So...whats for dinner?

Food for me was anything salty. Dill pickles and homemade soups ( made my by my best girlfriend) craved the meats but could not tolerate eating them. drank grape juice for the nausea.

Canned a few quarts of salsa yesterday...I know I will never see these, as the kids will be home and scarf them all up!  but thats ok.

Susan  Love the sound of an empty fridge...we have eaten out so much ours is loaded with leftovers. I really need to get creative and get them used up or tossed.

Laurie Going in to fall seems to have a lot of people here having resp problems. Good advice from seaside about the cold air.  Hope this passes fast.

Tonight may be the leftover chicken in a qaesadilla with cheese and tomatos (still got tomatos!)

Good news on DH's angiogram today.  He did not need another stent.  He has developed some cardiomyopathy, or thickening of heart muscle.  It's possible that spasms in the arteries with stents may have caused his symptoms but blockage was not the culprit.  So that's good.  

We were in the hospital from 7 am to 4 pm so it was a long day.  I made two trips down to the cafeteria to assuage my hunger.  Nothing worthy of reporting! 

I'm so thankful that I have nothing to offer on the subject of what to eat when taking chemo. 

Eric, it makes me happy to think of you and Sharon out kayaking.  I LOVE to see people kayaking. 

Laurie, I hope your boys are healthy again very soon.

Some day soon I will make a pot of chicken and dumplings, but our dumplings are not puffy blobs.  They're akin to home-made noodles, rolled very thin and cut into pieces and dropped into the bubbling chicken broth.

Wow Carole...an exhausting day for sure, but I'm glad for you both that the news was good.



I started PT today for my knee, in addition to the shoulder work. The exercises are much more challenging than the shoulder ones, so I was beat after that...but also hungry, so went food shopping afterwards and bought some good looking lamb chops. Tonight I marinated them in a greek marinade, and DH grilled those along with marinated veggies.



After dinner I made some corn and leek chowder to have on hand for later in the week.



Tomorrow afternoon DH and I are going to see Bryan Cranston play LBJ. Afterwards DH has his palate set on going to a place in Harvard Sq. that offers, (before 6 PM) oysters 2 for a dollar. Not sure what else they offer.....

All I can say is that an oyster is slick going down and equally slick in the reverse direction...

My MIL used to make something that was called chicken pot pie - which to me, is a pie with chicken, gravy and vegetables in it.  I believe that her dish sounds like what is being described as the chicken and dumplings with the flat noodle-like things.  She is from Lancaster, PA so Penn Dutch country - it is like a chicken stew with big flat noodles, maybe 3" square.  The first time she served it I was all set for a pie - I was a bit surprised by what it turned out to be!  Tonight was lasagna rolls, green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and garlic bread.

SpecialK,



Yes, I think you're right! From what I read the noodle-like dumplings and calling it pot pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing. The noodle-like dumplings look like maybe a southern thing (?). And the puffy dumplings my Mom makes, well, not sure...lol!



All I know is some variation will be on the menu soon because, now I am craving it.. lol! All in the name of research!

Alton Brown did a full show about why there are these different dumpling traditions. They track back, not by where in THIS country they are being made, but where these people CAME from in Europe. It is a fascinating episode of "Good Eats." Not sure if it is posted, but worth watching if you can find it.

I actually made a restaurant-style meal tonight. I made broiled salmon a la Moonen, on top of stewed leeks and topped with a shallot butter sauce. Those mustard lentils were on the side. This was a stellar meal! Coho Salmon is in season in Alaska, and my Costco sells them. We eat about half the fillet for one dinner. The rest of the fillet was brined and is now air drying. I will smoke it with some alder wood. Should start those bagels tonight, but probably, that will wait till tomorrow night since I have a full client day tomorrow.

Here is the recipe that was the basis/inspiration for tonight's dinner: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Filet-of-Salmon-with-Stewed-Leeks

*susan*

I am craving a pot of the skinny noodle chicken and dumplings. I sprang for a pan at the grocery deli a while back and inhaled it. DH prob. would not eat it or just enough to make me think he might like it. I've made the Bisquick kind a long time ago but not what I wanted.

We finally finished off the taco meat from this weekend. I ate the last of it in chili yesterday. We have a ton of leftover taco shells so I have I think 8 chicken thighs in crockpot with salsa, sofrito, some sundried tomato sandwich spread and a pkg. of quesadilla seasoning. Just added a pkg of frozen peppers/onions. It smells divine. Hope I have enough to freeze some. I have another pkg of thighs to make into something else.

