Arey

Another Saturday night dinner in front of the TV. Growing up in the 50's we never ate in front of the TV. We weren't even allowed to have the TV on while eating. So when out on my own, I made a point of having my Saturday night dinner in front of the TV. A sandwich, cole slaw and potato chips. Then, in 1988 my aged mother moved in with me, and because of her poor health we ate in front of the TV every night, except Sundays, when I insisted that if I was expected to cook a proper Sunday dinner, then we were going to eat it at a proper place - the dining room table. Since she passed away 6 years ago, I've gone back to Saturday night dinner in front of the TV. Tonight it was salmon on the last of a loaf of hearty white sandwich bread I baked last month I had escarole, cucumber, tomatos and onion on the sandwich And, of course, a side of slaw While watching this on the TV.

I decided to have my celebratory dinner tonight, because tomorrow I may not be feeling particularly celebratory. So I went to my butchers and asked for a piece of filet but they didn't have any filet. Now, I'm used to not being able to get what I want at the butchers during the summer season when we're inundated with shoobies but not in November. So I got a chicken breast and sauteed it, and had broccoli with almonds and the absolutely very last tomato in my garden. It's the top one, the bottom one was eaten over the weekend. The salad included the tomato, green leaf lettuce, shallots, garlic parmesan croutons that I made last week, parsley from the garden, parmeson shavings Nicoise olives and the basic J.C. vainigrette, only with out the Dijon mustard and 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. My butcher will have filet tomorrow, it'd be nice to have another celebratory dinner.

Saurday nights I allow myself the treat of eating in front of the TV. usually a sandwich, chips, and cole slaw. My next to last tomato of the season. My tomatoes stopped blossoming the middle of June, and then started up blossoming and setting fruit the middle of September. Last week I pulled up all but one plant and drastically pruned the remaining one, leaving just the two ripest biggest tomatoes, and they've actually continued to ripen despite a succession of damp, cool sunless days. It really had a nice flavor. Just the thing for my leftover pot roast sandwich. When I cook a pot roast, I slice it and freeze it for future salads and sandwiches. If you're cooking for one, and want pot roast for Sunday dinner, you have to have plans for disposing of the remaining roast once dinner is done. It'd be a lot easier if I had a dog. This is what I was watching while eating My fast food is a lot faster than his fast food, but his non-fast food is a heck of a lot faster than my non-fast food. I tend to get annoyed with myself when the actual eating of dinner is just a brief interlude between preparation and cleaning up.

Crispix day in day out, year in year out, decade in decade out, unless I think I need more fiber, then it's bran flakes. Years ago while being interviewed on TV J.C. was asked if she ate cold cereal in the morning, and she said that occasionally she did and she liked Crispix. Well, that was good enough for me.

I haven't had a problem with lambs quarters (chenopodium album) since I found out how tasty the tender young leaves are in a salad in the Spring time. Unfortunately the aphids usualy get to them before I do. I've had an over-abundance of purslane this year, but aside for nibbling on a leaf as I wander around the back forty (10 feet by 4 feet in my case) I don't use it for anything. My lawn guys know that in the backyard, they're not to use any sort of chemicals. No herbicides, weedkillers, or anything. As I said to them this Spring when they wanted to spray or something for sod webworms "The webworms and I get along fine. They don't eat my herbs, I don't eat their sod and neither of us want our greens sprayed with anything except water".

In my other hall closet, the one under the stairs to the attic where the stairs to the basement would be if I didn't live on a barrier island , are a couple of cartons of wine. It is dar in there, and ,for So Jersey, cool in the summer.. There's also an unopened bottle of Lairds Apple Jack in there along with some cans of ginger ale, a few bottles of Chimay red and blue label beers. In my refridgerator there are a couple of bottles of Sam Adams ale and a bottle of Noilly Pratt for cooking. in a small cupboard in my kitchen, there's a bottle of Taylors dry sherry for Chinese cooking, and a very old bottle of Lairds Applejack with an inch or so of Applejack in it. When I have a cold I firmly believe in Lairds Applejack and ginger ale as a curative. Or at a least a takeyourmindoffofyourmiseriestive. Actually, since I retired, I don't seem to get colds anymore so I may never use up the bottle in the cupboard and have to open the bottlle in the closet. Or then again it may be that now that I'm retired I don't notice colds since I no longer spend my first waking moments desparately looking for any excuse to call in sick to the office.

