The What's For Dinner Thread - March '11 (recipe index in OP)

[TigerKat]

Jen - I LOVE the Wine aerobics shirt!!!!!

 

[dgbg100106]

Just a fly-by and I'll have to catch up later.

Daylight saving has commenced down under and it is currently just about 8.30 am on Sunday. I lost an hour's sleep and will not be claiming it back til March next year. Gosh that sounds like a long time away.


Brandi - Happy Anniversary!

I'll have to catch up on the rest of everyone's news later. I'm having a friend come over for dinner tonight. Dinner is Steam Boat - a lot like Shabu Shabu. I'm going to be doing a seafood version tonight.

Thanks....

 

[bigmerle1966]

Do you go the Amish market at harbour place center by chance?

Yes. There is one closer in Burtonsville but I like the one there better.

I got red and sweet potatoes, bacon pieces, Buffalo chicken lunchmeat, ground turkey, sausage, hamloaf, rolls and Whoopie pies.

I stopped at a farm place on the way and got eggplant, cucumbers, red onion and butternut squash.

Good luck to him!

Unfortunately he didn't get the chance. His coach decided his head wasn't in the game and he didn't play until the end.

They ended up losing badly and that may have been part of the reason. He is pretty good at catching what other players miss.

Daylight saving has commenced down under and it is currently just about 8.30 am on Sunday. I lost an hour's sleep and will not be claiming it back til March next year. Gosh that sounds like a long time away.

I thought that was strictly an American thing. We gain in November.


Here are some pictures of the sky at the game last night. We had a really pretty sunset.

 

[dgbg100106]

Yes. There is one closer in Burtonsville but I like the one there better.

I got red and sweet potatoes, bacon pieces, Buffalo chicken lunchmeat, ground turkey, sausage, hamloaf, rolls and Whoopie pies.

I stopped at a farm place on the way and got eggplant, cucumbers, red onion and butternut squash.



Unfortunately he didn't get the chance. His coach decided his head wasn't in the game and he didn't play until the end.

They ended up losing badly and that may have been part of the reason. He is pretty good at catching what other players miss.



I thought that was strictly an American thing. We gain in November.


Here are some pictures of the sky at the game last night. We had a really pretty sunset.

I used to live in Annapolis and go to that market a lot, now that we are in a different direction, north. I dont go but once a month. We have a weekly market here in my neighborhood.

The pictures are beautiful.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Driving Miss Aimee!!!

You got it!

We've been in Grapevine all day and now we're back.

Sounds like a great day!! I haven't been shopping downtown in awhile but those olive oil finds might tempt me to go SOON!

And you totally should have bought that shirt! Awesome!!

 

[Aimeedyan]

I made these dog treats on a whim late (ie, started at midnight) last night and they turned out great! Super easy, too.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, oil, and water until smooth (a whisk worked best). Add the flours and work them in with a spatula or your hands until the dough is smooth. Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray them down with Pam. Roll out the chilled dough to about 1/4" thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out as many shapes as you can. Bake the cutouts until firm and set (mine took about 12 minutes), then cool on wire rack. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Happy Anniversary, Brandi!!!! I hope you had a great one!

We are going out somewhere after church today, not sure where. I am feeling rough this morning. I didn't sleep well. I kept having nightmares about Michael Jackson.

Have a great day!

(We had to turn our heat one this morning. I LOVE fall!)

 

[Goofyluver]

Here are some pictures of the sky at the game last night. We had a really pretty sunset.

Beautiful pics.

And so sorry about the game.

Sounds like a great day!! I haven't been shopping downtown in awhile but those olive oil finds might tempt me to go SOON!

And you totally should have bought that shirt! Awesome!!

I know! I'm regretting not buying it.

Please go to the olive oil store. You can practically have lunch there tasting everything.

I made these dog treats on a whim late (ie, started at midnight) last night and they turned out great! Super easy, too.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, oil, and water until smooth (a whisk worked best). Add the flours and work them in with a spatula or your hands until the dough is smooth. Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray them down with Pam. Roll out the chilled dough to about 1/4" thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out as many shapes as you can. Bake the cutouts until firm and set (mine took about 12 minutes), then cool on wire rack. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.

These look good! I'm going to have to try them for the pooches!

(We had to turn our heat one this morning. I LOVE fall!)

