So...whats for dinner?
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Our cousins are all safe. But 129 families can not say the same thing. I have been in Paris when the military takes the city into lockdown and it is simply terrifying. We met our former contractor today, and I think we are going to use him. His business model is very different than anyone else. He quotes the work, and then the client buys [and procures] everything that is to be installed. Obviously, lots of work for us [and of course that means me] but we can control our costs. He gives us his developer number so we can buy all of our stuff at the trade rate which is at least 40% and sometimes as much as 60% less than what you pay as a regular person. He is a problem solver. He trusts us and we trust him. Heck, he has even shown me his books and asked me to help him figure out how to maximize his profits. Mr. 02143 wants me to cancel the appointment on Tuesday with the really high end people, who honestly state that they mark everything up at least 50% in addition to the labor costs. Of course, the service is also top of the line. Never have to think about a thing. They buy, arrange delivery, manage timelines, but you pay for the service. Now to see if we actually get an estimate back from him!
Dinner tonight is magic freezer Julia Child lamb stew. I actually would prefer some fish, but am just too exhausted to make my way to the fish store. Of course, we could eat out but I prefer to not eat out Saturday night.
SpecialK, hope that your party is just wonderful!
Chi, sounds like a lovely meal.
*susan*
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Same here Carole - cool & sunny. It's one of our 5 really nice days per year.
Unfortunately I finally had to take down my 40-50 ft pecan tree in my front yard last week that provided shade to the entire house on that blistering SW side. A fungus just kept attacking more major trunk limbs & they broke off in storms. I moved to the house in 1974 & the tree was already well established. Very sad thing. So today I had a new tree planted - a San Felipe Red Maple. I wanted one that was fast growing so I'd have some shade before they move me to a nursing home down the road. I'm told this one grows 3-4 ft per year.
I ignored both the meat sauce & the cooked chicken from the freezer last night and had tuna sandwiches on Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.
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Susan: I was cross posting. So glad to hear that your family is OK. What a nightmare. The guy you know & trust sounds like a good plan, assuming you have the time & energy to handle all that. If you source & purchase the items, will the workers at least pick them up?
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Glad your family’s okay, Susan. Still trying to process the extent of the atrocity (can’t call it “tragedy” because the classic definition of “tragedy” is being brought to ruin by one’s own shortcomings--and those victims were innocent).
Well, I did let my discipline down a little last night--had 2 oz. of Kendall Jackson 2011 “The Jackson” Pinot Noir with dinner (and made it last). I pan-grilled a grass-fed Niman Ranch “bistro steak” (hanger steak, I think) and nuked some leftover winter squash with butter & brown sugar from Whole Foods and asparagus I’d grilled a couple of nights before--but grated a little Parm. Reg. over them.
I find that 2 oz. of wine in a small cheap wineglass looks and seems like a lot more--but if a wine is good enough for me to drink (now that I must limit my intake) it deserves the right glass to showcase its attributes; and 2 oz. looks rather pathetic in a classic Burgundy Riedel crystal stem--but boy, does it smell and taste better! (I love to play with my food, so I like to swirl and sniff before each sip--I find myself absentmindedly doing that now with seltzer)! I think I am going to invest in a Coravin wine preservation system, despite the cost: it’s a crime to open a really good bottle and let it go bad because I don’t dare pour from it more than a couple of times a week; and it’s dangerous to think “I’d better drink this before it goes bad.” Best not to let it go bad--the Coravin pierces the cork, injects nitrogen, and the cork reseals itself when the Coravin’s needle is removed. Tests have shown a bottle thus preserved can last for months.
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Minus, Amazing how much can be delivered to your door. Last time they did pick up the tile for me. A huge vanity was delivered by a freight truck. They bought and carried all the drywall, and lots of the wood. I can't remember who carried the wood to the third floor, but I think we threw it in the back of our car to bring from the store. The tub was delivered by freight and I know they carried that up [and might have been swearing at us in Portuguese.] The bathroom fixtures came by UPS. I think that was just about everything we added.
This project will include cabinets, floors, tile, a few toilets, etc.... all of which can be delivered via freight or UPS. The internet is my friend. I am willing to pay a small premium for locally sourced, but my line in the sand is about 10%. And once the price difference goes above that, I will order the exact item from a company that has an internet presence. Amazing how many people are running businesses out of their garages in Iowa.
*susan*
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Susan - so glad your relatives are safe. To say how very awful seems woefully inadequate.
It's a beautiful warm(ish) day here too. Much like yours Minus. I will take every one of these days that we can get. The longer we can stave off winter, the happier I am.
