So...whats for dinner?

Fever broke today and I had a craving for a pork chop after my second client session of the day. Stopped at the "so expensive you shouldn't have to ask" butcher and picked up two bone-in center cut chops that look gorgeous. Bit pricey at $10 for two, but still a ton cheaper than eating out. I have some local red cabbage braising as a nod to German fare, and Mr. 02143 is making the one prepared food he still eats: Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice, original. Not my favorite, so I won't have that, but there is just a touch of potato salad lurking in the fridge that I might enjoy.

Lacey, Six Chimneys can be an absolute home run, and then sometimes it is like a second, not as excellent, restaurant. When I used to perform in Plymouth regularly, we often would head there for a post-rehearsal, pre-concert dinner. Been a long time since I have eaten there though.

Hot as blazes here today. Zapping everyone's energy except for Rascal Cat No 1 who found my stash of q-tips which are now spread throughout the house.

*susan*

Moon - I love the food nazi comment. You haven't been patrolling my menus, or Bedos.

Last night was 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a tomato, 1/2 a can of shoestring beets, & a handfull of black olives with Hidden Valley Ranch new Sweet Chili dressing - accompanied by a 1/2 of a leftover pumpernickel bagel heated w/lots of butter. As you can see, no lettuce in sight & still eating leftovers. Tonight I never got around to dinner, but managed 2 glasses of a lovely Malbec wine from Argentina while I was working on spread sheets. Dessert will be popcorn. I have two lovely T-bone steaks in the fridge for tomorrow.

Susan - so glad to hear the fever's gone. Lacey - bittersweet indeed going back home.

Sunshine, here's a pretty good tutorial for yogurt making. I add powdered milk to mine and strain it for Greek yogurt. Although I have yogurt maker now, I made it successfully for years using a covered pot and a heating pad.

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-yogurt-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-125070

So the saga continues..... Bad agent Irene evidently was not happy that the "profit" on this building was already reduced by $200,000 [yes that is a real number] and started to fantasize about keeping what commission there is going to be all to herself. In fact, she never presented our third offer to the owner [or its resubmission] ever hopeful that some young [and stupid] group would come to her many open houses and use her for both sides of the sale. Good agent April got in touch with that office's broker, and when even that failed, started discussions with the Boston Board of Realtors about ethics violations. We resubmitted for a fourth time last time, using bad agent Irene's precise wording as sent via email OVER a week ago. As of noon today, we have a signed offer. We made our first offer on August 18th! What a saga. Now we have to move quickly since they insisted on a very fast closing date. Already started to move our money around to have it in place when needed.

Dinner is grilled chicken thighs, three lonely fingerling potatoes and a huge green salad. Mr. 02143 will mop the chicken with our latest batch of Inner Beauty sauce which is fiery hot! Can't wait. I do hate how much much taste buds are dulled on this drug protocol, but spicy just appeals these days.

I did a riff on this cabbage recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-ki.... It wasn't perfect. I substituted Apple Cider vinegar which makes more sense to me, but I had to increase the amount dramatically since as written, the recipe was on the "too sweet" side for my tastes.

*susan*

Special, I know.... doesn't seem that they can actually have both parties' best interests in mind. It was very common for many years of course, but it doesn't feel quite "kosher." I can't believe your trip is almost here! Gosh I hope you have a brilliant time!

*susan*

Monday night DSIL fixed a roasted pork loin seasoned with sage and garlic with roasted shallots and tiny new potatoes, a salad with a delicious mayo based dressing and her French bread. The next evening we had Italian beef sandwiches, again on her French bread, more salad and sauteed Brussels sprouts with bacon. Dessert both nights was fresh blackberry pie with ice cream. It was awesome. I hit the jackpot by getting to bring home two large jars of strawberry freezer jam that she made this spring from her crop. I really don't eat much jam but I love this on French toast which we had for breakfast this morning. Yesterday morning was a tomato bacon quiche and biscuits.

Dinners may be salad for the next few days except I promised dh pizza and he's not likely to forget.

Luv, not my agent.... the seller's agent. :-) My agent is the good agent April. *susan*

Sorry Susan. Yay for your good agent.

Thanks for the recipe link, Susan. Congrats on buying the condo. The "kids" must be happy.

SpecialK, hope you have a great trip. I know your dh and dd will be eating good food while you're gone.

Nance, could I please book a visit to your dbil and dsil? LOL.

I did catch a nice crappie this morning but we let him/her go back into the water when we didn't catch any more fish. It was so lovely out on the lake. And everything worked. The outboard. The trolling motor.

Sounds like a winner, Nance!

Best-laid plans. My thawed fish fillets are in the refrigerator to be cooked tomorrow night. We ended up having grilled brats, cooked by the next door neighbor, who gave me a large zucchini and a couple of tomatoes along with instructions of how to cook them. The resort owner joined the neighbor and us and we had the brats, the zucchini, tomato and cheese dish, and some onions and potatoes cooked together. It was all rather impromptu.

Here she is. She's wearing the outfit I bought for her mother when she was in the hospital with a broken leg at about the same age. 9 months old, 33 years ago! LOL!

What a cutie patootie!

Oh.....warning....medical rant...

Last week we learned from a doc friend that DH's primary care would be joining a concierge practice with a membership fee required to continue with him. DH has really liked this doc and he is certainly the most competent, caring, attentive one either of us has had over the years. So, when we returned from the lake, his primary care's letter had arrived and DH obsessed about it for a while, but decided to stay with him, expensive tho it will be. I totally support that, but it is annoying that so many of the best docs here are going that route.

While that was going on, I received a call from Walgreens telling me to immediately stop using the eye allergy cream I have just started to use again a couple of weeks ago, given my surge in allergic symptoms this season. Apparently, the cream has been recalled by its manufacturer. Great! So I called my ophthalmologist who was obviously not in the office and the secretary told me I could get an answer about what else might be scripted by next week. Really!!?? I explained that the eye itching keeps me awake nightly w/o meds and I would hope not to wait that long. She did get back to me later in the day, and I have a prescription now being filled.....of course now I'm a bit leery about using a new one....maybe it won't be a steroid cream. ****Update the script was never called in....will deal with that tomorrow******

Once this is taken care of, I worry about my ophthalmologist not being available since she has been out twice in the last few years for cancer treatment. She is a great doc. Oy!

The bigger issue for me right now is that I have to find another functional meds person to see for these allergies since the huge practice I went to is out of business, as of last month, and my nurse practitioner has not worked out her future work plan yet. I would prefer to continue with her, if possible. What a mess! Maybe I can just ride it all out for a while....as long as the new eye cream works.

End of rant....

Oh dear, Susan the karma is back circling the drain. Good thing you did your due diligence!

Made BLTs on toasted potato bread tonight. Cukes and yellow pepper salad,and potato chips rounded out the pre-game meal.

Oh Monica, I am so sorry. You are so right, cancer sucks big time. Hate is not a strong enough word for my feelings about it. I'm not sure there is one. I hope your stomach can feel better soon.

Susan, this just isn't going to be easy, is it? But you are on your game. Hoping this all works out in your favor.

Lacey, I understand the medical rant completely. I hate losing doctors, you invest so much in them. Hope the new eye med works for you. I just found out my insulin is not on next year's formulary so that means another change. I have to go through this every year. What a hassle, especially for the docs.

Dinner will be whatever we can catch after a day at DH's sisters house. Maybe with the fam.

We got half an inch of rain last night. Yay!