suzilightning

we don't just look at it - we do eat it. when i use, say, my capers up i bring the spare up from the pantry and put capers on my shopping list. somethings i keep multiples of - tinned tomatoes- but if i buy some i do that time honored grocery store job and rotate the stock-

good tinned tomatoes kosher salt sparkling wine(champagne, prosecco, cava, etc.) tinned crab tinned tuna in oil dried pastas rices(not necessarily white - had to buy that last weekend to make the vanilla soymilk rice pudding) tinned or frozen green beans i buy my meat and fish fresh(except during sept-nov when i live out of my freezer)also the trips to the greengrocer for seasonal veg. if the weather reports hold for tomorrow we will use the turkey broth from the freezer to make soup tomorrow with garlic, tinned white beans, broccoli rabe and ham.

Seth, what kind of beer did you use? I made this last weekend with Guinness and while it was really really good, the beer overpowered the beef a little. heather guiness works better with more than just meat and onions. i use it when i make a beef stew(course we're down to 4 1/2 cases of the big cans right now) - chuck, onions, parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic, rutabaga, some green beans the last 15 - 20 minutes.

leftover wild and long grain rice fortified with the water from reconsitituted porcini that went with the diced tomato, red pepper, onions and thyme salsa over mahi-mahi steaks then topped with lardons of nyman ranch bacon that had been blanched, and baked in a 450 oven(recipe tampered with from the new legal seafoods cookbook) red leaf salad with artichoke hearts and garlic stuffed green onions with italian salad dressing for dessert johnnybird has so far consumed 1/2 pint chocolate cookie crunch toffuti and a chocolate truffle and is heading for the vanilla soymilk rice pudding - or cheese and crackers

sigh today was chicken mcnuggets - and i haven't been to a mcdonald's in about 25 years. resisted the temptation.

our work party was scheduled for friday night but the caterers graciously let us move the date to yesterday. unfortunately that meant the party had to be in the library instead of at someone's home and it was in the middle of the day so no alcohol Grapevine Fine Wines in Rockaway did the catering(second party they have done for us in the last two months).there was plenty of food leftover for lunches today - sandwiches on really nice bread, layered cheese terrines, salads - pasta, antipasto, green; a tray of pasta with peas and mushrooms in a vodka sauce, bread stuffed with herb butter and a tray of cookies. it was ok but i miss the appetizer and dessert parties we always did at this time of year.

pigs in a blanket with honey mustard dip - and i still have an hour to go at work!!

cool, lou. actually my director had the book at lunch the other day and said "don't you eat at this place(american grill)" how 'bout the vegetable strudel recipe next time? that is one of the best things y'all serve

ah, but hillvalley you got jim cantore - we only had mike sidel up here(ignore if you are not weather channel freaks). yesterday was my regular day off and made it to the fish store and pathmark in order to lay in clams, smoked salmon, halibut and turkey breast on sale. had beef bones and ground beef already. made beef and turkey stock yesterday. roasted the turkey breasts and froze one. had baked halibut and stuffed clams with frozen green beans. johnnybirds breakfast today was a smoked salmon and fried egg sandwich. i just had some hot cocoa and headed out to shovel the seven inches that had accumulated. lunch was fish sandwich for john and leftover stuffing with turkey breast, gravy and cranberry relish for lunch. made up a batch of french onion soup with the beef stock. froze two quarts of turkey stock then used third to poach some danish meatballs for a danish meatball soup served over egg noodles(john was craving egg noodles). had that after we came in from the second round of shoveling - 11 inches at that point and it looks like we may have gotten another 1-2 inches. tomorrow will be french toast for breakfast, the onion soup for lunch and i have no idea what will be for dinner.... enjoy the snow(=mark your backyard looks an awful lot like mine!!!)

dvd soooo nice to know that you are using your local library. since i work thursday nights you would not believe the volume of dvd and video rental we do - my only question is : if it is a heavy snow and you lose power how do you watch them? borrow some books!!!!

