So...whats for dinner?

carolehalston

SpecialK, our wind and hail insurer withdrew from Louisiana so we had to get a new insurer for this year. We're with Louisiana Citizens, which is run by the state. Kind of an insurer of last resort. As climate change slowly does its thing, there will be fewer insurers and pricier policies.

Minus, our duties remain the same except for grass cutting. Bud, the owner (60's), without speaking of his intentions, mows the grass and collects the clippings. He parks a small trailor hooked to a four wheeler nearby and dumps the clippings in the trailor. We're sure that his wife is behind the urge to created a manicured appearance. They are Mr. and Mrs. Spick and Span.

Yesterday was No Cook Monday. We had breakfast at West Forty, our favorite of the two popular diners in town. First we went to the gym where I perspired enough to allow myself to order biscuit and sausage gravy with sausage patties for breakfast. I also took a few bites of dh's "cake." It's common in both diners to order a pancake in place of toast.

Then for dinner we went to nearby Clancy's for Meatloaf Monday special. DH loves his meatloaf and he likes the Clancy's version. I had a house salad and a walleye sandwich. The walleye was from a box in the freezer but it tasted good.

Tonight will be a pasta dish with sauteed veggies and a white sauce of cream cheese and sour cream and grated romano.

SpecialK

carole - Citizens is also here in FL and is the same, the insurer of last resort. Our roof qualifies for replacement due to shingles bent at a 90 degree angle due to documented wind above a certain mph that was not a hurricane, but I kind of feel philosophically opposed to claiming against our insurer (USAA) even though we have paid double in premiums for what a new roof would cost over the time we have owned this house. It seems like normal wear and tear living in this environment, which we knew about when we bought here. Do I pay $20K for a new roof myself, or risk policy cancellation and increased costs with a new insurer if I can find one. It is a dilemma with no good solution.

minus - all of this stuff is frustrating and ridiculous, right? I finally (finally, arrggghhh) got my new half of a French door about two weeks ago - to replace the one that was warped when originally installed late last year. This is a custom door - in that I specified the number of panes in the mullion to match the ones in the house that you can see from the vantage point - and it is 96" tall. When they re-ordered it the mullion was totally wrong so the two door halves didn't match. It was re-ordered again, taking 3 months for each of those orders, and it was finally done! We started this project with the initial order of three doors (French, swinging glass, and huge pocket slider) in Feb of 2021! If it could go wrong it did - each door was delivered separately instead of together when the last one arrived - all of which are 96" tall, and the slider was 96" wide - where does one put doors that big? Answer - in the garage instead of my car. They could not be installed until the last one arrived. The whole thing was a mess from start to finish other than the salesman and the installer, who are awesome. If I ever replace any other windows and doors I will buy them locally and have them installed by the guy who did these. The doors were ordered through a large retailer and they contracted him - but they just decided not to renew his contract since he is a one-man band - they want big commercial installers. I'm sure it is a corporate decision because everyone at the local store knows and loves him, and respects his quality of work. He's a gem.

I ended up making black bean soup for DH last night with sour cream, red onion, and cheddar as toppings. I ate the rest of my pizza from earlier at about 5pm so I had nothing. Tonight will be the chicken I was going to do last night!

eric95us

We have USAA as well and I agree that an insurer shouldn't pay normal maintenance costs.

During Oct 2010, I got tired of worrying about the 25 year old roof (large sections would rise up in a sort of bubble when rhere were string winds) and I had it replaced.

The day after the roof was finished, there was a HUGE wind and hail storm (80mph winds, 1 inch hail). USAA, the city and the roofer checked the roof and all was good.

There were only two houses in the neighborhood that didn't have blue roofs for several months.

USAA did lower our rates by about $300 a year, for about 10 years.....not that even came close to paying for the roof :-)

wallycat

For those of you that do a lot of online ordering (like food, vitamins, etc.), what do you do during these hot summer months? I ordered fish oil once, last year when it hit 99, which is a 20 year event, and the capsules arrived congealed together. Curious if there's any precautions or something that I can do if I choose to order.

DivineMrsM

SpecialK, I love the description of the Oxo Good Grips slicer set, found it on Amazon and plan to order it. I've wanted something like that for awhile, and I love that all parts store inside the plastic container. Thanks for the tip! And Valerie Bertanelli's spinach, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan sandwich sounds right up my alley. I googled the recipe and want to try making it. Sadly, no Trader Joe's near me, but the cheese with caramelized onions sounds good.

