So...whats for dinner?

labelle

No, it is like applesauce but made with pears. We just put it in a bowl and eat it plain.

SpecialK

Ah, got it - I was thinking it might be a thinner consistency! Sounds yummy!

bedo

Special, I don't know what pear sauce is. I'm on vaca! I'm having beer and cherry tomatoes from the garden for dinner. I have some lovely big purple ones. No sauce, nothing.

MOmmy you crack me up.

My DD wants me to "Come and cook for me Mama" on my vaca. She want's something with cheese. I suggested mac and cheese, She said, "No a summer cheese dish" Is there such a thing?

Susan, I think I did not get my advise exactly right, but I hope you are doing OK and have some suggestions on regaining your energy.

Watching DGD (Darling Grand-dog) this weekend.

During my violin lesson today we didn't even play, just discussed theory which I have completely forgotten

Here I am with my hacker group playing for free but get in free with comp tickets for friends and all the soda and chips I want in the green room

I have decided to take private lessons

I've decided to learn to read music -I used to play viola which is a different clef and stopped for 35 years. Haha my group didn't know that I play by ear until the end of our last lesson.

I'm the first one coming on stage holding the music stand and being pulled by the shoulder on the right and hiding behind the bass player.

My silly hobbies, cooking, gardening and violin- it is so nice to spend time doing things that I enjoy but can proceed at my own speed with no pressure, I guess that's what hobbies are about. :}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVKTS1qKT4

Redheaded1

Its County Fair time---so I have alternatively eaten either a ribeye sandwich or a porkchop sandwich every day, along with 4H alumni ice cream sundaes every day.....May have to go back tomorrow just to get me a funnel cake. I've been good about avoiding the corndogs, the fried veggies, the cotton candy, the caramel apples, the kettle corn, the pickles on a stick, the ostrich legs. etc.

auntienance

Bedo, happy vacation! Do those things you love!

Pan fried giant Costco pork chops tonight. Gosh they were good, very thick and juicy. Bedo, I use Old Bay on lots of stuff besides seafood. It's good on chicken, pork and veggies, especially potatoes.

We have an abundance of Cherokee purple tomatoes and Asian cucumbers, so we had some of these with fresh basil and olive oil.

Talk about guilty pleasures. I've been playing around with baked donut recipes. Don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Today I made buttermilk chocolate with a chocolate glaze and sprinkles and some raised donuts with a vanilla glaze. The good news is they don't taste anything like their fried counterparts. The bad news is that the cake donuts are way too easy to make.

My illness has now turned into a monster sore throat but the cough has abated. I still feel like crap, but no temp. Anybody have any sore throat home remedies? I'm using warn salt water which helps some. I don't know what this is, but I'm so done with it. Go away already! I woke up this morning with my eyelids stuck together.

auntienance

Lol Red, I love "fair food"!

MinusTwo

Nance - I'd like a baked donut recipe if you've found an easy one. My favorites are blueberry & devils food chocolate, but I could live with plain buttermilk.

Bedo - what a fun performance/fiddlers/dance. I'd love to join in - but I'd for sure want a gnome cap. Hope you have a great vaca (hmmm - I seem to remember from fifth grade that means cow in Spanish?)

Some friends "forced" me to go out to Mel's Diner for lunch. Everything is Texas down home cooking. Specials today were fried catfish & King Ranch chicken. Also fried chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken tenders, etc. Hard to find anything not fried, but I had a cheeseburger with a side of onion rings. Much too full for dinner.

auntienance

Minus, here ya go:

http://acozykitchen.com/baked-chocolate-cake-doughnuts/

DH and I decided we like the yeast ones better so this may be my last frolic with the chocolate ones. I world like to try cider donuts though. I think king Arthur flour had that recipe.

MinusTwo

Thanks Nance. I like the texture of baked doughnuts. Since I don't have the requisite pan, I wonder if I could make them in muffin tins and have a similar result?

auntienance

One of the recipes i read said you could but I don't remember what it said to do about the hole. You could Google it. God help me, I bought the pan. It was pretty cheap.

carolehalston

Bedo, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy vacation time. Advice you don't need, I'm sure! Let us know when you figure out the summer cheese dish.

I like the regular fried doughnuts but rarely eat one because I steer clear of them. I like the cake doughnuts, too. Wish I had a doughnut right now to eat with my coffee!

Lacey12

All that doughnut talk is making me want one (or two!) with my coffee, also! I can't even recall when I ate my last one. Probably when I was last working at school and someone brought a box to the teachers' room. Unfortunately for me, starting the day with a doughtnut leads to a nutritional downhill spiral! Better I enjoy them from my memory bank.

Our neighbors' visit went well, even though the 9 year olds would have enjoyed a bit of warmer air while tubing on the lake. DH took care of lunch supplies for the beach, and when we returned to the house we had grilled chicken, hamburgers, pesto pasta salad, a Greek pasta salad and spinach salad with mushrooms, walnuts and cranberries. They brought an assortment of giant cookies from Moulton Farms for dessert, and I had also cut up watermelon chunks. It all worked fine and we had a fun day.

