So...whats for dinner?

Delicious Japanese lunch. I had Hibachi steak & shrimp served with Miso soup, wonderful sauteed vegetables and fried rice. I brought 1/2 home. One of my neighbors had the shrimp teriyaki bento box. With the "box" you get the 'meat' of your choice plus: soup & fried rice & 3 slices of California Roll, one egg roll and one gyoza AND a pile of sauteed vegetables. The meals were all under $10.00 on the lunch menu. The waitress brought out a good size cheese cake on the house for us to split. What a nice gesture.

It's fairly new and if I remember correctly, it's much closer to you than to me? I'm at 290 & Beltway 8. The name is Toro Japanese Steak House, but the web site name is different since there is another location with a different menu. Below is a link with the lunch menu on Westheimer. Let me know what you think if you go. We're going to try the one out on 290 & 1960 in the next few weeks if I can find someone else to drive. I absolutely will not drive on 290 until the construction settles down (maybe 2020? - LOL)

Toro on 10694 Westheimer at Beltway 8.
http://torosushihouston.com/menu/#lunch-special

Cherry, I do hope you start to feel better soon, and am happy that you have the nurturance of your mom and DH as you go through these nasty chemo effects. I guess the silver lining, in addition to the chemo beating down those cancer cells, is...how often does one get to stay in bed watching movies?! Yes, Meryl Streep is one amazing actor!!

Eric, your self-description of being “lazy” is pretty funny. Stated like a true energizer bunny! And yes, it is nice not to have to try to chew shoe leather pork chops.

Sandy, that sounds like a fun show!

Pretty tree, Joyce. Did you always put up two?

Earlier this week we had a quick dinner on our way to the Celtics game (which will happen tonight, too). When I ordered a turkey club sandwich, DH wondered how I could eat more turkey. Well....haha....I had a slice of turkey last Thursday at DS2’s and none since then, so it seemed fine to me. I realized that he, as well as probably most people in the restaurant, were probably OD’d on turkey, but the Thanksgiving leftovers we were given by DS2 were being eaten for lunch daily by DH. So that night, he enjoyed his shrimp tacos and I enjoyed my turkey club with pesto mayo. This is all to say....how freeing it has been for me to not have Thanksgiving leftovers dictating our meals for the past week. In fact, on Tuesday, during our walk (which conveniently goes past a local grocery store) I decided to pick up some cod and shrimp and made my favorite fish in puttanesca sauce which I served over orzo, and added a huge side salad with balsamic dressing. Tonight, before the game, I will probably have my standard salmon with a side of sautéed veggies at The Harp, a very loud but efficient pub across from TD Garden.

Meanwhile, today, I will pack for our trip to NJ to see DS1, his family and in-laws. We hope to provide support to DDIL1’s dad who is in his last stages of lung cancer. He is such a sweet man, and so important to our grandson who knows he won’t be around much longer, so he is trying to be with him constantly. So heartbreaking. I’m hoping that I can provide some supportive guidance to DS1 and DDIL1 as they help the kids cope through this anticipated loss. On a happier note, we will also have a pre-celebration of DGS’s 7th birthday which is next week. And it will be fun to see the new antics of our 5 year old DGD, who is a live wire. As far as food, since I don’t have time today to prepare more than a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread (Thank you, Trader Joe’s) we will be partaking of the vegan selections offered there. DH also calls it a “rehab weekend” since they do not drink alcohol. While that may be an inconvenience for us (DH enjoys a nightly beer before dinner), I am always happy for their patients who can count on their surgeons not having hangovers!

Better get to my packing tasks...

Hope everyone has a good weekend, and that we are still on the planet next week.

joysek, never had a white Christmas tree in my life but we have been having a real Caucasian fir almost every year for the last 17 years except for the years when we opted for a usual fir for the sake of their intensive smell.

Lacey, steroids, my last days on those btw, did wonders today, I got up, worked for four hours and cooked Mushroom Bolognese from Seriouse Eats with bean pasta, warmly recommend, and a pizza for my youngest who is not fond of mushrooms. I even opened a bottle of wine because the recipe requires it, did not have anything but Masi Campofiorin so my mom had a glass too. I had none, but I am not even longing for alcohol anymore. It is so funny, I have full sense of smell but no taste. I bet I will spent the upcoming days in day since my wbc shots start tomorrow. But no one can take today away from me and I did a lot of work, my manager is very impressed and me too frankly speaking. The bad thing I cannot taste much, the only remaining taste that is left is for salt but apparently it has to be a lot of it because I wanted to add more to the Bolognese but my mom said, it was fine and she eats way more salt than we do. Sour cabbage still tastes something to me and that was what I ate for lunch with mashed potatoes, slices of fried blood pudding tasted like carboard. Sorry for all this chemo talk. I am aiming at boeuf bourguignon according to Julia Child next week when my sense of taste returns.

