So...whats for dinner?

Minus, first of all, thanks for the continuing support with info to help those of us who have struggled with lost posts. I do have to say, that somehow, all of my posts have worked fine since my last complaint on our thread, even before I attempted to check with the mods. So odd....

Next, Minus, I know very little about "problem ports" ( for which I feel very fortunate), but do hope that your situation gets resolved with a minimum of trouble for you! That said, I am now wishing you a wonderful BC FREE (!!!) trip to see your son. I would choose to believe the nurse who said "no problem", and employ some "functional denial" about the whole situation so that you can enjoy your trip. I am not one to use the term "deserve" lightly or often, but you deserve this trip to be worry free so you can have a wonderful time with your son and DGF.

Yesterday, I saw the foot doc who thinks that my arch problem is probably just an arch fascia problem which he thinks will resolve with rest (free ticket to skip the gym for a week) and ibuprofen. We'll see. I still want to order another super duper orthotic from him....super duper b/c the are now over $500. Oy! But it does help my arch function, and I will not bore you with the long story of how my foot got in this condition. Anyway....

After my doc appt we headed into Hvd Sq. to see "1984" performed. Well! Important a performance as it was, and how unbelievably creative the staging was, it was so painfully gruesome in it's graphic torture scene that I would not recommend it to most of my friends. It also struck me that there must have been people in the audience who were trauma victims, and how awful it must have been for them to sit through this. There was a "warning" about this, but I was still unprepared for what we saw. DH and I did have an interesting discussion on the way home, as a result of the high impact of the performance.

Today, I had my haircut, (I keep trying to work through the "old women should not wear long hair", so made it a bit closer to shoulder length, to avoid any witchy look) and did my routine international shopping trip since my hairdresser is near my favorite stores that have wonderful ethnic prepared foods, dry food and produce. Also stopped into mt favorite "junk store" and lo and behold found bottles of my new favorite Lucini pinot grigio white wine vinegar. I love this stuff for my salad vinegar and could not recall where I bought it....and it is quite expensive online, even without the shipping costs. So could I be happier??!! No! I bought four bottles of that , one of their pinot noir wine vinegar, and one of their olive oil. Does any one else use this Tuscan brand?

I found some fresh tumeric at Alna Bazaar which the check out gal said I could peel and cut ip to put in my salads. Really?! Tom Brady would love that...maybe I'll invite Giselle and him over for kale soup and salad! That reference is for those of you who have read about their insane healthful, anti-inflammatory diet.

So for dinner tonight, we are having a variety of lahmajun ( maybe Inshould not be referring them all as that..just the meat one), meat, chopped onions and peppers, and a spicy one made with a spice unknown to me, but it looks pretty, and HOT, with some cheese on it. I also picked up a couple of meat filled round items whose names I forget. They look like kibbeh. He will be a happy camper.

Before heading home, I stopped into the kids consignment store where I pick up tutus for our little DGD, and got a purple one with lots of sequins....so sparkly...she'll be over the moon with it! I had texted my DDIL to check on any size changes for her, and leatned that she was headed to the kids' pre-school where they were celebrating "international day". The pix she sent sure documented how multicultural their classes are...and I felt in tune with them as I cruised my ethnic stores.

So tonight, a big salad with several of the lettuces I picked up today, and those Lebanese items will be our dinner.

Kiks, those cupcakes were sooo tempting!

Eric, I hope the college visit went well. I am a total college search/application/admission junkie, so love to hear about people's experiences in this process. It is such a punctuated time in both parents and their kid's lives! And visits are possibly the most fun times since their is no pressure, you are the buyer, and just get to tour with your kid. Enjoy these!

And Susan, (saving the best for last I am so glad to see that you are medically heading in the right direction, especially after you have been such a trooper dealing with all the SEs of your new drugs. I love that your MO agrees to be a friend to your hands and feet. Hoping for some pretty quick relief for them!

Okay, if this post does not disappear, I will be a very happy too long poster

Minus, no apologies, please. We all do our share of hijacking the food talk around the kitchen table. Hope your trip to CA is wonderful.

I made chicken stock yesterday afternoon, using the skeleton from the rotisserie chicken. I threw in skin and all and it wasn't clear and beautiful but it will be labeled "chicken stock" nonetheless. I also found three gala apples in the refrigerator. They were a bit wrinkled and past the "eat raw" stage but I hated to throw them away since apples are pricey. I checked out recipes for baked sliced apples and sprinkled the peeled slices with some splenda brown sugar and cinnamon. Drizzled with a little maple syrup and scattered some small chunks of butter. Into the toaster oven for 30 min. at 350 degrees. Then I poured some apple juice into the dish and back into the oven for 30 min. more. The texture was a little spongy but the taste was good enough that we ate the cooked slices for dessert with a scoop of ice cream. .

