So...whats for dinner?

Last night Gordy & I revisited that wonderful grass-fed steak (and we had seconds), chanterelles and broccolini. Gordy got to eat the English peas as his starch, plus half of my sweet potato salad (hard to believe there's less sugar & starch in sweet potatoes than in peas). Had a little 2013 Rioja. Dessert was one ripe apricot and three fresh lychees.

This morning, I cracked an egg into the skillet--another double-yolker! After my mani-pedi, I treated myself to a small dish of unsweetened Greek frozen yogurt, this time with almonds instead of my usual dark chocolate chips. Tonight, I went to Whole Foods because fresh wild sockeye salmon fillets (well, I have to take tweezers to the pin bones) are on sale for nine bucks a pound! I bought 2-1/2 lbs and portioned them before freezing. It was also $2 off rotisserie chickens, so I bought one for tonight. Nibbled a wing when I got home, before putting up the salmon. Started with insalata Caprese (Roma tomato and mozzarella di bufala this time) over mesclun, with fresh basil, Sicilian orange sea salt, aged balsamic, and orange olive oil. About to have a dark chicken quarter with some cabbage crunch salad and a couple ounces (thanks to the Coravin) of that Rioja. Will have a few of my backyard black raspberries--goodness, they've ripened early!

Yes....

Well - I'm going to jump right back in the big middle of things. This thread signed in on a date sometime in April and I know I missed big pieces b4 that.

I saw Olivia Susan - I missed the birth drats. I will attempt to read back slowly but life gets in the way. Congratulations on such a cutie patootie.

Nothing biggie keeping me away. Doing fine personally and so is DH. I just cannot keep up and cooking is just not the greatest here anyway. Magic freezer still piled high - I could survive a major food shortage as long as the elec. stays on lol. Still driving my friend to the doc, went yesterday and she goes again next week and the week after and then hospital outpt procedure. Her hubs has forbidden her to drive even in town. Hopefully someone else from the church will step up and take her on some short outings but I know she does less well in the heat. I have not attempted to wrest her wheelchair along so we take my car. She goes into Ft Worth the end of the month, not sure of the logistics of that one. Not looking forward to driving her car just because of the distance but might need her w/c for the building. The rest of these are easily negotiable without it.

Susan I hope your Turkish relatives are all OK. You and Ebru were the 2 of thought of immediately. Yay great news about the markers. I gather you're running a B&B - of course that was in the parts I've missed.

Food what there is of it to keep topic relevant. Made lovely ground chicken stuffed orange peppers. Took 3 pans - rice, parboil peppers and browning chicken. Geesh. But enough for 3 meals. Hmm b4 that I can't remember much. Did make a pork roast and sausage stir fry last week. I think the last of the smoked sausage and not buying more. Planted a mini garden. Has a going bonkers baby watermelon and cantaloupe. Tomatoes and peppers just meh, surprised the peppers not doing better. AND the fig tree does have figs - it is beginning to look a respectable size. Hopefully it will do better this winter.

The lemonade pie sounds wonderful, must have been on the last page. Minus was that you and did you make it? Mind reposting? DD is coming this weekend and we both are trying (???) to diet. I do make a fake diet cheesecake, might try it in chocolate version if I can find some chocolate yogurt - though I have plenty of other choc. stuff to flavor it.

Can you tell I've read only this page and skimmed a couple back?

Ah Carole if you're reading this and I might have mentioned it already, Fresh Market in Ft Worth closed - changing their market focus. I never made it there. Still hardly making any progress on Whole Foods. I have found that Sprouts which I think started on West Coast has some really good buys and love their produce.

Threw out some assorted chicken pieces to bake tonight. It is just a bit cooler today, might be the last baking day for a while. Triple digits starting prob. next week.

I bought egg roll wrappers to make fake chiles rellenos but I don't want to fry them. Anyone else make baked egg rolls? I know baking - hot - but these would just on for just a tiny bit. I found some recipes but would like someone's input.

