So...whats for dinner?

I was the chef last night and made the spicy maple chicken cutlet with roasted green beans and mashed sweet potatoes. I forgot to use one of the little packets. The meal was satisfying with no WOW factor.

Seven miles, Minus! I'm impressed.

Dinner tonight will probably be a rib eye and a big salad. Maybe a small baked potato.

I saw a different technique for cooking a steak on ATK or Cook's Country yesterday. Place the steak in a cold non-stick skillet on the stove. I forget whether high or medium. Turn the steak every two minutes while a crust and brownness develop. Cook until the right temperature. Rest 5 minutes. The sliced steak cooked to 125 looked delicious. Oh, the steak is salted and placed in the refrigerator for an hour before cooking.

DH will probably cook our rib eye on the grill.

Carole, it's high heat till the final two flips, then medium till the temp hits 125F. Kind of hard to find steaks that thick now that most butcher shops are on-hold except for curbside pickup. None of mine (which I get bimonthly through ButcherBox) are thicker than 2/3-3/4" so I have to adjust times accordingly. I'd always used the "flip every 2 min." method in a preheated & lightly lubed cast iron skillet, but I'm gonna try it this way next time. It's the way I pan-sear salmon now, without the "ball-bearings" of kosher salt & coarsely ground black pepper.

Dinner tonight will be some form of leftovers plus salads. We've had over a foot of snow now, still coming down. Not going anywhere, and nobody's going to be able to deliver anything but pizzas, if that. Bob doesn't even have boots (he refuses to let me buy him anything but sneakers), so he can't (or I won't let him) go to pick up anything on foot. Driving is impossible, because even SUVs are getting stuck in alleys, acc. to my housekeeper who's seen Jeeps spinning their wheels. He has a dental appt. followed by Union Health on Tues., but he has enough immunity now (3 wks. since shot #2) that he can safely take the train if he's careful.

Nasty storm last night! But only about 10 inches or so. Hope you are all doing well. I do love my Home Chef boxes! It gets you out of your rut, and usually leftovers are nonexistent. I do like leftovers, sometimes, but not when its regular stuff. Chili, soup, stews, pasta, those are all pretty good leftover. But, anything in liquid and noodles not so much. LOL. Also if I dont get to the store, its great to have stuff on hand. Its easy to put a hold on things, and I usually get an box every other week. It takes me a week to use it up, because there are always leftovers when i cook from scratch. LOL. And gotta use those up. I always freeze the proteins, and only thaw them when I plan on making the recipe.

Life us very busy right now, so we just keep plugging along. I see my Onc tomorrow fir my 3rd annual. It took me 6 years to make it to yearly visits, so Im grateful. Going on 9 years for me.(for treatment) 10 years in Dec for diagnosis.

Aurora Heakth just notified me Im on their list, but I have to diwnload an app befire I can sign up. I feel sirry for anyine who diesnt kniw how to do stuff like thst.

Much love.

We have a foot of snow on the ground--but because it's wet, heavy "heart attack" snow, we likely had more like 14-15" fall from the sky before compacting to 12" over the course of 28 hrs. Our landscaper's snowblowers stalled trying to make a third pass through it. He's going to come around dawn and see what he can do. Of course, even if he can plow out the "apron," we still can't negotiate the alley--unless the city runs a Sno-Cat through it to tamp it down. (Maybe a few of us on the block can chip in and have a service send one down the alley). Our side streets will be plowed tomorrow, but the city never plows alleys--to do so would basically be creating berms that seal people's cars into their garages. Bad enough that happens on the side streets--major aggravation, after digging out one's car, to have a plow come through and create embankments that have to be dug out. That's why we didn't take the cars out of the garage yesterday and park on the street, because neither of us is in shape to dig out our cars and we don't want to put out "dibs." (We'd probably never see those lawn chairs again).

Nuked the rest of the rotisserie chicken & leftover veg, plus made a tossed salad and green beans almondine. Brunch was 2 fried eggs over arugula, plus low-carb toast for me, and one fried egg, arugula and two sausage biscuits for Bob. We didn't even attempt to order for delivery--though our grocery deliveries did arrive on time.

It’s a comfort food night here tonight. Ham steak, salad and home fries.

Holy Crap Special - those allergies are amazing! You are a wonder and I admire your ability to soldier on having to deal with all of that. I'm allergic to mold, some antibiotics and other drugs, topicals and adhesive and that's annoying enough. Thankfully those around you are getting vaccinated.

Sandy and Monica - yike! Stay safe and warm! Right now our temps are moderate but we're due for an arctic blast by the weekend. I won't be going out much. If we're unlucky enough to get snow it will stick around I'm afraid.

I took out flank steak for dinner but Special's taco salad sounds better so I may switch it out for ground beef - pounds of which I just got from Costco. I wish I had a cucumber and/or avocado but I may venture out to find some. Of course, if I made the flank steak I could make Minus' delicious sound potatoes. Another meal in the planning stage I think.

