Mrs.J

Getting dumped on over here. The storm coming through has some purple on it at the junction of 340 and 15. Lot of lightning and thunder. 

18 hours ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Ohhh, tasty!!  Is that tsztiki dolloped on the top there?  (not sure I spelled that correctly, but I do like the stuff!!).  Rice cookers are great, by the way!  Had a roommate in grad school who had one.  It made just about perfect rice every time!!!

Yep it is tzatziki. Love the stuff!

Pork Souvlaki with peppers and yellow squash on rice pilaf. Experimented with the pilaf and made it in the rice cooker. Turned out good.   

9 hours ago, yoda said:

I can see distant lightning from the storms in C MD looks like from here in Springfield, VA

It's likely either the storms out north of Leesburg that are in MD or the storms west of Middleburg in extreme western Loudoun County 

You might have seen the storms over top of me last night. Was a pretty decent storm. 

34 minutes ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Is that chilled for a short time after baking?  Not that it would be bad either way (hot/cold)...for the fish.

Nope served hot. 

I don’t have to have on my Thunderstorm Pandora station to fall asleep. Mother Nature is on it. 

2 minutes ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Cool...and thanks for sharing!  One thing...I wonder if a few slices of avocado would be good, adding to that (or would that be too much).  I'm a fan of avocado!

Sure! I would add it after baking though. Oh and you cook it in a 9x13. And salt and pepper the fish. 

Just got dumped on. Unfortunately my rain gauge on my weather station must be clogged as it did not collect a reading. Nice garden variety t-storm. 

Just now, Always in Zugzwang said:

Dammit, Mrs. J...that is quite the dinner!  And yeah, perfect for a hot day!

This recipe was super easy! Lemon slices, olive oil, cherry tomatoes and thyme. Bake at 400 for 15 min. 

3 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Mrs. J's dinner looks fantastic!  But don't hate on grease, bro.  I used to work at one of those AYCE Chesapeake Bay Seafood House's back in the day, and I loved their fried cod!! 

I love me some fish and chips. Have done baked versions and you are correct with a good piece of fried cod. I actually just ordered a air fryer to see if I can do a healthier version. 

Nice light dinner for this hot day. Baked cod and a tasty salad. 

2 hours ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

That's Cool, Mrs. J!  My daughter has been taking riding lessons (and before that, summer camp sessions) at Meadowbrook Stables near Bethesda/Silver Spring.  Really likes it!  This summer they're allowing makeup classes for this past year (they were closed from March until now), so she's begun that again.  And she's doing work there as an assistant to some of the half-day camp sessions too (that started up last week).  She's a long way from jumping...right now her lessons have been walk/trot/canter.

I am sure she will keep moving along. I know about Meadowbrook as the lady who announces at this farm, Sandstone in Millwood VA also did some announcing at Meadowbrook. I love horses and when my daughter started showing interest it just seemed the natural way to go. 

Warned storm coming out of Northern Loudoun Co into Maryland. 

46 minutes ago, nj2va said:

Looks like storms are starting to fire.  Two storms just popped to my east in eastern Garrett County - I can hear the distant rumbles of thunder.

Partly sunny and 75/69 here.

Will see if it makes it over the mountains. My home area has missed storms these last few days. 87/65 here

Ok so for some reason did not realize it was supposed to feel tropical yesterday. But we got through it. Had a horse show with masks and staying socially distanced at the trailers. We’re allowed to go up ringside when the younger Miss J had her rounds. They had a mister fan set up so she stood her pony in front of it and got cooled off. She had a very good day despite the humidity. Finally showed us consistency between her jump rounds minus stopping her pony from doing her favorite line in the horse stride of 4 instead of 5. It is heading towards the in gate and has an oxer. Her favorite jump. The horse stride is ok as she will be trying to qualify for pony finals in KY next year and the ponies that do best have a horse stride to make the lines easy. 

On 6/20/2020 at 12:05 PM, psuhoffman said:

He is 5.  He has a practicality to him. When our Disney trip in April got canceled he was disappointed but said “but I don’t want to get sick so ok”.  Last year he saw a flood video on the news and said those people needs boats now and then we need to build them new houses but on top of something so that don’t happen again”. Recently he said he can’t really understand racism because he doesn’t understand why anyone would be mean to people because of how they look.  He also constantly asks me difficult questions that are way over his weight. Sometimes I’m not sure how to answer. 

We aren’t totally sure how old Lily was, she was rescued. But around 11/12. Old but not that old. But she had a liver condition her whole life and it finally gave out. 

This morning my 2 year old almost made me cry when she crawled into Lily’s bed by the window like she often did to cuddle her and was saying lily and whimpering. 

He sounds like the oldest Miss J. She has an old soul ever since she was born. Sorry to hear about your kitty, she will forever hold a place in your hearts. 

14 minutes ago, Rhino16 said:

You can’t trick me! You painted that!

It does have a filter on it to enhance the contrast. The sun was washing the image. 

We are over South of Lovettsville, VA and got this shot. 
 

8 hours ago, wxdude64 said:

lol, true. I buy 1/4 beef off a local guy, he only raises 7 or 8 head a year. He only grass feeds with occasional grain when necessary. No hormones or junk like that, a Mennonite family cuts up/butchers each year. Used to do 1/2 back when wife was alive and the son was still home. I only eat chicken/pork when out due to that.

