Stuffed Peppers for Dinner

34/365

Once upon a time my children were young.  Once upon a time I cooked dinner 

EVERY.   SINGLE.   NIGHT.  

These days that's hard to believe.  

As the kids got older/needed me less/had their own schedules/weren't home at mealtime very often, I cooked dinner less and less.  It got so bad that the question of the day was, "are you making dinner tonight mom?"  

More often than not the answer was "no".  

They practically cheered when I did make dinner.  

Now that the kiddos are completely grown and gone and it's just me and my husband, I really have to force myself to get into the kitchen and use the culinary skills I once had.  If it were up to me, I'd eat salad and cheese & crackers every night.  But once in a while I take pity on my hubby and force myself to make an actual meal.  

Today was one of those days when I kind of enjoyed making dinner.  I'm a morning person and I prefer doing all this prep early in the day.  (once noon has come and gone I consider the day to be a wash and nothing much constructive gets done).  

So...not only was I able to get these great stuffed peppers put together while my enthusiasm was way up there on the motivational scale, but I was able to photograph my creations while my tummy was still content from breakfast.  Score!!  All I had to do at dinner time was throw some grated cheese on top, stick them in the oven to heat them through and put a salad together.  Score again!!!

And voila!

Thanksgiving 2014

33/365

There used to be many more of us.  When the kiddos were little there were about 16 gathering for family events.  Now the kids are grown and gone.  It's sad, but that's what kids do.  They grow up and often they leave.  That's the point for parents--grow them up and send them out.

It doesn't stop those of us who are left behind from feeling nostalgic about "the good old days".  But the 7 of us still had a good time yesterday.

Thanks go to Norman Rockwell for the inspiration for this image.

Comfort Food

16/365

When I think of comfort food, I think spaghetti, chili, burgers/fries, chicken fricasse (I think that's spelled wrong, but I can't find the correct spelling).  But today I got the idea to make chicken cutlets, which, upon reflection, was one of my favorite foods when I was growing up, and therefore a comfort food for me.  We didn't necessarily have rice or broccoli salad with it, but it doesn't matter what the side dishes are, the cutlets themselves are soooo good.

The main reason I wanted to make this is that I wanted to take photos of it.  That and the meat was already thawed out so I had to do something with it!

Okay, now it's time for dinner.

Betty Boop

Last week when we met at Morette's for dinner before photo club, I noticed this jacket hanging on the coat rack. I thought "how cute", but the whole time we were there, no one retrieved it, and it was still there when we left.

Tonight it was the first thing I saw when I approached our table in the back. Guess no one has claimed it. Too cute!

Tonight was the Print of the Year Competition at the photo club. When I was getting ready to take a photo of some of the entries, Judy decided to clown around, and I was glad to oblige her by taking a photo of her antics.

There were over 100 entries tonight--I think it's a record. And each one was more wonderful than the last. A lot of talent in this group.

My hiking training: two miles today.

Dinner

Had dinner at Chelsea's tonight. Good food and good company.

Posted at 8:45 on Wed, March 18, 2009

Bookworm

After Bible Study and a great dinner with friends, my hostess, Betty, and I played a few rounds of BookWorm. It's a great word game. I used to have it on my computer, but when I got my laptop, I never purchased it--and probably never will. It's incredibly addictive and I could waste many hours each day playing it. But Betty has it on her TV, so it can be played by more than one player by passing the remote back and forth.

It's a lot like Boggle, which most of you probably know I'm crazy about. Fortunately, if there's no one else to play Boggle with, it's really no fun 'cause what in the world is the challenge? I tried to talk Betty into playing Boggle tonight, but she wouldn't go for it. She loses royally, and she wasn't in a losing mood tonight. However, she didn't mind playing Bookworm, 'cause I lose royally, so she was good to go for that.

Anyway, it's great fun, and even if/when I lose, I love to play.

I decided that this would be my post tonight before I got home to look at the other blogs. When I saw Trish's I had to chuckle. I guess we were on the same wave length today.

Posted at 10 pm on Sunday, March 8, 2009

Wednesday's post

Not very inspired today-y'all can relate to that, right? I spent the morning on the computer, paying bills, cleaning a little and making spaghetti sauce and meatballs. Ooops, just occurred to me I could have taken a photo of that. Oh well....

I took the sauce to my friend Jackie's, and we had dinner together and then watched a cute movie, "27 Dresses" (or something close to that).

Returning home in the dark is tricky, because Nathan is already asleep and he's in the room I enter when I unlock the door. So I have to employ stealth tactics, and work in the dark, unless I have my trusty wind-up flash light handy. Love this gadget! So these are my two best friends when I come home at night.

Posted at 9:30 pm on Wed, Mar 4, 2009 (very lame, I know, but I'm still in the running for the new trophy!)

Back to Haleiwa

Okay, okay, so I'm in a rut. Haleiwa, turtles, turtles, Haleiwa. But they're irresistible. Yesterday Jackie and I went to Haleiwa, just for something to do. Then we headed up to the beach. Once again, no turtles for her to see, so we hung around for the sunset. It wasn't spectacular, but nice and it gave her something to practice on. Of course, just being on the beach at sunset was spectacular in itself!

Then, yep, you guessed it, back to Haleiwa for a light dinner. We decided to go to Cholo's--much more on that in my post for today. (this is my post for yesterday, Sunday) When we got our table outside, I decided to take a few shots to show Jackie the zooming technique. So I pointed my camera inside the restaurant and this is the result. The only one that I like, but I'm happy with it.

Then, instead of dessert, we went over to the Coffee Gallery and while Jackie was ordering, I started playing around with the different scenes in the store. It was dark by then, so the shutter speed was very slow, but I did manage to get a couple of images I like.

Another sign I love. I just might take Phil's suggestion and make a collage of all the funky signs I'm finding. I know a few people in NY who would probably love to have this sign in their house, or on their garage door. Fun!

So come back later. Cholo's will be the main topic. I'm headed out the door right now to drive up there. We got permission to go in before they open, so we can photograph with our tripods without interfering with their customers.

Posted on Mon. for Sunday, Mar. 1, 2009

Dinner

Another day with the baby. No time for taking photos, no time for even thinking about taking photos. This was dinner. Yum.

Posted at 7:30 pm on Monday, Jan 19, 2009