LPink, do you think you could post your BF's chicken picatta recipe? It looks real yummy!

That's a wonderful looking loaf of bread you made!

Jasdip, the recipe was from the "Eating Well" web site. I'm not sure BF followed the recipe exactly because I know he used two boneless skinless chicken breasts, not "chicken cutlets" whatever that is. And I'm not sure he dredged them in flour before sauteeing. I think he just coated them with some kind of seasoned pepper and sauteed. We served it over brown rice, which was much preferable to pasta, IMHO. The original recipe sounds good too and probably would be better over pasta--more "creamy" sauce, if you will. We used baby bellas for mushrooms, which I know because I brought them home from the store!

It was delicious, and nice and light, the way we like things!

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken piccata with mushrooms from Eating Well

Thanks Lpink!
I like capers, lemons, olives, that kind of thing with chicken or pasta so this recipe will suit us. Hubby can pick out the mushrooms.....that's one of the 2 things he won't eat.

The brown rice sounds perfect with it.

Oh, cutlets, are flattened breasts, so in a sense, he did use cutlets!

Mitch, your dinner sounds wonderful. I love wild boar. Haven't had it in a while. The idea of wild boar osso bucco has my mouth watering.

Jasdip, Moe would love your vegetable side. Especially the roasted onions.

LPink, everything looks good. (BTW chicken cutlets are boneless skinless chicken breasts).

Ann

You could easily use some other veggie in that piccata recipe, like red pepper, or zuchinni or even broccoli. Or just leave out the mushrooms and do the sauce plain.

String fries tonight.

John, those look deliciously crunchy, yum.

Mitch, I'm about a week late on this, but that sounds really interesting. I've had wild boar and liked it, so I would have enjoyed that dinner too, I think.

L, I also like the Eating Well website. I'm glad you like that bread recipe, I'm about due to make some myself.

jasdip, those vegetables look yummy too, I've seldom met a vegetable I didn't like.

So, anyone want to see what 700 cannelloni looks like? (grin) I managed to get 3 rows of 13 per sheet pan for freezing, a total of 39 per pan. Those 39 just about fit into a gallon freezer bag:

And now the freezer is FULL, there are several layers of bags of cannelloni in here:

So, since I was done with that I put some turkey thighs in the little 6 quart Nesco roaster. I really like that little appliance. For those who say the skin doesn't get crunchy and brown enough, check it out:

Let's see, last week Elery and I had scallops, some tortellini filled with porcini mushrooms in a red pepper pesto sauce and broccoli. Yeah, a weird combination, but I'm trying to get stuff out of the freezer and pantry:

the kids came over Wednesday so I made Sherry's brownies with chocolate ganache. They are just the way I like brownies, kind of chewy but not gloppy and not cake-like:

And today I've been playing with fondant, Monday is my stepmother's birthday and she's coming home from the hospital tomorrow. She had both valves replaced in her heart, so it's been a long week for everyone. Anyway, since Ashley wants me to make that fondant crysanthemum for her wedding cake, I decided I needed to practice. Rolled fondant, topped with cake wraps and cut into teardrops, then shaped into a flower, it was really surprisingly easy:

And that's what I've been doing, in between drives to Grand Rapids to the hospital with stepmom.

Annie

The wild boar osso bucco sounds wonderful.
Annie, I bet you're glad to be done with the canneloni.

As April 18th approaches, I've been working some long hours at the tax office so switched to dinners I could pack and eat there while DH heats his up at home. I only got to take two photos of them.

Buttermilk potato salad (had to make it after Jim's thread), firecracker beans (from the almond butter thread), baked ham and asparagus.

Another night, chef salad.

I'll be back into retirement soon and can't wait to plunge into a new cookbook called Arabian Nights.

I made a 98% vegetarian dinner tonight. The horror! In my defense, what I'd thought was usable meat in the refrigerator turned to be pork neck bones (shopping while sleepwalking) so I had to cook whatever was on hand.

The most interesting part was deep fried bok choy. It's not clear from the photo - better angle next time! - but the leaves are crispy and salty.

