So...whats for dinner?

The deck is mostly finished so we moved the grill back into place and I grilled a brined tri tip and baked potatoes. Sauteed garden veggies was the side.

Susan, I hate that the lbrance is kicking your butt so. I hope you can recover before the next round. I say if you need a nap (or two) then naps it should be. I found the fatigue that came with chemo one of the most peculiar feelings, so unlike anything I'd ever experienced and quite difficult to describe to anyone who hadn't experienced it. A kind of tired that sleeping couldn't fix.

I like prime rib a lot, but is not something I crave and I don't need to eat it very often. Quite unlike pasta.

Hello all - DD's b-day today and we went out to the $2 Tuesday place, because it is close by and we all like the food. I made chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel cream cheese frosting with caramel drizzle and fleur de sel on top. Can't believe my littlest baby is 26. I feel like I have been busy all weekend but can't specifically recount anything I actually did that was of value, lol! Errand running, grocery shopping, and house chores - and it has been raining for days - too late for the ark!!! I have been rained on and dried about five times every day - I am over it! I did have a pedicure today with a friend and we also had lunch, so that was nice!

I've now come up with the worst dinner ever---don't tell the dietitian. I ate a container of guacamole covered in salsa with cornchips. Desert was a dark choclolate bar stuffed with hazelnuts.........

The Arimidex, if my MO is correct, is starting to hit me with the SE........horrible sugar cravings, aches and pains, and yes, an exhaustion sleep doesn't touch, because I never fall deeply into it.....even with the Xanax......AGHHHHHHHHHHH

I know things could be worse and I am grateful to be where I am, but it just gripes me that there aren't better fixes for what ails us..... Ok, that's my rant for 8/2/2015

Special - I agree - YUM. Could you forward your recipe for the icing? Thanks

Red - I've eaten much stranger dinners. One evening last week was Clam Dip with Ruffles Potato chips. At least I wasn't a total glutton since I only used 4 oz of cream cheese for the dip. But the Ruffles....oh my. They weren't really strong enough to scoop the dip so I ended up dipping w/a spoon and putting a ruffle on top. Good thing no one was watching.

The cupcakes are just your garden variety chocolate ones, but I tried this frosting for the first time. Here is the link to the recipe I used:

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/salted-caramel-cupca...

What I didn't like was the frosting consistency - it was too soft, so I would recommend using a familiar cream cheese frosting recipe with maybe less butter, adding a little extra powdered sugar so it sets up stiffer, so it can hold the caramel sauce. Because the frosting was so soft the caramel sauce dripped off the cupcakes - the taste is delicious but they are messy to eat! I put them in the fridge overnight because of the frosting ingredients so today they are firmer - and, yes, DD and I ate one for breakfast! Shhhhh!!!!

Was going to make chicken but think I'll make something with pasta instead.

Dinner tonight should be Malaysian Chicken Satay, an eggplant curry, rice, and of course, some fresh Malaysian pickles which I will make with cucumbers, carrots, shallots, and radishes. The dipping sauce is a combination of Bango and lime juice. Since our young cousin doesn't care for spicy, I will divide the pickles and sauce into two dishes so I can add the Thai peppers to our bowl and leave hers alone.

She is making a mask of honey and cinnamon. Girls at 18 don't like to have their faces breakout. Boy am I glad that those days are behind me. It is 4pm, and she is talking about heading into Boston on her own, but it might be getting a bit late for a big adventure. I think she is actually too timid to head out on her own.

Mr. 02143 makes ribs on the grill start to finish. I have done some small lamb ribs in the oven, but I have never considered to doing those huge pork racks in the kitchen. Let us know how this comes out.

*susan*

Nance, that is the opposite of our way to cook baby back ribs. I cook them on the stovetop in water with an onion and some garlic and s & p and red pepper until you can easily stick a fork through them. DH finishes them in a short time on a very hot grill with barbecue sauce. The sauce caramelizes and there are small burned areas to add crunch. Delicious. That's ribs our way. Some years ago he followed a recipe by Alton Brown that was very good. Involved enclosing the ribs in a foil packet with lots of seasonings. I didn't pay much attention.

I have been communicating with an owner of a Char Grill brand grill who listed it on Craigslist for $125 including tank and cover. Supposed to be about 3 years old. The location is well over an hour's drive. It looks good in the picture. One of these years I may spring for a Green Egg at home. But then I may not!

I like the sound of charred corn salad. Lots of corn available around here. Farmers selling it from the backs of pickup trucks. Some time this month the tomatoes will finally be ripening.

Nance - I like your new glasses.

