So...whats for dinner?

Dinner Sunday after the play was exceptional. We went to Laurenzo's for prime rib. 1-1/2" thick and perfect med rare. You could order with or w/o the fat. Very pricy but the best I've had in many years. The fish of the day was Redfish and my friend that done in a butter sauce with shrimp & crab on top. Desert was strawberry pie - fresh strawberries with with white chocolate ganache. Yummy. Lots of things on the menu I wanted to try so I will go back even with the 'special occasion' prices.

I was correct about the five days of eating out - 5 lbs up. So last night was all the fresh veggies hanging out in my fridge - broccoli, corn on the cob & spinach. Tonight will be a salad.

Carole: I'd be interested in the shrimp mold if you don't mind sharing.

Definitely cake and ice cream!  Just as healthy as all the whites.  So jealous about the orioles.  I've seen those only in pictures.  We never have them down here. 

Nancy - I wish I had something nesting that I could see. Have had 2 orioles pass thru here that I've seen by accident. We are loaded with crows this year. They don't mind the goats and the goats don't mind them. It is raining again after a few dry days and cooler too. Expecting rain of some sort thru Sunday. Lots of it is supposed to be west - Lubbock area got flooding last night. NW area and due west of DFW needs it. Our county is better but one of the watershed lakes for our water co-op is still very low.

Lacey - my sentence structure is gruesome. I'm on a Ustream chat about eagles. Brevity is best there esp. if things are fast/furious in chat. What a few days of eating out you've had. I cannot remember, except for a Sonic breakfast burrito, the last time we ate out. Guess is was not so great Mexican food in March.

Thank you everyone for being with me today. Colonoscopy was thankfully negative. My hemi's are probably going to need bandaid surgery later this year but nothing suspicious. I too would like Lacey's prep. Gagged several times and never got down the required amount of water. We were going to stop for fast food lunch and I suggested we go home and have biscuits, eggs, bacon which we did. It was delightful. I think dinner is baked potatoes or that still lingering bit of chicken noodle soup. DH has leftover chili from last night so I think for sure he's having a potato with chili.

Nancy - mine was a low fiber diet for 5 days. It will take a few days to work back up to something reasonable. I read somewhere about the white diet. That's why I made the soup and the potatoes bought but not eaten. With just the 2 of us I can hardly use up 5#. I'll have to see if I have any makings for a shepherd's pie. If not I see lots of mashed potatoes. I think we discussed one time freezing them.

If I can stay awake for a while I intend to read the intervening 9 pages. Need to see what everyone has been up to.

Luv - so good to see you. Glad for the positive news from colonoscopy.

Today was dedicated to pre-surgery medical checkup.  I saw the NP at my PCP's office, had an EKG,  and had blood drawn there.  After lunch I went to an outpatient hospitality facility and had a chest x-ray.  I don't remember having the x-ray prior to other surgeries but maybe I've forgotten.

Dinner tonight will be salsa chicken.  I'm thawing a couple of chicken legs from Fresh Market and a container of black beans, home cooked.  The salsa will come from a jar.  Corn tortillas would be good with this. 

I need to cook a couple of eggplants that have been in the refrigerator at least a week but I don't know if I'll attend to them this afternoon.  My plan is to make eggplant parmesan and put a couple of meals of it in the freezer. 

Here's the Shrimp Mold recipe.  I don't know where it originally was printed, perhaps in an advertisement for cream cheese or tomato soup.  It's kind of a generic recipe but it's quite tasty especially if one has access to good fresh shrimp.

Ingredients:  1 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin;  2 cups chopped boiled shrimp;  1 can tomato soup;  1 block cream cheese;  1 cup mayonnaise;  3/4 cup celery chopped fine;  1/4 cup green onions chopped fine; s & p to taste;  dash of Tobasco;  1/4 cup cold water.

Instructions:  In sauce pan, dissolve gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water, add tomato soup and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Melt cream cheese and add to mixture.  Remove from heat and add mayonnaise, celery, shrimp and remaining ingredients.  Pour into well-greased mold and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.  When unmolding, set in warm water, loosen edge with a knife.  Serve with crackers. 

I don't melt the cream cheese before adding it to the hot tomato soup mixture.  I just put the cream cheese out ahead of time and let it soften, then whisk it into the soup.  You could play with this recipe.  Add more heat with finely chopped chile peppers.  Add chopped herbs of choice.  Cilantro for Eric! 

carole - was it mombiezombie?  I just checked and she has not been on in a couple of weeks.

SpecialK, that's the name.  Thank you.

Minus, you are in the same league with Lacey lately with your eating out.  I could make a meal out of that bread.

Tonight is a clean out the fridge night.

