So...whats for dinner?

bedo

Special I hope everything goes smoothly and you are home comfortable and well.

Auntie and Minus I love my primary doc. I went to see him yesterday. He doesn't know that if he told me to run 10 miles after work each day I would. I complained about gaining weight and he said, "Well, when we get older, we would have to train like an athlete to stay the same weight and who wants to do that?" :O ! Maybe pick someone in his practice? good docs usually stick together

Thanks for the recipe!

carolehalston

Comfort food weather has arrived.  It's nasty looking out there today.  Light rain, windy, cold.  Temp. in the 40's today.  I got out The Italian Baker cookbook last night and refreshed my memory about making the biga.  I'll make it today and bake some rustic wheat bread tomorrow.  I don't want to make the traditional shape, though, which is round.  I will form the dough into a long loaf like French bread.  Actually two long loaves.  That means the cooking time will probably be a little shorter.

Not sure what dinner will be but lunch will be lintel soup!

Will be thinking about SK today.

Lucky you, Lacey, to be a visit away from Persian food!  Could you describe your process for making your kale soup?

I must be in the mood for reading about food.  I also ordered an Indian Classics cookbook. 

auntienance

Bedo, that sounds like a great doc. Mine is rather like that -- very non judgmental. Love her. Minus, that's exactly how I feel -- abandoned. (Cancer has so not made me a better person, I'm the same self centered, selfish being i.e. "why is she leaving me???!!!") But I know how she has struggled with her job and family. Her husband is a doc too. Truthfully, I knew it was inevitable but was doing fine with my head in the sand.

Anyway, I'm sitting here drowning my sorrows in countless cups of coffee watching the snowflakes outside my window (seriously, before thanksgiving!!??) and thinking comfort food all the way -- pot roast and vegetables and a cherry slab pie. Dh has requested more cinnamon bagels so I think I'll drown my sorrows in flour.

auntienance

You are not going to believe this -- in the mail today I got a letter from my mo saying he's not seeing patients any more after December first. I'm trying not to take this personally, but really??!!

carolehalston

Nance, you're right.  I DON'T believe it! 

We're having Chicken and White Bean Chili (my own recipe) for dinner.  There is quite a potful simmering away on the stove.  I started out with 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut them into cubes and browned them in 1 T. olive oil.  Removed chicken and browned 6 oz of smoked turkey sausage cut into large dice.  Added back chicken with 3 cups of organic low sodium fat-free chicken broth from a box, 1 small can of mild green chilis, 1 can of Ro-tel tomatoes with chilis, 2 tsp cumin, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, 4 cups of drained rinsed white kidney beans.  I will add some baby spinach that is taking up a lot of room in the refrigerator in its plastic box.  May need to mash some of the beans to thicken the broth. 

Side will be salad.  Corn bread would go well but there would be leftovers and I'm baking bread tomorrow.  Could freeze the leftover cornbread for dressing.  Hmmm...

No snow but a very nasty, cold day.  Off to make a cup of coffee.

MinusTwo

Carole - WTH - we live in the South for goodness sakes. Last night was 37. Tonight they are predicting 31. Can't believe I had to drag in all my plants and it's only the middle of November. That doesn't usually happen until January. I KNOW we're on the same page!!!

Nance - Yup - abandoned for sure. Bedo - I will go with an OB/Gyn in the same practice since that's where my doc is going. But the PCP she is going to doesn't accept new patients. I would guess my OB is getting in only because they've traded referrals over the years. I'm scheduled to meet a new MO in December that my doc recommended because his major interest is HER2+. We'll see...

Did I mention that i'm freezing? When I got home from PT I spent an hour on the phone with my BFF who's husband died two week ago. And two glasses of Hahn GSM red wine. Managed to cook up a pot of Stove Top stuffing, and I was clever enough yesterday to have removed 1/2 a pork loin that was already roasted from the freezer. Yummy. Dessert was a spinach salad from Costco w/onions, bacon, cranberries, hard boiled eggs, etc. Now I'm off to bed with my heated throw.

bedo

That stinks everyone!

It's going to be a 3 dog, make that... cat night and I only have two.

Hope everyone stays warm.

Night

Lacey12

Yikes, Nance...how could anyone NOT feel abandoned given two doc departures! Unfortunately we are more dependent on them for ongoing care given the bc treatment and follow up, to say nothing of advancing age and all that comes with that.....not that anyone on this thread has to be concerned about that. it would just be my worry......Glad you have that baking center to help drown your sorrow. More huggggggs!

