Ruby2

Get everyone. Daughter had gymnastics this morning and I stayed in bed later before dashing her over there.

MLD, you'll be with us. Hang in there. Just don't go poking in the cupboards. Bring some special drink for you.

Soberclover, what a see saw of emotions. Hugs.

Brynn, I hope your dad feels better soon. I'm betting he hasn't gone to the doctor? My DSD is doing alright. Still not going out much except to more doctor appointments. Slowly improving in his mood.

The photos are all so lovely. Thank you. The tomatoes are my favorite though. Yum

Time to work on house cleaning today

Ruby2

MLD, I thought of you. You can get salad cream here. In the ethnic food aisles. I went to Mariano's which is part of Roundys. Don't know what your closest would be. Byerlys or Lunds?

Selfies sticks. Hmm. Bim, I think I'd laugh to see one go trotting by but I can understand why they'd do it. Get s better perspective of the pack in back.

Olive1

I have never in my life have heard of salad cream.

MLD, we got you.

Lazy day here. Still in my pajamas. My stay that way all day.
Chocolate zucchini muffins in the oven.
All garden veg prepped. I shall spatchcock the chicken and roast everything on sheet pans for a late lunch/early dinner.

It's a good day so far.

brynn

I've never heard of salad cream either.

Ruby, glad to hear your dad's mood is improving...that's huge.
My dad won't go to the dr. I think part of it is he doesn't want to be told to stop drinking. The other part is he doesn't have much will to live anymore and hasn't for a while now. So depressing to go over there. I avoid it as much as possible. That's why I'm procrastinating now.

Roasted veggies sound good. It's raining here and temps have cooled down. Guess my fall decorating did the trick!! Ha!

saoutchik

Not keen on Salad Cream, prefer mayo. Impressed that Barrys Tea on sale, it's on sale in London too. Glad you had a lie in Ruby

The Weekenders won't abandon you Soberclover

Best wishes to your dad Brynn

MLD you will have to make sure you have a good film to watch or something

That rock formation that Mesa posted looks similar to the ones in Karnak in Egypt or Petra in Jordan, cool

Chocolate zuccini muffins sound good, I will have to do some research...

Melina

Hi all!

I love love love the pix! The fish market, the tomatoes and the selfie people

Hey MLD, stick close by, ok?!

I wanted to chime in on the knife thing. Knives are extremely important to me, they are an extension of my arm at work and with them I turn my passion, education and creativity into flavors on a plate for people. It astounds me and I love what I do so very very much!

We say 'Your Knife is Your Wife'. Doesn't matter what gender YOU are, you need to love and cherish your knife and keep her close. We bring our own knives to work and it is always fun having a cook open their knife bag and telling you the story of every knife and spoon.

You don't need many knives. I use a Shun chef's knife, a Shun slicer, Shun paring knife and a Misono UX10 utility knife. I have the boning knife that came with my culinary school kit, that's another good one to have if you butcher a lot. I have a lot of other random knives but those are the ones I use daily.

I like to get knives from Korin in NYC. Sur La Table gives us an industry discount so that's a good place to get the Shuns. Korin.com is a fun site to dream and salivate over $6000 knives as well as knives for us normal folk.

I'm off today and tmro, me and my little guy are going to hit up the Harvest Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden today. The sky is so lovely, it's been raining here so I hope it stays nice like this all weekend.

I hope you all enjoy your Saturday. I'm happy I'm sober today and I get to appreciate this weather and time out with my sweet son.

Xoxo

entropy1964

Oh my gosh how beautiful. Poor Boise. We have a farmers market but nothing like that. I LOVE Portland. We had the best food there. My daughter wants to go to University of Oregon...which costs a fortune if you don't live there. I'm thinking of buying a condo in Lake Oswego.

Ruby2

That would be chocolate/courgette muffins, Sao. The reach of Heinz is everywhere. There were some other British foods there but my camera phone is limited in scope.

Brynn I can understand the depression going to visit your Dad. You just want to say "DO something!!" But then he doesn't. Is there a better time to visit him when he's not been drinking?

Brilliantly sunny and cooler today. Just beautiful out but I'm trying to get motivated to clean. Ugh. Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to a carnival with rides after church.

Ruby2

Melina, enjoy! It's awesome out compared to yesterday.

