So...whats for dinner?

I Googled "name day," and realize why most of my people never heard of it: Judaism doesn't have "saints" per se (the term gets used in the Talmud to describe the ultra-righteous of the earth, but they don't perform miracles--Moses notwithstanding--nor do we pray to them). And in our traditiion (at least Ashkenazic), we don't name kids after either saints or people still living--rather, after beloved dead people (usually relatives). Illimae, congrats on having two celebrations: one, your birthday; the other in honor of the saint after which you were named.

I don't have an appetite today--even though I don't have a fever I ate & drank so much stuff I shouldn't have that it's coming back to bite me (at least, guilt-wise). Might make an egg later. If I feel well enough for brunch tomorrow, no alcohol--it can make side effects worse.

I have not been posting because I have been painting! I am really, really tired of painting and now realize why people downsize, lol! When we moved into this house it was five years old and except for the living room, which was baby poop gold-ish brown, everything was builder's beige. We had the living and dining room painted professionally because they both have very high ceilings - too scary on the ladder. They are now slightly darker shades of beige. The kitchen is latte colored and was just repainted with same on this latest project. We have an accent wall that runs the length of one side of the house and is shared by two rooms as there is an arched opening half way down the wall and it was a shade called fennel - a light sage type green. It is now sea salt - a Sherwin Williams color that is a cross between gray and pale aqua. It goes with the throw pillows and art that are with the new sectional and rug in that room. We painted the back room, aside from the accent wall, a light cool toned cream and hung 2" slat blinds in place of the drapery - three blinds across the openings since they are 100" across, and also painted some other small spaces that had that original color - the small hallway between the two guest rooms and guest bath, two walls of the primary bathroom, the butler's pantry. I have also painted several miles of baseboard, lol! I am over it. The great news is that my third and final new glass door arrived and now all I am waiting for is the install date - yay! I had some trim guys come and work up a quote for crown moulding in these newly painted rooms, but they haven't sent the estimate yet. The front half of the house has crown, back half doesn't - don't know why... They will also make me some crown topped wooden valances to replace the fabric ones I tore down that don't match any of the new furniture. Now if I could only get the new fridge I bought in January... latest word is November. Good thing I have a fridge that works, right?

Still playing my own version of "Chopped" as I have not really bought any groceries (too busy painting) other than a stop at the brand new Aldi for a few produce items and to use the Grand Opening coupon before it expired. I was underwhelmed and prob won't go back. I have some bulk spicy turkey sausage I need to cook - might put it on the cauliflower pizza crust with pesto, artichoke hearts and cheese.

illimae - Happy Late Name Day! I like your list of name sharing peeps - pretty eclectic!

Last night's dinner was chili made with a variety of canned beans. Side was a salad with tomato, cucumber, avocado, blue cheese and kalamata olives. Very tasty. Leftovers for another meal or two.

minus, “beach house” sounds wonderful. Lots of family stories, one being that my grandfather was a count but occupation and invasions ended the monarchy and I’m told some were actively being sought out, which is one of the reasons they came to the US. I’ve seen photos of a family estate, not nearly as grand as the English ones but information is so hard to find to to lost or destroyed records and not speaking or reading Hungarian myself. The same grandfather was an engineer for RCA and had a repair shop in Manhattan until the mob burned it down for a 2nd time.The stories are fun though.

So it's the "eat tomatoes before they rot" phase of summer. We never had such a bumper crop (even with 6 plants in years past rather than the 5 we have now), and never had such a weird growing season. Nothing ripened till the second week of July, and we barely had many green ones till the end of June. But the fourth week of July saw sudden simultaneous ripening, and 2/3 of our potential crop has been harvested by now. We usually have a few ripening on the windowsill, after growing season has ended, into Oct. or even early Nov., but at this rate everything may be gone a week, maybe two, after Labor Day.

So my brunch was a quick & dirty "pizza" made of a slice of low-carb toast, half a Cherokee Purple, a bunch of basil and a slice of Provolone on top, nuked for 20 seconds. Dinner will be a "Caulipower" brand chicken/broccoli/pesto bowl, with the rest of the tomato (and maybe part of another ripe one) stirred in with extra basil. (Yesterday's brunch at Cellars was avocado toast--sourdough--with fried eggs and a cucumber salad; dinner was a nuked beef hot dog on a keto bun).

