Thursdays are for......what?

I remember, a long time ago, in college, Thursdays were the unofficial start of the weekend.  Everyone tried, and was frequently successful, on not scheduling a Friday class.  That waned with graduation, but picked up again during my first job year.  On my non-working weekends, I was off Friday and Saturday nights, so we would start on Thursday night.   On my working weekends, I rarely went out, so the weekend never really started.    LOL.  I thought about this tonight, when an impromptu dinner was arranged to celebrate my nephews K successful passing of his drivers license road test.  In our state, you have to be 17 to take the road test.  His birthday was last week, and today was the first day he could get out of school and go.  He did fine.  He's a great kid.  I really enjoy his company.  I picked him up at his house, and he drove the 20 minutes (2 really busy highways, and a bunch of small town connecting roads) to get his older cousin M, and then to dinner.  M gamely hopped into the back seat, and let the new driver show his stuff.  Having lived through 8 other nieces and nephews obtaining licenses, and offering to drive me places, I barely tensed up as I watched my beloved Honda pull out under someone else's guidance.  I think I deserve a zillion Aunt points for not even grimacing at rolling stops. 

The best part of the evening was I got to spend a couple of hours with two of the more interesting family members we have, and whos company I truly enjoy.  Dinner was good, the company was great, and I think he may be the best driver yet!  It made me remember why Thursday nights used to be so good, and such a great start to a weekend.  Congrats, K and thanks for the fun!               MC

Eating Good Part 2 - New Orleans Shrimp

Here's what else I cooked today....  and I promise, this is not going to turn into an all cooking blog!  There are many who do it much better than I can....and I bow to them.  I'll just post recipes occasionally, as long as they turned out well, and it's something that falls into line with my DS eating plans.
  BBQ in the East means something much different that in New Orleans.  Up here, it's grilled meat, and BBQ sauce.  In NOLA, it was heaven.  Buttery, spicy sauce over perfect shrimp...  I tried to recreate it a few times, and this recipe seems to the the easiest at capturing what I remember from my trip.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com.  ID # 12853.  I morphed it down to make 2 servings, and cooked it all in my cast iron Dutch oven, on top of the stove.  I also am new to photographing food, so it actually tastes great, but looks foamy in these pics!  Sorry,  I'll work on it!
   Recipe:  Barbecued Shrimp
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup olice oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2/3 lemon, sliced
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 clove garlic
1/8 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined.
    Heat butter and olive oil in Dutch oven.  Add all flavoring/spices and mix well.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Add shrimp, stir to coat,  and cook covered for 3-4 minutes.  Stir and cook until done,  (another minute or so...watch the shrimp turn from translucent to white).  I serve it hot with the butter sauce.  For non-DS'ers, you can add crusty bread to dip in the extra sauce, or some rice...  I just eat the shrimp and sauce to stay low carb.  Yummy!!!!   Another recipe that takes 10 minutes to make,and feeds me several meals.  Cleaning the shrimp takes the longest.... but they are worth the few minutes!   MC

Eating Good in the Neighborhood!

Today was a drizzly, damp, miserable kinda day.  I spent all of it in sweats, an oversize Tshirt, and a fuzzy sweater!  I got up, finished a book I'd been reading, made a pot of tea, and came up with a new excuse not to clean!  I was hungry, and decided to do some cooking ahead for the week.  I made bacon for the week, so I can just grab it and microwave it.  I made a big pot of chicken noodle, with double chicken  (lotsa protein).  Then I whipped out some old recipes, and got cooking!!!!
Here they are!  Bouchons au Thon.  (tuna corks - because they somewhat look like that)

These are high protein, low carb muffin sized bites of cheesey, tuna and tomato goodness.  They also freeze well if wrapped, for up to a month.

Recipe:  Bouchons au Thon

6 ounces water packed canned tuna (drained)

1 cup grated or shredded Gruyere cheese

1/3 cup Creme fraiche

3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 large eggs (lightly beaten)

1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped

leaves from 2 or 3 sprigs flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325F.  Spray 8 wells of a muffin tin with non-stick spray.  Fork the tuna to break up any pieces larger than a dime.  Add the cheese, creme fraiche, tomato paste, eggs, onion, parsley and salt.  Stir throughly.  Mixture will be pinky-orange.  Divide the mixture into the sprayed wells.  Fill the empty ones with water to prevent scorching.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until tops and edges are set.  Gently pour the water out of the wells.  Run a knife around the edges of the Bouchons.  Let them sit for 2 or 3 minutes.  (They will collapse a bit).  Extract them and plate them!  Eat warm!

   Here's the good part.  2 are a serving.  A serving has 235 calories, 14 grams fat, (8 saturated), 4 gm carb, 23 gm protein, 440 mg sodium and 1 gm dietary fiber. 

