suzilightning

well, i'm batting zero. didn't get into either city. but i did eat at An American Grill three times

since lunch was a retirement luncheon for john's departmental secretary(feh - vile banquet food) and then i prepped his contribution to the department's christmas party(sweet and sour meatballs) dinner was easy and quick - red lentil soup with black olive caviar, sauteed bok choy with garlic and whole wheat rolls with asiago cheese spread. beverage was a mix of french lemonade and brut sparkling wine for john - iced tea for me... the next two days are leftovers - soup, mac and cheese and ziti with meatballs and turkey sausage. the next day i will probably cook is friday - it depends on how i feel after i hear about my 18 year old cat's prognosis from aspiration and biopsy... i bet it will be catch as catch can for john

well, this year's contribution to john's office party on thursday will be the sweet and sour meatballs. john was just going to give them the 10.00 but then changed his mind and asked me to do these so he is sure of being able to have something to eat.

well, on christmas eve and christmas day we will be in poughkeepsie. i'm roasting a capon, mil is heating up canned sweet potatoes <sigh>. christmas eve will probably be a repeat of last year - ham, frozen cooked shrimp, stouffers macaroni and cheese and stouffers vegetarian lasagna. i asked her if she wanted me to do veggies and she said she didn't think we needed them... our office party is being catered next tuesday by a local restaurant here in sparta, carafello's. will let you know how it is. johnnybird's office party is tuesday - it's pot luck and he asked me to do sweet and sour meatballs so he will be sure of at least something he can eat.

ok- do you know how many fourth graders i have had to steer to an "ethnic food" from their heritage for the last 20+ years? do they care? do they actually cook/bake it? do they give a rat's ass? sorry the december cynicism is creeping- er flowing in. rachel is spot on on the chili sauce. the dish is fun, interesting flavors and relatively inexpensive. for some reason it appeals to all. another collegue does hers with jack daniels bbq sauce, grape jelly and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. it freakin' disappears.

neuveu tater tot casserole? ducks from incoming

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I visit the Long Island Wineries once each summer. I've probably been to three-quarters of the wineries at one time or another but I've gotten into a bit of a rut with Bedell, Pelligrini, Palmer and Lenz as the ones I hit first. try Paumanok, Pugliese and Osprey's Dominion. pugliese makes a wicked blanc de noir "nature" with no dosage. light salmon colored and a great dry finish. the blanc de blanc brut is good, too. we have had osprey's dominion fume blanc and johannesberg riesling and enjoyed them.

That hot dog and jelly w/ chile sauce is really ringing my bell. I wonder if I could cube up some SPAM instead of the hot dogs...or I could be really bad and make a cresent roll with Spam, mayo and whole fruit cranberry sauce...muwahahaha! why not make both? the hot dogs and the spam roll. sounds like the people you work with deserve them. of course you are nice - just have almost a perverted sense of food fun as we do.

wow i never heard of this version. i usually do lil smokies with currant jelly and spicy mustard sauce. ← Interesting. So do you just cut up the hot dogs and cook them in jelly? Sounds tasty. That salty sweet combo thing going on there. Never heard of it before now! Hmm...please provide details! (I work with Ally McBeal types...I'd get my jollies bringing this in!!!) ← here's a link. the first time i ever had these was at my going away party at texarkana public library - in 1983!! http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,191,159190-233201,00.html

However, I work with people who make rude comments at the smell of black bean sauce... (Screw it, I'll bring in some durian. ) love it!! though you do need to hang out with a higher class of food person - like librarians john is an engineer and they are the worst when it comes to this kind of thing. one of his bosses one year brought a loaf of wonder bread for the sandwiches - the giant economy size no less. over the years i have sent in: deviled eggs german potato salad hot dogs in the grape jelly & chili sauce(these lasted about 1/2 hour and at least three guys asked for the recipe to give to their wives) swedish meatballs sweet and sour meatballs pigs in a blanket stuffed mushrooms spinach salad with a honey mustard vinaigrette good luck!!

i tend to plan in half week increments. this morning my scratchings looked like this: Thursday: lunch - leftover venison stew dinner - leftover soup Friday: lunch - (turkey) bacon blue cheesburgers, salad dinner - pizza and salad Saturday: for johnnybird and his friend mike late lunch- ziti with turkey sausage and meatballs to take to the concert in the city- turkey sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches for me lunch - leftover soup dinner - ziti with turkey sausage and meatballs, salad Sunday: breakfast for johnnybird and mike - whatever they want to make; i'm going to the gym lunch - sandwiches for hiking dinner - macaroni cheese and salad Monday: lunch - raid the freezer dinner - raid the freezer it should be noted that both thursday and monday both dinner and lunch are eaten at work for both john and i since we both work until 8 or 9. i'm also working till 5 on sunday. saturday night i'll sit down with the supermarket flyers and see what is on sale that i use, create my list, pull my coupons and work on the menu from tuesday(my day off) through thursday. i already know tuesday lunch is taken care of as we are going to a retirement party for john's secretary. we are also trying to eat meatless at least 2 time per week and i am having fun trying to cook things that john will enjoy.

