So...whats for dinner?

Hi Debbie.  Glad to "hear" from you again.  Don't worry about hi-jacking the thread.  Like has been said before, this thread is like a busy kitchen where food is only some of the things talked about.

Laurie, I hope your back gets better...fast...  And, if you haven't checked on food mills already.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_mill

Today, Sharon and I were in "school bus driver school" for in-service training.  Sharon and DD went to a baseball game tonight...girl's night out.  So, I've been putting favorite recipes into a notebook tonight.

I wasn't hungry, so no dinner for me....

My mom's air conditioner should be installed Tuesday.  She wanted very much to be back in her house, so I installed a room air conditioner in her bedroom.  That room is cold.  The house was the first model home and the garage was the sales office.  This means the garage is well insulated and has a separate garage area air conditioner.  I've got that one running and a floor fan blowing air from the garage to the family room.  This is keeping the family room at the her normal room temperature.  So, she's Ok until it gets fixed right.  

I'm still amazed. As soon as I could, I called 7 air conditioning companies to check on getting a new air conditioner installed.  Three were honest and said they wouldn't be able to do an estimage on a new unit until this coming Monday.  Four didn't call back at all.  I guess they are busy.  So my friend's 85 year old neighbor, a retired A/C man who does this for extra money, has ordered a new unit and is going to do the install work.  He's just like my dad at that age...do whatever, whenever and however he feels like it...just like a 20 year old...  :-)  I hope I'm that capable at that age.

Yes, Debbie and Seaside, we will be the Gemini tripets! When I was a late teen I became good friends with a summer co-worker, who was also a June 12th gal. Even tho we were two years apart in age, we always referred to ourselves as the "Gemini twins". So I think we can expand that in our case with all due respect to the horoscope twin image.



Last evening some friends had us for dinner to celebrate my BD. She made an Ina Garten chicken dish, which she was excited about since she is not a frequent cook. As we discussed her recipe choice, I mentioned how I have, of late, been using my Ipad exclusively to look up recipes, abandoning my zillion cookbooks. Oh dear......when I opened my burthday gift, it was an Ina Garten cookbook! I had to assure them that despite my recent habit, I will love it and put down the Ipad to resume looking at the cookbook for her recipes. I assured our friends I have yet to discard a single cookbook, so I will happily add Ina to my collection. Awkward moments.......but a lovely birthday dinner to start the week!



Happy BD Bobo!

Have a pleasant Sunday everyone.....

Carrie, those stories about young women just break my heart.  It's bad enough for older women like me to go through bc, but not fair, not fair, not fair for young women, especially moms of young children.

LOL, Lacey on your foot in mouth story!  I look up recipes, too, but still buy and read cookbooks.  I just read Rocco Dispirito's NOW EAT THIS!  ITALIAN.  It's wonderful because it has pictures of Italian "mammas" he visited in Italy.  He sampled their traditional recipes and created more healthy versions.  I'm sure theirs were better!  But his are probably good, too.  He uses some ingredients like root arrow and egg white powder that I've never used.  I'm making up a list to order off the internet when I get back home in Oct.  My rv kitchen is small and my cooking pretty rudimentary during the summer.

I used a bookstore gift card a few months ago to buy Mark Bittman's HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING--THE BASICS.  I have it beside by chair in the living room and have been reading it.  It has great illustrations.  I would definitely recommend it as a gift for someone just venturing into cooking.

This morning I was up at 7:30 and started peeling potatoes for potato salad.  Also formed the hamburger patties.  There won't be a crowd at my mother's.  Family members are busy doing this or that, but dh and my mother will have a nice afternoon with whoever turns up.  DH looks forward to his carrot cake all year and he and I both like hot dogs and hamburgers, both of which are a treat because we don't eat them often.

Laurie, hope you're pain free today and hope everyone has a good Sunday.

LOL, Carole, I was assuming you were at DH's celebration even w/o the edit!

I have that Bittman cookbook which I love to read...and gave that Dispirito's one to my DIL last Christmas.......I must remember to enjoy it in a couple of weeks when we are back there. Hope your DH has a lovely BD celebration.....carrot cake, YUM!!



It is a beautiful day here, and I have decided to abandon the pollen safe house with a facemask to do some yard work. DH headed out earlier and returned with a gash on his scalp from coming up too high when under our new kitchen bay window pulling up some weeds. We got the bleeding to stop ( he refused to go sit in the ER to see if he needed a stitch). And now I hear the hedge trimmer running so better get out there to see the next incident! Forgot how much blood gushes from head cuts!

Lacey, my dh comes in from mowing with gashes in his forehead from cutting under the many trees in our yard.  One day he came in with blood running down his arm carrying a medium sized black snake.  He was trying to untangle the snake from some netting we had stored in our shed and had to remove one of his work gloves to do it, when the ungrateful thing bit him on the thumb.  Non poisonous thankfully, but he had to get a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. It took both of us to extricate the snake from the netting while trying to stop his bleeding thumb.  It was a bit of a mess.

