So...whats for dinner?

SpecialK

Deb - adorable!  Congrats to all!

carolehalston

Deb, he's TOO cute!  Lucky you to have a little baby to cuddle!  I hope he's very healthy as he starts out his life.

Nance, have you already told us about the ingredients in your squash casserole? 

I walked my 3 miles late this morning and then cooked a heavy brunch.  Bacon, home fries, over-easy eggs, and toast made with the Pie and Bread Lady's triple wheat bread and her rhubarb/raspberry jam.  It was really good.  I love the home-made bread.  It makes toast a treat. 

Tonight's dinner will be leftover pasta w/red sauce and a garden salad.  It will be eaten in a QUIET campground!  People are starting to leave.  We enjoy the presence of people during the weekends but also like having the whole place to ourselves. 

Happy Sunday.

 

gardengumby

Enjoy your nice quiet campground.  We thought of getting a fifth wheel, but instead opted for a truck camper.  We'll be taking off (I think) around October - but the twins are due late November, so this year we may not leave until later.  I'm leaving it up to my hubby - since he's the one stuck driving!!  I'm hoping for an easier winter than last year!!!

eric95us

I just helped get my mother in law out of the car from her ride home from the hospital.  She say her new knee is pretty sore, but doing OK. 

The Isuzu Trooper is all done.   

auntienance

Good deal all around Eric!

Carole, I think the squash casserole is the same one everybody has, summer squash,  onions, eggs, bread or cracker crumbs, cheese. I top  mine with fresh tomatoes  and more cheese.

eric95us

I'm cooking a chicken in the dutch oven.   Corn on the cob and a fruit salad will round out things.

I've been working outside most of the day...105F/40C temperatures and trying to rain....and I'm going to keep dinner simple.

Moonflwr912

Auntie that casserole sounds pretty good. 

Eric tell your MIL good luck. And use lots of ice....

I cheated today. I had a burger with fries and stuffed pepper soup. Loved the soup and ate half the fries and about 3/4 the burger. Bananas and toast get pretty boring. LOL

carolehalston

Eric, your MIL is a hardy woman.  That surgery is not for wimps, as Moon well knows.  Your chicken appeals to me.  I was thinking yesterday of cooking a whole chicken in my crock pot but it's too small for a big chicken.  And it seems all the chickens are big these days.  I'll probably have to carve it up a bit. 

GG, in 2010 dh and I bought a used truck camper and headed to Alaska.  We already had a big truck for towing our 5th wheel.  It was a great way to travel the Alaskan highway through the Yukon and then all over Alaska.  On our return home, we sold the truck camper.  Have fun when you do take off!  It's great to have your bathroom and kitchen with you at all times. 

This morning I got out the bathroom scale for the first time since heading north.  I had to weigh in a number of locations in the camper before the scale reported a weight that wasn't over my goal weight!!!!  There is only one WW meeting in Park Rapids and it's at 6:30 pm on Mon. nights.  A very inconvenient time for me.  I'm sure the timing is for working women. 

We're off to bicycle a segment of the Heartland bike trail today. 

Happy Monday to all.

auntienance

Carole, I'm going to have to try that scale trick lol!

eric95us

Moving the scale around has never worked for me. :-)

Moon, the hospital sent her home with several cold packs that very much remind me of frozen peas that haven't stuck together.  Even after a thaw and re-freeze, the "peas" still aren't clumped together. 

Sharon called me over to look at a physics problem, so I didn't finish the post...

Anyway, Moon, it sounds like your doctor and my mother in law's doctor are in agreement on the cold packs.

Eric

carolehalston

Last night's dinner was Laurie's Salsa Chicken over brown rice with grated cheddar and sour cream.  The chicken was two chicken breasts cut into thick strips.  We also had a good garden salad with avocado.

Tonight's dinner will probably be the leftovers. 

 

eric95us

I just reread my last post... It sure sounded stilted..

 Guess I shouldn't rush posts. :-)

Moonflwr912

Just made a hamburger with an onion. Guess I'm bored. 

LOL eric. Sounded fine to me..Hope your MIL is recovering well. I have PT 3x a week. Only one exercise brings tears to my eyes. Not so bad. 

Joyce dinner sounded indoor or cooked outdoor. 

Carole leftovers is a free night! 

