So...whats for dinner?

Happy hammer, I could eat it either way, but bet the rice is a southern adaptation(for stroganoff) I love rice with any kind of gravy.

Last night we finished up the kale soup with a salad and crusty bread with brie cheese. It was a quick dinner as I had just returned from the eye doc (with very blurry vision!) and we needed to get going to the Celtics game, with no idea how bad the traffic would be. Then I drove into Boston with my 'large pupils', and tolerated all the bright car lights. Fortunately, the Garden's lights were not bothersome....and by the time we drove home, my eyes were almost back to normal. Oh, and the Celts pulled off a good win!

Eye doc story.....we are very fond of our eye doc, a 50ish woman who we have seen for probably 12 years. She had cancer treatment twice in that time, and has sometimes looked frail to me. Last year at this time, she announced that she would be adding another doc to her practice. He'd covered for one of her medical LOAs in the past. She would only be following a small number of patients and doing no more cataract surgeries. I had seen her new partner a couple of years ago for a small vision crisis and he is fine, but we really hoped we could stay with her since she is wonderful and we have a good relationship despite her 'infrequent specialist' role. I also worried that she might be losing her battle with the cancer. So....I prepared myself for the switch to the new doc (a nice man, but much less personable), and while having my vision checked with the staff person, I asked how my 'former' doc was doing. The woman cheerfully said...."Oh she's doing well...you'll see her shortly". Well, sure enough, she came right in and I was so pleased. We had a great visit assessing my timing for cataract surgery, (which I continue to out off as long as possible)and the various options that exist now for intraocular lenses, as well as looking carefully at my overall eye and general health. I should probably mention that my wimpy ness about switching eye docs has to do with my recent experience of losing several excellent providers to "moves" for professional advancement reasons. I will be following my MO to Dana Farber since she gave me that option when she announced her change a few months ago. Sadly my wonderful surgeon has moved on to become head of another system, and RO moved out of state to head up a program... Guess I have had too many really competent women docs who, fortunately for them, have advanced in their fields. But at least I can keep my eye doc for now....and she was looking healthy. Yay for her! Cutting back has probably been helpful for her health.

Back to food.... Tonight I'm making baked salmon, (which we picked up during our walk this afternoon) accompanied by my typical salad (or maybe caesar), butternut squash, and crusty bread.

I need to get rid of all the cookies in the house. My sister is quite the baker and we have been gnashing on way too many of hers and mine for the past four days. We sent her home with a lot, but still have too many.

Then DS1 and DDIL1 sent us an amazing wooden tray of a vast assortment of dried fruits and nuts. Another calorie laden treat! We brought it to every house we visited over the weekend to "share the wealth". Actually I'll send a pic of it....

DH bought us a Roomba for our Christmas present.....got this bee in his bonnet...so now "Rhonda"is roaming around happily collecting dog hair. "She" is kind of like having an electronic pet. He is totally thrilled with her and I think it is a riot! Gotta lift my feet now....

Battening down the hatches for a nor'easter....some of you may have already had the snow.

Good soup making weather!

Wow Lacey, that's beautiful!

Lacey- we are in the same boat- way to many goodies and only 2 of us here.  I have really sworn off sweets since the BC diagnosis.  Hubby doesn't need any of it either but he has tried to do his best to take care of it for me...haha.  Anyway, boxing it up tomorrow and taking it to a local shelter- hoping they can enjoy it!  HOWEVER, your dried fruit and nut tray looks divine!!!!

lacey - can I mail you my extra walnut fudge? It is just sitting there tempting me too! The recipe I used makes five pounds because I was building holiday plates with a friend, but she didn't take as much fudge as I had hoped she would - so I have way more than our foursome could handle over the holiday! Maybe I should go to the craft store and get some candy boxes and pack it up and give it away... or open a fudge stand on the corner....

happy - just 4 pieces - how cute is that? Thanks for the suggestion, I had thought about freezing, and assumed it would do well. But because I am also following the just 4 pieces rule - but they are all for me - I just really need to get it out of my house! I can mail you just 4 pieces too!

I try to put a date on stuff that I put into the freezer...and try to put the new stuff toward the back of the freezer, so that it gets used up in a reasonable amount of time.

Even with all that work, I still sometimes find some dinosaur meat in there....

Lacey--were you at the Knicks/Celtic's game? My Dad and watched it on TV!

Dinner tonight will be a pot of chili that I just started----We are getting really high winds today and tomorrow and the wind chills to go with them. So, chili sounded like a plan.

Carole - yum, I love beef stroganoff and also split pea soup w/ham.

Most of my dinners this week were leftover variations of the prime rib I cooked on Christmas Eve. Finally finished the last as a roasts beef sandwich on sourdough bread yesterday. Today I went to the only 'new mexico' mexican restaurant in Houston and had a stack of green chili enchiladas w/chicken. And two margaritas. Tomorrow will be salad & bagels w/cream cheese & smoked salmon.