In baking mode today -- started out making the dough for a fruit and nut yeast bread then went on to make a half dozen or so cider donuts to give to friends (ok, I'm keeping two.) Tonight's dinner is an oldie but goodie -- Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. It's been quite some time since I've fixed that. I got some really good meat deals today on chuck roast and pork butt so I'll be doing more grinding and sausage making soon.
Here's this year's Reveillion menu:
Tujague'sReveillon Menu
FIRST COURSE (CHOICE OF)
•Apple & Bleu Cheese Salad with Pecans, Baby Greens, Cranberry Vinaigrette & Black-Eyed Pea Croutons
•Crispy Pork Belly, Oyster & Andouille Cream with Cracklins, Corn Chow-Chow & Root Beer Glaze
•Oyster Brochette with Garlic Croustade topped with Meunière SauceSECOND COURSE
•Soup du Jour
THIRD COURSE (CHOICE OF)
•Pan-Seared Duck Breast with Foie Gras Dirty Rice, Squash & Zucchini Medley with Pepper Jelly Sauce
•6 oz. Filet Mignon
•Redfish on the Half Shell: Pan-Seared Local Redfish topped with Roasted Pecan Butter, Squash & Zucchini Medley
•Seafood Court-Bouillon with Gulf Fish, Oysters, Shrimp & Tomato SauceFOURTH COURSE (CHOICE OF)
•Banana Bread Pudding
•Chocolate Pecan PieHmmmmm . . . . . redfish or courtbouillon? Decisions, decisions.
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courtbullion and while I know its too much seafood, I'd do the oyster Brochette.....although the pork belly s ound tempting.
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Red, my sentiments exactly. My experiences with pork belly in restaurants have been less than satisfactory. No matter what they advertise, it seems to rarely be crispy. I'd like to see it done right, so you're right, it's tempting.
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I vote for the duck! Pork belly is always such a mystery in restaurants. Who knows what you might get! I am allergic to oysters so the duck is a logical choice. It is a nice menu though I would prefer a cheese course to the sweet desserts though.
Dinner was a French bistro meal. I made a leek and potato soup. Half the liquid was chicken stock and half was water. I used up some aging tiny potatoes but there weren't that many so this was a thin, first-course soup. Then we ate magic-freezer French lamb daube, a recipe from Julia Child with some French bread. Clearly I am on week 3 of this drug since I am both freezing and starving even though I have eaten two meals today.
Brrrrr
*susan*
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of course you are starving if you only ate two meals........although many days I do the same thing, then I snack like I am on a grazing field........I wish your freezer meals were in my freezer........
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I made this
http://www.eatliverun.com/crock-pot-chickpea-butternut-squash-and-red-lentil-stew/
Yesterday spent the night at DD and made Christmas tree ornaments with clear orbs, crayons and a hair dryer, wine and a silly show Hysterical I'm not into Christmas I'm also not very crafty but people keep asking me to help them?! Tomorrow helping a friend make terrariums and putting leaves between wax paper then framing them with colored paper and labeling them "Oak" "Maple" with her 3 GS all under 6. Then putting them in the window. They will be so proud.
I spend the weekend making soup and freezing it. Tomorrow Moosewood southwestern corn and sweet potatoe chowder.
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I interviewed a friend's house cleaner on Friday. She looked at my modest-sized ranch style house, which should require no more than three hours cleaning time, and said the least she could charge was $100. That's her basic starting price. My jaw dropped. All this talk about raising minimum wage from less than $8 an hour and house cleaners are charging over $30 an hour!!! I got a clue in talking to her that she probably didn't want the job. She has a one-year-old that she sometimes brings with her and she must have known from looking around my house that it's not a child proof décor. I liked her a lot but not that much.
Susan, it sounds like you could hire a pick up and delivery handy man and still come out ahead, buying your own supplies and appliances. I'm glad your relatives in Paris are safe.
Minus, I empathize with your emotions about taking down a large old tree.
Nance, that's an appetizing menu. Too bad you can't have a small plate of all the choices!
Another lovely day here with a forecast for storms next week.
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I was going to get a chicken to roast today, but they had sold out off them...so I bought a 12 pound fresh turkey.....close enough. :-)
Hugs to you Susan.....
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The call went out this morning... no bread, buttermilk pancakes! And so that is what we had for our Sunday "brunch." Dinner will be cooked by someone else. After almost no discussion, the choice is Chef José at Rincon Mexicano. He can get his favorite burrito or maybe the carnitas plate and I can have chicken tortilla soup. Win-Win.
Carole, I am always astonished by the cost of house cleaning, hence why it doesn't happen unless it is one of us. And, I really don't want someone who isn't professionally insured working in my house with their child in tow. Too much liability for a sue-eager world.
