yikes, what a mess.

Whatever is going on, to accuse someone of posting "asinine remarks", tell them to "put a sock in it" and to call them an "idiot" - well these are precisely the kind of comments that have kept me away from here for so long.

Just STOP. I NEED this place. I need to be able to ask for some FRIENDLY help and not have to read about all this bull.

I made Lo Mein last night. Chicken and lots of vegetables stir fried then tossed with noodles and a sauce made from soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, corn starch, sherry and garlic. It was really good!

I usually make Asian dishes with rice, I really like the noodles, tho and will use them more often!

Linda

I'll be sampling Amtrak's finest wine (Woodbridge) and hummus snack kit on my way home from Napa this evening. Yummo!

i hardly ever post but read almost everyday. everyones pictures are great...but the ice cream...oh my have to have that..unfortunately my dorm sized fridge just died so i have one 1/2 the size talk about terrible but grateful. made eggplant parm..with the help of 13 yr old neice then 3 yr old neice...can we say mozzerella everywhere...lol its ok they love cooking and i dont mind. no pictures because i still havent figured out this gosh darned camera. hope this wasnt all off topic.

Dinner was thrown together from bits and bobs..

2 leftover pork chops ripped apart..mixed with a medium size can of green chilies and 2 big over flowing handfuls of grated Jack...layered in a 9x13 with sprouted corn tortillas and homemade enchilada sauce...when done heating through tossed some grated cheddar and mozz to melt on the top.

I also had some leaves from the garden with grated carrot and took a Q from AnnT on her simple mayo/cream fresh garlic and rice vinegar dressing. Yummm Thanks for that Ann!

Oh and dessert will be homemade banana pudding made with homemade vanilla wafers, vanilla bean pudding and drizzled with butter salted caramel sauce.

loggerbaby,
Yours are the kind of posts that I most love reading. Clearly, you have some obstacles in your cooking, yet you manage to make it a family affair.
Would love to see pictures sometime.
Jo

Elery and I went to pick blueberries tonight, they started picking about two weeks ago here. So, supper was chicken on the grill, green beans and new potatoes, and I didn't have time to take a picture, the blueberry patch closes at 8 pm so we had to get out there.

Last night Bud came to stay with us, so Elery made flounder filets stuffed with a crabmeat and breadcrumb mixture, roasted fingerling potatoes and cole slaw made with fresh locally grown red cabbage. Bud had chicken nuggets, I didn't take a picture of those either, but I did take a picture of my plate:

Bud and I made brownies and he frosted them and added sprinkles. Gotta have sprinkles, and they were some that Woodie had given me. Bud didn't care that they were autumn leaves and pumpkins, he just likes sprinkles:

The Princess will come and stay with me next weekend, maybe, and we'll do some baking then too. In the meantime, Elery and Cooper just relaxed on the couch after Bud went home. Or maybe it was the blueberry picking that wore them out...

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Annie

I went to a wonderful little Bed and Breakfast place that also has a very nice restaurant way out in a little town in a very rural Iowa community on the site of an old grist mill...
Nothing fancy, just very good food. We had a plate of sweet potato fries and we each had a fabulous breaded pork tenderloin sandwich and a salad.
Oh and a Scotch or 2 and a wee bit of wine.
A drive out in the beautiful lush Iowa country side, high grounds so no flooding, good company and good food...even if not fancy!
No pics...I didn't cook it!
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: B and B in rural Iowa

I wish I could just reach in and take some of your great sounding meals off the monitor since I have been in the "too busy/too hot to cook" camp lately. The last two weeks have been overflowing with canning, freezing, and thousands of books as we prepare for our library's used book sale that starts tomorrow. I was happy to snag a copy of my all-time favorite vegetable cookbook (RodaleÂs Garden-Fresh Cooking) since I had given my copy to a friend who left the area.

Best recent dinner was pasta with an uncooked tomato and crabmeat sauce. I didnÂt get a chance to take a photo but hereÂs one of the sauce marinating another time I made it.

