So...whats for dinner?

eric - oh no!  For both of you!

Eric - so sorry to hear about your Mom. Hope they can get her on some good meds to knock this quickly.

Sending positive healing thoughts your and your mom's way, Eric.

Susan definitely calling you if/when my stove ever gets dysfunctional! Hunker down.....

Tonight made meatballs for the timpano, and the hard boiled eggs. The lamburgers we had for dinner were particularly tasty. I tried someone's suggestion of adding the feta in the burger (along with minced garlic, Rosemary powder and chopped onion) rather than on top like we usually have. Poor DH had to work hard fighting the driving snow for this grilling effort. He never complains about very bad weather when he grills, but this storm is obviously even too much for him.

Saw a Facebook post about how to turn your shoveling efforts into lunges, squats, etc. so we may be doing that in the morning!

oh eric also sending you and your mom strong healing wishes...

Hahaha, Susan. I guess I neglected to mention that on Sunday, I witnessed a similar new cultural phenomenon in my town.....the grocery store was totally out of lettuces and KALE, yet had plenty of hamburger and sub rolls. In years past, produce was relatively untouched and bread products gone. I did notice that there were plenty of brussels sprouts tho! I smiled at the kale shortage.

I rarely use my slow cooker....mainly to keep soup warm if I am bringing it somewhere.

We are really snowed in....so I have to find some sled dogs to get me next door with my component parts to the Timpano. Not eager to eat hard boiled eggs and meatballs here....need to cook up and cool the ziti. Neighbor made the crust, doing the sauce, cheeses, cured meats This will be fun if we can scale the snowdrifts! Fortunately, no heavy wet snow so power loss has not been an issue.

Hope everyone else in this white marass is safe.

And I hope your mother is responding well to her treatment, Eric.

Love, Auntie and Special, I love my crockpot, but my daughter won't touch anything made in it. I like to make soups-split pea etc in it. I ordered a Neato XV robot vacuum and next is an automatic kitty litter changer-you only have to dumb the bag in the hermetically sealed chamber once a week. It adds litter. I get lazier by the day.

Eric I hope your Mom is feeling better.

Stay warm Lacey, Susan, Mom and veruka and Laurie!

Red- you sound like a wonderful daughter. Thanks for the tip on the lanterns.

We seem to be behind the other states- still travel ban until 10pm, schools closed tomorrow and a 2d snowstorm coming today. I am going to try to make a snowman There is no road in front of my house. I saw some sweet soul try to shovel my sidewalk stumble around in snow up to his knees and give up. I will try to send a pic of the snowman if I can figure out how to do it.

I ate all of the tomato bulgur soup. Time to make mushroom barley.

Snow too dry for packing (

Snow Dog

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6fg5mbilncv2zf/IMG_9853.jpg?dl=0

Nancy, My stove is a fancy Dacor that I bought off of eBay. It has a gas stovetop and electric oven. The oven is controlled by a computer, so if that goes, the whole bloody thing is useless. And if we loose power, it is also useless. We have never lost power in the 12 years we have lived in this house, but the computer has gone at least once. To reboot the stove, we turned off the breaker [the oven has its own special one] and then turned it back on. The repair company actually called today to schedule an appointment! I was stunned.

Well, I am highly suggestible it seems. Ever since Lacey mentioned lamb burgers that is all I have wanted. So, forget those Chinese leftovers! We had lamb burgers. I made them in a grill pan, first time I have done that. I had some frozen spanikopita from the holiday dinner party. I mixed in the herbs, lemon, onion, and garlic, and yes it was me who brought you this idea, stuffed the middles with some feta. Oh my was this a delicious dinner!

Round 1 of snow removal is completed. Mr. 02143 ran the snow blower, the kids did the shoveling out of cars and stairs. I am sure that this will have to happen again in the morning, but the kids think they have to head to work and school first thing, so perhaps their subarus can dive through the plow smutzge at the end of the drive. And for those of you watching from a distance, we estimate that there was 25" out there, but it is possible that some was blown away in all the wind.

*susan*

Hugs Eric. Hope your Mom gets better fast.

To all the east coasters, hope you are all dug out! Stay safe. Don't overdo. We just got a bit here and I only had to shovel the front sidewalk.

Susan can I go in your suitcase? I'll snore along with your Mom..... LOL

You all sound so adventurous in your recipes! I've used my crockpot for potatoes. You wrap them in foil and cook til they're done. Great for a lot of people. Also if you put carrots on the bottom, then add stuffing, and top with pork chops and apples you can make a whole dinner.

Saw my 6th doctor since around Xmas time. Opthamalogist. I knew I had cataracts but the last time she checked she said they weren't bad. Surprise, she told me this time they were ready for surgery. LOL. Wow that went fast. 11 and 12 operations or so in 4 years. Thought I'd make one year without any. LOL. Not to be. Might as well get them done as all my Dr visits were great. Do it when I'm feeling good. Now has anyone here had the progressive lenses implanted or just had the standard? The progressive ones are 2000 more an eye not covered by insurance.

Here's a pic of my DGD (and yours truly) at 6 weeks. (Last week)

Much love.