Cherry - one of the 'folk wisdom' things I was told was not to eat things you really liked during chemo. Supposedly they might taste yucky and with the taste changes and you will have lost a favorite.

Talk to your docs about the nausea. There are plenty of good meds and you shouldn't have to suffer this. I had Kytril in with my infusion, in addition to steroid pills. I also had a prescription for Zofran and a back up prescription for Emend.

I was going to cook some more chicken tonight, but I had a dental checkup today and the dentist was behind schedule due to an emergency patient (they apparently fell off their bike about a block from the office and came in holding several teeth in their hand). I have three fillings that are starting to disintegrate on adjacent teeth, so next week I'll be listening to the drill whir for around 1-1/2 hours.

Anyway, I didn't get to cook tonight. So, I'll do it tomorrow.

Chi, I"m going to guess there's a keyboard setup option regarding "what to do when a key is held down" and the option got reset.

I grew up in the desert in California and only had one white Christmas. In fact, 7am one Christmas morning I remember it being 76F/25C. The only white that Christmas was the tissue paper in the clothes boxes. :-) Now that I'm in Phoenix, AZ...no snow here either. I can drive to snow in a couple of hours, even in July, but it never snows where we live.

Lacey, that's sad about your in-law. I don't think anyone will mind my expressing the sentiment of "F--- cancer".

I remember Mickey complaining about everything tasting bad during her chemo.

Sharon said that during her chemo, everything tasted either metallic or "dull" (needs more flavor/spice/salt).. It's been 5 years now since active treatment, except for the Arimidex and (knocking on wood, crossing fingers, tossing salt over my shoulder, etc.) all is still good.

I can't imagine myself sitting around, doing nothing, while Sharon is still working full time and then expecting her to cook/clean/etc. She's now a physics and chemistry teacher, which has longer hours (and less pay) than her first career as a nuclear engineer.

When driving the bus, I had an 8th grader express surprise that Sharon was a nuclear engineer and he went on to ask how I could stand her being so smart. The question kind of stunned me and it took me awhile to figure out an answer, but I finally came up with one..."I like it that way. It's a big ego boost for me. She stays with me because she wants to, not because she has to."

I don't want to be like my impression of that kid's dad. :-)

MinusTwo, I know about the favorite food, they reminded me once again when we went through my chemo schedule last week, do not eat your favourites and still I do. I have this strange craving for one particular dish when I am sick, it is very unpretentious, mashed potatoes and sour cabbage that I mix with olive oil, sliced onions, lots of it, and a little sugar. When I have a flu I always eat it, I remember I liked it a lot when I was small. Normally I do not eat it very often but while sick I have a taste for sour and salt. Now I only have a taste for salt left and it most certainly is a huge mistake but my mom keeps doing mashed potatoes and I am on it with that cabbage. And jamon serrano, I can eat a couple of slices every day, if this chemo will kill jamon for me that will be a pity indeed. Otherwise, I do not know what to eat, if I am not in the mood for anything else I cannot stay hungry and then I am back to my favorites. But we will see. I will get Aloxi medication for the next time, the one I got this time was too weak for me.

Surprisingly we do not have any white Christmases here either because the snow usually comes later in January and can stay until April. Last year we did have a snowfall on the day of US election, I had to dig up my car, the snow being above my knees, everybody made it to work when it was time for lunch. But it all melted anyway.

Leftovers in our place today, mushroom bolognese, bet root sallad, carrot saladand pizza. Cherry

Eric - sorry to hear about your dental plans. I'd rather have my arm cut off than sit in the dentist chair. Love the story about the 8th grader and Sharon's 'smarts'. Great answer.

Dinner was leftover quiche Florentine. Lunch with my SIL today. We live on opposite sides of this sprawling metropolis so we try to each drive 30-45 minutes and meet in the middle.

