So...whats for dinner?

april - your chicken pasta dish sounds yum, and fast - I need that as DH is often arriving home late and I need something quick to make.

val - awww, your DS needs cake - how cute is that? Sorry about the fender bender, happens to the best of us!

Dinner tonight is colonoscopy prep

Edited to add - the whole family is not having colonoscopy prep, just me, lol! Not sure what I am doing for DH/DD, but whatever it is I feel like it needs to be ready before I start drinking the icky stuff!

Dont do it Carole (wash the car).

You'll make it storm again. :-)

I had a late afternoon appointment for LE treatment on the other side of town and errands to run along the way. And I talked to a friend this morning who kept talking about new hamburger places. My mouth was in gear so I stopped at Five Guys. There isn't one by me and I've only had them twice. Luckily they have a 'small' size, but I'll bet it's still larger than a Quarter Pounder at Burger King. It's a nice sloppy burger on homemade bun with cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketsup, grilled onions & sauteed mushrooms - and at least 6 other free things if you want them, from BBQ sauce to jalapenos. It's wrapped in tin foil so it doesn't drip & it was very good. I have to confess - I let him talk me into a small order of fries. They were great but a small was equal to a triple order at any other fast food place - and they here hand cut fries. Yum. No dinner for me.

minus - I love, love, love Five Guys. They started in Fairfax County as a family burger business when we lived there when DH was stationed at the Pentagon. The "five guys" are their five sons and they swore they would not franchise until all the kids were old enough to help with the family business. We used to take DS there after his little league games and he just turned 29. I have several nearby and their quality has not gone down with franchising - I understand they are very strict about ingredients and technique - they taste as good today as they did 20 years ago! Their fries are the bomb, but I am glad they recently introduced the small (not so small!) size fries.

None of the Five Guys near me have drive-through windows; only one (5 miles away) even has parking (either lot or a realistic chance of finding a spot on the street). I love them, though—they even tell you the provenance of the potatoes from which your fries were made.

Five guys has good hot dogs too. I had to write myself a note on my phone to remind me to order small everything at five guys instead of "regular".

DH decided he wanted gyros for dinner so it's back to the freezer and off to throw together a quick tzatziki.

Speaking of pineapples, I got the niftiest gizmo the other day -- a pineapple corer that cores and spiral slices the pineapple and pops it right out of the shell. Very cool!

But Queen - I LOVE waffles & bacon. Enjoy.

LOVE Five Guys! We have had one here for about 2 years but it isn't really nearby so we have only been a few times. Always, good and the staff so helpful and friendly.

Val- that chicken sounds great and, ummmmm, the chocolate cake?  Like how your DS thinks.  Hope he is ok..sorry about the car.

SInce DH is out of town, decided to try a root veggie soup recipe...well, had to alter it quite a bit because I wanted to use what I had and make a small batch.  Used  rutabaga, sweet potato and some sweet onion in chicken broth...garlic, S&P, fresh parsley and thyme.  When cooked I used the immersion blender until smoth, added a little ghee and lemon juice....it really was comforting and tasy- as well as filling.  Love experimenting!

Come to think of it, Five Guys doesn’t have a drive-thru (though Culver's cooks everything to order, so after you go through the drive-thru they have you pull over into a holding area and wait till they bring your order to you). But in Chicago, the only one I’ve seen with a parking lot or even with decent street parking availability is in a corner of a shopping mall…in Lincolnwood, a nearby suburb. The one closest to me is on a strictly-enforced “no parking or standing” block in Rogers (no)Park. (It does well because it’s across the street from the Loyola campus, and so gets foot traffic from the students and commuters getting off the L).

I have a Five Guys in my hometown here in CT. No drive thru and it is always so busy at both lunch and dinner because it is worth the wait. I am NOT a fan of fast food....unless it is made like Five Guys makes it. The portions are HUGE and hubby and I share a small order of fries. The burgers are so fresh and delicious they rival a good steak house burger imho. Or a home cooked one.

We are in the beginning stages of a HUGE storm. Looks like 12-18 inches are expected now. There are already two inches out there and it started an hour ago where I am.

Making stuffed cabbage today (which I rarely make because hubby peels off the outside (he does not like cabbage but I love it) and while they are a fair bit of work, they are so worth it. I freeze them in small batches and then cook them adding the liquid as I make them.

I am also baking a loaf of bread today. Hubby likes the cheddar bread so that is what I will make. Baking a batch of homemade brownies and since I am stuck home, throwing a hunk of pork in the crock pot to make pulled pork sammies on the weekend when the kids come for my oldest granddaughter's 9th birthday. I figured they would be perfect with the kid's request of "Gramma's Mac and cheese" which is actually a slightly modified version of Martha Stewart's mac and cheese.

Stay warm & dry, folks. No snow here (at least not between the WI state line and I-80), but 30 degrees colder now than yesterday morning. Gonna toss down some coffee and head up to the ENT to make sure all that coughing didn't harm my vocal cords. Maybe hit Five Guys for an early lunch afterwards (naah, probably bone broth and a boiled egg).

And last night en route home after the support group, I stopped into KFC for some grilled chicken. Those pieces are so tiny it's a shock to realize that when you order them fried, most of your meal is the batter

Be safe and warm for all in the storms path. My son took the entire cake, save a piece for me and dh to split.

Dinner will be pasta primavera. I need to toss the fridge too. I have broccoli, carrots, peppers, some baby brussel sprouts. With a little cream and Parmesan.

With all the Five Guys references, will definitely hit it this weekend.

Chili is cooking in my slow cooker.

The snow was bad here about 7- 9, but that was it. Only ended up with at most 3 inches. Could have been a lot worse if temps weren't so high yesterday (almost got up to 70), but the temperature is just really dropping now and the wind is picking up. Luckily this didn't happen during the precipitation. Making Trader Joe's soup tonight (got the recipe from the web site): one box of TJ's roasted red pepper soup, one cup of water, one can of TJ's Cuban black beans and one package of TJ's chimichurra rice. I also add whatever veggies are in my fridge and need to be used. Today, some kale and carrots. It is surprisingly good and so easy. If I had a little leftover chicken or pork, I'd put that in too, but don't have any at the moment.