The What's For Dinner Thread - October'11 (recipe index in OP)

[PrincessInOz]

Today, I've yet to leave my PJs and I'm unsure what day of the week it is.

Saturday!

 

[PrincessInOz]

It's New Year's Eve here....and hot, hot, hot! We're heading for the 80's today and 90's tomorrow.

DH, DS and I are going to head into the city to enjoy the festivities and fireworks.

Dinner? Probably something from one of the restaurants in Chinatown.

 

[dgbg100106]

so for me it 9:55pm on Friday night 12/30... and we had Baja Fresh dinner, we had a living social deal where we got a dinner for four for half price, so we will continue to have this stuff for lunch tomorrow....

We also got all our grocery shopping done for the next week done and went to Walmart,,, trust me it was scary, I am so lucky I made it out alive... but I bought a gift bucket of popcorn and we already ate two flavors/......

Oh well posting while drinking creates lots of fun...


Alison.........

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Morning, all!

Today is our errands day so I don't know where we'll eat. I think we've got it narrowed down to Shane's BBQ (same area as Target so we can just walk there) or Logan's. (we have a gift card)

I'm off to refill my coffee. I'm feeling sluggish today

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Happy New Year, everyone.

It's way past pumpkin time....nearly 2 am; but it is 2012!

 

[Goofyluver]

so for me it 9:55pm on Friday night 12/30... and we had Baja Fresh dinner, we had a living social deal where we got a dinner for four for half price, so we will continue to have this stuff for lunch tomorrow....

We also got all our grocery shopping done for the next week done and went to Walmart,,, trust me it was scary, I am so lucky I made it out alive... but I bought a gift bucket of popcorn and we already ate two flavors/......

Oh well posting while drinking creates lots of fun...


Alison.........

Glad you got out alive!

Morning, all!

Today is our errands day so I don't know where we'll eat. I think we've got it narrowed down to Shane's BBQ (same area as Target so we can just walk there) or Logan's. (we have a gift card)

I'm off to refill my coffee. I'm feeling sluggish today

Have a great day, everyone!

Get home before all the crazies are on the road!

Happy New Year, everyone.

It's way past pumpkin time....nearly 2 am; but it is 2012!

Quick! How many fingers am I holding up?

...P.S.-I hope your New Year is wonderful!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Goooooood morning y'all!

I want to do nothing today.

Dinner is leftovers. So no cooking!!!

Other than that, we'll welcome 2012 with some sort of toast and maybe a little dancin' on the tables.

Everyone please be safe tonight. Have fun. And send 2011 into the past on a good note!

 

[Nancyg56]

Happy New year Princess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is NYE and I have some things to get done. A little shopping and a little cleaning and a little visiting and then home for the night!


In case I don't get back online for a bit I want to wish all of you a happy and Healthy New Year! I was not too spiffy Christmas and never kept up but I want you all to know that I count you all as my Blessings. You help me maintain the little bit of sanity I have and your support, here and through PM and calls and FB mean so much to me.

Please know that I hold you close in my heart, pray for all our babies and families and think about you daily! And I can tell you that my Cyber Phobic Hubby knows all of you, can tell when I make something from the thread and checked out every card! Thank yo all for being you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Happy New Year, everyone.

It's way past pumpkin time....nearly 2 am; but it is 2012!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New year Princess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is NYE and I have some things to get done. A little shopping and a little cleaning and a little visiting and then home for the night!


In case I don't get back online for a bit I want to wish all of you a happy and Healthy New Year! I was not too spiffy Christmas and never kept up but I want you all to know that I count you all as my Blessings. You help me maintain the little bit of sanity I have and your support, here and through PM and calls and FB mean so much to me.

Please know that I hold you close in my heart, pray for all our babies and families and think about you daily! And I can tell you that my Cyber Phobic Hubby knows all of you, can tell when I make something from the thread and checked out every card! Thank yo all for being you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy new years! love you Nan!



we have dinner reservations with some friends tonight at one of our fave "special occasion" places. unsure if we will go out afterwards... may just come home and chill

 

[Goofyluver]

Happy New year Princess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is NYE and I have some things to get done. A little shopping and a little cleaning and a little visiting and then home for the night!


