So...whats for dinner?
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I once picked up a dozen supposedly pasture-raied eggs at a farmstand in southern IL to bring as a gift to vegetarian friends who could only afford the battery eggs. They were in commercial styrofoam cartons from supermarket brands--which the farmstand salesperson said were irregulars bought cheap due to printing defects. Next morning I set out to surprise my hosts with omelettes. Cracked the first egg into the bowl, and then the second--it was sulfurous, with greenish white and green-black yolk. I took a large saucepan and filled it with cold water--and all the eggs floated like dead goldfish. Couple of years later, same thing happened to a couple from a dozen I had kept for two weeks past pull date--and one more was light as a feather when I picked it up. Now, when I am about to use eggs that have gone more than a week past pull, I always put them through the water test. Quite a few stand on end at the bottom of the pot--good for scrambling but definitely not for poaching. (A fresh egg should sink to the bottom and stay there on its side). I've taken to inspecting every single egg I buy to make sure it's not cracked or sticking to the bottom of the carton--I'd been burned that way before. And I won't buy eggs that have a printed pull date sooner than two weeks away. I find (at least where I shop) that the fresher ones don't cost any more.
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The zucchini boat and spinach and beans looks appetizing. I have heard of "beans and greens" but have not made it. Seems like a good combination.
Dinner last night was a large tossed salad with mixed spring greens and favorite additions. Also warmed up chicken enchilada casserole. Warmed up might have been better than first time around.
Tonight is leftover red beans and rice. Perfect timing since it's Monday.
Summer in December continues.
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MIL is back in the hospital. C-diff. Again.
Duffey, her cat, is over here, but wasn't a "happy kitty" about being put into the cat carrier. He's been here often enough that he was immediately comfortable around our house.
I talked with MIL's doctor, and they felt it would be a good idea to sanitize MIL's house. So, while she's in the hospital and the cat is at our house..... :-)
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Eric - sorry to hear about your MIL. So.... guess who gets to sanitize???
My meatloaf was absolutely the best I've had in years. I had some sauteed celery & onion in the fridge for a stir fry, but mixed it in with the ground chuck instead. I usually mix bread crumbs with one egg - and used the only bread I had - dark pumpernickel rye. Turned out to be a fortuitous combination.
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I live outside Chicago and it’s rare to see anyone without a mask in a store or restaurant. My 30yo daughter lives in Michigan and both she and her husband are fully vaccinated and had breakthrough cases a month ago. My 42yo son in Indiana had a breakthrough case last week. I received my booster 3 weeks ago but am still nervous about the holidays. As for dinner I’ve been trying some different things since I’m sick of the usual. Last night was a skillet dinner with ground Italian sausage, tomatoes, okra and rice. Tonight I boiled some cabbage and added a box of au gratin potatoes to it along with turkey kielbasa and leftover cubed cheese - it’s baking in the oven now. Flying by the seat of my pants with clea out the fridge and pantry meals!😂
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BitchOnWheels - welcome to the table. I'm doing pretty much what you are - inventing meals based on what sounds good in the weekly grocery adverts & what's left in the fridge.
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Me
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Eric, sorry that your MIL continues to have health issues that cause her to be hospitalized.
Minus, I admire your meal "rotation." It has to be a challenge to make interesting meals for one.
Now I'm out of left over warm ups. We had the red beans and rice last night and enjoyed it with hot cornbread out of the oven and butter. There's at least another meal of red beans.
Woke up this morning to find summer in December has departed for a few days before we get back to 80 degrees again. It looks like Louisiana winter outside, gray and damp.
I went to several stores yesterday and must have stood out wearing my mask.
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We had mac and cheese with a side of stewed tomatoes (DH's childhood --he was always served tomatoes and he continues to insist on it).
Oh my! 80 degrees....I am not a spring/summer gal. I marvel at those living in hotter climes.Eric, so sorry on your MIL situation. Fecal transplants are a real thing and have saved lives from C. Diff. I'll stop mentioning it again. Hope things turn around for her.
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wallycat: Mac 'n cheese with stewed tomatoes is a childhood memory for me as well. We put the tomatoes on top of the mac n' cheese on our plates.
Eric: They do have fecal transplant pills now. Ask about them for MIL. Unfortunately C. diff is ubiquitous in the environment once introduced and no easily dislodged by cleaning. Sorry you get to be the cleanup crew.
