Welcome October Monday Our Daily Dinner

Welcome October Monday

DetroitTokyo 11 years ago
Good morning, happy Monday and first day of October!
I didn't think I'd be first.. We didn't go to the aquarium or cider mill this weekend but it was a nice one nonetheless. The dinner party was very nice. I made spicy langostino salad in cucumber cups, baked crab rangoon, and edamame dip with won ton chips. Maresa made vegetable lo mein, chicken potstickers, and Asian eggplant. Megan made a cabbage salad with Ramen noodles and almonds (no oranges) and some store-bought chicken something or another that was bright reddish pink (!). Ashley made AMAZING spare ribs (Emeril's recipe) and lettuce wraps with veggie filling. Andrea brought almond chicken, veggie fried rice, and cracklin' rice soup (? probably better in the restaurant..). She also made fortune cookies and while they were not crunchy or very good the message inside was personalized for each of us: You will be an aunt/uncle in 6 months. It was a great surprise, though I was in on it. Double surprise b/c Maresa announced she was pregnant too! Ashley & I made some "Geisha Marys" to celebrate: vodka, dry sake, tomato juice, sriracha, wasabi, lime juice, black pepper, pickled green beans, pepperoncini and celery sticks. It was really nice to have all the guys & girls together, hard to pull off with all our different schedules and locations.
Not sure what's for dinner yet tonight, though I was considering experimenting with a recipe I've been working on for a while. Salmon croquettes with portabella mushroom cream sauce. I also have some rainbow trout in the fridge, so either use it or freeze it. I'll see.. there's plenty of time before Kris gets home, 12 hours. Will work on laundry and some other stuff around the house. Not much else on my agenda.
Photo is from the duty-free shop in Windsor, ON, Canada. We went across the border to have dinner last Sunday when my brother and sis-in-law were here. This is her second time in the U.S. and I thought she'd want to go to Canada while she was so very close. We went to a Kosher restaurant called Mazal Tov and though it didn't look like much (it was on the ground floor of their Jewish Community Center), the food was excellent! Vegetable soup, hummus and pita, garden salad, sweet and sour meatballs, lamb & beef kaftas, grilled chicken breasts and lamb chops. We all kind of shared. Everything was good, the lamb chops were the best. Back later to chat some more. Have a great day!
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sparow64 11 years ago said:

Hi Dahlia. Sounds like some really good food you had over the weekend! YUM! That was some dinner party.

Copying my thread here. : )
Good Morning!!

Finally getting that rain they have been talking about since Friday. lol

WOW on your flying ordeal, Laurie. Glad you got an earlier flight. I had never heard of chuck blade steak, so, I googled it. It's in the msucle, so, it tends to be tough. They recommend braising or stewing..I'd say crock pot would do the same thing. And, if you marinate it for a while and cut it on the bias you should be able to use it for fajitas.
http://www.txbeef.org/cooking_school/beef_chuck_top_blade_steak
Let us know what you do.

Kathie Lee and Hoda are doing their show from the UT campus today! WOOOHOOO!! We won a contest they had to host their show at a college. Knoxville is a sea of orange this morning. lol (I tried to post the photo of them in their orange jerseys on the thread I started, but it didn't take...it's in my avatar).

Have some pork chops marinating, will make some waldorf salad and saute some squash, zuchinni, mushrooms and peppers...probably gonna be too wet to grill.

Have a GREAT day!

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DetroitTokyo 11 years ago said:

Oops, Lori! I must have missed your post while I was writing my novella ;-) Good morning! Your meal for tonight sounds great!

Laurie, this is what I made when I had a cut of meat like that: Pulled Beef In A Crock Pot. I'm sure you could alter the seasonings to use the meat for fajitas too.

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Good4U 11 years ago said:

Dahlia, The food line up at your Asian party sounds fantastically yummy to me! No doubt everyone had a great time. Salmon Croquettes with mushroom cream sauce double yummy! Don't you just love it when you find a wonderful place to eat like that when you least expect it! Did you come over via the bridge or the tunnel?

Laurie, Welcome home and congratulations on being a certified leader.

Tina, I don't know what I would do if I started the day off with a hot spicy coffee like that! I would probably have a sore burnt throat for a week! I saw one of those salad jar recipes in a magazine called Chatelaine. I thought it was a cool idea for lunches too. http://www.chatelaine.com/en/article/36812--salad-in-a-jar-three-delicious-recipes?utm_source=_BPhF7eB8hv2r9s&utm_content=che9&utm_medium=email

Janet, You must have gone downtown with Jim this morning I am guessing though? If you did enjoy your day jaunting around. It is World Vegetarian Day so make something special for Benjamin.

