suzilightning

ok- ground beef or beef chunks beer or water beans or no beans minced chilis or chile powder tomatoes or no tomatoes inquiring minds want to know

sunday's star ledger, morris county section had an article about some of the people who are fighting the township's move to declare their property a redevelopment area. at least two of them have sued the township to have their properties removed from the 44 acres.

we are preparing for a visit from the cookie monster(johnnybird's brother mike) so we are hiding: john's good chocolate, my bodun coffee pot and anything else that we want to eat ourselves sunday afternoon or later. i am leaving out the cheap chocolate john doesn't want and a bag of chip ahoys. the other stuff will go into our reachin closet - in the furthest corner. at work i hide a small stash of chocolate in the the back of my file cabinet. one of the catalogers in the first place i worked kept a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine in his filing cabinet.

never heard of shoji tabuchi? he is one of the most amazing fiddle players i have ever had a chance to hear.... dejah - i am salivating over the meatballs and shumai but mostly over the joong. another engineer my husband works with and i have a deal: i make fudgy bourbon brownies for peggy(her americanized name) and she keeps me supplied with joong. it is a great arrangement. love your pictures.... thank you.

say that when you're on the same CONTINENT, tom.

food for the week now well underway... for tonight macaroni cheese and a salad of thinly sliced red onion, cucumbers and the last of the tomato with fresh basil and tarragon from the back porch and sherry vinegar and lemon juice. baked some chicken breasts to use in 1) stir fried rice and 2) a small chicken wrap for john's lunch tomorrow. the foccacia is on the final rise. johnnybird takes hunks of it with him for snacking at his desk. as soon as the chipotle peppers in adobo thaw i'm putting together a smoky black bean soup since i promised some to my trainer at the gym. this will be good for lunches for me during the week. all i have to do is pick up some nice lettuces and some more tomatoes for the week for salads and tomato sandwiches(my preferred breakfast right now ). i'm also thawing out two bricks of cheese to make pimento cheese for sandwiches . this will go with the soup and there will be some for the weekend when we are being invaded by the cookie monster(bil mike) and the goth couple(bil glen and sil barbara). good thing i'm going to pa saturday.

i WAS going to go to the farmers market in lafayette because i really wanted some inspiration but when i reached the intersection of 15n and 181n AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH. traffic was backed up for about 3-4 miles going northbound. shoot, i forgot it's fair week(or 10 days). for anyone who has never gone to the sussex county farm and horse show - now also known as the new jersey state fair - don't. it is hellacious to get around. especially when you try to squeeze all those cars down to a single lane in each direction. guess i'll have to wait till next weekend to get inspired

good for amy - the walk(she is doing the one down the hudson, right?) is an experience and for a good cause as well. well, if you want suvir's lamb burgers you are welcome to schlep to the hinterlands. since i'm single until tomorrow night i decided to make stuff johnnybird doesn't like - hence some fresh ground lamb, greek yoghurt, a salad of cukes, red onion and tomato and silver queen corn. i would rather stay home on a friday or saturday night than deal with the hustle and bustle of the restaurant scene. now sunday or tuesday night- especially if i have had to work are great times for me to eat out.

while perusing the journal of contemporary culture - eg People magazine - for 16 august there is an article on masa pp 113-115.

That's how I feel yet most every woman I've dated in the past 15 years has routinely offered to do my laundry... usually something along the lines of "I'm already doing laundry for myself and (the kids... my son... etc)... it's no big deal to throw a few things of yours in with it." Maybe I'm too independent but I just can't get with that. I've been doing my own laundry for aboutthe past 35 years just fine thanks. owen - the ONE and ONLY time johnnybird did his own *regular* laundry - as opposed to those pieces of extremely expensive cloth he uses when he goes camping and then has to get the burned wood smell out of- he was back from syracuse(esf) and walked into the laundromat with me. he then proceeded to dump a large, black garbage sack of all kinds of clothes into the largest washer there was and let 'er rip. i have done the laundry ever since. to get this on topic again, though: he still makes lovely toast dope which he is now using the blueberry cake i taught him how to make

kicking back with the food ads and a glass of codorniu before johnnybird gets home. been to the gym, the laundry is in off the line and the basic prep for dinner is done. anna n - i could almost smell that chicken tana - you are the queen of food porn pictures eunny jang - you can make that lasagna for me any day...i could taste it from your description tonight will be very, very simeple for us: some good russian rye i found. lightly toasted, spread with something johnnybird can eat(olivio), thin smoked salmon topped with minced capers. from The New Great American Writers Cookbook - Jonathan Franzen(personal comment here - not a nice guy but a good writer) recipe for pasta with kale. will add some prosciutto and then for johnnybird some sauteed shrimp and clams. just got my delivery from Snow Farm Vineyard and have their 2003 riesling chilling to go with this. the last of the figs i had with some blue cheese and port later for dessert then it should be dark enough to hit the hot tub.... for tomorrow i scored some freshly ground lamb to make lamb burgers a la suvir while johnnybird is away. greek yoghurt , whole wheat pita, fresh jersey silver queen corn and tomatoes with sherry vinegar....life is good dessert

