Only thing I know for sure would be that I will bake a choclate cake that the 14 year old grandson asked for his birthday

I've been requested to bring my lemon bars to a baby shower tomorrow, so a double batch will be on my agenda for today. I also have a chicken I need to roast......thought I'd do a scaled down version of Thanksgiving with it.

Smoked salmon fillets and veggie stir fry tonight. Tomorrow will be carne asada tacos, home made refried beans and home made spanish rice with avocado on the side. After that, I'm not sure. Time to plan next week's menus!

I picked a boatload of blackberries over the summer that are now in the freezer. Hubby has requested a blackberry cobbler next time I make dessert, so I may bake one for him tomorrow.

Nothing, will be warming up leftover white bean chicken chili I made. Froze a few meals for work lunches and have one more bowl to eat in the fridge. Thawed out some beef taco mix and picked up shells and lettuce the other day. The beef taco mix make too much meat mixture so now that I'm by myself I freeze it for later. I also have some tuna fish mix for sandwiches that I need to finish off. I'm then going to try and eat up what's in the freezer so I can clean it out and restock.

Tonight is our supper club, so I don’t have to cook tonight. It will be our turn in probably late January.

We are splurging on a free range local chicken - roasted. A bit pricey at $5/lb, but we really enjoy the flavor and texture.

I hope you feel better soon Glenda

Unless I go to the grocery store, pb&j sandwiches! We are going to the movies later today, will have dinner there. Either takeout or the store tomorrow. Our movie theater has the best turkey burger and a great fried shrimp platter. Kali loves their pizzas and root beer floats. Their popcorn is terrible though!

Today, I'm making soup (improvisational, but for sure with sausage, carrots and chard). Also, cranberry barbecue sauce for a barbecue chicken lasagna tomorrow.

Making potato cheese soup today. Need to make both shortbread and pastry dough for the freezer.

Glenda...Hope you feel better.

Burgers on the grill.

The weather is weird, but at least the air is breathable, but I was slow to get going. No soup. But I got the barbecue sauce done, barring some final adjustments once it's settled.

JC's Cranberry Barbecue Sauce

• 2 bags (pounds?) cranberries, past their prime, icky ones sorted out.
• 1 half pint blueberries (though a pint would probably be better if you have it)
• 1 each medium sized apple and pear, cored and chunked, skin on
• 1 large or two skinny celery stalks, broken up or chopped
• 1 handful dehydrated onions (you could use an average sized fresh onion and cook down the water).
• 1 large can (28 oz.?) tomato puree or equivalent
• 2 good glugs blackstrap molasses
• half a cup or so cream sherry
• S&P
• Allspice
• Cardamom
• Cumin
• Chipotle powder
• Smoked Spanish paprika

In a 3 qt. pot with about an inch of water, add all the fruit and veg, but not the tomato puree. Cook at med-high until most of the berries have popped. Stir often, making sure the bottom isn't scorching. Add some mollasses to the point where the liquid isn't bitter. Let sit in the pot about half an hour to finish steaming.

Dump the pot contents into a Vita-Mix or equivalent (if you have a regular or stick blender, you'll probably need to strain the mixture after blending). Blend starting low moving up to high until the mixture is very smooth and even and there are no seeds or other lumps (or strain). Dump back in the pot.

Over low-medium heat, add the tomato puree, sherry (rinse the can with it first), and spices. Use approx. half to full teaspoon of everything, and adjust to taste. I eyeball it, and also adjust depending on the type/moisture level of the spices. Stir well, and scrape bottom. Add some more molasses for sweetness if necessary or to taste (it also helps give a richer color). Note: sweetness as in a pleasing hint. This is cranberries. It's supposed to be tart, but yummy tart rather than iky tart.

Turn off heat and let sit to steam off awhile before refrigerating.

Glenda, I hope you are feeling better!

Weekend project, beef bone broth. Might try making Demi-glace. Also planning to start a batch of kimchi. G

Feel better soon, Glenda!

Pillog your sauce sounds wonderful. I've been wanting to make a blackberry/chipotle BBQ sauce and I think your recipe would be a great base with blackberries substituted for cranberries. Will save it for when I'm ready to make the sauce. Thanks!