I have become hooked on the red box Nabisco graham crackers but they are hard to find. I gave up finding the Keeblers around here. I bought graham flour yest. so I think maybe next week or the week after I will try my hand at homemade grahams. But I may need to find a low fat version. I think the couple I looked at yest. in a quick search had tons of butter. Who would have thunk it?? I have a nice breadboard but I would not know where the stockinette for my rolling pin is. I haven't used it in prob. 10 years. I think in the storage closet is a box of odds/ends from kitchen. Need to get my hiney up and look. But then it is really tiny so gosh knows where it might have gotten off to in that time.

Thanks for the link Susan. Will watch and enjoy.

Oh, I also bought some farro. I got to the health food store when we went to pick up my car. And buckwheat flour. I'm ready for cooler weather and to bake.

I have a chicken cooking in the dutch oven.  It's one of those quick worknight meals. 

And...even better....Sharon's oncology checkup was "perfectly normal".

Carol...that *IS* good news on the angiogram.

Eric yay for "unremarkable" !

Sudsn thx for the link. I love AB. Luv, you know you can cook farro just like oatmeal for a breakfast cereal, right? I like it that way.

Eric.....yay for Sharon's unremarkable check-up!



Had dinner out last evening after seeing a matinee performance of Bryan Cranston playing LBJ in All The Way. He was unbelievably powerful in this role. Can't imagine how he could do a second show last night!



We ate at The Red House in Hvd Sq., where DH got his oysters. i had two, and they were mild and palatable to me (I can be fussy over seafood, especially not a fan of raw seafood), but then later, I did have some stomach distress once home. My main course was a roasted kale salad with pimentos, kalamata olives, garlic, feta and shrimp. I must make this for us at home. Definitely my kind of salad/meal.



Meeting some former co-workers for dinner tonight....



Have a nice day eveyone....



....and enjoy DH1's birthday, Laurie! You will undoubtedly create a great day for him!

I grew up on chicken and slicks and that's how I like them best, however I have never been able to replicate my great grandmother's. I think you have to be born southern. I love the fluffy Bavarian type dumpling but I think they may be made with bread?



Saying goodbye to the gulf coast today. Dolphins were playing outside our hotel gulf view window this morning. I love it so. Managed to eat grouper, oysters, lots of shrimp, stuffed crab and catfish in three days, half of it fried. Back to more sensible portions and preparation. Hope to be back to the gulf in February. Maybe we can get together then Carole.

I want that Salmon.  I must make it.

The last time I was in Barrow Ak, I saw a kid begging his Mom for catfish.  It was his favorite food and way more expensive than the salmon.  All I could think of was blech.  I remember my husband pulling them out of the lake and them going awhhh awhhhawhhh! or whatever it was they did before I banged them on the head. I didn't know how to cook them so I put them in the microwave.  Maybe that accounts for the blech factor.  I figured by the time they were covered with bread crumbs and tartar sauce, what difference did it make

I'm going to make the salmon tonight.

I like catfish and cook it several different ways.  But Nance is right.  Fried is probably the best.  Crispy and crunchy with a good tartar sauce.  I do an oven-fried version that is good.  Also a blackened version with cajun seasoning and a hot iron skillet.  And a panfried version with a little butter and olive oil.  It's fresh and available and I grew up eating catfish that my dad caught on a trot line.

DH doesn't like salmon so I don't cook it.  I have had it in restaurants and enjoyed it.  But that was before I went to Alaska and saw rivers and streams full of salmon turning a red color and dying.  Those are some determined fish playing out their destinies.  Then there are all those fishermen catching them at points along their journey.  And all those bears and eagles and sea lions feasting on the poor fish.  It's almost too much drama! 

Halibut is wonderful.  Also very expensive.  It was almost $20 a lb in Alaska.  DH and I went halibut fishing for $300 for a day's trip.  We had a 2 for 1 coupon or it would have been $600.  We ended up with about 12 or 15 lbs dressed and skinned and in packets.  It did taste good.  It filled our little truck camper freezer.  Plus the day out on the water was intense and lots of fun.  We caught only "chickens."  Which are supposed to be the best eating.

Thinking about you, Michelle.

WOW  Loving the fish stories.  Catfish are just so ugly....ack  I see why you hit them over the head bedo. Dont think I have ever eaten one.

Carole Amazing stories about your fishing journeys. Although fried fish is great, my favorite is sauteed with a lemon dill butter.

Last night we had an impromtu get together at the local bar for some football, wings and beer! Was craving wings.