Chicken and Rice tonight with an attempt at Gravy.

I've never made gravy.

writer1,
Your quesadillas sounded so good that tonight we had pizza quesadillas - bride: mushroom & black olives; NG: mushroom and pepperoni

That sounds really good. I've never had pizza quesadillas before. I'll have to try that.

Tonight, we had bell peppers stuffed with brown rice, ground chicken, and marinara sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese.

I've never had pizza quesadillas before.

Easy to make: Tortilla, pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, topping(s) of choice, tortilla on top. We actually cook them stove-top (medium-low) in a 10-inch cast iron pan, with the eight-inch pan pressing down on them. Four minutes, flip, four minutes, enjoy.

Tonight shredded pork BBQ, Roasted Potatos, and Broccoli.

How did your attempt at gravy go?

It was bland, but smooth. We ate it and enjoyed it. He rated it at a 7 on a 1 - 10. LOL

On the menu tonight, baked pork tenderloin with mushrooms, served with egg noodles, asparagus, cucumber and tomato salad, and desert a lemon meringue pie.

It was bland, but smooth.

Describes my bride's ex-POSOM!

Anyway, dinner tonight was breaded fried (yeah, I know!) pork cutlets and brandied mushroom risotto, with pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.

pineapple upside-down cake for dessert

I think I need to add this to the menu.

No idea how last nights dinner was, I cooked but didn't eat. Had a migraine that appeared while I was cooking.

Tonight is Chili and Nachos.

pineapple upside-down cake for dessert...I think I need to add this to the menu.

Shall I pester bride for her recipe?

Lol well he is cold cuts now anyways...."Boom"

Yeah I went there...

Think I will break out the pork chops for dinner now...

That would be great.

Tonight was pizza from the local pizza place. We went to the Horseman's Association meeting in our new location.

Ham and cheese sandwich

Bride's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Topping
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 x 8oz cans sliced pineapple, well-drained (*)
8 maraschino cherry halves

Cake
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1+1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1+1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/4 cup butter in 11x17in ungreased glass baking dish in oven (3 - 4 minutes). Stir in 1/2 cup brown sugar, spread mixture evenly in pan. Arrange 8 pineapple slices on top. Place cherry halves in center of slices.

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in separate bowl; set aside. Combine 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup butter in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 - 2 minutes). Continue beating, adding eggs one at a time, another 1 - 2 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Beat, gradually adding dry ingredients alternating with milk and scraping bowl often, beating 1 - 2 minutes after each addition.

Gently pour batter over pineapple. Bake 30 - 40 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Loosen sides of cake by rimming with knife. Invert cake onto serving platter, letting set for five minutes. Carefully remove pan. Cool completely before serving.

(*) 16 oz of well-drained peach or pear slices can be substituted (Save the cherries for a Manhattan!)

Thank you, JustUss2 for the pre-approval!

Colleagues, not every dinner must be prepared and eaten at home, and dining out is recognized as a good opportunity for UA time. Dining out can cost less, if you'd like.

There is a website called www.restaurant.com that sells discount dining certificates. Nominally the deal is that one pays $10 and receives a serialized e-coupon, easily printed, for $25 off at the restaurant chosen. (There are similar higher denomination offers.) Use of the $25 coupon usually entails a commitment to spend at least $50 at the establishment. (Again higher denominations behave proportionally.) So in effect, the $10 coupon price means the $50 meal costs the user $35. A good, but not earth-shattering, deal.

But....the site through 31 January is running a sale for current customers. The $25 coupon is now reduced to $4, so the nominal $50 meal would be $29 out of pocket.

What I do is wait for a sale like this, and buy 10 - 20 coupons to local restaurants, and use them over a year (They NEVER expire, and if a restaurant closes, you can "swap" for any coupons on their site.)

If interested, go to www.restaurant.com/yum. You'll have to open a free account, with a credit card, supplying your e-address and a password. Then put in your zip-code to find the places in your area that are participating, or any other zip-code, if you know you'll be travelling, for instance. Select your chosen coupons, send them to your electronic basket, and when you're done, check out. At check-out you'll see in the upper right corner (not hidden) a place to enter "yum" again. That will signal the system to apply the discount to the coupon purchases. Then hit "Complete Transaction" or whatever, and your card will be charged the discounted rate. Your coupons will usually be available for printing right away, or you can come back to your account some other time for printing.

Bride and I use this a lot, and it's not as disconcerting as a newspaper tear-out coupon, because the item has printed on it "Gift Certificate" (which by the way, we've used as stocking-stuffers for our three adult children.

Anyway, use this hint if you'd like. I do not know if this works in foreign countries, like Canada, England, or Oklahoma!

Wow, my DH would love this! Thanks so much! If you are so inclined, this would be a great topic for a thread in MB101 since folks are looking for good ways to achieve their UA time.

Good thought, I'll duplicate-post!

Thank you NG for this.