So...whats for dinner?

Special, I hope your dental stuff goes well. I absolutely hate teeth. Especially when there is an issue. It's only happened once, but it was within the last 5 years and my heart goes out to you.

The guys are out driving around while I am in the kitchen. I bought 4 duck breasts and 2 legs. I've got the pot of beans cooking and the leg skin browning in the oven. It will be a sort of cassoulet, quick style. The duck breasts, I will make per Nigella Lawson's recipe (super easy and never failed me yet, even if it may set off the smoke alarm) and a big salad. Debating if I should cook up the brussels sprouts.

SpecialK, I hope your dental procedure is successful and as not stressful as possible.

We went out to eat at a nearby seafood restaurant last night and ordered a seafood platter for two with catfish, shrimp and oysters. I especially enjoyed the crunchy catfish. There was enough food for one more person. We brought it home but are not known for eating restaurant leftovers, especially fried seafood.

I awoke with a stroke of genius realization this morning. Stir fry does not have to be Asian. DH can add his soy sauce and I could add my lemon juice and grated romano. I don't hate soy sauce but I don't love it either. Tonight's dinner will likely test out the stir fry theory with veggies in the refrigerator and a half pork tenderloin in the freezer.

Last night we went out to Jaleo, Jose Andres' tapas bar. We started with goat-cheese-stuffed piquillo peppers, then pisto Manchego (like a ratatouille but topped with a fried egg instead of Manchego cheese). Then we had shrimp sauteed in garlic and chorizo napped with pureed potatoes. Main dish was a paella Valenciana (chicken, rabbit, gigante beans, and haricots verts). Unlike at Ba-Ba-Ree-Ba, this paella did have crunchy soccarat on the bottom. They were pushing the "Paella in Space" (served on the Int'l Space Station, chicken with seasonal wild mushrooms) but nobody else in town is doing Valenciana. (We took home most of my half, after I ate the chicken wings and rabbit). Dessert was flan with whipped cream--probably the best flan I've had (I took a large spoonful and left the rest for Bob).

Brunch today was "egg in the hole." Bob came home early enough for dinner. The weather sucked too badly to walk to a restaurant and I spent enough time driving around Evanston grocery-shopping in the cold rain, so once in we wanted to stay in. Our HK is off tomorrow and we have fresh fish that needs cooking. She hates the way the kitchen smells the next day, so that's not a factor this time. Bob says he preferred walleye to Arctic char, so I adapted Geoffrey Zakarian's quasi-Puttanesca to it (he used chicken breasts, so why not firm white fish?). Seared the fillets in a cold pan sprinkled with salt, pepper & EVOO, encircled with halved cherry tomatoes, sliced mixed Greek olives. After the fish was nearly done, I removed it to a platter and tented it to carry-over cook. To the tomatoes & olives I added more EVOO, garlic, capers, red pepper flakes, red wine vinegar (not balsamic) and Sicilian caper sea salt. I spooned it over the fish. On the side, I sauteed sliced fennel in butter, EVOO and flat champagne, with kosher salt, pepper and chopped fennel fronds. For Bob's starch, I reheated my leftover paella.

Next time I make it I may add onions & green peppers, if not eggplant.

Great news Eric. So you're semi-settled for awhile. West of Flagstaff, right? Hope you don't have residual smoke from the wildfires. I bet you have a great view of the stars.

Oh sorry, yes...That's what I meant.

Mae - saw on the drinking thread that you're stuck waiting for MDA again. Fingers crossed that the treatment decisions will not be too onerous.

The leftover duck cassoulet-style.

Spaghetti and marinara sauce augmented with extra garlic, mushrooms and serrano peppers.

"Smoke" from cooking peppers, in the camper, is like tear gas. :-) Fortunately, with all the windows and door open, the breeze clears it out.

Hopefully this post makes it. Cell coverage for internet is 0 bars.

Chicken enchiladas. The sauce was Hatch brand green sauce. Filling was roasted chicken thighs shredded chicken, black beans, chopped mild chili's (also Hatch brand), grated cheddar from a bag, and some of the green sauce. Corn tortillas. One of my favorite meals.

Side was guacamole made by dh.

Tonight will be a package of wiener-like sausages out of the freezer, purchased by dh, and canned baked beans and home-made coleslaw. Not one of my favorite meals. More to dh's liking.

Not a lot left in the freezer. Soon I will be grocery shopping for the day's dinner.

Udon noodle with tofu, bamboo shoots and green beans.

I miss DH's brothers being here.

Happy Mother's Day to those who are Mothers - but also to those who have or had Mothers - and to those who are dog or cat Mothers.

