So...whats for dinner?

MinusTwo

Except I'm sure she's only eating mashed potatoes & pudding & smoothies???... Glad to hear she's doing well.

illimae

Neither DH nor I felt like cooking or going out to eat, so I made a quick cesar salad and grilled cheese (cheddar, mozzarella and provolone) on Jewish rye.

ChiSandy

Multicultural sandwich if ever there were one, Minus! Brunch was animal crackers & apple juice in the recovery room post-op. Dinner is whatever Bob can bring home (or GrubHub can deliver) that I can eat one-handed. Can’t even feel, much less move, my L fingers—that axillary block is lasting quite a while. So much so that I have to use either my shoulder muscles or my R arm to hold the L one above my heart when standing! One-fingered typing on an iPad (laptop suddenly won’t charge) is a challenge, so will lurk much more than post for quite a while

auntienance

Heal fast Sandy!

Sous vide thick bone in pork chops finished on a blazing hot grill have made me reconsider my former negative feelings about lean pork. They were awesome.

ChiSandy

Soft tacos al pastor. Hoping to get sensation back in my L fingers so I can open the chocolates Gordy brought me.

carolehalston

I got the prize for worst dinner last night. Stale Premium wheat crackers and peanut butter, year-old microwave low calorie dinner, ravioli in a white (as in color) sauce. Intended to buy some food when I arrived home from the NO airport but my Prius sported a flat tire and by the time my sister and I made a plan and carried it out, my only interest was popping the cap on a bottle of cold beer from the outside refrigerator. So my nourishment did include a couple of Corona lights.

Must buy some food today and have the tire repaired in addition to visiting my 95 yr old mother at the nursing home.

ChiSandy

Carole, you owe yourself a keg of Corona! Tires (and cars in general) tend to go blooey at the worst possible times. A/C in my car went out temporarily on Monday, en route to our family shrink appt—it was 97 degrees. Fortunately, it rebooted when we got back in the car, and was able to get errands (including vet visit for Heidi) w/o incident. After dropping Gordy off at his new place (where his power went out but he was able to reset the breaker), I was looking forward to picking up Cantonese BBQ duck at Sun Wah—only to discover they are closed indefinitely while their building undergoes renovations. Boo, hiss. Hence the Caprese & salmon dinner I cooked as my last meal before going NPO at midnight.

Breakfast was an adventure—discovered I could scramble eggs one-handed, but not break them w/o considerable “shrapnel" in the bowl. Housekeeper helped me fish out the worst offenders—the rest was extra calcium. She's making me a BLT right now (for later). Weather is utterly perfect, mid-70s, sunny, slight breeze, moderate allergens—so instead of cooping myself up indoors, I'm sitting out on the deck right now typing on an iPad and chatting over the fence with my neighbors. (If I could trust myself to go down the steps into the yard without falling, I'd walk over to our black raspberry canes and nibble some of the ripest ones before Bob gets them all en route to the garage each morning)

MinusTwo

Sandy - in your pocket.

I celebrated today. on 7/11/07 I smoked my last cigarette after 40 years of smoking. I actually didn't quit because of cancer, I quit because smoking is a major contributor to osteoporosis. I'm paranoid about breaking a hip & being warehoused for rehab and never returning to "real life". I don't have a husband or a house keeper, so there would be no other options. Actually, I will always be a smoker - just one who is not smoking. So I stopped at Katz Deli to pretend I was in NYC. Then because I really wasn't hungry and had a bunch of heart tests in the afternoon, I just had the lunch special. Half a sandwich or deli sandwich and a side of your choice. I copped out & had a french dip (delicious) and decided to go whole hog with fries.

Tonight I had celery & cucumber sticks. I thought about popcorn, but I'm still too full.

Moonflwr912

Hello all. I cant believe its been over a month since I checked in.

During this time I found out my DD1 will be moving to St. Joseph MI. Her husband will have his first job as a Pathologist. She was offered a remote job for her company in Madison, so its all good. She will have to come in to the office every month and go right past my house. So, I'll get to see her more often than I do now. LOL. So good news. Also DD2 is finally pregnant again. Again good news.

