So...whats for dinner?

Safe and satisfying trip, Bedo! Maybe when you return, everything won't be "white/grey". Good point about the tradition of fish with cabbage (coleslaw)!

So, Susan, after reading what you wrote this morning, I think Janet, the person I mentioned, might be a very helpful, non-medical, resource for you to at least consult with. She is all about the respect factor.

Very little sleep last night. If I can get up the energy, might make some pizza for dinner. Want to compare crusts made from Bob's Red Mill artisan flour and the 00 flour.

Next two days no cooking....yay....meeting friends for dinner and local concert tomorrow; Sunday, meeting DS2 and DGF for early dinner before attending the Celtics game. This re-formed young team is so exciting to watch after they have struggled all season. Looking forward to it....yet worried about DH's slow limping gate with his cane, on the way in and out of the sports venue, given the usual swarm of exuberant, fast moving fans.

Carole, you might have to channel some inner narcissism to get that selfie done. The color sounds lovely.

Susan, I totally envy your kitchen island. We don't have one and it would be sooo much easier to accept help that was stationed there!

Mombie, I am awestruck at your level of organization! It actually makes me look like a "free spirit"...read, really disorganized

Redheaded, my washing machine manufacturer recommends a product called Affresh to be used after a certain number of rounds of laundry.  30 or 40.  I forget.  There's even a setting on the machine for Affresh!  It's a big tablet.  I haven't noticed any objectionable odor.  Nor any benefit from using it.  It's supposed to clean the machine of soap residue, I guess.  Being a gullible type, I follow the instructions.

Susan, I'm glad your daughter figures into care for Mr. Numbers down the line when he's less functional.  Planning ahead is good and necessary but we can never see into the future.  I have already experienced some surprise happenings that I never thought would happen.  All in other people's lives, I should add.  I wouldn't mind having something unforeseen like winning the lottery happen to me.

Lacey, I was a Celtics fan eons ago in the Larry Bird era. 

Dinner plans have changed.  We are not eating out tonight but staying home.  Our friends had to cancel because of illness so I decided to cancel, too.  Luckily I stopped off at a new seafood market on the way home from the golf course and bought a couple of pretty red snapper fillets.  The idea just hit me--hey, why not make fish tacos?!!!  I'll make some tortillas with my handy dandy iron press.  I guess I should go to the supermarket and buy some avocados.  The one I split open to tuck into a pita at lunch wasn't edible. 

So, MombieZ, you see how my short-termed my meal planning is!  I have made a new resolve, though, to keep a dinner diary on a calendar.  Now, find a calendar....

Nice, Nance.  Very neat and organized.

The red snapper was delicious.  I followed Susan's method and lightly dusted the pieces with flour.  And there was a jar of the Frontera green salsa in my pantry.  I had forgotten about it until I saw the picture.  I made a slaw of red cabbage and Savoy cabbage with lime juice and small amt. of mayo.  It was very good.  I forget that lime juice is good and almost always use lemon.  Love the home-made tortillas.  The masa has such a good corn taste.  And there are leftover tortillas.  I may have a scrambled egg burrito for breakfast tomorrow with the tomatillo sauce.

The little seafood market had mahi mahi, too, but the red snapper looked better.  It's a very pretty fish. 

The bins on top hold various odd serving dishes such as olive boats, divided dishes and platters or containers mostly used for entertaining. One holds a chinois and an apple peeler/corer/slicer. I have a rolling step stool that lets me reach the upper shelves. I'll show you some pictures of my kitchen tomorrow and you'll see why I need one.

The mahi mahi was delicious. I had a chance to get snapper Wednesday but it was $25 a pound! The price I pay for fresh fish here . .

I'm embarrassed to say that I have 3 lol! (Two were given to me)

Mr. 02143 will be a better man for it ;-)

Cutie patootie!

Lacey, a baking stone will give you a nice brown crust.

Thanks, Nance, I do have one I have yet to use....partially due to weight. Also I used one many years ago and found that it got a stale oil smell on it. I threw it out. Is there a way to avoid that happening? Do you keep yours in the oven? Thanks!