Likewise.

I don't hate anything, because it is wrong to hate. However, I heartily abhor, detest, despise, dislike, and loathe that abomination of abominations, the Lima Bean. But, I'm not embarassed about it, and have, more than once, declared that succotash sucks,

And I remembered replying to it, but it took me forever to find the thread. There would be an emoticon (bottom of the middle column), right here,but I haven't yet figured out how to put an emoticon where I want it.

For starters I had shrimp and avocado. Normally, we (Bryn the cat and I) don't have starters, but I had half an avocado left over from last nights chicken, tomato, and avocado sandwich. For the main course I had sauteed potatos from Mastering the Art Vol. I, salmon cooked with vegetables and wine (bought a bottle of dry vermouth especially for this, and I don't drink vermouth) from How to Cook, and a cucumber and grape tomato (the tomatoes were from my garden) salad. A bottle of Sancerre to accompany. Dessert doesn't occurr in the house anymore, and I ate a small wheel of Brie last week, since this week is the cutoff point before my next cholesterol test, so I couldn't go out to the local cheese store. What really hurt was that I had already bought the ingredients for my last really good meal, before having the cholesterol test ,the afternoon of the 13th. before I learned the sad news. Otherwise I would have gone out and bought a pound of butter and a 3 - 3 1/2 pound chicken, and some roquefort and some potatoes and some cream and another pound of butter, and some eggs and asparagus and lemons and some more butter, and maybe some Brie and Port d'Salut, and a baguette and some more butter. Of course, if I hadn't lived in this town so long that I no longer know anybody, I could have called someone up and we could have whittled away each others resolve to eat in a moderate and healthy manner, and had Julia's roast duck accompanied by sausage stuffed mushrooms, braised turnips,and green peas. Actuallu, the salmon was pretty good despite being sensible.

I still fondly remember weatching the original French Chef series back in the sixties. My cooking would be a lot worse than it is, if it hadn't been for Julia Childs. Not that it ever approached her standards, but it took a turn for the better thanks to her. An appropriate tribute would be if they re-issued the entire French Chef series on DVD.

I've deleted recipes with abandon, and deleted cookbooks with enthusiasm. I also set up my own cook book for the recipes I entered. The ingredients list is filled with nonsense, and some of the ingredient analyses' downright bizarre. I have pruned the lists and entered my own ingredients, but it's sort of like getting a dozen chicken livers by killing and cleaning a dozen chickens and discarding everything but the livers. Thanks everyone for the suggestion about entering the °. I had been trying to doing it using a hot key I had set up on the keyboard and it wouldn't work. edited to add the thank you for the ° suggestion.

I use MasterCook 6, but I can't say that I like it. It came with all sorts of what I regarded as extraneous crap. Of course, all I wanted was some software to use to make a recipe database, but it came with thousands of recipes and CookBooks, and other stuff I didn't want. Most of the recipes were from handouts from Lawrys, Fleishmans, Florida Orange Growers Assoc, and the Ontario Northern Bean Growers Assoc. I've customized the hell out of my copy. My strongest objection, other than its slowness to load, slowness to open, and hogging of my computers resourses, it that you can't put the degree symbol, in recipes. You know, that little tiny o you put after 350 or 400 etc. That sort of thing really bugs me, but I'm easily bugged by small inconsequential trivialties. I prefer it that way, since when I get to thinking about large consequential matters, I get depressed.

at the supermarket I go to, I have to have a loyalty card so I can pay by check. And, I did get a "customer reward" of three $5.00 off coupons, although I was only able to use two of them within the time limit since I don't buy meat or fish in supermarkets, or much produce. However, since my current cat Bryn, and his predecessor and great-great-uncle Chips' favorite treat was Gerber's 2nd Foods beef and lamb flavors, I have the largest accumulation of Baby Club Bonus Dollars in South Jersey. What I would like to know is, since they are tracking my purchases, and since they know what I regularly buy, why, at the check out counter counter do I regularly get long strips of those coupons for things I don't buy. Do the Fresh Step people know that Acme is repeatedly trying to get me to buy Johnny Cat? Do the Bounty people know that Acme is trying to get me to switch to Brawny. Do the Puffs people know that ACME would prefer that I buy Kleenex. And, do all the above think I don't know that they're all owned by one giant conglomerate headquartered in Switzerland? I'll get off my soapbox now, my Arm & Hammer soapbox in case any customer loyalty checkers are reading this.

