So...whats for dinner?

Moon - I sure can't judge.  I use the real butter with my StoveTop stuffing & have a hard time not scarfing it all up.  When I want to go upscale I use Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing.  I even add celery & onion & more sage.  I do remember tearing up bread crumbs from the time I was probably 6 years old and making the "real" stuffing.  I do live in the South, but since i was raised in CA we didn't have cornbread dressing.  Mother always asked everyone who was away from home to eat in addition to the large extended family, and usually cooked a 25 lb turkey.  But for one person, such a production seems excessive.

susan - that looks so fun but I can see why it took some time. I'm definitely trying this - thanks!

Lacey, hoping you're already feeling better...

A chicken is thawing out and I'm going to be looking through some of the less used cookbooks from the collection for some ideas...in other words, the family is going to be a part of a "lab experiment" tonight. :-)

The other thing I am going to do is to run some sweet potatoes through the french fry cutter and bake them like cookies.

As for other stuff, I've got some more bread rising (sourdough, of course) and I'm going to be on a car oil changing marathon today...typical American...seven cars and three licensed drivers... :-)  One of the cars also needs shock absorbers, so I'll be doing that today too.  I figure it'll be about 3 hours to get it all done.  With three oil drain pans...just line them up and do them three at a time.

And tomorrow..........I'm taking a knife sharpening class.  I can kind of keep the knives sharp, but the new ones that I bought in May deserve more than "kinda sharp".

You need to get Edward Scissorhands in there to help with the tomato work......

The all-clad is a very nice saucier to be sure! I have a 1 quart which is a bit too small for my burners. The center of gravity is wrong, and it falls over. But, I still use it and just know I have to be careful about placement. Personally, I think you would love it. And I would splurge on the all-clad if you can afford it. One never regrets buying good pans. For some reason, I have never cared for the feel of the Calphalon.

*susan*

Making burgers and fries (baked, not deep fried) for dinner!

Lacey, hope you feel better soon.  My favorite way to eat Pumpkin or Butternut squash Ravioli is just drenched in in a browned butter with some fresh sage..... Sinfully good.

Debating on either making some Sloppy Joe's or getting Chinese carryout.  Looks like a  rain storm (again)  is moving in, so if I can get to the store for some Ridged Potato  chips to go with my sloppy joe, I may be in business.  I was doing so good last week on Weight watchers, but only dropped a pound.  Oodles of activity points and barely touched my bonus points.....Pretty disgusted by the scale.   Now I have rebelled ever since weigh in on Wednesday, partly because I felt like it, and then partly because my dad was having health issues and then my best buddy landed in the hospital overnight with an unknown cardiac issue, so it was Fast food/pizza at night cause I didn't get much breakfast or lunch......I just hate when that happens.  I wanted to be even more skinny by my Onc appointment Nov. 24th....

Nancy, love your baking center!!! Yes, I would be a serial user of that too!

So off I went to my treadmill, and proceeded to drop my iPad on the cement cellar floor. Oy! Am hoping that duct tape will secure the splintered corner of glass until DH does the same to his and we bite the bullet for new ones. No All Clad pot for me......

I have in the past made the mistake of getting a too big pot, then hardly use it. So I agree to go with the three quart if you think that will work. Need to look at the link to see the other one.

I found a leek! So tonight's dinner was leek and potato soup with some sausage. As much as I would have enjoyed someone else doing the cooking, this was a really satisfying meal.

I have recently purchased a replacement blade for my x-slicer and it made short work of the tomatoes and onions for the relish. The mixture started as 7 quarts and it is now down to 6. Tomorrow I will cook it with the vinegar and brown sugar for a few hours and then do some canning. The Asian chicken stock is done, all strained. The Western stock is still simmering away. Won't be ready to strain until about 10pm. Will be another late night.

I love the baking station! I don't bake enough to allocate that much space. Well, I don't know that I have enough room to allocate any room to anything! I am forever re-setting up areas to accommodate that day's tasks.

With such a big cooking day, I am behind on the coding. So off I go.

*susan*

Minus, how was the new cafe?

Monica, DH loves stovetop. I'm not much of a stuffing person so it's easy to make him happy with a box lol!

Minus, what a lovely afternoon! And while it sounded like (maybe) too much food....how delicious!

Okay, the iPad has some special thin duct tape holding it together, and so far I will manage. Now I will get to the computer.....

Oh...dinner...so DH got home from the football game around 7pm and I thought he might have had his fill of food, but as Mercury Retrograde would have it, the fellow alum of DS2 who was bringing the grill, showed up later than was workable (they have a baby!), so DS2s turkey tips never got grilled, and DH subsisted on dip and chips and the store bought macaroon cookies he brought. So he was hungry...and willing to pick up take out from our favorite local Greek place. I love restaurant consistency, and this place has it!

We had two separate kebab dishes...a shrimp one, and a combo chicken and lamb one (much better value). Both come with Greek salad and two vegetable sides...we always order a double portion of winter squash...delish. I was actually pretty hungry after yesterday, so it tasted extra good...and hopefully all will be fine.

