So...whats for dinner?

wallycat, my little town didn't have a McDonalds for years because a prominent, controlling resident/businessman insisted on mom and pop stores. I don't go to McD's often but there were times when not having a fast food restaurant in town was inconvenient. We had something called Hamburger Junction which served the worst food possible. They did not last long. Well, Mr. Businessman lived a very good, long life, then passed away, and within a year, McDonald's moved into the old Hamburger Junction building. It taught me how much clout and influence one person can carry in a small town. But I think he was wrong to keep McD's out. There are other restaurants here now, too, but I'm glad we also have McD's. It's forever busy and plenty of kids in town get their first job working there.

Today I tossed some potatoes from the garden in the slow cooker with a chuck roast and carrots and added the onion soup packet mixed with water. I especially love the carrots, but it all tased good and of course the simplicity of making it was probably my favorite part.

Wally, when I lived in Seattle (when dinosaurs roamed the earth back in the early '70s), there was nothing on the donut front other than a couple of Spudnuts outposts in the U. District & Green Lake and the Winchell's chain (the safest place in town because there were always cops in there). I used to dream about Dunkin' from back east. And when I was growing up in Brooklyn, the only fast food we had was either White Castle or Wetson's (home of the 17-cent burger). We didn't get Mickey D's till 1970, the same year Baskin-Robbins was a novelty with its 31 flavors--the most we'd ever encountered before was Howard Johnson's 28. We had luncheonette soda fountains and a few old-school ice cream parlors. Now, of course, HoJo's is no more--and you're lucky to find a B&R with more than five or six flavors available at any given time. Around here, they're all part of Dunkin' anyway. We didn't even get a Burger King or KFC till '72 (after we'd moved to Seattle)--for chicken, we had Chicken Delight (as the radio jingle went, "don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight" ) for fried and the kosher Meal Marts for rotisserie. I never even heard of Popeye's till I'd been in Chicago for three years--we had Brown's & Church's to compete with the Colonel.

The midwest had George Web's. I miss them. Their chili was legendary near the Marquette University campus (night school for me).

Went to Sequim (the repaving of 101 stretch finished early) after lunch to pick up my glasses. Now I'm scared to try them on for fear I have to go back

Frozen pizza (Tombstone ...good old WI brand) and a side of steamed broccoli, to make it "healthier." Plus wine. May have some grapes for dessert.

Chrisandy, that crab Louie salad sounds delicious! I didn’t have the ingredients to do that this time, but I’ll have to try it next time. Thanks for the other ideas, minustwo. DH will have to buy more crab. 😊

The crab cakes came out very good and DH really liked the Mayo-lime-garlic-sriracha sauce. I had some leftover quinoa from the stuffed tomatoes so I tossed in some macadamia nuts and fresh parsley. Tonight, we had the leftover crab cakes with a salad with romaine, tomatoes and hearts of palm.

I had a work deadline today, so I’m embarrassed to say that dinner for me last night was Biscoff cookies. Yep, just cookies to quell the hunger pangs while I slogged through a proposal document. (Sent it off today with time to spare.) DH had to fend for himself. He had a hamburger, and I wasn’t keen on that. He’s so sweet, he didn’t want to eat the rest of the crab cakes because he wanted to share them with me when we could eat together.

Mae, your dinner pic looks so good! I love Tex-Mex plates. Divine, that pic!!! The Dunkin Donut mustard donut has no appeal for me, but I’m guessing there must have been some good marketing buzz around that. Thanks for sharing what happened in your town with the McD’s. It’s a good lesson to remember. Even a “good” king is still an autocrat and for most, “power corrupts….”

Wallycat, better luck next time on your fishing expedition.

Getting back to the cookie dinner, does anyone else have trouble listening to their “future self” voice versus their “now self” voice? Although I’ve lost a lot of weight in recent months and lowered my blood pressure, I’ve felt so crappy with this yeast infection in my esophagus that I swear that the yeast cells are influencing my brain to eat sugar! My “now” voice just wants to eat what feels good and tells me lies that I should “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die”. (I think this is related to scan anxiety for me.) Now that I had good scan results, I’m back on my elliptical again and vowing to do better at listening to my future self’s voice.

I thawed a pork steak to cook for dinner but I have no enthusiasm for cooking it tonight, along with a couple of sweet potatoes. I'm thinking pizza would be so much easier. I have a frozen pizza in the freezer bought for just such a time as this.

