leder legends

  We found a new place for Wednesday lunch- JT’s Pizza!  Apparently this pizza place has been around for a long time - since 1975 and known for homemade pizza, sauces, and Italian sausage. The lunch special is an extra large pizza slice and a soda.  Red sauce is the only requirement. So we both ordered The Deluxe with a diet Mt Dew! We split a dessert of NewYork cheesecake! (Pictures are loading sideways again... so annoying!) A good lunch and not overly pricey!

  Two books. I belong to two very different book clubs. Both meet every two months and unintentionally it ends up that they often meet in the same week- one on Wednesday night and the other on Sunday night.  I like to read the chosen book as close to the meeting date as possible in order to keep the facts and reactions fresh.  Last week I read The Salt Path on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for a Wednesday evening meeting. Then I read Soldier of Salamis on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for a Sunday night meeting. Nothing much else got done for a while! Haha! We had a lively discussion on Wednesday evening even though the book was not well received by most of the book club.  It was boring and not truly believable. The Sunday evening meeting was postponed because of frigid weather. This book also was uninspiring, boring and full of extremely long complicated sentences. It is divided into three parts.  For me, part one was a slog… full of histor...

  Besides my earlier list, I found two savory pastries in the freezer.  Since it is Saturday, I am baking them both.  The leftovers will make a nice late night snack or a light dinner tomorrow. The first is a Spinach & Ricotta Strudel. It is from “Deutsche Küche” so I thought it was German.  The package says it is a product of Italy that I purchased at Aldi. The second is called  Cheese Sirnica  It’s Bosnian pastry with cheese and  spices. It is made locally . Both tasted great but very different. The cheese in the Bosnian was quite firm.  The Italian pastry was flakier filled with plenty of spinach. Both needed a drop or two of hot sauce or maybe more salt. I liked the Strudel best. Hubby preferred the Bosnian sirnica! It was a good supper. Only one piece left for tomorrow ! Arie’s breakfast!

  The challenge continues.  We had a frozen leftover meal tonight - it turned out to be a very tasty rice and beans dish that I had prepared about a month ago! I also baked two small stuffed chicken breasts that were also hidden in the back of the freezer compartment of the fridge. I was proud that I survived a trip to the store and resisted the temptation to buy meat!  So what’s left?  2 lbs of ground beef, 2 lbs of shrimp, a beef pot roast and  1 lb of brats. That’s still seven dinners down from 10 … I’m encouraged!

 Rose and I continue to enjoy going out for lunch on Wednesdays. We still try to find a new place each week and we still take turns selecting the place.  We are finding it more challenging to find new and interesting places.  On top of that we don’t always remember whose turn it is. Today was like that.  After going back and forth - we finally agreed it was her turn.  We went to Rose’s on Reeds Lake.  We were looking for ambiance, good food and warmth!   The fire place burning brightly and warming up the place plus the hearty Rueben sandwich that we split checked off all the boxes! So I need to start the list again in order to avoid confusion! Lucy’s  3/25/26 Bistro Bella Vita 3/18/26 IHOP 3/11/26  The Breakfast House 3/7/26 Applebee’s  2/4/26 JTs pizza 1/28/26 Rose’s  1/21/26 Uccellos 1/14/26 Cantina 1/7/26 Beltline bar It’s bad… I can only remember the last few weeks! Bob Evan’s Bigfoot burgers

  Yesterday I figured out that I have 10 suppers left after my freezer purge. Today I made a spicy Indian chicken over rice with a side of bread and butter pickles. It was delicious! Unfortunately, there is enough left over for another meal!  It will go in the rotation as meal number 10.  If this happens every time, when will I run out of food?  My 10 meals might just became 20! Cooking for two takes skill!!

 11:00 pm  It’s 8° F outside and 55° F in our bedroom! The bedroom door is staying open tonight and windows will be closed! It has been snowing quite steadily for 2 days- fine snow and plenty of wind! There’s probably 2 feet of accumulation. It’s pretty outside!  This said, it’s also dangerous! This morning at 10:30 there was a 100 car and truck pile up on the freeway. No fatalities amazingly! The highway reopened at 7:00 pm. It even made the international news. Thanks to drones, we were able to see  pictures showing the enormity of the event. Drones are so awesome! Lots of people head down south at this time year. They are gone for 2 weeks up to 3 months. If things stay this cold perhaps we will have to consider doing the same!  I can’t get warm even wearing multiple layers. I’d love to be sitting on a  beach sipping a piña colada and enjoying the warm breezes and the sunshine!

  Two weeks ago I decided to start a pantry and freezer cleanse! I’ve done this a few times but this time I’m being very “enthusiastic “!  I am very frugal in the kitchen so by definition I do not throw very much away.  I’m really good at saving things in little ziplock bags and then tossing them in the freezer.  My mother would be proud! Unfortunately, I do NOT label very much and trying to figure out what I have in these baggies is creative guess work.  Today, I started with the idea that I would use up the veggies from the fridge and make some soup. While chopping the celery and the onions, I noticed that I had 2 eggs.  What a segue! Haha! I had found an old chocolate chip cookie mix in the pantry that asked for 1 egg…. So I made cookies.   For the second egg, Google helped me find a carrot cake recipe that only called for 1 egg which sounded promising. I had the exact amount of carrots, exactly 1/2 cup of sour cream and some oil.  I checked th...

Ouch! I cut a fairly big chunk off the tip of my middle finger last night! It sure bled a lot!  This morning it had stopped bleeding and looked a bit angry but then I would have been angry too! lol! It’s the one on my right hand- naturally!  I kept hitting it so I had to find a way to pad it and keep it dry! Not an easy task when you are right handed. I finally got it protected and then covered it with a finger of a latex glove! So much fun but it does work! I was able to do all that I had planned.  I prepared a savory charcuterie board with lots of cheeses and crackers left over from Christmas plus some meats. Olives and pickles on the side in bowls! I also did a board with fruit- red kiwi, strawberries, oranges and blackberries? I also made some smoked salmon dip but I am not sure I’ll put it out…. Or figure out how to perk it up.  We’ll see. ( I added lots of dill and lemon juice and it helped a lot) New Year’s Day the tip of my finger still hurts! It throbs quiet...