Annie, that sounds scary. I’m glad you went to the ER!

Our 20 y/o cat passed away :-( We went a little crazy, got two adult cats and then the two kittens. They are Himalayan-Ragdoll mixes.

Oh John, I'm sorry about the old kitty. We get so attached to them and it's hard. So your old cat has such big footprints to fill that it took FOUR cats to fill them, LOL.

Supper was lentil soup. Elery made it and it was very good, it's cold here and supposed to snow on Saturday. I'm still recovering and today I was just tired and didn't feel like doing anything and we were both tired of leftovers so Elery made soup. Bless that man.

Annie

Bread is rising. Chard and red bell pepper, with a hint of curry powder.

Dinner was a step up, but still not cooked. Pasta bowl ravioli arrabiata with chicken sausage, truffle cheese and a heap of arugula.

Is your toe still hurt?

DD is sick and wanted Restorative Chicken Soup. I worked in the triplex and came home dirty and tired, SWMBO is milking her final week of no weight on ankle, so poor DD dragged herself out of bed and made a big pot of Restorative Chicken Soup. I felt guilty but not enough to stop me from having the RCS.

It's an accumulation. The toe is improving but hurts more with the swelling going down, The opposite knee is unhappy about the toe getting priority, etc. But the bought bread wasn't worth eating at this stage of getting better, even though cooking dinner has no appeal. The gravy is in the freezer, however, and came out very nice. Next project is pie crusts, but they can't be accomplished seated. So at least tonight's was a hot dinner....

Poor DD having to make her own sickbed soup! Have you no freezer? I'm glad it could restore you as well. When you're restored, you need to find a future name (e.g., café) since it's a triplex no more.

Bread's still rising.

Ok. What is this triplex that was so dirty?

Floral, the continuing story is in Musings on Calorie Restriction Cooking.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6422977/musings-on-calorie-restriction-cooking#n=484

I'll just have to live in ignorance then. I'm afraid I gave up on that thread long ago when it went way off topic and veered into realms beyond my interests.

Split pea soup tonight. I've had a stinking, fluey cold and haven't felt like eating for three days. Subsisted on red wine, tea and digestive biscuits. (Akin to Graham crackers.)

Very pleased I made and froze the soup two weeks ago when I had ham cooking water left over.

I didn’t realise you didn’t like curry Annie until I saw your list in the other thread.

Dinner was a small chicken curry over rice

Another rainy day saw us having for lunch dumpling soup with pumpkin, kale, lots of coriander and vietnamese mint.

Now that my toe is getting better, the opposite knee is getting worse. No real cooking for me. I was craving meatballs, but couldn't make them :( I got a bunch of salads from the good deli, as well as meatballs and grilled shrimp. Dinner type meals have been more asseblages from the fridge. Salads. Last night stuffed pasta bowls with meatballs, Rao'a sauce, the end of the truffle cheese, and a heap of spinach. Tonight some clearance, finishing several deli salads, this week's chard/red pepper/curry bread with boo cheese or butter, the last of the shrimp cold with a little spicy sauce, and an orange with a thin, barely there flavor which was somehow more delicious than it had any right to be.

Annie!, That sounds like an unfortunate and uncomfortable experience! I appreciate the re-cap of your symptoms. Hard to know when tolerable discomforts need serious attention. I'm guessing re-hab is some gradual strength training.

It has been chilly with lots of rain. No frost yet. Garden put to bed for the year. One 3x12 low double walled tunnel. Should have lots of greens through the new year...

2020 i purchased a 1/4 pound of nasturtiums. I've been starting/planting a few dozen every year hoping for flower buds for capers. Getting mostly leaves.

Roasting coffee a few days ago i picked some for my test tube hanging over the sink...crazy this late i'm still getting flowers. Nov 8th?!...a neighbor thinks the 1/2 dozen clinging to my mailbox are plastic.

....ordering fresh seed for next season. Leaves and flowers are edible but zero flavor. The flower buds are tasty picked young, pickled, then shallow fried.

DD made this pizza. She said the recipe came “from your Cooking Forum“. Recognize it?

I don’t recognise the pizza but all the pieces look delicious JL.

Plllog your breads both amaze and confuse me. Then again I will happily buy a loaf with plenty of green olives in it so why not chard and red bell pepper with a hint of curry powder…. I think.… perhaps not the curry powder.

