So...whats for dinner?

Oh Lacey - so sorry about your DH. Hope the 'arrangements' have been completed by now & surgery scheduled at least. I hate it that you are driving back & forth.

And Redhead. Good heavens - I hope it's not your dominant hand. Here's to excellent surgery & good pain meds & quick healing.

Can't decide on today's lunch/dinner (is that linner or dunch?) Maybe grilled cheese w/pumpernickel & Havarti? Need a salad but not in the mood.

red - oh no!  I hope you can get the wrist dealt with while having a minimum of pain and inconvenience, so sorry!

joyce - we will - and it will be good to see DD, we always have fun with her - she is such a nut.  She will work her booth from 10 am - 7 pm, so we will see her for breakfast and dinner, but will also check out the boat show for a bit.  My DH is a Miami native so we enjoy spending time there, and I like that he drives and knows where he is going, so we aren't consulting a map, etc.  We have basically no agenda other than relaxing, strolling, stopping here and there.  I think the weather will be pleasant, and we usually just park the car for the day and go everywhere on foot.  We will drive north and stop in Boynton Beach on the way home to check out the condo and do a quick vacuum and dust if need be. 

Tv dinners.

oh Lacey! Wishing your DH a quick recovery. Wish I knew of someplace that could deliver you a decent kale sautee. I hear the roads in Boston are slick so please take care!

Red- owowow! Hope the pain meds kick in!

Thanks Bedo for the warm thoughts - movie night and pizza sound great. If only I could get DD to watch anything without princesses...she throws a football with her dad in her princess dress and when the movie comes on, puts it in her lap, covers it with a blanket and plays baby with it 😳

Special k- thank you. Knowing you guys are here is a great help. Just keep telling us about the lovely sunshine and golfing weather! That goes for you too Carole and Joyce!

Susan- any progress on the Barcelona apt? Btw, my DD and DS went bananas for the carpet picnic! We tried it at afternoon snack...ok, to tell the truth they threw themselves down on the floor in a snit first, but the snacks and tablecloth on the floor cheered them (and me) up immensely!

Dinner tonight was a chicken tortilla soup. And a kale salad.

OMG....those baguettes!!! Nance, that's what I want mine to look like! But they don't.

I have no idea why I am stil up other than the fact that .i just ate diviner an hour ago, scarfing (is that the word?) down a salmon meal from our favorite Greek diner that ?I passed on the way home tonight. At first I went to the grovcery store, but by the time I was back at the car, ?I realized I was too tired to cook, so stopped at Farm Grill and got one of my favorite meals. Yum! But I feel too fun to go to bed yet...tho I'm dead tired.

Got up early to be ready for "the call" about DH's scheduled surgery. As it turned out, he didn't go in until 10:30, and was scheduled to be back in his room by 2:00. Well, it took me almost three hours to get to the hospital...no problems with skidding out when you are going 1.5 miles per hour which I did for the last 1.5 miles. Really annoying! Then there was not a single spot available in the parking garage...so,I sat and waited even longer until someone's shift ended and got their spot. Fortunately DH was surrounded by a bevy of adorable, competent, young nurses, so I did not feel badly for being late at all.

Bottom line, the surgery went very well, and DS2 shared that he was happy with the pix from the doc's follow up report to him. DH has already started walking and meets up with the PT in the morning. He was enjoying his morphine pump tonight, but will not have it tomorrow, so he may not be so "happy". Oh, to give you an insiders view of the storm...DH's floor nurse was a young gal who put herself up in a hotel for the past four days so that she could get to work in the stormy weather. She was so excited to go home tonight for her three days off...and was attentive and competent up to her 7PM departure. Have to say I was really impressed with the professionalism and caring of all the nursing staff we met there...most all had to sleep at the hospital during this crazy week.

The downside of this visit.....DH has a roommate who is rather scary....seems to have delusions, cognitive problems, and seizure disorder, so is not supposed to stand by himself...and keeps getting up, being demanding, and tries to leave. So there are shrieking alarms going off to alert staff....constantly! At least when he sleeps (meds induced, I would say) he is not trying to bolt, but his snoring is so severe, I could hardly stand being in the room. Now all that said, DH seemed very tolerant of all of this today....but we'll see what happens when he is relieved of his morphine! He did say that the man seemed more coherent last night...so he wonders if the meds he has are leaving him in this confused agitated state.

Tonight DS2 made a two hour trip across town (no car...it is still in a snowbank in Southie) by any public transportation he could find, and finally a cab, to visit dear ol dad before heading back across town to the Celtics game. I am happy for him that it was a great game!

So I am exhausted and DH and I decided that it does not make sense for me to head into town again tomorrow to sit in his too small double room while he is in PT or sleeping. And I should be home for the roofer guys who are supposed to come to finish shoveling off the roof before the next storm. DH decide we could easily visit over FaceTime...not a bad idea at all. Except that, sadly, I will not be able to meet up with Susan...a missed opportunity I regret...and I can't even recall if I told you that on Facebook, Susan. I will check before heading to bed., and communicate this more appropriately.

