So...whats for dinner?

Several delays but I'm making Laurie's Mexican Chicken tonight and taking 1/2 to the husband of myu friend who died in March. Breakfast was some of the leftover "Ancient Grains". I was so good warmed up that I didn't even put butter on top - and I RARELY eat anything without butter added. I'm one of the die hards who never switched to margerine and continue to eat some bread with my butter.

Susan - sorry about your horrible infusion day and the disappointing test results, but i got a real chuckle out of the advice to eat potato chips. Who would have ever believe that! What about popcorn with lots of REAL butter & salt? Pretzels through out the day? My MO put me on potassium pills when mine kept going down during chemo. MD Anderson recommended Nestle's BeneProtein for my friend Pat's husband who kept losing weight during cancer treatments. It's the only one I've tried that you can easily mix with anything and there truly is no taste & no grainy feeling. I added to Carnation Instant Breakfast & milkshakes when I was losing too much weight. He added to applesauce, cereal, etc. There's not much sodium or potassium but I expect every little bit might help.

Hi Susan - Salt and pepper squid sounds yummy! Instead of potato chips, I would eat toasted nori. During Taxol, I ate dulse, pho, and homemade jello. Seaweed is packed with nutrients, and gelatin is said to heal the gut. I was able to have homemade milkshakes to keep weight up, but they probably weren't as good as those you can get in Boston.

Serenity, thank you for the ideas.... nori has almost no potassium or sodium and is low calorie so it doesn't hit my "needs" mark. The dulse might be interesting. It has both the potassium and sodium. Just have to locate it. Jello doesn't appeal even a little bit. My gut is fundamentally fine, so I am not too worried. To be honest, if I am going to eat gelatin, I would prefer that it is in the form of chicken stock, which I am making tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was frantic and stressful. For some reason the ciabatta was ready to shape at the same moment as the lentils needed care. It didn't go well for me! I always forget how hard the Wednesday after always is. I am fine. I am fine. I am fine. I am WAY not fine. Anyhow, dinner was the leftover chicken, lentils and sweet potato latkes. Here is my optimistic plate. I only ate one of the latkes, half the lentils, and one chicken chunk.

No pictures of the bread. I just HAD to sit down!

Happy birthday to FatherOf2!

We just had a bit of Maldon salt on our latkes. I have not taught Mr. SMT that latkes get sour cream. Knowledge can be a destructive force.

*susan*

Dinner tonight was an apple while I fixed the garage door. Sharon had eaten already, so I ate the apple and worked on the garage door. A spring had slipped loose, which overloaded the garage door opener and caused a part in it to burn out. I reset the spring and replaced the blown component in the opener and all is well again. The garage service companies don't replace components inside the opener..they replace the opener. The part was $16 and it took me about 30 minutes to do all the work...5 minutes for the component and 25 minutes fiddling with the spring to get things right.

Sharon's last school day with students was yesterday. Today was cleanup, tomorrow is graduation and I think she has to work a few hours on Friday. Then she is done for the summer. This year seemed to wear her out, so I'm very glad she's done for the summer.

When I was a little kid, my mom used to have to hide the "lite salt" (where some of the sodium chloride is replaced with potassium chloride) from me so I wouldn't eat it by the teaspoon. I still like it, but I'm old enough to know better.

That plate looks awesome Susan. If my brother wasn't "comped" by his hotel employer when he's in Boston, I'd tell him about your place.

KCl? Blecccchh! When my dad was 50 (and I 14) he had a heart attack and he was forbidden to add sodium to anything. So he bought “light salt” (I think the brand was Co-Salt) that was potassium chloride. I tasted it and wanted to hurl. I vowed if I ever had to restrict sodium I’d use anything other than fake salt: citrus juices, herbs, spices, etc. Dad also had to eat fat-free, so my mom packed away her beloved battered stainless and aluminum omelette pans and bought some Teflon-coated ones. (Remember, this was 1965, so nonstick was still in its technological infancy). One Saturday morning I smelled something awful—like someone had farted in a spice barrel and set it on fire. I walked into the kitchen and found my dad at the stove, dry-“frying” an egg (one of the 4 per week he was permitted) in a nonstick pan; I was horrified to see he had lined up an array of nearly every savory herb and spice tin on the countertop, and was merrily sprinkling them all atop his egg: paprika, garlic, oregano, cumin, white pepper, sage, etc. It was then and there I vowed I would take a “less is more” approach to seasoning (and when in doubt, taste each one before using it).

