So...whats for dinner?

Waving back, Val!

Dinner was breakfast tonight. Mom LOVES pancakes and bacon and she was coming for supper SO, not having done that in a very long time...the menu was pancakes and bacon.  My DH was the chef tonight.  I ate some cottage cheese before she arrived so as not to overdo it with the other.  It worked!  I had 2 small but yummy cakes with maple syrup (the real deal)...mom and DH devoured the rest of the cakes and bacon. Everyone was happy.

Tomorrow night is meatloaf night after all of the talk about it earlier in the week. 

What is your meatloaf recipe?  Ours is beef, diced onion and celery, S &P, an egg and add small amount of milk to get everything mixed...add crushed corn flakes and "squish" it all together until you can form a loaf...dust with flour and bake at 350 for about 1.25 hours or until meat thermometer indicates it is done.  This is rough "recipe"....what do you do?

This was the storm that wasn't. Much ado, and not much action. I had AirBNB guests rescheduling, so each night was filled, but in the translation lost about $25 in income, and I could care less. The group that left today were very young– two cousins here to look at graduate schools. The mess that they lived in, and they were only here for three nights, was monumental! They enjoyed some Bourbon and wine. There were bits of papers scattered about. But, when they checked out this morning, the rooms were totally clean. So interesting. The young man graduated from Notre Dame and is looking at the Harvard School of Divinity [one of my favorite Harvard colleges] and she is still pondering her future. They were both knock-out gorgeous in a Mediterranean way. Off they went, and now the next young group has moved in and they are equally interesting. Turns out they are kosher, but didn't tell me this because of the uptick in what my Jewish friends are calling Jew-Hate. Isn't that sad?

Tonight I made some chicken piccata with pasta and steamed asparagus. The asparagus tasted like cut grass clippings to me, but Mr. SMT ate them all. The chicken and pasta were wonderful. Gosh do I love lemon and capers. I finally ate a real meal which is a bit of an accomplishment actually.

Olivia is walking!!!! She is 10 months and the world had better watch out. She is ready to take over. She does squats! Who does squats? She stands and then does 20 squats before walking to her next destination. This kid is amazing. She will arrive again tomorrow at 7:15, so I had better head to bed soon. I think we might have an outing. I think she needs some sneakers.

Here she is dancing with the NCAA tournament brackets in her Grand-dad's clean work shop.

*susan*

Zoooommmm goes Olivia! :-) :-)

Awww, that dollbaby is just presh! 

I don’t keep kosher, but I am Jewish (been told I don’t look it, but I am on both sides) and don’t mind mentioning it if I need to—especially if someone makes an anti-Semitic remark. I get perverse pleasure out of discomfiting people who deserve to be embarrassed.

Bob brought home Irish soda bread that one of his nurses baked (it was more like a golden raisin pound cake, which makes it much more flavorful than the standard recipe), and some leftover shepherd’s pie from a local late-night joint called the Fireside. As per usual for most of their menu items it was a bit weirder than it was authentic—this time somewhat spicy, like they’d crumbled up their Cajun meatloaf (come to think of it, I’ve never had meatloaf in a NOLA restaurant). Last I checked, spiciness is not exactly a hallmark of Irish cuisine. But this morning I had some of it (w/o the mashed potato topping) beneath a fried egg. Took friends down in the S. ‘burbs out to dinner—had grilled shrimp as an app., and poached salmon over mashed potatoes, with asparagus & broccoli on the side. (The waitress misunderstood and gave me the second veg in addition to, not as a substitution for the potatoes). Ate everything but the spuds and half the asparagus, which I packed to go. Dessert was fresh berries in Greek yogurt inside a waffle cup. Ate half the berries and brought the rest of the dessert home too. Unfortunately, poor Gordy caught a nasty bug at an outdoor wedding in Geneva, IL over the weekend (as did half the guests) and his appetite is not exactly robust. So the leftovers (including a bagel & lox I made him) are piling up in the fridge.

Tomorrow is a voice lesson and then my ophthalmologist follow up…back down on the S. Side. Bob may tag along (he missed his own appt.), and then we’ll head back up here for corned beef & cabbage at Cellars (well, for him, fish & chips). Think I’ll have a Kaliber or O’Doul’s amber with it.

Corned beef and cabbage of course and shepherds pie for dh, Irish soda bread and Bailey's Irish cream cheesecake for dessert. Friends coming for dinner - an annual St. Pat's day meal.

Tomorrow the kids and grand dog arrive for an overnight. It's the grand dog's first birthday. She gets frosty paws, we get lemon meringue pie.

Finally feeling better. KB,. I do a lot of baking, especially with sourdough, but have never made a pizza crust.

Well, Miss Olivia was fussy today. This is the first time. She is pissed that her walking isn't more advanced. She has begun screaming and crying when there is something she wants and can't get to. Needless to say, her grandparents didn't take to this well. We followed her parents' choices... and ignored her or put her to bed when it became intolerable. I couldn't decide if she didn't feel well or if she is in a developmental moment. I am happy to say, that she was her happiest when we fed her. Today she ate a chicken tender which was sautéed with some angel hair pasta with parmesan cheese melted on top. This made the pasta stick together so that she could feed herself. She then consumed 1/3 a banana, cut into bite sized pieces. Her third meal was 1/2 cup of lima beans simmered in chicken stock, potatoes that had been cubed and crisped, and two slices of cheddar cheese. She ate those limas in succession.... ten seconds between beans. She preferred them to the potatoes.

