Crusty Italian Bread
The New Year needs to start off right - and that means a fresh loaf - or two - of bread.
I love my fresh-baked bread. There really is nothing better for making a dinner complete. It amazes me a bit that - after all of the thousands of loaves of bread I have made in my lifetime - I still enjoy making it so much. But I do. I really do.
This particular dough needs to slow-rise in the refrigerator overnight, so make the dough before you go to bed and bake it the following day! The slow rise adds character to the bread by allowing the yeast and bacteria to develop flavor. There's also talk that slow-rising, as well as using sourdough starters, are beneficial to people with issues with commercial breads. I dunno, because I have no food allergies or intolerances, but, if ya do, you may want to look into it.
This is a really basic bread - flour, water, salt, and yeast - my favorite four ingredients. It's rather amazing how these same ingredients can be combined just slightly different, shaped differently, and have such dramatic differences in flavor, crust, and texture. It's one of the reasons I love bread-baking so much.
This really is an easy bread to make and the dough is easy to work.
The origin of this particular bread eludes me. I have a ton of recipes on my computer dating back to the early days of home-computing - most in .txt files. Some of them are transcribed from a cook book my old Tahoe roommate Steve Johnson and I were once trying to write. It was the "Scraped off the Wall Cook Book" and the original files were lost in a computer crash in the early '90s. While some of the recipes survived, I've never been able to get up the energy to start it, again. This could be one of them. Or not.
Crusty Italian Bread
Makes two 14-inch loaves
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups water
- cornmeal
Combine the yeast and water in a mixing bowl and allow to proof. Add the salt and flour and mix, forming a somewhat smooth ball. Continue mixing about 5 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto the counter, knead by hand for a few seconds, shape into a ball, and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it to completely coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for 24 hours. The dough will double in the refrigerator.
When you are ready to bake, return the dough to room temperature.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Cut it into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven with a baking stone in it to 450°F.
Pat 1 ball of dough into a rectangle about 4" x 5". Fold in half, sealing the dough with your palm. Spin, and fold in half, again, also sealing with your palm.
Fold the resulting piece in half, again, sealing the edges with your fingertips. Roll into a 14-inch-long cylinder with slightly tapering ends.
Place on peel that has been liberally sprinkled with cornmeal.
Repeat with the remaining ball of dough.
Cover with a towel and set aside to rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Make three diagonal slashes with a very sharp knife. Sprinkle lightly with flour and slide onto the baking stone.
Lower the oven temperature to 425°F.
Bake the bread for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp, misting with water from a spray bottle 3 times during the first 10 minutes.
Cool the bread on a rack and serve at room temperature.
Eat one loaf tonight and freeze the other for another time when you want a quick loaf. Reheat in the oven - wrapped in foil - about 10 minutes at 350°F.
Edited to add...
WOW! This is one crusty and light loaf of bread! The slow-rise - along with the misting in the oven - gave it a great crust and texture. I'll be making this one, again, for sure!
New Year's Eve 2015
While Victor and I were eating dinner tonight, we realized we were on our third official New Year's Eve host.
When we were young, it was "Guy Lombardo, live from the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria." Those were definitely fun years. Pre-adolescent New Year's were exciting. Staying up until midnight was something we just never were allowed to do, and when you're a kid of 7 or 8, every new year was the start of something new. I remember thinking as a kid that in the year 2000 I would be the almost ancient age of 48. And here we are, about to usher in 2015. You do the math.
http://youtu.be/Q-ncPPArxEk
Here's Guy bringing in 1977. I was living at Tahoe and have no idea what I did that New Year's Eve - but I'm reasonably certain it included being at work at 5am on New Year's Day at The Old Post Office in Carnelian Bay - probably ridiculously hung over - or still royally buzzed. I didn't start at the Hyatt until June of '77.
2015 really doesn't seem possible - and it's definitely not what we were told to expect. The promises of the past have not kept up with the reality of the present - and there are definitely days when I see no hope for the future. But... here we are, in spite of it all.