Sweet pic, Monica. I did not know anything about the progressive lenses option. Interesting!

Eric, you needed a snow day today.

Yes, Susan stuffing those lamburgers makes them heavenly! Thank you for the suggestion!

We had dinner next door ( not really so simple with the snow drifts). My neighbor and I pooled our resources and made the Timpano, salad, crusty bread, and her (Ina's) spicy sausage with grapes. Fun, if artery clogging, meal! Here are some pix:

We had anise pizzelles and oranges with sweetened olive oil for dessert (something my neighbor learned in her Italian cooking course).

It was a fun way to finish out the snow storm, and I'm happy we finally made the Timpano since we've talked about it since last Spring. Weird...keep losing the sliced oranges dessert pic. Well, you can picture them easily enough.

Better submit this before I lose all the pix.

Glad you mom is doingbetter, Eric. Love her independence "bragging"!

Lacey -- impressive! How long did it take to bake? Beautiful pizzelles too!

Tonight I zapped the leftover Chicken stir-fry, made some fresh rice, and steamed a bunch of dumpling and served with a simple dipping sauce. The chicken dish was fine, but in a word, we both think is was "meh." Perhaps it was the soft texture, or maybe the serranos had no heat. Who knows.... I don't ever have to make it again if I don't want to.

I just pulled two more loin pork chops from the freezer. No. I don't crave a pork chop. I crave mashed potatoes. I meant to take a picture of the back yard for you. There is 40" of snow everywhere except around the grill. Mr. 02143 used the snow blower and a shovel to clear this area all the way to the slate tiles so we can continue to use this great cooking heat source. Tomorrow, he will get to use his special spot. It will be 27º; plenty warm enough for grilling. [He even cleared enough space to have his chair nearby.] Gotta love winter in New England!

Paris planning continues. <commence babbling> We land at CDG at 8:30 in the morning following an overnight trip. The apartment is available at 4pm. My calculations are that we will get to Etoile around 11. That is 5 hours that we need to "kill" while supremely fatigued, with bags. We can spend 2 hours having a lovely lunch.... and an hour getting a SIM card and perhaps a phone. We can't really buy our "provisions" since I don't think we could carry food along with the bags. I don't think falling asleep on a park bench is an option; though it might be tempting. This is the problem with being solely responsible for planning. This type of thing makes me anxious.<end babbling>

*susan*

Special, Yea. No "front desk" since this is a real apartment. I don't want to ask my cousins to watch the bags because then we would need to spend the time with them while totally fatigued. And, I love and adore these cousins, but this doesn't seem like the way we wish to start this visit. I may ask the landlords if we can arrive a bit earlier in the day, without an additional charge, of course.

I have found three possible restaurants with reasonably priced fixed-price lunches. I will have to ask my mother if this plan works for her or if she wants to dive straight into museums.

*susan*

Eric--antibiotics are hell on warfarin.  My dad took Bactrim for a week and it was close to 6 weeks before his INR stabilized....

Years ago when a friend and I arrived in London, we drug our heels in eating a truly disgusting breakfast at the airport to try and kill time, the because it was so horribly cold, we paid a taxi to wait for us while we shot in a couple of shops to purchase woolen sweaters.   Then we got to our hotel and had to cool our heels in the lounge until the rooms were ready---we were too exhausted for anything more than a shower and bed.....Surely and the landlord would be sympathetic to your plight..... If all they are doing is cleaning, they may be willing to let you stash your bags.  I've done that with the condo I rent in Florida sometimes.   It will be such an adventure.....I can't wait to hear all your stories. 

Eric, Do the doctors believe that this is a residual infection from the last one, or a new one? That is a lot of infections for someone of her age to tolerate. Such a hardship on the body, not to mention how nasty antibiotics can make you feel.

The day o' travel is hard, no doubt. If you take an evening flight from the East coast of the USA it is about 20 hours of no sleep, minus whatever you can catch on the plane. I have found, however, that pushing yourself to stay awake once you hit the ground, but allowing yourself to fall into bed around 7 or 8 pm means that you wake the next day fully adjusted to the time zone. Saturday is an important day in France since most stores are closed at 1pm on Sunday and then do not reopen until Tuesday. And finding a restaurant open on a Sunday night is very difficult. We are staying in a non-tourist, residential neighborhood so these "rules" still apply. Sunday morning isn't a great day for shopping since I think we will get on a train to head out to Chartres to attend Sunday services. I wish we could get there for the Gregorian service at 9am, but the train schedule on Sunday is very slim. So there you have it. I want some eggs, cream, cheese, bread, and a few veggies in the fridge so when we return Sunday night, we can eat a light meal before collapsing again.

The first time I went to Paris there was a snafu in Heathrow and we were up for over 43 hrs by the time we landed in Paris. My mother made me stay awake and take the metro to Notre Dame since Saturday night was the only night while we were in the city that it was lit up. Then we ate eclairs and walked along the river in the dark. She wanted to visit Pont Neuf at night. Now that was tired! Thank goodness Notre Dame is now lit every night of the week. And this is how I was taught to travel. Push hard and fast. :-)

*susan*