[alida]

It's 60F here so I'm making pot roast today, cooked with apple cider with caraway seeds,carrot celery and onion. I'll blend the veggies with the juices to make the gravy and serve it with steamed green beans and a small amount of mashed potato. Local strawberries for dessert. There's enough for two more servings this week, plus 4-5 more servings to freeze for the days when I want a hot meal,but it's too hot to cook.

 

[alida]

a comfort food meal tonight, fried pork chops with a mustard gravy using the drippings plus water,sage and a little cream to smooth it out. Green peas with mint.

 

[alida]

Today was very long and tiring dealing with some family business. I'm sitting on my balcony now eating bean salad made from a can of 6 bean mix, stirred together with diced red/green peppers and a simple oil/vinegar/sugar dressing with celery seed in it. Fresh mango for dessert. Very simple.

 

[alida]

Whole chickens are on sale this week so I bought 3 and roasted one whole tonight with rosemary and sage rubbed into the skin. It was served with steamed green beans mixed with slivered almonds. It smelled so good in my home! Lots of leftovers for sandwiches,and something else, and the bones will make a good stock for later.

 

[alida]

My small balcony garden is producing nicely now. I used fresh rosemary to season a chicken for roasting. Sides were just picked green beans and tomatos, with the last of the chives. Life is good.

 

[alida]

big salad with lettuce,tomatos and chives from my balcony garden plus leftover portuguese rotisserie roasted chicken from my local, well portuguese chicken store. Fresh ontario peaches grown about 30 miles away.

 

[alida]

baked salmon with a little mayo mixed with dill and lemon on top. Green beans on the side. two peaches for dessert.

 

[alida]

my local Indian food restaurants special of the day is one of my favorites, sweet/sour eggplant with tomato and onion. I'm picking up a order of that for dinner tonight, to have with the last leftover cold chicken and yogurt/cucumbers. I can't make a version of that recipe that I like, and now I don't try anymore. Only 7 hours until dinner....

 

[alida]

toast and cheese tonight. I went to the farmers market and the sales on strawberries and peaches and vegetables oh so good! After bringing home far too much I made 7-8oz jars of orange strawberry jam, 7- 8oz jars of peach and raspberry jam, and 6-16 oz jars of dilled green bean pickles. I still have a 6qt basket of tomatos to deal with tomorrow, though I may just eat some of those everyday and not freeze any. And that's why I had toast with cheese for dinner.

 

[alida]

I quickly fried some thin sliced chix breast in olive oil and garlic, with white rice, fried in the pan to take advantage of the chix juices mixed with the olive oil. I thought it as delicious. My pooch,not so much, flipped the plate with his nose, turned around and peed on the floor.Luckily I serve him on a big pee pad, as he usually displays his displeasure in this manner. Not often, but I stay prepared. The harsh critic decided to go hungry, he's porky, anyways. It doesn't hurt him to miss a meal. Little does he know, a bath tomorrow and the vet for his shots. Is it wrong, to chuckle? The rest of the package of chix breast thickly sliced lengthwise and is in a pineapple, ginger,shallots, soy and worcestershire marinade for a camping trip, with my daughters and grand daughters.'Tater salad and corn on the cob rounds out the menu.

No, I don't think it's wrong to chuckle. I laughed when I read your description of his behavior. i wonder if he realized that was his one chance at dinner today. I suspect that your daughters and grands will enjoy the marinated chicken quite a bit on your camping adventures.

 

[alida]

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow as the brides attendant. It's a simple city hall wedding, 10 people including the couple, with a nice lunch afterwards, plus cake back at their home which is on the same street I live on. At the moment though the wedding cake is sitting in my fridge, tall enough that I had to remove one shelf so that they could fit it in. Once the cake delivery people closed my fridge door I decided that it wouldn't be opened again until they removed the cake tomorrow. I wasn't taking a chance on dropping anything on it.

So I went out with the bride for fish & chips and some pre-wedding wine. What better reason could there be to indulge in fish & chips than concern for the safety of a wedding cake?

