What’s For Dinner - Part Deux
June 5th, 2008 at 1:21 pm by Dee O'Neil Andrews
Remember when I was asking for some good suggestions for dinner three or four weeks ago? (What Would You Suggest for Dinner?) You guys were great in responding and sent in some really good suggestions. Thanks so much for all of your dinner ideas.
Reader JoAnn Glock commented to recommend chicken breasts cooked with pineapple, which sounded great. I haven't had a chance to try that, yet, but plan to do so really soon. I also got some good suggestions from my mom, who had dropped by that day to read my blog. My mom is a really good cook even now at 86 and I love to go stay with her and eat all of her homemade meals that somehow taste so much better than mine, even when I cook the same things. Why is that, do you suppose?
What did we end up having that evening, you ask? (Inquiring minds want to know, right?!)
Well . . . I had to go to the grocery store that afternoon (Super Wal-Mart, which is the only place in town to go except for a couple of small Winn Dixies, that I don't care for) and found some fresh shrimp and chicken egg rolls (3 of each in a package) that had been brought in to the deli, so I bought those to fry briefly (I know - fried - but we don't do that often) in our deep fryer. I also bought a box of Asian noodles with sesame/ginger sauce to make and got some sweet &sour sauce and Chinese hot mustard to mix together for the egg rolls.
The big egg rolls (we had two apiece) were delicious! We both liked the shrimp ones better than the chicken and I plan to buy those again some time. The noodles were good, too, and the whole meal was very different from what we usually eat. I was excited to find something so good and inexpensive (and different) at Wal-Mart here because Picayune's stores lack a lot when it comes to anything different. It's such a small town and people don't seem to be very interested in anything other than the basics - meat, potatoes, canned vegetables and rice/pasta. It's rather depressing. Especially when I visit elsewhere. Even Abilene, not exactly a hot spot of high cuisine, has great grocery stores with lots of variety in fresh fruits and vegetables and everything else.
Tom and I both love lots of fruit and vegetables, but there's not much selection at all here in Picayune. What about where you live? Do you have good grocery stores with lots of selections of everything? Comment and let me know how your stores are (so I can be envious!)
One thing for sure that the Texas grocery stores seem to have a lot of is Mexican food items. In Abilene, even, where Mom shops (United) the store has tons of varieties of hot chili sauces, chips, dips, mixes - a whole aisle full! You really can't buy (or eat out) Mexican food around here. Or Tex-Mex.
What's the big thing to eat where y'all live? Here, I guess, it's fresh seafood from the gulf and Cajun cooking. We love all of that, too, but sometimes, ya know, you just want something different. Which brings me back to - what's for dinner?
What are y'all having for dinner this evening? Comment and let me know!
Cheers & Blessings to you all today! Dee
Buy one of those rotisserie chickens so you don’t have to heat the kitchen up. Pull the skin off and bones out and put that in a pot with water to simmer. Makes broth and if you don’t need it your animals will love it. Take the meat and chop and add Grapeseed Oil Vegennaise with chopped onions, bits of celery, grapes, apple chunks (whatever you want really) and make a great chicken salad. Yummy.
One of our local grocery stores does this in the deli and sells the chicken salad by the lb. Only they use mayonnaise and some kind of chopped pickles in a vegetable mix.
I am not cooking tonight. Came thru Sallisaw, OK, while ago and got some WildHorse BBQ. No, it is not barbecued horse. The place is named from the locale name - Wild Horse Holler. This place is famous for their bbq. Oh you wanted info on grocery stores, not restaurants. Sorry!:o)
I don’t really know what I’m having for dinner tonight, but right now I’m having a moment of silence for all you poor, poor people who don’t have ready access to Tex-Mex. When, oh when, will this needless suffering end…???
Maybe I’ll have something salsa-related for dinner … on your behalf, of course.
Dee anytime you need some Mexican Food just drop me an email. I live in the biggest Tex-Mex, Mexican Food town there is and will be happy to send you a care package! My husband is about as far from Mexican as you can get (think fair skin, strawberry blonde hair, Irish decent) but will eat Mexican every day if you let him. I have it on good authority that his usual lunch is bean and cheese soft taco from the little cafe in his building.
As for dinner tonight….haven’t got a clue! Any ideas?
I’m hungry for some baked chicken, but we are so busy and usually work so late into the afternoon (and we work together) that we generally end up stopping at some restaurant and sharing a plate. I enjoy Soup Plantation (too expensive and we can’t share a plate) and Roadhouse (great tri-tip). For home cooked, my favorite meal is a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried white corn, corn bread, fresh cut tomatoes, fried okra, and ice tea topped off with fresh pecan pie. Now that’s a meal that will drive the healthy crazy!
We’re going out of town for the weekend, so we just had tuna salad sandwiches tonight (I made the tuna salad yesterday). I do usually cook something for dinner - I enjoy cooking. We live in a small town, so the restaurant choices are limited. We eat Mexican or the Green Tomato Cafe if we eat here in town.
I usually shop at the WM Supercenter. The pros are that we have one and that it’s not one of the huge ones. The cons are that the selections are more limited (no asiago cheese or pita bread), and they move things around where you can’t find them.
Southeast Texas has lots of stores, three major ones with a large HEB, Kroger and my usual — Market Basket. I have a MB just around the corner from me and although they don’t have all that the other two have, I like it. I know just where everything is and I don’t spend as much. If I go to either of the other two, I spend way more because I have to look for the items I need and see new things to try! Dangerous for me!
We have lots of Asian, Cajun and certainly Mexican items to try at home. I didn’t think about the variety until my daughter was here last week from North Missouri. She went shopping with me and was envious of the selection as well. I remember when I went shopping with her on a visit and I couldn’t even find the seasoning for Pinto Beans. So, in March when I went, I took her several bottles of it to cook beans. Makes such a difference.
We are having left over pork chops baked over rice for dinner tonight. Hope you find something delectable.
Dee,
Wonderful post and thoughts.
I love reading your blog.
Malheuresement, even Abilene doesn’t have a good place to buy items for Chinese cooking — just a little Filipino store on Mockingbird that is hit or miss. I’ve been sent twice to the Hong Kong Market in Arlington and always end up on the cell phone trying to figure out what sauces I’m supposed to buy. But it pays off in great Chinese food at home!