Well, actually, I answered this on the what I ate today topic. I promise to pay more attention in the future. WER

I popped a couple of French bread pizzas in the wave. No stove here yet. I just moved in.

Today, I cooked fifty-five pounds of meatballs and twenty-two quarts of onions and herbs for a sauce base. Short shift at work.

Today, I made a Marinara sauce with mushrooms for the Clean Water Action charity spaghetti dinner tonight at the Austin Nature Center. Wish me luck. WER

Well, I didn't win, but I did come in fourth, which is one better than I did at Central Market's gumbo contest. WER

Congratulations! What was your prize? What was the recipe?

No prize past third. Don't have the recipe on me, will post next time around. Thanks. WER

As promised, here it is. Sorry it is for bulk, but well, you know. Ingredients: 1/2 ounce dried wood ear mushrooms 3 quarts chopped fresh mushrooms 1 quart Burgundy 1 quart water 1/2 pound golden Italian mushrooms 1 cup minced fresh parsley 1 cup grated carrots 1 bunch chopped green onions 1/4 cup fresh oregano, leaves only 1 tablespoon minced garlic 2 teaspoons dry oregano 1 teaspoon each ground black pepper and dry rosemary 1/2 teaspoon each salt and crushed red pepper 4 quarts prepared Marinara or spaghetti sauce 1 cup chopped roasted red bell pepper 1/4 cup bread crumbs Directions: Soak dried mushrooms for thirty minutes in warm water. Remove, rinse, and mince. Place in large sauce pot along with next 14 ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, reduce heat and simmer for fifteen minutes. Strain, reserve vegetables and return liquid to pot over high heat and reduce by one quarter. Add remaining three ingredients, reduce heat, and simmer for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally. Add reserved mushroom mixture to sauce and return to simmer. Serve hot over favorite pasta. Yield: Approximately six quarts. Enjoy! WER

Last night I experimented in the kitchen. I had leftover green chiles and just a little bit of rice and some cheese, but I wanted to make this rice dish. (What an eloquent way of stating it) ANYWAY, I decided to add a few more ingredients and see what happened. I added the green chiles (pureed), sour cream, rice, shredded cheese, tomatos, and several eggs and baked for about 40 minutes ... a delicious casserole.

Well, the usual here at work with the high points being: 13 meat calzones Spaghetti and Meatballs for 123 out at MCI Tiramisu WER

meatballs en masse!

Wow, what was going on out at MCC on a Saturday?

They like to keep their employees on site, so sometimes wese gets ta serves dem lunch. For the true meatballs en masse, every Wednesday we make them starting with 50 lbs o' ground beef. WER

yikes! cooking this a.m. was non-existant. A late start means a cup of yogurt to go!

I grabbed scrambled eggs, hash browns and biscuits w/ gravy for breakfast. Thinking of lunch in 20 minutes.

Well, I had orders to go for 97 today before we got one sit down customer. WER

Tells you something about the pace of life in Austin these days. Not the kind of stats you see in a slacker town.

Sitting down to eat does not imply slackerdom to me. To enjoy a meal, I believe it is imperative that you sit and savor. Relax and eat comfortably... BTW I usually "grab" lunch too -- my bad.

I agree, I like to be in a comfortable setting, if I'm by myself, a newspaper is very comforting, or at least something to read and I like to have my daytimer handy.

Those 97 were only two orders, too! WER

Keeps you on your toes I am sure! Speaking of the dining alone... I've just recently acquired the ability to do so comfortably. In fact, in Boston this summer, I dined at Legal Sea Foods solo. Me, a glass of wine, a cup of clam chowder and "Oysters Legal." I little daunting but I enjoyed the whole affair -- delicious food, excellent company.

I didn't hear about your Boston trip. How was it?

Good. Busy. A bit lonely. I saw the B Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT museum and (the best) the Science Museum! I wandered around the city, rented a car to Rockport and had lobster on the jetty, took the train to Ipswich to see some relatives... a good trip!

