My mother-in-law is coming to visit for a few days on Friday before bringing the kids back to Puerto Rico for a week+ visit.

I have been cooking just for the kids for so long that I don't know what to make for a world-traveling, sharp old lady (in her 80's... somewhere.) She is going to take us out to dinner one night, so I will need to plan dinner for two nights. I can handle breakfast and lunch.

She doesn't like pasta, if I recall correctly, and my grill is out of commission. Oh, and I think she has her own teeth, so denture-friendly is not an issue, as far as I know. No food allergies or restrictions of which I am aware.
Any ideas? It would also be nice if it didn't break the piggy bank.

Pork loin - cheap and tender. Can use different rubs or marinades ie Santa Fe, Medterranean

Baked whole chicken - olive oil lemon juice rub with oregano, toss cut lemon into chicken before baking and the bird bakes up moist and remony.

Coq au vin

Caps, I want to stay in her will. Not get lucky.

Actually, I know the name coq au vin sounds intimidating, but it surprisingly easy.

Probably seasoned rice, yes? I think I have some asparagus in the freezer...

Parmasian crusted tilapia. Super easy and super good. I think it's on allrecipes.com

Also look at my food board on pinterest. Some good stuff there. Let me know if you need the link,

I made a pork loin with potatoes tonight...also very easy and good if you spice it right.

Salmon over wilted spinach, potatoes of some sort, and salad of some sort.


And, a pie of some sort. (old peeps love pie, right?)



Done and Done-er.

I was thinking about beef stroganoff over rice or chinese beef and broccoli for one night, maybe General Tso's chicken another? I make roasted chicken a lot -- that would be easy and cheap!

One night needs to be quick to prepare (the evening I pick her up), and I don't care if the other takes all day.

I have a beef roast in the freezer. Should I just make a roast beef, or stroganoff it? Or rouladen it?

Is it too hot to turn the oven on? I like the idea of coq au vin, too. I serve it with buttered egg noodles. And it's cheap because you can use thighs.

Have I ever posted my lemon chicken recipe here?

Get the thin sliced chicken breast (Foster farms sells it this way)

rinse chicken and dip in egg wash, then dredge in progresso breadcrumbs.

Fry in enough canola oil to cover the bottom of a nonstick pan until golden on one side, then flip - after flipped, squeeze a half a lemon over the whole thing and brown on the other side until cooked through.

I like to serve it with a green salad with blue cheese, canied pecans, and home made vinagrette, and roasted potatoes. SO good and easy.

The woman considers egg noodles pasta?

Oh. I dunno. I guess egg noodles is technically a type of pasta though.

It's just a weird food not to like. Pasta. Weird.

These all sound so good, now I have the opposite problem -- which to choose!!!!

If you don't, make that chicken fot your kids sometime, they will like it.

Chicken fots stink wicked bad

LOL. Sorry, I'm eating a salad while typing.

These are excellent.

I have made them and they are quick and easy and soooooooo good.

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Grilled-Skirt-Steak-Sandwich-Charred-Corn-Mustard-Mario-Batali

You could use your beef roast for this instead of the cut called for in the recipe.

And they look impressive when served.

I just don't think the whole General Tso chinese food thing is a good idea.  She's old.  Spicy chinese may not be her thing, no matter how urbane she is.

The one I make isn't too spicy, and I thought since she's old she probably can't taste much, but you're right, it may not agree with her innards, and she is known to be a fart-walker.

My mouth literally watered reading that, but, no grill and no grill pan.

God, it's still watering. slurp

LOL.  The way these posts timed out makes it look like Granny being a fart-walker makes your mouth water.   Slurp....

Yeah, well, I never could NOT laugh at a fart, and laughing = happy, and.... I'm a sicko somehow. Manyhows. I never equated it with being drool-inducing. UNTIL NOW. Will you be footing my therapy bills, then?

Pavlov's dog was gassy!

I am cracking myself up over here over wild jumps.

Ihhhh.  You manyhowed sicko.

Is Ihhhh like nnn? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

nnn was a mistake.  Facebook is touchy.  Ihhhh is a sound of horrified disgust.

I can't keep up with you youngsters and your techno language.

ETA it was easier when you just ~bristled~

Try and keep up.

I don't ~bristle~ when I'm disgusted.  I ~bristle~ when I am personally insulted.

~bristle~

THEN STOP MAKING SHIT UP!!!!!!!

See above edit.

I think this has turned into the first official Night Crew thread in a LONG time. I can't wait to hear Appy's reaction.

I can see it now -- she's going to see the thread title, and think, "Oh YAY! A cooking recipe thread that has 20-30 posts, it must be good!" Then she'll open it up and see... THIS.

It's 12:43 am. Very late for me. And I am actually going to bed now, so you can have the last word... for a while.

Whee bee dee!  And goodnight.

Make good old spagetti and meatballs, crusty Italian bread and nice salad. I like this recipe...

http://www.google.com/search?q=ina+spaghetti+and+meatballs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

Second dinner, make chicken caesar salad, or just chicken salad with grapes and walnuts over bib lettuce.

Done and done and gross.

Oh and here's my menu problem.... I'm having a small dinner party on Friday night and I'm serving salmon. I'd like to have a bit of an appetizer with cocktails... Any suggestions?

Apps w/ salmon? Bruschetta. Good olives. Prosciutto and melon. Hot zone of mixed nuts.