- when you enter the restaurant there is no one else in it - except for the old guy snoozing on the couch in front of the television - the flowers on the table are all dead - the only drinks available are soda but no ice - the bread is cold, the butter is as well and there is a small green inchworm in it - your waitress turns out to be the person cooking all true in a restaurant in Catskill, NY about 15 years ago. we didn't leave earlier because my friend's mom, who we were treating, kept saying - "it has to get better"

depending on schedule(my boss's visitation schedule with his son - told him i would cover whenever he had visitation rights) johnnybird and i are in.

just watched the top 5 holiday (or something like that) show - i'm doing laundry and i can walk away when necessary a) he's in new hope, pa - need i say more to anyone in ny-nj- pa? b) he must monitor egullet since he had the tower of chocolate moose refer to him as mr. roker - then corrected it

is that for the $99 wedding special ?

but at least as long as we have - as our mothers/grandmothers termed it - "the curse" we are better pretected from heart disease. i do not mind this at all since i lost my nana when she was 52 and she entered menopause 20 years earlier. this is also why i am glorying in the fact i will be 5-0 next year. i am healthier than she was at the same age( i was born when she was 46 when i was born and already had health problems). i'm due next week though i haven't started the chicken wing cravings

you are a wonderful, sweet man saturday - the coq au vin (inspired by varmit's bistro question) is within 20 minutes of service with a baguette and some haricots verte dessert is something i'm trying to see if johnnybird likes it: graham cracker crust, thin sliced apples sauteed with spices, cooled, then combined with a quart of vanilla toffuti and mounded in the shell and refrozen tomorrow will be david rosengarten's recipe for crab imperial again - with enough leftover so we can have it for lunch monday. john keeps telling me all the people he works with love to see what he comes in with...

just nitices that Kenneth Davids has a new revised edition of Home Coffee Roasting: Romance & Revival coming out this month...... hmmmm maybe i should suggest it for purchase at work

i'm giving the sil Cooking for Dummies and a gift certificate for 3 cooking lessons from me of her choice. while i wouldn't recommed this for most - i vote for bitman or julia - even those are beyond her. she has decided to learn basic cookery at age 36 so i figured to really start her off slow. since, like her brother, she has a problem with fat and digesting lactose we are going to work with the slightly modified recipes i've developed over the last few years

rm's - if i can force myself to go into the city artisinal - ditto striped bass - philly geno's - philly key west - we are going in march/april and am juist beginning to think about where to go - any and all imput would be appreciated

ok- guys two weeks before and i am insatiable for a day or two then nothing till the day before (buffalo chicken wings) but then i am of the older order( 49-53) during - i could not care less is i ate or drank anything

oh, yeah, cheese and mac my favorite comfort food. along with meatloaf though NOT during the month of october(i managed to break a tooth from my denture while eating some crusty mac and cheese last month - 85.00 later i can smile again). favorite proportions are 1/2 box dry elbows, cooked to 3/4 pound cheese - 1/2 lb. in small cubes the rest grated to go on top mixed with some mustard, bread crumbs and parsley i also keep a box or two of annie's organic at work just in case i forget to bring lunch/dinner; don't want to eat what i brought for lunch /dinner or someone else at work did either of the above.

varmit - yum....and i'm craving red meat right now halibut with a light tomato sauce baked in the oven still deciding between whole wheat couscous and lemon rice - will see what johnnybird wants mixed field greens

ok- they hit this morning while fixing johnnybird's breakfast - eggypotatoes- and i picked about half the turkey bacon out because that's what i wanted BACON. worked out and was craving meat - buffalo, elk, cow - grilled rare maybe with a salad and lardons of BACON. went to lunch with a really good friend at lreda's An American Grill. had the sirloin tips with parpadelle and mushrooms in a wine sauce. very good but it needed something - BACON? johnnybird wants the ususal tuesday night fare -fish of some sort so halibut with a light tomato sauce and prociutto(close to BACON). plus i made a meatloaf for sandwiches and to go with leftover scalloped potatoes with BACON on top. sigh thanks snowangel

my grandparents used to buy it by the piece off a wheel in dawson's market. it was aa bit sharper than even the 4 year aged cheddar from cabot i've had and it had a unique mouth feel - sort of like aged parm-reg and crystaline - don't have the words right now to explain it. plus we used it with peanut butter to bait the traps for the mice.

i was thinking about buying that corndog/fried twinkie machine if we decide to do something for my 50th next year. i think i've had 2 toasted cheese sandwiches in the last 10 years so this is a certifiable craving. we used to have them all the time when i was a little girl - ususally for sunday dinner with some soup. we had used the machine that made them earlier in the day because it was one of those presses with a plate for pressed sandwiches on one side and a waffle form on the other. then reading jason & rachel's thread i started remembering - the gooey chesse(usually rat cheese) and the crispy, toasted bread how it smelled, the texture of the unctious cheese and the crunch of the toast - AND HAD TO HAVE ONE. then one wasn't enough. today, after my workout on my way to work i had to stop at home and make one for my lunch - and i had a piece of lasagna, au gratin potatoes, flounder and coleslaw with me for my lunch and dinner. but on my way out of the arsenal all i could taste in my head was grilled cheese and had to have one.