So...whats for dinner?
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Nance, so sorry about your dh's sister.
Yes, definitely a video of chasing the wild animals from the garden!
Major lobster envy.
A large boneless, skinless chicken breast is thawing. It will be the meat for dinner. A side will probably be cauliflower mash and another side will be baked tomato halves seasoned with parmesan and garlic.
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Nance sorry for your family health situation. So sad, but there is comfort in togetherness. (HUGS).
Suladog, thanks for the pic of food. I am up 9 lbs and I keep seeing food....AGHHHHHHHHH
Kidding- I love pics, especially of food that is new to me.
Off the see the Orthopedist at 2:30. I am 80% better but want to go once or twice a week until I get even better. PT shows me still progressing, b ut worried Dr. is going to be a shit about it..
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Nance,
so sorry about your sis in law, such things are never easy but it's always good to be surrounded by family.
Carole, good thoughts going your way about your biopsy.
I find these boards such an amazing place. 25 years ago , there was no place to turn for support other than a support group, and it was difficult finding one at the time for younger women in their 30's. There was a 24 hour phone line called WHYme that would connect one with a breast cancer survivor partner. It was sort of like the internet but on a one on one phone basis. I could call the one they paired me with ( she was in Chicago, I was in LA) any time I needed help, or had questions, or needed to talk, but I hated to bother her too much. This is so much better. On one hand I'm glad there was no internet back in the day so I couldn't look stuff up too easily and scare myself, but on the other it's so much easier to know that one is not alone in this and we're all there for each other.
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Thanks for the link, Susan. Your earlier research did not lead us astray! I was especially happy to see that dessert photo since I was trying to describe the visual to DH today....am obviously still enjoying that delicious memory!! And I am not a super sausage fan, but that one you ordered was exceptional! Glad we skipped the described gnocchi, and the seafood offerings that we inquired about.
DH and I ventured to my favorite bargain store today since they were giving 25% discount to seniors, and he really wanted to buy a new deck umbrella. Well, we did not find one that was the right size, but managed to find a zillion other things that we stock up on. While waiting in the long line (with all the seniors:), the woman behind me started asking me where I lived, was I a social worker, etc. I thought it odd. In South Jersey people chat like that in check out lines....but usually not here.Turned out she is someone I worked with forty years ago, not resembling that self one bit, so I would never had guessed her identity. She clearly knew I was someone from her past. She was a character and still is, and it made the line go much faster to catch up with her. Then she was thrilled to learn from me that she could get a discount on her purchases, since she is not a "regular" shopper there.
Afterwards, I dragged DH to the nearby food store and we managed to do a quick shopping trip purely so he could have an actual dinner. We bought a roasted chicken (I do get nervous about all the additives in those tasty things), which we had with corn on the cob....pretty good, from Georgia, a large romaine salad and butternut squash mash with real maple syrup. I will count that as cooking since the bird was the only cheat! We loaded up on fruits and vegetables, (I have been so derelict about going to the store I had not been aware of all the new seasonal produce available) so that is what we will be having the rest of this week. And OMG....wonderfully tasing cherries!!
Thinking of howcexhausted you must be feeling by now, Nance.
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For some reason, the stew just didn't appeal tonight. Maybe it was the humidity, maybe it was my stomach. Who knows, but I wanted something lighter. I wanted flatbread, and when I pushed my imagination, I wanted some grilled chicken on the plate. And I wanted a huge salad made from Hutchins Farm organic lettuce. But it was after 4 when the chicken store closes. And my frozen dough was frostbitten. Mr. 02143 proposed a trip to whole foods. Whole foods doesn't carry chicken breast on the bone with skin. Of all the chicken breasts in the store, and there were many, they were all boneless and 90% were skinless. Poor little chickens.... but there was a half broiler so that had to do. Pizza dough was next. The pizza guy won't sell you their actual dough, but there was some still thawing dough in the case, so again, that had to do. We also grabbed a fresh mozzarella ball made by some company in Vermont. And so dinner was born. We waited for the dough to thaw, cut it in half, and then I dressed it with an olive oil that I infused with the farmer's market spring garlic and oregano from the garden, topped with grated Romano and Parm and the fresh mozzarella. Not bad at all! Since I divided the dough, we enjoyed one flatbread, and then the kids enjoyed another one when they ate dinner later. In the end, salad was over half the plate, 2 oz of grilled chicken, radishes and red onions pickled, and a bit of flatbread.
