Wow, Dcarch, I'd happily join you in any one of those meals! I can usually just pick one of your creations in your postings, but I'll happily pig out on all of these. Good job!

My apologies for basically skipping visits the last month to the Cooking Forum and this thread. It's good to see all the great looking meals are still being served. Less than usual cooking going on as we've been participating in Apple and Pumpkin Festivals, community dinners and church and fire company craft fairs.

Last time I stopped in, cookingrvc inspired me to make chicken kabobs with Greek salad. Thanks.

Lots of end of the summer cooking going on. I made 12 lbs. of Roma tomatoes into meatless Provencale tomato sauce and used it for a dinner for some teen volunteers, many of whom were vegetarian. Garlic bread and a platter of grilled sausage were also on the menu, in addition to the eggplant roll ups.

Soup season is in full swing, just in time for "no-cook Sunday's" due to NASCAR Chase races and football games. Last Sunday, we had butternut squash soup and we call Fall Chicken Salad. The salad is chicken, peeled Apple chunks, celery, dried cranberries and golden raisins. Dressing is apple cider, buttermilk, a little bit of mayo, seasonings and a dash of spiced rum.

I used some more of the cider for baking a ham end.

I checked in here today looking for dinner suggestions.

Ruthanna, you were inspired by Sue and I'm inspired by you. I think Chicken Souvlaki will be on the menu tonight.

Your ham dinner looks delicious. I cooked a ham last week and it wasn't very good. I used a brand that has always been good in the past, but it was tasteless and salty.

Caminnc, now that is what I call a feast.

A few meals since I last posted.

Halibut season will soon be over, just another week or two. So we had halibut for dinner last night. Might try and have it at least one more time while it is still available fresh.

Roast chicken dinner.

Lots of bread. Baking at least twice a week.

Spanish Tapa - Garlic Prawns

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes. These are so good, I've made them a few times in the last month.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin Filets with Mushrooms in creme fraiche in toasted bread cups.

Grilled Baby Back Ribs with TBQ Sauce.

Ruthanna, welcome back, you've been missed. Your meals always impress me.

Ann your meals are always breathtaking, and this post is no different.

Beautiful fall day, so I made bread, and it fell in the middle. Oh well, it will still taste good, just won't give any away, like I often do.

Dinner was a new recipe, a pork roast marinated then roasted. I also roasted some potatoes and carrots and 2 onions with the butter, worcestershire and soy sauce. I also made room to bake the pie......the oven was full!

Apple pie cooling

Ruthanna, welcome back. I love the fall festivals and all the goodies that go with them.

Ann T, that chicken looks perfect, but it's the cupcakes that I want. An extra one would be good for breakfast too...

Jasdip, for some reason my last loaf fell in the middle too, I think I wasn't diligent enough in watching it and let it overproof just a tiny bit. It was still good, though not very pretty! Your pie definitely makes up for that.

Today we pressed cider so I made pancakes for the kids for breakfast and then sandwiches and donuts for lunch with the cider. I just finished a ham and cheese sandwich tonight, but The Monkey Princess made a roasted rabbit with apples and leeks last night, along with cheese tortellini, and then we baked some honey wheat rolls for today's sandwiches. Other than that, we've been eating sandwiches, fast food, home canned soup, whatever we can scrounge from the fridge, the freezer and the pantry, so I won't have to move it.

Annie

We can't eat this, but we can sure eat what I make using it!

Bed Bath and Beyond had a 20% coupon and this pie crust mat caught my eye. My pie crusts always stick to the counter, and I use quite a bit of flour, hopefully this eliminates a lot of that.

I like that it has a non-slip backing. There are different sizes for the crusts, and even a pastry recipe.

That's a slash of sunlight :-)

Jasdip, I like that slash of sunlight. I look forward to hearing whether you like the pastry crust mat.

Annie, even without a kitchen you are still cooking more than most people.

Pork Chile Verde with homemade flour tortillas.

I had to laugh at your comment to Annie, Ann. So very true!!!!!

