So...whats for dinner?

MinusTwo

This afternoon we played dominoes (Chickenfoot) for the first time since summer. I had never played dominoes in my life until my cancer returned & I was doing chemo. A neighbor put the games together to get me out of the house once a week during treatment. Unfortunately this neighbor w/the game room who always hosted us died just over a year ago. Now her husband occasionally asks us to come. Originally he said he missed "the girls giggling". Now he actually plays. Everyone brings food. A sample of today's goodies: tamales - both spinach & pork, carrot & raisin salad, lime jello salad with avocados & cashew nuts , artichoke & jalapeno cheese spread/dip & crackers, gingerbread pound cake & real whipped cream, and tons of little cookies & date bars bars & candies from an old German bakery in Victoria. I may never need to eat again.

carolehalston

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.

MinusTwo

Carole - I'm going to PM you about toenails. Grrrr.

Jump-ups for lunch. Potato salad, coleslaw, 1/2 an avocado. Dinner will be marinara from the freezer served over spaghetti squash. That's so I can finish wrapping & get boxes packaged for USPS. 90% of my gifts have to be mailed and I'm running a little late this year.

Went to another magnificent concert last night. Period Baroque instruments, lovely choral group and excellent soloists. The main event was Bach's Magnificat. I sang this many years ago but was unaware that Bach had infused four Christmas themed hymns into the original Magnificat at the end of 1773, the year of the original composition. Like many others, I had never heard the work with these included. The first half of the program was a compilation of Latin & German hymn/songs from 1500 to 1650 - like Lo How a Rose err Blooming (in German) and In Dulci Jubilo (in Latin). As much as I hate to drive downtown after dark and try to find scarce parking in the theater district (many underground garages have still not re-opened after Harvey), I'm so glad I braved the drizzly mess and the 42 degree temperatures.

BringOn2017

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

M0mmyof3

Meatball grinders tonight. Hubby made spaghetti and meatballs last night and made enough meatballs for another meal.

Lacey12

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! 😉

eric95us

Pest (my college cat) would sometimes poke me with her claws.....she'd be calmly sitting on my lap and suddenly she would catapult of of my lap (needing her claws to gain traction) and act like she had just eaten an entire bale of catnip. After 30-40 seconds of acting crazy she would calmly jump back up into my lap and act as if nothing had happened.

I never did figure this out.

I wore blue jeans, so the claws were more of a discomfort thing rather than injury causing.

GreenHarbor

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.

carolehalston

I like the bowls, Lacey. And the soup looks hearty and appetizing.

In the "earlier years" of our marriage, dh and I bought a live tree from Winn Dixie every year. It cost $20. Because of dh's offshore work schedule, he was always absent when it came time to take the tree down. The needles would have gotten stiff by then and getting the tree out to the curb was a painful process, not to mention messy with needles all over the carpet. One year I bought an expensive artificial tree at the end of the season when it was half price. That tree served its purpose some years and some years it stayed in the attic. Now we have a tall skinny artificial tree with a small footprint. This year it will stay in the attic. I don't feel motivated to put it up, go through the trouble of decorating it and then the trouble of taking down the decorations, etc.

Recently I saw a funny post on Facebook that showed a house and yard all lit up with Christmas lights. The house next door had no lights or decorations except an illuminated sign of an arrow pointed toward the neighbor's house and the word DITTO.

Yesterday afternoon we attended the annual St. Timothy's Methodist Church's Christmas concert and then had dinner at a nice restaurant with another couple. DH and I had an oyster and pasta dish. The sauce was a cream sauce but not overly rich. The four of us shared a huge slice of Death by Chocolate cake with a wonderful dark chocolate icing.

I used my Power Quick Pot on Saturday to make a beef veggie noodle soup. I winged it after reading some recipes involving beef. I gambled on 30 minutes of pressure cooking for the beef cubes and it was a good guess. I used the Saute feature to cook additional large dice carrot and celery and, finally, the egg noodles. The soup was just as good as if I'd simmered it on the stove top for a couple of hours.

Not sure about dinner tonight. There are jump ups in the refrigerator.

carolehalston

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.

BringOn2017

Hi All

Lacey the soup bowls are lovely. I do a similar looking vegetable soup (minus the kale though!).

Carole glad your foot is better.

I love spaghetti with meatballs. Mommyof2.

Tonight is homemade salmon quiche. 

I had lots of leftover bread which I soaked in water and made into bread pudding, adding lots of dried mixed fruit including sultanas, raisins, candid fruit, dried figs, prunes and apricots, eggs, milk, cocoa, cinnamon and some sugar. 

ChiSandy

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.

auntienance

The bowls are lovely Lacey, in spite of the contents lol. Actually, the soup looks quite good too and I could probably tolerate the kale in that medium.