Susan - I've done ribs in the oven covered tin foil in the winter. I've even done brisket in the oven wrapped in foil - so that tells you for sure I'm not a Texas purist.

Carol - loved the story about your early morning boat ride, even if there were no fish. I'm not a morning person but it's so peaceful when you're the only one on the water as the sun is rising.

I read all your posts and they were great.

I guess I have nothing interesting to post except that after this Thursday I have Ten Days Off!

Going to spend time with DD, visit a 4th grade friend in Lexington Ma, get together with a sorry bunch of fiddlers from my prior fiddle class, and maybe go to Vermont to visit a 3d grade friend, and Maybe block island or definitely do something with my besties.

And catch up on organizing.

MOmmy why don't you just give everybody Watermelon chopped in cubes with fresh mint? And a box of mac and cheese?

I'm having the Watermelon with mint. with nothing else.

Minus, you and I could get into a real food rut if we lived close to one another....HAHA

Carole, I love loons. I went to the Gunflint trail on vaca once and it was wonderful. I was there in July, and the Black fly's were bad though.....cool enough to have flannel sheets on the bed and a fire in the cabin.....loved every minute of no tv, no radio, no neighbors, no family.......just the critters on the lake and me.

Susan, your young friend is putting on her face what I put on toast in the a.m. Its supposed to be good combo for all sorts of ailments---cholesterol, heart, arthritis..

Thanks Sula. I'm going to go get the stuff to try that out. I usually plant peppers along the walkway to the front door, but didn't this year because we were gone so long over the summer....so it's store bought time.....

Hi to everyone else.

DD is taking college algebra as a dual enrollment (high school and college credit) class from the local junior college. She got a 93% on the midterm, which is worth about 1/4 of the final class grade. Her current grade is 90%.... :-)

Eric

Just caught up reading last two days' posts...am getting a kick out of the "true food confessions" entries. . Minus, your ruffles and clam dip dinner is well known to me...an old fave in my single days. My family always made clam dip back in the day, which got me started on that. I haven't made or indulged in many years....but love the stuff! The Helluvagood company did me a health favor by discontinuing (or at least stopping distribution in my area stores) their version, which was a quick substitute for homemade.

Carole, our boat is just an 18 ft. inboard/outboard (maybe 135 hp?) for water sports. Soon it will be the smallest boat on our dock of twenty boats since everyone seems to need 20 ft. boats.....not us! We've had this one for almost 13 years and it still feels like it is new....northern NE usage! We have never fished from this boat but DH is talking about doing that with DGS when they are up later this month. The fish most often caught in our lake is hornpout...quite the ugly guys! So we have never eaten a catch up here.

Our dinners the past few days have been less than exciting. Evening before last we ordered and shared a turkey club sandwich and greek salad take out. And last evening despite horrible weather alerts (amazingly, the awful storm barely touched us, but did damage in areas nearby...and tragically killed two people in a circus tent south of here), we went out to meet friends at a steakhouse that is high on a hill with beautiful overview of the lake. We all had salads and shared appetizers...such as shrimp kabobs, stuffed mushrooms, spinach dip, crab cakes. Very unexciting and fat heavy since cheese blanketed everything but the crabcakes.

Today DH is meeting those same friends for golf and I will start to organize this place a bit and plan for a visit from our next door neighbors from home. They are coming for the day on Thursday and if the temp does not plummet their twin nine year old twins will enjoy some water sports. Then we'll grill dinner back here at the house and I'll make salads to go with the burgers and chicken. Need to decide on an easy dessert.

Eric, nice going for DD!

Susan, you continue to amaze! Your mention of the chocolates reminded me that last Sept., our Parisian friend brought us a huge box of chocolates when he visited us in Tuscany. They were wonderful, but when we left for home, we had no room to pack them, so gave them to the family across the street. Boy, were they good!

Off to make my shopping list for our Thursday entertaining. I must rally up from my slug status! I get very lazy here. Yesterday we enjoyed a lazy day on the boat....it was hot and sunnybefore all the clouds and bad weather rolled in.

Oh, my big accomplishment when not being a slug is that on my daily walk, I've added a bit of jogging (I desperately need the calorie burn!) and my knees and hip are holding up so far. Yay!

Hi to all I didn't get to mention.....

Lacey,

Your lake is north of Lancaster? That is really far north then! My mother is the journalist for her paper that covers Lancaster, and she is really not looking forward to writing and doing followup on this story.

Blood work done. Now we wait for the results.

*susan*

Eric, as for your dd, good job!

Susan, fingers and toes crossed for you.