suzilightning

Getting ready to send of John's friend for his family vacation and John to Poughkeepsie.....it's going to be me and Mr. Mike's dog and the kitties. Turkey sandwiches for the ride to the airport then north...chicken quesadillas made with roasted chicken, salsa and guacamole....no cheese. Plenty of water for them and seltzer for me. Also have the first cold tea of the season in the fridge...I'm going to need it!

Funny but John has a problem when I talk about food too early....he finds it something that upsets his head and stomach. I have the problem that I have talked about before of when working with food or even reading about it NOT being hungry because of how I process information and my brain thinks I have already eaten. NOT a good thing....

Finally got John off to Poughkeepsie with a roasted chicken breast sandwich, turkey burger and German potato salad as he can NOT ride in a car without asking "What do we have to eat?". During the road trip last month the shortest time before this question was 5 minutes; the longest almost an hour (and the 5 minutes was just after eating a breakfast that was included with our room in the attatched restaurant). While making the sandwich I trimmed off the odd ends of the two chicken breasts I had roasted. Minced, I combined it with some Rome apple, chopped pistachios, the white of a green onion that was chopped, chopped dried cranberries and Cain's mayo with some celery salt. I softened a whole wheat tortilla then made a Waldorf chicken wrap for lunch.

I think I know what will be for dinner for me tomorrow night. Sunday will be our 34th wedding anniversary and I have brunch and dinner planned: eggs Benedict then coq au vin served with egg noodles and some buttery green beans ... two of Johnnybird's favorite things.

A beautiful day here!!! What is that bright orb in the sky though?!? Since it is warmish here today I stopped while out and picked up some shrimp, baby bok choy, parsley and green onions. I have Hokkien stir fry noodles, various sauces - black bean, Hoisin - rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and garlic. I'm going to blanch the bok choy then stir fry it with the shrimp, white of the onions and garlic, put it over the cooked noodles then sauce it and finish with the green part of the green onions and some parsley. Leftovers for John's lunch tomorrow.

Just roasted some chicken drumsticks and made au gratin potatoes to eat for lunches the next few days. Dinner is a mash up gravy of puttanesca and bologanese - the olives, capers and anchovy from the puttanesca and the milk from the bologanese - made with ground bison, rag noodles and some garlic bread with a green salad.

BLT on an everything flat bread...simple but satisfying.

Last night a weird amalgam.... spicy Mexican rice, scrambled eggs and a salad. Just what I wanted.

Breakfast for dinner here tonight: hash browns, scrambled eggs, toast and bacon. Also making wild blueberry pancakes that Johnnybird can reheat for his breakfast when he arises and I am out of the house(I am a morning person and he believes morning begins at noon).

EXCELLENT .... and you know what they have been eating, One of the first things I ever hunted as a kid was rabbit,

Trying to get back into the swing of things after 16 days on the road then 4 days down the shore. Made a less than stellar meatloaf with some killer roasted sweet potatoes, onions and carrots with olive oil and some herbs. The meatloaf works when lightly reheated on the stove then made into a sandwich with some tomatoes. Roasted a double chicken breast on the bone and used some of it with the drippings to make tetrazzini with some mushrooms, first English peas and a topping of potato chips as well as some quesadillas with the chicken, some salsa and guac. I've been eating on some Spanish rice I had made with some Ro-tel tomatoes. Dinner is going to be breakfast as soon as the hubs gets done with chores - homefries, toast, scrambled eggs and bacon. Tomorrow we decided it will be pizza and salad.

That is why growing up we had boiled potatoes whenever we had fish. In case there were a slender bone we would eat the potato and it would help ease the bone down.......at least that is what I grew up being told.

Garbage dinner for me as I was busy finishing 2 weeks of travel laundry: turkey hot dogs with cheddar in bread pockets with a big salad. When I was doing a big cook the other day I also cooked off some ground turkey and ground bison to use in making gravy to put together a lasagna for tonight. Using drained lactose free cottage cheese instead of ricotta as Johnnybird is lactose intolerant. Freshly made pasta sheets. Salad and garlic bread to round out the meal. Just saw something on our local station that looks intriguing: coconut bacon on a salad.