The rest was ehhh. Mashed red lentils with a random sauce (that may have been derived from slow cooked pork, that's 1%), deep fried tofu with lardons (that's the other 1%) on quinoa, and crispy string fries.

Ruthanna, The Arabian Night Cookbook sounds interesting. I look forward to you sharing some recipes.

I made Chicken breast with garlic and parsley for dinner last night. Simple and quick and delicious.

John, Very nice color on your pork belly. Should go well with the string fries and deep fried bok choy. All terrific and calorific. LOL!

Jasdip, I like the color scheme of your asparagus, basmati rice and a pan-fried pork chop on the yellow plate.

Lpink, for someone who does not like to cook, you have done very well.

Annie, 700 hundred cannelllllllllllllllllllonis look like 700 hours of work.

Ruthanna, most people cannot believe that they have natural design abilities. I always find your dishes look wonderful even you don�t try to do anything special.

Ann_T, Very nice chicken breast with garlic and parsley. I hope you did not forget the wine.

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

I also made chicken breast.

Sous vide ginger scallion chicken breast on stir fried daikon. Srinkled with coconut and pecan powder.

The sous vide method of course infuses the ginger scallion flavor deep into the tender meat.

I forgot the wine. So I had a beer.

Dcarch

I haven't posted on WFD in ages but read it often. Everyone's dinners look and sound wonderful.

Last night I made David, Lakeguy's. Garlic Soup and used up 50 cloves of my endless peeled garlic supply. It was really good, we both liked it a lot. I did substitute evaporated milk for the whipping cream and used closer to two thirds of a cup. Once the cheese was stirred in, the milk tasted fine. I know that whipping cream would have been better, but not OK for me now. Max made large and lovely salads and we had Ann T's rye bread that I made on Monday. All in all, a very good dinner and I thank David and Ann for the recipes.

Lee

I think this was the last thing I ate last night. Grainlady's pork rind pizza crust, topped with sauce, cheese, Spanish chorizo, and a diced up White Castle burger. And a squirt of sriracha for good measure. Gosh I miss the days when that would have seemed perfectly normal!

Ok, FOAS, I think that may have killed this thread. Because I'm not sure I can live without at least an occasional peek at What's for Dinner, I'll attempt a resurrection:

For supper tonight, hubby and I had three grandkids (no power or water at their house because of the recent tornadoes), an entirely blown fuse box of our own, and the Easter ham bone cooked (earlier) in a big pot of white beans with raw onion and dough-gods on the side.

Anyone else eating anything these days?

FOAS, that would have NEVER seemed normal in my life, LOL. I was hoping for a picture, and just got that "hosted by Picturetrail" notice...

Yes, slowlane, I've been eating and I had to grin when I first read your statement "for supper tonight hubby and I had three grandkids". Was that with or without brining them first? (grin) Grandkids can be a bit on the tough side you know, what with all that running about.....

OK, I'll try to catch up. Last Thursday night the grandkids stayed with me and I didn't have them for supper, I had them for breakfast, along with pancakes shaped like monster trucks and some homegrown bacon:

Easter dinner was prime rib, I kind of hacked it into pieces, along with macaroni and cheese, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes:

Makayla and I made Ann T's cream cheese danish and Makayla filled it with Nutella, the child is a genius, I'm telling you, it was yummy!

Although if she loses any more teeth, she'll have to eat everything through a straw after pureeing it!

Oh, and dessert was pumpkin pie and dark chocolate/raspberry cheesecake:

Also last week was chicken sausage, sesame noodles and some barley cooked with mushrooms. Yeah, a strange combination, but I had stuff in the pantry to use.

One morning Elery and I had scrambled eggs and bagels with cream cheese and smoked Michigan salmon from a little local shop that just opened in Newaygo. It was very good.

I made a pan of lasagna for the office potluck and ended up throwing half of it out, it was too dry, I needed to use more sauce:

OK, let's see......we had lake perch one night, and Cooper and I split some french toast last night. No pictures.
Tomorrow night I'm planning to have home canned sauerkraut with our homemade Italian sausage and some honey wheat bread, also homemade. I'm trying to get the pantry and the freezer cleaned out!