I closed the blinds to take the pic, but one stray sunbeam escaped :)
I too hope the mat works as expected.

I always love the pic of your chicken broth scalloped potatoes. I'm so used to doing the white sauce method, I don't think of your method until I see it. I will do that! They look so good. (as IF anything you make, doesn't!)

Hi All. Everything looks so yummy.

Shrimp Parmesan tonite with a mix of regular and zucchini pasta.

Ann T, I really don't know how people live on fast food and don't cook, I just don't feel well if I have too much fast stuff and not enough vegetables.

I think my current problem may be that I'm just eating too much. Yesterday we had the birthday party for the kids with the "Halloween buffet" and today was Amanda's birthday. Makayla made the Louisiana BBQ'd shrimp, some chicken breasts stuffed with ham and cheese and rolled in cornflake crumbs for those (her Dad) who won't eat shrimp, some "crashed potatoes", mashed butternut squash with butter and brown sugar, gluten free biscuits, cole slaw and blueberry crisp! I was "sous chef for the day", there to handle hot/heavy pans, provide the ingredients and wash the dishes, plus "consult" on things like what temperature chicken breast has to be before it's fully cooked. It was fun and she took pictures with her small camera, so I'll try to get them loaded and she can post them.

Friday night was Trick or Treating with Madi and Maci, so they had turkey sandwiches from Subway and I had eggs when I got home.

Annie

Mashed potatoes with a sweet potato. We love them mashed together. Pork tenderloin slices with a raspberry jam, balsamic and dijon sauce.

Hey Annie I was wondering how MP's birthday dinner went. Will be fun if you post pics. I hardly ever stop by here since my dinner usually consists of something like a pbj sandwich and some cottage cheese or corn chips and bean dip. Plus I am just not that into taking photos of my meals. For the longest time I didn't have a camera but I just got a new one and it is fab. But I'm still probably unlikely to take many food photos right now, too much else going on. But I wanted to give a shout out to a recipe I made tonight, "Squash toasts with ricotta" from Smitten Kitchen and she got the recipe from Mark Bittman at NY Times. It was fabulous! The recipe calls for an onion confit which might take a long time under normal circumstances but I had a bunch of caramelized onions in the freezer from when I did a big batch in the crockpot so they made the whole thing go together in a snap. I roasted the squash earlier because it was starting to go bad, and it was delish too. I used a small hubbard squash. I adore, adore hubbard squash but usually those suckers are so big it just doesn't pay for me to get one. Here's a link to the recipe, both from Deb Perleman and then the original from the Times.

Smitten Kitchen Squash Toasts with Ricotta and Cinder Vinegar
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Squash on Toast

My notes: Besides using pre-caramelized onions, I didn't use any EVOO because the onions had some and anyway, I didn't miss it. I improvised on the cider vinegar and maple syrup amount because I had less squash. I also used ground pasilla peppers that Lascatx sent me, I love that and I don't have any chili flakes. It was fab with the squash and sweet and sour. I didn't have mint and didn't miss it, but I am not a mint fan. I have had squash agrodolce which is what this is a riff of, and I can take or leave the mint, but I know it is considered essential. I also topped this with toasted sunflower seeds. I used creamy goat cheese as the base. I love goat cheese with squash! Anyway, it was DELICIOUS.

I served it with black beans and rice, spiced up with my home made salsa and pork loin roast bits that I braised with Lascatx's cacao nib rub. Yummy, yummy! And overall very healthy. Since I don't eat much wheat, next time I make this I am going to try it with the European wholemeal rye bread I have, toasted.

Today I baked Tami's Easy bread recipe. It's delicious, and super fast and easy.

I also baked an apple pie

Dinner was chicken marbella with roasted potatoes and carrots

My DH has been gone since last Tuesday. I've purged the freezer, the refrigerator and the pantry. Clean, I tell you, clean!

Probably next week I'll do the early turkey gravy, but DH is bringing home 8 lb of pecans this week. Need to get the pecans into the freezer for Christmas baking, then I'll do the gravy.

