It's sleeting here today and would have been a good day for french toast, if I'd opened this thread and seen Annie's before I had my breakfast.

Rob, all those little modifications will add up. Your dinner looks so appealing to me.

We watched a lot of football this weekend so dinners didn't involve much cooking. On Sunday, we had soup, avocados stuffed with shrimp in Remoulade sauce, sourdough rolls and fruit cup.

Last night was an oven dinner - baked curried orange chicken, short grain brown rice and broccoli with seagrass's gingered crumbs.

DH bought me a new beanpot in an auction box lot so I'll be putting it back to work sometime this week.

Annie, I love the pictures of Cooper playing in the snow. Stetson "grew up" in Sault Ste. Marie and he loved the snow.

Nothing "messy" about your dinner at all rob. That pork chop looks delicious.

Ruthanna, I love the colour of your chicken. I'm imagining just how tasty that baked curried Orange chicken must be.

I made individual shepherds pies for dinner last night.

Buttered peas on the side.

I've been wanting to experiment with sustainable seafood recipes and was finally able to try out one of my saved recipes on Friday night after a trip to the store. Farm raised rainbow trout was one of the most economical choices, so I went all out for a gourmet meal, including a potato fennel gratin I had been wanting to try for weeks. It was a very rich meal, chicken fried trout with green tartar sauce and asian slaw, and then the gratin which is an Ina Garten recipe. The photo is blurry, I'm not much for taking time to stage food photos as part of my everyday life.

I'm learning to be a football widow during the playoffs. BF invited me over Sat. for chicken cacciatore, but despite his good intentions, I ended up making it since the playoff games went right over the dinner hour. It was very good, but not totally traditional since I made it with cut up boneless chicken breasts, BF's mainstay. It was really more chicken spaghetti. I didn't use very much tomato sauce since it is not really traditional for cacciatore, but BF actually wanted more sauce. It was rich though, very yum.

The next night I POOFED chicken divan, which was good but next time I think I will not smoosh everything together before baking the casserole, it turned out a little gloppy for my taste. Plus bland but BF was having a bit of a touchy tummy from overindulgence the day before.

Linda, I made something like your dinner on Saturday for brunch after BF got up late and I realized I had a lot of leftover rye bread and a bunch of little containers of leftovers in the fridge that needed paring down. I called it "smorgasbord" and it was a series of bits and bobs on rye bread, including hummus, baba ganoush, cream cheese feta with roasted red peppers, tuna salad, leftover blintzes, coleslaw. I spread it all out and garnished everything, I thot it was way cool, but since I had told BF I was making waffles he wasn't very happy about it. "These are just leftovers" was his comment. He is so NOT a gourmand, lol! He would have gotten waffles if he had gotten up at 9 AM when I did, instead of sleeping until 11:30, brunch time IMHO.

I tried to make it up to him the next day with french toast made from Annie's maple oat bread. It was EXCELLENT! We really love that bread Annie!

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken fried trout with green tartar sauce

Ann, the turkey breast is text-book perfect, and the Ciabatta dough pizza is perfectly tempting. The shepherds pie is so wonderfully presented.

rob333 , your pork chop not only is healthily and deliciously prepared, but look at those expert grill marks!
ruthanna , your beautifully plated baked curried orange chicken, short grain brown rice and broccoli with seagrass's gingered crumbs, has a lot of flavor complexity, and of course, a good demonstration that good eating and good health are not mutually exclusive.

Posted by annie1992 , cinnanmon bread made into French toast is indeed a great idea for breakfast. The lemon chicken, I have forgotten how much I love lemon chicken. I wish I have Meyer lemons to make one as good as yours. What an interesting idea to smoke brisket in the roaster. Yours turned out beautiful.

Posted by lpinkmountain , sustainable seafood recipes is a very good concept that we all need to consider. I like the combination of green tartar sauce and asian slaw, and a potato fennel gratin.

--------------------------------------------

I too made sustainable farm raised catfish nuggets, stir fried with snow peas

Also sous vide cooked pork shoulder.
dcarch

dc - What is the red sauce?

