So...whats for dinner?

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  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015
    Colonoscopy prep today, so dinner is beef broth and water. Yum. DH will have a homemade pizza that I made up and froze a couple of weeks ago. Lucky him.

    Joyce, that's quite a project you've got going! I bet it will be wonderful when it's finished.

    Speaking of finished, the new garden has been completed and planted. DH put the last of the mulch on this morning. And now it's raining. What timing!
  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited May 2015

    Nance - good luck w/the colonoscopy.

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015
  • Lacey12
    Lacey12 Member Posts: 2,951
    edited May 2015

    Nance, good luck tomorrow...or actually, today! Very soon you can enjoy a nice meal....maybe take out? I found that this last colonoscopy left me feeling quite drained...and certainly not in the mood to cook despite my hunger....probably just my reaction with advancing age! I never heard of the white diet before the cleanse...I hope I don't! Unless of course it can be the cake and ice cream. ;)

    Today after doing clothes/closet management (really trying to clear out so much stuff....some to consignment, some to VVA, who come for regular pick ups, and some to our church friend who brings items directly to the homeless on Boston Common), I silver polished an English soup tureen that I have ignored for a few years. It was practically black. I decided that I did not want to breathe in all the silver polish chemicals, so used toothpaste. It looks lovely, but with all the detail it took forever, and before long it will need another cleaning.

    Then I stripped and washed all the bedding in DS2's old room where there are bunkbeds. I want to have it clean and ready for the grands, but I am probably deluding myself to think that they will sleep in there. They have not been here for a year and a half (big percentage of their pre-schooler lives!) so the house will feel strange, and I bet they will crawl into bed with their parents. But in any case the beds are fresh!

    Then I forced myself to sit down and get some sewing tasks completed. I got a lot of mending and mini alterations done, then tackled the half-done pocket apron I started for a woman at church, and had stopped after seeing her totally off crutches right after her hip surgery. I figure there will be someone else who can use it soon enough, so it will be good to have it completed. Lastly, I need to cut to size and bind a little Frozen pattern blanket for my DGD. Hope to get to that tomorrow....and I have pizzelle dough waiting for me in the fridge. I experimented using coconut oil in these, so I'll be interested to see if that affects them in any noticeable way.

    Tomorrow evening we'll have the oven stuffer chicken that I shamelessly ignored yesterday. Probably have brussells sprouts and salad and french bread....wish I could kick the bread habit! But am working on deleting sugar treats/chocolate for the most part...substituting fruit for previously enjoyed candy treats. Soooo not easy. Fortunately no holidays coming up that focus on candy! I am a sucker for the half price post holiday candy at CVS or Walgreens. ;/

    I too hope that MZ is recuperating well from her recent surgery.

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 6,887
    edited May 2015

    Lacey, you are accomplishing a lot of tasks. 

    Nance, I'll bet your new garden arrangement is really nice.

    I am sitting with a cup of fresh-brewed coffee at hand and resting my foot.  I just peeled and deveined 5 lbs of shrimp that will go into a seafood gumbo for Mother's Day dinner.  Other ingredients are an additional 5 lbs of shrimp, 2 dozen boiled hard-shelled crabs and 1/2 gal. of oysters.  My middle sister and middle brother will make the gumbo tomorrow at my mother's house and it will be refrigerated and warmed up on Sunday.  That was my mother's request for a favorite food, seafood gumbo. 

    The middle brother is a good cook and I had hoped he would cook the gumbo but he's having severe back pain.  He's supposed to bring his big gumbo pot and the crabs tomorrow.  I saved the shrimp shells and heads because he makes a stock with them and uses it in the gumbo. 

    My younger sister, whose husband doesn't eat any type of food resembling soup, will be cooking a meat of their choice and probably mashed potatoes.  I'll make potato salad and the shrimp mold.  My oldest brother and his wife are supposed to bring brownies for dessert.  I think we will have 16 people, too large a group for my mother's house so we'll gather at my younger sister's house.  The view from the windows will be pastures with horses grazing, including one new colt who is a cute little fella. 

    I had hoped to have the house clean and the yard in good condition by my surgery next Wed. but I am very much behind.

    Does anybody remember when Susan is returning home? 

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Lacey, as active as you're being I don't think you need to give up chocolate and bread just yet!

    Carole, the garden area is quit nice. As soon as some things get growing and blooming I'll post a pic. I tried to get a picture of the oriole nest but the wind has been too relentless. Can't get it in focus.

    I'd like to say the colonoscopy was uneventful but unfortunately he found and removed three polyps, one quite large as polyps go. My doc is not suspicious of them but of course he can't be sure till the path report is back. So several more days of waiting and worrying.

    He did think it could be contributing to the anemia.