Much love to all

luvmygoats

Making sausage stir fry with peppers, squash and onions. Wimped out last night - heated 2 chicken sausages from TJs with a pkg of frozen rice/vegies. I have to get in the mood to cook. Not near your temps Eric but my therm. hit 101 today. We are quickly wiping out the pkgs of frozen leftovers. I need to read through the crockpot books I've been buying at HP Books Clearance Sale. Chicken breasts and pork loin on sale this week (buy1 get 1). Not in the mood for either. But I may buy the pork loin and have one sliced up in medallions.

Monica/Eric - do they use those continuous ice machines on knees there? I think they do here but never had to take care of anyone with it. Just heard about it.

Lacey - stay safe. Looks like rain dumping in the NE. I saw a Tweeted pic of a waterspout at Lake W---- (I could never spell it) from over the weekend or late last week.

When I went to PT last year they had the best cold packs, stayed cold a long time not like the drugstore kind we have. Have on Amazon but not cheap.

Joyce - I prob. know this answer but what are "Fenway" franks - the kind served there?

I made a flatbread with turkey meatballs and sauce. It was OK but not spectacular. Neither of us cared for the flatbread which is odd because we both love naan. So we pried the meatballs off the leftovers, put them on a hotdog bun with extra BBQ sauce and some undressed coleslaw mix. I know that kind of "hotdog" has a name - DH thought I was a genius.

I think I found a frozen turkey in my chest freezer. I don't even remember buying it. Guess it's there for the duration unless we get a really oddball cold front.

Oh yeah, the scale. I had to weigh pts for their recert. for hospice (if they could stand that is otherwise measurement is the upper arm circumf.). One pt had carpet in every room - includ. kitchen and bath. We did the best we could

Tell me the salsa chicken again - boneless or with bones. I've never made it. One of these days I need to read from page 1.

auntienance

Tonight was Chinese carryout from a new joint in town. Not bad. Not quite spicy enough for my taste, but ok. My little town is getting quite cosmopolitan with 2 Chinese restaurants!

MinusTwo

Funny - I actually made Laurie's "salsa chicken" last night too..  My son is in town while roofers are installing a new roof so I made it w/red salsa.  Turned out OK, but I prefer green chili. Here's Laurie's post so you don have to go looking for it.

The salsa chicken recipe comes from a friend of mine. It great, easy
and healthy. Usually I hate left over but this one is the exception, it
makes for great wraps or enchiladas a few nights later.

2-4 chicken breasts- put them in a Pyrex dish and dump a jar of your
favorite salsa over it. Open a can of black beans and drain- dump that
over it too. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. (it works like a
fast slow cooker and makes a sauce out of the black beans and salsa, the
chicken just shreds apart.)

Make some brown rice and 2 minutes before you are ready to eat uncover
the chicken and top with cheddar cheese, or mexican blend, what ever is
handy, We eat it using the salsa mixture on the rice as a type of sauce
and a spoonful of sour cream on the chicken.

Whats great is it takes literally 2 minutes from fridge to oven AND you
get to say you made dinner:)

MinusTwo

So - my son (who lives in northern CA) and I both agreed it's too darn hot in Houston to have the oven on - although the salsa chicken was wonderful.  Spent most of the day outside at 95 degrees actual but 105 degrees heat index.  Whew!!  Tonight I made Beef Burgundy in my deep electric pan & served on noodles.  Except I substituted beef broth for most of the wine & added just a small amount of Malbec. I remembered that he doesn't like "chunks" of onions so I chopped them REALLY small.  I forgot he doesn't like mushrooms either. Turned out OK since I like mushrooms better than the beef & we just divided the wealth.

Tomorrow we'll have strip steaks on the BBQ.  Anything to avoid the heat.  Roofers doing a really good job.  Moving on to windows next.

SpecialK

Joycek - the higher you put your router the better. Also they have signal boosters - we had to get one to send connectivity to the far end of the house when the DD was in college and needed to use her laptop.

Everyone's dinners sound yummy. Have not been cooking much since I'm by myself. DH came home Sun, leaves again tomorrow a.m. until Sun. again. We both leave Mon but I come back same day, he comes back Wed. So ..... No cooking!

eric95us

I've been tempted to get a used electric stove at Goodwill and set it up in the garage so I can use the oven without heating the house.

....just got a severe weather warning...

SpecialK

Eric - when we lived in upstate NY (in Rome) we saw extra stoves in basements and garages - very common. The realtor said it was for tomato season and marinara sauce making. 

Lacey12

Special, that is really an interesting regional culinary lifestyle fact about the extra stoves for tomato season in upstate NY. Love it!