Ann T, that is possibly the most beautifully presented shepherd's pie I've ever seen. I thought Stetson grew up in Michigan, I'll bet he loved playing in the snow too. Cooper just dives head first into the snow to get his toys and if I haven't thrown a toy, he'll just bury his head in the snow, I have no idea why but it looks funny as heck, LOL.

L. I'd love your brunch, I like a bite of this and a bite of that. Like you, I love that maple oatmeal bread, I ought to make some. Maybe tomorrow.

ruthanna, that chicken does look perfectly glazed and delicious but the broccoli is what is really calling to me, for some reason.

Rob, that pork chop looks perfect to me!

dcarch, I just had to try the smoking in the roaster, LOL, even if it is not the ideal medium. Cooper has been enjoying the bones in those ribs greatly, so it's all good. As usual, your pictures are beautiful, but I second the question about what the red sauce is. Sriracha?

What's for supper? Leftovers, and not nearly as interesting as Lpink's leftovers either!

Annie

That sauce is Kraft Catalina dressing with a little fish sauce and a little Sriracha.

Also, FOAS, I forgot to answer your question, sorry. The bulb is Full Spectrum Light Bulb - ALZO 85 watt CFL 5500K - daylight balanced pure white light - 4250 Lumens
From amazon.com

dcarch

Ruthanna I was going to e-mail you privately, but then I decided that everyone might like to benefit. Could you post the eggplant recipe?? I found out last night that I have a whole extra jar of kalamatta olives and I'd like to try and pare it down to one. BF says he doesn't like black olives but I think it is the bland ones he doesn't like. I think he likes kalamatta ones and I think he'd like this dish, since he likes eggplant and likes most other mediterranean dishes.

Ann, those potato rosettes really take the shepherds pie to another level.
Annie, I did make french toast for breakfast this morning.
Lpink, your Asian slaw is something I'd like to try. It would probably taste good with any type of fish.
Dcarch, looks like you're having a great time with your sous vide cooker. Your pork looks delicious.

Broccoli is out "featured vegetable" this week and had it in a marinated salad last night (made the remainder into cream of broccoli and leek soup for Friday's lunch). We had another oven dinner with garlic roasted potatoes, beans and a little bone-in ham end.

Lpink, I don't use a recipe but it's very easy. Cut eggplant in half and cook cut sides down in microwave on high until slightly soft but still firm enough to slice, about 5 minutes.

Then I hollow out the eggplant with a grapefruit knife, trying to keep the insides in one or more large pieces. Slice out the long strings of seeds (they're easy to find in a microwaved eggplant for some reason) and dice up the rest. Heat a little loive oil in a frying pan and add chopped sweet red pepper and onions and the eggplant. Saute until soft but not browned. Stir in cooked rice or orzo, spices (I used ground cumin, cinnamon and Shish Taouk spice), chopped mint and parsley, cut up olives, pine nuts and a small amount of crumbled feta cheese. I only added the mushrooms because I had them left from another meal.

Stuff eggplant shells and then they can be refrigerated, covered, for a day or two. I bake them at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until heated through.

You can put the cheese on top before baking instead of mixing it in or use different spices or ingredients. In the summer, I'd dice a tomato and add it, along with some corn and basil and oregano instead of the ME spices and put cheddar cheese on top. Leftover chopped meat or cooked ground beef or lamb can also be mixed in.

I make stuffed summer squash the same way but cook for a shorter time in the microwave and oven.

Ruthanna, those beans are calling my name, I love baked beans. I like them hot and I like them cold and I even make sandwiches out of the cold ones for breakfast, LOL. Like Lpink, the eggplants are definitely something I'd like to try too, so thanks.

I've been eating, but I don't remember what. I was moving closed file boxes at work and sprained my back, even had to go see the Workman's Comp quack that the county hires. Anyway, he said I strained my back, it became inflamed, pressing on my sciatic nerve. Hurts like he!!. So anyway, I haven't been cooking all that much.

One day this week, though, Cooper and the Dead Cat and I had chicken livers. That's all, no veggies, no potatoes, no rice, just a big old plate of chicken livers and we were all happy!

tonight, though, Elery is here. He's been gone for three weeks, I haven't seen him since New Year's, so I cooked supper. Rao's Lemon chicken, recipe courtesy of Carol (dishesdone) and lemons courtesy of Arlene. It was yummy, we both loved it and leftovers are going to make an awesome chicken salad, I think. Sides were chipotle smashed sweet potatoes, a slice of homemade herbed italian bread and a new recipe from Prevention magazine that had carrots/onions/lentils/broccoli, with some oregano, crushed red pepper and garlic. It wasn't the prettiest side dish I've ever made, but it tasted pretty good....

