December 2017, What's for Dinner ?

bethk wrote:Aw. man, I think I've offended you......

and I didn't even mean to.  If it'll make you feel better I'll try it one more time......

And it wasn't put into the oven because I was cleaning it (which did not come out very clean at all, I might add) and I didn't even think of the toaster oven.  I saw the directions for microwaving and just went with it.  

So sue me.

Well, no, don't sue me.  Knowing YOUR talent you'd WIN!

Hahahahahahaha

Don't be silly -- you know I was kidding!  Funny stuff.  You're definitely in the majority -- you, Jimmy and Cyn all didn't like it.  Debbie said it sounded "icky" even though she didn't taste it.  But bless his heart, Jimmy said the crust was perfect so I felt a little better, just a little, mind you. Must've been karma that the oven didn't come out so clean, huh?  Ducking and running now!        

Do me a favor, though -- don't give it another try. My poor pot pies cannot take much more disparaging.

Debbie wrote:Last night they shot off a rocket from Vandenburg AFB and the contrails in the sky were awesome.

Saw the pics on the news -- it looked fantastic. Laughed hearing the authorities got calls from some people thinking it was an alien. Others they said thought it was an angel. Regardless, it was really cool looking.

Come to think of it.....

AFTER we have our beautiful USDA Prime Rib Roast for Christmas dinner tonight I think I'm going to become a vegetarian.

Then I don't have to even consider trying another CHICKEN Pot Pie......




Hahahahahahahaha

((and, yes, I WAS just kidding about worrying about offending you ~ you're too tough to care!))

Crybaby wrote:

NormM wrote:Michelle, yes, it's a butterfly loin pork chop.

That explains why it looked so large, not to mention delicious.  You sure do set a pretty table every night, Norm. Most nights unless there's someone here, I serve each of our dinners from the stove. For holidays, I put everything in serving dishes on the island and let people serve themselves from there, as the table is usually too crowded when I put all the dishes on it.  

But I'm always impressed at how nice your table looks -- every night, too, just for the two of you.  Charlie is a lucky man!

I never really thought about that but now I recall early on that Cassie used to prefer that I not use serving dishes because she and Charlie usually did the clean up. Now it's Charlie and me doing the clean up.

NormM wrote:

Crybaby wrote:

NormM wrote:Michelle, yes, it's a butterfly loin pork chop.

You sure do set a pretty table every night, Norm. Most nights unless there's someone here, I serve each of our dinners from the stove. For holidays, I put everything in serving dishes on the island and let people serve themselves from there, as the table is usually too crowded when I put all the dishes on it.  

But I'm always impressed at how nice your table looks -- every night, too, just for the two of you.  Charlie is a lucky man!

I never really thought about that but now I recall early on that Cassie used to prefer that I not use serving dishes because she and Charlie usually did the clean up.  Now it's Charlie and me doing the clean up.

Kind of nervy of her considering you did the cooking -- plus it would be such a pleasure to sit down to such a nice presentation every evening. Good food is good food but it's always even nicer when someone takes the time to serve it attractively, something I don't do often enough, especially to the extent you go to. Bet ol' Cassie misses it now!

Beth wrote:((and, yes, I WAS just kidding about worrying about offending you ~ you're too tough to care!))

Perhaps too "tough" to let on someone offended me but not to care...

Crybaby wrote:

Niagara Visitor wrote:Dinner tonight was at Cracker Jack's restaurant.  I was out getting the last of the groceries for my Christmas Eve crowd (15 people in my condo)  good thing we're all friendly, it will be crowded.  Restaurant had one of my very favourite meals.  Lasagna!  

Christmas Eve will see chicken wings, chicken breast, oven roasted potatoes.  Daughter-in-law's mother was Hungarian, so I am making a Hungarian goulash which is normally served over noodles.  There will be cheese and crackers, shrimp, pate, veggies and dip, a coleslaw.  Sweets for dessert.  No turkey in my house!

I think everyone will have enough to eat.  

How sweet of you, Lore, to do that for your neighbors.  It's so nice that you've fit in like a glove over there -- nice for you and for your neighbors, too!  I guess one son will be there since you mentioned your DIL.  What about the other son -- is he able to come, too?  

