So...whats for dinner?

Beaverntx

Minus, actually I'm near San Antonio! Was able to sleep about 5 uninterrupted hours last night but am making up for the coughing now.

Carole, I thought of you and your DH when my coughing hung on. Hoping this doesn't last a month but have a friend in San Antonio whose DH had it for 8 weeks.

Dinner is up for grabs. I need to go to the grocery store but don't want to go out in our cold rainy day...

illimae

I didn’t want to use the grill tonight, so I did a pan seared steak instead. Turned out well and should be perfect once it’s rested a bit more. Sides are broccoli, sautéed squash/onions and rainbow carrots.

eric95us

I am amazed that we did not "catch" a cold while on our trip.

Tomorrow, both Sharon and I are driving school buses for a grade school field trip, so we will have another opportunity for catching something. :-)

Tonight's dinner is a chicken and pasta dish and a salad.

Last week, about this time, the high temperature was barely above freezing and today it was 80F degrees.

Arizona has two large ski areas, Snowbowl and Sunrise, which are in northern Arizona. There is also a smaller ski area in southern Arizona. I know the Sunowbowl has a 100+ inch base of snow and it's likely that Sunrise has even more snow. I'm not sure about the one in southern ARizona.

Sharon skis and DD loves the snowboard. I don't do either. :-)

ChiSandy

Coughing truly sucks, especially the allergic tickly kind that won't go away (and embarrassingly seems to hit me when I'm in temple either singing or listening to the sermon...or worse, the Kaddish list). It's the only thing for which I'll take an opioid (codeine/guaifenesin cough syrup--my PCP says Robitussin or the generic is worthless). I take half the dose on the label, and it and the CBD/melatonin will knock me out for >8 hrs.

Nancy, is any of that Depression glass "Carnival?" There is a huge and active Carnival collecting community--a friend is a member and even travels to their conventions. Maybe you might have some luck on eBay--fetch at least twice the cost of postage and shipping.

Got my test results back, and am pleasantly surprised: a1c 6 (normally would be considered a tad high, but the statin is elevating it), glucose 97, total cholesterol 201 (with LDL 105, HDL 84 and a nice low total-to-HDL ratio); and now that my hemoglobin/hematocrit/ferritin are not only normal for the second time in a row (last test was in July) but the highest they've been since before BC, I am no longer anemic. (Still can't give blood till 5 yrs after going off letrozole). My PCP says to stop the iron (my gut is doing the happy dance); and while the Mega-Red, baby aspirin, and CoQ10 won't hurt me, I don't need them--but he says I will in 10 yrs. Lungs & heart fine. He'd like me to lose some weight--and agrees with my breast surgeon that if the next mammo is negative, a unilateral (L) reduction would be a great idea since it'd help my upper back & shoulders (maybe even reduce the kyphosis a bit).

Last night I pan-seared a sockeye salmon filet, made tartar sauce (mayo, dill pickle relish, capers) to top it; wilted some kale with olive oil & lemon juice; had leftover broccolini; and nuked a small sweet potato with salt, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. of smoked maple syrup. Tonight Bob & I aren't very hungry--he had a late huge lunch at a Polish restaurant that refuses to box up leftovers, and I had a large almond croissant late this aft. Might nuke some hot wings or steam some dim sum (bao & potstickers). Cleaned out the fridge yesterday, but my freezer runneth over...

Tues. is Mardi Gras, so tomorrow I will put my pačzki and king cake order in for pickup (so I can skip the interminable line, this year doubtless in subfreezing cold). Week after that, some yeast-raised hamantashen (poppy, of course). I hate the cookie-dough kind.

auntienance

Thanks for the info Sandy, I'll check it out. I do have one set of carnival that is a fruit bowl with 8 smaller dishes. Most of the rest of what I have is green but I have some pink and cobalt pieces too.

Tonight was panko breaded pork tenderloin with a "picatta-ish" lemon wine sauce and bowtie pasta with butter, broccoli, grated lemon zest and lots of parm.

Tomorrow is our 39th anniversary and some friends are taking us to dinner. Anything other than fast food options are limited in this town, so we're going to the local diner that happens to have excellent fried chicken and a chopped sirloin with grilled onions that is delicious.

Carole, I'm so envious of your blooming plants. We are scheduled to have below zero and single digit temps this week - well below average. I have no idea when we'll see a sign of spring. It didn't reach 25 degrees today.

eric95us

Coughing is horrible...... Get well, very soon, everyone.

That is good news Chi.

Auntie...congratulations. Happy 39th anniversary.

ChiSandy

Happy Anniversary, Nancy--and many more. (Few things are yummier than fried chicken done right, BTW).

auntienance

Thanks Sandy and Eric. Fried chicken, next to lobster, is my most favorite food. I'm not good at making it (plus I hate the mess) so I don't often get to eat the real deal.

carolehalston

I love good fried chicken, too. Happy 39th anniversary, Nance.

Last night's dinner was ground lamb patties, mashed butternut squash with a little butter and brown sugar, and a romaine salad with additions that included avocado at the perfect stage of ripeness. I cooked the patties in the cast iron grill pan, which has been getting a lot of use lately.

