So...whats for dinner?

ChiSandy

5 people? Ilona, you're far more adventurous than I. I haven't even had my son over since July 4--and we were in the backyard the whole time.

illimae

Sandy, yes, 5 people but that includes DH and myself. We were outside the whole time, several feet apart and I sat with a large box fan blowing behind me to direct the air around me away from my face. I think I’m being pretty cautious but maybe I am living on the edge for current times.

MinusTwo

No Mae - I agree you're being pretty cautious. ONLY outside, social distancing AND a fan - what a good idea. I'm cautious to the point that I won't go out to eat, or even order take out. Even if a restaurant is careful, you don't know who ate there before you or if the waiters had to come to work even if they're sick in order to get paid to feed their babies. But we've had a couple of 'sit & sips' in my neighborhood. Five-six people bring their own chairs & their own drinks and sit on a front lawn 8-10 feet apart. Most of my visiting actually happens while I'm taking my 4 mile walk every morning. Neighbor's wave, move over to the side of the street and stand and visit for a few minutes - 6-8 feet apart.

Reader, Reader, Reader - THANK YOU!!! I really wasn't an adventurous cook before the virus. Now I'm 'inventing' all kinds of things to use what's in the fridge. Today was Reader's quick enchilada recipe, morphed again. I bought 1-1/2 lbs of large cooked shrimp at Costco last Friday. Had shrimp cocktail yesterday. Tonight I used the remaining half can of the Hatch Green Chili Enchilada sauce and the remaining corn/wheat tortillas. Sauteed onions, stirred in the sauce & sour cream. Built them stacked this time (New Mexico style). Tortilla, shrimp cut into pieces, slices of Hatch Jack cheese and the sauce. Made two layers, ended with an extra tortilla & the sauce and covered with grated Mexican Cheese blend and baked for 18 minutes at 325. OH YUM. Absolutely delicious and I have enough for one more meal.

illimae

Minus, the only restaurant I’ve dinned in at is Salata. Tables are blocked off for space and those available have a green or red card to indicate which are clean or require cleaning. DH and I eat our salads and go, we don’t linger.

Tonight is leftovers or “jump ups”, I’m thinking a burrito.

Beaverntx

Mae, so good to see you and your great pictures again!

Tonight was baked potatoes with reheated taco salad topping (basically thick chili) and a glass of Ken Volk zinfandel with Dove dark chocolate for dessert.

Reader425

Awww Minus so glad that simple recipe is working for you. You are inspiring me to mix it up with shrimp and more exciting cheeses!

My doc upped my Lipitor dose and said to take the CQ10 if I get side effects, mainly cramping, which she didn't even think was a high possibility. Haven't done either yet but will advise and report back when I do.

My sister had her lumpectomy on Thursday and is awaiting pathology. Always the hardest part. Nance thinking of you with your follow-up mammogram. I have mine in October which is always nerve wracking.

ChiSandy

My mammo is also due next month--as are the chest CT, MO visit, lipid panel, and weigh-in. By then, my vision will have stabilized enough to go to Warby Parker and get refracted for new glasses (mostly need a stronger reading correction in both eyes and distance in the R). I have my full-body skin exam this Wed. Ocular-onc followup isn't till mid-Nov., strictly for dilated exam & imaging to see if and how much the tumor shrunk. I will probably know the path results by then. Not nagging the doc right now, as UIC is having a nurses' strike.

Dinner was leftovers from brunch: broccoli-cheddar quiche & mesclun salad. (Cellars makes a mile-high souffle-like quiche, so I rarely finish it in one sitting--unless I completely leave the crust, and sometimes not even then). I added a piece of low-carb toast and a "Moroccan Harissa" shelf-stable cauliflower "rice" cup (not bad--just spicy enough to be filling).