I have no idea when Guy Lombardo left New Year's and Dick Clark took the reins. From the mid-'70s through the '80s, I was in the hotel business - I was working. Most of the time it was a lot of fun - the Hyatt years, especially. The Hyatt Lake Tahoe days are a bit of a blur... I do remember the first year I was in management that some maroon threw a glass in the fireplace at the end of the casino. Within seconds, glasses were being tossed from everywhere - in the general direction of the fireplace. It was broken-glass-freaking-mess. The next year, the casino switched to plastic at 4pm - no glass or bottles at all.
The Hyatt in Cambridge saw us all in our tuxedos with a suite reserved for the managers overlooking the atrium. It was stocked with a full bar and hors d'oeuvres for days. We'd walk in and out of the parties, being a part of the festivities without having to be a part of the festivities. It was great fun. Our biggest challenge was making sure the employees didn't get too drunk.
There have been a few parties in the past 25 years, but after working so many of them, neither of us have had much of a desire to go out. We spent Christmas 1999 in San Francisco and then flew back east for NYE Y2K - on New Year's Eve. Victor's mom played the sympathy card stating "I won't be around for the next millennium..." [[Earth to Mom: NONE of us will be around for the next millennium!!]] We flew in a practically empty plane and landed at empty airports. It was the best flight, ever!
14 months after this picture was taken, we were living here...
Nowadays, we have a simple dinner - tonight it was chicken parmesan - and follow Parisian New Year... The New Year strikes in Paris at 6pm eastern time. Therefore, if we stay up until 9pm, we're 3 hours into the new year. I really have no desire to try and stay awake for another ball-drop.
So... Happy New Year. And don't call. We'll be asleep!
Rice Cakes and Creamed Chicken
I was doing a bit of blog-maintenance, today, and came across a rice cake I made last year. It sounded good, so I decided to make them, again.
I need to check my back posts more often - there are a lot of fun things on this site. I guess I've been in a bit of a rut with the holidays and all... Plus the weather hasn't been cooperating... I'm in soup and stew mode but the weather isn't.
But January usually invigorates me. Not for the New Year Resolutions, because I don't make any. I've found the quickest route to failure is writing out resolutions. I just like the calm that comes after the holidays - and the weather is usually conducive to baking bread and settling down by the fire with a good book - or, my Kindle with a thousand or two books.
I'm beginning to find that while I love my Kindle for reading, I merely like it for cook books. I like it in the kitchen with a recipe, but I like holding a cook book for gathering ideas. Then, again, I like being able to have a score of cook books in my hand at any given moment, but sitting on the couch surrounded by cook books is heaven - until I have to put them away. It's a conundrum, for sure...
Cook books are great for ideas - as are websites, blogs, newspapers, and magazines. I usually find it easiest to take an existing idea and play with it, rather than sitting down and starting from scratch. It's why I have a difficult time making the same thing twice the same way...
Tonight's rice cakes are a prime example... last time I made them I used a shredded cheese and sage. this time I used Boursin. They came out great!
Rice Cakes
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1/2 pkg Boursin cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 cup bread crumbs
Cook rice in 2 cups of lightly-salted water and a pat of butter for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Place rice in a bowl and mix in cheese and egg. Add salt & pepper, if desired.
With wet hands, form into patties and dredge in bread crumbs.
Fry in grapeseed or other neutral oil until crisp on one side, flip, and cook the other side.
Leftover rice works, also.
The chicken is the most basic of basic dishes. I cut up 2 chicken breast and cooked them in 2 cups of chicken broth. I added a cup of heavy cream, a cup of frozen fava beans, and a cup of frozen mixed vegetables. A pinch of salt and pepper, and a pinch of poultry seasoning were all it needed, herb-wise.
I thickened it a bit more with some cornstarch. Simplicity.