Carole, will send kale soup recipe over weekend. Need some shuteye so I can be alert enuf to drive out to Worcester to a conference in the early morning snow. Yes, it seems early even for us to havesnow!

Tonight we had kale soup with grilled cheese....DH decided we should have some oregano and tomato in the sandwiches. They were very tasty made with some sliced artisanal (sp?) bread from Trader's and low fat jarlsberg cheese.

carolehalston

It must be too cold for cooking and eating dinner!  LOL!  Very quiet on this forum.

We had fresh-baked wheat bread with olive oil and cracked pepper instead of butter.  Warmed over chicken and white bean chili and a crisp salad with romaine and veggies.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and safe in this arctic weather.  It will warm up to a high of 70 by Sun. but another cold front is headed our way.  Tomorrow I might get out the pasta extruder and play around with using it. 

Nance, this might be a cold Christmas in NO!

auntienance

Carole, that would be just my luck lol! The last time we spent a February in gulf shores, it snowed and never got above 50 degrees.

susan_02143

I, once again, have hit the end of my rope. All it takes is one hysterical client who can't follow directions flailing away for days and days and days to put me way over the edge. Food has been simple, by my standards. Let's see, one night I made a faux ragu with a bottled Marina sauce, Italian sausage and ground beef. That kept us going for two dinners. One night I made fish tacos, and then we did a night of hamburgers with cole slaw and, if I may say, the perfect french fries. Tonight, I steamed some hot smoked salmon served over pasta and a green salad. There have been lots of greens salads since the veggies in the market just don't look that good.

Our lamb is sitting in a freezer and I need to find some time to head North to gather it up. To make room in our freezer, I have a picnic ham defrosting. This is the last big cut from last year's pig. I am thinking I will do a cuban braised pork. Just have to figure out what the rest of the menu might look like. Black beans for sure... what else?

*susan*

eric95us

Susan, it sounds like you got one of those "I know what I'm doing. Where's the any key? I can't find it!" types. I hate when that happens.

There hasn't been much cooking going on the past week.

Monday through Thursday I got up at 4am, drove the bus, went to my other job, got home around 8pm, went to bed.

And, DD is sick with some nasty cough thing...the dog has had several opportunities to help clean up..

Next Tuesday Sharon has an oncologist checkup...hopefully it will be as uneventful as before.

bedo

Eric I hope things get better

I will be making huge quantities of bulgur tomato soup. It seems that one of my friends and I have been trading services. My terrariums in a bottle and soup and stews for her financial advice.

I will also be making a big white lasagna for my daughter this weekend.

Speaking of retiring I am thinking of doing this after the first of the year. I guess one never knows what the future brings. I will probably work 2 months out of the year only. I find that not working brings the "kid" out in me and makes me feel like I did when I was 8.

MinusTwo

Bedo - what goes in a white lasagne? My DIL is vegetarian and she might like that.

bedo

Here ya go

Emphasis on the easy

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Spinach-Lasagna-with-White-Sauce/

MinusTwo

Yum - thanks.

Lacey12

Was thinking about making pizza dough with my 00 flour until i saw that my recipe called for it to sit for 24 hours. Oh dear....next best thing, DH picked up a five dollar large cheese pizza from a local Italian take-out spot in town and I doctored it up with carmelized onions, red and yelliw peppers and mushrooms. Result below....pretty tasty for minimal effort. Made cuke salad to go with and DH had more kale soup. I abstained as I am trying to get my innerds bulked up and calmed down with reduced fiber. Nice record low weight this AM, but not worth maintaining that after a depleted week. So pizza it was...scales be damned!

carolehalston

Lacey, you can buy pizza yeast in the little packets that allow you to make pizza dough that doesn't have to rise.  Ciao Italia (Mary Ann Esposito) has recipes on the web site for white flour and wheat flour pizza dough using the pizza yeast.  I've made both of them. 

Speaking of scales, I'm down to 1/2 lb over my WW goal weight.  So about 6 lbs since no alcohol.  DH is down on the scales, too. 

Tonight's dinner will probably be shrimp with home-made pasta.  If the pasta turns out ok.  I'll have some bought wheat pasta on standby!  I also have some broccoli that I need to cook.  I had bought a large bag of florets at Sam's.  I'm looking for a "light" cheese sauce.

