So...whats for dinner?
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Thanks everyone!
Having dinner out again tomorrow night...tho not the likes of 80 Thoreau, I'm sure! It is a dinner for a conference that DH helps to run each fall. For sure it will be decent, but nothing exquisite. What we had earlier this week did feel exquisite....or maybe I was just thrilled to stop having Italian food!
Nance, I tend to use a lot of saffron with accompanying rice, otherwise the color comes out but not so much the taste, which is so wonderful! I buy mine at Traders, where it is still reasonable.
Carole, doesn't butternut squash make a good side with just about everything?!
Tonight we had a faux chicken cacciatore that I made with the chicken thighs I had too many of when cooking up lots of soup last Saturday: side of whole wheat pasta with olive oil, garlic and parmesan, and a salad of arugula and lots of other veggies. Right after I made the salad, I remembered that DH is supposed to not have any seeds for his colonoscopy on Monday. Oh well, he'll start tomorrow. We are both having that lovely procedure next week.....something on my "get it over with" list!
Had a call from my MO today that the genetic counselor atbthe center reviewed my records and believes I should have genetic testing. Somehow I escaped it when first dxd...somthat will be next on the medical appt docket. I was less concerned about results from this until I learned that my sons can transmit the gene to their daughters. Yikes! A generational burden for sure......fingers will be crossed on this one.
Tomorrow back to those cute K classes....
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Special. I was thinking about "back then" for me. I was 18 when I moved off to college.
I remember the time very well. I wasn't afraid, worried or even that excited. Like I said earlier, the strongest memory was how quiet it was after my parents left.
The first time I went home was Thanksgiving. I remember walking in an seeing the kitchen table. It seemed so low. I stayed in my older brother's room--that had become the guest room--and that is when I realized that while I was welcome there, it was no longer home.
I find it weird that my strongest memory of walking in to the house for the first time in 4 months is the height of the kitchen table. :-)
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Thinking pork chops so far.
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Tonight is chicken chili Verde burritos. I'm cooking a largish pot of pinto beans with jalapeno and ham hock for a side. I'll freeze the what's left, which should be plenty, for future meals. It's a great convenience having already cooked beans in the freezer. An avocado salad will round out the meal.
This afternoon is dedicated to ridding all three refrigerators of the little containers that have a tablespoon of something or other in them. I pray that they're all recognizable.
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Leftover sausage stir fry. DH ate the last of the pizza last night and I had 2 pieces of cinnamon toast since tummy was a bit queasy. Not inspired much to cook. Nothing on sale particularly. Pork roast of some kind on a BOGO offer. DD is coming Saturday and would like to make a couple of casseroles she can take with her. Maybe I'll make a chicken casserole tonight and eat the stir fry today/tomorrow for lunch. I think I could whip up some kind of chicken macaroni cass. Maybe use that jar of alfredo sauce in it. Have all the usual suspects - celery, onion, black olives, pimientos. Have a couple large cans of chicken plus leftover froz. turkey. Also some green peas that need using up. Not sure what I'd make tomorrow. I assume and know that's stretching it a lot that she eats what I send home with her. Not sure she would tell me the truth if she didn't. She's plenty capable of cooking or stopping on her way home but her silly season at work is just starting. Will see her again Thanksgiving when we pick her up and head east for the day at my DB and SIL's house so I can drop off more then. Plus she gets yummy turkey leftovers.
Lacey - your anniversary dinner sounded out of this world. Congratulations.
Eric - my senior year in college and DB's soph. year my mom moved to a 2 bedroom apt. Real clear that one of us wasn't coming back home permanently. I spent about a month home and then found a job and moved out. Funny about the table being so high; maybe you "growed" up. My fresh and soph years I came home every and I mean every weekend. I had a regular ride about 1.5 hours. I attempted to change colleges my junior year but so lonely so I went back to the original. Actually had a car then but going home slowed down. DD came home only sporadically when she moved out to dorm as a junior. Can't remember whether she went summer session. I think she did. I know she had to go one last summer session since she misread the catalog and missed a prereq. for something.