Moon--adorable cutie!

Lacey--sorry to hear about more snow. We've been so mild here. I didn't realize there were places still getting tough weather.

OK, I have to ask. What's an olive boat?

MZ, if you go back a page on this thread, Susan has detailed what is going on with her dh. When I was working and ds was home, I used a menu and shopping list extensively. Now that it's just the two of us, not so much. I tend to cook on whims or dh request. Whims are usually dictated by a picture I saw, an article I read, something I see at the supermarket or what someone on this thread is cooking. Sometimes it's just a "hankering". Like tonight. It's pasta.

Lacey, the baking stones do get grungy and dark with use. I wipe mine off with a damp paper towel after pizza and leave it in the bottom of the oven most of the time. I've had it for a number of years and have never noticed a smell. When baking baguettes, I use parchment paper. I'm about to spring for a new one that is several inches larger to accommodate the baguettes better. You really can't beat it for a crispy crust.

No olive boat here.  From the name I'm assuming it's a server for olives. 

The red snapper was fillets but I have seen the fish.  It has a pretty shape and color.  I sprinkled it with s & p and forgot to sprinkle a little cayenne.  The meal was coming together fast with dh beside me at the stove cooking the tortillas.  I think it was $13.99 a lb or $12.99 and the 2 fillets were 9/10 of a lb.  I once would have been shocked at the idea of paying that much for a lb. of fish but buying good ingredients is still cheaper than eating out at a ho hum restaurant.

Watched an interesting segment on PBS program this morning filmed at a CA olive grower's farm.  He makes olive oil and said that CA olive oil is very high quality and is coming into its own.  According to him, most olive oil is made in Spain and much of it does not measure up to highest standards.  So it is shipped to Italy where it is mixed with Tunisian and maybe small amt. of Italian, bottled and shipped to US as Made in Italy EVOO with a fancy Italian name.  Actually is not top quality like the best Spanish and Italian olive oil.  I had heard before that the olive oil countries export their inferior oil to US.  SO.. of course, I will be googling CA olive oil.  Ina Garten likes CA oil.  Why not buy a US product if it's really good.

The program I watched showed the process of making the olive oil and it is very simple.  The quality is all in the olives. 

Dinner tonight has to be early because we will be going to the Abita Opry, which begins at 7 pm.  Something simple like a sandwich.  Warm for soup but I still have potato/leek soup in freezer.

Off to the gym this morning.

Positive, I totally understand your concern and the confusion that can arise once we start trying to "manage" our post treatment health with good attention to diet. I went a bit crazy that first year post treatment too. Now, I am following a path of eating in a mostly healthy way....but not totally avoiding foods that might be worrisome...e.g., I do allow myself a BLT on occasion! Since I notice that you are ER positive, have you checked out the list of foods to eat and/avoid for folks with that dx? I do not have the link right now, but know that I accessed it on this BC.org site. That said, I use those lists as "guides rather than gospel", or I would drive myself crazy. Also, does your cancer center have nutritionists available with whom you can arrange a consult? That might provide useful info to be sure that you are getting the nutrients you need. Of course, going mostly organic can be wise, but again I would go for a consult about that too. I guess we have to remember that diet is just one factor contributing to this damn disease. And one has to factor in living your life in a reasonable way for you and those around you. Lastly, you may have already researched that there are other threads on this site which have members who are specifically interested in treating "food more as medicine" than we might on this thread (at least that is my opinion). Good luck to you. I hope some of that is helpful.

Heading off to the treadmill...and leaving the few inches of new snow on the driveway to shovel itself as DH said that would be fine with him, too.

