YOU'RE ACTUALLY READING THIS!

What do you know? Some of you are reading this blather. And commenting. What fun! Can you read each others comments? I hope so. So far someone has requested that I not forget to review desserts. There’s a great excuse to eat fat and carbs. Thanks! Someone else asked that I review the "best al fresco dining on Bluemound". 1) Unless the humidity lets up soon, I’m not paying to eat and sweat at the same time, and 2) can there be decent outdoor dining overlooking the parking lots and traffic of Bluemound Road? But I will check it out at each spot and add that to my review. Maybe I can get The Man Who Prefers Diet Pepsi To Any Alcoholic Beverage to actually sit outside with me while I enjoy a glass of pre-dining wine.

My Daughter Who Eats Out More Than Home asked that I include a recipe now and then. Recipe? I plan to eat out as often as it is possible to get The Tightwad Who Finally Agreed To A New Kitchen to open his wallet. Perhaps she is referring to recipes for dishes I am able to create in our sunroom, with no stove, dishwasher, sink, etc. Those recipes would probably fit that daughter’s lifestyle, so I will do so, if anything delicious happens, sans kitchen.

The kitchen packing continues. The need for boxes has forced a sorting of our basement storage dump. Out with the dolls and crafty stuff I saved for a granddaughter we never had. Out with the mildewed quilt my grandmother never finished. Those boxes are now filled with packages of dried beans, sixteen different shapes of dried pasta, several flavors of vinegar, in other words, ingredients I’m unlikely to need while kitchenless. Here’s a partial list of what didn’t make it into those boxes: A jar of A1 Steak Sauce that is no longer liquid, Kikhoman Memni -- whatever that is, 200 petit four cases with holly on them, Magic Salmon Seasoning (scarey), 2 containers of instant egg white powder for meringues (there’s a necessity of life), Creole Seasoning (doesn’t work in German-American stomachs), candied cherries dated 1988, Beau Monde seasoning. Does anyone know what you’d use Beau Monde seasoning for? I haven’t a clue.

One whole box was filled with cookie decorating stuff – sprinkles in every color, including a patriotic combo of red, white and blue sprinkles. I know you are thinking, "Why is this old babe keeping sprinkles? The minute my kids are gone, out go the sprinkles." Well, my children actually call The Man I Live With, their father, "The Christmas Munchkin." He loves everything about Christmas, including decorating oh-so-fancy cut-out cookies. In fact, that it is just about the ONLY thing resembling cooking he would be caught doing. Many of you have heard me tell that our only pre-marital agreement was his statement, "I just want you to know, the only thing I do with food is eat it." And, as I found out later, make lovely Christmas cut-out cookies. So I’ve kept the sprinkles.

Tonight’s dinner, cooked at home with a functioning kitchen, is a chicken salad from "Betty’s Best Bites" cookbook. Betty, whom some of you know, serves on the Waukesha County Park and Planning Commission with me, and is such a fabulous cook that she has her own published cookbook.

Still signed,
Not Yet Kitchenless in Brookfield

Pea Pod and Chicken Salad Oriental
1c. spiral macaroni
2 c. fresh pea pods, trimmed and blanched (that would be the tough part without a stove)
2 c. cubed, cooked chicken (no stove necessary if you live near Grasch’s, which has THE best roasted chickens anywhere)
½ c. sliced green onions
1 can sliced water chestnuts
½ c. mayonnaise (I used low fat – saving up for those desserts)
1 t. soy sauce (more, if you like -- I do)
salt to taste
1/4 t. pepper
1/8 t. powdered ginger
1 t. sherry (optional, but why not?)

Cook macaroni according to package. Drain and rinse in cold water. Combine cooked macaroni, pea pods, chicken, green onions and water chestnuts. In small bowl, blend mayonnaise, soy sauce, pepper, ginger and sherry. Pour over pea pod mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Yield: 4 servings. (To blanch trimmed pea pods, place in boiling water; cover and cook 1 minute. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water.) (Tough while kitchenless.)