So...whats for dinner?

Special, Yea for nurses that still have compassion!

Dinner tonight was not what i had planned. I have Xeloda GI today.... let us say that I lost everything. So made some Jasmine rice for my dinner and Mr. 02143 had a roast beef sandwich in a pita with some Emmanthaler. I have to say, this mets and mets drug crap is getting old! Of course, I don't really have a choice. So this is my life!

*susan*

chisandy - my DH mans one of the attack flags at the top of Raymond James stadium for the Buc's games - along with other members of Special Operations Command so we have been attending home games since before I was diagnosed - there was a period where the attack flag credential allowed us into the club section - they had much better food! I have not been in there for a couple of years but they used to have a carvery with beef and turkey, nice salads, and a baked potato bar with every topping under the sun. You could also get unsweetened iced tea and they had an espresso bar as well. Now that we are not allowed access it is pretty much usual stadium fare. Our ethnic fare at the stadium consists of Cuban sandwiches - yummy, but probably not the best for the waistline! We walk a mile from our parking spot (St. Joseph's Hospital) and then climb the steps to the upper rim of the stadium, and it was warm so I figured I should have some salt so I opted for a cheeseburger and skin-on fries - not the best but I needed the protein and the blandness of the bread and potato. I did ok, it didn't rain on us and there was even a decent breeze, and we won! It was Buc's vs Cleveland Browns. The pirate flags go up inside the red zone and for scores - it was a relatively high scoring game and at one point my husband went downstairs and my friend, and former boss, Janet and I had to hoist the flag (which is huge and it is windy!) for a surprise run back score from a punt - it was a scramble, but we did it!

chisandy - I pan sear pork chops and then take them out and cook sliced apple and onions in the fat and brown bits - yummy, and the caramelized apples and onions don't contribute too much sugar but you get some sweetness from the cooking method. Sometimes I take the apples/onion out and deglaze the pan for a little sauce too.

Tonight I am not cooking but we are attending a surprise retirement dinner - the dinner , not the retirement, lol! My friend Gaby is retiring after working for 47 years in Transfusion Services, her last day was yesterday - she is 77 and sharp as a tack! She worked as a med tech doing type and screens, and cross-matching for units of blood. She thinks that the little party they had at the lab yesterday was it and she thinks she is going out to dinner tonight with friends, and what she doesn't know is that at least 50 people will be waiting to show their appreciation for how long and hard she has worked, all in an effort to help others. Gaby is originally from France so another friend and I are giving her a basket with crystal flutes and a nice bottle of Veuve Cliequot to celebrate her new opportunity to relax and enjoy some free time.

Thanks all for the well wishes on the good MRI - and, yes, the imaging center nurse was the best! She volunteered to find the report and check it for me - I didn't have to ask. The staff of the imaging center has a bake sale in October and while I usually try to avoid pink hoopla I do bake for them - and I will this October too, with a personal thank you. The nurse navigator works out of this center too and received a boatload of prosthetics from a closing location of ACS. There have been two occasions I had been aware of when BCO members have needed prosthetics due to sudden removal of implants due to infection and their insurance either didn't cover, or in one case the member had just been fired after her umpteenth surgery, lost coverage with her job and was about to have nowhere to live and still had drains! The NN and I found appropriate sized prosthetics and I mailed them to these ladies - they have been super helpful in allowing me to assist people who are not their direct constituents.

april - enjoy your DD and the scallops!

eric - a tomato eating dog? So funny! Take care of yourself and make sure you eat!

susan - sorry the Xeloda is not treating you well from the GI perspective, glad it is doing the job but wish it was gentler for you.

auntie - wow - busy!

