Thursday, December 1st - It was a dark and stormy night!

Conditions at 5:30 am: 8' and clear, starry skies even though the weather network says it's overcast, heading for a high of 7' (guess we've passed that) with a mix of sun and cloud

It looks like our mild weather is about to come to an end. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous for the first half of the day - bright and sunny and 15'. When I went for lunch at 1:00 it was very overcast but still warm. By 5:00 it was a torrential downpour. I was meeting my friend Donna for supper as she was in town for a conference. I arrived at her hotel around 5:15 and parked as close to the entrance as I could but I was still drenched when I got there. Fortunately for me she had a glass of red wine waiting for me. So we sat and chatted for about an hour and had our wine before we finally decided we should really go out and get something to eat. We had planned to go downtown to the Dublin but when we got downstairs, it was still raining really hard. There was a sign on the reception desk advertising the evening special in the hotel dining room for a roast beef dinner. We looked at that and said 'that will work'. So in the end, we stayed at the hotel. After a couple more hours of talking and laughing we headed back up to her room for one last glass of wine (we had skipped wine at dinner as I was driving home) and more chatter and laughter. My nose got really stuffed up, which it's prone to do once in a while when I drink, so at 10:15 I decided it was time to call it quits and I headed home. When I got to the front door of the hotel, it had stopped raining which made the drive home much more pleasant. It was a lovely evening as she and I hadn't really seen each other in quite a while to just sit and chat so it was nice to catch up. We had hoped Brenda could have joined us as well, but occasionally we have to share her with Bernie. They were going to watch a friend's son play hockey in town. Oh well, another time.

Tabitha sent me this recipe that she brought to the potluck on Tuesday. Now that I've seen it, I do remember I used to make this but I haven't for years but it's really easy and  very tasty. Thanks for the reminder Tabitha. Here's her email:

Hey Sandy,

This is a little weird...me giving YOU a recipe, haha.  You've probably made this before.  Anyway it's my never fail dish to take to potlucks!

Chicken Fried Rice
3 1/2 cups water
2 cups Uncle Ben's converted rice
2 cups chicken (already cooked, I'm thinking)
1 can mushrooms
2 onions
2 stocks celery (I rarely put this in)
1/2 package onion soup mix (I use Knorr)
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup soya sauce 

Cook at 350 degrees for one hour in covered roaster.

Enjoy and talk to you soon,

Tabitha




Thanks for sharing, Tabitha. I'm going to give this a try on the weekend. It's something I can keep in the fridge and take in a container for my lunch at work and just zap in the microwave or for a quick supper when I get home from work. I think in the past when I've made it (many years ago) I've also used cut up pieces of  roast beef. It's a great way to use up leftovers