So...whats for dinner?

Lacey12

Wow Nance, what a lot of work! Not sure I have the energy for that anymore...but it will be wonderful to have the raised beds and fenced in gardens. I did buy some pansies today to plant in pots on kur deck since we have no more snow at all. For the past three days it has truly felt like SPring!

We just returned from a little neighborhood gathering at the home of a woman who lives alone and loves to sing in groups...so we had a sort of hootenanny (sp?). Definitely not ready for prime time!

Today we ventured out to the new Market Basket grocery store (this is the store that was tied up in a family legal battle for a very long time and is now run by the relative who is loved and respected by the employees). It does seem to be a well run store, with low prices, tho I saw very little organic produce there. We got one of those $5 chickens there and just finished having some of it for dinner.

So Big Night has come and gone, and I think it will most likely be the last time we attend. Seems every year they cut back on things that have made it special in the past....unnamed wine in carafes this year, presentation only so so. For example, the chef brought out a large timpano we expected to be cut into slices, but instead we were served little individual pasta encrusted ones that did not measure up. I will grandiosly say that it did not come even close to tasting as good as the one my neighbor and I made two months ago. The dessert was tiny cannolis and tiny biscotti...neither memorable. They probably thought no one had space for them....I did! So here are some pics to go along with my unpleasant review....

In fairness to this couple who own the restaurant, they have just purchased a local inn and have been in a frenzy dealing with that transition. That will be their second restaurant, (farm to table, American food instead of authentic Italian)along with a wine and speciality store.

The risotto...actually, all three of these were wonderful: shrimp and mussel; parmesan, and pesto, which was to die for.

Disappointing individual timpano

Chef Josh displaying the fish...maybe sea bass?

Roasted thyme carrots and spinach

The most tasty herb crusted potatoes (and I never usually eat white potatoes...had a lot!) and tender pieces of chicken

The fish course

Our unexciting dessert....can you tell I'm a dessert girl?!

Yay, none of the pix disappeared!

And Bedo, I would be happy to try to post your pix while Susan galavants around Paris!

auntienance

Lacey, in spite of the food not quite living up, it looks like a good time. And oh how I love risotto! It's one of the things I like to make when my DDIL is here -- she doesn't mind standing at the stove and stirring forever and I hate it!

Redheaded1

I would kill to try all three of the risottos.  I think when I make it, I can almost eat the whole thing myself....

eric95us

Last night was chaperoning Sharon's school's prom. This morning DD's car emergency was superseded by a plumbing emergency--leaking garbage disposer. $350 for a plumber to come out and fix it sometime tomorrow between 8am and 5pm. $95 and 1 hour, including the trip to the store and it's fixed. It helps when one gets the same model as it "just fits with no issues".

So DD is now cleaning up underneath the kitchen cabinet.

My mom's 97th birthday is today and I'm still thinking about what to make for dinner for her. But first, a junk yard run to get some more parts before someone else gets them.

M0mmyof3

dinner is pork chops, salad and baked potato

SpecialK

susan - enjoying the photos!

eric - you are a renaissance man for sure!

Dinner is TBD.  Last night was no dinner for me - I had a couple of Aleve the other day for my hip - big mistake, have been in heartburn-like pain ever since.  I have tried eating a variety of different things, nothing helps, almost everything makes it worse.  Ugh!  I made DH a chicken Waldorf salad with dried cranberries after he came home from the gym.

eric95us

I think I'm going to take the easy way out and do some old standbys; a pork roast in the usual way and make the chicken rice dish. I don't feel like making a cake, so I may do what my mom did for me when I was three.

According to mom...as I didn't know any of this at the time.

My third birthday was moving day and mom forgot about my birthday. When she did remember, it was 10 minutes before the bakery closed and the only thing left was a chocolate "long john" doughnut...just one....so she bought it, put three candles in it and that was my "cake". She said I loved it.

To this day I like chocolate doughnuts.

I won't be able to put 97 candles on it, so I'll probably just go with one candle.......and I'll get ice cream for all of us.

SpecialK

Eric - I have started to use those number candles now that my youngest has passed the two dozen candle mark. I'm so bad I even recycle them - I have a bag full of random numbers. I also like them because they are big enough to be seen in pictures so it's easier to identify which birthday it is! The donut story is adorable and she will love getting one! And some ice cream

Lacey12

As usual, no spare time for you, Eric! I HATE plumbing crises!!