*susan*
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Glenwood, CO. Chicken and mac and cheese
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Oh Eric, that is just beautiful! How long a trip will you be doing? Up state NY is a long way for you..... how long do you get? [I love the sneakers on the bench.]
*susan*
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eric - I'm so excited that you're posting your campsites. This will be a great cross country trip. Thanks for sharing.
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Susan, so if I did not feel up to eating already prepared stew (by me!), I can't imagine jumping through the hoops you did to have (make!!) what appealed more. You are amazing....and the dinner sounded delish!
Eric....serenity next to traveling caste iron pot. Lovely!
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Nance. I am also sorry to hear about DH's sister. I hope all went as well as possible.
Carole, I hope the biopsies are "nothing".
I'm typing on a virtual keyboard,which isn't the fastest.
I need to home by the 28th, so we have a fair amount of time. We're going to visit Sharon's family and she's hoping we'll get there by Saturday.
thebriver in the background is the Colorado River.
DD is asking about the Internet. I fixed up a mobile hotspot so she can work on her summer school class. So I guess I better see what she needs. The thing works great even when there isn't much cell service. Leave it to a cell company engineer 😀
Oh that's a different Dutch oven from the one Mickey bought. I thought about bringing it, but I'd be upset if somethitng happened to it. As could be guessed, it's got a lot of sentimental value and is irreplaceable.
I'm being called again.
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Many thanks my friends for your kind wishes. After a long grueling day at the hospital we left on a much more hopeful note. Too much to explain fully but basically, through two different procedures, they managed to get both sides of my SIL's heart functioning, which they had not been. She is still not out of the woods but things are looking better than they had been. It was good the family was all there as when we first got there it seemed possible that she would not make it through the day. It's a particularly stressful and sad situation because her husband is suffering from a type of dementia caused by his brain shrinking (I suppose it's an atrophic condition of some kind). Although he is able to care for himself for the most part and understands things, he cannot express his thoughts in any intelligible way and the condition is untreatable and progressive. Their only daughter has a family and lives in North Carolina and although she is here for her mother, it's very difficult to deal from long distance. I think she was very grateful for the support today. Anyway, as I said, things are looking better and we are hopeful and I appreciate your concern.
All your meals sound wonderful. The frittata was the food highlight of the day as the rest of the meals were expensive not very good hospital food (although I did have some sauteed spinach that was quite good and fruit salad that included mango AND papaya).
I'll work on that video ;-)
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Beautiful location, Eric. When dh and I were doing a lot of travel with our rv, favorite camp sites were beside rivers, lakes, oceans, even creeks.
Susan, I agree with Lacey. What a lot of trouble for dinner! But it does sound light and appetizing.
Nance, all the supportive family vibes are a good thing. Wishing the best for your SIL and her family.
My boneless skinless chicken breast was good. Even dh said so and he's a chicken thigh man. I marinated it in a seasoned substitute buttermilk. Tried the tip on adding vinegar to milk. Also added LA hot sauce, granulated onion and garlic and salt. Sprinkled the chicken with ground sage before cooking on a cast iron griddle on stove top. Was careful not to overcook. Let it rest and then sliced cross grain. The meat was juicy and tasty. I probably had 3 oz and dh had the rest, probably 5 oz.
The cauliflower mash was roughly 2/3 cauliflower and 1/3 russet potato. Whipped in the food processor with splash of milk (no half & half on hand) and about 1 1/2 T of butter. Delicious. Silky on the tongue.
The baked tomatoes would have been better if the tomatoes were a better quality but tasted good to me, nonetheless, because I was HUNGRY! I'm on a mission to drop some lbs. before heading north for the summer. My fat clothes are fitting these days and even feeling snug. WILL NOT WILL NOT BUY A LARGER SIZE!!!!!!!