Another Sunday roast, this time lamb. It was nicely pink but I sometimes don’t mind it roasted a little longer as well. The ubiquitous roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, beans, mint jelly and gravy.

Sleevendog, do you leave the frosted Nasturtium plants where they are? Do you fertilize? Mine self sow every year and flower profusely. They are never fed and I leave the seeds where they drop.

Nice lamb. A bit pink but we would enjoy!

Yum. Pizza al Taglio. Lived on it when living in Rome. 'by-the-slice'. Just hold up two fingers how wide to be cut...multiple varieties and paid for by the weight. All to-go. no tables or chairs. Sometimes a bench outside.

Have not had for a few months. DH request. Made a double batch of dough yesterday. Pizza party today. Making focaccia, thick for future sandwiches and thin...and thin crust pizza.

I have all necessary ingredients. Even a #10 can artichokes.

(froze the rest in 4-choke packages). They are huge! ...I cut into quarters.

Nifty Japanese can opener. 14,000+ positive reviews and can see why. Cut like butter. ''dumb-dumb' negative reviews said "no instructions included" but it is right on the box.

For weeknight 'quick' i use flatbreads like roti or flour tortillas. My market sells locally made half-baked rectangle pizza crusts for the freezer.

Neely, the main issue with veggies in bread is getting the moisture right, since they contribute their own in baking, and the heightened mold potential if they don't totally melt. The hint of curry powder gives a little, pleasant turmeric color, a faint whiff, a smell of fenugreek (my fave) and a little taste of black pepper, which I discovered this year is most excellent in bread. I've made actual curry bread before, which is also good, but the hint here is just a little complexity, not a Here' Curry! statement, The vegetables themselves lend general flavor, as well, rather than something you'd identify, and make the bread more interesting. I can't have whole grain anymore, which cuts down on the variety.

When I was a kid, by the age of 5, we were expected to get our own breakfasts. Father, if he were home, could be talked into making hot cereal or an egg, but he was usually long gone. By age 8, we could make our own hot cereal and eggs,, and scrouge leftovers or whatever else in the fridge. Toast was prominent in breakfasts. Lunches were plated fixings, and make your own sandwich or salad at the table. The kitchen was too small to set up a fixings bar. It's part of me now. This comes to mind this week, with the second injury, preventing a lot of kitchen work. Too many sandwiches and salads! (I hadn't known it was possible!) So, I'm getting creative with the scrounging:

I didn't get a picture, but it looked just like you'd imagine it, and not pretty like Neely's and Sleevendog's plates, but it sure tasted good!. Lobster ravioli steamed with an odd wine infused snacking cheese (sold cut in bars) plus some American for salt and spread, the little red sweet pickled tear drop peppers that never have a correct name, and a small number of sriracha dots to lend complexity but not enough for actual heat. Not-a-sandwich was really good!

Yum, plllog, I love the little pickled biquinho peppers, I even grow them to pickle because they are very hard to find here. I see them in specialty grocery stores called "Sweetie Drops".

Sleevendog, that opener looks kind of like the old ones we used to take camping!

Here supper is in the crockpot. Potatoes and cabbage with some chicken sausages that were unearthed from the bottom of the freezer. I'm sure it isn't going to be pretty!

Annie

Last piece of chard pepper curry bread, crust removed because of incipient mold. See—it's just bread, but tasty.

Nice weather party is over. First frost this morning.

plllog, I've made rye bread with onions and wheat bread with seeds and cheese bread with black pepper, so why not vegetables?

Sleevendog, that pizza looks delicious, and the nice weather is gone here too. This was my front yard yesterday:

Low of 16F Sunday night, but I still have lettuce in my unheated greenhouse. It looks a bit limp, but perked right back up as soon as the sun shone and the greenhouse heated up:

I've got carrots there too, growing in an old horse tank that has some rusty holes in the bottom, so it has been "recycled" into raised bed gardening!

My experiment is to see how long I can get fresh salads from the greenhouse here in Michigan, I'm shooting for Christmas!

Anyway, I took these leaves:

and made salad. Elery likes the "fake crab" and it was on sale, so I put it in:

I have a friend coming tonight and she will spend the night, so I baked a loaf of bread for breakfast.

made some chicken tortellini soup:

and some of AnnT's country biscuits. I never bother to cut them round, I pat them into a square and cut them into squares with my bench knife, fast and easy and no re-rolling.