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OMG - stewed tomatoes.... My father loved those so of course we had to have them regularly as a side veggie - served w/a meat dish or course since he was a confirmed "meat & potatoes" man. Of course these were from a can and none of us kids liked them. Maybe they're better if their home cooked?
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Sharon jokingly offered her mom the "raw material" for a transplant.. :-) MIL's comment in return, also joking, "It probably wouldn:t work. She's been giving me s--- her whole life and look what's happened!" :-)
Dispose of the un-cleanable "contaminated" chairs, 1:9 bleach to water, a garden sprayer, a mop and a bunch of rags....followed by a "fog machine" spewing out a "fabric friendly" sporicide to get all the hidden places.
I guess my gov't job training will come in handy.
Thinking about Dec 7, 1941. Back then, Hawaii was on an odd timezone, 6-1/2 hours behind east coast time, so the attack began around 2:25pm "back east". I wanted to go to the Arizona memorial at the Arizona state capitol, but was unable to do so. Maybe next year. My dad was in the Marine Corps from 1934 to 1964, so he, like very many others, had first hand experience with WW2.
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Welcome, my Chicagoland BCO sister B.O.W.! The fact that your kids are in MI and IN goes a long way towards explaining their breakthrough infections: those two states have much higher COVID transmission rates than does IL and certainly Chicago. (As of this aft., IL has 5.6% positivity, Chicago 4.2%--but Will & Kendall counties 8.5%--and IN? Don't ask). My DH Bob smokes a couple of cigs a night out on the porch or deck (despite being a cardiologist--"physician, heal thyself"). Pre-pandemic, since his hospitals are in the S. Suburbs (we're on the N. Side), he would get his gas & cigs just across the line in Hammond, IN because the taxes are so much lower than IL's (much less Cook County's & the city's). He would occasionally even go to "the boats" (before Rosemont got casinos) to do a little gambling. But nowadays, I have forbidden him to cross the state line--we can definitely afford to pay more for his cigs and Costco prices for gas--he buys less than half a tank for his little hybrid anyway, to keep the car's weight down & maximize gas mileage. Lately, the new Hard Rock Casino in Hammond has been advertising "Extra Cleaning" (which is "pandemic theater," as surface-droplets, aka "fomites," are no longer considered a significant form of transmission) and...are you ready for this?..."Masks Optional!" Sorry, but only a true COVIDiot would consider the latter a deal-sealing incentive to go there--the place is undoubtedly a Delta-variant (and probably now Omicron) Petri dish.
When I was in elementary school back in Brooklyn, I remember learning about Pearl Harbor via articles, lectures and "filmstrips" (remember those, fellow Boomers?)--because even though it was 20 years earlier, WWII hadn't yet made it into our antiquated (courtesy of NYC's cash-trapped public school system) history books. It was in that Social Studies niche between "history" and "current events." I vividly recall a TV documentary about it called "Not a Moment to Lose."
Yesterday, when the mercury was still hovering around freezing, I went into the garden and harvested all my remaining chives, plus bunches of parsley & mint, a large branch of rosemary, and a few sprigs of oregano & thyme. The landscaper wanted to cut it all back, but because the weather will warm up into the 40s & even 50s again by Thurs. I told him to let Mother Nature do her thing with the tender herbs--in years past, I recall seeing parsley in subfreezing temps and rosemary peeking through snowdrifts. I told him to go ahead and cut back the strawberries, as the blooming season is over and the runners are well below the surface and will survive even a short subzero freeze, like they did the two we had last winter. We're going down into single digits tonight, so I've switched to long PJs and a sweatshirt for sitting in the front room (which leaks air). I may keep the bottoms on under my jeans when I have to suck it up and go out shopping again for the few grocery items I couldn't find at Whole Foods or Target over the weekend. And I will venture out sockless in UGGs--they'll keep my feet warm w/o painfully cramping my toes--corns & ingrown toenails--the way socks do. I've trudged through deep snow in them in -10F weather up in Marquette, MI in the U.P. with my sockless tootsies staying warm & snug.
Definitely postponing going up to Madison to rehearse with my singing partner--he has his hands full with voice-over work, his print-shop job, and his wife's severe fibromyalgia.
Dinner tonight--unless Bob gets home early enough & insists we bundle up & brave single-digit near-zero wind chills to walk the 2.5 blocks on foot to Regalia--will once again be leftover wings & spinach salad. For brunch today I made a rolled French omelet with my last 2 jumbo eggs (a week past-pull-date), butter, grated Gruyère, and herbs from the garden (plus store-bought tarragon, which I've never been able to grow). With coffee, it was filling enough that I didn't need keto toast or bacon. (There's chopped bacon in the spinach salad anyway). ATK's recipe calls for 2 eggs + a yolk and cubed frozen butter beaten into the eggs exactly 80 strokes, but that's too labor-intensive & fussy; besides, I have little use for a leftover egg white.
