What's for dinner?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Very interesting, Glenn.  Thanks.  I'd never heard of it before...

When I was growing I had direct seeded out doors, and the celery had come up and put on its first set of true leaves before I left on my trip.  When I got home, they were just these dried out thread-thin corpses. 

[glenn kangiser]

The thing to remember about some of this stuff is that there are  a lot of different ways to do it.  If anyone gets going on it I will offer more help from my experience.

Here is where I bought my nutrients because they furnished the good stuff then the cheap bulk part could be bought locally.  Some other companies will try to rip you off royally many times.

http://www.hydro-gardens.com/all.htm

[glenn kangiser]

Don't pay fortunes for fancy systems -- the plants don't care-- build your own.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I was just showing DH the link you posted about NFT.  He's interesting in experimenting with it as soon as we are in our own place... he got kind of excited about it, especially since he designs submersible pumps for a living.     He had to check out the drawings and is talking about how we could build our own setup.

Dinner was IHOP last night.  We don't eat stuff like that too often, but it tasted pretty good.  I had steak with grilled onions, mushrooms, and some provolone cheese.  They were kind enough to substitute broccoli  for my potatoes, so I had no blood sugar issues afterward.  All the waitstaff was awed over the fact that both of my kids ordered the grilled tilapia with steamed broccoli (one waitress told me she'd NEVER seen a kid order that there even though she knew it was on the menu)  and they were even more amazed when they actually finished the whole thing.  DH had an omelette, which came with a short stack of pancakes... he gave the girls each a pancake, which they ate some of, but stopped when they were full.  I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised that both of them voluntarily ate the real food first without any discussion before they even tasted the pancakes.  Must be our superb parenting skills   (or maybe just good timing in catching them really hungry!)   

[Redoverfarm]

HT what is the due date.  You need to count them down for us.  Have you found out if they have WiFi at the hospital?

[glenn kangiser]

Hey Homey, my first one was in about a bushel plastic container for water.  I used a small pond pump and cheap 15 minute timer.  I used plastic gutters for troughs but they proved to be too small soon and I had to cut roots from things to allow the nutrient through. 

Guess I better mention that we had lots of celery and stuff for dinner so they don't think we are in the wrong thread.  Let me know when he is ready to start the system -- we can start a thread on it and I can help him to keep it cheap.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Thanks Glenn, I'll start a thread on it or send you a message when we get to that point.  It'll be a while yet, though, most likely.

Red, they moved the date up about a week, so probably between the 14th-17th somewhere???  I think it's going to be sooner than that, though.  My dreams are getting weirder by the day and I'm sleeping less and less because I'm getting to the huge and uncomfortable stage.  Funny thing is a dear lady that I've known all my life saw me the other day and I was introducing her to my girls, and then I said, "And this one is due in a few weeks..."  She said, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?  I thought you'd just put on a little bit of weight... are you really due next month?"  Granted, she was looking at me face to face.  If she'd seen me from the side, I don't think there'd have been any room for doubt!  Still, it was pleasantly surprising after two super-size pregnancies with the girls.   Kinda made my day.  I think the baby will be here within two weeks (my guess).  Every time I walk any distance at all, I start having contractions, so it makes me more determined to walk often.  Also, I'm kind of losing my appetite.  I'll think I'm hungry, but then once I start to eat, I just can't eat very much at a time at all.  I cleaned out the truck today, even cleaned all the seats with leather cleaner, and installed the baby's car seat.  Picked all the fuzz out of the carpet, etc.  Yep.  I think it  is getting about time.

[MountainDon]

Dinner was a charity dance ball dinner at the Sandia Casino. It was very very good...    grilled chicken, salmon fillets, potato wedges, a pasta & veggie salad, tossed salad, a green bean and squash veggie dish, and several great desserts. Mmm good!

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Always nice when somebody else has to do the cooking and the dishes, isn't it Don!

[MountainDon]

Yes, and even better though when the food is delicious. 