Now on to not so good news. My husband broke his neck last week, while bicycling. We are waiting to see if it will heal with a halo. If not, surgery is indicated. The preferred surgery will not work with his neck formation, so they will have to go in to the back. Not great odds. He has a C2 type 2 fracture. So if his spine gets involved during surgery, his auto breathing will be gone. Again not good. So if you've got prayers, we'll take them. Hes home, now in his halo, walking talking living. Id rather that stayed the same! you know, Ive had about as much as I could handle.

I hope everyone is doing well. I keep hoping to get on here more often, but obviously Ive not been doing that. LOL.

Much love to all

ChiSandy

Oh, Monica, of course you & DH have my prayers tonight and for as long as it takes!

Bob brought home Italian--app. portions of shrimp deJonghe and penne alla marinara. Cheated with a little chocolate-covered donut for dessert.

carolehalston

Monica, what a horrible accident! Hoping for the best outcome for your dh. Glad you have other good happenings going on.

Breakfast yesterday was Subway. Egg and cheese on flatbread with tomato and yellow peppers. Not wonderful but satisfied my morning hunger.

Dinner was good. Rotisserie chicken and microwaved small potatoes with parsley garlic seasoning and butter. The potatoes were delicious. So was my Ketel One vodka martini with two jalapeño olives.

MinusTwo

Moon - soooo sorry to hear about your DH. Here's hoping the halo will do the trick. Please keep us posted. I can't remember - is your DH retired or is there still a job in the background? Thanks for the update about your DDs. How is that cute grandbaby?

auntienance

Oh Monica, how awful! Sending lots of good thoughts your way ((hug))

Carole, I don't drink much anymore but when I did, it was Ketel One.

Preparing for an onslaught of company next week. It all started with my niece from Houston staying with us a week from tomorrow to attend her high school class reunion. Then she wanted to see her parents (who live in southwest Missouri) so they asked if they could stay too, which of course they could. Then DDIL and DS called to say that they wanted to come celebrate my 70th birthday (which is also that Friday, so now they're coming as well along with the grand-dog! It will be wall to wall and floor to floor people. I've decided that I'm not spending my birthday worrying about taking care of other people (Hah! Easier for me to say than do) so I'm just laying in supplies and there are enough cooks in the group that they can figure out food options. We'll see how this goes.

SpecialK

moon - oh no! Yay for the good news, but sheesh for your poor DH, and you by association. Praying for a good outcome for him, I am sure you are so nervous, sending you a hug, several in fact.

minus - congrats on the still not smoking, I am proud of you and you should be proud of yourself - way to celebrate with a French Dip, I like your style!

DH just left this morning for a weekend with his sisters in the mountains of NC. I sent him with yummy orange scented Florida candles in a tin for each of them, plastic screw top flat containers that hold a full bottle of wine (last time I got hem insulated stemless wine glasses with their monograms -- they flipped out - do you sense a theme? Lol!), and a whole batch of caramel corn with smoked almonds - my one SIL calls it caramel crack corn due to the addictiveness. They will have fun - they are working a water station at a marathon on Sat to get a free entry into another race, and they will eat and drink and chat. I am on pet duty since DD is at a fishing trade show this week, but I have nobody to feed - other than the pets - so I may eat Minus style and consume some random things at random times of day, including popcorn for dinner.

auntie - good luck with your houseful of company and Happy Birthday!

chisandy - how are you feeling?

carole - are you home in LA for a visit with your mom? Is she doing OK?

ChiSandy

Monica, keeping those “mi sheberachs" coming—you two can use every prayer tradition you can get. Hope that halo does double duty as DH's “guardian angel."

Two milestones today: have full feeling in my L fingers now, so I was able to use them to steady one half of the egg I cracked—perfect fried egg for breakfast. Second was that I can now descend stairs securely—so down into the backyard I went to pick the insanely sweet black raspberries (and a few teeny fraises des bois that the rabbits forgot) on which I'm nibbling as I sit out on the deck typing this and sipping a “faux-jito" with mint from the patch next to the berries. Bob is stopping at Cellars en route home and bringing fish & chips (if they have them) or salmon if they don't. No wine, of course—rather have the pain relief for now. Next week I'll likely be back to the OTC stuff (and hopefully, on vacation in NYC)—will see if a scalper can come through with seats for Springsteen on B'way; otherwise, see if we can get into Colbert—maybe brandishing my arm cast will do the trick.

