So...whats for dinner?

Carrie, how exciting! Such a beautiful house and setting! Congratulations!

Luv, we Boston folk are more than happy about the two games our (football, then baseball) teams pulled off yesterday.....each at the "eleventh hour". Finally, Big Papi prevailed!

Interesting china photos. I still have no idea how to post a photo and I understand it just got easier! Tho I think it is a no go on my ipad.....

My first everyday dishes were given to me by my mother when we married in 1973, Franciscan pottery Hacienda pattern in gold.....started chipping after about ten or twelve years, (kids stacking dishwasher?), bought a set of Wedgewood Midwinter White, which I loved until the glaze crackled in unflattering ways on some of the dinner plates, from heat of dishwasher. Over the years, I picked up odd plate pairs that I was attracted to, but now realize that I truly like a white or cream palate for my food, so have a Noritake blue (on underside) with a cream face plate. For china, I used some plain white pieces (no idea who made them) for many years and finally got a nice Lenox set of cream with white design around the edge. about eight years ago I will check the name of the pattern when I get home. You can tell how often I use them!

Also when we married, my father wanted to buy us a set of sterling silver. We didn't even have a dining room in our Beacon St. apt. then, (and figured if we got robbed it would be gone) but did need a sleeper couch, so instead asked him to buy us a nice butcher block sofa. I later got some nice stainless to use with our china, and have also inherited my mother's sterling set. The behemoth couch has followed us to every home and now lives here in our NH finished basement/playroom/guestroom. It will go with this house if we ever sell it!

Remembering a lovely evening we spent up here with Michelle and Rick last summer. Hoping she is comfortable.

Sounds yummy Nancy. Please share if you can. I always have to make goodies for Bible study or prayer group. I think next week I'm making pumpkin scones if I can do them the night before. Or zucchini bread with instant vanilla pudding in the mix (from the local cooking column).

Hi all. I just saw this topic and wanted to chime in, since I've taken over the kitchen in this house :P

Doing chicken piccata, pasta and italian bread sticks tonight. Dessert is homemade chess pie and no store bought pie shell either. This is REAL southern chess pie, too - no milk in it.

Gone from about a 0.5 to a solid 7 on the cooking scale since the turn of the year. My sweetie laughs her butt off at me taping cooking shows, but she's not complaining about the results I am happy to say. I'm really enjoying it. It's weird lol.

carberry - congrats on the house! Having spent four winters in Rome, NY I am sure you will enjoy the NC coast - you are trading snow for hurricanes though - that was an adjustment for me in coming to FL - don't like the wind/rain combo and the waiting for the storm!

keith - welcome!

Also enjoying the parade of china patterns! My BIL/SIL were here for the weekend so have a bunch of leftovers to eat up - I made roasted shrimp enchiladas with green sauce, chicken enchiladas with green chilies and red sauce, yellow rice, and a combined black/pinto beans with corn and tomatoes with habanero. Their fridge/freezer went on the blink so they brought us lobster tails that had thawed - excellent gift!

Carberry - congratulations on the house!! Hope you love it. We'll be moving into ours over the next two weeks. Bought almost all of our appliances last night (still need a fridge). I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to getting settled in!

What is for dinner? Apple pies! I bought 20 pounds of different kinds of apples at an orchard, the woman said they would make 4 pies. Not!

I'm cooking away.

Because I have only what I call my "disposable " computer bought for $263 I will post a pic of my plates from a site. I like the Paul Revere's ride one, and others that don't depict battles, but rather historical sites like Bunker Hill

http://ancientpoint.com/inf/80583-antique_historical_blue_plate__battle_of_bunker_hill__rm_co___c___1893___1900.html

I also have the "Christmas Plates" from Spode.

Went on a wonderful walk with a friend yesterday by the ocean, and lighthouses. Went inside a lighthouse, there are so many ones here, and even one where I was the "lighthouse Keeper" for a weekend, the Rose Lighthouse. I had to raise and lower the flag and record weather conditions. So pretty. So much responsibility! Ooooooh! I also had to drink wine and chase the gulls.

Hello Keith!

