So...whats for dinner?

SpecialK

eric - after I baked the cakes in round pans I sliced the layers horizontally and frosted them, so there are four layers, each with frosting. This is her fave cake - chocolate on chocolate. DH was happy about the extra frosting last night - he is less about the cake and more about the frosting!

auntienance

Oh my Special I want that!

MinusTwo

And I want it for breakfast too. I found a recipe for dark chocolate cake made w/yogurt & pinot noir with a pinot noir ganache. My friend Pat made it. Her bridge group loved it but she thought it was too much "dark" chocolate. I can't wait until the heat lifts and I can have the oven on for an hour to try it.

SpecialK

Gotta love a chocolate cake - they just look yummy! Of course, today I decided I need to get more serious about exercise and diet - I have been slacking.

SpecialK

minus - my DH is a cake for breakfast guy! That's funny!

Lacey12

I don't think your DH's breakfast menu is out of the question, Special.

Your four layer cake construction brought back vivid memories of the four layer lemon olive oil cake with cream cheese icing that the owner of Cafe Heaven in P-town made this summer. It was unbelievably delicious. So now I'm torn between that, your divine looking chocolate on chocolate creation, or Nancy's cherry pie! I would not even hesitate for a moment to eat a piece of all three!

All that said, I just returned from a very hot walk, and am trying to "sweat down" on the porch so I can get a bathing suit on, and head to the beach. DH is there uncovering the boat....a perfect day to tell anyone to go "jump in the lake!". The middle of our lake is 200 feet deep and beautifully clean, so I'll be jumping in, too.

Tonight we are meeting some friends from home for dinner at The Inn on Newfound, across the lake. The food is usually good there, but one never knows from year to year what the chef situation will be up here.

Tomorrow we will be having some neighborhood friends here for breakfast since their house was flooded from a broken pipe and they are dealing with Service Pro fans everywhere, elevating the temp there to over 100 degrees....with gross humidity! Makes me think of when we were inSt. Louis in August, Nance.

I'm not sure that my first effort with melatonin worked so well last night...will try again. Does anyone else use that, with success?

auntienance

Lacey, yesterday was 98 with about the same humidity. Tropical! Except no breezes. The cherry pie has not forgotten you but I have no cherries! Hope to to remedy that in the very near future

ChiSandy

Ooooh, that cake! Just looking at it and drooling is spiking my blood sugar. (Last night I fed my “jones” with a scoop of Talenti Double Dark Chocolate Gelato, but after Italy, it’s just ice cream and I can live w/o it).

Lacey12

Nance, no baking in this weather!! But when things cool down do I have a great swap for a cherry pie!

My meal tonight at the Inn left a lot to be desired, but since I need to get up early for our breakfast guests, I'll post about it tomorrow...

Sandy, I don't mind Talenti as a stateside option for gelato...and I've never seen the double dark chocolate flavor at our stores, sadly. Given our options, we favor the pistachio and the rasberry with chocolate bits. Yum!

bedo

Oh no! I can't comment on much of anything as I m back from camp. Another person asked if she could take my last week as she needs work and I obliged as I will be working at the University in two weeksI I have lost my reading glasses and the writing on this phone is so tiny!

No internet yet

Olivia is great I see Senator Olivia in the future based on the perfect poster picture or whatever she wants to be

I am waiting for my furniture delivery the place is cute

ChiSandy

Well, before leaving for Milwaukee this a.m. I forgot to put the limoncello in the fridge. D'OH! Had a good gig, though I felt pretty sick after they took the tent down from the stage and I was packing up in the hot sun. Nauseated, crampy, sweating like crazy--thought I was having a heart attack (except my metabolic panel suggested that was a very remote possibility). Thought it might be the Lasix, though my last one was yesterday morning and I was sunscreened to a fare-thee-well. Probably 2 bottles of water just weren’t enough. Established a meaningful relationship with the Porta-Potti, got help loading the car, drove home and crashed on the couch for half an hour. Just finished putting together the insalata Caprese for the block party dinner; and to my delight discovered a bottle of Mumm's Napa Demi-Sec chilled in the downstairs fridge. So heading down the block right now with the bubbly & the salad--will sip a bit before heading back to fetch the folding chair for dinner.

