January 2018, Whats for Dinner??

I've always loved to make pizza, but haven't made it now for a long time.  Home made pizza was the first "real" dinner that my daughter learned to make.  She was barely 10, not tall enough to be able to knead the dough properly, so hubby made her a little step stool to stand on.  

Her pizzas became legendary!  

Sad, funny story.  When she was in 7th. grade she announced one day that they had cooking classes in school.  She was all excited.  Came home the day of the cooking, and when I asked her what they made, she said "Disgusting pizza."  I said, "but Cindy, you love making pizza."  She said that they took a plain, white piece of Wonderbread, smeared ketchup on it, and then a slice of processed cheese........... "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, Mom!"  I had to agree with her.

Ketchup on white bread? Sounds absolutely revolting.

Getting ready to watch the Rose Parade. I wish I was there this year. Earth, Wind and Fire is going to be on a float. Love their music. Everyone should have the Rose Parade on their bucket list.

I think I am going to make a breakfast burrito for Joe this morning: Tommy's chili, scrambled eggs, cheese, potatoes O'Brien, bacon, sausage. He ought to burp that for the rest of the day.

Tonight? IDK. Maybe hotdogs. We had a very large and rich dinner last night. Joe had a 2.5" thick ribeye steak and Katie had seared scallops in a creamy Calvados sauce.

Just saw the stealth bomber fly over the parade route. So cool.

Bugster2 wrote:Ketchup on white bread? Sounds absolutely revolting.

Getting ready to watch the Rose Parade. I wish I was there this year. Earth, Wind and Fire is going to be on a float. Love their music. Everyone should have the Rose Parade on their bucket list.

I think I am going to make a breakfast burrito for Joe this morning: Tommy's chili, scrambled eggs, cheese, potatoes O'Brien, bacon, sausage. He ought to burp that for the rest of the day.

Tonight? IDK. Maybe hotdogs. We had a very large and rich dinner last night. Joe had a 2.5" thick ribeye steak and Katie had seared scallops in a creamy Calvados sauce.

Just saw the stealth bomber fly over the parade route. So cool.

Speaking or posting of the Stealth bomber reminds me of another bomber story. One year toward the end of August, we had a British couple as B&B guests. Man was outside and came into the house and said very excitedly.......... "I hear a Lancaster Bomber!" I had no idea what it was, and asked him. He was a real aviation expert, the Lancaster apparently has a very unique sound, and there are only two left in flying condition in the world. One is in London, England, and the other, the one whose sound he recognized is in Hamilton, Ontario, about 30 miles from where we live. There was an airshow at the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) an annual fair in Toronto.

Apparently you can go to the aviation museum and book a ride in the Lancaster.

We had our traditional New Years Day dinner: Ham, black eyed peas, corn bread, collard greens and Povitica bread.

Your meal looks really, really good, Norm. We had our 'Southern' Good Luck dinner last night.

Tonight, with Dane's sister, Cheryle, here, we had our 'Northern' Good Luck New Year's Day dinner:

Pork, Sauerkraut & Drop Noodles, Spaetzle.



And since it was a 'special occasion' (truly, the only thing really 'special' was that I had cake and ice cream in the freezer.....) we had Double Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Covered Strawberries Ice Cream (which was, in reality, strawberry ice cream with chocolate chunks ~ yummy)

Who makes strawberry ice cream with chocolate chunks? I have never seen it before.

It's the SE Grocers Prestige brand.....sold here locally at Winn Dixie.

It says it's a 'Special Edition', probably going to be marketed for Valentine's Day.

Great soup, Imelda! And it's so nice to have a human eating machine so you don't have to deal with little bits of leftovers! Good Luck will come your way in 2018!

bethk wrote:It's the SE Grocers Prestige brand.....sold here locally at Winn Dixie.

It says it's a 'Special Edition', probably going to be marketed for Valentine's Day.

Thanks. No Winn Dixie out here but perhaps another grocery store has something similar under their private label.

Easy dinner tonight: fried breaded pork chops, a bag of instant potatoes with pork chop country gravy and probably some bad corn on the cob. My husband bought a couple of ears and I am deeply suspicious that they are imported and OLD.

bethk wrote:Great soup, Imelda!  And it's so nice to have a human eating machine so you don't have to deal with little bits of leftovers!  Good Luck will come your way in 2018!

Black eyed peas and human eating machine. One of the reasons black eyed peas are lucky is because during the Civil war, Sherman's men did not destroy them because they didn't think they were fit for humans. They thought they were livestock food.

That reminds me of a friend I met in the 1970's....she was from Germany (married a US soldier). She couldn't stomach any kind of corn.....sweet corn on the cob was probably the most repulsive to her. Where she grew up, all corn was fed to the hogs on the farm. LOL

When my husband went to Germany in the early 80's, he came back and told me that Germans did not eat corn because it was considered pig food. He also said all they ate was sausage, at least that is all he ate while he was there. It's funny because corn isn't like dog food which is made of who knows what, it is just a vegetable. Niagra ought to know and set us straight.

My sister's next door neighbor had snow trucked in for Christmas for her 6 year old. She did the same for New Years. No other children were invited to play in it. It cost $7500. Must be nice to have money to flush down the toilet.

I think I read about Thomas Jefferson having little or no luck getting the French to eat corn. I don't think most of Europe is familiar with sweet corn.

Sweet corn as it is eaten here was not known in Germany until about 20 or so years ago. Neither were sweet potatoes. So yes, a German in the 70s would not have eaten corn. Peanut butter was also not available until maybe 30 years ago. The first time my dad's brother and his family came for a visit, my aunt greeted me with "I got the most interesting vegetable on the plane, it was dark green and looked like a small tree"................... it was 1977 and she had never seen broccoli. They had a very large vegetable garden and she took home broccoli and corn seeds to plant there.

