What's for dinner? ~ August, 2017

Thanks Jimmy

Looks mighty fine Norm!

Thanks Debbie.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:Looks mighty fine Norm!

Deb. How's the stomach ( gastritis ) doing?

Things are better since I have been taking Protonix for acid reflux. Still can't eat any chili infused foods or anything with pepper and paprika. I may never be able to eat those things again. I have lost too much weight so I really can't do anything. I go to the grocery store and that is about it. I have to just sit and try and eat to put on weight.

Bugster2 wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:

Bugster2 wrote:Looks mighty fine Norm!

Deb. How's the stomach ( gastritis ) doing?

Things are better since I have been taking Protonix for acid reflux. Still can't eat any chili infused foods or anything with pepper and paprika. I may never be able to eat those things again. I have lost too much weight so I really can't do anything. I go to the grocery store and that is about it. I have to just sit and try and eat to put on weight.

Christine was doing great for two days, but today, she suffered. Too much spice she thinks. I have to look up that Protonix.
It is no good eating while under stress. When it is quiet, and Tina can eat slowly, she has less trouble.

Gee, I hope Crybaby's OK in N.O.. Hope she didn't have flood damage. I was watching a man floating down a street on an air mattress when a woman waded up to him and handed him a beer. Another man was drinking a beer in a kayak. A group of people were sitting in the patio of a restaurant with water up to their hips tossing back a few.

My fridge needed a good cleaning/organizing, and a bunch of the contents have become a pot of ratatouille. peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, zuccini................ and a bag of mixed seafood added at the last. Calamari, mussels, baby octopus, shrimp. It's going to be a great lunch today, and tomorrow, and maybe the next day too!

08.06.2017 Plans what to eat, are cooking in the electric skillet.
I made pork medallions with honey and teriyaki seasoning from a pork tenderloin.
Added a couple carrots and peppers. I picked dutch noodles to eat with the pork.

The steaks we had last night were so thick, we each only had half so I made cheesesteak sandwiches with the leftovers. Now to figure out what to do with the leftover steak fixins.

Asian pork medallions on noodles......steak & pepper sub smothered in cheese.....both look fantastic!

I made my brined fried chicken ~ and it was almost inedible.  I must have used too much salt in the brine because, even after rinsing and drying the chicken, it was super salty.  And for me, that's a LOT of salt.

The crust was excellent and it was fried to a crispy crunch ~ but it got tossed after I ate one of the wings.  It was a good experiment and I learned from it so not all is bad.

I did like the crunch from the fry.  I used a/p flour, cornstarch, garlic powder & onion powder and did a double dredge using egg whites as the 'glue'.  I let the dredged pieces dry a bit before I fried in 325° peanut oil in the electric fry pan. I fried the chicken outside so the mess (there's always some mess when you're frying) and the smell wasn't in the house. It's the first time I've used my 'new-to-me' (tag sale purchase) electric skillet.  Thank goodness I used my Thermapen thermometer to check the temperature of the oil as the gauge on the electric skillet isn't calibrated quite to where the dial shows.  But once I played with the setting a bit I got the oil to stay at the temperature I wanted.

So, with just one chicken wing for my supper I ended up with a couple pieces of peanut butter toast about 8:00 when I decided I really wanted something more.  The toast and an apple was just right for a late 'supper'.

Today was a 'Get Outta Dodge' day.....Lyn & I went to Orlando just 'because'.

What a fun time! Nothing we needed to do, nothing was scheduled ~ it was just go and look and stop where you want.

We ended up going to Florida Mall and did a lot of window shopping and had breakfast at a cute little French Bistro ~ yummy stuff. I mean, how can you go wrong with a freshly made croissant to have with your eggs?

Then a bit of shopping and looking and looking and shopping.

Then a stop for a mid-morning coffee and cookie at a little bakery.

Off to Trader Joe's for a stroll around the aisles. It's amazing how less crowded it is on a mid-day Monday than on the Fridays we're usually there. I got some more jazz apples (from New Zealand ~ super crunchy and sweet), another package of the coffee chocolates I like to keep in the spare refrigerator. Somehow when Jake was here my supply disappeared!

