I digress.

This is a food blog. *ahem*

While you dine (lol), do you listen to music? Watch television? Do you even dine with the family, all together?

Dinner is a difficult meal in our modern age. I think so, anyway. It comes at the end of a long day. I’ve been working and running around, and the LAST thing I want to do is stand for hours in a hot kitchen, serving food. And then cleaning up afterwards. Ugh. But in our culture, dinner is the main meal. I think the other countries have it correct– their main meal is breakfast or lunch, and then they all rest for a while after. As I get older, I am finding t increasingly difficult to cook and clean at the end of a long day. No wonder all those fancy British folks had servants. Wow.

When we eat together, we sometimes watch a DVD. Most of the time, they are educational. I love Drive Thru History, which is both fun, educational, and perfect for short attention spans. We have been currently watching war documentaries, though. The guys like them. I must say, my meal loses its flavor somewhat when you’re watching World War I footage. … I don’t need to elaborate.

Dear Dave Stotts: Please make some more Drive Thur History DVDs, and FAST!!!

We don’t often listen to music, though. I’ve heard that classical music while dining aids the digestive process. But then again, I’ve heard that ANYTHING related to classical music makes things better: babies smarter, childbirth easier, commuting more relaxing, etc etc. Who needs vitamins and supplements when you’ve got classical music???

Well, I’m not a BIG fan of classical music. I don’t listen to it for classical music’s sake. I love Bach and I will tolerate Mozart, but the others are merely “OK.” I wouldn’t mind listening to an indie group chug out some tunes with a Fernandes Bass and all… but I don’t know what that would do to our digestion…

So how do you eat dinner? Do you have any traditions or regular routine?

If you have your own ideas or have any suggestions for me, please let me know. I am always looking for new recipes. As a matter of fact, I may have a mutiny on my hands if I don’t find new recipes!

Here goes:

Beef and Barley Stew
Garlic Chicken and Shrimp pasta with steamed kale
Tuna Casserole
Stuffed Red Peppers
Black Bean Soup
Manhattan Clam Chowder

Some of these meals are not so tasty (I can’t stand casseroles) but the kids like them and they are easy enough to make…. I’m starting to incorporate more vegetables in the hopes that the prices will soon go down now that spring is here. I’ll be planting a garden this year but we won’t see any production until June or July. That’s a long time to wait! We’re also reading Dr. Dan Colbert’s Seven Pillars of Health and have been finding out just how terrible processed foods are, that and learning about our water supply and diet pills side effects. It’s getting creepy out there.

Anyway, I’d sure love some recommendations for recipes.

We’re getting several inches of snow today, perhaps more snow in this one day that we have had all winter long so far! It’s been a very brown and gray winter, that’s for sure. And as I watch the little flakes flutter to the ground, I think “Boy, I should make a soup or something.” Oh yeah.

So I’m making my Manhattan Clam Chowder.

It’s a very easy recipe, one of my “staples” that I turn to when I don’t have any meat thawed out or any plans for dinner. Half of the soup ingredients are canned items, which keep easily in the pantry. The other ingredients are simple things: some cooked sausage, maybe some leftover bacon slices (I didn’t use any bacon in the soup today, though), a green pepper, an onion, some potatoes. Leftover vegetables are perfect additions, too, like cooked carrots or corn. Simmering all day long, the pot exudes a delicious smell that adds to the coziness of the day.

So what do you usually do when the weather keeps you inside? Do you relax with some tea and scones, leafing through the latest Luminox watches or English country home catalogs? Or do you get this strange urge to cook up your own little storm?

So my dining room does double-duty. We eat our meals in there on the great big cherry table. But we also have our television set with the DVD player and Playstation console. We also have some of our musical instruments in there– a bass guitar, an electric guitar, and two crate amps (Marshall and Peavy). It’s a little crowded but we are able to get around. I’d put the TV and stuff in the living room if I could, but that’s where my home office is and it’s also full of desks where the kids do school. We don’t exactly have the typical American home layout….

What do you do in your dining room? Because families are smaller and because many Americans eat out more frequently, it seems that the dining room has become the “extra” room. Some folks have musical instruments in there. Others have their desks in there. We’ve toyed with the idea of eliminating the dining room altogether, but because we do eat together, I need a central table. (The kitchen is too small).

How do you use your dining room?

Look, here’s the proof!