I also baked some orange/cranberry bread for dessert or snacks. Elery has already sampled it, LOL, he's been doing much of the cooking but no baking.

Trying to get back into the swing of things...

Annie

So the orange cranberry is quickbread? It looks yummy. I have to talk to the butcher about turkey today, and I'm going to buy a loaf from the bakery. I've been telling myself to start bread for days, and keep getting distracted. Annie, I love the repurposed trough! I hope you greenhouse stays bountiful.

S your stuff always looks appetizing, but I particularly would love the fishcakes and acoutrement if they were crab. I had some tiny upland cress which the farm substituted for warercress, but I couldn't figure out how to use it, and gave it away. :( I think it would be good in your kind of plating.

Yes, plllog, it's a quick bread and it's very good. The only problem is that it's too short and wide. I followed the recipe directions, which I try to do when I make something for the first time. It was very specific that the recipe would make two 9x5 loaf pans, so I scrounged for that size, they were the biggest ones I have. Sure enough, I should have used smaller pans, I ought to trust my gut sometimes. It was still good, though.

Annie

I have volume charts saved, plus I can multiply, but I just don't think of it except for Bundt cakes which often aren't labelled for the right pan. All your pictures always look appetizing, but that one is especially pretty. :)

Today was a humdinger, involving a lot of driving and waiting and walking on my sore bits. I did manage to zig around and avoid the gridlock, but I knew I wasn't getting home in time to make any kind of meals before my meeting this evening (discussion group--I feel asleep anyway and missed the first half hour!). Anyway, pre-sundown meal was panAsian bought from the snooty store, where it's made by the store but the octopus salad. Dim sum, salads and this marvelous Avocdo spring roll. I usually find spring roll wrappers obnoxious--too much gummy starch that blurs the flavors of the filling. The wrapper was smeared with avocado in stripes (probably very thin slices fanned to make the stripes), and filled with sticks of various vegetables. The creaminess and flavor of the avocado overcame all that I dislike about the wrappers, and enhanced the salad inside. In general, we're getting tired of premade food, but this was a treat.

Tonight I'm making "Meat ball sandwiches topped w/ mozzarella". I'll try to add a photo later.....and guacamole for lunch...we have a bowl of avocados to use up.. :0)

I need to scroll up and catch up! I’ve been a bit of a slacker lately, but this was definitely GW inspired so I decided to snap a pic and post.

Lily’s post about Costco prompted me to go there today, where JohnLiu’s pork tenderloin thread had me buy same, and finally I was thinking of LindaC when I made Iowa Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches.

Looking through my camera roll there’s little food, but here’s one. I’ve been working on some flattish whole grain rolls, one which I split for avocado toast:

Not homemade, but a couple weekends ago we took a ride out to Montauk and when my wife mentioned Lunch was closing for the season we decided to stop in one last time. Lunch is a landmark, famous for lobster rolls. My FIL ordered his hot last time we were there so my wife decided to try it. A bunch of lobster, a bunch of butter, can hardly go wrong. I’m only up for lobster a couple times a year and already had my fill, so I stuck with fish and chips.

FOAS, I love lobster rolls, so I'd be with your wife, but the fish and chips look good too, nice and crisp.

Supper was leftovers but it was pretty skimpy since I haven't been cooking regularly yet. Somehow you have to cook something before it can be used as leftovers, LOL.

Annie

FOAS, is that a poached egg on your avocado toast, with the whole slices of avocado? I could so go for that right now! The trendy avocado toast I see is all confetti and radish slices. There was a long time neighborhood joint near here which had avocado toast long before it was a thing, and it had real food on top, and was very tasty, but the toast got soggy. The avocado so improved the spring roll wrapper, however, that I'm inclined to forgive it. Around here, we often get small avocadoes and just eat them out of the shell with a spoon. :)