Tonight I'm making vegetable soup! It's about 7 degree with a high of 18 expected... I need some warmth!

Don't ya have a blankie?

Here download some (Austin Warm Air).

Have blankie, have kitties, the man is off on yet another business trip... Up to me to keep myself warm!

What's cookin'?

And here's some online warm thoughts. (yes, the heat is adjustable...)

Cooking: Vegetable soup from the real vegetable section (ie. homemade) and CHEX mix Heater: The heat is not very adjustable in a house built in 1932.

The heat of the online thoughts, stacey.

But my computer is at work!

Maybe, but I bet you can guess what thoughts I was sending at you...

Is that what was making me a little hot around the panty line? Ooops! I forgot, I didn't wear any today!

See, it works, the temperature is much hotter here. I suppose that would change if I took ya up on the guest room...

No, it would surely change. The whole house usually sits at around 60 degrees (heater fully cranked!)

You realize that I'm going to check and see what you're wearing (or not) the first time we meet...

*giggle*

Sorry I'm so clumsy, did that tickle?

yes.

I'll try and keep that in mind for the real check... Yesterday, I made a huge pot of chicken, brisket, and sausage jambalaya. You know us carnivores...

Made a peach/pineapple dump cake. The easiest and one of the yummiest sweet things to make.

Sounds great!

Why, yes, yes it does.

Rutabagas and dressing.

Hiya Katrina. I take it you like rutabagas!

Yep, sure do! Hiya Stacey.

She does.

didn't hafta work today, so the only thing I cooked was the scrambled eggs this morning...

I "cook" oatmeal every day (microwave), but I don't really think that qualifies...

does opening the bag of garden salad count?

'bout as much as nuking oatmeal...

Hey, at least my meal requires firing up a major appliance! (Or do you need to open the fridge door to get out the dressing, Wolf?)

you got it Autumn! Good thing the hubby loves to fix stuff to eat (otherwise, he'd probably starve--just kiddin')

Oh, you got a chef there, eh? Mine doesn't mind once in a great while, but definitely on his terms--omelettes or pancakes is about as fancy as it gets (which are both fine by me).

No one has cooked in awhile... BTW, the changes look groovy WER (I'm connected at home with all the bright shiny colors!) For dinner: hummus couscous w/ garlic, mushrooms and feta fresh veggies (for dipping -- shoveling -- of the hummus) baked WW tortillas (cut into triangles, substituting for pita bread) yummy, quick and easy!

Thanks, Stacey, you are too kind...

yes, i am (lucky for all of you) *smile*

ooohh...

*giggle*

No cooking, lenten supper tonight...

i am craving bad mexican food (which is fortuitous because that's all CO has) and a magarita!

"Lookin' for that long lost shaker o' salt..." Have one on me, stacey!

Mr. C. is acting very strangely. On Monday I made rice and meatballs for din-dins. He loved it. So I made it on Tuesday. He loved it. So I made it last night. Loved it. So I made it tonight, and all of a sudden he doesn't want it!! Men are so unpredictable!

*laugh*

What a cad! I suggest you not cook at all tonight in protest. :-)

I didn't! We had cereal and water melon for supper. I quite like to cook in the winter, but summertime I'm hopeless. But Mr. C. does his share as well, it must be said. Are you a good cook, Autumn?

I am adequate. I view food's role as subsistence, so I make nutritious meals that are tasty enough to eat, but not to overeat. Cereal and watermelon is one of my specialties.

Yeah?! ha-ha! I think your approach is probably the best. I wish I could be like that. I am lucky in that I don't put on weight except when pregnant, but I'm terrible with the kind of things I eat, and am on the whole quite 'fed up' with myself. I want to start eating more healthy foods, but don't know what or how. Have you any tips?

There's about a zillion books at the library just waiting to tell you what to eat and not eat...are you health conscious about your children's food intake (what are the ages again?)

