suzilightning

the far side - with the dog pointing into the clothes dryer(or was it a front loading washer). we used that, too when we had kitties. thanks for a great reminder.

unless you are johnnybird. i keep a few retort packets of chicken breasts and salmon from various companies for his use if i am away. i do also keep a tin of chicken so he can make chicken salad for himself - though usually i do up food and leave an EXTREMELY detailed list if what is for when. seriously there are issues with time, slowness(john marches to his own precussion section) and being able to multitask.

not a cookbook but our assistant director noticed that that the last 3 digits of the barcode we assigned Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook were "666".

so where did you guys end up - and did you take pictures!! i've had to work every night otherwise i would have pm'd you and offered my guide services.

woo hoo!!! we have to get together for a drink!

Smart World Coffee - everyone greets me with a big hello or how are the birds flying. when lou owned An American Grill i knew if i popped in for lunch it would always be special and i would be fussed over. now for me it is my local (ie - within 1.5 miles of home) place Warehouse Grill if john is out of town and i don't feel like cooking. flip lives down the street from me and nancy is always ready with a smile and my cold arnie palmer. for more upscale dining marla at Zoe's by the Lake is ready with a smile and a quip and questions about how we are. at Everything Homemade if maria sees me she's out of the kitchen to say hi and compare recipes with me.

let's get serious here, girl. which bourbon? from a woman who likes her bourbon with a splash of branch.

rachel- can you speak about the influence of sephardic jews on the mexican cuisines since some made their way to the new world? do you feel it had any influence or was the moorish the more pronounced?

courtesy of my boss this morning... now i'm not normally a sweets eater but this cake i will make an exception for. light and not too sweet chocolate cake with a mocha frosting. hell, just give me a bowl of the frosting and a spoon. and coffee, black, that she made, too.

according to dennis leary we should have an animal audition and just line them all up. "what are you" "i'm an otter" "and what do you do" "i lie on my back and do cute human tricks" "ok. you're free to go." "and what are you?" "i'm a cow." "no, you're not you're a baseball glove. get on the truck." "wait!wait! i'm an animal. i have rights, too." "no, you don't, . now shut up and get on the truck with your cousin." i used to have problems with people i work with when i referred to a meal i had of rabbit and venison as "bambi and thumper". it is part of the disneyfication of reality.

everything looks soo good. a few home dinners from the last two weeks. first up john's favorite of chicken saltimbucco. last friday night's dinner for him. pork chop pounded out and quickly fried. pan sauce of witbier, mustard and capers, sauerkraut that was drained and cooked with red onions and the rest of the beer and spaetzle. i thought i was going to get the day off from the hawkwatch. well, i got half the day off but from when john got up at 515 am i had half the morning to work on something he has been requesting: coq au vin. i had ann willan's new french cookbook at home and he spotted the recipe. he used to travel a good deal to minneapolis and always ate at least once at Hotel Soffitel where he would always order this. he said they served it with baby potatoes and haricot vert so... being the sweet, kind wife i am TA-DA! the final result i cooked with the valgrand and we drank the parallelle "45"

yesterday morning i thought i would have the day off so i made myself breakfast. omlet with mushrooms and shallot, bacon and whole wheat toast i added raspberry jam to.

it also may be a loss of our connection to our food. i grew up killing what i ate(and never killed anything unless i was going to eat it). rabbit, squirrel, duck, venison, chickens, scallops, crabs and fish of all kinds. when i mentioned that i had made (manwich style) sloppy joes with ground bison my neighbor just shuddered. i regularly work with a fifth grade class doing a colonial america project. for the life specialists one of the questions they have to answer is what do they eat. how many times have i asked where do you live? are you near water? are you near forests? what animals do you think would live there? do you think that any animals would move through where you live that you might catch? most of them have no clue that food doesn't come shrink wrapped. since we don't have time to hunt - nor the space - i regularly buy ground bison and, if i want it, bison medallions at the local shoprite for around 5.99 per pound. i used to be able to find rabbit and ostrich at the local acme but, since the demand wasn't there, they stopped stocking it. in many of the local hispanic markets in dover i can find rabbit. at a&s butcher in our local appletree i can get all types of variety meats and the chivo made a lovely curry. whenver john is up visiting his family i send him to quattros' for venison in all it's lovely incarnations as well as have him order my holiday capon and bring me back my duck breasts.

