Category Archives: Food
I’m enjoying my new grill pan
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I recently bought a Le Creuset Bistro Round Grill pan. I love it.
I can’t believe how often I’m using the grill pan. Each new thing I’ve made on it has turned out tastier than if I cooked it in the fry pan or under the broiler. DH is loving the results too.
It is a heavy pan, so anyone who has trouble lifting heavy pans would probably be better off buying something on the lighter side.
Now that I’m used to the pan and know the best heat setting on my stove top for it, I am pan grilling most of our meats. My less fat, healthier meals for us are working well so far.
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Bull Terriers, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day 2011, Writer
Treating myself to the good stuff
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I do love that we have a farmers market nearby. I wish it was open more than three days a week though.
This week I bought chicken sausages for me–DH doesn’t like them. I bought four varieties jalapeno and apricot, wild mushrooms and asagio cheese, lemon-wine-garlic and parsely, and artichoke a calamatra olive. I’ll have the chicken sausage when he has his pork sausages.
Another treat I found at the market were fresh figs. I behaved myself and didn’t even look at any of the bakery stands.
I’ve already begun to write up my list for my next trip.
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Bones, Bull Terriers, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day 2011
Another day…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I finally went grocery shopping. Wow, I had no idea that I’d get so darned tired. It was wonderful to have the bagger follow me out to the van and load the bags for me. I was very tired.
I felt as though I’d walked miles by the time I arrived home. Then I had to unload my van. I was fortunate to find no cars parked in front of the house so I could pull my van’s rear door even with the front door. Yay, that saved me quite a few steps.
DH arrived downstairs in time to carry in the two heaviest bags for me. It seemed to take forever to put things away.
Then for dinner I got to try out my new Le Creuset Bistro grill pan that was delivered right before I went shopping. I L O V E it!
I made a lovely Sockeye salmon fillet for my dinner and DH had a hamburger steak–he doesn’t like fish. The grill pan was a treat to use and very easy to clean up afterwards.
Posted in Food, Heart Attack
Tags: Author, Bull Terriers, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day 2011, Writer
He may cheat on the diet but I won’t
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I am ever so slowly making headway in my dietary changes. The trip to IHOP yesterday was proof of that. I behaved and ordered a completely heart smart meal from the turkey bacon to the egg substitute scramble. Never mind that DH ordered two rashers of bacon, a huge stack of pancakes swimming in butter, syrup, and blueberry compote, and he ate most of it.
He’s not making it difficult but he’s not making it easy either. It’s a good thing I’d already made many dietary changes for us over the years. For example, we haven’t used white bread in over thirty years.
My grocery list has grown and I must soon get out and go shopping. As I slowly get back into the daily routine of cooking, I am converting most of my recipes on the fly. It’s not taking all that much to drop the cholesterol and salt levels. Yes, there are changes. However, since many of the changes were already a regular part of our diet it’s not as much as you would think.
We already use whole grain breads, we’ve added more fruits and vegetables to our daily meals, and DH was getting used to a more Mediterranean based diet. The changes I’d already made to our diet may have been what saved my life.
Posted in Food, Heart Attack
Tags: Author, Bones, Bull Terriers, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day 2011
Any help is welcome
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I have a freezer full of meats, a lifetime of recipes stashed in my brain, and suddenly I have to change everything. ACK! Low cholesterol, low-fat, low or no sodium, buzz words swirl though my brain.
I haven’t gone shopping yet so all those healthy side dishes, vegetables, fruits, and other fresh items are in low supply. Any recipes, ideas, or handy dandy tips on changing my regular recipes are welcome.
What I haven’t found in the several heart healthy cookbooks that I now own are decent snacks that are easy to make and both tasty and satisfying. I like crunch—not celery crunch, but crunchy crunch. I absolutely abhor cold cereals of all flavors so don’t even go there.
Posted in Food, Heart Attack
Tags: Author, Bull Terriers, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day 2011, Special Diets
Fresh from the garden
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We just finished off the cucumbers that I’d made into a creamed cucumber salad the other day. The recipe is simple and the salad is very refreshing.
Creamed Cucumbers
Allow enough time to refrigerate salted cucumbers slices several hours.
2 cucumbers
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of light cream
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/8 teaspoon of dill weed
Pare cucumbers and slice very thin. Add salt, then refrigerate for several hours. Rinse with cold water, squeezing out the salt. Make dressing by combining the cream, vinegar, sugar, and dill weed. Pour over cucumber slices toss gently and serve.
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Bones, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Food, Multiple Sclerosis, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
Eh, what did you say?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It must’ve been ‘take your toddlers grocery shopping” day. I’ve never seen so many rug rats dashing around the grocery store at one time. I spent an hour playing dodge-the-little-buggers this afternoon and never have I been happier to get out of the store.
There were running toddlers, screaming crying toddlers, and immovable temper tantrum riddled toddlers in every aisle. I longed for earplugs and tot pinging radar. I’ve made a note to myself NEVER to go grocery shopping on a Tuesday. It isn’t a day that I normally go grocery shopping and I now see what I have been missing. CHAOS!
