So...whats for dinner?

probably the rest of last night's dinner and a salad!

Lacey, what cuties!

Carole, one of the things I love at the global food market is looking at all the different colors of lentils! And speaking of Apple, on my next trip, I plan to pick up a bottle of pomegranate molasses. She loved the stuff but I have yet to try it.

It's 70 here today, the last nice day before the arctic blast -- into the teens this week, yike! They're even saying the "s" word :-( I'm taking advantage of the warm weather by grilling a tri tip that I've dry rubbed. DH wants a plain old baked potato and we'll have a caesar salad. I'm getting ready to make the garlic croutons now.

Even though I'm not cooking on Thanksgiving day itself, I've started to plan the menu. It will only be four of us but that won't stop me from cooking to excess (love those leftovers!). In addition to the usual suspects like dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc, I'll make baked corn out of the stuff I froze this summer and individual savory sweet potato souffles. Individual only because they cook more quickly than one large one and I can throw them in at the last minute while the turkey is resting. What a carb fest! I came across a recipe for hushpuppies made with leftover stuffing. Since I make a cornbread type dressing, seems like it would be a good idea. We'll see. I'm not that big of a stuffing/dressing person but I like hushpuppies occasionally.

I see that TJ's fearless flyer is advertising the giant brussels sprout stalk again. Now I'll have to work in a trip there AND Costco before the holiday.

Carole, my instructions for turkey call for the salt to look like a light snowfall. I suppose"light" is subject to interpretation, but that's what I envision as I'm sprinkling. I hope you like it. Let us know. I love baked sweet potatoes, I think I'll try browning them as you describe, sounds delish. Dh is not a big sweet potato fan, but I bet he'll like those.

I'm impressed with the spatchcocking, Carole! I have yet to venture there, but I assume it does roast better in that shape....yes?

Today DH underwent that nasty screening test, and I promised him a nice dinner since it is a rare (actually unheard of!) thing for him to live on liquids for 24 hours.

I was running around doing a lot of errands while he was in the hospital from early morning, (Boy! Am I glad I am not an early morning person ...hardly any stores were open before 9AM defeating my plan to get a lot done in that time frame), then taxied him home, getting him lunch and settling him in so he could sleep off the "loopy".... then more errands after gym andstretching class. So I had to be creative with "nice dinner". Decided we'd have a summer throwback...made wonderful BLTs on big slices of artisan bread from TJ's, and had a big bowl of newly made kale soup. We were both very happy with the menu! I wanted to fill my tummy well since I start the liquid prep tomorrow. Sadly, Wednesday is the day my neighbor has a tea and food collection event for a Haitian church in Boston. It is one of those times when I get to catch up with lots of folks in town who I only see a couple times a year. After seeing how loopy and tired DH was for a few hours today, I realize that I will not be going anywhere to socialize tomorrow afternoon....but who knows.....:)

Eric, my DB was very happy to receive the birthday greeting. Thanks again!

Lacey they are adorable! So cute.

My D H finished his 12 hour days (the outage-refueling). Then was hit with a presentation he has to do for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission starting tomorrow in DC. So he worked all weekend to get ready came home and went to ed directly after supper. We went out he had his BLT and I ate a strawberries and cream crunchy french toast. I just felt like it. It had 3 whole slices of French toast. LOL. I assumed it meant 3 half sliced. LOL I ate 2. It was so good. Not old for me but good. And besides strawberries are fruit! LOL. Ok. I'm cheating, not delusional! LOL

Much love

Lacey, my chicken wasn't a success.  It hadn't thawed completely and didn't reach temperature in an hour in a hot oven..  It was time to eat so I microwaved half of it, which made it rather rubbery.  At least the sweet potatoes were good, and the broccoli was healthy. 

Tonight I won't be eating much because I had a heavy lunch today following a round of golf.  Confession:  I ate dessert, a piece of pecan pie.   I'm thawing some home-made spaghetti sauce and will cook some linguine for dh and make him and possibly myself a salad with spinach as the greens.  He's always happy with pasta.

I discovered the reason that the saffron I ordered never arrived is that it probably did arrive in a box with the freezer cartons I'd ordered and I threw the box away.  Since the seller for the saffron was different from the seller for the freezer cartons, I assumed the saffron would arrive separately.  Boo hoo.  Now I guess I'll look at Fresh Market, which has a big spice and dried herbs selection. 

Eric, your book sounds like what I'm looking for.  I'll see if I can find a used copy.  Lacey, your book title is so interesting.  The combination of words "cooking for a healthy kitchen" is unusual.  "Healthy" seems like an odd modifier for "kitchen."  I ordered a book from Amazon that sounds very informative.  It's an updated version of a cookbook published in 1972.  I don't remember the title but I think it has "Lemons" in it.  The description sold me on buying the book. 

Moon, I heard on the weather news that WI got a lot of snow.  So did the area in MN where we go for the summer.  Some of the people we know up (including two women) are deer hunting now.  When someone kills a deer, that person puts a picture of the dead animal on Facebook! 

Nance, did you make pitas?  I've never liked pitas very much but I've only had bought ones which are rather tasteless envelopes for fillings.  I put white flour tortillas in the same category.  I do like the corn tortillas and imagine that the home-made ones are really good. 

Lacey, good luck with your procedure.