Dinner tonight will be leftover linguine and tomato meat sauce. Side will be a romaine salad with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and avocado.

Bought some beautiful eggplants this afternoon at the supermarket so tomorrow I'll make eggplant casseroles. Haven't decided if the tomato sauce will include meat. I have a lb. of pork sausage thawed out that needs to be turned into Italian sausage and cooked.

Waiting for a report on Eric's trip with DD and Sharon.

The visit went well. I like the place, but the decision is totally up to DD. Northern Arizona University. versus Arizona State University and right now we're at NAU. I think we are scheduled for a tour at ASU in a couple of weeks. She's looking at a business degree. Her two dream jobs are working in the back office at a sports franchise or opening her own pet care business. This brought back a lot of memories for me too.

Sharon fell outside back in late December. She cracked her right humerus, just below the head, Enough of the bone was intact that it didn't move, but that didn't stop it from hurting.

Dinner tonight is going to be some restaurant food. We stopped by a drive through local coffee place that DD found on the Internet. I'm drinking my black coffee and she's drinking some "coffee with this, that, some other stuff and who knows what else". :-)

Artichokes are DD's fave food!  I grew up eating them in California, along with many other excellent types of fresh produce - I was a lucky kid!

minus - port issues are such a pain.  I accompanied my young TN friend to chemo and her did not work half the time - she had the injections, did windmill movements and did what they call the Marilyn - threw her head to the side - don't know why the onc nurses named it that, but one - or a combo - of these things usually worked.  I don't recall they ever had to use a vein, but man is it frustrating.  I had a significant delay between BMX, when my port was put in, and chemo and nobody remembered that I should have it flushed.  It sat for 3 1/2 months, but worked like a champ first try.  I have been lucky with it - just had it flushed yesterday.  My only problem is that sometimes it bleeds after a flush - with no apparent reason.  My MO says it can be removed but he ordered a BCI test to determine if I can stop anti-hormonals at 5 years.  This test was run on my original tumor sample.  The result was disconcerting - high risk of recurrence and no benefit from anti-hormonals, so maybe I will keep the port.  Have not discussed this with the MO yet.

I had a weird college tour with my DS and his buddy.  Me and two 17 year-old boys on a long 5-day road trip through Florida - illuminating for me to say the least!

Dinner tonight was baked potato salad and French Dip sandwiches - yum!

Susan, your enthusiasm over the evolving wonderful home is infectious! I hope you and the kids are happy with the finished product.

I had a busy morning in the kitchen. First, I peeled and sliced the three glossy and firm eggplants, brushed the slices with olive oil and browned them on top of the stove using a griddle. Then I assembled two eggplant layered dishes with bottled marinara, the remainder of a jar of Sal & Judy's Heart Healthy sauce and half a jar of Rao's sauce. I also used a bag of bought grated Italian cheeses. I had cheese to grate but went the easy route. The Sargento 6 Italian cheeses was on sale for $2.50 for 8 oz. so I tossed a couple of bags into the cart. Both the eggplant dishes are in the freezer.

I also added seasonings to a lb. of pork sausage to make Italian sausage. I cooked the sausage and stored it in the refrigerator to be used in frittatas and maybe a pizza next week.

Dinner will be pork chops and asparagus and leftover cauliflower/potato mash.

Tomorrow's Sunday dinner will be boiled picnic ham, mashed potato salad (eaten room temperature), and home-made baked beans. DH is doing the beans. He cooked a lb. of white beans this morning, either navy or great northern. I'm not sure which. He was looking up recipes yesterday and has a Cook's Country cookbook on the table. He's a big fan of baked beans and took my suggestion that he make them.

It's another gorgeous spring-like day here, high in the 60's. I think spring has arrived.

Lacey, what a Lacey kind of gesture!! You are, indeed, a really good friend. Now you get to plan some meals to go with the games.

Carole, those eggplant sound delicious. I used to do rolled grilled eggplant planks, wrapping them around all kinds of things. I should get back to making that. Lots of work, but so delicious!