yeah - what she said. or, at least for the romas split in half, strew with chiffonaded basil and oven poach with some olive oil. i like to do this then freeze the tomatoes with some of the oil for the middle of winter when i just need that OOMPH in a dish that frozen cooked sunlight will provide

bologenese sauce uses 1/2 cup of wine. double the recipe and invite friends over(it's cool enough here in nw nj to do that this weekend) or make a regular amount and sip the rest of the wine while cooking good luck to your friend on their journey

is he an engineer? johnnybird is and he is the same way. he once made dinner for me - chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, green beans, chocolate mousse. he started at 10am and we ate at 730pm - just. and dirtied almost every pot in the house. just before we went to vermont he asked me to show him how to make the blueberry breakfast cake he likes. i pulled out the bowls and said to him " ok- first read the recipe" he did and started to reach for the first ingredient. there followed the lecture about mise en place - for your ingredients and your hardware. he started to get the knack though he still doesn't get that you can rinse and pick over the fruit BEFORE you start creaming the butter. " well, if they wanted me to do that why didn't they write the recipe in that order?" - told you he's an engineer. though he does make lovely toast dope

thanks. we're actually celebrating the day before since i have to work a 1-9 shift on the day. i am, however, wearing the obligatory tiara at work all day!

tracey- address? easy to get to from morris county? thanks

i agree with katie's last post - she could get some reasonably priced italian sparklers that don't taste like mouthwash HOWEVER if her only choices are from the ones listed go with the chateau st.michelle over the marquis de la tour.

the one i would not get rid of (you may have noticed i'm paring my books down) is fields of greens by annie somerville. a great resource. i agree with others that some non-vegetarian books treat vegetables and fruits with respect. james paterson, of course. another i like is a fresh look at saucing food by deidre davis. she works with sauces but covers a wide range of vegetative matter. check out your local library or do an interlibrary loan and if you like it(and it is still in print) pick a copy up.

Ummm... Help me out here. I don't have a copy of the current copy of Saveur. I am having a scary vision of a corndog emerging from the waves. Tell me that this is not true. OH MY, MY OH, HELL YES though technically from a shell - as the pearl does - must be part of this year's stylings <evil >

oh, yeah - a sauce jones some good bread grilled and drizzled with olive oil would have worked here. tonight it is JUST TOO FREAKING HOT. made patricia well's uncooked tomato soup but will serve it with some greek yoghurt i picked up and a few basil leaves from the back porch. main course will be a salad of mixed greens and some grilled venison sausage i picked up the same place i got the yoghurt. the grill is outside . the local green grocer had some very nice fresh, perfectly ripe white figs. can't decide if i want to add them thinly sliced to the salad, poach them in some prosecco or maybe serve them with some killer blue i have as a cheese course. decisions, decisions i also had some cukes johnnybird brought back from potown his friend had grown so i thin sliced them and made a dressing of sherry vinegar and a neutral oil. that can go on the salad or be served after the soup but before the main. finally i did get some fresh, local sweet corn - nuke that puppy.

susan, susan, susan i think the heat and humidity finally got to you at least you enjoyed it right? go home and have a dope toasted dream frito pie and corndogs all around (fifi - check out the current saveur - in the datebook they show "venus rising from the sea" and yup - venus has been replaced by......) edited to say: it is so freakin hot/humid that i am planning what to make for dinner tomorrow- a cold tomato soup with some sort of salad and good county bread with cheese i think - we shall see

tim russert's dad called him up at 7am to wish him happy birthday and ask what he was having for his birthday dinner. growing up we could have whatever we wanted for our birthday dinner. my tastes evolved from lamb patties wrapped in bacon on the grill with yellow squash to lobster, fresh corn on the cob and a tomato salad with blue cheese and catalina dressing. sometimes it would be a visit to a special restaurant (one year it was my first and last visit to tgif; last year was lunch at an american grill and dinner at the warehouse grille for me). anyone else do something special - foodwise- for their special day? i'm still debating. i'll hit that magic mark when i get my aarp card. since johnnybird doesn't really cook...we will go out but where? i'm leaning toward a french restaurant where i can get duck for (almost) every course. (thought there was something about this in the archives but couldn't find it - sorry)

ok fifi this one's for you: http://www.corndogfestival.com/homepage.html BWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

gg- i went but the young waitress didn't have dreadlocks. just brown hair. the service could be described as slow i guess but i wasn't in a great hurry. oh, yeah and the guy who was cooking had pants like fat guys - the chili pepper ones.

I don't know why either, but I do the same thing. I have some pappardelle right now, too, and I'm itching to make a sauce for it. Maybe tomorrow... tonight is homemade gravlax and dill sauce, followed by a grilled duck -- the duck prepared how, besides grilled, and what served with it, we're not sure yet. susan - i've got a quart of bologenese frozen if you want it. loved your pictures. i want those turkey burgers but johnnybird (who replaced my trusty weber with a gas grill when it died) doesn't want any food that is "burned". hello - they are grill marks!!!! he thinks it will give him cancer. he will freaking die of stress before he gets cancer carry on with the grilling