So...whats for dinner?

bedo

I still feel so good off Arimidex!  I want my estrogen baaack!  I almost feel manic I feel so good, I thought it was working that was making me tired, but after missing a few days, I realized it was the drug.  I called my MO and told him I would be off it for another week, total of 2.  It's really hot, and that makes me more tired.  And no, I've never been manic, I just feel like myself.  They hired someone else to help at work so that will be great, and then are hiring a third person. I had my parfait thing for lunch and then ginger ale

Tazzy, by the way is Canada Dry Ginger Ale REALLY made in Canada?  An irish man I met had never heard of Irish Spring Soap.

Anyway, for dinner, out with a friend.  My goal tonight. Find out where Grand-dog peed on the rug when she was here and spray it with Nature's Miracle

Oh, and I picked mint and spearmint from the garden and put it in my Brita water purifier for 24 hours.  So good and refreshing! Even putting mint in cold water tastes great! Another lazy idea.

Hi to everyone!

deborye

I did my stuffing one year on Thanksgiving in a muffin tin.  Took no time at all to cook.

I planted some Plum tomatoes and Peppers that are long, skinny and yellow and they are starting to form already.

My basil is doing well so when my tomatoes ripen I can make my tomato, motz and basil salads.

Yes Michelle, I have been to Doc Davis's many years ago when I lived in Townsend.  I used to drive a school bus for over 8 years and one time my route was in Pepperell.  I would drive by it while picking up the little brats and dropping them off. LOL 

deborye

I tried making Pesto with my basil a few years ago, I did not like the taste, even when I by it in the store, some people love it.

LuvRVing

We went to Hampton Beach this afternoon then went to the Beach Plum for lobster rolls.  Yum!  Then we went back to the beach because DH wanted fried dough.  We sat and listened to some live music for a little while.  The weather was beautiful and the sand sculptures from last month were still there.

It was hard to take really good pictures because the sun was low and everyone's shadows were reaching the sculptures.  Plus I didn't have my real camera - took this one on my phone. 

Hampton Beach is one of the top four cleanest beaches in the US...pretty nice...but the water is so cold!

luvmygoats

Michelle  Dang - great picture for a phone!!!  Looks like fun.  Ever see any little kiddies try to knock them down or are the walls tough enough to keep them out?  What is that one way on the end with ??wings?

Fried dough???  Would that be like a donut?

bedo

 Michelle and luvmygoats, what would you recommend for a camera, digital that I can post pictures with. Don't have a lot of money and don't need fancy stuff. I haven't ever owned a camera, (except my Brownie when I was less than 10?)

(decided to edit in order not to appear crazt)

luvmygoats

Bedo - Not a camera buff.  So excited that I have a work cell that has a camera.  We have 2 old not so hot digitals that don't even have batteries in them.  Need a pic, grab my cell.

Back on topic - DH made a dinner last night from McCormicks.  Seasonings in pkg, chicken strips, tomatoes, bell peppers, and spaghetti.  It was quite good and best of all I didn't have to cook it.  Found it at WalMart, my bestest place to shop. Worked all day on call driving around yesterday.  Have yet to get to the new Trader Joes.  It has the tiniest parking lot ever.  By the time I finish my day I just don't have the energy to fight the parking.   

bedo

So.... can I use the blackberry that they let me use for work? he he. Or my metro PCS $40 a month phone that takes pictures? Thankss

Love spaghettie and trader hoes but don't have one around here, so go with a friend and stock up!

eric95us

Deb, I drive a school bus as a substitute driver.  It's fun and the kids are good--principal is an Irish nun.  :-)

I have some mini bread pans..about 1/4 the size of a small loaf of bread.  I guess that would do for meatloa for two.

Sharon cooked tonight a vaguely Chinese dish.  Fresh ginger root, soy sauce, roast beef and broccoli with some corn starch to thicken things up and served on a bed of  quinoa.  It wasn't really chinese, but I loved it.  I had 3 helpings and so did Chrissy (DD)  She said she was able to cook it even after the steroid buzz ended from Monday's chemo.