Our neighborhood co-op used the kitchen of the church across the street again this year to make and freeze gallons of chicken corn soup, both the clear kind below and the rivvel variety, which I donÂt like very much. We also canned three kinds of pickles and zucchini relish and froze corn, green beans and cherries in this session. This year we traded soup and some other items for a section of a corn field so we can just walk down the road and pick it fresh whenever we want.

ruthanna, what a good idea, trading soup for corn picking rights. I planted corn, but even when I stagger plantings I seem to have a whole bunch at once, then none. I put a little corn in the freezer but mostly we eat it fresh until it's gone and I can a batch or two of Carol's (Readinglady) Southwestern Corn Relish because Ashley loves the stuff.

The soup looks good, but that crab/tomato sauce really looks delicious, I don't care for cooked tomato sauces but I love the fresh ones.

Annie

Ruthanna, Can you share your recipe for the cold crabmeat/tomato sauce? Sounds like just the thing to have here one night when its 98 degrees down here.

A late breakfast held us while we worked all day clearing out and packing up some of my garden shed. Skipped lunch and at at 4pm we drove into town and ate an early dinner at a locally owned Mexican restaurant...... felt like geezers going to the blue light special!!! The only cooking I did was before bed to scoop up a bowl of sugarfree icecream topped with blueberry lime sauce (aka.... jam that didn't set as well as I would have liked!)

Grace

Love the look of that Crab and fresh tomato! I am eagerly anticipating you sharing that recipe too. Annie, that stuffed flounder looks awesome, and I could use a dose of "autumn" even if it was in the form of sprinkles on a brownie LOL!

No idea what will be on the table tonight..... depends on the weather!

Alexa

When I add cooked shrimp or crabmeat, I put it in the sauce when I start the water for the pasta, not for the whole time the sauce is marinating. Sometimes I omit the cheese and add about a tablespoon of tiny capers. DD likes to add one or two grated radishes when she makes it.

PASTA WITH FRESH TOMATOES

5 medium-size vine-ripened tomatoes
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar (can substitute basalmic)
1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped (can use more)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh basil (more or less)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/4 lb. Brie cheese, rind off, cubed
Linguini noodles or other pasta

Peel, seed and drain tomatoes. Chop coarsely. Sprinkle with vinegar after placing in a bowl. In a small pan, cook the garlic in the oil until softened but not browned. Add to the tomatoes; stir. Add basil, salt and pepper. Marinate at room temperature for several hours. Cook linguini al dente; drain. Toss with tomato mixture and cheese cubes until cheese is melted. Serves 4-6.

Thank goodness my mom invited me for dinner last night! LOL! There is not much fantastic going on in my kitchen making dinner lately. We had meatloaf, coleslaw, baby limas and corn, fresh sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and Vidalia onions, macaroni and tomatoes, cornbread, and for dessert, fresh peach cobbler. Yum! I have some leftovers for dinner tonight!
Double yum-yum!

Teresa

Thanks, everyone, for your good wishes about our dog.

I don't know what's for dinner tonight (probably leftovers), but I know what's for dessert! Chocolate gelato with 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's shaved into it.
Sooz

Lots of thunder storms around our area but I still managed to fire up the grill. Monday was chicken shish ke babs, grilled vegetables, marinated grilled eggplant and the best corn I've had this season. Picked that morning from a neighbors farm

Last night was salad topped off with left over grilled salmon.

Di

Ruthana - Count me as another one looking forward to trying that crab tomato sauce.

Annie - Elery looks about like I do after dinner every night. I think I need a dog. Looks comfy.

Sooz - You're definitely a bad influence.

Di - that salmon over salad looks like the perfect summer meal. I'm looking forward to having "the best corn I've had this season." I truly hope I haven't already had it.

Dinner for me was a last minute decision after an apparently sudden local shortage of okra became the latest obstacle to making a dish I've attempted to try daily for about a week now. So I made oven-fried catfish and fried corn, both recipes from July's Southern Living. Definite repeats. Please excuse me for focusing on the wrong part of the plate, LOL. For me it's generally one shot, like it or not, go eat!

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Dessert needs no introduction. (Thanks Sooz!!!)

