So...whats for dinner?

Dinner tonight will be Dole Sunflower Crunch salad, split with DH. Ran errands today and had DQ for lunch, the Oreo blizzard was good, fries, meh and the grilled chicken sandwich was just ok. I saved 1/2 for dinner but don’t think I’ll bother.

I’ve been MIA due to extreme nausea and vomiting since about May 22 (it only stopped yesterday, finally). This was the result of a spinal tap reaction and extreme muscle pain (due to spinal fluid imbalance), followed by starting a new chemo just two days after being discharged from the hospital and stopping the morphine they gave me, which also made me puke, ugh. Still recovering but at least I can think and talk about food again.

Nothing creative for awhile but I did manage to stock up on cod and mahi mahi while in Houston for tests/treatment. It’s impossible to find anything but frozen shrimp from Vietnam this far out in the west Texas desert.

Oh Mae - so sorry to hear about your nausea & pain. Glad it's getting better. What is the new chemo concoction? How's it working out in West Texas? Or are you still in Houston?

Funny - I had Dole Sunflower Crunch salad for dinner also but I used the dressing from a Dole Avocado Ranch that I had in the fridge. Also added chicken, bacon, black olives and sunflower seeds. Served with two Hawaiian rolls.

Tomorrow will be leftover fried rice with asparagus, bean sprouts, mushrooms & strips of sauteed steak. Then the fridge will be empty.

Gearing up for my son to come Thursday night. I haven't seen him since July 2021 - and before that was the fall of 2019. My honey do list is two pages so I'll have to pick & choose so as not to overwhelm him. We'll be having Hawaiian Sliders (1/2 turkey & 1/2 ham with both Swiss & cheddar) the night he arrives since it's too hard to calculate airline 'on time' and airport traffic and etc. I can prep ahead and the cook time is only 10 minutes.

Totally off topic - but does anyone have a vacuum they really love? When my first Shark died after 20 years, I bought a Dirt Devil Endura Max. My main criteria was weight, since my right arm is the one with lymphadema. It was not bad just lifting it in the store. I've been limping along with this damn thing for several years, but it's just too heavy to push with my right arm. And adding the left arm to help means you really can't steer it for beans. I may have to go back to the Hoover I got for a wedding present in 1966 - if I can find bags. But this Dirt Devil is "gone".

I bought a Fuller upright just before the pandemic, which is built like a tank and is ultra-powerful, best on carpets (the plusher the better). But it also came with a lightweight stick vac, which is great for crumbs on bare floors. My HK uses the upright, with its attachments (including a powered brushhead wand); I use the stick. (It replaced a Hoover Wind Tunnel that lasted only 3 years or so; before that I had an Oreck for about 8 years, which in turn replaced an Electrolux canister that was a royal pain to use).

Illimae, I'm sorry that you've been so ill and hope the new treatment works wonders. You've been missed.

Minus, I have an Oreck that came with a small hand vacuum with attachments. The upright Oreck has automatic height adjustment and can require some force with our thick carpet. Sounds like you need something self-propelled. Not sure such a thing exists.

We went to Clancy's restaurant on Monday night for their meatloaf special. DH ordered that and I had a brisket wrap with a house salad. Tonight we're going into town, Park Rapids, to Necce's for dh's birthday dinner. He turns 83 today.

The weather has been much to our liking. It gets quite cold at night and then warms up to low 70's during the day. The locals would love some 80's but we love highs in the 70's. We use the heat pump for a while in the morning but the a/c hasn't been necessary. The mosquitoes have been a nuisance, more so than any previous summer. With the owners now in residence, we're not sure if our services as managers will be required after this summer.

Thank you everyone for all the vacuum tips. Most of my house is carpet. And I replaced carpet when I renovated last year because it's softer for my feet with neuropathy (thank you cancer). For the luxury vinyl tile in the kitchen & bathrooms, I have a very light weight Hoover cordless Linx. It's great and the battery stays charged forever. It just doesn't chug through carpet. Guess I'll make a list of your suggestions & plan a trip to a store to lift a bunch for weight.

Turns out my son is stuck in Chicago after a positive covid test this morning - so visit cancelled. Luckily I hadn't made anything ahead except the ice tea & everything else can be frozen for the next attempt the end of the month.

