suzilightning

Wow ... loved your trip. Now I REALLY want to start planning a Lincoln Highway or Rt.66 trip and check out some of those places.....

Lebanon bologna (not sweet!), Funny since your last trip I found both sweet and savory? bologna in an Acme in South Jersey. I was scared to ask for a taste....... Not enough juniper do you think in the Dorothy Parker? Wish I could taste it but.............

YEAH my favorite time. love the western sandwich...... what did you feel about the Dorothy Parker gin?

Single again for a few days .... cool and rainy so it was basic comfort food for dinner last night. Bison meatloaf and baked macaroni and cheese with a nice salad. Breakfast is a western sandwich with a fruit salad of blackberries and apricots with a key lime yoghurt dressing. For dinner I picked up some lamb chops and will make a vegetable stew with Indian eggplants, cherry tomatoes, green beans, garlic and onions.

Usually called Texas Weiner sauce here in northwest NJ. It is bottled and sold at many of the Greek run diners up here so perhaps his name for it .......? Toasted bun, hot dog mustard, shredded cheese , THEN the grilled dog and a line of ketchup (my new favorite is the French's that just came out). Also, if I can find them, the Park's finest from Ballpark are really tasty.

Chicken canzanese is good and I use both thighs and breasts. The skin stays nice and crispy which I love.

Well, with John retired now it may be become for us The Couple Who Lunch as we try to catch up from 30+ years of not having time to spend together. After shopping for snorkeling equipment we headed into a local town, Denville NJ, because I needed more 00 flour and we stopped at a seafood store with a restaurant attached: Codmother's. Fresh seafood you can see at the counter and reasonably priced for lunch; John had his first taste of Arctic char that was broiled and served with boiled potatoes, lemon butter sauce and some of the best coleslaw I have had in a long time. I went for my basic "check out the place" lunch: fried flounder sandwich on a Kaiser roll and coleslaw. Perfect portions and good food.

Right now for the latest beer cook off Real Beer and Good Eats by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. The recipes are good but I also love the narrative that deals with the history of brewing then Prohibition and the rebirth the brewing and using beer to cook. Bunny Day's Catch 'em, Hook 'em and Cook 'em as now John is into a fish and seafood phase. Add to that Jacqueline Pell Tuttle's book on seafood and fish.......... Now if I could just get him into more veg!!!

On the stove right now is Greek Tavern Chicken from Bruce Aidells and Dennis Kelly's Real Beer and Good Eats. It calls for a light lager and Johnnybird came up with a Molson light that was a few years old. So far it is smelling amazing...just hope it doesn't attract a bear!!! Have GOT to incorporate beer into my pizza crust. I'm planning on trying out the new grill this weekend with a London broil and, from the same book Warm Potato Salad with Beer Dressing and MAYBE Rick's Beer Baked Beans. I'm also interested in a lemon and beer marinade for fish and/or chicken as we are starting to focus more on fish and seafood....veges next!!!!!!

Agree....winter wonder indeed!! Carbonnade with a Belgian .... check Stout cake ... check Brats in beer ... check Bowl of red with a good Texas or Mexican beer ... check Hmmmmmmm time to pull out a cookbook I have. PS ... David Ross thank you for the hops pictures. One of my husband's best friends used to grow them in his Hudson Valley backyard and my late Uncle Bill spent many years in Omaha and drank Hamm's all the time and had a crocheted Hamm's hat. Laughed hysterically when I saw that ad.

At the time 1982-83 YES!!!! They truly were open pits that you could go out back and check out. From what my feeble old mind can remember they were like cinder block and brick pits that had grates over top and used mesquite and lump charcoal. And in Texarkana the churches were on the Texas side of Stateline Boulevard and the drive through liquor stores on the Arkansas

Johnnybird is about to retire and there will be some changes .... no more sandwiches and MAYBE we will be able to eat dinner together more often. Asked him what he wanted and he said fish so picked up some fresh red snapper that they cleaned for me. Marinating in a mix of minced garlic, dill and kosher salt. Will bake in foil with some lemon and white wine. Boiled potatoes with dill and olive oil. Steamed broccoli.

Just got it from my library before heading out on vaca ... going to try a variation of the green squash with garlic because I just scored some fresh mixed mushrooms. Unfortunately the smashed cucumber won't get made here as my husband LOATHES cucumbers...even the English variety.

Down the shore here and what do I make when it is cold and rainy but pasta with salad, garlic bread and chicken saltimbucco. At our local library here and then off to see what veg are fresh right now - possibly early peas, asparagus and lettuces - and what came off the boat this morning. I'm hoping some fresh white fish that I can steam or lightly pan fry to go with some fresh veg.

Heading down the shore tomorrow for a week ...... YEAH!!!!!! Up in Poughkeepsie for the weekend ... no one was interested in food. As usual. Got back last night and it is leftovers. Rosemary salt roasted pork loin with roasted veg - Yukon gold potatoes, carrots, shallots, parsnips and garlic with pan gravy. Same thing for dinner tonight .... if John ever wakes up.

a big difference to me between a flattop and a grill. don't smush on a grill but will on a flattop.

Funny there are two kinds of quail eggs in my local Shoprite here in suburban NJ.

SMITHY ohhhhhhh.....pit 'Q. I have been following with great excitement as John and I love to take roadtrips. You aren't that far from Kerrville and Kinky Friedman's dog rescue ranch and New Braunfels with some killer German foods. Our first year of marriage was a bit further east living in Hooks and I worked in Texarkana when they still had open pits. The freaking smell of that beef was to die for ... almost as good as Fredonia in the fall when they were making chili sauce or peanut butter ... as it permeated EVERYTHING.

Rabbit, squirrel, beef tongue all were things we ate growing up that might be considered "exotic" by some. For us "exotic" was Parmesan cheese that DIDN'T come from a can!

LIUZHOU can you tell me more about the egg pie? It looks intriguing. RANZ I want that lamb curry bunny chow, too!!!! I is still freaking drizzling and cool here so I pulled out a pint of wild mushroom and onion soup before I went out this morning. Stopped at a local Italian bakery on the way home and bought a small roll. Lunch was the soup, garlic roll and a mixed salad with some yellow tomatoes, quick pickled red onion and a simple vinaigrette.

At least you have a WAWA near you... Yesterday it was a mac and cheese casserole and two dinner size Nathan's hot dogs that I crisped up and smothered with homemade hotdog relish and kraut,

I've just encountered this... great new restaurant but two things in the last two times I have gone have convinced me to only order certain things from a known menu OR really ask questions. Ordered crawfish jamabalaya off a special menu ...DUH next time ask how much the special is. It was good but not almost 20.00 good for the portion. Ordered fish and chips off a special menu...4 pieces of breaded, fried fish then a pile of potato chips. No coleslaw...no pickle...some tartar sauce and vinegar. When I mentioned to the server that chips usually mean what we call French fries and potato chips are usually called crisps he said that the chef likes to ..."put his own spin on it". Then why the freak serve the malt vinegar??????? If I go again I will be more aggressive in my questioning or stick to the burger which IS served with just the right amount of fries.

Nope...usually with my unused spoon or fork and a knife. Having worked in the back of the house off and on for years I am VERY conscious about this.

This was actually what we called Funeral salad where I grew up as it ALWAYS appeared at the bereaved family's house.