So...whats for dinner?

Sandy, your meal at Broadway Cellars sounded so delicious! Let us know how that pan performs after a few weeks. I was thinking about buying one. Today, it is raining so I am making a pot of French onion soup complete with gruyere and crouton. I will serve with a big salad with sliced left-over steak that hubby did not finish at the restaurant last night. This is a very rare occurrence but he was not feeling well so he left the majority of a 16 oz. NY strip.

Hoping all of you have a great weekend! Cooler weather have me thinking about stews and soups. I love the Fall!

April yes I'm making soup today with onion garlic carrots celery fire roasted tomatoes basil oregano paprika pepper quinoa vegetable broth and frozen spinach I think I'll leave out the kidney beans

Tomorrow I'm going to a fall festival with friends

today I have a mild hangover the workman putting my furniture and hanging the pictures convinced me that we needed to drink beer and have me keep him company while he did it. A bad idea on so many levels

At 5:30am, when the cat informed me that he was waiting for his servant to arise and prepare his morning repast, I noticed it was in the mid 60F degree range outside. Despite being loudly informed that it was wholly unacceptable behavior on my part, I opened the doors and windows so the house could cool down and then I took care of the cat. After three hours, the cat is still ignoring me. :-)

I was rummaging around in the freezer and decided to roast the frozen turkey that was taking up a lot of space.

Since DD is off to school and Sharon is successfully doing the Jenny Craig meals, I've been skipping breakfast (easy since I leave the house at 5:15am) and dinner (also easy since I get home around 8pm) and eating a lunch of fruit and a can of meat from the grocery store.

So....I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all that turkey...I guess I'll freeze it for the weekends and simmer the bones for stock. Now that it's cool, I could bring a turkey sandwich to work and skip the 1 block trip to the grocery store..

I may also look up turkey in the USDA canning guide and the Ball Blue Book for some ideas.....maybe can a few 1/2 pint jars of turkey and show them off at work. That way they'll think I'm even more crazy (the general reaction to my making home made jelly) than they previously suspected. :-)

I almost never finish a steak—in a restaurant I take at least half (2/3 to even 3/4 if it's the cowboy ribeye or porterhouse) of my steak home. Bob always finishes his, because he orders filet mignon (too bland for me) which is usually about 10 oz. (cooks down to 8). At home, I usually grill a ten-ounce strip or ribeye medium-rare and slice it up so it feeds at least 2, maybe 3 of us.

The pan is holding up well—last night the scallops slid right out. This morning I made omelets—for Bob's I started it off with a little olive oil to saute the veggies and set them aside before starting the egg mixture without any more fat. The sides seemed to need a bit of nudging with the rubber spatula; but once they were set, the omelet slid out of the pan with only a gentle spatula nudge to fold it over . For my omelet, I didn't add any fat at all. It had only 2 eggs, no pico de gallo or cheddar, and only 1/3 as much Serrano ham. Mine also used Emmenthaler rather than sharp cheddar; and I threw in a little arugula just before folding (it slid out of the pan with no help, and I folded it using just the edge of the pan). I let it cool, wiped it out first with a clean paper towel, and then one with a few drops of canola oil before wiping it out with the clean towel instead. I got it at Walgreen's in the “as seen on TV" aisle.

Tonight we’re taking a dinner cruise (Little Company of Mary Hospital). Won’t have to dress to the nines, just as I would to a dinner party or nice restaurant. There will be a fireworks show (they continue till Oct.). No idea what I’ll be eating or drinking—don’t have a menu. We’ll Uber it there & back—Navy Pier actually has two Uber/Lyft “stations” next to the taxi stands.

I have two old cast iron skillets (as in over 100 years old) like that. Even with no oil in the skillet, just tipping it up and a cheese omelet will slide onto the plate. The newer ones aren't that good. For whatever reason, they need some oil and the omelets need some encouragement with a spatula.

Thanks April. I'll go look for some recipes in my collection of cookbooks. I used to have a dozen 4 inch Pyrex pie pans. I may have sold them as I had never figured out what to do with them. If I still have themt, they will be perfect as long as I can figure out how to compensate for the glass cookware.

Eric - remember Lori's Mexican Chicken - just chicken breasts, black beans & salsa then toss on some cheese. I have been known to use cubed or shredded cooked turkey for this dish. Obviously doesn't need to cook as long so it's really a snap.

I also like "breakfast" burritos - flour tortilla, sliced or shredded turkey, salsa, cheese - roll up & nuke. Do you have a microwave at work? You could heat there.

Hello all!

Sandy, glad you chose not to go through with the sx. Sometimes it's good we think things over. Specialk, glad your friends biopsy came out good. What a blessing. Eric, hope your daughter is on the mend.

On the trigger fingers side. I've had one injection on my right hand over a year ago. No pain and it doesn't lockup yet. So far so good. Still haven't gotten one on my left, although they lock up, there isn't any pain so not doing it yet.

Speaking of the fried chicken, my Mom made it once in a while. Two big chickens worth. Couple of hours frying it all for 10 of us. I have never in my married life of 40 some years ever fried a whole chicken's worth of fried chicken. Most i've ever done is fried a chicken breast or rwo.