A vegetable that I grew up with, Kohl Rabi, was not available in grocery stores here until fairly recently either. I grew up eating Kohl Rabi raw, never liked it cooked.

Germans also still are very reluctant to try our green asparagus. Theirs is white. It is grown in a mound of soil so that it does not get sunshine which turns it green. I have eaten both, the white is flavourless in my opinion.

I also grew up eating raw Kohl Rabi, Lore. My father's mother was born on the ship that brought her family from Germany in the early 1900's, or earlier as I'm not sure when she was born. She always had a large garden and grew what her parents grew. We had a lot of rutabaga and turnips, the latter were eaten boiled when small and raw when they got larger, with a sprinkle of salt. I don't remember her growing green beans, but a lot of root vegetables. After my grandfather passed away in his early 50's she planted a huge asparagus patch which she used as a 'cash crop' to sell to the town people who would travel the mile out of town to purchase from her.

I wonder what foods have appeared here in the U.S. that we never saw 30 years ago or if we did see it we wouldn't eat it?

Kohl Rabi has only been available in Canada for about 20 years.. The celery that we eat as stalks, and put cheese on may be available in Germany now, but I don't remember seeing it there even 6 or 7 years ago. They have the celeriac which is a bulb. Turnips were never eaten by people either, they were always considered cattle food.

Nutella was available in Germany many years ago, but didn't make it here until maybe 10 years ago.

As for sausages, I think we have a greater variety here in Canada than they have in Germany.

The yellow fleshed potatoes that we have now, have always been the biggest seller in Germany, but their potatoes did not get as large as ours here. I think that is because of both growing and soil conditions. In about 1988/90, I brought some small potatoes from Germany and planted them in our garden.. THey were yellow, and delicious. The first year they were pretty well the same as the parent potato. I kept some for the next year, they grew bigger, and were not quite as yellow. By the 4th season, they were pretty well like our white potatoes here. The yellow fleshed potatoes such as Yukons are relatively new.

We grew some Yukon Gold potatoes, and some white ones. The Yukons had maybe 5 new potatoes from the parent, a white potato would have 8-10 new ones. Yukons, when they first came out were more expensive than established kinds, and I understood that. If the yield per acre for the Yukons is only half of what a white potato is, they have to be more expensive.

I love small potatoes when I roast them in the oven. There is a company called The Little Potato Company which does a lot of marketing in Ontario. I hope that they do well, I think their price by weight is more than some others, but I am fortunate, I can afford the difference.

And, by the way, German yellow potatoes do not discolour and get that disgusting grey/black/blue colour.

I read somewhere and agree, "If you ate today, thank a farmer".

Since we had a big lunch we decided it was 'snacks' for supper.

He had cheddar and crackers.

I had cream cheese & the pepper/raspberry preserves.

Both of us was satisfied.

Dinner for me tonight was one of my favourites............. a simple stirfry, onions, garlic, broccoli and a mixture of frozen seafood.............. shrimp, mussels, calamari and I think there was one little baby octopus. Just the mention of this made my sister start to gag................How can two people who came from the same womb be so different in what we like to eat????

Oh, my goodness, Jimmy. Sounds like the 'Summer Home' is in dire straits! What a horrible thing to have happen. And, of course, you'll never find out who tried to do a favor to save on the cost of electricity by turning off the main. Even I know better than that! I hope it all comes out OK and there aren't any more problems. It's always the worst weather to have to work on stuff like that.

I can remember years and years ago I had decided to have a 'surprise' birthday party for Dane. His birthday is the 13th of February. I planned a big gathering and 2 days prior to the party our pump for the well went bad. He spent 4 days laying in a trench of mud trying to pull the pipes out of the ground and replacing the pump. What a mess. And, yes, I cancelled the party but no one volunteered to come and help him.

Our weather is very cold, as well. We're down in the 20's.....colder than in the last 8 years or so. This is NOT the weather I moved here for. But at least yesterday and today, although terribly cold, the skies are blue and it looks like the sun is going to shine. That should help a little. He brought in most of the potted plants and they're having a 'vacation' in the garage. We had to cover the plants that were put into the ground......discovered our 'new' Bird of Paradise plant has sent out 4 blooms ~ the first since we planted it last year. With our luck they will freeze off and we'll wait for the plant to recover. I'm just hoping my little lemon tree survives. It's covered but that might not be enough since it's a 'hard freeze' and not just frost. Only time will tell.

We've been cleaning up all the leftovers. Last night we finished up the last of the pork and sauerkraut, I made some boiled potatoes to go with it so he could have the last of the noodles. And I also cooked the last of the green beans I had cleaned in the refrigerator.

Tonight I've got a small meatloaf thawed that I'll bake along with a kabocha squash. I need some stuff from the grocery store, including some vegetables, but I don't know that I want to go out in these temperatures. I'd have to find 'real' shoes to wear!

Niagara Visitor wrote:Dinner for me tonight was one of my favourites............. a simple stirfry, onions, garlic, broccoli and a mixture of frozen seafood.............. shrimp, mussels, calamari and I think there was one little baby octopus. Just the mention of this made my sister start to gag................How can two people who came from the same womb be so different in what we like to eat????

I've seen the frozen mix of seafood at a couple stores, including Sam's Club, but wasn't sure what to make with it. Do you thaw it before cooking? Make a sauce to braise it in? Just curious....