Joann Foley » Recipes/Food

Post Thanksgiving

Joann — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:17:59 +0000

Ugh!!! I am so stuffed!!! But really, we had a nice quiet dinner with no company, no house full of people this year. In fact, we ate out at IHOP on Thanksgiving and only cooked our turkey dinner tonight!!

I couldn’t see spending all day at work stressing over what I could not get done within the short work week and then coming home, taking care of our little Roo and Pooh bear (two cocker spaniels – for those of you who are not familiar with the family yet), and then trying to cook a big dinner, get pies made, etc., just to get frustrated and tired out. So, I did the pies on Thursday for Friday dinner. It worked out great!! I had a 20 lb turkey to cook for two of us, so I froze a lot of leftovers.

I tried something new this year. I made the stuffing from whole wheat bread, instead of white bread; I made my pie crust from whole wheat flour (a little tougher to roll out) and made sugar free pumpkin pie. The entire meal turned out to be very tasty. We did not do the traditional sweet potato pie or scalloped corn, since we are trying to watch our diets a little more closely these days, but we did not feel we missed out on a thing. The pie was great!!!

BBQ or Picnic Basket?

Joann — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:49:55 +0000

Fess up. What did you do about lunch or dinner yesterday? Did you have a barbeque or did you pack a picnic lunch? The weather was gorgeous and everyone should have been outdoors enjoying their holiday, including sharing an outdoor meal with someone special.

I packed a picnic lunch and a new paperback novel and went to the beach. It was wonderfully relaxing and I enjoyed every minute.

Baking Potatoes

Joann — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:51:25 +0000

The grocery store put russet potatoes on sale. If you buy one 5 pound bag, you get another five pound bag for free. I love BOGOs!

So now I have 10 pounds of russet potatoes to eat before they go bad. I like baked potatoes, but does anyone have suggestions on different ways to fix the russets? I know they are not all that good if you try to mash them or boil them. I wonder if you can slice them for baking in the oven with cream or cheese?

If you have any recipes specifcally for russet potatoes, please share!

Subway for Breakfast?

Joann — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:59:03 +0000

Just watched a commercial for Subway sandwich shops promoting their new breakfast menu. It actually looks tasty. I would never think to put eggs, sidemeat and cheese on a sub roll for breakfast, but maybe I am just in a rut and need to think outside of the box for a change. The advertised price if 5 bucks – that’s a little steep for breakfast. Maybe I could cut it in half and share it with someone.

Pasta Salad

Joann — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:11:16 +0000

Some of the delis have a great selection of salads. My favorite has always been a vinegar based pasta salad, although I love to try the different potato salads, too.

If you have a recipe for pasta salad, would you mind posting a link to it or including the recipe in a comment for this post? Thanks so much!

What’s for Breakfast?

Joann — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:27:01 +0000

In spite of my mother’s every good intention to start us kids off every day with a hot breakfast, I do not like breakfast. I am not hungry when I first wake up and I don’t want to eat anything. All I want is a cup of coffee and I’m OK for a couple of hours. Then, around 10:00, I get really hungry. Of course, by then I am at work and getting a full breakfast is impossible. But on weekends – that’s the time to go to Shoney’s or Golden Corral and get some breakfast buffet.

Pumpkins for the Season

Joann — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:37:25 +0000

Crawfish Boil

Joann — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:07:08 +0000

This weekend we had a Crawfish Boil downtown that featured several different bands that played one after another for the entire day and well into the night. The festival is usually held downtown on the riverfront. But all this rain has caused the Cumberland River to overflow and Riverfront Park is mostly underwater. So they moved it to the parking lot south of LP Field, where the Tennessee Titans play football.

I have to admit that most of the bands were too obscure and too strangely alternative rock for my taste. But it was good to have some different music offered besides country, and the crawfish was a nice treat for this seafood starved city.

Fat Man Sized Soda

Joann — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:58:06 +0000

Responsible Drinking

Joann — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:41:53 +0000

About the only I drink these days is vodka or an occasional glass of wine. Vodka goes with or in just about anything, so it is a good all-around alcohol. But we don’t drink very often. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had a drink other than a glass of wine at an Italian restaurant a couple months ago.

Luckily I have never had a drinking problem nor been around anyone with a drinking problem, other than 1 boss that was a single guy and very socially active on the DC bar scene. He drank about every night and would come into work hung over. I think just seeing his pitiful self every day was enough to keep me away from too much alcohol.