Tonight's dinner will be grilled bratwurst, a wedge salad and a new potato salad with champagne vinaigrette. DH and I made an agreement that if we exercised self control during the week (no seconds and no desserts!) we would have a treat on Sundays. I made two coconut cream meringue mini pies for us tonight.  They are so cute!  Perfect little miniatures. One crust made 4 mini pie crusts so I have two more in the freezer for future use.

My phone was broken so I havnt been here too much lately. Love all of you. If any of you will be in Wisconsin the second weekend of August, feel free to spend some time with our WI ladies. Pm me if you want details, basically planning a camp out at the folks farm. Low key, low cost, low stress. Hoping for big fun!

DH is "playing" not "planning"!   

Yikes, so what is with our bleeding DHs! Poor motor planning....old timers vision??

But that snake story takes the cake, Nancy. I would be hard pressed to enter into a snake untangling scene with a bitten, bleeding DH! I'd be calling 911 and the animal control guy...in all my wimpyness. You are brave! And I'm not even phobic about snakes.



My DH got his head gash to stop bleeding, put on a baseball cap and proceeded to get a lot more yard work done. Yay! I joined in for several hours, and we are both bushed tonight. I just do not have great stamina for such work, even with my daily exercise regimen. I looked hysterical today with my surgical mask on so I could avoid breathing in pollen, but I noticed by the end of the day that the air was relatively clear, which is such a relief after a miserable few weeks of sneezing and wanting to scratch my eyes out. Fingers crossed that we are finally done with the major pollen!



I could go for a piece of that carrot cake right now, Carole. I'm actually looking forward to your trip, since I enjoyed following it last summer. Very cool. You are such a good planner.



Laurie, your new camper sounds very lux! Nice.....



Had to improvise for our late dinner since I was too tired to hit the store for something to grill. So...made a fritata with caramelized onion, (Traders Italian flavored chicken) sausage and broccoli rabe and Italian cheese. It was really tasty....enough so that I wrote down what I did so I can remember! Had a cuke, onion, red pepper, kalamata olive salad with the fritatta.

HMm,

Someones talking about delicacies on plate here!

Wow Tonight I have planned to make okkra and roti, with gram dal and rice. Okra is my daughters favorite veg. With tomamto soup With BAsil leaves.

Nance  Funny story. My poor DH would never do anything that dangerous.  Not sure what kind of childhood he had...but is so cautious about everything that he would not even walk outside without shoes on.  I am the one who is always bumping into something or getting caught on the tree limb.

Had a ziti dinner from the fundraiser at 4 in the afternoon with DH out on the boat. So dinner at 9 was strawberry shortcake.  Fundraiser was so well planned and very well attended.  Her ca had given her a brain tumor that she is having extreme pain from and decided to forgo any more treatments. Sad, Sad day, but she held up well and greeted the hndreds of people that showed up.  All the kids were outside with signs that read "honk if you hate cancer" and the town was was crazy with honking horns.

Carole and Lacey, love mac & cheese, have never heard of Mark Bittman one. Just searched pinterest (my source for so many recipes) and there's one pin for that.

Lacey, that's exactly why making mac and cheese is a rarity for me.  The fat and calories.  But dh loves it and about once a year I make it.  Or he makes it.  So far neither of us has been satisfied with our recipe.  He burned one of my pots with the white sauce on his last attempt and I had to use oven cleaner to get the char out of the bottom of the sauce pan!  I wasn't happy.

I just thought Bittman's method was interesting, pouring the hot milk over the assembled layers and letting the sauce develop during the oven cooking.

I plan to cook a very un-gourmetish dish tonight, the southern squash casserole.  I have fresh yellow squash and a box of reduced sodium dressing mix and a package of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.  Oh, and home-made chicken broth.  I looked up several recipes.  Some use mayo,  Others sour cream.  Canned soups.  Grated cheese.  Onion.  I have only 1/2 an onion, so I'll use it.  And some grated cheese.  A couple of eggs.  The casserole cooks up kind of like a souffle. 

I'm cleaning out my chest freezer and had to throw away some different types of flour.  I hated to do it but running the freezer for three months to save flour doesn't seem too smart.  It's too risky to leave food in either the chest freezer or the refrigerator freezer because of power outages during hurricanes.

I make Martha Stewart's mom's mac and cheese. It's an awesome recipe.

Michelle, probably lol!

Yes, Moon, I saw a faux mac and cheese (made with cauliflower) dish on (I think) the Today Show this AM. I used to prepare the Kraft Mac and cheese when that's about all DS2 would eat as a little boy.



Oh, I did have a luscious lobster mac and cheese right after my second surgery shortly after my dx. My next door neighbor was visiting her son who attended college in Maine and picked this speciality dish up for me on her way home. I'm curious about all the varieties that the restaurant you went to carries, Michelle.



Tonight I retired the rest of the broccoli rabe by using it in a marinated flank steak dish done in the caste iron skillet with orzo and onions. I could actually eat broccoli rabe every night!