So...whats for dinner?

Carole, that's what happened. We drove home from New York to Phoenix and 36 hours later was on a plane to Maryland.

I'm not doing anything amazing. For the next couple of weeks, I and a bunch of others, are working in a warehouse, checking the equipment that we would use during a disaster deployment to make sure everything is working correctly.

Since I'm one of the computer networking and radio communications "geeks", I'm working with lots of 2-way radios and computer networking equipment.

I sometimes miss posts.  Susan's reply to Eric made me realize I had missed one of his posts so I went back and caught up.  Eric, I'm glad you are not in danger.  I worry about the health and safety of our group as though I had grown up with all of you. 

Susan, how wonderful that you enjoyed your meal.  I'll take your word for the deliciousness because the food was all "foreign" to me!  I, too, love the story of your daughter belting out Maria.  When I asked dh why he didn't want to see WS Story, he started singing Maria and I said, "Oh.  Ok."  I was offering to see the play for his benefit because he likes musicals and I don't like them.  It's so silly to me for people in a play to suddenly start singing.  I prefer excellent film productions to theater and I'm an English major!  Something about suspension of disbelief.  We did go to a high school production of Midsummer Night's Dream this spring and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Our neighbor boy was in the play.  We sat with his parents and his mom took a big bunch of green onions to present to him after the play! 

Tilapia.  Not a preferred fish for us either, but it is for restaurants. 

We're playing golf this afternoon at 3:36 pm so may have a hot dog and frosty root beer at A & W for the night meal.  Tonight is Second Street Stage in Park Rapids, free music concert.  We'll put our chairs in the truck in case we want to stop there for a while.  Nearby the roped off block is Minnesoda, a big temptation.  An old-fashioned soda fountain with delicious ice cream selections. 

Where is Nance?  Out chasing ground hogs? 

Hello all - I have been out of my usual cooking rhythm so have not posted much about dinners!  I have been reading along though!

susan - so glad you were hungry and enjoyed the fantastic sounding exotic dinner!  Am I correct in thinking that ibrance is 3 weeks on and 1 week off?  Do you know if you become more accustomed as time goes on and have fewer side effects?  I so hope it works for you.

carole - it does seem that you reached your destination quickly!  Funny, I had a sandwich on Ezekiel bread yesterday!

lacey - enjoy the lake!  I am hunkered down in the house as it is so hot and sticky here - the reason carole hightails it out of LA!  I did take the dog out in the evening yesterday and it was not too bad.  We have tons of mosquitoes so I have to be careful in the evening when they are out.  I am apparently very tasty to them and I worry about my LE arms.  I have a homemade bug repellent (alcohol and peppermint oil) but half the time I forget to put it on.

eric - you are a travelin' man!  Glad you have a stove-let to cook on.

minus - like the egg in a cup recipe!  I have a similar recipe but it uses a muffin pan and you can make them and freeze them.  I put a strip of bacon, parcooked and cut in pieces and crosshatched at the bottom of the cup so that I don't have to oil the cup - I have also used the silicone cups that release easily.  Makes a good, high protein, breakfast for those on the run in my house.

I have been making salads in bulk - broccoli, pasta, potato, chicken, etc. - because I am packing a lunch for DD and DH.  I get their lunchboxes set up the night before and usually give DH leftover dinner, but DD's work didn't have a microwave, thus the salads.  They both leave super early for work so I pack their lunches the night before.  I also make something for DD to eat as she goes - PB&J English muffin, or a scrambled egg/cheese/salsa in a pita, or ham and provolone on English muffin.  Her blood sugar slips so she has to eat in the morning if she is headed to work, but leaves so early (5:30 am) she needs something she can grab.

Last night we actually sat down and ate dinner.  I made an experimental lasagna - used spinach lasagna sheets that you don't pre-cook, just soak in warm water - they are thinner but I liked them, the lasagna had a lighter feel.  I used faux ricotta and mozzarella (almond) - to avoid the dairy, only used a little parmesan on the top.  It was surprisingly good and I will use this method again.  Had a romaine, red pepper and scallion salad, and some coconut milk ice cream.

Minus that recipe sounds good,

Special can I really freeze it without scrambling, and for how long. How do I reheat it?

I am loving my new automatic kitty litter box, it hermetically seals the stuff in a drawer below after the top rotates so I have to do Nothing (singing) except empty the drawer once a week and put in a new plastic bag. I named it Bob.

It has joined Hazel the automatic vacuum.

Susan, I don't really like tilapia. This week Hake, $4:50/pound fresh and other fish like dogfish and other fishes that eat the young'uns of the fish that are overfished in N.E. I will eat them first

Have no idea what I will be doing with them. I think that I am crying out for fish after decades of not eating it, and I find that I stay full for 8 hours instead of 3 without it

Lacey - gorgeous salad.

Special - I have the same questions as Bedo about freezing - so you have to scramble? Is the baking time the same in muffin tins - 375 for 13-14 minutes? I'm going to make with spinach instead of kale.

Funny - I don't eat tilapia either, but then I live in the South and don't eat catfish. Just not partial to bottom feeders.

I recently saw a production of West Side Story. It was well done but I hadn't remembered the extreme violence either. One good thing, it was before the days that everyone fought w/guns. i wouldn't call knives & chains good but I guess it's relative.

I just got back to the hotel and I'm in the laundry room....washing uniforms and shining boots. Dinner will be later.