In case I don't get back online for a bit I want to wish all of you a happy and Healthy New Year! I was not too spiffy Christmas and never kept up but I want you all to know that I count you all as my Blessings. You help me maintain the little bit of sanity I have and your support, here and through PM and calls and FB mean so much to me.

Please know that I hold you close in my heart, pray for all our babies and families and think about you daily! And I can tell you that my Cyber Phobic Hubby knows all of you, can tell when I make something from the thread and checked out every card! Thank yo all for being you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I don't "see" ya' till next year, have a good night!

And you too, Aimee!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, try #1 of pasta dough was a dud. I'll have pics and an explanation later.

Dough #2 seems promising, but we have yet to roll it out. Ssssssh. It's resting.

 

[pigletgirl]

Hi ladies!
It has been a crazy 10 days or so with christmas and now new years! On top of everything, DH came down with the stomach flu thursday afternoon. He's slowly on the mend, but its put a damper on our plans this evening. We were going to have people over, but cancelled, because I don't want others exposed AND we wouldnt have anything together. I've decided we'll do a redo in the following weeks. Something to look forward too. :thumbsup:

Our Christmas was great! It was our first as husband and wife so it made it even more romantic. We got up first thing in the morning and exchanged between the two of us before heading over to my parents to do stockings and gifts with my family. About mid-afternoon we left and did gifts again with DH's parents. Needless to say, we have been more than blessed with all the wonderful gifts we received. My most favorite was my mini bundt pans from William Sonoma and then a blu-ray player. We received many blu-ray movies for our wedding and various other times and we couldn't play them, so now we can!

WFD: Homemade chicken noodle soup (easy on the gut)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[Nancyg56]

Hi ladies!
:

Hi right back to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can see that you have been so busy since you stopped in here but it is nice to "see" you again! feel better

 

[dgbg100106]

happy New years to everyone... Celebrate 2012

 

[Goofyluver]

Hi ladies!
It has been a crazy 10 days or so with christmas and now new years! On top of everything, DH came down with the stomach flu thursday afternoon. He's slowly on the mend, but its put a damper on our plans this evening. We were going to have people over, but cancelled, because I don't want others exposed AND we wouldnt have anything together. I've decided we'll do a redo in the following weeks. Something to look forward too. :thumbsup:

Our Christmas was great! It was our first as husband and wife so it made it even more romantic. We got up first thing in the morning and exchanged between the two of us before heading over to my parents to do stockings and gifts with my family. About mid-afternoon we left and did gifts again with DH's parents. Needless to say, we have been more than blessed with all the wonderful gifts we received. My most favorite was my mini bundt pans from William Sonoma and then a blu-ray player. We received many blu-ray movies for our wedding and various other times and we couldn't play them, so now we can!

WFD: Homemade chicken noodle soup (easy on the gut)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year Emily!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We made pasta.

Wait, did you hear that? Let me repeat it for you.

We. made. pasta!

PASTA!!!!

It's going to take me a while to get the post and pics together. But, we're officially better than Chef Boyardee. That is all.

 

[dgbg100106]

Happy New Year Emily!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We made pasta.

Wait, did you hear that? Let me repeat it for you.

We. made. pasta!

PASTA!!!!

It's going to take me a while to get the post and pics together. But, we're officially better than Chef Boyardee. That is all.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have to fill-in on a praise team this morning so I have a frozen pizza ready and waiting for us when we get in today. I know, I know, it's lazy, but it makes life a whole lot easier for us when we get in.

Sorry for the drive-by (again), but I have fiddle farted too much this morning and need to get on the ball. I hope everyone has a great day!

<---me

 

[HERSEY]

Good morning and Happy New Year everyone!!!