2015 is just a few days away and I foresee another year of totally joyous recipes to talk about and share...
I can't believe it will be ten years since I started this. It's been a lot of fun. I wish I had taken screenshots of all of the various looks this blog has had in 10 years. I think I may have to look for some pictures...
Christmas Traditions - Russian-Style
Many years ago, I got a plastic tray from my Uncle Gene who had lived in Hawai'i for many years. It was a reproduction of a mural by Eugene Savage who had been commissioned to paint nine of them for the Matson Steamship Line pre-WWII. Although completed, the war broke out and they were never installed on the ships. Reproductions of them were eventually used as used as keepsake menu covers for the SS Lurline - the flagship of the Matson Line. It probably cost him twenty bucks. It wasn't valuable, just decorative.
For years, the tray had sat downstairs collecting dust until one day I brought it to work with some cookies. It then sat at work until one day when I used it at the demo counter. I kinda kept thinking I would bring it home, and I kinda never did.
A regular customer came in and, speaking to another employee, asked where we had gotten the tray. He knew of Eugene Savage and liked his work. He was told it belonged to me and that was that - until one day when he came in and I was there...
Andrey is from Russia, kinda tall, quiet, and a very genuine person. We've chatted in the past, he's married, and just a nice guy.
We talked for a bit and he said if I ever wanted to part with it, he would love to buy it. I smiled, said it wasn't for sale, he said okay, and off he went to the cashier. So... a minute later, I'm looking at the tray thinking it's doing me no good, I don't have any place at home for it, and if I leave it at work it's eventually going to fall apart.
He was still at the register so I brought it over and gave it to him.
He was quite taken aback, but it was kinda like one of those Pay-It-Forward situations. So many people have done nice things for me in my life, I need to do a few in return. Besides, I tend to cash in Karma points quicker than I can receive them.
He thanked me profusely and left with a huge smile on his face.
I haven't seen him since I gave him the tray, but he's been in quite a few times and has asked a few of my coworkers what he could do to say thank you. My response was nothing, don't worry about it. NOT the response someone wants to hear who wants to do something.
So... tonight, after a long, long day - the Sunday Before Christmas - he and his wife came in with a shopping bag. In it, were the things every Russian family has at Christmas!
He could not have come up with a better way to say thanks! What an absolute treat!
First up, is a bottle of a carbonated beverage called Kvass Ochakovskiy. It is made from rye bread and is naturally fermented. It's considered a non-alcoholic beverage, as it has an alcohol content of less that 1%. As a comparison, non-alcoholic O'Douls is 0.4. It has some unique properties. I am getting it refrigerated, as I speak. Er.. type.
Then there is a huge jar of pickled tomatoes and pickles - from Bulgaria! He said the best pickles in Russia come from Bulgaria. We laughed.
Next is a hunk of halva. Sesame and honey... It's been a while since I had any. It's going to be great on the cookie tray!
There's a can of smoked sprats from the Baltic Sea. Sprats are small fish and contains long-chained polyunsaturated fatty acids. The little blighters are actually good for you!
And, finally, a Poppy Seed Rillet - a poppy seed pastry roll. Andrey said he hoped I didn't have to take any drug rests soon - so many poppy seeds will make me test positive!
Fortunately, I won't have to!
I am really thrilled beyond thrilled! It's no secret that I just love food and I have a great affinity for foods of other lands. I have always believed that food is the great equalizer, and we can learn so much from one another if we sit down to a meal together and share our foods and traditions.
A gift like this just warms my heart to no end.
I can't wait for Christmas Eve! Our Feast of the Seven Fishes will now be Eight. I'll toast with Kvass, have pickles and pickled tomatoes along with the antipasti, and halva and poppy seed roll will be out with trays of cookies and other sweets.
Thank you, Andrey and Irina!
С Рождеством! - Merry Christmas!
Stuffed Pork Chops
I was grocery shopping on Monday and picked up a small pork loin roast that was priced about $10.00. I looked up and noticed that for $8.00 more, I could buy a whole pork loin - about three times the size of the roast in my hand.
