So...whats for dinner?

Nance, LOL at our parallel dining!

Hi Moon. I wish I knew what to say....cancer sucks...and it doesn't matter the type of cancer.

I hadn’t realized I was pages behind, so just jumping back in here. Not much cooking lately, spent last week eating quick and easy meals at the cabin, then adopted two puppies on our way out of town and have been busy with them, so many photos! Tonight was sautéed chicken, squash, zucchini and asparaguswith penne in a white wine sauce and a Cesar salad.

Sooooo adorable!

illimae - hey! Good to see you! Yay for your two new little doggies! So cute! They are eating out of a bowl that says meow, lol!

Last night was beef stir fry over rice. I am in grocery store avoidance mode, can't seem to psych myself up to get in the car and go. This is a good thing periodically as it makes me investigate the freezer and pantry more thoroughly looking for meal ingredients, so I use things up I may have forgotten about! I am about completely out of produce though, so I need to just go do it. I have a couple of other errands as well, so I will make an afternoon of it.

The cat bowls are temporary as the pups are too small to use our old dog bowls. We have something better at the cabin, gonna wait until we get back in early May after closing on the sale of our house on 4/29 and scans on 5/2

Love the pups, illimae, and glad to see your posts again.

Dinner tonight was meatloaf and a Greek Farro Salad. The salad was more veggie than farro, and not low calorie with the dressing and feta cheese, but DH had several servings so I think I’ll make that again

Our dogs preferred eating out of our cat's bowl...well more accurately they preferred the cat food in the cat's bowl. :-)

Once again - no favorites. Keeps asking me to complete my profile which I have done twice. Not doing it again. I really don't get why it was working but now it's not. Ugh.

Carole I think even the cheap rice cookers do an adequate job on rice. They're another appliance that takes up real estate. The instant pot makes perfect brown rice, which is about all I cook, so I got rid of the rice cookers. I'd be interested in the Parish rice out of curiosity. Is that a local product?

Congratulations on the quick sale Eric! Let the fun begin!

Carole's having chicken so we are too lol! We were supposed to have it last night but DH wanted Mexican carry out.

Therapy today. They hurt me last time (knee) so I'm less than enthusiastic today.

Eric, congrats on the house stuff.

Carole, I did not forget you and "our" cookbook. I perused it last night. I've been making so much of the stuff from memory, I have to reacquaint myself with the book. Two of the shrimp recipes stand out and palak paneer...I'll have to find page numbers and recall the tweaks I made. I have a dirt cheap rice cooker that I think I paid 20 bucks for eons ago. I had it in the garage for the give-away (when I was low carbing) but brought it back now that I do more Mediterranean meals. I've cooked brown, jasmine, sushi-white and brown in there without any issue. No fancy settings. I don't know how it knows that brown takes a tad longer.

I am also interested in this Parish rice...is it the Carolina Gold I am dying to try?? Do tell!

Auntienance, I have been wanting an Instant Pot but I have a stove top pressure cooker (used only 3 times) and the rice cooker and am loaded with appliances. Maybe getting rid of crockpots and rice cookers and just getting the IP?? Please rave about it if you feel like it so I can convince myself, LOL. And I still have to keep signing in and I still hate the website as it is now. I hope your therapy goes better today.

We are having the leftover shrimp and bean stuff from last night. Tomorrow, I will make lentil sloppy joes. I may just use naan bread for the bun or maybe put it on a bed of rice--it will be up to DH.

The winds have finally died down and we can take our routine morning walk....

ANNOYED - just lost a long post because the site logged me out after I stepped away for a few minutes. Argghhh. Like, mid-post. Also, my diagnosis was changed and I can't figure out how to access the area to correct it. Takes away my cred to post on the trip pos thread because it now says I am Her2-, which I am not.

mommy - that is me. Often, lol!

carole - I have a $20 Aroma rice cooker - low tech, easy to use, has a veggie steamer basket as well. Cooks white and brown rice equally well. I made that choice for several reasons - cleaning starchy spillover off my new stove was making me nuts, it is small, cheap, and easy to use, it was immediately available at Target down the street. Brown rice takes longer just as when cooking in a pan, but if you leave the rice in the cooker too long on the warm function it gets a little crispy on the bottom. I try to time the rice being done with the rest of the meal.