New Year's Eve, those of my chickenfoot domino group who are in town will start playing at 4pm and quit around 10pm to head for our beds. I am going to make Hawaiian Sweet Roll sliders. If they turn out, I'll post the recipe. Since this is the South, someone will be making a black eyed pea dish for luck - and probably someone will be making something with cabbage for the same.

Did you all see Mark Bittman's 3 ingredient no knead bread recipe on line? I can hardly wait to try it.

So Lacey...you may need to be on the next robo~vacuum commercials...you are making me want one!  I do not often make beef stroganoff but my mom loves it so decided to do it.  We have it over rice though I know many like it with egg noodles.  Yep, apparently am carb loading to really put my body into the crazy zone when I go back to low card eating next week. Actually am looking forward to the low carbs as I do and feel better then....and, my weight will be better. Need to can the extra lbs since I am ER+.

(Dang it--my computer ate the beginning of my post--including the show we saw last night, the last two days' meals, etc. But here's The Inn at Little Washington (at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mts.) earlier tonight:

First amuse-bouche was eaten before I could photograph it: a potato chip stuffed with "pimento cheese" that no Southern mom ever made unless she'd gone to culinary school. (I could taste fresh chive, chèvre, creme fraiche, and cheddar). Amuse-bouche # 2 was red pepper-carrot-vodka soup and a Comte cheese gougere:

Amuse-bouche #3, a pork-belly skewer with kimchi on a tamari reduction:

Appetizer: "A Tin of Sin;" American farmed osetra caviar on a bed of cucumber gelee and crabmeat salad, accompanied by champagne:

Next, lamb carpaccio with "Caesar salad ice cream," microgreens, pureed romaine and "Parmigiano-Reggiano snow," served with a Pinot Noir (aka Spatburgunder) rose from the Baden region of Germany:

Next was crispy veal sweetbreads with apricots and country ham, accompanied with an Alsatian vendange tardive Pinot Gris. Alas, I ate it too fast. Oops. Where were my manners? Maybe my sister snapped a pic.

Next, poached lobster in a yellow-tomato, fennel pollen & saffron broth with garlic custard, with a Russian River area oaked chardonnay:

Here's the wine:

Pre-dessert intermezzo: "Dreamsicle" with graham cracker crumbs:

Dessert: "Seven Deadly Sins," miniatures of their most famous sweets: mint ice cream with chocolate ribbons, chocolate lava cake with a black truffle sugar topping, apple-tartlet, butterscotch ice cream sandwich with warm caramel sauce, limoncello mousse cheesecake with raspberry yogurt, vanilla panna cotta, and "chocolate bomb:" a shell of dark chocolate surrounding dark chocolate mousse. Scattered throughout the plate were grains of dark-chocolate enrobed puffed arborio rice:

No dessert wine--I had to drive, and even sharing each glass of the pairings with my sis & niece pushed the limits of what I could safely imbibe. So I had a double espresso (from artisanally roasted beans from the next town over). Just as we were about to leave, we heard a cowbell and a moo (from one of those toys you turn over).....the folks at the next table had ordered the cheese course:

Finally, our souvenirs (besides the menus, which I will try to photograph tomorrow at my sis' house before I head home)--candies & cookies in a little box replica of the Inn:

Yea, verily, I was weak--ate a lemon snap, shortbread, chocolate cherry & 2 chocolate blueberries (plus doing my nails and drinking some orange herb tea while waiting for all these pics to load). Hope they can manage to make it home unmolested in my carry-on!

This is only the third time I've ever been here (last time was 22 years ago). Even the priciest place in Paris is cheaper, but boy, was this worth it!

No idea about what to do for dinner. Kind of leaning towards pancakes and bacon for dinner

Hubby told me pancakes and bacon sounded good to him so that is what I am doing for dinner

Oh no, my DH is sick- ear and throat crud.  think I'll be making a comforting soup for supper. Trying to figure our what might taste good to him.

Chili for supper tonight--made it yesterday and was just getting ready to eat some when m y pal Melodie knocked on the back door and wanted to go eat out---so we went to Fiesta Ranchero (it was 1/2 price margarita night) so since she was driving, I had two frozen strawberry M with a burrito bowl. Can't remember the last time I had two drinks the same night, but boy were they good. I showed her when I got out the car that I could still touch both of my noses without any difficulty.

Today, I had to do something with the Challah bread I bought Christmas Eve and didn't use. So, I made the French toast in Ina Garten's cookbook---you use whipping cream and orange zest and honey and kosher salt------OMG-----I will eat the rest of this loaf of bread pretty quickly. She also has a French toast bread pudding recipe that you do in the oven, but I did it in the skillet and it was divine.