So...whats for dinner?

Cherry - sounds like you've got all the prep work done. I'm sure your eldest will be able to finish off. Please do take care of your self & rest if you need to. That's most important right now.

Cherry, I don't know how you do it--chemo would have knocked me flat on my back, with a stack of takeout menus (or GrubHub.com on my laptop) at hand! That gravlax-in-progress is making me salivate.

Well, so much for not having beef again. Last night, before going north to Christmas-shop, we had to head south to buy Christmas pudding (two littles and one regular), and Bob saw a box of dark Mozart kugeln and simply had to have them (who am I to disagree about chocolate?). He declared he was already hungry (it was about 6pm) and wanted to eat at the last Germam restaurant in Chicago before it went out of business. Well, it's out of business--only its bar (no food) survives. So we were going to try Barbi Yianni (the Greek place I used to eat when I worked in Lincoln Sq. decades ago), but right next door was a sign for valet parking at Artango (and parking is tough to get on that narrow one-way street). So we pulled in and went inside. Fantastic Argentinian steakhouse, with a huge wine/beer/cocktail list and lots of menu options. I'd seen it on WTTW's "Check, Please!" and knew the portions would be gargantuan, so we shared: shrimp ceviche, endive salad, empanadas (one beef and one porcini-Manchego) and grilled grass-fed flank steak. The apps came with addictive yuca & plantain chips, and the steak with insanely good giant fries. We lingered much longer than we'd planned, and the gourmet olive oil & spice shops where we'd planned to shop were closed. We didn't have time to go up to Old Orchard and fight for parking, so we hightailed it to the much closer Village Crossing. We hit Barnes & Noble at 8:10, pulled right in, and shopped like crazy--getting in the cashier line by 8:45 and hitting the gift-wrapping station by 8:55. We walked out at 9:05, just past closing. We got to the car, and both simultaneously exclaimed, "Holy $#*+, we did it!"

Off to Old Town Oil in Evanston now to buy those gourmet oils (we were going to eat at Eataly and then see "Darkest Hour," but the theater nearby wasn't showing it). Drive home, wait for Bob, and take the L back up there to see the flick and then a late dinner at Terra & Vine in the same building,

Eric - gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing.

I'm actually giving each of my nieces one of my 'old' rings during the holiday. I had left a note in the ring boxes in the safe directing my son what to do & told him about it. He suggested last year that I go ahead and pass them along now. And he's right. So one goes tomorrow night & one goes Sunday.

Dinner at Eddie V's tomorrow night w/nephew & wife & 2 year old. Looking forward to their crab fried rice. We're eating at 5pm so I'll be driving home at a reasonable hour.

Very pretty Eric! And how sweet.

Been pretty busy here. DBIL and DSIL were here for a couple of days. Meals were good, if not exciting - French dip on crusty rolls for one and chicken cacciatore with homemade pasta for another. After they left, I've been busy shopping and cooking for Sunday when the kids and grand-dog will arrive. I trimmed and removed the bone from a standing rib roast (then tied it back together) and it's now in the garage refrigerator dry brining. Today I will make a chocolate cake with a raspberry filling that will have a mascarpone frosting (made the mascarpone yesterday.) I'll also make up the batter for Yorkshire puds, a horseradish sauce for the roast, prep some green beans and fingerling potatoes as sides.

During the day tomorrow, friends and other family will come by to visit, so I'll have a meze platter along with some assorted cheeses, breads and crackers and a bagna cauda with veggies for dipping. Drinks will be spiced cider and a cranberry punch plus a few adult beverages. Cookies, cinnamon bread, harvest bread (dried fruit and walnuts) and a chocolate babka have been made too.

DDIL is making Christmas morning breakfast - a rye and smoked salmon strata - so I don't need to worry about that. The dreaded cleaning (lol Carole) was done earlier this week so not much to be done there thankfully. I'm quite ready to be not so busy.