My Butcher Box subscription came today--I'd re-set the frequency to the maximum 3 months. Running out of freezer room, so I sent my HK home with ground beef, salmon burgers, a NY strip and a couple of ribeyes. It's cold enough outside that it's sitting sealed on my deck beneath the table, camouflaged by snow tools and a trash can. (Pirates seem to be striking the front porches, so we dragged it inside, through the house to the kitchen, and out the back door). I suspect that by the time we unpack it tomorrow morning, the dry ice may still be partly intact. It's nearly as cold outside as my freezer compartments.
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Mostly veg tonight, roasted carrots, squash, zucchini, onion and a tiny sweet pepper with sautéed parmesan & roasted garlic asparagus and a few seared sea scallops.
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Dinner, Last night and tonight, was crockpot chicken tortilla soup from the BC focused "Fix it and forget it " cookbook. I also made this decadent moist cornbread recipe (includes sour cream and cheddar). It's more like a desert so I don't have it too often.
DH's Dr. raised his diabetic meds a bit today; I see my Dr. Next week. More dietary modifications are coming I'm sure. I wish diet changes were easier! Not an original thought for sure. Illi your veg- based meals inspire me, as has Sandy's weight loss.
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Illi, looks delicious! That mini pepper looks like a habañero--thank goodness it wasn't.
Tonight, I tried a Martha Stewart frozen short rib meal (lower-sodium, low-carb). Though it had quite a bit of gravy (most frozen meals seem to be primarily sauce), it had nice-sized chunks of carrot, onion & rutabaga. Needed salt. But it was quite good. Sopped up the gravy with a keto Hawaiian roll. Did have some of that leftover spinach salad, and made raspberry vinaigrette.
Turned out not to be as cold out as predicted (only going down into the mid-20s overnight), but the Butcher Box's contents should still remain frozen till we unpack it tomorrow and try to find room in the freezers. (Will go through them and cast a critical eye on the dates. I know there are a couple of things I bought at Trader Joe's just before the pandemic--will likely toss them).
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I had a turkey sandwich from the market deli. It comes with two sides of your choosing. I chose the spinach pesto pasta and the Greek orzo salad. I also bought a large chocolate chunk cookie, which I can typically make last a few days but I've had an appetite spike these past few days.
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After googling recipes for cabbage casserole, cabbage casseroles with meat, I gave up and put together my own, incorporating ideas from the search. I browned the ground chuck with onions, garlic, diced yellow bell pepper and diced poblano. Next I sauteed sliced cabbage, put everything together with a can of mushroom soup. Considered addition of cheese and decided against. Heated in oven in casserole dish.
Side was large tossed salad. The casserole was a bit bland. I will add cheese and/or spice to leftovers meal.
I had a "computer episode" during the recipe search. One site I clicked on locked up my computer. Windows took over the screen and a voice warned me against turning off the computer. I suspected a scam and turned the computer off with the button after reading about the scam with my cell phone.
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I hate people who are smart enough to inflict techie dangers and use it all for evil instead of good.
The "stewed" tomatoes were canned. We love canned tomatoes; it is difficult to find any good tomatoes, especially this time of year. I opened a can of San Marzano (sp?) and was quite disappointed with what came out of that can. Trader Joes actually looked better--and cheaper. Too bad it is a 3 hour round trip to get to a TJ or a Target.
We had the mac and cheese leftovers yesterday. Today I will make a barramundi. I'll use the leftover tomatoes to make a mexican rice side and maybe serve some broccoli.
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I hate that kind of software. Unfortunately it's not hard to do, nor does it require that the site you visited to be compromised.
MIL's house is sanitized and, tonight, I'm putting out the two "beyond hope" recliner chairs to the curb to be picked up by the trash crews. The pickup crews know to be careful and I made sure to NOT clean the chairs beyond soaking the soiled areas with pool shock liquid chlorine. I'm hoping the severely bleached/nearly rotted material will discourage "the pickers" that drive through the neighborhoods.