Minustwo, yes, the carrot cake recipe is one layer. Here it is with an online photo since it looks so tasty! (I prefer the cake without raisins.) I use store bought cream cheese frosting but included the recipe for it in case you want to make homemade.

Here's the page link: https://www.thespruceeats.com/one-layer-carrot-cake-3052459

One-Layer Frosted Carrot Cake

Oven: 325 degrees

8x8 or 9x9" pan

Cake:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins, or coarsely chopped dares, optional
• 
  
  Add all ingredients except carrots, walnuts and dates, use mixer for 1 minute, stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pan
• Bake 40 - 45 minutes

Frosting:

• 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon warm water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectionery sugar

wallycat

coconut curry with cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes (I actually used the leftover jar of salsa in the fridge), chickpeas and asparagus. Delicious!

MinusTwo

Thanks Divine. I'll make with pecans even though it's not traditional since I'm allergic to walnuts.

Wally - If you know someone who still works, you can have things like that sent to an office. I used to do that before I retired. Now I just don't order something that might 'melt' from April through October.

I too just went ahead & replaced my own roof about 5 years ago. I know lots of people who claimed "hail damage" and called their insurance companies, but it was worth it to me to just get it done when there wasn't an emergency.

I took my car back to the shop today. The valve cover gasket that they replaced earlier this month apparently slipped when they were installing and it had been leaking a little more every day. Job was re-done under warranty for both parts & labor - plus this shop takes me home while the work is being done & picks me back up when it's finished at the end of the day.

Dinner was 1/4 jar of Rao's with LOTS of fresh mushrooms and sour cream to make it a Rosa sauce. I added some TJ's flame broiled meatballs and served with leftover linguine from the freezer (thanks so much carole for sharing that tip). As my Mother would have said - I'm full as a tick.

wallycat

LOL, full as a tick, LOL.

Thanks minus. I am home most days so the issue isn't how soon I can get it inside, the issue is a sweltering 100+ degree van carrying the stuff and driving around without a/c in the delivery trucks.

carolehalston

The pasta and veggies dish last night was delicious. The veggies were sliced leek, small yellow squash, and large asparagus. The pasta was linguini out of the freezer. The sauce was cream cheese and sour cream mixed with the olive oil in the skillet. We learned this sauce from a Hello Fresh meal last year. Cheese was hand grated romano we brought north with us.

SpecialK shared the tip that pasta can be frozen. Now I always cook the whole package of pasta and have enough left over to freeze for another meal.

SpecialK

divine - I love my OXO set and have found that the parts seem to be sturdy and good quality. I have a number of kitchen tools from OXO and I like them all, particularly a manual can opener and vegetable peeler. My Trader Joe's is quite a drive away, wish I had one closer! Thanks for the smaller carrot cake recipe - it is DH's fave and I may just make that for Father's Day!

The frozen pasta thing happened because I used to get pouches of frozen penne from my frozen food guy who comes every two weeks. I have been using this service for close to 30 years in all of the various places we have lived. For whatever reason, which I try not to take personally, they always discontinue the stuff I love! That is what happened with the frozen penne, which was awesome because it took two mins to cook in the microwave and was enough for a dinner for two. They have also discontinued their very good frozen peaches that I used for cobbler, and the genius frozen tube of blueberry muffin batter that you could thaw overnight and then snip the end off and pipe right into the muffin pan - no dirty dishes! I decided to try freezing my own cooked pasta and found that it worked great. Maybe I will try mixing blueberry muffin batter and spooning it into a zip lock and then freezing, lol!

So, last night was supposed to be chicken, but DD texted me at about 5pm and said she and her dad were going to see Coldplay in concert since she got some last minute tickets. He zoomed home from work, quickly changed clothes and zoomed off to pick her up. So, off they went, and I made no chicken. I have to use it tonight but I think I will do chicken parm over cauliflower linguine and steamed green beans.

carole - thanks for the cream cheese/sour cream idea for pasta sauce - I love alfredo type pasta but it is dairy heavy. I have now identified brands of DF cream cheese (Trader Joe's) and sour cream (Follow Your Heart) that taste and look decent so I am going to try this!

eric95us

It's 173 miles, each way, to the nearest Trader Joes. I guess we're isolated. :-) That's okay as we prefer the space, peace and quiet over nearby shopping!

• The OXO manual can opener we have is "most excellent". We also have the peeler, a pastry scraper/cutter and a "not sure what it is called...cuts shortening into flour" from OXO that are all almost as good as the can opener.

