AKathy's What's for dinner? 9/27

I am making myself a mini-roast dinner. I have a chicken thigh/drumstick piece and all the usual vegetables - potato, sweet potato, beets to roast alongside it, and maybe something green. I feel I need something reasonably healthy after last night!

I ended up working until 5:30 yesterday so I ate pasta when I got home. Tonight I’ll have the chicken and salad I was supposed to have last night.

Happy ALMOST Friday!


Taking my Mom out for dinner and then we are going to Kendra Scott to pick out our birthday jewelry. If you go to Kendra Scott during the month of your birthday you can pick out any item and it's 50% off.

I have some chicken left over so I am going to make mini chicken pot pies for us. Volleyball night and this doesn't take long to make. Plus, I ordered what I needed at grocery and will pick up on my way home, first time doing this, hope all goes well!

I have not laid anything out or planned anything so maybe spaghetti since it's a fast dinner.

Apparently everyone will be home for dinner tonight but I'm not very inspired so it will be grilled burgers served with sweet potato and regular potato fries ... dd#1 doesn't like beef burgers so she'll have a chicken burger   


Almost all of the kitties where I volunteer have gone to foster homes so I had lot's of time to clean and then cuddle with Dodger ... the other cat that was there is very shy and doesn't like to be touched ... poor thing   

I feel so bad for Dodger because he's been there so long and he is so sweet ... it's a good thing that dh has said that I'm not allowed to adopt any cats or he would be mine   

Here he is being cheeky   

I have NO idea what's for dinner tonight....but 

I have SO. MANY. comments from *yesterday's* thread.  It was so fun to
learn who used to and/or still scrapbooks!   lucyg--your upcoming
scrapbook event sounds SO fun!  I have a question--you said you, your friend, and her DH were at a scrapbook store all day---wow, does her DH scrapbook, too?  


 I allllways wished my DH would, and back when I was going to crops all the time, I always hoped some men would join us. We did have ONE guy who came sometimes, and he was an amaaaaazingly talented 
scrapbooker!  I loved looking at his layouts!   His wife wasn't as interested in scrapbooking, I think she came to crops very begrudgingly, and she was also cranky,  so we had way more fun chatting with him! 


desertgirl....That's so cool that you and your Dad used to create collages.  My Mom loved to paint, but also created gorgeous collages similar to the ones you described. My siblings and I have several of them matted and framed.  

christine58....Aww, that's so sweet that you're working on albums for your nephews. I can totally relate to that!  I don't have "hooman" children, and I've loved making scrapbooks for my nieces, nephews, and our one great niece, too.  (P.S.....my doggies each have their own album).


KelleeM....I had forgotten that you knew AKathy, that is so cool that you met at a scrapbook event. How long had you been friends before she died?  (( hugs )) 
Do y'all know of other peas that met her IRL ? 

I vaguely remember reading
the dinner threads and enjoying them, but I didn't read them every day, and I don't think I ever  posted. 
Did she have the dinner threads on the old board, too?  
Is there some fun story behind what made her start the daily dinner thing?

sueg....The Flammkuchen you described made me drool, so I am going to google
recipes and try to make some.

AussieMeg....Everything in your photo yesterday also made me drool.  I'm planning on googling all the recipes, UNLESSS you'd be willing to post them  I've never heard of a "curry puff", and I'm intrigued!   And those chicken dumplings with peanut sauce...also sounds/looks so yummy!   Did you say you and DD also made all your sauces from scratch?

Phew! After sitting through the entire Ford/Kavanaugh hearing, dinner is a trusty couple of bowls of taco soup from the freezer. I haven't the energy to fix or think about anything else.

christine58 ----WOWWW!!! I could have *almost* written your above post WORD for WORD !!!!! Except for the football career and wedding** , EVERYTHING you said !!

I adore ALL our nieces and nephews on both sides of our families; however, I am VERY close to the five on my side ( 2 from my sister, 3 from my brother) and have been since they were all babies! The five of them also got "life" scrapbooks at their graduations,
and just as you said---they were BEYOND appreciative!  I've also made albums for close friends and/or their adorable children.