Sorry if I'm babbling. I'm very tired. I couldn't stand or walk much yesterday and spent it directing minions. Stuffed pasta bowls for dinner. Today, with a lot of courage and determination, and a short feet up dealing with a scheduled business call, I made the dough for the T'Day pies. I'll endeavor to roll them out and freeze them tomorrow. I went rogue. The double crust for the apples escaped, mostly, other than the usual tsp of old cinnamon, but I used half pastry flour and half bleached AP. The single crust for the pumpkin, however, started with a thought of whole wheat, but I didn't have any red milled and white seemed pointless, but having that recipe open, I started riffing off it. Like without the WW it didn't need the orange juice for conditioning it, but I thought it might be nice in general, but I didn't have orange juice, so I peeled a couple of segments of this giant mandarin, half of which was in the fridge. It's size of a valencia, and watery like it was meant to be a proper little mandarin but didn't get picked and just added water and kept getting bigger. Nice flavor, but not stand-out. I broke them in a dish with some cold water, then eyeballed how much to put in the dough. I also put in the buttermilk powder and baking powder, and since I don't put in sugar, though it calls for it, I put in a couple of drizzles of Mike's Hot Honey. It may be too damp, but I can always roll in some extra flour if needed. It tastes really good as raw pastry goes. :)

I'm whipped. I it's not raining too much, perhaps we'll order in. ETA: Nope. Stay at home orders. There's salad and beans....

2ndETA: Minion left. I napped. It's still pouring. Still achy. When I bought broth for the make ahead gravy (horrified friend on phone thought I said "make a head gravy", like maybe cooked down beef cheeks or something) it was because I was out of homemade stock to make my own, but I liked what I'd bought pretty well. Pacific Foods organic. So when I saw their creamy tomato soup, I bought a package thinking it might make a good ingredient for something. I wasn't even in any shape to cut up a scallion or toss in some spinach. Zapped straight along with a kind of (boughten) Indian big arepa (but wheat, stuffed with spinach). Sad, but not bad.

Goodness plllog you seem to achieve a lot even when you not in a doing a lot situation.

Annie I’m guessing there will be no stopping you once you get the go ahead that you’re well again.

Made pizza with a bought base, the crust was OK just. I put smoked paprika beef mince on it as well as the usual.

Thanks, Neely! But it's really just a lot of words, more than doings. Pie crust is no big deal in the food processor. Cutting up the butter is the biggest chore, and I did that by cutting the sticks of butter short, and using a paring knife on a cocktail sized (i.e., mini) cutting board. ;) The rolling out is yet to come. I have the rolling mat and ring, and rolling pin, ready to go, as well as plywood skins to put them on for the freezer, so no extra toddling around gathering stuff. And one of the minions cleaned up while I napped. I promised Thanksgiving, the one holiday that's really all about the food, so all I have is going toward that, and meals have been assemblages rather than cooked....which is why I've been telling what's actually been made, even if it's not to be eaten for a couple of weeks.

The pizza looks really good even if the bases weren't what you'd wish, My good recipe needs making two days ahead and isn't great from frozen, so I rarely bother. I totally get buying. The smoked paprika sound interesting.

With...

I wish Sleevendog were here to feed me. :)

It's been dangerous out all day, though in bands, here, between pouring vigorously and stops. That's enough to make me go to sleep, so that's most of what I've done today, with the pie crust rolling folded into meals. Brunch for me was a nutrition be da--ed (though the small amounts of leftover deli salads were also consumed) quesadillo sandwich with hard boiled eggs and a couple strips of meaty bacon, cheese and salsa picante. I've made this kind of thing before and it's usually a flavor bomb. This one was rather bland. I don't know why. During, I set the single crust with the orange out to warm enough to roll.

I went to get started and found no more Stretch Tite in the dispenser. Fine. But I found no more in the house! There should be at least one roll. All I found was a box of stretch and stick or whatever that's called. I wasn't about to go out to find more so ordered some, which won't come for 4-5 days. So, I'd been thinking I should put parchment between layers so they wouldn't stick to each other anyway. I have the unbleached parchment with latex rather than silicone. But I just want you to know that rolling between parchment is MUCH harder than rolling between plastic. My toe and knee survived but my shoulders ached! Good long nap ensued.

Dinner. Really not much to choose from that didn't need making. There was some of that "tomato broth" soup left, a large portion really, and that would get thte carton out of the fridge. I added a few grinds of pepper, dumped a bunch of spinach tortelloni in it, a slice of white cheddar on top, and a double handful of baby spinach on top, the way I might dress a pasta bowl. It always surprised me how long it takes to heat up soup compared to other things--probably lack of air in the middle. By the time it was hot, the tortelloni were overdone (waterlogged), though not quite falling apart. The cheese and pasta thickened up the soup some--a benefit. It all tasted okay, and warm was good. On the side was some deli meat and condiments for the protein value.

