Marlene

Not only is Don a tireless gopher for me,, having a teenage son has certain advantages as well, one of them being go to the store for mom. I constantly forget things depsite yards of lists when I shop. I even forget things when I send Don out to get things I've forgotten and have been known to call him on his cell phone while he's standing in the checkout line, with "oh honey, just one more thing".

I've got the patch. It takes the edge off but it isn' dealing with the mind part. I got a recommendation from a doctor for a hypnotist who I will call today. I figure at this point it can't hurt. It's a school morning and it's really cold. Ryan makes his own breakfast and packs his own lunch on school days so all I have to do is sit here and drink coffee. Leftovers will be on my table tonight as well, (yes Susan, you read that right) as I have a Council meeting tonight. More after breakfast. Chin up partner. It's incredibly hard to do this. Especially in front of a rather large audience. As for your pics, aren't you usintg Picasa? It cuts out several steps in the cropping and resizing area.

While I'm waiting for my partners to get back on line, how about Matt, Brooks and Maggie checking in? Isn't this supposed to be easier by now?

Like Dave, I find myself taking pictures of every step in the process. The least you folks can do is suffer along with us. The long awaited dinner finally got underway. Various ingredients: garlic, onion, red and yellow peppers Sesame oil, ginger and soy sauce Bean Sprouts! plus the sirloin tips, some orange peppers and snow peas. And we're ready to cook. Don gets the wok started with the sesame oil and does the garlic and onion first: Then adds the beef and soy sauce Then the various peppers: and the snow peas. When that is all ready, he removes it from the wok and does the bean sprouts separately (by the way, Ive had that pepper mill for almost 30 years. My father gave it to me when I got my very first apartment during college. It's also really scary when you actually have memories from 30 years ago.) Served with rice this is oh so very very good. (and Susan, one of my very favourite snacks is shaved parmesan on triscuts. I'll try the prosciutto next time)

We are now the proud owners of some organic bean sprouts so dinner can finally proceed. Whew.

I'm liking those racks from Dean and Deluca. I curently use the Tupperware spice containers which are stackable.

Shows how often I buy bean sprouts. Don is still hunting. I know Whole Foods has them so he's gone off to try there.

Um, has anyone heard of a salmonella outbreak with bean sprouts? The bean sprouts I bought a couple of days ago for our stir fry didn't make it. So Don is currently out hunting for sprouts. If he can't find any, it could be an interesting stir fry. But, the guy at Sobey's told him there'd been a recent outbreak involving bean sprouts and they haven't brought them back into the store yet.

We are using sirloin tips tonight for our stir fry. Fajitas also work well.

If it ever get down to visit you, I'll bring some spicy clamato mix. You'll love it. In the meantime, you could mix a little horseradish in the bloody mary mix. Dinner prep soon. I jus woke up from my now seemingly obligitory afternoon nap. Time for cocktails which since it is a "school night" will likely be CC and coke for me and white wine for Don. My son, who has developed an unexplained urge to watch the Super bowl, wants "game snacks". I knew I should have taken out chicken wings.

Thanks Eliot. Since we are staying at the Venetian, a dinner is most possible!

I usually take a turkey breast to 160. 170 will certainly be well done.

I seriously want wings now. Maybe that can be tomorrow's dinner. I don't recall any garlic in blue cheese dipping sauce, but why not? How about this one?

Well I could do the Caribbean pork in Molly's braising book, but I was looking for something a bit different this time. A mojito definately. I'll skip the fried plantains thanks.

This just made my list for breakfast when we go to Vegas in April. Do we need reservations for breakfast?

Nicely done Susan! We totally forgot about our mimosas with breakfast. Better late than never though, and it makes a nice Sunday afternoon drink as well.

No folks. The lack of nicotine has not addled Dave's brain so much that he feels the need to drive to Florida for steak. (at least I don't think it has). He's going for work and this is where the cuban portion of our blog will come in. Now that I think of it, a few suggestions for cuban dishes would be most welcome.

Sure it did. Shows how addled my brain has become.

