So...whats for dinner?

Dinner tonight was leftover Thai seafood salad (rinsed to make it less painfully spicy) stir-fried with snow peas & baby bok choy; I fried the leftover rice with tamari & sesame oil. Also made another cornbread, this time with Bob's Red Mill mix (halved the recipe) in an 8" enameled cast-iron skillet. Turned out fantastic!

With Purim coming up next week, I am obsessed with finding the kind of hamantashen I had as a kid back in Brooklyn--large, made with Danish pastry rather than cookie dough. The cookie-style ones are all Costco & the local supermarkets' kosher sections carry (albeit several brands and many more types of filling). Will have to try the kosher bakeries. Talk about multicultural: last week it was paçzki and King cake, this week Hamantashen.

Not just that--went to Costco today to get a prescription, and saw the round Israeli "shmura" matzo Bob loves ("shmura" means "guarded:" rabbis supervise the baking to make sure that it takes less than 18 min. from first mixing to oven, lest the wild yeasts in the air accidentally leaven it) for half the price that the supermarkets are charging. Bob's not Jewish, but he loves matzo, especially the shmura kind. (His dad used to eat at least a box a week of regular matzo when he lived with us). But Costco also had a sale on extra-thick organic bacon. People would look at my shopping cart and then at me, puzzled.

SpecialK, you had your babies one after another, can imagine it was not easy. When it comes to the age when young people decide to start trying it just keeps climbing up. The average age in Sweden for mothers giving birth to their first child is 31 but in Stockholm in particular 34. I keep telling my eldest that sooner the better because of my diagnosis and eliminating the risk and before she only rolled her eyes but now it seems she starts listening. Although when they are discussing their plans to participate in in the Lords of the Ring live event somewhere in the forest when people dress as elfs and orchs and fight each other, then it is my turn to roll my eyes, they are still so immature to me)).

ChiSandy, theoretically you could have, my mom is 68, she had me when she was 23, it was very common to get kids at that age back then. One went to university after school and last year women usually got pregnant in order to escape mandatory assignment to some work place, a practice that country had until the end of 80-ies, two years after your graduation you had to work where the government told you to. I know, I know it was crazy.

And of course I did not know about this song, how could I? coming from the totalitarian regime, everything was censored, almost no one spoke a word of English. Everything in this song it true, Solzhenitsyn told the whole story when Achipelag Gulag finely got published. I get shivers when I as much as think about this book. In the beginning of war when Red Army retreated in chaos Stalin got paranoid and declared that everybody who surrendered, got captured or lost their weapon were to be tried for high treason. My paternal grandfather participated as I have mentioned in Moscow defense and according to him when they got orders to retreat being in charge of artillery canons and without any transportation provided, they had to draw them back themselves. I still do not know how much of this story is true because who is able to move a canon and for how long? That atrocious government threw people into that war because theywas the only disposables they had, that Stalingrad battle had casualties 1:3, 1 Axis to 3 Soviets. An example of human life not been worth anything.

Dinner today was Persian chicken stew, khoroshte morgh with rice, my eldest loves it, and the smell is killing me so I will go and eat some without rice, wanted to cook some quinoa for myself but got lazy.

Yucky rainy day so a pot is simmering - sauteed thin sliced onions, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, rotisserie chicken pieces from the freezer & Raos. Now I just have to decide whether to add heavy cream & make it a 'rosa' sauce. Today I will serve on leftover Seeds of Change Quinoa and Brown rice. Tomorrow I will serve on pasta. Maybe I'll wait & make the leftovers 'rosa'.

Cherry - just a note about privacy. Everything we post can be viewed on the web. If you're serious about complete privacy, you may not want to post your lovely picture. Other members who are more tech savy than I am can no doubt add more information - but if your picture is here - you're out there.

Minus, I know how exposed I am now, you are absolutely right and I am quite skilled myself in finding and tracking people through social media. On the other side, except for this bc, I have nothing to hide and honestly speaking I do not know how I feel about me trying to contain this secret either. I certainly do not want people who do not like me for some reason to finding out about it happening to me, but on the other hand keeping it a secret wasn't fair to those whom I chose not to inform and just shut myself in my shell. Honestly speaking I already have left plenty of information about myself on these boards so people who know me would realize it is me. But who would come here to look for anyone? Of all places? And now when I have been away from work and friends for so long, my manager has finely informed my group, so it is all is coming out now. In summer we will not be able to hide it, people will understand what I have been through. These boards, on the other hand, kept me from going insane when I needed it the most, I will be forever grateful and I feel posting my picture so people would know whom they are talking to is the least I can do. After all, I can always remove the avatar picture. Thank you for your concern though, something I really appreciatewith you people from US, you speak and communicate, Swedes are one of most wonderful and compassionate nations on Earth, but very reserved, sort of a "suffer in silence" type. And I am not exactly, I am all about talking))

Minus, your pasta sauce ”rosa” sounds so comfy, I will have to do something like this soon, kids love this type of dishes

I bought corn flour and am contemplating to make corn bread this weekend, do not know much about it and want to try both sweet and savory one, will google for the recipies.

