7-10-10 Saturday (Cooking With Entrails)

President of The Gay Social Network (GSN), Steve MacArthur, ran a short story about Jim and I in their July newsletter!

Above: They spelled the blog’s website incorrectly and they’ve emailed their members the correct address.

The GSN gathering at our house was enormous.  It’s been a long time so I don’t recall the actual count.  We’ve had jumbo Christmas parties too.  The only thing that may have beat the GSN party size was when my uncle married Joyce at our home.

 Above: The ceremony took place on the lanai July 2005.  A party company completely transformed the inside and outside of our home.

Above: My uncle Joseph and Joyce.  Yeah, Joe is sportin’ tux shorts.

Above: The living room/dining room transformed.  Caterers worked the kitchen.

Pretty nifty, huh?

For dinner I tried something new – a Weight Watchers recipe.  Sorry mushroom haters.

 Above: Here’s what I used.

 Above: Nasty looking.  Looks like entrails next to a used condom.  Dinner sounds good so far, huh?

  Above: The recipe calls for a 1/2 pound but the package was 1.25 pounds so I divided it up.  1/2 will be for quiche later this week.

Above: The mixture.  I used Weight Watchers reduced fat cream cheese because it’s what I already had on hand.  The recipe calls for 4 oz and the smallest cream cheese package in the store is 8 oz.  My individual tubs of cream cheese are 1 oz so I just used 4 of them.  Also the recipe called for low fat cheddar cheese.  I used fat free.  Maybe that evens it out?

Above: Oven ready.

Above: I topped it with some extra cheese.  I served it with rice.  I know it looks bland and colorless but we scooped some raspberry salsa onto the rice and then it was all pretty. 

Above: The flavor was good but I wasn’t loving the raspberry seed here and there.

We both enjoyed these stuffed mushrooms.  Next time I won’t top with cheese.  Jim suggests using spinach in the mixture.  This recipe sounds good too:

Jim gave me a strange look because I was typing and typing and typing.  I told him I was blogging about the recipe.  He thought it was funny that on a Saturday night I’m blogging about what I made for dinner instead of: 1- Going out   or 2- Interesting places we visited as if we were still in the motorhome traveling the country.  A year ago we were in New Orleans.  Good times which now depress me.

Above: Just for something different I made up a few salads to have for lunch instead of sandwiches.  I had some diced up chicken in the freezer left over from when we were having salads weekly.  It turned out to be a lot of chicken in each salad so at lunch time I used a lot of points.  We also have a lot of Feta on hand from my Atkins diet.  It’s not the reduced fat kind either.  I used some when we were in DC and had salads with the gang but there’s so much left still.

The Mississippi River.  A mall that was once a brewery.  This city is rich in history.  A river boat cruise!  Dinner at a famous restaurant.  Photos with strangers.  Carriage ride.  Lots of photos.  Check it out here.

---