So...whats for dinner?

Special, sounds like weed may have been involved in the renaming, lol

Wow, Special! I didn't realize till now how well we have it here in Chicago. I grocery-shop once or even twice a week, because at least in our neck of the woods everyone obeys the mask mandate and the distancing floor markers in stores, and our ward is close to 90% vaccinated (75% fully--Gordy's is almost 90% fully-vaxed). Bob and I are now triple-vaxed. I feel fine with dining indoors at restaurants I trust, staying masked between courses. Masking has been second nature for us for well over a year. "A Tale of Two Governors," eh?

My sis in VA says they managed to escape most of the Wrath of Ida--lost power for a few minutes but no wind or flood damage. Our friend in Queens (near the Nassau County border) took the day off and therefore didn't get stuck at his office down in flooded lower Manhattan. His neighborhood is up a small rise and his house is up about 3 ft. from street level. My cousin in northern Westchester lives on a hilltop, so her house is ok too. But Gordy & Leslie are on pins & needles--they don't even know how much if any damage the French quarter venue for their April wedding sustained because there's still no power down there yet. (The Central Business District was the first to get power restored, but that's on the other side of Canal St). We and Leslie's parents have basically prepaid the photographer & florist, and put down a deposit on the venue. Haven't booked our hotels yet--good thing we haven't, as we don't know whether they'd be up & running by April.

We went out to Calo (our old neighborhood Italian restaurant since 6 yrs before Gordy was born) for a late dinner--they kept the kitchen open for us even though we arrived at closing time. (Was prepared to go home and cook some fish or grill burgers if we couldn't get in). We had tossed salads and linguine frutta di mare. Bob had my pasta and we shared the seafood: calamari, prawns, scallops, mussels & Manila clams in white wine broth. Dessert was at home: mixed berries & Greek yogurt with decaf espresso.

Last night was a version of salsa chicken that turned out delicious. I placed raw chicken thighs in a slow cooker, covered them with a small jar of Paul Newman salsa and cooked on high for about 3 hours. Transferred chicken and liquid to a skillet and reduced to a thick gravy. Side was cauliflower mash with gravy spooned on top. A second side was a salad with tomato, cucumber, avocado and blue cheese.

We have news from home that Cleco, our power company, is working along our street. Our neighbor, Rodney, who takes care of our yard during the summer has cleaned up the debris. It's great to have good neighbors.

Hooray - I found some more Olathe corn. And there just happened to be a bone-in RibEye at the spectacular reduced price of $6.00 - so there's my linner.

Had my Prolia shot #11 today. I had to transfer to an endocrinologist this year since my GYN retired and none of the GYNs I called will do those shots anymore. He says the data coming out of the European tests for a one time RECLAST for a drug holiday are inconclusive so he wouldn't recommend. While he firmly believes that Prolia is safe for 10 years now (& he pretty much wrote the book), if my DEXA in December shows osteopenia (down from osteoperosis), he wants me to switch since I'm NED as far as cancer goes. His choice is the 'new & improved' Fosamax (once a week instead of once a day). I'm not clear if he's recommending a permanent change or a holiday, but we'll see in December.

Been discussing doughnuts with Serenity on another thread and boy do I want one now. It's been 8 or 9 months since I've had one.

Edited to add - Lacey, how's your back? Hope you've had some relief.

No Olathe corn here either, but the bicolor stuff grown in IN, MI, southern WI and the counties surrounding the Chicago suburbs is sweet & delicious.

Because it appears our fave BYOB French bistro never reopened, we walked to Cellars instead for the first night of their last hurrah weekend. Because they will be no more after Monday's brunch, I decided that I can cheat a little when we eat there so long as I stay low-carb at home. We shared a watermelon/mint/chevre salad as an app. I had the "lamb lollipops" (baby loin lamb chops) over wild mushroom risotto as my entree and Bob had the chicken piccata over mashed potatoes with green beans. Dinner tonight will be my two leftover chops--we will share a piece of mahi mahi I'll pan-sear (Bob will get the lion's share), and either broccolini, peppers or okra; Bob will get my leftover risotto too.

Polished off the leftover pizza from a place right not far from me. It had chicken, broccoli, slice tomatoes, cheese and cooked in a wood fired oven. The crust was thin but at least it was chewy!

Oh MOmmy - I am so hungry for pizza. I bought some small naan rounds & plan to make pizza later this week.

