What's for dinner?

[MountainDon]

Hey this was Dons big night out. Wonder what he had for dinner? 

It was a smörgåsbord. [another Swede-ish thing  ]

swedish meatballs w/gravy
spicy meatballs
smoked pork
teriyaki chicken pieces on skewers
mousaka (greek baked eggplant dish)
devilled eggs, 2 types
stuffed mushrooms, spinach +?
cheesy potato wedges
baby carrots, brocoli, cauliflower with assorted dips
green chili quiche
4 or 5 bean salad
assorted greens, tomatoes... salad
asparagus wrapped in finely sliced ham

desserts:
about 5 varieties of brownies (tried 'em all)
pecan pie
strawberry cheesecake
almond balls, rolled in confectioners sugar
fruitcake
poppy seed loaf
banana bread w/rum flavor
shortbread

I know I left out some desserts and a couple main course things I can't recall and didn't try.

[glenn kangiser]

Sounds like it was good.  Maybe even good enough to go out an rub elbows with civilization for. hmm

[MountainDon]

No ice cream though, so maybe not worth your while. 

Though one of the brownies were to kill for.  and made for a mandatory second trip

[glenn kangiser]

Sassy just made brownies and had me buy ice cream today.  Looks like you just sent me for a snack.

[MountainDon]

Yeah, blame it on me!   

Good brownies and ice cream are hard to beat. Must admit that.

[glenn kangiser]

OK - I'm loaded -- 2 brownies and vanilla ice cream topped with orange sherbet.

Sassy doesn't know what's good.  Doesn't like the orange with the brownies. hmm

[MountainDon]

I can see that being a good pairing.

Need some orange sherbet.

...and some brownies here...

...and some more roooooom! 

[StinkerBell]

Anyone recommend a good Veggie cook book? I mean one with the good basics and some veggies never realy heard of or so hard to get or unable to determine if they are good when I buy them cause they are an oddity? I have never had to my knowledge a rutabaga, but its common enough. May give it a try. I wonder if a Veggie 101 for Dummies cook book exist....

[MountainDon]

I've found lots of assorted recipes on   cooks.com

[Redoverfarm]

Stink I don't know about veggies but I am E-mailing you one on cookies. Can't figure how to seperate the site from the E-mail so I will just send the whole kit and kaboodle.

[StinkerBell]

Thanks Gang!

[StinkerBell]

   That's my email.

[MountainDon]

Tonight: Spinach n cheese Ravioli. Alfredo sauce with crab meat. Green salad with sugar snap peas and tomato.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Leftover beef and veggie stew and cheesy garlic bread.

[Sassy]

We had friends over for a barbecue - tri-tip.  I made a veggie-bacon quiche, brown rice with onions, peppers & beef broth; baked sweet potatoes, roasted squash with butter & honey, yeast rolls, salad, lemon bars & brownies.  Plus other snacks...  it was cold out (48-50) but sunny - so most of the time I didn't even need a sweater or jacket - later we had a big fire in the brass fire pit. 

[glenn kangiser]

Yup -- grub was fine and I'm full as a tick.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

That sounds delicious.  During cold weather, all I can think about is what to put in the oven.  Granted the heater works fine, but if I really want to get the house warm, I have to bake something.  I am thinking about baking some squash (or pumpkin) tonight.  I found a recipe last fall for pumpkin baked (think it would be good on the grill, too) with maple syrup and chipotle pepper sauce...just the right amount of sweet with a  really good bite to it.  We have several small squash and a few little kakai pumpkins left from the garden..got a few little squash that look like little pumpkins (not sure what they are called, but they're the color of colby-jack cheese and look like a little squatty pumpkin) from the local orchard when we went to buy apples this fall. There are a few pieces of chicken left in the freezer, and a little broccoli... so maybe a combo of the three things for dinner tonight?  I used to be really good about planning meals a month in advance and only buying groceries once a month, but I've been a slacker lately.   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Well, dinner plans changed a little... I made a chicken and rice with tomato and broccoli sort of casserole.  It was was pretty good.gggggg

[glenn kangiser]

A month in advance -- I'm lucky if I can do it a few minutes in advance.

Left over oak smoke  barbecue tri-tip on dinner rolls with a bowl of Orange sherbet and peanut butter and chocolate ice cream -- made my own meal tonight.

[MountainDon]

Penne pasta (little tubular pasta noodles), Bertolli spaghetti sauce with some extra garlic and an ounce of red wine added. Grilled chicken breast. Green salad with oil & balsamic vinegar dressing). Pretty simple; pretty good.

