SEPTEMBER, 2018 ~ What's for dinner / supper???

My last idea for a 'soft' diet meal.....Vegetable Omelette

Carrot, Celery & Onion sauteed and seasoned with just s&p. Mine had the addition of bits of cream cheese and a drizzle of taco sauce. His was stuffed with cheddar and he shook hot sauce all over it. Actually, it was pretty tasty for a 'last ditch' effort for something different.....

We had pork chops for dinner.

I love liver, any kind of liver.  Had some chicken livers in my freezer, so I took them out this morning.  Then I went for a pedi, and young Emily (23) asked me what I was planning for dinner.  When I told her, she said that they are the bes, mom makes them all the time.  So we compared "recipes"................. I sautee an onion with three or so strips of bacon, then add lots of fresh peppers (yellow, red, whatever) in big chunks.  In the meantime, I fry the livers (dredged in flour) just to brown them, add them to the veggies, deglaze my pan, add that to the veggies etc. then put in the oven for about 45 minutes to cook the livers through.  Difference between me and her mom is that I generally cook rice to have with the livers, she said her mom puts in small potatoes.  I had some fingerling potatoes, so I threw them in, and it was soooo good.  I will do it this way from now on.

Norm, I had a recipe from Cuisine at Home (I think) for French Onion Burgers. It was really good. The 'burgers' were really more like a meatloaf patty, or Salisbury Steak, and the Onion Soup portion was really very much like a small amount of French Onion Soup. As I remember, for serving you spooned the soup into a shallow bowl, added a toasted slice of French bread topping it all with the meat patty smothered in melty mozzarella cheese.

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Lore, it's good to find new ways to adjust an old favorite ~ I love talking 'food' with strangers and finding I'm not alone in my love of food.

This one didn't have any soup, it just had onions that were cooked until caramelized, then baked in an oven with thick browned pork chops for 25 minutes, then for another 5 minutes topped with Swiss cheese. It was too long for fully caramelized onions to be cooked and it would have been way too long for thinner pork chops. It should turn out fine next time now that I know what's what.

I found the recipe in my file and posted it in 'main dish'.....

I'm sure I 'took liberty', even the first time I made it ~ as I usually just use recipes as a guideline.

As I remember, the thyme in the onion soup sauce was a taste we both enjoyed a lot.

Not sure what is for dinner tonight. Yesterday we tried a diner. Burgers were meh but we had a good chocolate shake. I like going out but I hate the expense. $30 for one half pound cheeseburger, 1/3 pound cheeseburger, both with fries, an iced tea and a chocolate shake. Gad! I am such a tightwad when it comes to restaurant food.
Katie had two friends down from the valley to visit. They went out to lunch and had time to hit one winery for wine tasting. They came back and had more wine, cheese, crackers etc.. They got very loud, maudlin and one gal almost had a crying jag. I would say they were feeling no pain. LOL. So they talked until 1:30AM, keeping Joe and I awake. That's ok. They called an Uber and went back to their hotel. Two more PB bunnies are coming today. More wineries to visit. This ought to be good. At least they have sense enough to call Uber.

I'm making beef and noodles for supper. The beef has to be simmered for a few hours so I started it early. The noodles will get made at the last minute, as usual. I'm trying to decide if I should serve it the old "farmhouse" style over mashed potatoes.....

Supper.....

Went out for lunch with my sister and now am making potato salad to take to her tomorrow........... She says "If you want to make me happy, make me some potato salad."  She is on her third round of fighting the breast cancer that is in all of my family, and it does not look good.  It is in her spine..................... doctors don't give a timeline, but she's a registered nurse, and knows what is probably ahead. Damm that "C"

Niagara Visitor wrote:Went out for lunch with my sister and now am making potato salad to take to her tomorrow........... She says "If you want to make me happy, make me some potato salad."  She is on her third round of fighting the breast cancer that is in all of my family, and it does not look good.  It is in her spine..................... doctors don't give a timeline, but she's a registered nurse, and knows what is probably ahead. Damm that "C"

So sorry, Lore. I remember how tickled you were that you two live closer now and could see one another more often than you used to. I hope those lunches continue for a long while. She's still in my prayers as well.

bethk wrote:Supper.....

Mmm. Looks good, Beth. I like the gravy to noodles ratio!

NormM wrote:We had pork chops for dinner.

Your pork chops look delicious as well, Norm.

