What's for dinner?

JeanetteB, I'm laughing at your avatar. Is that an inside joke? I don't get it, but it is funny anyway.

I have on hand tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Now I just need to figure out what to serve with them tomorrow.

I am struggling with something called Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder and because my sleep time is all wacky I'm learning to shift activities to later in the day. So late in the day (after dinner) I cut up and cooked potatoes and cut up a mess of peaches. Tonight for dinner we had Chorizo skillet (essentially a spicy hash with cheese, eggs, and tomatoes) and peach cobbler with ice cream. Having some of the prep done makes the cooking go faster. I was pleased.

Now to figure out what's for dinner tomorrow to go with the caprese salad ...

Jeanette, be sure to wash your hands after handling the plungers and before the bar-be-que.

pamz, I love crab! Keep waiting for Safeway to get more whole Dungeness fresh crab back in. It is my weakness!!

Tonight I'm grilling a nice fat steak, steamed cauliflower with chives from my garden, bacon and sour cream....oh yes, I picked several tomatoes and am letting them marinade in olive oil and basil, the fresh mozzarella is my desert choice.

Winter's Tale

Making me hungry for potatoes!
Jeannegibbs-garlic mashed potatoes! Yum, pre-made is good idea.
Pamzmmrrt-we were at Costco last week, they were sampling potato salad made with red potatoes, it is supposed to be a favorite, but for large families.
Babalou-what is your favorite Shakespeare play?

Grilled some chicken, made some wild rice and mushrooms. Bought a bottle of prosecco. Got tickets to an outdoor production of my favorite Shakespeare play. Got a call fron NH on my way here, mom's xray shows she still has pneumonia and worsening pleural effusion. Dealing with that tomorrow. Tonight, the play's yhe thing!

we bought a chicken from costco, and Mom made german potatoe salad. Then G and I picked out the last dozen steamed MD crabs and I made a small pot of Md crab soup. Smells yummy here!!

Sendme2help, This week I bought the garlic mashed potatoes from the deli. Don't think I've ever done that, but time was running out. It was good. I deserved it. :)

Tonight, I am going to get in my Previously Owned Vehicle and drive down the street to get IN-N-Out cheeseburgers. Unless someone can help me find something to heal extreme g.e.r.d. symptoms through the use of food, not meds. I already increased the Prilosec dose, gave up chocolate this week, decreased my coffee to diluted and less, half-calf from traderjoes. I am awake all night so
don't nobody mess with me or my cute wolf-dog. Wait, what thread is this? Thought this was the whine thread. Oooops. Report me! I am off-topic.

Cwillie! Way of the dodo? Is that another bird joke? I have an iron still; if we have to steam something on the back burner for hours, we use a crockpot, and yes, pudding is a childhood comfort food that is good for adults too. So, what are you making for dinner tonight? If you don't behave yourself, I am going to put your name on 'THE CAREGIVER OF THE DAY IS' thread, and this time it won't just be an honorable mention! You are too too very funny.

I think puddings that are steamed for hours have gone the way of the dodo unless they are comfort food from your childhood. Back in the day when the stove heated the house popping a pudding on the back burner was practical and humidified the house too!
BTW, a long freckled roll called spotted dick, anyone else see the double entendre here LOL!

Spouted? Spotted^^

Ok for you heathens who are scared of suet(joke people joke) a spouted dick without suet

3oz self rising flour
2.25 oz cup fresh breadcrumbs
4 tablespoons caster sugar
1 pinch salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
2 1/2 oz sultanas
2 oz currants
4 1/4 oz butter
4 1/4 fl oz milk


Throw everything except the milk into a bowl and mix it together - see how easy this is.
Then just add the milk and get it all well mixed together till you get a soft dough.
Plop it all into a buttered bowl of about 35 fl oz capacity then cover with foil.
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil then place a saucer in upside down to keep the pudding bowl off the bottom - I use a pressure cooker trivet in the bottom of my pan all well and good but I hear you ask how much water

Enough water to come about half to three quarters of the way up the bowl when it is boiling - trouble is you won’t know until you put the damned thing in the water

Now the recipes all tell you to put the bowl in the pan and leave it to boil for 2 hours and obviously you have to keep an eye on it or you will burn the backside out of your pan so when the water starts to run low boil the kettle and add more water. WHAT THEY DONT TELL YOU is how to get the bloody thing out without burning your hands and turning the air blue as you drop the damn thing onto the floor and ruin your efforts.

