So...whats for dinner?

Freya244117

Why oh why oh why do I find it impossible to cook pasta for 2 instead of the inevitable 8 serves I end up with.

eric95us

Flaxseed oil *is* linseed oil, and linseed oil is used In oil based paint.

The method used to extract the oil from the flaxseed determines if it is edible.

auntienance

Ha ha Freya, I have the same problem. Lately I've taken to using one of those pasta measurers with the different holes for serving sizes so I'm doing better but as I put it in the water it still never looks like enough. It's harder to measure the homemade stuff though.

DH requested buffalo wings so that's what dinner is tonight along with celery sticks and homemade blue cheese dressing. There are leftover baked beans to be had as well.

auntienance

Sandy, Eric is a cast iron seasoning expert.

Lacey12

Ha! Excess pasta cooking problem exists in thismhouse, too, despite knowing those little 'circle measuring helps'.

And Eric, your explanation about the origin of flaxseed oil helps me understand why I cannot do flax at all. It just smells to me like something I should not be eating....so I don't, despite all the claims about its healthful properties. I don't comsume linseed oil either. LOL!!!

MinusTwo

Now you've all made me hungry for pasta... Guess I'll add a salad with blue cheese and have my meal mid day.

Nance - how is your Dad?

Carole - how is your Mother?

auntienance

Well Minus, funny you should ask. Just got off the phone with the supportive living nurse. Dad fell last night while trying to toss a pillow off his bed. He's ok other than another skin tear on his very thin skin. Scary because he fell on the dislocation side but apparently he did no damage. And so it goes. SIGH.

Freya244117

Well, it is good to know I am not the only one with pasta issues It was lovely, some linguine, lemon zest and juice, garlic, olive oil, roasted roma tomatoes and prawns.

I am being overtaken by tomatoes, another thing I seem to plant to excess. Time to get saucing.

eric95us

Somehow I think that 2 full boxes of pasta is "barely enough for two". So, add me to that list as well.

A fat that is baked onto a surface...

If that surface is the oven, it's crud and is annoying.

If that surface is a cast iron skillet, it's seasoning and is good.

I've watched a few forums where the discussion about the best fat/oil to use for seasoning comes up, and the discussion always reminds me of New York and Boston fans getting together to discuss the merits of their favorite baseball teams.

I get the pan clean, dry it, warm it up so it's nice to hold in the winter and rub all over the cast iron whatever fat/oil is available. I then wipe the cast iron off with towels so it seems like I've wiped off all the stuff I put on. And, then I put it into a 375F degree oven for a couple of hours. After a couple of hours, I turn off the oven and just let it cool down on its own.

Sometimes I'll do the "oil, wipe off, bake, cool" thing a second time.

For my fat/oil, I've used the yellow cans of Pam, bacon grease, lard, corn oil, shortening, flaxseed oil and bird feed suet. Based on how i had to clean the oven after the duck, I'm wondering if duck fat would work well.

Flaxseed oil gets "hard" as it "dries" and seems like it would work well. But, I don't know if it would be *that* much better to make it worthwhile to put up with the "did you paint?" smell. I guess it's like an AZ Diamondbacks fan listening to the NY/Boston discussions. :-)

The only thing with flaxseed oil is that when it dries, it generates heat. The old story about a pile of oily rags starting a fire came about from the days of linseed oil being used for paint. So, don't make a huge pile of flaxseed oil soaked towels. You're probably more likely to win the lottery than have a problem, but, still......

I've got one old (belonged to my mom's grandmother, so I guess that qualifies as old) skillet that has the smooth inner surface. I can cook an egg with no oil at all, and the egg will slide when I tip the skillet. I love it.

Vargadoll

Minus Two, I'm in NC. I just saw your question. It has been in the 60's since the snow melted. We always have one extreme or the other. We are actually grilling out tonight. Dinner tonight is Nathans hot dogs, potato salad and baked beans.

MinusTwo

4+ inches of rain yesterday, but today it's 80 degrees. I expect Eric is the only one on this thread who can beat that.

