So...whats for dinner?

Eric - love the moving story. I helped my son move several times from dorm to apt to different dorm to apt to another apt to a different state to another different state. The final straw was when he said the two of us would have no problem moving a heavy solid oak dresser from my Dad's up stairs to his new place. Oh, and the place was on top of Nob Hill so you had to go either up or down before you got to the front door. An old house was divided into a number of apts. Oh, it was "only a few stairs". Well after we went straight up the hill for a block - a few from the sidewalk to the building - maybe 10. Then 10 more before the stairs did an abrupt 180 and then 10 more. After that I said, I love you but this is the last time I help you move.

Love the story about the restaurant discovery. No, it never pays to disillusion them that we were young once.

Happy - I moved here in 1974 and the Shamrock was still a going concern. Fun that you got to swim there. I know just where you were. Lots of apartments to the East & West of that now are owned by churches & the med center to provide housing for families that come to MD Anderson for long term treatment. My docs are all in the Med Center so I'm down that way frequently. I always lived NW outside the Loop off Hwy 290 towards Austin. Of course when I moved here, there was no hwy 290, only Hempstead Hwy. IHouston was a boom town. Guys with a pick up would load up with Sunday Houston newspapers at midnight Saturday and drive straight through to Detroit & other midwest towns with the 'help wanted' ads. No internet of course. I'm somewhat of an anomaly since I never did mind the heat or the humidity. Of course tent camping in August is a bit nasty, but...

Fresh mustard greens last night cooked with pickled pork. Delicious with sprinkled pepper vinegar and cornbread. Also breaded and pan fried chicken fillet. One enormous chicken breast (boneless, skinless) made 5 fillets!

Good tip from recent ATK on making the fillets from large chicken breast. Cut off one third on pointed end. Slice remainder horizontally. Flatten to desired thinness.

Tonight is ribeye, boiled small potatoes with butter and sour cream and tossed romaine salad.

Eric, your story fueled a discussion between my ds and dd3. We have some interesting dorm move stories. What I liked the most was how healthy and strong I was during those days. such good memories.

Dinner last night was baked chicken with baked sweet potatoes. I used a cilantro mixture for the chicken. I have a new veggie bullit. So spiralized zuchinni. Then sauteed with garlic.

Olivia ate less than normal today, but had three meals. Meal 1 was scrambled egg and some almond-orange cake. Meal 2– meatball and a bit of focaccia bread. Meal 3– chicken falafel and lima beans. Today we went out to Lexington and bought shoes. Three pairs of shoes. For Olivia, some dress white sandals for her baptism and some everyday shoes. For me, some replacement sandals. My Birks are falling apart! They didn't have even one pair in stock! Her shoes will arrive tomorrow. Mine will arrive in a week to 10 days. The girl needs to graduate from those baby things to real shoes. Her walking was so much better when she had on a pair of test shoes.

Olivia turns one on Friday! Can you believe that? She will be baptized on June 4th. I am having 25 people to lunch following the service and coffee hour. I will come to the kitchen table to help me tweak the menu. I am deciding between a lunch and Sunday dinner.

Dinner tonight was out. My mother came to visit Olivia and wanted to take us out to dinner. I had some Rhode Island calamari and a seaweed salad. The salad doesn't have much punch anymore, so in the future I will go back to eating the cole slaw.

*susan*

susan - yay for big girl shoes for Miss Olivia - can't believe she is turning 1 already!

We spent a relaxed weekend out at the beach (in the shade for me!) condo of friends - some of you may remember that I helped renovate and redecorate a condo a few years ago - this is the same one. We ate in the whole weekend but it was fun to cook together and eat in a leisurely manner. They live on the intercoastal, so water views out the back - the husbands paddle boarded both days, we ladies explored on Sat., and relaxed on the balcony yesterday. Dinner tonight was sandwiches and a piece of Key Lime pie from the Blond Giraffe in Tavernier down in the FL Keys - I cat sat for a friend and she grabbed a frozen pie on the way home from her weekend down there this afternoon. Hands down, best KL pie ever!