Pretty noisy right now—Red Line trains along the tracks a couple of blocks away, planes coming in from the east (we're in the O'Hare flight path but the planes are still pretty high up) plus the first cicadas of the season. But they're summer sounds I love!

Magari

Hi, all.

So Sorry to hear about Moon's husband's injury! Hope the halo does the trick and that he heals quickly.

Glad to hear that Sandy is on the mend.

We had a lovely date night dinner over the weekend at a little Italian place within walking distance of home. Shared a delicious house made nettle fettucine with morels, spring peas and cream - simple but perfect. And a pizza with proscuitto and arugula, and an IPA for my husband and a glass of Montepulciano for me.

We grilled a whole butterflied chicken on Sunday and used some of the leftovers to make shwarma-style sandwiches with tzatziki last night and topped Greek salads with it another night. I made penne all'Amatriciana Monday.

Tonight I am trying a new recipe for a cacio e pepe dutch baby. We'll have salad to go with it.

Icietla

Moonflower, I am so sorry. Prayers for you all from here.

ChiSandy, so glad you are doing better. The only time I skipped school was the day QTIPs were covered in Estate & Gift Taxation. My husband went to our classes, and I waited out in the cold for a chance to buy Tunnel Of Love Express Tour tickets. The concerts were going to be on a Thursday evening and the next evening, Friday. We got tickets ($20 each) for the Friday concert. We went around near starting time for that Thursday evening concert -- the place was on campus, very near our apartment --, and we found there a lot of scalpers who had apparently overbought tickets for the Thursday concert that was to commence very shortly. So we got tickets for that show, too, for $5 each. I wish you similar luck with the scalper/s.

"Tunnel of Love" seems a different song after a diagnosis of cancer or any life-threatening or life-limiting condition..

I ate something earlier today. I do not remember what it was.

M0mmyof3

Thinking pancakes and bacon for dinner tonight.

carolehalston

Lunch yesterday was a shared meal with my mother from Crabby Shack. Two crab cakes with angel hair pasta, shrimp cream sauce, green beans, a side salad with blue cheese dressing for me. I spooned a couple of teaspoons of cream sauce on my small portion of pasta. The meal was good but eaten, unfortunately, in the presence of visitors.

Dinner was leftovers from last night's rotisserie chicken and potatoes.

Off to Anytime Fitness this morning. Our YMCA membership is on hold for the summer.

SpecialK , I'm back home for two weeks to visit my mother, who is doing well. She's amazing.

ChiSandy

"Tunnel of Love" and "Human Touch" are two of my favorite Bruce songs--I always think of them as sort of related despite being 5 years apart. I think the "Tunnel" tour was the only one I missed since beginning with "Born in the USA" the summer I was pregnant with Gordy. (He likes to say that was his first Bruce concert). QTIPs and Estate & Gift Taxation? Mine eyes glazeth over (taxation & finance were my least favorite subjects in law school).

Made avocado toast this morning--was able to hack some cilantro & shallot into a semblace of a "mince." Sliced tomato and basil on top. Another successful egg-cracking, producing the fried egg that topped it. Messy eating but yummy. Dinner was leftover fish & chips; steamed some skinny asparagus and marinated them in citrus vinaigrette, seasoned with Penzey's Pico Frutta spice.

auntienance

Carole - I'm so glad your mom is doing well. I've been thinking a lot about my dad this week and missing him.

Sandy - good job healing!