Annie

Well, Annie, the kids were brined from all the playing outside, but I rinsed them well before dinner :)

LOL, slowlane, now THAT was funny, I don't care who you are! (Hey, we were watching Larry the Cable Guy, I can't help myself. And that's why I'm cancelling satellite TV.)

Annie

Yes, we've been eating dinners but between catching up on the projects I put off during tax season, yard work and spring cleaning, I hadn't even checked back on this thread until today.

John, I have been thinking about those string fries. They look wonderful but I don't want to break our household's deep-frying taboo. I did consider having dinner at a restaurant that makes ones that look similar to yours and serves them with a gorgonzola dipping sauce.

Annie, I love the monster truck pancakes. Even though our the closest of our children and grandchildren lives 1400 miles away, I still made bunny French toast for Easter breakfast.

One simple Lenten meal we really liked was baked potatoes topped with a sort of ratatouille with parmesan cheese on top.

Another was caper sauced pasta topped with sauteed butterflied shrimp

I posted this on another thread but my favorite meal in the last couple of weeks was a fresh pork hock braised with great northern beans, carrots and leeks in a sweet-sour sauce.

Mini-kibbehs with yogurt-tahini and minted tomato dipping sauces. Yellow rice topped with red lentil puree, fried onions and pistachios.

My best friend and I had lunch this week in the basement of a historic 1833 office building.

Classic tearoom fare, with a cup of cream of mushroom soup and a strawberry scone with peach butter. We passed on dessert.

I saw a picture of Chicken Biryani, and searched several recipes to see which method I would prefer. There are 2 ways of cooking it, one is the Pakistani way and another way.

I found 2 recipes, and searched most (not all) the ingredients. I didn't bother with mace, or saffron, and a couple of others.
Have you priced Cardamom pods?! Holy crap! $56.67/kilogram!
I bought 6 pods.

Anyway, we love Basmati rice and it always comes out great, but not this time. I cooked it with the chicken and spices. Next time I'll cook it completely separate and combine just before serving.

These also called for tomatoes, which I'll add more of next time, and potatoes, which I'll leave out. They didn't add anything to do the dish, in our estimation.

Overall, it's a pleasant-tasting dish. I didn't want the apartment building to smell like Indian spices, and it doesn't.
The dish is actually a subtle flavour. I'll kick it up a notch next time.

We both agreed that it's worth making again, the flavour is nice, and with some tweaking it could be on a regular roster.

Everything looks so good! I can't comment on all of it as I've been gone too long. I have been so sick for so long. Why haven't I lost any weight if I haven't been eating?

:)

Cathy and I bought so many good things at the DeKalb Farmer's Market in Atlanta, but one thing I've looked for a very long time was black sesame seeds. I love sushi. I've made it one other time. Yep, once. That's why this picture is so small and so close. It's very ugly. But it tastes good. Crab, mango, and cucumber.

I learned another important lesson in making sushi. I thought the number one thing in cutting it would be a sharp knife, and is important, but the number one thing is... make sure the nori is soft enough. The first time I cut it last night worked ok, the second time, it fell apart completlely. Nori was the only difference between the two. I was in too much of a hurry. What can I say? I'm finally hungry again!

Annie, that MI smoked salmon--oh my yum!

Rob and Jasdip, those dishes look great and I really admire you for taking on such tricky dishes. Well, at least they are tricky in my book because I am not very good at fiddling with food.

Ruthanna I really liked your mini-kibbeh meal. Med. food is one of my favorite cuisines. Mind sharing the recipe for the minted tomato dipping sauce? I am always on the lookout for ways to use up all the mint I get from the garden. Also, I am going to have to try those ratatouille stuffed potatoes, as I love the tomato, eggplant, pepper, potato combination.

I haven't posted much because frankly, I haven't been cooking much. Spending most of the time trying to get caught up with paperwork, house and yardwork which were much neglected while I was sick for two months.

