suzilightning

i'm well aware of zantac and other drugs. i was on them in 1982 when i developed digestive problems. i chose to change the way i eat and not rely on the drugs so for the last 17 years or so i have had few problems. i tend to ear a smallish breakfast - soy yoghurt, cottage cheese with fruit, rice cereal, make my main meal in the middle of the day and go lighter for dinner.

it depends on where i am - monday, wednesday and thursday i eat at 4:30 which is the only time i can get someone to break me at the reference desk. tuesday, friday, saturday and most sundays are date nights so 6:30, appys and sherry at 6:00. i never and i mean never eat after 7pm. the few times i was so silly as to think that i could i spent most of the night up with horrible pain.

and this is how we used to open beers in the kitchen... micheolb ponys

from college days -grape juice(welch's of course) and beef on 'weck down at dickinson's or a bismark from the bakery around the corner from early marriage - huervos rancheros now - try not to get to that point as i push 50 BACK to on topic- we have our tree untrimming party on Stupid Bowl Sunday(unless my team is playing - last year the tree didn't get done till just before Valentine's day). The menu tends to be chili, stew or jambalaya(venison sausage and chicken is the best), beer, baked tortilla chips, and chocolate mousse pie with the last of the eggnog.

Silver Spring Farm in Flanders - perhaps for my birthday dinner Bula in Newton Chesapeake Seafood in Denville

gosh what i wouldn't give to see my husband in a jacket or even better black tie - or white tie since i knew he wasn't into a lot of stuff when we got married 20 years ago i kept it as simple as i could to make sure he would show up i have, however, seen him in a tux at his friends wedding( i was busy counting hawks on our hawkwatch)

my husband just ordered this for his brother's birthday/11 yeear sober gift.

new year's eve is john's and my christmas as well so we are starting off with maltaushen, shrimp, crab cakes, godiva chocolates, a bottle of port for john, and a bottle of iron horse wedding cuvee 1998 and nv nicholas feilleute rose. for new years day i have a ham slice, greens, blackeyed peas, corn bread at about 11 am. supper later will be roast turkey breast, corn bread stuffing(using the extra corn bread i made), a beet and red cabbage salad, and brussel sprouts.

well, looks like i will be sending john up to poughkeepsie tomorrow with sweet and sour meatballs, danish meatballs with caper sauce, a quiche for him, portugese sweet bread and a black forest mousse pie since i have to work till 5 and go back to work the 26th. guess i'll be shoveling the white stuff and i think i'll pull some homemade soup from the fridge and, if the power holds, maybe i'll bake some rolls. a bottle of red wine and a quiet day... sounds good to me.

kim, there is no such thing as having too much champagne(or sparkling wine). i like iron horse, too. the vintage is great but i even loke the wedding cuvee. as for cheese - i finally convinced my husband that what bothered his ibs wasn't lactose intolerence in cheese but the fat levels so, for the first time in years, he had a bit of bleu, aged cheddar and swiss - and it didn't bother him. as long as he doesn't overdo it...

Ever since my husband installed the pole and mirrors in our bedroom, I find the whole bar scene a little blase. well, after all that is the hot new exercise in hollywood... with the hot peppers and pole dancing those last few pounds will melt away... thanks lou - the sandwich was great - and i am not a bread eater but every bite was gone and the half i didn't finish at lunch was dinner at work that night. it was a pleasure meeting all... my one regret is tommy couldn't make it.

i'll be there though perhaps a few minutes late. we are having my father-in-laws 70th birthday party sunday night then we head south early in the day since i have to work from 4-9 pm on monday.

just stay safe. my thanksgiving at the hawk watch soy yoghurt pb & j on whole wheat apple pie home homemade macaroni and cheese with hot dogs salad since the husband will be up in poughkeepsie and i have to work friday and saturday i am cooking to please me; stuff my husband can;t eat

while i don't have a family of five i have never had a dishwasherand enjoy the cleanup as well as the cooking. i used to let my husband help but since he is obsessive-compulsive way over the border to neurotic we used to run out of hot water when he rinsed the dishes - and i have a 40 gaollon hot water heater!!!! odd - i enjoy the laundry and ironing too.

