So...whats for dinner?

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  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited July 2017

    Finger-foods (sandwiches, veggies, cheese, nuts, figs, crackers, pseudo-granola bars, cookies, chips) and soft drinks (flavored seltzers, light lemonade) tonight as we (our friends & I) watch the Evanston fireworks. We used to march in the parade when our sons went to school there, but didn’t feel like it this year (20 years older, and it’s a hassle parking and then walking the 2 mi. back afterwards). Got my workout in yesterday at the gym and again walking to & from dinner.

  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited July 2017

    Lovely family dinner last night. No pictures. There was a 13 mo old that wanted to eat RIGHT.NOW! We only ate a quart of the strawberries that we bought at market, so this morning I went to work. I had under-estimated the amount of rhubarb I had bought at market. I only had 8 ounces, so I adjusted and made just half of the strawberry-rhubarb compote. It was easy to make and the results were delicious. I had some for breakfast– plain yogurt, a bit of Windmill House granola, and some of the compote. I didn't add any additional sweetness. Right now, anything with sugar or honey tastes extremely sweet to me.

    I them moved onto some strawberry jam. I used an old-time recipe with a 4:3 ratio of fruit to sugar, and then reduced the sugar just a bit more since the berries were so very sweet. Just in case this method is different than yours, you heat the berries alone mashing them. As the juices are pulled from the fruit you raise the heat until the stuff is simmering. After 15 minutes, add the sugar and cooking until it gels on a cool plate. I was worried that I had pulled the jam too quickly, but I just checked and it is just about perfect.

    Dinner was a freshly made cole slaw [also a market cabbage], leftover pasta salad from last night, leftover ribs, and then a biscuit with the newly made strawberry jam. I am stuffed. PET scan in the AM so no more food until about 11 in the morning.

    image

    The whole meal.

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    My plate, and I actually ate this much!

    image

    Biscuit with homemade strawberry jam.

    *susan*

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Susan YUM!!! Every single thing looks wonderful but I would be lost in the biscuits & jam.

    Hope the PET scan tomorrow shows no progression. I'll be thinking of you.

    I couldn't shake my brain from 4th of July historical tastes. Made deviled egg, a small batch of potato salad & coleslaw. Split a watermelon with a neighbor and bought 2 ears of corn. My Dad used to grill entire 1/2 chickens marinated in Trader Vics dressing. I no longer have a grill & didn't want to turn on the oven so I picked up a rotisserie chicken and ate the wings & the legs. Froze the two breasts and still have a bunch left for something creative tomorrow.

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2017

    susan - I almost licked my screen when the jam picture came up - omg!

    minus - Trader Vic's! Throwback! When I was in high school I worked with a friend after school in a liquid clay factory (her parents had the shop next door) and we made the tiki mugs for Trader Vic's! That was 44 years ago!

  • Valstim52
    Valstim52 Member Posts: 1,324
    edited July 2017

    Oh my, Minus and SpecialK, Trader Vics. Now that's a throwback. I find myself craving potato salad and deviled eggs too.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 2,845
    edited July 2017

    The deli counter at the grocery store has a deviled eggs potato salad that is pretty good.

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Eric - thanks for the broc & cauli pasta recipe. I got distracted first by Special's cupcakes and then by Susan's strawberry jam. The addition of beans was a surprise. Maybe for bulk? I will be trying this recipe.

    Susan - still thinking of you and sending positive vibes.

  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited July 2017

    Fond memories of Trader Vic's in several cities (NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Chicago) over the years. When Bob was a 4th yr. med student at UW, doing a rotation at the Seattle VA hospital atop Beacon Hill near Harborview, he reported that the cafeteria was done up in a South Seas nautical motif with tikis, fishing nets, float lines, etc. Everyone called it "Trader Vet's."

    Mostly nibbled (veggies, figs, Flackers, 86% dark chocolate, Atkins bar) at the fireworks show & band concert last night. Horrendous traffic going home. Was ravenous by then. Bob met me out on the deck and told me he'd brought me home half a filet mignon, garlic bread and a chunk of baked potato from Petey's Bungalow in Oak Lawn where he ate after his shift at Christ Hospital. I hugged him, threw together a small tossed salad and dug in.

