So...whats for dinner?

All this talk about tuna had me craving it bad. I love tuna salad on saltines, so I had that yesterday. Tonight I used the remaining mix for a tuna melt with salad.

elderberry - regarding The Salsa Chicken & liquid in the instant pot - I use Mrs. Renfro's Green Salsa. A jar is 16 oz and mostly liquid. But I expect you could NOT drain the liquid from the can of beans. For those trying to do a conversion, how long would you have to cook?

There is no television reception here either, which is just like when I grew up. I still prefer radio over television because I can be doing other things while listening to the radio. The television is still in storage (in Phoenix) and will likely be one of the last things to come up.

I knew the telephone and internet connectivity would be a problem until the phone company got the service established, so I made sure the first load of stuff coming up had the gear I needed to at least eke out some faint semblance of cell phone/internet capability. We also made sure the first load of stuff coming to the new house included several boxes of books. :-)

It is a bit more than 12 miles/20km, one way, to town and 30 miles/50km to the larger town (also one way distance), so being able to call or check online with a store before driving there saved a lot of $4.98 per gallon gasoline.

Kotchaj, thank you from Sharon and I for the recipe. Sharon likes to combine pasta with zucchini, so I printed out the recipe for her. Her mom (my MIL) is up here to see the layout of the place before she moves in with us and she also likes zucchini mixed in with pasta.

We need a couple more things before we can make the tuna melt, so it will wait until we go to town for groceries or "something else". I agree that Illimae's picture looks amazing.

Thanks Carole. I had a ceramic from Pampered chef that cracked on me, so I have been leery. I may look into the stainless one. I love the grill idea.

Eric, here I thought we lived in a "godforsaken wasteland" ...no TV would be a deal breaker for me. Well, that and the heat .

I just oven cooked up bacon while everything is cool and cloudy. Made cauliflower, bacon, cheese, red onion, lettuce shreds salad. We'll see if it becomes a side or a main meal. My neighbor in WI gave me that recipe, long ago, and I love it! She also gave me a southwestern bean salad which reminds me, I should make that.

Wally - I'd like your cauliflower salad recipe if you would share.

Minus, I know you must have loved having your son's company during his visit.

I watched an interesting cabbage and beef recipe on Facebook. The cabbage was sliced into two pieces, the top piece about 1/3 of the globe. The bottom piece is hollowed out. Then filled with small meatballs. A cup of homemade red sauce is poured into the cabbage and around it in a baking dish. Top replaced on the cabbage. Wrapped in foil and baked for 90 minutes. I might try this next winter if I remember.

The eggplant layered dish was as delicious as always. I had a moment's worry when I was spooning the Rao's roasted garlic marinara. It did smell garlicky. The cheese was mozzarella and some of my remaining fresh grated romano that I brought north with me. The side was a tasty tossed salad with the home-grown romaine I was given at the farmers market. One of the nearby vendors is a farmer who gives away some items she doesn't sell. I should post a picture of her booth. It's beautiful with the veggies displayed very artfully.

Two times I lost a post. It's not the fault of BCO, but a problem with my web browser. I need to see if there is an upgrade. I had not used the computer for the month there was no internet service able to handle the updates, so it's likely the system isn't fully updated.

I recently unpacked the plett pan, so, for breakfast this morning I made plett, which is a very rich pancake type batter (lots of cream, butter, eggs and whole milk) put into the 1/4 inch deep 3 inch diameter flat bottomed depressions in the pan and cooked pretty much like a pancake. Huckleberry syrup was perfect.

Dinner last night was spaghetti with store bought marinara sauce (store brand) augmented with lots of mushrooms, a hot pepper and sweet peppers.

Wallycat, the post about putting the crockpot outside to keep the heat out of the kitchen made me laugh a bit. In Phoenix, at least in the summer, it wouldn't be necessary to turn it on. A Phoenix area postal worker posted a video of a steak in a bag cooking on the dash of their truck and showed it was done to "medium" before noon. I wonder if the worker got into trouble for that. :-)

eric, it's the first time I heard of a plett and it sounds heavenly! Not sure if I ever had huckleberry syrup—I may have—but I googled it and it sounds right up my alley.

A teacher for whom I was an aide for several years recently retired. Her husband bought 50 steaks to grill for her retirement party. She retired early, apparently does not have to worry about money! I'm not a big steak fan; only eat it on occasion. I'm also not a big hamburger fan and truth be told, my favorite kind are either a cheeseburger or quarter pounder from McDonald's, and not very often. Still, for the 4th, our son and dh's son and family will be in. Usually I buy cheap-o burgers but this year I bought Bubba Burgers, $30.00 for twelve frozen patties (would love to know what 50 steaks cost!). But apparently Bubbas is one of the better frozen burgers. We'll see. And Ballpark beef hotdogs are the only kind I eat. When I go to covered-dish picnics, I never waste my taste buds on burgers and dogs. I always like trying the variety of other foods everyone brings. I can get burger and dogs any time.

Wallycat, I've had that cauliflower salad before and it's delish!

Thank Wally. I like mine thick too. But it I want it thinner maybe I can add a bit of sour cream.

Eric - I totally agree with Devine. I too had to look up plett. I've always loved Swedish pancakes but only had "frying pan" sized that are rolled up. Devine - I really like lignonberry jam with Swedish pancakes.