ocatillo cactus...looks like the mountains my bil showed us between tuscon and mesa... a man's hand in the one picture but that may be a significant other.....no feakin' clue as to who

wow, gabriel. if that market is a week day i wonder what it is like on a weekend! what beautiful pictures and your food is spectacular. thanks for letting me hitch along for the ride - an i can't wait to show my boss the dancing pig

yesterday i was kidding with a couple i know at work saying they were on a date(nb - i used to have several couples who would hire a babysitter once a week so the husband and wife could go out for an early dinner at the local diner, do something else if they wished and then come to the library until we closed - 4 hours of together time). eileen said "yeah some date going to the library then grocery shopping". after work i stopped at our local pathmark(hey, last day of triple coupons and i had some nonperishables to buy) but it was packed. then i remembered - it was thursday. growing up every other thursday was grocery day(on the island) when my mom got paid. we went off island once a month for the non perishables and stuff you couldn't find in the local IGA - unless you could get a deal which, when you figure in the cost of shipping to an island, is rare. now i find myself shopping in a different, almost european? way. from june through august i use the farmers market, buy extra whenever i can and blanch and freeze. i buy pork and beef in bulk and add to the freezer whenever john is up to visit family i give him a list to suss out at Quattros in the valley for the freezer and fresh - as well as my order for christmas! when i am too busy to get to the farmers market on sunday i hit up the local farmstand and buy what they have grown - usually corn, peppers, squash, tomatoes, herbs and melons. i have also found a place that has good pork and chicken from pa as well as a deli that has my beloved prosciutto de san danielle for john's chicken saltimbucco. in the last three days i have been to the green grocers buying chicken tenders, prosciutto and provolone on wednesday for the saltimbucco, then today for a rib pork chop i had the butcher french so i could pound it and fry it to serve with apple sauce, a mustard, dill and caper sauce, sauerkraut with witbier and caraway seed. then i tend to buy any cold cuts in slices (eg - 8 slices which will translate into 2 sandwiches) and will buy them more frequently than my mom would. have your (i'm guessing more likely united states) shopping habits changed over time?

oh, my precious baby..... only 28 days today it has been snyders multigrain pretzel sticks stuck in a dip of miracle whip, toffuti faux sour cream and a packet of lipton onion soup mix, fudgy bourbon brownies and both deli potato and macaroni salad. what i am craving is red meat but it's too late for me to eat. tomorrow ...... edit to add - i want that crispy chicken skin.

i thought i ws through with this but yesterday WHAM and it was a baconator sandwich from wendy's along with a medium vanilla shake. today i am craving chocolate and meat..... when will it end? edited to add i will NEVER do this again. the burger comes with plastic cheese, flabby bacon and without a pickle, lettuce or tomato. but i ate the danged thing anyway..... the shame.

i copy out the recipes i'm interested in then save the mags up to send as a "little extra something" when i have FREE cookbooks to give away. you might try getting some Princeton files like the ones we use in the library to store magazines and definitely they should be alphabetical and chronological. good luck, susan.

ditto llc45's mention of zoe's. you can see my birthday dinner there in the foodblog i did. also in sparta is the Plaza Bistro which is BYO or Krogh's which is a brew pub. you might head to stanhope for Bell's Mansion or into Wharton for Hot Rod's BBQ.

or give her what john gave me for a birthday present one year - a .22 caliber rifle with a spotting scope and 15 round magazine. great for yard critters and threatening computers. you might want to add in some chalk, too.

Have you tried the recipe in the Les Halles cookbook? It's excellent. We add cream at the end, and a little white wine instead of the sherry. My husband also prefers to have mushroom slices in the soup, so I use a very large teaball, and put extra (additional) mushroom slices in it. Then I pull it out, puree the rest of the soup, and add the mushrooms back in. We love it. ← ditto on this recipe llc45. i made it with creminis instead of white buttons. neither johnnybird nor i are big mushroom fans but loved this recipe.

I have to ask if the Pac Man shaped potatoes are intentional? lisa, i didn't even notice them... no, not intentional but a blemish in the last of the white sweets from the farmers market so i just nicked the blemish out of each slice. but hey, if it would get him to eat more....

happy anniversary!! my rule is unless it is on the gift list on the fridge it has to be edible or potable. gift certificate to a favorite coffee shop? bottle of champagne? box of chocolates?(never mind - i did see your stash). have fun and celebrate each other and what makes you special as a couple