So...whats for dinner?

Wow. Just a few minutes ago, I was 'shopping the freezer'. I wonder if ground beef with a use by date of Aug 4, 2013, is still any good? :-) I am still amazed that this happens as we both go through the freezer every month or so and look for dinosaur meat.

A short drive from home is a 4th or 5h generation family owned place called the Cerreta Candy Company. It's both a 'factory' as well as a retail store. One year, the school bus route I drove went by their store. Nearby was a bakery, and it was one place where I always hoped to have to stop a red traffic light!

Well - no holiday celebration at Eddie Vs. Ferocious storm & we lost power for 7 hours. I ended up eating leftover cold fried rice w/mushrooms, celery, onions, rotisserie chicken bits & spinach. (yeah - weird I know. but I also enjoy cold pizza for breakfast if I have any).

Today's meal was egg salad on Hawaiian rolls, a Comice pear, a tin of smoked oysters (w/o any crackers) and more Victoria Toffee. Accompanied by a gin & tonic with a frozen cube of Meyer Lemon juice from my neighbor's tree last year.

Wally - for every day drinks mixed with tonic or orange juice I just use good old Gordons gin. If I'm doing gin on the rocks or martinis, I drink Tanqueray. I bought some of the Dutch Gin (Genever) once, but didn't care for that. And a friend gave me Bombay Sapphire - which is OK but I guess I'm more of a purist. My son prefers original Bombay so I keep that around also.

Hope you do get your snow.

Our liquor tax negates any deals on booze. We had privatized liquor stores until Costco threw a hissy. I was happy, until the state said they'd gouge us with the horrific booze tax. I'd order from California or NY, but most states have stopped shipping to WA or add in the horrific tax. DRAT. Buying spirits was like buying shoes. I have a big cabinet full but do not imbibe much (wine is my drug of choice). I'd love to try some new-to-me tequila...but the rest of the bottle would sit in the cabinet and with the tax...RANT!

Beefeater, Bombay (red/original) and Gordon's are what I have at home. I'd have to start a long thread with the rum, single malt and brandy and tequila I've sampled. Too bad my DH hates booze. Bourbon is about the only thing that I have not gotten used to. Could be the breakup I had in my 20s that included wild turkey

Apologies, I just realized there's a "what are you drinking" thread and I should drag that there. Thanks for indulging me here.

Wally - no, drinking is part of eating. We can talk about that here too. My first drink of choice was rum & coke. Before that a date on a group hayride when I was 18 offered me a drink but I told him I didn't. So he said - what about a glass of orange juice. My folks didn't drink at all & I'd never heard of screwdrivers. Needless to say I was very sick & didn't drink vodka for many years.

Special I LOVE Total Wine. They beat every other possible store in town for selection AND price. And they had great classes with wine tastings or whisky tastings or whatever along with lectures/slides about what we were tasting. I hope they will start up again next year once joining in a classroom is safe again.

Couldn't get back to sleep last night so I had rice krispies w/a banana at 4am. Eventually dropped back off for awhile. Late morning I finished the rest of the egg salad w/a spoon - no bread. Also finished the Victoria Toffee. Tonight will be guacamole with Rosemary crackers.

Dinner last night was white bean soup and a spinach salad with pear and blue cheese. I am thawing a chicken to roast for dinner tonight.

Last night was leftover lamb. Tonight I'll roast some purple potatoes and make fried eggs. Maybe add some green beans.

Happy Solstice!!

Well, we just took care of a lot of all of the year end tax and investment stuff. The saving habit has been such a strong habit that it's hard to change.

Last night Sharon and I were walking along an urban trail with some friends and we encountered a javelina on the trail. Eventually the javelina moved off the trail so we could continue with the walk. I was kind of surprised, but I guess I shouldn't have been as the trail goes along a wash that is also were the storm drains end. There is a lot (for the desert) of water from lawn runoff, etc., and that means lots of vegetation as well...which makes a perfect place for wildlife that doesn't mind city noises.

We are still eating the potato-leek soup I made a few days ago. It makes 8-10 servings and it tastes even better as leftovers. It is "thick" enough that I may make some large sourdough "rolls" and make them into bowls for the soup.

Special, I can sympathize with your DD. I wouldn't be surprised if I were to get "checked" I would be considered ADD. The more chaotic and high stress the situation, the better I do and the more I like it. The 90 minutes (each way) commute and long meetings were the most exhausting things on my schedule.