SO
I use 2 strips of foil folded several times - it has to be long enough to go right under the bowl and leave enough for you to grab hold of . Then i place them cross wise under the bowl and twist them at the top to make a handle

True spotted dick is done in a fat roll in greaseproof paper sealed using a double fold butchers wrap then tied into an old shirt sleeve ) no it doesn’t have to be a spouted shirt sleeve nor owned previously by Dick!) then steamed for two hours. but this isn’t a bad alternative

Send what do you mean wait for it to chill? We eat it hot over here! Cold rice pudding just would not be rice pudding (well I lie it would and I don't mind it actually but we eat it as a hot dessert)

Cwillie I can't imagine life without suet - you haven't lived till you have eaten spotted dick!!!!! or steak and kidney pudding or dumplings and if you want quick pastry it is just THE fastest method of all - 1/2 the amount of suet to flour pinch of salt mix and add water and roll out - how fast is that and it produces a really crisp pastry.
And what about jam roly poly pudding or foggy dowdy pudding - oh you haven't lived peeps!!!!!! grins

Tonight, eating late at 8:55 p.m. we had Eggplant Parmesan with freshly cut parmesan, romano cheese, and vine-ripened tomatoes.

Jeannegibbs, do you buy the potatoes or cook them from scratch when you buy your chicken?

OK, this has really been driving me nuts. (Yes, short trip.) But I think I have it now.

A wise and kindly lady from the UK used to post under the name Jude-something, with an avatar of a nice-looking lady's face. Recently she changed her screen name to falcon, and her avatar to a bird picture (presumably a falcon). Her profile still says her name is Jude.

Judexxx and Falcon are one and the same poster!!

Have I got that right?

(I feel pretty dumb.)

cwillie, I really think that some things are best made in small batches and eaten freshly made. What I have best luck freezing are dinner components rather than whole meals. I make a double or triple batch of mushroom spaghetti sauce and freeze it in sturdy reclosable freezer bags for future use. (Sort of like canning, I guess.) And when I make taco-seasoned ground beef I always do 3 pounds (which is what my wok holds nicely), use some, and freeze the rest in two batches. Maybe there are a few things that you could successfully stock in your freezer. IF that would help you any for future meals. But maybe you get satisfaction out of making each meal from scratch. To each our own ways! :)

I made a quiche tonight -- spinach, bacon, tomatoes, colby and cheddar cheese. Had jicama sticks and stuff to dip them in on the side. Here is something I may have discovered in making quiche:

Chia seeds seem to help the custard set up nicely, especially when there are very moist ingredients, like spinach. The seeds don't really do anything for flavor, one way or the other.

I say I 'may" have discovered this, because I've never actually tested it on two identical quiches, one with and one without chia seeds, baked together. But the ones I've used them in do seem to set up better than they did before I starting using them. If you try it, let us know what you think.

I seem to have been cursed with bad luck when it comes to making big batches of food to freeze for later. Inevitably I will end up with a cooking disaster of some kind and be faced with the prospect of saving my less than perfect attempt or wasting perfectly good (even if less than tasty) food. I used to do all the cooking, but it seems you lose the knack if you don't do it regularly.

We always made the christmas pudding with suet, but I refuse to pay the ridiculous price they ask for it. I've found that canola oil works just as well and is probably better for my arteries.
I think when people in north america talk shepherd's pie they are really talking about what you brits call cottage pie. I don't think I've ever been served a shepherd's pie that had any acquaintance with the sheepfold, generally it is made of ground beef, sometimes veggies, and topped with whipped potatoes. Personally I found it a great dish in which to hide veggies when the kids were small.