Yes, don't worry, I'm far better with the kids than with myself - otherwise they'll never have survived to the ripe ages of two and three. I have a book with about a hundred menues for kids and how to make it look more attractive so they'll eat it. I'm trying to prevent them from turning into slobs like myself! I'll go to the library and try and find something a little more suitable than the Afrikaner cookbook. A friend of mine once read somewhere about a banana diet, where you eat only bananas for a whole week, and this is supposed to clean out your system. After a week she was bunged up as a stuffed animal, and two kilo's heavier! Think I'll stay away from that particular one . . . .

My list: Diet for a Small Planet Ten Talents The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook And search the web for recipes and advice.

THANKS! You scare me.

More so than I do?

Not quite.

Love "Diet for a Small Planet", and yes, Terry and wer are a little frightening. Here are some great "healthy" websites: http://www.vegsource.com/recipe/ http://206.159.32.111/scripts/webx.dll?13@15.yRTZObiv^54@.ee6d313/134 http://recipes.wenzel.net/

Thanks. I'll dig deep in the garden of courage to read them . . . can't imagine life without disgusting eating habits . . .

more like: what I cooked this week since I gave up all hope that I would get a new stove before we ran out of 'out to eat' money... salmon burgers stuffed mushroom spinach/cheese stuffed shells potato/zucchini cakes falafel oh... can't forget Mac N Cheese night! the stuffed mushrooms were 'the absolute BEST ones you've ever made' according to Brandon. I substituted crushed cracker crumbs for bread crumbs because... I was out of stale bread. I could of changed a few more things around but it's hard to tell... perhaps more garlic. More butter? The freshly dried herbs? One day I'll make my lazy arse write a receipe down.

when you do, post it and I'll go get it framed for posterity...

everyone will probably get a framed (and signed) picture of my posterior before that happens!

you'd just do that so you could say, "You remember that picture I gave you? Yeah, well, kiss my ..."

*laugh* that's a GREAT idea!

knew you'd like it...

if you are so damn perceptive... why'd ya think I was mad a you? (just screwing around, as you probably already know... becuase you're 'so damn perceptive... er, was that perverted... preposterous????)

(I'm not going to say...(paranoid)) I don't know, just a weird couple of weeks on here, and I haven't been able to catch any vibes from your posts, so I just thought I'd ask...

after assuming 'no vibes' and 'bad vibes' were synonomus! Ah HA! I see how you are. You have some nerve assuming things like that... assuming negatives about me... well, well, I'm I'm just... (er joking, if you couldn't tell) I realize freaky stuff going on can set everyone a bit on edge... S'ok. but no I'm not mad. (dogs get mad, women get angry anyway!) good to see Mr. Mike feeling better (good enough to argue with you even!) poetry is, as always, infused with passion I miss postings from Paul and Leplep... they both seem to have wandered away for a bit blah, blah, blah, I seem to have forgotten I was still in a conference and not an email. Oh well!

not assuming...just didn't know...so, I pick the worst case scenarion and start from there...usually less "negative" surprises that way...

yes, Eyeore, I understand... remove the lofty expectations and you shall never fall far.

kinda like crawling around when your drunk instead of walking... (yet another aside...have I been that pissy all around again that everyone has to tell me when they're joking? or is it just coincidence?)

hmmm... a very subjective question!

Weeks like these everyone has to tell everyone when they're pi$$ing around, I think. On the whole it almost seemed like we've all been having our periods at the same time! Whatever the male equivalent of that may be!! Low sperm count, I suppose . . .

low sperm count should never be considered a bad thing (at this point in MY life anyway!)

Not for me either. But the men - they'll probably feel different about it.

perchance they equate it to... (c'mon guys... SHARE!)

not much to share if we hafe a low sperm count...

HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!! Wonderful sense of humour, Wer!!

just wait...now, where's my zinc?

thought that kept colds away... does it up the virility too?

yessum...testicles have the greatest concentration of zinc in the human body...up your zinc, up your virility...also helps with healing, which is why zinc supplementation is recommended by body piercers...

guess I'll remove THOSE from someone's vitamin stash!