Bitter disappointment today, though--went out to water the garden, and the ripened "Pineapple" tomato I had decided to leave on the vine one more day fell victim overnight to a squirrel (little b*****d climbed up on to the deck and didn't even have the decency to eat the whole 'mater). So now I have to protect my three remaining green ones on the vine and pick them as soon as I see signs of yellow so they can ripen indoors. (I have three--one beefsteak, one "Pineapple" and the last small "Green Zebra"--on the sill right now, plus a dozen cherry tomatoes in the bowl). My cherry tomato plant has about 15 or so green ones, with three new blossoms. Still no zucchini, just male blossoms.

auntienance

Mamm was good, didn’t even have to have the ultrasound. That’s a relief. Now cancer doc on Wednesday and I’m good for a while.

Tonight is calzone using the remains of the pizza dough and a salad consisting mostly of tomatoes and cucumber. I need to pick up more lettuce.

Worried about our gulf coast friends again.

MinusTwo

Nance - great news. Hope Wednesday is just as positive.

And yes, darn it, another storm. Special - hope you didn't have too much residual rain. I'm wondering if Carole will just decide to stay up North until November.

Eric - what's up with you? Have you settled back into normal "covid" life since you got home? Can't remember - is your wife still teaching or did she retire? What's your DD doing?

eric95us

I haven't been posting much...I've been working on catching up on the month of chores around the house and working on the landscaping. When I come in after working in the hot "the shovel is melting" temperatures most of the day, I've been basically guzzling water and eating a "slice of bread" or a "microwave oven 'baked' potato" for dinner.

If you haven't found it yet, the US National Hurricane Center has the "where are the storms in the Atlantic" maps and they also give forecast information.

DD got a "do this to survive" job at a restaurant and she's working lots of hours in the hopes that she can take care of all of her own bills (I remember myself having that attitude when I was her age). I think she's had Covid19, but it can't be proven. The symptoms and timing matched but at the time she may have had it, they hadn't yet developed screening tests and, unfortunately, the antibody tests have been useless for her. Because her first antibody test was "inconclusive" they did two other tests, one was "yes" while the other was "no".

Sharon has retired as well, but Covid has put her in a bit of a bind with the mask stuff. She's claustrophobic and she gets panicky--I can see it in her mannerisms and eyes--when she wears a mask, so she's not been going out much except to run or bike outside late at night where people are not around and the temperature has cooled down to below boiling oil.

Chi.....
My grandmother was quite upset about the squirrels feasting on the seed in the bird feeders, so I came up with some electrified birds only bird feeders. The squirrels never did give up trying, but they never did figure it out. They would climb up to the magic spot on the post and just about fly off. While I can't say it didn't hurt them, I can say it didn't harm them. Mine was much better and much safer than my grandmother's solution to the squirrel problem. She figured out if she fired her .22 rimfire rifle with "22 short" ammunition while standing back about 8-10 feet from the open window...you couldn't hear the rifle's report outside. Fortunately the entire garage was her backstop, so there wasn't any chance of a bullet leaving the yard...but still....

That's good news on the tests Auntie. Here's to the rest of them finding 'no cause for concern'.

Back to the digging outside. After more than 20 years, the wiring to the sprinkler valves needs replacing. It's 106F/41C and I'm in the sun.

M0mmyof3

No idea what to do for dinneruntil I go diving in the freezer

ChiSandy

Great news on the mammo, Nancy. May the MO visit be similarly uneventful.

Eric, I used to have bird feeders out, and the squirrels would raid them. They even figured out how not to fall off the "squirrel-proof" baffles. So I put out a corncob rack for them to nibble on, and got a packet of a very hot chili powder called "Squirrel Away" that I mixed into the birdseed. Apparently birds can't taste or even feel spicy stuff but small mammals are exquisitely sensitive to it. Afterward, I saw a squirrel furiously lapping up the air conditioner condensation water from a puddle on my deck. I stopped feeding the birds when the birdwatching store (Upstart Crow, in Evanston) went out of business, and my rebuilt deck didn't have top rails from which to hang feeders.

