Frantic Friday! Our Daily Dinner

Frantic Friday!

chuckieb 9 years ago
Good Morning Everyone! It is a simply beautiful morning here in the Ottawa Valley. Supposed to go up to 19C/66F this afternoon. We had a little bit of rain last night and when Jim came in from grabbing the newspaper he says it totally smells like spring outside! :)
I'm feeling a little frantic as we'd invited Jim's friend over to watch the Sens Game this evening and then that plan kind of snowballed into having his wife and two kids join him and come for dinner as well. Yikes. Thank Goodness I cleaned the house on Wednesday and also great that I decorated the family room fireplace mantel piece with Sens stuff. :)
I'm going to make Lori's
Mesquite Grilled Chicken In White Barbeque Sauce
with
Twice Baked Spinach Potatoes
and a veggie tray with
Heinz 57 Dip
My dilemma....and what is causing me to be a bit frantic, is dessert. Jim's friend loves dessert and of course he has two little boys and little boys always love dessert. I have to run some errands this afternoon and don't have a whole lot of extra time. Think,think, think.....
Karen...are you doing okay? I'm hoping you are just out planting mounds and mounds of tulip bulbs and hyacinths and too tired to hop on your Ipad at the end of the day. :)
Have a great trip to Lake Almanor Marie. Your lunch sounds excellent. I checked out the link. It's BEAUTIFUL! Wow! There's a picture of some Canada Geese along with some other huge birds but I'm not sure what they are. Sandhill cranes maybe?
Did you end up making Enchiladas last night Michelle?
When do you have to go give testimony Laurie?
How was the food at "Eden" Michelle B.? Did you get any beef? :)
Did you end up making the Stroganoff Joce? How are you feeling today?
Tina? Did Allison pick up some good stuff at the grocery store? Sending you a virtual pancake. A blueberry one with maple syrup. Hope you like it. :)
The Thai chicken wasn't as flavourful as I was hoping it to be last night. Boo. Jim and I went for another bike ride after lunch yesterday. I had to walk up one big hill but other than that I did pretty well. :) Pic below taken yesterday when we were down at the Ottawa River. There's still a lot of ice on it but it'll be gone soon.
Wishing everyone a great day. TGIF!
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mommyluvs2cook 9 years ago said:

Morning! Sorry your day is turning frantic Janet :( I would be that way too...and be totally mad at Michael for planning something so last minute lol. You are doing a great job though and the menu sounds great! I'm sure you will figure out dessert...if anything ice cream is always a good option! I did end up making enchiladas last night...just winged it, and they were delish! Beautiful picture!

My MIL was cleaning out her attic and found a bunch of our stuff from years ago...mostly baby stuff so I am going to swing by there and pick it up so I can go through it. Also need to go by the library and pick up some ink for our printer. Tonight we have some friends coming over after dinner. We will probably hang out and play darts or something. Once again dinner is up in the air. Need to check and see how much leftovers we have before I pull something out.

Hope everyone has a great TGIF!!!

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

I really don't mind the extra guests etc. as I do love having people over, but I am worried about dessert. :) That'll be like a time capsule of stuff for you to go through Michelle. :) Fun! Have a good time with your friends this evening. I go through so much ink with my printer as I'm always printing off pictures to send to my Mom. This next time we want to try get the ink cartridges refilled at Costco. Have you heard of that? You bring in your empty ink cartridges, leave them with them for about an hour and it's a fraction of the price. Don't quote me but it's like $12.99 vs. $64.99 or something. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I get it done.

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

Good morning.
Our internet went out on Monday night and we had to replace the router. It took forever. The place was not open until 10 so could not get it Tuesday. Then it was too late Wednesday to call and go thru the set up. Thursday we were gone. So he called this morning.
Allergies / sinus are miserable.
Silver Dollar City was cool. I am tired.
Have to go program the printer then have too much to do.
Take care all. Will read posts and try to check in later.

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Good4U 9 years ago said:

Janet, You sound like almost everything is under control for dinner. What about a chocolate mousse? You can make it easily or buy the Doctor Odeker sp? ones which are very good and easy to make. You could also make your Orange Mousse or serve that cool ice cream with the Maple leaf in it with strawberries and maybe chocolate sauce. Those are just quick ideas off the top of my head. A trifle would be easy as well if you picked up a pound cake or angel food cake and made a custard and added some fruit to it or something like that? Yes I have heard of refilling the ink cartridges and it is a great idea. I used to get a kit and I don't know if they still make them but it was very easy to do and saved a pack of money.

Marie, Enjoy your trip and don't forget to take lots of pics, if you can! Have fun!

Michelle, As usual you have a busy day! Enjoy your company tonight and have fun.

Bummer on all your problems with your router for the internet, Karen:( I hope your allergies get better soon. Do you take anything for them?

Den will have his rib eye steak for dinner and I will have either scallops or shrimp for dinner with rice and a salad most likely. I have to go out this afternoon and I will probably stop by to see what my Soup Lady has in store for me today.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day!

