Marlene

I'm liking the steak thing. Of course burgers could work. Peanut butter burgers! Let me sleep on this. (great, now I'll be chased by giant burgers in my sleep)

Ah . . . But I have a plan. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ← it's really not nice to toy with a person who is nicotine deprived.

A bedtime converstation with Ryan on dinner tomorrow. Ryan: What's for dinner tomorrow? Me: I'm not sure yet. Ryan: KFC? Me: During a blog? I think not! Ryan: Why, don't the people on your website eat KFC? Me: Not so's they'd admit it. So what should we have for dinner?

Ahem, Linda. Mention the mushroom. ← Do not mention the mushroom. I crave one of those gadgets and they don't make them anymore.

The more, the merrier!

Here's the thing I'm finding with the patch and I think it's mostly mental which is what I was having a problem with. You can't smoke with the patch because of possible nicotine overdose. The one thing I've never had a problem with is in areas I can't smoke. My brain or urges just seem to go to sleep. So it seems to be with the patch. Since I know I can't, I'm not. And it's not as hard. The one thing I'm going to go look for tomorrow is a box of those plastic coffee stir sticks!

It's the best when kids ask for more. Ryan actually wanted more asparagus tonight!

Looking good Susan! Dinner was amazing. I only hope Ah Leung thinks I did it justice. I had a bunch of garlic to peel, which I hate doing. We found this little gaget a few weeks ago and it seemed a good time to try it out. I'm here to tell you that it works like a charm: Mis for the Honey Garlic Pork ( funny story about the garlic in a minute) I bought a centre cut pork loin because I failed to note that the instructions said rib portion. Oh well: I failed to take any pictures of the asparagus process except the shocking in cold water after blanching: The finished dish: This was awesome and the Tag Team Asparagus was terrific. Next time I'd add a litle ginger to it I think. Ryan decided that popcorn would be a good dessert, which he promptly took downstairs to watch Survivor. Ugh. I'm pleased to say the rice cooker worked just fine. I used long grain rice tonight and again used the one to one ratio using the rice cooker cup. I did not wash the rice this time. I did check on the water level and it was pretty close to the water line. Not right on but close. As for the garlic, well. I needed 6 or 7 cloves for the pork dish and 3 cloves for the asparagus. I dilligently chopped and minced and put them in separate bowls. However in my funk, I grabbed the smaller bowl for the pork dish without noticing. It wasn't until I dumped the garlic into the wok for the aspargus that my befuddled brain determined that it was an awful lot of garlic in there and I realized what I had done. So I had really garlicy asparagus (no real hardship) and less garlicky honey garlic pork. But it was damn good all the same. I think I will now have a drink.

Matt welcome! I'll have more to say on the patch later, right now I'm in the middle of dinner prep. I especially like the fact that you're joining us because you've got a lot of years ahead of you that I'd hate to see impacted. Besides, just think, you'll be able to have an extra drink at Pegu, instead of running out for a smoke.

Susan, I thought you were roasting venision on Saturday? Speaking of Saturday, I want to make a broccoli gratin to go along with my roast (gee guess what the roast will be?). I'm searching about, but haven't found a decent gratin recipe yet. What are the chances of a tag team Brocoli Gratin recipe?

Munchos are hard to find here so when I do, I stock up on them. I might even have a bag somewhere. I also have Old Dutch BBQ chips which Don brought back from Saskatchewan last time, but if I eat those he might kill me. I'm having coffee at the moment and then will blanch my asparagus in prep for the stir fry

Genny, we'd love to see your pics. I do like that recipe. Beware of how rich that sauce is though! So folks, tomorrow is a "free cook" day for the three of us, and I confess, I have no idea what to make. I need some ideas in case I need to go shopping. I do have the ingredients for a beef stir fry (there's snow peas in it, can I consider that a green veggie?). Don is normally the stir fryer in the house but I could give it a shot. Or what else takes your fancy? No fish. Unless of course Whole Foods has some decent halibut in which case I could try fish and chips again.

They have holes in them. These are baked on the premises at Whole Foods. I dunno, maybe the holes are smaller than normal. Rotten thanks. A two hour nap was no help and was full of weird dreams, I'd rather not go back to sleep. In fact so bad, I've given in and bought the patch which also irritates me to no end. I'm off to pick up my son and contemplate dinner and read the instructions on the patch box.

