On vacation! 7/18/25

Hey, I know it seems like I have gone dark on my site but it is only because John and I are on vacation! We are celebrating our 53rd anniversary of being married. I was going to say wedding anniversary but there was no wedding. We just sneaked off to a Justice of the Peace that we found in the Yellow Pages (an antiquated book where residential phone numbers were in the white pages and businesses were on the yellow pages.) So John and I eloped on July 17, 1972.

Anyway we are now traveling up the Northwest coast of the U.S. having more or less success finding restaurants we like, eating picnic lunches, and making breakfast in our hotel rooms. Here are a few pictures of our successes and failures.

We always start a vacation by having breakfast at McDonalds. We get the Big Breakfast (no pancakes) with an English muffin, a freshly scrambled egg, and their sausage patty. I must admit to loving the salty sausage. I give my crispy potato thing to John.

Later on we have a picnic lunch at a California State Park in the Redwood Forest. I got a free pass to many of the parks through my local library

Our lunches are half a peanut butter and jam sandwich, pretzels, and carrot and celery sticks.

Later on we try some seafood at a restaurant in Arcata, California.

Fried calamari
Octopi!

On Monday we eat breakfast at the hotel and have another picnic lunch next to the Rogue River.

John enjoying lunch by the Rogue River

Our next two overnights are in Yachats, Oregon. We try finding a restaurant with good, fresh, seafood. All the seafood around here seems to be fried or in a sauce with pasta. We order three appetizers and two smallish glasses of wine and the bill comes to over $100. We need to find a different way of approaching our food!

calamari that we have requested that they h put the sweet hoisin sauce on the side instead of drenching the calamari
I have a not-so-good tuna tataki
John orders an appetizer crab cake

Okay, we are getting tired of mediocre food for high prices. It is time to switch gears!

Today we enjoy a leisurely lunch in our room watching the waves crash ashore
.
Later we watch the sun set while we eat some snacks in the room.


We have figured out a set-up for hotels that do not to include a free breakfast.

We brought our induction burner from home, a toaster, and a water boiler for coffee and tea.

Yum, a good breakfast!

A tasty scrambled egg and toast

I guess I just really dislike spending too much money on substandard food. John and I have been happier on the days we roughed it a bit. One way to bring consumer prices down might be to take a vacation that eats like ours.

Posted in American, Lunch, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Tilapia with tomatoes, olives, and kale. 7/9/25

Tilapia with tomatoes, olives, and kale

This sauce is also called agghiotta and is typically served in Sicily with swordfish. I used this recipe from Serious Eats.

https://www.seriouseats.com/agghiotta-di-pesce-spada-sicilian-braised-swordfish-with-tomatoes-and-olives-5212333#:~:text=Served%20with%20swordfish%2C%20the%20dish,Sicilian%2Dstyle%20swordfish%22).

As you can see I cooked two pieces of tilapia and added kale and zucchini for vegetables.

Posted in Fish, Italian, pescatarian, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Short-cut chicken dinner. 7/8/25

Chicken breast and gravy with mashed potatoes and broccoli

I used to be more of a purist when it came to cooking but I have been making dinners for over 50 years and taking some short-cuts no longer seems evil to me. So tonight’s chicken dinner employed a Costco rotisserie chicken, a packet of chicken gravy mix, and Idahoan instant mashed potatoes. The broccoli was fresh and steamed in a little water and butter. John really loves this dinner. I think he prefers the instant mashed potatoes over the ones I make with actual potatoes!

Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Texas caviar and grilled hamburgers. 7/7/25

Texas caviar and grilled hamburger

Over the weekend John was not feeling well so we scuttled all our plans. He felt better today so we made our Sunday holiday dinner on Monday. I have shown lots of hamburger pictures so I thought I would highlight the Texas caviar which is simple to make, tastes great, and looks colorful. Here’s my recipe –

Screenshot
Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Recipes, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Shrimp tacos. 7/4/25

Shrimp tacos

I realize that shrimp tacos are not quite standard Fourth of July fare. We are having the family over on Sunday for a more traditional burger cookout. For our shrimp tacos John did his usual superlative job of cooking the shrimp. I made the toppings including a tasty mango/tomato salsa. Happy Fourth!

Posted in American, Easy, Hot weather meals, Mexican, pescatarian, Shellfish, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Chickpeas with ditalini and vegetables. 7/2/25

Chickpeas with ditalini and vegetables

Delicious vegetarian or vegan dinner. Always a hit at our house. Our bowls are adapted to our tastes but started with this recipe from NY Times Cooking.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015767-chickpea-stew-with-orzo-and-mustard-greens?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Posted in American, Easy, Legumes, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Grilled loin lamb chops with sweet potato and asparagus. 7/1/25

Grilled loin lamb chop with sweet potato and asparagus

We love lamb chops! I know that they are way less popular than beef but they are so tasty especially when John cooks them on the grill.We bought these at Costco for $7.99/lb. So for around $20 we have enough lamb chops for the three of us to have two pretty exceptional meals! While John cooked the lamb chops on the grill along with a previously microwaved sweet potato, I sautéed asparagus and served the stalks with a pat of butter and finishing salt. What’s delicious dinner!

Posted in American, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Lamb, Weeknight dinners | Leave a comment

Chicken burrito bowl. 6/30/25

Chicken burrito bowl

This is a great hot night dinner! The basics for the burrito bowl are on –https://www.budgetbytes.com/poor-mans-burrito-bowls/

This is super simple to make. We added rotisserie chicken and avocado. We spiced up the black beans with Rotel and added tortilla chips. It was great!

Posted in American, Easy, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Mexican, Poultry, Recipes, rice, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. June 30-July 6, 2025

It is getting hot here so we are trying to keep the kitchen cool. Lots of our dinners will be grilled or be salad-y. We can also cook in the morning and reheat later in the microwave. (Unfortunately our microwave is broken and we are using a small cheap one while we are hoping ours can be fixed!)

Screenshot
Posted in Weekly menu | Leave a comment

Chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes and gravy. 6/27/25

Chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Ah, a dinner like my mom used to make! Except for the fact that we never ate broccoli because my father did not like it. He was a green bean fan. Pretty much anything my father did not like we did not eat. He really liked mashed potatoes and my older sister and I learned how to make them at a young age. We had them with every dinner. It didn’t matter if we were having noodles we had to have mashed potatoes too. But no rice, never rice.

Anyway once in a while I like to have this throwback meal which is easy to make what with rotisserie chickens, packet gravy, and instant mashed potatoes. Only the broccoli needs cutting up and cooking.

Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment