So...whats for dinner?

Eric, I bet your DD loved being home and having Dad cook her a steak. Grilling is the best way to manage a steak!

Have been a bit AWOL, company from Nevada, then out of town with the company up to the panhandle for a military reunion - did some cooking as we got a condo through Airbnb - very nice, on the ocean - yay! I spent some time in the porch swing with a glass of wine - yay! DD has a rescued duck, some of her commercial fishing friends found it swimming out in the middle of the bay - could not have been more than a few days old. So she is hand-raising it and it has taken over the backyard and the pool. As soon as it is fully feathered she will attempt to teach it to fly and either find a suitable pond for it, or it will be our yard duck, lol! DH is not feeling super and so has just been eating soup for the last couple of nights.

My fellow skin cancer friends on this thread will feel me on this - had a biopsy on a recurrent site high up on my shoulder a couple of weeks ago - previously treated superficial basal cell from less than a year ago. This is the same side as the breast cancer and geographically this is pretty darn close to the axilla that had positive nodes, and is the arm that has lymphedema. I get a call from the derm that this is a different kind of basal cell - infiltrating. Doesn't grow on the surface, but rather toward the inside, and has to be removed with MOHS. If untreated for too long this can require systemic treatment, and the first available MOHS date is 7/29. I am 100% sure that the person making that appt. had no idea that I have previously been treated for breast cancer, not sure if it matters, but am a bit nervous. I made a quick appt. with my MO and he called them (he went to med school with the derm - yay!) to accelerate. Still waiting to hear on my new MOHS date. Working the system...

Special: Good to see you. Here's a lesson in slowing down... I read Nevada and tried to figure out how you had a condo on the ocean. Then I read panhandle and of course thought of Texas - again no ocean. Once I read more carefully, your trip sounds wonderful. I'm jealous. The ocean is my sanity and I don't get to one often anymore.

I've had 5 MOHS surgeries for basal cells. I thought those all went down & in, instead of spreading out like squamous cells. The doc said my last one was about the size of the eraser on the end of a #2 pencil but went in a little deeper. Ugh. So glad you're got someone advocating for an earlier date. I've been on a schedule of 6 month full body scans for many years. It seems that freezing them early has helped but there's a place on my cheek the doc is suspicious about right now.

Susan - I'll be interested to hear if you decide to stick with cutlets for the pork.

I have 'little theater' tickets this afternoon. Most of the shows are world premieres or 'edgy' or Off Broadway items, but this is the last show of this subscription year - "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". I honestly haven't seen it since the movie first came out in 1962 and don't remember much except the song, so it should be fun. Two friends & I will go out to eat afterwards.

susan - our Airbnb experience was totally painless, and DD has stayed in a few - only one that was iffy and it was more about communication than anything else, their stay was fine. The duck is adorable but very messy. DH would usually complain about the mess, but I think he has a soft spot for the duck!

minus - Like you, I have had a bunch of basals, probably closing on 40 now - they have been removed by a number of means - scoop and freeze, scoop and burn, and MOHS - I have had three previous MOHS, and two wide excisions without immediate pathology. My previous basals did grow across the skin, and I guess the difference with this one is that it is more aggressive and will seek out lymph nodes - thus the potential need for chemo and rads if left untreated - not going down that road again if I can help it.

happy - MOHS surgery, named after the surgeon who thought it up, is removal of skin cancers by layers with immediate pathology following each layer - this assures clean margins. It can be a long process as it takes about an hour for each pathological look. It is usually me and a bunch of old guys in the waiting room - I don't see many women, lol! They all have bandages on their faces/ears/neck, and mine are usually hidden underneath clothes. They always look me over with suspicion, haha! I looked at that event in SC when you mentioned it a while ago since my MIL is so close, I hope you will have a memorable weekend. I started back to the Virgin diet yesterday - which is specifically an anti-inflammatory diet, I have been eating too many things I shouldn't be, and the scale reflects it, so I stand with you in solidarity, lol!

Minus, yes. Cutlets were made and consumed. Funny cut. I didn't "buy" it directly, but it was part of my pork share. The poor pig deserves to be eaten. The flavor, like the rest of this animal was fabulous, but the texture of pork sirloin is oddly chewy. There is lots of connective [and well worked fat] but the actually pieces of meat are lean. Served with huge sweet potatoes and some lima beans. I overdid today. Processed the chicken stock, made banana bread, deboned the sirloin roast and then roasted the bones for more stock, and finished the gardening smock for Olivia [and then started on a sundress.]

It is reversible, but I haven't taken a picture of the other side. I am exhausted!!!

Eric, your DD doesn't want you to show her how to make twice baked potatoes. She wants a reason to come home and have you cook for you. That is what homesickness looks like at Level 1. It is really sweet, and you should be really pleased.

*susan*

SpecialK, sorry about the skin cancer, and hope the Mohs surgery gets it all within the first few passes. Had my “pre-melanoma” ( a “highly atypical nevus” acc. to the path lab) last year, which was scraped off but because margins weren’t clear had to be punch-biopsied, been a melanoma (even in situ) I would have been facing Mohs surgery and another SNB at best.