So tomorrow we are meeting DS2 and DGF for an early dinner before the Celts game.... DGF is the selective eater who when with us really tries hard to taste fish that she has always been averse to. Please understand that this is self-induced pressure on her part. Side note....DS2 was always a very picky eater as a kid, and now, left to his own adult devices eats just about anything but raisins in stuffing!......So, as we are thinking about where to meet them for dinner, DH immediately suggests, Legal Seafood! Now really!! Poor girl. I will not let that happen...even tho I understand that legal accommodates carnivores, too. DS2 suggested the North End (Italian) which would be fun.....and palatable

Minus, I didn't know or remember that you were an English teacher.  So was I.  I taught Freshman English in grad. school, Freshman and Sophomore courses in a 4-year college until the Ph.D's were so plentiful they took the instructor jobs.  Then I earned my teaching certificate and taught in high school a few years.  After I broke into selling romance fiction, I quit teaching and wrote full-time.  I must admit I enjoyed being a student more than a teacher.  It's weird but I have had recurrent bad dreams about the struggle for order in the classroom and I never had problems with order.  Must have been an underlying anxiety. 

Nance, that is a peculiar looking dish!  I think I can live without one!

I decided to inventory the contents of the refrigerator today and that led to cleaning and organizing.  I discovered forgotten things like the cooked pasta shells still unstuffed.  So I mixed together cheeses of various types and remains of the chopped spinach and stuffed all but two shells.  I now have three containers of shells in the freezer!  All because I made ricotta on a whim.  I like your turn of phrase, Nance.  Cooking on a whim.  I think that could be a good title. 

My other project today was trying to photograph my kitchen and pantry.  It wasn't easy and the photos aren't great but I will post a few. 

Positive, the only food my bc dr. told me to avoid was soy.  We stopped buying soy milk which we used for a number of years instead of cow's milk, mainly on cereal.  I have ignored some of the "rules," like not consuming alcohol.  I try to eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet and I had been doing that for years before I was dx'ed with bc.  Also exercising regularly, controlling my weight, getting plenty of sleep, and on and on.  Something turns that little switch on the cancer gene and I don't have a clue what switched mine on. 

I guess what worries me is not believing my diet or efforts to be "healthy" will protect me from developing other types of cancer.  I know a couple of women to whom this has happened.  My cancer dr. kindly warned me that people who have one type of cancer are more likely to have another type than people who manage to be cancer free.  She doesn't know why but statistics show this.  So I figure I'd better enjoy life as much as possible before that other shoe falls. 

So "Cambridge" kitchens... no. Most kitchens around here do actually have upper cabinets, but it means they have changed the house, a lot. My house was built in 1903 and I am only the third owner. The original owner, the guy who built the house was an importer of Cognac. His daughter never married and continued to live in this house after her parents died. She was a hoarder who allowed various cousins to move in and out over the years. She worked as a librarian and never had any money to keep the house in good repair, much less do any remodeling. This house is in almost original condition.

The next owners repaired the holes in the roof, painted a bunch, and ignored the underlying problems with the house. They "remodeled" the kitchen, but kept the floor plan the same. The people had a reverence for "original" which is why we still have an electrical box with knob and tube wiring which they preserved as a curiosity and original telephone wires running down the floorboards. They are Irish, and most Europeans don't bother with upper cabinets. But this kitchen, where would you put them? In this kitchen there are 3 3' x5' windows, and four doorways. The only wall with more than 2' of space is the wall behind the sink. The adjacent wall has a window just 10" from the corner. In the other corner there is less than an 1" from the door. You can't put a cabinet on such a wall.

Other older homes would have walled off some of those windows, removed the pantries, opened up the ice room using a massive beam to hold the house up. Not me. I was concerned when we first moved in about the kitchen. As you can see from our pictures, I have added two butcher block pieces on both sides of the stove cabinets that have some shelves, and give me a place to put stuff. The next owners will pull it all out.

Our other big space enhancers came about as we pondered the kids moving back in. The kitchen pantry had these cool slots that went behind the wall. They were clearly designed as a place to stash the dining room table inserts. Unfortunately, our table leaves didn't fit. In a moment of brilliance, we realized that if we removed the wall to expose the slot area, we could build some shelves. It took me forever to find something that was only 4" deep, but I did! I have attached a pictures of my spice, pepper, and oil rack.

I love this rack. *susan*

And I see why you love it so!