The cat being unhappy made me laugh. When Jessiecat was still alive, if I fed something to the dogs and forgot Jessie, he would take care of himself by walking to either dogs' bowel and convincing them to share. :-)

I agree with Minus....drinking is OK here too! There is a Total Wine store about two miles from home. When I run out of a nice ale or Sharon runs out of Labatt beer, or we need a nice wine for a fancy meal, we head up there. Still, we don't drink much, a 6 pack of beer will last most of a year and MIL takes home the remaining wine after a nice meal. As for distilled spirits...meh....except for margaritas. Sharon and DD *LOVE* margaritas.

Trying a new salad kit from HEB tonight: Blueberry/Pistachio - and I'll add pear. (baby spring mix, carrots, blueberries, pistachios, dijon tarragon dressing) To be served with another new trial - this one from Costco: Organic RIced Cauliflower Stir Fry (with peas, corn, red bell peppers, sesame ginger sauce). Bought the latter on a whim some time ago but it's been hiding in the freezer.

One of my goals is to eat stuff out of the freezer from now to the end of the year.

We finished up leftovers last night (broccoli chicken casserole and chile relleno casserole). Tonight was goo-lolli and slaw. Dessert just baked chocolate chip cookies.

Agreeing with Eric about pressure cookers!!

Beaverntx, did you make the chile relleno casserole? I would like your recipe if you don't mind sharing. I often order chile rellenos when I try out a new Mexican restaurant but the dish never comes close to a meal I enjoyed in Cancun years ago.

I was out and about yesterday and used up my energy for dealing with the thawed whole chicken. We had leftover pot roast and veggies instead, with the addition of frozen peas. It was really good the second time around. Side was a large tossed salad with our favorite ingredients. Tonight will be the roasted chicken and a side dish made with artichoke hearts and bagged dressing mix. Probably a salad, too.

I'm working my way slowly through the collection of recipe books. The stack of keepers is amazingly small so far. There are associations with each book, a gift from so and so, etc. I will donate the discards to Friends of the Library for their second hand book store. If there is a recipe or two I have made and liked, I'm copying them on a card. My main enjoyment of recipe books has been reading them when they were acquired.

Where we are hoping to move, the internet connectivity is likely to be far worse than here and getting stuff "on-line" might not be so easy.

Sharon and I both hold commercial driver licenses and can drive the "big trucks", so it shouldn't take too many trips to move the cookbooks. :-)

Wally - I have a small package of Copper River smoked salmon that my son sent. Saving it for a special occasion.

But not only salmon - what about Dungeness Crab. I try to plan any trips to west coast locations based on the season for Dungeness. No other crab like it anywhere!!

I'm another big fan of Dungeness crab. They're easier to pick out the meat than our blue crabs.

Took me a bit to round up the recipe but here it is:

Chiles Rellenos Casserole

Adapted from recipe by Alyson Moreland Haynes

Published in Cooking Light

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cook ½ pound ground turkey and 1 cup onion, chopped in nonstick skillet on medium-high until browned and crumbly. Remove from heat and add 1 3/4 tsp ground cumin, 1 ½ tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, 1 (16 ounce) can fat-free refried beans. Stir well, set aside.

Using either 2 (4 ounce) cans whole green chiles, drained and cut lengthwise into quarters OR 2 (4.5 ounce) cans chopped green chiles*, arrange half the chiles in an 11x7 baking dish; top with ½ cup preshredded Colby-Jack cheese**. Spoon mounds of the turkey mixture over the cheese, spread gently leaving a ¼ inch border around the edge of the dish. Top with 1 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained. Arrange rest of green chiles on top of corn and top with an additional ½ cup of cheese.

Mix together 1 1/3 cups low fat milk, 1/8 tsp hot sauce, 3 eggs (lightly beaten). In a bowl, combine 1/3 cup all purpose flour ***and ¼ tsp salt; gradually add milk mixture stirring with a whisk until blended. Pour over casserole

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until set; let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Garnish with red onion slices and chopped cilantro, if desired

Serve with sour cream and chunky salsa, if desired.

Serves 6

*I use the starred option

** I have also used shredded cheddar and or shredded Mexican.

**Gluten free measure for measure flour also works well