So...whats for dinner?

WallyCat - I love rye & bran muffins and especially NO KNEAD. Can you share the recipe?

Lacey, I've seen the "Cado" brand ice "cream," but since it's not dairy but sugar that's a no-no for me I pass it by in favor of Enlightened (or sometimes So Delicious No Sugar Added, made with coconut milk and "sugar alcohols"). Enlightened also makes individual frozen keto cheesecakes--the plain is great, the strawberry tastes weird.

Illi, looks yummy as usual!

Friday night I took kitchen shears, a crab-pick, meat hammer and brute force to extract the meat from the other half of Thurs. night's king crab leg from the zuppa di pesce. We split what remained of the seafood, and Bob had half the leftover pasta plus a few pieces of the crostini that soaked up the soup. I also seared broccolini with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic & red pepper flakes--kept me away from the bread & pasta.

Unfortunately, I'm finding it tough to not chocolate-and-matzo(!)-binge in the wee hours. I've gained only a pound since August, but I don't like where it's distributed. (Wish there were a type of Spanx that can shift some of the fat from my gut to my now-nearly-nonexistent butt--"my twerk don't work").

Last night we had an early (for us) dinner at Mercat a la Planxa, which used to be owned by Iron Chef Jose Garces--who has since moved on to other enterprises. It was still good, but I liked Garces' menu better. We had the "traditional" tapas tasting (we felt that the "luxury" tasting last time out wasn't worth the extra $20). Wished I'd remembered to bring my carb-blocker pills before we left the house, but that's water (cava?) under the bridge. Started with pan con tomate (cracker-thin toast rubbed with tomato and topped with jamon Serrano); Next were a Caesar salad with thin-sliced green apples, cucumbers and a sprinkling of crushed chicharrones; bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with almonds; chicken-Iberico ham croquettes; garlic shrimp; patatas bravas (crispy fried chunks topped with aioli); skirt steak topped with whipped goat cheese; and for dessert, churros with dark hot chocolate dipping sauce. Best churros I've ever had (and not "ballpark"-big), better even than those I had at an Easter brunch in Madrid (though it's kinda hard to top the hot-milk-chocolate "fountain" at the buffet). Portions were small enough that we were satisfied but not stuffed--brought home half the spuds and a couple slices of the steak. Next time we'll go a la carte and (except for a small paella) low-carb.

The Hilton garage--where, even with validated parking, cost $27--is closed for renovation; so we parked in the lot down the block (next to the Merle Reskin theater, former home of the Bar Show) for $15. Felt really weird not to go from the car, down the gangway to the stage door! The show is moving this March to a theater three blocks north on Michigan Ave.

For brunch today, I took three cauliflower "Crepini" (crepes made from eggs but no grain--0 net carbs, 8 cal. each) and laid them out like a three-circle Venn diagram. Wrapped them around a small tomato, basil leaves, and fresh mozzarella and nuked them for 30 seconds. All the taste of a margherita pizza or fritatta without either the carbs or a skillet to clean. Tonight's dinner will depend on when Bob gets home (he says he'll be too late for dinner). I will dilute the leftover zuppa and reheat it to make a soup, then a surf & turf with the leftover steak and a defrosted 2-oz. piece of walleye (or maybe skip the fish). Veg will probably be asparagus. Leaving over last night's spuds and Thurs.' cappellini marinara & zuppa-soaked crostini, for a midnight snack for Bob (I'll show him where in the fridge I keep the grated pecorino Romano). But gotta crack down on those late-night sugar/starch binges. I've yet to find anything keto-friendly that provides the right kind of satisfying crunchy mouthfeel of matzo (I like whole-wheat bran) or Whole Foods' flour tortilla chips--which I dare not keep in the house. Corn tortilla chips just don't "do it" for me (thank goodness). Those all-parmesan "frico" thins almost work; but most keto crackers contain flax seeds--which to me taste rancid from the get-go and smell like not-quite-dry oil-based wall paint. Ugh.

Sad how, even though the weather was nice enough this morning to go to brunch, there's nowhere I want to go by myself now that Cellars is gone. None of the local places "get" my dietary restrictions--and eating quiche while leaving over the crust is getting kind of old. Every brunch place now does stuff like hand pies, pancakes/waffles/French toast, sweet rolls, poutine, etc. No place even worth ordering delivery. So for me, it's DIY now except for when we can go out to dinner. I know it sounds trivial to most of you, especially since we all hunkered down at home during the early months of the pandemic; but it still feels weird to me.

I have a month to lose that pound before my next official weigh-in.

I keep lots of different nuts in the house, but they don't quite satisfy me. And the dark-chocolate nut barks are all too addictive, alas. It's gonna just take discipline and reaching for the water bottle when I get the impulse to eat too close to bedtime. Bob's patients & colleagues keep gifting him (especially at holidays) with chocolates, cookies, and those infernal tins of Garrett's popcorn (the cheddar & caramel combo). His soon-to-be-ex-partner (she's retiring) gave him a bag of unsalted pistachios for me, to keep my hands busy. Maybe the work it takes to crack them will slow my eating down enough for me to be satisfied with less...or it'll wreck my manicure.

wallycat, thanks for the info, I’ll definitely check out the website.

