So...whats for dinner?

Eric, I know you're sad over the loss of your aged pet.

Minus, I'm in awe of all those hours in the yard. Two to three hours is my max these days. I have one chore left to do before we leave. Prune the two wisteria shrubs on either side of the driveway. They remind me of the Little Shop of Horrors plant whose name I've forgotten.

Dinner last night was grilled ribeye and scalloped potatoes. I got out a gadget bought years ago from Pampered Chef (I think) and mostly stored. It has a slicing blade as well as four other grating inserts. Also a gadget to hold the vegetable being sliced or grated. It worked really well to produce very thin slices. The potatoes were a good side dish for the steak.

eric - was this Gypsy? Regardless, I am so sorry - it is so hard. How is your DD taking this news? Our Toby just turned 15, and every birthday or Christmas (he loves Christmas - opens all his own presents) I fear will be his last. He is such a big part of the family I can't imagine how it will be - I know that is the case for you guys too.

minus - sorry, I have been MIA! The zucchini thing is basically layering, and it is forgiving with order and ingredients. The only thing I have learned is to drain the tomatoes if using canned because the dish will get watery since the zucchini will give off some liquid when heated. Too much liquid makes the cheese weird. I tend to make this in a glass dish that is taller than it is wide so I get a lot of layers. Otherwise you are baking until you can easily pierce the full depth with a knife - I think about 30 minutes in a 350 F oven based on 1/4" slices of zucchini. I too am amazed at your yard duty hours! My LE flares in the heat (and I live in Florida why???) so I have to pace myself - I tend to do a bit, come in and cool off, go back out.

Dinner last night was roast beef sandwiches on GF bread. The night before was BBQ chicken pizza on cauliflower crust. Tonight will either been cauliflower linguine with sausage and mushroom sauce or chicken enchiladas with guac and cilantro lime rice. The sausage and chicken are both already cooked, and I think the sausage will win out based on how long ago I defrosted it. We were supposed to have it last night but I got distracted visiting the neighbors, thus the easy and faster sandwich decision.

eric - my husband says he will leave town when this happens at our house, he is so worried our DD's reaction will break his heart - she picked our pup out of the rescue litter when she was a week out from high school graduation, and she's now 32. Same story - different day, right? Even though we know it is coming it is still so hard. Sending you all positive thoughts.

Eric, so sorry for the loss of your furbaby (no matter how old, they're still our "babies"). You gave her a good long life. Our kitties are 17 and almost 15--the younger one has IBD and I worry about him even more than our "old gal." The last cat of ours to reach the Rainbow Bridge was nearly 20; his younger buddy (who was born FIV+, seroconverted neg. at 6 mos., and had cardiomyopathy) died just a week shy of 8.

Brunch today was avocado toast--found a piece of frozen L.C. bread in the freezer. Had two avocados in the crisper, for over a week after they began to soften. Sliced open the older one and was flabbergasted to find it still a perfect green inside. Made guac from scratch; I usually cheat and use pico de gallo, but our pico was bought just after our return from NOLA and Bob never opened it--its lid was puffed up, so down the disposal it went. Instead, I cut up four grape tomatoes, a few slivers of poblano, and sliced & chopped about a T. of red onion. Added the juice of a "heel" of a lime plus a few grinds of Alessi Avocado Toast Seasoning. It was fabulous--topped it with an olive-oil-fried blue-shelled Happy Egg, which had a red-orange yolk.

Dinner was at Chez Joel in Little Italy between UIC campus and its medical center (no longer very Italian, more like "Little Gentrified High-Rent Student-Facultyland"), as Bob didn't go to Christ Hosp. after his Union Health shift next to UIC Med/Rush. (He cabbed it down there because his car was getting a brake job). Shared apps of chicken & duck liver mousses and Manila clams steamed in white wine. His entree was coq au vin. Mine was duck two ways (an entire seared breast and confit of leg & thigh) with red cabbage & wild mushrooms. We each took home half of the "birds" on our plate. Dessert was a shared bowl of fresh berries & orange sections.

I was thinking something like a Bolognese sauce, maybe adding a little ground beef as well. Or Scotch eggs?

wally - my fave way to use the JD "breakfast" type sausage is to cook and crumble it, and add some apple, onion and sage and cook a bit more until the apples and onion are mostly done. Mix with some breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs and shredded cheese, and then stuff something - usually acorn squash (par-baked), but you could use zucchini or yellow squash, and then bake until the squash is done and the filling is heated through. If you don't have any squash I suppose you could also spoon it over grits or rice.

Dinner last night was the sausage (ha!) and mushroom meat sauce (bulk hot italian sausage and baby bella mushrooms added to Rao's sausage and mushroom sauce - which I found BOGO - yay!) over cauliflower linguine with DF parm and a salad. I was actually full after the salad so saved my pasta for today. Tonight I will do some chicken enchiladas in almond flour tortillas with fresh guac and the cilantro lime rice. Maybe some refried beans with DF cheddar and chopped red onion.

