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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 4, 2017 17:45:22 GMT -6
I got a pound and a half of thinly sliced baked ham the other day, along with some pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and sub-buns. So, I've been having ham & cheese hoagies for the past few days. I have maybe two sandwiches left, and then I'll have to figure something else out to eat.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 8, 2017 8:21:41 GMT -6
I did that for a week after Hubs' had his tonsillectomy, while he was resigned to eating "mush food". My sandwich of choice was cracked-pepper chicken, extra-sharp white cheddar, and baby spinach, on onion rolls.
Now that he's back to "real food", last night I made ground turkey sliders, served on Hawaiian rolls with Monterey Jack. As a sandwich topping I made coleslaw with dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and chopped left-over beets, and served it with left-over mashed-potato potato pancakes. Yum!
I could live off sandwiches.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 9, 2017 15:29:51 GMT -6
Yay! Hubs can eat again! Glad he's doing good.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 10, 2017 11:56:05 GMT -6
Soup's on! Creamy tomato penne - pretty good for canned soup. I was mood for a salad for lunch, but pulled the bag of pre-shredded cabbage out of the fridge, and it was slightly slimy even though the expiration date is close to a week from now; I had to throw it away. I hate when that happens - I literally just bought it Wednesday when I made the turkey burgers! I used to think it was the fault of the grocery store, but I realized it's transporting groceries home in the trunk of my car in the winter is the reason fresh fruit and vegetables spoiled so quickly; I discovered this because fresh flowers I bought one day (though I brought them home inside the car, not the trunk), wilted within a few hours inside the house. The fresh stuff gets frost bitten in just a five minute drive, and starts turning to mush quickly.
He did much better than either of us expected (which means much less whiny about being in pain; he'll be the first to admit he is a horribly complainy patient. I'll second it!) He got thrush a few days into his recovery, which is quite common and also very painful, which I'm sure delayed his feeling better a bit. Back to his good old self now though, and is making beef jerky (again) this weekend. That dehydrator, I think, is the best gift I ever got him (along with the Mickey Mouse boots he asked for this Christmas).
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 11, 2017 17:11:12 GMT -6
I've thought about getting a dehydrator for fruit. The dried fruit in the store tends to be drown in sugar. It's far too sweet for me. The problem is that I'd probably eat up all the fruit fresh instead of drying it out.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 13, 2017 7:10:02 GMT -6
I agree - on both counts! I think store-bought dried fruit is much too sweet, and I'd probably eat more of it fresh than I get into the dehydrator.
I don't buy much dried fruit - mainly just dried cranberries (which always seem to have added sugar, though some brands have a lot more sugar than others), and raisins (I don't care for them much except if they're in stuff, but BP likes them). I'm sure the fruit's natural sugar is concentrated when it's dried, so why add more? OMG, have you ever had dried pineapple? It's usually coated in sugar and is just plain sickly sweet.
I'm going to try drying vegetables. I found a recipe on-line for dried root vegetable chips (sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, and parnips) that sounds delicious.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 13, 2017 22:12:09 GMT -6
Ooh ... dried veggies sounds like a cool idea. I end up throwing out a lot of fresh veggies.
I only got a bunch of dried fruit one time. I got all the kinds they had ... and the pineapple was coated in too much sugar. There were only a few that were okay, but it's been so long ago I don't remember which ones. I did love the cranberries though.
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Post by Phalon on Feb 14, 2017 8:13:45 GMT -6
Do you go grocery shopping weekly or monthly? I imagine it'd be hard buying fresh vegetables for just one person, especially if you don't go to the grocery store every week. LX goes once a month, and usually buys frozen vegetables because unless she's going to use them immediately with just her in the apartment, fresh vegetables spoil before she gets a chance to eat them. But at least she eats veggies - it kinda of makes me laugh that one of the first notes I mailed her when she went to college (can you believe she's already in her senior year!) is a simple message - don't forget to eat your fruits and veggies! - and is on her fridge after two dorm room and two apartment moves.