It's still in the 90's here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tooter woke me up at 7:30 wanting to be cuddled.

We tried watching "The Conspirator" last night, which I had heard was really good. Okay, I tried watching it. I fell asleep 30 minutes in. UncleR says it was "okay".

Today should be a restful day, although it is laundry day.

Tonight's dinner is another recipe from the Homesick Texan's blog..."grown-up beanie weinies"...

We'll see how that goes.

 

[bigmerle1966]

I used to live in Annapolis and go to that market a lot, now that we are in a different direction, north. I dont go but once a month. We have a weekly market here in my neighborhood.

The pictures are beautiful.

I make it once a month or so myself, it's about 30 min. away from me.

Thanks.

Didn't get to the farm, too chilly and dreary out and they don't have cauliflower today.

Thinking of having the ham loaf, basically meatloaf w/ham in it, and roasted butternut squash for dinner.

 

[HERSEY]

Jen I would have bought that shirt. That is my kind of exercise.

We put on the heat yesterday morning. I couldn't take it any longer in has been in the upper 30's in the morning. It does get into the 60's in the afternoon but I couldn't wait that long
go figure our weather is supposed to be in the mid 70's this week.

Brandy Happy Anniversary

Lindsay I hear you on the not sleeping well but I can't blame MJ for the hot flashes . That dr needs to be hung up and dried.

Back to reading my trashy novels

WFD is blackened catfish creamed collards and mac n cheese.

 

[Goofyluver]

Jen I would have bought that shirt. That is my kind of exercise.

We put on the heat yesterday morning. I couldn't take it any longer in has been in the upper 30's in the morning. It does get into the 60's in the afternoon but I couldn't wait that long
go figure our weather is supposed to be in the mid 70's this week.

Brandy Happy Anniversary

Lindsay I hear you on the not sleeping well but I can't blame MJ for the hot flashes . That dr needs to be hung up and dried.

Back to reading my trashy novels

WFD is blackened catfish creamed collards and mac n cheese.

We're supposed to be in the 90's this week, I believe. Or maybe high 80's. Either way...

Love trashy novels too!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight's dinner was oh. my. word. delicious!!!

Beanie Wienies for Grown-ups

Ingredients:

1 pound of pinto beans
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 pound of salt pork, diced
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup molasses
3 T chile powder (I used a mix of ancho and chipotle chile powders)
1 teaspoon pequin or cayenne
2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup of black coffee
Pinch of baking soda
8 good-quality hot dogs, sliced into ½ inch thick slices

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Soak the beans in a pot filled with 8 cups of water overnight, or do a quick soak by boiling the beans in 8 cups of water and then covering the pot with a lid for one hour.
3. Heat the canola oil in a large pot on medium, and sauté onions until translucent, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Stir in the molasses, chile powder, cayenne, mustard powder and brown sugar.
Add the soaked beans, and stir in coffee, baking soda and diced salt pork.
6. Add enough water to cover beans with two inches of water.
7. Cover the pot, and place in the oven. Leave alone for 2 hours.
8. After two hours, stir beans, add more water if needed, cover and then leave in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on beans tenderness.
9. Take pot out of the oven, and taste beans. Make taste adjustments with mustard powder, chile powder, and molasses if necessary. The beans should be tender at this point. If they're not, cook covered a while longer until they are.
10. Turn up heat to 400 degrees, uncover pot, and add hot dogs and cook for 30 more minutes or until sauce is thick.



***My notes from making the recipe: I soaked my beans overnight, and they STILL took a few hours longer than the recipe calls for. In fact, I would add 2-2 1/2 hours to the cooking time because I like my beans very tender. I didn't have to add any more water than the liquid I added when I put the beans in the pot with the onion mix.

We cooked this in a dutch oven, which worked well for cooking in the oven, BUT, it was incredibly heavy. I had to have UncleR lift it for me.

Having said all of the above, these are SOOOO worth the wait. There is so much flavor in this recipe. And it's not spicy, which I was nervous about considering the amount of chile powder and cayenne in the recipe. Take everything you think about beanie wienies and throw it out of your mind, these are nothing like those! We'll be making these again!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Good evening, friends!