Yesterday through out the day I managed to eat all the small, single portions of everything that was left in the fridge. Weird mixture of fried rice, potato salad, hard boiled eggs, strawberries & cream, topped off by the last of the Ruffles and 2 chocolate ganache hearts for desert. And even more weird - I lost 2 pounds. I just ate the last piece of cold Naan pizza for brunch today. Yum.

I need to make guacamole today to use the ripe avocados, but I have no fresh tomatoes. I thought I had canned diced tomatoes. but only Rotel tomatoes & chili - so I'll experiment & add some of those.

Not much going on here that is exciting for dinner - I still have a mouth full of stitches and the implantoplasty was surprisingly uncomfortable, so eating has been all soft food to date. I am on an antibiotic so have been eating yogurt to stave off GI symptoms, which I haven't eaten in six months - so not sure if the meds or the yogurt are causing issues. Things seem to be settling down a bit, but I will be glad to end the abx tomorrow and return to no dairy.

minus and chisandy - I usually use salsa or pico de gallo when I make guacamole - but I also drain it first so it adds less liquid to the finished product.

DD and beau came for brunch yesterday - I made a Keto frittata with eggs, cream cheese, a little bit of goat cheese, cheddar, cream, some parsley, a spoon of sambal oelek, and peppered bacon. I cooked the diced bacon in a skillet, removed it but left some of the grease to keep the frittata from sticking. I added the rest of the bacon grease to another pan and made home fries with onion, and rounded things out with a fruit salad. I sent the leftover frittata home with DD. Keto is definitely working for her, so she is motivated to stay the course. I had a bite of frittata just because I wanted to taste how it came out for future reference, half a Oikos Triple Zero lemon yogurt, and a little bit of watermelon. Bleh. Dinner was soup, lol!

I am going to put a Boston Butt in a low oven mid-day today and that will feed DH for a few days in assorted variations - pulled pork sandwiches, add some pineapple for al pastor style tacos, pulled pork over baked potatoes, on salad with Ranch/BBQ sauce dressing, etc. I also made Ina Garten's Brussels sprout slaw for the first time on Sat, which DH loves! I am pleasantly surprised because he has been a reluctant BS person - I usually roast them and put balsamic glaze on them, but he is a big fan of the slaw. Kind of comedic - I usually use a mini food processor that I have had for a thousand years. The slicing disk and shredding disk both broke many years ago, I now just have the chopping thing. So I had to break out the big food processor and had never used the slicing disk in it before - had to read the instructions, which were the equivalent of Ikea assembly instructions. I finally figured it out but it was more of a struggle than it should have been!

Dinner last night was Dots Southwest flavored pretzels. :-)

Tonight will likely be bean burgers.

I decided to feed my sourdough starter and I'm making a loaf of bread from "the discard". Both the home builder and the real estate agent have asked if I could save the excess starter (they left jars) the next time I feed it. I guess my starter will have some "children".

Special...hope the stitches dissolve or come out soon.

Wally - great news about your labs. I agree - I HATE DENTISTS, even though I like my dentist personally.

Special - How long do you have to stay on soft food? The BS slaw sounds good. I'm still working on replicating the Korean Brussels Sprouts that I loved at Eddie Vs.

Eric - I love Dots Pretzels, but I hide them in the top of the cupboard because of all the salt,

I always add a spoon of Mrs. Renfro's Green Chili salsa to my guacamole, but I also usually chop up fresh tomatoes. I still added the salsa, but the addition of the (drained) Rotel Tomatoes & Chiils in place of fresh tomatoes turned out fantastic. I'll definitely do this again.

So today's meal was guacamole with Rosemary crackers and an apple. I was outside most of the day and it was just too hot to eat, let alone cook.

Linguini from the freezer with Paul Newman's marinara with ground beef. A large delicious romaine salad with additions. Easy enjoyable meal. Leftover pasta with sauce for another meal.

Yesterday I bought some packages of Camellia dry beans to take to MN, where the dry beans selections are pitiful. Also the smoked sausage selections. But the choices for brats can't be criticized and dh is looking forward to "summer sausage" cold cuts for sandwiches.

Tonight will probably be thin sliced chicken breast fillets and broccoli.

Meal was two hot dogs, 4 pieces of Dove dark chocolate and 2 gin & tonics. I'd planned on a salad, but I was gone most of the day & too tired to cut veggies when I got home

.Carole - do I remember seeing somewhere that you leave the 19th? Mae - hope you are relaxing at your cabin. And Goldie is having a great time with her family in the North. Nance - how are you? And Lacey??