So...whats for dinner?

I'll add to Minus' and Special's thoughts, Sandy.....

Yesterday's dentist stuff was getting three fillings in two teeth..and today was one filling on the other side of my mouth....all below the gum line. I've had only 3 cavities in 25 years (same dentist) and we both are mystified as to why the sudden change.

Sharon is also "mouth numb". She had a root canal today and on Friday she will get a couple of fillings replaced.

My mom's brain study neuropathology report arrived in the mail today.....It's kind of sad reading such a dry report about *my mom*. Still, it's good to know that she helped to further research on dementia.

I went to a 'survivorship' luncheon at Methodist Hospital today. I've been invited every year but never gone. Good support & reference booths, a demo on how to cook healthy (whole wheat pasta w/walnuts, and yogurt w/blueberries & strawberries), a session on laughter yoga, a nice musical program. Free parking - a big deal in a major med center. They did a count down. No one was there who had survived 25+ years. One can hope they just have better things to do with their time. The friend I took was the only one who stood up for over 20 (she's 23 years NED from a lumpectomy & rads). Only one or two stood up for over 10 years. Maybe 7-10 stood up with me for over 5 years. (Yes - I count from my first diagnosis & treatment - not the recurrence). A ton of people stood up for still in treatment to 1 year.

Food was bland, as I find most hospital food. A good size premium baked chicken breast in some sauce that looked like Campbells Chicken Soup - tho it was still a bit dry, mixed veggies - cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, red potatoes cut & roasted w/herbs, a lovely fresh fruit bowl - strawberries, oranges, cantaloupe, honeydew, etc. Heavy lunch. Time for a nap. No dinner tonight.

Thinking of using up the last of the stir fry from earlier this week

Not sure what to do about dinner—Bob will be late, I have to be in bed early (up at 5 to be in Milwaukee by 8 for a 9am-noon outdoor gig). Might just have an insalata Caprese with heirloom tomatoes and the first of my garden basil and call it a night by 11 pm at the latest (I’m usually up till 2 or 3am).

llimae - welcome to the table. We are always interested in what's cooking.

Quiet this weekend. I had to teach the water aerobics class this morning so I skipped breakfast. Lunch is a big salad. I'm not in a salad mood, but sure don't want to throw away these veggies.

I took 1/2 of a previously cooked pork tenderloin out of the fridge. Hmmmm. Brandy cream sauce w/noodles or rice? Green chili sauce w/beans? Sliced pork sangys on pumpernickel? Oh well I have time to consider this while I act like a rabbit.

Too early for farm lettuce here. Maybe next week since we finally have some sunshine?

Last night, we grilled up the striper and served with an herbed cous-cous. I made a caprese salad with less-than-stellar tomatoes, marinating each component, and the results were pretty good. It reminded one of a caprese salad which is the best we can do in June. Tonight we are going to one of the local fish shacks. Our friends had to head to Boston to attend their daughter's housewarming party, and are taking care of the dogs.

I vote for the sandwiches on pumpernickel. But I love pumpernickel.

*susan*

Well, the filling could use some work but here it is. I'm going to have to tweak the recipe and try again

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Lilimae, may I suggest puff pastry for your topping? I first read this idea on Ina Garten's website, and I have to say, it is FABULOUS! Ina Garten Chicken Pot Pie I make these all the time for friends who need some food delivered [and are not vegetarian.] Really, really tasty!

Our dinner wasn't bad. The grilled swordfish was rather nice. The fried fish fillet was too overdone. Cole slaw? Really good. Baked Potato? Yuck. Steamed in foil. Oil used wasn't as fresh as I prefer. However, we are perfectly happy. Simple food, done simply.

*susan*

Susan - I loved reading about your fish dinners BOTH nights. And I'm jealous.

Since I didn't eat my salad until 2pm I never bothered with dinner. So pork tomorrow. I'll go with both Susan's & Ceila's choices - since there's enough for two meals.

Welcome joycek!     Illimae- that chicken pot pie looked delish!

Hot in sunny South Carolina again today so we are doing a Low Country Shrimp boil with the neighbors. Shrimp, corn, andouille sausage and red potatoes boiled together in water, beer and spice "concoction"- shrimp added right at the end.  A nice vinegar based slaw and tossed salad with cukes and cherry tomatoes from the garden.  (I will not eat the corn or potatoes- saving my carbs for the veggies in slaw and salad.)  

Path of least resistance last night—ordered NY-style pizza (a 16-incher, not 20), half-and-half anchovy and sausage. Fed the three of us. Not sure what I’ll do tonight—if Cellars is gonna have the Tonys on, I’ll go there & pick up the wines I’d ordered; otherwise, will make a classic Caesar from Anthony Bourdain’s recipe in his new cookbook “Appetites.” (Good read, no-b.s. recipes). Only place where he & I part company is that he believes in draining fried stuff on newspaper. YUCK! Printer’s ink transfers, and the smell of those petroleum distillates makes me retch. (Still can’t even stand to eat near newspapers—an aversion I’ve had all my life, which means that no, I didn’t go to fish & chips shops while in London). If there are smelly printed placemats on my tray or table at a diner or Chinese restaurant, I’ll ask that they be removed, and I spurn lobster bibs if they’re printed paper. I will read a newspaper, but not while or near where I’m eating—and even so, I prefer to read it online.

There’s a terrific Low Country restaurant near us—Big Jones. Would go there for dinner tonight, but there’s a massive street fair (Andersonville Midsommarfest) and it’s smack dab in the middle. Parking on the side streets is nonexistent, too far to walk (2 miles in the 90-degree heat) and probably completely booked up. Chicago street fairs aren’t what they used to be: they now have gates at each end where they extort a “suggested donation,” barricades on either side at the side streets (unfairly pressuring neighborhood residents to pay just for accessing their own streets), are run by the same agency all over the city, booking the same musical acts (mostly from outside the neighborhood) and the same food & drink concessions (also mostly from restaurants outside the neighborhood). Like Taste of Chicago, you can’t just walk up and buy food—you have to buy food tickets, which are sold in multiples that guarantee you will end up overbuying, wasting tickets, forgoing what you really want to eat & drink or eating something that wasn’t your first choice because that’s all the tickets you have left. Plus, they’re filled with mostly drunken millennial “bros” (referring to men of a certain age, of whatever ethnicity but mostly white, whose idea of participatory sports is beer-pong). Years ago, when it was booked by the neighborhood chamber of commerce, my band played there all the time. Last year, I played inside my son’s comedy theater, but the noise from the outdoor stages a block away drowned everything out unless we closed the doors…greatly reducing walk-in traffic. This year, his troupe lost the theater and the building will become condos or a Lululemon or some other overpriced boutique catering to millennials. He skipped Midsommarfest and instead went to Bluesfest downtown.

When my own neighborhood street fair comes around in July, I will have to bring my cane so that they won’t rip me off for $7 just to walk to Cellars. (And I will eat indoors, where it’s air-conditioned, the menu is bigger and I won’t have to buy tickets and sit on a fire hydrant to eat).

Staying home to watch the Tonys, I pan-seared a Copper River salmon fillet and plated it atop baby arugula dressed with lime juice and lime olive oil, with sauteed snap peas on the side. Appetizers were an impromptu “Cajun” guacamole made with a little leftover avocado, lime juice and Panola sauce instead of Tabasco or Cholula, and heirloom tomato with the season’s first basil from my garden.

our mouths are watering reading and seeing these posts. Glad you are all sharing your ideas here!

Oh Mommy - hoping that you do get a nice surprise dinner out. Let us know.