So...whats for dinner?

auntie - we have it in the regular grocery store in the baking aisle.

laurie - sorry we didn't connect, but it sounds like you were crazy busy!  Glad you are back in your familiar surroundings and getting back to normalcy!

Thanks. I'll check out the larger stores for it.

Laurie- Glad your back and you and the boys feel better. Nothing like being home in your own bed eh?

Lacey- Oh I am so sorry about your plans being messed up, hope he gets well, there sure is a lot of nasty stuff going around hopefully you can reschedule and do it another time soon.

Tazzy- Are you talking about 10 degree weather? Wow that is cold, you are def gonna need lots of hot soups to keep you warm.

Speaking of soup, My family's restaurant has a cream of zucchini soup that my mom made years ago we had served lentil soup but ran out (This is in Grants Pass, Oregon at the R-Haus) Rooster Cogburn was being filmed with my hero John Wayne he came in with his entourage and my mom whipped up this soup last minute he just loved it, and even came back the next day to take some back to his room. (he also was a great tipper too) ha! Anyway, We always kiddingly called it the "Duke soup" So since my dad is gone, my brother is leasing out the restaurant starting in Janurary and making a new start. I have an Idea to package my mom's soup and sell it, but don't know yet where to start, I want to make it and package and ship it. (If my health lets me) Any Idea's to help me get started? Only me my brother and SIL know the recipe it is a family secret but delicious.

Laurie welcome home! Sorry you had to endure being sick. I always think it is great to eat out and not have to cook, but then quickly realize that I miss having that control over what we are eating. Nothing like home cookin.

Lacey so sorry your plans got detoured. Hope the family gets well and you will be able to connect for Christmas. Your son is smart to make the choice to not spread the virus.

Debbie I think that is an awesome idea to share that soup with the world. I, also, think that the internet must have some information somewhere. I loved the story....be sure to pass that on to your future generations...along with the recipe.

Last night was simple frozen raviolis with homemade tomato sauce. It was 50 something here yesterday so used the opportunity to put the Christmas lights outside and it took me a lot longer than anticipated and I was almost late for work, so had to come up with something really quick for dinner.

tonight "sloppy joes"

Happy birthday Mr. 02143!  I had to smile a little Susan, to think you'd be at a loss about anything to do with cooking good food. I'm sure it won't be for long :-)  As for me, I've never even heard of that cut, so no help here.

I've had another kitchen appliance disaster. Dsil and I had the bright idea to make packages of homemade dried pasta for the big family party on 12/14. I was in the process of cutting lemon pepper fettuccini when one of the gears on my pasta maker broke. I am on my way to buy another as dh tried to repair it but got too disgusted with it and said, let's go! I'm beginning to get the message that I'm not supposed to be cooking. 

I wish you lived close too, but not because of the pasta maker. 

Susan,

A bit late in responding...But Pork and what we (Cubans) call MOJO go excellently together. I prefer the shoulder cut for this but works on Butt or any pork really well. It can be purchased or made. You need, naraja agria or "sour oranges" garlic,onions, salt , black pepper, oregano and cumin.. I put it all in food processor to blend then piggy (defrosted) is coated and sits in mojo in fridge for 2 days covered and turned every 8 hours.

Then roasted in oven and broiled at the end to make the skin crispy for chicharrones...yummy... My mouth is watering. It is a typical Christmas Eve dish for us...can't wait.

I'm sure yours shall be delish, you have awesome recipes.

Happy BD

Vivian

Making stir fried chicken breast and vegies with cellophane noodles. 26 degrees outside and sleeting like crazy. DH got off early and DD made it home to her apt. I know we are in prob. at least until Sunday. I have a SS party Sat. night but prob. not going. Praying our electric makes it through. Our elec. co does good tree trimming but 1/2" of ice - what we might get - doesn't need tree limbs to bring down lines. Expecting sleet/freezing rain through the night. Do have a fireplace but never used it. Have plenty of wood and oodles of newspapers to light it. Goaties tucked in barn with heat lamps on. Been a long time since the Metroplex had a doozy of an ice storm. The one during Super Bowl week 2011 was part ice/part snow.