I think breakfast tomorrow morning is going to be those eggs in baked potatoes that Ann T posted and some of the herb bread, toasted.

It's nice to have him back home, if only for two days.

Annie

Last night BF and I collaborated to make one of my myriad "Moroccan Chicken" recipes in the crockpot. He's never had cous cous before so I took this opportunity to make some Israeli style cous cous pilaf mix that a friend gave me. It was good! Sorry no pics of that, I should have taken some since it had other stuff in it so it was kind of like confetti.

The chicken was YUM and really was that yellow, with saffron, tumeric and paprika in the mix. Of course it was yum, it had saffron in it!! I made mine with celery as I usually can't afford fennel so I just add extra ground fennel to the seasoning blend. I used kalamatta olives, which weren't the best but that's what I had. I should have used a more fruity olive like the recipe calls for. Also did not use preserved lemons, I just used a small fresh one. BF thot it was a little too lemony, but to me it was just right. The recipe was from About.com and I highly recommend it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moroccan Tagine of Chicken with Fennel

Start here

Pat meat dry, salt, wrap in paper towels and leave in refrigerator until ready to use. Set cast iron pan on highest burner, go do something else for 10 min. Return, unwrap meat, rub w/ oil, sear in pan - which should be turning gray w/ heat and smoking - 2 min per long side and 1 min per short side. Remove meat, cover and rest 10 min. Slice and call for the kids. This was a mid-day snack.

Start here

Pat meat dry, salt, wrap in paper towels and leave in refrigerator until ready to use. Set cast iron pan on highest burner, go do something else for 10 min. Return, unwrap meat, rub w/ oil, sear in pan - which should be turning gray w/ heat and smoking - 2 min per long side and 1 min per short side. Remove meat, cover and rest 10 min. Slice and call for the kids. This was a mid-day snack.

Now that is my idea of a great mid-day snack. Perfectly cooked too.

We had beef for dinner last night. I thawed a small prime rib, single rib, on Wednesday. Presalted it Thursday, and air dried it Friday.

Rubbed with fresh garlic and lots of coarsely ground black pepper and cooked on the grill.

I haven't posted to this thread in ages but I certainly read it and love seeing and hearing about everyone's meals.

Today I made the French Chicken Onion Stew that tobyt posted on the New Recipe Review for January. We like it a lot. I followed the recipe as posted except for adding a little flour slurry at the end to thicken the sauce just a bit. I should have followed Jane's lead and removed the skin from the thighs because it wasn't appealing after it had braised for hours. I removed it the end. It also didn't need as much time as the recipe said in my crockpot.

Even though I cut it back to eight thighs and six very large onions it made a huge amount. We'll probably poof it for one more meal and then I think I will remove the rest of the chicken from the bones, add more home made chicken stock, more Sherry and morph it into a white onion soup with toasted croutons.

We had it with mashed potatoes, steamed green beans and a romaine, pear and pecan salad. It was a very nice dinner and the recipe is a keeper for us. Thanks for sharing it Jane.

Lee

Here is a link that might be useful: New Recipe Review - January

Annie, I'm glad you and Elery could finally get back together again for the weekend, say hi from Ken and me! I love that Rao's chicken too, its delicious.

Last night I made Ann T's lamb shanks. First time I have ever cooked lamb shanks in my life! I used the recipe where you brown them in a 500 oven - so much neater than on the stovetop. They were fantastic! We both just loved them and will definitely be making them again! Thanks, Ann. I've had that recipe saved for just about forever and finally actually did make them (one recipe down, 150,000 to go!) I cooked rutabaga in with them and served them with mashed potatoes, was great!

LOL Woodie, you sound like me. I have about 3,000 recipes in my "to try" file, lol!

Woodie, i was glad to see him again, he says "Hi" right back at you and Ken! I should have made the lemon chicken sooner, it was delicious and we both loved it. The leftovers made an amazing chicken salad too.