We wanted to go to a little place next door to Trader Joe's but found they didn't open until 4 p.m. today so we googled an Asian grocery in the area and killed an hour walking around there. I was the only one to make a purchase....got some squash (kabuta and butternut), a nice fresh dikon radish (I love the crunch....eat it for a snack) and I found the same brand Korean BBQ Kalbi Marinade I found at the Asian Market in Ocala....but this place had larger bottles for only $5.49. I can make Norm's recipe but this stuff is really good, we like it, and I use it for so many things. Jake tried it when he was here and loved it as a dipping sauce for his chicken tenders that he ate almost daily.

So, after 4 we drove back to the Slate Restaurant and just ordered off the 'Happy Hour' menu. Lyn ended up with a small (6 oz.) burger that was loaded with cheese, onion straws and bacon and came with a good sized 'house' salad for $10 ~ a deal! I wanted to try their Bao Buns with crispy pork belly, house made pickles & carrots and drizzled with hoisen sauce. The order came with 2, not too large, but really tasty. I asked for them to be made WITHOUT the cilantro and there wasn't a problem at all.

We had a good time chatting with our waiter, teased him about being cranky old women and really just enjoyed our time there.

Then it was time to drive home and our day was done.

When it rains it pours. Two months ago we had a slab leak and had to make an insurance claim. Today we discovered that the shower has been leaking for some time. It was leaking out from under the wall on to the carpet but we couldn't see it because the dresser was covering it. I think the carpet may be ruined. One support leg of the dresser is rotted. The drywall has bubbled. I don't think we can find matching tile for the shower so we might have to have everything torn out which will cost a fortune. I don't know if this type of thing is covered by insurance. If it is and we do make a claim, most likely our insurance is going to be cancelled. I don't know if we can get coverage anywhere else. It will also be high. Katie's cat pissed-up the carpet in the bathroom which I am treating with Stink-Free with no success so I am sure the carpet will have to be torn out. It would be one thing if we had the money, but we don't. I think I will just sell the house as-is.

Hot dogs tonight. I am in no mood to cook at all.

Sorry about your problems Debbie. We are having water in the basement when it rains hard. We built up the slope away from the house on one side and it helped but the concrete patio on the other side is cracked and sloping toward the house. Our neighbor who is a contractor said we should take out our back porch and tear up the concrete and landscape the ground there too.

Beth your day sounds like a day I'd enjoy a lot.

Gosh, Debbie....it's just one thing on top of another for you. I hope you can find a way to remedy the problems. Water can really cause a lot of problems that can go unnoticed for a long time.

We've had a lot of summer rains here lately ~ 3" last night. Fortunately for us, within half an hour or so of it stopping the standing water is gone and we're 'back-to-normal'. It's nothing like the days of rain we had in Ohio that seemed to go on for days and days and then we'd have standing water in the yard and around the house for days on end. I can remember Dane having to adjust the sump pump under the house so the water would drain from under the house.

I'm hoping this rain doesn't put a damper on Michelle's remodeling in New Orleans. It seems she just got started when the summer rains started pouring down. I don't think she's in a 'flood zone' but nonstop rain doesn't make it easy to get work done.

There have been flash floods here in the KC area. Indian Creek flooded and stranded people in Coaches Bar and Grill. I-35 was closed for a time. Brush Creek, Turkey Creek and Blue River flooded. There were two horses in a pasture in the Southern part of KC that went missing after that area went 10 feet under water.

NormM wrote:Indian  Creek flooded and stranded people in Coaches Bar and Grill.

and the 'down side' to this story is??????

(Sorry ~ it just struck me as funny..........I mean, if you have to be stranded somewhere, why NOT at a bar & grill?)

It would have been OK if they could just stay there until the water went down but they had to get on the roof and be rescued by boat. I heard that the place was not going to reopen.

Oh.....well, THAT turns it into a completely DIFFERENT thing ~ not funny at all.

************

Supper tonight was an egg salad sandwich and a container of yogurt. How's THAT for an un-inspiring meal plan?

Checked with my insurance people about the leak. It is covered BUT if I make another claim I will be cancelled and finding another insurance co to cover me will be next to impossible. Nice. What the hell do you have insurance for?

I opened my recipe software today and an automatic update was installed. It wiped out my software and I lost all of my recipes. I looked into my external harddrive thinking my backup was there. Nope. All that was backed up was pictures. Found some folders in my documents area but can't open them because I don't have an app. I guess it means my software. I contacted the company but I don't know what they can do about the recipe loss. I wasn't using their Cloud service because it cost $7/mo which I thought was too expensive and I also thought my external was storing my recipes.

As I said - when it rains it pours.