Got to clean out the refrigerator by Tuesday.....but tonight we're going out with Lyn & Bill......

gave the leftover beef & noodles to Jeanie for their supper tonight. Hmmmmm, maybe she'd be interested in the other leftovers ~ nah, nothing much worth reheating.

bethk wrote:Got to clean out the refrigerator by Tuesday.....but tonight we're going out with Lyn & Bill......

gave the leftover beef & noodles to Jeanie for their supper tonight.  Hmmmmm, maybe she'd be interested in the other leftovers ~ nah, nothing much worth reheating.

I take it you're heading back to Ohio on Wednesday?

Off-topic here but that's nothing new...  

I just ordered an Amazon Echo (Alexa for the uninformed) second generation as a Christmas present for our friend Pete, who does a lot for us, from QVC. QVC has it on sale for $69.96 plus tax, and it comes with a TP Link Smart Plug and free shipping. (It's currently $100 on Amazon and that doesn't include the $20 Smart Plug or shipping.) The Smart Plug allows you to get Alexa to remotely operate your lamps, television, air conditioner, alarm, or whatever. It's also on Easy Pay, which means you can spread out the payments on your credit card for 5 months @ $13.99 per month so it's easy if you're on a budget.

We got an Echo sans plug about six months ago and the sound on it is AMAZING. I have it in the kitchen/dining room and often listen to music while I'm cooking, which has been a source of great pleasure and fun for both of us. Brian was feeling better yesterday (he's been sick on and off since Wednesday) so he did chopping prep for the chuck roast I was making while sitting at the dining room table. He had a Red Sox game on the TV with the sound turned off while we listened to music. We have music in the adjacent living room but it's nice to have Alexa play music from my list of about 150 songs I selected on Amazon, especially since the sound that comes out of it is so good.  

When I ordered the Echo, I got a package price with the Echo Dot (a smaller Echo without the quality of sound the larger one has) as I figured I'd put one in the kitchen and one in our bedroom. But the Dot just would not connect to Amazon's Wi-Fi. I tried everything to get it to connect it and even spent TWO HOURS on the phone with an Amazon Alexa expert trying to get it to hook up but we were unable to do so. It just wouldn't get on Amazon's Wi-Fi along with the one we had, even though I had no problems whatsoever in connecting the first one. They said problems connecting more than one happens to some people for some reason.

By the time I started trying to connect the Dot after playing around and enjoying the Echo we'd gotten, the 30-day Amazon return period had expired so we gave the Dot to our friend Pete, who has fallen in love with it. He's also a lot more computer savvy than us, has a smartphone and will make good use of the Smart Plug, I'm sure, along with enjoying the better sound quality on the Echo as he's been listening to music on his as well.

Cooler weather here finally!  Only 16 C today (about 65 F) so it was actually nice to put on a jacket.  I went to Niagara Falls just to look at all the flowers.  They are just amazing now.  I have an annual parking pass for the major parking lots, and for one of my favourite places, the floral showcase hothouse.   Some of the tourists didn't look too happy with the cooler weather, and the wind was blowing onto Canada so they were getting wet.  Good for the US side, 'cause they will be dry then!

I have a small pork roast I'm going to put in the oven with some sauerkraut for supper.  .

Niagara Visitor wrote:Cooler weather here finally!  Only 16 C today (about 65 F) so it was actually nice to put on a jacket.  I went to Niagara Falls just to look at all the flowers.  They are just amazing now.  I have an annual parking pass for the major parking lots, and for one of my favourite places, the floral showcase hothouse.   Some of the tourists didn't look too happy with the cooler weather, and the wind was blowing onto Canada so they were getting wet.  Good for the US side, 'cause they will be dry then!

Sounds beautiful! It's still hot here though we've been getting a lot of rain this past week so it's been blessedly cooler. I keep hoping for a blast of cool air to just get us into a day in the 70s with low humidity!  You'd laugh because every year it's the same: The first cool day, it seems like every woman in town wears a pair of boots!  I guess it's a wearthem- while-you-can mentality.

Niagara Visitor wrote:I have a small pork roast I'm going to put in the oven with some sauerkraut for supper.  .

Leftover boneless chuck pot roast from yesterday, always  a good thing.

We had chicken thighs baked with potatoes, tomatoes and onions.

I pulled a half rack of ribs out of the freezer and thawed them in the refrigerator for a couple days. Today I put some Rib Rub on them and then back into the refrigerator to sit for a bit. Cooked them in the oven for a couple hours at 300° with some tea for liquid, then drained off the liquid and slathered some Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce on and back in the oven to let both sides dry out. Split a sweet potato for the two of us and finished off the last of the bag of lima beans.....





