So...whats for dinner?

Minus, it really does help to care so much for the people who will eat your food. And we have GREAT leftovers.

The kids stocked their lunch boxes with lamb, grilled veggies, and spanikopita. Happy lunch boxes for sure! I have some bread pate fermenteé that should have been turned into bread today, and tomorrow it will need to be turned into some kind of bread product. Not sure just what yet. I suspect whatever is the easiest. At least I don't need to make dinner!

*susan*

Luv, I first ate lamb at a dinner party when I was in my 40's. I enjoyed it. DH (from IL) grew up eating lamb. So lamb became a meat we enjoyed when we could find it in supermarkets at an affordable price. It's very pricey in the south and I haven't seen it at all here in small town MN supermarkets. My mother has never tasted lamb. Rural southerners eat beef and pork and chicken. A lot of the beef I ate growing up wasn't aged beef but young beef. We never had grilled steaks. My parents never owned a grill. Beef was stewed, smothered in a cast iron pot with gravy, cooked in the oven in the form of pot roast or fried. It was always well done. And served with rice or potatoes, mostly rice.

The lamb stew last night was delicious.

Tonight's dinner as yet undetermined. Maybe turkey meatballs or meatloaf. I have a package of ground turkey in the freezer and a pkg of spinach and some green onions in the veggie drawer. Yep, turkey meatloaf cooked in the grill/oven. DH won't like it as well as he likes beef meatloaf but he'll eat it without complaint because it will be tasty.

I love lamb, I doubt my parents ever had it. I certainly never had it as a kid although we had some Greek friends so they must have had it with them at some point. DH for years assumed he didn't like it (lamb chops anyway) but now he loves lamb shanks and the lamb tagines I've made. I recently bought some free range chickens from an Amish farmer that are wonderful. Apparently he sells pasture raised lamb too. I'll have to check into it more.

Lunch was a delicious fried grouper poboy dressed on a French loaf. You would approve Carole, they bring their bread in from NOLA daily. It was just as it should be. Dinner was another round of royal reds, steamed and spiced perfectly. I can't get enough.

The weather has been absolutely perfect -- 80's, tolerable humidity and a fine gulf breeze. We spent the day at the beach and the hotel pool overlooking the gulf.

Tomorrow we leave for home. Bummer. Hi to all!

You all post such good things to eat...I find it difficult with working and finding good things to eat.. How do you all do it??

When DD was moving and coming back to Tampa we had breakfast at a diner in a little town next to her little town in Georgia - funny because I had biscuits and gravy! So quintessential! This place had been there, family run since the 40's I believe. It is on the way to my in-laws, at about the half-way point, so I will be making DH stop there - wish we had known about it sooner!

thinking - I know for me, having a smaller repertoire that can be easily cooked from pantry staples and the freezer makes cooking easier when you are busy. I make a lot of main dish salads - particularly in the summer, or long cooking dishes that can use a slow cooker or low oven when it cools off. Also, I make things that have lasting power and can be eaten over several days, in variations. I might cook a roast one night, then freeze part for later use, and have part of another night in a re-invented dish. If I do a beef roast I will make a recipe my mom cooked with a layer of thinly sliced beef, a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, a layer of thinly sliced onion, a layer of gravy with a lot of black pepper, then with those layers repeated. You put it in the oven until the potatoes are cooked - so good, tastes like my childhood! I think taking a day, or evening, to cook ahead - I do ground beef or turkey, and always roast chicken breasts on the rib, then pull the chicken off and bag it in portions so it is ready for use, then freeze the portions. If I am making spaghetti sauce with meat, I just cook extra meat at the beginning and remove it, store it, and continue on with the recipe for that night. That way I can have the protein ready and just add fresh ingredients. I make things in double batches and freeze half too. It takes more thought and organization initially, but I find it really helps save time. Hope that helps!

Just a note, my SIL passed away peacefully this morning in Montana. Her struggle is over.

Moon - I know you'll miss your SIL. Glad to know she's at peace. Hugs

moon. Sorry to hear.

Moon - I'm so sorry for your loss. (((Hugs))) sweet sister.

Moon, I, too, am sorry for your loss.

Special, I admire your organization. My challenge is to keep track of frozen cooked food. Even fresh food out of sight in the refrigerator. I know keeping a list would help.

Last night we put the thawed steaks in the refrigerator and went out to dinner with a group to Foxy's Bar & Grill, located about a mile from the resort. My food was below mediocre and the service incredibly slow. We spent $$ just to be sociable. Foxy's could be a great business with one or two good waitresses and a good cook in the kitchen. The business is up for sale. It's a cute place inside with a nice ambiance.

Tonight we eat the steaks. Today I will clean the refrigerator so that when I empty it tomorrow morning I don't have to take the time to wash drawers and shelves, etc. We always leave a refrigerator open when it's turned off. So I guess I will put Bounce cloths in it, too. I bought a large box and will put them everywhere, under furniture, in closets. They're mice deterrents. I also bought another product.

Thought you'd all like this statement one of our sisters posted on the Crazy Town thread. Several people on there have visited our dinner thread off and on, but lately they've really talked a lot about recipes & cooking. Fun thread, but it's always several, many pages each day & I can't keep up so I just lurk there. Never the less....

"Cooking takes love and brains..."

Minus, love that!

eric - at one point in y DH's military career we had a house we had to leave behind unsold at a closing base, we had leased it for a couple of years, but those tenants moved with the last vestiges of the base. The Army Corps of Engineers had a program to purchase homes such as ours that are negatively impacted by a closure but they will only pay what you owed on the day the closure was announced. We had re-financed and incorporated some fees/costs just before we leased it out so we had to pay those ($10K) and we lost our down payment of $20K. We had about six months where we had to pay the mortgage on the empty house, plus pay for the house we were living in on the other side of the country - so double mortgages on a military income, eeek! During that six month period I was buying canned beans with my MasterCard, lol! DH and I just talked about that stressful time period today when I was showing him how depleted the freezer and pantry were - and, yes, I did go to the grocery store this evening! While the fridge was empty I cleaned it so all the new food is in a nice clean spot! Yay! Good for your DD to be smart and retake the algebra class for both the better grade and college credit.

carole - for a while I kept one of those magnetic pads of paper on the front of the fridge/freezer in our garage - I should probably go back to doing that! I was helpful! In the kitchen fridge I organize by shelf (side-by-side fridge) and put all the frozen fruit for smoothies on the top, vegetables on the next shelf, meats on the next one, bread and nuts next, then the two bins have fish in one, bagged potatoes of various kinds in the other. It seems to work but DH and DD sometimes just throw stuff back in so I have to double check every now and then to keep it straight.

Carolyn, safe travels for you and dh today!

Today I have a beef roast dry brining which I'll roast with some potatoes and a side of baby peas. On the way home yesterday we stopped and bought apples from a southern Missouri orchard so today I made a couple of mini pies. Tomorrow I'll make applesauce to freeze and some boiled cider. My last attempt at boiled cider was an abject failure so I'm hoping I have better success this time.

Looking forward to doing some of my own cooking after a week of stuffing myself with fruits of the sea. Carole, I bought some of the jarred rouxs you talked about (can't remember which brand you like) so I'm anxious to try some gumbo. Southern grocery stores are much more fun than mine. Also got Community coffee, another favorite.

Carole, PTSD from a meal? ::-)