Nance, all of the risottos were wonderful, but the pesto one was out of this world. I bet a pesto risotto with shrimp would be abolutely to die for! Maybe try that when DDIL comes to visit? I used to make a pesto alfredo sauce with shrimp and scallops over linguini for our Christmas Eve dinner for many years....before I didn't pay attention to calorie and fat intake. Those were the days....;)

Probably having leftover five dollar chicken with assorted vegetable saute and salad tonight, before heading to a poetry reading some of our friends are sponsoring. I have never been a knowledgeable poetry fan, but did once write a haiku about a dog that was hanging out of the second floor window of a row house on a stifling weekday morning. I saw him often as I used to walk past the row houses on the way to my summer job at RCA in Camden, NJ. I can still sense the tomato soup smell that filled the muggy still air from the Campbell's Soup company in that neighborhood. Always liked reading that little dog poem...wish I could find it.

Tomorrow is Marathon Monday and we just talked to DS1 whose "building" sits right at the finish line, (this was the one that had its first four floors of windows blown out two years ago) so we might head down on the train and watch the elite runners finish, and hang out with him and DGF a bit. Of course things are heightened here given the trial happening and the sentencing coming up.

Redheaded1

It is a dark stormy afternoon with rain here in Central IL so I am attempting to Make Special's split pea soup.  Already worried cause the amount of sautéed veggies looks like too much for the stock and the peas and ham.  Waiting on the peas to "thicken the stock" then combine it all.  Wish I had thought to b uy a baguette at the market.  May have to suit up in my slicker and venture out.p

Substuting a 1/4 inch thick slice of black forrest ham diced 1/4 inch squares since I don't have a hambone....

SpecialK

red - thin it with water or more stock if it is too thick.

Redheaded1

Special, you said Large containers of stock.  My stock was 32 oz each, is that ok?

auntienance

Pork chops here too tonight, with applesauce, baked sweet potato and some sauteed yellow squash. Kind of cloudy and rainy here too Red, soup sounds good.

Poor Eric -- you never get a weekend off. It's the price you pay for being too good at too many things ;-) Happy birthday to your mom!

SK -- I feel your pain. Most tried and true heartburn remedies don't work for me either. The only food that comes close are saltines. The thing that works best is drinking tons and tons of water. Thankfully, I no longer have to deal with it nearly as often since daily omeprozole. I know long term use of that causes it's own issues but having heartburn that feels like a knife in your chest is trumping for now. Btw, I don't have any problem with Aleve, but Motrin gives me heartburn BIG time!

We are at the age of cakes having one "representative" candle lol.

auntienance

Ahhhh, chocolate long johns. Oh so delicious, but talk about heartburn . . . . . .

susan_02143

This is our last night in Paris. We had a wonderful day, and once again, I pushed my mother to walk far too much. _le sigh_ I can't quite seem to get that right.

Let's see what I can get up tonight. First off.... for Eric.... dessert. We split two desserts so that we could each have a taste but I gave my Mother more than half of each one. Une tarte fraises et une eclair chocolate.

Palais Garnier

And just cause the Palais is so brilliant, another:

A bientôt,

*susan*

SpecialK

susan - awesome and love the French version of Eric's mom's chocolate donut!

auntie - I had reflux surgery back in '95, so I am usually careful, but took Aleve just this once - never again.  Feels like something is stuck there.  And is on fire.  This has been going on for several days, so I am cranky, lol!

red - yes, those are the size, but I had to add water too.  I added it as the peas cooked - if things reached that resistant point when I stirred I just kept adding water but the consistency of this recipe is pretty thick.  The saltiness of the ham and the flavor of the other vegs is strong enough I think you can add a fair amount of water to get it where you want it.

eric95us

Dessert.....ahh....thank you... :-)

Eric

M0mmyof3

Tommorrow I'm planning on making chili. I figure I'll have enough left over to cook up some pasta and throw it in so we have dinner for either Thurs. or Fri. in case I'm still not up to cooking after the surgery on Wed. Got a frozen pizza for Wed. night

SpecialK

mommyof2 - good luck and take it easy!

