Jacksoup

@liuzhou so sorry for your loss. Glad you had that last trip back for her birthday.

I get a lot of lemons this time of year and slice them fairly thin and dehydrate them. Use the slices in tea and water. Also as @Anna Nsaid, freezing the juice in ice cube trays and decanting into a zip loc is good too.

Here’s my over the fridge cabinet. It’s full of bags of dehydrated lemons some stuffed into the vases stored there. The front of the cabinet has sugar and flours. I can reach the stuff in front but need a step stool to get to the lemons. I use the lemons everyday in tea but I have one zip lock in a lower drawer where I can reach it.

Definitely counter space. When I remodeled my kitchen , I doubled the counter space and it’s the thing I appreciate the most. Next best improvement is the six burner gas stove. Under cabinet lighting is also worth it.

I am also tired of cooking. At first it was an adventure with grocery delivery and meal planning. Now it’s a chore. I have access to all kinds of food for delivery and curbside pickup, but I just want to have a nice meal in a restaurant. I did go to a ‘bubble’ friend’s house for dinner last night which was nice and food was good but I want a meal IN a restaurant. Whenever we are able to and it feels safe to me, I have a list of local restaurants to go to. That helps.

Quite a loss, RIP Suzi

@heidih I just pulled out my copy and couldn’t find stained glass cookies in it. Looking thru it was a trip down memory lane. I may make the molasses crinkle cookies.

A lifelong friends husband had a stroke in March, then two other diseases were discovered both of which cause clotting. Many complications have ensued. I’ve been making dinner or baking for them about once a week. They could afford to have food delivered but my friend said it’s so comforting when friends cook for them. My friend and I started cooking together from the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls when we were about 8 yrs old. It certainly does feel good to do this.

@Son MayhawI loved reading everything your dad wrote, it was so filled with joy, humor, and love of food. So sorry for your loss.

After I made ham and potatoes for my son and turkey and stuffing for myself on Thanksgiving, we decided to have whatever we wanted for Christmas. So far, the votes are for beef filets and Dungeness crab. Maybe a vegetable, Brussels sprouts with bacon. New Year’s Day will be snacks, probably make his favorite bacon wrapped water chestnuts. Make try to sneak some bacon wrapped dates in there too. Mimosas with Costco prosecco. I’m saving my bottle of Veuve for the inauguration.

I love barley, farro, and freekah. Usually use the barley in soup, farro and freekah as a salad base. I am so done with quinoa. A friend owned a company that did agricultural packing. When quinoa became popular, that’s all they packed for a while. I still have bags of regular, red and tri-color quinoa in my pantry. Bob Dylan’s son was the quinoa supplier. He imported it from Peru, IIRC.

It’s just my son and I. My son wants ham, I want turkey. He wants au gratin potatoes and dressing. Ordered groceries for pick up yesterday. I ordered a small fresh turkey breast, they called and said they were out. I blithely said they could substitute any other fresh breast. Ended up with a full organic breast at almost triple the price. Think I will resume doing my own shopping as they forgot a few items as well. Making pecan pie in a couple of 7 inch cast iron skillets tonight, otherwise nothing has been done in advance. We probably won’t eat until late afternoon.

The juicer I bought after a friend lost 30 lbs juicing. Never used it. Still have the extra pounds. The mini blender stick I bought when my cousin worked at Sur La Table. Definitely the spiralizer. All collecting dust.

Thanks for taking us along, once again. I love your stories and scenery.

I got my copy yesterday and have just started to read thru it. I volunteered as a poll worker for the next 4 days, so I won’t be cooking anything until next week. LGD sounds really good.

@Anna Nso happy to see you posting more regularly again. I’ve missed you.

@Norm MatthewsHappy Birthday!

I made larb tonight but it wasn’t the larb I wanted . I’ve made it maybe 4 times, the first was the best. I can’t remember what recipe I used, going to go back and read the thread on it.

I pandemic ordered 5 lbs of onions a few weeks ago. Every time I walk into my kitchen, I smell raw onions. It’s been driving me nuts. I finally threw all of them in the slow cooker tonight to make (and freeze) caramelized onions. But I swear I thought smelling onions was a sign of Covid until my brain finally made the connection that I was smelling onions because I had a surplus of onions. I did wise up and take out the garbage bag of onion trimmings, but geez my brain is compromised by all that is going on.

I had the first cleaning appt when my dentist opened up on June 4. They are taking all kinds of precautions. Wait in the car until they let you know to come in, plastic gowns, face shields. They are all wearing tank tops and shorts under the plastic clothing because it gets so hot. Went to the oral surgeon today because an implant broke and a tiny piece of the post fractured and was stuck. 50/50 chance of getting out but it was successful. Everyone was wearing masks, temp check, questionnaire about symptoms, sanitized anything you touched immediately after. I felt safe. Dentist actually wore a N95 mask with a surgical mask over it.

@kayb me too

I still have the bag of KAF bread flour and some yeast I bought in early March. I have not made yeast breads for over 30 years. Since I’m working full time from home and the bread supply has been fine here, I haven’t made any bread. I have a slow work period coming up next week, so may just try to relearn, mainly because all of your breads look really good.

I buy aprons as souvenirs when I travel. I have about 10 of them hanging on a wall rack inthe kitchen and use one when I saute, fry or use flour. Or old clothes work too.

Was making smashed cucumbers, the half full bottle of rice vinegar had a loose top and crashed on the floor. After sweeping and mopping , the floor has never been so clean. But the smell drove me outdoors with a glass of wine. Told Alexa to play to play Rolling Stones . First song up was You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

I’m only doing Amazon and Target gift cards now. I do have a Rubio's gift card but there’s not one near me. It was a gift from work and there is one close to the now shut down office.