Racing against the clock to get all the repairs & upkeep done to the subdivision pool before opening. The guy who usually does this is the husband of my friend who died in March, so I jumped in but we're really behind. Dinner was a salad from a bag at 10pm with an English muffin.

MOmmy, lol Budget stretchers!

Cute shoes! Olivia

Been watching Charlie, gardening, getting the Atlanta house ready to be put on the market next week, checking out SS when to retire, joined the YMCA and avoiding my Financial Advisor.

Have a camp job this summer, either in the Berkshires again or Bristol RI. Nice to be home. I LOVE not working.

Here's my budget stretcher- remember, this is a no judgement zone, lol

Ramon noodles with spinach, mushrooms, soft boiled egg, on top, sriracha sesame oil. Got the recipe from my new favorite site Budget Bytes! Love that site.

I can remember when..."Should we spend the extra money and *heat* the water for the Ramen Noodles?"

:-)

Beef stroganoff over home made egg tagliatelle (that pasta machine is lethal...too easy!) I will at least use some Greek yogurt (for my portion) instead of sour cream but hubby wants his sour cream..LOL. And he is the skinny one!

LOL Eric...heat the water for the ramen or not. Now that is a budget stretcher!

My son used to want those (he had them at a friends) and I would use my own seasoning and call them "special noodles" and he just loved them. That little packet had too much salt in it for my taste. Or I would only sprinkle a tiny bit in the noodles and add butter (no broth) and make them as "special noodles with the special seasoning" LOL!

Olivia's shoes are soooo cute. My grandbaby LOVES shoes. She is two going on 22. Here are both of my granddaughters at Easter.

Yesterday was busy. Graduation season is here and I blush when I think about how much people are spending to stay here this month! So, so make me feel less guilty, I have made mini Almond Orange Bundt Cakes as arrival "gifts." Fussy little pans. Fussy to butter. Fussy to flour. VERY VERY fussy to clean. But the results are absolutely cute as can be!

These took far longer than I had anticipated, but I persevered and make up two casseroles of a very cheesy, baked penne rigata. One will be eaten today, tonight, and probably again tomorrow, while the other is nestled in the freezer for another time of chaos.

*susan*

p.s. I vote for heating the ramen noodles with hot water.

Hubby decided that he wanted the last of the mini steaks we had in the freezer

Special K. I will look forward to your bundt report. I am now on the hunt for bundt recipes, but my preference is always going to be citrus. The report from Mr. SMT is, they are really good! Tonight's guests were asked if they would like the two cutie cakes on a platter with a bit of powdered sugar sprinkled on top. They gurgles of pleasure told me that, why yes, we will take those little cakes, please.

They are off doing a pub crawl. Yes, the 71-year old woman and her son are off to the pubs. Folks from the UK are different!

Dinner was leftover cheesy pasta. Tomorrow we have our standing reservation at Sarma so we will walk down the hill to the restaurant, eat a bit too much, and then crawl back up the hill to get home.

*susan*

April - love the pictures of the grands.

Nance - can't believe how far along you are on your garden.

Susan - I too love the little cakes. Although I don't have a mini-bundt pan, I wonder how the citrus recipe would adapt to a mini cupcake pan? Or would they be too dense? Please forward if you think I should try it. There was a time of my life when I had a "local" and played darts regularly in several pubs. Hmmm, maybe more 'dives' instead of pubs.

Eric - love the ramen hot or cold story. When I was in college & lived in a dorm, I kept Carl Buddig chipped beef on the ledge outside the window in the winter. We had no fridge. It was often my dinner when I was studying late. Looking at the Carl Buddig archives, a package was around $0.39.

I think most any cake can be done as a muffin, or a cake, or whatever! Give it a try!

http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com.br...

And that reminds me that I still owe someone the Greek Lemon Potato recipe. I will I will....

*susan*

Thanks Susan. I'll have to get some Almond Meal, but otherwise I can proceed.

Looking forward to your Greek Potato recipe. I looked up several but didn't really understand the differences.

Carole - I've been following the news about your statues. We are in the middle of changing all the names of our schools. The alumni who are 70-80 years old & still very active are really pissed. I'm not from the South, but I do see both sides.