What's For Dinner?

[trailmix 77]

Happy Anniversary Cassie! We'd love to know how you spent it! E...I'm so glad that your friend could eat it! What changes did you make? For anyone that can't have bread or is eating low carb, it's the ideal alternative. trailmix...you got a breadmaker! I have one too. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off too soon for you! Did you get a good recipe book with it?

I made turkey chili last night for supper that was delicious. We'll be having it for leftovers.

Cassie that sounds like a lot of fun, glad you enjoyed yourselves

Hey Carla, has the novelty of making your own bread worn off for you? I actually thought of that, but making bread in a breadmaker is so darn easy - and since the alternative is either hunting down those few loaves we do like or having some awful packaged bread, I can see making my own bread for as long as we live in the U.S. !

I am making homemade beans today, have soaked them overnight and bought all the ingredients yesterday. There is a 'family recipe' that we all use, except no one has ever written it down and basically it's just - here are the ingredients now taste it and keep doing that balancing act until you get it right

[Sprailenes 47]

I made chicken satay with rice. It turned out really good.

[xtinab 0]

I made Asian Orange Chicken and BB made a Salad....err were makin it right now actually heehee!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Well, we went for a walk at Panola Mountain State Park this morning and stopped in at a new restaurant/sports bar afterwards for lunch. We weren't expecting too much but they had the absolute best hamburgers we have had in a long time. They were home made, tasty and juicy. I had mine smothered in panfried mushrooms (not tinned) and a huge side salad with lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, cheese and a sliced egg. Joe had a regular hamburger and fries and we both enjoyed the food and the ambiance, even though it was a sports bar with wide screen tvs around the place showing football. So, because the portions were generous, dinner is going to be grilled cheese sandwiches and chili soup. In about another hour. We're still too full from lunch!

Edited November 9, 2008 by Kathryn41

[BH45 0]

Letting the casserole finish up while waiting for hubby to get home from work.

Simple dish of chicken, cube and fried, chicken stove top stuffing, can of mushroom soup and shredded cheese. Put cubed, fried chicken in bottom of casserole dish, cover with mushroom soup, layer of shredded cheese, cover this with stove top stuffing and add another layer of cheese. Put in oven for 20 - 30 minutes and voila!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Letting the casserole finish up while waiting for hubby to get home from work.

Simple dish of chicken, cube and fried, chicken stove top stuffing, can of mushroom soup and shredded cheese. Put cubed, fried chicken in bottom of casserole dish, cover with mushroom soup, layer of shredded cheese, cover this with stove top stuffing and add another layer of cheese. Put in oven for 20 - 30 minutes and voila!

Hmm, that sounds quick and easy. I still have some left over roast chicken and lots of mushroom soup in the pantry so I just might give this a try for dinner tomorrow night. Thanks for the idea!

[Autumnchik 6]

That casserole sounds yummy, I will have to try it sometime.

Last night's dinner was fabulous. We ate at the Thai restaurant again. I am soo glad hubby traded his carpentry skills ofr free food, otherwise, with hubster being laid off, we wouldn't be eating out. I had red curry with scallops and hubby had duck basil. Both dishes were great. And we both had fried ice cream for dessert.

Tonight, we are just finishing up leftovers.

[Marilyn. 340]

I thought some of you might be interested in this recipe I just found... a simple way to make bread...

European peasant bread

makes 4 loaves (so this recipe can be easily halved). from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp salt

1/2 cup rye flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

5 1/2 cups flour

1. mix the salt and yeast with the water in a large bowl. mix in the remaining dry ingredients without kneading. the dough will be very wet. cover with a towel and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours.

2. at this point you can use the dough or refrigerate (it will keep for about 2 weeks). if you are going to make the bread right away, it’s still a good idea to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two so it is easier to handle.

3. cut off a section of the dough (1/4 if you make enough for 4 loaves), and dust it with flour. quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered baking sheet. while the dough is rising, heat the oven to 450 F and place an empty broiler tray (i used a small casserole dish) on the lowest rack in the oven. if you are baking on a baking stone, place it in the oven to heat up with the oven.