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My son didn't like it. You freakin' kidding me? Suddenly I feel less badly that he barely eats a thing I make.

FOAS,
If it makes you feel any better, my kids turn up their collective noses at much of my cooking. Their friends however, make me feel 10 ft tall.
I think your ice cream looks fabulous!

LOVE LOVE LOVE it all FOAS!!!! You could feed me and my ENTIRE family any time! And I will find it a personal challenge when you bring your picky ones to my house..... and I love a challenge!
'

A

Oh yeah, I'm baaaaad, for sure! Ice cream BAD! FOAS, glad I could influence you in the ice cream area--your photo looks scrumdiddlyumptious (I had to look up how to spell that word!). I'd eat up your fried catfish easily!

Sooz

Sooz -- about that 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's. Is that the large 1+ pound size bar? That's what I used for our chocolate ice cream.

I have sort of a funny story about it, but I'll post it in another thread.

Jenn, yes it is the very same 1+ pound size bar! I saw your other post and read your funny story! I posted a response before I saw this post!
Ohhh, chocolate!

:O)
Sooz

Oh, CORRECTION!!!!! On the Berry Blast ice cream, put it in the FREEZER, not the fridge, overnight!!!
Mea culpa!
Sooz

My apologies for no picture, but dinner was a thrown together affair. Linguine with shrimp, garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and fresh tomatoes. Oh and a splash of white wine. A few scrapings of fresh parm and we were good to go. According to my 15 yr old foodie kid, it was "almost good enough for a restaurant menu". High praise, indeed.

FOAS. I love the ice cream cone picture.

Sooz, chocolate ice cream is my favourite. I'll trade you a bowl of raspberry for your chocolate.

Di, Your dinner looks great.

Teresa, your mom made a feast.

I butterflied a small pork tenderloin and tossed it on the grill with some potato slices. Served topped with a black olive and orange salsa.

So why now? Why are you all killing me with ice cream pics one week after I start a weight loss program.
Ya big meanies!

No pic, but last was Chef Salads. I really need to start taking pics again, don't I? Ah well...everyone knows what a chef salad looks like. LOL

I'll take pics of my lunch today. Just found out my girlfriend will have her three kids with her. So the Mojito Sorbet is out and Mango is in!

Linda

Gbsim, I like the way you treat your vegetables with respect.

I'm enjoying seeing and hearing about the recent ice cream adventures. Unfortunately, cream hasn't made its way back onto our menu.

Ann, that salsa looks great.

Linda, thanks for reminding me that I haven't had a Chef salad for a while. That will be dinner one night this week.

FOAS would you please post you're recipe for the oven baked cat fish....I think I NEED it! Looks scrumptious, oh and the corn recipe would be good too. Thanks
Sally

Ann, do you par cook the potatoes before grilling?
That meal looks so wonderful and perfect for warm summers..

I might even eat that salsa since it's got some many flavors going on. (I detest olives.)

diinohio, welcome back, I'm glad to see you again. Is that Silver Queen corn, the all white stuff? I had an uncle that loved it and never wanted to eat any other kind. Me, I eat whatever I can get my hands on, LOL.

FOAS, those ice cream cones look like all I'd need for dinner!

Ann, those potatoes look perfect and I'm sure the salsa was delicious, although I know you don't really like fruit with meat. I'd love it.

Tonight dinner was a big bowl of these with yogurt, I spent the day in the garden and picking beans (which I now need to snap) and going through finances with stepmom. When I got home I finished painting the storm door, LOL, so it was enough. I didn't actually COOK them, but I picked them myself and I made my own yogurt, so it probably counts...

Last night Cooper, Pancho and I had steak. As I like mine very rare, that's how the dogs eat it too. I heard Nigella Lawson today say that she liked rare steak and when asked how rare she replied "Nothing that a very good vet couldn't resucsitate". My kind of steak! With it I had an ear of fresh and local bi-color corn, it was very good:

I still had a small empty spot on my plate so I filled it with this, one of the very first ripe from my garden:

Right now I'm munching on a few of these. Yes, that's the infamous zucchini candy, a bowl of lime flavored and a bowl of black cherry flavored. The kids like it and no one can ever guess it's zucchini...