Sounds like we may get a freeze next week. I sched. a pedi on Tuesday. Hope it's still warm enough to wear my flip flops home. Should be OK. Guess DH and I need to get houseplants at least the big ones in off the patio. Sometimes I hold the smaller ones in the garage and pull them out on warmer days though it sounds like our colder Nov. may happen.
Carole - glad your DH's diagnosis was not worse than it turned out. Hate to think what my liver looks like. I spent several years as a lab tech just out of college testing for heavy metals and doing drug screens. Geesh the chemicals I had to use. They make acetone look mild. Decided to change myself into a med. secretary, brushed up my typing and got out. Several years b4 I went to nursing school
Special - I did move DD into her college dorm but DH moved her into apt. since I was working that day. I think I would have cried. Not sure if I didn't on the way home from college. DD has a teeny apt. but she loves it. She's been in the same one 5 years. Serious homebody too. Do wish she would find a nice guy though.
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making the pork chops tommorrow night instead of tonight had an errand to run after hubby got home from work
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Good thing I have some exercise "points" to spend. My dinner tonight is costing me! Ribeye steak (4 oz cooked), medium baked potato with butter and light sour cream, and garden salad with balsamic vinegar for dressing. WW doesn't outlaw any foods but guides you by assigning points to servings. Butter is 1 pt. for a tsp. I'm having a whole tablespoon but it's worth it!
Nance, I love beans. I usually cook pinto beans for my chili.
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This has been the week of technology hell. The websites for both of our businesses went down along with all of our email. Spent 2 days trying to get it fixed, and when Jorges, the customer service representative, told me three times in three separate emails that my email was working just fine, the research began. Canvassed a lot of people smarter than I, chose a new provider, re-registered my DNS registries and then waited for that to propagate. My business took exactly 7 minutes to work. Husband's business? 47 hrs! Since my incoming email was bouncing, as I am trying to do all this, clients are calling to see how I am. Felt like hours telling this story over and over. Yesterday, noticed that I was dropping packets over ethernet at a client office which makes working impossible. The sysadmin and I spent 90 minutes troubleshooting and it became clear that one of my thunderbolt ports was failing. So, last night I migrated my machine to an older one. Calls to tech support, and my dear MacBook Pro is on its way back to the mothership. Can anything else go wrong?
We did eat. Monday night was family dinner [like I had time for this!] of smoked turkey breast, sweet potato gratin with sage, and a green salad. Tuesday night I cooked up some Merguez sausage and served some of the gratin and another salad. Wednesday, my husband was worried I might jump from the Tobin bridge, and took care of grilling some lamb loin chops, and more of the gratin and the last of the salad lettuce. Tonight, we threw our hands up in the air and Mr. 02143 said someone else is cooking for us tonight. We headed to our local Irish pub for a burger [him] and fish and chips [me.] We go early when we want to eat at this spot since it is very popular and small. Can be a long wait later in the evening.
Lacey, congratulations on 41 years!!!!!! So glad to hear that 80 Thoreau is as good as I have heard. What a special evening.
SpecialK, your daughter will be fine. You have prepared her well for this next stage.
Got to try to get some work done.... the last 6 days have been a work wasteland.
*susan*
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Susan...Stuff like that is my bread and butter.... :-)
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Eric, I prefer that this happens to clients... that is income. When it happens to my machines, it is loss of income!
*susan*
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Agreed on that one. :-) In my group, I'm the one that gets the weird, strange and usual stuff that stumped everyone else. It's fun, especially after I've figured it out.
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Susan and Eric, I admire how your brains work. Totally an enigma to me! And I will leave it at that...
Fortunately DH is enough into tech stuff that I have in-house support for my computer needs, or I would be sitting at home playing with my rotary phone.
Tonight's dinner at DH's conference was fine...at least the filet mignon and salmon combo was done well and good quality (both amazing feats for hotel conference food). My drive into Cambridge was not so fine...well over an hour for a 25 minute commute. No one here can drive in rain in the dark! To be fair there were a lot of flood puddles adding to the traffic nightmare...so I was starved when I arrived late for the dinner. Since we were sitting at the head table and the program was about to start, I felt I could not chow down on the lovely looking rolls, but did hastily enjoy my surf and turf. Does salmon count as surf?
Susan, glad you got out instead of more cooking after your harried week!