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

Ugh on the Internet troubles Karen. I hate when that happens! Hope to hear about your trip to Silver Dollar City.
(Isn't that where Ang would go on occasion guys?)
I've got the chicken marinating and the sauce made, veggies cut, veggie dip made. Baked the potatoes and they looked fine on the outside but when I cut into them they're full of black marks. Argh. Have to go buy some new ones and do that once we get home from running errands. Table is set.
Thanks for your dessert ideas Joce. Don't know if I mentioned after we'd had the Maple Leaf ice cream but it's not a very good quality ice cream. No creaminess whatsoever. As cute as it was I won't buy it again. Your mousse idea tweaked my interest. Went on Pinterest and found this:
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/12/chocolate-fruit-dip/
with some bananas, hoping the strawberries are decent....
I think I might go with it. Can pick up the ingredients when I'm in town.
Yum on Den's rib eye. And your scallops or shrimp. And your Soup lady. And, and...:)

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Good4U 9 years ago said:

I think that chocolate fruit dip is a wonderful idea, Janet! I totally pinned it! Good to know about the ice cream with the maple leaf in it! I was going to buy some now I am not so interested in it. Thanks for letting me know:)

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

Back - still have no had time to go thru back posts except for a quick skim, am sure I missed lots!

The Siliver Dollar Trip was, as usual, top notch. We did eat at the International Foods but it is not friendly to the food list we have. Lunch - not a problem - I had chicken on lettuce with chipolte dressing and a few sips of Wayne's soda (not thirsty). The shows were so good.

Ecuador Manta is always good, and I bought another of their CD's (One Nation).They had a female singer along, but I wasn't thrilled with her performance (NOT that I am a tenth as good - ha ha!). The native flutes, made of bamboo, are so-o-o-o haunting. You get lost in the melody!

We saw "Ireland" (celtic), and Slowenian women's group. We enjoyed them immensely. Really loved the "Ireland" show. The 6 P.M. show was highly contemporary country/rock music, even their gospel songs were the new rock-pop style.

Did not have a chance to do much shopping because Wayne was show-oriented yesterday and my back muscles fought back all day. Although he did stop at the leather store to look for a holster. And a Christian artisan shop had such pretty things....a cross that I want to get for the wall next time we are there, and little storage boxes out of natural wood / branches etc. So cool!

Got to go. Peanut butter bread is in the oven for lunch. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on fresh peanut butter bread. I have been threatening / teasing about serving pb & j sandwiches for a while. Today is the day.

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mbelisle 9 years ago said:

Hello all,
Good luck with the dessert Janet - your chocolate dip sounds wonderful. I am about to head out to go walking before the sea wall gets too full of people because Saturday is a big day. After that I will take some time to continue to explore the huge market and see what I can find. I tried some budi (or bodi?) yestserday which is kind of like a realy big fat banana that you boil until it gets soft then peel it and eat the soft flesh. It tastes kind of like banana but with a really citrus kind of tartness. I am going to reseach other ways to use it but it was pretty darn good just boiled.
I also had some Thai Pumpkin Soup at a restaurant here called Eden. I am getting a chace to eat out lot now using the tiny kitchen and lack of utensils here at the temporary room as my excuse but that will come to an abrupt end once I have a real kitchen. There's something nice about not having to clean up though....
Hope everyone is doing well and has a great rest of the day!
Michelle B.

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mommyluvs2cook 9 years ago said:

It is like a time capsule Janet! I didnt know it but she also gave us a bag of some of Michaels stuff when he was a kid including a rock collection :) I can't wait to go through it all! That is really neat on refilling the cartridges! We don't have a Costco but we do have a Sam's so maybe they do it? I'll have to look into it.

Sorry to hear about your computer problems and allergy problems Karen :( Take care. Lol at PB&J sandwiches :)

Great dessert ideas Joce! Yum on either choices for dinner. Wish I had a Soup Lady near me!

Went to 3 different places looking for the gray ink for our computer but could not find it...ARGH! At least I did find the black I needed. Just going to order the gray online. Took out some chicken thighs for dinner. Got to get some cleaning done now!

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mommyluvs2cook 9 years ago said:

Decided on Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs for dinner along with asparagus and potatoes. :)

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

The chocolate fruit dip tastes not bad. We'll see what the kid judges say. :) You can taste the cream cheese a lot so it's going to depend if they like cream cheese or not.
I've never heard of Ecuador Manta Karen. I'll have to google them tomorrow. That's cool they had such an array of performances to see there. Peanut butter bread sounds novel. Is it posted?
Neat on the Bodi Michelle. I'll have to google that too. I love Thai pumpkin soup. Enjoy eating out while you have an excuse. :)
Awww, very fun on Michael's rock collection from when he was a kid. Jim had one too and I think it's around here somewhere. I've never heard of a computer calling for gray ink. Only black and coloured.
The chicken is on the BBQ and the twice baked potatoes are made as is the chocolate dip. Guests should be here in about 45 minutes. Just came back in from a hot tub. It's soooo gorgeous out there. Have all the windows open. Benjamin posted on his FB page today that the air quality index in Taipei was 153 which is atrocious. Ottawa's is at 24 at the moment.

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

Janet, your chocolate fruit dip sounds super good - and I do love the cream cheese!
Cool on your time capsule, Michelle. It is so cool to find old time treasures!
Michelle B., bodi / budi sounds so good! It must be so much fun trying all the new foods available in Fiji!
Hi, Joce, Tina, Marie.

The internet is working. Wayne's computer is printing. Mine isn't but at least his can.

Janet, the recipe is on Food.com. I will try to find it.. It did not turn out so great, hard and not as much taste as I would have liked. There is a better one on AR - I will look them up.

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

OK - the url for the bread is: http://www.food.com/recipe/eggless-easy-and-tasty-peanut-butter-bread-46582. I was not thrilled with the outcome so did not post it. I used natural peanut butter, so maybe it needs the over processed stuff. AR has a number of recipes for peanut butter bread, but since I discovered we were out of eggs (!) I had to look for an eggless recipe.

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