ChiSandy, I, too, have tomatoes -- and also green peppers -- to eat before they rot. A minister friend whose church usually feeds 200 on the weekends only had 100 show up, so she had a ton of produce to give away.

Using those and recipes for Enraged Penne and Chicken-Soppy-Joe-Bake as jumping-off points, I'll be making a garlicky, spicy pasta, chicken, and cheese tomato sauce dish tonight. Hopefully I can wing it to deliciousness. But really, if the sound of it keeps my DH from heading to McDonalds or Five Guys yet again, I'll consider it a win!

What to do with all the green peppers, though? I have no idea. My kid hates the taste of peppers, and my husband won't eat them if he can see them unless there's a dip to smother them in.

minus - I looked at the tradewinds color - it is really similar to sea salt! We just painted the one long wall in that, but it is funny that if you used the Behr color beach house, it is very similar to the color on the other walls where the sea salt accent wall is - great minds think alike!

saltmarsh - the double edged sword of getting to repaint is the actual painting - my house has really tall walls - DH and I usually split the difference and he cuts in and paints high, I cut in and paint low - team work makes the dream work, lol! It is nice to see everything looking refreshed. Funny story, that I told on this thread at the time. A few years ago I was having 17 people over for Thanksgiving. On the night before I was seized with a wild hair and decided I had to re-do the bedroom immediately. Not because it really needed it, but because I had looked at it for so long from the bed recovering from many surgeries and chemo, I couldn't take it for another minute! My very patient husband changed out curtains, I bought a chair at Pier 1 moments before closing, and linens and throw pillows, photo frames, and decor items and we changed the whole look in a few hours. Those were hours that I should have been cooking for the following day, but it all worked out. This bedroom is one of the last things to paint, and I am not changing the color scheme - light gray, cream, and a little soft yellow - just painting yet another accent wall (in a color called the big chill) and changing out the 1" metal mini blinds that are 20 years old for 2" wood ones in white. We are having French doors installed in place of the narrow and very tall slider in this room and will also put those blinds on the window part of those doors. That door goes out to the covered lanai and pool so it will be nice to look out the French doors to that vista. On the pepper dilemma, any thoughts about cheesesteak sammies with mushrooms and peppers? Peppers might be more appealing if they have cheese on top. My DH is not so much a pepper fan but will also eat them in a penne dish with spicy marinara and Italian sausage. I put peppers in chili also, which if it is too warm outside for a chili mood you could always freeze for another time.

chisandy - your sourdough mention reminds me to say that of the limited things I purchased at Aldi I did buy a loaf of sourdough and it was really good!

Just got the call from the door installer - the earliest opening for the two-day install is right as we planned to leave for Colorado, so now we have to wait until Oct. 7-8 to get this done. Bleh. We are driving to see our son that we have not seen for two years, and meet up with my BFF that I have not seen since Jan of 2020. We are all vaccinated and have been careful with masking so hopefully it will be safe. I have an estimate coming for crown moulding and crown valances that are supposed to be happening when we get back. Now that will be pushed back unless they can be doing the crown in the other rooms so that both things are not happening in the same space. That means there will be total chaos in my house right as we come back from vacation. Somehow I am thinking any relaxed vibe leftover from the trip will disappear instantly.

minus - ah, the SW beach house is similar to my kitchen color, desert fortress - which is Valspar, and I have one bathroom done in realist beige - which is SW, and is similar but a tiny bit more gray. I am fortunate to have Home Depot, Lowe's and SW within a stone's throw from my house. I had to match existing shower tile in the bathroom and the desert fortress was too dark. My floor is 16x16 tile and looks like travertine with shades of cream, beiges and grays so that was a good match. That floor is in the kitchen too and my granite has black and that same beige/tan color so the dark beige/tan color looks good with it. As much as I wish you did not suffer with CIPN, I'm glad for you that you did not have to do the painting yourself!