Yeah, I think you all will have plenty to eat! Let us know how it goes, as I presume it's tonight and you're busy getting ready.

Oh, absolutely both sons were here, as well as my niece and her partner/boyfriend (my late sister's daughter) This was family, no neighbours, though. Daughter-in-law's mother died last January, so her dad and her sister with her two daughters were here. That is the Hungarian branch. Sandie and her girls live in California (married an 'Merican! They live in one of the areas where the wildfires devastated so many homes.. They were OK, her husband owns a company that does disaster cleanup and has been very busy after the fires working for insurance companies.

I had one disaster in my meal, though. I made a large coleslaw, and accidentally used a hot sauce instead of a spiced oil, tried to tone it down with sugar, that didn't work. In retrospect, the cabbage and carrots could have been rinsed with cold water by putting it in a colander and running cold water over it. Oh well, I think it will join the "Remember when mom baked a disasterous chocolate cake???" In that disaster I used unsweetened chocolate, and forgot to adjust the sugar. That day my family said for me to stick to what I know how to do................. cook seafood! Oh well, it makes everyone appreciate what I do well, and it was a good laugh.. I don't get upset about stuff like that.

That's not a 'disaster', Lore. That's what we call a 'SURPRISE !' here.

I have a recipe for a VERY spicy slaw (goes with Memphis ribs) and we really like it. HOWEVER, on the second day the heat from the peppers really expands in the sauce and it's too hot for even ME to eat.

It sounds like you had a houseful and a great time. Merry Christmas to you all!

Thanks, but it surely was a disasterous surprise. It was inedible except if you took one little piece of cabbage at a time. I rinsed it thoroughly today to see if it could have been saved, but the hot sauce was too deep in there. There are more disasterous things in the world.

Tonight I reheated the leftovers from our Christmas dinner.....tossed in some peas since there were only a few green beans left. The piece of leftover rib roast was still medium rare ~ boy, was I surprised. I didn't let it get over 115° on the reheat.

It wasn't as good as fresh, but it wasn't bad at all.

We had an Asian stir fry beef dish for dinner tonight.

Love a beef stir fry lettuce wrap! Yours always looks so good.

this one was a Vietnam version, so a little different from usual. We liked it.

I'm thawing out some boneless, skinless chicken thighs and just got done spending an hour perusing the recipes on the internet for something different, maybe some sort of chicken casserole I've not made before.

I came across one that sounds interesting, on a site 'theseasonedmom.com' for a Dump & Bake, uncooked chicken & pasta florentine casserole. It's close to what I'm thinking but not quite the taste I'm hungry for.

So, I'm going to wing it and try throwing something together.

I'm thinking of making the parmesan cream sauce we like and then adding the cooked chicken thighs, some sauteed sliced mushrooms, frozen peas and cooked ziti pasta. I'll probably cover it with some shredded mozzarella after it's baked for a while.

But, then again, the frozen spinach in place of the peas does sound good.....

What the heck, I'll probably end up with calling for a pizza! LOL

Katie is having cataract surgery today so I don't know if she is going to want to eat. I think I may just go on strike today and let them fend for themselves.

Niagara Visitor wrote:Oh, absolutely both sons were here, as well as my niece and her partner/boyfriend (my late sister's daughter)  This was family, no neighbours, though.  Daughter-in-law's mother died last January, so her dad and her sister with her two daughters were here.  That is the Hungarian branch.  Sandie and her girls live in California (married an 'Merican!  They live in one of the areas where the wildfires devastated so many homes.. They were OK, her husband owns a company that does disaster cleanup and has been very busy after the fires working for insurance companies.  

Laughed at " 'Merican' ," Lore!  Thank goodness Sandie and family made it through one of those disastrous fires in California.  I admit to crying almost every newscast about it, especially when they show some poor soul whose home was lost.  I always look at Brian, who usually is handing me a Kleenex he just pulled from my always handy box of them, and ask him if he can imagine just coming "home" and there's nothing there?  Nothing!  And you have to start all over. It's horrendous for anyone, of course, but my heart really breaks for those who have already reached retirement age and then lose everything they have, including photos, mementos, memories... Though her husband's company is I'm sure going through a "boom" of sorts, it must be a difficult time for him to deal with so many who've lost so much.  