Today was one of those - I (literally) ran from event to event today and got home much later than usual (around 4pm). Got home and realized I was really struggling to breathe. I run on adrenaline so much that it takes getting home/alone to realize how I really feel I crashed on the couch and slept through an event I was supposed to be at tonight that I thankfully did not lead in anyway, so it was an okay one to miss. Whew.

DH went out of town at the last minute and won't be back until tomorrow so I'm on my own for dinner.

 

[franandaj]

Good evening, friends!

Today was one of those - I (literally) ran from event to event today and got home much later than usual (around 4pm). Got home and realized I was really struggling to breathe. I run on adrenaline so much that it takes getting home/alone to realize how I really feel I crashed on the couch and slept through an event I was supposed to be at tonight that I thankfully did not lead in anyway, so it was an okay one to miss. Whew.

DH went out of town at the last minute and won't be back until tomorrow so I'm on my own for dinner.

This doesn't sound like resting!

Jen that grown up beanie weenie sounds pretty good and. It sort of fits with my diet (that I have been thoroughly ignoring ).

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Beanie Wienies for Grown-ups

Wow! I am definitely trying this one! Oh by the way, apologies to you, my dear. It wasn't until a few days ago that I realized you are Uncle Remus's wife. I'm not sure how I missed that. I'm friends with you guys on Facebook, but for some reason I didn't put 2+2 together with your screenname. My excuse is I usually read this thread at the butt crack of dawn and my coffee hasn't kicked in well, yet. Anyway, howdy, friend!

I am making tacos today. I am on kick cooking them on Mondays. Not sure why. It's an easy comfort food thing.

It's currently 40 degrees this morning. Ahhhhhh, I love it! Have a great day everyone!

 

[Glynis]

Hi, everyone! Sorry I didn't get on this weekend. It was jam packed with family!

The birthday party, Friday night, was fabulous! The food was excellent, and there were over 100 people there to honor step FIL. He was so touched. He has 64 grandchildren and 84 great grandchildren, and all of them had sent either a note, or a video message or were there in person. What a night!!! Several of his Navy buddies from the Korean War came, as well, and that was a surprise!

It was a long, fun night, but we were all exhausted after setting up and partying, and cleaning up all day Friday! We slept in on Saturday, spent some time cleaning up our own house, then back to play with cousins from out of town.

Same thing yesterday. 2 of Alan's sisters had flown in for the party, and we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. They are both leaving early this morning, so we had one last bash with them last night.

It was a fun weekend, but I'm glad things are going back to normal for a while.

Alan has this week off work, but he still has his classes to go to, so I'm hoping that I can get some work out of him around here. We've got a lot to do to get ready for winter, and our weatherman is predicting snow in the mountains by the end of the week. What's ironic, is that we still have snow in the mountains from the last spring storm we had in June! Never melted!

Don't know what's for dinner. I'm hoping for a brainstorm! Anyone got good ideas???

 

[liamsaunt]

Good morning! I seem not to get on here on the weekends lately, but I read back and am all caught up.

Glynis, wow that sounds like quite the gathering! I am glad it turned out so well.

Brandi, happy (belated) anniversary!

Jen, I am glad that tooter is feeling better.

Aimee, congrats on finding a car! When does your husband pick it up? And now I will nag you and remind you that you are supposed to be resting! If you don't rest, your pneumonia won't heal. Nag nag nag!

I have some photos from the weekend, but have not uploaded them yet.

Yesterday Laura and I made Indian food. A Indian market opened in our town and we went over yesterday for some shopping. It as awesome! The store has everything you could ever need or want to make Indian food. We were the only non-Indian people in the store, but the owners are going to get used to seeing us, I think. Dinner was grilled John Dory and swordfish in a red curry sauce, maater paneer, basmati rice, and naan.

Saturday we had more fish: Whole grilled red snapper. Sides were lemon risotto, roasted broccoli with pecorino and pecans, and green beans.

Friday was roasted pepper and chicken quesadillas with guacamole and peach salsa.

WFD: Laura and I made a batch of clam chowder yesterday, so I am just going to reheat that and heat up a baguette to go with it.

 

[dgbg100106]

Thanks for all the well wishes....

Going to the parks now...

 

[Disneylover79]

Hi there, I am kind of new to this thread, I joined a couple of years back but didn't have much to say so I back away....well I am back and I am a new wife and would like to start making easy but yummy dinners (during the week) and then maybe some stuff that takes a bit more time to make but still yummy....the best part is I am going to the store today so I can get whatever...