Well, Joyce, when your DH does finally agree to downsizing, your house will be in great shape for listing! I'm impressed with how quickly you are getting the storm damage repaired. Welcome home!!

Yesterday I was about to prep a chicken for roasting when the phone rang and it was a friend from college who lives in the DC area, (who has tried to reach me for the past two weeks) and whom I see about every five years when a group of us get together. Well, we ended up catching up on these last five years for over two hours!! Around 6PM, DH came next to me and said....shall I just order Greek?? I thankfully nodded "yes" and managed to finish up our very long chat before he returned home with dinner.

So this college friend and her husband were in Argentina, biking around mountains when he had a bad fall and broke his hip. OMG!! The tale of what she went through in the remote village to get him to a hospital, let alone to the states was horrifying. She ultimately called American Express for some reason and after hearing their predicament, they told her, "Oh we do that". The next morning (after three days of being stranded in a primitive local clinic, where they occasionally saw a traveling doc who kept warning them of DH developing blood clots, and she needed to get their own supplies and make meals on a little stove in the hallway next to the room with a woman with TB, etc., etc.) an ambulance arrived and took them to a private lear jet that flew them back to the states. I might want toget myself a platinum AMEX card.....or at least not do risky trips to remote places! Yikes! Talk about all things being relative.....my DH's trauma story so pales in comparison to what they went through! Meanwhile her DH is back on his bike....he always was athletic.

So I need to get more things in order around here today for the MODAY weekend visit. Happy that our weather will be good. It's an adjustment to deal with the sudden heat, tho no complaints!

The food panel was good, (can report later if folks are interested)as was the light dinner.....sandwiches and guacomole, chips and salsa, fruit and cookies. My sandwich was chicken breast on a red tortilla with bacon, lettuce, and a chili mayo of sorts. Lots of graduating HBS students attended, and one young woman networked with us about her post grad venture......she was in the military in Afghanistan before going to business school and met farmers who grew flowers for saffron as well as poppies for opium. Her new business is importing saffron from these farmers and making it profitable enough for them that it will replace the poppy/opium business, which is supported by the Taliban. Her immediate local effort is marketing to speciality food shops that will carry her product. We referred her to Volante's owner since such a product would be perfect there. She gave me a sample container of the saffron.....then before the evening's end asked for it back, claiming it was all she had...in addition to the five others I saw. And I'm sure she was more interested in sharing it with the VC who was on the panel. LOL! Sooooo HBS!

On my own tonight, and in the interest of avoiding more weight gain, kale saute looks good.

Better get back to work here.....

Hope all arecsafe in those areas with the fierce weather.....

Nance - good luck w/the colonoscopy.

Nance, good luck tomorrow...or actually, today! Very soon you can enjoy a nice meal....maybe take out? I found that this last colonoscopy left me feeling quite drained...and certainly not in the mood to cook despite my hunger....probably just my reaction with advancing age! I never heard of the white diet before the cleanse...I hope I don't! Unless of course it can be the cake and ice cream.

Today after doing clothes/closet management (really trying to clear out so much stuff....some to consignment, some to VVA, who come for regular pick ups, and some to our church friend who brings items directly to the homeless on Boston Common), I silver polished an English soup tureen that I have ignored for a few years. It was practically black. I decided that I did not want to breathe in all the silver polish chemicals, so used toothpaste. It looks lovely, but with all the detail it took forever, and before long it will need another cleaning.

Then I stripped and washed all the bedding in DS2's old room where there are bunkbeds. I want to have it clean and ready for the grands, but I am probably deluding myself to think that they will sleep in there. They have not been here for a year and a half (big percentage of their pre-schooler lives!) so the house will feel strange, and I bet they will crawl into bed with their parents. But in any case the beds are fresh!

Then I forced myself to sit down and get some sewing tasks completed. I got a lot of mending and mini alterations done, then tackled the half-done pocket apron I started for a woman at church, and had stopped after seeing her totally off crutches right after her hip surgery. I figure there will be someone else who can use it soon enough, so it will be good to have it completed. Lastly, I need to cut to size and bind a little Frozen pattern blanket for my DGD. Hope to get to that tomorrow....and I have pizzelle dough waiting for me in the fridge. I experimented using coconut oil in these, so I'll be interested to see if that affects them in any noticeable way.

Tomorrow evening we'll have the oven stuffer chicken that I shamelessly ignored yesterday. Probably have brussells sprouts and salad and french bread....wish I could kick the bread habit! But am working on deleting sugar treats/chocolate for the most part...substituting fruit for previously enjoyed candy treats. Soooo not easy. Fortunately no holidays coming up that focus on candy! I am a sucker for the half price post holiday candy at CVS or Walgreens. ;/

I too hope that MZ is recuperating well from her recent surgery.

