So...whats for dinner?

I love the Windsor story, so sweet.

Working on leftovers from big California burritos we had Sunday night, nothing special planned yet. Weight keeps creeping up though, so some lighter dinners in my future for sure.

Since we're an interfaith couple, the electric menorah is glowing in the front window and the tree is up in the living room. Alas, since I'm asthmatic and we have cats, our tree is artificial (but quite realistic-looking). Tree water, light strings and kitties are not an optimal combination.

Dunno about dinner tonight--have both leftover latkes and paella. Carby, so maybe will throw together a salad too.

Lacey - it's not quite 8 in the morning and your cauliflower rice/shrimp dish looks delicious. I too have avocados that must be used. Since I don't care for kale, I think I'll use a spinach base. All my cooking plans have been upended with friends calling to get together before Christmas. And I usually bring home leftovers for another meal. Dinner out last Saturday & this coming Saturday, lunch yesterday, today & Friday. Nothing particularly memorable - delicious salads, a passable lobster bisque, some great pizza. I'm not pulling anything else out of the freezer.

My treat to myself was a pound of See's Victoria Toffee. It's only available at Christmas and truly addicting. I'm taking a big piece of the slab to a friend today to get it out of reach.

It's a scrounge night for me. Hubby has a Christmas party for work to attend. He was on his own last night as my women's club had our annual Christmas party.

Thanks minus, I stopped by there today. Didn’t see the Victoria toffee but got the molasses chips, peanut brittle and a bag of single treats, spending more than I planned, yikes! Now, if I can just ration these responsibly.

Dinner tonight will be a big salad with grilled chicken, a little grated cheddar and a handful of sesame sticks with buttermilk ranch dressing.

Last night was turkey, black bean, corn chili and cornbread. The chili recipe involved opening a lot of cans and tasted good. There are leftovers but we're going to the Woodworkers' Guild Christmas dinner tonight, which is held at one of those event places. The dinner is buffet and always has a slicing station for ham and another for roast beef. The young guy slicing the roast beef has perfected his art of slicing slivers. I always keep my plate there and say "More, please."

Shopped at Mariano's yesterday after first seeing my BS for annual exam (all good) and then getting my car "winterized." Bought a smoked chicken half for $5; three large potato latkes from the kosher hot bar; and a bag of ready-to-steam halved Brussels sprouts. Air-fried a latke. Put Sur La Table Brussels sprout/broccoli seasoning, olive oil and balsamic in the bag, resealed it and nuked it for the recommended 4 minutes. Could've gone only 3 min., which I'll remember for next time. Warmed the dark quarter in the microwave along with the veggies. Repeated the meal tonight, only this time with half the breast. (Saving the rest for stir-fry).

Had an unnerving experience today: my kitty Happy was nuzzling, cuddling and kissing me when he suddenly decided he'd had enough and nipped my face. Had to go to Urgent Care to get the wounds lavaged (I'd already washed, disinfected and bandaged them at home) and antibiotics prescribed. (The std. protocol is amoxicillin or Augmentin, but since I'm penicillin-and-quinolones-allergic, I got doxycycline and clindamycin instead). Found out I've finally climbed back out of the Medicare donut hole--the meds were two bucks apiece. I have to go back Sat. and then Mon. for followup and to see if I need another 5-day course of the abx. Looks like I have two "popped" zits on my face (to match the actual zit a few cm away).

Tonight we had the leftover pork roast which I sided with acorn squash baked with maple syrup/cinnamon, and a huge “virtue" salad (“Virtue" being the code name for salads that are half lettuce and half kale for the greens) with lots of other veggies added. Somehow having a roasted meat with squash and salad for dinner feels like such a Sunday dinner type of meal.

Last night before the Cs' game we broke with our dinner routine and went to a very old style bar/restaurant called The Fours. It was an “older male server" kind of place similar to the older Italian restaurants in the North End (which are just across the expressway). I was happily surprised that their entrees were priced very reasonably, and I had grilled scallops with sauteed veggies. No rice pilaf for me, so I got lots of beautifully done vegetables. We also had clam chowder which was great and chocolate mousse for dessert since I was tired and wanted a tasty “vehicle"for some caffeine.

Today while having my hair colored I enjoyed listening to a young millennial dad tell Mario the hairstylist about the meals he cooks his young family four times a week. He also shops for the food!!! I wanted to take him home, but would feel badly for depriving his lucky family! 😉

Happy was purring right up until he nipped me. I doubt he intended to attack or cause injury. He's never done that before. And he has resumed soliciting cuddles. Go figure.

After popping into the dispensary (they were having a 3d anniv. sale) I had plenty of time remaining on my parking meter. Next door was a hot dog joint. Walked in and was blown away by the menu. Besides the usual Chicago complement of hot dogs, brats, burgers, Italian & Polish sausages & wings, there was a "special" menu. Andouille, chorizo, turducken, venison demi-glace, currywurst...and duck sausage with medallions of pate de foie gras and a truffle aioli. Plus duck fat fries. Yes, please. One heckuva lunch. And it was the "food" with which I took my clindamycin. (I think the owner inherited the recipes from the late great Hot Doug's in Ravenswood).

Bob came home early for dinner (only an hr. after I had lunch) and was ravenous. We went to Cellars, where we shared a small Caesar salad (welcome back, romaine) and today's special: a porter-braised pork shank with carrots & mushrooms over creamy polenta. I mostly nibbled.

Quite a spread at the dominoes game, Minus!

