice indeed, the eldest DD has been faithfully eating leftovers for several days in a row. It is usually made in large batches 🤷♀️

Also, after watching The Parasite, I decided to make Ram don aka Jjapaguri, Korean udon noodles with sirloin beef. So, I ordered two different kinds of Korean noodles, Chappagetti and Neoguri, and watched videos on Youtube. DD loved it but I thought it was a bit bland, shouldn't add the flavour while cooking the noodles but when adding them to the seared sirloin. Better luck next time.

The last brag is about Spanish cold tomato soup we ate in Sevilla a few years ago, Salmorejo di Cordoba. It is so delicious and works wonders during hot weather, which we have been having for several days. I mean, I love gazpacho, but I always need some bread to eat with it because one gets hungry like an hour after. Salmorejo is thicker because it has bread and hardboiled eggs incorporated into it and also is served with both hardboiled egg and small cube chunks of jamon😍 you can chew as long as you want. I didn't have any chunks but slices, still yummy, sending pictures.

Also😂 the first chantarelles mushrooms omelett😊

Hope you are staying safe and the situation in US gets better soon. As you know, Sweden choose its own path and I don't know whether it was right or wrong, I responsibly tried to stay home as much as possible, according to the authorities our curve hasflattened but everybody keeps saying there will be a second wave.

Hugs, Cherry 🍒

ChiSandy

Looks delicious, Cherry! We finished the last of our homegrown black raspberries, and are now awaiting the first of our weather-ravaged and poorly-pollinated tomatoes. We have about 5 cherry tomatoes ripe enough to pick; two of our "Yellow Tiger" (green-striped) are almost ready to ripen on the sill. Zucchini is a lost cause: our plant makes only male blossoms, and the rabbits & birds eat them anyway. But we have loads of basil, mint & rosemary, with some of our Italian parsley still pickable (most of it "bolted" and flowered--no matter how carefully I trim it back). If Bob is coming home for dinner tonight, I will defrost & grill lamb chops with mint & garlic; if not, well today is National Wing Day (and I do have a bag of 'em in the freezer). Last night's dinner was a large Greek salad (salvaged the green, non-browned, lettuce leaves, and added red onion, red pepper, cucumber slices, two anchovies, olives, the last of our feta crumbles, lemon juice and Koroniki olive oil) and a small tunafish sandwich on the "heels" of a loaf of low-carb whole wheat bread. Dessert was keto cereal and almond milk. Made eggs Benedict this morning with ham and hollandaise on a Mikey's keto "English muffin" which has the flavor & texture of cornbread.

ChiSandy

Bob made it home, just as I returned from grocery & pharmacy shopping. We'll have a Caprese, broccoli salad, pan-seared sea bass, and (if he wants a starch) Seeds of Change (either brown rice/quinoa or 7 ancient grains). I went to Middle East Bakery & Grocery for the first time since the pandemic (they don't deliver), for 3 falafels, and the best hummus & baba ghannouj I've had outside Israel. (I had to avert my eyes from the pastries, pita and the 25 varieties of halvah). Got stuck in a massive downpour on the way out. Serves me right for not parking closer.

ChiSandy

So we didn't have the Seeds of Change grains--in the fridge I found an ear of corn that needed to be used. I simmered it, then dressed it with a bit of salt butter. (I had the tapered 1/3 of the ear, Bob had the rest). First corn I've had in over a year--and though it was good, I can wait another year for the next one. The "Chilean" sea bass was actually from the UK. Whole Foods had it for 30% off, and it seemed that all the pieces were oddly-shaped. Well, it turns out it had massive pin bones--and "pin" is an understatement. Bones were so massive that I had trouble getting the thermometer probe in to temp it. Pretty much had to dissect it to serve. Accompanied it with a cherry-tomato Caprese and some broccoli-bacon-sunflower seed salad Bob brought home on Sun. Those were the last of our store-bought cherry tomatoes: next ones will be from my plants. (What my friend said was a San Marzano turned out to be another cherry tomato plant, And the "Green Zebra" tomatoes are finally yellowing on top, probably ready to pick before the end of the weekend,

eric95us

110F/43C degrees at 8:24pm. It's supposed to be worse tomorrow.