It snowed last night around midnight, but since it's been 50+ degrees all week, it didn't last long. Just the way I like it. Supposedly some snow on Christmas eve too (also short lived). That will make my nieces visiting from Texas happy.

My DSIL gave me some blood orange olive oil for Christmas so I think I'll make an orange and onion salad using it. And that's as far as I've gotten for dinner ideas.

Cherry, you astonish me with how much food prep you are able to do during chemo. Please try to take it easy some.

Oh Lacey, the pizzelles look marvelous! I can just taste them. I'm loving all the pics!

Carole, I'm glad your mom gets to come home for the holiday. I'm sure she'll enjoy that. There was a Christmas party at dad's nursing home Friday. It was a fun time and the staff made sure all the residents enjoyed themselves. Dad seems quite content and is doing pretty well for the most part. He has the occasional bad day but I suppose at 91, that's to be expected. We won't see him again until next week some time.

Minus, what a nice idea about the rings. That's something they will treasure.

Sorry about such a long post. I've been reading but can't seem to find the time to write. Don't know how I managed before retirement!

eric - my DH has the same issue - I usually have to be with him for jewelry buying, lol! What a beautiful new ring for Sharon! Yay!

Everyone has delicious plans for the holiday, I am also loving the pics!

minus - I agree with giving the rigs while you are here to appreciate seeing your family wear them - my MIL did the same with my SILS. She also gave each grand-daughter a ring. My DD's came from my MIL's grandmother, so a multi-generational family piece. My DS gifted me an Ancestry membership last year after I did the DNA testing and I built the family trees on both sides. I was able to show DD the great-great grandmother in the tree that the ring originated from, so that was nice. My DH was also able to show his mom the tree about six months before she passed away - she was fascinated to see her family go all the way back in Pennsylvania to prior to the American Revolution.

I have potatoes for au gratin, a standing rib roast, sour cream and horseradish for sauce, roasted broccoli, and a chocolate Kahlua cake for tomorrow night. My BIL/SIL will be here for lunch tomorrow and I am making chicken enchiladas with rice and pintos, and a lemon cake. I am taking the path of least resistance with that menu because my house is in mid-reno - DS and I have one room done except for the new headboards he is building today out of reclaimed wood. We painted and laid hardwood floor over the last two days. Who does this right before Christmas? Apparently me - some of you old-timers on this thread may remember a wild Thanksgiving eve master bedroom redecorating event because I suddenly couldn't face looking at the room after spending so many days in it during chemo - and I had like 17 people coming the next day for dinner! Why do I do this?

Hello everyone - catching up during this long holiday weekend. Back to the office on the 27th.

KBB70 - A few posts ago - St Emilion and Yorkshire Puddings = Yum. Never mastered the Puddings, despite husband being a Brit.

Cherry - Echoing ChiSandy's sentiments re: the gravlax. Be sure to take it easy on/be good to yourself.

Eric - Lovely band and way to celebrate Christmas with your wife.

ChiSandy - We have a VomFass at our nearby TownCenter - They do have great stuff. DH and I looking forward to seeing Darkest Hour.

Will be picking up a small oven ready turkey from Whole Foods tomorrow AM (smeared in butter/herbs, on a bed of mirepoix, in disposable roaster pan) for quiet CM dinner with DH. Roasted brusssels & carrots w/herbs, dressing w/mushrooms & leeks, potatoes dauphinois and homemade gravy along with a lovely Gavi will round out our meal. Looking forward to leftovers.

Wishing all Merry and Happy Holidays!

Eric, the ring is beautiful! My mom was not into jewellery when she was younger but later I bought her two rings that she wore for twenty years and now when they got too small for her she brought them to my eldest, whose hands are so tiny, the rings have to be adjusted) I also have a ring her father gave me that I am not using, I always thought that she will get it later and can do what she wants with it but after my diagnosis I have decided to get it fixed and engraved, will do it after the holidays.

