So...whats for dinner?

I always make chicken parm in one layer but never did the eggplant that way for some reason but it makes sooo much sense to me now. From now on, that will be the way I do it cause the sogginess always bothered me when I made 3 layers (which is my norm) and freezing it was a disaster when I did it that way..way too much liquid. Thanks for the tip!

Today it poured rain already for about 15 mins so not sure grilling will be a good way to go. I think I will bake some beautiful haddock that I got at the Italian market this morning with lemon panko garlic topping that I make. I then drizzle with butter before baking it. It is in the oven for a short enough time that it won't be bad even though it is hot/humid. I will make some roasted cauliflower with it since I am turning on the oven and I love it so much and a nice salad of greens and tomatoes with some red onion and a vinaigrette made with balsamic and evoo or lemon and evoo, Not sure which. Hubby likes haddock with an aioli so may make him a lemon aioli although I like it just the way it is with the pan juices which are buttery and lemony.

Have a great day!

I guess I'll eat anything except fowl and red meat and sometimes fish or shellfish once or twice a month but that's mainly because I lost the enzymes to digest it a long time ago I think these days you can find beef and chicken that is humanely raised and killed and might have a better life than I but the last time I bought it at Whole Foods to make chicken soup for my sick daughter with the extreme quote on quote good life 3 pound was about $24

Also not thrilled about cauliflower it is wrong so wrong

Tonight A friend gave me a bunch of cod and I put it in a tin foil with zucchini and herbs and tomatoes which Susan told me is called a pappet or something and I will bring it to work tomorrow and the next day I still feel guilty about eating fish

I have been vegetarian since I was 16 and started eating fish about four years ago after I was diagnosed okay so I'm a PIA

I still like reading your recipes :-)

I took my friends two grandsons on a cruise in Newport to see the lighthouses the sailboats and all else it was such a nice day the 7 year old was really excited but the 6 year old fell asleep for the entire cruise he was tired

I still want to get my hands on my first grandbaby in April

En papillote is my favorite way to cook delicate fish. I use parchment, in the microwave.

Tonight we walked to B’way Cellars, which is celebrating its 10th anniv. all this month. We shared the julienne apple salad, and I had gorgonzola meat loaf with green beans and sweet potato fries (Bob had his with the standard-issue mashed Yukon Gold spuds). Walked to Whole Foods after to get celery (on sale for a buck a bunch for organic), double dark chocolate gelato, vodka & tortilla chips for Bob, and melatonin, fresh espresso & coffee beans for me. (I like that I can buy stuff roasted only a few days ago).

Eric....that jam is gorgeous!  Thank you for sharing!

Nancy, there was a study several decades ago that showed overweight and obese people had a much greater tendency & ability to notice and remember esthetic details, not just about food (taste, texture, appearance) but about everything else: color, pattern, shape, sound, aroma, tactile stimuli, etc. than people of normal or low BMI. Could explain why it is so hard for us to stick to diets that limit us to foods we don’t like (and why we look forward to every little “cheat” whether permitted or not--we are “savor-ers”). No secret that most famous chefs who are no longer active in kitchens (where they had no time or opportunity to eat and were constantly on their feet for hours) are overweight-to-obese: Paula Deen, Sunny Anderson, Jimmy Banos, Mario Batali, the late Paul Prudhomme, Jose Andres, Paul Bocuse (almost 90!), etc. The only reason Michael Symon was able to get back down to a normal weight was that he spends his off-air time actively supervising those of his restaurants that feature the low-carb foods he was prescribed. (Thank you, M Burger, for offering your burgers and grilled chicken breasts “salad-style:” using lettuce leaves instead of a bun and tightly wrapped in paper to hold the whole shebang together). You can tell the active chefs & cooks by their slenderness and more “weathered” faces from spending all those years around hot stoves & ovens.

Thanks to whoever suggested how to get the skin off tomatoes - which I think was someone on this thread. I cut an "X" on the bottom, then stuck them on a long fork one at a time and held it over the gas burner of the stove for a minute or two. Skin just skimmed off. Hooray!! The tomatoes were for a salad last night with the last avocado & red leaf lettuce. The salad was accompanied two small pieces of toast for open face tuna sangys.

Additional prep for the week was deviled eggs since I scored 18 eggs for $0.98. Thanks Special for the peeling tip. Worked much better this time. Also sliced cucumber & onion and set them to marinate with tarragon vinegar & dill. Today I drained & added sour cream. Both will be good for several days meals.

Nance - sorry to hear you're both sick. But good news about your Dad's pacemaker.

Susan - love the baby chewing story. My nephew's daughter seems inclined to chew the edge of tables. Of course her Mom had cleaned the table thoroughly when we sat down, but I can't imagine the restaurant will be too excited by the bite marks in the wooden table.

Think I’ll do Buffalo wings tonight--WF had organic celery for a buck apiece last night, and I have really good blue cheese dressing (so good I needn’t make my own). Besides, I have a mani appt. tomorrow, and don’t mind getting orange tips on my French manicure tonight.

Had an olive-oil-fried egg this morning and a half-sandwich of tuna salad, sliced homegrown tomato, red onion and red-leaf lettuce on low-carb whole grain bread. Full till dinner. I usually walk over to the fro-yo parlor a few doors down from the nail salon while I wait for my ride (they have no-sugar-added plain Greek, and I get sliced almonds on it), but today I was too full from just the egg. A small portion of fro-yo fills me up for at least 3 hrs.