So I mixed up a bunch of things he wouldn't like anyway - cucumbers & onions in sour cream with dill; and potato salad w/hard boiled egg; and cauliflower rice. I'll finish off the beef fried rice tonight and then I can just nosh for a couple of days.

Mae - sorry - I forgot to respond. I hope the Enhertu works wonders. And everything goes well with infusions in El Paso. Can't remember - do you have a stove yet? Or are you still barbecuing?

Minus, sounds like you may be ready for a Roomba. Gordy & Leslie have had theirs for 3 yrs and love it.

Bob came home around 5-ish yesterday but had a big lunch and wasn't hungry yet. I had a small no-sugar-added plain tart fro-yo with a few dark chocolate mini-chips after my mani (since I still had time left on my parking space, I ate it in the car rather than in the shop) so I was pretty full too. That place wasn't self-serve and "small" was the smallest they had. But it was sooo good.

Dinner at around 7 was the second full Filipino dinner combo that Bob had brought home. We split it--I had two lumpia to his four, we each had a BBQ pork skewer, and I had 1/3 of the pansit noodles. Then spent 2+ hrs hand-writing out the tab for two of the three pieces I'll be teaching this weekend (one was fine as-is from last year, another needed simplification & revisions, especially since the person who transcribed my handwritten tab via print software last year made some major chordal & fingering goofs, which my Zoom attendees gleefully pointed out; the third I did from scratch and was the easiest by far, even with adding four verses of lyrics). Hungry again about 9:30, so nuked the last 4 wings in the freezer and dipped celery & carrot sticks and snap-pea-pods in t he blue cheese dressing. (Stained my cuticles--I normally do wings the night before, not right after a mani, but they were calling my name and keto-friendly). Handful of almonds and a small square (Chocolove 77%) of dark chocolate for dessert.

By the time I ironed out the mess created by my ISP going down--it was promised to be fixed by 3:30am but didn't come back till after 7 this a.m.--I had no desire to do anything but hit the sack.

Last two Birch Benders keto waffles for brunch today. I treated myself by adding 1/2 tsp of real Vermont maple syrup to the 1 T. of Lakanto fake maple I usually have. Yum! (Tasted far more authentic than the "pancake syrup" on my Toronto hotel's breakfast buffet last week). But not gonna do that again for awhile--this weekend I will be staying down in the sticks with a friend--and both her town and the festival concessions are definitely keto-unfriendly.

At Mas Alla del Sol (1/2 mi. walk), out on the patio: we split nopales salad and ceviche; I had Camarones Mojo y Ajo, which were grilled butterflied jumbo shrimp with grilled veggies and a shredded iceberg salad (with tomato & avocado); Bob had chicken mole. Dessert (back home) was Enlightened keto butter pecan "ice cream" with Lakanto maple syrup.

Last night's dinner was store-made brats cooked on the grill at low temperature and broccoli salad. My brat was cheese and jalapeno and dh's two brats were four cheese. We find that the brats with cheese stay more moist when cooked to temperature. I don't like raw broccoli so I blanched the small pieces in the microwave. Other ingredients were what I had on hand: grated cheddar, raisins, peanuts. Dressing was light mayo and a packet of splenda. I omitted the popular ingredient of red onion because including it would have eliminated the salad for me!

Aussie, how would you describe the "curries" you are eating? DH and I watch a lot of British tv and the characters eat curry takeout, which seems very popular.

Minus, I know you are disappointed that your son's visit was delayed.

I gave myself a vacuuming machine several years ago and it didn't work well for me. My carpet is thick and you have to make sure it doesn't get tangled up in electrical cords. Also it's necessary to limit its territory because it will wander from room to room. The machines work better on thinner carpets and wood floors. Their erratic patterns of movement can leave debris untouched. In my bedroom it spent a lot of time under the bed! I gave it to my sister.

Thanks, Aussie. I'll check out the jars you mention if they're available here in America/Norway otherwise known as Minnesota where rice is not a common dish. Potatoes reign!

