Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

[apirateslifeforme]

Thanks, all, for the advice regarding our neighbor. I know I need to "mom up" and put my foot down with her. She clearly doesn't have boundaries at home, so if I don't establish any at my house, she'll continue to do whatever she wants. Her parents don't seem to care. With the lockdown, her mom is working (at home) all day, I almost never see her. Her dad...well, he's confused us from day one. Supposedly he works for a particular delivery service, but he's always at home (even before the lockdown). Maybe he works overnight? Their lawn - or rather, their weeds - are knee-high, he only gets the lawn mower out once a month. The girl says that she's not allowed in the house when he's playing his video games. It's just...well, unusual. But I will be bringing the bubbles in the house (even if they are only $1 per bottle - how many dollars will I be going through this summer if I supply her as well?) and the chalk will have to be put up higher. And maybe I'll keep the doors shut as well.

So on another subject...we LOVE Publix in Florida! There is one right around the corner from my in-laws and we actually put it on our must-visit list! Seriously! One day this year when we went in, the line for fresh-made sandwiches was incredibly long. Last year, we'd stopped in to get some before we left for our drive home and they were indeed delicious. Same with their bakery. I've heard that their fried chicken is yummy, too. Wonder if it would be the same if we got a Publix up here in NE...

 

[lynxstch]

I don't think I've ever been in a Wegmans (or Harris Teeter) but I have visited Piggly Wiggly and Publix. And and I'll admit that when we vacation any place with a Walmart I make a point of visiting. beats some tourist attractions, LOL.

Have never been in Wegmans, Harris Teeter, Piggly Wiggly, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, or Publix. None of them anywhere near me. On vacation, we avoid Walmart, as it's basically the only place we have to shop at here at home!

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I have never been in Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Piggly Wiggly, Harris Teeter, or Wegmans. I do like Publix when we go to Florida. There was one near MIL's condo and we did like their subs and other prepared foods. Here I shop at Food Lion and shop there in OBX too. I avoid Walmart anywhere that I can.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Hugs, apirateslifeforme. I do feel badly for the little girl but at 9 she should definitely know it is not okay to both trespass and help herself to a neighbor's supplies! I pray you are able to resolve the situation asap in a way that is calm! Also hug for Josh and I am so sorry this may be putting stress on him which, of course is not right either.

I've never been to Piggly Wiggly (the name makes me smile though), Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Publix, or Food Lion. we do have Trader Joes and Whole Foods out here. main supermarkets are Ralph's (Kroger) and Pavilions (Von's or Safeway)

A FYI, don't ever order anything potentially damage-able from Target.com. Ordered 8 cans of Campbell's Chicken Broth. One package of 3 was open and barely taped together. The mailman said he would scan it as damaged. The other box of 5 wasn't sealed all that much better but at least was closest. The issue with that was the "padding" was a thrown in piece of not bubble wrap but those plastic puffed out thingies. A few cans, one in particular were dented. My Dad will be return them all to Target in person Thanks to my friend and God for orchestrating my Sunday surprise delivery of 18 cans, I am in good shape for now but still!

I am most thankful that the workers at least left after installing one A/C next door. The noise was just terrible (TMJ and constant noise are not a mix) As always, they were very nice.

Thankful to have gotten some car insurance money back due to the pandemic.

As I have gotten older, being Patriotic has grown in importance to me bigtime! I give great thanks this Memorial Day weekend to all who have and are serving, plus their families, too. God Bless You!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Did absolutely nothing today besides watch TV and hanging some handwash up to dry; glorious sloth day until dinner time-which will be eaten later than norm since DGD isn't here to keep us disciplined.

I'm shelling the rest of the seafood(easier to heat) and the man is mincing parsley and garlic. There's a lot of sauce...mostly shellfish juice and I'm thinking I'll let it reduce to give it a stronger flavor. Don't have any sour cream (which I prefer) so heavy cream it'll be. Going to make a variation on sauce Alfredo, adding a piece of ham, peas, and broccoli stems for a one pot meal. Don't have any fettuccine so I'll use the linguine that's already cooked. This should end the shellfish and make us slurpy happy for dinner. It's nice to have DGD here but doubt she would have "suffered" through a week's worth of fish and shellfish for dinner, not to mention the cheese enhanced sauce LOL.

I'm not hearing back from the concessionaire at the glamping site since my Monday email and decided to plan without them as there's enough grilling food in the freezer. As long as they provide ice I think we'll be fine.

