So...whats for dinner?

All the meals sound so good!  I should start making notes so I can jog my memory about dishes I want to try making.  Like chicken with preserved lemon.  That sounds delicious.  Step One would be making the preserved lemon.

Susan, how many tomato plants do/did you have in your garden?  Your harvest has been going on for weeks!  I'm glad to hear about your planned trip abroad.  Please do post some photos of DD's wedding.  I know it will be special. 

Welcome home, Lacey.  I'm amazed that your trip is already over.  It seems you just departed.  I, too, am looking forward to the details of meals and foods and cooking lesson.

DH and I arrived home yesterday.  Today we went to a family dinner at my mother's house.  It was a lot like Thanksgiving with a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes made with cream cheese, dressing, and several vegetables.  My sister who lives near my mother did most of the cooking, as she has all summer in my absence.  The food was good and visiting with everyone was very enjoyable.

I brought home the turkey carcass and a big bag of lovely fresh okra from my mother's neighbor's garden.  I will chop the okra tomorrow and cook it with tomatoes and garlic.  Any leftovers after tomorrow night's dinner will be frozen in small bags as an ingredient in chicken sausage gumbo this winter.

Now for the bad news.  I wore a pair of "fat" shorts today.  Sept. did me in with all the eating out and lack of regular exercise.  So here we go again, dropping some unwanted lbs. 

Hi to Eric and Val and Debbie and Deb and Laurie and others who have been absent lately.

Carole,

Welcome home. I bet you don't spend much time in those pants once you get back to your regular routine. Not a big fan of okra, but turkey carcass is my middle name!

*susan*

Carole, welcome home to you too! Sounds like a wonderful homecoming dinner.

Susan, my dh doesn't like olives either, so I just didn't give him any. He never even knew there were any in the dish lol.

minus - the DD finished the paid internship with dolphins and sea lions down in the Keys in mid-Sept.  She had applied for a temporary zooligical job locally here and one with a company that supplies contracted employees to a Navy program with dolphins and sea lions.  She was interviewed and accepted for the zoological job (originally with alligators, but then was supposed to be baby penguins, then turned into kangaroos, and may be baby penguins again next week, lol!) and she is working there now.  She then interviewed and was offered the Navy job but has to do a complete clearance for that, so she is working with the kangaroos/penguins right now, and waiting for word on the clearance - which could take until close to the holidays.

minus - she is funny - at first she didn't like the kangaroos, but they seem to be growing on her.  She has been taking selfies with them over the last few days.  She is looking forward to the baby penguins, they are inside where it is much cooler.  It is still quite hot here and she is outside all day.  She seems to have quite a bit of autonomy with the animals, which she likes.  She said tonight that if the Navy job didn't come through she would be ok staying where she is.  I think part of that is that she wants to be here, where she feels familiar, and where we are.

susan - thanks!  She is unique, for sure!  It is so interesting to me to watch my children in this phase of their lives - part of our parental influence is clearly present in their choices, but they are definitely individuals, and it is fun to watch them figure out what to do and what makes them happy.  She just started seeing a new guy - their second date was fishing on her boat.  So she hooked up the boat to the back of her truck, brought it to the ramp, launched it, he met her there and jumped on the boat, and then they fished for several hours and chatted.  Not your usual date, but that is her style. I am so glad that you will be able to see your husband's cousin more now that she is moving closer - she sounds great! She also sounds busy!!!  Like you!  

Dinner tonight will probably be leftovers

Dinner tonight was grilled lamb chops cooked perfectly by dh.  Okra and tomatoes and a tossed salad.

I finished emptying out the camper today and cleaned it on the inside.  Cleaning the outside is dh's job.  The humidity was awful and I got wet with perspiration walking back and forth between house and camper.  We're supposed to get our first cool spell on Friday. 

Last night, I proved that I love my kid. At 6pm, a time I would normally be making dinner, husband and I climbed into the beat-up Subaru and headed to the Burlington Mall. For those of you who don't know Boston, venturing onto I93 north at this hour of day is insanity. As the lit highway sign indicated, 9 miles to I95, 35 minutes. Nuts huh? The traffic was heavy but at least it was moving. We arrived at the mall 55 minutes later.