    I woke up during the procedure! I said "ow" and I heard my doc say we need more drugs here! I was gone again quickly. I also heard him say that it looked like a polyp. Weird!

    Lacey, like you I'm very draggy this afternoon, unlike my first one. I came home and took a nap but feel like I could still be sleeping. I think dinner will be blts. It's the best I can do.

    Seems like Susan has been gone a very long time. Carole, once again, I want to come to your Sunday dinner. Be still my heart!

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015
    For some reason bco and my phone are not playing well together again. No paragraphs!
  • Lacey12
    Lacey12 Member Posts: 2,951
    edited May 2015

    Wow, Nance, what an experience to wake up during the procedure AND to hear the doc talking about what he is finding. I do recall waking up a bit during my first one, but conked back out again, a Immediately, and did not hear anything, which probably would have been the same message you heard. I hope the doc is correct in thinking that the polyps are benign. So annoying to have to worry beyond the procedure itself, but I guess we are all troopers at that at this point. Maybe you can lose yourself in your sweet birds for the duration. DH and I are disappointed that we have not seen one more hummer since that one little guy, over a week ago. wE do have so many other birds enjoying our birdbaths and I suspect that there are tons of bird condos in our large evergreens.

    I am particularly thankful for the birds' entertainment viewable from our large kitchen window since I have cloistered myself in for the past two days given the pollen tsunami we are experiencing here. The weather person explained that it is due to our unusual weather in which the trees had not been blooming with all of our cold cloudy weather, and this week's sunny hot days have awakened them, resulting in all the trees blooming at once, and thus all of their pollen flooding the air. Well, I can certainly verify that! I can barely breathe if I go outside, which is actually scary. Never had an inhaler, but can see that coming down the pike.

    Carole, your mother has a very reponsive culinary crew to meet her wishes! The gumbo sounds wonderful. I remeber that shrimp mold well. Always liked it!

    Back to the sewing table so I can get it cleared off tonight, and have the dining room to use for our breakfast meal. We probably won't even have dinner together tomorrow night since they will arrive after dinner.

    Tonight's oven stuffer chicken was very good, tender and juicy. I used the Ina Garten high heat method of roasting it. DH is slicing it all up so I have space in the fridge and I can make chicken sandwiches for DS1 and co. before they leave late Sunday.

    Off to sew......

    Have a Happy Mother's Day, mothers and daughters (and son!) if I don't get on here tomorrow. :)

  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited May 2015

    Quick buzz through.... Valencia was NOT perfect. The apartment was nice except, and this is a huge except, it smelled like sewer gas. So disgusting. We made no food there, and in general, I begged not to be in the apartment. The 71 stairs were the least of this apartment's issues!

    We are now in Barcelona, and what a difference! Lovely apartment with two real terraces. A big bathtub, and a gas stove! This city is just lovely, and I am looking forward to our week here. Headed to market this morning to see what kind of trouble I can get in to.

    I am one month into this trip, and still have two weeks to go. And yes, that is a long, long time. Here is a pictures of our first coffee on the terrace.

    image

    Sorry about polyps...... This is the ONE advantage to a mets dx. No one is insisting that I have a colonoscopy done!

    *susan*

  • Lacey12
    Lacey12 Member Posts: 2,951
    edited May 2015

    Wow, Nance, what an experience to wake up during the procedure AND to hear the doc talking about what he is finding. I do recall waking up a bit during my first one, but conked back out again. Immediately, and did not hear anything, which probably would have been the same message you heard. I hope the doc is correct in thinking that the polyps are benign. So annoying to have to worry beyond the procedure itself, but I guess we are all troopers at that at this point. Maybe you can lose yourself in your sweet birds for the duration. DH and I are disappointed that we have not seen one more hummer since that one little guy, over a week ago. wE do have so many other birds enjoying our birdbaths and I suspect that there are tons of bird condos in our large evergreens.

    I am particularly thankful for the birds entertainment viewable from our large kitchen window since I have cloistered myself in for the past two days given the pollen tsunami we are experiencing here. The weather person explained that it is due to our unusual weather in which the trees had not been blooming with all of our cold cloudy weather, and this week's sunny hot days have awakened them, resulting in all the trees blooming at once, and thus all of their pollen flooding the air. Well, I can certainly verify that! I can barely breathe if I go outside, which is actually scary. Never had an inhaler, but can see that coming down the pike.

    Carole, your mother has a very reponsive culinary crew to meet her wishes! The gumbo sounds wonderful.

    Back to the sewing table so I can get it cleared off tonight, and have the dining room to use for our breakfast meal. We probably won't even have dinner together tomorrow night since they will arrive after dinner.

    Tonight's oven stuffer chicken was very good, tender and juicy. I used the Ina Garten high heat method of roasting it. DH is slicing it all up so I have space in the fridge and I can make chicken sandwiches for DS1 and co. before they leave late Sunday.

