In just a month, or so, we expect to have two rather large groups of people visit our home. My mother has joined the Red Hat Society, and we’ve invited them to brunch on Saturday, May 20. Once the date was established the ladies all insisted they would bring something, making it into a pot luck. They felt it would be the easiest thing to do, since one can’t have cheese, and one can’t have pasta. Who knows what other dietary restrictions may lurk in the group.
The other group that will be visiting is our friends from exercise. Rather than go out to breakfast to celebrate the May birthdays, they will all bring a dish to pass and we will celebrate here. It’s been my pleasure to have them come to us in May so that I can show off the iris. This group has dietary problems, as well, so I’ve been searching my books for something to offer.

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I was surfing through blogs tonight. I’ve been tied up with the organization of our taxes this week and haven’t had the chance to visit. Jim, at Parkway Rest Stop, was talking about his aversion to seafood. He dislikes it all, but the part that caught my attention was the raw stuff.
EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

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Every now and then it’s a good idea to look through your freezer and refrigerator and plan meals that will let you use up food that you’ve been storing. I’ve been good about this all week. We’ve had home cooked dinners, complete with entr

My family would tell you that I am the QUEEN OF CONDIMENTS! Actually, that isn’t so. I do happen to have a refrigerator overstuffed with bottles and jars of practically every condiment known to man, but it’s not my fault.
I live in one of those very rare households which have three generations. Everyone who lives here is over 35, including the cat. Each of us have our own quirks when it comes to eating, but my mother and my stepson tie when it comes to who can buy the oddest condiment, take one taste of it, and leave it in the refrigerator for six years.
Last week, I had the pleasure of going to lunch with my youngest sister and one of my nieces. This niece has the most inquiring mind, and she mentioned that she had recently taken a class in kitchen sanitation. She works on the supply side of the food industry, so this is not such an odd class for her to be taking. She suggested that we needed to pitch 90% of the contents of my fridge, and I nodded.
She was supposed to visit today. My mother didn’t raise any slow puppies, so I ran for the fridge and started reading the “sell by” dates on every bottle. I was truly horrified when I discovered the bottle of caramel topping for ice cream passed it’s expiration date in 1999. There was something else with a 2002 date, but most of the rest had expired within the past few months. If it isn’t growing something bleu-green it usually gets to stay for a while.
I found several bottles of salsa, six tubs of various brands of imitation, low fat butter, three boxes of real butter, three cans of black olives and two bottles of green olives that looked really nasty, assorted pickles and spreadable cream cheese. I am proud to say that only one bottle of salad dressing needed to be thrown out!
My stepson is the king of sauces. He will blend eight odd things together to make a sauce to pour over a perfectly good steak. I threw out his Teriyaki marinade. Next to go are Bead Molasses, Brown Gravy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Szechuan Sauce, Chinese Style Mustard, and Thai Chili Garlic Paste. I think we need to replace the sesame oil, too.
I cleaned out the veggie drawer, and the lunch meat drawer, but I might need to get tough with the drawer that has blocks of cheese. We have feta, Brie, Irish Gold, smoked Gouda, white cheddar, mozzarella, asiago, Parmesan and cheddar.
I threw out half a garbage bag of left overs. Of course, we’ve had a LOT of people here for the holidays, and as each wave came and went, we had more left overs. Then we came down with colds and nobody had a taste for anything, so all that food sat. Incredible waste. I feel as though we need to make a huge donation to disaster relief as penance for having wasted so much food.
The only ray of light here is that we have single handedly raised the number of people employed in the food industry, trying to keep us in condiments!

We have just about 40 hours to get everything ready, and then the celebration begins. I’ve been fine tuning my shopping list for Thursday, the last time I expect to get to the store before we cook.
I had originally planned to have a breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, to make preparation easier, but I’ve been thinking about having Quiche Lorraine instead. The ingredients are roughly the same, with the exception of swapping bacon for sausage, and pie crust for hash browns. The quiche might look more festive and elegante….but with all the excitement of present opening, will anyone care?
I plan to offer English muffins and whole wheat toast, jam and butter on one tray, and an assortment of fruit on another.
What do you think? The quiche or the casserole?
Decisions! Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a Libra!

Thank God for leftovers! Tonight, I don’t have to cook. Instead, we are cleaning out the refrigerator.
There’s Chili, Minestrone Soup, Country Rigatoni, and Broiled Shrimp that were marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and oregano. We have Green Salad, Waldorf Salad, Coleslaw, Salsa and Guacamole. There are Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes, Asiago bread, Pumpkin Pecan Dessert Squares and an incredible Chocolate Layer Cake.
We’re a little short on veggies tonight, but I’m willing to eat an extra apple just so that I don’t have to cook.
Tomorrow, we have family to dinner…..Pork Chops and Rice, Green Beans, Broccoli with Cheese Sauce, and salad.
I know, it sounds like my mind is on food again, but actually, it’s focused on the freedom to get other things done, rather than cooking. Everyone needs a day off now and then!