Hate cutting down trees but we too will have to do this soon. The tree that is growing very close to our house is getting too big for its place. It is on the side of the house that gets clobbered in storms and we are worried that it will fall over into the roof. I would love to have a Japanese maple there, though I don't t think that will give me the same amount of shade in the summer. It would look pretty from the street though.
Funny. I have never eaten more than two meals a day, but on this Ibrance, I found I can't eat as much at each sitting so need a snack.
No chicken? To be honest, I find leftover turkey more appealing. I do love a good turkey sandwich.
*susan*
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As it happens, we just had the last dead tree close to the house cut down this morning. Like most of our trees, it was an oak. I'm glad for it to be gone because it was only a few feet from the house and pieces of it kept flying into the house in storms, and now I have a clear view of the garden from the living room window. Since it was between two other oaks, it won't be replaced. After our house was built we lost several large oak trees and one beautiful sugar maple that wasn't anywhere near the house and so couldn't be blamed on construction. If the oak in the backyard ever dies we will have to move. It's a wonderful staging area for birds visiting the feeders and makes us feel like we're eating breakfast in a tree house. I love it and would miss it terribly.
I can't decide what's for dinner. I have a freezer full of meat and a lone fennel bulb. I'm thinking a Mario Batali recipe for brined pork chops with fennel. But what I really want is chicken.
House cleaners up here are fairly inexpensive but they vary in quality. Even so, I can't seem to bring myself to justify the expense even though I despise housecleaning. So I have to have guests periodically just to have the incentive to clean. Today I vacuumed the thermal shades on the living room windows. And I'm not even expecting company ;-)
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totally off the subject----my aunt (my dad's brother's wife) was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She says she is having a test Monday (I presume a pet scan) to see if it is spread anywhere) and they are placing a port on Wed. and she says her chemo will be 5 days a week for six weeks and then in Feb she will have a mastectomy with lymph node removal.
I've always thought chemo was done in cycles. I guess they could count the weekends as her off time, bu t I' am curious if anyone else has ever heard of this type of schedule? I've never met her, she is a second wife and as my Dad's family scattered to the four corners of the earth once they came of age and I guess I am not really close to any of them.
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Redhead - sorry to hear about your aunt. Seems in the back of my brain & have heard of every day chemo, but can't pinpoint anything.
House cleaners are relatively cheap here also. I'd guess a 1500 ft sq house around $50. When I worked full time, my BFF and I split a cleaner so we each got every other week. I can't justify it anymore either. The quality really does vary. I had one lady who cleaned the claw feet under my table to a perfect shine but never saw the cob webs at the corners of the ceiling. (she was short & I'm tall).
Bedo - looking forward to soup weather. Thanks for the post.
Last nights spaghetti w/meat sauce was excellent - probably because of the San Francisco Sourdough on the side. I ate much of the cooked chicken retrieved from the freezer in lovely sandwich (lately I prefer chicken sangys over turkey). The remainder will adorn black beans w/salsa tonight.
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Was jonesing for pasta last night, so made whole wheat spaghettini with fresh tomatoes, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and fresh basil, tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with Parm. Reg. I normally detest the gritty texture of whole-wheat pasta (plus it goes from undercooked to mushy with no “al dente" in between), but I found Bionature brand (America's Test Kitchen top-rated it) to achieve a passable al dente texture and decent flavor. Expensive for pasta, but still much cheaper than other main dishes. Dessert was eggnog gelato with preserved cherries (a flop, as they taste like cough syrup and are too sweet). Also had sourdough crostini with chopped tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella a bit later in the evening, accompanied by . Brunch this morning was tuna salad (WF's lemon-dill) on WF “seeduction" hi-fiber whole grain bread with lettuce. We'll probably go out tonight for a late dinner.
Last night with the crostini I had 2 oz. of Pinot Noir. Amazing how much that is when you're not using it to chase down a good steak! But also distressing how little even 3 oz. of champagne is!
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The turkey came out just fine. I even got the gravy to work this time. And, the carcass is simmering in the stock pot.
It was 30 years ago (the dark ages, compared to today) and it was ovarian cancer...Mickey (Denice) had chemo Monday through Friday and then the weekend, the next work week and the following weekend "off". Then it was back to "the grind".
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red - that sounds like a radiation schedule, any chance they were confusing the rads frequency with the chemo schedule?
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Special - how was the party? I'm amazed you're not tucked away in your bed.
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Yes, SK. I don't think you even told us what you were serving. Hope everything went without a hitch.