Tomorrow night, my next door neighbor's church is having their yearly bazaar and they have the best middle eastern food there....soooo, I know where we will be eating. Then on Saturday we are having a quick dinner at a local restaurant before a Judy Collins concert here in our town hall, which was recently renovated to accommodate performances. The acoustics are good, so it will be such a treat to hear her that close up....in our own little town. Fun! An awful lot of eating out tho....often not good for the waistline.
The kindergarten kids today were just adorable!
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Susan, I'm chuckling to myself at my bewilderment as I read your post about technical difficulties! I know you had a heck of a lot of frustration but that's about the extent of my comprehension! I'm glad things are settling down and computers are functioning for you and your dh.
We're having a gorgeous fall day here today, sunny and high in the 60's. I played golf with 3 women golf friends, and one of them, the bossy one, seemed to be in a great hurry. She kept ordering me to play out of turn. I began to feel like I was engaged in a golf marathon race. Then when we were finished, she wanted to know who was interested in staying for lunch!
I came home and had the last bowl of the potato/leek soup. When I asked dh what variety of soup should we have next, he answered, "Lentil." Rather surprising but I'm agreeable. So I'm open to recipe recommendations. The potato/leek soup recipe was Susan's recommendation this summer.
Dinner tonight will be leftover turkey meatloaf (which is very good) and/or leftover ribeye. Sweet potatoes, either baked or roasted in the form of sweet potato oven fries, and a veggie or salad.
This will be my 5th day without a cocktail or glass of wine before dinner. We've been eating lots of crudités during cocktail hour with "light" sour cream dip or hummus. DH sometimes mixes himself a Bloody Mary without the vodka and last night I had diet tonic with a squeeze of lime. I'm down 3 1/2 lbs this week. So the ww regimen is working once again. But I do miss my alcohol! Might as well be honest about it!
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Carole- I admire you for your WW goal. I have been going since May and for the past 2 months the same 5 lbs been coming on and going off.......Its got cold and I need to go get that gym membership cause I haven't been to the lake trail in weeks. And I want to eat heavy, warm, comforting foods which equals too many points. ..... Tonight will be some rotisserie chicken, some mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Had tomato soup for lunch....Dr/ Oz said yesterday that we need calcium, vitamin C and pistachio nuts (50 per day) to help bust up belly fat.......right..... I love to eat grapefruits and have been getting some good ones lately.
Lacey, belated belated anniversary wishes--your dinner sounds like something out of a food magazine... Love it-especially the dessert section.....
Love butternut squash, especially when I find it already prepped...... I want to eat healthier but cooking for one is the pits....most times.
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Carole, good for you on the stepped up weight loss! That's really good for a week.
I know how you feel about deleting alcohol from the cocktail hour. I used to have wine with dinner fairly frequently, but am pretty careful to limit myself to a couple glasses a week, if any at all,....purely to follow the BC diet regimen..which I feel I need to do given my resistance to any more brain fogging, joint pain inducing hormonal meds. But for instance, tonight I would love to have had a nice glass of red wine with my kebab from the Middle eastern fair....but, alas, had some seltzer water with lime. ;/.
One of our dishes tonight came with a side of mgdurri (I know I murdered that spelling), which was a mix of lentils, rice, spices amd carmelized onions. It was pretty good...but probably had more salt in it than either DH or I like.
Oh, and I will try to find the lentil soup recipe I learned to make a couple of years ago that is absolutely delicious.
Red, I have always thought that butternut squash is fairly low in calories (w/o butter, that is), so I hope I am not mistaken. I love to add a bit of maple syrup and nutmeg to mine.
After all this eating out, I need to make a "go to " pot of kale soup to have on hand.....fortunately my weight has been fluctuating by two or three lbs, so I feel like I'm getting away with murder with these frequent restaurant meals.
