So...whats for dinner?

Mingling beans, hmm.

Making homemade spaghetti sauce tonight. Never done it. Is a jar of it in cabinet but I need some good smells in here. So tired of being inside. DH has my car going to work and nowhere to be anyway. Sleet piles slooooowly melting. Today was the 4th day ISD has had off. Doubt they had that many bad weather days planned and it's only Dec.

That is such a waste. Obviously Not a cook! I use a precooked bottle of northern beans. Dump them over a ham bone in my crockpot with carrots and onions and some spices and later it is so good and real easy. That doesn't make me a cook but for easiness and pretty great taste nothing beats that!

*edited to say CROCKPOT! LOL

What a loss for the beans.

Love the new avatar Monica.

Susan - you crack me up. Thanks.

Nancy, that beef should be savory with that marinade. I would gladly be your taster for the pasties!

Lovewins, you'll have to give a report on the crockpot corn dogs. I like corn dogs and splurge on the rare occasion at an outing with county fair food.

Eric, what a waste. I know how you feel because that's the same regret I felt at Thanksgiving when BIL and SIL tossed THREE turkey carcasses into the garbage.

Susan, sounds like a labor intensive Indian meal. Entirely outside my cooking experience. Or eating experience!

After lunch out on Monday with my mother and lunch out at mediocre Tex Mex restaurant yesterday with my sister and her grandchild, I decided I did not want lunch out today. So I skipped the golf women's luncheon where the food would have been from the club buffet with unexciting choices. Then I ended up picking up a salad from Subway with tuna salad and lots of veggies. Cheaper and just as good as Monday's and Tuesday's lunches!

Dinner will be chicken and sausage gumbo over a scoop of brown rice and a salad. As I made the gumbo, I found myself wondering, Nancy, what your process is for making chicken gumbo. I skinned a whole chicken and cut it into pieces, browned the pieces in a little oil in a Dutch oven. Removed the chicken and sautéed chopped onion and celery. Threw in some chopped garlic to cook for short time. Poured in chicken broth, returned chicken pieces to the pot, put in a chunk of frozen home-cooked (smothered) okra and tomatoes, sprinkled s & p and cayenne pepper. Cut smoked sausage (turkey) into half inch coins and cooked it in skillet to render a small amt of fat. Then added sausage to pot and let the mélange simmer until the chicken was very tender.

A few hours later I removed the chicken and deboned it. Made a slurry of browned flour and water and added it to heated gumbo base in pot. The last two steps are adding some gumbo file to the heated base and returning the chicken pieces to the pot. Then serve and eat!

Laurie, you may not have eaten good fresh okra prepared so that it is tasty and not at all slimy.

Nancy, that's a basic chicken sausage gumbo recipe. Some people put okra in gumbo and some don't. I stopped making the traditional roux with oil years ago. I started toasting big batches of flour to use in mixing a roux with water. Then several Cajun food companies started selling the dry roux. And the oily roux, too. I got lazy and now buy the jars of toasted flour.

A popular Louisiana sausage maker, Richards (French pronunciation), makes a smoked sausage with turkey that is very good. Richards also makes Andouille and smoked sausage with pork. There's no sacrifice in flavor--in my opinion--using the sausage with turkey.

Today's batch of gumbo turned out really good.

Cooks Illustrated toasts the flour in the oven.... seems like an efficient and cheap way to get that brown roux faster.

*susan*

I love cooks illustrated. And the two shows associated with it. But the remake so many recipes that really aren't bad to begin with. LOL

Supper tonight was tomato soup. I had two small berry size boxes of grape tomatoes. One red and one yelliw. I bought them for Thanksgiving and they were never opened. So i made soup because they were not going to last much longer! It turned out pretty well. But i only added cream to my bowl. I'll freeze the soup and add the cream when I actually use it. I think it freezes better. Also ate a small steak that I cooked in a hot cast iron pan. I want to be real careful these last two days cause I don't want any issues on Friday for my surgery. They moved my exchange up. Actually grateful as I was starting to freak. But at least I stopped my anti inflammatory and aspirin on Sunday. 3rd times the charm, right? Permanent implants here I come. Seven sx on my lefty while right sat for 2 years. So 3TTC x3! LOL. Tomorrow my friends and I will go out to dinner. We were all Girl Scout Leaders. Many years ago, at least 15 years ago the last of us had our girls graduate. but we've know each other for 12 years or more before that! . We meet every year for xmas. Much love to all

thanks! Did you notice it's Friday the 13th? LOL. Just figures for me! LOL but added up it is a number 11 which is a good number in numerology. That's my story and I'm sticking with it! LOL

Monica, I'll be thinking about you tomorrow. What color did the tomato soup turn out, with red and yellow tomatoes? I love home-made tomato soup, especially with a little cream. LOL at your comment about America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country re-making recipes that are good as they are! I watch both shows but seldom use any of their recipes without re-making them! They use a lot of fats, carbs and salts, but I get some some ideas from their methods. That final scene is funny when they're tasting and moaning with pleasure.

Susan, whether you toast flour in the oven or in an iron skillet on top of the stove, there's still some stirring to promote even toasting.

Totally freezing here. This is my first winter without a thyroid and what a difference! Oh why won't they give me more synthroid?

Lacey, these people you are volunteering for sound rather anal. Glad you loved being with the kids.... kids are much cooler than adults sometimes! DH must be ready to heal by now.

Moon, can't tell you how much I hope that tomorrow's surgery goes well for you. You have done this way too often. Will send good thoughts West tomorrow, for sure.

Laurie, gremlins move into the Christmas boxes every winter. Why? They are attracted to sparkly things! :-)

Off to a pub for dinner. I am craving something crunchy and since it is treatment night, no cooking for me.

*susan*

Lacey, I'm glad you enjoyed being in the classroom with the children. That's very generous of you to volunteer.

Susan, hope you enjoy something crunchy for dinner at the pub.

Simple dinner tonight. Pan seared catfish filets, almost blackened, and slaw with cabbage and yellow bell pepper.

Moon - I'll be thinking of you tomorrow. Since Dec 13th was my Mother's birthday and she had a long wonderful life to 90 - I consider the 13th good luck.

Susan hope your tx goes well tomorrow.

I had chemo Wednesday and wrote personal notes & addressed 58 Christmas cards while sitting in the chair. I added a short "newsy" printed letter to most of them tonight and they're off in the mail tomorrow. I agree about the cost of stamps but just can't bring myself to go totally electronic.

Today I had the Neulasta shot so stopped & met a nurse friend for lunch (my dinner). I had grilled rainbow trout, wilted spinach with pecans & French Green lentil. Wonderful.

Thank you everyone! Tonight for supper I met with my friends who all of us were Girl Scout leaders for many years. We've been getting together for about 15 years after our girls graduated. So we knew each other for 25 years. It was fin. We were at a Mexican restaurant though. So i just had the roast turkey dinner! LOL. I'll take my pain pill in about 10 minutes then start panicking. LOL. Much love to all.

Keeping you in my thoughts, Moon.

Eric