Jasdip, that all looks SO YUM! Great comfort food!

Lots of great food as always, but I must say I pause at caminnc's seafood feast every time I pull up this thread.

Due to travel and hectic schedule in between, I haven't been cooking much exciting. But a current sale on branzino had me try a simple recipe that I've been eyeing for quite a while. The compound butter rated between "blech" (my son) and "good but entirely unnecessary" (my wife) but we really enjoyed the fish itself. Question though: Are tons of pin bones expected or do I need to improve on my tableside service technique?

Pre-mutilation:

Here is a link that might be useful: F&W Recipe

Sue, Love the idea of your shrimp parmesan.

Jasdip, your dinners are like Ruthanna's. So appealing. Makes me want what you are having. (except for the carrots).

FOAS. Nice to see you posting on WFD again.

Last night's pizza, baked in the Bakerstone Pizza Oven on the grill.

Deconstructed chicken souvlaki.

instead I warmed it up in the gravy

and we had sandwiches for breakfast on homemade bread.

Burger and Fries

Italian Roast Chicken with a side of pasta.

Delicious meals, Ann! They're all my favourites. I've never made/had a brisket, even though I think I want to. I can't find it here. So I make do with well-done roast beef and gravy. :-)

More comfort food; breaded pork chops with boiled potatoes, butter and sour cream (picture taken before I loaded up the potatoes) and simmered green beans and leeks.

We tried a new recipe today, and I liked it very much.
A Reuben with beets (from our garden, alas, the last few) instead of meat. It's pretty simple, just substitute sliced, boiled beets (I guess you could pickled beets from a jar, too? but that would change it a bit).

I had mine open faced and it was not very photogenic. Rye, homemade Russian dressing, sauerkraut, the beets, and a slice of swiss under the broiler. Yum.

Here is a food stylist's version, prettier than mine!

Jasdip, you can't go wrong with comfort food. Simmered green beans make a great side for pork.

A meatless Rueben would be a great idea for a vegetarian.

I had presalted a chicken on Monday and had planned to roast it last night for dinner. But that didn't happen. We had a late lunch.

And since I already had plans for dinner, I ended up roasting the chicken this morning and

We had hot chicken sandwiches and fries for breakfast.

For dessert

This weeks meals.

Last night's dinner. Second meal from the lamb I recently bought.

Roasted pork tenderloin in a light mustard and green peppercorn sauce.

Roast chicken

Last night's dinner.

Fettuccine with Bolognese

and homemade bread.

Pizza day. Now I'm not clear on what, aside from its football shape, technically differentiates pizza and pide, but my wife and I had what I'll call pide. Garlic oil, kasseri cheese, and leftover homemade gyro meat from the freezer. Yum.

No matter how often we have chicken, every time I see your roast chicken dinners and hot chicken sandwiches, I crave a roast chicken, Ann. I really like the roasted onion idea too.

Right now I have scalloped potatoes, a braised cabbage, onion and carrot dish (a new recipe) and 2 stuffed pork chops in the oven. So no pic.

But I did make an apple cobbler earlier today. After we had dug into it, it was so good, I had to take a picture. So this is half of it.

FOAS, Had to look up what Pide was. Like the shape and the way the crust is formed.

Jasdip Is that a biscuit like topping on your cobbler? I like how you didn't skimp on apples or topping.

I decided to make a turkey dinner and join in the Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday. We lived in the US on two occasions and loved being able to celebrate both the Canadian and the US holidays.

Bought a small, 12.5 pound fresh turkey and presalted it on Tuesday. On Wednesday it was uncovered and left to air dry in the fridge until Thursday.

I peeled the potatoes and got the rutabaga cut up and the green beans ready early in the day. And made a combination bread and cornbread stuffing.

The turkey was roasted at 500°F. Took about 90 minutes and while it rested the vegetables and the dressing cooked.

Stuffing ready for the oven.

Turkey dinner.

~Ann

Where is everyone?

Last night's dinner.

