So...whats for dinner?

Tonight was Swedish meatballs with turkey, brown rice and steamed finger carrots

I never could stand any kind of sweetener in my coffee. The only flavored lattes I like are "one-pump” mochas, but I can’t justify the sugar. I just like the taste of unadulterated coffee too much--the only time I add milk is for cappuccinos, caffe lattes or espresso macchiatos. (Of course, when in NOLA, chicory cafe au lait from Cafe Du Monde). When I was a kid, I used to love to load up Oolong tea with tons of sugar when the family would go out for weekly Cantonese, but my teeth ache now just thinking about it. I tend to sweeten only plain yogurt or underripe berries--though I must admit on the rare occasions I have low-carb French toast or pancakes I treat myself to a couple of teaspoons of real maple syrup (a friend has a grove in NW Ohio and keeps me supplied). For yogurt, I find that a little squirt of honey plus a packet of xylitol (a natural sweetener made from bark, which doesn’t have stevia’s bitter finish but has no impact on insulin release) or a couple of squirts of Skinny Girl stevia-agave does the trick. I use xylitol on underripe fruit. I have a friend who used to operate an organic commercial herb farm and concert series outside Monroe, WI (he’s since retired to Kona). When I played there, he took me on a tour of all the culinary herbs on the grounds--and he grew stevia. Straight from the leaf it was delicious.

Last night after my Madison gig, my singing partner & I went to Perkins (it’s the only place in town open that late). I skipped the “Over 55” menu because I didn’t feel like eggs for dinner, didn’t want to have pork chops (had ribs the night before), and all the other options were either unpalatable (tilapia or chicken breast) or too carby (turkey with dressing, meatloaf, or fish & chips). Paid the extra two bucks and had grilled salmon with asparagus & green beans. They did the fish on the rare side, and it was wonderful. This morning I figured I’d try a Paleo recipe I saw on America’s Test Kitchen: eggs piperade. They used red bell and Cubanelle long peppers (the latter for mildness), but the only green peppers I had on hand were either a green bell or half a poblano. I went with the poblano for the little bit of heat that’d allow me to cut down on the salt and garlic; added some long red peppers as well. A squirt of tomato paste (had no canned tomatoes on hand) made a huge difference, along with some onions and a little chopped garlic--sauteed it all in olive oil, then added a Tbs. of water and covered the pan (which sat off the heat as I beat 2 eggs with olive oil). Then scrambled the eggs--delicious!

This seems to have become my Oeno-Culinary Debauch Fest week. Tru Sat. night was amazing. Tonight our neighborhood restaurant Broadway Cellars had a winemaker (Mutt Lynch) from Calistoga, and they did foods to match. Avocado-cucumber-honeydew soup with king crab (chardonnay), Norwegian sausage w/red cabbage & golden beets (merlot), New Orleans BBQ shrimp w/dirty rice (a cabernet sauvignon-cab. franc blend), sous vide venison with portabellas & fingerling potatoes (petite sirah), and a white choc. panna cotta w/strawberry "soup” (zinfandel with a touch of carignane). Tomorrow night is a wine & cheese fest at Eataly, and we'll catch a flick after (probably "The Big Short"). And Sat. noon is an Italian sparkling wine-and-crudo pairing "class" (really a bacchanal with notes) at Cafe Spiaggia.

Lacey, I want the Berkshires! I want Jacobs cradle I want all that

I want fresh Lima beans

I am scaling down and pretending that I am retired in preparation. Ha Ha edited. Decided TMI

So Black bean crockpot vegetarian soup with black beans, salsa, green onions, veg broth sour cream and I may put a bit of cheese on top.and tortillas.

And I'm going start making my own English muffins with cheese and egg to freeze for before work- I can control the ingredients and not have all those additives and (Don't read) non-cruelty free eggs and cheese.

Have a good weekend all

H crap Eric. But here's hoping that's all it is - just a weird spot.

Bedo, eggs are good. We get ours from early farms but not real often. It takes a hole to use them up.

Carole, i only like baby butter beans. Otherwise the texture gets me. Just like chock peas. So dry and crumbly. Ick.

Chisandy I like ATK. They really do test the recipes. Sometimes u wonder just how bad they are the regular wsy, they change so many things. LOL

Lacey, the portabello tower sounds pretty great. I like o use those for veggie people. LOL

Yesterday I had grilled cheese. Today I got on the bandwagon a bit Late - I made chili. LOL

Much love to all.

eric - keeping fingers crossed

Eric I hope it went well with Sharon.

What is ATK? and when is it on?

Carol Succotash! Now I can't wait for summer. How do you make those speckled ones?

Moon Eggs are good. I get some fresh ones at the Farmers Market. For breakfast this am, Avocado split, pit removed and egg broken in each half, then baked at 350 for 20minutes. So cute. Brush before with EVO4

Minus Ouchie

Changed my work schedule to Wednesdays off instead of Fridays. Wednesdays seem like a gift from Heaven. 4 days in a row=too long as sometimes I miss lunch. 11 more months, heh,heh. Have to fix up the house to sell.

