So...whats for dinner?

Minus, sounds like you have two good dinners coming up. And I'm sending along my best for a very easy and successful port removal. Yay for you! I enjoyed reading the second list of cupboard foods! HaHa! I would be happy to serve as your goat to eat leftover cookies with those descriptions.

We left the foggy Cape tip this morning and had a rather slow but tolerable drive home. We arrived back in time to check out our farmer's market, which was sparse with vendors, but we got some nice kale, pinkish tomatoes (that won some award....they were good!), English cuke, some yellow squash, and some wild mushroom raviolis to make for dinner (ironic since we were so careful to avoid pasta in our meals in P-town, which DH realized as we sat down to dinner!;) Susan, the ravs were from Deano's Pasta, Somerville. Do you know them?

So, for dinner I made up a weird recipe that we both loved....even with my mistake of burning the kale (!) while sauteeing it.

I cooked the wild mushroom ravs, while sauteeing small pieces of the yellow squash, sliced kale, and diced scapes that I almost forgot I had in the fridge. Once the sauté was done, I added the cooked ravs and mixed it all together with a light creamy sauce, and topped it with a bit of melted mozzarella. While the saute was finishing, I forgot to turn down the flame, and as I was putting together a cuke and pink tomato salad, I realized that the kale was burning a bit. I decided to not worry about it, and in fact, we both loved the slightly charred kale taste with the rest of the ingredients. I would definitely make that again, but will have to find scapes.....so maybe not until next Spring! They are a very tasty addition to a sauté. The ravs were delicious, and pretty since they are made with striped pasta.

So Susan, I saw your note on Facebook about your home being a PokemonGO spot, and I, too, am ignorant about such things....but am very happy for you! And it sounds like the AirB+B is going really well! Maybe you can raise your prices sufficiently to hire a laundry service for the linens and towels! That is a lot of thankless work, the cooking is the fun and appreciated part.

Luv, wish we could send you some cool air.....tho I hear we are soon in for a heat wave of sorts...nothing to be compared with yours, however! Is your daughter still dating the guy from here? I can barely imagine whatbit must be like to have an entire subdivision being built in my neighborhood!

While we were gone, a notice arrived about the home builders across the street requesting a variance to put in a three bay garage. They originally tried to put two doors (one double, and one single) in the plans that were the equivalent of three bays, and were rejected by the town for trying to sneak it by that way. So now they are going for the variance. DH would love to attend the public meeting to protest (as some of our neighbors are) but we will be away that week. I am concerned that they are planning this three car driveway on a very "accident prone" corner, and it just does not make sense...especially when their kids get their licenses. The builder doesn't seem too bright either for doing this when the drive could be on the other side of the house away from the trafficky corner. However, that said, this builder is a long time local and will get the variance through so we will be calling 911 constantly once this lovely property is inhabited. Oh give me the beautiful open dunes of P-town.....rather snotty attitude, I admit! But I tend to appreciate it when folks use common sense.

Hello again,

I've done a bit of catching up and am glad to see everyone (name ) that I remember still doing well. See a few new names also, welcome.

My kids are doing well. Oldest son is working, taking a hiatus from school. Middle son is about to start 10th grade next year. He is involve with Marching Band, Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra. He has MB practice almost everyday and is on a health kick, he is pretty efficient in the kitchen so he comes up with his own concoctions(currently the Military Diet is the fad). We actually had about 4 days of him being a Vegan after watching a film in Health class towards the end of the year. I have tried to explain fads, but he is not doing anything dangerous, so I figure I am going to let him learn. My daughter will be going to 7th grade. She is in a Vocal Magnet, sings mezzo soprano, plus has dance classes on the outside for ballet, lyrical and acrobatics. Just finished the big end of year show, so now I get to relax a bit from chauffeur duty. My boys are more laid back, last minute types, B&C students, my daughter is the straight AIA in school and everything must be perfect and done early.

My biggest struggle is losing weight and keeping it off. I have got to stay away from most carbs and exercise more. When I do I feel so much better, so why can't I just continue.

Why do I have to love food so much, I am salivating from looking at the pictures, yummy.

V

susan - how did you make the zucchini cakes? Everything sounds so yummy.

We had spaghetti carbonara made with corn pasta and kale Caesar salad.

Welcome Valstim!

Yummy sounding dinners, folks!

We had one of our marathon gym sessions late this afternoon. I had planned to make stuffed portobellos, but was less enchanted with the idea of several steps, after so many steps at the gym! So while I gassed up my car for the trip to the lake tomorrow, DH stopped at the grocery store to pick up some bison meat. We had bison burgers which, this time were prepared with crumbled feta, rosemary powder, black pepper, and instead of minced garlic, I diced up two of our scapes, adding them to the mix. Love those scapes! Made a toss salad with mainly local romaine, and we also had corn on the cob.

Susan, I still am not sure how PokemonGo works, exactly, but it seems to be all the rage on the news....and has been working here for only four days?!! Some people seem to be excited that a tech game is getting people to move. I suspect that will change after the first death of a pre-occupied jaywalking "Goer", which seems to be one of the more serious concerns with the game. And I do hope that having your house "on the map" is not causing any untoward events for you. Fascinating stuff

Special,

This is the basis of what I do. My variations are generally about what I have in the fridge, but I think the feta is essential. For the fresh herbs I have used dill, thyme, and mint. I always use some lemon zest.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/z...

