Zips Diner- Dayville, CT

This is part of why we'll come back....but only partly.

Zips Diner in Dayville was just a 'winging it' kind-of-day... We felt like hitting a diner on a Sunday brunch mode. We looked up diners on the internet and this one spoke highly of their breakfasts, and their coconut cream and banana cream pies. My personal favorites.

 It's a perfect redition of the old steel hulled diners, and it was pretty packed for a Sunday - late morning. We almost missed this sign below, because we were looking for the 'diner'. I know, I know... it really is hard to miss the sign.

It was fun to see the old cars that came into the parking lot....This guy was only one of a few out for a drive. Nice day for it, too.

Walk inside and it takes you back in time....the stools, the chrome... beautiful. 

 And then there was the food!!!!..... Oh, yeah.....Hubby decided on the breakfast, ala traditional. Eggs homefries and hash. The hash was in addition to the breakfast choice, but sooooo worth it.

 

I opted for the club sandwich. It was very good, but aren't they all? I truly couldn't wait for the dessert!!!! 

The photo's a little fuzzy, so I think we have to go back for another photo opp. It was sooooo good. No, really. Good, with a capitol G. I almost didn't want to eat all of it, so I could bring some home in the doggie bag that I'd started with the club sandwich (great lunch for work tomorrow).

Could I leave it? ....Nope. gone.

I did end up with a nice lunch for work the next day. 

 I'm giving you a sneak peak at the bathroom....dilema? check out my bthroom blog to see the interesting critique on this one... http://www.tripstothejohn.blogspot.com/

 The fun part about hitting the bathroom was on the way out and back into the diner was, that you had to go through the 'dining car' entrance and 'lo and behold, there was an old fashioned phone booth! Wished it worked. I would have spent money to make a call. 

Oh well, ... we'll have to come back to try something else out.

What to do with leftovers for Breakfast...?

Sweet Potato Hash and Eggs
This has become one of my favorites....It's what to do with leftover Christmas dinner.
We had Ham and Sweet potatoes among other good stuff, and lots of ham leftover. I felt like eggs, so I took some ham (with pieces of the pineapple glaze still attached), chopped it up, half an onion and a wedge of green pepper (chopped both of them up fine), saute it in a pan.

Take a cooked sweet potato and chunk it up add to the pan, get it all nice a warmed up, toasty golden brown.... smear out a divot in the center and add an egg.

Since I prefer my eggs over hard or scrambled, I took the spatula and smooshed it around until it broke up, then let it cook enough to keep the pieces all together (I smooshed the egg so it covered all the loose pieces of the 'hash'), flipped it over gently and .....yum! I'll make this one again. And again...and again.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Just a few shots of my Thanksgiving dinner this year....This is where the buffet line would be...I wasn't sure about the stuffing (if I would add packaged stuff to my home-made sausage stuffing- I ended up not really)

My daughter and her fiancee came down from MA, but didn't want to come down on Friday (our usual Thanksgiving dinner day, since we volunteer at a local charity function on Thanksgiving, always). Since her beau works as a cop, he could onlly make it on Sat. That was fine, since our family has a tradition of making "Slumgullion" for the day after. And she loves Slumgullion even better than the original dinner (so do I!). The only thing is, you feel as though you are making enough for an army, since you want to have enough for both dinners.

Now, don't go googling Slumgullion, as you will only get some kind of macaroni and beef mixture.

This was my stuffing bread... great mixture of leftover breads in the house that were getting to the stale part (croissants, high grain-pumpkin seed, poppy seed, sunflower seed and sesame seed bread-yummy, potato chive bread and toasted them in the oven for an hour while making other stuff below.

Had a leftover apple and added it and the skin to the pan that I sauteed my celery, onions and zucchini-- this is the base for my stuffing mixture.

I had made the sweet potato pie the night before (okay I just baked a frozen one, but it was very good) and Malakai, my 4 yr old grandson baked cupcakes and cookies during the week. So I had the dessert table set.

Here is the buffet table, from left to right... turkey, gravy, cranberry-orange relish, mashed potato/sweet potato combination.

Clockwise from bottom left: Apple Walnut Rice stuffing, gravy, cranberry-orange relish, potato/sweet potato combo, sausage stuffing, cauliflower-broccoli mixture, and green bean cassarole in the middle.

Clockwise from bottom: stuffing, sauteed mushrooms, more stuffing, broccoli/corn casserole, diced turnip.

An old friend in NY, Eileen, taught me how to make Slumgullion ...with all the heated items that you have at Thanksgiving as though you are making a Shephard's Pie, layering all the goodies; peas, turnip, onions, corn, squash, stuffing, turkey, gravy, etc and ending with mashed potato/sweet potato spread on the top. We even made Green bean casserole this year (I've never made it). Throw it into the oven the day after and it's absolutely delish!!!
Should have taken a photo of it.... Next year I will.

Sukahothai- Great food

Lee & I went to dinner at a quiet restaurant that no one seems to know about... at least that's the impression I have, since it's never busy when we go there. It's on Main Street in Manchester, CT called Sukahoti (across the street from Park St).
We always have had great food when we go there.Here is one of our latest meals....

Delicious Spring rolls....

And these appetizers (below) were a blend of sweet potato, carrots, peas, chicken in delicate phyllo shells with a cucumber relish that was so light and sweet. Perfect!