I bought some delicious Boursin cheeses at Costo yesterday for Holiday snacking. In the frozen section, a Japanese lady sort of followed me around and told me which things I should definitely get, so of course I bought more then I intended - Tempura shrimp, Panko shrimp and mini crab cakes. Oh well, I'll have fast things I can pull out for last minute cocktail hours or for domino games.

Last night was finger food at the first post-show cast party: wings, crudites (really wonderful tomatoes!), pizza, BBQ pork sliders, hummus, & baba ghannouj. (Mozzarella sticks ran out before I got there). Tonight I'll be missing a great cast party at a downtown condo's party room, including fresh tamales from a cast member & her husband's Mexican restaurant, but my 6 bottles of sparkling wine (Champagne, S. African, & Napa) will attend in my stead. DH & I hosting a post-show party of 8 at Mercat a la Planxa, the Iron Chef-helmed tapas restaurant next door to the theater.

Fridge getting emptier & emptier--have a lot of shopping to do after we get home early Sun. evening!

Tapas (blood sausage, meatballs, charcuterie, white anchovies, green salad, octopus, bacon-wrapped stuffed dates), two paellas--seafood & meat, and a rabbit cazuela. Surprisingly few leftovers for a party of 8. (We're in a hotel with a fridge but no microwave, so we will have the leftovers Sun. night after we check out and the show I'm in is over. Dessert was a triple chocolate terrine with dulce de leche and coffee ice cream.

Cherry - I looked up pelmeni and was fascinated by the history and the wide spread "relatives" from gyoza to ravioli to pierogi. It looks like a true labor of love to make these tiny delights at just over an inch in diameter. Thought this snippet from Wiki was fun comparison.

In modern Russian and Ukrainian culture, and also in the Baltic states, store-bought pelmeni are considered a kind of convenience food and are associated with students' or bachelors' lifestyles, much like instant ramen etc

Special - what an amazing recovery. You're already up & walking around craft fairs!! Good deal.

One of our fave restaurants in the Loop is Russian Tea Time, run by a member of our temple who emigrated from Uzbekistan. Pelmeni are part of the huge appetizer plate (along with smoked fish, caviars, salads & blini).

I am not feeling very well but it is the first advent in Sweden so I will cook a meal. It will be oven-baked salmon with artichoke pesto, that I just smear on top of the salmon and put it into the oven, Mamofuku brussel sprouts, a recipe I found on Food52, grilled sprouts with fish soy vinaigrette, green sallad, cooked potatoes, Skagen röra, lox roe and I set some shrimps to thaw, it will do

Suddenly, the forums want to automatically convert stuff to a link...so I'll try to go with it.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/7/topics/764271?page=1060#idx_31775

If you look at the navigation bar for you web browser, you should see something like the link above. To go to the top of a page within the What's for Dinner thread, erase everything after the = sign and put the page number you want. For SpecialK's page 1032, it would look like this.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/7/topics/764271?page=1032

By the way, for links, at the top of the area where your typed text appears, there are a bunch of small symbols. On the left is a B and on the right is a smiley face. The fourth symbol from the right is a symbol that is supposed to look like links in a chain--to me it looks like a pair of glasses. If you move your mouse pointer to that glasses looking symbol and click the left mouse button, you'll get a window where you can put in a link. The link will go wherever your next typed character would appear.

After you add a link, you'll likely find that when you continue typing, the text will continue to be underlined. I usually add two spaces after my last typed text, use the left arrow key (not the backspace key...left arrow key is nearby the page up, page down, up and down arrow keys) to back up a space, add the link, use the right arrow key to move to the right a space and continue typing.

I just mentioned this on the tech glitches thread and hopefully I included enough info to make it easier to figure out.

I just ordered the parts to replace the timing belt and associated parts in my 1998 Volvo S90. Because the engine would be damaged beyond any reasonable possibility of repair if these parts faill, Volvo recommends replacing this stuff every 70,000 miles. The car odometer indicates 275,000 miles/440,000KM, so it's time for this to be done. The parts should arrive here on Wednesday or Thursday.

It cost US$280 for the parts and I can do the work in 2-3 hours. It's almost $900 for the repair shop to order the parts and do the work. The weather is nice, about 70F/25C degrees and sunny, so I might as well enjoy the weather AND save the money. :-)

Dinner tonight. I'm considering finishing up the chicken in peanut sauce...but...we are going to Costco to get a few items We really go there and get just a few items. We do NOT fill the cart to overflowing "just because it's cheap". I'll probably look at some of the ham while I'm there and do that. We haven't had a ham in a while.