4. when the oven is ready and the dough has risen, sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and make a few 1/4 inch deep slashes on the top using a serated bread knife (a cross or tic-tac-toe pattern both work). leave the flour on top of the loaf during baking.

5. place the baking sheet into the oven (or slide the dough onto your baking stone). pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, quickly close the oven and bake for about 35 minutes. the top should get a good hard crust and will be deeply browned. allow to cool on a cooling rack and brush off excess flour from the top of the loaf before slicing.

they have pictures and stuff on this link... http://www.peterandrewryan.com/baking/2008...-peasant-bread/

Edited November 10, 2008 by *Marilyn*

[Emancipation 2]

Happy Anniversary Cassie! We'd love to know how you spent it! E...I'm so glad that your friend could eat it! What changes did you make? For anyone that can't have bread or is eating low carb, it's the ideal alternative. trailmix...you got a breadmaker! I have one too. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off too soon for you! Did you get a good recipe book with it?

I made turkey chili last night for supper that was delicious. We'll be having it for leftovers.

Carla Didn't really add.. just deviated from the recipe. I kept thinking.. that doesn't look right.. and adding more of everything. I'm not sure I got the proportions right..

[Marilyn. 340]

i had a scrambled egg sandwich with tomato and lettuce.. it was quite yummy... hubby will have a TV dinner or a frozen pizza.. yeah I know bad wifey .. I did buy the good TV dinners though, the Marie Calendar ones..

kind of hard to reheat a scrambled egg sandwich

prolly make chicken something or other tomorrow to make up for today...

[Carlawarla 1]

tried the pizza Carla.. in typical fashion I did a little "experimenting" with the crust and it was a little gooey, but it was SOOOO yummy.

the best thing about it was that I got to have a friend over for supper with loads of food allergies, but could eat the pizza.. SO it was great to finally be able to share a meal with her! Yeah!

Glad you liked it!

Not sure what we are gonna have for supper tonight, my husband has announced that he is surprising me with a little road trip to celebrate our anniversary! yay! So I will report back tomorrow with our culinary adventures

Happy Anniversary!!

Yes, happy anniversary Cassie! I wonder where you guys will end up, sounds like a fun night

thanks everyone -- 4 years has flown by fast

Ok, so we ended up driving up north to Lawrence, Kansas (home of the University of Kansas, and The Yarn Barn, an amazing knitting/spinning/weaving store). I have always wanted to go to the Yarn Barn, so he booked a suite with a jacuzzi tub and off we went.

Friday lunch was Mexican in Bartlesville. The DH used to work there and raved about this particular Mexican restaurant. He had chicken quesadillas, I had some kind of combo plate. He was so happy (it was pretty good, he let me have a forkful), but I was underwhelmed, my combo plate wasn't anything to write home about.

Friday night was italian, at a place in Lawrence. I would call it a fancier version of Olive Garden. Salad was great, bruschetta was excellent, breadsticks were fabulous. DH had sirloin and fettucine alfredo, both of which were excellent. I had angel hair pasta with basil pesto, and garlic rosemary chicken, which again was disappointing. The chicken was dry, and the pasta was more oily than pesto-ey, if that makes sense.

Today's lunch was chips (yeah yeah, not so nutritious ), supper was barbeque in Bartlesville -- again, not bad. Their special sauce was delish, I must say.

Food speaking, the weekend was meh. Now, the rest of it was pretty good, I must say -- had lots of fun at the Yarn Barn (oh, how I need to win Publisher's Clearing House!), and at the used bookstore, and our suite was pretty nice too, so we had a good time

Glad you had a fun time Cassie! Sounds like the Yarn Barn was better than the food!

Happy Anniversary Cassie! We'd love to know how you spent it! E...I'm so glad that your friend could eat it! What changes did you make? For anyone that can't have bread or is eating low carb, it's the ideal alternative. trailmix...you got a breadmaker! I have one too. I hope the novelty doesn't wear off too soon for you! Did you get a good recipe book with it?

I made turkey chili last night for supper that was delicious. We'll be having it for leftovers.