Not sure what Bob's bringing home for dinner from Boston Mkt. tonight--if he even is. If not, I'll nuke some wings and eat celery sticks and sugar-snap peapods dipped in blue cheese dressing. We were originally supposed to go to Cellars' patio (it's live jazz guitar night), but they're open only till 8 pm and returning his morning pages & calls took too long (not to mention he'd slept in, too). Oh, well. Maybe tomorrow night--it's the last warm dry night we'll have till next week. Turns chilly on Thurs.

illimae

Tonight was Shepherds Pie using beef, I don’t like lamb and Brussels sprouts. Sooo yummy!

CeliaC

Illi - Glad to see you are eating good!

Have been using Bonefish Grill family bundle takeaway leftovers for dinner the last two nights. Main meal = Garlic mashed potatoes & grilled shrimp w/tomato citrus sauce, then added roasted organic brussels sprouts (finally made my pilgrimage to Trader Joe's!). Dessert = leftover choc chip cookie, nuked & then topped with a small dollop of Talenti double dark chocolate gelato. One more cookie left for tomorrow. Will have to find some inspiration for tomorrow.

Lovely weather here today - windows open all day and no air conditioning needed!

eric95us

Today I finished up the automatic sprinkler valve wiring. I did notice a dripping sprinkler valve that I will need to get the parts to fix, so that will be a "tomorrow project".

Dinner tonight was spaghetti. For the sauce, Sharon uses marinara sauce from a jar and then adds peppers, garlic, pepper and basil, along with some "secret stuff" that I didn't see.

Illimae, I forgot to say...glad to see you back. :-) The Shepard's Pie looks good.

Lacey12

Back to the kitchen table after a busy week at the lake prepping to come home, finally getting masks made for neighbors who requested them, and packing up the way too much stuff we brought there in mid-July.

We arrived back home last night, and I have to say I feel more nervous about being closer to Covid now that all the many colleges In Boston are back in session and students have arrived from all sorts of hot spots. Some colleges seem to be doing better than others with testing and isolating students who are positive.

Then there have been some nearby suburbs, where teenagers have been holding parties resulting in Covid spread in their towns, and school systems having their carefully planned school start ups shot to hell.
We plan to return to the lake in Mid Oct when a tree service is coming to do work, and our association may still have our annual lobster fest on the beach then. That will likely be the only food event we have attended, or will attend, knowing that boiled lobster would not be harboring viral particles.
Also, that area of NH has had no new cases in many weeks, so the risk to eat lobster at the distanced tables on our beach seems pretty low. In fact, before leaving, we left supplies in the house in case we need to escape there if spread gets bad here. Interestingly, despite the spread being negligible in that lake area of NH, people seem to have abandoned their “Live Free or Die” motto instead compliantly wearing masks In public areas. So I guess that means something in terms of the effectiveness of social behavior.

For dinner tonight, I foraged in our freezer, and came up with some turkey cutlets that had no freezer burn.:) Since I’d recently purchased a bottle of Marsala wine, I decided to make turkey marsala served with a speciality linguini that was truffle flavored (not that I could tell)...a gift from our “doc vegans” last Christmas, which seemed to call for a clear sauce. It was good......and will provide “jump ups” which makes me happy.

I’m glad to read everyone’s good news related to medical issues.
Special, I can appreciate how odd it must have been to just drop DH off for his procedure. Good to hear that he is doing well post surgery, and that he didn’t try to return to on site work right after! Your recovery expertise was clearly invaluable to him!

Nance, congrats on the unremarkable mammo! I am hoping for the same In November, since I’ve learned I can’t wait for results. A new Covid related rule to regulate numbers in the Center. I’ve always waited for my results since extra pix are always needed. So now, if the radiologist can’t decide what the scar tissue area is without more images, I will be waiting to learn that at home, then have to return to the hospital when they have space in the schedule. I will likely be able to contain my anxiety with functional denial, but it could get tense if dragged out with several returns and time to obsess in between visits.