I've taken to making my own BBQ sauce. I use a recipe from the Food tv network website and we really like it. My brother loves it too, so now I always make some for him at the same time. The only saucy wings I like are the Asian ones from the Frog Commissary cookbook. But then, once they are baked, they aren't really gooey saucy if you know what I mean. The other thing I don't get is breaded wings. I adore large hunks of beef. I do my bacon in the skillet on top of the stove, and then we usually fry our eggs in the bacon grease. I always save my bacon grease as well.

Is this a Marlene-blog first? ← Probably. Like green vegetables. You will note that I've had three green vegetables so far. And snow peas will be in the stir fry tonight. I'm thinking we'll be doing hot roast beef sandwhiches today or tomorrow for lunch. Or Maybe dinner tomorrow. And I love left over prime rib for munching on.

Because I've fallen off the wagon a few times, I'm not sure my taste buds have had a chance to adjust. Certainly though, my sense of smell is sharper. (I can smell a smoker 100 paces away ) I've always liked salty things but these last few days, my taste for them has really increased. I don't think I'm eating anymore, but that's a concious decision on my part. Now if only I had the energy to go to the gym. But, I'd rather sleep.

Apparently, it's going to be Don's day to cook. He came home from the gym and made up bacon and eggs for all of us. I like my eggs over easy, Don likes his sunny side up and Ryan likes his over easy in a sandwhich. This is President's Choice bacon which is actually pretty good. We all like our bacon crisp. Don is going to favour his with his marvellous stir fry tonight, so I'm off to the market to get a few things.

I'm still so full from dinner, I'm not sure I want to contemplate breakfast. Besides, I still need to clean the kitchen up. Don's gone to the gym and of course Ry is still asleep, so I don't have to do anything about breakfast yet. I had thought about Eggs Benedict, but that seems to require more energy than I currently have at the moment, so maybe omelettes. And bacon. Oops. I'd better go take the bacon out. And mimosas. I love mimosas and only ever seem to have them on vacation, but I figure I deserve one this morning. Dave, I'm impressed your improvising on that roast. Apart from the mushroom thing, it looked awesome. Susan, Russell's recipe for honey garlic wings is pretty much how I make mine (although I've never thought about using sherry, but it makes sense to me) I'd still make the Asian wings though.

Diinner tonight was a feast fit for a king, or queen in my case. We started off with cocktails which I did not take pics of. Another Manhattan for me, this time with Regans bitters (absolutely perfect) and more scotch for Don. I ended up with a ridiculously large roast for three people. We were supposed to have company, but since the weather all around is is awful, they couldn't make it. In deference to my husband's recent dental surgery, we ended up with mashed potatoes, but oh my this dinner was awesome. Prime Rib: Broccoli au gratin. I used the mustard struesel for this, and a cheese sauce that comibine cheddar, montery jack and parmesan cheeses. I also used panko crumbs for the topping. yorkshire Puddings. I am so in love with my popover pans for these: Mashed potatoes and gravy. Plated: Ryan enjoyed a Rob Roy (or shirley temple) for dinner While we had a gorgeous Amarone: I also need to confess, that I not only slipped today, I fell off the wagon with a crash. Half a pack later I was wondering WTF I was doing. Dont' despair folks. I'm not done. It ain't over till the fat lady sings and I'm getting right back on that wagon. Sn no one needs to beat me up for it. I did a fine job of that all by myself.

It's been snowing here, so a bit of baking was in order. First we made chocolate chip and chocolate chunk cookies: I forgot to take pics of the cookie dough making process. Besides I had to work quickly or Ryan would have eaten all the dough raw. And then raspberry jam filled muffins with a strusel topping: (Ok, maybe I overfilled them) Time for a coffee and a smoke. Oh all right. I'll just have coffee. Then it's on to blanching the broccoli (It figures, I've never blanched in my life, and now I'm doing it every time I turn around), and make the topping for the gratin. I'd like to make Janet's nuts as well, but that may have to wait until tomorrow. The roast will take about 3 hours so it needs to go on around 4:30 ish and I need to make the batter for the yorkshire pudding so it can rest. I really want a cigarette.