I LOVE it when they tell me their kiddos have looked at their special album over and over andddd overrr again, and they love to talk about their sweet memories repeatedly--which is why I LOVE scrapbooking--it's alll about the memories !!!   I love it when young kiddies marvel at photos of themselves as newborns, etc....their comments about how cute/ funny, etc. they were are so fun to listen to!

  When my great niece was 5, she kept looking at a nudie pik I'd scrapped of her and just laugghed and laugghed.....made my heart happy!   It always makes me think of how much I would've LOVED someone making me an album like that when I was little! 


I've posted about this many times through the years---(including the previous 2 peas board) --but I'll post it AGAIN....my FAVE comment was when one of my
nephew's girlfriend looked at his life album and said "WOW, your Aunt Toee REALLLLLLY loves you!" and I think she also said something about wishing she had an Aunt (or anyone) in her family who adored her that much.


My oldest nephew was the first to get a life album. He cracked me up when he said "Toee takes piks of us and
scrapbooks the H#@& out of them!"   The other 4 quote that a LOT!  It's become a fun family joke.  We also love to reminisce and laugh about how I used to buy stickers and then take the kids to do things that coordinated with the stickers! 


**re:  your niece's wedding---I did PLAN to make my sweet niece a wedding album, I got a LOT of photos printed, got a
special album, etc. Their photos were SO gorgeous**, I couldn't wait to create, then give the album to her......BUT, sadly,
he ended up being an idiot and they had a bitter divorce   



**I know that the word "GORGEOUS" can be over-used and/or exaggerated by those of us who adore the subjects of the photos but honestly---iMHO, their photos had a VERY special, unique aspect to them---thanks to their photographer. Maybe I'll share a few so y'all can see what I'm describing.

A couple of weeks ago DD said that she had a craving for sausage rolls, so I decided to make them. Then I found out she was working but still made them anyway - she can have the leftovers tomorrow. For those who are unfamiliar with the great sausage roll, they were invented in the UK but we Aussies have claimed them as our own (as we are wont to do will all the best things out of the UK and NZ   ).  Instead of plain sausage rolls I made:

Thai Chicken Sausage Rolls



Chorizo Sausage Rolls



I also added some goat's cheese to my chorizo rolls - YUM!

(Photos not mine)

Yes we made it all from scratch (except the sweet chilli sauce). The dumpling recipe is a Thermomix one and the curry puff recipe is in a book so I can't post a link, but there are a gazillion recipes on-line. Curry puffs are a very common Indian food, but the ones I made were Thai. The curry part is made from coriander root, ground turmeric, cumin seeds and coriander seeds so it's a completely different taste to the Indian ones. It's basically onion & garlic and spices mixed with meat and potato (or just veggies if you're making vegetarian puffs) and put into puff pastry.

I will type out the recipe for the peanut dipping sauce, because it is seriously good and everyone who has it raves about it. We have it with chicken skewers, wontons / money bags, roti bread, in chicken wraps, chicken pizzas - YUM! 

PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE

1 tbsp peanut oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small brown onion (80g), chopped finely
2 fresh small red chillies, seeded, chopped coarsely
1 stick fresh lemongrass, chopped finely
3/4 cup (180ml) coconut milk
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (140g) crunchy peanut butter
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp lime juice

Heat oil in small saucepan, cook garlic and onion until softened. Stir in remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, stirring, about 2 minutes or until sauce boils and thickens.

So easy!

* I cheat and use chopped lemongrass from a jar because I rarely have fresh lemongrass

Oh boy, you're brave trying a new recipe with people who aren't your own guinea pigs family! So what was the dish? That kind of reminds me of the first time I cooked dinner for DD's new boyfriend. I made chicken schnitzel with the basil cream sauce that I posted the other night. I had made it heaps of times, and come on - chicken schnitzel is not hard to cook - but somehow I didn't cook it long enough and I served him raw chicken. Bless his heart, he just said "Oh that's ok" and kept eating it, until DD snatched his plate away to cook it properly. Even now, 4 plus years later he still teases me about that meal. 

Last day of veggies soup. It’s yucky and raining here.