Dreary Sunday

It's another dreary day here but the rain has stopped for now. We had a wild thunderstorm for a while yesterday afternoon. Poor, little Lily had a hard time of it as it was right overhead and she was terrified. I had to sit and hold and rock her although it didn't help much. As soon as the thunder stopped she settled right down. I think she was yapped out.

I made a pork loin roast for our dinner last night. Laid it on a mire poix, bay leaf and rosemary. Sprinkled it with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I made baked Oriental sweet potatoes and buttered green beans for vegetable and wine poached pears with ice cream for dessert. Sunday dinner on Saturday.
Garlic powder only because we had used up all the fresh garlic in the house. 5 heads in two weeks is a lot of garlic even for us.

This is the first time that I have had Oriental sweet potatoes. They have red skin and pale yellow green flesh. Not as sweet as the yams that I ususally get but very tasty. They taste a bit like chestnuts to me. I hope I can continue to get them. I bought them to cook with rice in the Japanese manner but didn't get to do that so I just baked 'em.

A wild and stormy day here.

The wind woke me at about 1:00 AM. I kept trying to sleep but it was just too noisy with the wind chimes ringing. Usually they lull me to sleep but not today.
When I let the dogs about about 3:30 it had just started to rain and hasn't stopped since although it isn't a hard rain.
After I made myself some pancakes and eggs I took a pain pill and then went and took a nap in my recliner. Nothing like storms to get the back to aching.

Tonight I made a saute of shrimp, red, yellow, and green peppers; red onion and mushrooms., seasoned it with basil and French Sea Salt. It was really good. We had broccoli with Kewpie mayo and steamed rice.
Now to try to post the picture.

Shopping Day!

Well, today was the first time I have done a real shopping trip since before Christmas. We used the last of our CSA vegetables yesterday when I cooked the Brussels Sprouts. Organic vegetables are amazingly better. Next box won't be ready until next week so I bought green beans, crimini mushrooms and spinach, and also frozen peas and a package of pearl onions. That way I can mix them or not as I choose. I still have some carrots and zucchini from the store so we should be good till delivery day.

I bought a lamb shoulder that was already sliced. I don't know why they call that thing a roast because it makes a nasty excuse for a roast that gets protein clots between the slices when I cooked. I figured this one out when I was very, very young.
I will save out the best of the chops and cut the rest into stew. I haven't made a lamb stew in ages.

I also bought Orange Roughy, wild shrimp, lean ground beef, a pork loin roast, and a tri-tip roast. No farm raised fish. If I can't get wild, I do without. That's more than enough for over a weeks worth of protein.

If one bought more than $50 in groceries they were elegible for 10 lbs. of potatoes free. Maybe I could have taken 3 bags of potatoes. There were other things that I could have had free but I don't need bottled water or canned ham patties so I passed on them.

After buying all that stuff, I'm afraid that we're going to have beef and spinach ravioli with low-fat Alfredo sauce and garlic sauteed zucchini for tonight's dinner. Would love to have tomato-mushroom sauce but Joy is having am IC flare and can't have anything with tomatoes right now.

Well, here it is a New Year. Of course like so many others I have resolved to try to heat more healthfully and excercise more. That means getting my butt going and getting myself to the gym. I've already planned a healthy menu for the rest of the week.

Tonight we're having Spaghetti with clam sauce and steamed garlic spinach. Simple but low in calories and fat and one of our favorites.

Last night I cooked Orange Roughy, broccoli, and oven fries. Lovely fish at a reasonable price.

Joy feels terrible because her IC is out of remission and she's having bladder spasms again. It doesn't look good. I hope she can get out of it but she will probably have to go back to Stanford for another procedure.
Makes it hard to plan meals because of all the things she can't eat.

Another dreary winter day.

It's still overcast but is forecast to be clearing later. Even so I'm going to make a nice beef stew with dumplings for our dinner. We need some comfort food as it's been rather hit or miss the last week.

Daughter Joy took me for a belated birthday dinner at the new Japanese restaurant. I'm sorry to say this one doesn't live up to the old one. It isn't bad but just doesn't have the same clarity of flavor as the old one. Mediocre is the best I can say for it. Guess it's back to cooking my own. Joy said, "Next time I want tempura, I'll make it myself." Actually the tempura was OK but the dipping sauce lacked punch. The miso soup was bland and boring and the pickles weren't pickles at all but more like a salad. Sushi rice wasn't flavorful either.

Wintery day

It's a warmish day with rain. Temps are up to 4o degrees instead of 30 like yesterday and the little inch of snow is gone.
I just hibernate in the winter so don't know when I'll post again. Need something interesting to post. Or something I want to remember.
Neither of us has lost a bit and Joy is sick with with her IC and IBS and Fibromyalgia. Can't blame her for being cranky.

Ho Hum

Everything is so slow around here and now I'm having an allergy attack. Took some Alkaselzer for allergies but it isn't helping much.

Weighed in this morning and am up 1 1/2 lbs. Bah! I hope it's the salt from the ham we had last evening. Think I'll make a skinny chicken dish of some kind tonight.

I'm so looking forward to going to Summer camp just so I won't have to cook.