Lpink, I have that same 3,000 "recipes to try" file, I think! It must be a chicken kind of week, because yours looks good too.

Lee, your chicken also sounds good, I'm going to have to try that too, maybe half a batch, or I'll have to take leftovers to the office.

Ann T, that prime rib looks lovely, but it's the roasted potatoes that always grab me in those pictures, they are always so beautifully and evenly browned.

Here I tried Ann T's baked potatoes with eggs, they were good but I cooked the eggs too long for my taste, they were done all the way through and I like the yolks kind of runny. Elery loves them hard, though, and so he was very happy with this recipe and says to thank Ann T for him. We had homegrown ham on top, I panfried a ham steak, used some for the eggs and Cooper and Pancho finished off the rest of it.

Since I made Saturday's breakfast, Elery made breakfast today, kind of a vegetable hash with russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, an egg cracked into the middle. He cooked my egg just right and we had bacon on the side. You can tell by the pale yellow yolks that I've had to resort to store eggs, I haven't made it over to the Amish farms for eggs. I can tell by the taste too, unfortunately.

Supper was venison steak with onions and baked potatoes. The venison was marinated in teriyaki and panfried, and the rest of the marinade thickened with a bit of cornstarch and used for sauce. Plain boiled broccoli on the side:

And that's what's for dinner.

Annie

Annie your breakfast reminds me of "pyttipanna" which is a Swedish hash that I get when I eat at Ikea's cafeteria. This might be on my menu soon as I have to use up some sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. I often make something similar but roast the potatoes. But first I have to eat up the "giambotta" that I made last night, which is supposedly an Italian ratatouille but with potatoes. I got the recipe from the Moosewood Lowfat Favorites Cookbook.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pyttipanna

Wow, it has a name? Elery made it with everything in the fridge that needed to be used up, plus some onions, LOL.

I like that, pyttipanna.

Annie

Not to be confused with a pyttiparti.
:)

It took a lot of time to watch the play-offs. Forgive me for not commenting on each and every one of your wonderful dinners. Looks like everyone is on top form.

Previously unfrozen scallops were on sale. I bought some and made scallops with bacon powder. Also made some bread to go with the scallops.

dcarch

Woodie, I'm glad you liked the lamb shanks. Definitely one of our favourites.

Annie , great looking breakfast.

Dcarch, nice loaf of bread.

We had wings for dinner last night.

With onion rings.

I hadn't checked this thread for a few days but must have had a premonition of its contents because we had chicken too. It's always so interesting to see and read about the a variety of ways an ingredient can be cooked.

I roasted a capon breast for the first time in a while on Sunday. Those are yellow beans in the bowl, although DH thought they looked like pasta.

I am temporarily un-retired until mid-April, working at a tax preparation office. We've flipped lunch and dinner meals for the days when I work from 2 to 9.

Had an unusual dinner for us last night. Our neighbor who is undergoing chemo mentioned during a visit that he kept thinking about lobster mac and cheese he'd seen on a TV show. I had a pack of langostinos in the freezer so he got his wish.

When I make our Christmas Eve Tourtiere I usually bake one or two extras to put into the freezer. This year, instead of baking extra pies, I just froze the filling.

This is definitely something I will do again. Yesterday, all I had to do was take the filling out of the freezer , make the pastry and bake the pie. An easy dinner.

I also pulled some wonderfully rich pork gravy out of the freezer to serve with the pie. Moe would have preferred Sharon's chili sauce, but unfortunately for him, he used it all up on his Christmas tourtiere.

An all butter pastry. Makes for a wonderful flakey crust.

Ann

Well, it sure doesn't look as good as Ann T's onions rings or Ruthanna's lobster Mac and cheese or dcarch's bread. Definitely not as good as tourtiere.....

I had some dental work done yesterday and so I've been eating "soft". Last night I had beef/barley/mushroom soup:

Breakfast was oatmeal, lunch was more soup. Supper was mashed sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes. They were so good that I just had those!

I took the rest of the soup to work and the staff finished that off, so I'm not quite sure what's going to be lunch tomorrow...