    Off to sew......

    Have a Happy Mother's Day, mothers and daughters (and son!) if I don't get on here tomorrow. :)

    Oops, never posted this...

  • Lacey12
    Lacey12 Member Posts: 2,951
    edited May 2015

    Somehow, I posted the same message a second time...so deleted it.

    Have a wonderful stay in Barcelona, Susan!

  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited May 2015

    May grill out at some point this weekend.

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Ah, coffee on the terrace, one of my favorite things!

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 6,887
    edited May 2015

    That coffee on the terrace makes me want to spirit myself to Barcelona! 

    Dinner last night was pizza from Tommy's Pizza, located in Hammond.  It was a casual affair at my mother's house with two sisters present and one SIL and one BIL and, of course, my mother.  I enjoyed the company but my pizza is SO much more to my taste.  I didn't voice that thought, of course.  Tommy's is a big favorite with some of those present.  It would have been better hot.  The red sauce tasted sweet to me.  A lot of Italians in this region are from Sicily and they put sugar in their red sauce.

    I guess one problem with being a cook is learning to prefer your own cooking!

  • NCDi
    NCDi Member Posts: 85
    edited May 2015

    Baked potatoes with sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and broccoli. To moisten, a little cheese sauce made with garbanzo bean flour, organic fat free milk and low fat cheese.

    If nothing else, it should be interesting.

    I lived in Andalucia for three years and always had lovely coffee. Cried when I left there

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Here's a shot of the nest. It was foggy this morning, this is about as clear as I could get. DH saw the female coming out of it this a.m.

    image


    Here are a couple of hummers playing nicely for a change.

    image










  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited May 2015

    So, as I mentioned above, here in Barcelona the world looks bright and cheerful once again. Our apartment is perfect! Oh there is the missing spatula, and other oddities, but we have two terraces that get lovely breezes under the sun-blocking awning. The kitchen is spacious and the stove is gas. There are markets and bakeries just everywhere. And the people! The people are so kind and generous with their smiles. There is a bathtub with enough water pressure and a comfortable bed. The terraces have comfortable furniture.

    We woke this morning to head to our local covered market, the Mercat Abaceria. Like practiced animals, we scoped the market aisle by aisle and then went in for the kill. A bit of veal here, two chicken carcasses there [for 30 CENTS, for both], dried beans, oranges, green beans, lettuces, potatoes, a perfect tomato, avocado, spring onions, and some organic carrots. And then, pork. Two ribs of pork, cut into pieces and some sausage. Around the outside of the market are more stores and we picked up a flexible spatula.

    I have made some chicken stock. The beans are soaking. Tomorrow night we will have a rustic pork stew and the next night a scallopine with some lemon and capers with potatoes and green beans.

    The washing machine has been humming all day and the clothes are hanging from the lines. We did not tourist today. We did not venture out into the busy world. We just had one my daughter calls a "living" day. And it was perfect. After lunch [avocado, tomato, lettuce and cheese sandwich] I remembered that I didn't remember when our reservations for Tickets was. Turns out tonight! So, that scallopine becomes Monday's dinner. Here is the website to the not-quite-a-restaurant: http://es.bcn50.org

    So no pictures. We haven't done anything! And it was the most perfect day.

    *susan*

  • rhonda47
    rhonda47 Member Posts: 9
    edited May 2015

    image

    Roast lamb here tonight.

    With roasted pumpkin and sweet potato, mashed potatoes, cauliflower cheese, "marble", minted peas, gravy.

    So yummy.

    Who knows what "marble" is?

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited May 2015

    Susan - What fun to see the restaurant's web site. We'll be waiting for a review. Your market experience and new 'digs' sound sublime. Oh - one prefect tomato. Thanks for the pictures. I love your daughter's "living day" idea. Appreciated your wry comment about the polyps.

    Nance - great bird pictures. Ah spring. I have a dove determined to next in my best hanging basket. So far I've tried plastic forks stuck upright & pine cones but neither have deterred her. You can actually see her laughing & waiting up on the phone wires for me to go back into the house.

    Carole - I too had pizza last night from one of my favorite places - Fuzzy's. #1 is two huge slices w/two toppings and a large salad. I'm usually full after the salad & bring 1-1/2 slices home for midnight snacks. But I know what you mean about the sauce. I'm super picky about my red sauce.

    Happy Mother's Day everyone - whether celebrating your own Mother or being a mother.

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Sounds like heaven to me Susan. Except maybe for the laundry. Nah, even with that. It's always nice to find a way to get clean clothes on a trip.

    Chicken cacciatore tonight.





  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,600
    edited May 2015

    Happy Mom's day to everyone, even if you are like me "the caat's mum"....