I bought the whole loin.
I got 9 thick-cut pork chops, a pork roast the size of the original one I picked up, and a few stray pieces that will go well in a pasta sauce. I got four additional meals for 8 bucks. Not bad...
I took a couple of those chops tonight and stuffed them with raspberry chipotle sauce and blue cheese. I get the sauce from Cost Plus whenever we're near one.
I cut a pocket into them and then seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic powder. I browned them in a skillet, set them on their bottom, and added the raspberry chipotle sauce and placed them into a 375° oven for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, I added a chunk of blue cheese and let it ooze and melt inside... Oy, they were good!
Oven-roasted sweet potatoes and some roasted corn finished the plate.
I tried to be a good boy and not dirty too much stuff because our dishwasher is on the fritz... It's been seeping water a bit and now it's just not behaving, at all. The Maytag Repair Man will be out on Monday. In the meantime, that means Victor is doing dishes by hand...
We have a great rule in the house... if I cook, Victor does the dishes. If Victor cooks, Victor does the dishes.
I'll be honest... I'm not sure how this all came about, but, at this stage of the game, I'm not going to argue the point.
I've been known to pretty much destroy a kitchen cooking a basic meal for two, so any and all help in the clean-up department is always appreciated. I have gotten better over the years, but... pristine is never going to be a word that describes our kitchen. The only one eating off our kitchen floor is Cybil - and there's generally plenty to keep her fed.
My dream kitchen would be tile walls, stainless steel counters, and a quarry tile floor with a properly-sloped drain that I could just turn the hose on after cooking. Or a steam hose like I had in the Navy.
Maybe in my next life...
Turkey Soup
When I typed the title for the post this evening, it came up as "turkey-soup-9." It seems I've posted about turkey soup a few times. I went back and started reading the posts, and they all were pretty much the same. "Best part of Thanksgiving." "Boil the carcass." Talk about originality. It seems I pretty much make the same soup over-and-over again.
I switch out ingredients, change the pasta, add beans or barley, and, generally just clean out the refrigerator, but the basic soup really is always the same.I'm either in a rut or I've achieved perfection. Personally, I'll call it perfection, because lord knows I'm never in a rut. And, it tasted pretty darned good.
Thing is, it's pretty hard to screw up a soup. All ya need to do is throw things in a pot and let Mother Nature take over. Provided you're not trying to replicate a specific flavor, taste, time, or place, you're pretty much guaranteed to have a reasonably good result.
And in not trying to replicate anything, it sorta looks like I've just replicated the past 9 years or so...
So much for not being in a rut...
Christmas Decorating and Squishy White Bread
Squishy white bread is a once-a-year guilty pleasure. I normally don't really care for it, but there's something about turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and mayo on squishy white bread that just can't be beat.
I know how worthless white bread is, but this once-a-year sandwich is worth whatever negative nutrition I'm getting from it. Really.
I even went out of my way to find actual Wonder Bread - the epitome of squishy white bread. I actually have no idea when I last had Wonder Bread, but today, it did the trick.
Stuffed from sandwiches, we continued on our Christmas Decorating roll. We're mostly done, but still have a couple of little details and the outdoor lights to do. We're probably going to go a bit over the top out back this year... We've always put up lights for our neighbor, Peg, to enjoy... Her husband, Ed - the first person we met when we moved in here almost 14 years ago - passed away this week, so the lights need to be a bit special.
Here's a bit of what we've done this year... More pictures to follow on the Tim and Victor site...
Thanksgiving 2014
Food, glorious food...
Oliver says it all. A day dedicated to overeating and excess. What a great day, a great holiday. A wonderful tradition. Definitely my kind of day!
We didn't host this year, instead, we went to Victor's brother and sister-in-laws... and what a spread Marie prepared! An impeccable table, to begin...
And stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeno peppers, assorted goat cheeses and tapenades, chopped chicken livers... that's what we started with.
And turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, and gravygravygravy...
And desserts...
Pumpkin pie, cheese cake, walnut tart, pecan tart, wedding rings, sugar cookies... no boxed or packaged anything.
Just food, glorious food.
I was so busy eating, I completely forgot to take pictures other than the appetizers, but suffice to say, it was spectacular.
I did get a picture of Linda's Chicken Livers that Victor made...
Linda's Chicken Livers
- 4 sticks butter
- 2 lbs chicken livers
- 2 med onions, chopped
- 2-4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp marjoram
- 1 1/2 tsp tarragon
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 – or more – tsp cognac
Melt 1 stick of butter. Add onions but do not brown.
Add other ingredients – except butter – and cover. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes.
Process in food processor with remaining butter. Add cognac, and S&P, to taste.
Serve with chopped eggs or onion and toasted baguette or crackers.
Recipe can be cut in half.
It seems everything came out better than ever before.
A great day, indeed!
It's Our 20th Anniversary!
Twenty Years. Pretty good for a couple of guys who have helped to destroy the Sanctity of Marriage. Twenty Years.
So much for getting tired of things, eh, Nate?!?
Twenty Years... A lot has happened in that 20 years. We lost three of our parents, we gained a whole hellava lotta new nieces and nephews - and a whole hellava lotta new great-nieces and nephews. We moved from San Francisco to Philadelphia, got different jobs, traveled all over the place...
And we got married. Legally.
Not a bad ride for a couple of guys who met in their 40s...
Spelunking into Moaning Cavern in the Sierras circa 1995... Moaning Cavern holds the largest vertical chamber in a public cavern in California. It's so big, it could hold the entire Statue of Liberty! And we spelunked all the way down to the bottom. It was when we were still young and foolish and trying to prove how butch we were to the other. We got over it...
Hawai'i was more our style... Our first trip over was in 1996... We flew over first class, had most of our hotel stay comped... I was still at UCSF and Victor had left United and Cheap Tickets, and had gone to work for Rosenbluth... It was the glory days of the Travel Industry.
We were renting a house in San Francisco on Kirkham Street. This is where I tried to do a sit-down dinner for my entire family, running a table from the dining room through the arch into the living room. Victor just watched as I got more and more neurotic and just smiled and helped me take it all down and set up a buffet when I finally conceded that it wasn't going to work. He was smart from Day One.
We finally bought a house of our own in San Leandro in 1998 or 9... We had NO money and lots of credit card debt. No money for a down payment. I couldn't use my GI Bill or my CalVet because we weren't married, so a mortgage broker got us a loan - actually 2 loans. An 80% loan at 8 1/2% interest and a 20% loan at 12 1/2% interest. We paid them religiously for a year and then rolled both loans into a 4% loan with the SF Fireman's Credit Union. Sometimes you just need to take a chance.
We headed off to Yosemite for our 5th Anniversary. We rented a house in a private area surrounded on 3 sides by the park. It was a lot of fun.
2001 saw us head east.
2002 arrived and we headed even farther east. To London. Victor had been there through work. It was my first trip across the pond. I had traveled so far west it became east, but that was in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club, so it doesn't really count.
We stayed fairly local in 2003 and 2004 but made it up to New York City a few times... We saw The Producer's on New Year's Eve - the night Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned to reprise their roles. What a blast. I can't even count the amount of shows and operas we've been able to see. Our proximity to The Big Apple is pretty good. Expensive, but good.
2003 also was the year Cybil Shepherd joined our family.
What a skinny little runt she was... And what a joy she still is...
2005 and we headed to Paris. We were in paris for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. It was totally awesome. The Louvre, the Paris Opera House, the Eiffel Tower... And the foodthefoodthefood. While I have seriously fallen in love with southern Italy and Sicily, I do want to go back.