Right now she's getting the twitches and pain in the soles of her feet--probably from the Taxol. I'm glad there's only one more of those things on the schedule.

fixed some spelling errors that my "poofreading" missed. 

LuvRVing

Bedo - any phone that takes pictures will work, but you need a way to get them online.  I usually just email a picture to myself then copy and paste.  That's about as easy as it gets.  If you want to buy a camera, any digital camera will work.  The important thing is the little memory card where the pictures are stored.  It's the camera's little hard drive, if you will.  You can take it out of the camera, put it in the little slot on the side of your laptop (if you have one) and copy the pix to your computer then upload them to Picasa, Shutterfly, Flickr, Photobucket, or one of the other online storage sites.  Or you can post them on Facebook. 

Luv - the sculptures were cordoned off with some netting.  Not very secure in truth but it looks like no one has bothered them.  I think they are coming down after this weekend.   They were all imaginative and I didn't pay attention to their names.  But, of course, everything can be googled and this is no exception:

http://www.hamptonbeach.org/sandcastle-competition.cfm

And oh, fried dough is well...here's a description that pretty much says it all:  "...it's a slab of pizza dough deep-fried to order. Depending on your mood, choose from cheese, garlic, pizza sauce and mozzarella, sweet honey walnut, peanut butter, chocolate, or, for traditionalists, the classic dusting of powdered sugar.  They are popular out here as beach and fair food.   Yup, really a giant carb/sugar/fat fest!

I went for caramel popcorn with peanuts, it's my favorite beach treat.  And somehow it seems at least minimally better for me than fried bread slathered with butter and sugar. 

Lacey12

Very cool sand sculptures, Michelle. For sure your protein laden (albeit sugar/butter coated) peanuts trump that slathered sweet dough for "health" possibilities.



Heading back to the lake tomorrow...wasn't my first choice since we are driving to the outer Cape on Monday for the week, and I am feeling like I have not stopped packing, driving, unpacking, shopping, packing again, cleaning, driving more, etc. etc. since leaving work last Thursday. However, DS2 is coming up to check out the boat (and we will be checking out his docking skills!) in preparation for having some friends up next weekend. I hope they are all comfortable with Faust the fox showing up a lot.



Tonight I made a very tasty fruit salad that was featured on "The Chew" on Monday.

It had: pineapple

cantaluope

honeydew

kiwi

mint leaves (chiffonaded)

simple syrup with ginger steeped in it



Peel, Cut and combine all the fruit.....squeeze the juice of a lime over the fruit pieces.



To make the syrup, bring half cup of water and half cup of sugar to a boil, take off heat and while cooling add several slices of peeled fresh ginger. Remove ginger before pouring over fruit salad.

Tazzy

Bedo - that is a great question... and I just looked it up.  Canada Dry Ginger Ale was originally made by a John J. McLaughlin of Ontario in 1904.  Today it is owned by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group in Texas.    Isn't the internet a marvellous source of   of information eh?   Talk about learn something new every day.   Happy to hear you are feeling so much better too.  Thanks for the tip on the mint.   Oh and I used to own a Sony Digital camera - kind of idiot proof point and shoot one, reasonable on price too.

Michelle - those sculptures are amazing.  And the weather looks so beautiful too.   The fried dough sounds absolutely decadent... I have never seen that, maybe a good thing. Great pic for a phone.

Lacey you are one busy lady.    That salad sounds delicious I will try that one for sure.

Hope all you wonderful ladies have a blast of a weekend.   Going camping with 4 other friends this weekend.  First time since chemo DH and I have done anything remotely ‘normal' like this.  Now it is time  Really looking forward to it.  So will chat after the weekend.

Oh! we went out for chicken wings and a beer tonight.

debbie6122

Michelle- Those Sandcastles are so cool. I love fried dough they have a indian flat bread similar to that here but in hawaii they have what is called Malasadas or Masaladas i always get it wrong but they are scumptuous! Sounds like you had a wonderful day!

Bedo- I went to a male review years ago i laughed through the whole thing they were chippendales but these guys were scrawney, i enjoyed watching the women get all nuts on them hehe! 

Lacey- That fruit salad sounds good. I make a simple surup for my strawberry shortcake and tea among other things and love ginger so will do that next time. Maybe when you get to the outter cod you will be able to relax!