Annie

Annie, I'm envious of your tomatoes and corn. We have not had a hot summer so it will be awhile before there is local corn and tomatoes.

Terri, No the potatoes were not precooked. They only take about 15 or 20 minutes at the most to grill the potatoes until tender.

Ann

Ann, it's been hot, humid and very wet here, lots of rain. Flooding in many places, but my garden has been high and dry and things are way ahead of schedule. And I haven't had to run the sprinkler a single time this year.

There was a frost on Mother's Day that really hit the apples, maybe the peaches, but most things here are doing wonderfully. I've had a bit of problem with BER on the tomatoes but the corn is the best anyone remembers.

Annie

Small sirloin and potato on teh grill....no pictures...I over cooked it to medium....Chabby got to share...

Annie, that tomato looks yummy. I've got tomato envy here.
You have rain and my grass is all brown. Amazing. I froze blueberries yesterday...

Dinner tonight was rib steaks and a pasta salad with more veggies than pasta.

Nancy

Linda, we had similar dinners. I roasted a small top sirloin. Annie would have liked it. It was as rare as her steak.

Ann

Sally - I gotta tell you, either I've been missing the boat by ignoring most of the SL that we've gotten over the years, or July was simply an issue that hit home with me for some reason. Regardless, so glad you were inspired! Here you go - paraphrased but complete as need be. Both are simple as can be. Paren, my comments.

Catfish (page 115) - Soak 4 fillets in a cup of buttermilk for 20 minutes. Add a bit of hot sauce to the buttermilk if desired. Drain, sprinkle with Creole seasoning (I used EL's BAM!, suppose that's Cajun though?), dredge in crushed corn flakes and pack them on. 425 oven, on a rack over a pan, 30-35 minutes or until properly flakey.

Corn (page 70) - Cut 4 cups fresh corn and and scrape milk from the husks with your knife (scraping is critical IMO). 3T butter in cast iron med-hi, add corn, saute until mixture is thick, 10-12 min. Stir in 1t sugar and 1/2 each S&P (Corn was sweet, HBP, I only added pepper). Done.

All the steak and corn and grilled food sounds wonderful! FOAS, you might even talk me into catfish with that recipe.

No cooking here. Alice had her last day at the fair. Her pig sold yesterday and was purchased the family for whom she babysits and house-sits. They bid it up and paid a nice premium for it. Alice was delighted. She hopes she isn't disturbed by find pork in their freezer. :( She went to work and then to a friend's house and I am simply going to open a bottle of wine and have a glass.

Annie, can you please post your recipes for the zucchini candy? It sounds like a good way for me to use up some of these zukes besides the usual break and cakes. Thanks!

Annie, I wish I had those bluberries for breakfast this morning.

After a storm that decreased our 82% humidity, I finally turned the oven on to bake some weird corn  pecan custards and had them for dinner, along with grilled chicken and julienned squash topped with tomatoes and mint.

It was too hot to make pie but I did bake a batch of peach-orange pie filling with pecans and crumbs on top.

I discovered a cookbook at the book sale with recipes from the old Hot Shoppes chain. I first had their Peppercream dressing in about 1965 and it was the first parmesan - peppercorn type dressing I remember. The recipe is in there and we'll try it tonight over a chef salad.

I'm so excited, I am only a couple of days late, and that's because I don't have a computer over the weekend.

:)

Friday's Hawaiian sliders and fries (that's a virigin pina colada in the background, didn't want to cough up the bucks for coconut rum)
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Sunday's dinner (tarragon chicken, potatoes au gratin, and broccoli) and dessert (crispy peanut butter cookies and ice cold milk)

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Wow Rob - everything looks great! But whats a Hawaiian Slider?

Alexa

Thanks Alexa. Hawaiian burgers, but only made tiny (like the size of dinner rolls). Sliders are small burgers here in the" South".