<boring house update> It was not possible to "move" into our second floor today, but it is okay. I spent three hours in the house this morning, and it was worth every minute. I was able to direct the painters, buy them some more paint, remind the carpenter of several projects he had "forgotten" about and would have required the painters to come back later, and a plumber showed! He installed two toilets! [I like working toilets a lot it turns out!] and when I came back from the paint store, he was looking for more to do in order to fill a day. Why yes, I did have shower and faucet fixtures. When I left, they were going to move the vanities into the baths, hook in the faucets, and install the shower and tub hardware. The painters were doing additional coats of paint in the hallways and kitchen. I will head back tonight, I think to see if the second floor is indeed all mine to start my stuff. </boring house update>

Dinner tonight is some kind of pork tenderloin with potatoes and a large green salad. For some reason, I am drawing a blank on what I want to rub the tenderloin with or marinade it in. This is not a cut of meat I have my experience with, so I am still learning.

*susan*

today I gave my mom the much needed individual attention she needed. Took her to the second hand store to find some fun red carpet attire that she and dad will attend at the senior center. spent a couple of hours in there and got some cool stuff, a fedora hat for dad and a blingy sweater and boa for her. Hope they can go on Friday, Dad is sick after just 3 days on the new med, I had to encourage him to take the anti-diarrheal meds the doc gave him (not sure why he is so hesitant) anyway time will tell.

came home and made tomato soup with open faced ruebens done in the oven ( a weight watchers recipe) was not thrilled with the low fat swiss cheese, melted kinda rubbery, but overall edible. I also got some ham slices and will be looking forward to eggs benedict for Sunday breakfast.

Carole so jealous of you 60's weather. High of 52 here tomorrow and will be making a plan for the grill!

Susan Loving the "boring house updates" my kinda talk! Need to get back on track and get some stuff going for the NC house, cant decide on ceiling fans and cabinet pulls. I am stuck.

Pork loin - my favorite is plain, old-fashioned sage; or apricot-chipotle sauce.

I met my friend Pat for lunch at Cafe Express today when she came to town to run errands. She also met her son to get his dog to keep for a week while they go skiing, so we had to find someplace we could see the car & with a green space close by to walk the dog before she headed back North. I had a mushroom & swiss burger, and she had a plate w/3 different salads. Nothing spectacular, but fun to see her & visit.

Worked on taxes all afternoon & I'm still full from lunch so maybe dinner will be chocolate ice cream.

I figure that as long as I still have hair and it looks good long, I’m keeping it long. Bob & Gordy don’t take well to change--so if I cut my hair for any reason other than chemo it’d really shake them up. (28 years ago when I went from strawberry to ash blonde it took Bob awhile to accept it). Longer hair balances me out too--it’s the length & the volume. I don’t believe that it’s not age-appropriate. (Although there are certain things a 65-yr-old would be wise not to wear, such as miniskirts, stilettos, and “smoky eye” makeup).

Bummed out tonight. For the second time in a row, our house concert was postponed--this time due to a nasty bug going around that decimated our audience and caused a raft of RSVP cancellations. (Bob himself was up half the night hacking). Getting really antsy to perform--next gig isn’t till May (the weekend before my benefit concert for Vital Touch in Hickory, NC). The weather is gorgeous this weekend--but Tues. through Thurs. winter’s coming back, with snow. Might make it difficult for me to attend the BCO Michigan meetup Sat. morning in Jackson).

So because we had tonight suddenly free, I grilled outdoors for the first time since Nov. Got some really nice Black Angus grass-fed strip steaks, seasoned with cracked pepper and espresso-infused sea salt. Accompanied it with oven-roasted Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, and baby rainbow carrots in curry-honey sauce. Wine was a 2011 Etna Rosso we brought back with us from Sicily.

good afternoon! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Special K, your dinner sounds delicious. Good to hear you didn't have traffic on your way home from Orlando.

Minus, ugh, my hubby and I need to do our taxes, which we plan on doing this coming weekend via Skype or phone. Never fun.

Carberry, Sounds like a fun day with your mom, and it sounds like there were fun purchases for both your folks. I hope your dad is well enough to go to the event at the senior center. Which med is giving bad SEs?I lost my mom over ten years ago to breast cancer, and miss her everyday, but I'm so grateful to have my dad. I've been in Cleveland with him since August, and have plans to go back to CA in April, but it's so hard to leave him.

Went out for a lovely dinner with my dad last night. I had Caesar salad (no croutons), hangar steak, cooked to a perfect mid rare with sautéed spinach and grilled asparagus. My dad had short ribs, which were sous vide for 12 hours, and it was phenomenal. I've been wanting a sous vide machine for a while, but now I'm obsessed. They're expensive, so I'm going to let DH know that this is what I would like for my birthday, which is in April. Oh yeah, was rear ended today. Nobody was hurt, and it wasn't a big deal, but what a pain!

