So...whats for dinner?

Minus, lost a post, so will try again..... I lost my hands as you know about four years ago. No sewing at all. But now that I am on a new regimen, it seems that I have them back! I can make some clothes for Olivia, and even for myself. I need an infusion shirt. Accessing the port requires buttons or a v-neck or something. I have exactly one shirt that works, so I have bought a pattern for a new shirt. And then there are sun dresses. My dresses that I have made in years past are getting old, so it is time for a refresh.

I have spent ALL day cooking. I have, once again, overdone and I even outsourced some of the food! The focaccia is looking good though! Here it is just out of the oven.

And now I must sleep.

*susan*

Susan - oh yes the focaccia looks wonderful. For "infusion shirts", I went to places like Ross & TJ Max and bought a couple of men's button down shirts from the "final-final" clearance rack. No great fashion statement but I think they cost me less than $3.00.

Last time I cooked salmon, there was way too much so I froze a meal sized piece. I pulled it out of the freezer this morning and am thinking some kind of stir fry. Or maybe in a salad. I'll have to see how it survived the freezing after cooking.

happy and minus - I am feeling good, just have to wear the compression tights for the next two weeks, but struggling with daily low-dose aspirin which I am supposed to take for the next six weeks (and my MO wants me on anyway) because it is making me nauseous. I had a Nissen Fundoplication surgery in 1995, and part of my stomach was used to make a new GE junction - I don't tolerate aspirin or NSAIDS well. I bought some enteric aspirin and will try that. I can only wear flats for the next couple of weeks, but have nowhere to go that I have to dress up for. Spaghetti squash - cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, spread olive oil, S&P over it, and place face down on a baking sheet, bake for 40 mins at 400 F. I made a simple marinara and added a lot of sautéed mushrooms (in olive oil, S&P), scraped the squash out and put in a shallow bowl, spooned the marinara over and added shaved parm.

susan - focaccia looks divine!

Images of Olivia always make me smile. We had some darling children here in the campground this weekend. The playground is visible from my deck and I did a lot of smiling as I watched them. They were good kids, too. No crying or squabbling. One young couple had four children in seven years.

Another couple have two adorable little girls, four and seven. It was a nice sight seeing mom and dad take the girls out in kayaks.

Last night's dinner was grass-fed beef burgers, sweet potato chunks and cabbage/pineapple slaw.

Tonight will be a pasta dish with turkey Italian sausage created with lean ground turkey. The highlight ingredient will be Romano cheese. Side will be a salad.

I, too, am concerned about Nance. And miss Lacey

Carole - when you describe your meals, I have such an easy time picturing you in your cool Minnesota summer resort. Makes me want to go back.

Wow!

auntie - good to see you, glad your dad is hanging in, but so sorry about your struggle to get off Effexor - you should definitely have been warned about the difficulty. My SIL was on it and she had a really hard time too. Other SIL was considering it for menopausal issues and she was warned off by that SIL. I can't take Aleve at all, I seem to be better on the enteric aspirin but I also made sure to eat when I took it. I'm ok on Advil if I eat, and fine on Tylenol.

susan - looks great! Thanks for the pic

Susan, your spread looked (and doubtless tasted) better than the buffet at Bob's 50th HS reunion last night: pretty much generic green salad, white dinner rolls, green beans, roast spuds, chicken piccata (which looked as if it had been cut into slabs from the world's largest chicken and was disconcertingly tender to the point of mushy), and soggy tortilla-crusted tilapia. Dessert was a plain yellow sheet cake with "Happy 50th Reunion, Van Buren HS" in red icing on white frosting, with--I kid you not--chocolate pudding between the layers. Yup: not mousse, pudding!

Went out for forgettable brunch (blah omelets, so-so BLT that was mostly iceberg, unripe tomato and chopped bacon) at a quintessential suburban NY diner, because it was there and everyone felt sentimental about it. Then we visited everyone's parents' graves (mine, Bob's, and his two friends') in three cemeteries--two here in Pinelawn (Suffolk County) and two all the way west in Flushing. After we said our goodbyes (one of Bob's friends was dropping the other off at home and then taking his 102-yr-old mom out for Armenian food--which is probably how she got to be 102), It was way too late to drive all the way east to the North Fork and get to any of the wineries before closing time. Bob & I didn't want to go into the city or Brooklyn to try to park near something hip & trendy; we didn't want another steakhouse, nor a chain (at least not one we have back home). But we don't have Legal Sea Foods in the Midwest, so we started back east toward Roosevelt Field mall to eat there--and then Bob remembered our favorite Belgian restaurant, Waterzooi, in Garden City. So we went there instead. Started by sharing "Duck, Duck, Goose" (seared foie gras with duck confit and gooseberry gelato) and then the Sunday prix fixe of a salad (bleu d'Auvergne, candied pecans, & pears on greens) and our choice of mussels preparations--we picked farmhouse ale & bacon. Dessert was chocolate mousse and a shared bottle of cherry lambic.