First, a funny comparison of one of BF's meals and one of mine. I think it caputures our personalities perfectly. His: chicken piccata and rice, with the chicken and rice and slaad, each neatly sectioned off in their own respective official spots on the plate and table. Next, mine: Curry and coleslaw, a complete jumble, everything under the sun on a plate.

And here's an old one, but it's an homage to my Aunt Vivyan from my visit with her for Passover, a photo of perfection in matzoh ball soup.

Lastly, dinner from a couple of weeks ago, Mediterranean turkey burgers, yogurt tahini sauce, and a gorgeous salad with beets, goat cheese, red peppers and broccoli. It was a very yum meal.

I really didn't feel well enough after the Atlanta trip to do anything other than dump clothes in the hamper and flop on the bed when I got back, so I didn't photograph the wonderful wonderful gifts Jude gave me. I decided instead, to share them after we enjoyed them. And, I wanted to save each item for something special. There is one gift I don't have a photo of, but it is a fantastic addition to my ceramic bird collection. Distincive and very lovely. I will share it later. Sorry Jude!

Cinco de Mayo with the jar of closely guarded (by me!!!) Annie's salsa

Mother's Day with the fig and strawberry preserves (the little fella made it mostly)

I wanted to know the best way to use the spicy chunky tomato sauce and so I looked on the cooking forum. Forever ago, Booberry said on pizza. It was quite delicious after the Spring Concert

The other thing I wanted to photograph are the results of food we picked up at the Farmer's Market. Cathy gave us all homemade vanilla! woohoo! and this is the result of all of it. The recipe for black sesame cake is on the New Recipe Review. And Meyer Lemon sorbet.

One exceptionally hot day, LF wanted to cool off and asked for an ice cube. I did him one better, an icy treat. Lemon sorbet with grenandine. Cherry-lemon ice!

It was such a treat to meet both of you and all of the ladies were quite enjoyable. I loved saving all the goodies for special times and they were even more enjoyable with a piece of you Jude and Cathy!

Really great food as usual. I'm way too behind.

Robin, what great pics! That pizza is really calling me and the sorbet would be nice dessert with it. I like your idea of sharing the goodies as you use them. Great pressies. That cake looks wondeful.

LPink, it's so funny what different styles can end up in the same household. Smiles. All looks good. Your BF has nice hand...lol..

I haven't been taking pics of our food lately because I was having a problem with the cameras card, but it's worked out now, I hope.

Last night we had my regular spaghetti with meat sauce. Angel hair. I was part of an event called Dine with your Cat/Dog in support of Lennox. A year ago this poor dog was taken away from his family in Northern Ireland and is still in detention there because the local Council decided he looks like a pitbull type dog. They're illegal there but the dog is actually half Lab and half American bulldog [which is legal], and had all the necessary DNA certifications, micro-chipped, registered, etc. Anyway, this event on Facebook by a friend of mine from the UK asked for pics of your animal[s] enjoying a meal with you. Here is my Jessie enjoying his sketties.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dine with your Dog/Cat

Totally awesome and inspiring photos, everyone! That fondant was a show-stopper, Annie!

What a face, that Jessie-dawg! That last photo is classic! I think he's related to Lady and the Tramp!

LOL Coconut, you were totally channeling "Lady and the Tramp" with that last photo!

What a great face! I love it coconut! Lab and bull dog,I bet Jessie has an interesting personality.

I had a real dinner last night! Chicken with sage and parmesan, with a tad bit of marsala sauce, garlic risotto, and baby spinach sauteed with a bit of bacon. It was good to be able to stand long enough to make an entire meal, but not so good to have to clean up ;)

Coconut, I love that picture. Too cute.

Served with homemade flour tortillas.

Thanks you gals. Rob, Jessie is a pitbull. The lab AB mix is the dog in Northern Ireland who is in doggie jail. Sorry for getting so OT that it got confusing.. lol. I was trying to get his corn on the cob eating pic but I have to hold the cob on both ends so he can go to town on it so need Christy to take the pics. The Florida white corn is here and it's actually been darn good.