Lee had sweet and sour chicken.... very good.

This was mine.... very good (wish I could remember what this was called. (I took these photos a while ago, and lost the writings I did about them, but I DO remember it was fabulous!)

The restaurant is so clean and neat.... and everything looks elegant. You would think it's VERY expensive. Not.

This was all I could eat, but it made for GREAT leftovers.

Dessert.... Lee had this, Sweet rice pudding. WONDERFUL.....

And I had coconut custard. It was just right....

All my leftovers went into two small boxes...Humph!

Look how small these were....oh well,... it was a great lunch the next day!

16- Bean Soup

It's almost getting to fall and that always makes me think of SOUP! Nice thick, hearty soup with whole grain crusty bread you can use to dip...

With that in mind, I came home from work on Friday and decided to pull that ham bone from the freezer and throw something in the crockpot. ...hmm...no ham bone? I headed to the store for something to use for flavor and stumbled upon Smoked Neck bones (pork). We'll try it. Too bad I didn't pull all the veggies from the frig before heading for the store or I would've seen I had no celery-- who makes soup without celery? Oh well, we'll manage. Some of my best meals are made with ...whatever I find in the frig.

hmmmm.... which spices? I pulled a bunch out that I thought I'd add.

I love the grinders, but truth be known, I would not add the salt this time (I used 3 beef boullion cubes- I'd use two next time, just a little salty for me...)

I soaked the beans in a bowl of cold water longer than overnight, but overnight should do. I put the bones in a pan to simmer for 30 mins or so...

Now the prep work... sautee-ing onions sans celery...

three nice carrots to cut up...

I threw a pinch of dried rosemary leaves in the boullion-- not sure why, just liked the smell of it all together.

Well, here it is in the pot...! I used the broth that was left after simmering the bones (not much grease on the top, or I would have to 'skim' the top with a slice of bread) and added the boullion and enough water to make 6 cups (could have used 1-2 more cups of water).

This is the soup after I added the water, looks good, but meat stayed pink...For the full recipe, see below.

This was what it looked like when I 'de-boned the neck bones... REAlly lean meat.

Nice and thick, too...

Premium multi-grain sandwich bread from Stop & Shop. So hearty!...

And I love it with butter, and dunked in the soup. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!

Smoky 16-Bean Soup Recipe

Smoky 16-Bean soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. 16-bean soup, soak overnight in water

2 lbs smoked pork neck bones (simmered in 2” water for 30 mins, don’t drain)

2 beef boullion cubes

a pinch of dried rosemary leaves

1 tbsp butter

1 med onion, chopped

3 med carrots, shredded

½ chopped apple

a stalk of celery, chopped*

1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

I grind these right over the pot… see when to add below:

1 full grind of sea salt

4 full grinds of any country herb mixture

5 grinds of garlic pepper

1 tsp of Sylvia’s secret seasoning

1 ½  bay leaf

Additional water to make 6 cups, total

*I didn’t have celery for this recipe, but I would have added it if I did.

--------------------------

Rinsed beans with cold water, drain. Place in crock pot. Removed neck bones from pan and let cool slightly. Save simmered broth (wipe a piece of bread over the top lightly, to clear any excess grease). Add boullion cubes & dried rosemary leaves to broth and add small amount of boiling water to dissolve cubes. In small sauté pan, add butter & sauté onion, until soft.

Add carrots, apple, onions, celery & parsley to beans.

Add seasonings …

I grind my seasonings right over the crock pot:

1 full grind of sea salt

4 full grinds of any country herb mixture

5 grinds of garlic pepper

1 tsp of Sylvia’s secret seasoning

Add simmered neck bone/boullion broth (what’s left) and enough water to make 6 cups. Pour over top of beans/veggies.

Place cooked neck bones on beans/veggies (I had three sections of bones).

1 ½  bay leaf on top

Cook in crock pot 8 hrs on low….

Pig-Out at Century

Our company has usually had a celebration of some kind at the end of the year... It's usually called 'pig-out' and consists of anyone who wants to, bring something to share and 'pigging out'. It's always fallen on Christmas eve (or the last day of the 'busy season') before Christmas and we could never imbibe until the last order was sent to shipping and logged out.

Well, the last few years, no one has

wanted to do it, because w're just too busy ...finishing getting errands done (or some were hosting their own Christmas Eve parties at home, so they were anxious to get out of work as soon as they could!)

Well, this year, someone came up with the idea to have 'Pig-out' right before the busy season starts! This is usually just before labor day, so the sign-up sheet was posted in the lunchroom, ... and what a feast we had.

This was my plate...we had some great food, seafood mousse, chili, home-made Mac & cheese, pasta & fruit salads, pulled chicken sandwiches.... The deadly thing is, we have some GREAT cooks at our company!

Donna was good about letting me snap a shot of her plate, but she wasn't waiting to start eating!

And of course, we can't forget the dessert table...

Brownies that were soooo delicious, home-made cookies (and some from Sam's), Magic bars, decadent chocolate cake...

And then, there was the Sand Cake. It's like the dirt cake with gummy worms, but with crushed Pecan Sandies (or you can use sugar cookies) for the sand. Serve it in a pail with a shovel for serving utensil AND on a towel with shells, and it is fun for a summer party!

Can you see how little was leftover? What a great idea! Can't wait until next year.