So...whats for dinner?

Lacey, I feel your pain. We have had zero trick or treaters.  I'm sitting here watching the little empty snickers wrappers  pile up. Fortunately they're the bite size and not miniature (or larger), but that just makes them easier to rationalize.

We have three refrigerators (it's a long story lol), one of which lives in the garage. I'm amazed at how often they're all three full.

The lamb shanks were delicious. I made a small gingerbread with a simple lemon sauce, mostly because it makes the house smell so good.

Tomorrow morning, the carpet shampooers are coming to do the whole house. My carpets haven't been professionally cleaned since we moved in in 1998. Would  love to get hardwood but doubt that will happen before we sell the house. So might as well get 'em cleaned!

We've only had 8 or 10 trick or treat groups - and they weren't even from our neighborhood.  I just turned off my porch light at 8:30pm since since the little ones are through.  I too will have to rationalize eating some candy.

Carole, Lacey, Nance - your meals sound delicious.  I had eftovers for dinner.  One small piece of pizza.  Nice green salad that wouldn't have made another day.  1/2 of a sourdough mini-baguette.  And a large glass of Malbec wine from Chili.

Now THAT is an inviting entryway, Monica! Glad to see you on your feet. Hope the knee feels strong!

Rainy here today....am about to cook up some chicken for a soup I'm making for a youth group soup sale tomorrow.  Making my mother's chicken vegetable pastina soup.

Then assembling a large salad for the pizza fest next door tonight. Yum!

On a somber note.....Boston is saying goodbye this weekend to recent Mayor, Tom Menino, who did great things for the city and its people for over twenty years.....a really good, ethical man of the people who died of cancer, Thursday, at 71. Rest in peace.

I saw a local news segment yesterday about putting small chopped up candy bar bits into pumpkin pancakes. Just a thought. Same segment put canned cinnamon rolls into a Belgian waffler. We don't even turn on the porch light. We are way too rural. We did the 1st couple of years. I don't think the neighbors granddaughter even came by and she was certainly the appropriate age. The churches all have festivals - ours did on Thursday night.

The yellow/zucchini squash/onion saute was yummy but a bit too much oil/butter my fault I do not measure. I put about 1/2 jar of roasted red peppers in it. I made up for that by putting mine over the dry mashed potatoes. DH had it and the bit of leftover pork cutlet I couldn't eat. But last night was a Sonic splurge since I went shopping. We never eat out or fast food. Tonight is pizza with the fire roasted crust. No clue about tomorrow. Have extra squashes so might be sausage stirfry again.

Albertsons is already having turkeys on sale. I would have bought the sale of BOGO turkey breasts but the freezer was blocked with a large cooler of coffee creamer. I wonder if they will realize why they did not sell so well. They had this sale last year, that's the breast I just cooked earlier. They were really good. Turn out to be $1.50/# on that sale. I'm sure they will repeat it. There is one just 10 miles down the road. Just not going back b4 the sale ends this week. We are getting I hope they are right a downpour on Mon. night/Tues/Tues night "maybe an inch of rain". Hah we need more like 5-6" over several days to start to do any good. One of the smaller towns is having to repipe their water from another lake. Not going to be cheap. Our supply seems to be holding in but I think they're about to go to once a week watering - not that I've even done that much. But we actually have fall. Resisted turning on the heat last night. I think it was about 35 out here. Pulled all the houseplants up next to the wall. I'm sure we'll be back in the 80s again. I resist taking them in on the 1st low temp. Takes DH to haul the large ones in. I do have a south facing window so they get sun but it does get crowded.

Nancy - sounds yummers.

Monica - quite a Halloween setup there. How's the knee holding up?

Moon, what a welcoming Trick or Treat entry!  No trick or treaters here.  No candy.  No lights on! 

Today I decided to prep and sauté some leeks for leek/potato soup.  The leeks had been in the refrigerator for a while and I figured I could extend their refrigerator time if they were cooked.   A glance at the recipe (recommended by Susan) told me it was simple.  So I decided to go ahead and make the soup and put it in the refrigerator.  While the soup was cooking, I looked at the unused portions of the leeks and thought about the stems of the shitake mushrooms and the ends of asparagus stems in the refrigerator.  I decided to throw everything into a big pot with some onion, celery, carrots, potato, peppercorns, salt and bay leaves and water and make veggie stock.  It tasted really good.  So I have cartons of veggie stock in the freezer.  I've made chicken stock in the past but never veggie stock.

Tonight's dinner will be something at a restaurant.  We're going out to dinner with neighbors.  LSU isn't playing tonight so the husband neighbor is available! 

Well, I am back and still trying to find my balance. I worked VERY hard while I was on the West Coast to stay on EST, and it all went to hell-in-a-hand-basket since my plane home didn't leave until 1am. I am not good at 36 hrs without sleep. A little sleep on the first flight, a little more on the second, and as you can imagine, I hit the ground exhausted. I am almost back on schedule. Today I only slept until 7:45. With the extra hour of sleep tonight, I should get right back on track.