Grilled Rib Eyes with potatoes roasted with onions, and sautéed mushrooms, zucchini and cherry tomatoes.
Roasted Tomato, wrapped in Prosciutto with fresh Mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil. The tomato was amazing. Warm and bursting with flavour.
Moe, said, and I quote "A wonderful way to celebrate a tomato".

This was only suppose to be a starter one night. But neither of us was overly hungry so I added an extra tomato to each plate and it became dinner.

Pulled some Bolognese sauce out of the freezer.

Gorgonzola Garlic Bread (homemade baguette).

Served with linguine Bolognese.

Since I have a lamb in the freezer, I'm trying to cook lamb at least once every week or ten days.

Lamb Stew with zucchini served with Greek Lemon Potatoes.

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving Ann! I had to laugh when you said you bought a "small" 12.5 lb turkey. I go out of my way to find 8-10 pounders for us. I did get one on sale this weekend.

Yes, that's a biscuit topping on my apple cobbler. It's a nice change from pie, and so much easier.

Beautiful dinners as usual Ann, your turkey is perfect.

I meant to take a picture of last nite's dinner. Meatloaf, mashed yellow potatoes, with a sweet potato thrown in, and braised cabbage.

Since I bought Molly Stevens' All About Braising, I've made her braised cabbage twice. Oh what a keeper of a recipe!

Jasdip, If I could find an 8 or 10 pound turkey on a regular basis I would be tempted to roast turkey more often.

Reminds me when we lived in Dunkirk, NY. I ordered in advance, a Thanksgiving turkey from an Amish farm and asked for the smallest turkey possible. My friend Sandra was visiting from Toronto so there was just going to be three of us for dinner so I was hoping for something under 15 pounds. I was a little surprised when I went to pick up the turkey and was handed a 27 pounder and told it was the smallest turkey. Thankfully, Sandra was happy to take leftover turkey home to Toronto.

Pulled some more lamb out of the freezer for last night's dinner.

Grilled Chops

Jasdip, that looks delicious, I love cobbler, but I'm not overly fond of pie crust, so cobblers and crisps are right up my alley.

Ann T, as always that beef is perfectly done and Elery is drooling over the lamb. As for the Amish turkeys, I always thought I was lucky if I could get one under 25 pounds, they were "too small" to sell, LOL.

I mixed up a batch of that No-Knead bread and made an eggplant, caramelized leek and venison sausage flatbread, an odd combo but very good:

One night we had beef round steak that I put into the pressure cooker with some seasonings, seared it, then pressured it until it was tender. I made gravy from the drippings and mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts finished the meal.

Another night I made pork loin, sweet potatoes, some red beans and corn muffins:

I had some Thanksgiving help too. Madi helped me make the cornbread the night before, while her sister, Maci, helped by cleaning out the utensil drawer and brushing her own hair, LOL.

Between the three of us, we managed to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal:

That no-knead bread managed to last through 4 loaves, this was the last one, 12 days after first mixing it up, it keeps well in the refrigerator.

Toasted it made the turkey salad sandwich I had for supper, spread with leftover cranberry sauce:

As you can see, we've been enjoying the harvest, as the beef and pork were both homegrown, as was the eggplant, the leeks, the sweet potatoes, the mashed potatoes and the Brussels sprouts. Butternut squash is going to have to be in the lineup soon, as I have a basket full that need to be used, they won't keep much past Christmas.

Last night we had cabbage rolls, but I forgot to take a picture, and I haven't been doing a lot of cooking because my "new" kitchen still looks like this:

Somehow, though, I'm not wasting away, so I must be eating OK. (grin)

Annie

I have been cooking lots of good meals but forget to take pix. Lots of winter comfort food like country-style pork ribs and turkey kielbasa cooked with sauerkraut seasoned with tomato juice, chopped onion and apples, garlic and wine.

I rarely make fried foods but FOAS's post about veal forced me to make weinerschnitzel one night. That's two pieces on top of each other.

Also did lots of baking for our church's CraftFest in mid-November. These Tutti-Frutti refrigerator cookies have dried fruits, nuts and drained canned crushed pineapple in the dough.