Back from the roadtrip and John will be off today for the weekend. I really missed my kitchen so for dinner Wednesday roasted chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, gravy and olive oil roasted green beans. Last night cheddar bacon bison burgers in pita pockets, a mixed green salad and macaroni salad made with red, orange and yellow peppers, green onions and a dressing made with Cain's mayo and some Italian seasonings. Sending him off with some smooch and leftover chicken and potatoes for dinners up in Po-town. Dinner tonight for me will be salad and some leftover tomato rice soup I pulled from the freezer.

That's the brand we bring to our manager when we go down the shore - he prefers the regular to the sweet. And get some Mr. Ron's coleslaw . It's a local product up there and what I consider one of the best I've ever tasted ...and coleslaw is one of those things by which I judge a place.

So, Kerry ... going to have some scrapple? We are on our road trip and here in Dixon, Il. I knew we were in a southern - ish state when there were biscuits and gravy on the hotel's breakfast buffet.

Host's note: this topic has grown too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so it's been divided into segments. The previous, first segment is here: What food-related book are you reading? (2004 - 2015). Somewhere .... here I think, though I can't find it ... someone asked me about books that I had read and enjoyed that dealt more with food history.....I promised to get back but can't find the link. Hopefully they will recognize my name and request or someone else will pick up on some of these titles/autho We are what we eat: Ethnic food and the making of America Gabaccia, Donna. Thank goodness I had this book on the cruise. Read well and was fascinating. A drizzle of history: The lives and recipes of Spain's secret Jews Gitlitz, David. One of my favorite books on the conversos and has some great recipes. Harris, Jessica. I read anything she writes and enjoy her writing and research skills. Climbing the Mango Tree Jaffrey, Madhur. Great memoir. Gran Cocina Latina: The food of Latin America Presilla, Maricel. Phenomenal research, writing and connecting the new and old worlds. Pomp and sustenance: Twenty-fie centuries of Sicilian food Simeti, Mary Taylor. Started reading at a friends house; not done with it yet but ties a lot of the history of Europe and the Mideast together.

Johnnybird managed to make it home almost in one piece. He has slept most of the day away so I had leftovers - green salad and mac and cheese with hotdogs. I had made him bucatini with olive oil, garlic, herbs and shrimp for dinner when he got home last night. I also had treated myself to a small tray of lasagna rollups from Burrinis market and cooked them off for tomorrow.

John hates the taste or smell of lamb ..... except when he tastes it. I love it. It may be that the fat is what bothers you as it can sometimes taste a bit like lanolin.

I LOVE coleslaw so if I am trying a barbeque place or deli I try the coleslaw. I have found places that I liked the food EXCEPT the coleslaw .........but that's just me.... I like it creamy and I LOVE Mr. Ron's that I can now get now up here in NW NJ as the Acmes have expanded.

I use ramen as a base for one of Johnnybird's favorite lunches..... shrimp with carrots, cucumber and scallions with a home made sweet and sour sauce. He can heat it up or not as he feels. The only requirement is there has to be sesame oil in the sauce.

big chopped salad for later with tomatoes, black olives, red onion and a vinaigrette.....along with a small lasagna made with a "cheese" made with drained Lactaid cottage cheese rather than ricotta.

a bit of leftovers.... some fries that I reheated in the oven as well as the skin I pulled off the capon that crisped off in the oven.....freaking incredible. It was crispy and salty.

See if one of the places has Doc's Draft hard cider. It's made in Warwick NY and according to Johnnybird it is quite dry. So sorry about that snow thing here on the first day of spring.....

Okanagancook I tested that recipe but don't remember an egg white wash. Salted , patted dry, tied herbs around the meat then slow cooked. Came out beautifully..took about 2.5 hours with a 30 minute rest later. One of the best ways I have found to come out with a perfectly cook medium rare.