suzilightning

tonight - back at work so leftovers yesterday after 3 hours of shoveling boeuf bourginon monday after 3 1/2 hours of shoveling - pasta bolognese sunday after work and JUST before the storm started - sole with shrimp stuffing, lemon rice and asparagus with bernaise sauce. also have both cauliflower and saffron soup and parnsip soup with carmelized apples left over from lunches; stir fried rice from breakfasts

john is out of town again on business in lovely flint, mi so i cook stuff i like to eat and usually comfort food - macaroni and cheese venison burger(thank you erich) mixed green salad my friend michelle came over and we had a dessert of port and a cheese course: white stilton with apricots served with a date/ nut bread i made stripey jack sage derby cotswold with herbs whole meal crackers jacuzzi followed

Zoes has been trying out different cookies. Only ate there once. sorry rosie but two times and no cookies for us either time. guess john and i must have been pushovers or whatever since we weren't offered a replacement for the food "thrown out" or the raw product to replace it. did have an interesting discussion with my friend i took out to zoe's. we both finished and enjoyed the food and portions. she did say she wouldn't take her husband there since the first thing he asks when he goes to a new restaurant is " are they good sized portions" - this from a man with 3 heart attacks before the age of 45. actually the only reason i took food home the last time was that i had eaten my lunch(boca burger on 1/2 a pita with mescalun) at 2:30 when i got back from the gym. if i had eaten when i normally do - i could have finished those last two pieces of free range chicken and the quinoa.

ok, rosie - this goes back to the days when you were moderating another forum. went to Harlequin Cafe in Wharton on Valentine's Day - the worst experience ever. it was a friday night - just like this year - and the chick vomiting in the ladies room was bad enough(we were seated by the kitchen/bathroom) but the busboy when asked to wrap my filet told me the dishwasher must have thrown it out - yeah, on to his plate for later. since i was less than impressed with the whole experience i didn't push it. didn't go back for years later and was just as unimpressed by the service( wrong wine and at- ti- tude by male waiter) and food. no extras including the macaroons at zoe's after eating there twice - they must have known you or lowell!

we added this to our subscriptions at work last year. so far we subscribe/ed(since our magazine vendor went out of business we don't know what we are subscribed to) bon appetite, food and wine, gourmet, saveur and taste of home( we have several of their sister publications). these are actually some of our best circulating items( though let's not talk about how much they are vandalized - so sad in a public library where you can borrow them after the current month is over!!! )

all of our gardens are now buried under 7" of new snow up here in nw nj we get so little sun, and that in only certain areas, we have had to adapt to be able to grow anything. in front we have a postage stamp lawn with dianthus and begonias interspersed with the main annual i have to have - white new guinea impatents. there is a round barrel where we do get sun and in that we have a tiny evergreen and ivy. on one side we have groundcover, under the evergreens, of the flowers from my wedding boquet - lily of the valley, white, blue and grandmother violets - they seem to like the acidity of the soil there. out the kitchendoor we get good sun so all of the herbs we use go into miscellaneous pots so we can bring them in if we get an unexpected cold spell. tarragon, rosemary, basil, flat leaf parsley, chamomile, thyme, oregano in a hanging basket, and catnip for the Oopster. forsythia lines the fence down to the lake where we have a 1/2 whiskey barrel where we grow tomatoes, daylilies, daffodils and irises. the pet memorial garden has astibile, argeratum, violets and lily of the valley. scattered all over the front and back yards are daffodils, tulips, crocuses, star of bethlehem and snowdrops. we have some seeds left over from last year that have been in the freezer for our herbs and will start them later in the month i think. we are studying the catalogs and i am coveting some hostas for the memorial garden and on the east side of the house. will it ever be colorful(other than white) around here again?

rosie, are you freakin' nuts - the big V.D. on a friday night?!?! we ate out tonight at zoe's(my v.d. present - along with a good bottle of champagne) but on the night i will make a dinner at home - still deciding on the menu - thinking of salad - mixed greens with hearts of palm and artichoke, deviled crab en boule, and a dessert of raspberry tart. the usual prezzie will be a bottle of port and godivas