Victor won a trip to the Cayman Islands in 2006. It was an award from his company. A week-long almost-all-expense-paid trip. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, ate lobster for breakfast, and, generally, had a really good time. They drive on the opposite side of the road in the Caymans, but the rental cars are all set up as US cars. It made for some fun excursions, as you can see by Victor's expression.
2007 was Las Vegas, baby!
We met a dozen friends for a Birthday Bash for Victor. A good time was had by all!
We headed back to San Francisco fairly regularly when Pop was still around, and headed back again, in November 0f 2008 for what was going to be our wedding. Alas, Prop 8 narrowly won, and our wedding was cancelled. We flew home, anyway, and took the train back from San Francisco to Philadelphia. We had a great sleeper car, good food, movies to watch, and a whole hellava lotta fun. We met some interesting folks and really did have a good time.
More New York trips, more west coast trips,
And then down to Washington, DC in 2009 for the March on Washington.
Yeah, we're still left-leaning Liberals and political as hell.
We made it to Omaha in 2010 for a Dineen Family Reunion. We missed the first night because whatever rotten puddle-jump airline we took screwed up and we missed our connection. I got to see a lousy airport hotel in Milwaukee - or wherever the hell we were. Be still my travel-heart...
Back up to New York City for the first Gay Pride Parade since New York legalized marriage.
And then we headed to New Hampshire where our dear friend Marl married us!
Who woulda thought we'd be nervous about getting married after being together for 16 years?!? Well... we were. We forgot our suits, forgot the camera another dear friend had sent us to video the ceremony, and both of us had some serious tears in our eyes. We were doing something we never in a million years thought would or could happen.
It was a great day!
And then we moved Nonna in with us!
She just wasn't doing well living on her own, anymore... She's now doing great! It's amazing how well a person can get when they're taking their medications correctly and eating right.
Moving Nonna in didn't stop the vacations...
Next stop, ITALY!
We headed over to Rome and Florence with my sister and her wife, and their three girls. What a blast! An apartment in Rome directly across the street from the Colosseum. An apartment in Florence right on the Arno at the Ponte Vecchio. Venice and Pisa, Lucca... It was an awesome 2 weeks - and it set the foundation for 15 days in a villa in Modica, Sicily in May of this year!
20 years...
20 years of fun, of stories, of good food and good friends. 20 years of family, new babies, and new experiences.
Here's to another 20, at least.
Oh... I almost forgot...
Dinner tonight was Chicken Marsala - made with Marsala we brought back from Sicily...
It was good.
Cheese & Onion Bread
Feeding a cold can be a real pain, sometimes. The taste buds are a bit dull so flavors need to be a bit sharp. And since I'm feeling a bit dull, sharp is somehow eluding me...
But when I'm feeling a bit under the weather, a perfect place to go is to Mom's Cook Books... When I was a wee tyke she'd make me tea and toast - her magical cure-all. Sometimes cut in little squares, sometimes in triangles. And depending on the illness, sometimes with a bit of cinnamon sugar on top. It always seemed to work - part of a mother's magical powers, I guess. While she's no longer here to make me tea and toast, she did give me her cook books. It's not quite the same as her telling me everything will be better in just a little while, but I can evoke her spirit just by picking up the books.
I wanted some fresh-baked bread and turned to her book for a bit of inspiration. I came across Cheese and Onion Bread and thought it would be perfect.
I was right. It was.
It was really easy to throw together and packed the wallop I needed, flavor-wise.
I'd love to know where she got all these recipes - which magazines or newspapers, the dates... what other recipes were there that never made the cut?!? Newspaper-wise, I'm pretty sure most of them came out of the San Francisco Examiner or the sadly-defunct San Francisco News Call Bulletin. Magazine-wise, it's anyone's guess. Mom loved her magazines, and had all of the Ladies magazines back in the day - Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, Good Housekeeping... As you can see by the recipes, dinner was never dull at our house!
And this bread wasn't dull, either.