But I must get things firmly back in check. I think that the cold weather has gotten my appetite back into the winter comfort food mode, too.0 -
susan - I have no earthly idea what your post about the tech difficulties actually said as I am a techno-peasant, other than it was a bunch of bad things that made you upset, but that things are on the upswing, and you still cooked and got to eat some delish food, lol! I hope next week is smoother sailing! You are right - the DD will be fine - and I will be too
I drove home from Georgia last night - late - didn't arrive until about 1:30 a.m. - wanted to get everything in place so she has a nest to come home to when she has a challenging day at work. That was accomplished - had a pre-op appt at 8:30 a.m. today for surgery next week - was sleep-deprived enough to make a wrong turn on a street I drive on all the time, lol! I am going to type this post and go to bed!carole - yay for WW and your resolve! I have strayed this past week due to being away from home, but need to get back to the usual tomorrow.
eric - isn't it weird the stuff we remember? Years ago I compared notes with my mom about a series of events - she remembered things completely differently than I did, and yes - funny the table height was what you noticed!
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Carole - someone posted this in 2012 - maybe this is yours Lacey? I haven't tried but saved the recipe.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
8 oz (about 1 1/3 Cup red lentils, picked through and rinsed.
7 Cups low sodium vegetable broth
1 large onion , diced
1 large carrot, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 TBS tomato paste
1Tsp ground cumin
1/2 Tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
3/4 Tsp fine sea salt, or to taste.
Lemon wedges and chopped mint for serving (optional)
IN a large pot combine lentils, broth, onion, carrot, garlic tomato paste, cumin and cayenne and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower heat and simmer unconvered until vegetables are very tender and lentils begin to fall apart, about 25 monutes
Remove the poet from the heat and use an immersison blender to quickly blend the soup until it is creamy but not completely pureed. ( I don't have one so will use my blender) But be careful to make sure it's covered cause it's hot and hold down the top with a towel and do it in small batches.) Begin blending on low speed. Add salt and serve with lemon wedges and a garnish of mint if desired.0 -
Here's a link to a delightful lentil soup.
.http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/kabocha-french-lentil-soup-recipe.html
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I appreciate your posting the recipe, Minus.
Lacey, I'm so glad to have some alcohol-deprived company on this forum! I am aware that regular consumption of alcohol is frowned upon for bc survivors, but there are so many women who have never drunk alcohol and still developed bc. There are women who breast-fed 5 or 6 children and developed bc. Skinny women who have never been overweight and who are physically fit who--you guessed it--developed bc. Something turns on that genetic switch. Women with none of the risk factors are at risk. But I can't blame anyone for playing the odds as recommended by medical experts.
I just knew that if I gave up alcohol and lived to some ripe old age when the big conclusion was drawn that alcohol has nothing to do with bc, I was going to be super p*ssed! Now if I abstain voluntarily out of spousal solidarity or to cut out some calories, that's a whole different matter.
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Carole,
I'll drink to that!
*susan*
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Lacey, the lentil soup w/winter squash sounds good.
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Carole and Susan, you wisegirl (!)......ditto!
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Minus, I have yet to make it this fall but recall us devouring it in the past. Hope you like it if you try...and I bet it would be a good soup to freeze in single portions.
Typical generational funny......DH was saying goodbye to a thirty something after his conference today.The young man asked, any special plans for the weekend? DH replied with enthusiasm, "We're going to see Judy Collins tomorrow night." Blank stare.....
We are dinosaurs. Glad some of our beloved dinosaur entertainers are still around.
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I'm thinking tonight's dinner will be pizza at a small local place called Isabella's. We're having overnight guests, a great nephew (10, I think) and great niece (8, I think), and pizza is one food they eat. At this restaurant I can order my own individual spinach and feta pizza or whatever that they wouldn't touch with a 10 ft. pole. Yesterday I bought white loaf bread for breakfast toast because I don't think they eat wheat bread. Their upbringing has been most lacking in many ways including their diet. Lacey, you would be horrified at the details.
I may have to hold off making the lentil soup since there doesn't seem to be room in my refrigerator (I only have one!). It is chockablock full of veggies. I bought one of those large clamshells of spinach yesterday and might try transferring the contents to an extra large ziplock and free up some space.
Most of the lentil soup recipes have the same ingredients--onion, garlic, carrot, celery, diced tomatoes, lentils, and spices or herbs. The variation comes with the spices and herbs. I will probably include a couple of pieces of bacon or smoked ham hock for a smoked pork flavor addition. We still have some of the smoked bacon from Thielen's in MN.
