Best Of

I went to a concert downtown last night - all 6 Bach's Brandenberg Concertos with nephew & wife & 10 year old daughter. We were supposed to eat a quiet dinner, but they'd had some problems at a Girl Scout gathering in the afternoon so we grabbed something quick at Local Foods. I had broccoli & cheddar soup. Tonight dinner was sauteed asparagus. While it was cooking, I prepped a bunch of things for this week - guacamole, peeled tomatoes, cauliflower, coleslaw. I screwed up & bought a double pack of raspberries last week - WAY too many so I'll have to double down on eating quickly.

Mae - our lows are still in the 70's. Hoping for 60's at night this week, but day time highs are still over 90. And NO rain in my part of town for at least two months. Everything is dead.

Tonight was “marry me white bean soup”. Northern beans, spinach, spices and cream mainly. DH liked it, I thought it was fine (for a spouse with low expectations) but definitely not as impressive as the name would imply. Today was rainy with temps in the 60’s, so while I don’t like the cold much, I am looking forward to DH making chicken and dumplings 🙂

Carole, I like watching cooking shows, too. One of my favorites is Patti's Mexican Table. I would never use those recipes since the cooking seems to take all day. From what I've seen traveling they are authentic.

Wally, Spinach is good since DH likes that. I'm sorry the dishwasher installation is taking so long.

Dinner tonight was lamb chops, sautéed baby potatoes and parsnips.

Thanks for the well-wishes. Because my 2025 part d plan was discontinued I can take an extra 10 days to choose a plan and still be covered on January 1st. I had plenty of experience appealing denials with my insurance when I was working. I was just enjoying not having to deal with that.

Carole, Everything had to be done by hand in 1965 so I would copy the Medicaid prescriptions in triplicate (carbon paper forms) to be submitted for reimbursement. Because all the scripts were handwritten by doctors I got good at reading bad handwriting, useful when I was teaching. I also learned pharmacology without studying.

Nance, I’ll have to use golden beets in place of the parsnips I cook with Swiss steak; it would be a delicious change.

Wally, How is the dishwasher adventure going? Your curry sounds good. I’d have to replace the broccoli with something else for DH but I’d keep it for myself.

Dinner tonight was stew beef and butternut squash cooked in a pumpkin/tomato pasta sauce on penne.

Yard work most definitely counts as exercise. It's exhausting.

Last night was a fish fry — a catfish fillet for me and cod for DH. Sides were Bob's mac and cheese and coleslaw.

Tonight will be swiss steak in the pressure cooker with sides of mashed potatoes and roasted golden beets.

Maggie - all your testing sounds grueling. Sending you my best wishes.

Tonight should be leftover pork medallions dish with leftover brown rice. I may add carrots, precooking them first. You may sense my lack of enthusiasm. LOL.

The sliced beef strips I bought for the fajitas last night were a little tough but still tasty. As usual I ate more steak strips than dh did. He ate all the sauteed onion and most of the sauteed yellow bell pepper. His guacamole was especially good. And I always like refried beans.

Maggie, you have lived such an interesting life and educated yourself in so many ways. This is the first mention of your father's pharmacy.

It has cooled off somewhat, enough, I hope, to allow me to get some yard work done this morning. I plan to attack invasive trees and vines in the flower beds. It's an ongoing war. Yard work counts as exercise.

I’ll definitely have the bloodwork results and hopefully the cerebral spinal fluid ones before the cutoff date. My steroid inhaler is used off label for RIPF so the other asthma drugs on the formularies won’t work. My pulmonologist will attempt to get it covered so I’m looking for an insurer that is more amenable than the United Health plan in my zip code. I now appreciate what I learned when I had to work in my dad’s pharmacy because it was really busy.

Wally, I hope the antibiotics clear the infection.

Carole, It’s easier to choose lower calorie cooking methods when you have a full kitchen. Adding a few pounds while enjoying yourself is worth it imo.

Dinner tonight was chicken and asparagus in cream sauce.

Maggie, good luck in your decision-making on health coverage. We considered switching to an Advantage plan because it's so much cheaper but stuck with Medicare and BCBS Federal, even though we pay a lot monthly. So far there is never a hitch with getting prescription coverage or approval of treatment. Advantage plans are great for healthy oldies who require very little medical care, just routine screening. Humana and People's Health are two popular Advantage companies here.

I lit the big oven last night to cook the sweet potatoes and the barbecue chicken. Both were excellent.

Tonight will probably be steak fajitas with refried beans, sauteed colored pepper and onion, and guacamole. We'll probably skip the tortillas. I'm back in "lose weight" mode, hoping to get back to my lowest weight last winter and then whittle that down. The Viking Cruise put on 3 pounds and the summer in MN added another 3.

It's supposed to be more comfortable outside today, with lower humidity. DH is playing golf. I'm hoping to get to the gym for an 11:30 exercise class after being on hand to pay the couple who mow our big lawn during the summer. With luck they'll come early enough for me to make the class.