I am waiting for instructions of what to wear to an elementary school pirate party.tonight.

I watch ATK but I find they can over-complicate recipes. Our PBS station runs a lot of cooking shows on Saturday. I just watched Martha decorate a cake with sprinkles! It's very pretty but I don't like sprinkles.

Nance, you're a pressure cooking influence! I re-claimed the Revere Meals n Minutes from my middle brother, who wasn't using it. Yesterday I printed out the user manual and a recipe book. However, it's only a 4 qt. and, according to the manual, will safely cook only 1 cup of dry beans. I was planning to cook a lb. of black beans. What is the size and brand of your new electric cooker? One concern I have is the availability of replacement gaskets. Revere no long makes pressure cookers and the only replacement gaskets I've located are for the vintage cookers.

We're eating out tonight. It's taco night in the Oak Grill at our club and the variety of tacos was intriguing so we decided to give it a try.

Wow! What an interesting "pop up taco" menu. Who would have guessed?? i'll be so interested to hear what you had. Yum!

And I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for Sharon and you, Eric.

I am sitting in a sun-filled third floor suite overlooking the gorgeous view while I wait for DH to conclude his board meeting so we can get started home.

Earlier, when I came back from my treadmill effort, I noticed a one-legged stink bug crawling on the window pane, which triggered the memory of seeing exactly the same kind of bug several years ago in the same spot (they do like sunny windows in the winter). So I have been bug sitting and taking some pix of it, trying to get the right light that will show the beautiful design on its back. Not much luck. Just looks like a prehistoric creature in the pasture beyond the window!

Last night's dinner was varied....many passed appetizers, things like tuna on toast, olive tapenade on artichoke hearts, shrimp with an interesting dip, endive filled with something (I didn't try), etc., you get the idea. And for the first time (new Medical Director and wife whomwere hosting it), we had chicken for a sit down dinner. It has almost always been a buffet with choices of beef and fish. But this was fine, once I got past my expectation to have a lovely salmon.

The meal started with a parsnip soup with a scallop in the center, then a lovely salad that I wish I'd taken a picture of since it was a little work of art on the plate...some lettuce with candied walnuts and some interesting components on the left side of the plate that I cannot at all recall...but were tasty! The entree was chicken breast and leg (or maybe capon since it was smallish) that had been marinated and was cooked perfectly, served over grits, accompanied by a "bundle" of veggies held together by a round of zucchini....things like brocollini, beets, yellow squash, etc. Then dessert was a tray of interesting speciality cookies and confections, which was perfect since we'd eaten a lot throughout the evening. So it was different, and very nice.

DH just called to see if I wanted to come down to the hospital and help make a dent in the lunch buffet there....so I will since I have yet to eat today...just some delicious coffee, which I plan to buy from the Barrington Roasters on our way home. Goota scoot! No time to proof this...so forgive my many typos

Forgot to add, I made tomato bisque ( per my father's request) for dinner. Would love to see him eat some protein, but I doubt it.

Carole, those tacos look delish, especially the braised lamb shank ones.

Lacey, are you at a bed and breakfast? Love the wine, cheese, hor d'oeuvres and all the accoutrements.

Seems like you had a great little vacay

hsant - you might look into BeneProtein powder made by Nestles. MD Anderson recommends it for people who can't get enough protein. I used mixed in Instant Breakfast during chemo when I couldn't eat. It dissolves instantly in hot or cold food w/no taste. My good friend mixed it with applesauce, soup, oatmeal, mashed potatoes, etc. for her husband who lost his stomach to cancer. She ordered it by the case from Nestles. Wish I'd known about it for my own dad, who didn't have enough teeth to chew meat at 95.

Lacey - sounds like your trip has been lovely as usual. Joyce - roast chicken just fits my mood. Carole - what an interesting selection of tacos. Susan - is it too cold for work to continue on the house?

Dinner was a small salad & the other half of my baked potato from earlier in the week. I'm not making any progress trying to loose weight before my trip so I can splurge while I'm gone. Large sigh.

Minus, That multi cooker is fascinating, isn't it? It is tempting, except I have no use for a slow cooker. A rice cooker might be a good addition. But my bottom line is, I really have no right to be adding crap to our house and I own a great pressure cooker already. If I didn't have one, I would be seriously looking at this one.

I am on day 12 of this cycle and the fatigue is great. I made dinner last night. I am making dinner tomorrow night. I have produced 7 lunches, 2 batches of bread, 6 dinners, so, tonight we bought a pizza at Mama Gina's. I made a salad. The pizza was not a real pizza tonight. It was a flatbread with a smear of tomato sauce and some cheese meandered by. Thank goodness for the salad!

