So...whats for dinner?

susan_02143

As someone on this thread has said, hard to be susan in a restaurant that doesn't always hit all cylinders! But, it was a great night!

We started with some cocktails.... gin & tonic for me since it is National Gin Day, and sweet things for the kids. DH chose ginger ale. Next up, appetizers.... Rhode Island Calamari for the 02143's and a crab cake for the kids. Mr. 02143 also ordered a chowder. When they arrived, the chowder was MIA. We ordered the entrees, for me, grilled trout with cole slaw and seaweed salad, the girl-child ordered grilled salmon, Mr. 02143 chose the shrimp tacos with salsa verde, and the celebration-boy ordered the clam pizza. Three entrees arrived.... poor Mr. 02143's placemat was empty. His chowder and tacos arrived at the same time. But, the tacos had the wrong sauce. So back they went. In the end, they comped two appetizers and an entree.... and you know what? We had a great time anyhow! Some of the food was excellent; some of it was just good. Our waitress was doing a great job with what she had to work with. We left smiling. Great night.

*susan*

bedo

Lacey, beautiful pictures!

Well I made an #ss out of myself today. I was shopping in a little store shopping for clothes when I heard a customer informing the owner "Oh, yes, Negative thoughts play a HUGE part in developing breast cancer, and you know, most of those people have repeated trauma and stress and drink WAY too much and blah blah blah..." I held my tongue until I couldn't stand it then went up to her and said in a sweet voice, "I'm not an alcoholic, I don't think I'm negative, I've been vegetarian since I was 16 until I started eating fish a liitle while ago but I had breast cancer." and was that enough, why, of course not, I had to go on and on and inform her irrelevantly enough that I was "three courses short of a Master's in Epidemiology, which of course is statistics, you know, and you have to be able to determine what study is a good study and which isn't "and blah blah blad. You would think I was done, but NO. Then I started Lying and told her that I Meditated -I don't know how that lie popped out of my mouth. Well she backed off and then I had to try to be super nice and advise her on which clothes looked good. And hide in the dressing room. And to top it off this was not some Random customer, why NO it was a friend of the owner in a store I go into all the time. I can't go into that store again. My daughter always tells me to stop talking to cashiers etc. I will keep my mouth shut.

For dinner Lobster, corn on the cob, salad, wine and ice cream with strawberries with friends.

I bought halibut and squid at the Farmer's Market. This has been a reckless day.

I'm also going to make cold cucumber soup with buttermilk.

susan_02143

You go BEDO!!!!! It is time for people to stop blaming us for this damn disease! I am so sick of this culture of blaming the victim. You should continue to shop in this store, while holding your head high, and to be honest, I am willing to bring my challenged breast in and try on dresses, though my body shape isn't very shop-friendly.

*susan*

carolehalston

YAY, Bedo!!!  Thank you for taking up for all of us here on bc.org.  It makes these "blamers" feel safer to find a good reason THEY won't have bc because THEY are better, more healthy people.  I find it funny that you made up the part about the meditation.  After I was dx'ed, one of the women golfers questioned my friend Norma about my eating habits.  Specifically she wanted to know if I ate a lot of sugar.  Norma told her that I seldom ate desserts.  One of the myths about cancer is that it's caused by sugar consumption. 

Dinner today will be a noon meal.  Spaghetti with tomato sauce with Italian sausage.  A tossed salad.  My sister will provide tea and bread. 

SpecialK

bedo - you didn't make an a$$ out of yourself, the idiot who thinks negative thoughts cause breast cancer did.  I agree - keep going in that store.  And here I thought I was the only one who talks to EVERYONE, lol!  My DH just rolls his eyes and smiles, but I feel like I have educated some folks - seriously, I do this all the time.

Lacey12

nance, I am half laughing, half crying for you about the groundhog

Lacey12

That groundhog comment was leftover from last night.....

Bedo, I agree with the previous posts...love what you did in that store! And I especially agree with Carole's comment about folks just reassuring themselves by stating such "facts". That is ridiculous! We all know the capriciousness of this damn disease.

Meanwhile, I'm glad ( and not surprised) that you were able to salvage your celebration dinner, Susan. In my experience with Legal, I have enjoyed some wonderful meals at some and some not even passing ones at others. Maybe they SHOULD be a chain and exact more consistency of food and service. If you recall the ad, they pride themselves on NOT being a chain. But it sounds like the evening was still a celebratory one. Yay you!

Off to get ready to go to the Red Sox . They are abysmal, but the new "promising"young pitcher is on the mound, so that should be fun to see. This is my bd gift from DS2. We are meeting him and DGF there. They met at a Cubs' game on one of his Chicago trips

bedo

Fox Point Community Garden, Providence, Rhode Island

we win ... no more groundhog!!!

