What's for dinner?

Grilled cheese on french bread is CRAZY good- slice 1 inch thick crossways, if you angle cut it makes for a bigger sandwich esp. if your loaf is narrow- bread and butter pickles or dills on side- easy clean up

Agree. Lol What’s for dinner is a go-to conversation changer when having a phone convo that’s getting too sad-

Nacy,

Believe it or not, baked potatoes come out amazing in the instant pot! I always did them in the oven but I started making them in my instant pot.

I love looking up recipes online, so I’ll be able to find recipes for the air fryer.

Do you use the grill on yours? I am not sure if I need all of those features. I might just buy a smaller ninja air fryer. We only have two of us here. My daughters have been out of our house for years.

I don’t know what kind of air fryers my daughters bought. They use one too. I have to get on board. I’m out of the loop! My kids say they are great for reheating leftovers too.

Needs I'm going through what I cook in it thinking 🤔 maybe that's why my cholesterol is borderline. Lol

No you won't need the toaster oven any more, it does it all.

Any kind of frozen French fries.
Left over pizza is really good in it
On the grill I'll make toasted sandwich, pork chops came out really good.
I just throw like 6 slices of bacon in the basket, comes out great.

The only thing so far I didn't like was a baked potato. The skin was to tough, and that's my favorite part. But the inside was great.

Stoffers French bread pizza, garlic bread.

Thanks, Nacy. Will look into buying that model.

What do you cook with yours?

Maybe I will get rid of my toaster oven that I hardly ever use. If I don’t, I don’t know where I will put it on my counter.

Huge fan of James Taylor. I saw him several years ago. I started buying his albums back when I was in high school. Love Carole King too.

That era had fabulous music! Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and so many others!

Oh cwillie, James Taylor on sesame Street, Jelly Man Kelly. My kids sang that all the time

Cwillie,
The video I just watched had Carole in the background playing the piano.
James Taylor said she wrote the song, he played guitar.

There are many versions of the song.

Oh, I love James Taylor Send! I love the Carole King version too (Tapestry was such a great album). I think there's also a version where they sing together.

I gain weight just reading this “What’s for dinner?” section.

I think 30 minutes sounds good.I don't really exercise exercise, lol I just keep busy and walk . But haven't been doing a lot of that either. Boccie starts next week that is pretty good exercise.

Needs, ninja AG30, foodi 5-in-1. It's about 170 on Amazon. . It's a bit pricey compared to other but it's the best!

Nacy,

I do exercise. Maybe, not enough, 30 minutes a day.

Can you tell me the model # and size of your air fryer please?

That's good about your bp , my cholesterol is borderline also. Has stayed that way for years. Was a little lower last time.

I have cut portion size of all meat. I'm not huge meat eater anyways. It is very confusing what to eat what not too. I get confused too.

Did your doctor mention walking and exercises.

Cheese and butter are my down fall. Oh and ice cream!

For low cholesterol snacks I like, skinny popcorn, belvita, There good breakfast gram biscuits. And I like nature valley wafer bars. I love pop tarts , can't see them as being healthy but the box says 0 cholesterol.

Needs, the best air fryer is the ninja. It airfries and grills , I actually didn't like are old air fryer, got rid of it was done with them. Then someone bought this for us, it literally stayed in the box for a year and , one day I took it out out of boardom and , I use it constantly.

It's more expensive than others but it's great, couple people I know bought one after I did and they agree.

I went to my doctor yesterday morning. Thankfully, my BP was fine. I am on two meds for it. My weight is about the same but my cholesterol went up.

I get so confused about what is best to eat. I feel like I eat fairly well. High cholesterol can run in families. It has in mine. I cannot take a statin due to having adverse reactions to it.

My doctor was telling me that she loves her air fryer to cook with. I don’t fry foods, but I might go ahead and buy one to try it out.

I am going to start drinking skim milk instead of 2 percent. She asked me to try almond milk.

I don’t eat a lot of red meat. I eat more chicken than beef. I love vegetables and eat those. I guess I should cut back on eating eggs for breakfast too.

Have any of you struggled with high cholesterol? What foods are you avoiding. Please share low cholesterol recipes with me.

Clean-up is just torture, continues today....
Very heavy huge pressure cooker. It maybe was worth it, I'll let you know.

