DECEMBER 2019, What's cooking this month??

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Boy Oh Boy! ......always something as you said. The explanation, and description of the alley and the gate, painted such a great picture for me. Even the slide bolt to affix the gate in the closed position!

Question? ...... Why cannot they do the blood test just before the chemo procedure?     Or is it in another medical facility?

bethk wrote:I made panko crusted chicken nuggets, fried smashed baby potatoes & red beets.

When Dane & Jim were FINALLY out of the traffic jam I talked to them and asked Jim if he wanted to come for a week night dinner.  He was more than happy to say, "Yes".

It wasn't anything special but it was better than going out for fast food.

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Wow! That came out beautifully Imelda.
My mom always made the eye round roast. She would make knife slits, and shove a whole garlic spear into the slit with her finger.
She would sear the roast in her cast iron pan, and then finish off in the pressure cooker for like 25 minutes at 5 psi steam pressure.

We make them by just salting and pepper, on the electric rotisserie for around 2.5 - 3.0 hours at 350 degrees. I slice it thin on the meat slicer. ( 2mm thick ) and serve it on buns just like Roy Rogers beef sandwiches. I make or buy extra beef juice to splash on the beef, or to dip it in. Oh so good!

bethk wrote:Imelda, your roast was, indeed, beautiful!  I can only imagine how much flavor that bacon imparted to the beef!  Do you have any pictures of the cut meat?  I'm curious about your filling and how that must have looked swirled inside.

Absolutely beautiful!

Crybaby wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Boy Oh Boy! ......always something as you said. The explanation, and description of the alley and the gate, painted such a great picture for me. Even the slide bolt to affix the gate in the closed position!

Question? ...... Why cannot they do the blood test just before the chemo procedure?     Or is it in another medical facility?

No, Jimmy, it's the same place (Tulane Medical Center) and normally, they do take his blood the same day as the chemo. But since both Christmas and New Year's Day is on Wednesday and I guess they're on the holiday schedule, he has to go on Monday for the blood work and then the next day for the quick oncologist visit before getting the chemo. The good thing is the blood work is quick so I don't even park the car in the garage. His doctors and staffers who work in the Cancer Ctr.  apologized for the inconvenience. Though it's a bit of a pain, it's something we can handle for two weeks.

I just stressed over the darn gas work, Jimmy, and needing to get the gate "handled" before it fell apart while I was trying to get it closed! Of course, the gas contractors worked Monday of last week and we haven't seen them since -- so the wood boards are in my alley and also in front of the gate over a big hole in the sidewalk. I guess they'll work tomorrow and then we won't see them until the following week! They're very nice to deal with though, thank goodness.

Plus I worried about whether the "gate guy" would do a good enough job and put enough "fixes" on the gate to keep it working and looking nicer than it did. He wasn't cheap but he came out to look/quote, went to Home Depot on his way home to get a fence board he needed (to replace one that was falling apart inside the gate) and then showed up the next morning as promised, worked til it was fixed, called me out to show me and then painted the darn thing. And his fixes included welding and having the right type of electric saw with him to trim the entire bottom of the gate without removing it. That had to be done to accommodate the gas guys pouring the concrete higher in front of the gate than it had been before "the dig up."

I feel bad for Brian, too, as you can tell he HATES being the one who has to have accommodations made for him using a walker and being so unsteady on his feet. He usually keeps his sense of humor but I know how he hates it. Almost as much as he hates my having to take out the garbage and take the big garbage container and the big recycle containers in and out of the alley. I laugh and tell him how I now appreciate him doing that for 40 freaking years without complaining as it's no easy task. I'm going to apply to get smaller cans delivered by the garbage company as I know they have them for neighborhoods where people either don't have an alley or their alley is too skinny for the big cans. Older people (like me I must now admit) can also get the smaller cans since they're easier to deal with...

bethk wrote:We made a big mistake timing our dinner out.....we had decided to go at 5:00 ~ apparently the time EVERY OTHER GROUP decided to go to 'beat the crowds'......

they were stacked 20 deep at the 'new' restaurant, they were stacked 30 deep at the steakhouse, so we ended up at the Bamboo Bistro for Chinese.  The food is very good there so it wasn't a huge let down.  But by the time our meal arrived there was a line out the door there, too.

Question:  WHY do people bring young children to a Chinese/sushi restaurant and order sushi for the youngsters?  "EWWWWW ~ gross!" ~ ~ "I DON'T LIKE THIS!!!" ~ ~ "Can I just have rice?"

I mean, quite honestly, I agree with the kids.  I don't like sushi.  I'm an old Ohio farm girl.  We didn't eat bait ~ we fished with it......  But I think these young parents want to expose their children to a wide variety of dishes to train their palate.  But I really don't think Grandma & Grandpa were all that happy with a couple of whiners that were being pushed to try something new and so unfamiliar.  Just give the kid a bowl of won ton soup and some rice to play with by trying to eat it with chopsticks.