Speaking of wine, I may have to eat up those apples with wine and cheese. The village where I'm going is dry, in order to preserve the culture, and in order to buy some to have shipped to the Distribution Center, you have to be fingerprinted to assure no domestic violence or other crimes, then pay the bush pilot an outrageous amount of money to fly some in from Fairbanks and show your alcohol card.

My friend got a gift basket from a friend with sausage, crackers, cheese, and bottle of wine. An empty spot, actually where the wine had been and a note. "The contraband has been confiscated" Ahahhahaha! I thought she'd stamp through the floor like Rumpilstilskin! (sp)

After spending most of the long weekend removing wallpaper in my bathroom, I managed to make an Eggplant Parmesan.

Oh Deb that does look tasty. I love most anything with eggplant in it.

Got the smoked sausage in to simmer. Think it might not be cooked since I can't find "fully cooked" on the label. Potatoes in the oven. House smells yum. Enjoying a Samuel Adams pumpkin ale and waiting for hockey to start. Did I see that Boston won again?

Deb, do you do your own wallpapering? This house has old wallpaper in bathrooms beginning to loosen at seams and not our style. Not something DH and I have ever done.

Deb and Susan, that all looks and sounds delicious! And a very happy birthday to you Susan!

The almond joy cookies were somewhat of a disappointment. They turned out to be pretty much a basic chocolate chip recipe with almonds and coconut added. If I were to make them again, and I might, I will use dark chocolate and more of it, more coconut and toasted almonds.

luvmygoats - glad you are ok! I was once hit by a deer - it ran out of the woods and ran into the side of my car, by the back passenger door, while I was driving to work. Fortunately it just stunned the deer and nobody coming behind me in traffic hit it - after it got its bearings it went back in the direction it came from. My hands were shaking for an hour, but the car/deer were not hurt, so it was all good. You wouldn't think there are big deer here in FL but there are - right in my neighborhood in the Tampa 'burbs - some of the biggest I have seen, and I have lived in upstate NY, WA, and VA.

Deb - yummy pic!

susan - happy b-day to a fellow Libra! Glad you had a delish dinner!

Deb and Susan all that food sounds delish. Susan Happy Birthday.

Luvmygoats, so happy you are ok. Lots of deer around here. And I have hit them too. I hate the dream that wakes you up the night after. Sigh...

Lacey,soup sounds good too. But then so did the diner good. I keep meaning yo roast the califlower I have sitting there might just make soup.

Much love to all.

Susan Happy Birthday! that dinner sounds awesome.

Welcome Keith Chicken piccata is one of my favorites. One of our local restaurants does it very well. Can you share how you make yours?

Bedo That's a lot of work to get wine!! But probably well worth it lol Tell us more of your adventures in Alaska I am fascinated.

Luv sooo scary hitting deer...they can be very damaging and it scares me to death. Our lake road is notorious for deer crossing to go down to the lake to drink and are always getting hit. Glad you are ok.

I wish there was a magic moving fairy that would come and pack up my house and magically transport us to NC. ha ha We will be moving very slowly and keep our house here for awhile. We also still have a business to sell, so we will be here probably through this winter.

Last night haddock in butter caper sauce and leftover mac n cheese. Gotta make something chocolate for bosses day at work tomorrow.

I figured I'd better break this up, lest posting control if any kick in.

Luvmygoats, real good thing you were in something large instead of a small car; you'd have had that deer riding shotgun or worse.

SpecialK you're right about down here some of the deer are surprisingly large. We're out between Tampa and Orlando, down by Sebring, so wild hogs are the menace here. A lady I worked with had the entire undercarriage of her GMC Jimmy wiped out when she hit one on US 27 going about 65 - the truck not the pig, though I expect the pig was moving quite fast by then too.

Luv,

Technically, mushrooms and artichokes don't actually belong in a piccata. When you add mushrooms it is called Forrestier, and when you add artichokes it is called nothing.. maybe piccata with artichokes. Names don't really matter, to be honest, but you really don't need mushrooms to make this a delicious dish. Capers are briny. The capers cured in salt are higher quality, but much more expensive. Either way, make sure that you rinse them well before using.

So relieved that you weren't hurt in the deer collision, but it is sad to loose your truck.

*susan*