August, 2020 ~ ~ A HOT Time in the Old Town Every Night!

DD#1 mentioned she was grilling wings for their supper ~ and when I opened the freezer, there, right in front, was a package of wings! No problem making a decision of what to fix for supper.....

Gonna make a couple 'baby' meatloafs today.

Even though it's hot enough to cook an egg on the courtyard concrete I'm still going to turn on the oven and bake off my meatloaf......or maybe I'll do them on a rack on the gas grill....Hmmmm, gotta think on this one.

Joe knows about hot concrete. He blistered the bottom of his foot walking on our deck. I don't know what is for dinner. It was so hot in the house yesterday that my bag of Reese' PB cups melted. We had the air on some of the day. We had to turn it on twice in the middle of the night because we couldn't sleep. It was 85 on the second floor.

I was thinking "Why don't they just turn it on and leave it???" And then I realized that there is danger of power failures in CA............... So stay safe, everyone.

My cooking method was decided when I found nice parsnips at Fresh Market this afternoon.....since I was going to roast parsnips & carrots along with the meat loafs it made more sense to do them in the oven.

Dane actually complimented me on tonight's meatloaf. He likes when I use a lot of vegetables to 'bulk out' the meat. It surprised me I got it to all hold together, I had so much veg/meat ratio. But it was tasty and the parsnips & carrots meant I didn't need another starch so potatoes weren't on the menu.

Cookin Lore wrote:I was thinking "Why don't they just turn it on and leave it???"  And then I realized that there is danger of power failures in CA............... So stay safe, everyone.  

Yes, we have rolling blackouts here but whether or not we use the A/C has nothing to do with it. I just like to keep the electric bill down.

Parsnips! I hate parsnips! They taste like rotten carrots to me but if you like them then roasted carrots and parsnips sound great. I love roasted carrots.

Charlie discovered a new (for us anyway) Korean restaurant and it has fried chicken like we have made a few times, but not lately. It is crispy with a sweet ginger glaze. This was taken after dinner and are the leftovers.

NormM wrote:Charlie discovered a new (for us anyway) Korean restaurant and it has fried chicken like we have made a few times, but not lately. It is crispy with a sweet ginger glaze.  This was taken after dinner and are the leftovers.

It's great to find an alternative to the Korean chicken that you don't have to mess around with all the deep frying fat. You get to make the sides and enjoy the meal!

It is going to be wretchedly hot today and worse tomorrow. 106 and 110 and we have humidity. I saw a fire tornado on the news yesterday up near Reno. My sister's power was out for 12 hours due to lightning strikes. She couldn't get her pool cover open. She just had to tough it out.

I am being brave today and am slapping on some ribs on the smoker. Made some potato salad and have corn on the cob.

Got to go to Petsmart today and buy a high sided litter box. One of Katie's cats is very enthusiastic and slings cat litter everywhere.

Bugster2 wrote:

Got to go to Petsmart today and buy a high sided litter box. One of Katie's cats is very enthusiastic and slings cat litter everywhere.

DD#2 had room in her basement for the litter boxes. She bought inexpensive children's plastic pools to put the litter boxes in. It sure stopped the tracking of litter all over.

bethk wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:

Got to go to Petsmart today and buy a high sided litter box. One of Katie's cats is very enthusiastic and slings cat litter everywhere.

DD#2 had room in her basement for the litter boxes.  She bought inexpensive children's plastic pools to put the litter boxes in.  It sure stopped the tracking of litter all over.

What a great idea. I don't have room for a pool but a litter mat and high sides helps. It will never go away.

Our contractor when we had our house remodeled needed someone to assist on a job. He called Dane and asked if he'd like to help out (for pay....). Dane thought it sounded like a good idea so he started today. Personally, I'd rather he didn't but if he wants to 'work with the guys', who am I to say, "No"?

Today was his first day on the job (should be a couple weeks or less) so I thought he'd want a light meal ~ came up with shrimp & vegetable spaghetti. He thought it was just right. Win-Win!

Looks delicious!

You aren't going to believe this one. Katie has 2 friends from her bunny days. One lives in Atlanta and one lives out here in SoCal. Both went in for Covid tests. The line ere so long and the heat was too much so they gave up and went home. A few days later both received letters saying they both tested positive for Covid. What the heck?