Wallycat, I do something similar that Specialk mentions above, also very forgiving. I use zucchini, but the larger ones are best, which you can't find in the store. I have done it like a casserole with smaller zucchini, layering them on the bottom. The recipe comes from Alton Brown, zucchini boats.

Goldie, thanks for sharing, I really enjoy stuffed zucchini.

It’s our last night in the house and clearing the fridge made for a bit odd but tasty combo of items. I used a knorr pasta sides parmesan pack, with leftover black truffle sausage slices, the last of the sea scallops and a veggie mix of squash, zucchini and carrots. We’ll be in a hotel for a few days, so what doesn’t get eaten by tomorrow afternoon gets tossed.

Eric - so sorry for the loss of your fur baby!

Minus - my toe nails lifted towards the end of chemo. They have never been the same and are very sore. I have it on my list to discuss with MO on Monday. I have to be careful putting on socks and shoes as the slightest pull and there goes the nail. I really hope you get some answers about Lamasil.

Not much of an appetite still. Yesterday I made potato salad and cut up a pork tenderloin into chunks, marinated it with adobo, garlic, an onion and a sofrito packet and then later air fried them. Today I air fried the rest of the pork and made a salad and arroz junto (rice and beans made in the same pot).

Illimae as always, your pics look like they belong in a magazine! Good luck with the final move. How are Pig and Monkey?

Carole YES, love the dinner of martini and ice cream!

Minus, glad you got the hearing aid thing at least figured out. I have funky ears too. I don't know if too big or too small, but hardly any ear buds stay in my ears, I have to use head phones. However, I have Dumbo ears! As for the garden work, I work about a half hour or so, and then go do something else, where I'm upright and working, not squatting or bending over. I know better than to do that for too long, or I pay for it.

Minus2 and Serendipity, I will PM you both about the lifting nails.

Tonight I made burritos with rice, black beans, onion, yellow pepper, ground beef and enchilada sauce. I topped with fresh salsa with lime.

I’m a bit behind on posts. I was sorry to hear about Gypsy and wallycat’s sick cat. We have a cat with kidney disease and dread the day when the disease is no longer manageable

Had to come back and "fess up". Last week I bought a bag of Cheetos and a bag of Ruffles. I rarely buy these since I can sit down & go through a whole bag if I'm not careful. In fact I don't think I've purchased either since mid summer last year. I ate 1/4 of a bag of Cheetos last Friday. And I just had to open the Ruffles tonight. Well at least they are only the 8oz bags & not the family size. Even for 8 ounces, they were $3.99 each. Maybe that will convince me to eat slower?? (NAH)

I enjoyed reading all the posts today. Celand, that is such an appetizing dinner. I wish someone would serve it to me tonight!

Minus, Cheetos are my favorite snack food in a bag. I almost never buy them. DH routinely buys chips to eat with his lunch and I seldom eat them.

Today I am having lunch with three women friends I got to know through golfing. We have a reservation at Rip's on the lakefront in Mandeville for a table outside on the balcony overlooking Lake Pontchartrain. The weather should be nice for being outdoors since we're having several days of low humidity.

Dinner will probably be pork out of the freezer.

I can resist potato chips but Cheetos are kryptonite for me. Especially the crunchy ones. (Fritos are about as bad). If I buy them,which is rare, it must be the small bag because I won’t stop till it’s empty.

I haven't touched a Cheeto since going low-carb in 2019--in fact, probably the last time I had any was from a freeway plaza vending machine when I was still driving down to Sparta to record. (They, the dark chocolate M&Ms from the vending machines, and maybe a granola bar or two were what enabled me to make the 6-hr drive with only pee and gasoline stops, arriving late enough at night that everything was closed).

Panko crumbs...corn tortillas...Wendy's...pasta...plantains...Godivas...it's so frustrating that I can't have ANY of those. Even the "Caulipower" pastas are too carby, according to the NP at the weight clinic. If I didn't have nuts, keto-friendly or low-carb/hi-fiber bread and monkfruit-sweetened chocolate available, I don't know what I'd do. (The Quest keto-friendly flavored taco chips are too skimpy and the cheese powder of the various flavors gets all over my fingers & clothes). It's getting really, really old having to drink water every time I get a craving, as my PCP suggests. (I'm running to the toilet all the time but the color in the bowl says I'm still dehydrated).

Wanted to go to Regalia (tuna carpaccio, salad, spatchcocked chicken) tonight, but Bob is working late and would rather grab dinner in the hospital cafeteria. Not worth walking through the unseasonably cold & raw weather just for myself (and without Bob to "police" me as I sit at the bar I would be susceptible to the treats that the owner insists on giving me--especially the amaro or caffecello). So I will sear a piece of sable I defrosted and stir-fry snow or sugar-snap peas. Now that I'm off letrozole, maybe I can treat myself to half a red grapefruit for dessert (been Jan. 2016 since I've had grapefruit). Normally, I'd grill that fish out on the deck to avoid stinking up the kitchen, but we can't use the deck till the water-based stain dries & cures...which with this cold-wet weather cycle, may not be for another week or more. I hate Chicago weather--but there's no escape anywhere what with wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.