[gandalfthegrey]

Stew in slow cooker.  MMM  gona be a good night.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

We had hot breakfast sausage patties and salad made with broccoli stems, carrots, cabbage, sprouts, cilantro, sweet peppers, green onions, and nuts and drizzled in dressing made from sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, rice vinegar, etc.  One of my favorite salads and it always gets eaten up the first time.  It never makes it into a meal of leftovers.  This was after starving through lunch because we visited a Korean church in the city, and they served lunch afterward, but I couldn't eat a single thing there because it was all starch-based and my blood sugar was unusually high this morning, so I fasted while DH and the kids ate (oh so slowly) and visited.  While I enjoyed the church, I was absolutely starving by the time we got out of there (somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30 PM.)  Somehow it didn't occur to DH that I hadn't eaten since about 7:00 in the morning, and even then I just had nuts and a cup of milk...  Anyway, it was a long day.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight we'll have homemade chicken fajitas off the grill (no tortillas for me, though ) and some salad.

[Drew]

Hiker pasta.  That's the one with zucchini, onions, carrots, sun dried tomato pesto and tortellini.  It's a good fast one.  Dan and I have an extra contract on top of the day job this month.  It's her turn.  She's doing the QA testing while on the phone to the Old Man.  The OM and I did the development.  I'm here now for moral support while she tries to break our code.  It takes a strong family to do that...

One day we'll be doing this on our farm.  "Oh darn!  The solar batteries ran out!  Too bad, so sad!  Well, good night!"

[glenn kangiser]

Well, Sassy made us Fresh Artichokes, Fresh Asparagus and ravioli.  Also , orange juice given to us by the firemen.  We wentto breakfast at the fire house and due to internal conflicts they didn't get their advertising done -- so lots of free food afer we bought breakfast.  The gave us lots of sausages also - and a couple dozen eggs.  Good we showed up. 

Grub was fine and I'm full as a tick. 

[glenn kangiser]

Chile eruption spurs evacuations

Did this headline strike anybody else funny or was it just me? 

Has nothing to do with dinner except the thought it invokes but here is the story. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7386050.stm

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I thought it was pretty cute, myself.


We're having Chinese take-out....  cashew chicken sounds good.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Dragging myself to the kitchen to see what there is to eat... maybe some shrimp with cocktail sauce and a salad.   

[nickolekidd]

mmmmmmmmmmm you guys make me hungry. I wish I could cook stuff like you guys do. I can cook a little but nothing fancy. Anyone know and good ground beef recipes? My hubby mainly eats ground beef and I only know how to make a few things with it and am getting really tired of them. Thanks,
Nickole

[glenn kangiser]

Well, Nickole, when my wife is gone I usually just make lots of fast crappy food and post it here to gross people out and make them feel sorry for me.

We like to make giant hamburgers -- about 1/2 lb or more each just cooked in a fry pan with a lid on for quite a while .  We put lots of dried onion flakes and salt- mix them up with a fork then make them about an inch or more thick.  I like mine with lots of cold ketchup.  Kind of a salisbury steak thing.  Mushrooms would go good with them too - maybe cooked with them in the same pan or sauteed with butter if fresh.

[Redoverfarm]

nickolekidd there is always "hamburger helper". You might check out the beef counsel as they should have something to do with their beef products.  Spagetti, meatloaf, taco's, and the like. If you are serious you might try to find a board for cooking and then do a serch for hamburger.  Got to be something that the Biggkidd will eat on there.

[MountainDon]

http://www.cooks.com/

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I don't know much about hamburger meat because we seldom use it, but we went through a long time period in our early marriage where all we had for months on end was ground goat meat.  One thing I liked to do with it was season it like sausage (sage, salt, red chilies, etc.) and cook it in little patties for breakfast... it was super lean, though, so you almost had to add some butter to the pan to keep it from sticking.  I also put it (the sausage version) into stuff like spaghetti or lasagna or fried rice.  Make the fried rice with the meat and some cumin, oregano, and cilantro and the veggies of your choice (and of course, tomatoes) and it is pretty good.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

tonight we're having grilled fish and salad and maybe some steamed mixed veggies.

Oh, and DH and the kids can have some leftover mashed potatoes.

[glenn kangiser]

Last night for desert we had fresh strawberries from the garden - first picking - with ice cream and pound cake topped with whip cream. This morning we had strawberries on blueberry pancakes and whipped cream.

Tonight we are having fresh artichokes - steamed.- from the garden also.  We are getting tons of them off 4 plants, and in the store now they are $1.49 each.  That makes $10 worth about that we cooked tonight. ( OK -- so it's just that the dollar is toilet paper now but it still takes a lot of dollars to get them.)