i'll bring mine from work that says "library goddess reference"

is it too late to add one more - though i may be 15 minutes late- depends on how the traffic is from poughkeepsie. i too am looking forward to acutally meeting the people who's words i read. plus i don't have to be to work till 4 that day.

i'm so glad it is almost december when the hawkwatching winds down and i can get back into my kitchen. i love to cook for people, for myself. we were discussing this at work the other night and one of the other people said they hated it when they spent hours cooking and her husband and kids shoveled the food in and split. maybe because the nights we are able to eat together are limited by the nights i work and if he is on travel we celebrate the food and each other - candles, a fire, classical music. if it's summer we put music on the outdoor stereo and sit looking at the lake with the tiki torches burning. i can;t get away for thanksgiving so i'm sending up homemade bread, a green bean/pearl onion/mushroom casserole, and black forest mousse pie - my sister-in-law is buying desserts, my mother-in-law is cooking the turkey breast and heating up the corn. at christmas i still astonish my mother-in-law by being able to turn a meal out all at the same time - i guarantee that when they sit down to eat at 3:30 on thanksgiving the turkey will have been out of the oven at least 2 hours and she will be frantically trying to heat the corn and the casserole in the microwave. the women i work with tease? me and don't want their husbands to hear that i make my husband breakfast, pack him a lunch and make sure he has dinner. they keep saying that then their husbands will want them to do the same as i do. i cook for my husband because he has problems eating many processed foods, it is cheaper and i love to do it for him. guess i'm the odd one out - except on this board

at the restaurant i used to work in we made senegalese soup: onions, butter, flour, curry powder, chicken stock, egg yolks, light cream, shredded chicken and toasted coconut. my husband still prefers a chicken vegetable noodle soup but i put garlic in both the stock and the finished product

for my birthday i treated myself to some of the back issues of art of eating and am doling them out a bit at a time, savoring them immensely i am also reading: on rue tatin chile death(a mystery) by susan albert whitting strong women stay slim amy's answering machine bad heir day i also have a few romance novels by the late betty neels in my gym bag in case it rains and i get a workout instead of counting hawks

I have a meatloaf ready to be baked in my fridge at home right now. i used a mix of organic beef and veal, minced red and green peppers, onions and carrots. oatmeal with a bit of milk, an egg, some fresh herbs and kosher salt. i free form it and bake it draped with bacon. i'm doing that this weekend so my husband can have meatloaf sandwiches for lunch/breakfast while we are doing our hawkwatch. i baked portugese sweet bread and will pack some herbed mayonaise, ketchup and mixed baby greens for him. since we are outside from about 8 am to 6 pm we have to bring everything with us and it has to be easy to hold with one hand while using binoculars with the other. this week the menu includes breakfast wraps,soy youghurt with fruit, pb & j sandwiches, homemade chicken nuggets with dipping sauces, tuna and whole wheat pasta salad, tons of ice water and herbal tea.

what is sad is that i had the same exchange three years ago at harlequin cafe in wharton. i finally asked for the wine list (which didn't list the by the galss wines atthe time) selected a bottle then the waiter broguht me the wrong bottle(year and producer) he couldn't understand why i got ticked off - go figure

since tomatoes are in season a homemade bruchetta or a chilled gazpacho an olive tapenade would also complement the tomatoes salmon(i work just around the corner from perona farms that makes a dynamite smoked) with cre fresh or cream cheese cream cheese mixed with chutney and smeared on endive then sprinkled with grated nuts stuffed eggs most everything can be done ahead of time or in just a flash

more likely to be punched out skate wings. since the scallop is really the adductor muscle that holds the shells together cut open the "scallop" and if the grain is vertical it's a scallop, horizontal and it's probably skate. having opened bushels and bushels of these suckers as a young girl i ought to know