Then bright and early yesterday we had our living/dining area carpet steam cleaned. Glad it was a cool dry day. This morning it seems pretty dry....we used every fan we owned to facilitate that process.

Last night we ate chicken and pasta salad leftovers before heading over to the Winni playhouse to see "Lost in Yonkers" (Neil Simon). It was excellent!

Tonight we will probably have dinner with our neighbors up here, since she invited us, saying that she made sauce and meatballs when home this week. However, I need to get off this pasta train....especially since I have needed to delete the "running" part of my daily "walk run" after noticing some left knee tenderness. I had been loving the little bit of running I was doing.

Just saw a post on Facebook that my DDIL (and I'm suspecting, DS1) is moving from vegetarian to Vegan! Yikes! More menu challenges when they are here in a couple of weeks. They have now totally embraced the "only plant food" philisophy. Not sure I could ever get to that point, especially since in my regular daily life at home, I avoid pasta and rice dishes. If anyone has any vegan recipe ideas that would be interesting (but not including ingredients that are hard to access in a very basic supermarket up here), I'm all ears....and forks! Thanks!

Lacey12

Happy Vacation Bedo!

SpecialK

lacey - the good news is that while vegan has protein challenges, it doesn't limit other things like sugar. I did make those chocolate vegan cupcakes and was able to use regular frosting on them. They tasted great too! Using quinoa and brown rice products works well - you can make a lot of regular dishes and just omit the meat/chicken/fish. I do a lot of vegetable combos served over quinoa or brown rice, or brown rice pasta with assorted sauces - so gluten free, dairy free and egg free.

carolehalston

Dinner tonight was BLT's and they were delicious. The Bread Lady's Ezekiel bread lightly toasted was perfect for the bread component.

No vegetarians or vegans in our family or among our acquaintances. Vegan means no eggs or dairy in addition to no meat?

Redheaded1

Nance, there is a tea at the store called Gypsy Cold Care. Try the Health food stores. It is peppermint based and very soothing. Otherwise, put some honey in your tea. And a hot toddy of whisky (or brandy) hot water, lemon juice at bedtime is very soothing as well.

Redheaded1

Lacey, Lost in Yonkers is one of my favorite movies.

auntienance

Thanks Red, good to know.

susan_02143

What a day!!! Coded from 7-11am. Made a lunch of an omelette with leftover sausage from last night's dinner, the provolone I had not used up completed after the parmesan, and a bit of gruyere. At 11:45 we were all on the road headed to Salem, MA to one of my favorite museums- the Peabody Essex. Stopped at the library to "take out the pass, isn't that amazing? You can use a library pass to get into museums! We bought the extra tickets to see the Chinese House, and we went off. Sadly, much of the Asian collection was closed for renovations, but the house, as always, is amazing, the Japanese collection is astonishing, and the Maritime arts are uniquely American. The special exhibit was a Native American art collection. Of course, they aren't artifacts from Northeast tribes [since everything was wiped out years ago] but Northwest tribes. There were both old art and new interpretations.

When we were done we headed to Lobsta Land. Yes, they spell it that way. The young cousin ordered a lobster, but it turns out she didn't know how to eat one! Me, the one who is allergic to lobster showed her how to get into the beast. She simply couldn't get into the tail so the waitress kindly took it to the kitchen to crack with a knife. After dinner, we went to a beach and walk to get the sand in our toes. There was a lighthouse across the inlet. Sailboats were going by. Lovely houses were perched on granite outcroppings. It doesn't get more picturesque. By now, I was feeling pretty lousy, and so we headed home as the sun set.

Tomorrow, I must code. All day. No exceptions. More coding on Monday. And no matter what, install on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I might file for unemployment, though I don't qualify. :-)

Vegan as a diet is no animal products, at all. No butter, no eggs, no cheese, no meat [that is the easy part], no gelatin, and no honey. If you adopt the full lifestyle, then no leather, no silk, no wool. I find cooking for vegans unsatisfying, as a general rule. I did do one T-day dinner with a young friend of the kid who was vegan, and she was great. She grabbed food as it was cooked to put on her Earth Balance, and then I buttered the rest. She made a tofu-pumpkin pie. M year brother-in-law ate some and praised her. Privately, he admitted that it was just awful.

*susan*

carolehalston

Susan, loved the word painting of the beach scene. New England is loaded with picturesque. Thanks for the explanation of the vegan diet. I watched some tv shows with a vegan cook on Create channel several years ago when we got the channel here in MN. She used "vegan" mayo and "vegan" cheese. I'm guessing those food products are made with chemical flavorings and soy. Mushrooms and nuts add so-called umami flavor. She evidently got enough calories to be on the chubby side. Hope you're successful in getting all your work accomplished.

Yesterday we went to the Loggers and Legends event in Park Rapids. Each year chain saw artists create sculptures during the two days of the festival right there on the grounds. Plus they bring some completed sculptures. DH and I were hoping to buy a bear sculpture for our deck. We saw the perfect little fellow holding a welcome sign and wearing bright blue overalls. I bid on him up to $350 and then dropped out. It was clear the other bidder meant to have him and $350 was more than I initially had decided I would pay. The same artist had two other bears minus the overalls. I didn't get either of them. One of the large bears went for $2000 plus. It's so much fun watching the action at an auction. Rustic benches with carved backs are popular. I think the big bidders are well-heeled summer folks with lake homes and also some business owners.