Lacey12

lost a huge post...

Too annoyed to repeat...

Tonight, DH and I are having cocktails and healthy junk food items on the porch instead of the grilled steaks we had planned. We are tired and relaxed, and have lots of that stuff in the house, so why not?! Watching several olympic competitions with all the ipads and computers he has set up on the porch. We are nuts!

Breakfast on deck this morning was good and appreciated by our friends. DH made most of it. I loved that!

Sandy, I'm glad you feel better enough to attend the block dinner!

Bedo, good plan to "buy" yourself a week off

eric95us

Chi......hyponatremia or one of its "weirded out blood electrolyte level" cousins?

It's too hot to bake here too, so no cakes for awhile. For when it cools down a bit, I'll have to remember to cut the cake "rounds" for extra frosting space. As long as the frosting isn't too sweet, I think the extra frosting would be a good thing. :-)

If I didn't say, Susan, that's a wonderful picture of Olivia. I like the expression.

It took 4 days to get mom's air conditioning fixed. I am so glad that I was able to put together enough of a system to keep the house comfortable. While the guy was working on the unit, I took a quick 2 minute look at the air conditioning with the panels off....the construction wasn't very "robust".

Tonight is lamb kabobs...they can be done on the grill. I'm using, more or less, the recipe at this place

ChiSandy

Eric, wouldn't be surprised if it were hyponatremia. Been watching sodium to begin with, and Lasix might have a longer half-life than I expected. Noshed on a tomato slice and a hunk of mozzarella while making the salad (cut up every single tomato ripe enough to eat--seems I'm the only one in the 'hood with any luck in that regard this summer), and felt much better. Even better after the champagne. The tomatoes were one Big Boy and two heirloom "tigers," all beefsteak size. Used local WI mozzarella, as I was out of the buffalo. I chopped up the seed stalks from the basil to garnish the finished salad. Drizzled the tomato slices and basil leaves with California olive oil and 25-yr aged Balsamico, then a couple grinds each of black pepper and Breton grey sea salt. Final seasoning was a little blood orange olive oil and Sicilian orange sea salt. Had a couple spoonfuls each of black bean-quinoa and pesto pasta salads, pius a burger and a hot dog (both bunless). Didn't trust myself to stick around for the ice cream social, though I did have a small scoop of gelato at home

bedo

Here I am at the pitiful internet cafe. I am on a mission to find cheap internet

For breakfast and lunch Clamato, tortilla chips peach salsa and brie.

I'm going to the garden and I want to make gazpacho.

Eric you saved your Mom's life by fixing her air!

Sandy bad bad electrolytes . I hope you feel better

Where is goats?

Lacey what healthy appetizers did you have? I had a Mr. and Mrs T bloody mary mix with two cap fulls of vodka two nights ago. Hard liqueur and I do not mix.So I had to be careful. I don't remember the last time I drank it. I won't even tell you what happened when I had 3 "real" gin and tonics when I was 35. No I won't. I really won't.

eric95us

Her air main air conditioner was under warranty, so I let the A/C company do the work ($1200 part that needed to be sent from "back east"). I just set up a "work around" so that she was comfortable until the repair was completed.

HappyHammer

Going all out tonight with the next door neighbors- fried Edisto Island, SC shrimp , creamy grits, homemade finely diced coleslaw, sliced garden Heirloom tomatoes, and collards for suppa'.  Making cocktail and tartar sauce and will have homemade pickles and pickled okra on the table as well.  We ain't playin' round here!  Haha.

auntienance

Lots of food prep going on here. Spent yesterday processing and freezing several dozen ears of local corn, tomatoes for freezing and local peaches. Tonight will be ham and cheddar quiche, a homegrown tomato and cucumber salad and fresh peach hand pies.

Tomorrow is my mamm and bone density, marking my 5th year since diagnosis. As always, holding my breath.

susan_02143

Last night we actually made Friday night's dinner. We bagged. It was hot, we had a large sandwich for lunch. We opted for some oatmeal. So last night, we harvested 6 tomatoes and made a huge bowl of pico de gallo, grilled up some flank steak, and I cooked up some simple black beans. Perfect! Every ingredient in the salsa, except the lime juice, was local. It was delicious.