Happy Saturday to all!
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My grandfather told me he started smoking at age 13 and continued to age 72 (when I was born). He said at first he didn't have the concept of "pack" as he rolled his own cigarettes--the the point of buying a rolling machine--but that later, when packs were the norm, it was 4-6 packs a day. He also loved his bourbon and fried foods. He lived to be 94.
Mickey was 5 foot 10 inches tall, weighed 130 pounds, ran 10-15 miles a day, loved to swim and ate healthy...She missed her 22nd birthday.
A sample of two doesn't prove anything, but it is enough to trigger my cynicism.
I exercise (move weights up and down, run, bicycle..etc.) and eat healthy. I don't do it in hopes of living longer, I do it so my body will be able to do what I want it to do.
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I wonder how much kids' vegetable likes are shaped by school meals. I don't think it's easy to mass produce well prepared vegetables. I can remember spinach in grade school. It was limp "goo". I found out later that it was steamed at a central kitchen and transported by truck to the cafeteria where the foods were reheated and served. Adding to the "insult to the spinach"....what wasn't used one day was saved and served the next day. It was 8-10 years before I discovered that spinach was not limp, rotten "goo".
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I'm staring at "The Food and Cooking of the Middle East" cookbook. There are a bunch of yellow Post-It notes in it, placed there as bookmarks by DD. I think that's what I'll do tonight. The other thing I'm looking at are two small pumpkins.....Pumpkin pie and Mideast food.....I think Apple would smile at the combination.
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Indeed Apple would Eric. Cannot think of middle eastern food without thinking of her.
I've been trying to think of a dinner plan and now I'm thinking the package of ground lamb in the freezer will become gyros.
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Absolutely agreed with the school lunch. Moved to Hawaii when I went into the 4th grade. A staple lunch there was lamb (most likely mutton) curry. Despised it. Curry was not a SW food and neither was lamb. The only day I made and I mean insisted I was taking my lunch. Seems I bought it more when we lived there. Might have been due to the price of food. Have not had lamb to this day. Use curry sparingly. But then again they had mahi mahi regularly. On those days I was allowed to buy seconds. Yum. I don't remember the food being esp. bad except for the curry. My mom pretty much insisted that when we went to friends' houses or the occas. luau (dad's work acquaintances) that we try a bit of everything. DD was raised to be an adventurous eater. Took her a long time to even like pizza or lasagna. Weird. Pretty sure I would not want to eat today's school lunches. DD did not until HS and then only sparingly. But she would have a tough time today as a fav was peanut butter/jelly.
Do you like to buy CB's that have pieces of paper stuck in them? Always make me wonder when the recipe marked doesn't appeal to me.
Last night was tacos which was supposed to be for tonight when DD was due to come out which isn't happening. Plan on watering down the leftover taco meat and topping leftover cornbread with it. Tomorrow is pork loin. Not sure what I'm going to do with it.
Eric - or pumpkin in the Middle Eastern food. Pie does sound good. Miss Apple and Michelle. I actually played Apple's YouTube the other day and found another one of her and her Estonia piano.
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Indeed Apple would Eric. Cannot think of middle eastern food without thinking of her.
I've been trying to think of a dinner plan and now I'm thinking the package of ground lamb in the freezer will become gyros.
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I do buy cookbooks from Goodwill. My favorites are the ones put together by a local group. Since many people come from all over the country to retire here "local" can be from anywhere in the country.
A couple of weeks ago I played Apple's Youtube videos and looked at Michelle's posts.
Sometimes I wish that the easily available visual/audio recording technology existed back in the early 80s and then I'm glad it didn't exist.
I almost canceled dinner tonight! :-) I decided to do a thorough refrigerator cleaning.....eeeewwwwwwww...enough to gross out a forensic entomologist...... How does that stuff manage to hide so well????????
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I forgot...the cookbooks I get from Goodwill often have notes written in the margins or sheets of paper folded inside and I leave the notes in place...
Not liking a recipe that someone else noted as "the best ever" or "Aunt Midge's absolute favorite" (or something similar), or notes on how they modified the recipe, makes me curious about the person using the cookbook. The notes often tell a story and is like reading a century old diary.
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