March 2017, What's cooking For Dinner?

bethk wrote:I've been sitting here since supper and trying to remember the last time I BOUGHT a pie at a grocery store.  I know Dane has ordered a single piece at a restaurant a couple times but I can't remember when I last bought a whole pie.

And it wasn't bad at all!  LOL

NormM wrote:Beth, the recipe I used said the roast would be done in 15 minutes on high but I used the setting already on the pot so it took 35 minutes. I didn't need it THAT fast.

Crybaby, they make switches that turn a metal lamp into a touch lamp.  You use a regular incandescent bulb, touch the lamp anywhere it is metal and it turns on low, medium and high then off when you touch it each time. My bedroom lights are like that and the switch just screws into the existing socket on the lamp.  I recently got a halogen lamp and the switch is variable so when you turn it on, the light is low and by continuing to turn it, it gets brighter. You may not like the light from a halogen table lamp though.

bethk wrote:Yea!  Michelle ~ good for you!

It's never too late to teach us old ladies new tricks!  Congratulations on your new found confidence.

(I wish I had had youtube years ago ~ there are some really talented and patient people out there in the world.)

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Crybaby wrote:

This may not seem like much to you but for someone who is the antithesis of "handy," I feel soooo accomplished that I might try to do some other tasks by checking out videos on YouTube to see how it's done and see if I feel gutsy enough to try it.  Please hold your applause!!!

Loved the lighting lesson. BTW....We have the same bulbs in the kitchen.

The light bulb at the fire station has now been burning for over 100 years.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:The chicken surely looks crispy. I would have no qualms about eating that!
The cherry pie has me drooling. Washington's Birthday, and I still didn't have cherry pie!

Crybaby wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Crybaby wrote:

This may not seem like much to you but for someone who is the antithesis of "handy," I feel soooo accomplished that I might try to do some other tasks by checking out videos on YouTube to see how it's done and see if I feel gutsy enough to try it.  Please hold your applause!!!

Loved the lighting lesson. BTW....We have the same bulbs in the kitchen.

Thanks, Jimmy.  Don't you just love those bulbs?

I like them, because they only use 13 watts to provide 60 watts of illumination.
We had three 100 watt bulbs in the kitchen over the island, and they were so hot ( temperature wise ).
Now with the led units, they are just slightly warm to the touch.

My refrigerator has all led lighting, and it's great!

Crybaby wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:The chicken surely looks crispy. I would have no qualms about eating that!
The cherry pie has me drooling. Washington's Birthday, and I still didn't have cherry pie!

Cherry pie is my favorite pie, Jimmy!  In fact, I've got all the "fixins" to make one and it's on our agenda.  Unlike what most people think, you don't have to use that gloppy cherry pie filling when fresh cherries are out of season to make a good cherry pie.  I buy cans of pitted tart cherries, drained with the juice reserved for use in the pie.  I also have some super dried Montmorency cherries than you can rehydrate in the canned cherry juice for use in the pie if you want to.  A while back, I got some ClearJel from King Arthur that you add in with the sugar when making the pie filling.  It thickens up the filling a bit without that yucky gluey type thickener that reminds me of canned cherries -- that way when you cut a piece of pie, the filling from the rest of the pie doesn't just slide out into the space.  

I've been doing a lot more baking since I got my KitchenAid stand mixer.  Brian loves that thing, too, and always watches me when I'm using it.  This is good 'cause I hope he gets the "baking bug"!!!

bethk wrote:I've been sitting here since supper and trying to remember the last time I BOUGHT a pie at a grocery store.  I know Dane has ordered a single piece at a restaurant a couple times but I can't remember when I last bought a whole pie.

And it wasn't bad at all!  LOL

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:I like them, because they only use 13 watts to provide 60 watts of illumination. We had three 100 watt bulbs in the kitchen over the island, and they were so hot ( temperature wise ). Now with the led units, they are just slightly warm to the touch.

Crybaby wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:I like them, because they only use 13 watts to provide 60 watts of illumination. We had three 100 watt bulbs in the kitchen over the island, and they were so hot ( temperature wise ). Now with the led units, they are just slightly warm to the touch.

That's like the halogen bulbs in the tracks I was telling Norm about, Jimmy.  Though our ceilings are very high in that room (I think they're 14 feet) and we don't "feel" the heat, those halogen bulbs throw a lot of heat.  With our climate during our endless summer, the less heat that is generated the better for our utility bill.

Speaking of utilities, last night we lost power about 7 p.m.  Brian and I were in bed already watching TV, and the lights and TV shut off.  About 8 seconds later, the generator kicked on and we laughed with each other how at least we're getting some use out of our whole house generator after spending all that money on it.  So in a flash, our lights were back on and cable TV was rebooting.  It was cold here last night with winds about 20-30 mph so Brian, who wasn't feeling really great yesterday, stayed in bed rather than running out to the balcony like a kid to see all of our neighbors in darkness like he normally does (and with DST, it was still light out anyway).  

This morning when the phone rang, I saw it was the local utility company calling.  Figuring it was a robocall about the power outage, I answered it.  Lo and behold, the recording said power had been restored to our neighborhood at 7:20 A.M.!!!!  They were asking people to call them if their power was still out.  You should've seen Brian laughing his butt off when I told him the generator must've run all night long!  Though we never sleep with heat on in the house, when he's up going to the bathroom at night, I always hear him turning on the little electric heater we have in there.  He laughed, saying he would've frozen his tush off on his trips to the bathroom if it wasn't for the generator!

NormM wrote:I made one of the gnocchi recipes in the magazine that Charlie liked.  Now that I have made it once, I am pretty sure I can do better next time.

Bugster2 wrote:Hot and muggy again so we had huli huli chicken with a pasta salad.

It is so weird to imagine that hot and muggy.
Is there not some cool periods there in CA ?