MIL's kitty is over at our house and is getting very comfortable. Sharon woke up this morning to Duffy laying on top of her. The "not quite so old" dog was on the bed as well and "very old dog" was laying on the dog bed. I think their attitude is, "If you humans need more room to sleep, there is plenty of room on the floor". :-)
Sharon and I are considering a Swiss Potato-Leek soup https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/34903964/posts/3703890601 that I found while "cruising the internet".
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Tonight is a recipe from the new Mediterranean cookbook. A spice rubbed pork tenderloin with leeks, onion, tomato and Brussels sprouts replacing artichokes and tri colored quinoa. This is a good one for sure.
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Eric - speaking of computer jinks... I clicked on the link to see your Potato/Leek soup & it wanted me to sign in with my user name & password. So I tried to go back a page to BCO. No such luck. Finally had to sign out entirely and sign back in to BCO. If the recipe works, please do share.
Mae - really does look delicious.
Dinner here was individual Naan pizzas. Selection of the day was Rao's marinara, black olives, fresh mushroom slices, slivers of sweet onion (think 1015 or Videlia) and Mozzarella cheese. Delicious with a Cab from the Columbia Valley in Washington.
Tomorrow will either be spinach omelette or fried rice. I'm going to go have wine with an old friend who now lives in independent living at 3pm so it depends on my energy level after I get home.
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Brunch was a keto (2 gm net) sesame bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, Vidalia onion, cucumber, dill & capers.
Dinner at Regalia: Wagyu carpaccio with bone marrow, arugula, parm-regg and caramelized balsamic onion. (Bob had grilled shrimp over polenta--and we both had a little of the housemade rosemary foccaccia with olive oil & cannelini bean puree). Our entrees were Faroe Island salmon cioppino with Manila clams & mussels, with tomato broth. Dessert was almond semifreddo with chocolate chips--when flambeed the chips melted to make a fudge sauce. (Housemade limoncello too). I hope this place gets an online presence soon. It's still walk-ins only--turns over fully (twice) on Fri, & Sat. nights but slow on weeknights. A bit pricy for the neighborhood, so word needs to get out for people from more upscale areas to come out. Hoping a reviewer can make it--that would definitely spread the word.
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Try this link.
https://www.bigfoodetc.com/2021/12/07/recipe-swiss-potato-leek-soup/
I checked the box so the link opens in a different browser window, so the BCO page should be there, but in a different window/tab.
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We had a heavy lunch, takeout hamburgers and fries, much enjoyed by me. I could have skipped dinner but skipping a meal isn't in dh's DNA. We had small helpings of pork piccata and quinoa and a smaller tossed salad than usual.
Tonight is the Woodworkers Guild's Christmas dinner at an event place. Last year it was cancelled so the buffet dinner won't be quite so familiar. The meats are always baked ham and a roast beef cut in slivers by the attendant server. The sides are usually good and calorie laden. It won't be a huge group and will be mostly senior citizen and, hopefully, triple vaccinated as are we.
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Sharon's mom is getting out of hospital today and will be staying at our house for a few days. We're getting a cheap shower curtain and some Chux pads...which hopefully will be wasted.
Tonight is the music jam. Three couples, plus the 90 year old father-in-law/father of one couple and, sometimes, Sharon's 84 year old mom. We usually have some "pre jam" food. Sharon makes her potato salad, I make the cheese-garlic biscuits and, sometimes, the onion bread, the couple (and dad), from Wisconsin, brings their best cheese and the last couple brings their home made pepper stuffed olives and a chicken or beef (or both) dish.
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Eric, I am moved by your tender care of your MIL. How fortunate she is...your family is. (I had to google Chux)
I really enjoyed the barramundi last night. Have waaaay too much mexican rice so I'll pan fry some eggs to go with some of it, along with the leftover broccoli. I bought some Pete and Gerry's eggs and will use those and see how special they are.
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Indulged in a large salad of chopped tomatoes/cucumbers (DH de-seeds & chops so they are on hand), portabella mushrooms, avocado (a whole one, chopped), grilled chicken. Lots of veggie goodness!
Kudos to you Eric for being such a good son-in-law. Music jam sounds like a good time - enjoy!
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Tonight is sautéed shrimp, asparagus and yellow squash in a light coating of garlic, butter, white wine and half & half with whole wheat penne and a seafood counter pre-made crab cake.
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Grilling a grass-fed ribeye and shishito peppers; sauteed mushrooms; nuked asparagus & jarred hollandaise sauce, plus a sweet potato seasoned with salt, pepper and cinnamon. (Bob is late as usual so not putting the steak on the grill yet--it's chilly out but not too cold to grill).
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