So...whats for dinner?

Yup, they’re for soup or whatever fits. I got a two pack (prime day deal $20). I love soups and enjoy them more often than DH, so having a way to thaw smaller servings is so handy.

Feeling better, so tonight was a hungryroot cheesy broccoli and bean bowl. It was very good.

Mae - so glad you're feeling better. I freeze soup & pasta & sauced in glad containers and then drop quickly in hot water to pop them out & into zip loc bag. But your soup contraption looks good.

Special - have a wonderful trip to CO. I'll be looking forward to your travel log. I understand perfectly since my son moved in December 2019 and I still haven't seen his house yet!!! Maybe in October? Maybe not.

Eric - have a great trip to MI. I can't tell you how many trip I took across country to help my son move in his younger years. And then always got roped into helping friends pack up stuff to move also. Thank heaven's he old enough now to either have friends or pay for 3 Men & A Truck. The time I helped carry a solid maple dresser a full block down a hilly street in San Francisco and then up 4 flights of stairs was the last time for me.

I too love huevos rancheros. Back in the day, it was the best thing to eat before going home after a night of drinking. And I also scramble eggs with whatever & chilies and wrap in a tortilla with beans & cheese.

SpecialK, enjoy your trip

Eric, Detroit Detroit, or suburb? If so, what city? i was born and raised there.

Illimae, glad you can get something down. Have you lost weight? That's one of the things I'm dreading, losing weight, I'm too skinny as it is.

If it works out, her apartment is about 1/2 mile south east of Ford Field & Comerica Park

Is around the two parks OK or????

Eric, I meant my son, here is what he said...Really anywhere downtown isn't bad. Just the outskirts.

2 ears of corn and a big salad. I had to deal with the FISH I CAUGHT! It's a female so there will be salmon roe! YUMMMMM.

Our neighborhood farmer's market is done till next June. Season gets shorter every year. Our bumper crop of tomatoes is rapidly dwindling on the vine: hornworm got a small green one (I had to pry the critter off the vine with grill tongs!) and squirrels have gotten at least 7 in the past couple of days--despite my covering the ripening ones with those green plastic mesh sleeves they put on wine bottles. In years past, they worked like a charm. Now they're a signal to the squirrels "here be tomatoes, matey!" I might sprinkle some cayenne on them--apparently small mammals find it painful. (When we had bird feeders, we mixed the seeds with "Squirrel-Away," a capsicum powder). I think the dry weather is making the squirrels desperate, and they've been after the tomatoes for their water content. I chuck the bitten ones on to the lawn for them (and the rabbits) to finish off. In years past, we picked the last green ones just before the first hard frost in Oct. (and they ripened on the sill into Nov.), but this summer everything ripened at once. We have over a dozen on the sill right now, all ripe & ready to eat. Just one month ago, I had to buy two heirlooms to supplement my only ripe homegrown to make a Caprese for our block party.

Fri. noon for brunch I made a crab/Boursin/tomato/dill omelet. Dinner at Ravinia's Tree Top buffet had trout, pork tenderloin, broccoli beef, veggies & salads, shrimp poke (left the rice), cheeses & charcuterie, and my "cheats" were a dried apricot half, 2 dried cherries and a mini-portion of mango pudding with macerated blueberries.

Yesterday's brunch was quiche & salad Bob brought home from the local pub (my "cheat" was the collar of the crust--I let Happy lick the bottom crust). For late dinner we went to the Palm, where we shared a "Gigi" salad (iceberg, tomato, onion, green beans, bacon & avocado). Bob's entree was surf (lobster tail) & turf (filet). I had the pastrami-crusted bone-in ribeye (ate a bit less than 1/3 of it, packed the rest). Sides were wild mushrooms & creamed spinach (they use cream & parm,, no bechamel). For dessert, we split a bowl of perfect berries.

Brunch today was a small BLT (half a small tomato and one thick slice of bacon) on low-carb hi-fiber wholegrain toast. Dinner will be last night's leftovers (supplemented with--duh--tomatoes). I'm maintaining despite intermittent-fasting, but it is what it is. As long as I have clean clothes that fit, I've made peace with my weight.

tonight was 1/2 a ribeye that DH cooked using a Showtime rotisserie he got at the humane society thrift store s few years ago (I suggested a pan sear but I think he wanted to “set it and forget it”. I steamed the broccoli and pan fried mini potatoes. It was good but DH realized immediately that the steak was too well done for my liking. I wondered what cooking method would take 30 minutes for steaks but kept that to myself.

