So...whats for dinner?

Nance, berries were on my radar today as well. Our Loganberries were ripe (cross between a raspberry and blackberry), so I made 4 jars of jam and a compote to have over some crepes tonight. I bottled 11 jars of pears in a cinnamon and vanilla simple syrup. I also made a loaf of rye and caraway seed bread, so sadly no time for a cheesecake.

Iceland, lots of fish on the menu, lamb, and Skyr. Skry is like yoghurt, but is technically a soft cheese, high in protein and very low in fat. I am desperate to go, but I am trying not to get my hopes up too high. My MO and I will make the decision on March 6th. It all depends on if the chemo is working, I can take an oral version (Navelbine) with me if necessary. The other thing is medical/travel insurance, I wont have any being stage IV. It never bothered me too much when it was just bone mets, but now I need to think more carefully.

Minus, it gets so confusing with all the different terms

Sandy, I'm glad you like vegemite, most people hate it unless brought up with it. A Festival that might interest you.

Pan fried fish with an avocado and tomato salad for dinner.

Hubby brought home KFC last night, so tonight is what was leftover from last nigh

I just put the weight on the pressure canner and it's up to about 5 PSI. I need 15PSI and then I can start timing it. 20 minutes at 15PSI and then the cool down.

I ended up with three pressure canners, two Presto brand, and one All American brand. They were bought at a garage sale and I use them all a fair amount. My only problem now is that the new microwave oven (sits above the stove) reduced the clearance above the stove enough that I can't fit any of the canners on the stove. To fix that, I bought a kerosene burning stove and I use that on the back porch. .I feel like my grandfather and grandmother should be here helping me. :-)

I use oranges (for eating) from the tree in the back yard, so the marmalade doesn't have that bitter Seville orange flavor that many marmalades have. And, this will fill 7 eight ounce jelly jars.

4 oranges, 2 lemons, 5-1/2 cups of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda and a box of powdered pectin (my pectin boxes are 1-3/4 ounce net weight).

I use a potato peeler to get the colored part of the skin off of the oranges and lemons and then use a food processor to reduce the "chunk" size of the skin. l've tried a "zester", but that makes the skin pieces too small.

I then peel the fruit, removing as much of "the white stuff" off of the fruit as I can, chop the fruit up and save all the juice with the fruit.

Put the peel, 2-1/2 cups of water and baking soda in a pan, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. I use a Pyrex glass "can use on a stove" pan for this. (My mom gave them to me).

I then add enough of the fruit/juice to get 4 cups of liquid, add the pectin and turn up the stove heat to "high". Once the stove is on "high", I have to continually stir until I'm all done. When the mixture is at a hard boil, add the sugar and let it come back to hard boil. Once it returns to a hard boil, keep it boiling for 1 minute and then remove the pan from the heat.

Skim off the foam put into the jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top, put the lids on and process in a boiling water bath for:

Below 1000 feet elevation above sea level; 10 minutes
1000-3000 feet elevation above sea level; 15 minutes
3000-6000 feet elevation above sea level; 20 minutes
6000-8000 feet elevation above seal level; 25 minutes
8000-10000 feet elevation above sea level; 30 minutes.

Adding...

The last 10 jars if turkey broth are cooling on the counter....All 10 jars sealed.

I have 30 jars on the shelf, which I'm hoping will last until Thanksgiving.

Freya...thinking of you and hoping your treatment is working and that you are feeling well enough to enjoy what you love!   AM hoping your trip is a go and that you can look forward to that.  Please keep us posted- sending hugs and healing mercies to you!

Happy, that is such a great relationship you have with your neighbours. Nice people attract nice people. Thank you so much for the hugs and kind thoughts.

I too love that popping, plinking sound. Has anyone pressure canned meat of any type? I have thought about it, more out of curiosity than anything, but it seems you need to use a lot of salt?

Minus, I can remember when KFC was the only fast food here, apart from the fish and chip shop. I think it's been about 20 years since I had any.

We have a Long John Silvers up in Skokie—it had closed for renovations for so long that we thought it had gone under. I vastly prefer the fish & chips (especially walleye in season) at Culver’s. I didn’t have KFC till I was 21 and living in Seattle—all we had in Brooklyn during my youth was Chicken Delight (the radio jingle was “Don’t cook tonight—call Chicken Delight”).

Freya, sure hope you find a way to do that cruise. Is it Viking? We got a special offer today for free air and reduced cabin fare for a Viking Ocean Cruise from Barcelona to Bergen, starting on Easter Sunday. Two problems with that: first, that would mean no CLE trip to London (unless I go alone, hang around London a couple of days and fly to Barcelona to meet Bob & board the ship on Sunday)—it’s a 15-day cruise and that’s about the outer limit of the length of time Bob can take off. (We had originally planned to do 5 days in London and 3 in Barcelona). Second, I would not get back in time for the JustPlainFolks Music Awards banquet in L.A….if it’s held April 29 as originally tentatively announced. If enough nominees can’t make it that weekend, then it would be switched to July 1—which would work better. Either way, we wouldn’t be hosting Easter brunch or Seder (there will be a Seder the first night in London, though…in Hebrew & English, thank goodness—unlike the Sephardic one I attended in Madrid two years ago with the non-Hebrew parts entirely in rapid-fire Ladino and the Hebrew parts transliterated with Spanish pronunciation).