Mae, so nice to see you making the most of your return to the kitchen table!

Minus, I am totally with you in your wise “stubbornness”, limiting your social contacts. And as far as lowering the LDL number is concerned, I am thinking that your rigorous 3-4 mile walks must count for something, no?

I have two doc follow up appts this week at the hospital, which makes me nervous given that lots of people from local hot spots will be using our hospital for their treatment. Ugh! I will wear an extra layered mask (over the hospital mask they issue upon arrival) and hope I can breathe! Am planning to get back to more regular mask making now that I’m back where my well equipped sewing studio exists.

I hope everyone is able to stay out of harms way with the current and anticipated hurricanes. I concur that I hope Carole is staying safely put In MN for a while. And it’s hard to believe that as we live our daily lives here, people on the West Coast are suffering with such apocalyptic fires. Are people on our thread personally familiar with any local groups that are providing support directly to displaced families in those fire ravaged areas? Thanks

carolehalston

Thanks for the concerned thoughts. Yes, we're still in MN, watching the weather channel. The leaf color is already pretty. My phone camera doesn't capture the vibrant color. Yesterday on the golf course, I was in awe of a maple tree clad in red leaves.

By the end of next Monday, most of the full-time summer folks will be gone. It is already very quiet. Our departure date is not set but we'll definitely hope to be gone before the first round of snow.

Last night was a Spanish rice made with two leftover grilled cheese brats cut into disks, home-made tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, chili powder and white basmati rice from the package of rice I bought to make a rice dish for Labor Day. It was quite tasty. These days we often have one dish meals.

The man I mentioned, a renter here in the resort, continues to be very ill with Covid. He was hospitalized and put on a ventilator. He's only 50 years old. His wife tests negative and so far no one who was around him during the weekend before Labor Day has gotten ill. Hubbard County, where we spend the summer, now has had about 60 confirmed cases, no deaths. Brad is from Fargo, not from this county. When we arrived here in early June, the number of cases was below 5.

Betrayal

In Britain, Shepherd's pie is made with lamb whereas cottage pie is made with beef. Here in the US we use shepherd's pie be it beef or lamb it seems. I prefer the beef because I am a non-lamb eater. That meal looks so tasty.

M0mmyof3

Making Hot Dish, a Midwestern staple that goes over well in my house.

ChiSandy

I love lamb in any way, shape or form (especially Greek roast leg). Not a big shepherd's pie fan (though Bob is), because I'm not wild about mashed spuds and am not about to waste my carb allowance on them.

Dinner last night (from Boston Mkt.) was 2 "faux-BBQ" ribs ("Chicago style," which means parboiled and then baked with sauce), creamed spinach, and steamed mixed veggies (carrots, broccoli, zucchini); I did carb-cheat with the little cornbread roll (mine was half the size of Bob's). Bob had turkey breast & gravy, creamed spinach, and mac & cheese (not judging). Tonight we'll dine out outdoors (last warm dry night till next week) if Bob gets home in time; if not, then last night's leftovers.

Brunch, after returning from the dermatologist (all clear), was scrambled eggs with chives and truffle oil over low-carb toast.

auntienance

I love lamb too. Although DH professes not to, he seems to readily eat it and he is a big fan of shepherds pie. I usually make it with ground beef except on St. Patrick’s day when I’ll use all lamb or a beef and lamb combo.

Speaking of ground beef, after my onc appointment today (all good for a year - yay!) I stopped at Costco for bagels and English muffins. A meatloaf and mashed potatoes seems to have jumped into my cart along with some Kirkland broccoli cheddar soup. DH was thrilled. He loves meatloaf more than life itself. So that will be dinner. I’ll cook some frozen peas and make a brown gravy too. The best part of this meal will be the leftover meat loaf sandwiches for lunch.