For lunch upon my return, we had some scrambled eggs with an English muffins. I know I made something for dinner, but can't remember what! I was completely out of it after all. Last night was grilled lamb chops with some asparagus risotto. Tonight we ventured out into this nor'easter and headed to the pizza spot that opened in the new Assembly Row. Not bad at all. We made our own with sausage and ricotta. The za's are huge! 18" is a large pizza. With three of us, we had plenty to bring home. I am dry-brining a turkey breast with wings. Husband will smoke this tomorrow. Will serve with a sweet potato gratin with sage and a lettuce salad.

Need to start some bread for turkey sandwiches this week.

Food in Portland was fine. I was not hanging with people willing to travel in a bus to get the best that the city has to offer. They wanted close-by so we ended up at Jake's Famous Crawfish which has recently been sold to the McCormick group. I had to be fairly creative to eat within my self-imposed budget. I had trout one night, and some ahi tuna with wasabi and soy. A salad, and that was a fine meal. I made it to one food truck that I had read about and a well-reviewed Indian restaurant. In my perfect world, I would have made it to PokPok or Senyai.

Anyhow, hit the ground running. My clients tried to give me two full days with no contact. They tried, but, they couldn't quite pull it off. Did mean I returned to a full to-do list. Spent all today installing new computers into a client office and my brain is a little fried. Price to be paid for getting away.

*susan*

Sharon and I went kayaking tonight. A moonlight kayak with 26 other folks, including the park ranger leading the "flotilla".  So dinner tonight was a couple pieces of Halloween candy (we didn't have much left--probably 150 kids this time) and some store bought tamales.

In the same vein as the "It's a major award" line and the leg lamp in the movie "A Christmas Story", my old Jeep truck was declared "Our Favorite FC Survivor" in JP magazine.

Link
 

You'll need to go down about 1/3 of the way down the page to get to the picture.  It has the "Our Favorite FC Survivor" headline.  

DD calls it the heap and says that it started life as a regular truck that was run into a wall to get rid of the hood and then was severely beat with an "ugly stick".  I really can't argue too much with her! :-) 

Eric, congratulations to your Jeep truck!  I didn't know about jeep trucks. 

Most of the kids here were "imports" from other neighborhoods...  

We used to have that many kids around here, but most have grown up.

eric, my DH will love the article on your truck. He just now, very reluctantly,  took in his 89 Concord with 318,000 miles in it. And the day he did he stood there looking at it and said to me, "I've never gotten rid of a drivable car before". I told him "drivable" was debatable when only one person could get it to move.... LOL

Snowing outside! Big, fat, ugly snowflakes. Turkey smoking will wait until tomorrow. Instead we will eat the leftovers in the fridge with a big garden salad. Have to stay flexible in New England in early November.

*susan*

lol Eric! I remember the first time I visited Phoenix in a late June. I had just come from camping in the Colorado Rockies where there was still snowpack and ice on the lakes. Phoenix had just come off a lengthy stretch of 100+ degree weather and was enjoying low 90's. I was astounded at how many women were wearing sweaters  of an evening. In my world anything over 50 degrees is shorts weather and they're standard issue  house attire whatever the season.

Eric your DDs descrition of that truck was perfect! It is a riot!

Last night's pizza party was fun and the pizzas were interesting. We each got to top one with many interesting toppings, cheeses, veggies, carmelized and otherwise. No meats since the other couple who came is vegetarian. Two of the most interesting were pumpkin with carmelized onions, and one with chickpeas and gorgonzola cheese. For dessert we didn't have baklava, but a pear cake that had red wine of sorts poured over it. Quite nice. We left quite sated!

The Hungarian Sausage I think may be called Hazi Kolbasz.  the thing about Hungarian sausage is it is never boiled--only -either baked or sautéed.  And it is fresh, I've never had the dried kind, although Hungarians do make dried ones.

the recipe I use is from June Meyer.  If you google her, you will even find a recipe for how to make the stuff with casings and eertying...

Happy anniversary, Lacey! 

Always love to get a report on your DD, SpecialK.  She sounds amazing.  So full of energy. 

I'm starting the week off full of purpose!  Went to the gym this morning since I can't go tomorrow morning with dh.  Have begun "tracking" my WW food points.  My goal is to drop 7 to 8 lbs by Thanksgiving.

Thought about you, Nance, when dh and I stopped off at Beau Rivage Casino yesterday afternoon on our way home from an open house gathering in Ocean Springs, the little town next door to Biloxi.  Love the casino lobby.  It's so pretty with all the plants and flowers.  We played poker machines for a couple of hours in the non-smoking section.  Of course you have to walk through the smoking sections to get there!

I think dinner will be a version of Laurie's salsa chicken but maybe with pork chops.  I may not have chicken breasts in the freezer.  But I have cooked black beans in little cartons.  I cooked 2 lbs last week in the crock pot.  We're all set for lunch with potato/leek soup in the refrigerator!