What's for dinner?

[Sassy]

My parents always had their traditional oyster stew on Christmas Eve.  All the kids had to have a serving.  To this day, I can't eat them    I guess it was the combination of the milk (I don't like the taste) & the oysters...  Glenn likes them fried. 

I had a conference in New Orleans a few years ago - Glenn & I were sitting at an oyster bar watching this big guy clean gunney sack after gunney sack of oysters - there were lots of people slurping them down raw   

[benevolance]

Camping out in Western Maine...Cooking in the Cabin... Had Chili and Rolls tonight...Going for Beans, weiners and Rolls tomorrow night. We were so eager for cooked meals.. that we cooked..2 days of restaurant food had both of us feeling like crap digestion wise. Even though we are not eating perfectly healthy...Just seems like less grease and nastiness in food when you stay out of the restaurant.

[Drew]

Christmas dinner for vegetarians?  I asked my wife about that.  "Quiche" she said.  Excellent!

I'll probably make a ziti tonight.  Very simple, very well received.

I've been asked to audition for a band on 1/3, so I need to spend time working up the songs.  Faster, simpler dinners is the order of the week.

[MountainDon]

Last night: a half of a left over chicken enchilada each, couple scrambled eggs each, salad w/sugar snap peas, black olives, jalapeños.

Tonight: crock pot vegetable beef stew, diced left over small piece of steak from freezer, chopped left over half a hamburger patty from freezer, diced potatoes, diced carrots, peas, corn, cut green beans, diced parsnips, diced onion, small piece of diced sweet potato, three small tomatoes. Bread machine whole wheat bread.

Tomorrow: Turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (traditional Christmas dish in my family), stuffing, roasted parsnips and carrots.

[tanya]

Tonight pizza, tomorrow roast, rolls, potatoes gravey and vegies with pear cherry pie and upside down apricot cake all homeade.  After that it is all leftovers and fast food I am off to work out of town and it is going to be hectic for awhile.  Taking on a new position and being an independant consultant as well as starting the garden shop is going to take everything I have and all the help I can get!!! 

[lonelytree]

Tonight:

Salad

Sour cream mashed potatos

Seasoned green beans

Prime rib

Pie - Cherry and Custard.

[Sassy]

I made chicken vegetable soup - carrots, swiss chard, beet greens from the garden, onion, garlic, corn & green beans with mostly white chicken meat.  Fried up some green tomatoes, also.   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Christmas Eve we had pancakes with strawberries and sausage, per my daughter's birthday dinner request.  Last night, we had sliced ham marinated in a combination of wasabi, mustard, cider vinegar, honey, paprika, and cayenne (it was the best ham I've ever tasted in my life), deviled eggs with cucumbers and dill, fruit salad, cheese log and crackers, four kinds of kimchee, veggies and dip, buttermilk biscuits, steamed mixed veggies, squash/apple casserole, and pumpkin pie for dessert.  It was all really good... a few friends came over who weren't celebrating Christmas with their family until today, and I'd fixed everything except the steamed veggies and the pumpkin pie.  We also had leftover birthday cake, but everyone was too stuffed to eat any.  There were other random things on the table, too, but I can't remember what else we had... it was all good. 

Tonight, we'll have leftovers...the only leftovers we have are veggies and dip and the fruit salad, so we'll probably supplement with something else... maybe lentil stew or something.

[Drew]

My Christmas present from my wife was a binder of all our vegetarian recipes; ones we make all the time, ones we tried once and said, "That is great!  Let's do that again!", ones the kids brought home from 4H, and ones that looked great in magazines that we want to try.

It's easy to get into a rut, and this "wish book" will keep things fresh!  Each page is inside a plastic page protector, so it will stay safe from splashes forever.  I can even add pages of any size to the book just by sliding it into one of the extra pages.

Last night was sauteed chickpea with tsatsiki, red onions, and a tomato, parsley concoction on homemade naan.  Amazing!

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Drew, could you please post your recipe for naan?  Thanks in advance...

[Drew]

Hi HT,

Here's that naan recipe.  Credit where credit is due: This recipe came from Mic at All Recipes.  Here's a link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Naan/Detail.aspx

Naan

SUBMITTED BY: Mic      PHOTO BY: abrooks
"This recipe makes the best naan I have tasted outside of an Indian restaurant. I can't make enough of it for my family. I serve it with shish kabobs, but I think they would eat it plain."
PREP TIME     30 Min
COOK TIME     7 Min
READY IN     3 Hrs

SERVINGS & SCALING

Original recipe yield: 14 servings

INGREDIENTS

    * 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
    * 1 cup warm water
    * 1/4 cup white sugar
    * 3 tablespoons milk
    * 1 egg, beaten
    * 2 teaspoons salt
    * 4 1/2 cups bread flour
    * 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
    * 1/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

   1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
   2. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
   3. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
   4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Sounds really good... I'll have to try it out.  In college, a Pakistani friend of mine used to make it, but he didn't use sugar or garlic in his... it was a really simple mix.  One time I remember cracking up at him trying to get the consistency right and looking up from his mixing bowl with this comical expressions and saying, "You see, this is why Pakistani women don't work outside the home!!!"   Usually most of the flavor of his naan came from whatever we ate with it, curry or "chicken something-something"... the guy was a great cook, but didn't know the names of most of the foods he made.  He just cooked like his mom did without really knowing what stuff was called.  Might even try your recipe tonight seeing as I don't know what we're going to have for dinner yet...thought we'd still be eating Christmas leftovers, but they're pretty much gone.

