So...whats for dinner?

bedo, let me know when you’ll be here! What a cute kitty, too!

Tonight, will pan-sear a pasture-raised pork chop (might honey-brine it) and pan-roasted Brussels sprouts. Due to having run out of Dexilant, I had a monster case of GERD last night that kept me from raising a glass to my Cubbies, and I’m not about to have anything stronger than water tonight. (Will even skip the lime in my seltzer). Just had half a container of Greek yogurt into which I stirred a Tbs. of Paleo Granola, a tsp. of no-sugar-added apricot spread, and a squirt of raw honey. Hope that keeps me away from the gelato.

Haha, Bedo! As soon as I saw that pic, I "knew" it since I remember you cuddling the stray cats in the parking lot of Pickety Place! How delightful to be thinking of caring for your first grandchild!

Tonight I met with DF, her mother, and her sister, whom I met for the first time. We sat through the trying on of many dresses. But DF is quite particular, and none passed muster. So they will have more searching tomorrow...sans moi!

So then we went to a local restaurant for dinner, where I promptly fell on their slippery floor tiles after walking in with a slight bit of rainwater on my shoes...despite my careful wiping them on the inside rug provided for that. Yikes!! Can't recall when I have fallen in recent history, and it was embarrasing and not a way to start dinner out well. I needed a bag of ice in my foot...and will have a black and blue hip in the AM. But I don't think I broke anything save maybe one toe....maybe it is just swollen and bruised.

We had a nice meal....fried eggplant spears with an interesting white dipping sauce, sister had salmon with butternut squash puree.....mother, short ribs over mashed and a veggie, DF, a hamburger denuded of tomato and lettuce, and I had sliced marinated skirt steak over an interesting salad.

Now at home with more ice....and thankful that there are nobroken hips!

Glad you are feeling better, Eric.

Fighting off a nasty sinusitis—probably allergic, because my eyes itch too. Unfortunately, the local pollen count ended yesterday—no more till March so I have no idea which allergen is the culprit. Chilly out, too—just wasn’t up to the train commute down to the S. Loop today for an “open call” audition for a workout-dance scene immediately before the scene in the Bar Show in which I have a featured solo. (Homey don’t dance). The director says that given my dialogue, it’ll be even funnier if I don’t do the actual choreography but wearily flail my way through some perfunctory activity—now, that’s my kinda dancing, So I’m cocooning today, and will probably order out from Le Pita Fresh down the street for shwarma, falafel, dolma, Jerusalem salad, tabbouleh, etc. while we watch the Cubs tonight. Not gonna jinx it, though: as long as Bob & Gordy watch, if I don’t, they score, If I watch, they blow it. We left B’way Cellars Wed. night at the bottom of the 5th inning, and while we walked home the Cubs scored two runs. And Thurs. night, while I caught up on my stored DVR recordings, and hung out here online, they won big. The T-shirt worked that time.

Eric, we’ve had two “mold action alert days” in the past two weeks. Every time it’s rainy followed by wind, the mold count skyrockets. But the pollen & mold counts for 2016 ended yesterday, because it’s traditionally the end of hay fever season. The Chicago airborne allergen counts are done old-school: there’s an 86-yr-old allergist, Dr. Joseph Leija, who goes up to the roof of Gottlieb Hospital at dawn every weekday morning with a handheld clicker and counts actual pollen spores that have collected on his slides over the past 24 hrs. (molds are by extrapolation, as even a low count can have hundreds of spores). Then he Tweets the numbers. He used to phone them in to the various local TV meterologists.

Hi all!

bedo - luv the cat pic - that is a substantial specimen! What a nice memory recalling Michelle and your lunch together with our ladies!

lacey - eeeks! Stay upright woman! I hope things are not injured too badly!

eric - my DH had the "man cold" also, which I actually suspect was the flu. He was home in bed for a week, then returned to work with a z-pak and a host of cough meds, then spent the following week back in bed. Recovered enough to go up to SC to help his folks after the hurricane.

Tonight is rib eyes on the charcoal grill with two lobster (lobstah, lol!) tails, some fresh bi-color corn in foil with chili butter, and broccoli salad - which has bacon, dried cranberries, almonds, red onion, and a sweet and sour dressing.

Oh, YEAH!!! Broke the jinx—watched the whole game. Gonna buy the t-shirts tomorrow….if the stores don’t run out. Dinner will probably be at the local Jamaican restaurant: curried goat.

The pot pie was really good. It needed salt, but I knew that would be the case. Unless the recipe absolutely needs salt to work (like bread), I leave most of it out on the theory that it's easier to add than remove.

Lacey, that sounds like what I've got. It's been over a week, plus, for me and 2 weeks for Sharon and we're still coughing a lot.

Mom and ET will be on opposite sides of the series. Mom went to her first Cleveland game in 1924 and has been a fan since then. ET is exactly my age and has obviously been a fan for about 1/2 as long. I'm sure there will be a lot of good natured "trash talk" going back and forth. :-)

Dh is from the Chicago area and has been a Cubs fan since he started to watch baseball at a young age. So he's very glad about the Cubs FINALLY making a World Series. No doubt about our team or whether we will be watching. Nance, I must say we do pull for the Cardinals when the Cubs are out of the competition. I attended a Cardinals game a few years ago in that beautiful stadium. We have relatives who are Cardinals fans and other relatives who are White Sox fans.