Ann, tonight I cooked up a batch of ground meat burrito filling. I used the last of the flour tortillas I had. You've inspired me to make some. I always forget. I even have a nice tortilla press [I use it for clay sometimes ] Your fajitas look so great. Is that beans and cheese in the bowl with the salsa on top? I'm such a noncarnivore that I could live on rice and beans with cheese. Not Christy though. Smiles. It gets to the point with my cooking that she's say "I neeeed Meat!".

Great looking food as always but I especially love the spaghetti!

Last night was the first meal in a while that I've been excited about. Soft shell crabs with a lemon butter sauce, and penne with vodka sauce. I was really happy with how both came out.

Yum, all those lovely pictures have my stomach growling.

It's been so cold, dreary and wet here that I'm still cooking fall/winter kind of meals. It's far too wet to even do any planting. We have tomato and pepper plants but they're still inside under the grow lights keeping warm.

I made a banana nut bread this morning and will make a pepperoni/hamburger pizza for supper tonight.

I've never had halibut but those pictures of it.....oh my! What's the best way to fix it?

Truly impressive display of gastronomic mastery by everyone.

But Ann's beef and FOAS's softshell crab got me to think, Since the world is going to blow up, I treated myself to a nice surf & turf last meal. :-)

Lobster sous vide, and strip steak sous vide.

They both came out 100% perfect, but I can't claim credit. It was all electronics.

dcarch

I never post, but follow religiously! Finally cooked up something worth posting:

DCArch, I'll have some of that lobster and the mushrooms and onions. The fiddle heads and asparagus look great too. I like steak once in a while but I'm not a major carnivore.

Sissy, those spring rolls look soooo good. I really should make them during the summer. I love shrimp. Please continue to post!

Foodona... man... soft shell crab... Me Want!!

It rained for so long and was so downright chilly that I was forced to make a couple pounds of lentils in the Nesco. This blurry pic is my ode to Annies camera.. lol.

I had some bananas just right and Lisa's post about banana nut bread caused me to finally try Linda Banana Bread. It's just as good as everyone has raved about. Christy doesn't like walnuts as much as I do so I put pecans in this batch.

Then it turned hot!! Christy has been wanting what we call Mexican Feast. Red rice, unfrito'd pinto beans and cheese and burrito's. She wanted to learn how to make everything so I mostly was the overseer. Smiles. Turned out good. I've been eating the rice and beans for a couple days.

We've been enjoying the white corn from Florida this season so far and when Christy went to IGA today they were hawking the corn over the loud speaker the whole time, so, that's what we had for dinner.

Two for me and one for..........Jessie! I usually hold it for him but since I was taking the pics, Christy did. She kept saying how strong he is. LOL.

He's a good corn dog. I fed him the end after the pic. He ate that all himself. He cleans off a cob pretty darn good!

So many wonderful meals, but the one that is calling out to me is that wonderful looking white corn. Is there anything better than fresh corn on the cob?

We had Sweet and Sour Pork for dinner on Friday night.

Yesterday was Moe's birthday and we had rack of lamb and for dessert, we had, as is our tradition, a birthday cake with strawberries. This time it was a Japanese Strawberry shortcake. I found the recipe here.

Happy Birthday to Moe, Ann T!! I knew it was right around this time.

That cake looks delicious, BTW, but I'd go for the sweet & sour pork, yum.

Annie

Happy Birthday to Moe! Rack of lamb and your Japanese strawberry cake sound like the perfect celebration to me.

My kitchen was busy today. After reading dcarch's information on pressure steaming meat in an insert, with no liquid in the insert, I tried it with a three pound cross rib chuck roast. I cooked it at high pressure for 35 minutes which was the middle of the time range suggested in a cookbook for a pot roast of similar size PC'd in liquid. The beef came out on the tough side, but I know I could have cut it in chunks and finished it in some way to make it delicious. It really didn't matter because I was cooking it for our dog and when he had some cubed with cut green beans and brown rice and quinoa, he thought it was a great Sunday dinner. The bonus, and a lovely bonus it was, was that I ended with a cup and a half of very beefy stock which I strained and will reduce some tomorrow. I always wind up with a quart or so of chicken stock when I cook chicken for Oliver, but in that case the chicken is is cooked in water in the pressure cooker. Thanks for your help with that dcarch.

