So...whats for dinner?

I was at a conference all day on the Opioid problem, and got out around 5, so was really happy that DH ordered and picked up pizza and salad from Pepe's Pizza. Our maiden voyage there. DH had gotten rave reviews about Pepe's from a colleague with whom he was golfing yesterday. I was not enamored of this pizza that gets such raves, since I am not a fan of charred cardboard-like bottoms on my pizza. Their salad was fine except for the slimy pieces of lettuce, which I selected out before serving it with additional fresh lettuce. I may never be satisfied wth purchased salads since I am a compulsive (and a bit OCD), oretty creative salad maker. And I do NOT use slimy or black edged lettuce. Why do food establishments feel that they can.

Eric, glad to hear that DD is starting to feel better. Would that she could have the intense level of care that Hillary has to get her back up and running! It's hard to take the time it takes to allow the body to heal when you feel the pressure of school (campaigns, etc;).

I recall in grad school that I kept getting what the BC Infirmary thought were strep throats. I took my many repeated scripts of antibiotic, and it kept getting worse. Turns out I had mono and when I saw a real doc in town at BI, he diagnosed me after bloodwork, saying, "How do you get along woth your mother?". He ordered me to go home to my parents for six/eight weeks to recuperate. I was beside myself, but the grad school was very sympathetic, so I flew home....I recall barely being able to walk to the plane. I was one sick puppy with a bad fever, inordinate weakness, and such a bad sore throat I could not eat for more than a week. Gradually I got better, but it sure was good that I saw a real doc. I certainly did not think I would get mono. When DS2 left for his sophomore college year, he contracted it, too, but we knew the symptoms and he came home for a week, took it easy when back at school, and recuperated quickly. As Rosanna Rosanna Dana said, "It's always something!" And it passes, and life goes on..... Good luck to her!

Tomorrow we attend the memorial service of the husband of a good friend of mine. He died suddenly of a heart attack, while doing his morning stretching exercises, a month ago. I am heartbroken for her.

I am also missing Carole on our thread, and hope all is well with her......

Eric I hope your daughter gets better soon

Lacey I had good food in Barrow Alaskawhen I was working there at Pepe's north of the Border I don't like chocolate pizza either

Susan do you have a guest book that might be fun for people to leave their names and thoughts and where there are from

For dinner I went out for Indian food and had something and something and something and two glasses of wine I am waiting for the I went to farmers market to open its time for squid

I'm back I got honeycrisp apples kimchi Squid and, I'm sorry Susan, Seven Stars olive loaf

The original Pepes and the chain locations are simply not the same. Since it is on the other side of town from me, I have not made the pilgrimage. Too many folks have been disappointed.

Dinner last night was an Asian rice bowl with a bit of the char sui, a small green salad with a soy-ginger dressing, the carrot/daikon pickles, dry-fried green beans with hot peppers and onions, and of course, rice. It was a fun dinner actually with lots of different flavors. I should have put a few tomatoes out and we would have eaten the whole rainbow.

Tonight, we are slow smoking a few chicken parts. I have a bit of broccoli to cook up, the leftover green beans, and some lovely corn from today's market.

*susan*

I was across town with a friend sorting through old books so we tried a Chinese restaurant that had been highly recommended. The lunch specials were $6.50 to $7.50 with soup, fried rice & an egg roll - so the price was certainly good. Nice venue up on a second floor corner. Sorry to say the meal was probably less than average for a chinese strip center place. She had shrimp with lobster sauce. I had shrimp & chicken with cashew nuts & water chestnuts. Even the egg rolls tasted worse than frozen. Neither of us cleaned our plates. I'm disappointed but now I can check another place I'd been wanting to try off my list and move on.

Grass fed beef "burgers" on the grill with all of the "trimmings" except for buns, homemade cole slaw and baked sweet potatoe "fries"...really good!

I had some fragments of bucatini to use up, so I made bucatini all’ Amatriciana: used slab bacon rather than guanciale, some tomato-basil sauce, extra basil, red pepper flakes, a little Malbec, and both Pecorino Romano & Parmigiano-Reggiano grated over the top. Sometimes a gal just needs her comfort food.

Despite having lived on Chicago’s North Side for 38 yrs., I am attuned to my Brooklyn roots and vastly prefer NY-style Neapolitan thin crust to either S.Side Chicago pub-style party-cut thin-crust or N. Side deep-dish. (The pizzas I liked best in Italy were those that came closest to NY-style). On occasion, I also like NYC Sicilian style semi-thick crust. I like to know approximately what and how much I’m eating, and that’s impossible with those little party-cut semi-squares of pub-style thin crust (less a pizza than a beer-accompaniment device). Calorie and carb counters (WW included) give values for a wedge-shaped slice of a given-size pie, and these guides are based on NY-style because that’s where they tend to have been published.

