So...whats for dinner?

Florida’s growing season is winter - which is weird. Our strawberries are here in March, and by June nothing grows. For the rest of the summer all the produce in the stores comes from somewhere else. For a California girl it seems like an upside down world.

Dinner last night was NY strip steaks that I bought during my last grocery store trip on Mar 17 and found in the freezer. Had some roasted baby potatoes and a small mixed green salad with a lot of radishes.

Night before last I was doing dishes and went to spray the sink - my faucet comes out and turns into a sprayer - and realized that water was coming out of the hose and all over me. Then looked down and saw the water starting to come out of the cabinet below. Ugh. So, the remainder of the evening was devoted to a mop up operation. DH had his imaging (MRI and bi-lat carotid US) in the morning and took the rest of the day off yesterday. He has adequate plumbing skills so we picked out a new faucet online, he went and grabbed it, and installed it! Yay! There was a minimal amount of bad words, but it’s tough to work in the space under the sink!

minus - it’s always something, right? The funny thing is that I had just taken all the stuff out from under that cabinet - reorganized it - and cleaned the cabinet. DH is good, still in the process with the ophthalmologist that the ENT sent him to to find out what his eye issue is. He has had no further lights or swarms of floaters, but is receiving a full workup.He had some labs done and the MRI and US. His follow up with the eye doc is the 27th - which is also his b-day. The ENT felt his healing was ahead of schedule. It’s interesting when you have this surgery you can’t sneeze or blow your nose for a long time!

I've been wearing a mask for 4-6 hours a day while sifting the gravel and have come to the realization that "the mask will collect the runny nose". I suppose that's why "hygiene issues" are one of the replacement criteria for certain classes of filtering respirators. :-)

One of the priests, where I drive buses, was talking about plumbing projects and mentioned Job. I said that at least he wasn't talking about Noah. He got quite a laugh over that.

After getting the "all clear" on the annual mammogram today, DH and I celebrated at dinner by going to an outdoor, local Italian restaurant and enjoyed the beautiful evening. Seafood asparagus penne in a rose sauce (rich, it didnt even look like I ate anything when I finished -- believe me I did!) Along with a Cesar salad and a delicious Argentinean Malbec. He had baked ziti.

I should sleep well. The tension and anxiety pre-testing never really gets too much better for me. So I try to contain it to the day of any appt. Kind of give myself permission to feel the angst for that day only. It sometimes works 😏

Rao came to the rescue again last night! A lb. of Italian sausage, a jar of Rao, and a package of linguine. Fresh grated Italian cheese (name?). Ta-Da!

I used the multi-cooker a couple of days ago to cook a beef pot roast. Saute function to brown. Pressure function to cook to tender stage. Slow cooker function to cook veggies. I added the sliced beef on top of the veggies to warm up during the final stage of cooking veggies. Nothing was overcooked and the pot did most of the work.

Tonight will probably be leftovers. I'm having lunch with two women friends.

eric - love the noah quip. Beaver - good to hear from another voice in the 'hot' lands. Reader - so glad your tests were negative. I have to see my oncologist next month. Ugh. Special - Great about the saline spray. I learn something new every day. Carole - my only problem with Rao's is that I WAY over stocked the first of the year. And bought the LARGE bottles at Costco too. So one bottle is 4 or 5 meals. How did the lunch go? I saw on another thread that you were going to be the "baby" of the group. Interested to hear about the venue.

I finished the last of my Christmas shopping today - everything on line this year. Since almost no one lives in town, I'll start wrapping & packaging to get everything mailed by 11/15 this year. I don't trust the new postmaster general to follow the orders to keep things the same. This turned out to be a great way to "tune out" what passes for politics.

Dinner was a large green salad w/artichoke hearts, cucumbers, mushrooms, radishes, carrots, and Mexican Mini tomatoes from the garden. I'm excited about my virtual Bach concert coming up at 7:30pm. Need to go open a bottle of wine.

Tonight was the "Night at the Bistro" French wine dinner at Cellars (last big event before Nov.'s hibernation begins). The food was terrific (and classic), and a great match for the wines*. First course was a fried oyster Rockefeller with mignonette sauce. Next was a classic French onion soup--hadn't had that in years! Then came a salad of roast duck breast with lardons, shaved Brussels sprouts, lentils and topped with a sunny-side up pullet egg. Baguette with honey butter, too. Then classic steak frites with herb butter. Dessert was a trio of creme brulee, chocolate pot de creme and raspberry tartlet.

Cellars will be open Wed. nights for live jazz guitar, then Thurs-Sat. nights and weekend brunch, but not serving on Sun. nights. It plans to close from 11/22 till spring 2021--but may have an event or two in Dec., despite furloughing most of the staff. The landlord would have no takers for that corner property in this crisis, so it's in their mutual interests to work something out during "suspended animation."

*see the "How about drinking" thread

Cowgirl, I can identify!! Fell and broke front teeth 4 weeks ago, had a temporary bridge put in a week ago ( after having one tooth pulled), still too tender to bite down with the temporary. Have been experimenting with instant pot chicken recipes this week--the chicken is tender and in small pieces so I can eat them fairly easily.

Sending healing thoughts your way.

Chili

Dinner last night was kung pao chicken with brown rice, green beans and fruit salad (app!e, grapes, banana with honey/ lemon drrssing). Tonight will be a choice of the three chicken dishes I have experimented with in the Instant Pot over the last few days. Love leftovers, get tired of planning meals.

Edited to correct autocorrect!

Minus - I envy you completing your Christmas shopping. I can’t even imagine what Christmas is going to look like this year.

Oh Nance - so sorry about your knee. Pain is bad enough, but no sleep is worse. Your new house sounds exciting. I too hope you are able to get most of the work done before you actually move. It might actually be worth staying in the rental place through December??