[Drew]

Dan brought this naan out for the first time last week.  She did the frying in a cast iron pan with those grill ridges and it worked out great.  David, our son went on and on about how great it was. 

Funny.  This was the kid who just a little while ago would eat almost nothing.  Once we were at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco.  Dave, with his picky palate was having a baked potato for dinner.  Plain as it was, he was really into it.  He looked up from his plate with a blissful look and said, "I love Italian food."

Tonight I think we'll make the homemade pizza tonight. Either that or this awesome tortellini in sun dried tomato pesto, zucchini and onions.   I was on a backpacking trip in the Yosemite wilderness and our guide made this up for dinner.  While alpine appetites were fully engaged that night, Annie's superb recipe played just as well at sea level.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Dan brought this naan out for the first time last week.  She did the frying in a cast iron pan with those grill ridges and it worked out great.  David, our son went on and on about how great it was. 

Funny.  This was the kid who just a little while ago would eat almost nothing.  Once we were at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco.  Dave, with his picky palate was having a baked potato for dinner.  Plain as it was, he was really into it.  He looked up from his plate with a blissful look and said, "I love Italian food."

That is hilarious...I am glad my kids eat pretty much everything, including a lot of stuff that I'm not all that crazy about.  However, a lot of Korean food is too spicy for them, but they love the side dishes.  I remember sitting in a restaurant one time when my oldest daughter was about 2 1/2, and she was happily munching away on a dish of fried dried anchovies, blanched watercress and rice and said something similar about how much she loved Korean food. This was after she'd said that she couldn't handle the soup or some of the kimchees because they were too hot.  Meanwhile, her little sister  gnawed on a chunk of spicy radish kimchee and couldn't seem to get enough.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Beans and cornbread tonight.  Simplicity sounds really good and it is snowing like crazy right now.

[glenn kangiser]

Seems there is something un-natural about knowing what you are going to eat so far in advance, Homegrown.

[Drew]

The kids are going to grandma's tonight.  Dan and I are going up to the farm early tomorrow morning to do some more foundation work between aborted rain storms.

"What do you want to do about dinner?" said I to my beautiful wife.

"The kids are at my mom's.  Let's go out!" she said to her stunningly humble husband.

"Sounds great! Where?"

Cri-cket.  Cri-cket.

The downside of being a relatively new vegetarian is that heading out to the Corral Steak House is not the Mom and Dad good time it used to be.  I think I'd better do a little research.  I don't want to drive in the rain and find parking for a baked potato.  Mexican food is always a good option.  Hmmm.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yeah, you could have chilies rellenos... one of my favorite vegetarian foods... tastes so good even us meat eaters don't miss the meat! 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Seems there is something un-natural about knowing what you are going to eat so far in advance, Homegrown.

Unnatural??  No way.  If I plan in advance, I cut the grocery expenses WAY down (especially now that we're in a place where we don't grow/raise evreything we eat.)  Besides, I can put stuff on in the morning or early afternoon and stop every now and then to doctor it up and it's done without much effort when DH walks through the door at 5:17 on the dot.    But since you think it is not natural, then maybe I'll change it to chili... sometime between now and dinner.

[glenn kangiser]

Amazing how we can affect each others eating habits from the other side of the country. 

[MountainDon]

Since Christmas Day and the turkey feast, dinners have been a rather haphazard affair. We've been selecting meals from left over turkey or stews and soups I made and froze in individual portions prior to Christmas, or dining hall food, sandwiches, whatever.

Some of you may recall my mentioning my mother in-law 2 months ago. She had fallen, did not break anything but had intense pain.  Well basically she hasn't been out of bed since then. She has ceased eating, wants to sleep all the time. She'll thank visitors for coming, then closes her eyes. For the most part she does not converse except to say she wants to die, or wants a sleeping pill, or to say 'go away, leave me alone'.

We're now having to sort through the private apartment and distill the furniture and all down to what might fit in an assisted living apartment. [The retirement facility has 3 levels; [1] normal private apts. for self sufficient people, [2] assisted living for those who need regular help with many daily activities and [3] heath care, a nursing home wing. It's actually a very complete, nicely equipped place; pool, exercise room, couple of dining rooms, superb model train room, nice grounds, planned activities, buses for transport, etc.] Anyhow she's been in health care long enough and with a poor prognosis for getting better to where she could return to normal living, that the private apartment must be exchanged for the health care room.

So K and her brother and sister from out of town have been sorting everything into groups; what must go, what should be saved in case MIL can be moved to assisted living... At this point I don't see that happening without a miracle. She wants to die. She's 86 and has had some mobility problems for a while as well as worsening mental abilities.

Sorry for the downer.... 

[glenn kangiser]

When we were kids seems nobody or few we knew died.  Now that were getting older it seems that they are dropping like flies.

Sassy headed to the other place for work.  If only I could remember what was for dinner. hmm

I started with cookies.  Like Trader Joes Mint JoeJoes -- I wonder what goes good with that?

[MountainDon]

Now that were getting older it seems that they are dropping like flies.

It hits home that you are getting older when some of your high school / university friends are showing up in the obits.

[MountainDon]

I started with cookies. -- I wonder what goes good with that?

Ice Cream     

I'm having apple pie 'n' ice cream right now.   

[glenn kangiser]

I added barbecue potato chips. salt and vinegar potato chips and the last of the Butter Pecan ice cream.