Leftovers today, yesterday Persian stew turned out so good, this rich sauce with chicken and veggies. I had it with salad and I licked my plate clean. Every time in the morning I step on this scale and promise myself stop eating but cannot keep it)) How did I gained that much and why isn’t it coming off as easy as it used to?

Cherry, when I was diagnosed with bc, I had an urge to share this awful news with the world. I would tell strangers, like the owner of a veggie stand where I stopped to see what was available. Poor guy was so surprised and sympathetic! I shared with everyone my choice of surgery, bilateral. Interesting how women react differently to the dreaded news.

Last night was re-heated linguine in sauce with heavy sprinkling of fresh grated romano. That cheese is so good! I always cut a few slivers to enjoy. I wish cheese was a recommended food for weight control.

Yesterday on the way home from golf, I pulled in at the highway side location where a shrimp guy sets up a tent and unloads coolers of fresh shrimp for sale. I was tired and didn't feel like dealing with shrimp but some impulse guided me. The man, Craig, was quite a salesman and his shrimp looked fresh. You can always tell by checking to see if the heads are firmly attached to the bodies. I checked my purse and found $23. Craig assured me they could provide me with shrimp for that amount! I picked a large size for $5 a lb and came home with a parcel of newspaper-wrapped shrimp in plastic bags to prevent any dripping in my car.

I headed the shrimp and had four packages for the freezer, 16 large shrimp per package. Ziplocks with water to cover the shrimp. Prevents any freezer burn.

Dinner menu not decided. Maybe shrimp but we like sautéed shrimp (butter and olive oil and garlic) with pasta and we just had pasta.

Made a pizza casserole last night with turkey pepperoni. Got enough leftover to have a second night and pair it with a salad.

carole, beef stroganoff is my parade Russian dish, I use beef, onions, tomato paste, sour cream, salt and pepper but some sources claim the original recipe had mushrooms but they were not available in Soviet grocery stores so as ingredient it fell off.

About telling people, in the beginning I did not know how to do it, those who I did not want to know, I just distanced myself from them, just stopped answering the phone, did not matter what they would think, that I was rude? I’ll take it. Then we had people who I thought were the closest friends and family. I told my parents at once but at that point no one what we were dealing with, they said first surgery and rads but pathology came back with aggressive kind and here we were, chemo, the whole enchilada. The closest friends, I imagined how they were driving home, picking up kids, eating dinner, carelessly, all if them in their 40-ies, I mean who is getting any bc at this age? That what I said. So I postponed because I did not know when was the right time to drop the bomb. I told my brother and two of my best friends, they were very sorry, they wrote once in three days and then once a week, and then once in ten days, then I asked why? And got radio silence and another question, how was my chemo after ten more days. I told them how much I needed their support, I was devastated and omen of them said she was sorry, her mother had bc twice, she said she will write more often and after that, on Sept 18, I did not heard from her until I got a letter in the beginning of Jan. It started with her asking for forgivness and then how she got traumatized and depressed and could not talk to anyone, a bunch of other excuses and stories about others’ miracle recoveries. The only thing I felt was disappointment.

My best friend since primary school, a psycologist, turned on radio silence every time I told her how much I needed someone to talk to, later asking another question once in ten days. At the end I told her I regreted that I shared it with her. She said she was sorry but it was already too late, I did not wanted to talk to her anymore. No one of them called, not even my brother, not once. But the best friend and her husband called DH explaining that I got inadequate, needs and hysterical, so they did not know how to talk to me anymore but they wanted DH to keep them up to date. I said, really? What for?

I told my brother that it was ok, that I assume he treated me the way he would have wanted to be treated himself if diagnosed and he got offended, that I said such awful thing and that I was wishing such awful thing upon him.

My manager was a surprise though, we worked together for a long time and he kept calling me and wrote to me several times a week and even came to visit me twice, always bringing flowers telling me his wife told him to. And he does not live here, he is based in another city, five hours drive from Stockholm. When I thanked him he said that was least he could do, I was his friend. I am very grateful. DD told me not to bother to tell people from old Soviet, but tell it to Swedes instead, they have very different mentality.

So, I felt so burn and did not dare to tell someone else, something I should probably do eventually. I learned that the only person you can rely to is yourself and I would have never made it without these boards. xoxo to everybody who while doing treatments themselves or dealing with their other issues even found a kind word to lift me up. A debt I sometimes feel I will never be able to repay, so much it meant to me.

Sorry for the rant) I promised myself I will only rant on the TP thread and here I am!