They made a pie for the holidays. Woohoo! The boys expressed some apprehension when I asked to make a pie (we gals were very busy with other jobs at the time), but I threatened them with no allowance if they didn’t get off their lazy butts encouraged them on. They took to heart my swelling words of bravery and exhortation and tarried on with great courage.

I don’t have a photo of the pie but let us say it turned out magnificently.

My daughter looks like she’s had a little too much eggnog in this photo. But have no fear. She’s always like that. Too much new jersey energy, maybe.

P.S. If you want your male family members to cook anything, always praise their dishes no matter how terrible they taste.

HAHA! I’m kidding, though. The pie was delicious.

And the boys reveled in a job well done.

OH SO full of calories but it was a delicious treat for Christmas dessert! (I passed over the pie — too filling — to enjoy a cup of this). I found it while looking for red wine for Christmas dinner. It was affordable so I thought I would try it. I used to LOVE dairy egg nog as a kid but now that I am older, it’s too sweet for me.

This New England Nog was so wonderful! Not too bitter, not too sweet. Just perfect for a Christmas treat. I’m going to get it every year, I hope.

I looked up some recipes online, to see if I could find something comparable to make myself. Wow, this stuff takes a lot of diverse liquors. I really don’t want to buy brandy, rum, and TWO types of whiskey JUST to make this nog every once in a while. :-p Not unless they make “mini” sized versions.

If you know of a good eggnog recipe, let me know! I’d like it to have as little alcohol content as possible.

In other news, we watched the movie “A Christmas Carol” for the holidays. Yes, that very old one that we saw as kids, starring the amazing George C. Scott. In it, Mrs. Crachitt makes “Christmas pudding” and we were all very curious what that was made of. In the movie, the pudding is black, and I wondered if it was blood pudding?? That grossed the kids out but I told them that long ago on the Celtic isles, food could be scarce in the winter and a person ate what they could.

Anyway, I did a little digging and found out that Christmas pudding goes back to the Middle Ages. It is made of flour and plums and a whole bunch of other ingredients. It’s boiled in a cloth bag and stored to age. Then, before serving, it’s covered with brandy and set afire. Wow! In olden times, people might place custom made coins in the pudding. Whoever got the coin got “good luck” for the year. I remember seeing “The Great Dictator,” a Charlie Chaplin movie, and in it the characters each get a coin in their pudding (Chaplin swallows them all, lol).

Ya learn something new every day! LOL

How was your Christmas? Did you discover anything new or start any new tradition?

Here are a few of my favorites that are currently on my wish list… when I can afford them.

Just the right amount of sass and frass.

What about you? Do you like to cook up a big storm? Do you make amazing dishes for the holidays? If so, do you want to cater my holiday meal, LOL?

I guess I’m just not domestic enough for it. I prefer to hang with the guys, talking about tools and politics and hunting and stuff.

I’m on a spree, a tin-sign-hanging spree. I’ve decided to fill my kitchen walls with tin signs, usually referring to cooking, cleaning or wifely duties in general. This one just came in the mail yesterday. I love it!!!

HAHA!!!

I also got this one. We don’t drink Coca-Cola (or any soda, actually, except ginger ale when we’re sick), but I like the Victorian flair and the color. The color perfectly matches my red dining room. I’ve hung this on the wall in the kitchen that leads into the dining room, for a nice transition.

My favorite is this one:

I have tons more but I didn’t feel like taking photos. :-p But believe me, they are all very funny, even the rv repair one. HAHA!

Do you decorate your kitchen? What style do you like best? I guess mine could be considered “eclectic retro.” LOL

When we went to Hudson, NY, recently, we stopped at a marina restaurant, Frank Guido’s Port of Call. It looked a little too casual for us, actually– as if some sailors might come swooning out of the low-roofed building. OK, I wasn’t expecting to walk into a lush joist that required suit and tie and cashmere throw– but I didn’t want a skeevy diner, either.

But a waitress took us to the back, by the lake. There was seating on an outdoor patio with a large awning providing shade from the burning sun. It was beautiful!! We watched small watercraft zip up and down the Hudson while we dined.

And look what I got!

Doesn’t it just make your mouth water???

I wish we didn’t live so far inland. Fish is horribly expensive where I live. Everyone says how nutritious it is, how good it is…. but who can afford it?! It’s so much easier to live on cheapo junk food these days. Why is healthy food so expensive?

Oh well, I’ll wallow in the memories of that great fish dinner. With tartar sauce. YUM.