Sorry to be so focused on this one topic!

And Red, so sorry about your hand. Wish I could send DS1 out to fix it up. Hope you can get it tended to right away.

DH and I had a good laugh last night when we were watching a recorded police drama with a detective named Laura.  She cooked dinner for her dad who forked a bite of spaghetti in red sauce and asked, "Why is this spaghetti brown?"  She replied, "Because it's wheat."  Her dad exclaimed in disgust, "Who would do that to spaghetti!" 

Pork chops, salad and rice side

luv - I love those Rolo things!!  I lay out as many mini pretzels as will fit on a jelly roll pan and put a rolo on top.  Put them into a low oven for 3-4 minutes, then take them out and top them with either a pecan half or another pretzel, and gently push down so the rolo squishes. I have also used the butter snap pretzels (the little square ones).  They are bite sized and you get the sweet, salty, crunchy, creamy thing - awesome!  You can actually make them in the microwave too.

Luv, meant to say that my niece's children think a grilled cheese is made the same way. Toast with a slice of "American" plastic cheese melted onto the white bread toast in the microwave.

My only problem with the Rolos and pretzels was that Rolos were 99 cents for 8 candies. Ridiculous. Much better treat to bake maybe at Halloween time. Maybe WallyWorld or Target would have had big bags. Not here in town. But think they turned out good. In refrigerator at the the moment. Need to get them out and put in container. Special - Planters had small tins of salted caramel peanuts. That's what I used about 3 to a Rolo. The one I had to taste test was good. It's funny - this was an adaptation of a recipe from KAF in email last week using their block caramel, chocolate disks. Someone made a comment about using the Rolos and I latched onto it.

Cinnamon chip oatmeal bars cooling. I think maybe a bit crumbly. I would have been better off to have made the cookies but didn't want to juggle cookie sheets. I'll take the easy way out anytime. But then the bars have hardly cooled. As usual I will prob. cut them and run out the door.

Carole - weather has no idea what's going to happen. Now snow removed from forecast. I don't care but do think it will be much colder. Last month's electric bill was the highest I believe we've had. Have a heat pump which we use unless it's really cold and then heat pump just can't keep up. It was on a lot in January. Even out ac I don't think was this bad a bill. But I do not recall what it was in the summer of 2011 when we had record 100s.

It sure is quiet on here. 

I took a cousin out to lunch today.  We ate at Crabby Shack, a locally owned and operated restaurant, and had a fish special, Baby Drum.  It was delicious.  Pan-fried with a creamy shrimp sauce which I had served on the side.  I had not heard of this type of drum fish.  This cousin lives next door to my mother and mows my mother's lawn all summer so I wanted to do something nice for her. 

For dinner we'll have skirt steak prepared in some way.  Maybe fajitas with home-made tortillas, black beans, coleslaw, and guacamole.  I also have fresh broccoli so thought I would look up beef and broccoli recipes, just out of curiosity.  It might be better to cook something I wouldn't particularly like since I had a nice lunch.  I would definitely like fajitas with those ingredients mentioned. 

Seems I'm into flat breads.  Pitas.  Tortillas. 

Up early this morning and off to Quest Diagnostics to have bloodwork.  There were no orders in the computer for the bloodwork so it was a wasted trip.  I don't see any point in going to my PCP prior to bloodwork but it seems that's the way she wants it these days.  All we can do is look at each other and talk. 

Hope everybody is ok and that Lacey's dh is doing well. 

At the request of Mr. 02143, we are having a baked pasta again. Who knew it made him so happy? With another 12" of snow predicted, he will need his stamina. Wish that we had a note from Lacey about how Mr. Lacey is progressing, and when he will be coming home. Can only hope it is either before or after this blizzard. Really, they are saying another bloody blizzard!

Joyce, that is a lot of golf! So glad they enjoyed the dinner you provided, and of course, that they are enjoying each other's company so very much.

Bedo, I use green beans in minestrone soup. Some veggie stock warmed with parmesan rinds would make a great base, and then throw in your veggies. Would give you a new flavor to enjoy.

I have never eaten a Rolo, much less a Rolo with pretzels. Sometimes I am amazed by all the things I have never tried. Heck, that I never even knew about!

Felt pretty punky after treatment yesterday. But there was [yup] snow coming out of the sky so I had to make our dinner. So sick of this snow!

*susan*

Susan, my dh would always be happy with baked pasta.  I would, too, for that matter if I could eat all those carbs without becoming obese. 

Nance, thank you for recommending soba noodles.  I got around to cooking half of the package I bought a few weeks ago.  First I did some research, of course, and learned the importance of rinsing the noodles well in cold water after cooking.  I liked them plain but they were very tasty in the sauce of the beef and broccoli dish I made, following a recipe on Epicurious.  I even ate a little dish of it while dh consumed two generous servings on a dinner plate.  To be honest this was the first time I ever actually used a recipe for a stir fry dish.   I was surprised that one of the ingredients was medium dry sherry. 

I spotted another recipe in Epicurious for soba noodles and beef that looked good so I printed it out.

I will have to google rolo so I'm not so uninformed.

