Dinner tonight - or last night.

Speaking of fun meals. I am sure there are many names for this, but, the sausages wrapped in cresent dough. Hot Ziggadies.

Those are good Alex...I like Hot Ziggadies better....they call them Pigs in a Blanket down here...horrid. But YUMMY!

We are having pork chops - marinated them all day...I am going to go grill them here in a minute and brown rice with a salad and sweet tea. I can't wait...I'm STARVING!

Yum. Love porkchops.

But tonight we're having Shepherd's Pie with homemade cole slaw and fresh melon. (I got a really really good deal on potatoes and we're buried with them--coming up ways to use them up.)

Hey Foxy - how do you make your Shepherds Pie?

It's pretty much my own invention--you just guess proportions to taste and however many you need to feed.

Prepare seasoned mashed potatoes (salt, pepper, usual dab of butter, a little milk, a few optional chives works well)--fairly stiff. Line casserole dish with potatoes leaving 'well' in the middle. Conserve about 1/4th of the potatoes.

Meanwhile thorough brown lean hamburger seasoned with salt, pepper, a dash of basil (optional). Drain meat well but leave in the skillet. The last minute liberally add worchestershire sauce and heat so the drained browned meat will absorb it. Transfer the seasoned meat to the mashed potato well and cover with the reserved mashed potatoes. Bake in 350 degree oven until potatoes are browned and very slightly crisped on the top - usually 20 minutes or so is sufficient.

Serve with veggies and fruit of choice. Usually turns out pretty good.

Set's going to get most of the meal ready while I'm at class tonight. Roast russet taters and steamed asparagus. I'll grill the chicken once I get home.

Sounds good...my Mom used to make it and I asked her how the other day and she couldn't remember...hasn't made it since we were kids. I bet she got tired of it! It was one of those low budget wonder meals! But I loved it...thank you - going to revive it in my household!

Stop it girls, you're making me feel hungry again, I've just had my muesli breakfast.

a great big orange and bowl of frozen fruit, i'm really lazy

I'm about to embark on a fish cake making episode (Beach Cliff Herring Steaks with mustard, mashed potatoes, chopped onion, bread crumbs, bit of egg, and whatever else in the fridge crosses my plain - plane? - of vision).
Might be making a soup after that. So, I'm having a fish cake surprise, or soup.

Let us know how it goes Osso!

I will report. The fish cake thing is a trip through memory lane (my mother used to make codfish cakes and I liked them, in contrast to much of her cooking, in retrospect...)
and fishies are pretty good for you
and tinned fish are cheap.

Of course I prefer north coast wild salmon, or fresh halibut.. but those are exotic here and out of my budget anyway.

The Shepherd's Pie was a really low budget dish when I was much younger, Mismi. Not so much anymore with the price of hamburger and potatoes, but still economical enough. And it is good pretty much no matter what you put in it.

I'm considering Osso's invention and wondering if I could get ElStud to eat fish soup. Probably not. I can't get him to eat clam chowder.

Fried salmon patties used to be another favorite low budget treat at our house though.

I do make fish soup with the tinned things and perhaps the odd tilapia (or whatever) cut up -- no way comparable to a good bouillaibaise or cioppino -- but tasty enough for me. I make fish soup differently every time.. but then I make all soup differently every time.

Picked up a roasted chicken earlier. Was going to have that with pilaf and salad,....but,...now have decided on a chicken sandwich. Tomato, lettuce, cheese, mayonaise. Potato chips, the greasy ones.

gonna take my brother out to dinner tonight at the local marina



the tiki bar there is actually a Seminole chikee hut



that sits by the boats docked at the marina

the drinks are great(Planters Punch) is my fave

and the appies are to die for:"dirty oysters" every time I go there

(dozen raw oysters with caviar and sour cream topped by finely chopped Bermuda onion)

I admire folks who can eat raw oysters. I ate raw oysters only once, to be polite, at Mismaloya beach in Mexico. A couple from Mexico City bought them for us as a treat. Hah, I soon lost twelve pounds quickly... the only time I.. well, never mind.

But, given I could get a handle on eating them, it sounds like the caviar and raw onions would work with them. I'm fine with cooked oysters, but putting those with caviar and raw onion wouldn't work, I don't think, akin to cooking what would have been a good steak tartare/carpaccio with the fixings that usually go with that, just not the same wonderful dish.

my love affair with raw oysters was started by my New Jersey ex-wife

oh boy! raw oysters. I am envious.

Turkey burgers here tonight.

Last night I made a sort of Asian-inspired turf'n'faux surf stir fry
- lots of onions, mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, tiny cubes of good steak, faux lobster, truffle vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, udon noodles - pretty dang good - so good that my lunch left-overs disappeared before I got up this morning

Oysters on the half shell. A dab of horseradish. Great,...now what.