Dinner last night was cauliflower linguine (love it!) with marinara, mushrooms, and small beef meatballs, DF parm over top. Small green salad with creamy Italian dressing and croutons made from random crusts and leftover pieces of GF bread.

Tonight will be pulled pork sandwiches with slaw on top and thin NC vinegar sauce. I will make either sweet potato fries or baked potato salad on the side. The pork butt is in the low oven now, I usually let it go 6-8 hours, pull it and then return it to the pan and broil it for a bit to get some crispy parts for DH. If anyone wants the sauce recipe I can post it - it is the closest thing to College BBQ's sauce in Salisbury, NC - the first place I ever had pulled pork. Their sauce ruined me for any other sauce on pulled pork, and I was pretty excited to find a really close recipe.

I would also like the recipe. I was reading book 3 of Kathy Reich's Brennan series and she mentioned a mustard sauce brand from the carolinas. I wasn't ready to plop down that much for something I wasn't sure I'd like (Maurice's piggie park sauce) since I can only get it online. I love vinegar based sauces.

Auntienance, at your leisure, if you can list some things you make besides cheesecake. My pressure cooker should work on my induction and maybe I should just force myself to use it more before deciding.

The "crust" on the bottom of rice pans is favored all over the world--socarrat!

Important to note, this sauce does not contain mustard like some Carolina Gold type sauces. Since chemo I struggle with any mustard other than the brown type, like Gulden's, and I can only use it sparingly. This is a very thin, strongly vinegar based sauce, but it tastes great on pulled pork - at least, to me and everyone I have made it for! Combine in a sauce pan - 1 c. apple cider vinegar, 3 T. brown sugar, 2-3 T. ketchup (depending on how thick you want the final sauce, and you can add more at the end if you find the result too thin), 1-2 T. hot sauce, like Frank's or Texas Pete or Cholula, 1 t. red pepper flakes, 1 t. black pepper, 1 t. salt. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool and put in a jar or squeeze bottle and refrigerate. Word of warning - when the sauce is cooking on the stove be careful not to inhale near the pan, this is strong. Ask me how I know not to do this, lol! Letting it rest after cooking, for at least a few hours, seems to mellow the vinegar a bit, but this is relatively spicy due to the pepper flakes and hot sauce. Besides loving how this tastes, I also always have these ingredients on hand, so this is easy to make. You can adjust any of the ingredients for a custom sauce, the recipe is very forgiving.

The dogs eating out of cat dishes convo is funny - our dog is afraid of most dog dishes, stemming from using a metal one as a pup, in which he could see his reflection, which seems to frighten him - like, why is there another dog in my dish? The more I eat the more I can see him, what??? His current bowl is a white melamine people dish from Target. We have quite a collection of dog bowls from trying to find one he wasn't scared of...

Bob bought me my Instant Pot just before I went keto. So I've yet to use it!

Potato and pasta water both have starch that leaches out during cooking, so they are a good base for sauces & gravies (may even eliminate the need for a thickener).

Went to Calo for dinner last night: small Caesar salad, and we split seafood linguine. Bob got the linguine (I ordered a side of spinach) and I got a bit more than half the shellfish (mussels, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid). Tonight I made a Caprese over arugula, and pan-seared walleye; and sauteed asparagus in lemon, EVOO and sea salt. Nuked the leftover pasta (which Bob polished off) and spinach (mine). Stuffed. No more cooking till next Tues. morning.

Next you'll hear from me is after we settle into our hotel.

I used the large chicken breast in a stir fry with yellow bell pepper and broccoli and the leftover white rice. Other ingredients were fresh garlic, ginger, and a sauce with brown sugar, fish sauce, etc. I did something new, for me, and toasted sesame seed for a sprinkle topping. DH seemed to enjoy the dish. It was ok for me since I am not a fan of "Asian." Stir fry has the advantage of being quick to put together with all the prep done in advance.

I found veal on sale yesterday so we will probably have it tonight.

I have a multi cooker but it is an 8 qt. size. I seldom use it even though it worked well the few times I got it out of its cabinet. If I had opted for the 6 qt. maybe I would use it more.

The Parish rice was developed by a Louisiana farmer working with LSU agriculture dept. It's advertised as high in protein and lower on the glycemic index than regular white rice. Rouses Supermarket is selling it and I believe it is available online. Louisiana people eat a lot of white rice. With gumbo, with beans, with meat and gravy, in jambalaya, with etouffe dishes including shrimp and crawfish.