This post was edited by ruthanna on Wed, Dec 3, 14 at 10:33

Annie you have the best looking helpers.

Ruthanna, I've wondered where you have been. I miss your meals.

A few meals since last post.

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Stopped on my way home from work and picked up a couple of Dungeness crab. Cooked them in my Cioppino broth. Homemade bread for sopping up the sauce.

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I bought four top sirloin steaks and ground two up for burgers.

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Froze one, and pan fried one for Moe's dinner Friday night. I can't remember the last time I cooked sirloin steaks but this was so good. Tender and full of flavour. It is Sterling Silver beef.

Ann, I love pan-fried steaks. Sobey's Sterling Silver beef is so good!

Ruthanna, your cookies remind me that I must make some shortbread cookies. I have a craving.

We bought some frozen shrimp on the weekend for $5.99 (not quite a lb). We never buy shrimp as they're so expensive, but we bought 2 pkg to treat ourselves.

I made Pasta Puttansesca tonite and just for kicks I sauteed some shrimp in olive oil and garlic and red pepper flakes and added them to the pasta. I'm going to make shrimp scampi and saute them to have with steaks as well.

Made Chicken Marbella the other nite and finished it up tonite. It does look better in real life!

Jasdip your Chicken Marbella looks delicious. But then I'm partial to anything with olives.

We had Christmas dinner with our neighbour. I presalted a turkey a couple of days before and gave it to Clif to roast. He did the dressing and the gravy and I did all the sides and the dessert.

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Italian - Cassata Cake

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Filled with ricotta cheese and chocolate

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Christmas Eve Dinner.

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Our Traditional Tourtiere. All butter crust.

I didn't do much in the way of baking and was feeling guilty so I made a couple of different shortbread cookies, both with chocolate.

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One a brown sugar and Callebaut milk chocolate and the other a Cranberry and White Chocolate.

Maci brushing her own hair is hilarious.

We've come into hard winter meals and my header photo is of tomatoes and squash blossoms, : (

All looks so good...i do photo but run out of time with a heavy work load. (and i have soup, soup and more soup)

I did tackle duck liver pate' de campagna yesterday. To go with all the goodies for my family visit....
Wrapped in proscuitto.

AnnT, that cake looks beautiful, and the cookies are perfect, but I think I'd have to go for the tourtiere, yum.

sleevendog, I happen to be one of those people that actually like liver a lot, so yours also looks delicious.

We've mostly been working on the house, today we got the refrigerator in and running, the double ovens and the dishwasher are functional, and I've been moving kitchen items, so I'll be back to cooking soon.

We have had some home grown pork steak with dressing, since the pigs have gone into the freezer, and we had scalloped potatoes with ham on New Year's Eve, the traditional hoppin' john and greens on New Year's day, and today we had fried rice with lots of vegetables and a side of butternut squash from our cold storage. I still have four of them left and a few acorn squash, and a 5 gallon bucket of potatoes, then the garden stash will be gone. Well, except for the canned stuff, LOL.

We did have black bean soup with rye bread last week and Elery had an omelette this morning with some of the black beans. I had a plain egg, over easy, and toast made from homemade honey wheat bread.

I'm looking forward to getting everything moved, it seems like whatever I want is always at the "other" house, no matter which house I'm in!

Annie

What, no one is eating?

Today both the girls came to the house, with the grandkids, so we had dinner for 10, at the "new" place. It's still not finished, but I managed.

I had one turkey left in the freezer, a small 12 pounder, so we roasted that, had mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, a cold salad with broccoli and cauliflower, some cheese and chive biscuits (gluten free for Amanda), peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

The Monkey Princess made her very first flourless chocolate cake with a spoonful of espresso, and a dark ganache. It was perfect and delicious, but so rich that a small wedge was plenty and vanilla ice cream took the edge off.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to return to dial up at the new house, we've been unsuccessful so far at finding a company that can receive a radio signal or satellite reception, so I'll probably not be posting a lot of pictures!