Tazzy-  Have a great fun and safe trip camping!

chabba

Along the coast here we have indian fried bread but 90 miles inland the same thing is sold as elephant ears.

debbie6122

Chabba- Oh i know i have seen those too at carnivals isn't it funny the different names for the same kind of bread! Is your weather about the same as ours its been right around 70ish but the humidity seems higher than ive seen it since we moved here about 96% been kind of muggy! Nothing like what everyone else is getting but still uncomfortable at night.

chabba

Today was in the low 70's and very comfortable. right now [1:35 am] it is 57 degrees.

I enjoy reading about foods of different cultures and their foods, how the diets have been affected by environment and technology and the common foods of various cultures.  Bread types are particularly interesting to me.  Probably because the earliest breads were just ground grain mixed with a liquid. patted flat and baked on a hot rock, it seems every culture has a flat bread even today.  Many have become more sophisticated as people moved from hunter-gathering societies to cultivation and technology.  Think tortilla--water and grain baked on a rock or grill--to fry bread--water, grain and yeast fried.

eric95us

Ahh..another "bread head".. 

I'm guessing someone was surprised by their flat breat starting to rise and they decided it was good that way. 

I make a couple of loaves of sourdough bread each week using a home made starter. It helps calm Sharon's chemo stomach.  For whatever reason, normal yeast bread doesn't help.

Eric

apple

wow Eric.. way to be a good spouse. 

I really like working with sourdoughs.  i try not to use the oven much in the summer but am looking forward to cooler weather.  Experimenting with sourdoughs has been really fun.  a loaf that has been 'working' for 3 days sure has a lot of texture and spunk.

and then the daughter says..'mom' can you just make white bread like everyone else eats? - i just buy her a loaf.

we used to buy those biscuits in cans, take a little lid and cut out the hole, the center and fry donutss for ourselves.  yum

LuvRVing

Apple - I remember making "donuts" from those Pillsbury biscuits. I also remember when they were dirt cheap! You could do lots of things with that dough.

Eric - I agree with Apple, you are so good to Sharon!

Lacey - enjoy the lake this weekend. The weather is supposed to be good. Could you leave a few things there so you wouldn't have to pack every time? I guess that doesn't help much if there are no laundry facilities.

Tazzy - enjoy your camping weekend!

LuvRVing

I just learned that today is National Fried Chicken Day!  Here's my favorite recipe:

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1 slightly beaten egg

2 tbspns water

2 1/2 - 3 pounds of chicken cut into pieces (cutting the breasts in half will make the pieces more uniform and help them cook in the same amount of time)

enough oil to fill your frying pan about 1/2 way

Combine the dry ingredients and put in a paper or plastic baggie

Combine the egg and water.

Dip the chicken in the egg mixture then shake in the flour mixture. 

Place in skillet with hot oil and cook over medium heat until nicely browned.  Turn the chicken over and repeat.  Test with a meat thermometer to be sure it's done.

This method takes a little longer than deep frying.  But pan-fried is the traditional method.

And you'll find all kinds of recipes that soak the chicken in buttermilk, add some hot sauce or other spicy seasonings, etc.  They are all good.  I have done one where I browned the chicken using this method then finished it in the oven - about 15 minutes or so at 375.  It was good, too.

My all-time favorite lunch when I was working - a trip to the local grocery store for one fried chicken breast and a nice fruit or veggie salad from the store's salad bar.

eric95us

Thanks for the kind words.

In addition to fried chicken day, it's my dad's birthday.  He lived to be 91.  He would have been 99 today.  For what it's worth, he grew up about 20 miles from where Colonel Sanders got his fried chicken start start.

I love fried chicken.  I know Sharon likes fried chicken too, but she's trying to keep the weight under control and the steroids aren't helping.  I'm afraid it would be a "This is good!  Why in Hell did you make it?"

  

Eric

chabba

I started baking bread in jr  high school and except for the six years after I left home for college and until I married I've baked almost weekly.  That makes about 50 years of weekly baking.  I've probably made 50 or more different types but our favorites were always sourdough, my version of my family potato rolls and croissants.  also did several flat breads, including lefse, and tortillas.  Always found bread making therapeutic.