Im still not feeling well. Everything is in my head. Fever broke only 2 days ago. 2 weeks is too long. I feel like a wet rag that got wrung out. On the other hand, i keep Kleenex in business. Starting to be clearheaded enough to watch TV, and even change the channel. LOL

Haven't cooked a lot. Thank goodness I had used up all but 1 dinner from my box. I finally used that Friday. Pork tenerloin with fig sauce. Served with brussel sprouts and carrots. That was delicious. 2 meals out of it of course. The only other cooking I did was use butternut squash and potato from 2 different meals and turkey stock i had in my freezer to make a soup that i pureed. I ate that for 4 meals. LOL. The protiens I had frozen when I got the box so i didn't waste anything. I just didn't make the meals according to plan so I have 2 beautiful pork chops and steaks waiting for me when i feel good enough to cook for real.

My DH saw a nuerologist for his arm. After sx on his shoulder, and elbow, he still has pain. The neurologist says theres nothing more too do. Hell have to live with it. What joy.

Much love.

Moon - so sorry to hear you've been sick but glad you're on the mend. Also sorry about your DH's arm. I'm about ready to give up on my shoulder and just 'live with it'. Frustration & continual low grade pain speaking!!! I continue to be interested in your boxed meals. somehow it never occurred to me that you could separate and freeze meats & veggies in different packages.

Sandy - in spite of the medium grade food, the dinner boat trip sounds great. Sandals and it's almost October!!

We’re going to B’way Cellars for dinner tonight—Bob wants to sit at the bar facing the TVs and watch the Bears. Sunday nights are usually slow there—the weekend brunches tend to get crazy-busy, as that’s for what the place has become best-known (makes all the “Top 10 Brunch Spot” lists). The chef is a passionate Chicago sports fan—he even has team-logo chef jackets for the Cubs, Bears, Bulls, & Blackhawks (no White Sox—this is da Nort’ Side, after all)—and will be watching along with Bob (they can talk sports endlessly late into the evening while the waitstaff puts the chairs up on the tables all around them). The letrozole seems to be taking its toll so it’s gonna be just a salad, maybe mussels, for me. Maybe even just an iced tea instead of a flute of cava. No more of those infamous Whole Foods house-made tortilla chips, which seem to be like crack.

Lacey - we actually got down to 89 today so I turned on the oven. Mistake - still too hot, but... Dinner was wild caught cod fillets (flash frozen) dipped in melted butter & lemon, rolled in Panko and baked just 12 minutes. Delicious. Served with boiled new potatoes and a combo from my spiralizer - yellow squash & zucchini steamed w/butter & garlic.

Last night's dinner was what I can almost call a 'winter' salad. Cauliflower, radishes, zucchini chunks, black olives, shoestring beets, carrots - with just the smallest portion of red leaf lettuce that remained in the fridge - adorned with a minimal toss of HEB 'hatch chili ranch' dressing. Then I ruined the low-cal, healthy intent by eating a bunch of white corn chips at bed time. Needed the salt I guess.

Susan - hope your trip was wonderful and you're easing back into "real" life. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Grandbabies and DH on DGD2 1st Bday.

Cute grand babies Moon. Thanks for sharing. Need to attack the fridge for something exciting in the left over category.

One page to read but I will leave it until another time! You ladies are busy cooking and eating.

Bad news. Plain, unexciting eating is NOT slenderizing! I am disgustingly obese. Yesterday I started packing up in preparation for returning home. Far back in a lower cabinet I found healthy stuff like quinoa that sat in that cabinet all summer while we grilled burgers and brats and pork steaks and ribeyes and bone in skin on chicken thighs.

Lima beans. Like the green frozen or canned ones and love the dried white ones, small or large, cooked with ham or pickled pork. Served over brown rice and some dashes of Louisiana hot sauce.

Eggplants. Love them the way I grew up eating them, breaded and fried a crispy brown, but I don't cook them that way. Except maybe once every couple of years for my mother. I have learned to make delicious eggplant parm and eggplant lasagna without the breading and frying. Enjoy the taste and do not find preliminary salting necessary if the eggplant are young and fresh.

Fried chicken. Love it but no longer cook it at home because of the mess and the calories.

To be finished later.

Happened to pop in here for a minute and am thrilled to see that Carole is back!

More kater....running off to a town meeting about some street construction that is slated for our street....it never ends

i agree about your glasses strategy, Minus. I am delaying cataract procedures and keep wearing my six year old glasses until I bite the bullet. Fortunately, only my very far distance is slightly compromised.

Last night we had one if my fave healthy meals....baked haddock with a topping of sauteed onion, garlic, mushroom and chopped spinach, all topped with crumbled feta. Sides were orzo (with some of that leftover spinach saute muxed in) and a red lettuce garden salad. Of course, it was so healthful that when we returned from the annoying Siting Board meeting (a hearing about plans for new electric lines to be installed underground on our street to provide energy to another area) we were again hungry and ate an apple, then pepper cheese and crackers with some Port. Ha!

Carole, summer was an "expanding experience" for me too. Wardrobe issues prevail!! I need to get back to my former eating habits and regular gym work! Unfortunately, I keep being bothered with sciatica down my left leg, making exercise difficult. Am hoping to wait it out over the next week or so along with some stretching for that. Next, PT if necessary.

I hope your return home goes smoothly, Carole.