Wallycat, since our locations don't show for everyone, I'm not quite sure I know where you live. WA or OR maybe? But how fun to go out fishing for those wonderful fish!

Illimae, funny story. 30 minutes for steak? I bet it gets pan seared on the grill next time! Good idea to keep the pie hole shut I guess.

Minus Ha! So nice that you can have a relationship with your ex. After 23 years, mine is still better. I remember how when we first met, he couldn't get over is prev. GF. So I assume he hasn't gotten over me. He is so mean and bitter towards. I'm taking naps, 2 yesterday. Not much eating, don't feel like it and down to 126 lbs. I'm 5'9!

Minus, thanks for the congrats on the fish and meal opportunities. I sure hope this year is as good as the first time we fished out here. The last 3 years have been awful.

Goldie, I live in Port Townsend. If I stand on my porch/deck in front, I can see the lights of Victoria (British Columbia), right over Protection Island. I caught my fish on Marrowstone Island, which is about a 20 minute ride from our house, give or take. Otherwise, we fish at Fort Worden Park, in town, which is about 8 miles or so, give or take.

Illimae, I'm so happy you are better---enough to eat. Cute puppies. I have been officially shamed; I make sure DH knows if he overcooks stuff but I do most of the cooking so it has only been a few times...sigh. You are a better gal and wife than I am.

DH has decided udon noodles tonight, so that is what I'll use the last of the salmon meat for.

Mae, the pups are adorable. I hope Monkey and Pig know that they won the lottery when you adopted them. 😊 Glad you are feeling well enough to post your delicious pictures.

I’ve been reading along for the last week. Dinner was mostly “the usual”. Tonight was fresh King Salmon with rice pilaf and a Caprese salad. The heirloom tomatoes are simply fantastic this time of year. I need to make pesto with all the basil growing on the terrace, but I haven’t had the energy.

Thanks for the well-wishes. I don’t have confirmation from my doc yet, but everything is pointing to Sjögren’s syndrome (positive SSA blood test, SED rate and ANA.) In addition to the dry eyes, dry mouth, sore throat and abdominal pain, I feel like my insides are inflamed and irritated. My lungs make me feel like I’m not getting enough oxygen even though my blood oxygen levels are good. So I guess I’ll be adding more docs to the roster. The good news is that Sjögren's is generally not life threatening and the docs just try to treat the symptoms to improve QOL.

Yesterday's meal was strawberries I had cut up the day before and left in the fridge sprinkled with brown sugar. They got nice & juicy and I was going to make shortcake. But I just tossed a couple teaspoons of sour cream on top, stirred in in and snarfed them up.

Today's meal was a large piece of leftover pizza. And thank heavens, the last of the antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.

Tomorrow I'm meeting my ex-DH and his wife for late lunch at Perry's Steak House. They're celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary this fall. Glad to say that he and I have remained great friends. Perry's still has their senior 3 course meal for $36.00 before 6m. First course choices - appetizers, soups, salads; Main choices - filet, pork chop, salmon, etc; Third course - either sides like creamed spinach or scalloped potatoes - or several desserts. I was going to just order lobster bisque and a wedge salad, but how can I resist the special???

Mae - can hardly wait for the opening celebration of the Beach Bar.

Infuriating how other diseases don't stay out of the way to "pay their respects" to cancer, eh, Cyathea? I hope they can get your Sjogren's symptoms under control.

Monday night's dinner experience was a real fustercluck. Bob went in to work because he got three new patients to admit; but because it was a holiday there were no free sandwiches in the doctors' lounge and he didn't want to pay for lunch in the cafeteria. So all he had for breakfast & lunch were two little boxes of raisin bran, skim milk and an orange. He was starving by the time he got home. But he insisted we go to a place where we could use frequent diner points (Lettuce Entertain You or Landry Group). We both felt like fish, so we chose McCormick & Schmick's (a Landry Group place) downtown. Its website, Yelp, Open Table and Trip Advisor all listed it as having "complementary valet," so we drove down there.