Welcome back home Lacey. Loved the food porn pictures. Ah building, ain't it great? Work is well underway on the 37 new houses across from me. The dog barks at particularly noisy trucks but so far it hasn't been too bad once the main site work finished. Nothing started yet on the house closest to me. My little town is having a boom. 3 new houses down the road and another development out where my friend I drive lives. Those are not in our school district but another one that is just starting to get busy is. I fear we about to get wrapped up in the DFW housing boom though we are considerable driving distance from even Ft Worth unless you work on the westside at Lockheed. Not been this much activity in the 18 years we've lived here.

This is kind of scattered like my brain lol. Will keep up better and bear with me as I try to catch up 20 pages.

Yum, Minus! I love your menu!!

This morning, heated the olive oil in the skillet, cracked open an egg and.......yet another double-yolker! I think this farm may have switched breeds. Two days ago, there were plenty of cartons (Vital Farms, Pasture-Raised Jumbo). Yesterday? All gone! I think the word has gotten out.

Late lunch--toasted a low-carb (4 gm. net) whole-grain-and-nut bagel, with cream cheese, smoked wild Pacific salmon, tomato, red onion, fresh dill & capers. Drank a vanilla (unsweetened) coconut-almond milk (non)latte. Dinner was leftover tomato & fresh basil over local microgreens, tossed with a citrus vinaigrette. Then a rotisserie chicken thigh & wing, and baby haricots verts sauteed in olive oil with garlic & salt. No wine, just seltzer. Dessert will be fruit. (Full right now).

Getting back to those eggs--how many here love the sound of a fresh egg sizzling as it hits hot oil or butter in a skillet? I discovered using olive oil to fry eggs when I was in Barcelona, and I am hooked. I just baste the yolks with the oil in the pan till they’re just slightly set and begin to turn white on top--the texture is a gel, the color still yellow-orange--the rich taste of liquid yolk without the mess. (I hate it when the yolks are cooked hard--the best egg cooked that way tastes no better than a cheap “battery-cage” egg.

Susan...Dana Farber.

Minus, I would have had those chips jump into my hands too! Not at all a useless meal....just a guilty pleasure, which I happen to love, but rarely have, these days. Maybe one of the times whenDH is out, I might just revisit that menu!

Our ginger lime chicken was good, the Florida corn excellent, and my NJ lettuce salad with horseradish vinaigrette really hit the spot.

Hi all - have been MIA for a bit and not cooking much. DH was working late all last week and the neighborhood had the candlelight vigil and memorial service for the 16 year old who passed away. The family had quite a few extended family members present so there was a meal train, but the mom is pretty carbed out and most of the family has gone home so I am making her some healthy options this weekend. I have been following along so have seen all of the posts - keeping track of everyone.

Hello all! Like SK, I've been reading daily but have been a bit busy to write. I'm taking this weekend to chill and catch up. I've really been enjoying the pictures and food reports. Living vicariously through others, I am.

Last week, my friend and I went to my dad's apartment and spent two days, packing and ridding it of non-essentials, The man has never thrown a piece of paper away! I have a huge box in my dining room of assorted documents that need to be sorted and purged. Then on Saturday, the hottest day of the year -- a blazing hot and humid 99 degrees (I know, I'm a wimp to you southwest folks) -- six of us, friends and family, rented a truck and moved dad's apartment to my dining room (small apartment, largish dining room.) It's not totally in my dining room, we stored his bed, couch and electric wheelchair in another friend's storage building. I will have to get it out before winter just so the mice don't make a cozy winter home in the stuff. Then we went back two days later and cleaned the apartment and turned in his keys. He should get most of his security deposit back -- the place was cleaner than my own house when we left.