DH's sister and her dh are arriving this afternoon in their Mercedes camper van. We'll grill ribeyes for dinner. Sides will be salad and steamed broccoli and potatoes prepared in some fashion, maybe boiled. BIL is diabetic and avoids carbs.

carolehalston

The bear I didn't bring home.

carolehalston

Bench I admired.

auntienance

Carole, I'm sorry Mr. Bear didn't get to go home with you. He would have looked good on your deck.

SpecialK

I don't eat dairy but vegan substitute products that are not made from soy are more abundant since more people seem to be eliminating dairy, and/or going vegan. I use coconut milk coffee creamer and use unsweetened vanilla almond milk in smoothies. There are now some decent almond milk cheese alternatives, and I use a product called Just Mayo which has no eggs or soy, and actually tastes pretty good. I also use Earth Balance in place of butter.

Lacey12

Also sorry you didn't get Mr. Bear, Carole, but your pocketbook must be relieved! I also enjoy auction action, but can also get caught up in bidding....that's how we got our house rental in Tuscany last year. Such an expensive adventure but it was an auction for charity. Some folks near us here have three cool benches cut from huge logs set around their fire pit. I'll try to take a pic to show you on my next walk past it.

Susan, I do think vegan lifestyle is often philosophical/ethical in purpose, and some folks I know who are vegan are very committed not to use any animal products. I'll be interested to learn more about DS1 and DDIL's implementation. I have never even entered a vegan restaurant since so many food items involve cashews and I am allergic to them. I would be a worried and annoying (trying to order things that had no contact with cashews)customer. Your day on the North Shore sounded wonderful, if exhausting.

Your library pass reminds me that my newly retired former colleague can hardly wait for us to go myseum hopping this fall using the library passes....a good value that I often forget exists!

We did have spaghetti and meatballs at our friends' house last evening. I brought some sauteed veggies laced with parmesan, and a garden salad. We then played an interesting game that DH has been dying to use since he was introduced to it last year....."Wise and Otherwise". It was pretty interesting, fun and brain challenging.

Lacey12

Not really sunny enough for the beach so we walked a lot and I took a photo of the cool "fire pit" benches:

I bet you see benches like this in your northland. I really like them...and saw some very pretty cushions on them one morning

susan_02143

In fact, it is cold here today. I put on long pants and a sweatshirt and have just removed them at 4pm since it is now a hole 70º! And the young French cousin is headed 4 hrs north of here tomorrow with a weekly prediction of rain with highs getting all the way to 66º. Oh the nights will be cold indeed. She does not have the right clothes. Her cute skinny jeans are practically see through they are so thin. I promised her parents that I would take good care of her so we are off to do my least favorite thing in the world- shopping. I will give her 15 minutes to find a pair of pants, preferably on sale [i.e. cheap] at H&M and OldNavy. I believe she understands that we are going for practical, not fashion, and if she doesn't want to keep the pants, I will donate them to some other young girl who is skinnier than one of my thighs but can't afford new pants.

That, my friends, is the definition of a great host.

The time spent shopping should be dinner prep time, so we will let Chef José make our dinner at the delicious Mexican restaurant.

*susan*

carolehalston

Lacey, those benches actually look comfortable. They appear to be varnished.

Our guests are about an hour away. They will be our first visitors here at Pine Hollow.

Lacey12

Carole, enjoy your guests' visit!

And Susan, you are the ultimate international hostess (faux mother)!!

We had a not too cool, but not very sunny day today, (with threatening clouds that eventually evaporated)so after walking, and then sitting on the deck enjoying the hummers' antics, we drove into town to check out the gift shop everyone on the beach has been tauting.

I was skepticle since from the front door it looked like it carried typical junk magnets.....but, NOT SO FAST! It is a lovely little store with lots of very nice gifts, children's books, hand crafted toys, unique Newfound Lake shirts, and wonderful artwork by the owners who are brothers.

Then there is the 46 year old turtle, Diane, who even has her own website! Diane was the pet turtle of one of the owners...all these years. She is big! My pet turtles did not enjoy such longevity! Can't wait to have DGD and DGS meet her....tho they will probably head straight for the penny candy jars!

So our next stop was to an ice cream and sandwich shop where we picked up BLTs (and I tried their ice cream, knowing it had to be better than last year....it wasn't ) and headed back to the lake since by then the skies looked beautifully clear, and a sunset dinner on the boat in the company of a small loon family just felt right. Oh my! What a delightful time that was! Gorgeous sunset and voyeuring the tutorial of Momma and Papa to their loon chick on the fine arts of diving, and flapping wings....priceless! All for the cost of two BLTs.

Special, I hope the rain stops soon (!) in your area.

SpecialK

lacey - I feel like we are having rain like you guys had snow last winter! So crazy!