So...whats for dinner?

Count me in on high house insurance.  Our home isn't in a flood area but we pay almost $2000 for full insurance on a home that's in the modest range.  Just down the street is a subdivision with homes that sold in the 1 million category.  Goodness knows what their insurance costs.  Our main danger from hurricanes is trees toppling. 

And we DO have state income tax.  I haven't done that return yet but the payment will be painful.  I guess I shouldn't complain because we are living off retirement funds that were paid into the accts tax free. 

Today should be day 3 and final day of painting the living room!  No, it isn't a huge room but I've tackled it in stages.  The room will definitely be cleaner after I'm finished since I'm vacuuming underneath furniture that hasn't been moved since it was set in place.  I'm not one of those housecleaners who moves the couch to vacuum underneath it!  Now I'll have the job of rehanging the pictures after painting in the holes. 

Last night's dinner was quick and easy and tasted good.  Seared catfish fillets, microwaved Green Giant broccoli with cheese sauce and a yummy green salad with blue cheese and avocado. 

Vivian, your sons have excellent tastes!  And you sound like a great cook.

Yesterday I made some butter, a batch of artisan bread dough, which will become bread for sandwiches, and dry brined a turkey breast.  Dinner was a simple affair, ham slices in a homemade bbq sauce, steamed snap peas and roasted sweet potatoes with butter and parmesan. The turkey breast will be tonight's dinner among with some roasted fennel, red onion and asparagus. The leftover turkey will be used for sandwiches. We eat a lot of sandwiches lol!

It's actually raining, a rarity recently. Makes me want to curl up with my kindle and a cup of coffee, but instead, it's off to the gym! Maybe later ;-)

Nance, you made butter!  I'm impressed.  How does one make butter?

I finished painting the living room today!  Yay!  I'm really pooped.  Didn't even get around to taking something out of the freezer until this afternoon.  Reached for a ribeye and have it thawing.  DH will cook it outside on the grill.  I'll cook some sweet potato oven fries and make a salad.  The fries are out of the freezer, too.  This week has helped me to understand why working women don't have time to spend a lot of time on cooking meals! 

Naiviv,

Your sons have good taste in food or you are a very good cook!

I have no health insurance now, my "housesitter" did not think that it was important to send the 3 COBRA notices marked in red "Important information about continuing your coverage" So I kept sending the same amount, as I did not know about the $20 increase and it was cancelled.

I am back in New England and missing Ketchikan already.

Carol, way to go!

Nance, I will have to start making bread.

Do you know a recipe that is easy without a lot of kneading? Or a lot of flour all over the place?

My cat is good at kneading, but I would have to put the dough on my stomach. And I don't want his kitty litter paws in the dough

Picky Picky Picky  tomorrow I

have a telephone interview for a position here 3-5 days a week that ends in Nov. I can't bring myself to work fulltime or take a job with no end date." I don't want to work I just want to bang on the drum all day!" I really want to take the summer off and work in our organic community garden. We have100 farmers and every Thursday we give some of the abundance to people and organizations who would like them. Even so, by July, our neighbors should lock their car doors at night or they will find  unwanted "presents" of zuccini

Bedo, I sure do. Here is but one:

http://www.simplysogood.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html?m=1

Lacey, can't wait to hear about it!

I'll have to try that bread out as well.  Baking bread is one of my favorite things.  This one would make good use of my Dutch oven.

I haven't posted much lately....haven't cooked much either...and I haven't had much to post about.  My commute is now about 1 hour 45 minutes to get home.  Since I leave work at 5 pm, it's almost 7 pm when I get home and that's too late to do much cooking.  So what I try to do is cook a lot on the weekends so there is a lot of leftovers.  I didn't get a chance to do that this weekend because of helping the neighbors deal with the aftermath of the house fire. 

Sharon has been getting more sore; her left shoulder and back and Alieve and/or Anvil doesn't help. I can see her wince when moves.  I'll be there with her at the oncologist appointment next Wednesday and hoping that the soreness can be fixed.  There's also a bit of scanxiety on my part.  Husbands can get that too.

Oh, the lamb potato pie....  A couple of finely chopped onions sauteed until soft and then I added a  small handfull of pine nuts and cooked a couple more minutes.  I then added a pound of ground lamb, and stirred in a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and allspice and cooked for another couple of minutes.

I had already made mashed potatoes using a lot of butter and a little bit of milk to make them slightly thinner than normal mashed potatoes and seasoned them with a tiny bit of powdered clove...not even a full pinch...a little goes a LONG way.  I added some pepper just for good measure.

So, I used a casserole dish...put a layer of mashed potatoes in the bottom of the dish, added the lamb mixture filling and then covered the filling with more mashed potatoes...and then baked uncovered at 350F degrees until I decided it looked done enough (the top was starting to brown).  This was about 45 minutes.

I have no idea if it tasted right.  I had a different lamb recipe from a book that I was going to use and I was telling someone at work about it when another coworker (from the middle east) told me this recipe...which I cooked from memory.  He was going on his memory of how his wife cooks it, so it may be quite a bit different from the original. :-)  Still, we thought it was pretty good.

For whatever reason, I like the "oral history" recipes more than the cookbook ones.  The ones from old hand written notes are also a lot of fun.  I guess it's the idea that when it's a printed in a book recipe, there is less temptation to experiment.

LOL@SK! You're not whiny! I'm just so done with WINTER!!!! LOL we usually have a very heavy snow in April almost every year. It just is. But the change of season s is always a pleasure to look forward to. ESPECIALLY SPRING! LOL

I knew I had acclimated to NY winters when DH and I went out to dinner, it was 35 F. and neither of us was wearing a coat!  We were like "coats are for sissies" and made the stroll from the car to the restaurant.

moon - I always felt sorry for those first few bulbs (in NY it seemed to be crocuses) that sprouted up only to be snowed on.  The flip side of your winter weather is our late summer - 100 F. and raining!  They both pretty much suck!

DD called on the phone this morning....  "Dad, where is the insurance card for the car?"

She managed to scrape a car when she was parking in the school parking lot.  No one was hurt and I don't think the damage will rise to the insurance deductible.  DD always complains about us treating her like a little kid. So when she asked if she'll have to pay, my response was, "Little kids don't have to pay for their mistakes.  Are you a little kid?"  She didn't say much.

Both myself and the other dad were struggling to not laugh....

Sk, something new (surgery)?

Special - you'll be in all our thoughts & prayers.  Please keep us updated when you can.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery SK!

Good luck with the surgery, SpecialK.  You've been through too much for one person to endure. 

Bummer about the insurance, Bedo.  The community garden sounds like such a lot of fun.  Would love to see it.  I didn't realize you were near Ketchican in Alaska.  We have some nice carvings we bought there.

Lacey, the dinner out sounds wonderful.  Maybe I'll go in your pocket?  You could feed me some morsels. LOL. 

Nance, you're like an energizer battery with all your cooking!  I'm amazed at the variety of dishes.

I had a Bear's (local sandwich eatery) roast beef poboy for lunch today.  Or actually half of one since a whole poboy is 12 inches.  My mother and I split one.  Plus I had an iced cinnamon roll from a package of rolls that she bought when I took her to buy her groceries.  So no dinner for me tonight.  I made a chicken stir fry for dh with sliced onions and orange bell pepper.  He made it Asian with sesame seed oil and teriyaki sauce.  PLUS he had French Silk ice cream for dessert. 

Moon, as Special K pointed out, you have those comfortable summers to compensate for the cold winters. 

SpecialK, we're sending you good wishes for tomorrow too! 

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