So...whats for dinner?

So last evening's soup was a fun surprise to make and eat.....sweet and sour (and hot) red cabbage soup. Topped it with a dollup of sour cream and chives. We then had our doctored up lamburgers and cuke salad.

Tonight we finished up the rotisserie chicken along with baked butternut squash, and arugula/pear red onion salad with balsamic dressing. No bread in the house led DH to drag out some matza, which was good with KerryGold Irish butter.... a bit of blended ethnicity.

Tomorrow DH is out with his men friends for dinner.I'm a bit envious that he gets to try Juniper (a newer restaurant in Wellesley, opened by the owner/chef of our local Sweet Basil, which we've been wanting to try), but he assured me he'll share his review. Ha! The good news is that I get to make my favorite kale/veggie sauté with egg, for which I am due!

Eric, I'm glad your DM got a real cake after that special sounding dinner!

Susan your late dinner sounds lovely!

ps. Finding it incredibly hard to keep putting on the reading glasses. Finally bought the glass hangers all the old people wore when I was a kid. Hanging around my neck so I can read while I watch TV . Strange.....

Tonight's dinner is stuffed shells out of the freezer.  And a salad. 

I had a delicious turkey burger with sweet potato fries for lunch.  Or half a turkey burger.  I brought the other half home.  I played golf so poorly that I stayed for lunch and pampered myself.  Any excuse!  If I'd played well, I would have had to reward myself.  Then on the way home, I stopped at my favorite NO coffee shop, P. J.'s, and got a large latte. 

It sure is quiet on here.  I guess Nance is out working in her garden.  My new non-foodie pursuit will involve sewing.  I'm having my ancient mini Kenmore serviced and have bought fabric to make some patchwork placemats.  Goodness knows what they will end up costing.  I doubt I'll be saving any $$ but I haven't been able to find placemats to buy for a number of years.  I'll take some pictures when I have some finished products.  I guess placemats do figure into foodie interests. 

A roasted chicken...rubbed with dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried cilantro, curry powder, dried sage, a minced clove of garlic and enough olive oil to make a paste.

It's in the oven right now and I'm using a dutch oven as a roaster. I added an onion that was getting old, and a couple of carrots. I decided an hour at 350F degrees covered and then continue uncovered until it's done.

We still have some green beans and store bought rolls...so those will be the side dishes.

Two dogs and a cat are currently guarding the oven. :-)

Thinking of Mommyof2.

mommyof2 - glad to hear things went well.

This has been a busy week, DD came home Monday night.  I have been going to PT for my hip - which is going well and improving things. I made a bunch of artichoke/bacon/Monterey jack crust-less mini quiches, fruit salad, and two kinds of muffins for DH to take yesterday for Administrative Professionals Day. Got up this morning at 4:45 to pack DD off to go back to Georgia - made her some lunch and ham & melted provolone on English muffin breakfast sandwiches for the road - she is headed straight back to work - has to be there by 9.  Her boat is now occupying my spot in the garage as she has begun the process of moving back.  Dinner last night was Greek salads with grilled chicken, but it has been hit or miss this week with too much running around!  Tonight is pork chops, oven roasted potatoes and sautéed yellow squash and red peppers.

moon - I love those glasses hanger things - mine are always on my head or hanging off the front of my shirt.  Have you finished both eyes?

Well, there was ice in the bird bath this morning, so apparently it hit 32 last night. It's now 35, so don't know how long it lasted or what kind of damage it did. Probably won't be able to tell till later.

Sk, I missed that about DD too. Is her internship over?

This morning I'm fixing a breakfast sandwich of sorts with eggs, peppers, onions, bacon and cheese rolled up in a piece of puff pastry. Sort of like a breakfast burrito in a puff pastry dough.

I'm thinking tonight will be pork piccata and a side of angel hair with parmesan and asparagus.

I need to get this garden work done so I can get back to the gym too. My joints are feeling it!

Special - I agree, we missed a chapter of DD. Thought she was still on the East Coast.

Can't believe you all had another freeze. Well, this year anything is possible. Sunday evening we had hail from 1/2 to 1" and enough that driveways & lawns were totally covered.

My lazy "burrito" lunch yesterday was flour tortillas sprinkled w/Mexican Cheese, microwave & roll. Dinner was popcorn. I'm thinking beef bourguignon tonight - or maybe just beef tips on noodles.

Special, I wish your daughter the best and am confident that she will succeed in her new "direction."  At least she has explored working in this current field and has been able to evaluate it.  I enjoy hearing about her life. 

I'm thawing out 4 lamb shanks and they are the smallest I've ever seen.  In the past I bought shanks at Fresh Market and they were large and meaty.  One shank per person was almost more than enough.  We will probably be able to eat all four of these.  I'll check out some recipes and probably use some of my Indian/Middle Eastern spices for a curry taste. 

I don't look forward to the foot surgery for the Morton's neuroma but I will be glad not to have foot discomfort/pain whenever I am active.  I am a little concerned about pain control following the surgery. 

That breakfast sandwich sounds delish except for the onions.  LOL!

Carole - just read up on Morton's Neuroma. Yes, when is your surgery? How long will you have to be off your foot?

Special - thanks for the update. i agree she's made a smart decision while she's still old enough to switch paths. So will she be on East or West coast Florida?

My mother has landed safely in Boston, and I am with my husband in Spain. Sounds good doesn't it? Great food in Malaga, and now we are in Granada. Tomorrow is Alhambra. Hope to have a few more pictures, but will have to just give you what I have on the phone.