Annie

OK, to heck with soft. I'm at Elery's, and he made a very rare tri-tip. I made some ciabatta bread and we sliced the tri-tip very thinly and made open faced sandwiches. Yummy, with some roasted asparagus on the side. I just chewed on the right side of my mouth, LOL.

I've found that if I blanch asparagus very briefly and freeze it, it makes an entirely acceptable roasted asparagus, so this spring, when the asparagus is ready, I'm going to freeze a bunch more.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to bring my camera...

annie

Quickie pork ribs. About 40 minutes.

Cut into four rib sections; heat oil in pressure cooker; brown ribs in oil; discard oil; add sake, rice vinegar, hoisin (or soy) sauce, star anise, garlic, pepper, green onion; cover pressure cooker; bring to high pressure and cook for 15 min; release pressure, remove ribs; high boil the liquid in the open pressure cooker to reduce, for 10-15 minutes, then stir in some cornstarch; meanwhile, broil ribs in toaster oven, 3-5 min per side, just to crust/crisp the skin; assemble and serve to kids as evening snack.

The 5 qt Kuhn Rikon braiser works well for stuff like this.

Thanks for reminding me that I have beef ribs in the freezer that I cut off our last prime rib before cooking it. Your pork ribs look delicious.

On Wednesday, we had 11.5" of snow so it was perfect weather for a big bowl of beer-bean soup.

For our teatime treat this week, I made a blueberry-tangerine coffee cake, which was mangled before I thought to take a photo. LOL

Another bad storm coming this week so our neighborhood co-op cooked like crazy yesterday - 3 kinds of soup, venison chili, pulled pork BBQ, and dozens of from scratch chocolate cupcakes - all done in about 2 hours except for frosting the cupcakes (the pork started cooking the night before in a crockpot). We're doing our Green Light program for the road crews again this year when it snows and our house will be on duty to dispense soup, coffee, and cupcakes from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M. tomorrow night.

Ruthanna, I often get cravings after seeing your pictures. I haven't made a pot of bean soup in a while. I might just have to add that to the menu this week. Would you mind sharing your cake recipe?

Meals this week - We had -

Greek Chicken with roasted potatoes.

Breakfast for dinner one night - Oatmeal Pancakes with Bacon

And last night - Roast beef with regular sides

Ann

ann_t, would you share the Greek Chicken recipe?

Sissyz, not really a recipe, more of an outline. I browned the chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper and lots of oregano. Added a whole head of garlic cloves, tossed in some kalamata olives, the juice of two lemons, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, covered and into a 400 ð F oven for about 20 minutes.

I parboiled the potatoes before tossing them in with the chicken and roasting with the lid off for another 20 minutes or so until the potatoes were tender.

Ann

thank you!

I really have been cooking, I've just been lazy about taking pictures.

I'm really going to try to do better.

Kim requested a ham loaf for last night. I hadn't made one in years. Sides were scalloped pineapple and sweet potatoes. It was a good tasting change of pace.

Nancy

Nancy, I've been cooking too, but I've also been "lazy" about pictures.

Saturday I was at Elery's, and a co-worker of his had given him some mallard duck he'd shot. Elery marinated the duck breasts in teriyaki and some other stuff and served it with a side of Trader Joe's 3 grain blend, some ciabatta bread and roasted asparagus. It was very good, tender and juicy and almost reminiscent of good tenderloin...

One night I had cornmeal blueberry pancakes:

and one day I made a ham steak with some fried cabbage. No picture of the steak, just the cabbage...

Oh, and Nancy, remember that Asian grocery you told us about in Ann Arbor? We went there, it was so much fun. There were about 200 people in there, and they had everything from live turtles and Dungeness crabs and blue gill and snails to chicken and duck feet, squeaky shoes (yeah, for kids, squeak when they walk. How annoying would THAT be after a while, LOL) I was channelling Aunt Yoshiko like crazy when I realized that there was a small tag in English on the front of each shelf, LOL.

Elery picked up this coffee candy, it really tastes more like caramel, but I loved the package "A present first choose best enjyment". Hey, I knew what they meant!

some sweet potato noodles, don't have any idea what to do with these, but she looks so HAPPY...

Some dark sweet soy sauce, hot chili paste for Elery, some pickled radish, Pocky for the kids, and then we went to Trader Joe's!