Lacey, as active as you're being I don't think you need to give up chocolate and bread just yet!

Carole, the garden area is quit nice. As soon as some things get growing and blooming I'll post a pic. I tried to get a picture of the oriole nest but the wind has been too relentless. Can't get it in focus.

I'd like to say the colonoscopy was uneventful but unfortunately he found and removed three polyps, one quite large as polyps go. My doc is not suspicious of them but of course he can't be sure till the path report is back. So several more days of waiting and worrying.

He did think it could be contributing to the anemia.

I woke up during the procedure! I said "ow" and I heard my doc say we need more drugs here! I was gone again quickly. I also heard him say that it looked like a polyp. Weird!

Lacey, like you I'm very draggy this afternoon, unlike my first one. I came home and took a nap but feel like I could still be sleeping. I think dinner will be blts. It's the best I can do.

Seems like Susan has been gone a very long time. Carole, once again, I want to come to your Sunday dinner. Be still my heart!

Wow, Nance, what an experience to wake up during the procedure AND to hear the doc talking about what he is finding. I do recall waking up a bit during my first one, but conked back out again, a Immediately, and did not hear anything, which probably would have been the same message you heard. I hope the doc is correct in thinking that the polyps are benign. So annoying to have to worry beyond the procedure itself, but I guess we are all troopers at that at this point. Maybe you can lose yourself in your sweet birds for the duration. DH and I are disappointed that we have not seen one more hummer since that one little guy, over a week ago. wE do have so many other birds enjoying our birdbaths and I suspect that there are tons of bird condos in our large evergreens.

I am particularly thankful for the birds' entertainment viewable from our large kitchen window since I have cloistered myself in for the past two days given the pollen tsunami we are experiencing here. The weather person explained that it is due to our unusual weather in which the trees had not been blooming with all of our cold cloudy weather, and this week's sunny hot days have awakened them, resulting in all the trees blooming at once, and thus all of their pollen flooding the air. Well, I can certainly verify that! I can barely breathe if I go outside, which is actually scary. Never had an inhaler, but can see that coming down the pike.

Carole, your mother has a very reponsive culinary crew to meet her wishes! The gumbo sounds wonderful. I remeber that shrimp mold well. Always liked it!

Back to the sewing table so I can get it cleared off tonight, and have the dining room to use for our breakfast meal. We probably won't even have dinner together tomorrow night since they will arrive after dinner.

Tonight's oven stuffer chicken was very good, tender and juicy. I used the Ina Garten high heat method of roasting it. DH is slicing it all up so I have space in the fridge and I can make chicken sandwiches for DS1 and co. before they leave late Sunday.

Off to sew......

Have a Happy Mother's Day, mothers and daughters (and son!) if I don't get on here tomorrow.

Wow, Nance, what an experience to wake up during the procedure AND to hear the doc talking about what he is finding. I do recall waking up a bit during my first one, but conked back out again. Immediately, and did not hear anything, which probably would have been the same message you heard. I hope the doc is correct in thinking that the polyps are benign. So annoying to have to worry beyond the procedure itself, but I guess we are all troopers at that at this point. Maybe you can lose yourself in your sweet birds for the duration. DH and I are disappointed that we have not seen one more hummer since that one little guy, over a week ago. wE do have so many other birds enjoying our birdbaths and I suspect that there are tons of bird condos in our large evergreens.

I am particularly thankful for the birds entertainment viewable from our large kitchen window since I have cloistered myself in for the past two days given the pollen tsunami we are experiencing here. The weather person explained that it is due to our unusual weather in which the trees had not been blooming with all of our cold cloudy weather, and this week's sunny hot days have awakened them, resulting in all the trees blooming at once, and thus all of their pollen flooding the air. Well, I can certainly verify that! I can barely breathe if I go outside, which is actually scary. Never had an inhaler, but can see that coming down the pike.

Carole, your mother has a very reponsive culinary crew to meet her wishes! The gumbo sounds wonderful.

Back to the sewing table so I can get it cleared off tonight, and have the dining room to use for our breakfast meal. We probably won't even have dinner together tomorrow night since they will arrive after dinner.

Tonight's oven stuffer chicken was very good, tender and juicy. I used the Ina Garten high heat method of roasting it. DH is slicing it all up so I have space in the fridge and I can make chicken sandwiches for DS1 and co. before they leave late Sunday.

Off to sew......

Have a Happy Mother's Day, mothers and daughters (and son!) if I don't get on here tomorrow.

Oops, never posted this...

May grill out at some point this weekend.