Eric, that French fry cutter sounds handy.  I don't remember seeing one of those. 

Bedo, so weird, I was going to ask about you today. So good to hear from you! Sorry about the AIs, I feel your pain. Please report back on Costa Rica if you go.

Carole, I'm sorry about the chicken not turning out, I hope you don't give up on it. I haven't made pitas yet and probably won't until I make gyros again.

Lacey, are you using suprep or another product? If it's suprep, I'd like to know how you fared with it (not detailed of course lol.)

Bedo, where in Kentucky did your mom grow up?. My dad grew up outside of Williamsburg, KY.

Bedo -great to hear from you. I am awed that you are so brave and are taking time to do what you want. We don't get the time back & it's important not to miss chances along the way. How fun to meet a friend to play with. Will you take your fiddle to Costa Rica?

Nance & Lacey - I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy in Dec and just picked up my Rx. It's "MoviPrep". One liter between 4-7pm. A second liter in the morning 3 hours before heading to the appointment. Since I'm scheduled for 7:30 arrival, I'll be setting my clock to drink that morning liter at 4:30am.

Our Civic Association "thank you" dinner was tonight at Olive Garden for all the residents who actually contribute their time during the year. It's hard to find a place with a private room anymore that can set up a "T" table for 25-30 volunteers that meets our small budget. We pay for the entree and if they want alcohol or dessert, they pay that part. Our neighborhood only has 180 homes and w/o volunteers we would be sunk. In addition to the bottomless salad bowl, I had grilled salmon and steamed broccoli. Guess i have to admit I had 3 bread sticks. We honored 3 veterans who told about their service and another 10 women who had husbands or children who had served.

Eric and Lacey, I found your cookbooks on a Thrift book site and will probably buy Eric's.  Lacey, you didn't really recommend yours. 

Bedo, it's fun to have you check in.  As always, your life and diet are interesting!

I bought two little packets of saffron at Fresh Market for $8 each and all you can see is a foil packet inside the plastic envelope.  I'm wondering how one knows how much to use in a recipe.  I also bought organic red lentils.  And dried porcini mushrooms.  Now if I just don't put everything away and forget about them!  I still haven't cooked farro after having it on hand at least a month. 

Another heavy lunch today following a very chilly round of golf so, again, very little food intake for me tonight.  I had fried chicken for lunch and it was SO good.  And a delicious little roll with butter.  I bypassed a seafood lasagna on the buffet.  But had a small portion of soft serve ice cream with a squirt of chocolate sauce.  I actually prefer soft serve ice cream to the hard-frozen.  After my shopping at Fresh Market, I zipped over to Café du Monde (nearby, not on the south shore in NO!) and got a large café au lait to drink on the way home. 

Winter has arrived.  It was in the 60's today but a gusty, cold wind kept me in three layers of clothes.  Tomorrow night we're due for a freeze here on the north shore and Friday will be too windy and cold for my Friday golf game.  Instead I'm planning to make artisan bread.  Tomorrow I'll make the biga (starter).  I may make pasta on Friday, too!  I have never used the pasta extruder attachment to the Kitchen Aid that I just had to have.  I read all the instructions, then put everything away. 

lacey - cute pirates, good luck on your procedure.

Bedo - halve and pre-cook your acorn squash a bit in the oven. Cook some spicy sausage with onion, carrot, celery - or what you have on hand. Mix in a torn up a piece of bread and some stock or wine until moistened. Add some shredded cheese of choice, stuff the squash and bake until the squash is cooked through.

Yay! DD will be home for Thanksgiving!

Everyone's meals sound delish, except for Lacey's prep, lol!

Will not be cooking much over the next few days as I am having surgery tomorrow - a fat graft to try to prep my left side to accept another expander - the recon saga continues! Sent my BFF off back home tonight to California - we had a fun few days - thus my recent MIA status!

Good luck tomorrow, Special.

Bedo, this is a truly delicious recipe that I make at thanksgiving sometimes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/ac...

Sk, best wishes tomorrow. Heal fast!

Nance - my OB/Gyn of 20 years is retiring next year & I know just how you feel. She really has been more like an old family doc that you can just call & everything is taken care of. She did say once she retires we can have lunch & talk about books w/o discussing medical issues, but she's at least 5 years younger w/grandchildren back East so I doubt that will ever come about. To top it off, my MO is effectively retired this month. I am happy for him but I feel abandoned - even though it's not rational. I'm not looking forward to meeting the two new candidates to meet in December, or the transition.

Dinner was a cold boiled shrimp appetizer and left over lemon grilled salmon & broccoli with a Hawaiian roll.

Oh Nancy and Minus, I am so sorry to learn about your doc losses. Not sure if I ever mentioned on this thread that my primary care took a loa for six months this year and when she returned to work, she also showed up on the treadmill next to me at our gym (the fitness center is connected to our hospital), and I knew from her baseball cap that she had joined our undesirable club. She has mused with me about following an easier path. I can't blame her if she decides that....she has two kids still at home. I think that women docs deal with quite the challenge having a demanding practice while raising kids. I don't envy them. I hope you both have good new doc relationships....fortunately there are many good ones "in the wings" for us. But yes, there is grieving to be done over these losses. Hugs to you both....

Special glad you had a great visit with BFF, and best of luck tomorrow