So...whats for dinner?

Special I hope everything goes smoothly and you are home comfortable and well.

Auntie and Minus I love my primary doc. I went to see him yesterday. He doesn't know that if he told me to run 10 miles after work each day I would. I complained about gaining weight and he said, "Well, when we get older, we would have to train like an athlete to stay the same weight and who wants to do that?" :O ! Maybe pick someone in his practice? good docs usually stick together

Thanks for the recipe!

Bedo, that sounds like a great doc. Mine is rather like that -- very non judgmental. Love her. Minus, that's exactly how I feel -- abandoned. (Cancer has so not made me a better person, I'm the same self centered, selfish being i.e. "why is she leaving me???!!!") But I know how she has struggled with her job and family. Her husband is a doc too. Truthfully, I knew it was inevitable but was doing fine with my head in the sand.

Anyway, I'm sitting here drowning my sorrows in countless cups of coffee watching the snowflakes outside my window (seriously, before thanksgiving!!??) and thinking comfort food all the way -- pot roast and vegetables and a cherry slab pie. Dh has requested more cinnamon bagels so I think I'll drown my sorrows in flour.

Nance, you're right.  I DON'T believe it! 

We're having Chicken and White Bean Chili (my own recipe) for dinner.  There is quite a potful simmering away on the stove.  I started out with 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut them into cubes and browned them in 1 T. olive oil.  Removed chicken and browned 6 oz of smoked turkey sausage cut into large dice.  Added back chicken with 3 cups of organic low sodium fat-free chicken broth from a box, 1 small can of mild green chilis, 1 can of Ro-tel tomatoes with chilis, 2 tsp cumin, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, 4 cups of drained rinsed white kidney beans.  I will add some baby spinach that is taking up a lot of room in the refrigerator in its plastic box.  May need to mash some of the beans to thicken the broth. 

Side will be salad.  Corn bread would go well but there would be leftovers and I'm baking bread tomorrow.  Could freeze the leftover cornbread for dressing.  Hmmm...

No snow but a very nasty, cold day.  Off to make a cup of coffee.

That stinks everyone!

It's going to be a 3 dog, make that... cat night and I only have two.

Hope everyone stays warm.

Night

It must be too cold for cooking and eating dinner!  LOL!  Very quiet on this forum.

We had fresh-baked wheat bread with olive oil and cracked pepper instead of butter.  Warmed over chicken and white bean chili and a crisp salad with romaine and veggies.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and safe in this arctic weather.  It will warm up to a high of 70 by Sun. but another cold front is headed our way.  Tomorrow I might get out the pasta extruder and play around with using it. 

Nance, this might be a cold Christmas in NO!

I, once again, have hit the end of my rope. All it takes is one hysterical client who can't follow directions flailing away for days and days and days to put me way over the edge. Food has been simple, by my standards. Let's see, one night I made a faux ragu with a bottled Marina sauce, Italian sausage and ground beef. That kept us going for two dinners. One night I made fish tacos, and then we did a night of hamburgers with cole slaw and, if I may say, the perfect french fries. Tonight, I steamed some hot smoked salmon served over pasta and a green salad. There have been lots of greens salads since the veggies in the market just don't look that good.

Our lamb is sitting in a freezer and I need to find some time to head North to gather it up. To make room in our freezer, I have a picnic ham defrosting. This is the last big cut from last year's pig. I am thinking I will do a cuban braised pork. Just have to figure out what the rest of the menu might look like. Black beans for sure... what else?

*susan*

Eric I hope things get better

I will be making huge quantities of bulgur tomato soup. It seems that one of my friends and I have been trading services. My terrariums in a bottle and soup and stews for her financial advice.

I will also be making a big white lasagna for my daughter this weekend.

Speaking of retiring I am thinking of doing this after the first of the year. I guess one never knows what the future brings. I will probably work 2 months out of the year only. I find that not working brings the "kid" out in me and makes me feel like I did when I was 8.

Here ya go

Emphasis on the easy

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Spinach-Lasagna-with-White-Sauce/

Was thinking about making pizza dough with my 00 flour until i saw that my recipe called for it to sit for 24 hours. Oh dear....next best thing, DH picked up a five dollar large cheese pizza from a local Italian take-out spot in town and I doctored it up with carmelized onions, red and yelliw peppers and mushrooms. Result below....pretty tasty for minimal effort. Made cuke salad to go with and DH had more kale soup. I abstained as I am trying to get my innerds bulked up and calmed down with reduced fiber. Nice record low weight this AM, but not worth maintaining that after a depleted week. So pizza it was...scales be damned!