ChiSandy

Fri. night with my friend down in Minooka (where I was staying for the dulcimer festival in nearby Morris where I was teaching all weekend), we went to a sports bar that used to be Bean Encounters--a coffeehouse/restaurant where I had performed with two different bands. Tough to stay on my diet, but I managed: "California Chicken" sandwich, which was a grilled breast with guacamole, provolone, lettuce, tomato, dill pickle chips & red onion on a brioche bun (which I removed). Sat. night we nuked cauliflower, broccoli and beef fajita strips.

When I returned Sunday night, Bob & I walked to Regalia--where we'd hoped to try out their new patio but it was too chilly (57F) and windy, so we ate indoors. We shared an app of "Buffalo panna cotta:" a terrine of mozzarella di bufala whipped with creme fraiche, with pesto and a sundried tomato sauce. My entree was Chilean sea bass with chimichurri sauce and grilled asparagus. He had potato soup, followed by spinach gnudi with shrimp & calamari.

Had planned to grill Monday night, but on the way home from the farmers' market (where it was clear, 70F and breezy enough that I needed long jeans & an overshirt) & grocery, my AppleWatch "blew up" with severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings (warning, not "watch"). It was already over 80F and I ditched the overshirt. A mile & a half from home the tornado sirens started up and so did the lightning. Made it into the house with my perishables and down to the basement with minutes to spare. Spent an hour down there with Bob, one of our very panicked cats, and my iPad watching live weather reports with morbid fascination as the sky turned black and the winds were so strong that they sounded like jets flying low overhead. We went back upstairs when the all-clear siren sounded.

I figured the gas grill's venturis were too wet for the burners to light, and the grill would've been more of a steam chamber anyway, so I cranked up the range vent & ceiling fan, threw open the back door so any smoke would go out the storm door screen, and seared a ribeye in cast iron. Nuked Bob's leftover entree too (for him, as a surf & turf), roasted some Brussels sprouts (butter, olive oil, seasoning packet) in the toaster-oven, and ate Jerusalem salad from the supermarket, followed by local strawberries & aceto balsamico DOP for dessert.

Last night it was simply too hot (98F) to go anywhere to dine outdoors, and I didn't want to stand over the hot gas grill long enough to oil the grates to keep the golden tilefish (which I picked up from Hooked on Fish) from sticking. So I grilled asparagus (marinated in olive oil & supermarket balsamic) and an ear of bicolor corn, seasoned afterward with salt butter (I ate the tip, about 2.5").

I cooked the tilefish as a variation of Melissa Clark's NYTimes recipe. I put salt & pepper and a drop or two of grapeseed oil into a cold ceramic nonstick skillet before adding the fish, salted & peppered on top, skin side down. Placed a pat of butter on either side of the filet and turned the burner on to medium. When the butter melted, I added chopped herbs (scallion, tarragon, thyme) and lemon juice. I turned off the burner and basted the top of the fish with the pan sauce till the flesh was opaque, then put it on a plate and poured the rest of the sauce over it, garnished with parsley sprigs. (I omitted the capers, which sounded like overkill and would have tasted somewhat confusing anyway). I served it all after first whitefish & salmon roes as an app, followed by an insalata Caprese over baby arugula. And even though I cooked it indoors, the fish didn't stink up the kitchen (probably because of building the pan sauce as it cooked).

It's hot out again today, but maybe it'll be tolerable tonight for patio dining. They moved the severe storm's onset to about midnight.

ChiSandy

Eric, that OXO implement is called a "pastry blender." Since I don't bake, I don't own one. But it's good for biscuit or piecrust dough if you don't want to use a food processor.

eric95us

Thanks, Chi. I never knew what to call it. My grandmother showed me how to use one, but never told me the name :-)

I use it for, as you mentioned, pie crusts and also when I make zimt kuchen.

Still no internet other than 0-1 bar of cell signal. Supposedly the cable burial crew hasn't buried the cable...yet that was done last Tuesday.

I did bring up some better antennas and cables for my signal booster, so I should get the signal to 2-3 bars, which will help a lot. Currently, my connection speeds are so slow that it takes a couple of minutes to load a BCO page. When I'm done, I'm expecting the pages to show up in 10-15 seconds

wallycat

Eric, I am surprised you like the oxo can opener. I have 3 different variations from them and hate them all. It selects which can it decides to open.

Leftover penne w/ sausage tonight.

eric95us

The only can type my oxo can opener can't open are the cans of a store brand of sweetened condensed milk. For those I have to use a "P-38" can opener. Even the bigger "P51" opener has a problem with those cans.

Tonight I made the chicken-jasmine rice dish.

We brought up another load of stuff from Phoenix..loaded the trailer when it was 112F degrees..ugh..