Edited to add that I should probably talk about dinner rather than paint - tonight is pan seared boneless pork chops, roasted sweet potato chunks with brown sugar, cinnamon and pineapple, and broccoli with lemon olive oil. Last night was a alfredo cavatappi dish with some leftover ham and peas, topped with Italian bread crumbs. DH was alarmed for a minute because he said it didn't have much flavor - despite the addition of onion, some chicken base, Asiago cheese, Monterey Jack, salt and pepper. He thought he had lost his sense of taste due to Covid, but it was just that it was a bit bland despite all of the adds. He put some Frank's hot sauce on and all was well, lol!

chisandy - I am a curious person by nature, and my mom did the OG WW version too, so I checked and you can get vegetable flakes from Amazon.

Bob was going to bring more tomatoes to the office tonight, but the storms knocked out power to the SW suburbs again overnight. So I’m gonna have to eat some (couldn’t handle the thought of having them with breakfast). Maybe make zoodles with fresh raw tomato/basil sauce & pecorino Romano tonight (just me, Bob has a doctors-only drug company dinner tonight). Don’t feel like stinking up the kitchen with fish again (I don’t mind, but my HK does and she had her hands full cleaning up the basement after the sewer back-up receded), so I’ll freeze the remaining branzino. It’ll almost certainly storm again tonight, so no grilling

We left Leadville, CO yesterday, stayed at the night at Cortez, CO and then made it home tonight.

At Hope Pass, during the day, the weather went from almost warm and sunny, to rain to hail and then back to almost warm. The next morning it was just below freezing with 50-60mph (80-100kph) winds.

Today, when we were unloading the camper in the 109F/43C Phoenix temperatures, it was almost amusing as we were bringing in all the "warmies" (warm clothes), all of which were used in our effort to keep ourselves warm.

Llamas are used to pack the aid station supplies and tents up to Hope Pass. While we were there, a couple of llamas got into a tussle, which was interesting to watch--mostly whacking each other with their necks. My guess is that one llama told the other, "Your mamma was an alpaca". :-)

Yum to all of you It is way too hot to go outside, so I've been bringing in vegetables from my garden and keeping it simple. For breakfast yesterday and today, three easy over eggs from the farmer's market. They keep me full for a long time. Then, for dinner last night, a casserole of those pesky yellow squash and zucchini. I've also been enjoying a no-cook soup of black beans and salsa topped with plain Greek yogurt, and avocados.

I'm still a lunatic and working, and potentially setting out to a hospital in NYC to help the employees for three months. Yes, I had covid before the vaccines were available and it stunk, but I think that I can help.

I am so glad that you all are still here, and look at the reading group regularly for book suggestions.

Thank you all for keeping up this thread.

I can't thank you all individually, but you know who you are, and thank you to those who I don't know as well, as .. well lol

Been "offsite" for awhile here, but having fun reading about everyone's food and other adventures. August has been busy with my daughter visiting from NYC (had not seen her since Dec 2019), roadtrip to NE Ohio to visit friends and family and friends from NE Ohio visiting here earlier this week. Lots of good eating - veggie lasagna, roasted cauliflower, salmon croquettes, BBQ grilled chicken, grilled mahi mahi, portobello mushroom "burger" to name a few. On Tues. evening went to a german restaurant in Cincinnati for pork schnitzel, potato pancakes and hot slaw. Tomorrow, lunching with a former co-worker at a place called Taste of Belgium - mussels, frites, galettes, waffles on the menu (plus more) - decisions, decisions. Having a new Trader Joe's near us has been wonderful!

Had an Aperol Spritz and galette made with ham, gruyere and a sunny side up egg, plus mixed greens on the side for lunch today (plus a few of my companion's frites). Dinner will be "cold" food, since it is so hot/humid here - Trader Joe's grilled lemon pepper chicken along with an organic broccoli/dried organic cranberry salad made yesterday. Found a dressing recipe that was originally for broccoli slaw and used for the broccoli salad. Here's the recipe: 1/4 cup mayo, 3 TBSP EVOO, 1.5 TSP Dijon mustard + season with salt & pepper to taste.