suzilightning

Invite me . please....

Ahhhhh.....Raleigh. The first place I could get food that WASN'T fried after a year living in the south. Remember you don't have to buy cookbooks but can borrow from your library and see if they don't have the book they can borrow from another library. Besides Greek there are some terrific Mediterranean cookbooks out there that can give you some ideas. greetings.....suzi

Nice.... I agree with cakewalk and keep the focus on him. Other than that ...... 1. What can you make that is in season? 2. Do you have a signature dish you make? 3. If you don't know how to do something do NOT hesitate to say so and ask for instruction. 4. Relax and have fun......

@chefmd safe travels and hope your father is eased @rarerollingobject I can empathize. Time will diminish but never fully heal such a loss. Hang in there and talk to anyone you need to. Thank you for trusting this community to care and support. Roasted off a pork loin that I had coated with mustard and rubbed with a bunch of herbs. Served it with roasted sweet potatoes and olive oil poached green beans. Sent Johnnybird off to Poughkeepsie with some gluten free smooch, pork loin, sweet potatoes and some chicken Waldorf salad. I treated myself last night to some leftover appetizer sized meatballs from Calandra's Italian Village that John brought for me on Friday. These are possibly the best meatballs I have ever eaten ... including cold by the light of the open refrigerator.

Me. too....or ANYTHING with lemon!! Really loving this mini-vacation...thanks.

A cooler day yesterday so some REAL cooking for dinner... spinach and Jerusalem artichoke pasta, sautéed shrimp with black olives, capers and cherry tomatoes for Johnnybird oven roasted chicken breast, Spanish rice and a small salad for me scrambled eggs with toast and some aged cheddar for John's second dinner about 1030.........

Johnnybird stands with both of you....of course we know better......

John has one more piece of ground chicken meatloaf left. It is going into a sandwich for travel tomorrow. Lightly toasted gluten free rye bread, a thin smear of mayo on one side, some romaine, meatloaf and then, on the other slice of bread - a thin layer of honey cranberry mustard. Alas I am at the end of the last jar of the honey cranberry mustard. Me - I like my meatloaf warmed then on toasted white bread with Miracle Whip on one side and ketchup on the other.

Only two with hot sauce for me.....about twice a year.

I second tomato bisque or tomato rice soup and vegetable beef(I picked up 1/2 pound of store roasted beef yesterday to make some as it is cool and funky here). How about a spring minestrone with some of the asparagus and peas?

Ohhhhh.... a Manitou visit?!!! That cauliflower cake is really calling to me. Maybe minced, oil cured black olives in the mix? will have to ponder this.

FINALLY found a purveyor who is able to supply really fresh fish so had some flounder last night. Soaked for half an hour in some milk, coated in a mix of corn flake crumbs, herbs and Wondra flour then pan fried. Deglazed the pan with some white wine and then added capers and some parsley. Baked my piece in the oven. Served with plain boiled potatoes.

We are scheduled to get our very FIRST farmer's market here in Jefferson Township. The sad part - for me - is that one of the moving forces, Tom Galfo, I had in storytimes at the library when he was 4 and 5 years old. "I'm getting old, Gandalf..."

Since I can't get weck rolls east of Syracuse, I've been making them myself for years. My recipe comes from the Stern's book and includes potato boiling water as well as mashed potatoes and the caraway seeds in the dough itself. Now I'm experimenting with 1:1 replacement flour.

The youngun' is obviously suffering from 3rd child syndrome....when the 3rd child thinks that they are as large as the older two and can keep up!. Are you heading straight up to Buffalo or working your way around the bottom of Erie? Just asking because would love to see you check out beef on weck at Schwabl's if you are going through Buffalo.....check out the buffalo farm down in Edinboro, PA....or maybe some walleye if you hit Port Clinton OH.. I would kill for that spaghetti and gravy........

Or as I prefer when cooking for myself...I defer to our third president and use meat as an accent Host's note: for the next inspiring segment of this extended topic, click here.

Friend of ours visiting over night....and dropping off his puppy for a week visit with us. Sent him off after a breakfast of tea and honey and an egg sandwich with turkey bacon. uh....and a small piece of egg MIGHT have accidently on purpose dropped on the floor for Angie to find.

One of our friends just dropped his puppy for a week visit at The Aerie. He spent the night and it was still hot so simple stuff - bison cheese burgers, Park's best dogs with some beer sauerkraut, potato salad, coleslaw and gluten free macaroni salad. Lots of All Day IPA for the guys. Dry weather front went through last night and now instead of 89 F we MAY hit 62 F. I have some chicken I pulled off a rotisserie bird (after making a couple of sandwiches to send Mike on his way). I'm going to cook some noodles, sauté some mushrooms and make a chicken noodle bake - topped with the rest of the bag of chips I sent on the way to the Carolinas. I also pulled a container of Lactaid cottage cheese out of the freezer.....by Monday it will be drained and will sub for ricotta in making some manicotti with homemade bison ragu...along with a small lasagna to go into the freezer for John.

I WANT THIS NOW!!!!! unfortunately Johnnybird doesn't like Italian sausage............ohhhhhhhh......maybe chicken Italian sausage

ohhhhh....... out checking some bluebird boxes and I was transported back to my childhood. In an odd spot I found some wild asparagus and was able to harvest 8 thin stalks. I brought them home, rinsed them well then ate them raw.

Sunday we had to check on bluebird boxes for our annual Bluebird Survey so I roasted off two chicken breasts. John got a sandwich on his gluten free bread with avocado smushed up with celery salt and Miracle Whip (and two for the road). My lunch was the leftover bits of the chicken that didn't go between the bread with the leftover avocado spread. I snarfed it with some oat and flax crackers as we checked all the boxes.

Thanks @Norm Matthews....tonight's dinner will be tacos instead of poor man's stew which has been pushed to lunch in about 30 minutes. I do love tacos especially if I have enough chili lime hot sauce and cheese to go on them (no lettuce - too expensive right now). @Shelby can I come visit? I really want some good fried chicken and Johhnybird does not allow frying in the house. Most of the places around here deep fry but yours looks like a shallow fry in a cast iron skillet. I keep trying to get to Hotel Chalfonte in Cape May when we are down the shore but keep missing them....

It has once again become cool and dreary here. John has gone to help a friend who is facing stem cell harvesting for his multiple myeloma. I don't feel like cooking or eating at this point... BUT it is important so I have some parsnips, carrots, leeks, shallots, garlic and small potatoes. Have some bones to make stock with and then it will be poor man's stew for tomorrow. Last night's dinner was green eggs and ham (pesto, eggs, Black Forest ham) on a toasted English muffin ..... again.

Interesting ... here in NW NJ last Tuesday I noticed there was no iceberg lettuce available in either of the markets I go to and only yucky(brownish/slimy) leaf lettuce, the two main kinds I use. Did not see Boston at all and the Romaine heads were a 3 pack of Andy Boy for almost $7.00. We are not quite into good lettuce time here - maybe about 3 weeks away - so I took some heartier greens and didn't do lettuce salads or anything on sandwiches this week. Even the two Asian/Spanish markets and very little green produce....didn't notice cauliflower at all and green beans were 1.69 per pound.

Just had ginger and honey switchell for the first time 2 weeks ago. It actually had the finely shredded ginger pulp in it. I strained it out for Johnnybird and added it back to my glass. Very refreshing...can't wait to hear how your experiment goes.