It was lots of parts for the old Jeeps and a lot of cast iron cookware.

It was obviously a heavy load as the F350 truck was under 40mph towing the trailer up rhe hills (and under 7 mpg for fuel mileage). Normally the truck will pull rhe trailer up the hills at 50-55mph and get about 9 mpg for fuel mileage.

MinusTwo

Sorry Carole - thank you Special K for the frozen pasta idea. It really works great - especially cooking for one.

Carole - I love the cream cheese/sour cream idea. I will be trying that.

Wally - I'm going to try to persuade my son to bring some Sees candy from the SFO airport when he comes the end of the month. At least peanut brittle - which doesn't do well in the heat either.

Dinner was fried rice w/white rice for a change. (I know, I know...) Sauteed onions & bell peppers, added rice & a small amount of low sodium soy sauce, added fresh mushrooms, added cooked (frozen) peas, added two beaten eggs in the middle of the pan & mixed it up as they cooked. YUM. Served with cold Pinot Grigio. (YellowTail and not worth drinking, but it was part of the stash from my ex-DH's wine fridge so I won't mind using it for cooking only or pouring it out.)

Dessert was a piece of chocolate pudding Bundt cake on sale at Kroger this week. Definitely too hot to turn on the oven here (100 again). But actually I cheated and ate the piece of cake before I even started cooking the fried rice.

DivineMrsM

walleycat, the penne and sausage sounds good. Sausage was always a food that was okay to me but lately I love it. There’s a popular meatball and sausage sandwich shop we go to that’s been in business 50 years in the same small building. That’s all they sell, sandwiches or in bulk. Strictly take-out, cash only, You are in and out in no time, every time. I used to like their meatball sandwich but I’m all about the sausage now.

A pastry blender isn’t something I’d need. I’m a Pillsbury refrigerated Pie Crust girl. Has to be Pillsbury. A pie dish is a nice size, similar to the 8x8 pan, for dessert. An easy but delicious pie I make is lemon meringue using Jello cook and serve pudding.

Next time I need a can opener, I’ll check out the Oxo ones. Opening cans is not my favorite thing to do, hard on my thumbs and fingers!

SpecialK, I laughed about your not trying to take it personally that the food service you use keeps discontinuing products you like! Why do companies do that?

MinusTwo

Divine - one of the recipe cards I got at a kitchen wedding shower in 1966 was lemon meringue pie with Jello cook & serve pudding with a Pyrex pie plate. I still have the card with the givers name & handwriting - and in fact still have the same pie plate. The only difference is my version has a wonderful crumble crust - mixed in the pie plate and then patted onto the sides. I've been making it ever since and everyone always raves. I see no reason to change unless Jello quits making the lemon cook & serve (or "until" since everything changes every darn day).

Chocolate cake for brunch. Dinner will be leftovers but not sure which yet. 100 degrees again under the patio on the North side that never gets sun.

wallycat

Leftover curry tonight.

Not sure what tomorrow will be; we're heading back to Silverdale for DH's followup.

Our heat kicked in this morning (lows in the 40s) and the sun is finally making an appearance (not a fan). We may hit 61 before our next cool down.

Minus, you are made of sturdy stock to endure those temps. It's not even summer. I worry about folks dealing with these heatwaves.

eric95us

It's 100F here in Snowflake, AZ, but unlike Minus' 100F, our humidity is very low, so sweating does more than just drip off one's nose. :-)

100 in Houston is UGLY hot. I was working near there (Orange, TX) when it was 100F. I felt like I had crawled out of a sauna and I probably looked worse.

eric95us

It's 100F here in Snowflake, AZ, but unlike Minus' 100F, our humidity is very low, so sweating does more than just drip off one's nose. :-)

100 in Houston is UGLY hot. I was working near there (Orange, TX) when it was 100F. I felt like I had crawled out of a sauna and I probably looked worse.

auntienance

Hello all - it's hawwwwt here too. We've broken numerous records with 100 plus temps and will probably break several more as it's supposed to remain this way at least for the next week. A bit unusual to have this much heat here this early. It's not a dry heat either. I'm over it. Our poor ancient hvac is struggling to keep up. Four large skylights without shades don't help.

Dinners have been those which don't require heating the oven. I had a large lunch out with the ladies in the neighborhood (a monthly event) that consisted of a generous bowl of gumbo with a square of grilled cornbread. I've had the gumbo from this particular eatery (in fact its what I almost always order there) and it's some of the best I've had anywhere - even NOLA. Dinner that night was two poached eggs on an english muffin. Tonight is bratwurst poached in beer then grilled. Side will be a salad.