Ruby2

Frickaflip, Oregon is pretty but Weas is on the opposite coast in Portland, Maine. Both Portlands are pretty awesome

biminiblue

You know how brynn doesn't cook? I don't like house cleaning. I kind of have to do it because I have two cats and eventually their fur tries to take over but I only have to vacuum every couple weeks anyway. I've taken to setting an alarm with ten minutes daily. For ten minutes I clean. I can do anything for ten minutes. Then I usually end up setting it a couple more times because I can't get much done in ten minutes, but it gets me started - and more importantly to me - it gives me an end time. If I keep this up, I can vacuum. Everything off the floor and in its place.

I used to do the same thing with exercise. I can do anything for ten minutes.

I think this would be useful for alcohol cravings or for anger management or whatever. "I will not drink for ten minutes. I will not rage at my coworker or my children until I take a ten minute cooling-off time." With everyone having timers on their phones, it seems easy.

letitgo

Marrianos is a great store. You can eat a meal of all the samples while you shop.Produce is really good compared to jewel, garden fresh and walmart. We are getting a meyer soon. I hope they are good.

Weasel1966

Thanks for that catch Miss Ruby! Yuppers. Portland Maine.

So I picked up some thin cut chicken breasts. I am marinating them in the herb infused olive oil that the fresh goat cheese came in. Going to make a cherry tomato sauce with shallots, kalamata olives and fresh basil. Also picked up some fresh linguini to make and add some of that goat cheese in. Layer it out and bam! That will put this weasel in heaven.

Really nice day here. With my stress at work high I need to be kind to myself. You should too!

Hang in there soberclover. Let the ups and downs wash over you. Like Sao said we are right here for you.

K

saoutchik

Those tomatoes looked great Ken. Love the smell of Basil

I have made and eaten my West African Suyu (aka Suya).

It was delicious, I made enough for 2 (according to Jamie Oliver ) but have scoffed the lot. I am glad I can do it but I won't be doing it just for myself again - it is definitely for family/group gatherings.

A total of 29 seperate ingredients is a bit much for a solo diner, 28 commonplace + the Uda Pods which J.O. says if you can't get hold of then use Szechuan pepper granules instead which is handy 'cos Uda Pods not easy to find

There is a Portland Bill in the UK, I don't think their range of tomatoes is quite as extensive

brynn

Bim...10 minutes is kinda my rule of thumb about cooking! I like raw veggies and eat a lot of them so most of my 'cooking ' is chopping. Food just isn't that important to me so I don't like spending a lot of time on preparation unless it's baked goods.

Sao....a dish with 29 ingredients is totally foreign to me! I'm impressed with you chefs who can put all that together. Bravo! Wish we could all have a taste of it!

Still haven't gone to my dad's. I'm a bad daughter. There's very few things I procrastinate about, but this is a biggie. I used to have to drink ALOT before going over there. This is pathetic. Just rambling trying to psych myself up to go.

saoutchik

I would say you just don't like the frustration and helplessness Brynn and who can blame you. It doesn't make you a bad daughter.

An Earthquake in the Rugby - South Africa have just lost to Japan. Biggest upset in the history of the tournament

biminiblue

...and a million selfie sticks went up at the end of the rugby match.

LBrain

Just a quick stop by to say hello and wish all a healthy weekend.

I just cleared my craigslist ads.

I forced myself out of bed at 0630 and set up my 'space' at the yard sale. I'm glad I posted ads around the area because people came looking for me. "Are you the guy with the tools?" Yep - show me the money! I think the regulars at 'the yard sales' were getting annoyed because many came just for MY stuff. It was a frenzy in the first two hours. My plan to document it all was lost in the first ten minutes. I couldn't keep up with the people wanting to give me their money.
Because I didn't want to haul a bunch back I was also 'discounting' items after the first two hours.
I pulled in almost 600 today! Plus I gave away a bunch of stuff.
When I was taking down my canopy I sold that too. At a steep discount. But I got my money's worth over the years. More room in the basement as it had three separate carrying containers. And it was heavy.

I just read the last page of posts so all I gots to say is:
Salad cream is to mayonnaise as pollock is to lobster.

Have a good one folks!

Weasel1966

The other Portland is as amazing. Come visit!

biminiblue

Party at LB's house. Congrats on the successful sale. I do terrible at yard sales. I price something at a reasonable $20 and end up selling it to the first person who offers more than $5 because I don't want it. That's why I'm selling it. I usually have a whole section of free stuff or $1 stuff. Just take it.

Hm, it's 1:30. Maybe I should get dressed and get out for a while...