I'm stocking up on homemade rolls for TG. They freeze nicely in pie tins. The family calls them 'grandma rolls' in deference to our late grandmother. It's the scalded milk Parker house roll recipe ... or Mrs. Avery's ... or the one that goes by various and sundry other names. I used the honey substitute in one batch to see if anyone notices the difference.

They make a great base for cinnamon rolls, savory rings without cinnamon, and other stuff.

Shan't waste that extra hour this weekend ...

Carb ho!

Some AirBnB guests who checked in today gave us a platter of various dried fruit. My mind immediately thought of making a Moroccan Chicken recipe of some sort and looked up a few recipes. I had about decided what to make but I found that although my wife said she was going to pick up chicken, she hadn't. :-(

I pivoted to Moroccan Pork wondering if that was "a thing" since I did have a Pork Tenderloin. I found this as a reference point:

https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/moroccan-pork-tagine-recipe.htm

and went for it.

This (as best as I can remember) was the as-made recipe:

1 pork tenderloin cut into 1" cubes

1 Tbsp Ras al Hanout spice blend.

14 dried apricots (sliced)

10 prunes (sliced)

10 dates (pitted and sliced)

1 dried something (it might have been a fig, but I'm not sure)

1 1/2 tsp Better than Bouillon chicken flavor

1 medium yellow onion diced

2 tsp crushed garlic

1/2 tsp dried cilantro

1/3 cup frozen green peas

1 1/2Tbsp canola oil

1 1/2 cup water

1 package Middle East brand Mediterranean Curry Couscous

Add oil to large flat bottomed pan over medium high heat

Add onion and cook it until it starts to become translucent

Dredge pork in Ras al Hanout spice blend and add to pan.

When pork is well browned and the spices have bloomed in the oil add the garlic and stir for another minute.

Add all of the dried fruit, the bouillon, and the water.

Stir and bring to a low boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes.

prepare couscous according to package directions.

Add peas and cilantro, remove lid and simmer for another 5-10 minutes to thicken sauce.

I also made a simple with romaine mix, a roma tomato, an overripe avocado, crumbled feta and a homemade balsamic vinegarette dressing Plus a couple of toasted slices of apple cider raisin bread with butter.

-----------------------------------------

The dish turned out really well, especially considering it was a spur-of-the-moment menu decision designed to use some of the dried fruit I was given and ingredients I had on hand.

edited to adjust the amounts based on a second attempt at making the dish.

I made a salad. SO got me a chicken sandwich from chick fil yesterday for me to bring to work today and I took the bread off, cut the chicken up and topped my salad with it. I am working all weekend, and so all I will likely be cooking is breakfast when i get home in the morning. If I wake up early enough,i will cook something for SO in the afternoon before I go to work,but that does not happen more than once a "work week" or so.

Dh bought a giant head of cabbage. I've already made halušky and cole slaw. Tomorrow I'll make stuffed cabbage soup...here's a shot of the last batch I made. Cousins coming for a quick lunch on Monday so I'll serve this with buttered rye bread. Yum!

Tomorrow I'm cooking breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes and buttered carrots for dinner. Also making a large batch of from-scratch tomato soup. I will be out all day on Wednesday, and wanted to prepare a batch of cinnamon buns to have ready to bake in the evening. I'm going to mix the dough and shape the buns on Tuesday evening and refrigerate until I'm ready to bake. Fingers crossed that it works!

Two projects for tomorrow.

First, I want a hamburger. A simple, very good, burger. We went to "Killer Burger" last night. This is a popular local micro-chain that SWMBO likes. I hate their burgers. They have so much indescribable sauce that I can hardly taste the meat, other than distinct notes of cardboard.

I bought some chuck roast and will cube, part freeze, then grind (chop) in the food processor. I'm planning to sous vide at 120F for 1 hour, then sear, and serve in a lettuce wrap (we're doing low carb here). Very simple.

Second, I want to figure out how to use cauliflower to make a low carb tamale. I'm thinking of cooking cauliflower in pork stock, mashing, then wrapping with pulled pork filling. Version 1 will probably be ick but then we'll adjust and try version 2, 3, etc.