Special I am so glad about the good news

Susan I I'm sorry that that regime is kicking your butt at present I hope that it comes and goes or rather that it goes and goes in the future

My job is good the people are really nice I just have the August blahs Seems that the last two weeks of August have always been hard for me kind of like the opposite of winter seasonal affective disorder

Plus I'm still using my phone

I'm letting my daughter and my best friend decorate my apartment as they are the ones who have to look at it haha and I don't care

The dinner w/my girl friend Julia at Eddie V's was delicious. Her birthday is tomorrow & this was part of my continuing celebration for last Thursday. We both skipped lunch & went at 4:30pm. Started with a cocktail - gin & tonic for me, margarita for her. We each had a Jumbo Lump crab cake sauteed Maryland style with spicy chive remoulade. They were the size of giant muffins. Lots of crab, not too much breading, not greasy, excellent. Oh oh, I'm already full. Then we split an order of Maine lobster & shrimp bisque with cream & cognac - served to us in separate bowls with a large loaf of sour dough bread. Oh my - who has room for any more? So we split an order of Crab fried rice with mushrooms & scallions. Both of us were full as ticks. We told the waitress we were too full for dessert, so they treated us to a B-day surprise and took off the cost for our drinks. Good food, good service, home before dark.

Back to second day in a row of finding my breakfast egg was in fact a double-yolker. Had it with one strip of bacon and a slice of low-carb toast. About to make myself an iced decaf unsweetened vanilla coconut-almond milk latte (not cool enough out to want a hot one) and eat a square of Ghirardelli 86% dark chocolate. Not sure what I want for dinner. Bob’s working late, Gordy went to a concert (we have Springsteen tix for tomorrow). Might order out, might raid the freezer for shrimp.

Sounds like a fun plan for the day, Bedo!

I read through the last page getting very hungry. You have all been enjoying some interesting and delicious sounding meals. Yum.

I can't recall when I last posted, but think it was before our dinner out for DH's birthday. There DH had a haddock dish and I had a rather large broiled lobster tail, an arugula salad and some veggie sides. They were both fine. We chatted with our lovely waitress at the end of our meal since the place was uncharacteristically empty, and learned that she is entering her senior year at a college in Boston and will be looking for a position working with children before applying to social work grad school. We exchanged contact info since I could help her network when she starts to look seriously. Then we talked about the great pastry chef the restaurant has, recalling the amazing chocolate cake she made for our 70th birthday celebration dinner last year. Lucky us! There was one piece of a similar chocolate cake left, so we had it boxed up and took it home to have with the mini carrot cake I bought earlier.....a very satisfying combo for our sweet teeth!

Since then we have been home and back, having dinners like lamburgers, caprese salads, grilled chicken and arugula salad....nothing too inventive.

Last evening we had apps and drinks on the beach after our association "fall meeting", so we were sated enough that popcorn was for dinner.

Not sure what we'll do for dinner since I have been too busy watching hummingbirds to get something out of the freezer. I would do well to have just a salad, but DH could never live with that.

Sweet that Olivia is already showing that she is a mover and shaker, Susan!

Lidoderm was denied? Oy! My ins. approved it a couple of years ago for hip bursitis. Would they cover Flector (diclofenac) patches, or Voltaren (diclofenac) gel? I buy those OTC for 1/4 the price whenever I go abroad.

Almost gave in and opened the corned beef hash or made the bucatini all’Amatriciana I’ve been craving (ever since learning of the devastation of Amatrice, which was going to have its spaghetti fest this weekend), but when I opened the freezer there were some Copper R. salmon filets I’d frozen this June. So I defrosted and pan-seared them, served them with sauteed Brussels sprouts with balsamic & truffle salt, and buttered jasmine rice for Gordy. Another dbl-yolk egg for brunch--no toast because we’ll be eating stadium food tonight--Springsteen at the United Center. Tough to avoid carbs there--hope to get there in time to eat at the Carvery downstairs; otherwise, a bratwurst or maybe even try to see if the Publican or Little Goat Diner are still open after the show.

I'm still trying to finish up a mini-watermelon & 1/2 a cantaloupe from last week and ended up throwing away some raspberries that I didn't finish in time. It's hard to buy more than one fruit per week when you live alone.