It was fun....

Annie

Annie, I'm glad you found that Asian market. I loved it and of course we got carried away, it's hard not to.

That part of Ann Arbor has lots of good foodie shopping.

Nancy

It sure does, doesn't it? Whole Foods, nearly right across the street is Trader Joe's, this Asian place, and Homegoods isn't too far away either.

Good thing I have to go to Elery's to shop that area, because I came back with a big hunk of Trader Joe's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate too.

And I stopped at Horrock's on the way home...

Annie

Oh wow Sissyz. I sure don't miss all that white stuff.

Your bruschetta would have really hit the spot after all that work. What a great photo.

We had Greek for dinner. I made Pastitio.

Sissyz, that looks like a great reward for snowblowing.
Nancy, I haven't had a ham loaf for a while either. I usually get them already made up at the farmers' market and now am wanting one.
Annie, I'd take that duck breast for dinner any time.

Ann, here's the quickie cake recipe. This time, I made it without extra blueberries and added the grated zest of a small tangerine and substituted its juice for part of the liquid in the recipe.

BLUEBERRY COFFEE CAKE

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (can use part brown & part white or all white)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick, sliced into 8 pieces)

1 package (18.25 oz.) Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix with can of blueberries included
1 1/2 cups fresh or defrosted frozen blueberries
1 Tbs. juice from canned berries
2 tsp. lemon juice

Mix first five ingredients thoroughly with your fingers to make crumbs and set aside. Drain can of blueberries, saving 1 Tbs. of juice. Make mix according to package directions, adding canned berries as directed. Spread in greased 8 inch square or round pan. Cover with the fresh blueberries and sprinkle with the 1 Tbs. of berry juice. Sprinkle with lemon juice and cover with crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool on a rack, if possible.

Notes: You can make this without the fresh blueberries. Just make the mix as directed and add the crumbs without the blueberry or lemon juices. You can also add well-drained cut-up canned peaches to the top instead of the blueberries.

It's peak tax return season so I'm working longer hours, although we've had some good meals this week - pulled pork BBQ, pasta with sausage sauce, shrimp and asparagus salad but no pix since my neighbor is using my camera for ebay photos.

Elery made some cabbage rolls, that's what we had Friday night, along with mashed potatoes and beets. Plain old beet, boiled until tender, plunged into cold water to slip the skins, then sliced and seasoned with salt and pepper. My favorite way to eat beets, just plain.

We took mother to lunch yesterday at Schuberg's, with the gift certificate she bought us for Christmas, LOL. I told her the only reason she bought us gift certificates was so we'd take her to lunch. (grin) Mom and I both had grouper, I had onion rings, she had fries. Elery had a grilled salmon sandwich with honey dijon dressing. It was all good.

sissyz, that looks just like here! The bruschetta looks really good too.

Ann T, Elery loves patitsio, he'd be very happy with your dinner indeed.

ruthanna, thanks for the recipe, I still have blueberries in the freezer.

Nancy, it's been a long time since I had a ham loaf, I don't think the grandkids have ever had it, I'm going to have to make that soon.

Here it's snowing and I'm kind of laughing at our "severe weather alert". 1-3 inches of snow, temps down in the 20s. Poor David has it worse in Oklahoma. Elery left Pancho here with me for the week, he'll be back Friday afternoon, so Pancho and Cooper are napping on the couch while the Dead Cat decided the warm water bed was her spot:

Annie

Here's what we had tonight--yummy! I didn't use as much "red dye" as the recipe called for, and I boiled some of the leftover marinade and mixed in a bit of honey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recipe for Chinese Spareribs

Annie, those cabbage rolls look warm and filling!

Sooz, spare ribs, yum!

I decided to buy some wild rice, what with all the wild rice around here that gave me cravings, and made up my own recipe. It's couscous with pine nuts, cranberries and wild rice served over endive. With a drizzle of dressing.

I love pork stew. I eat it all winter long. This is with Ann's cornbread that she makes in muffins, loaves, or a springform pan. I was practicing cornbread as church was having a chili supper and that's what I wanted to bring. It's a pretty good recipe. Mom contracted a severe case of pneumonia and we spent the church homecoming in a hospital (but the cornbread was tasty when I got home).

