So...whats for dinner?

Special - WTH is high risk then? I always had several polyps removed and had 2 year call backs. And then I had chemo for BC. My next colonoscopy showed NO polyps and I got a 5 year call back. Obviously a skewed reading. Also my derm doc said my skin looked better than it had for 20 years in terms of pre-cancerous lesions. Again - obviously a skewed reading. I told her the treatment was not worth the clear skin. Now it's back to freezing 12 -15 places every 6 months.

They have changed some of the "prep liquid" requirements. My first time I could not get all the liquid down. Last time the quantity was smaller. One friend had a pill before the liquid prep. She was cleaned out for sure.

I watch my husband do the prep every 2 years, and hope I never have to do it.

Happy, thanks for the welcome, this has become my favourite thread. That dinner sounded amazing!

Spent the day "cooking", not food, but made enough soap to last us another year. It doesn't take long once you start, but it's one of those jobs that sits on the to do list for a while.

HH, that sounded like an amazing magical evening—the memories would probably sustain me though at least a week of chicken and broccoli dinners.

Speaking of which, tonight was leftover rotisserie chicken, sauteed butternut squash “noodles” with a little truffle oil & salt, and steamed broccoli with some of that Christian Poitier hollandaise (one packet got me through three meals). When I brought the chicken home yesterday, I had a dark quarter. Apparently, during the night (despite having ordered in for Mexican), Gordy ate the other dark quarter, so all that was left was breast. Despite covering it with the gelled juices in the container and then the skin, it was dry, dry, DRY. Gagged on it, in fact. I really hate white meat poultry unless it’s Southern-fried or napped with plenty of gravy. All my life I've thought it tasted like chalk and had the texture of cardboard. I guess food aversions are powerful (I really don’t like many fruits, either, unless they’re very sweet) and explain why it’s so difficult for some folks (ahem) to diet.

Drank two glasses of seltzer this evening, had two cups of green tea with lemon & honey but I’m still dehydrated. It’s so frustrating coughing stuff up but being unable to swallow it or cough it out without herculean effort (and intractable laryngitis). I sound like I have a three-pack habit, and I’ve never smoked. Seeing my MO on Thurs. and I think I will look for an ENT referral to get my cords ‘scoped to rule out what I fear may have been a hemorrhage or blood blister caused by coughing and throat clearing.

Welcome, Freya. Great to have you at the table. Dh and I made a trip to AUS and NZ 3 or 4 years ago. We have been watching the tennis in Melbourne and wishing we could go back to that city. We loved the area near the river with water taxis.

Last night's dinner was chicken enchiladas made with leftover roasted chicken. I used canned green sauce and didn't like the flavor as well as the red sauce. I made the tortillas.

The weather is cool enough for Dh to plan cooking a pot of chili with pinto beans not out of a can. Challenge is eating it before it gets warm again. This has been a winter with too much summer mixed in. And LOTS of rain. Cart path golf is not for me.

HH, the dinner sounds like a marvelous eating/sipping experience.

Minus, my mother has rebounded and is back to enjoying food. Thanks for asking. I have still not used the spiralizer I bought last year. It's wrapped on a cloth to keep it nice and clean.

For some reason I find myself interested in the air fryer.

Sandy, not a white meat fan either. Sadly, dh eats only white breast meat. Actually, that's good because I split a chicken, give him the breast and the rest is for me!

Freya, you would love my SIL. She makes her own laundry soap and hand and bath soap occasionally. I don't bother because it's cheap to buy but I do make some of my own cleaning products and yesterday I made a linen spray with witch hazel and lavender oil.

I need to check this thread more often ...loving all the conversation!

Dinner last night

baked pork chops breaded with Parmesan and Italian seasoning, long grain rice with garlic and herbs with a big ol toss salad.

Dinner with early so we treated our cell for the bowl of butter pecan ice cream and watch the game shows LOL

Spent a fortune at Sam's Club today. One of the purchases was an air fryer. Then I came home and read reviews on the internet that have pretty well convinced me to pack up the bulky appliance and return it. Basically an air fryer is a small convection oven that heats up very quickly and cools off quickly, too. The company that makes the appliance that I bought does not get good marks for customer service.

Tonight's dinner will be pork chops (probably not cooked in the new gadget). Also asparagus, also kale chopped salad from a bag. Or maybe sweet potato chunks instead of the asparagus.

Dh and I both like the chicken dark meat. The breast of a roasted chicken becomes chicken salad or some other dish like the enchiladas.

Terrible news about the automobile happening in Melbourne.

Wondering about Lacey's scan results.

Gorgeous day here today. Crisp air, sunshine, 60's temps.

May Rosevalley’s memory be for a blessing.