Cherry-sw

Eric, 43C🤦♀️ I would have burn in flames. God bless North, it has been like22C the whole day and raining.

eric95us

They say it's a dry heat, but then, so is the heat inside a crematory.... :-)

Tonight I'm baking more sourdough bread. Bakers' yeast seems to be in short supply here, but with sourdough, bakers' yeast isn't needed, so the shortage isn't an issue. All I need is flour, a tiny bit of salt and a tiny bit of sugar.

"Test daughter 1" called earlier and was asking for sourdough advice because yeast was hard to find where she lives in Maryland. I guess the yeast "shortage" is more than just a local issue.

MinusTwo

Oh well Eric, there's nothing better than sourdough anyway. Except sometimes dark pumpernickel.'

I couldn't find baking soda at the store today.

Beaverntx

It's weird what the grocery is out of. Last week my store was low on, and out of my favorite brand of, maple syrup!

SpecialK

eric - yes, it is time to buy Fleishmann's yeast stock, supply and demand are unequal! All those lockdown bread baking newbies! I wonder if you could bake sourdough bread in your car at high noon?

So, dinner two nights ago was stuffed shells with turkey meatballs and some yummy zucchini. The shells were pretty straightforward - jumbo shells stuffed with ricotta, meatballs interspersed, topped with marinara and grated asiago. While those were in the oven I put some olive oil in a skillet and added red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of tomato paste - I love, love, love the tomato paste in a tube, I find I add it to more stuff if I don't have to open a can. I cooked the tomato paste in the olive oil and then added a zucchini that I had cut lengthwise and then sliced with a crinkle knife so the edges were wavy. I like to do that with squash particularly so they get some color and hold whatever I put on it. The zucchini came out great and I will definitely cook them that way again - not obviously tomato flavored, which I didn't want because the shells already had marinara, just a little something extra - and the tomato flavor was a bit cooked out and red pepper flake enhanced by the pre-sauté.

Dinner last night was a la minus - cheese and crackers. DH came home dragging - his boss is out of town so as the deputy he has his meetings to take on too, as well as keeping an eye on a department whose supervisor had a family death. In addition he is medicating around the clock with ibuprofen to control facial and eye orbit pain residual from his sinus infection in April. Two rounds of strong abx and he is still struggling. No congestion, but still very uncomfortable with headache, facial pressure and eye pain. He has had the ENT consult, and is currently waiting for contact from the imaging center for a specialty CT scan appt. ENT mentioned the possibility of a tumor, which is not great news, so we are hoping that is not the case. When DD fell off the horse she had some head scans and they incidentally showed multiple cysts in the sinuses, so possible this is what is happening with him as well. No idea if the propensity has a hereditary component. In any event, he was not really hungry - I just needed to get something in his stomach so he could take more ibuprofen. Bleh.

carolehalston

Dinner last night was a big ribeye and small baked potatoes. Easy (for me) since dh cooked the ribeye and wrapping the potatoes in foil and placing them on the grill and putting the cover down wasn't arduous.

One of our neighbors has been gifting us with fish he caught so tonight will be walleye fillets.

We are enjoying a stretch of very nice weather without high humidity. The temperature falls into the low 60's or high 50's at night, which makes for comfortable sleeping.

A huge relief came in the form of an email yesterday. Our BIL is postponing the memorial service for dh's sister in IL. I was dreading the trip and fearing the danger of mingling with people. Covid cases have risen in the county where BIL lives (Decatur, IL) and the church is not open to congregations.

Today is laundry day. Some exercise walking back and forth to laundry room at the resort.

ChiSandy

Eric, 110F at night? Oy vey! As a low-carber, I haven't baked at all (though I did find some keto brownie mix). Whole-wheat sourdough is, though not keto-friendly, relatively low-glycemic. But as long as I can still get my low-carb bread, I'm not baking (yet).