Defrosted a coho salmon filet, which I will have for dinner over rainbow chard, with the rest of that tomato as an appetizer. Will probably have a couple ounces of pinot noir with the salmon.

DD spent most of the day at the campus student health services...pneumonia and dehydration. An IV of Levoquin and three units of normal saline. She's back in her dorm with an inhaler, antibiotics and instructions to skip tomorrow's classes. She has no classes on Friday, so she can rest up a bit.

Eric, She wants to be just like Hilary Clinton! Next she will wear a pastel pant suit. ;-0 Seriously, hope that she is better really quickly.

Tonight, we grilled the char sui which had been marinating for about 16 hours. I made the proper pickled daikon and carrots. Pulled some of the pate out of the freezer. Made up a Siracha aioli. I just never made the bread, so we pulled out a baguette. These bahn mi were marvelous! Oh my. I am on my own tomorrow night since the kids and Leslie are headed to the Red Sox game. I have a meeting from 2:30-5:30. Will I be watching Olivia? I have no idea. Just gonna wing it.

The odd South Africans have left, and now a young couple from Germany has taken their place. The male arrived ill. Lots of turbulence and seats in the back of the plane, and he was hurting! I offered to make them an omelette or some chicken broth with noodle soup but I think they have simply crawled into bed. First people who have arrived with motion sickness after their cross-Atlantic voyage. Next up, the Glasgow couple who are staying for a full week!!! Yea, no sheet laundering for a whole week!

*susan*

Oh Eric, I hope DD recovers quickly. It is always hard to be sick away from home. But it sounds like she's had some good care, fortunately.

Tonight we went to a nutrition lecture at the local hospital sponsored by DH's concierge group. Unfortunately, while we planned to stop to eat on the way home, we did not get out until close to 9PM. I was too tired to start cooking then.....so a bunch of grapes, and a plain yogurt with some maple syrup and walnuts for dinner. DH finished off some zucchini bread....so unlike him.

He managed to fall off a piece of equipment today in his exercise class, and sprained his ankle. Has a golf engagement tomorrow, and I will not be amused if he pushes himself to go, since he will likely further injure the ankle, which we will both pay for. Oy!

On a cuter note, DDIL posted this little gem of DGD explaining buoyancy during her bedtime "routine"....next will be displacement, I suspect. I hope it shows up. I never know how to repost videos from Facebook. Is it even possible?

https://www.Facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1015...

The wedding guest list of this "simple" wedding is starting to give me hives! How does one ever figure out how many rooms one needs for an expensive destination spot? How can people know if they will come this far in advance? And if DS2 and DF reserve too many they will be charged for them. Yikes! Yet you have to have enough! Expensive guessing games that I do not enjoy. They are seeming more intrepid than I. And they seem to bind their anxiety in their spread sheets

Eric, healing thoughts for your DD and calming thoughts & wishes for you & Sharon. When our kids hurt we hurt twice as much.

Folks, I have a question about grapes. I know about vitis vinifera (most wine grapes of European origin, including CA varietals, and some table grapes like Thompson Seedless and Red Flame), and vitis labrusca (N. American--mainly E. of the Mississippi--table grapes such as Concord, blending grapes for making winter-hardy hybrid wine grapes grown in the East & Midwest, and rootstock for grafting vinifera for resistance to phylloxera). Years ago, we toured the agricultural genetics facilities at UC Davis as part of the World Congress of Genetics when Bob was in grad school; our host in the wine genetics vineyards showed us an Eastern native varietal that was neither vinifera nor labrusca, and he said in the mid-Atlantic it was called “scuppernong" and in the South “muscadine." It was round and sort of dappled dark amber-pinkish, and had sort of spicy overtones to its sweetness. Yesterday, Whole Foods was selling both scuppernongs (dark amber-green) and muscadines (deep purple)--both from an organic grower in W. VA. Can anyone here tell me the difference--or are they the same grape, only bred for different colors? They were being sold in closed plastic containers, so tasting was not possible. (And anyone know where pink Catawbas--mostly from the DelMarVa area--fall on the continuum)?

Think meatloaf, mashed potatoes w/ gravy and a veggie. Seems like it's starting to get that time of the year for meals from the oven.

Think I’ll pan-sear some pork chops, nuke a sweet potato, and saute that rainbow chard I was going to make with the salmon but instead nuked some spicy green bean salad.

Sharon is doing her Jenny Craig meal and I ate some of my home made chorizo.

DD went to class today and then tried to go to work. The manager at work sent her home. I told DD that if she kept this up, she'd start wanting to wear pants suits like Secretary Clinton. I could almost hear the eye roll as she said, "Dad." :-)

She's not sounding quite so "horrible". I'm guessing the antibiotics and steroid inhaler is helping. But, she did say that she was walking much more slowly than normal.

Right now I can't imagine starting bread at 9:30pm. I have a pork loin that I want to cook, but by the time I get home (7:30pm), it's too late for me to start it. I don't want to be up until 10pm. But, bread does sound good though. Maybe I'll wake up the sourdough starter this weekend.