While in the check out line, a child at the next register let loose with a screech so piercing it was almost out of a human’s hearing range. I think I heard dogs howling out in the parking lot. If we’d been near the ocean, dolphins would’ve beached themselves.
My ears are still ringing.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Post A Day 2011, Writer, Writing
My family turned my husband into a foodie
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I spent most of today reading and watching the pups wrestle each other. The only real work I did was when it came to dinnertime.
I made one of DH’s favorite meals, leg of lamb with all the trimmings. He’d never had this meal before he began to date me. In fact many of his favorite meals he discovered at my family dinner table. This guy often managed to show up at our house in time to obtain a dinner invitation. He loved my grandmother and mother’s cooking.
Now his mother wasn’t a bad cook, she had some things that she made very well. She just didn’t offer the variety of meals that we got at my home. DH fell in love with all sorts of foods he’d never had at home. My family enjoyed introducing him to a new world of cuisine.
DH was daring and willing to try anything we offered. Later, I was to discover that he’d have dinner at home and then another dinner at our place. His parents had dinner at four and my family didn’t have dinner until six thirty. No wonder he had such perfect timing. He was no fool and he sure did love to eat. He still does.
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Cooking, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Foodie, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Writer, Writing
What are your comfort foods?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Everyone has their favorite comfort foods and when it’s cold outside we crave them. Who doesn’t like a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup? Then there the hearty meals DH loves like a pot roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and lots of gravy. I go for old family favorites like scalloped potatoes and ham or a nourishing home made soup.
We both love breakfasts for dinner like sausage and pancakes or French toast. We don’t eat them often but often enough to make us happy.
Even the pups have their own form of comfort foods. They love having left over egg-foo-young gravy and rice on their kibble. They know that when we have Chinese food delivered they will get some so they get all excited when it arrives.
How about you, what are your comfort foods?
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Food, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Writer, Writing
Frozen for 20+ years things, look scary.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I’m not getting any younger and I should know better than to work my buns off for five hours without a break. My back is so sore today I can hardly move. My legs and arms aren’t in the greatest of shape now either.
We worked upstairs for three hours sorting through two rooms; we barely put a dent in the stuff there. Then we started on the downstairs freezer so we could turn it off along with the other major appliances.
Most of the pain stems from cleaning years of frozen food out of a chest freezer the size of Alaska. Hell, you can hide a dozen bodies in the darned thing. G and I couldn’t believe the dates (Some items dated back to 1986.) on the packages of WTF are they that we pulled out from the bottom. (We thought we’d never reach it.) “Hold my feet G; I’m going for the stuff on the bottom!”
I don’t think my MIL cleaned out her freezer…ever. The most heartbreaking thing we pulled out of there were a dozen filet mignons of undeterminable age. Crikeys! We both groaned as we bagged them for garbage collection. Steaks, we were throwing away steaks!
It took two hours to clear the freezer of primordial remnants of food. We had two refrigerators their freezers and one small freezer upstairs to go. Thank goodness, they didn’t have a ton of food in them. We’d almost hit the limit of ten garbage bags as it was. The tiny chest freezer upstairs had fresh food in it that I told G to take. I know her sons’ families can use the extra in these hard times.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Post A Day, Writer, Writing
Quick, easy, and very tasty no-bake cookie
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I thought I’d post one of my favorite and easiest cookie recipes today. They taste somewhat like a chocolate macaroon.
Aunt Violet’s unbaked cookies
2 cups of sugar
1 stick of margarine (must be margarine butter makes them too soft.)
½ cup of milk
Bring to a boil in a saucepan, mix well so sugar dissolves—cool slightly
Mix together:
1 cup of flake coconut
3 cups of quick oats
4 teaspoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add all at once to the sugar mixture
Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper, let set until hardened.
Posted in Food
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Cookie, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, gifts, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Comfort foods and a comfortable marriage, what more can one want?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We like breakfast for dinner. I often make sausage and French toast or pancakes for dinner. Sometimes it’s fried eggs, or scrambled eggs, or omelets each served with a side of bacon or sausage. Maybe if we’re hungry for it I’ll even make SOS that I serve over fresh biscuits instead of toast. I make a mean SOS.
When we were younger, we went to local diners in the wee hours of the morning and enjoyed an early breakfast. We don’t do that often now. In fact, it’s years since we have.
For one thing, DH is seldom awake during the wee hours and for another, eating out gets expensive.
With his MS turning walking into a major feat, DH does prefer to stay home most of the time. In the summer, it’s too hot to anywhere and in the winter too cold. I don’t mind.
It is funny how things work out for us. After all those years of him working different shifts with the police department, we’re still on different schedules even with him retired on disability. He’s up early in the morning and off to bed early. I’m up late and off to bed about the time he’s getting up. Maybe that’s why our marriage works so well. We aren’t connected at the hip and we’re very comfortable with each other.
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
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