Niagara Visitor wrote:I had one disaster in my meal, though. I made a large coleslaw, and accidentally used a hot sauce instead of a spiced oil, tried to tone it down with sugar, that didn't work.  In retrospect, the cabbage and carrots could have been rinsed with cold water by putting it in a colander and running cold water over it.  Oh well, I think it will join the "Remember when mom baked a disasterous chocolate cake???" In that disaster I used unsweetened chocolate, and forgot to adjust the sugar.  That day my family said for me to stick to what I know how to do................. cook seafood!  Oh well, it makes everyone appreciate what I do well, and it was a good laugh.. I don't get upset about stuff like that.

Those kinds of cooking snafus are usually hilarious when they end up functioning as family fodder over the years, like your chocolate cake did!  Yep, getting upset when we make a blunder while cooking serves no purpose -- and if you did that in MY family when growing up, it just meant they'd bring it up MORE often until one learned how to laugh about it like the rest of them!  In my case, you quickly learned to show only a stiff upper lip about stuff the rest of the family teased you about OR ELSE!

Supper was a success......IF you consider Mr. Amazing ate 3/4 of the casserole in one sitting.....serving 1, serving 2 and serving 3!

Actually, it was pretty tasty. I ended up with 2 casserole dish-fulls so I made a phone call to neighbors Gary & Linda, across the back wall, and asked if they had plans for supper as I had an extra casserole looking for a home. Gary said he had a steak but it could easily go into the refrigerator for tomorrow night. So, they got casserole #2.



Don't know if you can actually tell what's in it: Ziti pasta, chicken chunks, sauteed crimini mushrooms, peas, Alfredo sauce and covered with mozzarella cheese.

Charlie saw this cookbook for chicken on line and figured it had a lot of good recipes in it because it was on the NYT best seller list. The name of the cookbook was 50 Shades of Chicken. As I was looking through it, I realized it was not on the best seller list because it had good recipes. It was full of sexy titles and suggestive stuff. Anyway Charlie loved the chicken from a local Indian restaurant so I made a recipe from the cookbook that used Tandoori seasonings. It was good. We also had caramel apple tarts from Omaha Steaks with some ice cream.

More family here for dinner today. I made salmon with a spicy mango salsa on top., scalloped potatoes, a carrot medley of 4 different colours (they were disappointing). Garlic bread.
There were cheese and crackers, veggies and dip when people came (nine of us) My family all love seafood, I had found a smoked trout dip/pate which was a big hit.

I've had salmon with a spicy mango salsa at a local Turtle Jack's three times, tried to replicate it, but I don't have it quite down properly. Mine wasn't bad, the guests raved about it, but I think I need to go back to the restaurant just to make sure I can do it too.

For any of you wanting to lose weight. LOL Check these out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M6DUPAL/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=finecookin093-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01M6DUPAL&linkId=010110a164a3d1d44ea02eeec297ec37

My family has joked many times about the "People exchange" between our countries, my daughter found herself a 'Merican and moved to California, and my son found himself another 'Merican, she moved from South Dakota to Canada. You got one of "ours" we took one of "yours" It was a fair and equitable exchange, you know, no political problems ensued!

Niagara Visitor wrote:My family has joked many times about the "People exchange" between our countries, my daughter found herself a 'Merican and moved to California, and my son found himself another 'Merican, she moved from South Dakota to Canada. You got one of "ours" we took one of "yours"  It was a fair and equitable exchange, you know, no political problems ensued!

Cute, Lore!!! I loved it!

When I went to Sam's Club for my Christmas beef they also had some nice American Wild Caught U-15 shrimp.  A lot of the time they only carry farm raised from other countries so I wait until they have the US wild caught gulf shrimp.

So, tonight I made some fried shrimp, crispy potato crowns and lima beans.  The shrimp got sloshed in some buttermilk, soy & sambal oeleck (chili paste) and then tossed around in some rice flour.  The rice flour makes a really light and crispy coating as opposed to a heavy batter.  I considered just doing a pan saute but really had my heart set on deep fried.  I wasn't disappointed ~ they were done just right!