Bugster2 wrote:Looks delicious!

You aren't going to believe this one. Katie has 2 friends from her bunny days. One lives in Atlanta and one lives out here in SoCal. Both went in for Covid tests. The line ere so long and the heat was too much so they gave up and went home. A few days later both received letters saying they both tested positive for Covid. What the heck?

Dear Lord.... What a messed up system. I can imagine mail ballot voting / counting!

I think I found out about the testing. It is happening all over the place. This is how it goes:

You go in for a Covid test. You fill out the paperwork. You are given a number. You wait and wait and finally give up and leave. The people giving the test aren't checking the numbers. So what is happening is that you are getting the results from the person behind you. That means no one is getting the correct results and those that got a false negative are going around spreading the virus. It is happening big time in Florida. Wonderful.

I made something different and time consuming yesterday.  A dish that my mom was expert in, and is a happy childhood memory for everyone in my family.  Including visitors.  It is a "strudel", but no, not a sweet/fruit filled pastry, but a rolled pasta.  It comes from my family's German history in Romania before WWII..................................

You make a dough, flour,water, a bit of oil, a bit of salt, basically like a pizza dough.  Once nice and silky, but pliable, you cover it loosely with plastic wrap, let it rest about 45 min.  In that time, you sautee a couple of med. onions in a Dutch oven type of pot.  Peel and slice maybe 8 med. potatoes, once onions are golden, add potatoes, s/p, and mix well. Set aside in pot.

Then to the pasta strudel.  Divide the dough into three or four smaller balls, each approx 8-10 OZ, roll out like a pizza .  Once relatively thin, put on a bit of oil, maybe a tablespoon so that the whole surface has an oil covering. Then, you pick it up, and using hands holding the edges keep moving fingers around the edge so that the weight of the dough keeps stretching the dough piece, hopefully without getting holes in it.  Eventually, you end up having the dough on your closed fists, as you keep trying to stretch it.  I had to lay it down on my island and then keep trying to make the edges thinner.
My mom used to be able to make it so thin that you could read a newspaper through it.  Yes, we did that. LOL. Now, for the actual strudel.  
(Strudel is also the word for water with perhaps some whirlpools or small rapids.?
Once the dough is thin, you roll that thin dough into a long roll about 2-3 inches wide, cut into smaller lengths, 4-6 inches.  

Now you put the pot with the potatoes on the burner, add enough water so that you can see the water almost to the top of the potatoes but not covering them, crank up the heat to bring water to a boil..  Now you add the pieces of the pasta on top of them putting them so that there are little spaces between them, in layers.  Pasta (strudel) will be cooked by the steam from the water.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and let it cook (covered) until all the water is absorbed and you can smell that the potatoes are starting to crisp up.  

We generally had it with some kind of meat and gravy.  I made a small beef roast, one of my friends always made chicken.  When you cut into the individual pieces of the pasta, you should be able to see the layers made by rolling it.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to add pictures here, but if someone is savyy in doing it, I can email or text you a couple of pictures.

That sounds SO interesting, Lore. I doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of before.

I'm sending you a PM (private message) with my email address. If you include pictures I'll happily post them here. Thanks!

I would love to see pics of the strudel. I have never heard of that before.

Got to close all of the shutters and drapes today. They say it will be 111 degrees. Yikes! It could be worse. Death Valley was 130 yesterday.

bethk wrote:That sounds SO interesting, Lore.  I doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of before.

I'm sending you a PM (private message) with my email address.  If you include pictures I'll happily post them here.  Thanks!

I tried sending an email, must have done something wrong. send me a mail to loredieters@gmail.com so I get it right. Thanks.

It's been wonderful that Dane's been going to 'work' (a part-time job for our contractor) this week. I so enjoy having the house all to myself. No one in my way when I want to do something......or in my way when I want to do nothing. LOL

I thawed out some pork steak and just did a simple braise with boiled potatoes & asparagus. He inhaled his meal. He didn't want any more than I made but he sure did make short work of it!

Had two burgers DD cooked on the grill. NO BUN
rotelli low carb pasta with arugula ....
A whole grain raisin cookie. Way too sweet!

We had a Costco rotisserie chicken for lunch and leftover ribs for dinner with a bacon ranch pasta salad. I had to use up some heavy cream so I made butterscotch pots de creme.