Another dreary rainy cool 54F day here. Hopefully I will get my car back today at some point. Dinner will be pork chops with apples and onions and possibly with parsnips and carrots if I am able to get out to buy them.

Have a great day everyone.

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Good4U 11 years ago said:

LOL Lori, I missed it too!!! I meant to ask you did you get your car all fixed up with that new engine? I don't recall you mentioning it since?

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DetroitTokyo 11 years ago said:

Tina, I've seen the mason jar salads, too and think they're a great idea - especially for people who want to eat healthy on the go. Too funny on the HOT coffee!!

Joce, your dinner sounds yummy! We came through the tunnel. It's only 3 miles from where I live, not that the bridge is much further.. Also it lets us off right into downtown Windsor.

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DetroitTokyo 11 years ago said:

Janet, I meant to answer a couple questions you asked me recently. I did end up with moon cakes, kind of by accident. The restaurant Andrea & her husband got food from put 3 moon cakes in the carry-out bag. It was my first time trying one and I was really excited about it b/c our Asian themed dinner party just happened to fall on the day of the harvest moon and the night before the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival! Also, I've lived in Detroit for about 9 years now. I lived in New Orleans for just under a year during my Sophomore year of college (didn't go to school there, though) and before I moved to Detroit I lived in two Northwest suburbs, one for 9 years and the other for about 8. I was born in Denver, Colorado and my family moved to Michigan when I was about 1 1/2.

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

Alrighty...here we go again...you know what happened...the "Just wrote a big long post and it disappeared" saga......:( Argh,snargh.....
Wow! October 1st already. That's just crazy. I swear the summer has just flown by. Just flown!
Your dinner party was Fantabulous Dahlia! Wow! What a feast! The Potstickers and the Ribs had my name written all over them as did your stuffed Cucumber cups. What a menu! How fun that your girlfriend is pregnant! Is this the first one of your bunch? I'd never heard of a Geisha Mary and they sound to DIE FOR! As do salmon croquettes with a mushroom sauce. Nice! Do you go across to Windsor often? It is only a nine hour drive to Ottawa so you'll have to come for lunch next time. LOL! :) Your meal at the Mazel Tov sounded excellent. What did you think of the Moon cake? The one we bought was filled with red bean curd. I wasn't a fan! :) That's cool you lived in New Orleans. That's a place I had always wanted to visit. And you were born a Denver girl.....Colorado would also be a beautiful place to see. You've moved around a fair bit. I think that's always nice. Gives a person more perspective.
Morning Lori! I'm guessing that Kathi Lee is the Kathi Lee as in Regis and Kathi Lee? I never watch it but I'm guessing. Hoda? If I'd seen your post earlier I would have gone to see if I could find them on the TV. I do believe I am correct in guessing that the orange jerseys are the VOLS colours right? I'm getting pretty good at this football thing. LOL! :) I showed Jim your Football game pictures last night and he enjoyed seeing them and Atlanta! I see both you and Joce are doing chops tonight!
World Vegetarian Day is it Joce? I did not know that. No, I didn't go downtown this morning. It is National "Me" Day in my house today! :) Benj has a Mandarin Class tonight so he went in with Jim and Jim is in Executive Meetings today and tomorrow and they're going out for dinner after work tonight so he'll pick Benjamin up when he's done....which means....I have the house to myself today with no one to please but myself. I made Poached eggs on toast for brekkie and ate it in front of the Food Network watching "Dinner Party Wars". :) Hope you get your car back asap. When will you hear?
Welcome back from your trip Laurie! Congrats on being an official leader now! That's awesome!
Nice dinner you made last night Michelle and yum on the pretzels too!
I did see some Mason jar salads on Pinterest Tina but didn't look at them close. The ones you mentioned sound amazing. I'll have to watch out for them. LOL @ the HOT coffee!

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

We haven't seen Laura since Thursday. Am hoping its a bad case of Mists of Pandaria and not that something has happened to her Dad or anything. ??? Laura????

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

Oh ya.....food! :) Have a ton of leftovers I can clean up for lunch and dinner but do think I may make a batch of
Butternut Squash Soup With Caramelized Apples
at some point.