Hawaiian Burgers

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 can (8 oz size) pineapple slices
3/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 red onion; sliced
1 tablespoon margarine
4 lettuce leaves
4 buns (onion or sesame are best)
4 slices swiss cheese
4 slices cooked bacon

Ah HA! I know what sliders are - we have them quite often too... I just had never heard of Hawaiian. They sound interesting! I don't know that I would have ever thought to put teriyaki and pineapple on beef.....

Thansk for clarifying

A

rob, Ashley's all time favorite burger was something called an "aloha burger" at Applebees. They took it off the menu and she found something similar at Red Robin just so I could taste it and try to replicate it, LOL, so your Hawaiian burger looks much like the one she liked.

Blizlady, here's the zucchini candy recipe. Unfortunately, it seems that the thermostat must have stuck on my very old dehydrator today and it just melted the inside, so my current batch of experimental dried zucchini chips are toast. Well, they're actually encased in melted plastic, but you get my drift.

Now I have to buy a new dehydrator. Sheesh.

Zucchini Candy
10 cups peeled diced zucchini 1/2 inch cubes ( I use "worms" about 3 inches long and 1/12 inch thick and wide. The little dice would be good in muffins, though.
3 cups water
2 pkgs. unsweetened Koolaid
2 1/2 cups sugar
Peel zucchini,
diced, removing seeds. Mix the liquid syrup together. Add zucchini. Bring to
a boil and them simmer for 25 min. Drain. Put on dehydrator trays. Dry 14
hours at 125 degrees. Turn pieces over and dry another 4 hours. This will
feel dry and not sticky when done. Store in jars or other tightly sealed
containers.If you dip in sugar when you turn them, they will be more like
"gum drops" on the outside.
You can do the same thing with the zucchini
but use 48 oz. pineapple juice
2 T. pineapple extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Have fun!

Annie

Annie - I like a rare steak, but I think I'd have to cry uncle on that one, LOL!

Ruthana - I thought your weird corn was creme brulee!

Hawaiian sliders are calling me. Up in the air about zucchini candy.

I have Beverly and Linda C to thank for tonight's inspiration. No, that egg salad doesn't have radish in it. Mine did. I used the wrong one for the picture, go figure!

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Foodona, you made me laugh with your putting the wrong plate in the pic. It's hard to take pics when you're hungry and people want to eat, including yourself! You've been doing a great job with your pics .. and your food.

Just love everyone's food! Ruthanna, Rob, Annie, Ann... everyone.

I do have a question for Annie about those candies. I'm having trouble getting my head around simmering them in the syrup for 25 minutes. I keep thinking they'd disintegrate by then. Is it the sugar that holds them together? I guess it's like jam when you cook very soft fruit and some is still 'around' at the end? Maybe I should just try it and see, eh?

After being incommunicado for a week (busy with guests), I opened this thread to see some of the best looking WFD's ever. Some are from the usual suspects, others from folks I don't recall having posted here before. At least not recently. Out of all of them, two I MUST make, and SOON, are Di's cucumber and tomato salad with salmon (what a great combination that must be) and Ann's grilled potatoes.

The ice cream is inspiring too, but I don't have an ice cream maker.

FOAS, I wasn't able to follow the story about the apparent pic goof-up but I think I see egg salad on Belgian endive leaves and gazpacho in your picture. Is that right? It looks awfully good.

Jim

I too have a question about the zucchini candy. Could I dry it in the oven very low. I don't have a dehydrator.

And, it really doesn't turn to mush after cooking it for 25 minutes???

lakemayor, I posted an answer on the next WFD thread, it's #311, we usually keep them to 100 posts because of all the pictures.

Anyway, no they don't turn to mush, just simmer them, don't boil. I don't know about the oven, it needs to dehydrate for 18 hours at 125F, that's kind of a long time to keep the oven on.....

And I don't have a dehydrator anymore either. Mine malfunctioned yesterday and just completely melted the inside, what a mess. And right at the height of zucchini season, LOL.

Annie

Thanks Annie. Maybe I just need to buy a dehydrator, you think?

Also, thanks for the info on keeping to posts to 100. I'm learning something more about CF everyday. Glad you all have patients with me.

Karen