Minus I'm sure there are a lot of yummy pizza delivery places near you do you like mushrooms? Meat lovers? It could be there in 20 minutes It would taste so good.

I made 10 breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs feta cheese cherry tomatoes and spinach and froze them and then I was going to make tuna with walnuts red grapes Greek yogurt and celery but I don't have a can opener so I guess tomorrow I'll have fish sticks peas and baked potato for lunch at work I listened to my Willie Nelson CD while I made it. I haven't listened to that in about 3 years " the last thing I needed the first thing this morning was to have you walk out on me" ha

Lacey - I vote we go to April's for dinner.

I've never cooked fried chicken, nor did my Mother. She just didn't fry things (except eggs) and I pretty much cook the same way - saute, broil, grill, bake, stir fry, roast, poach, etc. - I'm a fish out of water in the South where everything is still fried. In Texas it's almost a sin not to have this skill.

Bedo - I love breakfast burritos. As for pizza - there are plenty of places that would deliver but I wouldn't say they are much better than frozen pizza from the grocery store. And you can't get just 2 slices. So I'll save up my calories.

Well, I want that fried chicken and don't even really eat that...haha.....and, as a rep from the DEEP south,...we really for the most part do NOT fry...except for the once or twice a summer zuchinni/eggplant...and, yes...if you prep the eggplant and slice the zuchinni very thinly...it is just the most delicious treat EV.ER.....not kidding. Oh...and every OTHER year...I do fry okra....can't tell y'all about it because I know you won't believe that okra can BE that good....trust me.  AND, hey...come to Rock Hill, South Carolina...and, I can PROVE it...haha.

Happy - yes I do like fried zucchini appetizers & fried onion rings. And although I like fried shrimp, I usually try to order it some other way since there's a lot of breading in most places. But trust me - all my friends who grew up in Texas fry everything. I only eat fried foods when I'm out. No doubt SC has more traditional roots.

I'd love to have CAROLE check into this discussion and comment about Louisiana. We miss you Carole.

My Mom got the recipe for this chicken from her best friend who was from AL. She made it all the time (she was our next door neighbor until I was 12) and I would eat it without giving it a second thought as a child.

The fried chicken was so good. Perhaps it was because I never eat deep fried food anymore that it tasted like heaven. I even bake all French fries in this house. Frying things in fat make them taste so good but it is so darn bad for you. I kept singing to myself as I was eating that lovely chicken "If loving you is wrong, then I don't want to be right" LOL!

Just that little sting of cayenne in the dredge and a bit of siracha in the buttermilk made it have just the right amount of spice. It was really a treat. Brownies have been boxed up and my co-workers have finished them off (except for the three I left home for DH) and the left over chicken will be his dinner tonight along with the potatoes. I am having a big salad with some grilled chicken that I made over the weekend. The guilt of yesterday will be but a memory soon (and a good one at that!)

SpecialK. you are an amazing friend. I hope that your friend recovers quickly, but I can't imagine a liver biopsy. I would think that food would take a backseat to liver biopsies.

Our dinner was pretty good. Mr. 02143 bought a rack of lamb at Costco today. I had a short time to dry brine. Sadly, this is the first gamey rack we have bought from costco. It was just okay. The farmer's market potatoes on the other hand were amazing. I simmer them until al dente, and then sautéed them with some market onions. I made a ton of salad. For him I sliced some carrots on the mandolin, and for me, a cucumber salad. We will have the leftovers mid-morning, and then we are headed to the Cape for a short R&R. Much needed, I think.

*susan*

Baked some chicken thighs and breast tonight with a mustard based BBQ sauce, lovely garden veggie salad and baked potato fries...some home made blue cheese dressing...it was SO good!  Often, the simplest suppers are the best!

NPO after midnight tonight, so I had five Buffalo wings with celery & dressing, some gelato (a sm. scoop each of macchiato, dbl. dark chocolate, and salted caramel), 3 oz. of Mumm Santana Brut (drown my sorrows after yet another Bears loss), and some WF house-made taco chips (they are like crack). Gotta be up at 4 am, out by 5:15 and at the ambulatory surgery clinic at Highland Park Hosp. (30+ mi. n.) by 6 for my 7:30 trigger thumb surgery. Dunno how well I will be typing w/o using my R thumb for a couple of days, so this may herald a mini-hiatus here for me.