Tonight is leftovers from dinner out last night

chisandy, that sounds like a fun night!

Hsant, glad you enjoyed dinner with your Dad. Hope he wasn't with you when you got rearended!

Specialk traffic us always bad diwn there isn't it? It I'm glad you enjoyed dinner.

Lacey, i hope your friend can enjoy her time with you and relax. When you're in the middle If crisis after crisis it's hard to relax. And, roasted radishes? I've never had those. Sounds intriguing.

Minus glad you had fun either your friend. I hope your port works again for you. I still have mine and get it flushed every 4 weeks. It's my umbrella defense you know. If I have an umbrella, it doesn't rain. Hey, it's worked so far. LOL.

Going to post this and continue in another before I lose it. LOL

<boring house update> Yea. So much progress, but the minute I left on Saturday, the whole crew must have left. Not a thing was done besides a shower head installation. So, no painting the baby's room today. I am now officially irritated. We had a whole group of people ready to wash, clean, and paint the second floor. The Great Sergio will see a less-than-happy-Susan tomorrow morning. I have a punch list, and I want it done by the end of the day Thursday. Tomorrow morning I meet with the shower glass person and the closet person. My husband and I are having a lunch date in between. <end irritated boring house update>

I seem to have less work than normal which means I have the energy to focus on some other crap, like cleaning the "renovation desk." It is now cleaned up and the computer that lives over there is loaded with tax software. That is next. For Sunday "brunch" Mr 02143 wanted pancakes, so I made the some buttermilk pancakes, fried eggs, and bacon. Dinner was leftovers of the pork tenderloin, potatoes, and the german cabbage salad which had lost its "specialness." This morning, I dumped some chickpeas into water. After the kids were done in the kitchen, I cooked them in the pressure cooker, and then made some of them into hummus. I divided the rye starter [did I mention that Mr. 02143 cleaned the fridge and THREW OUT MY STARTER?????] that I started on Thursday and made some rye crackers with the discard. I had hoped to start some marmalade, but somehow, that just didn't happen. The crackers aren't bad, but not great. They need some herbs, spices, salt, something to make them fully enjoyable. Doesn't mean they won't get eaten, however.

*susan*

Lacey, your ML meal sounds very appetizing. It would be nice to walk to a store and buy fresh haddock. We're having two catfish fillets for dinner. They were frozen (by me) in water and are thawing--in a container of water. I went back to WW this morning so I'm in Smart Points mode. Instead of pan frying the fish, I will brush the fillets lightly with EVOO, season and bake at a high temperature. Side will be a couple of veggies. Asparagus and a second veggie from those on hand: turnips, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, butternut squash.

I do enjoy WW meetings. The Monday morning meeting is quite large and attended by women of all ages and sizes. There is such a sense of camaraderie. I'm not thrilled with the re-done web site, though. I liked the previous one better. Wish me luck as I drool over the meals described by some of you.

Tonight's dinner will feature some lovely little lamb loin chops that dh will grill. He has some of his baked beans left over from Sunday. He may want a helping of those as one side. I will have steamed broccoli with fresh lemon juice. Our salad will be either fresh spinach or romaine with slices of pear, crumbles of blue cheese and some walnut pieces. Dressing will be home-made vinaigrette. Dessert will be a couple of Hershey's dark chocolate kisses.

Hope the dads are ok and everybody else is ok, too.

Susan - definitely not to late to pass on your greetings to Pat. We generally talk every week even though we only see each other every couple of months due to the 1-1/2 distance. The distance is made longer because neither of us care to drive after dark, so we see each other more in the summer. What a lovely story about the painters. Looking good!!! Glad you got to delay the onslaught of the next tx.

Lacey - a neighbor went to La Madelaine restaurant & brought us all some lemon Madelaines last week. They were melt in your mouth good but I'm sure wouldn't stand up to yours.

Carole - I so admire your dedication to weight watchers when needed. I just seek to keep gaining even eating only one meal a day w/no sweets. Hopefully I'll get back to walking this spring.

Moon - I don't care for eggplant either. Any plan from your doc yet about the implant leak? It will be fun to hear about your dinners. Cooking for one is problematic.

Hsant - sorry you were rear ended. Glad to hear everyone is OK but it's such a mess.

Dinner today was at noon on the way home from the doc's office after getting a cortisone shot for my trigger thumb. Rainbow trout, French green lentils, lightly sauteed spinach with pecans, homemade rosemary bread - and a lovely glass of Hahn Meritage. I could only eat half so tomorrow's meal is ready to warm. If there's any supper tonight, it might be popcorn & apples.