Even with three of us in the house, and even though I go grocery shopping once a week...and even though BP is eating vegetarian...I sometimes end up throwing away spoiled vegetables. It's usually leafy stuff, and I always mean to put it in Tupperware because it lasts much longer than in a plastic bag, but most of the time I forget....or don't remember until it's already gone bad!
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 14, 2017 21:30:54 GMT -6
Before Mom got WG, I usually went to the store every month and a half. I mostly bought TV dinners, pizzas, and the like. I only bought fresh when I was sure I was going to cook. But I never used up all the veggies and the rest spoiled.
The last few years, when Mom was too weak to let her be on her own, I went to all her appointments, and went to the store more often. I'd have good intentions of cooking, and then I'd change my mind once I had the veggies home. The last year, I only bought what I needed when I needed it. I didn't like having Mom wait on me, so I tried to be quick.
I never thought about buying canned/frozen veggies though. That might not be a bad idea.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 14, 2017 21:32:18 GMT -6
Of course, now that I'm doing a wee bit of driving, I can go to the local stores whenever I need something.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 13, 2017 5:16:36 GMT -6
My Man Boss committed an assault crime against his wife, my Lady Boss this week. How? He cooked dinner for her. The assault weapon: "Bacon Potato Torte".
a.k.a - "Death by Bacon Pie".
Ok, maybe not 'death', but definitely 'extreme gastronomical distress'.
Bacon Potato Torte is a recipe one of his relatives posted on Facebook, and since it didn't come attached with a "warning: do not attempt this at home", he decided it sounded good enough to attempt it at home. The ingredient list is simple: 2 (TWO!) pounds of bacon, potatoes, and (an entire!) pound of cheddar cheese; salt and pepper to taste.
Apparently, you line a pie pan with the entire 2 pounds of uncooked bacon to make a bottom "crust", leaving the ends of the bacon hanging over the edge of the pan. Then thinly sliced potatoes are placed on top of that, followed by a layer of cheese. Repeat layering potatoes and cheese until the pie pan is heaping. Fold the ends of the raw bacon that is hanging over the pan onto the heap to make a top crust. Bake for two hours. Cut into pie-shaped wedges and serve at your own risk. Serving contains 100% yearly cholesterol allowance.
The fat from two pounds bacon soaked up by the potatoes, the oil from the pound of cheddar cheese - it's a virtual grease bomb! Lady Boss came to work yesterday morning after eating it for dinner the previous night, saying she felt as if she'd swallowed an anvil...but went home for lunch, and had another slice of the leftovers. An hour later, she was feeling whoozy. I told her to go home for the rest of the day and sleep off her bacon hangover. She didn't disagree.
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 13, 2017 20:50:21 GMT -6
I've seen a video on Facebook for that. Whoa!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 14, 2017 5:50:48 GMT -6
I know, right. I can't imagine eating all that grease....and surviving to tell about it.
I was thinking about this the other week; I had set out to make chicken and broccoli rice for dinner, and discovered the broccoli head I had purchased a few days prior had turned yellow - it was still hard and crunchy, and didn't smell bad, but the color was unappealing so I threw it in the vegetable garden to rot. That week, I also ended up throwing away a little less than half a bag of grapes (I wish they wouldn't package them, so you didn't have to buy so many at one time!)
I wonder if we buy a lot of fruit and vegetables for the three of us? We have at least one vegetable with dinner, sometimes more, and fruit for lunches and snacks. This week, the fresh stuff I bought was apples (Gala and yellow delicious), shredded kale/broccoli/cabbage mix, 3 zucchini (BP loves zucchini), 3 red peppers, 3 potatoes, a spaghetti squash, and pears. Nonfresh vegetables consisted of two cans of diced tomatoes, one can each of black beans and white beans, and a package of frozen corn. I already had baby carrots and a couple of parsnips in the fridge. It looks like a lot to use in one week when I get home from the grocery store and start putting it all away, but it's a pretty typical weekly amount.