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DetroitTokyo 11 years ago said:

Janet, I think the moon cake I tried was of the lotus seed paste variety. It was interesting, lots of filling for the pastry crust. I'll take a photo, I still have 2 left. Now 2 girls are pregnant simultaneously. Maresa has a son from a prior relationship, he's 6. She got pregnant at 19 and the father isn't really in the picture but the grandfather is which is good. Her husband, Kenny, has always treated Jimmy like his own. They've been married just over 2 years now and have been trying to conceive for just over a year. She's only 6 weeks in. Andrea is about 3 months in. She conceived within weeks of her wedding. Did I mention my sister-in-law is pregnant too? About 2 months if I'm correct. Baby fever!!! I haven't caught it. But, I'm truly happy for all of them!!! I love National "Me" Day! Before Kris and I moved into this loft 3 years ago, I had moved 8 times in 7 years - mostly within Detroit. I'm going to have to check out the Dinner Party Wars... This is the rib recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/szechuan-style-spareribs-recipe/index.html

Laurie, I meant to congratulate you too!! Just got sidetracked trying to help out with the chuck.

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

Go Dahlia on the Homepage Features! They're all gorgeous! So two girlfriends and a SIL with babies on the horizon hey! It's a crazy time of life that one. I e-mailed myself the Szechuan sparerib recipe. Thanks so much. I actually have a pkg. of ribs down in the freezer. How handy is that?

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laurieg 11 years ago said:

thanks for the recipe Dahlia! the girls have been asking for a recipe of Pats, of course I can't remember the name but it has button mushrooms, sour cream and you cook it in the slow cooker, so I may do that. I have to get those two ingredientss from the store though.
Had a good meeting this morning at WW put all my training to use :)
tonight I have a confrence call with the trainer and my territory manager, I think it is just to go over what happened in the weekend and what I may need to work on.
Rachel has some sort of event at the high school tonight at 6:30 where they are serving Ice cream but to get the toppings you want you have to visit different tables which different clubs and organizations are at each table...............she is supposed to have CCD at the same time but the church actually worked it out with the high school that it would start its event 15 minutes earlier and the church would hold CCD for the students 45 minutes later. nice teamwork!
tonights dinner is pasta with a bolegnase type sauce. I wanted to make bbq chicken pizza but this was picked instead. still have a ton of soup left!!!
tina I have seen those but I don't have many mason jars. I do have a neat salad container that has a freezer ring that you pop out to keep your salad cold and a seperate container for toppings and a seperate container for the dressing. It was a WW item.
How was the spicy coffee??

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sparow64 11 years ago said:

Hi Joce! Yes, my car is all fixed. Picked it up last Monday on my way in to work. It's doing fine. (It SHOULD...lol). Hope yours is ready today! I hate being without my car. : )

Wow Dahlia, you have moved almost as many times as I have! : )

Yes, Janet, Kathie Lee is from Regis and Kathie Lee; she hosts the 4th our of The Today Show with Hoda Kotbe. I'm a way bigger fan of Hoda than of Kathie Lee. She kinda of gets on my nerves. But I like them together, they do some fun stuff on their show. (It comes on at 10 am on NBC). That's them in my avatar. Glad Jim enjoyed the football pix. Enjoy having the house to yourself.

Hi Laurie. That sounds like a cool way for the kids to learn about the different clubs. Nice that they are working the timing out with the church function. Glad you had a good trip to Chicago.

Time to get back to the grind. : /

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Good4U 11 years ago said:

I picked up the car and it wasn't as bad at all $192.00. Considering they are money buckets as Janet says! Then I went to Foodsmiths and got parsnips, beets, zucchini, brown mushrooms, honey, cheeses, spices and these cute little fruit cup sized hummus cups which will be handy for me b/c Den won't touch it.

Dahlia, I always remember that tunnel. The first time I went through it I was a kid and it still totally amazes me to this day. That is cool it brings you right into downtown Windsor. I have probably taken the train tunnel more often b/c my Grandfather even though I never met him was a Conductor for the CNR. When my Grandmother was alive we all had free train passes so traveling by train was a given. Wow you certainly have lived in great places. I have been to Colorado to ski at Steamboat and Telluride but never been to Denver it is such a gorgeous state. I have always wanted to go the New Orleans for the food, music and sites. Congrats on all your homepage features Wow! You have been a busy Kitchen Queen! Very nice news on all those babies coming. LOL You are going to have to take up knitting soon! I bookmarked the spareribs also thanks:)

Janet, Congrats on your totally me day! The only moon cake I have tried was with lotus seeds or petals something like that and it wasn't bad at all. I want to try your Butternut Squash Soup With Caramelized Apples this time when I make butternut squash soup. It is somewhat similar to mine but I use applesauce, no carrot no sugar and sometimes add a bit of curry. Which reminds me I still have garlic soup left out in the garage (which is O.K. b/c it is cool out there) I must put it in jars and store it away.