  I substituted Kerrygold Castle Cheese  (similar to Gouda) because that's what I had in the fridge...  I've never substituted sour cream for Creme Fraiche in this, because I think it heats differently!  If you try it, let me know....   This far out , I can easily eat 2 or 3 of these with a small salad.  For newbies, 1 may be plenty.

   Next entry will be the photos of the New Orleans Shrimp!  Stay tuned!    MC

   

Change, Change...anyone got some Change????

I'm still working on my change project....  you know, changing me, for the better.  OK, the dating thing...not going so good.  I just can't seem to meet anyone under 70...  and I gotta draw the line somewhere! BUT...  remember the work friend I invited shoe shopping???  What a bonding experience  LOL  We've decided to go to Italy this year on a vacation.  I've always wanted to go, and so did she.  We're just in the planning stages.  I know I want to see a lot in Rome, and she'd like to see the beaches in Capri, and Tuscany sounds great.  Neither of us knows a lot about Italy, or speak a word of Italian, other than Bella!  This should be a hoot.  I got a guidebook from the library, and a lunch friend got us one...  so we have some reading to do.  Has anyone reading this been to Italy?  What did you like best/least?  Would you suggest a tour, or do it yourself trains, or what? I am pretty excited.  I've explained the DS'er (duodenal switch) eating, drinking, pooping patterns, and she's seems pretty accepting that we'll be eating on a regular basis... and I'll be pounding down the protein.  hmmmm,  I wonder if it's TMI for a new travel partner?  I'll find out!

    Also, I think I've made another new friend.  A friend from the professional organization I'm involved in gave my name and number to a woman 2 towns away.  She had weight loss surgery, and was nervous and had a bunch of questions.  We've spoken on the phone a few times.  She just seems so friendly and real, and I love her attitude about her weight loss.  We're going to meet for coffee next week, while her daughter is at band practice, and compare WLS stories.  I'm really making an effort to meet new people, and try new things, and for some reason, it's working!  Who knew?
   I've been cooking up a storm, trying recipes from other people's blogs.  Some have been great,  like Jenna from Duodenal Switchcraft, did a mac and cheese that was phenom....  I did a traditional Italian lasagna with Dreamfirelds Low Carb pasta that was an epic FAIL.  The cheesey part turned out gritty and harsh, and I didn't use enough sauce apparently.  Of course, this was only apparent AFTER I had baked the whole tray.   The pasta was good, so I'm going to try this again (with different sauce and cheese proportions).
   I hope I hear from someone with some info about Italy.  I'd rather trust a fellow blogger that a guidebook.  and thanks for the good thoughts and prayers about my Aunt.  I appreciated it.   MC

January Update

It's been the usual post Holiday madness.  I've been trying to catch up with everyone I reach out to, and stay connected to, but really only call during the holidays.  There's been dinners, and after work drinks, and I even hosted (hostessed?) a professional organization education dinner for 40.  There's not been much time for blogging, and I've missed it (and your comments/messages)!  The sad thing is my Aunt P passed away.  She was very old, and we spoke frequently.  About 2 weeks before she died, she told me she was ready to go, and didn't like how her body was failing her.  She had just had to leave her home, due to her fraility, falls, etc, and go into a nursing home.  She was terribly unhappy about it, but didn't think she would survive a move to the North to me.  She couldn't deal with switching doctors, moving, or even just the long flight and the changes.  She knew she was welcome, but she was smarter than me.  She knew there wasn't time left for such a change.  I will truely miss her.  It's been a week, and I still ahven't heard from her children about the 'arrangements'.  She had always said she would be cremated, and have her ashes placed back here, up North.  I just haven't heard if there will be a service or not.  If anyone reading is a prayful person, please say one for Aunt P, and may she rest in peace.  She had a long and mostly happy life, and I am richer for having loved her.

One of the more interesting presents I got for this Christmas is an updated copy of Family Tree Maker.  I had a long interest in my family history, back in the 90's.  I worked off and on for a few years and compiled a history of about 300 relatives.  Like so much else in life, I got too busy to keep going, and it got shelved.  The computer crashed, and a lot of data was lost.  (I had, thankfully, uploaded quite a bit of it to the World Fmaily Tree project, soooo....)  When a favorite niece, K. asked for some info a little bit back, it rekindled my interest.  I asked for a copy of the program, re-loaded the saved info, and am working on re-creating the data I once had.  This may keep me busy during the long, cold winter.  (Blush)  I haven't forgotten my intention to date more, well, OK, to date even some WOULD be more.  I just never got finished with those online dating questions....  there go on and on.  I really will finish one of these days....  but if anyone has an extra 45-55 year old, in the NorthEast, please send them my way!  Thanks!  MC