Speaking of renovations and construction, I got the unpleasant news that the monthly songwriters’ showcase I was supposed to play March 7 has been canceled—the bar hosting it is closing for major remodeling. It’s always something. In my nightmares, I will see sledgehammers and paint rollers running amok across my iCalendar app, obliterating all the events I was happily anticipating.

Dinner tonight while we watched Moonlight (pay-per-view) and Fences (borrowed “for your consideration” DVD copy) was Caesar salad and NY pizza (half anchovy, half sausage). For dessert, the other half of a gigantic slice of chocolate mousse cake Bob brought home from a drug company dinner Wed. night.

Monday is the day I dread…my orientation visit and fitness-evaluation at the L.A. Fitness gym I joined around the corner. (I got the membership tier that lets me use any of their gyms across the country). Between my weight and the lymphedema-imposed limits on the exercises I can do for the test, I may well be the least fit new member they’ve ever seen. I did five minutes at low resistance on my own LifeCycle today and my quads are screaming.

Okay, I have about had it with this site.....it did not keep me logged in (as requested) which it had done happily for the past three years!! And then it fusses about my password....but with two tries, it did finally work, but will not keep it logged in, so I get to go through this each time I want to post, hoping that my password will be accepted. Grrr. Anyone else having an easier time with posting?

Am also a little on edge because we just had a call from DS1 and DDIL, letting us know that she was in the hospital where she works, after being admitted from ER. She was dxd with atrial myxoma, a tumor in the heart, which will be removed by a cardiac surgeon at Cornell-Weil early this week. She is having regular open heart surgery rather than robotic, (after she and DS1 researched both options) so will have a pretty long recovery period, and will be at home for two months. Given that her dad is really starting to struggle with his breathing with his stage four lung cancer condition, we are really worried about him dealing with his daughter's health condition, and do not want him trying to care for the kids. Needless to say, we are eager to get down there to help out. Oy! It's always something. But DH has an implant completion appt this week so we may have to wait until that. I'm busy getting bags packed so we can be ready whenever. Who would ever guess that this healthy 38 year old energetic, fit "vegan" woman would face this issue. Ya never know!

We have been trying to see a few movies before the Awards tonight. Saw "Lion" this week and was so impacted by it. But I cannot imagine that the Academy could tolerate awarding such a sad movie. I was profoundly moved! Then last night we saw Manchester By the Sea. That was also very sad. The acting was good, I thought in both movies. I was amazed by the little 5 year old in Lion! And Dev Patel was great.

After Lion, we went out to a local restaurant in the town where I used to work, and I was surprised at the large menu they had....it used to be a deli. DH enjoyed a sausage and clam linguine dish, and I tried their braciole. Well, it was not like the braciole I have had at a little Italian place in NJ! It was one large braciole on top of garlic mashed potatoes!! Odd but pretty good....and lots for leftovers that I had last night. I, however, need my braciole to be fork tender....this was not at all braised tender....and am determined to make some before the weather gets authentically warm. My neighbor is all in bakut that with me. She is the one with whom I made Timbale. Wonder if I could do the braciole in the unopened pressure cooker....once it's opened! ;

We did just have three very warm (record breaking) days and now are back to the 30's and 40's. I can stand that if there is sun with it!

I have no idea what we will eat tonight...probably some form of easy chicken.

We are back to being chilly in TN ( I grilled outside on Friday night) so it's a nice, easy roast whole turkey breast with veggies for dinner.

Put sliced carrots, leeks and celery in the bottom of a roaster pan. Add 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of a nice dry white wine (a Riesling will work fine too). Put the turkey breast on top of the veggies. Rub olive oil all over the skin and sprinkle with generous amounts of black pepper, garlic salt and parsley flakes (cover it with seasonings). Cover with foil and bake at 325/ 20 minutes per pound, remove the foil for the last 30 minutes. So easy and always turns out deliciously moist-and makes the house smell heavenly while its cooking. I'm running the oven while I can, summers here in the South are just too hot for me to even think about turning the oven on for very long and looks like the warm weather will be back before we know it..

Serve the turkey breast and veggies with a simple salad of mixed greens,sliced avocados and tomatoes. Unless you practice the Julia Child method of meal preparation, you'll also have most of a bottle of wine to go with it.

Lacey, I'd be a more than just on edge....That is scary stuff. I, too am sending good thoughts their way.

I spent about half the day going through more stuff at my mom's house. I have taken care of all the small stuff and now the big stuff is starting to be brought home/given away/taken to a thrift store, etc and the place is really starting to show it. My brother and I are hoping to have the house ready for sale in May or June--just in time for the summer "rush".