Last night's dinner was baby back ribs, and they were scrumptious. I bought two packages of the ribs yesterday afternoon when I saw that they were on sale, came home and popped one of the racks into a pot to steam and get tender. DH did a great job of searing them on the grill with a good barbecue sauce. We also had baked potatoes with butter and sour cream. A yummy dinner much enjoyed by this carnivore.

We're having leftover crab cakes from a recent meal tonight, thawed in the refrigerator. They were actually supposed to be last night's dinner. The baked potatoes were so good last night that we decided to have the same thing tonight. I'll probably also make a salad and add some fresh pear and blue cheese to the bagged kale salad greens. Red pears were on sale yesterday, too, and they are almost too pretty to eat.

Your fish dinner sounds good, Nance, and so does your pot pie, Eric. I have never made a pot pie. I seem to recall making that admission before.

I make pot pies fairly often in the winter, sometimes in a crust, other times with a puff pastry top. If freezing, I'll use a crust or sometimes I'll just freeze the filling. It's nice to have it in the freezer. The pate brisee that I make freezes beautifully.

Where has Susan been? I haven't seen her on here in a while.

Didn’t feel like going out after all. Searched freezer for salmon but found a grass-fed rib-eye first. So I grilled it outdoors, and served it with first a homegrown insalata Caprese (well, I didn’t grow the mozzarella myself); then some mini sweet potato latkes (from the kosher frozen section at Jewel) heated in the toaster oven; and broccolini sauteed in evoo with sliced garlic (removed them once they were getting golden), lemon juice, sea salt and red pepper flakes. I soooo want some of the gelato in the freezer, or a cookie, but I’m going to have some Greek yogurt with raw honey and nuts instead.

I haven't made Shepherd's Pie in a long time. I have a good WW recipe.

Today is Monday and DH cooked a lb. of great northern white beans with smoked turkey sausage. I just put on some brown rice and will make the salad that I described but did not make last night.

After we have eaten the beans a couple of times, I'll make white chili with the rest of them.

I'm feeling the urge to make pizza. Maybe tomorrow night. I will need to buy some mozzarella cheese. It melts so nicely.

I have a similar urge to make tortillas for chicken enchiladas. I'm relieved that the cooking interest has come to life again.

Definitely hankering for Italian hearty (hardy?) fare moves in with the cold weather...or at least it is cold here! And I am heading to doc tomorrow to see if I need an antibiotic, to rid this scourge from my achy body. I have been hiding indoors now that the cold temps and wind have arrived.

I bought pizza ingredients last week, but figure that I'll wait until it feels safe for anyone to have me literally handling their food. Tonight DH grilled teriyaki marinated pork tenderloin...sides were garden salad and a farro sauté with onions, kale, mushrooms and garlic. Saved some farro for tomorrow evening's meal which will be grilled steak tips. Odd for us to have "mammals" twice in a row, but I'm feeling the need to pack in the protein. Liver not an option....

So dH and I both skipped the gym tonight. He is getting the uri too...oh, how hard it is for men to be sick. Hope his does not linger like everyone has reported.

Hope you are not too sore, tomorrow, Nance. We recently learned that we need to find a new gym....booo. We are so happy at the hospital gym, which now will only allow employees admittance. The director said that we could volunteer to work the front desk or wipe down machines to qualify, but neither of us is crazy over that idea....yet. We need to check out the YMCA first....maybe we will volunteer to keep our exercise status quo.

Off to get some sleep so I can get up for the doc appt.

Tonight is pork medallions and mushrooms with a cognac cream sauce over egg noodles. Delicious recipe I found years ago in an old cook book my Mom had. Easy to make and very satisfying for a chilly day. Pork has been a good price around here so bought three nice pork tenderloins and will use one tonight for this recipe. I will serve with sautéed brussel sprouts.

Nance, hope that your soreness is minimal.

Chicken enchiladas appeal to me too but I don't make my own tortillas. I bet those are fabulous!

Sounds like pizza is on the menu for a few of you soon. We had that on Sunday. Used some of the lovely sausage on one of them. I bought the dough from our local pizzeria cause it is as good as homemade and it saved time since I had a house full for my granddaughters 2nd birthday party. My DIL made a "Minnie Mouse" cake from scratch and it was so cute. Aubrey (the BD girl) wore ears all day. I enjoyed every second of seeing her laugh. Even though she got toys for her BD, her favorite gifts were a new pair of shoes and a pair of boots for the winter. What a girly girl! LOL...she threw the toys aside and tried on the shoes all by herself. Here she is with her mouse ears and her Daddy's sunglasses.

April, what a cutie!

The pizza crust yeast was past the expiration date but I used it anyway. We'll see what happens! The oven is heating. The Italian sausage is browned and so are the mushrooms. The other toppings will be sliced tomatoes, green olives and Greek olives and a 6 Italian cheeses from a bag. Deciding whether to make a salad.

Fresh cranberries are available! I bought a couple of bags. We like the cooked cranberries with cottage cheese.