maggie- another 9 for me that i uncovered while cleaning and decided to keep

we have two new ones to add to our lists here in nw nj. made a sweet potato stew with red beans - sweet potatoes, red beans, onions, cumin, fresh grated ginger, tomatoes, vegetable stock, shallots and finished with peanut butter dissolved in the broth. the second was a stew made with venison shoulder, wine, beef stock, onions, garlic, shallots, mushrooms, cumin and allspice. served with garlic mashed potatoes to take some of the gravy.

last night was a venison stew with shallots and crimini mushrooms. with garlic mashed potatoes. wine was a st. helenas ranch cabernet. only thing i would have done differently is add carrots and peas to the stew. but the venison was the best i have ever had - a shoulder piece from a place up in pleasant valley, ny and cut with your fork tender. john keeps threatening to buy a digital camera. guess i'm going to have to learn how to do this stuff because this meal was worth a photo.

susan(damn that is a fine name - especially for someone probably born in the mid to late 1950's ) wow i am in awe of you and your friends. so cool you have kept those ties up which is soooooo important especially for the home working moms. i envy you can i have some leftovers? or come cook your bacon for you? party on garth....

hawkwatch is officially over for another year so i can do a bit more cooking. johnnybird's first course was a few olives, a half piece of homemade rye bread with prosciutto san danele and a half piece with some key lime chutney. with a half glass of pinot noir dinner was an african sweet potato stew with red beans, a green salad and some more of the rye bread. this is definitely a keeper, even if i forgot to add the peanut butter at the end. tonight will be duck breasts with a kumquat conserve, lemon rice and whatever green veg i can find at the market that appeals to me....asparagus, broccoli, if johnnybird had his druthers it would be wax beans...again.

*** Makes 3 1/2 cups Bill Neal learned how to make this silken, old-fashioned pate from Judith Olney, Richard Olney's sister-in-law and herself a cooking teacher. Later, it became a staple at the Neals' Chapel Hill -area bistro, La Residence. A small tureen of the creamy mousse was delivered to every table, accompanied by crunchy French Bread. 1 cup chopped onion or shallots [We used shallots] 1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature 1 lb. chicken livers 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard 3 tbsp. brandy or cognac [We had neither in the house and used about half that amount red wine] Pinch of nutmeg [We used a couple gratings of fresh] Salt and pepper to taste Chopped parsley French bread or crackers 1. Saute the onions in 1/4 cup of the butter over medium heat until translucent. Add chicken livers to the onions and saute until they are cooked through but not overdone, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. 2. Put into a food processor the onions, livers, mustard, brandy, and seasonings. Process the mixture until thoroughly pureed. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups softened butter in fourths, pulsing briefly after each addition. Spoon the mousse into an attractive small tureen or into ramekins and chill until solid (at least an hour) before serving. Sprinkle with chopped parsley if desired and serve with sliced French bread or crackers. oh, my gawd. the original recipe was the one taught me back in 1977-8 when i was cooking in restaurants. only difference was that we didn't have food processors so it was food mill and beat, beat, beat with the wooden spoon. served in the crocks with crackers, wafer thin sliced red onion and hard boiled eggs i made and served this for our wedding reception 22 1/2 years ago. edited to say i want those turkeys

well, the edit function seems to have disappeared on my screen so.... all the books have new homes EXCEPT the cooking with rosie

i want to know how parker's puppy compares to shaw's momo in that regard can't wait till either makes it to the hinterlands of nw nj and i don't care what the theatre is like

just down there this last march/april 915 duval is very good for upscale dining. we had some beers at an irish bar near there where johnnybird DIDN'T realize it was a gay bar and he was being hit on by the guy he was talking to(a bit too many mojitos at el mason de pepe). we really liked kelly's for the food and beer(it was a late lunch). el mason de pepe is someplace i would like to eat at next time. i do like good cuban food. if you're going towards the mid of the month there is supposed to be some kind of festival centered here... will try to dredge it up from the back of the mind... if you like good, basic food the restaurant just before 7 mile bridge is quite good. there is another we ate at twice i will try to find and edit into this post. we hit it on the way down to key west and then the next day when we were birding. good lightly battered fried fish, stone crab claws and some of the best coleslaw(my particular benchmark)... sorry, will edit.

oops. Add one for me from Suzielightning and 1 for Vancouver Cooks. ←

with a few days of rain i have been able to copy out the recipes i want to keep from a few more cookbooks so if anyone wants one or more of the following please pm me... Bon Appetit Tastes of the World The Chili Cookbook by Norman Kolpas Cooking Secrets of the CIA(in paper) Grill by the Book: Weekday Meals In the Kitchen with Rosie by Rosie Dailey edited to say the bon appetit and grilling book are gone already now cooking secrets of the cia is gone as well

i'm almost done weeding the collection so the total of the ones i am keeping is 47 including 3 on wine and 2 bartenders books hopefully the people i have sent my extras to have been reporting the numbers here...

sent johnnybird north to poughkeepsie with portugese sweet bread, banana cake, cinnamon raisin streusel coffeecake, key lime bars, green and yellow bean casserole, turkey two ways(most in gravy and some thin sliced for sandwiches later), leftover butternut squash, pignoli, noodle and arugula and leftover chicken caccatora. that should hold them for today and most of friday and saturday(especially since my bil aka "cookie monster" is there). i am sitting here enjoying a plate of stuffed shells, a winter greens salad and a glass of chianti classico while typing and listening to the game. enjoy all and a safe and peaceful holiday to all