I'm trying really hard to clean out the freezer some & I needed to cook for the coming week. Grilled two huge bone in rib eyes tonight and only ate around the edges. One night will be beef strips w/brandy cream sauce. One night will probably be stir fry. But I love to just gnaw on a good piece of beef right from the fridge - steak or prime rib or whatever. Funny that I probably don't eat beef even once a month anymore. I have two rotisserie chicken breasts that I froze and 1/2 of a frozen pork loin that is already cooked. I used the spiralizer to 'process' zucchini & yellow squash ready to saute or nuke later this week. Cooked some Brussels sprouts al dente to warm up or toss in salads. Cooked the last ears of the Olathe sweet corn, cut the kernels off the cob & tucked them into the fridge.

Lacey - I want your chocolate cake. Sandy - when is your trigger thumb surgery? Susan - what a mess with your house listed in error. I agree about calling the zoning people right away. Sorry to hear about your feet. Eric - what do you hear from DD?

My trigger thumb surgery is set for 9/20. Of course, now my thumb has begun behaving itself.

Amazing Springsteen concert. Supposed to have been the return leg of the "The River" tour, which--when we saw him in January--consisted of playing his entire landmark 1980 double album, live, in same sequence as on the record; then after a brief break, an encore set. Back then, it came in at about 2-3/4 hrs. By now, it has become the "Everything We Can Fit Into 3-1/2 Hrs., Regardless of What Album It's From, In No Particular Order, Without a Break Tour." (Okay, I suspect several long piano intros--and an entire string section, which he never used before--may have been there to let him duck backstage and pee into a plastic bucket.....which might explain the lack of street people outside the arena banging sticks on plastic buckets....). He took requests from the audience, played stuff he hasn't in over a decade, jumped, danced, climbed amps, crowd-surfed, pulled moms on stage to dance and little kids up to sing (and even let one wear his guitar for a selfie) on "Dancing in the Dark." I, OTOH, even though I went to the loo before the show started, couldn't make it more than 2-1/2 hrs before inching painfully down--one hand on the rail and the other on my cane--from the nosebleed seats to make it to the ladies' room just in time to avert disaster. God bless Poise pads. I speculated whether they were all wearing Depends; Gordy joked they probably had (eeuw) catheters. TMI. Certain things we shouldn't want to know about our idols.

Concessions have definitely gone upscale. Gordy had fried chicken between waffles from Leghorn Chicken; from Sweet Baby Ray’s, I had BBQ brisket (no sauce), cole slaw, and shared my sweet potato fries with Gordy. (My brisket came on a gorgeous ciabatta roll I didn't dare eat--they thoughtfully provided knife & fork without my even asking). They’re even now selling salumi from Publican Quality Meats and tacos from Big Star. Didn't want beer (especially not at $15 for anything decent), and they had two wines by the glass--a Cakebread Cellars Napa Chardonnay and a boutique vineyard Merlot from WA.....$18, with a plastic Govino stemless glass as a souvenir. No thanks. So I paid four and a half bucks for a bottle of water. By the time we got out of the parking lot, every decent late night joint had closed, so we went straight home. Had a little 2012 Brouilly (Bob got home first and opened it) with some truffle Gouda, then a little dish of chocolate sorbet.

Hoping to keep my double-yolk egg streak going, so that I’d need only two to make my favorite French gruyere-chive omelette using the America’s Test Kitchen recipe tomorrow for brunch (have to go out & down to the garden to snip some chives--hope the weather cooperates). Maybe order out for dinner....or try those shrimp as a stir-fry with whatever is in the crisper.

Susan, I hope they straighten out that mess soon. What a PIA it sounds like! As for your neighbor's roof deck, that sounds like a really selfish thing to do to you. I hate neighbors like that..ugh! Also, hope that you get some relief on the foot issue. We need our feet for all movement when walking so when they hurt, it is very troubling for sure.

Lacey, wonderful news on that 5 year mammo! Words we all like to hear for sure. I just had my 3 year and it is always a relief when you hear the "all clear" from the radiologist.