Not seeing @lovemygoofy tonight (hope she's OK!) so here is my question for the night:


What would you make for a long weekend stay away (3 nights) from home with only a grill to cook/heat the days meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a cooler as a substitute fridge?

 

[Breezy_Carol]

DD had a doctor's appt for Carter so her DH had to drive. I picked up DGD for a few hours for lunch and play and to let them have a few hours for grocery and stuff. Came home and DH and I had left over taco/burritos. And donuts form the Amish Market. YUMMY!

What would you make for a long weekend stay away (3 nights) from home with only a grill to cook/heat the days meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a cooler as a substitute fridge?

I see you have us doing your menu planning, LOL.

I am not the gourmet cook that you are. I'd probably have fruit and yogurt or bagels for breakfast; deli meat sandwiches for lunch; burgers, hot dogs, marinated chicken, or foil packet meals ; and of course s'mores.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Not seeing @lovemygoofy tonight (hope she's OK!) so here is my question for the night:


What would you make for a long weekend stay away (3 nights) from home with only a grill to cook/heat the days meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a cooler as a substitute fridge?

Day 1:
Loaded scrambled eggs (cook bacon at home to save time and mess, toss into eggs to heat, scramble eggs in pan on grill, with some veggies, whatever you like).
Tortilla roll ups (meat and cheese in cooler), chips, veggie sticks.
Burgers (use pita pockets for buns), baked potatoes (in grill, wrapped in foil), veggie sticks.

Day 2:
grilled French toast (thick cut brioche, stuff with a little marshmallow creme and hazelnut spread), sausages, fruit.
PB&J tortilla roll ups, veggie sticks, chips
Kabobs (steak on one stick, veggies on another; freeze meat on kabob sticks and toss in cooler frozen)

Day 3:
Oatmeal packets, fruit.
Cup o'noodles, veggie sticks.
Hot dogs, corn on the cob grilled, chips

All 3 days; assorted pastries. Coffee from the press pot, with either powdered creamer or little liquid creamers. Smores (try with different candy bars....we really like the Reese's cups, but so sweet). Maybe some dump cake cobbler, if there is charcoal (cake mix, butter, canned pie filling, in a cast iron dutch oven)

This is depending if we had our usual mutli cooler system, because I don't like putting anything in the cooler with the meats other than meat. Fruits/veggies, lunchmeat, butter, cheese, eggs all go in their own cooler. (I also like to bring my 3rd cooler for drinks, so people stay out of the food coolers. And the 5 gallon orange jug for ice water; and the 3 gallon jug for 'bug juice' or tea.) If not, then we're more likely to go with vegetarian meals, lots of grilled veggies, hot dogs, and sandwiches.


Tonight, I cooked up the bacon I didn't cook yesterday, and put it up for tomorrow; cooked the ground chicken in the bacon fat. Added a few pieces of bacon chopped up and sloppy joe mix. Chicken sloppy joes, steak fries and broccoli.

Still under a boil water order until tomorrow at the earliest. Went and got paper plates and some gallon jugs of water. Used paper plates for lunch/dinner (already had some solo cups and plastic silverware). Washed the pans/knives with hot hot soapy tap water, rinsed with tap water, then sanitized with the jug water and a bit of bleach. Except for my pan, because I wasn't sure what the bleach would do to the surface, so I rinsed in super hot water, put some jug water into it, and boiled it for 5 minutes. Just to be safe. Can't be too careful with DH running around.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

you are okay, Tina. Thank you, NYCgrrl for filling in with a question for today

I have already shared that an adventurous eater I am not. So with a grill, (if there were a frying pan or a griddle ) I'd be pretty well set though with pancakes, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese. Then some fruit, chips, a cookie or two. I watched an HGTV episode earlier of Log Cabin Living. Maybe we could "rent" one for the weekend for this question?

 

[easyas123]

My husband often makes up Chili ahead of time and heats it up over the campfire.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Has anyone here shopped at a Dorothy Lane Market? A small Ohio chain, but I have ordered some of their Groceries to be delivered to my NJ home once we moved away.

I have also paid for Graeters ice cream to be shipped. We lived in Ohio for 23 years, I am happy to be back in NJ, but there are definitely some things I miss. Oh yes, people too, I went kicking and screaming to OH in 1993, but I made some very good friends there. It was a bittersweet move back.