We spent NYE with friends played games and stayed up late. Dogs got me up early.

Black eyed peas cooking. I found a recipe for eggrolls made with black eyed peas and greens. I hope to try that. Fried chicken on tap also. Just a lazy easy day here.

 

[Goofyluver]

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have to fill-in on a praise team this morning so I have a frozen pizza ready and waiting for us when we get in today. I know, I know, it's lazy, but it makes life a whole lot easier for us when we get in.

Sorry for the drive-by (again), but I have fiddle farted too much this morning and need to get on the ball. I hope everyone has a great day!

<---me

Every time I say fiddle fart my BIL and my son collapse into heaps of giggles.

Enjoy your day, Linds!

Good morning and Happy New Year everyone!!!


We spent NYE with friends played games and stayed up late. Dogs got me up early.

Black eyed peas cooking. I found a recipe for eggrolls made with black eyed peas and greens. I hope to try that. Fried chicken on tap also. Just a lazy easy day here.

I saw those eggrolls on Pinterest. Give us a review!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is my last day to sleep in and my last day of vacation. I'm sad. And I probably slept in too late.

Today we're making black eyed peas and pork chops for dinner.

When I reflect back on 2011, so many wonderful things happened...including us finding some wonderful ladies on this thread.

Hope all of you have the best year of your lives.

Now, who needs an aspirin?

 

[dgbg100106]

No Aspirin for me... We started off with Bloody Mary's made with Horseradish Vodka....

Black Eyed Peas are soaking, and we will have Cabbage and Roasted Butternut Squash...

 

[Goofyluver]

So, here we go. Making pasta up in the Goofyluver/UncleR hizzouse.

We had big, lofty dreams as far as our pasta-making abilities go. I was positive that we'd bang it out the first go-round because let's face it...we are that. awesome.

The original pasta recipe we used came from the Kitchen Aid pasta making book that came with the pasta attachments. It was as follows:

3 1/2 cups sifted flour
4 large eggs
1 T water
1/2 tsp. salt

We decided to half the recipe because we were being experimental and we're sort of tree huggers and we didn't want to be wasteful.

So, I started with:

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
2 large eggs
1/2 T water
1/4 tsp salt

Directions told us we should dump all ingredients into our mixer and mix with the flat paddle for 30 seconds.

After 30 seconds of mixing, you replace the flat paddle with the dough hook attachment and mix for 2 minutes.

So, we're standing over the mix and this is what we see:

And I say to UncleR: "Does that look sorta crumbly to you? Why isn't it forming a ball?"

And she's all positive and stuff, trying to reassure me that maybe it'll happen.

2 minutes is up, and the directions then indicate to remove the dough ball (heh) from the mixer and to hand-knead for another 2 minutes.

We had no dough ball. It was so dry and crumbly that I didn't know what to do.

So, UncleR suggested that we toss it back in the mixer and add a bit of water. So, that's what we did.

In my scientific mind, I'm thinking that this ain't good. As you knead the dough longer, the gluten will become stiff and the dough won't be pliable.

What emerged from the mixer was some sort of hard, chunky un-kneadable blob. But, bless my wife, she attempted to knead (read: smash the heck out of) the dough into some sort of workable thing. We gave up and took a break and vowed to reemerge into the kitchen to begin again...once we'd picked our egos up off of the floor.

During our break, I came back to the thread and found the recipe posted by Becky I think? The Mario Batali recipe.

Mario's recipe calls for:

3 1/2 cups sifted flour
4 extra large eggs

As I'm reading the reviews of the recipe, people continually say that they found it necessary to add more eggs, because in today's world, "extra large eggs" aren't so extra large anymore. So, rather than using 4 in the recipe listed above, people were using 6.

We decided to again try for a half recipe, using the original Kitchen Aid recipe we used (that failed so terribly), BUT we were going to add an extra egg.

