February 2017, "What's Cooking for Dinner?"

bethk wrote:Lyn and I returned from our little 'road trip' last night ~ we had a fabulous time!

On Tuesday we drove about 2 1/2 hours south to Sarasota to meet up with Lyn's sister, Sandi, who was visiting her friend, Laurette (who is a professional clown).  We all met up at a HUGE Cuban restaurant, The Columbian, for lunch.

The menu was gigantic!  They have a house salad, the 1902 Salad, which is one of their signature items....iceburg lettuce with thick grated Swiss cheese, ham, olives, etc. and is mixed tableside.  The Swiss cheese was a deal-breaker for me but the other 3 had that ~ full dinner plate size servings.  Laurette had a cup of black bean soup that (upon sharing a taste) was one of those wonderful long-cooked, flavorful soups.  Lyn had Gazpacho and it was served with your choice of condiments added by the server ~ quite a nice presentation.  Of course, I got to taste that, also, and it was one of the most flavorful cold tomato soups I've ever tried.

I had tapas....the list went on and on.  I finally decided on the octopus (of course, it had a Spanish name to the dish that I cannot remember).  Slices of octopus were sauteed in olive oil and there were tiny yellow and purple potatoes & onions included.  It was excellent!  (in case you're wondering, it tastes like chicken!  LOL).  For my second choice I had the Picadillo Empanadas ~ a Cuban loose sloppy joe mixture wrapped in a piecrust like dough and deep fried.  Yummy!

After lunch, since we were in a large open-air shopping area, we walked over to a little French Pastrie shop because Laurette wanted us to all try an assortment of their macaron 'cookies'.  We chose an assortment of 6 and then sat down with a cup of strong (decaf) coffee to savor the flavors of those little gems! Each cookie got cut into quarters so we could taste every different one...Loved the flavors and textures of the tiny bites!



And that was the last time I remembered to take a pic of our food!

We were only gone three days but I'm tired enough to think it was longer.......have to go to the grocery store and decide what to fix for meals again.

Bugster2 wrote:OMG! Joe and Katie went to the beach and afterwards stopped at the local Mother's Market which is a health food store. I peeked into her grocery bag to see what she had come home with. Slippery elm tablets, raw almonds and apricot pits. APRICOT PITS???? What the hell??? I look at her and say "apricot pits ???" She says "Yes, they are really good for you." I look at her like she has two heads. I say "Yeah, they are really good for poisoning yourself." She now looks at me like I have two heads. She says "My brother eats them all the time." I say "Well, tell him he is poisoning himself". The trouble is that the health food industry, vitamins, supplements are totally unregulated and this is a good example. Apricot pits were a last chance remedy for people with cancer. Totally bogus, but desperate people do desperate things. Apricot pits, when eaten, turn into cyanide in the stomach. A deadly poison. Perhaps one pit won't do much harm but still a poison none the less. Any medical expert will tell you the same thing. I told her to toss them. She says she will return them. Right. When hell freezes over. I told her to tell her brother to stop eating them. I hope she did.

We may go out for Italian tonight.

bethk wrote:"health foods" in the hands of the uninformed can be a death trap......

Geesh!

NormM wrote:It will be months before I recover from the fall. I fractured my tail bone and it has to heal on it's own.  My neck is still a little stiff too. The Chorizo I got was at a grocery store but it was from D'Artagnon. It wasn't really very expensive considering.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Crybaby wrote:Liam's picture was really cute, Jimmy, but I think he looks even cuter with his hair all stuck out!!!  

Next time Tina goes to the store, ask her to pick up some static spray.  You can spray some on his hairbrush and it will help considerably.  

"Static Boy"  Looks like he stuck his finger in a light socket!
..............."Bzzzzzzzzzzt!"

bethk wrote:I've been trying to decide what to make for supper.....

Mr. Amazing has me making the decision between, "I don't know" and "I don't care".....................


So now I'm in a real quandry ~ both sound good to me!   LOL

Beth wrote:I think the hardest thing to do is to decide on a menu.....the second hardest thing is to cook for two and not have leftovers ~ I'm the one to end up eating most leftovers and I don't like them!