Off to the gym this morning.  It's cold but the sun is shining.

susan_02143

Made the bi-weekly granola last night, thinking I could make the bagels during the 20 minute baking times between stirs. Whoops! Started the oats before I noticed that the bagel sponge needs to ferment for two hours. 8:30pm is not a good time to start that! So, I used those breaks to measure out the ingredients. This morning, I started the sponge while the coffee was brewing. I am going to try something new today. When I make the little boules after the second rise, I am going to have some hydrated onions ready to mix into the partitioned dough. Maybe this will allow me to have onion bagels without the burnt stuff that happens when I simply sprinkle the wet onions on top.

Have no idea what dinner looks like just yet. I suspect that I will shop the freezer.

*susan*

auntienance

Lacey, love the profile pic! You need to put that one on pinterest too, you look like a different person!

I've used the same pizza dough recipe for years that came out of an old time bread cookbook. It's scribbled on a piece of scratch paper with tomato sauce stains on it.

Bedo, good for you! Retirement will suit you.

Susan, I'll be interested in knowing how the onion bagels turn out. I've tried hydrating the onions before putting them on top but they still burn some. I'm baking bagels today too -- dh's cinnamon ones. I forgot about them yesterday! Need to make Greek yogurt today too.

Tonight will be corn chowder and cheddar biscuits.

Monica, are you snowed in? That's a lot of snow Wisconsin got! Stay warm! Hope you didn't lose power.

auntienance

Carole, congrats to you and dh on your weight loss!

M0mmyof3

Went grocery shopping for excercise today. About all I feel up to doing under the circumstances right now. Down 19 pounds since I started working out.

luvmygoats

Nancy - You mentioned Pintrest. When did they redo their pages so that you cannot see most of pages without a sign in which I do not have and really don't want. Really ticks me off. I see lots of recipes linked there but many are now impossible to get to. OK rant over.

Bedo - thank you for the recipe. I have most of the ingredients, no ricotta and the chopped spinach may be a tad soggy frozen old but that is easily replaceable. I even have the noodles. I think that sounds like something yummy maybe tomorrow. I have a moose chicken 4 something pounds attempting to thaw. He might have to go back in refrigerator overnight and try again tomorrow. I was going to try spatchcocking (love the name) it but not brining. Nothing big enough to do that in and DH would not care one way or another. Maybe a BBQ seasoning sprinkled spatchcocked chicken?

We had spaghetti 2 nights in a row. Ready for something moderately real cooked. Had long appt at glaucoma doc yesterday, annual check. Inner eye not draining right adding to pressure so sched. for laser eye surg. in Jan. DH says eye stuff no biggie he's had Lasix and cataracts done. He says compared to LX surg it's a breeze. Not much alternative, drops will not fix this. At least no further damage per tests. Need comfort food. Besides it's cold here, maybe snow tomorrow night 1".

Lacey - that pizza looks marvelous. Don't think I've ever seen pizza crust yeast but then I don't have anything strong enough to mix dough in anymore. I assume it has to be kneaded, right? I have an ancient Sunbeam mixer in the closet I have not used in years. It has dough hooks; still have them. I quit using it when I bought a breadmachine that has since bit the dust. Wonder if it still works? Humm. DH will have to get it out. It's pretty well buried in the back. Maybe when the Christmas decorations get out. Good plan.

Carole - congrats on the weight loss both you and DH.

Mommyof2 - grocery shopping counts. All that walking and I backtrack a lot. My groc. remodeled earlier this year and polished the concrete floors. I hate them. My legs get a workout trying to get traction.

auntienance

Luv, I don't know about the pinterest thing because I have a log in. You are so right about shopping counting because on big shopping days my fitness tracker logs in a minimum of three miles. I'll take it! Monday will be one of those days because I'm hitting Costco and tj's.

I've discovered that the smallest and cheapest chickens to be had (3 pounds and 95 cents a pound here) are at Aldi. They are also quite good.

Good luck with your eye surgery luv, glad you have no further damage.

Waiting for snow here. Supposed to get an inch, revised from 3. So far not a flake. It can stay that way as far as I'm concerned.

carolehalston

DH reminded me this morning that tonight is the 3rd and final Abita Opry performance of the fall season.  We bought season tickets and missed the first two shows.  So no shrimp and pasta dinner tonight.  We'll have a bowl of soup and some chicken salad before we go.  I'll probably have more home-made bread.  I had it for breakfast and lunch. 