Hope you're feeling better, Glenda.

Bob_cville, that sure sounds really good, especially for a wing-it dinner!

I've been doing deep cleaning all day, getting ready to decorate for Thanksgiving, so I skipped lunch, DH had cottage cheese and dinner was Manwiches (Bourbon BBQ - kinda bland) and French Fries. Dessert was truly the highlight of the day. DH was recently diagnosed Type2 Diabetes, so I've been playing with the things he can have trying to make them taste better. I made a box of sugar-free vanilla pudding but dumped in a bunch of cinnamon. Got a package of those little phyllo cups and chopped up some walnuts. Put a few walnut pieces in each cup, then topped with the cinnamon pudding mixture. Of course there is more pudding than would fit in those tiny cups, the rest is in a container for later. When we got ready to eat dessert, I spooned a bit of Cool Whip onto a few of the cups. We both were very pleasantly surprised at how good they came out.

Tomorrow if it's warm enough I'd like to do chicken on the grill. If not, I will bake the pieces along with a baked sweet potato apiece.

I was looking for something in the freezer earlier today and was shocked at how many unidentified containers of stuff there is. I have decreed that we are going to eat everything we csn the next couple of weeks. "Freezer surprise!" meals. Should be interesting. And I need the freezer space so I can start making cookies to take to DH's family at Thanksgiving.

Still eating bananas and soda crackers! Doctor on Monday if not better.

Sorry you're sick Glenda. Hope you feel better soon.

Glenda, I hope you’re feeling better soon

Yesterday I made a turkey meat loaf. Oven roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes (some prefer one over the other) steamed broccoli and carrots.

Hope you feel better, glenda. Though I wouldn't recommend bananas, and certainly not that many. I was never a fan of the BRAT diet. I would stop eating and just keep fluids going until I felt hungry... a sign my body was well enough to start eating again. Then dry toast and tea was the starting course.

Hope you are better by today Glenda. My applesauce pie was a hit with us that tried it.

Sue

Put up some applesauce last weekend and will be cooking up two pecks of apples later to can. Yesterday I made seven individual sized meat loaves, one to reheat for dinner tonight and six for the freezer. Yesterday I also made a pot of chili. Had a bowl last night and the rest goes into the freezer in serving sized containers. Will probably make some Spanish rice later today to freeze as well. Having surgery for Carpal Tunnel on my right hand tomorrow so want some ready to heat up food available.

Madonna

I roasted a chicken yesterday and today there will be chicken soup.

Today I am cooking a big pork roast. I stuff it with onion and garlic and add lots of chopped onions to the pot. It makes a wonderful brown onion gravy to go with the rice.

Am cooking salmon, rice and veggies for lunch and just baked a blueberry coffee cake for dessert. We've been doing major house chores all weekend, so I am hoping the expended calories will cancel out the cake calories.

Last night made a a vegetable beef soup to eat today. When I think of it, I try to make soups the day before eating, since they always taste better the second day. Didn't have a recipe - just started putting in things I thought would go well together. Plan to make cornbread to go with it today, or maybe hot rolls. Since, the frozen Rhodes Rolls can be raised in the Instant Pot so quickly, we have rolls much more often than we did before the advent of the IP being in our house.

Change of plans - instead of smoked salmon and veggie stir fry, we will be having bbq chicken and salad. The smoked salmon/stir fry will be later in the week instead. We decided the salad ingredients needed to be used first and that the veggies for the stir fry could wait a few days.

Now, in case any of you are wondering why not smoked salmon and salad, hubby wants the salmon/stir fry combo. He doesn't like salad and smoked salmon together.

P.S. Bob that meal you winged it on sounds really good!

Glenda, you might try switching from bananas to plain white rice and/or chicken broth or toast as suggested by Annie. I agree that if you aren't better by tomorrow, it's time for a trip to the doc. You don't want to get dehydrated; you probably already are somewhat, but you don't want to let that go too far.

I did switch to broth, today, and added ditalini pasta to it. Just ate a piece of rye and peanut butter just now. All has stayed in me today. Been a long time since Tuesday, since being outside.