All the other meals sound delicious but the chili sounds especially good. Woke up this morning with 56 degrees. Brrrr. And the high today is only 69. Nice walking weather but no worries - it will be 80 again soon.

Breakfast was a deviled egg and 4 mini chocolate chip cookies. Dunch will be sushi - a California Roll I picked up yesterday - and a small salad. Or maybe a can of Bar Harbor New England Style Crab BIsque that I found in the cupboard to celebrate the change of seasons.

Special, congrats and best wishes for success to your kids on their new positions. Your family has a bunch going on. Hope DH is healing well. Are you guys excited for the Rays? I usually follow baseball during the playoffs, but this has been such an odd year with basketball just finishing that I am totally out of sync with the other sports.

Reading about the dental issues makes me shudder a bit. Last night DH suddenly smarted during dinner and spent all morning today researching possibilities for some major dental work he needs to have done, which is going to cost astronomical fees. Ugh! Our former wonderful dentist just retired, and my recent cleaning visit unveiled a small loose filling that needs repair, but while I was there, the periodontist who is attached to the “new group” happened to be there that day and he wants to biopsy a tiny white area of gum that has been that way for at least three years, unchanged, and no pain or other consequence. It is NOT cancer....the former dentist was bot at all concerned. When I saw the huge bill after this Cleaning and “looking” session, I decided to do my Dr. Google research and decided that my gum is fine the way it is, so cancelled the periodontal part of the next appt. I’m usually a fairly compliant patient, but I get the sense that this new dental group, part of a larger corporate entity may not be my cup of tea. DH has already abandoned them, but I was hanging on for the hygienist I am happy with. Decisions, decisions...

We have been eating a lot of chicken lately, and as I write this, DH is at the store picking up some fresh cod which I’ll cook with Rao’s puttanesca sauce, summer squash and onions, to serve over wheat pasta. Last night, we had very little for salad fixings so I used a combo of anything green and raw veggies in the fridge for salad, to go with some leftover mushroom sauced chicken. I did have a big head of red cabbage, so made a sweet and sour cabbage that included balsamic vinegar, and was pretty good side.

Minus, I also admire that you make serious meals for yourself. I would be so tempted to just eat “here and there” on my own. It must be frustrating to have to “use things up” that don’t come in small sizes.

We had the toddler terror here on Tuesday when her daycare had to cancel, and I really enjoyed watching her try new foods. She is a great little eater, which is certainly not genetic since both parents were selective eaters as youngsters....and one still is.

Nance, I’m excited for you to get closer to the new home, but can also empathize with the “work needing to be done” and moving during the pandemic. We’ve experienced that with DS2 this summer albeit with just one move. You were clearly motivated to get this done. Sending you energy to get through it!

Well, DH is walking in the door loaded down with grocery bags, so I’d better get crackin’ withour late dinner!

Hope everyone is able to do whatever is needed to stay safe as the surge expands!

Nance, how exciting that you will be moving into your new home. With all the updating, it will be just the way you want it to be. I'm sorry about the knee pain and the sleep loss.

SpecialK, too bad that your son didn't get a job a little closer so that you could see him more often.

Lacey, we're always happy to see photos of your busy little toddler. Hint. I wish I could buy the Rao Puttanesca sauce. It is never available here. I can tell than Rao's is growing in popularity. It's now available in more supermarkets. Sam's Club has it again at a good price. Two jars for between $8 and $9.

I bought 10 lbs. of really nice fresh shrimp yesterday, headed them and divided into meal portions. As always, I freeze the shrimp in water. So now I can add shrimp into the meal rotation. Last night we had the first meal with brown rice and asparagus. I sauteed the shrimp, stir fried the rice in olive oil and butter, added the shrimp back into skillet with the steamed asparagus cut into pieces. I sprinkled a little soy sauce and sesame oil. The dish was quite good. DH doused his portion with more soy sauce. I sometimes wonder if he damaged his taste buds during the years of pipe smoking.

Earlier I stuffed a pork butt roast with green onions and garlic seasoned with salt and cayenne. I will cook the roast in the oven for dinner tonight. The sides will probably be small baked sweet potatoes and romaine salad.

Yup I just saw this storm notice too Eric. Hard to believe this late in the year. Fingers crossed.

I tried a new sauce 'envelope' for dinner. Red Hook Sesame & Ginger Vegetable Skillet sauce. Actually I used only the stalks of fresh asparagus since that's what I had that needed to be cooked. I blanched first then stir fried in this sauce. (saved the blanched tops for salads). Served over rice. It was actually pretty good. I'll cook some carrots and add to the leftovers another day. It's a soy based sauce with onions, lime juice, oil, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, molasses, sesame oil, crushed red pepper.

Carol - oh how well I remember buying 10 or 25 lbs of shrimp off the boat and spending a day de-heading them. I always added salt to the water before freezing. Do you? After reading your post it makes me think I could add shrimp to my leftover sesame/ginger sauce w/the asparagus and make a meal.

Lacey - it was really hard to break in our current dentist after he bought the practice when our long-time dentist died. The new one wanted to try all sorts of things & most of us just wanted to maintain. He finally calmed down & figured it out.

Special - GREAT news about the kids jobs. I agree, CO is a trek, but will be a nice place to visit again once the fires are gone - and once we can travel again. I'm not familiar with Ft. Carson. We always turned West on Hwy 50 to Salida. And I hope the commission story is true for your DD. She's a hard worker, but boats are definitely a luxury item. Oh wrong, if I remember correctly - a hole in the water in which to pour money. Still, I miss having a boat. I miss going offshore fishing. Or water skiing in a lake. Or for that matter, just watching the sunset or sunrise from the deck of a boat.