Did I get it right? The title? I think that’s Italian for “Soup.”
At any rate, it seems that soup is on my mind. It could be that our chilly Fall days have something to do with that. Too bad it’s supposed to be almost 70 by Friday, because I’m doing soup this week, anyway.
When I went to do the meal plans for this week, I decided that we needed to do a crock pot of “Pasta e fagioli.” I have one of the recipes that strives to imitate the Pasta and Bean soup that Olive Garden serves. It’s a great soup, but it makes enough soup for about forty people. I plan on palming some off on family. I could probably freeze half of it, but this is one soup I like served fresh.
Then, I was surfing for more recipes that are diabetic friendly, and came across “Spicy Seafood and Chicken Gumbo with Rice.” This recipe is supposedly for just six servings, but it has a pound of shrimp, 4 oz of crab meat, 1 cup of cooked chicken and a pound of okra, among other things. I think there will be six very big servings, but I’m going to follow the recipe exactly, the first time. We’ll have it for dinner (checking my watch)…today.
And, I’ve been meaning to make butternut squash soup for several weeks. The recipe I saved from a newspaper, years ago, has a roasted red pepper coulis that is swirled through the finished soup. I’m looking forward to trying this one, and I hope it becomes one of the staple soups in my repertoire.
My oldest sister and I were having lunch together for the first time in ages. They had “Navy Bean Soup” on the menu, and she ordered it, thinking it would be like my version. Unfortunately, it was a tomato-veggie soup with white beans. She was not impressed. I promised her that I would make a pot of it for her. I need a ham bone, or ham hocks, a pound of navy beans, onion, celery, a potato, bay leaf, thyme, a quart or two of water….. Maybe I better get started.
I have one more soup recipe to find. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to have a hot vegetable beef soup on hand on really cold days when Dear Husband gets home from battling the weather and work. It would tide him over until I can get dinner on the table, and it would give him one more serving of veggies. I want to find one that has a great beef broth, and a LOT of veggies in it. The heat alone should help to revive him, but I want him to enjoy the taste, too. If you have a great veggie soup recipe, let me know, won’t you?

I’ve been talking about meal planning lately. I’ve always planned a week at a time, until recently. Now I plan half a week at a time, and shop more often, because we’re eating more vegetables. I thought I woud post what this week’s meals have been, and seeing it in print is scary! I’ve been struggling with my weight, and I can see why!
Sunday, we had visitors at our table, so we probably went a little out of our way to prepare a large meal, and Tuesday nights my niece and her sons come to us for dinner. Otherwise, there were four of us at dinner, each night, covering three generations.
Sunday:
Roast Pork, Browned Potatoes and Gravy, Carrots, Acorn Squash, Salad, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits, and Gingerbread with Ice Cream.
Monday:
Broiled Flank Steak, Yellow Wax Beans with Onions, Cauliflower with Bread Crumb topping, Sauteed Mushrooms, Salad
Tuesday:
Antipasto: Turkey, Ham, Chicken, Tuna, Hard Boiled Eggs, Swiss, Cheddar, Colby Jack, Feta, Olives, Sweet Pickles, Cherry Peppers, Pepperoncini, Dill Pickles, Cucumber, Plum tomatoes, Cauliflower, Green Onions, Romaine, cheesy garlic bread, Canteloupe, Applesauce, Lemon Meringue Pie and Peach Crisp
Wednesday:
Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu, Asparagus, Broccoli, Salad
Thursday:
Beef Chop Suey, Cashew Beef, Egg Foo Yung, Rice
Friday:
Pizza
Saturday:
(Dear Husband will be on the boat) Tomato Soup, Oyster Crackers, Salad
Sunday:
Pot Roast, Browned Potatoes and Carrots, Green Beans, Salad
You can see that the meals got simpler as the week went on. We normally don’t do things that require so many ingredients as the Antipasto, but were were trying to cover the tastes of four generations with that meal.
We have made the shift away from fried foods. We grill, broil, roast or bake, and when something needs to be sauteed, we use broth, Worchestershire sauce, or juice in place of butter. We offer bread and desserts when we have guests, otherwise, we have cut those carbs and sugars out of our diet. Our veggies are generally steamed and served without butter, but the topping on the cauliflower was a combination of bread crumbs browned in butter, and green onions, so you can see that I have places I can still refine the diet.
My plan is to cut back a bit, still having two veggies and a salad, but I want to get to simpler preparations, and less time consuming meals. Still….you won’t see any frozen dinners at our house.

This is for Blue Witch, who enjoyed the carrot cake recipe. This time of year we have an overabundance of zucchini. Even one plant can provide enough zucchini for an entire neighborhood, so we’re constantly trying to find ways to use them up, or share them.
This recipe for a zucchini tea bread is older than most of our children, and I make it at least once a year. I hope you enjoy it.
Zucchini Bread
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup salad oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Mix thoroughly. With a spoon, add the zucchini and walnuts, and spread the batter in the pan.
Bake 70 miunutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack, and then remove the loaf from the pan. Let cool completely. Wrap to store.
This year, because we are making an effort to cut calories and fat from our diet, I may try replacing the oil with applesauce. I’ll let you know what happens

Carrot Cake
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cups cooking oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Sift the flour once, add baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and sift the mixture into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and beat until blended. Add carrots and pecans. Pour into a greased, floured 10″ tube or bundt pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes. Cake test. Remove from oven, let stand ten minutes. REmove from pan and cool on a rack. Dust with 10X sugar. Serve with ice cream.
Thirty years later……
A number of years ago, a friend told me that I could substitute applesauce for part or all of the oil, and now, I do. And, should I never find the definitive Bundt pan, I will consider making this cake in a 13 x 9 cake pan. It will take some adjustment of cooking time, but it would be worth it.
If I could remember how this recipe came to me, I would give the creator credit for it. It seems that it has been in my family forever, and my personal copy was typed more than a quarter of a century ago. I equate this cake with comfort. My head, which is trained to read labels and think “Low-carb,” simply has to give way now and then, so that my heart, and taste buds, can enjoy the comfort of food from my youth. Thank God that doesn’t happen often! *G*