Moonflwr912

Eric, I did not know sourdough could do that, interesting. thanks for the tip.

LuvRVing

Eric - one fried chicken breast...that can't be too terrible

I am good at quick breads (banana, zucchini, etc) but anything involving "rising" I leave to the experts!

eric95us

Moonflwr, if you mean help with the queasy feeling that breaks through the anti nausea meds...it helps..although I think any easy to digest/bland food would help.



It also helped my fiancee. But there, help was a relative term....daily chemo with no anti nausea meds (shudder). Even a 1% improvement was a lot.....



I started baking bread in college. I had half of a duplex so I had a kitchen and minimal cookware. Mickey (my fiancee) brought over the remainder of the jar of yeast that she had been using in a class of hers (biology/premed)...and the rest is history... As time went on, more "stuff", like loaf pans and glass bowls, was added to the kitchen.



Sometimes I feel like she is sitting on my shoulder telling me how best to help Sharon. It's an odd, comforting and sad feeling.





Eric

Lacey12

All those good bread posts got me thinking about dinner. Was supposed see a play tonight, but after spending the morning getting things ready to pick up for the Cape trip at the end of this weekend, then the drive up here (I am always the driver....better eyes....I see things like Bedo's brother does , I had no energy to drive another half hour over to Winnipesaukee and back...and I'm always the night driver these days. Being astutely observant of my fatigue

(I'd suggested he might want to heat up a Trader Joe's prepared meal for his dinner since I was not hungry but really tired), DH suggested he go to the play by himself. Music to my ears...I needed to get off this activity merry-go-round, and can live a full life w/o seeing this particular play, which he will probably enjoy.

Since I never did have dinner since I wasn't hungry when it was offered, I made a remnant dinner....a creation from leftovers. Sliced a couple of pieces of ciabatta bread and topped them with feta, sliced onions and some chopped walnuts, toasted them in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes, and sprinkled fresh chopped mint over while still warm. Odd but yummy. Also had a cup of the fruit salad I posted yesterday....and a little dessert....some chocolate dipped ginger cookies I'd left up here. Really yum!

Hopefully in the morning I can buy some plants to put in my deck pots. I am so darn far behind in getting any gardening done this year....and it is the longest growing season we've had in years A part of me feels like, just scrap it for this year.....too much going on and not enough hours in the day. But I so love my deck up here when it is colorful.....so I decided I will just really scale down what I do in terms of volume....and hope to get back to "normal" next year when I hopefully have fewer demands (no work transition) and more energy.



Eric,....Ditto on a Apple's comment....and your shoulder "coach" feeling blend is poignant.

I am also more of a "quick bread" baker except for pizza dough, and this wonderful (easy) french bread recipe I got from the Boston Globe years ago. When I post from home, I can include it.....if I remember.



On an errand run this week, I bought a poof, and now can't recall the site that has the directions for making the poof falsie. If anyone remembers that, I'd appreciate the thread.

Thanks! Soon off to bed.....of course the neighborhood "firecrackers" may foil my best laid plans. Nite all.....

SpecialK

lacey - here is the link for the bath scrubbie poof falsie thing:

http://www.pinkstock.webuda.com/1_8_Swim-Poofy.html

Moonflwr912

Actually I made one of those and it looks pretty good. I haven't tried it on a suit though cause I haven't been swimming maybe ill have try it in the shower before I go out.

eric95us

Bread baking..



Is your preference glass or metal pans? Or does it matter? I've used both over the years, but I've never been able to decide which I like better.



For round loaves I always use a double wall cookie pan..one where there is a some space between the top and bottom pieces of metal. If I ever find a decent pizza stone, I'd try that...but I havent found a good one yet.



Eric

chabba

eric, have you searched on line.  I've had good luck at cooking.com.  They carry high quality products at reasonable prices.  Just checked them out, they have several styles, 20 choices at what looked like pretty reasonable prices. 

When you get a stone be sure you get a peel.  It makes getting things a lot easier to get on and off that hot stone.  I've used my stone a lot, love it for french bread and round loaves.