It was perfect - and just the Mom-fix I needed!
Feed a Cold
Feed a cold, starve a fever... It's an apothegm we've all heard before, but it's scientifically untrue. It seems we should actually be feeding both colds and fevers - the body fights infection better when it has nourishing fuel.
So where did the false adage come from?!? Same place as "if you go outside without a coat you'll catch a cold," and "if you go outside with wet hair you'll catch cold." Seems once upon a time, the common belief was if your body core got cold, you would catch a cold. Eating would raise your inner core temperature and help fight the cold. Same thought process with starving a fever. If you ate, you'd be raising that core temperature even more - which would increase your fever.
It made sense in a world where viruses and bacteria were relatively unknown. It's pretty much the world we're heading back into. I mean, you did see who is about to become the next Chairman of the Science and Space Subcommittee, didn't you?!? It's going to be an interesting couple of years...
So with my acute bronchitis reasonably under control, it was time to feed that cold, tonight. Pork tenderloin with cranberry jalapeño sauce, rice-a-roni, and spinach.
The tenderloin was grilled with just a bit of salt and pepper. It was topped with store-bought cranberry jalapeño sauce. The sauce had a nice flavor. Could have been a bit hotter, but, otherwise, not bad, at all. The rice was a variation on a faux rice-a-roni. 1/4 cup orzo, 3/4 cup rice, 2 cups turkey broth, a pinch of French herbs, and some butter. I put the rice and orzo in a small pot with the butter and toasted the orzo just a bit. Added the broth and herbs, covered, reduced heat, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Spinach: frozen - make hot.
Oh - speaking of acute bronchitis... Instead of dealing with the office staff at my primary care physician - the people who only answer phones when it's convenient for them - I ended up going to Doctor's Best Immediate Medical Care in Berwyn. I had actually never been in an emergency care-type place before - and I was impressed.
The place was impeccably clean, the staff friendly, courteous, and professional, and they really went out of their way to make me feel like a valued customer. It was a great experience from start-to-finish. And today, the Dr who saw me called to see how I was doing! Methinks more medical office staff should take note. I reallyreallyreally like my PC Physician, but I also reallyreallyreally liked not having to deal with the office attitude.
It would be my hope to never have to see any Dr again, but if the need does arise, I now have options...
Chicken Soup Cure-All
I felt a twinge on Friday. By Saturday, I kinda knew what was coming. I ignored it on Sunday and Monday I knew I was in trouble. Tuesday, it was off to the Doctor.
Acute Bronchitis. Believe me, there's nothing cute about it.
And I am a lousy patient.
When I'm not feeling well, I pretty much just want to be left alone to wallow in my misery. If I need something, I'll let ya know. Otherwise, just leave me alone. Victor, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. He likes that solicitous attention. Whenever one of us is sick, we act like what we want - not what the other wants - so I ignore him and he's all over me.
We're getting better, though... Victor actually said "Okay. I'll only ask this once. Do you want any soup or anything?" I said no and gave him the Really. Don't ask again look. It's rather comical because after all these years he still hovers and I still ignore.
After going to bed early Monday evening and spending all day Tuesday in bed, I surprised him by saying I was off to the Urgent Care place at 4:30pm. I get my annual physical, but I don't spend a lot of time at Dr's or take a ton of medications. To actually get up and go to a Dr means I don't feel good.
The good news is the lungs are clear and while my throat is raw and hurts like hell, there's no strep. The full throat labs take 72 hours, but they're not expecting anything...
I have an inhaler and a cough suppressant that seem to be doing a bit of good, but I still feel like I've been hit with a Mack Truck - and I have no appetite! I wonder how long I would need to be sick in order to lose 50 pounds?!?
I did have a bowl of homemade chicken soup when I got home, last night, and I had a fried egg on toast this morning - more because I know I actually need to eat in order to get well, than because I was hungry.
And it's now 9:30am. I'm crawling back into bed with a book...
Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z..........