Here's what we do with groundhogs. Don't mess with Rhode Island either

Thanks for your support, guys

bedo

Fox Point Community Garden, Providence, Rhode Island

we win ... no more groundhog!!!

bedo

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=visicom&hsimp=yhs-panda1&type=vmn__pandasecuritytb__4_2__ms__ch_656__yrie&p=picture+of+rhode+island+inside+texas

I have no idea what I just did lol, or if you can see the groundhog in the first link.

Going to the garden.

Thanks for your support with the lady in the store,

Special, I'm glad there is another person out there who talks to random people. haha!

bedo

Well I have no idea what I just did or if you can see the groundhog in the first link.

Thanks for all your support with the lady in the shop

I see I've made a mess of the boards so my work here is done, lol, going to the garden.

Hope you all have a glorious Sunday

MinusTwo

Bedo - you go girl. Wish we could all meet and descend on that shop at one time. Thanks for sticking up for us. You sure got that ground hog. Hope that ends the trauma to the veggies. He must be more tame that Nance's fellow.

This afternoon was supposed to be dominoes but the friend's husband feels puny again. He had a defibrillator put in last Tuesday and felt really good since they first shocked his heart. Now she says he feels out of sorts and is taking his BP every 30-40 minutes, so only causing more stress & higher BP. I recommended they call the doc first since they trust him & find out what you're supposed to feel like at this point. At least the doc could call the ER and prepare the way if they do want him to go in.

So since I'll be home this afternoon, and it's raining even though it's climbing past 85 degrees - I think I'll cook a pork loin & roast some Brussels sprouts. Now I just have to decide if my taste buds want me to baste the pork with Apricot Chipotle sauce or Hatch Green Chili "stew" that's already open.

susan_02143

I vote for the Hatch green chili, but I will NEVER ever vote for Chipolte. Just don't care for the flavor of chipoltes, which is odd since I like smoke and I like jalepenos.

Back to our Sunday routine. Susan starts bread before 8am, done by 10am, pulls stale French bread from the freezer to thaw, homemade bread cool enough for the kids at 11, make the French toast custard, soak bread, before then cooking the French toast. Cut the fresh bread for my toast, get husband to set table and toast my bread, and then in the final moments, cook my egg. Today had the added component of boiling some aging Vermont maple syrup since it seems to have needed it. Sure enough, lots of stuff to skim and I hear it tasted better today.

Dinner will be grilled lamb burgers and I am still thinking about the sides. When the plan was beef burgers, I was thinking about some cole slaw and either potato or a green salad. Not sure that works with lamb burgers with Middle Eastern spices and feta cheese. I just bought a local, organic cabbage at the market and I do want to make sure that gets eaten.

*susan*

auntienance

You go Bedo! Keep right on acting "ugly"! It's not as if we don't do enough self blaming when we're first diagnosed. You know, "if only I hadn't done this", "if only I had done that". I'm sure it goes through all of our minds at first. Carole is right, people are desperate to believe that it can't happen to them.

I was given some blue cheese from Wisconsin, so I'm making the blue cheese dressing that Carole posted. We'll have it tomorrow night on a dinner steak salad. Today, I'm making navy beans in the pressure cooker. Very anxious to see how that turns out. In addition, I've made the base for some cherry ice cream that I'll make a little later.

Your celebratory dinner sounds like a success in spite of the fails Susan, I'm sure the boy appreciated it.

SpecialK

susan - I love the roasted lemony Greek potatoes - like these, with lamb - or pretty much anything.  I think cole slaw would still work or you could maybe sauté the cabbage with the same spices as your lamb, or something complementary?

http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-potatoes-oven-roasted-and-delicious-87782

Suladog

Susan and Carole,

I'm with you. A friend of mine who was diagnosed last year was at a dinner party, and someone mentioned that she had had breast cancer and one woman muttered, "I'm glad I don't sit on my anger" let me tell you she would have had a hard time sitting on anything if she'd said that to me.

carolehalston

I'm sipping dinner, a delicious decaf cappuccino.  I made one for each of us and dh had a slice of carrot cake with his.  It's a bought carrot cake, a late birthday cake for him.  I had a slice (or two or more?) for dessert after noon dinner at my mother's house. 

 

susan_02143

Sula, I am not particularly violent, and I might have to slap that woman upside the head, as my father in law used to say.

Dinner was great! I made the lamb burgers with lots of herbs from the garden with a bit of feta cheese in the middle. I then made a tomato-onion-feta salad with a gentle Greek vinegar and a yogurt-garlic raita type thing with lemon juice and tons of dill from the garden. The yogurt mixture was eaten with the burger, and I also put out a ton of cucumber and breakfast radish slices for dipping. I pulled a Lebanese flatbread out of the freezer to complete the meal. Love all the fresh options of late Spring.