Luv, we have missed the bad weather in much of MA since we are way out in P-town. So far have only had wild wind, which today calmed enough for us to enjoy a few hours on the beach. Started the day at 6AM, walked 50 minutes into town to get coffee. Every year we used to walk to a hotel on the water about a mile up the road. That was this morning's plan....except when we got there it didn't feel like much of a walk  (that's what 35lbs of weight loss and daily working out can do!), so we decided to go all the way into town (2 more miles) which was fun since we could really appreciate all the antique houses and local gardens that you can't pay attention to when driving on that very narrow pedestrian filled street. 

We enjoyed coffee (and unfortunately some delicious pastries, purely 'cause they looked good after our walk....no scales here;) next to the harbor, then after some shopping, decided to take the bus back to our place. Got set for the ocean beach. Our beach here is on the bay side and very nice, but since we got our senior free parking national park card a few years ago, we love going to the various ocean side beaches. Simple happiness!  

So I spent the afternoon collecting beautiful ocean stones on the beach which the grandkids will have fun painting next week when they visit at the lake. Oh, Luv, I saw the footage of that Lake Winnipesaukee water spout....don't know anyone who saw it. Laurie??

Tonight we attended a Broadway cabaret show at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. The singer was excellent, and quite moving with some of her original songs. We ended the evening with a stop at our favorite ice cream place, and DH had maple bacon flavor...it was actually quite tasty! I had a cranberry bog flavor that had cranberry with chocolate and white chocolate chips and walnuts ( for extra protein;). Yum!

Before the show we had had a quick dinner at a seafood place near the theatre...DH had fried oyster tacos, which he liked. I resorted back to my BLT quest....and it was good....but then I was really hungry! Also had kale sausage soup....just can't get away from my favorite soup!

Earlier in week we had dinners at restaurants in town...I had an arugula salad with crabcake(s!) one night, and their tomato-y kale sausage soup; yesterday had grilled jumbo shrimp with pesto, watermelon and pineapple over rice. Both were good. Tomorrow evening we are going to see a local performance of "Rent" and will go to one of the more popular restaurants in town before the show if we can get a reservation. Glad I am not at home cooking in the humid 90 degree heat! No air conditioned kitchen in our house!

Speaking about disjointed posts, Eric, I am not even going to review this long missive....so good luck all and good night! Probably another walk in the AM.....

Sorry not to respond to other posts....very late....t-i-r-e-d!

carolehalston

Lacey, glad I'm not reading your post later in the day when I'm HUNGRY!  You have such an interesting life and eat such delicious food out at restaurants.  I loved sharing that walk with you and your dh and enjoying the quaint houses and gardens.  And then walking on an ocean beach.

I refuse to mentally share those temps with Minus, LMG, and Eric!  It was 61 this morning when I got up and I'm wearing long pants, long sleeved shirt and socks.  The down side is that we stay inside and drink our coffee.  If it were a little warmer, I would go outside and enjoy the morning out of doors.

Joyce, your indoor/outdoor meal sounds really good, too. 

I've been hearing a loon at night and in the morning.  The sound is so wonderful.  I just love it!

Today we'll go bike riding on a different portion of the Heartland bike trail.  First we have to buy bread from Mary Dodge, the Pie and Bread Lady, who has her tent set up on Weds. and Sats.  We'll also have lunch out somewhere after biking.  A number of choices but none of them compare to Lacey's! 

Has anyone else taken leftovers out of the refrig. and expanded them?!  I dumped in a little more salsa and also added some diced ham.  Cooked more brown rice.  And ended up with more leftovers!

Am thinking I will put some chicken pieces in the crockpot and dump some really good barbecue sauce on it.  I have a whole chicken in the refrig.  OR maybe get a steak out to thaw.  Maybe I'll get input from dh. 

Lacey12

Carole, your mushrooming leftovers effort is funny.....sort of reminds me of the "friendship bread" process! Maybe you could start a trend in the campground....."friendship leftovers".

Love hearing loon calls on the lake. You must hear lots where you are. We get only a few loons on our lake since there are very few coves. Squam has many more, and the sound is enchanting. Enjoy yours!

Several years ago, I was into making decorative house flags, and made a small "loon flag" for our boat. Sadly, on one "too fast" excursion, the little flagpole loosened, our flag flew off and was lost.....never to be seen again. Didn't feel like putting that much detailed effort into another one.....maybe some day now that I have time. 

Hope everyone with steamy weather gets some relief. Coolish here on the coast so far today......