Somehow I bought an extra Lemon Extract when I didn't have any Meyer Lemon juice left in the freeze. I HATE to waste things so I was researching recipes. Thought this was fun from 1966 - the year I got married & started cooking on my own. Things seemed so much more simple then.

Adams Baked Chicken Breast

Notes: 1966 Adams Extract Teenage Bake0off Special Unique Recipe Winner

• 2 Tbl margarine, melted
• 1 tsp ADAMS ALMOND EXTRACT
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 chicken breasts, halved
• 2 Tbl ADAMS LEMON EXTRACT
• 1/2 tsp ADAMS GROUND PEPPER
• 1 tsp ADAMS PAPRIKA

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove skin from chicken breasts, then wash and pat dry. Place flesh side up in greased baking pan. Add Adams Almond Extract and Adams Lemon Extract to melted margarine, then pour over the breasts. Add salt, pepper and paprika. Cover, and bake 30 minutes in 350 degree oven. Uncover and bake until delicately brown and tender, depending on thickness of meat. Sprinkle lightly with paprika just before serving.

Freya244117

Dont forget me Minus - 90 here today, much cooler than it has been. I love old cookbooks. I have found some absolute gems of recipes in old CWA (Country womens association) books, it's where I found my go to sponge cake and christmas cake recipes.

I grew up on a cattle station and many of the station cooks used to order boxes of essences, and drink them. It was a "dry" station, and the essences are almost pure alcohol.

MinusTwo

Freya - I remember my Mother telling me about what she called "winos" sitting on the street curbs and drinking straight Vanilla Extract during WWII. It always smells so good, but ooooo, not straight.

Sorry I had refresh my memory that you are "down under" and in the middle of summer. Yes, I imagine you're in the middle of some serious heat. Did you say before if you're in a city or the outback? I can't remember.

eric95us

56F here. The junker car that DD drove for awhile, is going to go home the junk yard as soon as the engine comes out....a friend wants the engine for his car... I took it up to the gas station for a gallon or two of gas and the battery went from OK to dead in 1 the one mile trip.

Sharon is on the way over.

ChiSandy

I bought the smallest bottle of food-grade flaxseed oil that WF has. I plan to wait for two dry days in a row and do the seasoning out on/in the gas grill (natural gas, not propane). That way I won’t stink up the house, and I can just carry the spent paper towels out to the dumpster. Might wear a dust mask, though, while outdoors. The Lodge Logic in which I cooked last night’s steak I will just keep normally reseasoning with canola or grapeseed or any inexpensive oil except corn (which does get sticky—tried it once). Last time I did a marathon seasoning, I used Crisco, as a YouTube video suggested, but it didn’t do all that well.

eric95us

I use the grill when I need to season pans in the summer and I don't want to heat up the house. In the winter, the oven heat in the kitchen is most welcome.

Freya244117

Minus, we live in a remote area, but not the outback, if that makes sense. We have spent a lot of our life in the outback though, places where the nearest town is a 10 hour drive away. It's not bad now, only a 2 hour drive to town

MinusTwo

Thanks for the update Freya. Sounds like we will definitely be hearing what you are cooking since you won't be running down the street to go out to dinner.

Eric - RIP for the car. It has done more than it's assigned duty.

auntienance

Eric , we beat you yesterday-- 65 here, 50s today . Is this the car that you and dd worked on together? If so, RIP.

Last night's Buffalo wings were delicious. This is a Serious Eats recipe that calls for dry brining the wings overnight with a mixture of salt and baking powder then baking them in a 450°oven before dousing them in the butter/hot sauce mixture. Still not the healthiest of fare but every bit as crisp and delicious as the fried version.

Absolutely nothing interesting for dinner. Perhaps I'll pull out some toasted ravs from the freezer and we'll have those with a wedge salad with leftover blue cheese dressing.

eric95us

Batteries do that sometimes, even with newer (those with less than 400,000 miles on the odometer) cars. :-) Since it's going to the junk yard in the next few weeks. So, I'm going to find the cheapest used battery I can find. For this, I'm not "above" going to a junk yard to buy a used, but tested good battery for $15.