So, our pasta recipe went as follows:

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
3 large eggs
1/2 T water
1/4 tsp. salt

***I'll stop here and say we measured the flour before and after sifting. I measured out the 1 3/4 cups unsifted flour straight into the sifter. After sifting, we measured out another 1 3/4 cups of the sifted flour. There was a discrepancy, in that we had leftover sifted flour. I have no idea if this made a difference or not, but there was definitly a lot of extra flour.

Dump all ingredients into the mixer, beat with the flat paddle for 30 seconds, on setting 2.

After 30 seconds, this is what we had:

Replace the flat paddle with the dough hook and knead for 2 minutes, on setting 2.

The dough was slightly sticky, so we dusted the counter generously with flour and I went to kneading for 2 more minutes. With the extra flour, the dough came together in a smooth ball.

Dough ball on the left is the original dry, crumbly one. Dough ball on the right is ohhhhhh so nice.

You have to let the dough rest for 20 minutes before running it through the pasta attachments.

Once rested, you can divide your dough into workable portions. The recipe recommended cutting the dough ball into 4 parts. Since we halved the recipe, we cut the dough into 2 parts. You then form the dough balls into a rectangular shape about 1/2 thick. (We only worked with 1/2 of our dough to make the spaghetti, saving the other half to experiment with a different pasta later)

Using the pasta sheet attachment, you set the thickness dial to 1 (on speed 2) and roll the pasta sheets through repeatedly, folding the sheet over itself into 3rds, several times. So, roll through, fold into thirds, roll through...etc.

After kneading the dough through several times, you set the thickness dial to 2 and again feed the dough through the machine.

There are different desired thickness settings for different types of pasta. We were trying spaghetti first, and the desired setting was 4 or 5. So, after feeding the dough through on 2, we repeated the feeding of the dough on settings 3 and 4. This is always done on speed 2. And you never fold your dough with any thickness setting above 1.

Replace the pasta sheeter with your desired pasta cutting attachment and feed it through. We chose spaghetti for our first time outta the block. Again, speed 2.

You can see where some of the noodles stuck juuuuust a bit. We figured out that your pasta sheets need to be well-floured in order for the pasta not to stick together as well as to the cutter.

Once your noodles are cut, you can let them dry for an hour before refrigerating, you can freeze them, or cook immediately.

We cooked ours and served with butter and shredded parmesan. Fresh pasta only requires 3-4 minutes to cook. Since this was a thin spaghetti, it only required 3 minutes.

Oh my word. It was so yummy and just perfect. There was enough for 2 good servings.

We high-fived each other and asked J and Big C if they would like some fresh pasta and we went back into the kitchen to do it all again, this time with fettuccini.

The boys both loved their fettuccini and we served them theirs with butter and parmesan as well.

So, our 1/2 recipe actually made 4 good servings.

I would also add that when we cut our pasta into spaghetti, we hadn't cut our pasta sheets into "serving length". So, our spaghetti noodles were ummmm, SUPER long. As in, long enough that I affectionately called the spaghetti the "Lady and the Tramp" pasta. So, cut your pasta sheets into the pasta length you desire before cutting.

UncleR says to tell you all that she is a pasta snob. It it ain't Barilla, she ain't eating it. She said this was better than Barilla.

We had a blast. We made pasta. We are proud.

That is all!!!

 

[Nancyg56]

Happy New year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I "fiddle farted" around all morning too

Jen- the pasta looks great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brandi- blood mary's sound good right now

Janice- early birds your dogs?????

Dinner last night was beyond pathetic, even for me. PB&J with banana on toast for me, tuna sandwiches for Buddy. cake for dessert

Today I have Glynis bacon parmesan things in one oven, wings in the other. Brushetta cheese crackers ready to make.

Dinner will be prime rib, mashed potatoes, gravy, glazed carrots, buttered haricots verts, maybe corn, hot rolls and alcohol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the pama' fresca cocktails and POM for anyone who does not want HiTest. Nuvo, and my Baileys after dinner drinks. My neighbor is bringing dessert so that is a surprise.