ChiSandy, I would kill for yuca chips or fries right now, this is something you cannot get here just like this and I do not know how to cook cassava. When we went to our favourite vacation place in Dominican Republic this year I used to run every day just to be able to eat fried yuca at the place called Yuca Caliente, in the middle of nowhere actually. When we were in NY this spring went to an Brasilian restaurant because I knew I was getting my yuca fries. And in DC, when the family was watching Capitals - Maple Leaf play-off I went to this Peruvian fusion place where I got my yuca fries with the smoked bacon flakes, thin as a butterfly wings on top, here I found the picture. I am not a fan of bacon, but these flakes were a masterpiece.

Now when I red my post it sounded like I have smoked the lamb leg myself, no, I meant I got it, but the rest I have managed to do so far, cookies - check, zebra cake done, the gravlax is not complete without a sweet mustard-based sauce, it really makes this fish sing, got it too.

This EC chemo spoiled everything for me, nauseaus for five days despite Emend and like a handful of pills! Now I have my wbc shots and I have pain everywhere in my body it seems because of those. And I am also eating like a horse. Nothing compared to Taxol but I asked for big guns. I am looking forward the next week, after first teb days I will feel pretty decent. Last week I managed to knit a crimson Christmas scarf for DH, he has nothing that is distinctive red and I think he should have one. I am working part time for the first time in my life, probably am understimulated to the point that I am going nuts))), I do not recognize myself in the mirror, and I am thinking what if ... I want to do the things I would not later regret for not getting done (hope you still understand my English))) And we got a tree, here is the picture, it is a Nordmann fir, it is very full and wide. Something my DH done for me and my eldest when we moved together with him and we were still at university and could not do much, but he always got a real tree for Christmas for us, my eldest's dad always refused but I grew up with my grand dad always cutting down a tree for me when I was small. Of course he always picked the most miserable one because he did not wanted to waste a good tree and sometimes when I was decorating I could see that some branches were tighed with a wire, he just picked them in the forest to make the tree he cut to look fuller))))

In Sweden the Christmas dinner is served on Christmas Eve, my eldest's BF has been harassing me the whole evening that he cannot wait until tomorrow and has to taste my zebra cheesecake he heard so much about, so I gave in and he got his piece. Now I am done with pictures)))

Merry Christmas everybody!

Cherry

carolehalston, I can post the recipe, it is a really easy to make, it is not very presentable when right from the oven but if you let it chill and out some frosting on top and then some raspberries or flowers! then you can show it to people. But just for the family we eat it as is and it is amazing

I'd like the recipe too, Cherry.

I'd like to do more cake baking. I'm good with baking bread (sourdough is rising right now) and I'm getting better at making pie crusts, but I haven't had much practice with cakes. I can bake them well enough, but decorating them.....not so great.

DD and Sharon are doing Christmas shopping and I was invited (ordered?) to stay home. They called to let me know they are eating out, so I'm eating the last of the chicken-penne pasta that I made the other night.

Cherry, BCO has a page on this.... http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/druglist/neulasta

Sharon's oncologist recommended the Claritin and it sure did help with the bone aches.

Your eldest's BF harassing you for an early taste of the zebra cake doesn't sound too terrible. :-) Sharon was doing the same thing tonight while the sourdough bread was baking. Every five minutes it was, "How much longer until it's done?" :-)

Minus, I am doing five wbc shots called Nivestim, once a day starting on the day five from the infusion. They decided to start with five and then see whether I needed more but after five days the blood work was back to normal so I am doing five even this time.