Annie

I love scrolling this thread. The food pictures are so impressive-for both the cooking skills and the photography. I also get meal ideas when nothing sounds good. Thanks for sharing your time and talent!

Ruthanna, would you mind sharing your tutti-frutti cookie recipe? I have a similar one I make, but think the pineapple might make a softer, better cookie.

Annie, I've got a lot of catching up to do with your updates and discussions of the goings-on with your new house!!

I had a lousy sleep all nite, just slept in fits and starts. I finally gave it up and got up at 5:30. What the heck, might as well start making bread!

Yum, jasdip, fresh bread for breakfast, how could it get better?

Elery and I had turkey vegetable soup and some leftover cauliflower and broccoli salad, not very exciting or picture worthy, even if I'd have had my camera there, but it was warm and good.

Annie

Jasdip, you sound like me. Might as well start bread if I'm up early.
Two beautiful looking loaves.

Annie, I hope you are able to find someone offering more than dial up. I look forward to your posts and photos.

Sleevendog, Love the idea of your duck pate.

I can't believe how fast January is going. I didn't realize that I hadn't posted here since the New Year.

A few of our meals since the beginning of 2015.

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Baked a small , cross between, a pizza and a focaccia.

Two of my favourite soups.

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Matzo Ball Soup

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and

Mexican Chicken Rice. If I could only eat one soup the rest of my life it would be this soup.

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Lamb Shanks

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Grilled Quail in a port sauce.

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I made perogies one morning before leaving for work.

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Served with bacon , fried onions and sour cream.

Ann T, I'm not optimistic, but the place offering a radio type signal for internet is coming out with a lift truck to see if they can get an antenna high enough to get a signal. Since we're surrounded by the National Forest and the house is about halfway up what might be the highest hill in the Township, I'm not holding my breath. I did offer to let the company put a tower on top of my hill, for the appropriate lease payments, LOL.

What's for dinner? I made some chicken vegetable soup yesterday, and chicken salad. We had leftovers today, I've been laying tile in the utility room, so I didn't cook.

I've got these lovely double ovens and no time to bake. Sigh.

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Annie

Oh Annie, your kitchen is just what you deserve. I can't think of anyone that will make better use of those beautiful appliances.

~Ann

Ann, wonderful meals as usual!!! Your lamb shanks are the best looking things. I've never had them, but you sure make me want to!

Annie, wow!!!! You're going to be in heaven. You won't know what to do with all of your room! I'm so, so happy for you. If anyone deserves a kitchen to make it easy to work in, with beautiful appliances, it's you!

Thanks Jasdip.
Annie, is the kitchen finished now? Hope you will share a photo of the whole kitchen.

~Ann

I love this thread -- everyone's food looks so good! but it's taking an awfully long time to load all the images even with high-speed internet, so Annie, I can't even imagine trying to cope with dial-up again! :( Your kitchen looks mah-velous, BTW!

Ann_t, I'll have to try my pierogies w/ bacon, onions, & sour cream sometime!

Thanks, everyone, this house has been a lot of work, and Elery and I are doing most of it ourselves, so it's taking a while. So, the kitchen is not finished. The cabinets are in, walls are drywalled, painted and trimmed, the countertops are on and the appliances installed. Cherry trim and laminate on the floor, but the window on the East overlooking the water needs to be replaced, and it was a "special order", so I can't finish the backsplash until the window is installed. And we still have the white battleship shaped homemade island with pink ceramic tile top sitting right in the middle. It'll stay, kind of, but it will be covered with the same stuff the cabinets are made of and have a butcherblock top. We tore out a wall between the kitchen and dining room to make one big room....

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Right now I'm working on the pantry, tearing out old shelves and replacing them with chrome racks and laying tile.

Supper tonight was pasta with Mama's Meatballs, a red pepper sauce, garlic bread and broccoli. I have half of my cooking stuff there and half here, so the garlic bread was from a local grocery store. It was OK, but I NEED to bake!

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 20:05