[benevolance]

Back to the old staple...

Roast beef with organic Carrots onion and Potatoes... And fresh whole wheat bread (made with molasses)

We usually have it once a week... I never get tired of it..

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

A month in advance -- I'm lucky if I can do it a few minutes in advance.

Left over oak smoke  barbecue tri-tip on dinner rolls with a bowl of Orange sherbet and peanut butter and chocolate ice cream -- made my own meal tonight.

Glenn, that's because it would get really old writing out "ice cream" for a month's worth of dinners at a time...
The past few months have been so up in the air because we thought we were moving that i was just busy trying to use up every thing we had on hand... up until November I have done that for a long time, mainly because I that way I don't buy anything on impulse in the way of food because I've planned out exactly what we need for the month.  When we lived in Oklahoma, it was mainly to conserve our meager resources... I'd plan from what we'd have in the garden and what we could raise on our own... in summer, we ate a lot of egg-based meals because the chickens produced so many eggs that we could always count on good ol' omelettes for dinner (WIC cheese came in handy for that, too, at the time.)  In the winter, we ate a lot of tomato-based stews and more things like lasagna... just the other night we were talking about the fact that I can't remember the last time I baked lasagna.  Guess i got burned out on the goat-lasagna that last year we were in OK.  I froze a lot of them before the baby was born so that I'd have dinner ready to pop in the oven on busy nights, and it seemed like it took forever to use them up.  Since we now don't have any plans to move in the immediate future, I guess I should go back to planning for at least two weeks at a time.  The nice thing about it is that you can eat different stuff every night for an entire month with no repeat foods, and I like the variety.  I always try to portion it so that DH can get one or two lunches out of the leftovers.  UG... freezing rain outside today and I'm really wishing I had some chili meat.  Guess I could make veggie chili, but what fun is that?

[glenn kangiser]

Darn it, Homegrown.  Now you made me want peanut butter and chocolate ice cream for breakfast.  hmm

We eat lots of Costco lasagna's as they are pretty good and easy to keep. 

Sassy can prepare them on short notice if we get company. 

We had quite a few chickens until the coyotes and bears got them -- just 2 old worthless ones now -- they don't lay often, but before that we had so many eggs we got tired of them.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I've never tried a store-bought lasagna, though I've thought about buying one a few times just to keep in the freezer for days I don't want to cook... I did buy one to take to a friend with a new baby one time.  They were cheap and easy to make with all the ground goat meat we had at the time, plus all the tomatoes in the garden, and with WIC cheese on hand... all I had to buy was the noodles.  I used to make chicken enchilada casseroles a lot too, but haven't done them in a while...same reason.  They expanded to be goat and bean enchiladas back then, too.    I'd usually make 2-4 lasagnas or casseroles at a time, and then freeze the extras for later use.  It didn't seem to take much more time to make more than one, and I kind of went into overkill when it got close to my due date with DD #2 because when the first one was born, because it was Christmas time, no one knew because it was really hard to contact anyone at home, and by the time the church found out she was born, she was already a week old.  I just remember starving during those first few days at home, and not having time to cook with this newborn who was wanting to nurse 24/7.  When folks at church did find out, they brought us meals for a few days which really helped (really, my husband should not be allowed in a kitchen, though he does OK with a grill if I prepare it all in advance.)  Anyway, there must've been a month's worth of pre-made meals in the freezer by the time DD2 was born... and then the church brought us dinner for the first two weeks or so, so we were more than set. 

[Sassy]

There's no re-training Glenn    I always have healthy food around for him to eat.  I leave enough prepared food for him while I am out of town working to usually last him most of the time - but he never looks in the fridge.  I even tell him what there is & what type of container & which fridge!  But I come back to spoiled food everytime...    So, I think he is pretty hopeless   

Our freezers are full of food, garden is full - so there's never any excuse not to eat well or healthy 

Years ago, when in Washington, our neighbors raised rabbits - they were gone for the summer so had me take care of their garden & rabbits.  I think there must have been around 70 babies born that summer... anyway, we had lots of rabbit in the freezer (they wanted us to butcher them & keep them, also help ourselves to the garden) So, I had to be pretty creative with the meals after awhile.  It was great to have all the meat - tastes like white meat from a chicken.  But ya kinda get tired of it just the same... I always had a big garden up there too - it grew like crazy  We didn't have much money, so it really helped out.