SpecialK, here is the thing, I do not have bone pain, it is a sort of flesh pain, like I have run a maraton and have muscular pain even places where there is no muscles, like the tip of my nose or the boobs. The legs from knee and down and the arms from the elbow to the hands do not hurt. Tomorrow is the fourth shot and if it will go like the first time this ”muscular” pain will subside and for two days I will have a throbbing pain in my lower back. I forgot to ask my doctor about Clarityn, we only have one sort here, the substance loratadine, but my nurse told me to take paracetamol with ibuprofen. It works, not very well but I can manage. I also have hydroxizinhydroklorid, another anti-histamin, but I do not know whether. I can take it now.

We had our Christmas Eve lunch, if there is such a thing, and DD avec BF went to his parents. DD woke up as promised and at least tried to fry the meatballs, I helped her but I felt decent, otherwise I just got stressed watching her getting stressed. But the BF was up to the task and baked a potatoe gratain for the whole family, there is plenty of it left for tomorrow. I also did dripping-based cream gravy Swedes serve to the meatballs. If you ask me the best on the table was gravlax and the smoked reindeer, DD bought on Christmas fairy, not the elk as I thought it was, she bought elk last year. The kids do not fancygravlax so DH and I enjoyed just us two. Tomorrow I will cook the turkey with aromatic butter.

Eric, I will post the recipe, but in gr and ml, sorry, the metric system))))

One more time, my gravlax, not that I am bragging, but it could not get any better

Cherry

auntienance, I will send DH to the grugstore, the upcoming days of back pain is nothing to look forward to

Cherry - loratadine is generic Claritin so it’s the same thing.

MJ

Thanks Cherry. I actually prefer the metric measurements.

I hope the Claritin (Loratadine) helps you.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Yum, Cherry--both the zebra cheesecake and the gravlax. I was going to suggest loratidine/Claritin plus an NSAID, but others beat me to it. Since you're ER+, I imagine once you're done with chemo and targeted therapy you'll be on either tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor. The latter, because it depletes estrogen, can weaken bones--so it's usually prescribed with either a daily oral bisphosphonate like Fosamax or Boniva, semi-annual infusions of bisphosphonates Reclast/Zometa, or semi-annual Prolia injections. The Zometa usually causes bone aches, and the Prolia sometimes does (for the first treatment). I got awful bone aches with Zometa, but they went away after a couple of days of loratidine. When I switched to Prolia, I started loratidine a couple of days before and took it for a day after. Have had Prolia twice now, with no side effects other than soreness at the upper arm injection site. You might want to start loratidine the day before your next chemo and keep taking it for a few days after the follow-up Neulasta/Neupogen shot.

Ilona, I miss SF--been 16 yrs. since I was last there. (Napa in 2014 doesn't count, as we flew into & out of Oakland and never made it across the Bay). But I can still taste the dim sum!

Dinner tonight was at the Chef's Station in Evanston. Snow put the kibosh on our plans to take the train up there (snowing too hard to walk to the station), and we weren't about to drive if it meant I couldn't have nice wine with my food (the place won a Wine Spectator award for its wine list), so we took an Uber. Evanston plows but doesn't salt its streets, so the ride up there in a little Prius was, uh, interesting. But dinner was awesome. Gordy & I started with sous vide Berkshire pork belly with mushrooms, shaved Brussels sprouts, shallots and celery root puree, and Bob had crab cakes over baby greens. For entrees, Bob had duck breast, Gordy prime rib, and I grass-fed rack of lamb over farro & baby root vegetables. For dessert, Gordy & I had Michigan tart cherry bread pudding with zabaglione gelato, and Bob had a chocolate mousse buche de Noel with eggnog sauce. (Sorry about no accent markings, but my Mac is misbehaving again in that regard--holding down any vowel key makes it repeat rather than bringing up the accent menu).

Sorry, too, about no pix--we were too busy eating to remember to take them. At home, after opening gifts, I flambeed plum pudding. Gordy tried to video it, but the flames died out before the phone kicked in.

Tomorrow our friends are serving roast beef. We'll bring wine and baklava. Merry Christmas to all (and to all a restful and silent night--the 5" of snow we've gotten makes me want to hibernate)!