Thinking of taking some ground beef out and making burgers and either pairing it with fries or onion rings. I cut back on a lot of fat by baking my fries or onion rings instead of frying them.

Have been catching up to all the yummy food descriptions. So cold and wet here yesterday that hubby doctored up organic butternut squash soup with petite peas, mushrooms and chunks of chicken breast with fresh ground pepper & some curry powder.

Eric - Your deployments have me intrigued. Are you part of an on call disaster team? Working at an Airport (CVG) and am the Finance Liaison for our Emergency Operations Center, so have had all sorts of disaster training. We are having a full scale drill in September, which is required by the FAA every two years.

Susan - I, too, want to be a guest at your AirBnB - looks like you are a very thoughtful host and wonderful cook. About Olivia - Please don't stress about what they are saying in re: communication. At one year old, my DD never "babytalked". Somewhere between 1 and 2, she just starting speaking in complete sentences.

Auntienance - Great bird photos! Thanks.

MinusTwo - Gewurtztraminer is one of my faves.

Well, gotta dash - back to work.

Bon Appetit!

I like a good dry Alsatian gewurtztraminer—smells sweet but finishes dry, like all Alsatian wines except the late-harvest (“vendange tardive”) ones. A California gewurtz, with a bit of residual sugar, works with Indian or Thai food but a Kabinett-or-Spätlese riesling works better—especially with the hotter spice levels. The acidity cuts through the heat & fat, and it pairs really well with Cajun or Creole. Sometimes the spice in the bouquet of gewurtz clashes with the different types of spice in spicy foods. For some reason, the “petrolly” bouquet of a riesling (especially one with some age on it), tends to retreat when it comes to dishes with lots of cayenne or hotter chiles.

Cellars’ Taste of Italy (20 wines, Italian buffet) benefit for its Avon Breast Cancer Walk team is tonight. Blew me away to find out how much it costs upfront to do the walk—as opposed to other fundraisers where participants solicit “by-the-mile” (or for skyscraper climbs, “by-the-flight”) sponsors. Was gonna volunteer to help with registration or water stations, but will be in NY next week for Bob’s 50th HS reunion. No gourmet restaurant meals planned—we’ll be staying at the reunion hotel in Huntington, LI (Suffolk County), arriving next Thurs. evening; Fri. will be visits to Bob’s parents’ graves in Flushing, possibly followed by a Mets game (one of our friends is trying to wangle us an invitation to his company’s box). Sat. is the reunion; Sun. is visits to my parents’ and Bob’s best friend’s parents’ graves in neighboring cemeteries in Pinelawn…then touring the N. Fork wineries. (Bob’s buddy is more of a beer drinker, but unless he wants to take the train back to Queens, he’s stuck with us. I would love to go to Paumanok Winery’s restaurant for its Oyster Fest menu, or some place with good local duck, but he is a steak-or-burgers guy—to him a salad is “exotic,” and at our age he’s pretty set in his ways; he’s an IRS auditor so that sort of explains it). Mon. we fly home. Doubt we’ll even get into Manhattan. Wish we could have stayed at our midtown timeshare and go to LI for just the reunion, but we don’t want to drive after the party (and I don’t think the LIRR would run that late); and timeshare nights need to be consecutive.

Eric - thanks for kindly telling someone who didn't know. Maybe he/she will spread the message.

Mommy - do your fries & onion rings get crispy in the oven?

Dunch was weird of course since I needed room in the fridge for new groceries. I had to eat the rest of the 'older' radishes, so 8 or 10 of those made up the appetizer. Main dish was wings & legs from a rotisserie chicken. I'm freezing the two breasts and there are still lots of pieces to use with my leftover "sauce" from Laurie's Mexican dish yesterday. I took most of the chicken from that dish down to the husband of my friend who died, but still have some good soupy sauce w/black beans that I hate to throw away. Dessert will be a couple of slices of a fresh Rosemary/Olive Oil round loaf of bread - of course slathered in butter. So much for the 5 lbs I've lost in the last few weeks between grocery excursions.