I had my oven going last night and today in an attempt to improve the seasoning on two cast iron skillets. So far I've coated them very lightly with Crisco, put in a 500 degree oven for an hour and then turned the oven off and let them cool down for several hours. I did that sequence three times in all and tomorrow will continue with several more times in the oven with the skillets coated with grapeseed oil and baked just below the smoke point for that oil. I hope when I sear off some short ribs tomorrow night that I will feel my pans are improved.

For our dinner I made Fuschia Dunlop's classic Mapo Tofu, using well rendered diced pork belly for the meat. It was delicious but I wouldn't make a trip to the store for pork belly for that dish - I don't think in the end it was significantly different from using coarsely ground pork. I had both the ground pork and the pork belly in my freezer. Sides were lightly steamed fresh green beans, stir fried just with ginger and garlic, a little rice and orange wedges for dessert.

Lee

I found a cool French cookbook from the 1970s. Two hardback volumes, by some TV chef of the day, a French chef who apparently had a cooking program in Canada. Lots and lots of recipes, organized into soupe, salade, legumes, poulet, porc, gibier, voillaies, boeuf and so on. With step by step pictures, in that faded-yet-gaudy color palette that is so typical of the period - which I assume has more to do with the color printing technology of 40 years ago than with the actual food - it is almost a comprehensive Betty Crocker-ish resource for classic French cooking simplified for the Quebec housewife of 1978. I'm a sucker for these finds, so $20 later it was mine. Dinner tonight was partly from this Powell's Books discovery.

Cucumber, peeled, briefly boiled in salted chicken stock, blanched, drained, then cooked in butter and bacon fat over low heat for 10 minutes. This was from the book, though the bacon fat was not. It tasted a bit like simplified ratatouille, actually.

Red potatoes, peeled and cubes, par-boiled then slow-cooked in a mixture of pressure-cooked, pureed asparagus, heavy cream, white pepper, and butter. This was not a recipe from the book, just a concoction designed to use up a bunch of asparagus stems left over from the salad.

Chicken breasts and thighs, braised in stock and white wine in the pressure cooker, with the liquid reduced and thickened with flour and cream. And more leftover asparagus - yes, I bought too much asparagus.

''Salade de la Rue Drolet'', says the book, it seems to be a standard French salad with crisp bacon (lardons in France, but Mr. TV-chef said bacon), hard-boiled egg, asparagus, ham, homemade vinaigrette with cracked pepper, an egg yolk, fig vinegar (the recipe said red wine vinegar, but we are out), croutons, oil, and Dijon mustard.

I've been on a strict-ish diet of 1200 calories/day, eating mostly salads, canned fish, bun-less hamburger patties, and so on. There's been nothing worth sharing on this thread for awhile, unless you want to see a bowl of canned tuna and shredded lettuce, oh yum.

It felt good to actually cook something for a change. I felt tentative, like I'd forgotten how to actually make interesting food. And in the end I couldn't eat much of it - like, five cubes of potato, half a chicken thigh, a meager small glass of wine, etc. But it did taste okay, and the cooking was fun.

John, there is no such thing as too much asparagus, IMHO! Great descriptions of some unusual dishes, (at least unusual for me, lol!)

Figured I might as well post photos of some of my Memorial Day spread. Our company bailed on us so we'll be having these dishes for about seven days in order to eat them all up. Sure they look nice now, but how about next Monday, or the day after, or the day after that! :)

Insalata russa deconstructed, sans peas since BF thinks they are bad for gout.

While I did not prepare the following recipe, I did enjoy it for dinner while in the mountains this past weekend. My friend made the recipe at home, froze it in the baking dish, and brought it to the mountains for us to have one night.

Keren halved each chicken breast horizontally to make thinner cutlets, used very thin sliced deli pepperoni (the larger size), used provolone cheese, and jarred pasta sauce instead of pizza sauce. She made two roll-ups per person and served them in the sauce over hot pasta. This was delicious and very easy to make.