Going to WF to get some Singer’s Saving Grace for my laryngitis—so I think I’ll buy myself a really pricey piece of fish or a steak, since tonight’s b’day dinner will have to be postponed till the wine dinner we’re attending on Thurs. (Bob is working late—what else is new). Or maybe if there’s something really nice in the hot food section. Had a late lunch of cream cheese & lox on low-carb toast with tomato & onion. Sadly, couldn’t use the last of the homegrowns—they’ve sprouted. So I will try to put them in water and let them grow into seedlings till I can pot them and then plant them in spring.

i guess I missed it too. Happy Birthday Chi!

Sandy- Happy, happy birthday....all the days you celebrate it....you just cannot have too much birthday!

Went to WF for some chest cold stuff (Singer’s Saving Grace, orange blossom & wildflower honeys, lemon chamomile tea bags) and bought a gorgeous, 2” thick pasture-raised NY strip. Also, I figured I would get some dim sum (shrimp dumpling, pork bun, spring roll) to steam and a “Hawaii roll” (actual crabmeat, wasabi tobiko, avocado, black sesame seeds). And my ultimate comfort food: truffle mac & cheese. (My neighborhood WF doesn’t carry lobster mac & cheese). Walked over to the pastry case, and there for three bucks was a huge slice of Death By Chocolate cake (it’ll serve all three of us). When the checker remarked that it looked as if I were throwing a party, I mentioned my birthday…and he comped me the cake.

Got home, and turned on the gas grill. No hiss at all from the right burner, no ignition from the left. Oh, well. Even if I used a fireplace match, only one burner would have worked, so it’s indoor cooking till spring (and no more chance of snow) when I can call the repair guy. Steamed the dim sum, put the spring roll in the toaster-oven, ate half the sushi, had some oolong tea (shouldn’t have sweetened it, honey wouldn’t work with oolong, and that Skinnygirl Agave-Stevia stuff is nasty)…and no room for the mac & cheese. So into the freezer it went, unopened. Bob just got home, but I don’t know if I want cake or champagne yet. For some insane reason, no sweet cravings tonight. (Not cake and champagne—brut and chocolate don’t mix).

Happy Birthday from me too Sandy. Your birthday dinner sounded delightful and tasty. Hope the throat gets better soon.

ANTS!! I have been nearly broken by ants today. Microscopic, the smallest I have ever seen, and they have invaded my kitchen benches all day. I have put out baits, cleaned them up, and cleaned them up and cleaned them up.

When we were in the garden we noticed all the ants have moved their eggs out of the ground and up into the plants. It seems we might be in for some serious rain, nature usually has an insight.

Tonight hubby was in the kitchen, so we are having three pepper and onion spaghetti

And we are becoming so global!! Yay!

Just received my happy-birthday-to-me present: a 250ml. bottle of genuine Cavalli Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale DOP of Reggio-Emilia “afinato" silver label (aged a minimum of 12 yrs.) It's the real deal. (Couldn't see my way clear to buying the “extra vecchio" gold label, which at $200 for the same size bottle would make Bob hit the ceiling, as that would be ounce-for-ounce as expensive as a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon—which, had HappyHammer not mentioned she'd seen it at a James Beard Award-chef's dinner the other night, I would have believed was mythical).

You might remember I had a bottle of the red label version that I'd bought 25 yrs. ago and stashed away so far into the cupboard that I found it only this past summer; and so much of “the angel's share" had evaporated through the pores of the wood-and-cork stopper that what remained in the bottle was only a thick film of staining along the sides and a few drops of thin vinegar in the bottom—which tasted no better than the “Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP," aka “salad balsamics" that supermarkets and gourmet food shops sell for about $15-20, which are cheaper because they are diluted with regular red wine vinegars despite the “12” designation on some labels. (Then there are the cheap “balsamic vinegars” you can buy in supermarkets for $3-8 for 8 oz., or Costco for $10 per pint, good only for reducing and cooking).

I did reconstitute it with drop-by-drop of hot water and vigorous shaking until the film had dissolved into the vinegar, but it still tasted only as good as the “Condimento" Balsamico I bought in the supermarket for $28 for a small bottle—which because it was made from the “wrong" grapes outside Reggio-Emilia or Modena couldn't be called “Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" (or even IGP) despite being produced the same way. I had to throw the red-label bottle away after it got covered with plaster dust, and it had separated out again. Just wasn’t worth keeping.

Eataly didn’t carry the silver label Cavalli, just something analogous from Modena for a little more, some “extra vecchio” from other producers for several hundred bucks, and a host of the cheaper and cheapest stuff. So I ordered from Amazon. It came in an oval canister, protected by a blue velvet bag and accompanied by a bilingual booklet. It also came with a cork embedded with a blown-glass pour spout, with a little teeny stopper for that. The booklet recommends replacing the wax-sealed wood-and-cork factory stopper with that one once the bottle is opened, and using the stuff up within a year or two. I will try it in a little while both in an espresso spoon and over sliced strawberries.