He is what I am thinking..DH started a new job today and I wanted to reward him with some yummy dinner, and since I am off today I can do whatever...so what would you all suggest...(just FYI he does not like seafood)...thanks

 

[KadysMom]

I am so horribly behind!



Nice to meet you and sorry about your DH. Is he recovering or is it going to be a slow progress thing? Glad that Nancy is having a great time.



I hope you'll post the pictures of fall foliage. I've been wanting to go leaf peeping for about 16 years now. Just haven't managed to work it into the timetable and any of our previous trips YET!

I have a few foliage pictures, but not many. It was pouring rain the entire time I will try to post them when I get home tonight. Debbie is doing great!! She loves her job, she has such a nice house, and I am so happy for her I do have a funny story though, we went out to breakfast Saturday morning, and as we walked out she smelled her shirt and said..."I smell like bacon!!" I almost died laughing and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I said, "Of course you do, your a cop!!" We were all dying laughing and people just stared at us as they walked by.

DH was in a car accident two years ago and hurniated two discs in his back. He completed 4 weeks of PT and was back to work without issues. He works for Pepsi and he works in the warehouse. At the end of June his forklift was rear ended while he was right in front of it. He was actually leaning over the fork part putting cases on it. It came at him when it was hit and he jumped out of the way and landed on a pallet of cases of water. It turns out he reinjured the two discs and hurniated another one.

He was out of work until last Wednesday. He is back now but on light duty until he sees a surgeon on November 10th. We dont think he needs surgery but they want a second opinion.

Tonight I want to sign up at a local gym. I have signed up before but it was hard because Kady hated the kid center because it was all babies. But now they have a tween center. They excercise, do yoga, swimming, sports, cardio dance, and stuff like that. She can also use all the excercise equipment if she completes the training they offer. She has wanted to do water aerobics but she was too young, but she can do it now.

Glynis: 84 Grandchildren!! Holy Moly!! I am glad you all had a great time!

Jen: Happy anniversary! Sorry I missed it!

Aimee: REST!!! You will not get better!!!

Lindsay: Kady would be happy if I made Tacos every night for dinner!!

Becky: I love Indian food, and wish I knew how to make it! I could live on Naan....


I will post my pictures and check in later!!!

 

[EJ4Disney]

Good morning everyone,

Jen ~ Thank you so much!! We all loved your Lo Mein. So easy and good.
Next I want to try your Strawberry Cake - that looks so yummy!!

Fran ~ So really, what are you going to do with all of that thawed meat. Wow you poor thing.
Did you have fun in DL?

Aimee ~ Good deal about DH's new car. What kind did he get?
You are not resting young lady - how do you think you are going to get better if you don't slow down?

PIO ~ Enjoy your week

Glynis ~ You weekend sounds just amazing. What a wonderful turn out you had. Fun times!!

Becky ~ I have never had Indian food. But I sure think I would like it.

Laura ~ Caili is so sweet. But I'm not surprised that she picked Becky - she is a great role model for her. You week sounds like a blast.

Brandi ~ Have a great time at the parks. Wish so bad I was there also.

Marisa ~ Leaf peeping is just beautiful. Even though it was raining was it just breathtaking?? I so hope Jeff takes it easy and gets back into the swing of things rather easy. Bless his heart!!

Disneylover ~ Welcome back!!! Whenever I want to really spoil my DH I will have TBones, or any sort of Beef. But we are from Nebraska so to us that is what we eat. No seafood that is very good here and none is fresh. We are a meat and potato kind of family.
Good luck to DH on his new job.

The weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. We throughly enjoyed Ethan!! But I felt we had so much going on that we didn't get the one-on-one time I was wanting. Oh well he had a great time and that is all that matters.

Doug and his Dad got our new Living room window in on Saturday - Oh how I love it. And the Auction went without a hitch yesterday. It was so much fun and we made some GREAT money but I am SO glad it is over.

I have to go into Omaha tomorrow for a Dr. Appt. so I won't be on, but I do know we are going out for Steaks for Dinner, as we will stop back through in Lincoln and we are taking Matthew out for dinner. I can't wait.

WFDT ~ Lemon and Shrimp Pasta, green salad with garlic bread.

Make it a great day everyone - I will talk to you all on Wednesday.