I added a can of black beans to the leftover Turkey, Bean, Corn Chili last night and also heated up a wedge of leftover corn bread. The "jump ups" were good along with a salad that consisted of the remainder of a bagged mixture of salad greens and added avocado.

Not sure about tonight's dinner.

I finally went to my podiatrist yesterday to find out what was the matter with my inflamed big toe on the left foot. The problem was ingrown nail and fungus. He did some surgery on it that I hope will solve the problem.

So  yesterday we had pasta with salmon fillet and cream topped with caviar. DD had been asking for it for days on end. Today we had my version of Italian chicken cacciatore. I used chicken tenderloins instead of chicken legs. Plus onions, garlic, mushroom, courgettes, sweet red bell peppers all stirfried slightly before being popped into a dish and topped with tomato sauce and baked in the oven. We had aubergines, potatoes and yams on the side. Had to make 2 lots of tomato sauce as the first time round I added red wine as per recipe but I must have poured too.much wine as the taste was too strong and I was afraid it would ruin my chicken dish. So I remade the sauce minus the wine. 

We havent put up any Christmas decorations yet. I feel far too tired and worse than the thought of putting them up is the thought of putting them down again in a month's time. I dread packing up the Christmas tree every year and there have been years when I left it up until after Easter! (It 's artificial tree). Hopefully I can convince Dd that she can put up her small tree and we can bring out the large crib statues on Christmas Eve. 

Sorry about the kitty Chi Sandy... Hopefully you'll be better soon. And sounds a good combination of antibiotics.

Minus2 that was quite a spread at the dominoes night! 

Hope your toe is better soon Carole.

Goodnight to all

Minus, I so enjoyed hearing about your neighborhood dominoes story.

Chi, sorry about the “cat nip”. Yikes! Hope you are healing.... and you as well, Carole! Your toe story reminds me of all the insults our bodies undergo as we age. I never appreciated why podiatrists exist, until I needed to see one for a collapsed arch, and witnessed tons of elderly people relying on his gentle skills keeping their feet healthy and functioning.

Bringon, I can totally understand how you might feel like passing on the Xmas decorations. We still get a small real tree, and were thinking that it must be easier to use an artificial one, but I guess if you don’t feel up to dealing with all of the accompanying decor stuff it is still a lot. My DH looks forward to when we might just put out a 12 inch ceramic tree like my mother did for the last third of her life! Unfortunately, I did not inherit her ceramic tree! 😉

Today after helping DH get the tree straight, and the outdoor wreath decorated, I made myself five small containers of smoothies for the week, then my fave kale soup for dinner so I can avoid cooking much for the next two nights, freeing up time to make some pizzelle cookie dough. I may just make them and perhaps choc chip cookies and oatmeal ones with cranberries and maybe one other kind! But the pizzelles are a “rush order” since I always bring a platter of them to a party we are attending this Saturday.

This weekend, DH surprised me with a purchase at a silent auction. They were two soup bowl/mugs made by a man we knew years ago. Deceased now, he was a lovely potter and we have some of his blue/white glazed stoneware. In his honor, I am posting a pic of today’s kale soup in his newly acquired “used”stoneware. For the kale repulsed, please just enjoy the bowls! 😉

Lacey, those soup bowls are lovely! I make a soup that looks very similar to yours, except with baby spinach instead of the kale. Dinner tonight will be leftovers from last night... a casserole of turkey kielbasa, potatoes and green beans. The sauce that holds everything together is a basic white sauce with mayonnaise added. It’s rich, so we have it just once or twice a winter, but it’s sooo good. I kept it simple for the side dish: baby spinach leaves tossed in vinaigrette.

I meant to share that the procedure on my toe at the podiatrist's office seems to have done the trick. I was even able to wear shoes yesterday. The lesson for me seems to be not to suffer unnecessarily in the hopes an ailment will heal itself. Lacey, there were two children in the waiting room. IIt's not just older people who have problems with their feet and ankles.

Bob brought home eggplant parm over fettucine arabbiata from the S. Side Italian restaurant where he'd been watching the football game till late. Had half of it last night--will have some more tonight, with the house salad that came with it. Earlier in the day, I managed to catch Smack Dab Donuts on the phone before it closed (not so lucky on Sat.), and they delivered. Ordered 6 and they gave me 7. I am not normally a fan of cake-type donuts (I prefer yeast-raised), but these bear about as much resemblance to Dunkin' as golden osetra caviar does to the cheap Romanoff shelf-stable jarred black lumpfish stuff. Red velvet is their best, but even the plain cinnamon-sugar is wonderful.

Happy often uses my thighs as his "launch pad" to get from lap to daybed. His claws grow very fast after a trimming (which must be done by a vet or groomer, as he squirms and howls when we try). All our previous cats would let us do anything to them so long as they knew there was Petromalt, Pounce nuggets, catnip or whipped cream "at the end of the tunnel." Not so Happy & Heidi.

About 20 years ago, I was so fed up with ingrown toenails that I went to my HMO's podiatrist. I thought he'd just stuff cotton under the corner edges to "train" them to grow out rather than inward, but he suggested a procedure to shave the sides of the nail bed so the nail wouldn't curl under. He said that would prevent future ingrowths. (The local anesthetic into the toe knuckle hurt worse than the ingrowth, and it didn't fully "take:" I felt every poke and dig, quite sore. Worse, while I was laid out on the table the podiatrist asked me for legal advice). And though it healed within a week (had to wear sandals and bandages in the interim), it grew back inside of a year. My pedicurist told me that I simply have toenail beds that naturally and severely curl under and that it is easier to dig the "hook" out each time and trim it off, rather than try to train the nail not to ingrow.