    I purchased 2 "madeleine" cake pans today at a Church rummage. I think they are little cake like cookies that kind look like a seashell?   Anyhow, I now have 3 pans, so if I find a recipe fo them, I won't be washing and cooling one pan over and over to use up all the batter!  For someone with a galley kitchen, I sure acquire a lot of gourmet gadgets....  Thank goodness I put a big cupboard downstairs to hold my collection of Nordic ware.....HAHA>

    Rained like crazy yesterday and supposed to do it all day thur Monday, but today was beautiful a.m. (Methodist prayed away the rain for their rummage).. Now it is very cloudy and I have to go be a Master Gardener at the Kiwanis's mother's day plant sale.  Thankfully it is under a tent.

    Dinner will  be a fast food item, I am sure.

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,600
    edited May 2015


    Oh-I got the book "eat this not that" for 50cents---and it says Marie Calender's Parmesean Chicken Pot Pie is the WORST FOOD in Grocery store.  The book is in the car, but I forget how many bags of chips the sodium alone equals........

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Minus, I usually get house finches in my baskets, although one year we had a robin. One year we had three house finch nests going at the same time! Made going out into the porch a major ruckus each time. This year we only have a pair of wren in a wren house on the porch.

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited May 2015

    Since we have lived in Tampa we have had mourning doves build a nest in a small palm by the front door twice (one of those was during a tropical storm) but they are pretty terrible nest builders and I was so worried about the babies! Then we had a very tiny bird - not sure what kind, never got a really good look- build a nest in my door decoration! It is an oval pail type thing with silk flowers and Spanish moss. We couldn't use the front door until the babies could fly!

    I am at DD's place packing so we are having some interesting meal trying to eat stuff up before the move.

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited May 2015

    LuvMyGoats - Just reading about the tornadoes west of Ft. Worth and I know you're out that way. Thinking of you. Hope you are OK. Check in when you can.

  • M0mmyof3
    M0mmyof3 Member Posts: 9,696
    edited May 2015

    Hubby is talking about breaking out the grill today. Thinking country style pork ribs, a salad and corn on the cob roasted on the grill!

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited May 2015

    Sk, you are so right about doves being terrible nest builders. We had a pair in the tree outside our breakfast room. Every time the wind blew pieces of the nest fell off until finally a baby bird did too. This was not a fledgling, they barely had any feathers at all. I ended up collecting pieces of the nest and placing then in an empty hanging flower basket that I hung under the nest to catch the rest. (I've done the same thing to a robin's nest that fell apart during a storm.) Now I always make sure to keep at least one empty flower basket at the end of the season for bird emergencies!

    Speaking of storms, Luv I hope you and the goaties are safe and sound. We are expecting severe weather today too.

    Happy mother's day to you moms of all things human, fur or other! I don't know what's for dinner I only know dh is fixing me French toast for breakfast. A good start!






  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 6,887
    edited May 2015

    Nance, what an interesting bird nest!  Thanks for posting pic. 

    Susan, I'm so looking forward to a "living" day tomorrow.  I hope to get my house cleaned before the surgery.  Also want to get out crochet supplies.  I bought a pattern book with some cute hats and scarves and thought I would occupy (frustrate?) myself attempting some projects during my week of non-weight bearing on the carved foot.  If they turn out cute, I can give them to nieces who live in cold climates.

    I might turn into a placemat making machine!  I have two more patterns I like.  Look out, relatives!  Next year might be a placemat Christmas!  Meanwhile the house is filling up with wooden bowls dh is turning in his woodworking shop. 

    Ah, bird nests.  We have nests on our porch on top of the metal boxes that house the hurricane shutters.  DH gets house wrens in his workshop.  We have doves but have not seen their nests.  DH has bluebird boxes here and there. 

    Gorgeous lamb roast.  I need suggestions for cooking a boneless shoulder lamb roast that is in the freezer. 

    Time to go make potato salad and unmold the shrimp mold.  No afternoon holiday meal for this family.  My mother gets twitchy by noon.  It's pushing things to eat at 1 pm.

    Happy Mother's Day to you mothers and to us non-mothers, too. 

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 2,845
    edited May 2015

    Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's on here.

    I didn't have time to get gifts for Sharon and my mom, so I'm doing stuff for them instead of getting things....




  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,600
    edited May 2015

    Mommy of two your dinner sounds good to me....especially corn on the cob.  The first of the year...yummo.

    Just discovered some type of caterpillar (sawfly or skipper) devouring my columbines.  They were volunteers that popped up and I just decided to pull them up.  Insecticidal soap would work on the sawfly, but I decided to go big and get rid of them. 

    It was dark and rainy here and I didn't wake up till 9:45......not like me at all.  Must have needed the sleep.

    Dinner will be a big salad and some leftover Mexican omelet.

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