So...whats for dinner?

joycek - thanks for the pic of Michelle - girlfriend is lookin' tan!  Glad she is having fun!

Joyce - me too!

Joyce, mine is sideways, too but looking fine! Thanks for posting this!



Laurie, saw your thunderstorm Facebook post. Yikes! Were you struck recently? So scary! Hope there was nothing serious that happened tonight.



Spent a lovely evening at the JFK library (it is in such a magnificent setting on the Boston Harbor), which I have not been to in several years, so the updated JFK presidency exhibit was, or at least felt, new to me.



The event was sponsored by the UMASS Amherst Library and featured a talk by Kenneth Feinberg, the man who developed and administered the 9/11 Fund and the One Fund, (for the Boston Marathon bombing victims)among other compensation programs for families who have experienced tragedies in the past thirty years. He was an amazing, heartfelt speaker who has personal strength beyond what I can imagine. He interviewed 900 families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy.

The reason he was asked to speak on this 9/11 anniversary by the UMASS Amherst Library is because he recently donated all of his files to be preserved there. He also recently donated his expansive collection of classical music, operas, etc, etc.....the numbers of which were in the thousands.



So we got to listen to lovely musical selections from Feinberg's donated collection while eating tasty hors d'ouvres from local farms (UMASS is very much into promoting sustainability, so we learned about that effort too). There were grilled veggies, cheeses, breads, fruits and berries....a wheatberry salad and a lovely looking slaw that I never tried since I worried about my allergies. My favorites tonight were a spicy yellow tomato/pear gazpacho, and a pizza appetizer with a delish fresh topping that I cannot now remember. ;/

I think I'd better head to bed........:)



So happy to see Michelle relaxing in a favorite setting with her family. Love it!!

so weird - yesterday the picture looked fine - today it's sideways.  Anyway, however the picture faces, it's good to see Michelle enjoying herself.

luvmygoats - can't you just put charcoal on one side of the Weber? Put the chicken on the other side - that is how I did indirect for a charcoal grill.

DH went up to the Pentagon for work this week and before he left we commented that he would be there for 9/11.  He was there in 2001, about 150 yards down the hall from the point of impact.  Our next door neighbor was severely burned - spent weeks in the hospital and had PTSD, all in his office were killed but him, the other neighbor down the street the other direction died, leaving his wife and two kids.  We were very lucky, but it is no coincidence that my son became a fireman while in his senior year of high school.  As soon as he turned 18 he got a tattoo (against our wishes but I can't argue with the subject matter) of a Pentagon shape with the twin towers in the middle making the 11 in 9/11 with a red, white and blue fire helmet.  He went to college after graduation but left after a year and became a full-time firefighter.  He returned to school a couple of years ago but still works one night a week as a firefighter, and in the emergency room as an EMT.

Well, welcome back Nance! Glad it was a short-lived absence....:)

Getting our third meal from the Puerto Rican pork roast tonight, pulled pork sandwiches. I'll add a yellow squash casserole and cucumber salad and call it a meal.

Nancy - I had great fun surfing on the Post-Dispatch recipes. Not your usual southern cooking by any means. Found the Pernil pot roast. Sounds delish. I LUV Sofrito though not so much the Recaito. Mine is jarred Goya brand. I have a box of the Sazon, not sure what flavor since the recipe I bought it for did not specify. I just put some Sofrito in meat for taco dip for Sunday School party tonight. DH does not attend with me; he gets the leftover pizza. Glad you have "found" your way back here. Guess you thought we were awful quiet.

SpecialK - Please thank your DH and son for me. I didn't know anyone personally that was involved with 9/11 though I have a dear friend who's DH was a co-pilot for United at the time. I love volunteer fireman/women. That's our fire protection out here though they did end up staffing full time M-F 8-5 since so many volunteers now have jobs outside of immed. area.

SpecialK, obviously a job well done instilling those values. Impressive commitment and work by your son!



It reminds me of some things that Steven Feinberg said last evening, when people asked him how he could do such grueling work for so many hundreds and thousands of people(with no compensation) for such a long time. He talked about the inherent need/motivation to help others, and acknowledged that if the president, or the mayor, or whoever is in authority makes the call for you to help in this way after a tragedy, you don't even consider saying "No". He kept emphasizing how any one of us in the audience would be capable of doing the same thing, tho I'm not so sure about that. He is one amazing, empathic, accomplished man......and humble, ta boot!

I really hate what Tamoxifen does to my brain!!! Kenneth Feinberg is not Steven. Apologies to his mother who selected a perfectly nice name! 😔

lacey - lol! I do that stuff all the time!  I know what you mean about people who do extraordinary things and think they are like the rest of us - although sometimes I think dealing with breast cancer and attempting to live well with some degree of grace might qualify us as well.

Amen sister SpecialK.

Lacey - I would be lost without Google. I can't tell you how many times I've used it today just for words or things I halfwittedly remember.

Nancy - Goya is the only brand I've seen bottled. I trust the brand and mine says made in USA. I just don't know about other bottled/canned stuff. Most things end up getting cooked so don't worry so much about e.coli or salmonella but more about what went in there in the 1st place. I don't know I've seen culantro but then prob. not looked for it. Wikipedia does mention other cultures cooking with it. Sorry none of my links will go live anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum

Goya is a Massachusetts company. Definately made in the USA.

I think of Michelle often. So glad that she is able to get in a pool, and has made this trip. She is being very strong.

Tonight we are having grilled lamb loin chops, tortellini salad filled with garden tomatoes, and some local steamed green beans. In the past few days, I have been pickling from this book Smoke & Pickles. So far, corn and lima beans, peach with jasmine tea, and green tomato with cilantro and bacon. Haven't tasted any of them yet. They need to "rest."

Kid loves her placement at an elementary school right near Lacey. She got her first grade, and it was in fact an "A!" The pace this year is fast and furious. Long, long days to be sure, and then lots of reading at night. Weekends she is still working at the cupcake shop. I suspect she will crash around Christmas!

*susan*