Eric, from your description, "plett" sound very similar to ebelskivers, which are Danish. What browser have you been using? Microsoft has "orphaned" Internet Explorer. I use Safari (and even did on a desktop PC) and occssionally Chrome. Bob still uses IE on his ancient Sony VAIO laptop (so old it burns CDs) but will soon have to migrate to Edge, MS' new browser.

My recording engineer & his wife, who live on their farm a few miles outside downstate Sparta, IL, are too far from St. Louis to pick up its TV stations' signals with just indoor antennas (they don't want to put up a roof antenna). No cable company was willing to run cable from Sparta to them, as they'd have needed miles of it. So the only TV they have is DirecTV, with satellite internet. They don't get local news, only what's in their satellite package--so they read the Post-Dispatch and watch MSNBC, BBC, and (mostly) Al Jazeera America. When I last stayed with them to record (most recently, 8 years ago), I used my cellphone as a hotspot for my (then) MacBook Air (since replaced as a road computer by a cellular iPadPro with keyboard case).

Sunday night I committed attempted grilling upon that defrosted Wild Fork duck breast. I grilled because I could (and didn't want to deal in the kitchen with rendered fat from the skin). So I followed the "oven" directions, turning off one gas grill burner and partly closing the grill lid while I went inside and nuked the rapini. Bad idea--I learned that if you're going to grill a duck breast you'd best stand over it with a timer & a thermometer. I incinerated the skin. The meat was medium-well. (I prefer my duck breast rare). It was still palatable.

Monday night we killed off most of the Palm leftovers. Last night I grilled Copper River salmon (on special from Hooked on Fish) and asparagus, sauteed snap peas, and started with a small Caprese salad. Gave Bob all the hashbrowns. Tonight he offered to go out to Calo for the grilled seafood salad, but I wanted to cook the halibut I bought along with the salmon (it was twice the price of the salmon) and enjoy it fresh. The half-pound I bought was quite thick. I decided not to mess with oiling the grates, so instead I folded some foil into a sort of pan which I greased with grapeseed oil. I seasoned the fish on all sides (after cutting it in two) with salt & pepper and brushed the flesh with the oil that had risen to the top of a jar of chimichurri (from the Artango Argentine steakhouse, sold at my neighborhood farmers' market). Indoors, I sauteed broccolini in olive oil with shaved garlic, lemon juice, salt & red pepper flakes. I made a Caprese again with an heirloom tomato. (I have now harvested three cherry tomatoes...not gonna be a bumper crop, unlike the black raspberries which are ripening like crazy). We also made it a surf & turf of sorts because I had about 2 oz. of leftover porterhouse. And I nuked a package of Wild Fork cauliflower mash, over which I grated some of the Australian black truffle (Perigord-species, because it's winter down under) I got on sale from Urbani. (Grated it over scrambled eggs with chives from my garden for lunch). Maybe it's me, but I can't really tell the difference between a true black winter truffle (tuber melanosporum, either January from Perigord or June from Australia) and a much cheaper Italian summer black(ish) truffle (tuber aestivum). Now, Alba white truffles are divine--but they are insanely costly and have a very short season because they can't be farmed.

We "broke in" our new ceramic pizza stone last night without breaking it. I had bought a freshly made pizza from Dad's Pizza earlier in the day. We baked it in the outdoor gas grill. We placed the stone on the grid in the cold grill, lit the two outside burners and heated up the stone. Placed the pizza on the stone, closed the top, and rotated a quarter turn after each 5 minutes. The pizza crust was overdone but I like a crisp crust. Next time we will feel more competent about the procedure.

It's good to know we can cook our own pizza without a house oven.

Last night's dinner was take out broasted chicken, dark meat, from Clancy's and homemade coleslaw made with slivered fresh cabbage.

Last of the caulif/bacon/lettuce/cheese salad and I'll flesh it out with tuna (fish) salad, LOL and microwave some corn on the cob. I swear microwaving corn is a game changer!

I will be interested to hear Wally's method. I'm lazy, I strip off all the husks & silk, wrap individually in wax paper and microwave on high. 4-5 minutes for 2 ears. 7-8 minutes for 4 ears. Err on the side of a little shorter time until you get the feel of your own microwave.

Thanks for the other autobiography referrals Devine. I also recently enjoyed Matrix by Lauren Groff, although I don't expect this historical fiction about Marie de France being 'consigned' to a 12th century nunnery by Eleanor of Aquitaine will be a big drawing point for many. (yup - my reading is as weird as my eating).

Two leftover Hawaiian sliders for dunch. I did buy a watermelon & cut it up. Looking forward to that tonight.

Last night was the leftover eggplant casserole. Also large dice salad turnips sauteed in a skillet with fresh spinach from the generous farmer/vendor. And a tossed salad with home-grown romaine and additions, the romaine also from the vendor. Turned out to be quite a tasty dinner.

I'm hoping that tonight's dinner will be plates of food from the potluck dinner this afternoon that we won't be attending. DH tested positive for Covid yesterday and it's probably only a matter of time before I test positive, too. There is no isolating in a camper. He is taking Pavlovid for 5 days. So far he feels about the way he would feel with a bad cold and cough.

I am trying to ventilate the camper as much as I can but he tends to be colder than I am. Right now I am wearing shorts and tee shirt while he wears flannel pajama bottoms, long sleeved shirt and socks. We both have had all the vaccination shots available.