Off to the computer....seriously!

I've never had much need for a saucier.  So far I've always been able to manage with a sauce pan and a smaller than normal whisk to reach into the corner of the pan.   For what it's worth, my sauce pans (have 3 or 4 different sizes) are midway between "junk" and "do I really want to pay that much".  The have the stainless, aluminum, stainless sandwich only on the bottom and plain stainless steel on the sides.  Using it on my electric stove I've never noticed any "it got overdone" on the sides.  I bought them more because of the *EXCELLENT* handle than anything else.  

I love the baking center.  What material is the work area?  If I ever get a house where I'm either remodeling it, or getting one "built from scratch", I'd have a nice baking area as I love to do all sorts of baking....and I'd probably weight 300 pounds. 

... continued on Oct 18^th

So here I am finally…have this little problem with my
computer..... when I finally pay attention to it, it does this passive aggressive
thing with needing to update all sorts of stuff so I have to wait a very long
time to use it. DH always reminds me to keep it updated, but after all I am not
a techie and have a special relationship with my poor injured iPad, so tend to
ignore the big guy. But actually I do love having a real keyboard to work
with…readers beware!

So my last installment did not include a funny
happening at our Rome hotel. When we arrived there I was incredibly parched and
the kind lady at the desk offered to get me some water. She kept asking me “gas”?  “Gas”? “Gas”? I had no idea what she was talking about, then, but in our house now, we consistently use that term when
offering each other either flat tap water or seltzer. Very funny happening! Once
again, I should have looked at the tourist books!

So, Monday was the day for our cooking course…

We travelled down the hill, made our way by highway to an area on Lucca's outskirts, (as you will see later, we should have dropped pieces of bread:). Here is what we made:

Chef Monti was an affable and talented guy who ran a
good class. Anyone who gets DH cooking happily and confidently gets lots of
credit!

 DH starting to cook his fresh cherry tomato sauce 

 DH helping me by stripping some herbs for my sauce

Mixing bruschetta ingredients

In the course, we met some lovely young couples, two from
Australia, one from UK, and amazingly, a duo of female friends who live in NJ
and FL, but were raised at Newfound Lake! They both have houses there, near our
lake house. What were the chances of that??!! So hopefully we can rendezvous
next summer and make a great Italian meal. They were taking a week of Chef
Monti’s classes, so they should be quite the Italian cooks by now!

After cooking, we enjoyed all of our sauces on pasta and meat creations, and
I thought that the food was some of the best we had during our trip…lots of
pasta…but also, chicken cacciatore and a lemon sauced pork tenderloin. I have to say that my favorite part of the meal (aside from learning about olive oil and pasta flour) was the delectable Tiramisu
we made. I will never be satisfied with a restaurant version again.

We left Chef Monti’s feeling like stuffed pigs! Cannot
see how my next door neighbors here ever did a whole week of cooking classes in Umbria.
They said it was almost unbearable. Another note to self…no whole week cooking courses…anywhere!

To close out this little missive, I have to let you know
that if you are ever driving in Tuscany (or probably anywhere in Italy) DO NOT
USE Garmin to guide you (even with the European program which we arranged before
we left)!! We were taken over two mountains on the most obscure, almost
non-existent roads to get back to our remote village. Oy! Not sure why we could
not be taken back the way we came on the highway! Have to say it was at once stunningly beautiful, 
(observing all the villages in the valleys), and terrifying since I had no idea where
we would end up, and DH got to enjoy the views as I was trying to make sure we
didn’t drive off a cliff...a distinct possibility.

 The highway was clearly somewhere down below! This was a lower part of the mountain.

Home again, home again jiggity jig! (Pariana)

Amazingly enough we landed in Pescia, two towns away from Pariana, which was a relief since we were trying to get back in time
to meet our friend from Paris who we’d hoped to shepherd up our own treacherous
hill. Well, he didn't show and then we made it back to our villa and he was nowhere to be found, with no cell contact. A few hours later, he slowly drove into the village. It made me almost
believe in divine providence since this man has terrible vision and often enjoys his wine after a flight. He later told us he had no idea how to drive the car he had rented!!!. Lordy! I have never felt so relieved to see someone!

Travelogue to be continued another day....

It has been quite the feat to get these photos included...I will not worry about their size. But at least now I know how to do it thanks to in-house tech support!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Head of the Charles (River) Crew
Races with DH’s niece from Cali who now attends college nearby. Her mom is here
from San Diego for Parents’ Weekend so it will be fun to see both of them. We’ll
most likely take them to lunch in Harvard Sq. before her mom leaves. Feeling
good since dinner, so expect my stomach to hold up…:)

granite...thanks....

Lacey...great pictures.....more stories, more pictures...more, more, more.. :-)

Susan, when I have a bunch of stock to store and no freezer space, I drag out the pressure canner and the kerosene stove.  Even though it's a bit of a hassle, it beats throwing out the carcass and having to use the chicken flavored salt from the store.