Tonight was my 1st real attempt at fish n chips (using haddock). It was pretty good but I think the batter needs to be a bit thicker and I’ll have to get the oil temp right next time, the color varied as I tried to figure it out.

Wallycat, the odor of flaxseed utterly nauseates me, and I'd actually had to skip school as a kid when the walls were being painted (no latex paint existed back then). One too many puking episodes in the stairwell forced my teachers to excuse those absences.

Anyone see "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" last night? The episode focused on PFAs, the main chemical in Teflon. It's 99.7% certain we have some in our blood. Oliver took pains to reassure us that we shouldn't discard our nonstick pans, just don't overheat or scrape them. I immediately went to my pot rack and found a couple skillets that felt suspiciously "fuzzy" despite never using metal utensils in them. One became smooth again after a dish-soap soak and a sponge-scrubbing, but the other one sitll has the "stickies" along the top of the "walls" near the rim and a couple of visible nicks on the cooking surface. And on the rim itself there are a couple of bare metal spots where the pan got "dinged." So better safe than sorry--out it went.

I so much want to get ceramic or at least another type of "green" nonstick--but both Consumer Reports & ATK tested them and found that even when cooking with oil or other fats, foods stuck as much as or even more than when cooked in well-seasoned cast iron. No way will I cook oatmeal, eggs or fish in bare stainless steel (much less aluminum). I use cast iron to sear steaks and chops (I used to bake cast-iron-skillet cornbread when starch was not yet verboten), and plain stainless for veggies or proteins that need to be seared and leave behind a "fond" to make pan sauces.

Tonight was a dinner out, we arrived early at 5:30 for minimal crowds and were seated in a back corner. Wait staff wore masks and it felt pretty safe. DH had spaghetti and I had lobster ravioli (I had lobster envy too!), both were good.

Dinner was leftover fried rice w/asparagus & brussels sprouts. Dessert was some lemon pudding I whipped up over the weekend.

I don't judge either WallyCat. I am still using (and loving) my teflon pans that have almost no teflon left in them. So I guess over the last 50-60+ years I've managed to ingest a fair amount. Frankly I'm not really too worried at my age. I can't lift cast iron & I don't like how stainless steel cooks most things. But I love my aluminum - or correction - my part teflon & part aluminum. They feel right in my hand and they cook foods reliably.

Nance - great to see you. Sorry to hear about the thyroid & the knee. But sounds like you're doing a good job on the storage units.

OK Mae - what is the name of this restaurant with delicious looking food where employees wear masks? I've only been to 3 restaurants in a year and always call first to see about masking. Sad to say that some I really love (like Damians) don't require masks for employees. Not going there yet!!! Of course we know in Texas that the patrons will always be a mixed bag, so I try to find places with spaces. Pappadeaux was doing pretty good last time I checked. And the Hare Krishna restaurant on 34th was exemplary.

My avatar is a cast iron dutch oven and the only place I don't use cast iron is in the camper.

I have managed to get my cast iron seasoned well enough that pancakes or cheese omelets will, with just tipping the pan/griddle up, slide onto the plate.

In college, I *WANTED* Teflon cookware, but the yard sale cast iron "cast aways" were far cheaper and saving money for tuition won out. My grandmother and mother both showed me how to clean and season the cast iron, so I didn't have to learn "the hard way"

Dinner last night was the Jasmine rice-chicken-grape-toasted pine nut-cilantro-onion salad. The night before, Sharon cooked a vegan eggplant "Parmesan cheese". Tonight was leftovers. Both are favorites of Sharon and I...and each night MIL had 4-5 helpings of both, so she liked them too.

MIL gets her last antibiotic infusion on Wednesday and the PICC will be pulled out then. She is counting the seconds until that PICC is gone.

Lacey, you can replicate that puttanesca by taking Rao's or another low-sugar marinara and adding sliced black olives (preferably marinated from the supermarket "olive bar," not canned), just two or three chopped green olives per cup of sauce, and chopped or minced (rinsed) anchovies to taste. Doesn't matter whether the anchovies are tinned or jarred--but don't waste those white "boquerones" anchovy fillets, which are delicacies meant to be eaten on their own as tapas.

Bob brought home a Greek salad last night that he'd been too full to eat. I may steal a little of it and supplement it with a couple of small tomatoes for dinner. Today's Hooked On Fish pickup will be 1/2 lb. of sable fish (black cod). If he comes home too late for dinner, I will halve the fillet and freeze the other half.