Dinner ended up being the last of the lasagna and half of a small baguette. Chops will be another night this week.
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Special that was my thoughts exactly, so I mentioned to her I did my Rads that way, but I just don't know.
I can't imagine being diagnosed on the 4th of November and having done everything got a plan I place in 10 days....I couldn't even get in to meet with the surgeon, then the MO and the RO and the nurse navigator in 30 days....I'm just going to pray for the best outcome for her and I did try to direct her here for some support from folks who were Stage 3 as they have their own thread......so we will just see.
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red - hope things go well for her, whatever the schedule ends up being.
The party was a great success - there was even dancing out on the pool deck! One of the women from DH's office brought a great mix CD with awesome upbeat dance music. At one point DD led the crowd in the Macarena after just coming in the door - she still had her work nametag on, lol! I had some tried and true stuff, but also did some new things - which I know is risky but they turned out well. I did some turkey and cranberry on mini corn muffins, roast beef with horseradish sauce on Hawaiian rolls, ham and cheese sliders with an /butter/onion/worchestershire sauce you paint on and then briefly bake the sliders until the cheese melts, mini quiches in two flavors (ham & cheddar and artichoke/bacon/jack cheese), sweet and sour meatballs, antipasto platter, fruit tray with Kahlua dip, veggies with dip, Mexican cheesecake with chips, spinach artichoke dip, curried chicken salad on mini croissants, deviled eggs, and a jalapeno popper filing in little filo cups, and a spicy bacon/cheese spread ( I have long called it a heart attack on a cracker) which was the hands down fave on the night . For sweets I did brownie bites with chocolate frosting, lemon curd mini tarts, and raspberry cheesecake squares. DH's admin asst brought cupcakes with the Special Operations Command seal on them. We had a display on the dining room table of all of the letters of congrats sent to her from all of the generals she worked for, and one from the President, a flag flown over the command in her honor, which was a bear to get in the triangle flag box! There were also photos and the customized commander coins given to her, and her medal for service.
I am tired but not sleeping well, but do have PT today and looking forward to the massage and heat - my party muscles are sore. I didn't even know I had party muscles, but I am sore in weird places, lol! A lot of carrying and bending - and my hands are sore - probably Femara. I went to the Buc's game yesterday and took a long hot bath when I came home!
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SK, I'll have one of everything please!
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auntie - wish you could have been there! Wouldn't it be fun to have a party with everyone from this thread? If we could ever put that together I volunteer my house! The food was good and plentiful - DH was worried I had way too much but I didn't make a ton of everything, just decent amounts of each, and I have enough leftovers that I didn't have to cook last night and sent some for lunch with DH - yay! I wish I had taken a photo of the food before everyone dived in but I was too distracted and forgot!
FYI - it dawned on me that I could make a bunch of little sammies on Hawaiian rolls (although, everyone but me may already know this!!) because the rolls are all joined together. This would work with any rolls that are like this. I just used a long serrated bread knife and cut horizontally with the rolls still hooked together so I had a bottom and top. I spread out mayo on the bottom, made a layer of the shaved roast beef, salt and pepper, then spread out the horseradish sauce (mayo/sour cream/horseradish), put the top back on. Then cut along the roll perforations, and voila - 24 little sandwiches - took about 5 mins!
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Wow! What a great spread! I vote for a get together at your house! I will help!
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Special - Yum!! What a lot of choices. I'm with Nance - one of each.
Redhead - I think most of the stage III folks skip around to lots of threads. When I was in active treatment I really prized the current chemo & rads thread w/people doing the same thing at the same time. I've participated in some specialized HER2+, LE & Neuropathy threads. Encourage her to find things relevant to her treatment and not just her stage.
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I'll have a tray with one (or two) of everything, SpecialK.
Lamb burgers tonight with a cauliflower/potato mash and a salad. Also some cucumber/sour cream sauce. At least that's the planned menu. I'm sitting here wishing someone else would do the cooking. I did yard work this morning and worked on a birthday present project this afternoon so I am tired.
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SpecialK, that is quite a spread! Your DH's office are might lucky that you are so generous and kind.
Dinner tonight is chicken parmesan. Monday is one of the nights I tend to cook enough so that the kids get a decent meal. The chicken breast I bought today was HUGE, so I know that we will have enough chicken cooked for chicken sandwiches for us tomorrow and some protein snacks for the girl-child. We have heard the heartbeat and the "peanut" needs protein!
Gorgeous fall day here today. Mr. 02143 even went out on a ladder to paint some window frames. I should have spent more time outside, but my trip to the chicken store and the Whole Foods was the extent of my outdoor activities.
*susan*
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