So...whats for dinner?

It's 78F degrees outside and the grass is staining my shoes.. (Sniff, cry, etc.)

Eric - phhhtttttt!

Nance - good heavens. I'm exhausted just reading about your day. I'll look forward to the next oven-cooked egg report.

Eric - we only made it to 58 today. Maybe tomorrow? So Carole might get warmth the day after?

Carole - yes I do know about Boudin - pronounced boo-dan in Houston. Lots of Cajun places here.

The SF bread place is pronounced (bouw din). The Wharf location is fairly new but they've been in business since 1849. From a tiny, old-world bakery on San Francisco's Dupont Street, Boudin has evolved to the state-of-the-art facilities and services we operate today - and emerged as San Francisco's oldest continuously running company. Thought you all might be interested in the contents of the bread since this is a cooking thread - see below.

Boudin is among a small minority of San Francisco bakeries staying true to the original
artisan sourdough recipe: just unbleached flour, water, salt, and a portion of mother
dough. In spite of prevailing baking trends, no fats, sugars, preservatives, or dough
conditioners are ever introduced at Boudin.

Carole - meant to say sorry about your continuing foot problems >>burning pain in the toes and front pad<<

I've been having cortisone shots for 'trigger thumb' for several years now. They couldn't do surgery during BC tx. Now my orthopedic surgeon thinks the cortisone has pretty much resolved the problem - certainly the pain is mostly gone - and surgery not necessary. Hope it helps for you. Maybe try an orthopedic specialist. My guy specializes in hands only mostly for the local professional sports teams but I know he has a cohort who does feet.

My other thought is neuropathy. From some of the threads on BCO is sounds like that pain can be horrible. Have you seen a neurologist? Luckily I mostly have numbness and not pain.

I like Wine-Bedo.

Wow, Nancy, I'm also exhausted from your day! And your preparations sound wonderful! Lucky guests! Also interested in the poached egg update, when it happens.

Carole, I sure hope you can get some foot relief. It is so awful to have that pain, especially since you cover a lot of ground golfing. Also sorry to hear about the demise of your local Meyer lemon trees. If you happen to see the Mandarinquats, it might be worth trying a couple. They are much sweeter than regular kumquats, and also visually pleasing with their red orange color. Also, the blood oranges I bought this week at Trader's are sweet and interesting, and not very expensive. Those might be an option for a marmalade. I chuckled at your "plucking" temptation. Hope your DH can beat the viral crud that keeps making the rounds.

I really loved tonight's dinner.....lime chipotle marinated chicken breasts from WF which DH grilled after again shoveling out a path to the grill (going for sainthood), roasted/mashed butternut squash, spicey roasted cauliflower and onions ( so delicious spiced with fennel seed, red pepper flakes and balsamic), and a Persian cuke, red onion, and kalamata olive salad. My favorite sort of menu! I never even had any of the baguette I bought today.

Saw my functional med clinician today. The good news is that my allergies seem to be calmer given the self-injected serums I use (of course the snow cover here is my friend, and who knows how they may return once Spring and vegetation emerges), and she now recommends that I take fish oil for that antioxidant benefit, as well as curcumin for same benefit and more joint pain relief. She is eager for me to stay off the Celebrex which is what I also plan. I chuckled when she explained that for my "good estrogen" support, I should be eating lots of cruciferous vegetables. Guess I never told her I was the kale queen! So after this appt, and getting the supplements at their pharmacy, I stopped at WF and perused their "snake oil" (homeopathic remedies) aisle. I ended up buying some "pellets" that allegedly help with allergic runny nose, my lasting, and most annoying symptom. We'll see.......:)

Weather guy is just forecasting up to 15 more inches of snow over the next three days. Lovely. Not so sure we can make the piles much higher by our driveway...and really feel for the folks in the city where there is really no room for more snow to be cleared. Tomorrow DH and I will drag his DJ equipment thru the piles of snow for the Girl Scout dance, then we will be running around the urban snow piles and new flakes on Sunday since we have plans to see Motown, the Musical, followed by dinner at La Veuile (sp? Susan). Will be dressed like Nanuk from the North!

Eric, you sound like my LA brother who frequently feels the need to call and give us the weather report from there. My thinking response is always that if I wanted to live just for that I could also be there. This season will pass and we'll enjoy a beautiful Spring, Summer and Fall....and maybe get off easier next Winter?! I am also enjoying the feeling of being so hardy this winter! Easier when one is retired

Wine-Mussels-Bedo, you do live an exciting life. A virus scan? So much fun, all in one day.

Nancy, you have Urfa.... may I suggest making half of Anna Sortun's Harissa recipe? This is SO much better than any other recipe I have tried, and superior to the tubes by a mile. http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/north-african-chili... Then you can make Merquez Sausage.... found this adaptation of the recipe I use on a website, but the original doesn't use pepper flakes. It uses harissa. The other change is that the original recipe calls for a lot more fresh oregano, so upping the green stuff is good. I don't bother with stuffing this sausage. Instead, i create the "links" by rolling the sausage into individual logs, and then wrapping with plastic wrap and doing that "whirly" thing to tighten them up. Throw them into the freezer and you have something well-worth pulling out on hard days. http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-sausagerec30c-20...

Feet problems are even worse than hand issues, which I have 100% of the time these days. I wish that they could give me an option that wasn't just surgery.