SpecialK

Carole - I regularly do "leftover expansion" with things I have, particularly if it is protein. When I cooked for our friend who is ill I had leftover cooked Italian sausage with onion so on Mon I  turned it into spaghetti carbonara. I seem to do this more since I have no kids at home.

Moonflwr912

Carole leftover expansion was supper tonight. I broke up a hamburger pattie, fried onion, added leftover rice and leftover pineapple. Tossed in some soy and oyster sauce. Now I have a leftover sorta stir fry. LOL

Lacey12

Tonight we ate at a popular local restaurant before going to a musical. We both had a  baby greens salad with cranberries, pine nuts and goat cheese. For main course, DH had a mustard almond crusted cod with roasted asparagus and wild rice, and I had salmon with roasted brussels sprouts and wild rice. I wasn't wild about mine, and DH kindly reminded me that when at the shoreline, eat the local fish! Duhhhhh! Tomorrow, we will both follow that advice and have lobster rolls at a place that uses no fillers (e.g., celery!).

After dinner we went to see a local production of "Rent". I loved that raucous show from the 90's and the local singers/performers did a great job. DH is not as much of a fan of this fast and furious production,so it  was good of him to get us tickets and sit in a very cold theatre (guess the performers needed that) for over two hours.

So I hope that the new knees are all starting to cooperate! I love the sound of the "peas" ice pack you described, Eric. I would love to have some of them in the freezer when joints act up.

luvmygoats

I must be the last convert to the salsa chicken. It was wonderful. Only had 2 boneless breasts - 1#. Used the whole can of beans but only about 1/2 the salsa. Yummy and leftovers. No expansion needed. DH says to take it to the next Mexican food party we go to. I have a church meeting tomorrow night so DH can choose from salsa chicken or sausage stir fry. Bet you right now it's the salsa chicken. He reluctantly eats squash (in the stir fry) but not his favorite. I think squash picks up whatever flavor the dish has kinda the same way I think about eggplant in a casserole. Oh well, if there are not to many appetizers passed I will come home to stir fry. I'm taking a baked refried bean dip, an old standby. Refried beans, chopped ripe olives, cheese by the bucketful, onions. What's not to like?

Lacey - you have the most interesting meals out.

MinusTwo

Luv  - I've made the salsa chicken w/large chunks of leftover chicken.  Chunks might be easier to serve for a crowd.  I have 1/3 of one chick breast left w/one scoop of beans for leftovers.  

Cooked salmon fillets last night.  DS & I were both too tired to grill after being outside and up & down the roof (him) all day.  The heat index was 105 degrees around dinnertime so I didn't want to turn on the oven & heat up the house.  Settled for microwave poached in dill.  Served w/leftover rice and corn.  Unfortunately just plain old frozen corn.  He doesn't eat corn on the cob.  Took him to the airport at 5am.  What a treat to have such a nice son who will come & help w/big projects.  New roof looks great.  Windows are next.  Trying to catch up on all the maintenance that got delayed with BC.

SpecialK

Went out to dinner last night with a friend on the spur of the moment.  I took her a couple of pairs of pants (that are too big now - yay!) after my haircut and since both of our DHs are out of town, we went out.  Had a lobster tail, roasted asparagus and a salad of arugula dressed with salsa verde, watermelon, feta and pepitas.  Yum!  Also was naughty and had a blackberry sangria - OMG!!!  Delicious!  I will justify it by saying I also got some antioxidants mixed in!

carolehalston

Special, glad that you had a night out and enjoyed your dinner.  What's naughty about the sangria?  No alcohol on your eating plan?

Moon, your expanded leftovers meal was very inventive!

Minus and LMG, the salsa chicken recipe adapts well to a slow cooker when it's too hot to light the oven.

Lacey, I try to stick to your dh's wisdom about ordering the fish that is local.  Gets difficult when there is no local!  Maybe order something other than fish?  The lobster roll sounds delicious. 

Watching the women's British Open on tv this morning.  Playing golf this afternoon at a very nice course.  It's cheaper to play the twilight time which starts at 3:30.  Will get the crockpot going about noon with chicken and barbecue sauce.  Last night's dinner was foraging because we ate lunch in Park Rapids at the Good Life Café.  I had a roasted turkey and avocado sandwich on really good wheat bread with restaurant-made chips.  DH had a fancy burger with battered fries.  They are the best fries we've ever tasted.  Golden and crusty and tender on the inside. 

A cool 65 here.