*susan*

Redheaded1

AMEN

 

Lacey12

Carole, we too just finished some carrot cake. Glad it was a very small cake since it is waaaay to tempting!

We ate dinner at a restaurant near Fenway after the game. DH had some muscles cooked in a beer broth, then we both had chicken club sandwiches with fries (really!). We each took half of our sandwiches home for tomorrow.

Susan that lamburger dinner sounds mouthwatering!! And yes, spring garden offerings are so wonderful

susan_02143

Lacey, Lunch in the bag! Brilliant.

Mr. 02143 has a lamb burger for lunch tomorrow which means I get to have soup! The stock is all happy in the fridge. Today's batch was HUGE!!!!!

*susan*

SpecialK

I made thin pork chops dredged in corn starch and marinated in a mixture of organic soy, sesame oil and garlic.  Had oven roasted potatoes and a medley of asparagus, red pepper and red onion sautéed.  DD and her friend were on their way to the spring fed river this morning to snorkel and boat but were in an accident with an elderly gentleman (his fault) so the boat and trailer had to come an hour home on a flatbed, boat is OK, trailer not so much.  They decided to snorkel in the pool and had fun playing in the pool with the dog.

carolehalston

SpecialK, glad DD and friend were not injured in the accident. 

SpecialK

carole - thanks, me too!  DD was pretty calm during the numerous phone calls home, and she was worried about the elderly man who hit her.  She did some evasive moves or her new SUV, the trailer and the boat would have been hit.  The man was cited and has insurance so this will all be ok for her, but she felt bad for him.  She said he was shaking and very apologetic.  He didn't have a cell phone so she made some calls for him.  As her mom, once I knew she was fine I was proud of her empathy toward him and that she didn't get mad that her property was damaged and her day's activities had to change - signs of maturity - yay!

Lacey12

Special, it sounds like DD handled the accident and herself with responsibility and grace. Definitely a daughter to be proud of! Glad she is fine and was able to have some fun once home. Do some drivers NOT carry insurance? Yikes!

Rainy day here so no excuse to ignore indoor tasks any longer! Am trying to get out of the fog I feel after taking a melatonin last night. I thought it would help me not awaken in the middle of the night (it didn't), and feel more rested (I don't). Not sure if it would make sense to try it one more time tonight......I would love to improve my sleep mainly to preserve my brain function!

SpecialK

lacey - here in FL lots and lots of drivers are uninsured, up to about 40%.  It is illegal, but it is a fact.  It is one of the reasons our rates are so high, and people are fools if they don't have uninsured motorist coverage.  Personal injury lawsuits are ridiculous here and the majority of people involved in accidents retain attorneys and sue for all they can - it is a serious flaw in the law here and a secondary reason rates are so high.  In Virginia I was paying about $400/month for two adults and two teenagers, we came here and the amount doubled, I almost fell over.  We have no fault coverage here and many people have what they call 10/20/10 meaning they only need minimal coverage.  If someone hits you, they being at fault, with that coverage and you have a new car, or there are multiple cars, they won't have enough coverage to pay for everything - so your uninsured motorist becomes "underinsured" motorist coverage.  And, again, rates go up.  It is a broken system.

Alibeths

Found this really MOTIVATING fb page for us survivors....Follow it!

https://www.facebook.com/sendBCpacking?fref=ts

carolehalston

Thanks, Alibeth.

Skirt steak thawing.  Thinking of making beef and broccoli with soba noodles using a recipe from Epicurious that I used once before with success.  Broccoli on hand that needs to be cooked.  The neat thing about soba noodles is that they can be cooked in advance and are sturdy noodles.  Tasty, too.

The 5th wheel camper is parked outside the house now and the many, many trips back and forth can commence as we prepare for the journey north.  Seems like it wasn't that long ago that we returned home last Oct.  The swift passage of time is especially scary at this elderly stage of life. 

 

 

carolehalston

The food education continues!  Just googled dan dan noodles, thinking it was a certain type of noodle.  Only to discover that it's the name of a dish, the origin of the name coming from the pole that vendors in China balanced on their shoulders with a pot of noodles at one end and a pot of chili sauce at the other end.  That evokes a vivid picture for me and makes me rather curious to try the dish.  But there are umpteen versions with different ingredients. 

Susan, have you ever looked at Alton Brown's recipe?  It has a lot of peanut butter in the sauce. 

Luv, where are you these days?  Are you busy rescuing the goats from floods?  We miss you.

susan_02143

Dan dan noodles have NO PEANUT BUTTER. Ever!

Here is Dunlop's recipe which is pretty darn authentic: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516692

The hardest part of this dish is finding the Tianjin preserved vegetables. They come in a crock and if you rinse them properly bring such a wonderful depth of flavor to any dish. In actual fact almost any noodle will do, but fresh Chinese ones are obviously best. You will have to find an Asian market since I don't see these vegetables on amazon.

*susan*