Headed to the supermarket and to Sam's Club this am with a list. Time to buy Community dark roast coffee supply for the summer and Luzianne tea bags for our iced tea that we brew daily during hot weather. Neither brand is available in MN. Both decaf because of dh's reaction to caffeine.
Dinner isn't decided yet. I may buy some fish on my grocery shopping trip.
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Last night was previously leftover ham from the freezer - I made a sauce my mom used to make, grape jam and mustard - although she used currant jelly. Some steamed green beans with dill and baked potatoes. I was a bit tired as I spent the morning at the MO with my sarcoma/mesothelioma friend. The MO is changing the chemo regimen to one that can be given concurrently with the gamma knife rads. I had a hard private convo with the MO (who I love, and who is so excellent for the situation my friend is in) afterward about their state of mind regarding outcome - they need to start getting prepared from an estate standpoint and taking advantage of every way to preserve and generate income.
auntie - so sorry to hear about your SIL but so glad things are looking up and you are there to support and share with family. I can relate to their daughter - my mom had a degenerative neuromuscular disease for 25 years and my dad had stage IV lung cancer - I was 3,000 miles away with an active duty military husband, who was deployed. It was hard, and I had no extended family other than my brother, so I am glad that you all have each other and are there for her as well.
Everyone's meals sound so delish, I feel like I am falling down on the job in the kitchen lately. I need to step up my game. I also need a grill - the one we had for years needed to be replaced so we got rid of it, but have yet to get a new one. It is pretty hot here in FL already so I would like to be cooking outside right about now!
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good day all from rainy Sonoma!!! It's not a downpour but it's been rainy steadily since last night and here in droughty California we'll take what we can get! I'll be picking some fresh purslane from my garden this morning and cooking it Indian style for lunch.
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Special...I will repeat, "you are such a good friend"!
Carole, I'm impressed with the care you take in cooking your chicken. I am always thrilled to eat well cooked chicken when I (rarely) order it in restaurants. I must pay better attention to my prep if I want to replicate that cooked and juicy quality. This is an example of how my DH eating "anything" without criticizing may not be so useful to my culinary style. ;/
And yes! Do not buy larger clothes. I am working on weight loss too since the scales have climbed up a few lbs in the past two months and I know how easy it would be to let that continue if I don't get back on the wagon. I find that soups are a help in keeping my weight down. And making sure to keep my smoothies at the ready for my breakfast meal.
Heading out for a long walk since it is a sunny day...preferable to the gym. More Vitamin D!
Nance, glad for the better news....these situations are often a roller coaster, it seems. I hope she has a steady recovery if that is possible. I feel for all of you, and her daughter.
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SpecialK, you're entitled to "fall down on the job" in the kitchen. You're recovering from surgery. Such distressing news about your friend. My mind and imagination just don't want to go there.
Sula, I've never eaten or even seen purslane, to my knowledge. How is it cooked Indian style? And how did you become so fond of Indian food? I had a conversation with a young Indian woman in India some months ago when I called customer service for some company. I don't recall the company. Her English was quite good and we started chatting. She told me where she was located and I told her I was reading a book about classic Indian cooking. She declared with certainty that I wouldn't like Indian food because it was too heavy and greasy. I found this comment interesting because I had already noticed that the recipes in the book I was reading called for large amounts of either ghee or Indian cooking oil.
I went to Walmart instead of the nearby supermarket and $164 later I've lugged all the bags inside and put things away. If a Walmart can be "upscale," this one is. To my delight I found Rao marinara on the shelf and bought the only two jars left of the plain marinara. Winn Dixie doesn't carry it. If not for Susan's recommendation, I never would have tried it. Thank you, Susan! I like to keep a jarred tomato sauce on hand for those times when I'm opting for quick and easy. And I'm positive I won't find Rao's in Park Rapids, MN!
I also stopped at two produce stands and have tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash and eggplants. I find the prices very high but I just take out the money and pay. The farmers from an adjacent parish (county) bring their produce to this parish, where prices of everything is high, and charge accordingly. As the young woman tending one of the stands said today, "People are willing to pay for convenience."