The sushi counter was giving tastes of Shaggy Dog roll. I really wanted one, but it's too much for one person to eat before it goes bad. I settled for a small package of California Roll slices. Those will likely be tomorrow's breakfast.

Tonight's wine tasting at Cellars was great—not just the wines but the food: green (mesclun, Caesar) salads, antipasti, insalata Caprese, cavatappi all'Amatriciana, 2 kinds of pizza, eggplant Parm, and tilapia piccata (I normally don't care for tilapia because it's so bland, but this was seasoned beautifully and perfectly done). Dessert was sfogliatelle & cannolli. (And limoncello). In the raffle, I won one bottle each of a Haut-Medoc (Bordeaux red) and Vernaccia di San Gimignano (white). The latter was ironic, because when we were in Tuscany, the concierge at our condo resort urged us to visit San Gimignano because it was the quintessential ancient Tuscan hill town: surrounded by walls, no cars except delivery vehicles and ambulances allowed inside. We were prepared to park outside & hike up the hill, but every garage & parking lot surrounding the town was full. So we never got to see the town (except from outside the walls, in the car) but at least we'll get to "drink it.”

And I was the high bidder in the silent auction for two Rick Bayless cookbooks and dinner for two at Frontera Grill (where we've never been able to get in—no reservations, long and sometimes fruitless waits—but we have eaten at his higher-end Topolobampo). But best of all? Geri & Josie got enough contributions to pay for their entry into next week's Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. (Geri's sister Barb is a 5-yr. survivor of tubular, and Josie gave a shout-out to me as a survivor of IDC and "special friend" of the restaurant).

Last night's dinner was a bit of a cluster. I knew that it was Harvard's Graduation since my current guests were paying a fortune to stay with me and attend. What I didn't think was that every single Chinese graduate with their family would eat at our neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Plus there were at least three banquet to-go orders being prepared. It went south when MY salt and pepper calamari was served to the next table over. Staff didn't notice until after that young woman had begun to attack the plate. I was out of luck. They came over to tell me that it would be a very long wait and handed me a menu to order something else. I wasn't buying what they were selling. I came for the calamari. I didn't want something different. I was willing to leave without, but I didn't want something different. In the meantime, our scallion pancakes arrived and were, perhaps, the best that they have ever been. Mr. SMT's spicy beef with oranges arrived and was proclaimed to be excellent. Just as we were going to ask for our check the squid arrived. I found it to not be that spicy or salty, but Mr. SMT who is not getting Taxol said it was fiery and very salty. My tastebuds are just not to be trusted right now. Reheating the leftovers tonight, I was sneezing as the pepper oil filled the kitchen, but still barely tasted the heat. Might be a good time to visit Thailand. Seems I can eat most anything spicy without issue right now!

Been raining for about three weeks and we are all wearing moss on our skin. The worst part is we can not take Olivia outside which she just loves. Today, she was a bit languid. I am guessing that she has a cold coming on, again. She has learned to hug and does it well. I am slowly teaching her to hug me on my non-port side. She loves rubbing my fuzzy head and then expects me to rub hers in exchange. Really is a bit of a scream!

*susan*

The temperature was only 97 today but the heat index was up to 105 degrees so it's really too hot to even eat after working outside.

Breakfast was 5 pieces of California Roll with Robert Rothchild's Lemon Wasabi sauce.

I bought two ears of Texas corn even though friends from Iowa have always said it's only good for the feed lot. Usually I wait for the Olathe corn from Colorado, which is so good you can almost eat it raw. Anyway, yes indeed, the one ear I cooked was hard & tough. Sigh. That's what happens when I get in the mood for fresh corn & try to jump the gun.

In addition to my ear of corn, dinner was a mix-up of leftover Ancient Grains 'rice' mixture, a bowl of small pieces from a rotisserie chicken, and the last of the left over good, soupy, salsa & bean 'juice' from Laurie's Mexican Chicken.

The lack of humidity sure does make a difference. I think it was in the upper 90s here, but only a few per cent humidity and was actually quite comfortable out on the back porch.

DD came home, so I pulled out an extra steak from the magic freezer to grill.. I did the stereotypical man thing--grilling....