 

[Meriweather]

I have never been to a Wegmans, Harris Teeter, Piggly Wiggly, Whole Foods, or Publix. But of those I think Whole Foods is the only one that is anywhere near me

 

[Meriweather]

What would you make for a long weekend stay away (3 nights) from home with only a grill to cook/heat the days meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a cooler as a substitute fridge?

Well, to start with I would never do something like that anymore .......that sounds like camping to me and not happening.

breakfasts......oatmeal with banana (all the days) I can boil water on a grill, so no instant
lunch.....sandwiches, turkey, roast beef and ham, cheese and chips and fruit, probably apples
dinners......hamburgers, steak with veggies
snacks.....candy and fruit

 

[NYCgrrl]

DD had a doctor's appt for Carter so her DH had to drive. I picked up DGD for a few hours for lunch and play and to let them have a few hours for grocery and stuff. Came home and DH and I had left over taco/burritos. And donuts form the Amish Market. YUMMY!

I see you have us doing your menu planning, LOL.

I am not the gourmet cook that you are. I'd probably have fruit and yogurt or bagels for breakfast; deli meat sandwiches for lunch; burgers, hot dogs, marinated chicken, or foil packet meals ; and of course s'mores.

I have a lot of camping menus available (10 straight years of it being our family's long summer vacation) but it's always good to hear what others would do; helps shake up the brain and all. Elder sister says I'm completely crazy to cook more than burgers and hot dogs but for 2-4 weeks that's not something I could fathom, LOL. She also thinks I'm not wrapped too tight for camping in general but oh well

Yes, we are going away for a breather in late summer. Not true camping since we don't have to lug a lot of gear w/ us but two of us are fine with the traditional way and the other refuses to go if concessions aren't made. Peace in the valley is a good thing.

We have a manual blender but I don't want to bring it. It's great for the smoothies that DGD and the man currently like for breakfast though so I thought that maybe making fresh ones at home and then freezing them in a Ziploc bag would be a good idea. Would be good for most of our breakfasts (light eaters in the morning in general).
I'll be fine with cups of tea.

Lunch would be nice as sandwiches and salads since I know it'll be hot so no need to make more heat. Maybe a big muffuletta would suffice for most of the time.

Dinner is my time to enjoy outdoor grilling. I've a 2 or 2.5" Porterhouse in the freezer so that's a definite. Here's how I generally cook it outdoors:



charcoal over wood



Meat cooked over the embers as President Eisenhower liked to do




Medium rare Porterhouse plated with sauteed broccoli rabe, 'shrooms, garlic, and grape tomatoes.

I've some butterflied chickens in the freezer too so grilling them would be easy as well. Here's a version I made in the past:



Probably grilled chicken with an herb marinade w/ bruschetta and salad on the side.
PS- yes, that's DGD "examining" her food while everyone else is chowing down .

Thanks, @Meriweather for reminding me that I need snacks. Don't want to hang out at the campground's grocery store all the time. Harry and David's used to sell some good stuff. Hope they still have some of our favorites.

 

[lynxstch]

I am too old to do camping anymore, so I have no idea what I would cook if I had to cook outdoors for 2-3-4 or more days. I am so tired of cooking 3x a day thru all of this, that all I want to be able to do is go away somewhere for a few days and have someone else do all the work! lol!~
Successful trip to both Walmart and Aldi's today..did a happy dance in Walmart when I spotted Clorox Clean Up with Bleach and Lysol spray cleaner on the shelf. Took one of each since there is a 1 per person limit. Meat department had some of everything, but not a lot of it. Frozen chicken breasts, 10 lb bag was $18.90. Milk case was not quite full, and you couldn't see racks and racks of it behind there like you normally could. Aldi's milk case was full, and milk was still $1.25 a gallon. There were no paper towels of any kind to be found in either store though. Good thing I haven't touched the stash of those and TP that I bought when all of this started!
We are starting with warm weather today, then up to 83-85 the next few days. Will be air conditioner weather here before we know it.
I am hoping that Tina made out okay at her Drs appt the other day, it's unusual for her to be MIA on this thread
Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone, enjoy yourselves and stay safe!

 

[Meriweather]

Found DD's Jasmine brown rice she has been looking for (and me for her too).

AC has been on here for weeks. 95 today, going up this week

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Heat is coming here, too, next week. Yikes to more than 95, stay cool and well Meriweather!

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday.