I sent DH out today to purchase a new toaster oven. I got rid of our old one when we moved. It rarely got used and we'd had it a good long while. DH wants a steak and baked potato for father's day on Saturday and the kids are coming Sunday for a combination DS birthday/fathers day dinner. For the birthday dinner DS requested homemade pizza and peach cobbler with ice cream. Bad timing on those things with the heat, but at least now I can bake the cobbler and baked potatoes in the toaster oven. The pizza will require the big oven but at least it's only a short amount of time. Now all I have to do is find the real estate for the toaster oven.

I have lots of OXO stuff too. The thing I use most often is a hand held mandoline that has two settings - thin and thinner slices. I find myself using it several times a week in spite of my initial disappointment in it's limited settings.

I had more to report but the heat has fogged my brain. Thanks for the carrot cake recipe - perfect for two!

DivineMrsM

Minustwo, yep, I use a nine inch Pyrex plate for my pie, too! I've tried different sizes and pie pans made from ceramic and porcelain, but the simplest and best is 9" Pyrex. The crumble crust sounds pretty good, and if you care to share the recipe, I'd love to try it. That's nice you still have the recipe card from 1966. I did not marry until the late 80s, but dh and I still joke that he married me for my lemon meringue pie skills. Lol!

MinusTwo

Wally - hope the followup goes well.

Dinner ended up being sushi - half a California Roll with Rothchild Lemon Wasabi sauce.. Cold things from the fridge are on top of the list.

Speaking of OXO, my newest OXO purchase was a pair of toilet bowl brushes. (TMI???)

The absolutely no fail PIE CRUST CRUMBLE:

Sift into a 9" pie plate: 1/1-2 cups flour, 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt. Combine 1/2 cup cooking oil with 2 Tblsp cold milk. Whip with a fork & pour over flour mixture. Stir with fork til mixture is moist. Pat around pie pan & form an edge with your thumb. Prick with fork. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

I actually found a similar recipe in a magazines once for two pie crusts that calls to mix everything together in one large bowl - then divide in half & place in two pie places and pat down. The main difference was to bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

ChiSandy

I've had the same hand-held OXO can opener for 20 years. Anything it can't open, the five-buck supermarket Swing-A-Way will. But the OXO's big ovoid "key" is a lot more comfortable to turn.

Last night we went to Calo for baked clams, and grilled seafood over rapini and cannellini beans. Tonight at the Little Company of Mary Physicians' Recognition dinner (at Ridge Golf Club), the meal was an okay tossed salad, a nicely cooked surf & turf (Atlantic salmon and filet mignon), Duchesse potatoes (I left them over) and three hefty grilled asparagus spears. Saved my carbs for the cheesecake & berries (left the crust).

Down to a positively Arctic 77F right now. Good sleeping weather...with the ceiling fan on and the AC set to 66,

carolehalston

Last night's dinner was a slow cooker hodge podge, using the small slow cooker. Ingredients were a can of rinsed cannelini beans, a can of chick peas bought in error (thought I was grabbing a second can of cannelini beans, a quarter of a ham steak, a can of diced tomatoes, sliced leek, diced carrot, and chopped cooked linguini added the last hour, powdered seasonings. The end result was quite tasty. I added grated romano to mine. Some chopped greens would have been a good addition, Swiss chard, spinach, kale. I didn't have any on hand.

Tonight may be chicken thighs and sweet potatoes cooked on the grill in oven mode.

eric95us

It looks like it might rain here, but I have the long time desert dweller's skepticism about rain.

I installed the better cell antenna and the signal is very much better. It is "2 bars" instead of "0-1 bar" of signal, so at least now is not annoying to use.

Tonight's dinner will be the leftover chicken-jasmine rice. Since DD is in Michigan, it lasts a lot longer. :-)

I hit post accidentally.

Chickpeas are a common addition to meals here. We keep about 5 pounds of dry beans and pressure cook them as needed. Tomorrow's meal will likely be like your hodge podge...to use up the older stuff in the refrigerator.

wallycat

Minus, thanks for the good thoughts. We may need to repeat the cortisone for DH; not many options and those available are scary. Sigh.

Managed to get back in time to eat dinner at home; unplanned, so we had leftover curry and I poached an egg for each of us to "top" it and fleshed it out with some spinach.

goldie0827

Not much to post on eating for this girl, been in the hospital since last Sunday. Had to have emergency surgery for an obstructed bowel.

Eric, have we talked about your DD in MI.? Traverse City? I'm originally from MI. I hope we got a decent amount of rain! But most likely not.