Dad is doing astonishing well in the nursing home, even though he hates it. He is able to stand by himself and has been walking with his walker a lot. When we visited him on Tuesday, after taking him out to lunch, I took him on a little shopping trip to Aldi for snacks to keep in his room. (He constantly complains that he's not getting enough to eat and that the food is terrible.) He pushed his own cart completely through the store! I was shocked at how much progress he's made in two weeks time. That same day, the placement lady from the supportive living facility came to see him while we were there. Based on his progress she thinks he might be ready to come there in mid to late July when she'll have a one bedroom apartment available. This was a great mental boost for him, as he's been very down and pessimistic about ever leaving the nursing home. He does want to wait until he sees his cardiologist in July to see if he needs a pacemaker before moving. I'm glad he's willing to wait a bit because the last time, he left the nursing home way to soon and that didn't end well. The last thing we want is to have to move him in and out of places. I think he realizes that if he ends up in a nursing home again, he will not leave. All in all, a very good and positive day!

The first of the local corn is in, and we had some for dinner last night, along with a couple of mini meatloaves from the freezer. So good! We'll be having more this weekend. Our town has a new local produce stand that I've been frequenting. They have freshly picked corn every day and lots of other good stuff. Since a portion of my garden is at a standstill, I've picked up some squash and zucchinis there as well. I did pick two small ripe tomatoes from my garden, as well as haricots verts, which we've had a couple of times. I need to dig the potatoes before they get huge.

I rained yesterday -- 3.10 inches! You could almost hear the trees breathing a sigh of relief. We are also due for a very wet weekend with a potential rainfall total of 6 inches! That will be a mess, but a big relief too. The wildlife report - we have two momma does, one with twins and the other with a singleton. The doe with the singleton was feeding yesterday and the little guy was running and jumping as fast and high as he could -- literally kicking up his heels. So cute! We also have a lone doe who comes to eat apples every day. The squirrels join her of course. In fact, they helpfully knock a lot on the ground to make it easy for her. It remains to be seen if we get any apples or not. Right now there are lots of apples, but it's astonishing how fast the squirrels can eat them when they start. All of the birds, including the orioles and rose breasted grosbeaks, are bringing their young to the feeders. I have gone through 22 jars of grape jelly! The hummer feedings have picked up two and I'm now having to fill feeders twice a day some days.

I have a large ribeye steak aging which will be tonight's dinner along with some more corn and a cucumber/tomato/onion salad. I hope Costco still has the wild salmon next week. I would like to cure some. Sandy - where do you find the low-carb bagels? Are they decent?

I plan to make ribs for the 4th and a blackberry pie. Other stuff to be determined.

Susan - yay on the markers! Minus - boo on the markers! Hopefully they signify nothing as you say they are in the normal range.

I too, want to stay at your house Susan and taste that rye bread. I need to make bread, but it's been so hot here, that I've been loathe to heat the kitchen any more. I'm willing to sacrifice for a blackberry pie though lol! Actually, the high Saturday is supposed to be in the 60s, so that will be the time to make it. Eric - hope you're enjoying the happiest place on earth! Wow Lacey - you have been busy. I'm ready to hear about your culinary adventures. Have a great time!

Hey Luv and Joyce! Nice to hear from you. I'm missing Carole too.

Nancy, the bagels are from Sami’s Bakery in Tampa. They’re shipped frozen to a health food store in neighboring Evanston. They taste surprisingly good--so much so that my guys often finish them before I can get to them. (And I buy them fresh regular bagels). The plain whole-grain ones have 4 gm. net carb (28 minus 24 gm. fiber), the cinnamon raisin 5 gm. You can probably order them directly from Sami’s (they make low-carb breads too: 7-grain 2 gm, cinnamon-raisin 3 gm/slice). But for bread, I can get Today’s Temptations fresh at Whole Foods & Mariano’s--the large round loaf with rolled-oat crust has 4 gm. net per slice (I use 1 slice for a sandwich) and the regular 100% whole-wheat is 2 g./ slice--plainer than Sami’s but cheaper, needn’t be frozen and is always on the shelves. Tastes like the usual Pepperidge Farm or Brownberry whole wheat. The Sami’s stuff is denser and chewier than its normal white-flour counterparts. If you are jonesing for an authentic NY bagel, keep looking.