House. Oh le _sigh_. I want more progress and I really want it now! But, the closed cell foam insulation is done and has been inspected. The electrician is still working but appears to be almost done. The box has been upgraded and moved. The upstairs rooms have all been put on single circuits. Most of the house is powerless though until he finishes the work. The dry wall is done! Now they are working on the skim coat and that should be done Tuesday. I don't know what the plan is from Tuesday through the rest of the week. We meet with the contractor in the morning [on a Sunday no less!] I guess he will be gone this week doing a course. Ugh. I hope that doesn't mean the project stalls again.

Eric, I am going to firmly believe that Sharon's sore is something other than breast cancer unless proven otherwise. I just can't let my brain go there. I have mets so that all of you never have them after all. This is my small mitzvah. :-)

Lacey, this Stockbridge connection is a bit like the Looking Glass isn't it? Always so interesting to hear about your food experiences there. Maybe the stock market collapse has taken a chunk out of the entertaining budget and that is why there was no salmon and/or buffet.

Joyce, you chose the week to travel home wisely. Great break on the temperatures. So nice that you were able to cook such a great meal for your family.

*susan*

Wow Susan....that's a lot for someone that is saying they are fatigued. I hope you're not writing promissory notes on your energy.

Sharon has had these sores before, but I don't remember them from earlier than 5 or so years ago. Before I never gave them much though. Now, there is the much hated "is it back" worry. So far my mind is not doing much thinking along those lines.

Dinner tonight.....Sharon had Jenny Craig (she's lost 8 pounds in a month) and I did 6 ounces of USDA prime New York Strip steak for DD and I. I was going to make a salad to go with meat and green beans, but DD only wanted the beans, so I skipped the salad.

I spent most of the day with a friend helping to find and remove parts from junkyard donor trucks. We both needed stuff for our old, but still running trucks, which we found.....so I wasn't too "upset" when DD didn't want a salad.

Auntie, I'm glad DBIL is feeling better...food poisoning....been there, done that, as probably most have....is no fun at all.

I haven't seen the Sur La Table catalog so I went on-line and found they have a store that I drive by on the way home from work. The classes look interesting, but my reaction to most of the on-line catalog was, "I have that already" or "I can do the same thing by using a couple of less specialized items I already have". Mom's, my grandmother's and my own kitchen stuff, combined, seems to have left me pretty well set.

Your best is all you can do Joyce and you get to decide if what you did was your best. Allowing someone else to decide if you did your best.... just don't do that! :-) Roasted chicken, butternut squash and mashed potatoes....sounds like a perfect meal to me!

Carole, a few years ago there was a Harvard Lampoon parody of Martha Stewart Living magazine called Is Martha Stuart Living? It was utterly hilarious--it contained a calendar with entries for building henhouses, firing your own pottery, forging your own cutlery, disciplining household employees and farmhands, making your own toilet paper, etc. The funniest article was “How to Make Water.” It called for stuff like a nuclear reactor and deuterium, which she sourced from a “delightful elderly German gentleman named Dieter” who was inexplicably reluctant to be more specific about his whereabouts during WWII. The afterword described a nightmare she had in which she found herself in the parking lot of a drive-in in Nutley, NJ (her home town) with big hair (“teased and stiff with spray”), a short rabbit fur jacket and jeans with zippers at the ankles, realizing to her horror that she liked it.

Our meeting this morning with the contractor was interesting. He is both embarrassed and sorry that he is running so far behind schedule. As a "gift" he will pay to have all the floors re-sanded and re-finished with polyurethane. New end date is March 15th, and I am still not sure he can make it. We are all getting worried that the kids will not have enough time to truly move in, i.e. put things away and be organized, before the baby arrives.

We are smoking out the neighborhood right now. Ribs are on the smoker. Mop sauce is made. I will make the requested warm potato salad. The question is, what green thing would be good and also be eaten by the girl-child.

Lacey, you are competing with those fancy Stockbridge meals aren't you? Beautiful!

*susan*

chisandy that is hysterical I can just picture it, especially the rabbit coat and teased hair.

Lacey I want those radishes! I will have to try. Now for some reason I want to make Kim Chee. One of the few things I'm good at.

Hsant No grandchildren yet. The kids I went to the Pirate Party with are my friend's grandsons, ages 4 and 6 and the party was way too loud! I don't know about those egg spots, sorry.

Job driving me crazy at times. I see 2 x as many people in 4 days as people in comparable positions see in 5. We are in different locations but can see each others schedules..

Thinking about a position, temp, in Cambridge for 3 months, Put out application today but still in the very tentative stages. I would be able to be closer to DD and DSIL and I've always loved Cambridge. I would have a paid apartment and the kitties could come. But it would shake up my health care, although that would be paid for.

For lunch tomorrow made tuna sandwiches, clementines, hard boiled eggs and tomato soup, all to bring and put in my fridge for two days.

Susan, I am so tempted to email you my new lesson. So many triplets, changed tempos. I wish that my teacher would tell me who wrote it so that I could listen to it on youtube. The last one was Bach and I finally did it! (I s$#k) and always will, but it gives me pleasure and it is so fun to learn hard new things that are a big stretch with my first thought being. I can never do this it is way beyond me.