Thankful to have found a second small pot on Amazon that is a 2 in 1 with a small frying pan. Both are cheery red.
Thankful right now for a nice afternoon rest that was refreshing.
Always, thankful truly for all of you in this thread

 

[lovemygoofy]

Hi All,

Sorry I missed yesterday. I didn't feel that great after my doctor appointment and napped then had pick up landscape order for lots work today. I'll get my scans next week and likely going to start getting suppressant treatment in middle of June unless something else better comes along. I'm trying to delay as long as possible so I can go see my mom first.

Matt and I worked outside today. We live in a cookie cutter neighborhood, which isn't appealing to most but I love it. We've been here three years and has been process trying to get the yard worked out as the last owners did a number planting too much and then letting the dog do business anywhere and everywhere and not taking care of the lawn after. We dug out couple more bushes that didn't make it through the winter, planted some pretty flower bushes and laid new mulch. We got the deck furniture out and dusted set up everything to make it pretty. Of course it's raining now.. I got a shower, had a pain pill then napped for about 3 hours. Supposedly endometriosis isn't lethal but this stuff is going to do me in one of these days. It's amazing how I keep having these problems with none of the lady parts left. I amaze myself.

Dinner tonight was yummy. Matt grilled chicken drumsticks, grilled potatoes and roasted broccoli on the grill. I baked simple pound cake and made strawberry basil sauce for the top. I very much like Americana of our life. We both came from less than stellar backgrounds and to feel we "made" it pretty neat to reflect on sometimes.

OHHHH!! I have been in a piggly wiggly! I was at opening in 1988 or so with my grandpa in my little home town. I remember getting a pink carnation on opening day. There was also piggly wiggly in GA when we were stationed in Augusta. I love Trader Joes for their frozen foods and random things. I'm not die hard shopper. I loved Wegman when we lived in DC but man you'd have to take all day because it was so big and so many people there. I've only been in a Publix once and I never felt I could afford Whole Foods and I'm not big fan of the Amazon guy. I don't think I've been in a Harris Teeter. Here the super Kroger's have food and clothes and things. It's rather surprising as I had never seen that in other Kroger's in the South. They really odd with the non food smack in the middle of the store, drives me crazy.

For camping meals, I love foil pack meals with veggies, small pat butter, salmon, small pat butter and some lemon slices. We like breakfast tacos camping and grilled fruit in the evenings with some pound cake or small brownie cooked in cast iron on the fire.

Gratitude:
Good doctor with extensive patience and lot tissue when I start crying and getting angry
Good meal cooked by my handsome husband
Beautiful flowers in the lawn and in pots on the deck

I hope all is well and having great weekend.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Question of the day: 5/23: What's your favorite summer food?

It's sort going to be summer soon maybe and seems like we are going to be stay cation for sure this summer. We'll be grilling out more likely. What's your favorite summer foods? I LOVE grilled hot dogs. I understand they aren't good for you and whatever whatever but grilled hot dog with mustard and some shredded cheese and I'd take that any day over a steak. I also love summer corn or tomatoes with touch salt and some red wine vinegar.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Hug Tina and good to see you. Continued prayers of health to you. I do remember visiting a Fred Meyers (which I think is part of the Kroger chain of stores) a couple times up in Oregon. It was humungous and they had clothes!

Frozen yogurt from a local place near my church. I was never a yogurt fan because I thought it would taste like yogurt! To me, that is exactly how Yogurtland yogurt tastes. The place by church is sweeter and more like a colder soft serve or similar to Wienerschnitzel Tastee Freez.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Question of the day: 5/23: What's your favorite summer food?

It's sort going to be summer soon maybe and seems like we are going to be stay cation for sure this summer. We'll be grilling out more likely. What's your favorite summer foods? I LOVE grilled hot dogs. I understand they aren't good for you and whatever whatever but grilled hot dog with mustard and some shredded cheese and I'd take that any day over a steak. I also love summer corn or tomatoes with touch salt and some red wine vinegar.

Grilled corn on the cob. Cucumber salad (with onion and small tomatoes). Watermelon.

Had a semi-productive day.
Cleaned up after dinner, a much easier task now that we have no restrictions for water usage and mopped (well swiffer mopped) the kitchen. and...that was about it.


Heated up some of the leftover bacon and tossed it into some scrambled eggs with some white cheddar for dinner. I made lemon poppy seed muffins and blueberry muffins (yes, both kinds, because DH and I couldn't agree which ones to have with dinner; obviously the correct answer was blueberry, but some people around here are used to being catered to...) to go with it. No dessert because, duh, muffins.