Vivian - I have a bottle of MOJO in refrig. If I didn't have the cellophane noodles we might have had that. I need to dig up a recipe for "chicken and long rice" not rice at all but cellophane noodles. My DM made the best but alas I didn't ever get her recipe. Doubt it was very exotic from the early 60s.

Bet both your roasts smell terrific. Chicken is marinating at present. No hurry for dinner.

Susan, looks good to me!

Laurie, that sounds like the perfect welcome home dinner.

Luv, I really hope you don't get that much ice and especially that you don't lose your electricity. Oh how I hate winter!

In spite of spending half the day making the broth for the pho, it ended up being Ugly Pasta night. Because the pasta machine was behaving so badly, I had a lot of bits and pieces of the lemon pepper fettuccini so I dressed it simply with some olive oil and parm, made some garlic bread and a salad and called it dinner.

The gear that went bad was on the hand crank machine. I replaced it with one that's much better and a better cutter, and cheaper to boot.  The story on the cuisinart attachment isn't going to end as well I fear. It's maiden voyage was rather a mess. The instructions caution against using a too dry dough, but a wetter dough causes the pasta to stick together. Badly. This is exactly what the reviews groused about. So I think the bottom line is the mixer stays but the attachment is going back to the store.

Sorry for the long sad tale.

It smells Delightful!

That's very true about the pasta machine. In fact, it's the problem with the attachment, absolutely no dough flexibility. Ugly or not, the pasta was delicious.

Oops....forgot to send Mr. 02143 Happy Birthday Wishes! I hope your dinner out can come close to what you enjoy at home!

And Debbie, love your Duke's Soup idea. I agree with Carrie that you can probably find info about marketing and distributing on the internet. Isn't everything we need to know on there (accurate or not!)?

Susan,

The roast looks delicious.

Next time they are in season here, may be worth it to buy a bunch, you can juice and store. I even freeze it. in ziploc baggies. I learnt to freeze mojo, sofrito (basic start for almost any cuban meal), wine and some sauces. Although I prefer fresh, when in a hurry or my oldest is starting dinner, they are a life saver.

With the skin. I know it's all fat and a lot of people just dump it....but if you ever want to use it.

You can make Chicharrones. Take that skin with soft fat and any attached meats and fry it or broil the underside. I guess you would call these home made pork rinds.

You can use the Chicharron or just top skin (the top hard part, I remove any soft fat from underneath) and use it in red/black or white beans for flavoring. Boil you plaintains, not totally green but working on yellow. Serve the plaintain sliced with chopped chicharron over it (instead of tostones) or make FuFu. Mash the plantain and bits of chicharron together then you can either scoop and serve as a side dish or make a pattie and fry it in a little bit of olive oil with chopped garlic. Let it brown on both side and serve as side dish. There is also chicharron cuban bread..or to add a chrunchy to salad.

Can you get yucca or malanga (root veggies)?

I'm hungry....

V

We dodged the freezing rain. I think it was just colder out here; had more sleet/snow 3.5" of sleet. DFW not so lucky and NE Texas having severe ice storm. We've had a little melt off roofs but down to 13 degrees tonight so will refreeze solid. Tomorrow predicted to be colder. DH called into work today and he has weekend off. DD's job can be done from home in a pinch - logistics for retailer. Tracking FedEx trucks some of which I think have not made it to their destination d/t weather.

I think tonight will be roasted fingerling potatoes and I don't know what to go with them. I always have the froz. sausages or might be the flapjack night. Depends on energy level. Need to go heat water for goaties. DH said their barn was warm but they can move from under the heat lamps and the doors are open. Lots of birds in yard and have saucers of warm water out for them.

Happy belated BD to Mr. 02143

Luv, happy you dodged a bullet. Supposed to be single digits here tonight. Stay warm!

Played golf this morning in summer clothes. High was 82 and humid. Now it's about 58 outside.

Ribeye steak to share tonight with baked potato for dh. Steamed broccoli for me and salads for both of us.

I fell off the no alcohol wagon tonight and enjoyed a rye old-fashioned.

Tomorrow I can sleep in!