Made the bi-weekly granola last night, thinking I could make the bagels during the 20 minute baking times between stirs. Whoops! Started the oats before I noticed that the bagel sponge needs to ferment for two hours. 8:30pm is not a good time to start that! So, I used those breaks to measure out the ingredients. This morning, I started the sponge while the coffee was brewing. I am going to try something new today. When I make the little boules after the second rise, I am going to have some hydrated onions ready to mix into the partitioned dough. Maybe this will allow me to have onion bagels without the burnt stuff that happens when I simply sprinkle the wet onions on top.

Have no idea what dinner looks like just yet. I suspect that I will shop the freezer.

*susan*

Carole, congrats to you and dh on your weight loss!

Nancy - You mentioned Pintrest. When did they redo their pages so that you cannot see most of pages without a sign in which I do not have and really don't want. Really ticks me off. I see lots of recipes linked there but many are now impossible to get to. OK rant over.

Bedo - thank you for the recipe. I have most of the ingredients, no ricotta and the chopped spinach may be a tad soggy frozen old but that is easily replaceable. I even have the noodles. I think that sounds like something yummy maybe tomorrow. I have a moose chicken 4 something pounds attempting to thaw. He might have to go back in refrigerator overnight and try again tomorrow. I was going to try spatchcocking (love the name) it but not brining. Nothing big enough to do that in and DH would not care one way or another. Maybe a BBQ seasoning sprinkled spatchcocked chicken?

We had spaghetti 2 nights in a row. Ready for something moderately real cooked. Had long appt at glaucoma doc yesterday, annual check. Inner eye not draining right adding to pressure so sched. for laser eye surg. in Jan. DH says eye stuff no biggie he's had Lasix and cataracts done. He says compared to LX surg it's a breeze. Not much alternative, drops will not fix this. At least no further damage per tests. Need comfort food. Besides it's cold here, maybe snow tomorrow night 1".

Lacey - that pizza looks marvelous. Don't think I've ever seen pizza crust yeast but then I don't have anything strong enough to mix dough in anymore. I assume it has to be kneaded, right? I have an ancient Sunbeam mixer in the closet I have not used in years. It has dough hooks; still have them. I quit using it when I bought a breadmachine that has since bit the dust. Wonder if it still works? Humm. DH will have to get it out. It's pretty well buried in the back. Maybe when the Christmas decorations get out. Good plan.

Carole - congrats on the weight loss both you and DH.

Mommyof2 - grocery shopping counts. All that walking and I backtrack a lot. My groc. remodeled earlier this year and polished the concrete floors. I hate them. My legs get a workout trying to get traction.

DH reminded me this morning that tonight is the 3rd and final Abita Opry performance of the fall season.  We bought season tickets and missed the first two shows.  So no shrimp and pasta dinner tonight.  We'll have a bowl of soup and some chicken salad before we go.  I'll probably have more home-made bread.  I had it for breakfast and lunch. 

A pot of red beans for tomorrow's dinner at my mother's house is simmering on the stove.  The meat seasoning is sliced ham hocks.  There's also a loaf of Basic White bread being cooked in the bread machine.  Interesting that you should mention your bread machine, Luv.  I got mine out to make my mother a loaf of bread.  It has been stored away for a couple of years. 

Susan, do you have a recipe link for your home-made granola?  DH buys a granola that he eats like cereal with milk and banana or other fresh fruit on top.  I don't eat cereal because it makes me ravenously hungry within an hour or hour and a half. 

I guess I'll try Pin Interest again.  I tried to log in recently and had forgotten my password.  When I went there before, I didn't find it all that interesting or helpful. 

I received The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden which I ordered.  It's a beautiful book and quite hefty.  I look forward to reading it. 

I just found a new butcher shop. The last two I frequented went out of business when the owners retired.

The most interesting thing were the "wild raised" chickens. According to the papers on the wall, the shop owner's brother raises a bunch of chickens and a number of hogs on several sections of land and supplies them to the shop.. The hogs are close to feral and the chickens have figured out the hogs are useful creatures -- the hogs dig around in the dirt and turn up crawly things for the chickens....and most chicken predators don't mess around with chickens guarded by semi-wild hogs.

The combined weight of three whole chickens was 8-1/2 pounds and they have an entirely different "body shape" than I've become used to seeing.

Goats

Moose chicken? Frog rain showers? And I've learned about chicken fried steak here also. You are all so funny

Susan that sounds good.

Using the oven to heat up this freezing place. Not helping