Illimae, you do such a good job of including veggies in your meals.

MinusTwo

Nance: Happy Anniversary. Both of the dinner options sound great. Like you, I don't make fried chicken. And I love a good chopped sirloin steak w/grilled onions.

Last night was 15 minute shrimp scampi. I had 1-1/2 lbs of cooked shrimp w/tails in the freezer. Defrosted them in cold water, removed the shell of the tails, simmered in Campbell's Skillet Sauce. I still have a cold and just didn't feel like getting creative. I'll try it again adding different vegetables or maybe chicken.

https://www.campbells.com/sauces/skillet-sauces/sh...

Lacey12

Sending healing wishes, Minus and Beaver, for the terrible coughs! DH had it for what seemed like forever a few months ago. It was such an out of control feeling once it started.

Eric, maybe you traveling in your car caccoon (you did take a road trip, right?) helped you avoid so many germs. I was truly amazed that we came home healthy after the long flights a few weeks ago.

Happy Anniversary, Nance! I hope the weather warms up for you!

Heading into town, so I will likely have my fave salmon with mixed veggies and some steamed broccoli on the side. The little waitress we often have at the Harp knows my order and if I forget to say something specifically, she asks me if I still want that item the way she remembered it. I feel like royalty in a sports bar. Haha! She will be starting nursing school, and, I think, a very nurturing clinician!

Yesterday I had an eye appt to have some skin “things” removed that were next to my eyes. Well, I now look like someone burned me with cigarettes, and delivered a black eye. Not sure if band aids are better for the burns or not when out in public. Yuk!

ChiSandy

Lacey, I too have some kind of lesion next to my eye that appeared about 4 weeks ago—a red spot that then began drying and flaking. I try clearing it up with the ketoconazole cream I was prescribed for seborrhea around my nose, then mild cortisone, even a little CBD balm (anti-inflammatory and doesn't thin the skin)—but it's back the next day. I'm hoping it's benign; more likely, it's seborrhea or even psoriasis. If the latter is the case, I can live with cleaning up the flakes and using topicals on it—I won't take any biologic orally or by injection for that little bit of psoriasis, since that would be like killing a cockroach with a Sherman tank; and I don't need the immunocompromise that comes with it. Getting Prolia twice a year, I'm flirting with that enough as it is. And there's always concealer. (Outside chance is that I've become sensitized to my mascara—in which case I will switch brands or even shades to see what happens. It's not on the lid itself, so liner & shadows aren't the culprit)

Isn't it great to have a place where they know “the usual" and your preferences for substitutions and cooking methods? Cellars is like that for us

auntienance

Wow, I'm having eyelid issues too - redness, irritation and flaking. I have psoriasis on my lids anyway, but this is something different - it gets more like a lesion and quite sore. The elidel cream and sometimes neosporin clears it up but it comes right back. A year or so I had a thing that grew in the corner of my eye that was totally weird. It looked like someone poked me in the eye with a stick. The eye doc removed it and gave it a long name, which I promptly forgot. Maybe this eternal winter is causing all this stuff. I'm very sorry for you coughers. I find myself running in the opposite direction in public when someone near me coughs.

MinusTwo

Nance - I don't blame you. I haven't really gone out since this started. I don't want to infect anyone else.

ChiSandy

Years ago, during an extended spring pollen season that morphed into an early ragweed season, I had started tearing excessively (especially in sunlight) and getting red and irritated eyelids. It got so bad that I often had to dab at my eyes with a tissue constantly (and essentially "cried" off my eyeshadow & mascara). By process of elimination, my derm & I discovered it was the mica and pigments in iridescent green and blue eyeshadows in my stage makeup (I was in a rock band at the time) that were the culprits. I gave my lids a few days' rest and then switched to matte shadows, and that problem never recurred.

But this time, my lids are fine and I'm not tearing--it's just the skin immediately adjacent to the outer corner of my R eye. My worry is that it might have to be biopsied to rule out a basal cell carcinoma, which if positive would lead to disfiguring Mohs surgery requiring I wear an eye patch in public.

MinusTwo

Dinner last night was scrambled eggs and turkey breakfast sausage with ONE piece of toasted San Francisco Sour Dough. Today will probably be the leftover Shrimp Scampi. That or it will have to go in the disposal.

ChiSandy

Imported spaghetti a la chitarra (packaged in little “nests”) and a combo of Rao’s and leftover Maggiano’s marinara sauces, with pecorino Romano. In the Fasta Pasta, it took 15 minutes and seemed to go from raw to mush w/o stopping for al dente in between. Today for brunch I made “hash” out of diced tricolor peppers, zucchini & yellow squash, red onion, mushrooms and scallion tops with precooked turkey sausage crumbles and then an egg on top. Forgot how labor-intensive that is (especially trimming the insides of the peppers & culling the bad spots), but it’s delicious.