Extra salsa was used today to make a pico de gallo and feta cheese omelette.

Tonight we will head to Sarma to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary.

Our current guests are from Central America [three different countries] and here for some coursework at MIT's Sloan School and the Harvard B School. What charmers! This is what I had imagined! They will stay for 8 nights which makes my job easy. They arrived with packages of Costa Rican coffee! In turn, they were rewarded with a special breakfast and I ride to the subway.

*susan*

p.s. That cake is amazing!!!!!

HappyHammer

AuntieNance- in your pocket tomorrow.  Stupid BC and all of the worry!  Your freezing efforts will pay off this winter, for sure!  Have been soing some of that as well. 

Susan- the omelette sounds yummy as does the pico. What an interesting group of visitors you have now.

ChiSandy

Hey, Mary, when are you heading up to Chicago? Looking forward to hanging with you and your DH! And mazel tov on your anniversary, Susan!

My electrolytes are beck in balance (I refuse to say “on fleek"--I don't speak Instagram). Had a nice time at the block party dinner. This morning, I made a “PLT" sandwich with the leftovers (3 little portions of tomato/basil/cheese): toasted 2 slices of low-carb bread, then romaine, a slice of LaQuercia “Speck Americano" (a nice prosciutto made in Iowa) sprinkled with fresh rosemary from my garden, then the leftover Caprese (sprinkled with chopped basil buds), another slice of speck & rosemary, and then romaine and the top slice of toast. Briefly considered making it a panino, but didn't want to have to plug it in and then clean it afterward (and a panino would have required more cheese).

Tonight, if Bob gets home too late to walk down through “EdgeFest" (our local street fair) to B'way Cellars for dinner and instead eats at the hospital cafeteria, I'll just crisp up a precooked duck half on the grill, along with asparagus and perhaps sweet potato seasoned with salt and cinnamon. Will probably eat only half of each: Gordy's been feeling under the weather these days due to a bad cold combined with viciously high mold & pollen counts--all he's been able (or willing) to handle has been diet PowerAde and udon soup from the sushi bar down the street, and hasn't even eaten much of the latter, poor kid. Nonetheless, he's still been going to his part-time teaching job at City Lit Theater (and did his regular Fri. night gig acting and running tech at pH Comedy Theater).

Going out to the deck to water the tomato plants so whatever's left will continue to grow & ripen. (Also pinch back the basil--may buy some pine nuts and Parm-Reg ends and haul out the Cuisinart to make pesto).

bedo

what to do with an overgrown zucchini that is 12 inches long and as big is a small fist at the big end?

HappyHammer

Sandy- sadly our plans have changed and we will not be heading your way this month.  Will let you know when we are scheduled your way again, though, as we would LOVE to hang with you, and hopefully, Bob.

Bedo- there are recipes for stuffed zucchini...and, am wondering if you could just "spiralize" it into many, many noodles??

So, I was able to make a pie out of some local white peaches and some blueberries we had tonight for the neighbor supper....only needed 1/4c turbinado sugar and a few pats of butter to make it absolutely divine! 

susan_02143

bedo,

I suggest using that zucchini for compost, or hitting a tree. Not worth your time for eating.

*susan*

HappyHammer

Truthfully, I agree with Susan...we usually try to pick and and ALL squash at 6" or less. 

eric95us

I accidentally closed the window before I posted..so this time it was most certainly my fault I lost the post.

Happy Anniversary Susan. 34!!!!!

Bedo, I've tried a 12 inch zucchini. It was super bitter. If it is a heirloom variety, you could save the seeds.

Happy, that's a great looking pie. When it cools down here..... :-)

I'm glad you're feeling better Chi. You described exactly what I've seen more times than "I can count".

Today, i think I fixed a bothersome oil drip on the old Volvo. Two hours of looking and two seconds of fixing. Tomorrow I'll know for sure if my hunch is right.

Lacey12

Beautiful pie, HH........Yum!

Happy 34th, Susan and DH! Hope Sarma was amazing! I love hearing about your guests.

Our weather has been beautiful in NH. However, winds are carrying so many allergens (ragweed is one of my nemeses) that I'm even resorting to wearing a mask outside to help my breathing. What a pain!