I first used the recipe when I purchased Michael Symon's cookbook, but lately, he has simply released his recipes to the world. Preparing the zucchini, for me, requires some decisions. Do I spiralize? Julianne on the mandolin? Or shred? Tonight I used the spiralizer, salted to drain, and then wrung out in a cloth. I actually liked the texture. In the past, I have done the julienne thing, also salted to drain and squeezed of water. For me, the shredding removes all the texture, so I have stopped doing the prep this way.

I had originally planned to add slightly cooked local spinach tonight, but a conference call scheduled for 4 was delayed until 4:45 cutting down on my dinner prep time.

Oh, and I cook in non-GMO sunflower oil. I don't want to taste the oil at all, and this is the most neutral oil I own with a high smoke point. And thus ends my treatise on zucchini cakes!

*susan*

Sloan and her DH are visiting their kids & grandkids in Chicago, so I drove over to pick them up, show them a bit of the city (the North Side) that the tour buses usually don’t, stop chez moi for some cappuccino & latte out on the deck; and then we had a wonderful Catalan dinner (tapas & paella) at Cafe Ba-Ba-Ree-Ba. (They graciously insisted on treating me). We started with rosé cava, and a platter of pinxtos--bacon-wrapped dates, beef montadito, sausage & piquillo pepper, huevo diablo. Then cabrito al horno (goat cheese baked in tomato sauce and spread on garlic bread), roast vegetables with pine nuts, and a trio of sausages (iberico, morcilla, chorizo). Finally, we shared a wonderful seafood paella with shrimp, clams, and monkfish. Dessert was an ethereal chocolate truffle cake (more like a mousse) with whipped cream striped with caramel.

I am the one in love with the IP Lacey. I use it several times a week. That's a great price!

Thanks so much, Nance!! You've convinced me. I'm definitely getting it. And yes, people really like the stainless pot. ))

how is it that not one of my Wish List items on amazon is on special today? *susan*

:-)

You are probably right. I am not doing my part to keep our economy booming!

*susan*

Tonight I'm doing turkey kielbasa, Cuban black beans and the zucchini fritters

Bedo - I'm sorry the nasty flu has you down. Hope the staff is keeping you comfy and well supplied with magazines and books to go with the ginger ale. Hoping you have graduated to chicken noodle soup. (((HUGS)))

Minus, I'm so happy to read about your successful meals, hotel upgrade, and surgery with just the right amt of anesthesia! And a long snooze afterwards....perfect!

Bedo, I hope you recover quickly! Not a fun place to be so sick....

I was not impressed with most of the stuff on sale at Amazon Prime today either. The pressure cooker was a serendipity! There are some things I regularly order from them, and of course none qualified. And, also, nothing from my wish list either.

We had a very trafficky drive to the lake this afternoon, and I was drinking coffee most of the way to keep mtself awake and not bored while driving.Ended up feeling dehydrated when we arrived, so I didn't have the energy to prep a meal. Local veggie pizza was the solution with a spinach salad. Tomorrow (today, avtually!) should be pretty hot, so hopefully boating and swimming will be on the day's agenda.

Who was it that used the term "jump ups" in the past?

Supper was things in the fridge that needed to be eaten: pick up appetizers - celery stuffed w/pimento, black olives, radishes, avocado slices lightly drizzled w/dressing. The main course was a small bowl of boiled potatoes w/butter. I don't reach for the salt shaker much anymore, but I sure do w/boiled potatoes.

Not sure, Minus, but a number of us had fun adopting the term!

Getting pretty steamy here in North country. And we read a town notice that the proliferation of ducks and geese on a few beaches has resulted in unsafe levels of bacteria in the shallow water. This is (reportedly) the third cleanest lake in the US! Thus we never went to the beach, instead spending time doing house related tasks. DH did all the porch and deck cleaning and set up....a lot of work in any weather, and it is usually cooler when we set up. We are really late this year. But it is done....thanks to him cleaning and hauling furniture to their assigned spots. We got to have our first porch summer meal!

For dinner, DH grilled a flat iron steak that I'd seasoned with a dry mix I'd made at home and brought up here. We grilled some sliced portobello mushrooms that I'd marinated in a balsamic mix with an orange flavored olive oil....turned out to be too orangey in my opinion. Made a nice garden salad and decided to make a farro mixture for a grain, using some of the last scapes, chopped kale, and, of all things, dried cranberries since they were in the pantry. It could have used some more flavor, but I'd try it again, maybe adding walnuts or pecans, since I love farro.

Tomorrow we're meeting some friends at Lago (on Lake Winnipesaukee) before going to a play at The Winnipesaukee Playhouse. After our oral binging last week, I'm not crazy about going to a restaurant, but wanted to see these friends and catch up after the winter, and the wife of the couple can only eat at a few placesdue to her needing to adhere to a very restricted medical diet.

One of my tasks today was to clean, fill, and set up all the hummingbird feeders. A new one is sort of artsy and attaches to our large LR window, so I really hope the hummers like it!