Thank you Steel Magnolia! I made the Italian dressing that you posted and it is a hit here. I used half Champagne vinegar and half white balsamic and was very happy with that combination. Max and I had it on a simple side salad on Saturday along with grilled lamb chops and asparagus. But the real indication of success was at dinner last night when DMIL, who generally eats only three or four bites of salad, no matter what the dressing is, finished her plate! I too, like the little bit of thickening that the mayo adds, without making it really a "cream" dressing. Next time I'll double the recipe. It's a keeper! I haven't posted here in a while, but I've been reading late at night. I wish we could buy halibut as wonderful as Ann's, and that I could make a strawberry roll as perfect as Shelley's, and that I had Annie's bean soup and bacon corn muffins, and SharonCB's fruit plate with honeydew, and Linda's blackberry panna cotta, and Lou's roast chicken, and... Instead we started out yesterday with scrambled eggs and popovers. I considered these moderately successful. It's the first time in years that I have tried to make popovers here. They were always a success when we lived in Illinois. At this elevation they have always looked like hockey pucks. After researching popovers at high altitude, I decided to try one recipe posted for altitudes a little lower than mine and keep a log and work my way through variations in technique that I found on the web. The variations in "best" that I found on the web were convection vs conventional oven, cold start vs preheated, and bread flour vs AP. This version included, preheated convection oven and bread flour. I wrote it down. Anyone out there in CF land living above 5000' have a success recipe to share? We invited DMIL for dinner to quietly observe Orthodox Easter with her so she would not be alone remembering traditions shared with her family. We had a CD playing of the Russian Easter Liturgy, which I remember hearing so much at home growing up, although my mother had become Roman Catholic as a young adult. It's really hauntingly beautiful. Back to dinne; we had roast boneless pork loin, apple slices cooked with a few dried cranberries and cinnamon, green beans with a little tomato bruschetta mixed in, scalloped potatoes, and tossed salad with SM's Italian dressing. We finished with decaf cappuccino and Pecan Pie Cupcakes - not really cakelike, more like dessert bars baked in muffin tins. But with only five ingredients, six if you count the vanilla I added, they were quick, chewy and good. Lee

Mmmm. I've caught up on the thread, and now have a craving for roast beef, clams and mussels, carnitas tacos, au gratin anything. Sadly, I'm back in diet mode so the only one of those I am likely to indulge soon is the shellfish. Tonight, dinner was - Cauliflower, salted and oiled, roasted, tossed in melted butter, then tossed in grated cheese (which sticks thanks to the butter), then briefly broiled on "low" to melt the cheese. Then topped with crumbled bacon. - Baby bok choy, tossed with hoisin sauce, sesame oil, chili sauce, lots of pepper, stir fry-steamed (first stir fry in a very hot pan with not too much oil, then add a small amount of stock and cover with a mesh splatter guard, the food steams while the stock, hoisin, oil, etc thicken into a usefully tasty coating), topped with thin strips of ham. - Part of a chicken breast. From a supermarket rotisserie chicken. I'm sorry to admit it, I was lazy. It sounds not very dietetic, but most of the bulk is vegetables. My whole dinner was under 500 calories. Lunch was a tin of sardines. Breakfast a bowl of soup. Yes, really living it up here.

I made the recipe in the below link and it was pretty awesome, but then it's kind of hard to go wrong when that much cream is involved. And a not inconsiderable amount of butter as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Creamy chicken and mushrooms

Little bittiest lobster tails (4 oz) I've ever seen. Threw them on the grill. Husband gave me his, "too much work". His fingers were as big as the tails. LOL Some bowtie pasta, chicken, broccoli and mushrooms in Alfredo sauce.