It's going to be a wonderful day tomorrow,this couple were meant to be together.

 

[alida]

After a weekend attending wedding events with all the wonderful and different foods that involved I'm looking forward to a few simpler meals this week. I made a pot of minestrone soup on Sunday,heavy of the vegetables, and that's what I'm having for dinner tonight.

 

[alida]

tonights dinner was some left over bami goreng, also known as Indonesian fried noodle with lots of diced vegetablles and peanut sauce. My background is dutch and I was blessed with a Mother who enjoyed creating different dishes for us, especially her favourite Indonesian dishes, which are much loved in Holland.
Tomorrow the temps are going to be quite cool so I'm going to do a marathon canning session. plum jam with orange, cinnamon and plum brandy, and a big batch of dilled green bean pickles. If there is time I might make a new recipe, cranberry ketchup. We'll see. I'm always a bit surprised by how much energy I get when the temps drop below 72F. After all that I expect that my main meal will be pretty basic and easy to eat in front of the tv.

 

[alida]

We ate fried bologna too, but until now I didn't know it was called newfoundland steak. Fried bologna and baked beans,now that's a good memory.
It's going down to 9C here tonight, wonderful sleeping weather. You mentioned tress and whatnot, if it stays this nice all weekend I'm going to clean up my balcony garden as it's pretty much finished,at least a month early.

 

[alida]

The fish store had lake smelts in stock this morning much to my delight. I had fried smelts and pumpernickel bread for dinner tonight just the way we ate them when my Dad would go smelt fishing and bring home a bushel. Todays smelts were already cleaned, which I appreciated but I would not care if I'd had to clean them first today.
Then for dessert I had another slice of pumpernickel bread with spiced peach jam I made earlier this week along with a cup of tea. The jam was a new recipe and I'm going to make more for gifts;it turned out so well.

 

[alida]

stuffed peppers tonight. Bell peppers are on sale everywhere now so I bought a bunch (18), diced half for the freezer and made stuffed peppers with the rest. I baked one tonight and froze the rest in individual freezer bags,with a extra spoonful of sauce in with each pepper. Come winter I'll unwrap 1-2 of them at a time and bake, covered until done for a hearty hot meal that tastes extra good on a work day.

 

[alida]

I'm teaching my nieces how to make some simple sushi rolls, at their house. We did this a couple years ago and they still talk about how much fun it was so we're doing it again. Everyone will have their hair tied back securely, and wear disposable gloves while making them..because that sticky rice is well named. The last time there were kernels of rice on their hair, the counters,the floor,clothing shoes, windows etc. We all laughed over that. We'll also have some boiled edemane beans, miso soup, and a marinated veggie salad. Their father isn't one to like "fishy" stuff so he's manning the bbq and making excellent lamb and chicken kabobs.

 

[alida]

It's still hot here so I'm keeping it simple tonight. Leftover sushi from yesterdays sushi making evening with my nieces and their parents, plus sliced tomato and avocado with fresh peaches for dessert. I know that there are only a couple weeks left for fresh peaches and tomatos where I live, so I'm eating as many of both as possible while I can.

 

[alida]

that's interesting! I must tell my son about that. i've never made grilled sandwiches but he does quite often. ~Georgia

I also make grilled cheese with a mix of butter and mayo, sometimes just the mayo if the butter I have isn't soft enough to spread when I want to eat. It really does give a nice crispiness to the grilled cheese, and doesn't taste like mayo.
I have no idea what's for dinner tonight in this house. I came here for inspiration and I'm hungry, so as I read each entry I decided that that's what I want for dinner tonight. I suspect that grilled cheese will feature in dinner,because it's easy to make, but I may combine it with a cob of corn and sliced tomato's.

 

[alida]

We don't do grilled cheese a lot but we have done it enough to play around with flavors, my favorite is using home smoked Gouda.

My family is Dutch and we grew up eating Gouda,in sandwiches and melted on toast under the broiler. I don't recall eating smoked gouda though, I'll have to meander by a cheese store and check it out. You mention home smoking it, do you make the cheese too?