Nobody was waiting at the valet stand--despite the sandwich-board sign in front of it; and all the street parking spaces were taken. Bob went in while I waited; he came out and said there was no valet, but the hostess said there was a garage "south on State Street." I wanted to just go back to our neighborhood, but Bob wanted to eat ASAP, so we turned south onto Wabash, trying to figure out how to get southbound onto State St. because the cross street was one-way the wrong way. As I passed the cross street we saw a garage and he said "let's park there, there'll be an exit on State, and I bet they'll validate because they promised a valet but there wasn't one." I was skeptical and pointed out how far from the restaurant it was and he said we needed the steps (he is obsessed with that). I was already kicking myself for not using SpotHero because there was supposed to be a valet, and told him that due to its location near the theaters and tourist traps it was going to be really expensive.

He still insisted, so up the ramp we went to the point of no return--and to my horror I saw that it was $23 for the first 20 minutes, and $40 for an hour. I was boiling mad but we couldn't turn around. It was 1/4 mi. walk to the restaurant (dodging tourists standing in the middle of the sidewalk taking selfies and derelicts relieving themselves against the buildings when they weren't busy aggressively panhandling). Went in and no hostess--a host greeted us. Bob asked if they validated parking, since the nonexistence of their valet was going to cost us $40. The host replied that the garage they use was only $16--turns out the entrance was NORTHBOUND on State, right around the corner (but none too visible due to it being in an alley blocked by trucks). He also apologized that they only have the valet "on some Fridays & Saturdays but never on Mondays." It was all I could do to refrain from pointing out that it was Labor Day and the place was hopping, full of tourists. He then admitted that the "hostess" was actually a bar-back subbing for him while he was on break--and that she's new to Chicago and had no concept of exactly where the closest garage was!

We were seated....and our waiter turned out not only to have a language barrier but was also very hard of hearing. I had to point out what we wanted on the menu & wine list. He didn't bring bread even though other tables got it. Service was sloooooww (other waiters were bustling past, serving people who'd arrived after us). By the time we finished, got the check (slow again) and walked to the garage, more than an hour had passed and the fee was $55! Talk about false economies--the only saving grace was that we were able to use $60 worth of points to defray the cost of the dinner tab!

The food was good, though. My app was oysters Rockefeller and Bob's was a crab cocktail. We both had salmon: his was shrimp-stuffed Atlantic with mashed potatoes & green beans; mine was grilled Pacific over warm, shaved Brussels sprout salad.

Last night I made a Caprese over arugula, followed by sea scallops in brown butter over asparagus. (Recipe was suggested by Hooked on Fish, where I'd picked up the scallops). Dessert was fresh figs and a square of dark chocolate. Tonight we went out, this time MY choice. I picked Shaw's Crab House, where we could use Lettuce points. (You'd better believe I phoned first to make sure they had a valet on duty). We shared everything: a dozen oysters (6 ea. Atlantic & Pacific), sauteed broccolini, and the "Surf & Surf" combo of a lobster tail, snow crab legs and king crab. (With the proper implements of destruction they provided, I was able to pick those shells absolutely clean). We even split a slice of Key lime pie, of which I had about a third. When we got home, I tried a small crescent cookie one of Bob's nurses had baked--good but not bedtime-carb-cheat-tempting.

We lost another tomato overnight, cayenne notwithstanding--the squirrel left it on the deck railing, so I tossed it on to the lawn. Reluctantly, I picked everything remaining with the slightest tinge of ripening, no matter how small. Nothing left but a few very green ones high up on the plants. When Bob came home, he pointed out another tomato on the railing. I went over and saw it was the same one as this morning: the squirrel had fetched it off the grass and brought it back up to the deck to keepit from the rabbits. I threw it right back. As for our windowsill stash at the peak of ripeness, we're giving some to our next-door neighbor and making panzanella for tomorrow night's dinner, as our second crop of parsley came up courtesy of the first batch going to seed; and I have a heel of Parm-Regg. that needs grating. Bob's salad will get sourdough bread from the bakery around the corner and mine will get keto white bread. We'll have to stay in because he wants to watch both football and the deciding game of the WNBA semis.