ok - after two meals i feel ready to post. last week took a girlfriend out for her birthday dinner(and get away from the husband and kid time). amuse was two rounds of cucumber with a seafood mousse. she had the mixed green and endive salad with fresh parmesan and i started with the walnut crusted goat cheese on frisee with beet vinagrette - both wonderful to the taste and beautifully plated. glass of pinot noir for her, a cabernet for me to go with the entrees. hers was the short ribs with truffled mashed potatoes and (to her great delight since she IS british) mixed veg that included sprouts. i had the grilled duck breast with duck leg confit served with butternut squash spaetzle and mixed veg. crispy skin and unctiousness oozed from that confit. dessert was a glass of champagne for me and the upside down chocolate souffle for michelle. except for the fact that there were about 12 other people in the restaurant and the staff were looking - she would have picked up the plate and licked it. as it was she confined herself to sureptitiously cleaning the plate off with her finger and licking it!!! 3 drinks, 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and dessert - $104.00 plus tip just got home from dinner with john here. he sent his compliments back to the chef at least 3 times during the meal and informed me and the owner that he would rather come here and drop a bill every two to three weeks (and suffer my cooking in the meantime) than go somewhere else like most of his family does - to olive garden or steak and stein. another wonderful experience that started with a lagnaippe of duck liver wrapped in bacon with an onion confit. since i forced john to try a bit - i got one and a half livers and it was creamy surrounded by crunchy bacon with a sweet onion confit. we ordered a glass of pouilly-fuisse and a glass of chardonnay to go with the appetizers and entrees. he had the crab and lobster cake served with a tomato coulis and avacado. i had the duck and wild mushroom sausage served over a ragout of potato and onion with a vinagrette - truly these were some of the most superbly executed dishes. the sausage were served in patties that were grilled and the flavors meshed. john inhaled his crab and lobster cake and it was all i could do to wrestle a taste from him. he had the potato crusted flounder with leeks and a wine reduction - my entree was the free range chicken brest that lowell had had. john, who is a petite flower, inhaled everything and i have some of the quinoa and two pieces of breast for lunch tomorrow. dessert was a glass of churchill's 10 year port for john and a glass of champagne for me. the only thing i noticed was it was heading for the flat side - course then you can taste the wine the champagne was made from. total bill 112.00 plus tip also the bread came out cold and asked about it tonight. waitstaff's best guess was that if warmed it might dry out a bit more if it wasn't eaten by the table. since neither husband nor i are big bread eaters we split a piece - it seemed to be a hearty rye with perhaps dried cranberries in it. so - john is out of town next week so how many for dinner at 6 pm?

interesting since one of the latest emails i got from Andres features a no -corkage fee wednesday night - guess i'll have to email for confirmation

developed the menu over the weeks - tweaking it a bit - but didn't have a chance to cook till friday. invited my friend and her husband(who won't eat fish or anything green - tooo f*%^&*g bad - get over it glen!!!!. fire in the fireplace - a bit of a cold drizzle started out with an appertif of sherry - manzanilla with some olives first course - mushroom soup with the creminis and a stock created with the aromatics and the bones cut from the chicken thighs. fish course - diamonds of poached tuna served over a bed of mixed baby greens(with my husband the mixed baby greens are a staple since he WON'T eat any other rabbit food). used some of the stock i made to go into the soup to also poach the tuna. made a dressing of evoo, capers(have at least 3 varieties in the pantry), minced anchovies, minced shallots and sundried tomatoes in oil. main course - boned chicken thighs stuffed with braised cabbage and onions. wrapped these puppies with bacon, seared them off, finished them in a dutch oven with a mixture of water and pinot noir(steam/braise). served over a mixture of lentils with carrots and a ragout of potatoes with onions and butternut squash. served with the pinot noir for dessert resurrected something i haven't made since i worked at The Cook in 1977 - god, i'm amazed i could still make it!! lemon truffle. homemade lemon flavored ladyfingers(not too hard) which are fitted into a mold then drizzled with nocello and then filled with a lemon charlotte(now i remember why i don't do this - i hate workin with gelatin). chill, unmold, cut to serve and top with lightly whipped cream(or in our case - cool whip - almost everyone is bothered by real cream now)

or my favorite place http://www.learnlink.emory.edu/peep/surgery.html

...and it works well as a base for the husband's pizza....

actually had heard of this place from a former colleague- though the review was a bit mixed. good food, attitude from the wait staff( we do not serve pinot grigio - this is a FRENCH restaurant) and about 100.00 per person which, considering there is a bit of a balk up in the hinterlands about entrees running at 30.00 per person, can seem like a death sentence. plus the fact that the lake zoe's is on disappeared with the flood of 2000 - so they are looking out at a meadow.... if you had skipped off of 15 at the prior exit (also leading to 181 n) you would have been within 1 mile of my house - john and i would have loved to join you and lowell for dinner( paying our own way of course) so if anyone else is up this far north - let me know and we can join you(tommy, nick, are you listening?)

thanks rosie- i have reservations for tuesday night

just was checking this out with my healthy choice entree for dinner - they mention Jacqui's Cafe in Lyons - is this one already closed? i think i saw it on table hopping a month or so ago. they say that these are wonderful , "yet to hit their stride" but worth a vist then list samba grill (one star) and lilly'son the canal(1/2 star). why bother?

i now have to work till 5 then my firend, who is from england, is coming over and i will attempt to explain american football to her. since her husband is from the great garden state and understands american football he tends to be a bit snarky with her if she asks questions while he is watching a game and on the computer at the same time. i found some white stilton with apricots, some glouscter with herbs so we will have those with some nice crackers, smoky black bean soup, and don't know what we will have for afters.

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.