My lunch sandwiches are delicious with slices of beautiful tomatoes. I bought five large ones today at the farmers market, cucumbers, and new potatoes. The vendor who sold me the tomatoes gifted me a pack of carrots at the end of the market. Her booth is near ours.

I spotted an article in today's WAPO about regaining your interest in cooking. I opened it up and couldn't maintain my interest in reading the article! LOL. So I'm no better off.

Yesterday I had a delicious lunch. I bought a small container of crab dip from Krogers then spread it on club crackers and had salad made with all vegetables from the garden, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli and red onion with Good Seasons Italian dressing. (Dh ribs me for erroneously referring to it as “Good Seasonings" dressing.) Anyway, I could not get enough of this tasty flavor combination and polished off the crab dip. I was full the rest of the day.

We were in Taylor today and noticed the Hatch chilies at the Bashas store. As for Show Low, we get there two or three times a month. We should be there Tuesday and we'll check on the corn. Thank you for letting us know about the corn.

I will probably get some of the Hatch chilies and pickle them. I just brought up all the canning stuff and the jars, so that will be a good "non-move" thing to do.

I'm already thinking about garden space for next season and am looking through the Native Seeds SEARCH catalog for stuff that doesn't need to be pampered to grow well in this climate.

My singing partner & I used to play a "French market" in the suburbs, which in the Chicago area is a summer Saturday morning farmers & craft market series set up at commuter rail stations. One year, someone came over with samples of bi-color corn on the cob so sweet you could eat it raw! Another year we played the Sweet Corn Festival in Sun Prairie, WI (just n. of Madison). We got paid $400 and all the corn we could haul home at the end of the day. His wife's allergic, so I ended up with 24 ears--i had to go up & down the block giving them away to neighbors.

Last night we went to L. Woods Lodge & Tap, a Chicago reimagining of a WI north woods "supper club" (knotty pine paneling, chandeliers made of antlers, trophy fish mounted on the walls, huge portions of very plain food, etc.). Not quite authentic, as there was no relish tray--a real supper club puts out next to the bread basket a little appetizer tray of cubes of Swiss cheese, pitted black olives (canned, of course), celery & carrot sticks, radishes and cottage cheese. And most supper clubs always had prime rib on the menu--L. Woods does it only on Sat. nights. We split a spinach/avocado/romaine salad. Bob's entree was a BBQ chicken & baby back rib combo with creamed spinach; I had "simply broiled" whitefish with homemade tartar sauce & steamed broccoli. Wanted walleye, but theirs was "almond-crusted:" when I pressed the waiter, he admitted it was breaded ahead of time. (Likely frozen, too). The whitefish was delicious. I had not planned to enjoy, merely endure, dinner so I was pleasantly surprised.

Today was our block party. For the brunch, I made my usual Caprese over arugula, with 2 storebought heirloom tomatoes and 2 homegrown beefsteaks, mozzarella, and homegrown basil. Dressed it with a drizzle of DOP Balsamico, blood orange EVOO, and Sicilian orange sea salt. Walked it over to the middle of our double block, went back home to get my chair and a couple bottles of bubbly--and by the time I got back there was ONE slice of tomato & mozz. left! I snagged it. Fortunately, there were three kinds of deviled eggs, prosciutto & melon, berries, and even a frittata instead of the usual quiche. So I didn't have to feel deprived or even look at the yummy baked goods on the table. At dinner time they grilled veggie burgers, cheeseburgers, & hot dogs--I brought my last two keto buns and had a cheeseburger and a hot dog. Skipped the "make-your-own-sundae" bar (and even Bob decided he'd had enough calories from the bubbly we'd brought). When we got home to feed the cats (didn't want to stay for the movie, which was some direct-to-video animated kid-friendly flick), I nuked my leftover broccoli, thereby feeling somewhat virtuous. Dessert was a couple handfuls of nuts.

Bob's working tomorrow, and it's gonna storm. Think I'll sleep in till it's time to feed the kitties.

carole - your comment about being uninspired made me laugh, as did the observation about struggling to read the WAPO article about how to get inspired!

