So...whats for dinner?

Eric - That's a cute name for a cookbook.

Michelle - CONGRATS on your awesome news!  You go girl!  So happy to read the wonderful update.  I'm doing a happy dance for you, and you know what ... our cat joins in on my dances (he will be on the couch and come running to dance next to me if I dance on the tile by the front door).  So we will both celebrate your continued victories!

Nancy, you are the busiest cook on this thread!  Or busiest in the kitchen, I should add.

Eric, the link worked.

SpecialK, I can just imagine the shindig for the college graduation celebration.  Be sure and tell us about the food afterwards.

Luv, sorry about your goat.  One of my mother's neighbors raises goats.  The little ones are really cute. 

DH's beef stew was delicious last night.  There's a big bowl of it left so we'll be having it again tonight.

Hi Everyone!

I was online looking for yummy vegetable recipes for the blender, and I came across this lady's Pinterest site that has a bunch of recipes, and one is called Carrot Cake!  Thought you all might like to view the link in case you are blending or juicing.  PS - The Carrot Cake one only has 4 ingredients - that's my type of yummy recipe!  http://pinterest.com/r3birdiebird/drink-it-juice/

Last night's dinner started out as a big snafu.  We have a hard time getting dinner on the table by any decent hour on Monday nights ... so I was prepared.  I put chicken breast in the crockpot earlier in the day.  My hubby was on time from work and we were on track to eat at 7PM.  I get to the crockpot, and do you know that I had the food on 'warm' setting instead of 'hot' setting all day!  Of course, I was worried that bacteria had set in being on 'warm' all day, so we threw it out.  We got chicken fajitas to pick up, and I put veggies in the oven to cook.  Before ordering the fajitas I called the restaurant to find out if they were chicken breast (and not thighs), asked who their vendor was, and if they could cook it without oil. 

I'm hoping for better results tonight on me cooking.  I think it's fish tacos tonight, with emphasis on fish.

Debra - I have a very annoying 8 week old bottle baby who wishes she was in the house where she was raised.  But she has to learn to be a goat.  Finally today she has learned to open her mouth when bottle given rather than me prying her mouth open.  Sheesh!!

Thanks everyone for the goat sympathy.  Her name was CoCo Chanel and she was 12.  Rest in peace my sweet CoCo.  No I did not name her that.  She came her already named/registered.

You are a great goat "mom" luv.

luv - sorry about CoCo but I bet she had a great life with you!

eric - I had a friend who wrote a cookbook called - Take One Egg and Crack Up - I kid you not!  She was a military wife and there are a lot of anecdotes scattered through it.  I also have one my MIL gave me written by a nun called Home on The Range - it is very cute and the recipes are great.

bedo - your dinner is funny - especially the instruction not to mix together, lol!  I sometimes have meals like that too - usually when DH is not here!

carole - I am having to restrain myself with the menu - I tend to be excessive - so I am limiting to half a dozen handheld heavy hors d'ouvres, and half a dozen handheld desserts.  I did something to my knee - not sure what yet but I have an appointment on Friday - but it is swollen and I can't walk well at this point - I am icing and elevating but it doesn't seem to be helping and I am actually in pain pretty much all the time.  I don't know if it is a complication from Arimidex, or I actually injured it.  A couple of weeks ago I walked into a trailer hitch when stepping behind a parked pick-up truck, and it hurt but it did not feel acute at that time.  All this is to say - I am going to have to take it easy on the party plans!

eric - Lol, I bet I can!  DD has a truck with a hitch to pull her boat - she lives at home so both are always here and I have never had a problem with running into hers - this one was an extended one, and I ran smack into it.

LOL re: new baby goat ... "She has to learn to be a goat."

Luv, I find that those giant popcorn tins that you see a lot at Christmas time are great to store large quantities of flour. If I'm only doing 5 pounds at a time, I use tupperware bins.  I have one for high gluten and one for all purpose. I go through it pretty fast.

2nd time - Yes, I worry about weevils esp. when I've bought at least for me an expensive flour.  That and ants. Have not had infestation of either in 2-3 years which makes me think overdue. Off to Amazon to see what is on Super Savers. We charge all our gas on Discover (and pay off each month) and use all "get back" dollars on Amazon. When I was working I had gas reimbursement but WOW we did get a lot of Discover $$ back.

2nd, so far I have had no problems. I store it in jumbo plastic bags with bay leaves in the can. If you freeze the flour before you store it, I'm told it kills any eggs already in the flour. Don't know if it's true or not, but I do it anyway. I also use Safer moth traps in my pantry. When I can get it, I buy 7 pound bags of short grain brown rice at Costco and store it this way too.

I freeze the flour for awhile and then use 1 gallon pickle jars with their lids for storage. The jars were free from a deli.



Right now the bugs have a hard time with glass and metal. In a few thousand years they will probably figure out that enough of them working together can push the jars off of the shelf and break the glass...or they'll team up with squirrels.... :-)



2nd... How are you today?



Eric

Nance  You sure your not Amish? I strongly discourage my DH (who has a BJ's obsession) from bringing home anything in large quantitities...with the kids gone, we just have no need for those large containers that altimately go bad, therfore not saving any money in the end.

Speaking of BJ's...ahem... they have a large cast iron, enamel covered pot on sale.  Made my DH go get it for me today, probably a big mistake cause he will probably come home with a TV and a lot of other "good bargains"

Garden  Leg of lamb an easy dinner after working all day? Amazing!  an easy dinner for me would be a hot dog.

SpecialK  Hope the banged up knee is nothing serious, and just requires some extra rest.

tonight is sausage with peppers and onions, salad and still have some strawberry shortcake.

Carrie, the only reason I buy the rice at Costco in that quantity is that I love short grain brown rice and it's very difficult to find, so when Costco has it, I buy it. I will buy larger quantities of flour and yeast because I use it. In the summer I buy large quantities of sugar because I go through 5 pounds of sugar a week making hummingbird food.



Now that I think about it, I buy large quantities of everything I can store because I hate running out of stuff. Maybe I am Amish . . .

I have a small chest freezer in addition to the refrig/freezer and I store flour and other bread making supplies like 9 grain cereal in the freezer.  You just have to think ahead and get the flour out of the freezer so that it will be ready to use.

The problem with freezers is remembering what's in them!  Every now and then I have to do an inventory and discover all kinds of forgotten bargains from meat markets.