Finally some pretty eggplants at a veggie market. I bought two and will make a layered eggplant dish, maybe tomorrow afternoon. I also bought some okra to cook okra and tomatoes. It wasn't local.

Tonight's beef stroganoff is in the simmering stage. I seasoned the thin strips of beef, floured them and browned in olive oil and butter. Removed from pan and sautéed lovely slices of large button mushrooms. Removed them to bowl. Returned beef to pan, added water, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste. The browned flour is forming gravy. Before serving, I will add sour cream.

Cherry, sorry for your disappointment in family and friends. Many people can't deal with serious illness and prefer the stick head in sand approach. I told everybody but really didn't want help from anyone but dh, and he was great. He knows me well enough not to hover. I'm one of those "suffer in silence" types. Our neighbors made up a schedule to bring dinner to us for a week after my surgery. DH was tickled over that arrangement. He would say, "I wonder what we're having tonight." I wasn't much interested in food but did eat.

My real support group was here on bc.org. There was a small thread with women who chose the same surgery and reconstruction that I chose. I communicated with them every day more than once a day. Oddly enough, I'm the only one of the group who moved on to other threads and stayed on bc.org.

I'm glad you found us. I certainly enjoy your presence on this thread.

Tonight's layered eggplant dish is assembled and ready for the oven when the time comes. The side will be salad. A vegetarian dinner.

auntinance, oh my, this is still a thread about what we had for dinner, and we had broiled burgers of hen minced meat. A Friday comfy meal, a quacomole with Doritos. Girl loved it.

Now to the business. About them trying harder and about keep going through hell judt keep going, I will second every word, thank you

Last night, before a late showing of Lady Bird, we went to Luella's Southern Kitchen across the street. To my chagrin, Bob announced he had given up "meat and potatoes," as well as hard liquor at home, for Lent. Unfortunately, his definition of "meat" includes poultry. So menu choices for him were quite limited. I had some of the best fried chicken I've ever eaten (the leg & thigh--took the breast home), accompanied by greens. Because the greens had been cooked with a ham hock (despite there being no pieces of meat in them), Bob wouldn't try any of mine. We split a side order of mac & cheese (gouda+fontina, made with orecchiette) and a large kale/chêvre/citrus salad (I let Bob have all the grapefruit, and I took only a small portion of the salad). He had fried catfish and hush puppies. We split an order of beignets for dessert (there was no coffee, and iced sweet tea didn't seem like a good pairing).

I asked him why he suddenly decided to add meat & potatoes to his "sacrifices" (already having given up his nighly cocktails except when dining out) and he said "actually, you're supposed to 'fast'." Huh? The latest word from the archdiocese was "one normal meal plus two smaller ones that, combined, do not exceed a normal meal." In fact, though there were no dispensations for romantic meat dinners on Valentine's Day (Ash Wednesday had priority), NY's Cardinal Dolan said that though St. Patrick's Day will be on a Friday, dispensations will be granted for corned beef & cabbage. So I asked "fasting" like Muslims do for Ramadan? He replied, "no--just one small supperl." Double huh? Wasn't the rule that--except on Fri., you can have meat for one of your three meals? "I don't go by the archdiocese, I go by St. Gertrude's (our parish). And Father Grassi says that 'fish is not a sacrifice'." "Wait a minute," I said, "didn't you tell me St. Gert's is pretty liberal for a Catholic church? (It even welcomes gay parishioners). Has Father Grassi gone conservative in his old age?" Bob replied, "well, he retired long ago." I asked him how long ago. "When my Dad lived with us" he replied. (My FIL died in 2010!) "Well, didn't your Dad say he was following (then-)Cardinal George's advice--which was to add Wednesday as a 'light supper' day, and optional to boot? What does Cardinal Cupich say now?" "I wouldn't know," Bob replied--"I haven't been to church in almost a year." (!!!!!!!).

I think his main motivation is that he wants to lose weight and not have to buy bigger shirts & pants. He still considerably outweighs me, even after losing 5 lbs. since Ash Wed. And he still drinks plenty of wine at home.

Meanwhile, Reform Judaism is so much easier dietarily: no leavened grain products on Passover, and fasting (the real McCoy, as in NPO) from sundown to sundown on Yom Kippur--just once a year. (Kosher is optional for Reform, though it--at least "Biblical" kosher, i.e. no pork, shellfish or mixing meat & dairy--is getting more popular). And all other holiday food & drink (e.g., fish & dairy on Shavuot, oil-fried foods for Hanukkah, and eating hamantaschen and getting s**t-faced on Purim) is customary, not mandatory.

Tonight, I told him I'll make us salmon, sugar snap peas, and polenta, plus share the leftover kale salad. And he'd better eat it. (I might skip the starch entirely, since I had the leftover fried chicken breast for lunch and I'm reserving the mac & cheese for him).