A couple of years ago we were invited to dinner and told we would be having home-made red gravy. We assumed the entree would include pasta. Nope. Mashed potatoes. LOL. Delicious mashed potatoes, I should add. Every potluck meal includes cheesy potatoes made with hash brown potatoes, either frozen or hand grated. Funeral potatoes is a great favorite. Casseroles are "hot dishes."

Last night we had leftover cornmeal "pudding" stuff.

Tonight, I oven roasted asian marinated tofu; roasted maitake, black oyster, Lion's mane mushrooms. Then I stir fried red onion, spinach and when all of that was heated through with the sauce/spice, I folded in the 'shrooms and tofu. Served on a bed of sweet potato.

Leftovers tomorrow.

Yesterday was the Farmers Market. The hours are 9 to 1. We were set up by 8:45. I went to buy breakfast. McDonald's was busy and I knew it would be 45 minutes at least so I went to Burger King, which seems to be less popular. I ordered two sausage egg croissants and two coffees. The croissants are two for the price of one so the cost was $6.

Dinner was grilled hamburger patties and tossed romaine salad with our favorite additions.

I bought a bundle of beautiful Swiss shard, radishes and salad turnips (no tops) from two veggie vendors. Also a dozen eggs from the Amish. They've raised their price from $3 last year to $4. I will cook the turnips and Swiss shard tonight

We still don't have internet or telephone service at the house and someone shotgunned an overhead finer optic cable and most of northeast Arizona was without any communications except 2+way radio...so I haven't been able to check here.

We are in Phoenix, taking up another load..and things are settling in nicely at the new place.

Minustwo, I hope you make it through the heat and SpecialK, I hope you weather hurricane season okay. That is a conundrum about the roof.

You mentioned carrot cake which was that one thing I made repeatedly during the pandemic in an 8x8" pan, just the right size for dh and I. This spring when we bought vegetable plants at a Mennonite greenhouse, I bought one of their carrot cakes and yum-oh! It had the right everything. We scarfed it down. I plan to get some for 4th of July gatherings.

Over the weekend, I made grilled cheese. I've been experimenting to try to make it more interesting. I shredded a block of sharp cheddar and put that on buttered slices of Dave's Killer White Bread which is apparently one of the better white breads. I can't eat the pasty white bread but find multigrain too sweet. The sandwich turned out pretty good, better tasting than Kraft cheese slices. Served with Campbells tomato soup made with milk. A nice quick meal.

Does anyone use a rotary cheese shredder? If so, any recommendations? I have a box grater but it's hard work, so I'm looking at hand held and stand alone ones. With the stand alone, I could use it for more things like to shred potatoes.

The fiber optic cable has been repaired. I'm back to my 1 bar of cell (internet) service. The 50 hour long "communications blackout" was felt throughout most of northeast Arizona--about 1/5 of the state. The Pipeline fire in the "suburbs" of Flagstaff, which has an unfortunate likelihood of causing a huge amount of heartache, is (rightfully) getting all the news coverage.

There has bern no word regarding the installation of "regular" home internet. The cable has been buried, so that's a start...maybe once everything fiber optic related us cleaned up. Anyway, I'm still reading and typing on a smartphone.

The latest dinners have been spaghetti with homemade sauce and fish tacos,

Divine - If you have a recipe for the 8x8 carrot cake and it's just one "layer", I'd really like to try it. Two layers are too much for one person. I seem to have lost even my box grater and just have the old flat one like my Mother had. I like Special's recommendations.

Eric - glad you're settling in & hope for a "real" connection soon.

Special - thanks for asking about the ice maker. The saga goes on. They did come to deliver & install this morning (finally), but it was the incorrect model # for my fridge with the wrong connections. So... Best Buy no longer sells the one that goes w/my fridge. But supposedly they have ordered one from a national parts supplier to be shipped directly to my house. Next install appointment is 6/22. If it weren't so sad (and so darn hot here) it would be hilarious. I hear ya about the roof. Difficult decision.

Wally - In 2018 I flew into Seattle and drove to Sequim to stay with old friends, and had lunch at the Downrigger in Port Angeles with another friend. Then drove down to visit a friend in Newport, OR. Wonderful trip!!! I wonder if all the Rao's varieties have the same sodium? The Marinara in my cupboard is 380.