One meal, crock pot that beef roast (as long as it's chuck - if not, forget that) with some carrots, onions and potatoes. Serve with crusty bread for dipping jus. Done and done. What cut is it, anyway?

For the easy/quick, do something you can make partially make ahead, or at least do all the prep work before you pick her up - even the night before. Pre-assemble some chicken quesadillas (you can use a store-bought rotisserie bird for this). When you get her to your house, boil some water and make a pot of rice, season some black beans w/ cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion and heat those up. Toss quesadillas in hot pan to crisp and serve w/ salsa, chips, lime, sour cream, chili peppers, whatever you like. Easy peasy.

If she's latina and you don't want to make her style of food, go with the roasted chicken (butterfly and season it the night before - so it cooks faster), boil some whole red potatoes and smash with butter/salt/pepper/sour cream. Steam some carrots in a tiny bit of water, remove lid, add a dash of sugar, butter, pepper, salt and let water evaporate. It's really quick and easy as long as all you have to do to chicken is throw it in oven when you get home. I like to stuff cilantro stems and lime zest mixed with minced garlic and olive oil under skin.

You know what is super easy? Indonesian chicken. You take a bunch of chicken thighs. And you make a marinade of 1 cup honey, 3/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/2 cup ginger, and minced garlic cloves (like 10). Cook the marinade in a small sauce pot until the honey melts. Put the chicken skin side down and dump the marinade over it. Cover tight and refrigerate overnight.

Next evening, uncover and put it in the oven at 350 for 30 mins. Then flip the chicken and cook at 375 for 30 mins. Have rice with it and a salad. DONE!

Thats my recipe! And use a whole cut up chicken, not just thighs.

It IS Appy's recipe! It's my fave!

I have it marinating in the frig right now to make tonight. I have company staying with me and I need to pack tonight so I needed something quick for dinner.

I made that Indonesian chicken the last time we talked about it, and yes, it was delicious!

I decided to make slow cooker beef stew for tomorrow. I picked up some rosemary olive oil artisan bread. Anyone know the best way to keep it fresh until tomorrow?

For the other dinner I am making chicken marsala with a seasoned rice and veggie mix.

Thanks for all the help, folks!

Run the bread under tap water and put it in a hot oven to refresh it before you serve it. Yeah, really.

OMG people! After repeated attempts to ask STBX what kind of foods she likes to eat over the past 48 hours, he finally texts back (after I decided what to make and did my grocery shopping) "she likes pasta"

WHAT?! I text back, "WHAT?!?! I thought that was the one food she DIDN'T like?!"

He texts "IDK call her, we never eat together."

Um, hello. You live in her home, scot-free. She is over 80 years old.

"Don't you cook for her?" I mean, it's the least he could do, right?

"I work evenings." Must be working for free.

WHATEVER. I am sticking with my original game plan. I have half a mind to suggest she sell her house and come live with us. She never would, of course -- she has an active social life in PR and three other (non-loser)sons who could provide much more comfortable accommodations.

If I were wearing britches, they would be burnt.

PS - Thanks for the bread tip, Appy! How hot of an oven, and for how long?

Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just pretty much leave me alone.

You can also take the bread and wrap it in a couple of regular, plastic grocery bags. That will keep it from getting hard in the holey bakery bag. Then you can just reheat it normally.

Seems like the bag would melt.

A bakery person once told me to never wrap fresh bread in anything whatsoever. It has to breathe or something. The crust keeps it moist. Don't know if that's true or not..

.

...my distance isn't because of a lack of caring. It's because I really do want to focus on a happy ending...
--- tOdd

350 or whatever, five ten minutes, steam makes it moist. And you just want it kinda wet, not sopping.

It's not. They put it in the holey bag to keep it from steaming while it's still hot. They have non-holey bags behind the counter that they never offer you, for some reason, so you keep it in the grocery bag itself after it's cooled and it doesn't go stale if you're waiting a day or so to eat it.

Source: I spend a lot of time in stupid grocery stores.

Lets go Krogering!

I don't know what a holey bag is. I have seen bread in paper bags tho...

It's a plastic bag with a million tiny holes in it that most grocery chains use. I was assuming, I suppose. Either way - wrap that rascal. It'll stay fresh until you're ready to eat it.

Its a sack that's been blessed.


Its an old woman who's been shot multiple times.

Anon(2) you are cool.  Why don't you pick a name so we don't confuse you with uncools?

 

Or should I say unKoools?

I don't know what smirk is talking about 65% of the time.... Maybe more.

I shall translate myself for you, dear:

Lets go Krogering! = absolute nonsense. I don't even know what the fuck I was talking about, but the jingle for them 80's is now stuck in my head due to anon hanging out in grocery stores.

bullet-riddled old woman/blessed sack = in response to Arwen not knowing what a holey bag was.

What about the billy Joel song?

It still goes on and on and on....

smirk is one of my favs and I also do not understand stuff he posts

(See thats actually a lyric to the song too. Terrible, I know.) Basically, whenever I've ever heard anyone mention Sally Ride, the first thing that came to mind has always been that song, not female astronaut. And once I start in on that song... Well, I guess I go insane.

I would like to propose a new board rule: We no longer "understand", we "under stain".

Would anybody like to back this proposal?

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiov
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatle mania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

What are "Rock and Roller cola wars"?

I guess he's referencing the Pepsi Challenge BS and New Coke and stuff, but whats the Rock and Roller part?

I thought it was "Rock and Roll, the Cola wars"

I know that

ETA in answer to (See thats actually a lyric to the song too. Terrible, I know.)