My surgery is May 13th and I haven't discussed the pain control yet.  I cannot take Vicodin or any of the codeine products. 

Susan, yes, that does sound good.  Mother safely home and you and dh enjoying Spain. 

The lamb shanks are simmering on the stove.  I'm using a New York Times recipe as a guide, Persian-Spiced Lamb Shanks.  We have a new printer set up for wireless.  It's so nice to sit here in my chair in the living room with laptop and send a command to the printer to print out a recipe!  I love it. 

Lamb shanks call for a side dish of polenta, which is a high-carb treat like grits for breakfast.  I will also roast some brussel sprouts, dh's least favorite veggie but I like it.  When the weather gets hot, I use my toaster oven for roasting veggies.  It works well. 

Special, I also wish the best for your DD. Sounds like she had enough time to get to know the pros and cons during her internship and she made a thoughtful decision. She also sounds like a very resourceful young woman who is self directed and will find more satisfying projects to pursue along with her chartering. And I might add..how nice formyounto have her close by. By the way, thanks for the cabbage recipe...I will try that on my next cabbage effort. I ended ip making a red cabbage soup (did I already say this??), which we also had tonight before heading to the Celtics/Cavs playoff game. Can't really call it a slaughter, but the mismatch in size is almost comical! The Celts played their best game tonight, I thought, but LeBron James will not be defeated by our small, newby players....truly a David and Goliath scenario! But such HEART the Celts have! I always admire such hard work...but I'm sure the players would feel more gratified with a "W".

Met DS2 at the game, just before it started, for a drink. He was there with some business associates....in a suite with food, of course! Big business amazes me. Social Workers never got such perks! My biggest career perk was "getting to" go on field trips with classes that had the most troubled students attending. I was like their guardian. Oh well, I never minded, since I so liked my "kids"...and the teachers were more at ease. In fairness to DS2, he also does a lot of charitable work and even came to my school a few years ago to spend the day organizing and playing sports for a group of fourth graders who would otherwise have made their class field day quite the chaotic event. I was forever thankful to him!

I do get to enjoy some perks through DH's business connections...and one coming up is a light dinner and panel discussion related to the current food industry. One of the speakers is an exec at KAF. And some others are food entrepreneurs in this area. It will probably have a business focus (since it's at a business school) but I think I will find it interesting to hear about the trends in the industry through that lense. From my perspective, we seem to have the same dichotomous relationship with food and marketing that has existed for some time. Advertising healthy foods with a plethora of those recipes in every mag and on every computer feed, and at the same time coming up with and promoting the most outrageously unhealthy taste satisfying concoctions (e.g bacon laced sweets!) and recipes promoted in the same way and on TV cooking shows. Our local produce stand is a perfect example with tons of wonderful fruits and veggies and carefully raised meats, aside the most drool-inducing pastries, breads, pies, candies and cookies. Did I ever mention that I once bought something called Welch cakes there? They were amazing....and now cost nine dollars for six small cakes....i.e., size of a medium to largish cookie. I was horrified! Must learn to make them.

Anyway, if anyone has anything that they would like me to ask the presenters at this Food panel, please just let me know! It happens in two weeks.

Looks like all is going nicely on Susan's trip. We have some friends who are exploring Spain right now...and my next door neighbor called yesterday to let me know that tomorrow they are heading to Barcelona for a week. That good dollar/euro exchange seems to be a great motivator! Imagine the interesting food Susan will be cooking when she returns!

Carole, I hope that your foot surgery goes well. If you are going to be on crutches for longer than a day or two, I highly recommend using a large pocketed apron like my DH did....per Special's advice.It was a lifesaver for independent functioning. I have a good pattern for making an easy one if you'd like. Or I can even send you the one DH used!

I must get some sleep....have to get up early to pick up our cars being serviced...and then a dentist appt. to redo an old "fix" on a top front tooth. Already dreading the novocaine shot in that area....eeeeeeeh!

And yes, it is sooo cold here, too....30's to 50's for the next week. WTH!! My pansies are happy tho.....:) just feels very weird to be watering flowers in such cold weather

No boasting here!! Tired of parkas..... Please complain about some heat!

lacey - yes, I am happy to have DD home again, especially since DS will never live in FL - although he has been visiting more lately.  DD said she will be my child who always lives close.  We genuinely enjoy her company and she is hilarious, so it is good for all.  Since the boat will be here maybe DS will come frequently too - that is an activity they enjoy together.  Her online sea school (Captain's license) materials came in a briefcase that was embroidered with "You May Call Me Captain" on the side and that is what she texted to her brother when she passed the test, lol!  Even though she is walking away from a job as a federal contractor, her first grown-up job, she is doing it because of the treatment of the animals - so I am proud of her for staying true to her conscience.  She has ADD (and a little bit of ODD) and always did better with online classes than classroom ones as there is less distraction - is better when self-directed and motivated, rather than working as a cog in a machine.  She has amazing people skills so I think this will be something that could work.  It is funny that you mentioned healthy eating too - she has turned over a new leaf - she was a consumer of fast food, but it has caught up with her - she is in the gym and eating very well, trying to drop a few pounds before she gets back.  I would be curious if there is discussion at the food meeting about GMOs and gluten-free, and whether using GMO and gluten free ingredients is becoming firmly established or a flash in the pan.

carole - I believe tramadol is codeine free, have you used it? I have never had it but I see it mentioned a lot here on BCO.

DH takes tramadol for a chronic shoulder issue. Works for him. I try to avoid prescription painkillers so I don't have much advice. Aleve is my friend of choice.