Since we’ve moved to civilization we’re now able to get high speed Internet allowing us to stream. We’ve been binge watching Call the Midwife, which we’re enjoying tremendously, even though hearing impaired as we are (we both have tinnitus) the “East Ender” accents lead us wondering what language they’re speaking lol. Time to turn on the closed caption I suppose

illimae

Tonight is salad for dinner but I made a large batch to have as a side for a couple days too. I really like using lots of colors, almost too pretty to eat.

ChiSandy

Making choucroute garnie tonight: probiotic sauerkraut, drained & sauteed with bacon and flat champagne, and seasoned with caraway seed & juniper berries. Bison "Polish" sausage and a chicken bratwurst atop it.

Brunch was from the Middle Eastern Bakery: one falafel, 100% whole wheat pita, tabbouleh, hummus, baba ghannouj and tzatziki. (Stopped off there after my mani).

SpecialK

Have been reading but not posting - feel like I have been running about like a nut. DH is on the mend, but he has been a recalcitrant (definition - having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline) patient, lol! He is doing better but we had several "discussions" about following the doctor's instructions. I convinced him, finally, that they were not subject to creative interpretation.

Yay for good test results and exams for whoever was having them! Unremarkable, clear, and no cause for concern - all good stuff!

minus - yes on the raining here - how are things there? I live next to a preserve that is low lying, so it is full of water - and mosquitoes. There are also biting ants, and I keep forgetting to change from flip flops to closed shoes when I take the dog out! I am apparently delicious and/or upsetting to insects of all kinds.

Dinners have been sporadic and sometimes were yogurt and fruit, ha! I did make salad with Buffalo chicken breast, blue cheese dressing and celery last night and cabbage rolls tonight topped with roasted potatoes with bacon and onion.

auntie - I started watching TV with no sound and captions so DH could sleep, and marveled at how much dialogue I was missing, lol! Since I am now hearing impaired on the one side, deaf to human voice, it is actually helpful but the captions sometimes get in the way of things that are happening ion the screen. I stumbled upon captioning for some of the shopping networks while channel surfing, there is one jewelry one that the interpretation is so far off that I was laughing so hard I was crying. It was literally nonsensical, but hilarious. This is what passes for entertainment in the age of Covid...

chisandy - when we lived in northern Virginia we had a townhouse with a back deck off the kitchen. Our next door neighbor's deck had the same arrangement and they had a bunch of cherry tomato plants. I could watch the squirrels come mid-day (when nobody was home next door) and pull the tomatoes off, take a bite, and discard. Next day the same. So frustrating! Like they had amnesia about whether they even liked tomatoes.

ChiSandy

I'm collecting those little green plastic mesh "sleeves" liquor stores put on wine bottles so they don't break when they're contacting each other in the same bag. I'm gonna put them on the tomatoes that haven't started ripening yet.

Reader425

Hi all, comfort food for dnner tonight. Macaroni and cheese made with Gouda and Jarlsberg cheeses, with a side of scalloped tomatoes using 4 large tomatoes with a panko butter topping. I use the old "Joy of Cooking" for the base recipe for both then fiddle with cheeses, etc. An old friend recommended a grating of nutmeg on the tomatoes. Pretty tasty. First chilli-ish day having a cup of tea while awaiting dinner.

Mommy what is in your hot dish? I've heard the term but am not familiar.

ChiSandy

I'd always thought "hot dish" was Minnesotan for "casserole."

M0mmyof3

Hamburger, diced or crushed tomatoes, onion, green pepper and pasta. My hubby prefers spaghetti sauce but I am more of the crushed tomatoes type.

Gotta make a dive in the freezer to see what I can make while wrangling the new puppy

Beaverntx

I think the Minn. hot dish has tater tots. MOmmyof2's sounds more like Johnny Marzetti or what my mother called "goololli". I too prefer crushed or petite diced tomatoes in it, whatever name it goes by.

M0mmyof3

My hubby calls it American Chop Suey. It will always be Hot Dish to me