October, 2017.....What's for dinner?

bethk wrote:I grilled a strip steak and had 'purple' sweet potatoes and buttered peas along side.

The purple sweet potatoes were some I picked up at the Farm Market we stopped at on Wednesday.  When I washed them and put them on a plate the color ran off.  Then, when I trimmed the ends, I found they were white on the inside.  And when I cooked them (par-cooked in the microwave and finished on the grill) they were incredibly DRY.  They had more the flavor of a green plantain than of a sweet potato.  I'm fairly certain I won't be purchasing any more of them even if they are a pretty color!

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Lore, where do you garden?  Is it a community type garden on an empty lot in the city?  Somehow I'm picturing a couple large pots on your balcony, 20 floors up......LOL

NormM wrote:I baked some bread today. Last time the second loaf got moldy before we got to it so I did one loaf and put the dough for the other one in the freezer.

bethk wrote:Oh, my, Norm.....that bread looks really good.  I agree with holding off on the second loaf dough ~ it's difficult for just a couple people to eat a loaf of bread before it goes bad, especially since so many of us have cut back on carbs.

But YOUR loaf would be hard for me to resist!

Remember (Oh, crap....I can't remember his name) our forum buddy from Sarasota, Florida who made bread every week?  He use to say he would wrap the second loaf in foil as soon as it was out of the oven and put it into the freezer.  He swore when it thawed it was the same as fresh baked.

((His name is on the tip of my tongue and I just can't recall......getting old sucks!))

NormM wrote:I had saved a couple of his recipes and looked them up to find his name: Pete Schuyler.  He measured everything down to the nth degree.  ( 2 1/8 Tbsp sugar,  1 5/8 tsp. salt, 1 3/8 Tbsp. sugar, 36 oz. bread flour)  I am the opposite kind of bread maker. I don't even measure flour when I bake. I just add flour until it looks right in the mixer and feels right on the kneading board.

Niagara Visitor wrote:Where was I gardening???? My son had this brilliant idea that I, and his father-in-law needed to get our hands dirty.  Danny (son) has a friend with a large property which includes a raised, large bed in which friend's parents used to garden.  So, son and friend helped us get the bed ready.  We planted peas, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, beans, squash, peppers red and white cabbages, lots of tomatoes............. I think we harvested 5 peas, no carrots or radishes, the cabbages only grew to be baseball size, the peppers rotted on the plant (too much rain) the Brussels sprouts grew to be about the zize of the tip of my thumbs(but very delicious)......................... the weeds grew to be 4 ft. high................. But the sunflowers were good, the marigolds are still bright yellow, and the cosmos are gorgeous.

So, next year no more driving 15 miles one way to pick two tomatoes........ I had planted three heritage kinds, a yellow, a deep burgundy and one green striped which each gave me three or four tomatoes.  The beefsteak actually did quite well, but it surely is not worth it financially to plant so far away.

Instead of veg. gardening, I have now joined the gardening group here in our building which maintains and plants the flowerbeds here around my building. I live on the 12th. floor, we have no balconies.

bethk wrote:I'll pass on that one, thank you very much.

Tomorrow morning I'll have to get inspiration for supper.....I'm STILL stuffed from lunch today ~ the fried clams with a few French fries was what I always call a 'fat fix' lunch.  I don't have it often but when I do, it's WONDERFUL!

I'm not sure what it'll be.  I know I have some fatty bone-in pork chops, we just had a beef steak and had chicken the day before that.....and this morning the leftover Haluski with Hungarian brats, noodles & cabbage got tossed.  Somehow reheated cabbage just isn't close to the taste when it's fresh.  I have no idea why we always manage to 'save' the leftovers ~ neither of us will eat it reheated for a lunch later in the week.