Nance, I hear you about the Effexor. 20 yrs. ago after they released me from rehab for surgery for a shattered tibia, they switched me from Redux which was just pulled from the market to Prozac, which no longer had the weight-loss effect for which I'd started taking it 10 yrs after weaning off my antidepressant as I recovered from PPD. Effexor did nothing for depression, but plunged me into nausea & jitters--and withdrawal from it gave me anorexia. When I went back on Prozac and could finish a Filet-o-Fish sandwich, it was a red-letter day. Between the Effexor and having to use a non-wheeled walker (basically bench-pressing my body weight in order to get from room to room) I had dropped four dress sizes. I would kill to be that weight again. My appetite got robust again, so I was switched to Wellbutrin, which I take to this day. Without it, what little self-control I do have would be gone.

Last night I made an Indian food meal. Same ole' same ole'. Samosa meat with lamb, red lentils with garlic and some basmati rice. But last night, I added a sweet potato masala which was pretty darn good! I found this recipe on an ex-pat [Indian, obviously] website and I suspect though sweet potato is not very traditional in India, those who have moved to the US find it to be an affordable option. There is enough leftover for at least 2 more meals. We are only committing to one additional meal so far.

Weather couldn't be more nasty here. Poor folks from Australia who just arrived might never leave the house today! I know that I won't.

*susan*

Nance, so good to have you check in. Glad your dad is adjusting to the nursing home. It sounds much like the one my mother is in. Why did you decide you had to wean off the Effexor? I take 75 mg. and it apparently makes me a nicer person than I am without it. When I mentioned weaning off it, my husband and sister and mother all reacted with slight alarm. I don't know if I am tough enough to withstand all the reactions you are experiencing. I was down to one dose every third day during my attempt to stop taking it. Then my mother had a stroke and I decided I could use some medication support to deal with worries.

Lovely table, Susan. I like your serving dishes arranged at an angle.

I cooked a pork roast in the crockpot yesterday. I cut deep slits and stuffed them with garlic and short lengths of green onion. When the roast was cooked, I took it out, shredded the meat with two forks and returned it to the crockpot to keep warm. I heated some bottled barbecue sauce in a small pyrex dish. Mary, my next door neighbor, cooked cheesy potatoes and made a coleslaw. We combined foods for a buffet dinner for six on her deck, which is larger than ours and furnished for entertaining. I had bought some brioche buns at a supermarket.

I have to tell you about the cheesy potatoes. Mary buys dehydrated hash browns in little cartons at Costco. You pour liquid in the carton to hydrate the potatoes. She puts the hydrated potatoes in a skillet, adds evaporated milk and slices of American cheese. People love these cheesy potatoes which must be loaded with calories, fat and carbs. I ate a small portion and they tasted good. Mary offered to buy me some of the cartons but I really prefer just cooking potatoes!

This afternoon we are driving thirty-some miles to Walker for me to attend a WW meeting. I hope there really is a meeting. One way or another, we will have our evening meal at a restaurant in Walker, which has a very nice restaurant in a hotel on Leech Lake. There is also a Mexican restaurant and a few other choices. We'll probably go for the hotel restaurant with a great view.

auntie - tell me about the chipotle slaw - I opened a can of chipotles and have not used them all yet!

Susan, Love Olivia's dress and Olivia! Everything looked yummy.

Sandy, sorry that things have been challenging for you. I wasn't impressed with LGA the 2 times I went thru it.

Nance, good luck with getting rid of the SEs of the Effexor weaning.

No creative cooking tonight. Just Bertolli's, garlic bread and wine. I cleaned house (no vacuuming - that's tomorrow) and then cut down some gigantic prickery weeds and put a a vinegar/salt/Dawn dishsoap solution on what was left and hope it kills them.

Happy dining everyone!

HUGS!

auntie - that is what I should have done, but I know they keep for a fairly long time in the fridge. I kept thinking I was going to use them up sooner, so now I am chipotle-ing everything, lol! Made chili tonight since it has rained all day, and added some to that, lol! Served the chili with a green salad and DH and DD also had French bread with cheese and herbs on it.

For whatever reason, chipotles in adobo are the one hot pepper I can't tolerate! I can eat habeneros without a problem, but chipotles? They hit my mouth in a way that I find intolerable. This from a woman who ate a meal filled with Thai peppers tonight!

*susan*

susan - I have to use chipotle sparingly, they are hot for me! A bit hot for DD although she loves chipotle creamy sauces, DH is game on.

chisandy - I am so sorry about your friend, and that you missed saying a goodbye to her - that is a tough one.