Yep we buy from a local grass fed farm here in Frederick. They sell by the cut and keep it as freezer beef. So you can go in weekly and load up if you want. Like this week I need 2 lbs. ground beef and a flank steak. They run specials also and you can get bulk with a price discount. We do not eat a lot of red meat so this option works great. And I love seeing the cows out grazing as I drive in. Taught my girls where their food came from. 

7 hours ago, BlizzardNole said:

I laughed when I saw this.  I have a very picky eater too.  She's still like that and she's EIGHTEEN.

I like Mrs.J's recipe list up there -- might try to add some in to our revolving list.  Unfortunately my wife does not like to cook at all, so almost all of it falls on me.

If you need any of the recipes just let me know. 

19 hours ago, mappy said:

she just started getting into fish sticks and nuggets. butter noodles with parm cheese is her new go-to. ive had noodles for dinner myself a bit now too lol

Not going to lie, I still occasionally eat fish sticks! Thinking of getting an air fryer for fish and chips. I have done baked versions but honestly fish and chips just needs to be fried. 

4 minutes ago, mappy said:

That's impressive! i def need to figure out a better way to plan meals. we have two busy nights a week with the kiddo and gymnastics, that usually ends up being "whatever" nights (leftovers, cereal lol). We do try to plan during the day, take out meat to defrost or whatever. But the kiddo is still a big picky eater and her meals are so narrow that i usually end up making two dinners. one of us and one for her. thankfully shes easy (pizza, butter noodles, grilled cheese to name a few). i save bigger time consuming meals for weekends. but lately with the pool now opened, its all gone to the wayside as wed rather be outside. so we've done a lot of carryout the last couple weeks

Yep you do what works best for your family. You can keep her stuff on hand and just cook for two. I hate turning on the oven in the summer so we do a lot of sandwiches and grilling. 

2 hours ago, mappy said:

2 weeks? im lucky to know what to make for dinner each day let alone 2 weeks worth. Teach me the ways!

About 15 years ago Mr. J asked me if I could work out meals off of paydays. He gets paid every 2 weeks. So I started to put together easy and fresh dinners that were enjoyed by all and would allow one grocery run, minus the fresh things like milk, eggs, fruit, veg ect...  Although with the milk and eggs we now get them delivered by a dairy service and in the summer are part of a local CSA for fruit and veg that we get weekly. 

Some people go off of what is on sale meat wise, my mom did that growing up as there were 6 of us to feed and 3 were men/boys. But I am able to take the proteins we mostly like and utilize the freezer and buy 2 weeks out. We eat mostly chicken, pork and fish/seafood although we occasionally do beef and have a local beef farm that does single portion freezer beef and is open Thur-Sat. I go through my recipes and ask family what sounds good or something they have been wanting. I pick 14 dinners out and then figure out what day we will have them on. It allows me to cater to busy days vs days that I can do a more involved recipe. Weekends are my experimental days as I like to pick at least 2 new recipes a month. I go through all the recipes and write down what I need for each one, and check the pantry to see if I already have items. Then I print out a sheet with dates and what meal is on that date. I will put in my current sheet for this Friday's grocery run. It allows me to know what I have planned and my girls don't have to ask what is for dinner.

As for breakfast and lunch it is pretty easy to push out two weeks. Eggs, cereal and toast are a hit along with yogurt and granola that we just make at home to save money. The youngest Miss J can pack in granola so it is cheaper to just make. For lunches I have to get creative. The girls are not fans of lunch meat sandwiches. So tortellini pasta, cut smoked sausage, cut cheese and crackers and soup. Plus any leftovers. 

Meal Plans June 19th thru July 2nd

19th Youngest Miss J's B-day camp out Cheeseburgers, Baked Mac n Cheese, TX sheet cake, S’mores, Breakfast biscuits fixins

20th Take out @ Analia’s Cafe

21st Easy Spicy Baked Chicken Tacos (Sandstone Show)

22nd Cajun Shrimp & Corn Salad (RTSB pg. 110)

23rd Lemon Parsley Baked Cod & Salad

24th Smothered Burritos (Beef)

25th BLT’s and Summer Pasta salad (RTSB pg. 156)

26th Chicken Taco Salad (Dinnertime pg. 54)

27th Grilled Lamb Skewers (RTSB pg. 105)

28th Asian Pork Tenderloin

29th Balsamic Basil Chicken w/ rice pilaf

30th Sizzling Sherry Shrimp w/ garlic (AR summer pg. 57)

1st Grilled Chicken w/ red & yellow peppers salad (RTSB pg. 83)

2nd Beef Bulgogi w/ veg and rice

14 hours ago, H2O said:

Looks yummy. I wish I had taken pics of the bacon wrapped pork chops we had. Damn, they were good!!

Ah yes you should have!!! Bacon on anything makes it just that much better! I just found a recipe for grilled rosemary bacon wrapped chicken breasts that made me drool. 

11 hours ago, yoda said:

We need to have a zoom meeting/cooking class with @Mrs.J... everything she cooks and makes both looks and sounds fantastic 

Of course we can add others as well who cook well... which is not me lol

I would be up for that. I have a lot of recopies that would work. Actually working on my 2 week meal plan today as grocery day is Friday.