Glenda, unless you're down by the Shores, it's been too cold to be out anyway... Here in the mountains by Guntersville/Scottsboro we've had lows in the upper-20's and "highs" in the 50's. It's depressing to look out the windows at my dead garden :-( But I am glad you are feeling better and getting some nutrition in you.

Glenda, I meant to say I hope you get well soon, but then didn't add that to my message. So glad you seem to be feeling a little better. But, it may be good to go to the doctor anyway. I put off going a few weeks ago, and when I finally did, had to get two shots, take an antibiotic for ten days, use a breathing treatment twice a day, and get lots of rest. It took me more than the ten days to get well. Have decided from that experience that if I am sick for more than three days, I will go to doctor without hesitation. So my advice to you, is go to the doctor tomorrow or as soon as you can. Am finally believing as we get older, we get much harder by these bugs than we did 20 or 30 or even 10 years ago.

Made taco soup. Well my version of it anyway. 1st time. Pretty good!!

I tried two new recipes and will make both again.

https://beyondmeresustenance.com/peruvian-pumpkin-soup-sopa-de-calabaza/

https://damndelicious.net/2019/10/29/instant-pot-bolognese/

(Note: I used ground turkey in place of ground beef and we liked it!)

Glenda, so sorry to know that you've been so ill. It's very good news that you're adding a variety of other foods to your diet. I always crave chicken broth, then chicken and rice soup, chicken vegetable, etc. Egg drop soup from my neighborhood Chinese restaurant (a good one) feels like the best medicine available.

Feel better soon!

It's finally been cold enough here for me to be interested in making a big pot of soup or stew or chilli. I conducted a brief poll amongst my loved ones and based on the overwhelming majority, I have a pot of split pea soup and ham simmering on the stove. ;-)

I use a lot of chopped onion, carrots, and celery in the soup and a nice ham bone for the pot. My little chef sprite has made some toasted pumpernickel croutons and it looks like we're ready to eat!

There is a salmonella outbreak from ground beef in multiple states. They are not sure how many states or the manufacturer.

I thought of you Glenda when I heard about this. It might be best if you go to the Dr tomorrow.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/salmonella-outbreak-ground-beef

I have been watching that closely and I DID eat at Taco Bell, Monday, their big box promotion. Didn't hit me until Tuesday late afternoon, and that is the time frame they are saying on tv. I will call the doctor tomorrow.

My worst days were Tue-Sat. Today, symptoms have subsided, but I'm cautious in my eating, sticking to the broth, lessened the bananas, pb on rye today.

I had another pork tenderloin (since they come in packages of two) and still had about half of the dried fruit left so I decided to try the recipe again. It seemed that the amounts of dried apricots, peas, water and canola oil I recorded above were not enough, so I've edited the amounts in the above recipe to equal the adjusted amounts I used on the redo.

Glenda, I'm so glad you're getting better! For the future, I learned no fiber, no fat, not much sugar for such woes. So dry white toast (most crackers have a lot of fat) and clear, skimmed broth to start with. White rice cooked in clear broth might go down well. As things go well, add a little ginger ale or a dab of jam to the toast. Add a cracker or two. As they go better, add some plain, skinless chicken breast. When you're on the mend, add the banana or applesauce, but they both have a lot of fiber and sugar, so in great moderation.

The BBQ chicken lasagna was fab. I was worried about using a lot of sauce, but it was fab. Because it wasn't very sweet, it didn't become cloying. I used four different smoked cheese, plus mozz, and totally forgot ricotta. It wasn't missed. I also forgot the thyme, and ditto.

Made a leek, white bean and thyme soup for lunch with garlic bread, and dinner was blanquette de veau with mashed potatoes.

We had pork spare ribs slow roasted and then slow cooked with saur kraut and red potatoes. So good on a chili night.

Here is a great Tri Tip Recipe

https://stuffmattycooks.com/oven-roasted-tri-tip-recipe/

I make a fresh salad with tomato, cucumbers, onion and greens every day dressed with oil. It's my favorite dish in the summer. Today I'm making soup with meatballs and herbs.