  • Valstim52
    Valstim52 Member Posts: 1,324
    edited July 2017

    Ah eric95us, I may go on a search tomorrow for that potato salad.

    Susan, sending warm thoughts.

  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited July 2017

    We had just finished lunch when my phone rang with "unknown caller" as the caller ID. For some reason, I picked up. Dr. C... PET scan report was in... significant reduction in metastatic activity. I haven't read the report. I don't know the details. I will see her on Tuesday, read the report.... either way. we stay on Taxol and consider the increased pain in my hips to be arthritic activity due to metastatic activity.

    Went to our fish place for dinner but they are on vacation. :-( So, went to the Irish pub where I had a fish sandwich and he had a burger. Fish was nicely cooked. WAY too much bread but imagine my surprise when I made it into an open face sandwich and the bread was FREAKING FANTASTIC! I haven't had bread that good in forever in a restaurant. Not the dinner [or price point] we had planned on, but fun none-the-less.

    The Floridians who have taken over my house move on tomorrow, and in comes a group from Amish country. Tonight I heard all of their family's cancer stories. First group that has "glommed" onto the hair as a way to invade my emotional space. Clueless; not mean. I have to remind myself of this. Early check out and we can move on.

    *susan*

  • HappyHammer
    HappyHammer Member Posts: 1,247
    edited July 2017

    Susan...happy, happy dance here for you and the scan results!!! 

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Susan - on that happy note, I'm going to open a nice bottle of wine & raise a toast to you!!!

    Edited to add, yeah I know it's 9:30 here, but I had to stay late after water aerobics so dinner is a non-starter. WHy not have wine?

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2017

    susan - awesome! So happy for you and with you! Sorry the Floridians were clueless, ugh...

  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited July 2017

    Susan, bummer about the arthritis…but yay that it’s simply arthritis! Great news on the scan!

    Those Floridians were clueless, but so are most people who do not have firsthand experience as cancer patients. And most people don’t realize how not to invade personal space.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 2,845
    edited July 2017

    Susan, that's the best news I've heard today!!!!

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited July 2017

    Hooray Susan! Great news!

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Nance - glad to hear that your Dad seems to keep bouncing back. It's so challenging being in the middle - old age parents & grown or almost grown children & grandchildren. When we talk about parents of course I think of Carole's mother. Also of Eric learning to live without his mother.

    Hard to believe that my Dad (the last member of his generation among all the cousins) died 10 years ago at age 96. I'm considering a trip to visit the grave sites one more time, although I said I would never pay $800 to fly to a distant state to do this. I've had a wonderful lady who lived by the cemetery who contracted to put silk flowers out twice a year - baskets only on a shepherd's crook because those were the cemetery rules. Anyway, now it's 10 years so I have to make some decisions.'

    Dinner was a sandwich on Pumpernickel bread with left over rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

    BTW Bedo - it was GREAT to hear from you. How's that grand baby?

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2017

    minus - my parents and only sibling are all in the same cemetery in California - I have your same dilemma. My dad passed in 2001, mom in 2005, and brother in 2008. The times I have been in town I always go and place flowers and visit a while, but I am fortunate to have a good lifelong friend whose parents are interred there as well, she also now lives on the east coast too, so we take turns.

    bedo - good to hear from you!

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 2,845
    edited July 2017

    Today is my dad's birthday. If he were still alive, he would be 104 years old.

  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited July 2017

    My MIL passed away 10 years ago this May, a month shy of 96. She and my FIL are “stacked" in a Catholic cemetery in Flushing (insert macabre pun here) and my parents are side-by-side in a Jewish cemetery in Pinelawn. The Catholic cemetery allows flowers in vase-holders on the sides of gravestones, but the Jewish one doesn't (par for the course among my people—we only do flowers during life). The Catholic cemetery basically just mows the grass. The Jewish one allows green plantings (mostly yew bushes) atop the graves, and has a “annual care" and “perpetual care" plans for trimming & topiary. So we brought flowers for my in-laws' graves, and left stones, as is customary, atop my folks' double headstone (as well as those of other close relatives in the block of plots). We noticed a couple of stones atop my in-laws' headstone—probably from their longtime Jewish neighbors who'd visited on Memorial Day. So we put some on there too. I said Kaddish at both cemeteries, and Bob recited the Lord's Prayer at both. (We also visited two Protestant cemeteries—one Lutheran and the other Armenian Methodist--with Bob's childhood pals who had come in for the 50th HS reunion).