First I went to Lord & Taylor's. Once upon a time, Lord & Taylor's had salespeople who knew their merchandise and would help you navigate to find the perfect outfit. Evidently, that time has come and gone. [I should tell the story of shopping with my grandmother at Lord & Taylors when I was just entering college.] I approached two salespeople who were moving clothing around. With condensation they told me that they were affiliated with designer boutiques, and their boutiques didn't have any dresses that were tea length but they had no idea if other designer boutiques might. In one blast of helpfulness, clearly against their grain, they did allow that there was a special occasion dress area across the way.

The special occasion area was modest in size, and very, very sparkly. The saleswoman there was much kinder to me. I did my spiel about tea length dresses [bypassing my preference for natural fibres altogether] and she looked me up and down and said "I have two." And then there was a long pause. "I have two. And you won't like either one." The first one [and really I should have taken pictures, was about 40 pounds of stones, glitter and total ugliness. The second one had no straps or sleeves and looked like fabric from a nursing home couch. We both lamented finding something with an age appropriate hemline without stepping into the dowager department. Needless to say, I purchased nothing.

Onto Macy's where special occasion dresses are right next to what they now call Prom Dresses but would look fine on street walkers. My husband had found me, and the two of us meandered around the area with looks of shear horror. Another perfectly normal woman was also there and she too had that look on her face. "These are just awful" I said to her. She laughed and said "I know. There isn't anything I would ever wear."

Every dress that I touched caught my fingernails. Mediocre polyester everywhere! It is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

The bad news is, I don't have a dress. The good news is, even if I had the perfect body, I would still not have a dress. There was, in fact, not one thing in either store that I would ever wear.

A quick stop in a bunch of the smaller stores was not fruitful either, though at least the stuff wasn't hideous.

I treated myself to walking around Sur La Table, trying to remove the visual memory of so many horrific dresses.

And now we wait for my mail order deliveries to arrive, ever hopeful that the right garment is in a box.

*susan*

susan - you may not have a dress, but your post made me laugh, it was spot on with the visualization - and your sense of humor is intact!  I am hopeful that the perfect thing will be coming in the mail, and I have every confidence that you will look beautiful for your daughter's wedding.  I am sure this is stressing you out a bit, wish the dress fairy could do a fly-by for you.  P.S. - I love Sur La Table - we don't have one locally and whenever I go in one I'm like a kid in a candy store!

LOL, Susan!  I felt guilty enjoying your post so much!  I do not own a dress.  I occasionally wander into the dress dept. in stores and never see anything I would/could wear.  I'll have to google Sur la Table.  Fingers crossed that you'll like your purchase from there.

Dinner tonight will be early.  The high school boy next door is in Midsummer Night's Dream at his school and dh and I are going.  Not with much enthusiasm but we're going nevertheless.  He is the last of the four boys next door and the only one left living at home.  After he goes off to college, we'll have to find another lawn mower for when we leave for the summer. 

Back to dinner, I don't know whether we'll have a breakfast type dinner or eat something at a restaurant.  I'm leaning toward the latter idea. 

This morning we went to the gym after a 3 1/2 month period of no gym exercise.  I felt good AFTERWARD that I had gone!

susan - fondled, lol!!!!!!  I'm like a kitchenware crack addict in that place!  You mentioned liking natural fabrics - are you familiar with J.Jill?  They have some nice linen dresses that you could dress up with a cute cardigan and nice jewelry.  You would end up with something that you could use again if you wished, and with the change to more fall-like clothes they might even be on sale. 

Tonight we're having a lamb meatloaf and roasted acorn squash with butter and nutmeg. 

Hubby and I just bought my VERY FIRST food processor.  I was always too tight to buy one.  Since I'd held out for so long, I splurged and bought a Breville.  God, I don't know how I got along without it for most of my life!!! 

My son is flying in tomorrow to finish the sofit construction that the roofers didn't do.  Usually he wants to go out to eat greasy tex-mex every day while he's here.  Yeah - I used to make killer enchiladas but not the greasy lard kind.  I did make some Toll House cookies which he used to love and bought ingredients to make Laurie's Salsa Chicken.  And I have steaks to grill another night.  And a center cut pork tenderloin if he stays more than 3 days.  His SO is a vegetarian so i tend to go heavy on the meat when he's here since she rarely comes.  We'll stop and get his first "fix" of enchiladas on the way home from the airport - early dinner.