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lacey - thanks for that, this is a very hard situation. I am trying so hard to do all the right things, but none of it brings any satisfaction - just sadness.
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Special - you're in my thoughts too.
Carole - I've found several different Rao's sauces at Target.
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minus - thanks - appreciate it.
I am thinking something Mexican/Southwest-ish for dinner because I have three ripe avocados. That is about as far as I have gotten, although I did take some ground grassfed beef out of the freezer and some nice corn tortillas. Maybe ranchero beans, rice with some salsa added and enchiladas. I knew someone years ago that made tacos by making a oblong patty of seasoned ground beef and pressing it into one side of the corn tortilla and then shallow frying it on the beef side, then flipped it over keeping the other side of the tortilla lifted off the meat filling. The meat fused to the tortilla and keeping the tortilla slightly open made it easier to have room for the toppings because the tortilla was kept off the other side. I have also seen a method of placing the tortillas over the oven rack tines in a hanging position and baking them until crispy. Then you put the formed, baked tortillas in an oblong baking pan with cooked filling, cheese, etc., then take them out and add the lettuce and tomato afterward. Interesting, right? Not sure I will do either of those things though, but I could possibly do tostadas - easier because they are flat!
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Carole,
I started cooking Indian food 25 yrs ago during my first chemo. I was a vegetarian when diagnosed, and as soon as I started treatment restricted my diet even further to macrobiotics. I was very thin to begin with and while doing chemo was eating next to nothing. The macrobiotic diet for BC was very strict and I found it boring. Knowing I was a vegetarian my mo asked me if I liked Indian food. I said I did and so he suggested I cook Indian food. My SIL is an Indologist and had done a lot of research and living in India. My husband had also traveled in India numerous times, so I had my SIL to start me out and then I learned form a number of older Indian ladies (one in particular) in LA. I have been cooking Indian food ever since. I learned how to do everything old school. I cook food from all regions of India. When I started cooking Indian food, the heavy greasy part was what I had always not liked about Indian food so I began cooking by using a LOT less oil in my cooking. I have always cooked "healthy" Indian food by reducing the amount of ghee, oil etc.
Purslane is a wonderful healthy vegetable wiki says...
"Although purslane is considered a weed in the United States, it may be eaten as a leaf vegetable.[4] It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, the middle east, Asia, and Mexico.[1][5] The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews. Australian Aborigines use the seeds to make seedcakes. Greeks, who call it andrakla (αντράκλα) or glystrida (γλυστρίδα), use the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil, add it in salads, boil it or add to casseroled chicken. In Turkey, besides being used in salads and in baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach. In Albania it is also is used as a vegetable similar to spinach, mostly simmered and served in olive oil dressing, or mixed with other ingredients as a filling for dough layers of byrek. In the south of Portugal (Alentejo), "baldroegas" are used as a soup ingredient. In Pakistan, it is known as 'Qulfa' and cooked as in stews along with lentils like spinach or in a mixed green stew.
Nutrition
Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular[6]) than any other leafy vegetable plant. Studies have found that purslane has 0.01 mg/g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).[6] It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol),[7]vitamin B, carotenoids), and dietary minerals such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. Also present are two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betaxanthins (noticeable in the flowers and in the slight yellowish cast of the leaves). Both of these pigment types are potent antioxidants and have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies.[8]
100 grams of fresh purslane leaves (about half a cup) contain 300 to 400 mg of alpha-linolenic acid.[7] One cup (250 ml) of cooked leaves contains 90 mg of calcium, 561 mg of potassium, and more than 2,000 IUs of vitamin A.
A half-cup of purslane leaves contains as much as 910 mg of oxalate, a compound implicated in the formation of kidney stones. Cooking purslane reduces overall soluble oxalate content by 27%.[9]
When stressed by low availability of water, purslane, which has evolved in hot and dry environments, switches to photosynthesis using Crassulacean acid metabolism (the CAM pathway): At night its leaves trap carbon dioxide, which is converted into malic acid (the souring principle of apples), and, in the day, the malic acid is converted into glucose. When harvested in the early morning, the leaves have ten times the malic acid content as when harvested in the late afternoon, and thus have a significantly more tangy taste."