Pizza Chicken Roll-ups

4 ServingsPrep: 10 min. Bake: 40 min.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
cut in half horizontally
12 thin slices deli large pepperoni
8 slices slices part-skim mozzarella cheese or provolone
1 can (15 ounces) pizza sauce or 24 oz. pasta sauce

Flatten chicken to 1/4-in. thickness. Place three slices of pepperoni and one slice of cheese on each. Roll up tightly; secure with toothpicks. Place in a greased 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish. Spoon pizza (pasta) sauce over top.

Cover and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Uncover; top with the remaining cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 8 roll-ups, serve 2 rolls per serving.
Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 each) equals 344 calories, 18 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 112 mg cholesterol, 673 mg sodium, 8 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 37 g protein.

I became curious about the "Salade de la rue Drolet". Apparently this is a street in Montreal. Why was a salad named for it?

The chef who wrote my books, Pol Martin, became a Quebecois after growing up and training in France. He was a well-known chef in Canada, and wrote twenty cookbooks in addition to hosting "The Art Of Cooking" TV program, running his own cooking school in Montreal, and writing a weekly food magazine.

I still remain unclear why he named a salad after rue Drolet - maybe his cooking school was there? - but no matter. Now that I have learned something about the man, I think I'll make his salad a standard chez moi.

Is it silly to wonder how a recipe got its name and about who named it, yes it is. But cooking is about people, more than food.

This is the recipe, by the way.

http://www.recettesquebecoises.com/quebecoises/detail.asp?receipe=6693

Here is a link that might be useful: Obit For Chef Martin

I've never had an ice cream cookie sandwich before and tonight I felt like one.

So I whipped up a batch of my chocolate granola cookies and made one while they were still warm. Delicious!

jasdip, my grandkids love ice cream cookie sandwiches, their favorites are molasses cookies with vanilla ice cream and hocolate chip cookies with chocolate ice cream. I like gingersnaps with lemon sorbet, yum.

I did have a birthday dinner this weekend, Elery and I went to one of my favorites, Blue Water Grill. They have a free lobster special during your birthday month, and this time it was langostino pizza. They do wood fired pizzas with nearly anything you want on them. This one was a thin crust topped with white sauce, cheese, langostinos and slices of tomato, baked and then topped with slices of fresh avocado.

I just threw out the last three pieces last night. It was OK, but the avocado and the cheese completely overtook the flavor of the langostinos, so they might as well not have been there. the combination of the white sauce and the melted cheese was far too gloppy, and so I didn't care for either the taste or the texture. Elery got the lunch "special", turkey on a pretzel bun with homemade root chips. the root chips are awesome, I especially like the beet chips. So, we split his sandwich, split the pizza and brought some home for the dogs. They wouldn't eat it because they didn't like the avocado!

Annie

TeresaNC, just wanted to let you know I made that stuffed chicken breast recipe for dinner Friday night. Both BF and I loved it! I used fake-meat pepperoni, which was still good. Also used parmesean to top. And I highly recommend Newman's Own "Sockarooni" pasta sauce. It is my favorite of the jarred sauces. Not cheap, but not overpriced and as good as my own in a pinch. I served it with spinach orzo pilaf, which was not as good. Don't know why, but I can't get into orzo. This was my first time buying it and I don't think I'll do it again. Funny, since I love ditalini and acini de pepe! Go figure.

LPink, I've never eaten orzo hot, but it's amazing in Ina Garten's Orzo salad with grilled vegetables. We love that! (I do cut back on the oil; it doesn't need 1/3 cup!)

1 small eggplant, peeled and 3/4-inch diced
1 red bell pepper, 1-inch diced
1 yellow bell pepper, 1-inch diced
1 red onion, peeled and 1-inch diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound orzo or rice-shaped pasta

For the dressing:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/3 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To assemble:
4 scallions, minced (white and green parts)
1/4 cup pignolis (pine nuts), toasted
3/4 pound good feta, 1/2-inch diced (not crumbled)
15 fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Toss the eggplant, bell peppers, onion, and garlic with the olive oil, salt, and pepper on a large sheet pan. Roast for 40 minutes, until browned, turning once with a spatula.