Nonetheless, we made it to the beach yesterday afternoon and what started out as an impromptu pre- dinner cocktail hour with folks who were not needing to head back down the highway to start their work week, ended up with three neighbors joining us for grilled steak, marinated, grilled vegetables, cuke salad, arugula salad with the neighbor's delicious heirloom tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and boxed cookies (!) for dessert. Another neighbor brought Trader Joe's frozen asparagus spears, which we "lost" while preparing everything else. Seriously, who can lose a whole platter of asparagus!? Obviously, I can! We later discovered it in the back of our large microwave oven which is perched atop our refrigerator...and does not have a carousel. I had been zapping a very large sweet potato which took forever, The platter of asparagus was behind it, out of anyone's view, and needless to say, was inedible by the time we discovered it. That aside, we had a great little impromptu dinner, with wine flowing (including a home made red by our neighbor), and lively conversation. I love spontaneous dinner parties since I have no time to fret/obsess beforehand.

Today, I am dragging a bit, and still struggling with the allergies. I'm thinking I may call the allergist to get an inhaler to get through this heavy allergen period. Never had one before....

We head home later, and tomorrow morning I am driving two retired school colleagues to Falmouth where another one is hosting a luncheon. After that, I am meeting with our community group that is working to promote awareness of human (sex) trafficking of suburban adolescents. Who knew that this could be happening! Our school superintendent is joining us and is very supportive of this initiative, so I suspect that he must be aware of the vulnerability of some suburban school age kids, and eager to educate the communityas a preventative step. Interesting project.....

Dinner may be a BLT on our way home.....

ChiSandy

Allergies here are brutal today--ragweed moderate-to-high and weeds in general high. We had two “allergy action alert” (i.e., stay inside and turn on the A/C) last week. My eyes are streaming & burning, our son Gordy has been practically connected to his rescue inhaler (his pulse-ox is hovering around 95% despite going back on BID Symbicort and using his NeilMed sinus flush). The only things keeping me from wheezing are Singulair at bedtime (Bob doesn’t want to prescribe it yet for Gordy because it does carry some long-term health risks for those under 40) and two snorts per nostril per day of Nasacort.

Just too tired yesterday to make dinner, so I simply nuked the remaining smoked chicken breast and washed it down with a pint of seltzer. Gordy was still eating only noodle soup (udon and pho). Tonight, I’ll sear the cooked duck half on the grill along with marinated (oil & balsamic) asparagus and halved sweet potato sprinkled with cinnamon & sea salt. Maybe Coravin myself an ounce or two of inexpensive Pinot Noir from the cellar--the Chiantis and Sangioveses are a bit too pricey for just the two of us....if Gordy even wants any of it.

susan_02143

Tonight will be tandoor chicken. I will also do an Indian roasted cauliflower dish that we love, some dal, and perhaps a bit of naan bread. Overbought on the chicken, so half went into the marinade, was vacuum sealed and is now resting in the freezer.

My visitors are having a heck of a time. Classes at Harvard by day, partying until all hours of the night at night. They come home, change out of their suits and then head out to clubs and bars. They return after we are in bed, and are very quiet as the pass our bedroom. Haven't heard them yet! Tonight, at least some of them are headed to watch the Red Sox play the Yankees. Baseball is not a thing in Venezuela where they are from, but one of them had a best friend from Boston from the age of 7 who said at that age "You can be my friend if you root for my team!" Ramiro is so excited to be going to see the team he has followed for 30 years... it has brought out his inner child. He plans to eat sausage dogs, and buy shirts, and maybe even a banner! And then tomorrow morning, back to Harvard to study being a business person.

Now I am off to find panela, a special sugar made from sugar cane that I need to make them a Golfeados breakfast bread for tomorrow's breakfast.

*susan*

susan_02143

Dinner was fabulous. Made the chicken, and a cauliflower dish, bought chana masala from our local Indian spot with comes with rice, and grilled up some naan bread. Perfect meal!

For some reason, I decided to make a Venezuelan bread called Golfeados for my guests. The recipe was deeply flawed. We shall see if they are horrified by my attempt. The rolls are in the fridge and I will bake first thing tomorrow morning.

And, I hope that you all sleep as well as Olivia tonight:

*susan*