Us? I was not up to cooking. I made all three of Olivia's meals plus a banana bread today, so we went to our Portuguese fish market and had their fish and chips, cole slaw, and Mr. SMT had a side of fried shrimp which he just loves. We ate early so that he was home to watch Duke at 7:15. I am a b-ball widow for the next few weeks.

I really do dislike St. Patricks Day. Even at that early hour, there were tons of people driving who had clearly been drinking. Ugh.

My port is healing though I still don't have full lateral motion. I was allowed a shower today, and I took full advantage. How wonderful it was to get three days of being human washed away. It is the small things, isn't it?

Sharon and I attended a camp style Dutch oven cooking class...It was lots of fun, but both of us are exhausted.

It's the kind of ovens with legs and charcoal, wood or a fire is used as the heat source

While we are feeling better from the flu, we still don't have all our energy back. I'm alternating between the couch, the bed and the recliner chair. Sharon is tired enough that she's not moving from the bed. Had this not been the last class of the year, we would have changed to another class.

We were split up into groups of two--with Sharon and I in different groups so we would be exposed to more than just one set of recipes.

My partner and I made a cake, chili rellenos, and the fixings for fish tacos. Sharon and her partner made pulled pork, chili cornbread and "monkey brains" (an apple desert dish).

I had picked up a couple of camp dutch ovens awhile back and this was a good chance to learn how to use them.

Last night we went to Pasha, the Turkish restaurant, with the kids, Olivia and the two of us. Olivia ate rice, hummus and celery with gusto. Spears of cucumber turn out to be too slippery and flew out of her hands. The eggplant dip was not accepted with grace and the yogurt dip was not a hit. She sat for a tremendously long time without fussing. We were even able to have some Turkish tea! Half my tea, Mr. SMT took her outside to get a change of scenery. We then got to help her take her bath. She LOVES bath time and plays with delight in the water. I collapsed when we got home.

Tonight we are grilling up some lamb chops with a few extra so we have at least one meal already made for tomorrow. We have Olivia all day and I will be anxious. Not sure what I will serve with the chops, but I will figure that out soon enough.

Today I had my cleaning people over for coffee. They are assembling some numbers for me in case I need their help preparing the AirBNB rooms for a guest. I hope not to need them often, but I will sleep better knowing that I have a backup plan.

Probably, unless Bob comes home in time to go out to dinner, will roast a couple of duck confit legs I defrosted and serve them with sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts (might cook the sprouts in the duck fat). Made a nice 3-egg (2 sm., 1 lg.) omelet this morning with red, orange and poblano peppers, scallions and Emmenthaler cheese. Just had a tomato stuffed with tuna salad.

Am going to a military wives' reception tonight at the Dep. Commander's home with light refreshments so am making some Bolognese sauce now for DH since he will come home from work before I get back. We might make it home at the same time as he will go to the gym between work and dinner, but it will be nice to have the sauce already made. If I only have to cook the pasta that will be quick and I have salad stuff all done too. Not sure if I will eat at the reception, or wait until I get home at this point. I made breakfast burrito filling (sage sausage, roasted red potatoes and cheddar) yesterday so I have on-the-go breakfast for him for the next few days.

Everyone in the house has some infection or another—Gordy caught his cold at a wedding, passed it on to Bob and even our housekeeper has it now. What I was afraid was an abscess or ONJ has turned out to be a sinus infection—the aching eased up after the storms passed and the barometer rose again. Not sure about dinner tonight—last night made broccolini & a sweet potato with duck leg confit; saved the fat for Brussels sprouts tonight. Might do something with frozen crawfish tails—stir-fry, perhaps? Or just go with the flow and nuke some chicken wings. This morning was my second double-yolk egg in a row., from a Vital Farms carton. (Pricy, but the flavor is amazing. And the hens are treated humanely—they get pasture all day whenever the weather permits and sleep in a cage-free barn overnight).

Wow. It's been quiet. The banks are open until 7pm here and I got *most* of the stuff done. I've got a couple more hours and then all the signature stuff is done.

Last night I made stuffed peppers. This is another one that my mom and grandmother used to do and also goes back to my college days.

Steam the cleaned out bell peppers until "slightly tender" so they don't need to cook as much in the oven and for the stuffing...an equal volume of cooked rice and hamburger, a sauteed chopped onion and a sauteed minced clove of garlic, a chopped tomato, a big squirt of ketchup, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, all mixed together.

After I stuffed the peppers, I put a squirt of ketchup on the top of each stuffed pepper and cooked it in the oven until the stuffing was done--about 40 minutes at 350F for my peppers. Also, I used Jasmine rice for my rice and cooked it in turkey broth.

It is pretty close to the way I like it. My "next time try" note would be to add fresh oregano and maybe a serrano pepper.