Whew! & Menu Plan Monday

We have had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night our heat pump died. At least it was this weekend and not last weekend when the temps were 99-100! As I say over in my little blurb about myself, we have pugs, and the little short-nosed guys don't do so well with the heat, and the fact that our heat is pretty humid too. So we headed out to Target on Saturday to pick up some fans since all I have is little desk-style fans. We picked up two box-style fans and one oscillating stand style. They did ok, although we were on the go so much on Sunday that we felt bad since we were in A/C and the guys weren't. My dinners changed a bit since I still wasn't feeling great, and we ended up eating leftovers, especially since I wasn't eating much, and didn't taste them the first time I made them. So we basically ate the Hamburger Soup, Picadillo and Aloo Gobi throughout the week since the meals made a lot in the first place, and I didn't eat that much of it in the first go round. Hubby was happy with that. I pulled some hot dogs to eat Saturday for lunch out of the Freezer and we at the Tuna for Saturday's dinner, right as a Thunderstorm rolled through. Good thing it was a quick meal to cook. It was also a cool meal to fix since it was cooked in my cast-iron grill pan. I was planning to make the Sriracha-glazed chicken for dinner last night, since we were going for Father's Day brunch, but plans changed. We did go for Ice cream a few times this week too (we don't usually keep it in the house, and since it was something I could swallow easily, well...

First off, we went to Full Kee for dim sum. We hadn't been there before and Fil and SMil like it. It was SMil's idea to surprise Fil and show up there as they got there. It worked! :) He wasn't expecting us at all! We got jasmine tea to drink, I haven't had that in a while, it's one of my favorite teas, although I usually drink it when I'm sick (out of my Royal Dulton Classic Pooh Cup that I found at TJ Maxx *grin*) and I'm the one that orders all those weird chewy things. :D I don't know that I can remember everything, but I'll try: beef balls (like beef dumplings and had peas and carrots), chicken feet in black bean sauce (spicy), squid salad (I love this stuff!), tripe (spicy and I also love this in pho!), beef bones (like tiny spare ribs but boiled, also spicy), eggplant stuffed with shrimp paste (VERY good), flaky pastry with bbq pork, baked buns with bbq pork, shu mai, steamed rice paper with shrimp (paste?), fried tofu skins filled with shrimp and turnip (hubby's and my fave), baby octopus (looked spicy but sweet), turnip cakes (YUMMY), sticky rice in lotus leaves, fried shrimp wrapped in rice paper, mango custard (egg custard with mango pieces, and fried sesame balls with I think taro paste inside. We then headed to FiL and SMil's home for some conversation and I got to try a recipe I had noticed in the local paper. It was for an apple spice cake, and it was very good (I'll post the recipe below).

After that we headed to see Mil since it had been a while since either of us had seen her. I haven't been cooking as much since I haven't felt as well- or driving as much since gas prices so I haven't been delivering C.H.O.W. meals either. We visited with her, and ended up going out to eat with her and one of her friends also to another new to us place, Leonardo's. It's another place that has been around for awhile, and we've both seen it (it's across from the CVS we use) and when I used to work at HomePlace a lot of the people there used to eat there. Hubby and I both got Steak (well hubby got chicken) subs and split an order of fries. They were very good and we'll go back at some point to try some of the other stuff. We were both stuffed though! We finally got home close to 8 pm. The pugs were happy to see us, and told us in no certain terms that we were late with their dinner!

My menu plan this week is still kind of up in the air, it mostly depends on what happens with our A/C. I'm still waiting for the A/C people to call us back and to come out, and then they probably can't even fix it right away.

Monday: Sriracha Glazed Chicken (see recipe posted last week)
Tuesday: Pancakes with Blueberries (didn't get cooked on Sunday since I let hubby sleep in)
Wednesday: Hamburgers
Thursday: Hot Pockets (hubby wanted them, we had a coupon, & they're on sale and they're cooked in the microwave, not a problem!)
Friday: Spaghetti or pasta salad

For more menu ideas (over 200!) visit: http://orgjunkie.com/2008/06/menu-plan-monday-june-16th.html

The Byrd Nest Applesauce Cake


Makes 12-14 servings
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light OR dark brown sugar OR Splenda brown-sugar substitute
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1 3/4 cups applesauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup canola or other vegetable oil
2 eggs (1/3 to 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup finely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour a baking pan (1 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan; 2 8-by-1½ inch OR 9-by-1 ½ inch round pans; or 1 tube pan.

Measure all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients and blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl frequently. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Stir in the raisins and nuts. Pour into pan or pans.

Bake rectangular pan 50 to 60 minutes; round pans 50 to 55 minutes; tube pan 60 to 65 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

This cake is very moist and should be cut with a thin and narrow blade knife for clean cuts.

The cake freezes well and is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks.

Variation: Substitute apple cider for the water and dried cranberries for the raisins, and cut back on each spice by 1/4 teaspoon -- Marika Byrd