On that note, I will say that dinners here have been convenience based rather than haute cuisine lately. DH has had late in the day taskers and has been getting home late. When he is busy he sometimes brings his lunch home and eats it for dinner, so I usually don't start something until I have determined that status - or whether he is hungry. He also sometimes eats his lunch at 3pm, because that has been his first opportunity and isn't super hungry when he gets home. Those end up being salad nights! Last week I did make him a romaine salad with large shrimp and a Louie dressing - echoes of the Crab Louie convo! That is an easy quick meal since I always have frozen cooked tail-on large shrimp - I just thaw them and pinch the tails off. DH had smoked a Boston Butt for pulled pork - it was a huge one so I had frozen quite a bit of that meat. Easy to serve it over a baked potato with BBQ sauce and Ranch drizzled over last week too. DD's birthday was Tuesday, but she had quite a fiasco on her way home from work that evening - she was almost home, driving her brand new Tesla, and she was t-boned by a guy who ran the light. He hit and ran, but she chased him. That is just who she is - are any of us surprised? She followed him long enough to relay his tag to the 911 operator, who then admonished her to go back to the scene of the accident immediately and stop chasing him. The guy stopped at one point and came to her window, but when he saw the damage he caused to both of their cars he got back in his car and took off again. His tag was a temp, and was expired, who knows if he has insurance, his car was trashed, but hers did pretty well because he hit her wheel rather than the car's body. The police know who he is though, and she is going to have to be able to identify him in a line-up. The good news is neither was injured, and she has uninsured motorist coverage. Ugh. She was so upset, she just got the car in July. In the bright spot of the day I did surprise her at work earlier in the day with a box of fancy cupcakes and got to meet all her co-workers. We had her b-day dinner the following night - pork chops, broccoli with caramelized onion cheddar cheese on top, and fried rice made with riced cauliflower and red peppers, bacon, and green onions. I made her a keto cake - the cake layer was actually very good, but the frosting had the Swerve aftertaste. I think if I made it again, I would just dust it with powdered sugar since it was densely chocolate like a flourless cake. I used almond flour instead of regular AP flour. I could also try a ganache frosting that is chilled and then whipped. Things to consider for next time. Last night we had Caulipower linguine with meat sauce that I added sauteed baby bella mushrooms to, and a small green salad with creamy Italian dressing. I have some chicken breasts thawing now, DH and DD are paddle-boarding and boating up at Rainbow River with DH's former boss who stayed local after retiring. DD has spent quite a bit of time with his family as she is friends with his daughters, so the three of them will have fun today. They always go to the same restaurant (DD can tie up the boat there) and today I think they will have patty melts and the restaurant's legendary sweet potato fries, so depending on what time they do that dinner may not happen at all, lol!

Leftovers tonight but instead of carrots, corn on the cob.

RIP Olivia Newton-John. Stupid cancer.

To put Olivia Newton-John's death into perspective, she was a 30-yr. bc survivor, going 25 years before recurrence. I don't know what kind she had (likely ER+ IDC, but not sure of HER2 status, nodes, stage or grade at first diagnosis). The real tragedy was that she was diagnosed so young, which indicates her cancer likely had a more aggressive prognosis and that she defied the odds for so long.

We also lost historian David McCullough; and for those of us who came of age in the dawn of the folk-rock era, Judith Durham of the Seekers died today of COPD & emphysema at 79. To paraphrase the hook of her biggest hit, we know we'll never find another her.

Back on topic. Dinner was leftover chicken & a riblet, supplemented with veggies (green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccolini).

Hi all

Yes it's been a sad few days here with Judith Durham and Olivia Newton- John both passing away. Just watching Grease now as they have it on TV tonight. I went to the bank yesterday to sort out my accounts and the lady that served me also has had breast cancer and still goes to the hospital that I go to for treatments. It seems to be everywhere !!!

The weather was freezing today so had soup and chicken and vegies for tea.

wally - my MIL & FIL ate venison often - FIL was a deputized game warden and would cull the resident deer on the island where they lived in SC. Prior to his moving there in '89 and requesting the deputization, they had an annual deer shoot - which consisted of a lot of drinking amongst the folks with the guns. As more houses were built on the island that became a lot more dangerous! Because he managed the herd in a responsible way, they almost always had venison in their deep freeze. For smaller pieces my MIL often ground it and made chili or sweet and sour meatballs. I made copies of all of my MIL's recipes for her five children, and I just went and counted - she had 17 deifferent recipes using venison, lol!

Last night was supposed to be chicken breast with green chilies and cheese, but DH was not hungry due to a late lunch. I made it anyway because the thawed chicken needed to be cooked. Will reheat tonight with brown rice and creamed spinach as sides.

Eric, do you have a generator? I'm totally off grid, so no power outages for me. I hope you were able to stay cool at least.

Yes, one thing at a time! I also have a generator, just in case. It comes on every Sat. for 15 minutes, just to keep it going. My hot water is "on demand". No AC, just a swamp cooler. Good luck with all of it.