  • CeliaC
    CeliaC Member Posts: 1,320
    edited July 2017

    Susan - Great news! Should be interesting having the Amish as guests and believe you will find them more respectful.

    Went to an Aromatherapy Class and Tai Chi this evening, so home late. Threw together a salad of chopped tomatoes & cucumber (DH always makes sure some on hand), mushrooms, chicken breast and vinaigrette dressing w/Tuscan herbs.

    Potato salad - Yum! Had some wonderful potato salad from gourmet food store Citarella in Greenwich, CT during vacation. Trying not to eat potatoes, but sometimes, just have to indulge.

  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited July 2017

    My dad would have been turning 100 this October - seems like many of us here had parents of that generation.

    chisandy - my parents are "stacked" as well - my mom found it hilarious that she got to be on top, as we had to make those arrangements at the time of my dad's burial. I laugh every time I think about it!

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Yup - my Dad would have been 106 this fall.

    Special - love the story about your Mom on top.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 2,845
    edited July 2017

    Since mom and we're both were veterans, the VA reserved a spot in the cemetery so they could be next to one another.





  • ThinkingPositive
    ThinkingPositive Member Posts: 834
    edited July 2017

    Carolhalston...did you end up having to go on meds for the cholesterol ? Mine was high last time I was tested (1 year ago ) and afraid it hadn't gone done at all since my weight does up and down. I am on letrozole. Nervous to get it tested again.

  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Thinking - Carole is up in the North Country for the summer but will check in soon. We don't discuss every-day meds much on this thread, so I have no clue. Since it's a dinner thread, I will say we are all fond of cooking. And of eating, and eating very well. And of sharing our gustatory delights. Join us at the kitchen table sometimes.

    Full speed ahead with more BUTTER - AA Milne - the King's Breakfast. Delightful poem if you haven't read it. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-king-s-breakfa...

    "Nobody,"
    He whimpered,
    "Could call me
    A fussy man;
    I only want
    A little bit
    Of butter for
    My bread!"

  • susan_02143
    susan_02143 Member Posts: 7,209
    edited July 2017

    The clueless Floridians also trashed the towels. I have spent that last 30 hour trying to get horrible stains out of 1 bath mat, 2 bath sheets, 4 hand towels,and 4 wash clothes. OxyClean and I are getting to know each other well. Of course I didn't have a vessel big enough to soak that many towels, so I used two compartments of the old soapstone sink. As if this wasn't enough, they also stained a top sheet and a duvet cover. They will NOT be getting a stellar review, as you can imagine. Since they have no reviews now, they won't be able to find a host willing to host them in the future.

    Last night's dinner was a grilled lamb loin chop, sweet potato gratin, and a salad. We made enough to have it again for lunch today with Olivia. Mighty good. Tonight we had planned to do swordfish on the grill but it is pouring, so we will do a chicken picatta or parmesan.

    image

    image

    *susan*

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited July 2017

    Ha ha Minus - that line is definitely made for you (me too!)

    Will be quite interested in the Amish guests. We have a large Amish population here (Walmart even has a special "horse and buggy -port" on their parking lot.) Several businesses in town have hitching posts.

    Dad is back at the nursing home and doing ok. Except he and the new roomie didn't get along (the guy insisted on having the heat on in the room) so dad is now in a room with two other gentlemen. It's a huge room though and he has a window and lots of space so I think it will be ok. We shall see.

    My dad is a world war II vet but my parents both donated their bodies to St. Louis University Hospital, so in a sense they will be together eventually.

    Smoked pork chops, grilled corn on the cob and a sauteed medley of squash, peppers, onions and tomatoes is on the menu for tonight. All of the veggies are either from my garden or locally grown. I got another half peck of peaches and was made to promise a peach cobbler for DH. Maybe I can talk him into a clafoutis instead. I really don't care for cooked peaches but I like that.

    Bedo! Good to hear from you! The same to you Val! Hope you are managing ok.

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 4,216
    edited July 2017

    Btw, I ordered the Paderno tri-blade spiralizer. I'm drowning in zucchini.

    Well Boo Hiss on the Floridians! Do I want to know what they did to stain so much linen?

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