Kame Rice Crackers. Cheese flavored are good, Onions not bad, Seaweed flavor tends to be very stale, and Plain are good. I thrive on salty crunchy junk food.

I'd use the Roma tomatoes for Pasta Caprese. Assuming you like mozzarella chese, raw garlic, basil, olive oil and vinegar.

Two years ago I had a new kitchen floor put down. Last year I had to replace my dishwasher. Turns out that dishwashers are standardized when it comes to width, but not when it comes to depth. I could, of course, get new counters, cabinets, and kitchen flooring so the dishwasher fits in nicely, but then the refridgerator, sink and stove wouldn't look right.

I only use a vinaigrette dressing I make in Temaire mustard bottles. It takes no time to whip up. I also have Hellman's Lite mayo. The Frugal Gourmet in one of his books had a recipe for a salad dressing using milk, mayo, cottage cheese, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and dill which I make occasionally even though it means using up shelf space on the refridgerator door for a container of cottage cheese which will eventually be thrown out, even though only half a cup was used. I rarely even use the whole bottle of dresssing after I make it. Eventually it gets to looking offish at which point I throw it out. Arey the Anosmic

Any drugstore should carry mineral oil. It is commonly used as a laxative and lubricant. I suppose you could unwarp the board the same way antique restorers unwarp table tops and such that are warped. Seems like a lot of trouble though, and you'd have to go out and buy a board to use while waiting for the warped one to be restored to a usable state.

Well, actually, as some one who grew up in a household where olive oil was not used, peanut oil and bacon fat were no problem, but oilve oil ......

One of my Chinese cookbooks contained the following adage "A good housewife can't make rice without rice" I use to quote this during office staff meetings where the topic was "Working smart" or "Doing more with less".

This afternoon while at my local produce store, I asked the proprietor about pilferage, he said that from what he's heard, you can expect to lose 5% of your stock to pilferage. I mentioned to him that one day in his store I had observed a man following his wife around, and while she shopped, he was working his way through a handful of pistaccios (the store has bins of loose almonds, pistaccios, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, etc". His reply was "They seem to think they're free, but I don"t know why. That's why I won't put loose cherries out here." Lastly I mentioned removing the stems from shitakes and throwing them back into the bin. His response was "I had to pay for the stems, why shouldn't they". Mind you I had a very rigid upbringing. Back in the early fifties, I swiped a 10 cent screwdriver to fix my biKe, and I still feel guilty about it.

Well, I"m using Paint Shop Pro 5,897,642:001 which only has the triform-splineficator so I always put the semi-stable empinoscopalofers on a digiform layer which I then mask with the splatchcocking tool.

Today while at my local Acme I saw a large display of grocery bags showing what you could buy for $5.80. The object being to get you to include a donation to the local food bank when checking out. The note attached to the grocery bags started out with "No one in America should have to go hungry". The $5.80 bag of groceries wouldn't even have gotten you through a half of a week. I had $10.00 added onto my grocery bill as a donation. Years ago I was taking an overpayment waiver request from an elderly woman the agency I worked for had overpaid. I questioned the low figure she had shown for monthly food expenses for a large multi-generational household, and got a lecture on feeding a lot of people on very little money. It started with checking all the grocery store ads, and finding what was on sale, her example was if a grocery in town is having a sale on chicken wings, having found the best buy, WALK to the grocery store having the sale. because as she pointed out, if you take the jitney to the store, you're not saving anything, then WALK back home and cook the wings. In conclusion, she said , "there's always something in the pot for anyone in the house who's hungry". Arey P.S. In case anyone is wondering , I did waive the overpayment