The season’s first wild sockeye is in—from Russia, not Alaska, but we’re talking less than 100 mi. difference. Was going to cedar-plank it out on the gas grill, but it’s raining on & off so I will pan-sear it along with some stir-fried snowpeas and roast Romesco cauliflower. If Gordy wants a starch, probably some quick brown rice with quinoa.

Susan, what a cute garment! I continue to be awed by your energy.

Eric, that's sweet that your DD makes excuses to come home and see mom and dad. I know you're always happy to have her pop in. I like twice baked potatoes, too, and never make them. I like once baked, too.

SpecialK, fingers crossed that your MOHS is effective and as quick as possible. DH is very familiar with the procedure. He's had it twice on his nose. One procedure was accompanied by plastic surgery since there's so little flesh on the nose.

We're settled in MN. Last night's dinner was a potluck for Memorial Day. The selection of foods was good and afterwards there was live music.

Today is a miserably cold and windy day. Our nearest neighbors are sitting under the awning on their deck huddled around heaters! We will probably venture out to a town with a large rv park in search of a heating element for the electric hot water heater. We're using the gas hot water heater, which uses pricey propane.

My first grocery shopping trip on arrival here cost me $300!

She doesn't come home as often as the 45 minute drive home would sort of suggest. But, food does seem to work to entice her home.

I don't want to be like the mom described in Pink Floyd's, The Wall -- "Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing. She won't let you fly but she might let you sing."

Oh my heavens. All that talk of popcorn made my mouth water. I'm not much into salt (never have been) but give me popcorn drowning in butter and I am beyond happy. Pair that with a cheap wine and I'm in heaven! I even buy low salt potato chips and pretzels.

HUGS!

In my mom's stuff was the aluminum "looks like cast iron" pan with a glass lid that my grandfather used to make popcorn. I have it here. I have a feeling it will take some experimenting to get the stuff popped without scorching.

I also found a plastic bag of somewhat "frazzled looking" flowers with a piece of paper in the bag. The paper had mom's and dad's wedding date on it. When I was looking at mom and dad's wedding pictures, I realized they were mom's wedding bouquet. Today, Sharon and I went out the veterans' cemetery and I placed those flowers on their markers.

Susan, I think family can be more complicated than friends..but that's my opinion. :-)

We got a call today from DD telling us that just got home from an overnight trip to visit a friend in Flagstaff-- 2-1/2 hours distant and several climate zones cooler. She was pleased with herself and so was I. It brought back a few memories of some of my adventures.

Carole, when I was doing the government job, I was in LA, so I looked up your hometown on the map...I-20 is a long way off....

Eric, I remember that cast aluminum cookware—“Club" Aluminum, I believe it was called. You had to buy it in sets (maybe subscription, hence “Club"). Aircraft-grade aluminum. The idea was something that would heat evenly like regular aluminum but retain heat like cast iron, and not discolor from acid foods like tomatoes (nobody knew back then about any controversy over use of bare aluminum cookware). Of course, it never did develop the low-stick surface for which well-seasoned, long-used cast iron was renowned.

We had a reflective Memorial Day.

My husband slowly grilled pork ribs. I contributed bacon-wrapped mini ears of corn and coleslaw.

Here is my coleslaw recipe:

1 bag coleslaw mix

Enough low fat mayo to make creamy

Celery salt to taste

Jalapeno vinegar to taste

Dry Coleman's mustard (about 1/4 teaspoon)

1 - 2 packets Truvia

Mix well. Refrigerate. Eat and enjoy.

Coach Vicky

One of the ladies on another thread posted this link for "raised waffles". I've never tried waffles w/yeast. Makes me wish I still had a waffle maker.

http://www.kimseverson.com/index.php/site/recipe/m...

Susan - when I was doing chemo at Baylor it was about 1/2 & 1/2 men & women. Obviously not restricted to BC patients. Funny tho because you are at a "breast center". I'd be surprised if all those men had BC.

Vicky - thanks for the coleslaw. I don't ever add sugar or sweetener to mine. Last week I tasted a great coleslaw that had jicama & the mix was more chopped than shredded. Maybe water chestnuts too??

Minus, These men all have breast cancer. They do not treat any other diseases on the 9th floor. I suspect that their local hospitals can't manage their care and so they are sent to Dana Farber. For example, at the Beth Israel, right across the street, I never once saw a male patient in the Breast Cancer area. Statistically, it should have been about 5%. So if that 5% goes to the Dana, etc. etc., it begins to make sense.

Dinner was the rest of the brisket, some leftover mac n' cheese and little tiny peas. Strange day at the Dana. I FINISHED EARLY!!! The place was packed. People everywhere. Hard to find parking. And for the first time, I was taken into each bit of my day early and was free to go a full hour before the end of my appointment schedule. Very freaky!

Hot dish, Carole? You barely just arrived in MN!!!