DH and I both worked outside in the intense heat and humidity today. I ended up too exhausted to cook much so it was toasted ravioli and marinara from the freezer with a side of tomatoes from the garden mixed with some sliced cucumber, onion and green pepper from the farmers' market. It was dressed with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkled with basil from the herb bed. It has been so hot and dry that all but a couple of my cucumbers have been bitter so I'm forced to buy them elsewhere. We're fortunate to have an excellent produce stand in town where I'll be heading tomorrow for some more sweet corn. I really think I'm done with gardening here. When we moved here 20 years ago, it used to rain in the summer. Not any more. We've lost a number of trees due to drought conditions and gardening is just frustrating. I could never ever be a farmer.

Another excruciatingly hot day tomorrow so I'll be working indoors cleaning out under sink cabinets which seem to breed "stuff" behind those closed doors.

carolehalston

My food intake yesterday was not interesting enough to report. Minus would say, "Yuck!" Today I'll buy lunch for my mother and myself at Crabby Shack. I'm thinking I'll have a salad topped with fried shrimp. Maybe Caesar salad. For her I'll get a fried shrimp meal. The problem is the side. She doesn't care much for fries, the usual side. Their potato salad is chunky and for her potato salad is mashed potato salad. I don't think baked potatoes are on the menu. Oh, well. She'll enjoy the shrimp.

She has gained weight at the nursing home, thanks to eating three meals a day. When she lived in her house, she never ate that many meals. They serve her supper in bed since she gets into bed by 3 or 4 pm.

The strange thing about being home alone is the quiet. The only tv service is in the living room, operating off an antenna in the attic. We turned off our Direct tv service for the summer. I play the radio very loud, also in the living room, tuned to NPR, when I'm in the other parts of house. There was a time when I didn't mind quiet but living with dh all these years has changed me.

ChiSandy

Getting pretty bored. When caught up online and w/e-mail, and done taliking with friends, pretty much all there is to do is ice, eat & nap. Anything productive or calorie-burning is too risky--don't want to chance another fall; and getting into my front-hook bra today may have taken a bit too much traction on the part of my L fingers. Weighed myself--b'bye, starch. Gonna sear scallops and broccolini for dinner, with fruit or ricotta for dessert.

CeliaC

Hello, all. Enjoying reading about your yummy foods. Sandy - Glad to hear you are on the mend - Scallops and broccolini sound great. Made some chicken salad with tomatoes and cukes earlier today - craving cold foods due to the extreme heat in the greater Cincinnati area.

ChiSandy

Decided on snap peas instead of broccolini. Also made a Caesar salad, and Bob brought home seared ahi & calamari apps. So we had lots of seafood & veggies tonight.

M0mmyof3

Burgers on the grill, corn on the cob and baked bean

auntienance

I know it's Sunday, not Monday, but I'm craving red beans and rice. I have some leftover brown rice that I'll use up. Some sliced tomatoes from the garden and a baguette with garlic butter will be sides.

ChiSandy

Last night I gave in to the Dark Side--a scoop of double dark chocolate gelato with a squirt of whipped cream. (Had to give Happy a dollop of the latter). The One-Armed Chef made herself brunch today: a bastardized version of chilaquiles (scrambled eggs with chopped red bell, poblano and cubanelle peppers, topped with Frontera salsa verde & crema atop a bed of stale WF tequila-lime tortilla chips), guacamole toast, and magnificently ripe red heirloom tomato slices with Maldon flake salt. Bob had already gone out for steak & eggs and "poinsettia" cocktails (prosecco topped with cranberry juice to taste). I'm sipping grapefruit-melon seltzer--might add a dollp of grenadine. We have some leftover ahi & calamari from last night--might grill a small steak and broccolini to go with it for dinner. (Or go out to Cellars for dinner and World Cup final--I know the result but Bob is trying to avoid finding out. Lest anyone here be similarly inclined, I will forego the spoiler).

Icietla

Fried scallops (plain bay scallops fried in olive oil) on fried rice (brown rice with scrambled eggs, carrots, onions, garlic, green and red peppers, and zucchini, fried in canola oil and tumbled with Nori Komi Furikake).

eric95us

Tonight (and it will be the same the rest of the week) was college cafeteria food. Sharon is attending a bluegrass music "camp" in west Texas and I came along "just because".

It is OK, but I'm glad that when I was in college, I lived in a house and learned how to cook for myself.