Dinner with the in-laws:
Antipasto
Gramma's gnocchi with butter sauce
Sunday sauce and spaghetti
Roasted root vegetables with vinaigrette
Apple pie with home-made vanilla ice cream--My contribution

MMMMM, can I come to your house Belle?

Last night was homemade chicken rice soup. Tonight will probably be an individual sized meat loaf that is in the freezer, baked sweet potato and maybe some beans or peas.

You'd have a great time, and the food is wonderful.

My in-laws have their children and their families over for dinner once a month--about 20 people. It's loud with laughter, children, and jokes. It's a lot of fun.




Cabbage and apple slaw
Swiss Steak with tomato gravy
Mashed potatoes
Butterscotch pudding

Squash soup.

Two (frozen) roasted butternut squash. 1/2 stick of butter, 4 cloves of garlic, chicken broth. Tsp of rosemary. Salt and pepper to taste.

Soften crushed / minced garlic in butter with small amount of broth to keep the butter from burning. Add rosemary, salt and pepper. Put squash in, add broth as needed to thaw / finish cooking squash. Mash with potato masher, adding broth to desired consistancy.

Keep away from BigBee until everyone else is served.

Sounds wonderful Belle. I miss having the kids and their friends coming in and out all the time. I never knew how many kids I'd be feeding on any given night! It was fun.

That's how it worked when I was a kid.


Korean noodle shop:
Jajangmyeon--black bean sauce and noodles
Mandoo--dumplings in broth with vegetable

Asparagus Quiche
Beet green and tomato salad with viniagrette
Gingerbread up-side down cake

Cajun Chicken Pasta - it's up to you if you want to believe it is homemade or lunch leftovers from my TGIF's visit yesterday

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....... Friday night newest tradition:

Digiorno pizza modified.

We get two frozen pizzas - 1 pepperoni, 1 with everything. We take the pepperoni off the first pizza and add it to the second.

On the empty pizza we add ham and pineapple.

The second pizza gets additional toppings: freshly sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and anything else yummy we can find.

Pop both pizzas in the oven... bake 15 minutes.

Add shredded cheese.

Back an additional 10 minutes...

... and VOILA!

The BESTEST YUMMIEST PIZZA EVER!!!!!

Borscht with caraway dumplings
Romaine salad with buttermilk dressing
Apricot clafouti

Clafouti? Wassat?

Rach, I had a DiGiorno myself tonight. I'm embarrassed to say that considering the fact that my cousins own a pizzeria. If he knew I'd get one of these

Clafoutis are a type of egg custard baked with fruit. The French traditionally make them with fresh cherries.


Lemon chicken
Roasted butternut squash
Mesclun salad with buttermilk dressing
Baked apples

Belle, I love coming in here to find out what's going to be on your dinner table for any given day! You have some of the most interesting menus.

I, too, was wondering - so thanks for answering.

Funnily, I had never heard of Clafoutis until you posted yesterday.

Then, about 5 minutes ago, I was perusing the Martha White website, and found a link, there, for clafoutis.

Reticular activation, anyone?




OH! Dinner tonight (got to make sure I keep on topic) . . .

~ Leftover lasagna from last night
~ Cast-iron buttermilk cornbread
~ Grapes

Yeah, it's a weird combo.
I'll probably just have the cornbread and grapes . . . I made cornbread last week and had a cup of buttermilk left over, so I wanted to make cornbread again before the buttermilk went bad.


I also want to tell y'all that last night's lasagna was my first-ever attempt at making it.
Tex gave it a several thumbs-up (and with all modesty, I have to agree).

CougieStrator's Lasagna was...
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AWESOME !!!

We made my sister-in-law's enchiladas verde. She's from Mexico and knows her stuff

Purée tomatillos, garlic, and jalapeño. Heat in a fairly wide sauce pan. Meanwhile, boil chicken then shred it. Dip corn tortillas in tomatillo mixture, then roll up with the chicken. Top with extra tomatillo mixture and Swiss cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until you just can't wait any longer, whichever comes first.

Boneless pork chops with apple raisin corn bread stuffing
Baby spinach sauteed with onion and garlic
Roasted, then whipped yams
Ice cream sammiches for dessert

Technically this isn't what's for dinner, it's what I'm making for our lunches this week:

Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Smoked Sausage Soup
Sour Cream Biscuits with Herbs de Provence
Sauteed Zucchini

Having a church wide chili contest tonight. Dinner is whatever Chili I like the best, and whatever sides people bring to accompany said chili.

Dinner at the Mission Halloween Party:
Sloppy Joes
Veggie Salad
Baked potato skins
Fruit salad
Cookies and cupcakes


I corralled my girfriends to help chaperone at the party.
We're going as the Madonner Party--Zombie Madonnas--I'm dressed as the Music video Madonna (White cowboy hat, fake fur coat and gold jewelry--Eeek!).

There's a magician, a DJ, we'll perform our 3rd place winning Madonna lipsync, games and contest.

The 6 local churches that support the Mission gather winter gear for the kids, and it is distributed at the party with a candy bag.

We had corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes on Sat., last night was chicken alfredo and tonight will be roast beef, potaotes and some kind of veggie.

Bo-o-ring

I need to read a few cookbooks and get some inspiration.

Ask Sharmie for her Lasagna recipe. It cost about $20.00 to make, and it has made 3 full meals for both of us - that's about $3.33 per meal per person.

And in the immortal words of Tony the Tiger...



It's Greeeaaatttttt !!!!

Medallions of beef tenderloin marinated in teriyaki sauce and then grilled
Whole Wheat pasta in a garlic & herb sauce
Some kind of veggie
Maybe another ice cream sammich depending on how much pasta I wind up eating

Caesar salad with left-over lemon chicken
Roasted tomato soup
Apples and cheese plate