Cassie that sounds like a lot of fun, glad you enjoyed yourselves

Hey Carla, has the novelty of making your own bread worn off for you? I actually thought of that, but making bread in a breadmaker is so darn easy - and since the alternative is either hunting down those few loaves we do like or having some awful packaged bread, I can see making my own bread for as long as we live in the U.S. !

I am making homemade beans today, have soaked them overnight and bought all the ingredients yesterday. There is a 'family recipe' that we all use, except no one has ever written it down and basically it's just - here are the ingredients now taste it and keep doing that balancing act until you get it right

Well, firstly my kitchen is very small and I have so little room on the counters. I think a big part of it, was having to go downstairs and get it every time I wanted to make bread. I also didn't like baking it in the breadmaker because of that little blade being imbedded in the bread. The last few slices always had a huge hole in it. I did start to just put things in the breadmaker and then take it out and let it rise on its own and then bake it, but I figured if I did that, why wouldn't I just make it on its own without the breadmaker? I did get a KitchenAid Pro mixer last year with a dough hook, so I've used that a few times, and so far, I'm preferring that.

Well, we went for a walk at Panola Mountain State Park this morning and stopped in at a new restaurant/sports bar afterwards for lunch. We weren't expecting too much but they had the absolute best hamburgers we have had in a long time. They were home made, tasty and juicy. I had mine smothered in panfried mushrooms (not tinned) and a huge side salad with lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, cheese and a sliced egg. Joe had a regular hamburger and fries and we both enjoyed the food and the ambiance, even though it was a sports bar with wide screen tvs around the place showing football. So, because the portions were generous, dinner is going to be grilled cheese sandwiches and chili soup. In about another hour. We're still too full from lunch!

NOTHING like a good burger. Usually they're in a little diner or something. We've found some in bars.

We had a roasted pork loin last night with yellow rice and asperagus which for whatever reason was on sale. It was so yummy. The pork I marinated it in a honey mustard sauce. It was very good.

Tonight we're going to finish up that turkey chili.

[Emancipation 2]

i had a scrambled egg sandwich with tomato and lettuce.. it was quite yummy... hubby will have a TV dinner or a frozen pizza.. yeah I know bad wifey .. I did buy the good TV dinners though, the Marie Calendar ones..

kind of hard to reheat a scrambled egg sandwich

prolly make chicken something or other tomorrow to make up for today...

Hubby loves frozen dinners.. he takes one to work every day.. he stays under a certain calorie # (200-300 range I think) and honestly he loves it. I'm the one who brings leftovers... I think it's the last bit of bachelorhood that he's enjoying still having.. Except he eats pickles right out of the jar

[trailmix 77]

Yes Carla, the bread maker is not a small machine! I made another loaf of bread last night, to go with the homemade beans.

We have been out shopping Saturday and stopped by this road side vendor and I bought some tomatoes, I made the beans with those rather than canned as I was being ms little house on the prairie.

Anyway, the beans were pretty good, I didn't have any vinegar and I would have like to have added a tbsp or so - but all in all they were nice, have frozen some as well.

The only thing is, in using the fresh tomatoes, I found it to be a bit thick, so when I thaw some I will be adding more liquid.

[^KK^ 3]

I'll be having curry chicken and rice and peas

[Marilyn. 340]

i had a scrambled egg sandwich with tomato and lettuce.. it was quite yummy... hubby will have a TV dinner or a frozen pizza.. yeah I know bad wifey .. I did buy the good TV dinners though, the Marie Calendar ones..

kind of hard to reheat a scrambled egg sandwich

prolly make chicken something or other tomorrow to make up for today...

Hubby loves frozen dinners.. he takes one to work every day.. he stays under a certain calorie # (200-300 range I think) and honestly he loves it. I'm the one who brings leftovers... I think it's the last bit of bachelorhood that he's enjoying still having.. Except he eats pickles right out of the jar

well, he ended up having a frozen pizza last night... I used to give him leftovers .. I just haven't gotten back into the groove yet of him working at this job again.. also he says he doesn't really want leftovers.. he doesn't want to have the same thing two times in a row