Going to buy some more CBD gummies today even though I have a stash of oils and other edibles (not to mention the stuff with THC). Got an $8.50 gift certificate from Botanic Alternatives, which expires tomorrow (weather will be okay today before Polar Vortex returns). Reason is that the FDA is making noises about banning commercial sales of CBD until there can be broad clinical trials, which could take years. The FDA didn’t say squat about it till Epidiolex came on the market for severe pediatric epilepsy—and now drug companies are smelling blood in the water. OTC CBD sales would cut into their potential profits should they start making it themselves; and tax authorities are also drooling over the potential extra revenue. How ironic is it that it may become illegal for me to buy CBD except in a medical marijuana dispensary—but that it’s perfectly legal for me (at the state level) to buy and indulge in marijuana!!!

eric95us

Dinner last night was a marinated top sirloin steak done on the grill, along with a salad, rice, beans and a sweet potato.

We also still have the chicken-pasta dish.

I bought some small whole chickens (less than 5 pounds for two chickens) and they are sitting in a brine solution. I will be roasting them in the oven. I haven't figured out what else to add to that for a meal...but we'll figure something out. :-)

illimae

Tonight was various leftover veggies. A yellow squash/onion mix, broccoli and Brussels sprouts that I reheated with a balsamic glaze. I’ve got leftovers for a couple more days, so dinners will be a bit more random.

Happy belated anniversary nance! 🎊🎉🍾

auntienance

Wow Eric, little chickens - what a find!

Thanks everyone for the anniversary wishes. DH is my first and last husband - he would be a very hard act to follow.

I've been distraught lately as my source for sour red pie cherries had dried up. But today I discovered that they are now back in stock and on sale at Fresh Thyme so I'll be making a trip to the city Wednesday to restock my empty freezer. (They are impossible to find here fresh or frozen.)

Tonight was taco salad. The predicted snowmageddon has now been downgraded to 1-2" for us and temperatures to remain above zero, but still single digits. Our normal high for this time of year is 52°. I want my money back.

ChiSandy

We're going to miss the snowmageddon as we're north of I-80, but we'll be back in Chiberia again: -1 by Mon. morning, and we may not see 20 above till Friday. Natch, I have to be up with the chickens to help Gordy take our kitty Heidi to the vet for her dental extraction. He was going to take an Uber but it's just too cold for that, so I'll just have to pull on my big-girl pants and drive. I will pick her up, as he'll be at work when she's ready.

eric95us

Turns out Sharon isn't hungry, we ate a late lunch, so I'll "cook" the chicken tomorrow.

Lacey12

Yikes....so many surrounding eye issues! My (hopefully) last comment about that procedure relates to the cough catching fear. Shortly after I returned from the doc’s office, we went to town hall to have something notarized. At the counter as the clerk (who is a seventyish woman looking like 50) looked at the papers, I was trying to spare her view of my fresh “scars”, so I put my hand up to my face. She immediately jumped back away from the counter and me. So I explained what I was doing and she said...”oh, I thought you might have a cold and were about to cough!” Can’t be too careful when dealing with the public! Stay germ free everyone....and warm...for those dealing with this next wave of frigid temps! Hoping tomorrow’s snow totals forecast is reduced like yours, Nance!

I made a huge pot of kale veggie soup yesterday...plan to bring some to my next door neighbors’ son who is staying in their house while they stay warm in FL. Guess I’ll find out if he is a kale fan.

Dinner last night was the soup, a cuke salad with avocado and red onion, and some leftover Italian artichokes. Tonight we may rely on the Greek Chicken prepared dinner that DH picked up at Traders, along with a salad since we’ll be out until almost 7PM.

Yay for you finding the cherries, Nance! I’m assuming they are fresh? But this time of year? I always use Washington state canned ones. Tres cher!

auntienance

Sadly Lacey, they are not fresh - impossible to find here any time of the year - but frozen. But they are excellent quality and I can have them on hand at all times, so I usually have a couple of bags in the freezer.

Chicken and dumplings tonight. Something green on the side - probably broccolini.

MinusTwo

Pumpernickel bagels for dinner. NO ONE in town makes them on a regular basis & you have to order ahead, so I try to keep some in my freezer. Will be served with homemade salmon/cream cheese spread. Maybe some green salad. Or not.

auntienance

I would kill for a pumpernickel bagel - haven't had one in years. Your dinner sounds marvelous Minus

Regarding coughing, it's not the act itself that makes me run the other way. It's the fact that so few adults can be bothered to cover their mouths. Every little school kid I see in public coughs into his or her elbow, but not the adults. Makes me crazy. I've become a total germophobe.

eric95us

I cooked the chicken today. The brine made it juicy enough that the chicken "squirts" when I cook it.

Tomorrow is our 30th anniversary. The 30 years sure did go by fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

auntienance

Wow Eric, that's terrific! Congratulations!

Beaverntx

Eric, congratulations to you and Sharon celebrating 30 years!

Chicken that squirts when you cook it must be interesting to watch.

Tonight was sliced turkey breast from the freezer (left over from a holiday party), thawed and heated with turkey gravy (from a package), sweet potato, and mixed vegs. Easy and tasty. Made vegetarian vegetable soup (no kale!) for lunch so today was veggie day.

Am going to be forced to go to the grocery store in spite of the cold and still coughing. The pantry isn't quite bare but the fridge almost is!

eric95us

I meant to say "cut".... :-) It is VERY juicy.