I found a set of 1940s lab glassware and a vintage bunsen burner. Sharon was wide eyed when she looked at the stuff. Mom was an organic chemist for PP&G in the late 1930s and an organic chemist (taught there as well) at Navy Academy during WW2. I was always (slightly) amused...mom teaching at a place that she couldn't attend.

Hi, Labelle. What part of TN are you from? I a few summers in Jelico, TN/KY, Williamsburg, KY, Corn Creek, KY and Etowah, TN as we visited family.

Lacey: SO glad to see you, but sorry to hear about your DIL. Holding you in my thoughts. Why don't you try the link below and "Post Your Glitches" for the mods. Seems to me someone else described a similar problem on this thread. Be sure to tell them what hardware you are using, and what browser.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/93/topics...

LaBelle: Sounds so good - and easy. I agree with you about the oven. We might have a couple more 'coolish' days in Houston, but then it stays mostly off until Thanksgiving.

Eric: What a difficult task dismantling your Mother's house. I'm glad to hear your brother is helping. But what fun to find the Bunsen Burner.

Thinking spaghetti tonight

My thoughts are with you and your family Lacey. What a scary thing. So good they have you for support.

Sandy sounds like so much fun.

I was at an Oscar party last evening. Looking for dd3, as she is a seat filler. This year she got to fill seats in the first 5 center rows. Caught glimpses of her. Some of the perks are designer gowns and jewels on loan, total make up etc. 3 of my kids got into doing this when we lived in South Florida. Since she is in the LA area (she's an attorney by day, actress by weekend) she is very busy during the awards season. So we all live vicariously through her now. Her next 'gig' is the I Heart music awards. They actually rehearse for these parts.

Oddly she is much in demand due to her look. She is very ambiguous as far as race goes. She could be indian, spanish, fair skinned african american. The list goes one. She is actually, cuban, irish and african american. Never thought mutts would be in demand.lol.

So grateful for the trailblazers like your mom Eric and especially your Dad HappyHammer. I can 't imagine the climate in York SC during that time. I'm now in the Charlotte area.

Just caught up with a couple of pages of posts. Lacey, best wishes to your DIL for a complete recovery. Freya, hoping that you are able to make your trip.

Eric, interesting that you peel the fruit for marmalade. We made Meyer lemon marmalade a few years back and left the peeling on. Marmalade is one of dh's favorite jelly/jams.

I made stuffed peppers today using a ground beef and rice "dressing." Southern word for stuffing. Colored peppers were on special recently and I bought two orange and two yellow. Split them so there are 8 servings. Two for tonight and six in the freezer. It's so handy to have something to pull out and fix in a hurry.

Sides will be broccoli and salad.

I would love ideas for cooking broccoli, which I eat more out of a sense of duty than from liking it. I may try roasting tonight instead of steamed.

Wasn't the mix-up at the awards last night unbelievable? I felt bad for both sets of movie folks.

Carole, glad you checked in. I was worried about you because I thought you usually go to the endymion parade.

Stuffed peppers sound delish. Adding peppers to tomorrow's shopping list.

Long day with dad. The good news (sort of) is that he's not a good candidate for surgery for his shoulder issue. It's seems to be a degenerative issue, although he does have a hairline fracture in his shoulder blade. Immobilization as much as possible is the recommendation. Dad is happy as he can stay in his apartment even though he can't use his arm comfortably. He thinks he can live with it. We took him to lunch at one of his favorite spots and to get a haircut. It was good for him to get out and it was a lovely day to do it.

Congrats Sandy on the Oscar wins! Sounds like quite the party.

We ate at Charlie Gitto's last night. I had my favorite linguini with fresh littleneck clams. It was a huge order so that will probably be my dinner tonight as well.

Didn’t do the fitness evaluation—I had esophagitis and trapped gas so bad that I couldn’t sleep, and I almost considered waking Bob and asking him if I might be having a heart attack (I had waves of achiness in my jaw). Also had some shoulder muscle pain that kept me up till past 3 am. I called the trainer this morning and we’ve rescheduled for Fri. morning. I told him that there were some things I absolutely cannot do: pushups or pullups using my right arm (even if wearing compression), anything ballistic—running, jogging, jumping or anything requiring me to twist at the knees due to the possibility of loosening the joint replacements. I also told him about having c-spine and lumbar arthritis (and doubtless a weak core), and being on an AI. He said he actually has training in physical therapy and would not make me do anything that would further injure myself, but would rather work first on lessening pain and inflammation so I could then be able to push myself within safe limits.

Gordy came home from rehearsal with falafel, mixed shwarma (chicken, beef, lamb) with rice, and Israeli salad. I ate judiciously, and after last night had absolutely no desire to drink anything alcoholic (or caloric for that matter). He also brought a couple of pieces of baklava, which I’m sure are delicious but right now to me look like honey-drenched blocks of wood (and my teeth hurt just looking at them).

Turns out the Caymus Conundrum we won is a white, not red blend. So looks like I will be roasting chickens or grilling lobsters instead come Memorial Day.