Minus, Happy Belated Birthday! xo

Sandy, I had to laugh about the "God bless Poise pads" comment because I don't think I could live without them these days. And, 18 bucks for a beer or glass of wine is way out of my comfort zone. But, Bruce Springsteen? Lucky YOU! He is one of the few left on my bucket list to see again. I did see him years and years ago but not in the 2000's. Every time he comes to my area, something or another keeps me from being able to see him. I am a HUGE fan and in fact think of him as my favorite artist from that era. I WILL see him again before my demise!

Special, I love veggie pasta. That is so nice of you to cook for a friend.

Bedo, I went to a clambake Saturday at my friend's beach house in Old Saybrook. We had lobsters with clarified butter and lemon, steamers, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and several different salads, baked beans and some homemade ciabatta bread. (that I baked for the party and it was a huge hit if I say so myself) There were also hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids and for the land-lubbers. It was all sooooo great! It was cooked in a pit on the beach with seaweed. Not quite sure what all they did but it was all fantastic! We women were in the house getting all of the sides ready while the guys cooked the lobsters etc. Someone made a delicious trifle for dessert plus there were cookies and brownies and ice cream for those who wanted it. The host made several types of ice cream herself. What a day! Then at night we had Margaritas and just listened to the surf. Wonderful!

Yesterday was marinated pork loin on the grill with grilled veggies and jasmine rice.

Tonight is leftover pork loin, veggies and rice. Made way too much for the two of us so tonight is round two.

Hope all of you are well!

Lacey, such an inspiration you are. Lunch was homemade BLT's.... I had some bacon sliced just a bit thicker this time and the bacon, tomato, lettuce and bread proportions were perfect. Some of the best BLT bites yet this year!

*susan*

Cannoli bites. Aren't they cute?

Yum! I will think of them as I eat my desert of a fresh fig and a square of dark chocolate.

Was going to nuke some Buffalo wings from the freezer, because my nails are a disaster area and my mani-pedi is tomorrow morning. But as I was at Whole Foods I saw they had fresh California halibut, so I changed dinner plans. Got some spiralized butternut squash “noodles," which I sauteed in garlic-ginger oil. Then came snap peas. As to the halibut, I brushed it with Thai ginger marinade and pan-seared it. Bob put a bottle of 2010 Jovino Willamette Valley Pinot Gris in the fridge to chill, so I poured myself 2 oz. of it to savor.

No real breakfast tomorrow--maybe a soft-boiled egg & black coffee if I have time. Right after my mani-pedi I have my physical, MRSA nasal swab, EKG and blood test (and perhaps flu & Pneumovax shots--one’s gonna have to be in the booty, as you can’t put them both in the same arm) for both my cataract and thumb surgeries. Might not have sufficient time to, uh “empty out” before my weigh-in. 193 this aft., but if I haven’t gone yet, I could be as much as 2-3 lbs. heavier. And my PCP will hit the ceiling when he sees the bruises on my arm from the Zometa IV stabs--he didn’t want me taking any bone drugs.

I would love a BLT. I have great bacon, nice butter-leaf lettuce, a fine avocado and perfect tomatoes. Unfortunately, I had to toss my low-carb bread today because it was turning into a penicillium farm; and Whole Foods won't get a new shipment in until tomorrow.

Innards of romaine, okay. But iceberg? Ugh. Good only for lining bamboo steamers or shredding over tacos....bad tacos. I usually make my BLTs with either the green part of the romaine leaf (the white part goes in Caesar salad) or my fave--red-leaf lettuce. Call me a heretic....I prefer the toast to be ultra-whole-wheat, but not country wheat because it’s too chewy (the gluten that makes it glorious for tearing hunks off a loaf also makes it a challenge for using as sandwich toast). And though I like aioli, I am too lazy to make it for sandwiches--so I use either good mayo or even sliced ripe fresh avocado or a mild guac. But I must confess that one of my favorite sandwiches is tuna salad (savory, not sweet) on seeded rye bread (not toast) with lettuce, tomato and onion--red, white or sweet. Or shrimp salad on a Kaiser. (My Brooklyn childhood is resurfacing). Or deep-fried softshell crab on French bread, in Baltimore; or (be still, my heart) a perfect oyster po’boy, in New Orleans. (The bread anywhere else just isn’t the same).