Our weather is sparing us, at least here by the lakefront. No more 90s forecast for the foreseeable future. Last night was delightful (windy, but it died down by dinnertime), so we were able to sit outdoors for Cellars' Aussie-Italian wine dinner. (Wines are on the "how about drinking" thread). We started with beet-cured gravlax atop lemon-ricotta blini, dressed with lemon cream, bowfin caviar, and micro greens. Next was a watermelon, arugula & multicolor cherry tomato salad, with strawberry sliced, toasted hazelnuts, balsamic glaze, and goat cheese "snow" (goat cheese granita shaved over the salad). "Pasta" course was "zoodles" with avocado pesto, grilled shrimp and pico de gallo. Main course was loin lamb chops with roasted eggplant and mushroom risotto. Dessert was a mixed-berry galette with salted caramel gelato.

Yes, I ate everything. Portions were smallish and I'm below goal weight. Back on the horse this a.m. anyway.

eric95us

I use a "fast oven" (400F/200C) to bake the bread, so I don't think baking in the car would work...at least I hope it wouldn't work!

About this date last year, a Phoenix US Postal Service worker put a partially thawed steak in a plastic bag and placed it on the dash of their delivery truck. They then started their 10am delivery route and approximately every 30 minutes, they took a picture of the steak's progress. By 12:30pm, the steak was cooked to 142F/60C degrees. Some of the local news outlets published the story and it got the attention of some of the legislators. To this day, I still have not seen a postal service truck that has air conditioning.

But, we make up for it in the winter when we complain that, "It's so cold that we have to wear long pants when going outside at night." :-)

Today we sold our no longer needed Jeep Cherokee (automobile) and spent this morning completing the ownership transfer. It took 3 hours to complete the process. Pre Covid, when I sold my late mother's car, it took only 10 minutes to do everything. I hope this is NOT the "new normal". Afterwards we went and bought the food we are taking with us for next week's 4 day long work trip backpacking into the Grand Canyon. This will be our fourth week in the Grand Canyon since October 2019. If all goes well, there will be just one more trip there in about 2 months...unless they hire me for other projects.

We ended up eating a 4pm "lunch" and skipped dinner.

ChiSandy

Brunch was one olive-oil-fried egg, one falafel, low carb bread and a Tbsp. ea. of hummus, babaghannouj and cucumber-yogurt dip (similar to tzatziki). Dinner was basically antipasto: a Caprese made from red & yellow heirloom tomatoes, basil from the garden and freah mozzarella; toast points. and Geona salami. May do a BLT in the a.m. and order out for sushi (if the weather permits, maybe sit on the patio at Indie). Will have to remember to pack a champagne stopper so we can take home half the bottle of bubbly rather than finish it and get sloshed.

auntienance

Good looking meal pics!

I’ve been very happy to find American lamb around here so we’ve had gyro spiced lamb burgers on pita with tzatziki, a Greek salad (sort of, sadly I forgot to get olives - the best part 😢) and pilaf.

Today has been a cool day in a stretch of predicted nice weather so I decided to make some chili. It won’t be the largish amount I usually make because of my storage limitations but we’ll probably get dinner and a lunch out of it.

Eric, I certainly hope the Grand Canyon is cooler than your home base. Yikes

SpecialK

auntie - glad you found yummy lamb - sorry about the missing olives - that would make me sad too.

Tonight is a kale salad with chicken, red onion, apple, pecans, goat cheese, and a creamy balsamic dressing

carolehalston

Yay for American lamb. I bought a couple of packs of New Zealand lamb at Sam's Club. They're in the freezer.

Last night was leftover linguine that had been cooked with Rao's and home-made turkey Italian sausage. Addition of grated romano. Tasted good. Side was composed salad with cucumber, tomato, avocado, and sweet onion for dh.

I accidentally broke off a limb on the shared tomato plants in Mary's garden. One ripe tomato and three green. So I will cook fried green tomato slices as a side tonight.

carolehalston

Oh, dear. Hope our ho hum diet hasn't killed this discussion!!

No fried green tomato slices last night. DH grilled store-made cheddar brats (grated cheddar included in meat mixture). I warmed up a can of Bush's baked beans and made a tossed salad. Actually my version of a "chopped" salad with the ingredients cut smaller than usual. Dressing mayo and a sprinkle of vinegar.