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 15, 2017 1:47:44 GMT -6
Mom put her grapes in the freezer. I tried that one time, but didn't like to eat them that way.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 16, 2017 6:32:15 GMT -6
Mom froze grapes too - she'd planned on making wine or grape juice from them, except they got used for "blueberry" pancakes instead. It was the first time I brought Hubs (who wasn't "Hubs" at the time) home to meet my family, and Mom made a big breakfast, commenting while she was making the pancakes how big and beautiful the blueberries were. Dad had grabbed a bag of grapes from the chest freezer in the garage, instead of blueberries, and the result was....well...strange. The resulting grape pancakes was something we never let her live down!
Last night Hubs grilled barbecued baby-back ribs, and BP and her friend made couscous with asparagus from the garden, zucchini, and red bell peppers. Fabulous - and the best part of it is that it was ready when I got home from work and everything was already cleaned up; all I had to do was eat!
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 16, 2017 19:14:48 GMT -6
Wow! And then Mother's Day will be in here soon too.
I've never had couscous. I've never really had asparagus either, other than in the heat-up stir-fry dinners I get sometimes. Evidently they don't taste bad to me, or I wouldn't still be getting them and eating them.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 21, 2017 6:29:45 GMT -6
Couscous is one of those things I can take or leave - it's really only tiny beads of semolina pasta that needs lots of seasoning, or it can be dry and unflavorful. I've really only had it once that it was over-the-moon wonderful - one of my co-workers when we lived in the Cincinnati area was married to an Indian man, who made a curried couscous dish for one of our pot-luck dinners. I've never had it since that it's been as good as what he made.
Frozen? Is it mushy or flabby? Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables - cooked or raw. When it cooked though, it's got to be cooked right though; if it's overcooked, I think it's gross. Other than raw, our favorite way to eat it is roasted. I just throw it in a glass or ceramic baking dish, drizzle a bit of olive oil over the spears, a bit of coarse salt, pepper, and lemon juice (or lemon pepper), and let it in the oven until it's done - it doesn't take long at all; it has to be bright green and al dente. If you hold up a spear of cooked asparagus and it droops, it's overdone. If it's sort of a olive color, it's long since dead and buried.
Last night we had roasted asparagus, scrambled eggs and chopped ham, Gruyere cheese, all wrapped in warm flour tortillas. Roasted, herbed potatoes as a side. Delicious!
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 21, 2017 17:16:18 GMT -6
I couldn't tell it from the broccoli. They were all chopped up.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 30, 2017 9:07:58 GMT -6
I'm kind of the same way with artichoke as you are with asparagus - I don't really use it myself, though I had it in things, but it's not something I seek to eat when eating out; I'd never order something based on the fact that it contained artichoke. Friday though, may have changed my opinion.
Crazy Cheryl invited me to stop by her house after work for a couple of beers - I didn't know she was also cooking for me until I walked in the door and smelled the heavenly scent. She'd made homemade pizza - six different kinds, each of them equaling about a slice, and we split each one (I was starving after work!). There was a pesto pizza with sausage and red bell peppers, a spinach and mushroom pizza, and others. The one I liked best though was artichoke and bacon. Oh-my-gosh, it was good, and will be something I definitely attempt at home.
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Post by Phalon on May 16, 2017 4:36:37 GMT -6
Soooo bad, but oh-so good - BP treated me to a slice of Snickers ice-cream pie the other night. It's a good thing the slices were small!
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Post by Mini Mia on May 16, 2017 17:51:38 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on May 17, 2017 6:28:16 GMT -6
Mmmm. That sounds good. I've always loved pistachios (remember when you were a kid, and you taped the dyed red shells to your fingernails, pretending to have glamorous movie star hands? No? That's what my childhood best friend and I did).