A pot of red beans for tomorrow's dinner at my mother's house is simmering on the stove.  The meat seasoning is sliced ham hocks.  There's also a loaf of Basic White bread being cooked in the bread machine.  Interesting that you should mention your bread machine, Luv.  I got mine out to make my mother a loaf of bread.  It has been stored away for a couple of years. 

Susan, do you have a recipe link for your home-made granola?  DH buys a granola that he eats like cereal with milk and banana or other fresh fruit on top.  I don't eat cereal because it makes me ravenously hungry within an hour or hour and a half. 

I guess I'll try Pin Interest again.  I tried to log in recently and had forgotten my password.  When I went there before, I didn't find it all that interesting or helpful. 

I received The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden which I ordered.  It's a beautiful book and quite hefty.  I look forward to reading it. 

M0mmyof3

Spaghetti and homemade meatballs

I've noticed since chemo that I can only eat one plate of pasta and if I'm having chili I'm down to one bowl.

eric95us

I just found a new butcher shop. The last two I frequented went out of business when the owners retired.

The most interesting thing were the "wild raised" chickens. According to the papers on the wall, the shop owner's brother raises a bunch of chickens and a number of hogs on several sections of land and supplies them to the shop.. The hogs are close to feral and the chickens have figured out the hogs are useful creatures -- the hogs dig around in the dirt and turn up crawly things for the chickens....and most chicken predators don't mess around with chickens guarded by semi-wild hogs.

The combined weight of three whole chickens was 8-1/2 pounds and they have an entirely different "body shape" than I've become used to seeing.

susan_02143

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden is one of my most favorite books! In fact, I made the basic bulghar from it tonight! Try any of the koftas, or and the breads... in fact, when I have a spare moment, I will bring my book upstairs and send you a list of favorites. Nothing I have made from this book hasn't been good. Now, that doesn't mean I don't tweak the recipes the next time I make them to our tastes, but this is a "lifetime" book in my opinions. With the bulghar I served some Merquez sausage and, ta da, I finally made a Turkish red lentil soup. I love this soup and go to two restaurants just for their soup. Well, that excuse is gone because mine was even better! Here is the recipe I used with my modifications noted in the ingredients.

http://www.pepperplate.com/sharedrecipe.aspx?id=36...

Now onto our homemade granola. Obviously, this recipe has been tweaked to the way my husband likes his granola, but I bet you can make something terrific based on these ratios.

http://www.pepperplate.com/sharedrecipe.aspx?id=2d...

Back to the Roden book, it was a Cookbook of the Month several years ago, so there is a wealth of real, people reviews of many of the recipes. Take a look... might give you a jump start.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/731358

*susan*

bedo

Goats

Moose chicken? Frog rain showers? And I've learned about chicken fried steak here also. You are all so funny

Susan that sounds good.

Using the oven to heat up this freezing place. Not helping

Moonflwr912

specialk, hope you are doing well. Lacey glad the scope went well.

Bedo you always have great ideas.

Susan I'm not really into a lot of Middle Eastern food. Lentils are ok but sometimes I find them kind of muddy.

Eric how do they taste? And are they the same color? When I lived in VA, I hated the white chicken. I was so used to the Midwestern yellow ones. LOL

Mommy2, I eat less than I did before chemo. But it seems to be coming back. Darn it. LOL

Carole, pinterest is a big time waster for me so I try not to go there.

Luv, good luck with your eye. And I used my ancient Sunbeam for almost 35 years til it finally died and I got my kitchen aid. If you knead dough, stay nearby. It has a tendency to crawl up the hooks. I made a lot of bread in it.

Speaking of bread, my favorite ready made loaf is french peasant bread from Breadsmith. It's a heavy loaf with great flavor. If anyone knows a recipe for it let me know!

Nance we are waiting for snow as well. Of course if we get some here it will be tomorrow. My DD Baby Shower is tomorrow. We are having High Tea at my favorite Bistro. We chose soup because it's been down to 20 here. The big snow so far has been north of us. My friend is in Upper MI. They got 34 inches! Not ready for that yet. LOL

Tonight we had pork tenderloin, with Cherry glaze mashed potatoes and butternut squash. The really funny part, after I was warming up the cherry preserve, I grabbed the vinegar bottle. I thought it was the balsamic vinegar. Nope, it was the Maple Balsamic. SERENDIPITOUS! !!! Seriously the best sauce I've ever made with just 3 ingredients. I also used just a small squeeze of mustard. ( I don't like mustard but sometimes it is needed, so when I say a little it is probably like a quarter teaspoon. LOL)

Much live to all. Stay warm.