Carole, I share your lack of enthusiasm for decorating, or should I say, the undecorating. My decorating now takes approximately an hour to undo and half of that is wrapping the two dozen glass ornaments from the very small artificial tree we now use. For years we had a live Fraser fir until DH got sick of the mess of taking it down. We then had a 9 foot artificial that took hours to decorate and hours to take down. We finally started putting up just the top section but it was still heavy and unwieldy. Several years ago I bought a 4 foot alpine tree that was one piece and we have used it until this year. We now have a very small one piece prelit tree that will be covered with a large trash bag and s stored upright in the garage.

I'm glad the pressure cooker meal was a success! Tonight will be Costco meatloaf and mashed potatoes acquired on my preholiday supply run. DH is thrilled as meatloaf is a fave. I'm thrilled because all I have to do is heat it and make some gravy and green beans.

Sandy, I had the same surgery as you on my toes except mine worked and I've never had another issue. The doc warned me that it didn't work for some people. I had no pain during or after the procedure. One of the best surgeries I ever had.

eric95us

I do the cotton under the toenail trick and it works just fine for me.

I always am amused at the "I know it's a hugely complicated issue that will require tons of research to figure out, but, off the cuff, could you......."

I've found 30 minutes to be quite the magic time for pressure cookers. :-) So, I'm not surprised that 30 minutes in the cooker "did the job".

carolehalston

DH cooked navy beans with ham for dinner last night. I thawed and warmed brown rice from the freezer. It was fine, somewhat to my surprise. I made a good tossed salad with a leafy lettuce and favorite additions.

Tonight is the Christmas party at the nursing home where my mother lives. DH and I will go, also my younger sister and her dh and maybe a brother and his wife. Dinner will be the food served at the party.

Beaverntx

Last evening was sweet chili chicken fajitas. Working on restoring order to the house after having new flooring out down so have no idea what we will have tonight! At the moment, I'm waiting for the electrician to arrive to complete the installation of the new floor outlets. Will be happy to have this nearly month long process done -- from packing up so furniture could be moved safely to now unpacking and sorting through all those things we had forgotten we had tucked away.

BringOn2017

Hey.   I feel in good company here with so many saying they hate the undecorating! We have a 7 foot artificial tree that takes forever to decorate and a 3 foot prelit fibre optic tree that usually goes up in DDs bedroom. 

This morning went out with a friend for a cappuccino. After that had spinach, kale and pineapple 🍍 smoothie.

Dinner was salmon with roast potatoes, broccoli and carrots. Bread pudding 🍮 for dessert.

auntienance

Lamb shanks (actually one very meaty shank) and white beans a la Julia Child. First time I've made it in the pressure cooker. It was wonderful. It too, cooked to perfection in the magical 30 minutes.

Spent the day baking - bacon cheddar scones and holiday breads. DSIL and DBIL are coming for a few days next week so I'm trying to cook some things ahead. I'll start cookies later in the week.

My freezer is packed and I've become acutely aware of how much I need to defrost my chest freezer. I probably should have done it last week when the temps were in the teens. The garage could have acted as a giant walk in freezer.

Beaverntx

Dinner tonight turned out to be penne pasta (gluten free) with veggie tomato sauce to which I added crumbled ground turkey seasoned with Italian seasoning ( I cook 3 or so pounds at a time and freeze it so an easy meal). Added a side salad of spring mix with spinach, little yellow and red tomatoes with balsamic dressing. Easy and tasty!

ChiSandy

Chinese food--stir-fry from leftover chicken breast, snow peas, bell peppers, mushrooms, scallions & asparagus over Minute fried rice; Wow Bao chicken potstickers and spicy beef steamed bun. Started with a tossed salad (romaine, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and ranch dressing).

carolehalston

Christmas luncheon for the women's golf association at our club today. No clue about the menu but there will be champagne.

Tonight's dinner will be leftover navy beans and rice and newly made tossed salad.

I purchased two Boston butt pork roasts yesterday in preparation for Christmas dinner. I'm a little worried about pig farmers. Pork continues to be low-priced.

BringOn2017

Out for a coffee 🍵 with a dear friend who is the widow of my Dad's cousin. Lovely morning. First coffee and then a light lunch of fried ravioli which were delicious. Walked down to the town centre in the afternoon as DD has not been out much since my surgery..... Nor have I really. What is usually a 7 minute walk 🚶 took more than 25! We bought a small cute wooden tree to put on her chest of drawers. Walked into a couple of shops.... And then had to walk very slowly back home. Still had dinner to prepare.... Comfort food tonight.... Homemade cottage pie.... Before collapsing onto recliner. Tomorrow will take it easy! 