Working on taxes. Of course, I'm always missing one form sigh.

auntie - I am a delicate flower, lol! I have said that for years and then found these socks!!! Needless to say, I purchased those socks post haste! I even developed some new weird allergies in the last 15 years - I am now allergic to epoxy resin, which made me allergic to the frames of my reading glasses, and cocamidopropyl betaine, which is the surfactant in all lathering things like shampoo, bar soap, laundry soap, etc. It caused a plaquelike rash that was initially thought to be lupus - nope, just allergic to weird crap. Also allergic to several essential oils, so candles and perfumes can be an issue. I make taco salad often because I always have the ingredients on hand - except for avocado sometimes. I started getting those individual guacamole cups to have in case I am avocadoless, I don't love them but they are a good stand in when you need them.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Womens-Delicate-F-king-Flower/dp/B01HSL1LOW

minus - no worries! I look forward to hearing about what you've learned!

Special, my ex-law partner developed multiple chemical sensitivities aka "MCS" (not true allergies because not immune-mediated and no histamine released); before he retired to rural MN off the grid, he began practicing only from home and specializing in representing clients with MCS. As bad as those reactions would be, they would be manageable (immediately reversible with steroid & epinephrine shots) and far preferable to COVID (especially if you have Type A, especially RH-pos, blood). Life in a bubble, waiting for the world to achieve herd immunity, would not be practicable--with the current pandemic-hoaxer/science-denier mentality so prevalent, it could be decades before that is achievable.

Bob went "hunting-gathering" on foot at Whole Foods this afternoon (he was going stir-crazy with no sports worth watching on TV) and brought home an inch-thick grass-fed NY Strip. I will do the ATK method of pan-searing; will also roast broccolini with lemon & garlic and nuke a garnet yam. Appetizer will be salmon and wasabi-infused whitefish roes on blini (cucumber slices for me).

NYC seems to be getting harder-hit than we were. M0mmy, stay warm (& indoors if you can).

Nancy, I'm not looking forward to Chiberia Weekend. But this time I have my inherited mink to wear. (Last time we had that kind of ultra-deep-freeze, my shearling coat and fake mink did the trick). My first year in the Midwest was Chicago's Blizzard of '79--including the all-time-low of -26F. In 1982, my first band's first gig took place on a -23F night (the high that day was -10F). Can't wear my shearling--even with the buttons moved it's way too big. My packable down coat worked fine during Christmas Eve's single-digit temps, though. Maybe with a down vest beneath it?

DH did a veggie stir fry last night using the veggies on hand. This was entirely his idea.

I made a salad of cucumber, avocado, kalamata olives and pickled yellow peppers out of a jar.

A different kind of dinner but he did most of the work.

Eric - LOL Really... BAG7?

Dinner was delicious left-over. Ancient Grains - + mushrooms, onions,water chestnuts - prepared as fried rice with a full bag of Spinach not -washed). Delicious.

Leftover chicken, green beans & salad for dinner. Brunch was one of those Jimmy Dean microwave "sausage scrambles" (has cheese but no spuds), no worse than a motel breakfast-bar microwave omelet. Edible, but will save it for if I run out of real eggs. Lunch was tuna salad Little Gem lettuce wraps.

Swiss steak and mashed potatoes last night. Not sure about tonight. Chicken is due for the menu but no ideas for it as yet. Maybe cacciatore since I have all the ingredients.

Envy for those of you getting shots. Still nothing for us.

Backsplash guy came to measure yesterday. Said they won’t be able to do it for three weeks. I’m not happy about that but I guess it’s better than three months like the counters

And today, we have SUN! Yay! Hope Lacey is faring ok after the big storm.

Decided on chicken piccata with some angel hair pasta and broccoli for contrast. I did roast the golden beets o we may or may not have those too.

Nice to see a full day of sun today. Definitely affects my mood.

Minus, I like that you "go for Baroque!"

Our snow guy came around and cleared the snow/ice "berm" at the entrance to our garage, so will be able to get to & from the nail salon tomorrow after all. So dinner tonight will be messy, sloppy Buffalo wings--who cares if I get orange cuticles and mess up my mani? Bob went shopping on foot (with no sports on TV he was getting antsy sitting around) and brought home a gorgeous, picture-perfect head of romaine on Mon. (the kind you see in photos illustrating "healthy" diet articles), so besides the usual celery sticks I might throw together a Caesar, with a tomato that's just ripe enough to need eating.

Carole, my fave at Subway (at least back when I could eat most breads) was tuna salad--precisely because it tasted like tuna, not (ugh) sweet Miracle Whip. Pretty hard to "fake" fish--were that possible, Whole Foods' freezer cases would be full of vegan tuna instead of "Chick'n," veggie loaf or "Beyond" burgers. The only "fake" seafood I encounter is "crab stick," aka surimi (which actually does have some fish in the form of pollock); but Japanese cuisine has been using it without pretending it is anything but itself, for generations.

Take it easy after that second Pfizer shot--it's okay to take acetaminophen for the aches & fever once they appear. My NP advises exercising that arm as soon as possible after injection to diffuse the vaccine throughout the muscle. Is your derm surgery on the same arm? (If so, then rest & ice the arm instead).

Sandy - my doc and the nurses said do not take pain relievers if you can help it. Certainly not before but even after. Any kind - Advil, Tylanol or even Aspirin. Apparently & logically it fights the work the vaccine is doing and tells it to calm down & back off.