And, yes, Michelle.....flying up to Indy on Wednesday and then will spend a couple more weeks at the house before flying home the 3rd of October. Fingers crossed there are no glitches and everything goes smoothly (still praying Robin & Ben get the garage emptied......((sigh))

I have heard the names of Alexa and Echo but have no idea what the heck they are. I am so ignorant of tech devices.

It was 99F yesterday and 94F today. I went in the pool both days but couldn't stay in long. The water was 80F but I am so skinny I get cold easily.

Steaks on the grill tonight with a salad.

While Katie was out wine tasting with her friends Joe and I spent 5 hours grooming her two dogs. I have nagged for 3 months straight to have someone help me do it and finally Joe helped. They were in really bad shape - mats down to the skin that had to be cut out very carefully. Katie pays for their food and vet trips but totally ignores their grooming. It costs $120 for the two. I usually do it to save her money but this time I told Katie never again. She is going to have to forget Botox and pay the money to have them groomed. If she doesn't take them in then Joe and I will and we will use her debit card to pay for it. I can't tolerate neglected pets.

Today is Barbecue Shrimp Day. Here's what a local food critic (the longest one still publishing constantly since the early 70s, Tom Fitzmorris, a/k/a Mr. Food) had to say about it, which I thought you might like to read:

"Today is Barbecue Shrimp Day. It won't be a national celebration, because a) no other part of the country has shrimp as fine as the white shrimp we have right now and 2) no other place understands that "barbecue shrimp" is a misnomer. There's no smoke, grill, or thick sauce. Instead, they're cooked with a sauce Richard Collin [deceased well thought of local food critic, though he wasn't kind] once described as "all the butter in the world, and half the pepper." A little garlic, Worcestershire, and paprika are in there, too.

The dish was invented at Pascal's Manale in 1954, when a customer asked Pascal Radosta to duplicate a shrimp dish he had in Chicago. The resulting dish wasn't like the one this guy had found, but he liked it even better. Barbecue shrimp soon became the signature dish at Manale's, where most tables include at least one order of the things.

It's essential for barbecue shrimp to be made with large, intact, unpeeled shrimp (about 10-20 to the pound), with heads, shells, tails, and everything else still there. Much flavor comes from the juices and fats in the head. Whole shrimp this size, drenched in sauce, are a mess to eat. Especially if you insist on peeling the shrimp. (I just pull the heads off and eat the rest, shells and all-although I do not recommend this to you.)

Chef Gerard Maras made a major improvement in barbecue shrimp in the 1980s, during his tenure at Mr. B's. His trick: whisking in the butter at the end of the cooking process. Emeril Lagasse developed the only good peeled version of barbecue shrimp, making a very intense stock out of the heads and shells, and incorporating it back into the butter sauce. It's a great idea, but a lot of work.

Every restaurant has its own version of barbecue shrimp, but to my tastes, the simpler the recipe, the better they are."

Here's the picture Tom included:


I can't believe he eats the shells but he does! I agree with him that the City's best are still at Pascal's Manale (locals call it Manale's; only the BBQ Shrimp is good, along with their always cold raw oysters) with Mr. B's in the French Quarter excellent as well. Tourists love them, too, even though more would order them if you didn't have to peel them (you get a bib put on you by the waiter at most restaurants that sell them).

Beth wrote:And, yes, Michelle.....flying up to Indy on Wednesday and then will spend a couple more weeks at the house before flying home the 3rd of October. Fingers crossed there are no glitches and everything goes smoothly (still praying Robin & Ben get the garage emptied......((sigh))

Have a safe trip, Beth. I'm sure all will go well, even re the garage!


Norm, it's nice seeing you again!

Tomorrow I am making a Shrimp Creole recipe that came from Emeril when he was still at Commanders. I was going to make it today but the time got away from me. I was waiting for a delivery from UPS.  

I ate one, just one, shrimp including the shell the other day and Charlie wanted to know if it was OK to do that. I said I am sure some people eat the shell.. I. bet. Forrest. Gump. eats. the. shells.   He laughed.

We barbecued a lot of shrimp in the 39 years that we had a firepit.  Never with shells on.  It took me a while to convince hubby that the little delicious things only needed a few seconds, maybe a minute each side if the fire was hot to be done.  I put the raw shrimp in a bowl, added spices, some oil, left them like that for maybe an hour.  Then they were skewered and grilled................ OH, I miss that firepit!