I never cared for pistachio pudding or ice-cream though; of course, the last time I had it, I was of the age when I was taping nut shells to my fingertips. Might be something to revisit as an adult.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 17, 2017 18:27:17 GMT -6
This 'cake/pie' is the first time I've ever tasted 'pistachios.' I've bought a bag of them a couple of times since learning of how wonderful the cake/pie tasted. I was grown up, so never played with the shells as a kid.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 3, 2017 4:50:59 GMT -6
All week long....chive blossoms...in everything.
I have a lot of chives; they're easy to grow, and I've got them in every garden I have that has sun. They reseed like crazy, so there isn't just a few plants here and there - they're everywhere. And they're in full bloom now. You can use the blossoms just like you would the leaves. I've roasted them whole with asparagus, broken them apart to use in roasted potatoes, in salads, and last night, in scrambled eggs.
I grow a lot of flowers that are edible, but have never used them in that way before - except for the time BP and I tried daylily blossoms just for the hell of it. Eating the chive blossoms is a new one for me.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 5, 2017 8:05:02 GMT -6
Yesterday was typical outdoor picnic-style fare at the neighbor twins' graduation party - barbecue and grilled chicken, pulled-pork sandwiches, pasta salads, potato salad, deviled eggs, and cake and ice-cream. Nothing extraordinary, but everything good!
BP later went to her friend's graduation party - she has a huge extended family with Mexican heritage and BP said there was tons of food. From her descriptions of the dishes, I would have loved to have had a sampling!
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Post by Phalon on Jun 6, 2017 6:07:13 GMT -6
Last night for dinner I made cheese-steak hoagies with mushrooms, corn-on-the-cob with parsley and chive butter, and a salad of watermelon, blueberries, and chopped mint leaves. Herbs are all from the garden - I love going out there, and snipping this or that to throw into whatever I'm making for dinner.
Lunch today is left-over watermelon-blueberry-mint salad. Mmmmmm.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 6, 2017 17:33:36 GMT -6
I cooked a Jack's Pizza on my Pizzazz. I love that thing. I haven't seen them on the shelves in ages. I've no idea what I'm gonna do when it bites the dust.
[Edit]
Order it online, I guess.
[/Edit]
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Post by Phalon on Jun 8, 2017 6:12:48 GMT -6
Mmmmm...pizza sounds good; I'm never one to turn it down. I've never heard of a "Pizzazz" and had to drill We bake ours in the oven, on a pizza stone. Crazy Cheryl cooks hers on the grill in the summertime - it's really good that way.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jun 8, 2017 16:41:32 GMT -6
The Pizzazz doesn't heat up the whole house, and a regular pizza is done in 10/15 minutes. A self-rising pizza about 20 minutes. There's a sliding button on top for: Bottom -- Both -- Top ... so everyone can set it how they like it. I keep it in the center. Except on the self-rising pizza, which is cooked on the bottom for 10 minutes, and then I set it to both for another 10 minutes.
Great invention. Wish I had thought of it. And, actually, I did. Not the Pizzazz though. At work, they used a blow dryer to harden an epoxy that glued a speaker cone to the center coil. For some reason, they decided that instead of the person holding the dryer they'd put the dryer on a stand and put the speaker beneath it. It still didn't solve their problem of the cones melting when the heat was on it for too long. I suggested they have the speaker rotate in a circle to see if that would keep the cone from melting. They tried it and it worked pretty well. The first time I saw a Pizzazz I thumped my head: Why didn't I take that thought and come up with the invention?
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Post by Phalon on Jun 10, 2017 5:58:36 GMT -6
I think everyone at least once, has a forehead 'I-coulda-had-a-V8' slap realization that they could have made millions (or at least a few dollars) if only they would have pursued one of their ideas further than just a passing thought.
We had pizza last night, btw - just takeout; I got home after six, was hot and dirty, and no way wanted to cook.
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