Meanwhile, cook the orzo in boiling salted water for 7 to 9 minutes, until tender. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables to the pasta, scraping all the liquid and seasonings from the roasting pan into the pasta bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour on the pasta and vegetables. Let cool to room temperature, then add the scallions, pignolis, feta, and basil. Check the seasonings, and serve at room temperature.

OK, back to life as I usually live it. I got rid of the WonderDoodle, I wasn't as good at ignoring him as the Dead Cat was:

So, with Ashley married off, back from her honeymoon and Kevin finally in possession of his own dog, Elery went back home and took Pancho with him. I was back to a one-dog-and-myself kind of household.

One night I made sesame chicken. I remember now why I only have it when I go out, it's time consuming, messy and not as good as I get in the Chinese Restaurants. By the time I cut up the chicken, marinate it, dip it in batter, fry it, make rice, make sauce, and eat, I've dirtied every dish in the kitchen and used up an hour. Here it is and so not worth it:

Asparagus is about three weeks late here, just now becoming available locally, so I put 5 pounds of it in the freezer, after having a good meal of just asparagus:

tomorrow I'm going to help Ashley pain an upstairs bedroom. She says it will be lime green, I did notice she didn't ask me about color or decorating advice, LOL, only for help rolling on the paint! Although it's 88 here right now, I picked up some fresh broccoli at MagicLand and made a batch of cheddar broccoli soup, her favorite:

And, since I'm just really tired of decorating cakes and cupcakes and anything else, I made her a pineapple sheet cake with cream cheese frosting, the world's easiest cake, I swear, and very good:

It was her birthday today and we had Pizza Hut (yuck) for lunch. She had the soup/salad/breadstick buffet and I had a BBQ chicken sandwich. Tomorrow when I go to help her paint, I'll take her cake for her birthday, and we'll have the soup and some breadsticks for lunch when we take a painting break.

Annie

Oh, and I forgot one breakfast. Elery had scrambled eggs with morels. I don't care for morels, but I found several growing out by the swimming pool, like this one.

Annie

Annie that is one great looking morel. I'd make a nice meal of that one too. Glad things are starting to get back to normal for you. The cake looks good to me even though I'm not too crazy about pineapple. I'd eat that sesame chicken and bet I'd like it as much as the restaurants.

LPink, I like orzo but kind of like it plain with butter the most. I use it in soups too and like it. In soup I like to make sure it's not overcooked. It does ruin it for me in anything if it's overcooked. For some strange reason I don't like any kind of pasta salads. Weird but true.

Our asparagus just started to come in too at the farm stand. Yesterday we had oven baked breaded chicken, some of the asparagus and mashed potatoes. If Christy doesn't have mashed potatoes at least every other weekend she freaks out. Smiles. Saturday night we had corn from the farm stand as the meal. It came up from Georgia the day before. It was pretty darn good. They usually try to get our local corn to be ready to harvest by Fourth of July.

Friday night we had picked up some yellow and green summer squash from the stand at the beginning of the week and I had several packages of baby portobellas so I made a brothy sauce with the squash, mushrooms, ground beef, some fire roasted diced tomatoes and both beef and chicken broths that I had in freezer. Was very good.

Only pic is of the pasta and that was from lunch the next day as you can tell by the few dried out vermicelli.

Annie, the pineapple cake sounds like something Bob would like. Would you share the recipe?

Thanks, jude

Annie, your sesame chicken looks delicious. Have you shared that recipe?

Coconut, I would love your pasta. Lots of different flavours.

A couple of our meals this past week.

Flammkuchen

and

Ann T, I haven't shared the recipe, because this is the first time I used that particular recipe and I didn't think the sauce was all that great. It contained honey and the sauce tasted very strongly of honey, in spite of the fact that I used the nice, light and mild honey sent to me by Arlene.

Eh. Maybe I'll try again. In a year or so when I get a craving for sesame chicken. Which I still have, incidentally, because that did not taste like sesame chicken!

Annie