Falcon, I know how your friend felt when she found out she'd been eating suet! Here that is something we buy wrapping in open netting and hang up for the birds to pick on in the winter! :) I once was looking at cookbooks in a bookstore and put the English book back when I saw how many recipes called for suet!

We eat other forms of fat, and we use the fat the melts out of roasts to make gravy, so it is simply a cultural prejudice. Silly, really, but there you have it. We didn't grow up eating it.

Lard, which is fat from pigs, was widely used in my mother's generation and then we somehow got the idea that lard was unhealthy and we switched to vegetable shortening, such as Crisco. Turns out that was even worse, health-wise, because of transfats. Who knew? So, did we go back to using lard? Nope. Crisco figured out how to significantly reduce the transfats. Go figure.

Anyway, I suppose every culture has its food prejudices. Please don't be offended if someone wrinkles her nose at an ingredient list. It is nothing personal!

Found a delicious recipe on 'once upon a chef' for easy garlic butter shrimp. Mom loves shrimp so it works out well. It is easy E.A.S.Y. the recipe is for 2 lbs, but I cut it in half. Also used a heavy grade 1/4 bake pan. I just defrost raw shrimp (21-24), take the tail off. Toss shrimp with 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves garlic run through press, some salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes (or longer) until shrimp is pink and cooked through. Take off heat and mix in 2 tbs softened butter. Turn into serving dish.

Lunch was great, jude! Keeping in mind that you are not responsible for the outcome of your excellent recipes, I hesitate to confess that I forgot the nutmeg, and I did not have freshly ground.
What it was, because we could not wait for pudding to chill, it was more like a hot porridge or oatmeal. Will be attempting your real recipe instructions later this month! However, rice pudding for lunch was good. Thank you, and don't worry.

Welcome Falcon. Just try explaining to jeannegibbs. Myself, I was just giving you a hard time. Falcon does suit you. Is that a Peregrine Falcon? I ask because my brother had some sculptures of falcons on display at a museum's orinthology department.

OH dear lord I think I had best go back to stop the confusion but falcon suits me especially after the day Ive had

Be careful, cwillie had to eat crow, now that you are a bird, your goose is cooked, and could be added to a salad. Is there a recipe for that?

Disclaimer: Just a poor attempt at bad humor, sorry folks. Don't be confused.

Thanks, Cwillie, we have almond milk on hand, as well as rice milk. We are going to have rice pudding for lunch if there are no emergencies. Now where did I put those raisins? We both are definitely challenged in this household. Check back later.

Thank you for your recipes!! I love food, eat butter, cook with oils, when it's something good like a dessert, rice pudding, I will look up the ingredients and determine the ingredient is raisins, which I did look up. Lard is probably our crsco in a can. My husband is picky, has been unreasonable about it lately. This from the man when we met said he was a vegetarian, but said he eats Lamb and in-n-out burgers. That is his choice, however I cannot accommodate his extreme changes of mind as of late. We eat over on this side of the pond, but I will have to look up cottage pie. Thank you, falcor (luck dragon in never ending story movie)!!!
You are awesome to do the recipes AND give to others on the thread: STRUGGLING FOR CV IDEAS, where caregivers can get a real education about returning to work.
Then, going back to THE CAREGIVER OF THE DAY IS...thread, as soon as I figure out which name to use, I may just put your sweet name on there! Your efforts are always appreciated, it is obvious that others think you are special too.
Thank you, again and again.

Question - before I do recipes for someone who asked for them do you eat both cottage pie AND shepherds pie over the pond - just a thought. And you don't use suet do you? I remember giving a recipe to someone from Michigan who had just loved a steak and kidney pudding I had made and when I told her it had suet in it I thought she was going to throw up. What about sweet mincemeat (no meat in it I promise) do you eat that at all?