Sharon is fighting a cold, so I'm eating lots of oranges (even though it now appears that Vit C doesn't really help) and washing my hands every chance I get.

Tonight I think I'm going to try some cream of potato soup. I've found some recipes in the old cookbooks and some in the newer cookbooks. The ingredient lists go from from basically milk and potatoes all the way through a very long list of stuff. Decisions, decisions. :-)

Last weekend, Sharon did some chicken recipes that we ate all week; one was a marinated chicken that made me think of Hawaii (pineapple and other fruit juices combined with Soy, while the other was a spicy chicken pasta dish. Both started out great and got even better as the week went on and the flavors had a chance to mix together. I'd add some grilled vegetables and she'd fix a salad for side dishes--meals that work for the "oh, wow, am I ever tired" evenings.

SpecialK

I have not been posting about dinner because I have not been making any - but I have been reading along, lol! DH is up in SC (hey hammer!) with his mom taking care of insurance/bank/legal stuff and also being with her on what would have been his folk's 62nd anniversary - he didn't want her to be alone for that.

Freya - my dad was from Australia - he grew up in Ringwood, outside of Melbourne, and my DH spent some time in Darwin when he was active duty USAF. Fun to have you here with us!

M0mmyof3

Something quick and simple

ChiSandy

Rotisserie chicken from WF. Too tired to strip & wash the kale I bought and saute it and the butternut spirals. Then a mini-cannoli (feeling sorry for myself) and a “Sumo” mandarin (the Baby Huey of tangerines).

Freya244117

SpecialK, I had to laugh, we owned a house for years in Ringwood, and also lived in Darwin for quite a while. Due to DH's work we have lived in every state. We are now in our forever home.

Pad Siew tonight - a Thai style street food dish with steak strips and rice noodles.

SpecialK

freya - wow! What a coincidence! We have moved a lot as well due to being a military family, probably not done yet even though DH is no longer active duty

HappyHammer

Auntie- Baked beans from scratch..love it!  Never thought to even try that. 

Ok, so, y'all....DH and I were invited to be 2 of 16 to enjoy an unbelievably prepared 4 course dinner with a champagne and canapés start...in the private home of a Charleston "philanthropist and socialite" .....I have been a few places and done a few things but have NEVER done anything like this dinner...4 James Beard award winning chefs prepared the private dinner and we had a level 3 Sommelier pair wines with each course/and sometimes 2 wines.... All small batch wines...nothing we could buy or get as they are no longer available.....finished with a dessert and dessert wine and then, the piece d' resistance was the 15 year old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon at $7000.00/bottle....It was a No Child Hungry auction win that a friend of ours won about 18 months ago that came to fruition Saturday.....unbelievable.  So, we returned home tonight after the big weekend in Charleston....dinner was chicken and broccoli with water and lemon haha!

HappyHammer

Dang, Special...your dh IS SO CLOSE TO US..."NEXT TIME" please let's get together!

HappyHammer

Freya...welcome to the table!  This is such a warm and interesting group.  Enjoy!

SpecialK

hammer - he's in Beaufort, but I'm in Tampa. I had a consult in advance of a colonoscopy next week (not a great topic for this thread..., lol!) that I couldn't miss so he went by himself this time. When I come up that way I will let you know!

MinusTwo

WOW Happy. So did you wear your "little black dress" and pearls? Or did you opt for diamonds. Sounds like some serious wines. South and North Carolina are both on my bucket list. I've never been to either & have dreamed about the outer banks all my life.

Special - sorry about your upcoming colonoscopy. The procedure isn't bad, it's the darn prep. Of course we will want to know your results. Hoping for B9. It's too late in the evening to worry about upsetting dinner conversation talking about this.

BTW - my brain may be scrambled but I don't think we have anyone on this thread from CA, OR or WA. We used to have Debbie, and I hope she is still doing OK. But Eric & I representing the "west" really doesn't count. Hoping I didn't forget anyone's home state as I made my statement.

Eric - hope you don't catch the cold.