Laurie, What else is in Pat's recipe besides mushrooms and sour cream? That is neat what Rachel is going to do with the ice cream visiting the tables to learn about different organization for toppings is a great idea!

Lori, Good to know the car is all fixed! No kidding it should! Don't work to hard. Gee we need you here don't they know!!!

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

The Ice Cream table sounds awesome Laurie. I could visit one right now no problem but all I have in the fridge is low-fat yogurt. NO FAIR! What's CCD? Your dinner sounds yummy.
I had never heard of Hoda Kotbe before in my life. Live and learn. Of course I had to google her. Her parents are Egyptian and she was born in Oklahoma. The name Hoda means "Guidance". There you have it. :)
Wow...you can't get out of a garage for much less than what you did Joce. That's excellent! I just finished peeling my butternut squash and I had the weirdest thing happen. The skin on my left hand felt all tight and hard. I thought initially that it was just the juice from the squash drying and coating my hand, but upon inspection I realize that a thin,thin layer of my skin is peeling off. How crazy is that? And only on my left hand! So of course I googled it! ROFL! And it turns out it happens to some people. Acts almost like a chemical peel. It doesn't hurt or anything but how weird is that?
Dr. just called re: my blood tests last week and says my Cholesterol is border line. What a pain. I've reached my quota of Dr.'s visits this year I swear. :) Anyway...she just told me to get it under control with diet and exercise and she'd see me in three months to re-test it. I just googled (lol) the top ten foods with the highest amount of cholesterol in them:
1) Egg Yolk Guilty as charged. I eat an egg or two for breakfast almost every morning.
2) Caviar Never had it in my life
3) Liver,Pate or Foie Gras Not happening
4) Butter Only use Becel margarine
5) Shrimp Ya, a little guilty here too. :)
6) Fast foods Rarely
7) Oil packed fish Never
8) Cheese Guilty but I do try and watch it
9) Processed meats, lamb,duck, sausage I eat an occasional bit of ham
10) Shellfish,oysters,clams and mussels Nada
So....guess I better go back to my egg white sandwiches for brekkie and knock off the shrimp and cut back on the cheese. Grumble,grumble,grumble.

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Good4U 11 years ago said:

Janet, Border line isn't bad at all! Just up the exercise and cut back to about 2 whole eggs a week. Oatmeal will knock it down quickly and keep it down and a few other things in the grains area will also. Probably it is up b/c you are retired and not moving as much as you were in the store all day. I found that out after I retired too! Plus you do eat out quite a bit here and in CA and you really don't know what bad fats you are getting then?
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL00002

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laurieg 11 years ago said:

CCD is the classes the church makes them take to receive confirmation. Frank is Catholic and we married in the church with my promise that If I had any children I would raise them catholic.

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laurieg 11 years ago said:

Beef And Button Mushroom Stroganoff totally not Pat's recipe lol. no wonder I couldn't find it!!!!

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chuckieb 11 years ago said:

Only two eggs is gonna be tough but I will try and cut back, and you're right Joce, we do eat out a lot and I don't truly know what's going in the dishes. I can't do oatmeal. LOL. Thank you for the weblink. It's very informative.
Glad you found your recipe Laurie!
Soup's on the stove and the kitchen is smelling good! :)

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DetroitTokyo 11 years ago said:

I don't remember Colorado and I've only been back once since we moved. We had a layover in Denver on the way to Oregon but we didn't have time to leave the airport. My dad's sister and my cousins live in Boulder.

Thank you Janet and Joce!

Laurie, that explains why I couldn't find a recipe like that when I went looking through Pat's. Looks good.

Janet, I tested "borderline high" for cholesterol, too. I think I'm due for another check up on that. I'm sure I'll give blood next week at my appointment. Anyway, from what I've read and building off what Joce said, high fiber foods can lower cholesterol. oats, barley and other whole grains, beans, okra, nuts, soy, fatty fish, and Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits. These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL.

Joce, so cool you travelled that tunnel so many times and also traveling by train is really something special. I would love to do more of it.

I've been busying myself things like deep cleaning my washing machine, portioning and freezing things (I got some good stuff on sale on Friday), and prepping twice baked potatoes (sweets mixed with bakers) to go with dinner.

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