Eric, discussing your temperatures in the winter doesn't make you friends. Discussing your temperatures in July however, makes all of us feel much better. how is your Mom recovering? Is she tolerating the antibiotics well? You are quite lucky to have people surrounding her that are competent and who care.

Where is VerukaNY? I certainly hope that her husband is recovering and that the children haven't driven her to the edge of sanity.

Our dinner last night was a redux of the carnitas with rice, beans, avocado. I am feeling quite uninspired for tonight's dinner which probably means a stir-fry with lots of vegetables. My body wants some greenery. I have snow peas and broccoli in the fridge and two kinds of cabbage to work with. Still have to deal with the bone from the shoulder so I am planning to make the ramen broth from the Momofuku cookbook.

*susan*

Roden: The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

These are all recipes that I have tried. To date, there hasn't been one recipe in the book that I wouldn't make again. Can't believe how more recipes I have marked and haven't yet made!

Sweet & Sour Egglplant Salad, page 83

Zucchini Fritters, page 87 [always with a yogurt sauce]

Kofta Meshwyea, page 238 and Yogurtlu Kebab, page 239; these I make regularly but I use the variations, several of them, otherwise, I find them too dull and dense. The tomato-yogurt sauce is just a wonderful way to eat these.

Zucchini bi Gebna [Gratin], page 288. An easy to prepare side dish, not the main start of any meal. Works with any number of vegetables.

Betinan Meshwi bel Dibs al Rumman, Roasted Eggplant with Pomegranate Syrup, page 290

Vegetable Fillings. I have used these starting on page 306 as an inspiration for using up some leftovers.

Bulghar, page 367. I mix and match all of these variations, all with great success. Mr 02143 isn't crazy about chickpeas, so I haven't done those even though they seem marvelous.

Preserved Lemons, page 459. They are almost ready so I have not yet tasted them, but they do look perfect

Harissa, page 464. I was wrong. This harissa was not the harissa of my dreams. Instead, I know use the Anna Sortun version which I posted earlier today.

Salat al Banadoura, Tomato Sauce, page 464. Works well with items from this book.

I know that I have made more from this book, but these are the ones with "tags" on the pages. For many of her recipes, I do reduce the amount of oil, but only after making her recipe at least once as written. Unlike some books, this one is not consistently over-oiled, so I like to experience the "real" version, before fooling around with it.

*susan*

Susan, your referencing to recipes in Roden's cookbook, inspired me to check it out on Amazon. I also looked into some others. Are you familiar with "Olives, Lemons and Za'atar"?

Nance, maybe I missed it, but have you had a chance to use your new tagine yet?

I had to go back & find Wine Bedo, but I like her too!!!

Off to see an afternoon performance of The Buddy Holly Story with a friend from out of town. Then we'll go to Eddie V's. We've both been wanting to try it. Friend will spend the night so food report later

OK, Eric, you've done your penance and are absolved.

Just boiled up some shrimp for us to have before we go off to this dance gig...but DH wants to get set up and head to a local Greek place before the kids/parents arrive. Fine with me.

He was a bit stunned at a few music requests he received this AM, given that these are elementary kids. It's a new fast world....and we didn't have girls to keep us abreast of pop culture. All sports and instruments in this family....but fortunately not like Rob Gronkowski's mother's sport sons. Good lord! He better buy her a few new houses to replace the one he and brothers seem to have proudly trashed. I shudder when I hear him talk about that.

I made a reservation for dinner and then looked out the window and the snow was just not to be ignored. Nope. Don't really want to drive across town while snow is falling. I had to go to my Korean-Japanese market for Ramen broth ingredients, so I added "something from the fish counter" to my list. Squid! So I am going to make Rhode Island calamari and some cole slaw for dinner. Bought myself a bit of a treat... seaweed salad. They make it right there and it is wonderful and packed with "green." Of course, after I purchased dinner ingredients, the snow stopped.

I am feeling "out of the loop." Does this Gronkowski trash houses regularly? I only know the name, I admit, since he was a guest judge on Top Chef.

*susan*

Susan, I meant to say that as Lacey is the Kale Queen, you may be the Bean/Dal Queen!

Carole,

I have a stop top... bought a Fagor that has two bottoms so you can use the size that works for what you are preparing. It looks something like this one: http://www.fagoramerica.com/cookware/pressure_cook...

My supermarket has a Goya aisle. Seriously... a full aisle of just Goya products. They are a local company and have been very successful at what they do. If it weren't such a busy market, I would try to take a picture of all the products that Goya offers. It is quite astonishing. Beans is just the beginning.

The Rhode Island calamari had potential, but the squid was a surprise. It was not a package of three little ones, but one monster. Too mature for this recipe. I used some of the peppers that I pickled this summer when I found dirt-cheap Holland peppers and they are terrific! And my new cole slaw concoction, a guesstimate based on a list of ingredients I found on EatYourBooks.com. Might have to actually buy that cookbook. Anyhow, we will try it again with the squid I get at the fishmonger. They carry squid that is caught off our shores, and is far less mature.

Hope Mr. Lacey's "gig" goes well tonight. They have called ANOTHER snow emergency here. So irritating. There is still a ton of snow left from the last three storms.

*susan*

Chili in the Crock-Pot!