The double crusts were waitting out during this feast. They did get rolled, with a break between. The dough was crumblier, but rolled a tad more easily than the first. I found that they just fit a tray, which just fit (with some rearranging) in the upstairs freezer. Good thing, since I only had the weird sticky wrap to cover them. No way I could do the plywood skin without proper plastic wrap, plus, I'd have had to take it downstairs in the wet, with my bad legs, in the dark. Thereby, I choose to believe that this wasn't a sign that I should give up, but rather a rescue from what bad might have happened if I'd gone with plan A, so an early Thanks for Thanksgiving...

Just coming out of a vile sinus infection. Lost my sense of taste and all energy so not much of interest for a couple of weeks. Got back into gear Saturday:

Sea bream, onions, fennel

Sunday:

Duck breast with onions,, apples and haricots.

Monday:

Sort of mezze. Hummus. Gigantes (bought). Smoked mackerel with horseradish cream. Salad.

Multiple ailments going around. Respiratory and gastrointestinal. Delivered three homemade soups to a neighbor and a close friend and family. We suspect grands now in elementary school. We have been masking up.

Prepping soups with another veg stock on the back burner....Sunday brunch.

Home after dark, just heated up one of the soups....

My bout came from DGD's nursery, I'm pretty sure. I'd just spent a week minding her. Thank goodness for the freezer with soup and pasta sauces. One was split pea made with the stock from boiling a gammon. As my sense of taste came back everything began to taste off. I was assured it wasn't.

Oh, feel better everybody!

My sore bits are improving. I'm thinking I might be able to produce a meatloaf or something in a few days. So tired of scrounging. Meantime, the rain let up yesterday long enough to order in. The good Chinese restaurant didn't survive the pandemic, but there's an American style one (famous dishes,, too much sugar) which has good quality ingredients, closeby, and it's good leftover, so the fridge no longer looks sad and lonely. ;)

I’m sorry for everyone not feeling well! This flu season is starting early and looks to be bad, the circulating variant is apparently virulent and quite different from what this year’s flu vaccine was designed for. We just ordered a box of masks.

DD is in a pie mood

Tuesday:

Vegetarian chilli

And I made the Christmas pudding.

Oooh! I think that's the first time I've seen a homemade one. Will you please tell us the ingredients of the Christmas pudding? It's something from old novels to me...

This is the recipe I use. A Traditional Christmas Pudding recipe | Delia Smith https://share.google/lniqyprKIWRLafiL1

Obviously it's turned out of the basin and served the other way up ... in flames.

Thank-you! That is informative, but I still can't imagine it (though I did know about turning it out and setting it on fire from TV). I did find a local (SoCal area somewhere) brewery that makes barley wine (Guiness stout is readily available at most grocery stores), and the butcher at the snooty market has jars of beef tallow and lard, so I don't think they'd faint if asked for suet, but it might have to be a special order. But, please, what is "whole candied peel"? Oh, never mind. I googled it in quotes and it showed me packages.

We have chocolate chip cookies... ;)

But seriously, I've read about Christmas pudding so really enjoyed seeing it in the basin. ("pudding basin", right?) Does it get frozen, or is this like some fruitcakes which sit out in their wrappers and get fed bourbon once a week?

I don't use barley wine any more. It's a bit old fashioned and hard to find. I just use more stout. The recipe is fairly flexible. It's not precision baking like cake. And I don't steam for 8 hours. I use the pressure cooker. We can buy ready shredded suet but originally the cook had to grate their own it's the fat from around the kidneys. Not the same as lard at all. We also have vegetarian 'surt' available. It's also used in dumplings and suet puddings.

The pudding keeps for months in a cool place. No need to freeze.

Usually I make the pudding in a traditional china basin but this one's in lightweight plastic because I'm flying at Christmas and want to reduce the weight.

:) I just meant that the butchers, having the other fats, likely either have suet or can get it. I know "leaf" lard comes from around the kidneys. I don't know if it's the same or not. Not that I intend to make a Christmas pudding! I'm just trying to understand it, and the ingredients. Thank-you for all the information! And what a wonderful thing to be flying with your pudding! Such a classic image!

Suet is from beef while leaf lard is from pork.

Thank-you! I did not know that, that suet was a specific animal. I've seen the word in context, but never picked that up. The only animal fats I've ever bought, or used, were poultry.

floral...new to me too. "Leaf lard"...new words.