Nance, I can empathize with your worry about your dad.  At least I am close to my mother and can drive to her house in about 15 min.  That was actually one reason we bought this house.  Eric, I hope your mom is doing better. 

My computer quit and it's hard to type on the phone..but I am reading....

Eric

Hi all, I will try to give an update before cleaning up my dinner mess and hitting the sack. I am pretty tired in a very different way than DH feels. He just called and sounded and claimed to be totally exhausted...could barely finish the call. Post bodily trauma....And He has finally noticed the un ignorable (word?)snoring of the man in his room. Guess DH has gotten back in touch with reality. Today has been one of decisions, and fortunately the upshot is that he will come home tomorrow just as the storm is starting. Hopefully no one will be heading into town, so I can pick him up on time, and he can try to readjust to his routine here, with many modifications for a few weeks. We have all sorts of equipment to support him. Fortunately, it seems that since many men close to his age that we know have had hip surgeries, (what's with that....always thought it was the 80 something women!)so lots of people are offering us equipment. He will probably just need things like that for less than two weeks so we are happy to borrow.

It was a confusing day for him since there were varying opinions about his going to rehab for a few days vs. home. In reality, given the storm forecast, he'd be sitting in rehab with no PT able to get to work....not good for his hip! So I will be his PT and keep him moving. ))))

Speaking of "moving", I have been shoveling like a crazy person....partially because I just could not let my generous neighbor do it all for us. He will be doing plenty in the next few days after the storm, with his snowblower. So yesterday I spent two hours extracting DH's car from two snowbanks in our driveway. Boy was that snow heavy! Made me very happy that I have been in decent shape to even try it! Three years ago, I would be in traction after what I shoveled yesterday. I took two ibuprofen and rubbed in some Arnicare (my trainer uses that and recommended it for sore muscles) and I was great this AM!

And of course, the mounds in my driveway are way over my head, so it is hard to throw the snow over them. I resorted to walking each shoveled pile down the street to where the berm pile was a bit flat. There is a part of me that feels very hardy doing this job in the freezing cold! However, I was annoyed at the many teenagers walking past who saw this old gal carrying big shovels of snow, and not only never asked if I needed help, but never even looked at me or said hello. Twenty five years ago, my boys walked the neighborhood with shovels looking for folks who needed help. You just do not see that anymore here, which is sad. Are these kids so totally entitled that they see no need to help or even work for a fee?! Kind of sad. Don't get me wrong, I was doing fine...but was surprised that when I even tried to say "hi" to these guys, they never even acknowledged that they saw me.

Today after doing some inside work (laundry mainly so everything would be crisp and nice for the return of DH), I spent a long time trying to chip into some ice dams from a second floor window with a squeeze mop, then with one of those heavy ice choppers. Must have been a funny sight from outside. Susan hope you have no leaks so far. We have only one that seems to be encapsulated within a window frame and going no place important (fingers crossed!!)tho it is disconcerting to hear the dripping! I keep looking for puddles on the floor.

Then, I decided to make DH very happy and shovel a path to the grill.....Oy! It involved going through four feet of packed snow, and there were two pathways....one which lead to our back door. Yay....we can get out now...at least until Sunday. I just could not let the new snow form on top of all that which was already there.

This is really an amazing winter. On the plus side....I am so enjoying inspecting the many animal tracks that are atop our mounds of snow on the property. Really interesting! I take photos of them and send them to DGS to see if he can identify what animals they are.

Food report: So after eating cheese and crackers one night, then yogurt and walnuts last night. I was dying for some real food after all that shoveling. So tonight, I made something I was eager to try...a broccoli rabe/chicken/bacon/winter squash medley with oriecchiette pasta. It was very nice and I have plenty leftover for DH to enjoy!

However, tomorrow night (when we are skipping the chili night at church), our DDIL is ordering us dinner from one of our favorite local restaurants. We asked for Greek Salad, Braised Lamb with roasted vegetables, and paella. How is that for a blended Valentine's Dinner? DDIL and DS1 had wanted to come here to see DH, but I convinced that that the storm was going to be so bad that they would not want to risk the trip. I managed to avoid mentioning that DH would not have a very fun visit with our very active grands who would inevitably be crashing into his hip. Ah...nope! So, sad as we are to not see them this is a better plan. I hope they can get here sometime in later weeks. We are thankful that DS1 did get DH a wonderful surgeon to perform his procedure. Seems to be going well. There have been some low blood pressure concerns, but I think DH has been dehydrated and his BP has gone up nicely since he has paid better attention to that.

So, tomorrow morning before I leave for the hospital, the roof shovelers are supposed to arrive. Please do!! I just am so nervous about accommodating another foot of snow on our slightly pitched family room roof with what is already there. Once the temp rises, all of Boston is in real trouble, for sure, but I will feel better if we can get rid of at least some of it.

Okay, I do need to get some shut eye...which means cleaning up the kitchen first...ugh! I am posting a pic of the little creation I enjoyed tonight.

Carole, I know my DH is dying to take a trip....maybe we will head to NOL...that food just sounds so darn good