I will be working on the Capitol Mall on Saturday, so it's not entirely a desk job.

oh, oh, oh!!! Thanks for the lobster roll picture Lacey. Drooling!!!

Hahaha Queen! Have you ever been to Red's Eats in Maine, the little shack on Rt 1? Our trainer just described her wonderful lobster roll there. I think a little road trip for us might be a good plan....

Lacey (and MinusTwo): I am so totally with you on the road trip to Maine for a lobster roll! The ones in the Midwest just do not taste the same. I don't remember if we ate at Red's Eats--Wiscasset a couple of times, but mainly up and around Tenant's Harbor, though IIRC Cod End's closed?

Update: I checked the Wikipedia article (thank you, MinusTwo), and I'm pretty sure yes--Red's Eats IS where we'd eat. I'd fly into Portland and we (husband and father-in-law) would drive up to Tenant's Harbor. Wiscasset was a good stopping point.

Lobster envy!

Minus, maybe if you are heading to NS, you could do the road trip!

Gorgeous day here at the lake...heading to the beach after doing mostly house prep for the "visitors".

If we each had a nickle for every time we opened and closed this place up! But today having breakfast on the deck in the sun is why we do it. Sadly, I never got around to planting any flowers in my deck planters yet, so I might suggest to DS2 that DGF feel free to! She likes "pretty". and they will be here for a week....something we have yet to do. Am also thinking she (or he) can make the hummingbird food and set out our new feeder. A friend gave me a tiny colorful pottery birdbath which we put out this AM. Very unusual. I wonder if the hummers will use it?

We're hoping that our drive home tonight will be traffic free as most folks will be driving in this direction if not already here. Fingers tightly crossed!

Off to see the beach neighbors...and their kids and friends

A lobster roll with fresh steamed lobster sounds delicious! 

Glad you're enjoying your private lessons, Bedo.  I'm intrigued with your vacuum and cat box.  When you mentioned the automatic cat litter box, I thought you were making a joke! 

Quite a bit of socializing here in the campground.  There was a fish fry at noon and home-made ice cream and rhubarb bars.  DH and I went this morning to see a boat and motor for sale at a good price.  We took one glance and knew it wasn't for us.  The color of the boat was pale aqua.  It looked like a retro Barbie boat.  I definitely want to buy a boat so that we can go for rides on the lake and do some fishing.  Our problem aside from being poor fishermen is what to do with the fish once we catch them.  Neither of us is crazy about the idea of cleaning fish, which involves killing them.  Murder in the fish cleaning house. 

Not sure what we will want for an evening meal or snack. 

Queen, this is not really camping.  We have a 38 ft. 5th wheel camper with three slides.  It's quite large and comfortable inside.  I wouldn't want to live in it year round, but it's fine for the summer. 

When I was a small child, my dad would take me fishing at small ponds. Although not a particularly patient man, he would endlessly put worms on my hook and remove the numerous bluegill and greenear sunfish I caught on a cane pole. I continued to love fishing all through my childhood. When I was older and using slightly more sophisticated equipment (a closed face spinning reel) he finally told me that if I wanted to continue fishing with him I was going to have to learn to bait my own hook and clean the fish I caught. So he taught me. As an adult I learned to trout fish but never really mastered fly fishing. I particularly liked brown trout caught in ice cold Colorado streams. When I married dh, he was an avid fisherman and we spent many vacations in Wisconsin and Minnesota fishing for walleye, crappie, musky and northern pike, although walleye and crappie are the only fish we keep. Most of what we do is catch and release. My finest catch was a salmon caught from a sailboat in Vancouver, B.C. which was cooked over an open fire that night with some lemon, onion and butter. I've never had better.

Nance, you sound like an experienced fisherwoman.  I remember watching my dad clean large catfish ("yellow" cats were the desired ones) that he caught on a trot line strung across a creek or river.  The fish was hung on a big hook through the gills and skinned.  My dad was good at it and did a nice job.  Then some years later when dh and I lived on a sailboat, I caught small flat fish that we called perch or brim.  They were pretty fish.  We scaled them, cut off the head and removed the guts and cooked them whole.  We used cornmeal as breading and fried them in hot oil until they were very brown and crisp.  My memory is that they were delicious.  Obviously we had to murder them!

I had a failure today at cooking jambalaya.  I was planning to take it to a potluck after our 4th of July boat parade here on Island Lake.  I didn't realize that the meal would be immediately after the boat parade.  I tried to rush the cooking and it didn't work.  So we just had a sandwich here and didn't go to the potluck.  We'll have some of the jambalaya for dinner with beans spooned on top.  I brought a couple of cans of Blue Runner brand creole beans, one can of red beans and one can of navy beans.  A lot of Louisiana people would just as soon eat Blue Runner as home-cooked beans. 

The parade was fun.  People with boats decorated them in red, white and blue and a couple of the boats had nice big American flags.  One man had the flag he had flown when he was in the military in Iraq.  We rode on a pontoon boat.  Here and there along the shore, people watched and there was a lot of friendly waving.  DH picked out the red and pearl beads from a big bag of Mardi Gras beads we brought north.  There were only two strings of blue beads.  We wore beads and gave others away. 

It's warmer than I like today but we have resisted turning on the a/c.  Fans in the camper make it more comfortable. 

I think everybody in the campground will be leaving tomorrow and we will have Pine Hollow all to ourselves until next weekend.