I should set up a service to mail bagels from Sami's to everyone on this thread who wants them, lol! It is 11 miles from my house. Seriously, I would do it.

minus - the candlelight vigil was organized by this young man's friends and held at the high school. The memorial service was not just the neighborhood - it was the official one set up with his family - there were hundreds of people there, all of them crying. The neighborhood has helped with meals and support - I am pretty sure the immediate neighbors have also offered beds to family members who needed places to stay.

susan - yay for a new washer and your nice airbnb person!

auntie - yay for dad! It is a job moving the stuff - it took me a long time to clear out my parents house - I sold it the first day I listed it and had 30 days to get it done - they had lived there since 1959 and like your dad, had not thrown away a single scrap of paper - not had them organized them in any fashion.

Just got done making the naughty meatloaf but we have not eaten it yet. We were Skyping my in-laws - my MIL's 85th b-day was yesterday. She is amazing!

Apple eaters:

I broke down & made homemade potato salad - for one. Well, for one for 3 meals. What a treat. So dinner was 4 pieces of California Roll with Lemon/Wasabi and a serving of potato salad. I had intended to cook a piece of salmon, but this was enough.

Nothing here, thankfully. It is very dark and ominous looking outside and for the past few hours. Off in the distance the clouds have a greenish hue in them. I've been around areas that had that cloud color--twice here and several times at Tinker AFB--and each time the weather was "interesting".

I still don't know what magic some folks see at Disneyland. :-) It's loud and crowded, both being things I don't enjoy, and the engineer in me has ruined the roller coaster type rides. I see the design and safety features of the rides, know they are probably 20 times more than could reasonably be needed, and the rides go from scary to bumpy and twisty.

Those are some close pictures of the deer. It's obviously not hunting season...they get a bit more "shy" then. I am also glad your dad is doing better. That is always so relieving.

Chi, I didn't know you played the dulcimer. When I would spend a few weeks in Kentucky with my dad's folks, we would go to a dulcimer (bluegrass and mountain music) festival. I could listen for hours.

Susan, that stinks on the washer failure and the "Re-failure". I wish I were there. Most of the time, washers aren't that terribly mystifying. I can usually keep them running until the point where even used parts aren't available. Has your stomach quit bothering you? I hope so.

That lemonade pie sounds similar to the one I make for DD..in fact I may make one tonight as needs no oven time and it always brings a smile to DD's face when she sees the ingredients.

I spent most of the day doing bank stuff. As I get mail, I see that the number of places to visit exceeds my progress. I did spend 3 hours hunting down an account that had gone off to the state unclaimed property fund. I can get it back, but it's the paperwork..sigh.

The power just failed and the laptop is on it's battery and I'm being called.

more later

Aw, SpecialK, I'm disappointed. By “naughty," I misinterpreted you to mean, uh, “erotic" meatloaf. (My imagination ran rampant). You see, years ago, when I was growing up in NYC, there was a chain of ice cream parlors called Jahn's. (Think Farrell's without the hokey music and public embarrassment for birthday celebrants, and Schrafft's with more variety but without the refinement). Its menu had dozens of, uh, “creatively named" sundaes and other “fountain creations." One night, I was on a triple date. It was one of the guys' birthdays, and he looked at the menu. “What's a 'Who Killed Cock Robin'?," he mused. The menu description was rather vague. So he ordered it. The other two guys were desperately trying to suppress giggles, because apparently they knew. We three girls had no idea what was so funny. It arrived (“came" would be a rather unfortunate choice of words): two scoops of vanilla ice cream lying on a bed of chocolate flakes, nuts and syrup; a banana placed vertically between them; at the tip of the banana, extending downward to the plate, a squiggle of whipped cream, topped with a cherry. We lost it, collapsing in hysterical laughter; the birthday boy was staring at it wondering where (and how) to begin. It began to melt, and the banana did what vertical bananas lacking a solid foundation tend to do.....with a “plop,” splattering nuts and chocolate syrup everywhere. He called over the waitress and asked for a root beer float. (These days, I wonder if after the, uh, “downfall” a waitperson would come by with a little pale blue Pez).

They would also need to make it in a bathtub shaped bowl. :-)

Hi Wild. Welcome!