I went to a back yard 8am get together for joint neighborhood August birthdays. I don't normally eat at that hour - even if I am up & moving. The hostess had taken our orders for the Kolache Factory & brewed a pot of coffee. My selection was bacon & egg & cheese. YUck. That combination is usually great on a tortilla. This "pocket of dough" was not really edible, although I choked down 1/2 to be polite. I'll try the other half tomorrow with LOTS of salsa.

Linner was fried rice with pork & spinach and an ear of Olathe corn. I feel the need for chocolate and hear my Hagen Das calling from the freezer. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend planned.

Bob had a big lunch, so I gave him my risotto and I gnawed my two baby lamb chops. (Had to keep Happy from them, as the bones could have splintered and hurt him). I have a couple of keto cauliflower crusts in my deli keeper; if they're still edible I will make myself a Margherita pizza for brunch (if not, I will use a low-carb tortilla instead). Or maybe I'll do shakshuka. When I was going down to the basement fridge yesterday to retrieve a carton of grapefruit juice for Bob, I saw a dozen eggs with a "sell-by" date of 8/3. I will use whichever ones don't float in a pitcher of cold water. Had to ditch only one--and I didn't have to try & "dunk" that one because it was light as a feather. Into the disposal it went (and its shell into the compost pail). So for today's brunch I harvested parsley & chives and made soft-scrambled eggs with a small piece of wholegrain toast.

Bob announced as he came in the back door that one of our tomato plants had been blown over. I went out and discovered that it was the five-footer--and there were a couple of little green ones lying on the deck, without tooth marks. We righted it. We didn't have any wind today, so we figure it was either a raccoon or opossum (too heavy for a squirrel), and the racket it must have made when it fell scared the critter off. I was worried that we'd lost all our tomatoes remaining on the vine, but so far so good. My worry was based on a neighborhood blog post by someone one neighborhood over who had every single pear stripped from her carefully tended (even braced) tree overnight. Another person had a fig tree dug up and stolen. I know the Bible says not to harvest your entire field, but to leave "the corners" unpicked for passing gleaners--but this wasn't gleaning, it was theft. Not exactly Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family--the thieves probably sold most of the pears on the street.

I will pick the ones that have turned orange and let them ripen on the sill. Usually, we can wait till late Sept., even Oct. for that, but we did have a bumper crop this year, and too much of it ripened all at once. We've given away over two dozen. (We usually don't have any to spare).

Mae - there was a review for Hughie's in the local paper this week. Thanks again for introducing me to this tasty place. Link below for anyone else wandering through Houston.

https://www.theleadernews.com/food_drink/review-hu...

The next place I want to try is Mo's Irish Pub for the fish & chips and the Shepherd's Pie. There's one in Cypress & one at Vintage Park. Unfortunately they don't open until 3pm except on the weekends and I prefer to eat lunch out be be home later.

Last night's dinner was the Labor Day celebration meal. The resort owners hired a man with a smoker who cooked pork for pulled pork and big pans of cheesy potatoes (a MN staple), and baked beans. The pot luck element of the meal provided a variety of salads and desserts. My contribution was two small cheese cakes purchased from the Amish vendors at the farmers market. One cheese cake had raspberry topping and the other had blueberry.

I was not impressed with the pork. We ended up with a package of the leftover meat.

Labor Day signals the end of summer up here. Kids back in school. Football seasons in progress.

Chicken noodle soup for dinner. Came down with food poisoning after eating from a subpar Burger King

Tonight is a bun less turkey burger with a little cheddar and mozzarella topped with sautéed onions, a veggie mix and roasted rosemary potatoes.

Illimae, that looks yummy!

So we went back to Cellars for dinner--but alas, they sold out of the meat loaf. (I am all the better for having tasted it, and the recipe is up on their YouTube channel). So we shared the watermelon salad again. Bob had the "Cellars burger" (smashed & caramelized with cheddar, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato & onion on a brioche bun). I decided to stick with something nobody else in town does: my usual bourbon-glazed Scottish salmon over grilled sweet potato slices & julienne veggies. Ate all the salmon, but left half the "fixins" to have with tomorrow night's after-temple brisket & green beans. Karen will know what I'm talking about: it's a near-facsimile of a tsimmes (sans spuds & prunes).

Dessert, in a little while, will be strawberries and a "wee dram" of Sauternes. (Forgot to buy blue cheese).

A BL (I don’t like the T) does sound delicious!

Not dinner but I had leftover pork loin, sweet potato and broccoli to use (not enough for a meal),so I added cauliflower, onion and garlic to make a breakfast hash. I cooked enough for 2 servings and saved 2 for later. I love using leftovers in an omelette too.

Prayers for a good outcome, Eric.