M0mmyof3

Planning on it. Just got a few things housework wise to do before Wed. and then I'll take it as it comes. Good thing hubby is willing to help me with things post-surgery

eric95us

Hubby is *supposed* to do that! ::-)

Eric

Redheaded1

Mommy good luck on your surgery----download all the takeout menu's you can find!!!!

M0mmyof3

Got chili made for tonight, tommorrow I'll cook some pasta up and add the leftover chili to it. That's at least one dinner for later this week. Tommorrow will most likely be chicken. I'll make enough for another night this week.

auntienance

Cold and windy day here (what happened to spring?!!) good day for soup. Been kind of out of the soup mold for a while so I scoured the pantry and came up with a package of 15 beans. I'll put these together with a frozen ham bone and a baguette. It's been forever since I made 15 bean soup. DH will be happy because one of the 15 varieties is lima beans. He can have those.

Lacey12

Nance, I was just thinking the same thing about it being a soup day....cold and rainy....and yes, we wimped out of viewing the brave and hardy Marathon runners outside. To make myself feel like less of a slouch, I did head to the basement, did a half hour of rigorous treadmilling and then some stretching and weight bearing exercises.

Am thinking that I might make a cabbage based soup since I have had one in the fridge awaiting use!

Will also make lamb burgers with the usual greek style dressups. I'm sure that DH will brave the cold and rain to grill them...he's so intrepud when it comes to food.

Mommy, good luck with your procedure.

SpecialK

Lacey - I made a dish the other night with cabbage that was yummy. I cooked some sliced fully cooked turkey kielbasa until it got some color - in a bit of olive oil. Removed it and cooked cut up cabbage and onion until tender, with salt, a generous amount of pepper and a bit of sugar, added the kielbasa back in with a couple of tablespoons each apple cider vinegar and grainy mustard. Stirred for a few minutes and served with brown rice. You could use any sausage or even chicken or pork

eric95us

Mommyof2, I'll be thinking of you on Wednesday. I hope it's easy, pain free and has a quick recovery. It's good that your husband is stepping up for you. I know I try to take care of things for Sharon, even if it's just because she's had a really long day and is tired.

Last night, we had my mom over for a birthday dinner. Sharon talked me out of the chocolate long john doughnuts and we got a cake from the bakery...along with the 9 and 7 digit candles...thanks for that suggestion. I did up a roast pork and the chicken-jasmine rice that everyone love so much. Twice baked potatoes, green beans and some store bought rolls rounded out the remainder of the stuff. Normally I'll make up a salad, but mom is taking cumadin and they're still trying to get the dose stabilized, so I avoided all the dark green stuff with lots of vitamin K.

This morning I awoke at 4am to drive the bus, then took care of some dripping faucets and then met "test daughter #1" (she turned 40 on tax day) and her dad at the junk yard. She found a door and some switches for her car while her dad and I spent about 4 hours carefully removing welded together inner body panels. Tonight DD spent time learning how to cut welds. I brought home quite a bit more than was needed and the excess provided her some practice material.

It was full sun the whole time in the junk yard and if it wasn't 100F it was very close. I'm pretty dusty/dirty/sweaty and I probably smell so bad that I'd make a fly gag.

susan_02143

I am in Malaga. Will get husband at the airport in about 3 hrs. What a charming city in the dark, at least. The cathedral is lit at night is show-stopping gorgeous. Still haven't downloaded any pictures so that will have to wait. At 11pm, I sat down to dinner! Just like they say in every book, Spaniards are still feasting late into the evening. Chose a local wine, red, Spanish tortilla, omelette, a sausage tartar, and smoked sardines. This should have been 6 bites of food according to their menu, but was a full meal.

Time to find some coffee!!

*susan*

M0mmyof3

Thanks everyone for the concern over my surgery. I am ready to get this over with and get on with life!

carolehalston

Eric, the birthday party dinner sounds delicious.  I'll have to make your chicken rice dish again.  I liked it a lot.

Tonight's dinner will be oven fried boneless chicken thighs and leftover linguine with butter lemon sauce.  Also leftover cauliflower in cheese sauce if it's not too soggy.  The chicken thighs are marinating in buttermilk with a T. of hot sauce.  The breading will probably be panko.  I keep reading recipes that call for whole wheat panko but I have not found it. 

Susan, I'm loving your pictures and travel messages.  Keep enjoying yourself.