Today's ATK newsletter gave a recipe for briam, the Greek veggie casserole that uses all the veggies in ratatouille but sliced and layered atop potato slices, topped with tomatoes & EVOO, and baked. ATK suggested serving it with a side of crusty bread and feta. I'm wondering that if I make it, I can eat "around" that bottom layer of potatoes.

Tonight was grilled chicken breasts, sauteed seasoned yellow and zucchini squash, roasted baby potatoes, and fresh tomatoes. Colorful and flavorful!

I made fish tacos with the left over Cod and some coleslaw. Unfortunately the tortillas were past their prime so it wasn't a success. Ended up eating cod & coleslaw with a fork.

Just heard that the State Board of Pharmacy has now prohibited pharmacists from giving inoculations anywhere except the arms. Very large sigh. I will not allow anyone to use my arms due to lymphadema. There is a wonderful pharmacist at my grocery store who has been doing injections in my hip or thigh for five or more years. So now I'll have to truck to the medical center for a flu shot. And then I'll have to find a very expensive private pharmacy/infusion center for other shots that PCP's don't routinely keep on hand, like I had to do for my shingles & pneumonia shots several years ago.

We are so lucky to have that Hooked on Fish CSA in our neighborhood. They offer two different fresh fishes a week, and sable is my fave. It's sustainable and richer & silkier than "Chilean sea bass" (Patagonian toothfish), which is definitely an ecological no-no because the fisheries are dwindling and seabirds get caught in the nets. I never knew till a few months ago that you could get plain sable--when I was a kid in Brooklyn, smoked sable was the second most prized of the smoked fishes (whitefish "chubs," lox, kippers, sturgeon--the priciest) we ate on Sunday mornings with bagels, bialys & cream cheese. HOF also has in its rotation various salmons (we get frozen Alaskan sockeye fillets in our Butcher Box subscription, but we once got king salmon with HOF), brook trout, fjord sea trout/steelhead, Arctic char, branzino, swordfish, Lake Superior whitefish, and walleye. And they always have two kinds of jarred herring (wine & cream sauce), white anchovies, Portuguese sardines; and frozen lobster tails and Gulf shrimp.

Speaking of salmon, we used to live at the foot of Seattle's U. District--only a half-mile walk from Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union. For five bucks, you got a wood-roasted salmon fillet, corn cobbette, slaw and cornbread, all to go. (They eventually added dine-in and raised the prices). We also used to go to the Alaskan Way branch of Ivar's Acres of Clams--a cheap evening out was a 50-cent styrofoam cup of clam broth and an order of fried clam strips with fries. We'd sit on the picnic tables watching the ferries--and trying to keep the seagulls away from our fries. (My apologies to New Englanders, who know the best fried clams are the whole "belly" clams, which I've had in MA and in Riverhead, all the way out on L.I. where the North & South Forks converge).

Only one of my cast iron skillets is truly nonstick--it's a 7-incher I got on eBay from a guy who ground the cooking surface smooth and then seasoned till it was as slick as a Slip & Slide. If I use enough butter, I can fry an egg without any utensils. It took me forever to season my 10 & 12-inchers to where they don't generate paper towel lint. I wish I could find the one my grandma used when I was little. My mom disdained it, preferring her aluminum omelet pan and stainless steel crepe pan. She threw away the Teflon after my dad died. We first got Teflon 20 years before that, after his first heart attacks, when he was put on a salt-free no-fat diet. I still remember being awakened in the morning by the acrid smell of the "fried" eggs he would make--using salt substitute (ugh) and every herb & spice on the rack by the stove.

Carole - glad your safely home. Love your biscuits for supper.

WallyCat - I got all 3 Covid shots at conference rooms set up at local hospitals - so of course they had nurses who could do hip or thigh. It's all the other shots that were & will continue to be a problem. Hopefully the only thing I'll need is yearly flu - which I think my new PCP will do in her office. Previous PCP would not. I live in a city with one of the biggest medical centers in the world and it took me 6 months to find a any place that would do my semi annual blood draws from my ankle. Interesting that it's the doctor in charge of the blood donor/transplant dept at one of the hospitals who said he would do it as a 'private patient".

I pre-boiled purple potatoes yesterday and let them cool (resistant starch!); pan fried them tonight. Broiled DH's tuna steak and made Poke with mine. Served with Trader Joe's gorgeous french green beans (frozen). I add butter to a small amount of water, season; when the water disappears, the butter coats and sauteed the beans. Too bad there won't be any leftovers except for the potatoes which I will, no doubt, be adding to our lunch salad.

ChiSandy, sorry to hear about your HK's DH and sister. When it rains, it pours (though not here, weather wise).

I'm a lousy housekeeper. I cook OK but that's about it. Good luck with cat-duty. My boy has thyroid issues and stage 2 kidney disease and is beyond fussy on his food. It is a nightmare to care for this boy...and he's VOCAL!!!

Hi Illmae, nice to meet another fan of Midsummer Murders. Your pork and veggies look good. Hope you’re having a good week.

Bev from Monday zoom g