Good Morning

Hi Ruth! Have a great day and happily make it through to tomorrow.

Its cool here this AM, as well. We had bugs last night for the fireworks. Actually, I spent 1/2 of them in with the dogs, who both despise them, so. They are already outside merrily enjoying their morning. I have house chores to do early, then go finish a small painting project on Moms porch. Either we'll BBQ here with some family today, or go back to GWS. Haven't decided yet.

Hi OOPs!

Twynn, welcome back. I've missed your posts.

Sophie, I'm posting the WW Carrot Cake recipe on our Summer Food thread today. It was quite good.

Happy "day after"! It was rather quiet, but nice here yesterday. Usually we have 20 people or more for a cookout, but it was just my DD's family. That gave us more time to just relax and enjoy each other's company. We could hear fireworks going off all around us, but couldn't see anything over the treetops.

Jake and I are having our coffee on the sunporch this morning and just taking it easy. We don't have anything planned for the day, but we do expect DS and family to show up later for supper. They've been at the shore all week, but are due home today. It's Dustin's birthday today, so I should bake a cake for him, too. Or better yet, just pick up an ice creamcake from DQ.

It's nice to see you back with us, OOPS!

I'll be thinking of you today at the church supper, RUTH. Hope it's a fun event!

Have an enjoyable day, how ever you plan to spend it. Right now I'm going to have another cup of coffee and read the Sunday papers.

ETA:
Morning Cyndi and Debbie! Lots of simul-posting going on today!

Morning all!
Our 4th ended up being very boring...but we needed a day just to hang around here. A couple of my son's friends came over and it was like old times around here. Spent most of the day lounging around and watching the Twilight Zone Marathon. I remembered most of the really old episodes. Bombs blowing up entire cities, alians landing etc.. No wonder I was a nervous little kid. I told my husband that between Twilight Zone and having to hide under our desks at school waiting for someone to drop the big one on us, no wonder this generation spent money like there was no tomorrow. It always seemed like their would be no tomorrow! Maybe in the back of our heads, we were programmed that way by 1960's era Twilight zone!

I tried making that mushroom stroganoff recipe. the stroganoff itself was great, but the pasta was yuk. I tried a new type...it was a brown rice pasta and it was just plain awful. Live and learn.

I didn't really follow a recipe, but here's what I did (this was a BIG pan of the stuff!)

Rough chopped 3 vidalia onions along with a big pack of portobello mushrooms. I had a pack of smaller mushrooms and threw them in for the ride. When it had sauteed in olive oil for a while, I threw in a couple of cloves of garlic.
I sprinkled that with Zatarain's creole seasoning and some sea salt and let it cook down for a really long time on low till it was all very tender. (Maybe 45 minutes or so) Then I added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a whole container of greek yogurt (the big containers!) And that was it. Made a huge pot. Fed everyone with a lot leftover.

I've been noticing that over the last few days, my laundry looked kind of weird. Washed sheets yesterday and they had some "splotches" on them and looked kind of dingy (I'm picky about having clean white good smelling sheets on the bed!! I even order the "expensive stuff" laundry products to make sure they are heavenly smelling! I hate wasting it.) Later on I finally figured it out when I put my bedroom curtains in there to wash. The stupid washing machine is not agitating. It goes through the whole cycle, but no wishy washy!! So I ended up washing the curtains by hand then rinsing and spinning in the machine. Guess I need to find a repair man. I HATE spending money on stuff that is no fun...I need to either eat it, wear it, or look at it...grrrrrrrrr.

Well, that didn't take long. I decided to meringue the pies before my soak and have them all done and cooling in less than an hour. I don't know why I agonized over it so long.

Just poured another coffee and decided to treat myself with DaVinci Sf Hazelnut syrup instead of my wee bit of Splenda. Is that stuff ever sweet! I can barely drink it. I think I have now become overly sensitive to sugar just as I have to salt. I think that's a good thing. Anybody else finding the same?

OK - tub - start the strawberries - show off Jazz - vacuum car - pack pies for transport - and outta here by two. (Must remember to get dressed.)

Mornin' Cyndi, Cottage and Cat

Cat, when I was growing up my Mom always made stroganoff for my Dad on their anniversery. She always served it over rice. I'm going to try this, but think I'll try it over brown rice. Thanks for sharing.

Cyndi, I'll post a green bean idea on our summer food thread. I'm trying it tomorrow.

Cottage, how was your shrimp?

Hooray Ruth! I'm glad that went so quickly. I'm the same with sweets and now salt too. I have always been a salt fiend dating back to being a smoker. I stopped adding it when my bp refused to behave even now. I'm surprised at how fast I adjusted. When I order lattes with sf syrup I usually get a double so the espresso cuts the sweet. I suppose I could just order half syrup but I do love the espresso

hi Debbie & Cottage. We must all be on the same weekend clock

Cat - I make a stroganoff with mushrooms too. Yum. Haven't made it in ages but now I'm thinking about it.

We are off to hike a small mountain that is conveniently located in one of the parks we are thinking about for the wedding celebration. That will give us a chance to check out the shelter and time the drive from Route 91, both important. The park has lean tos for camping so I know some of our out of town friends will take advantage of that. Then lunch in town, some errands and home to work in the garden.

ETA - Debbie - I like stroganoff over shredded, steamed cabbage. I'm going to try it over spiraled zucchini now, of course

That's a good idea with the stroganoff over spialed zucs! Will try that myself next time. I was thinking also to add a bunch more veggies to the stroganoff itself...like squash.

I love stroganoff. The recipe I use has lowfat sour cream and plain nonfat yogurt. Yum. I took it easy last night and just did refried black beans, salsa, chopped cabbage and cheese on a tortilla.

Today is the day we're celebrating Brian's birthday. We slept in but he wants pancakes so I'll make whole wheat ones in a couple of minutes. I don't have eggs but I do have Southwest eggbeaters. Guess I'll work around the peppers.

It's actually raining so it's cooled off quite a bit. I told Brian if he packs for the month with his dad this morning then he can have his friends stay today as long as their parents are okay with it.

Mmm...Cyndi, the stroganoff over steamed cabbage might just complete it as the main course to an Eastern European experience. I can tell...I need a new spiral machine. I used to own a kitchenware/gourmet store. I gadgets and .

Have fun hiking. Think I'll around town a bit.

ETA-Hi Barb have a great birthday day with your son!

I'm sickie today. No fever, but was quite ill this morning. I blame the off-plan foods that I consumed last night for the 4th. We really over-did it. I have a feeling I'll not be eating Cool Ranch Doritos any time soon. We'll just leave it at that. Can't even blame it on alcohol. Just my body saying YUCK! Thank you, body. I'd forgotten what it was like to be miserably ill from Dorito-overload.

Going to take it easy today. Still having abdominal cramps, although I haven't been sick since about 10. My face is still that greenish color, too, so I'm just going to sip some water and try to hydrate.

Hope everyone is having a decent 4th weekend!

Lisa

Hi Friends!

We had so much fun in Louisiana with the family. I forget what it means to truly be hot till I go back there. The thermostat in our truck read 104 on Thursday. I taught a Jazzercise class Friday morning. It's hard to breathe in that humidity, and breathing is important in class.

I ate like a fool -- seafood gumbo, shrimp etouffee, boudin, cracklins, and I won't even talk about Little Debbie... I'm feeling pretty gross so it's back to phase 1 tomorrow. I'm excited to eat a veggie!