I made the salmon and vodka sauce dish, but didn't photograph it. I didn't even realize it until this morning when I looked at the photos of what I made with the "excess salmon". I also had excess mushrooms for wild rice and mushroom soup, so I made stuff mushrooms. It has lemon pepper, capers, mushroom stems, shallots (which I sauted and then deglazed with white wine) and fresh bread crumbs.

On Saturday, I finally got my home back in order after having spent all my weekend at my mom's the week before so she wouldn't have to come home to a mess from the hospital, so I finally cooked. I made Wut Gai and steamed rice. It was sweet and salty, which was good with the plain rice, but I don't think I'd make it again. It was from a pamphlet my mom had from 1967. I grew up with Filipinos in my home and it's very similar to chicken adobe which I'd rather have.

And now I am caught up!

:)

Annie, we eat beets so often that I have a pair of rubber gloves reserved under my kitchen sink for sliding off the skins. The only way I don't like them is with the Harvard beet sauce.

Sooz, your photo really showcases the ribs.

Rob, I would love your wild rice dish. I have mushrooms in the fridge to make curried pumpkin mushroom soup but now I'm being pulled in the direction of stuffing them. It's funny how often CF threads take me in a different direction than I originally planned to go. LOL

This weekend I made what looks like a regular roast chicken, stuffed with a quartered lemon and onion and herbs like I often make but this time, it included a whole bulb of garlic with the bottom sliced off in the cavity. I usually use the high heat roasting method but used a lower temperature to give the garlic steam time to permeate the meat. The aroma in our house had DH driving me nuts asking, "Is the chicken ready yet?" about every 10 minutes. Roasted potato wedges and steamed sugar snaps were the rest of the meal.

Thanks for sharing your recipe Ruthanna. We had a roast chicken dinner last night too. I had Moe turn the oven on so that it was preheated to 500ðF by the time I got home from work. So it didn't take long to roast. Sides were mashed potatoes, corn and fresh asparagus.

Rob, your photos are amazing. I want to reach right through the screen and help myself.

Sooz, you are my inspiration for tonight's dinner. I have some baby back ribs that are going to be done Asian style. I rubbed them with fresh garlic and ginger, hot red pepper paste and sesame oil. I think I might do stretched noodles on the side. Still thinking about that one.

Annie, I would be very happy with your beets and Elery's cabbage rolls.

Ann

Rob - your wild rice creation looks delightful.

Rob, I do hope your Mom is feeling better, is she back home yet? I'll be thinking healing thoughts for her.

Ann T, after I thought about it I thought beets, cabbage and potatoes all went very well together, kind of Eastern European! I just needed a nice chunk of rye bread, which I did not have. Ah well.

Tonight I didn't take pictures. I had leftover fried cabbage, leftover boiled beets, leftover mashed sweet potato and the last cabbage roll. My refrigerator was starting to look more full than the pantry, sheesh. Since Cooper happily eats the leftover beef, chicken, meatballs, whatever, it leaves a lot of vegetables.

Annie

I already posted this on Alexa's egg yolk thread but will add it here. Monday night's dinner was a poached salmon, Kumato and avocado salad with the house dressing of the PA Railroad back from the dining car days. We also had a bowl of potato-leek soup.

She is Annie. She has severe asthma (mine is mild, but then I didn't smoke for decades (she quit 35 years ago)) and gets pneumonia once every five years or so. This was the worst. By the first night, after steroids, IV antibiotics, and fluids she was up and at 'em. Her white count continued to climb, so she had to stay. Finally, she went home on Wednesday. She feels loads better. She wrote a note to me on Sunday and passed it over during church that said, I look so much better they're gonna think I had a miracle healing. Pretty much sums it up. She looked the worst I've seen her and if she gone much longer without all the interventions, she might not be here. Severe pneumonia with severe asthma (reduced lung function on her left side) is a bad combination. She's not as young as she used to be either. She now looks better than usual. Whew.

Ruthanna, I'm gonna have to go look up that dressing, it looks tasty!

I had grilled BBQ chicken and au gratin potatoes last night. With a brownie afterwards. No picture because I just wolfed it down before I thought of a camera. :)