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Nance, I'm glad that your SIL is a bit better. It must make her feel so supported to have all her family with her.
Carol, fingers crossed for your biopsies
Eric Beautiful pics!
Special glad you're recovering will
Minus, I'm not sure about retirement I go back and forth between buying a bigger car like a Honda pilot so I can tow a 1000=3500 trailer and taking off, or a friend of mine has a daughter who has worked in Ecuador for several years and can find us an apartment for $100/month. Seems all the good deals are word of mouth and my friend is a lawyer who can work from home and I'll do my Spanish language thing. Still not sure how I'll survive financially, but I always have so far...
I'm making a lot of the recipe fish in foil things that Susan mentioned. Last night tilapia with cherry tomatoes, fennel and fresh corn. There are endless combinations, so I throw whatever I have in there.
I am so mad at my job. OOOOOOh They are so annoying!!!! I stomped around my office today and said bad words. It's OK, I'm the only one in the department. They sent me a machine with a manual to "set up" with parts missing and an instructional video that was 2 hours long so I refused to watch it. So after 2 hours I almost got it right but I think there are parts missing. So I had to HAUL it all down to my car and have to drive it 11/2 hours tomorrow to get it checked out. WHO DOES THAT? Are they mad??I am not in maintenance and storage, nor a technician and I wasn't trained for this. Grrrrrrr. Eric where are you when I need you? I swear I work with 1,000,000,000 men in hard hats in a power company and not ONE of them can help me? There I feel better. Kind of. I have to remember they pay me. That's why it's called "a job"
More fish and corn in packets for dinner. And watermelon and cantaloupe.
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Nance,
so glad things have improved some for your SIL, it's always amazing how sometimes things can turn for the better very quickly. I hope she continues to improve. It's always good to have family near at times like that
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We stopped west of Grand Island, NE at an abandoned gas station, waiting out a rain storm...visability less than 10 feet
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Grand Island... oh the memories. The OMNI died in Grand Island.... oh so many years ago. We had a three month old baby and a 90 lb German Shepard collie in the back of the car. We spent too much money and time there. That was 1986... we were moving from Montana to North Carolina, broke and young. We put it all on a credit card having no idea how we would ever pay for the repairs.
Tonight, we had a Szechuan dinner. A "white" pork and water spinach with hot chills. Mighty good! I stopped at the Chinese market on the way home from yet another blood draw. I love water spinach and it just looked too beautiful to pass up. Also got some nice sprouts, Thai peppers and seeds to grown my own, fresh noodles, and some mighty tasty dried chills. So, Pho is on the menu! The stew is now in the freezer since it was clear that other "shiny" objects had taken over my attention.
New drug is approved.... will arrive tomorrow. There is a story that doesn't make my Onc's office look good.... seven days ago it was approved and I just learned this tonight. I am a little scared about all of this, but, I will pop that sucker tomorrow night cause that is my life!
Special, you are really special. You are compassionate and a really good friend. We should aspire to be as caring as you are.
*susan*
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Well I have a cousin in Alabama who says there is a farmer selling blueberries for 10.00 a gallon..... I am kinda in shock, given what I pay for a pint up here in IL.
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Red,
So many questions... high bush berries or wild? And how much do you pay?
*susan*
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susan - thank you so much.
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Susan - good luck with the new drug tomorrow. here's wishing minimum SEs and maximum results.
Suladog - Somehow I thought you lived in So Cal, but are you in Sonoma? I gave my son a gift cert for the Napa/Sonoma wine train last year and they loved it.
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Susan, ditto to Minus's wishes for luck and the minimum/maximum combo! And to think that we could have been celebrating your tmt approval last Friday! Not the first time I've known of office communication being inefficient.....while we wait anxiously. Well, that's over and game on!
Yikes Eric! Hope you guys find some drier weather soon. Be safe!
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minus,
Yes I'm in Sonoma but we go back and forth to LA for work so I have my original mo there and one up at UCS
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