In the meantime,

If the sky above you
Grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together
And call my name out loud
Soon you'll hear me knockin' at your door
You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I'll come runnin', runnin', yeah, yeah
To see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there, yes, I will.

I love beef stew! Sounds delicious, Send.

Amazing how that beef stew has turned out!
Huge pieces of country style ribs, fresh potatoes, fresh carrots, fresh green onions, dried onions, and canned cheater sauces: 3 parts vegetable soup, 1 part tomato soup, Tbs. Kitchen Bouquet and seasonings, etc. Plus all the tiny veges in the vege soup. Enough soup to cover all ingredients.

Had to take the meat out and cook 20 min. in the pressure cooker, then back into the sauce. So tender! (Did not plan ahead when I started browning the meat.)

So, we ate.
It is the end of the month-comfort food.
Nothing on hand to go back in history and cook (what are they called?)
(You drop bisquick mix into the stew at the end.... ??)

Is it sweet or dill pickles? My favorite is spicy pickles. I can’t eat them often because of my high blood pressure. Too much sodium. Grrrr…

Reviewing recipes on-line and came across one that sounds very much like the soup we had do I thought I would share.

Eatingeuropean.com dill pickle soup, traditional polish recipe.

CWillie, we had the pickle soup in a polish restaurant. It wasn't creamy and the pickles were grated.

When I prepare it, if it's good :-) I will give the recipe. Otherwise the next time I fix it I will :-)

Nowadays on Magazine St. here, we have many middle eastern restaurants.

One of my favorite restaurants on Magazine Street is Tal’s. It’s an Israeli restaurant that is excellent!

They also own another restaurant next door that is very good too, Misa, a Mediterranean restaurant.

We have Indian food on Magazine Street too. It really is a blend of cultures.

Just looked at the Hattie’s menu. Looks fantastic!

Yes this is very authentic, she is actually rather famous for are area, but I'm thinking it's going to get to big and it won't be the same.

Nacy,

Yes, if the owner is a native of Louisiana the food will be good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t trust it as being authentic cuisine of Louisiana.

Too many people think that Louisiana cooks just dumps hot spices into a dish and then they consider it Louisiana cooking.

Louisiana cooks season their food but it is so much more than that. We draw from many different cultures in our cooking.

Of course, the French brought over the wine and cooking with a roux.

The Spanish influenced our jambalaya recipe. It’s similar to their paella.

The Germans brought over the beer. The slaves from Africa influenced our gumbo recipes.

The Italian families brought their Sicilian cuisine to Louisiana.

And so on…

There is a restaurant, a town near me, Saratoga, where the horse races are. Hattie's, it's so good. We go there once in a great while. Pretty sure she came from new Orleans. I think they are actually opening one in Albany. She passed, so I'm not sure if it's sold or if her children run it.

Nacy,

The easiest way to describe the difference between Cajun and creole food is that Cajun is ‘country style cooking’ and creole is ‘city style cuisine’ which is more refined cuisine.

It’s the way the food is prepared and cooked. For instance, a Cajun gumbo or jambalaya is prepared differently than a creole version. Sometimes, the ingredients are different too.

Both are delicious! I always get the Cajun gumbo at our jazz and Heritage Festival. The vendor is from Lafayette, Louisiana. I love the Cajun food in Lafayette.

Paul Prudhomme brought Cajun food to New Orleans. He worked as a chef at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. (Garden District)

Ella Brennan hired him. Then he opened up his own restaurant, K-Paul’s, in the quarter. He died several years ago. Very sweet guy who trained many of our fine chefs. Paul was from Opelousas, Louisiana.

Needs someone did explain the difference between creole and Cajun. But I don't really remember what they said.

I'm sure you have a lot of interesting people in rural Louisiana. I've read some books about the swamps and such and movies.

Nacy,

Deep fried alligator bites are a popular appetizer. The Cajuns make alligator sausage.

There are lots of hunters in the Cajun areas of Louisiana and they will eat all sorts of things!

Louisiana is referred to as a sportsman’s paradise. I love our local seafood. Many people love fishing in our area.

Oh the swamp tours where so much fun. I figured we would maybe see an alligator or two but wow, they were all over!!

My husband at some deep fried alligator bites. I just wasn't interested in trying alligator