After the bmx could walk reasonable distances almost straight after getting home. Come to think of it, even after my first open myomectomy and after Caesarean section. This time round I still feel limited. And today was almost supermum effort to be walking for a stretch. Still guess I ll get there sometime... 

MinusTwo

Oh no... I finally caved at the grocery store today and bought a bag of Cheetos. Luckily I had the presence of mind to pour some into a bowl and QUIT after I ate that portion. There's a 'middle aged' thread that is sort of extinct on BCO that had a fetish with Cheetos. Sigh. I haven't bought any since my B-day in August. It's just too easy to eat the whole darn bag.

So now I don't need to make the spinach salad with mandarins & mushroom & pecans. And I don't need to make the spaghetti from the sauce I took from the freezer with mushrooms & green peppers. And I don't need to eat the leftover spaghetti squash. And I don't need to pull out the Lemon Grass frozen selection dinner from Mai Pham that was on tap. Not to mention I don't need to soak the navy beans for ham hock & beans.

auntienance

Minus, I LOVE Cheetos too and somewhat solved the problem by buying the snack sized bags. I can usually get by eating two (bags) lol ;-)

illimae

I love Cheetos too, even the baked ones are pretty good.

Tonight’s dinner was sautéed spinach, squash, zucchini and red onion with brown rice. I didn’t really intend to go meatless but I’m using this app (Daily Dozen, recommendation from another thread) and I had more fruits and veggies to check off my list, so no room for meat.

ChiSandy

I have Cheetos about once or twice a year, when driving downstate along I-55. I get a small size bag from the rest stop vending machine. Somehow, Pirate's Booty just doesn't taste the same.

Went to a wine tasting/buffet tonight at Cellars. Starters were insalata Caprese (cherry tomatoes and mozzarella "pearls"), cauliflower/broccoli/sun-dried tomato salad, avocado deviled eggs, and crostini with brie and dollops of assorted jams (I had the habanero). Carving station was rare roast beef and turkey breast (the moistest I've ever eaten). Sides were stuffing, green beans & mushrooms, and maple-braised diced winter squash. Desserts were "Santa hat brownies" (topped with a strawberry) and asstd. Christmas cookies. Walked there & back (>1/2 mi.), but it didn't make a dent in the calories. Probably done eating till morning.

Lacey12

Well, Minus, it seems to me that those Cheetos saved you a lot of prep work for a meal! You should write the company a TY note!

We did a bit of rare mall shopping two afternoon’s ago, and DH saw a pizza place when his stomach gave out some hunger signals. So we tried it. There are so many wood fired pizza places now, I don’t even know if it was a chain or indiv place. But Anthony’s was fine.

Last night I made a chicken stir fry which we had over black rice, with a green leaf lettuce and kale salad with horseradish dressing. It was really tasty.

Tonight we went into town to hear a talk about Baroque composers before a Handel and Haydn Society holiday concert, “ A Baroque Christmas”. It was lovely, and the principal violinist was amazing performing Vivaldi's “Winter”!! I am always amazed at such concerts that there is rarely a person in the audience under 65 years old (aside from a few NE Conservatory students). We actually ate kale soup for dinner at home before taking almost an hour to go 14 miles to the concert. It is so annoying to get into town these days!

Earlier today I made my pizzelle dough and will probably make the cookies tomorrow. Just made anise flavor..but some with anisevseeds and some without. I might use my iron that makes 4 at a time for the unseeded ones. And if I have time, I may later make orange flavored ones.

Yesterday, I learned that one of my close college classmates died from a major heart attack. She had been on a boat deep sea fishing in FL and was misdiagnosed as having sea sickness. By the time the boat returned to shore, she was rushed to the nearest hospital where she died. It’s so sad to learn about this right after our close friend/neighbor died. Such different ways they both “moved on”....one with a peaceful passing after several months of a “living wake”, and one with a traumatic event. Sober reminders of the fragility of life...and appreciation of every day we can enjoy.

carolehalston

Terrible news, Lacey.

Cheetos is my favorite snack-in-a-bag, too. Goodness, do you suppose there's some connection between cheetos and bc?

Last night's dinner was meatloaf (mixture of mostly beef and some ground pork) that was quite good. The side was roasted veggie medley, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. The veggies were ok but definitely not amazing.

Tonight we're going out to dinner with former neighbors who will pick the restaurant.

MinusTwo

Carole - thanks for my chuckle for the day - Cheetos & BC. However I'm sure one could construct a blooming conspiracy theory. Then we could debate which is worse - baked or fried. Looks to me like 'living' causes BC.

carolehalston

Dinner out tonight was cancelled. DH and I both are happy to stay home. We would much rather go to a restaurant during the week rather than on the weekend.