LOL, AM, awesome hotness! Diana, what about roast chicken, the Lemon "up the butt" chicken is nice. or the Rao's Lemon Chicken, great with a side or roasted potatoes (or rice). Sol's Garlic Chicken is great, too! I'd just go with what you normally eat these days and add a couple sides they might like, that you won't get tempted with! Hope your mom feels better! Lemon Chicken (Raos Famous Lemon Chicken - Pollo al Limone) 2 3-pound broiling chickens, halved (I use chicken parts - legs and thighs, but you can also use a chicken cut in eighths, I take the skin off) 1/4 cup chopped Italian Parsley Lemon Sauce: 2 cups fresh lemon juice 1 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano salt and pepper to taste To attain maximum heat, preheat broiler for at least 15 minutes before using. Broil chicken halves, turning once, for about 30 minutes or until skin is golden-brown and juices run clear when bird is pierced with a fork. Remove chicken from broiler, leaving broiler on. Using a very sharp knife, cut each half into about 6 pieces (leg, thigh, wing, 3 small breast pieces). Place chicken on a baking sheet with sides, of a size that can fit into the broiler. Pour Lemon Sauce over the chicken and toss to coat well. If necessary, divide sauce in half and do this in two batches. Return to broiler and broil for 3 minutes. Turn each piece and broil for an additional minute. Remove from broiler and portion each chicken onto each of 6 warm serving plates. Pour sauce into a heavy saucepan. Stir in parsley and place over high heat for 1 minute. Pour an equal amount of sauce over each chicken and serve with lots of crusty bread to absorb the sauce. Directions for Lemon Sauce Whisk together juice, oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Whisk or shake vigorously before using. Notes : You'll need at least 10 lemons to get two cups of fresh juice. Bottled juice will NOT give good results. Keeping the chicken at least 4 inches from the broiler's heat source will cut down on the smoking. MY NOTES I add some chopped shallots to the sauce. Mix it all up in a container. I take the skin off the chicken, then put the chicken pieces in a broiler pan and broil one side, then I drain the pan, turn the pieces over and broil the other side until they're really crispy about thirty minutes or so when its browned and the juices run clear. Then when the chicken is fully cooked, take the top part of the broiler pan off and drain the fat. Put the chicken in the bottom pan and pour the lemon sauce over the chicken pieces and broil it for a few more minutes. Then I pour the whole thing in a big bowl and serve the chicken and the sauce with roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli. and you are doing so great, girl, here's a brisket that's really easy to make and if you hate pot roast it's perfect, you won't be tempted, but they might like it. It has beer in it but I bet you can sub ginger ale, she can't have wheat. BRISKET 1 4-pound beef brisket Kosher salt Pepper 2 onions, thinly sliced into half moons (I use 3 large onions) 1/2 cup ketchup 1/2 cup prepared chile sauce (Heinz Chile Sauce - I use the whole bottle) 3 tablespoons brown sugar (I use a bit more) 6 cloves garlic, minced 1 12-ounce bottle beer Salt and pepper both sides of the meat. Place beef in a roasting pan. Cover with onion. Combine ketchup, chile sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and beer. Pour mixture over meat. Cover securely with foil. Bake at 300 degrees F for 4 hours or more until tender. Puree half the gravy to thicken it up (Optional) and slice the meat against the grain! Tastes even better the next day. Freezes well! and the leftovers are good!

IÂve just finished to read The prince of Tides, which I read more or less twenty years ago for the first time. Of course I remebred very well what the book was about, but rerading it I was able to get back a lot of details that I had lost. In particular I remebered the strongest passages of WingoÂs family, and I had lost the "poetic" pages. An other thing, IÂm now able to compared the book and the film, because I saw it many times lately, in order to improve my listening-skills. In my opinion the book and the film are complementary to each other , the book tells Tom Wingo memories for 80% of the story and 20% is about Tom in New York, the movie is just the other way around. I think Barbra Streisand did a great job, and always in my humble opinion, she has improved a few naiveties of the author of the book, Pat Conroy. For instance doctor Lowenstein is far much believeble as psychiatrist, in the film than in the book. now I cut and past a little of the plot , for whom havenÂt read the book nor seen the film Things come to a head when Tom learns that his beautiful and talented twin, Savannah, has tried to commit suicide again. As she lays comatose in a New York City mental hospital, Savannah's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, urges Tom to travel to New York. Doctor Lowenstein realizes that the only thing that can help save Savannah is to unlock the secrets of her terrible childhood (something that all the Wingo children have long suppressed and refuse to talk about). Tom flies to New York reluctantly, and at first, presents Dr. Lowenstein with a façade made up of humor, sarcasm and even rudeness. But Dr. Lowenstein eventually is able to break down Tom's protective shell to discover the horrors that took place during the Wingo's childhood. She also realizes that in trying to save Savannah, that this might also be Tom's last chance to save himself. But it turns out that Lowenstein has erected her own protective mask to hide her own unhappiness. With a remote husband and a spoiled son, Tom is able to turn the tables and help the good doctor in promoting a little self-healing as well. Now IÂm nearly through with "The Confessions of Max Tivoli" and IÂve got conflicting feelings about it. I hope , with the beginning of the discussion I will be able to clear up my mind grelobe

Inspired by the obit seen in RP a couple months ago, I requested Appaloosa by Robert Parker from the library. So far it is a very quick read, which is a good thing due to some of the content. I really hate it when the bad guys are 'winning' and am really thin-skinned at times with respect to certain kinds of violence (and I am sure this is nothing compared with Larry McMurtry's novels!). It's funny, sometimes I can read any novel, no problem and other times I have a hard time reminding myself 'it's just a story!' So far, the dialogue is snappy and seems appropriate for the time period, the action is fast-paced, and it doesn't get bogged down in too much description (mind, how much description does the old west need? Mention a tumbleweed and you're there!)

The movie 'Love Story' is in my top ten bad movies. If you have a taste for really bad movies, it is very, very funny. Has anyone read 'The Horse Whisperer'? It would be a close candidate for worst book - right up there with 'Bridges of Madison County'. It starts off as a story about how to train horses, then morphs into a really sentimental and very sticky love story. I worked at a small town library when Bridges was popular. The waiting list for it was several hundred people long, most of them women. For many, reading it seemed almost a life changing experience. Quite often, the books that I have found excrutiatingly bad are bestsellers. But I've become more sophisticated in my old age. I don't even open books like 'The Davinci Code' anymore and when people recommend such books, I just smile politely. During the time I worked at the library, John Grisham and Danielle Steele always headed the bestsellers' list. They seemed to release new books about every week and a half then. Danielle Steele was very bad, but not bad enough to qualify for the worst book award. I did learn a very simple rule for judging mysteries by the cover while at the library. First, read the first page of the book. If there is a spelling or grammatical error there, save your eyes. It won't get any better. If there is egregious, exploitative sexism on the first page, save your time. Then glance at the back cover. If the author is holding a cat or cats, put the book down and walk away. In the days that I read science fiction and fantasy, I learned to eschew any book that had a first line something like "Grachilimuki, from the planet Fvrin, was no ordinary spaceman." Having to make up stupid words just showed a paucity of imagination.