Nicotine is not the problem. Though it's an extremely powerful drug, the physical addiction is pretty weak. After all, smokers go through a five-to-eight hour withdrawal every night, and it doesn't wake them up. Compare that to heroin withdrawal, where the physical manifestation is severe. Having said that, I think you ought to use whatever works. ← You're absolutely right. Intellectually I know that. The rest of me isn't in agreement. Busy is good, napping is good which is what I'm going to do next. But first, the exciting breakfast and snack pics. Red grapefruit and coffee this morning. Although I'm not much of a sugar/sweet fan there are a few things I put sugar on and grapefruit is one of them. I also make sure I section between the skin of each piece, since I don't like the skin much and it makes for easier removal. And another bagel for a snack when I got back from my meeting and running errands. I'm totally in love with these bagels from Whole Foods. They're light and airy and they crisp up wonderfully in the toaster. Taking advice from upthread, I used both butter and cream cheese this time. Tonight's dinner will be honey garlic pork, rice and stir fried asparagus a la tag team asparagus. Ryan has a PD day tomorrow which means he'll be up late and sleep in so tomorrow is a perfect day to think about some baking or something adventurous for dinner. Possibly waffles for breakfast as well.

Morning all. This morning was slippery slope moring and well, I slid. I confess, I had a cigarette this morning. I am weak. Well, onward and upward, I'm not giving up. On the other hand, I did sleep extremely well but woke up thinking about nothing but wanting to smoke. Breakfast was a half a grapefruit and coffee. I forgot about early morning band practice and a meeting I have in a little while which means, my run will be put off until this afternoon. I do have a lovely picture of my grapefruit but I shall have to wait until I get upstairs to my main computer to download it.

I'm not feeling bitchy as much as I am feeling "off balance" for lack of a better word. Like something's just not quite "right". Tomorrow is another day and I'm going to catch up on my sleep. Everyone's various quitting stories have been really really helpful for me today!

Home from music and time for a drink. I think I've earned it! If Don were home, I'd have a manhattan, but as it is, I'll settle for one CC and coke before heading off to bed. I'm still feeling sleepy athough I did get in a nap this afternoon. Today was somewhat harder than I though it would be but then I started out sleep deprived and disoriented! Tomorrow I've got plans to clean out my pantries and clean the oven. I'll have a run first thing in the morning to see if that helps kickstart me a little better than today did. Susan, Dave what did you guys do for dinner?

Susan, I must have been thinking ahead since I bought some BBQ fritos yesterday. I haven't eaten them in years! fifi, I'll hold off on whether the rice cooker works properly now until I try a real rice again tomorrow night. Converted rice. Bleh.

Dinner tonight was Short Ribs with Port, Wine and Honey which is really my favourite way to do short ribs. The sauce is incredibly rich. Accompanied by rice and sauteed green beans. A note on the rice. I tried converted rice in the rice cooker tonight and while it actually came out perfectly, I discovered a thing. I don't like it. Since I've been playing around with the rice cooker and different types of rice, I've discovered a taste to rice I never knew existed. Even at its worst disaster in the rice cooker, the taste is far superior to the stuff I ate tonight. (Unfortunately, I've got a whole tub of this stuff left) The beans I did based on Susan's and Dave's ideas. Tossed in some oil to begin with, then simmered in white vermouth (because it was handy) till tender crisp. There was still some liquid in the pan, so I drained it off, used lemon juice and dijon mustard and a cube of concentrated chicken stock. And because I had them, and really, I'll put toasted sesame seeds on just about anything, I sprinkled a few on the beans. Short ribs coming out of the oven after being reheated in the sauce: Dinner with rice (I had to put sauce on it to make it worth eating) and the green beans. Ryan's dessert will be one of these tonight. I picked these up at Whole Foods yesterday (I really shouldn't shop when I'm hungry) even though I rarely eat dessert. Chocolate Fudge Cupcake: Individual flourless chocolate cake: I'm tempted to have one though. What I really want (besides a cigarette of course) is something salty like chips. I'm going to restrain myself for now since I just ate, and since I've done a good job of not substituting food for smokes all day. Don's dinner will go into the oven for when he arrives home later, sans the green beans of course, because Ryan and I ate them all. Don had emergency dental surgery today so the ribs should be perfect since they are so tender.

Well that seems simple enough! Its after dinner. I think I need to brush my teeth as well. or something. Then I'll get dinner pics up.

Thanks team! (I'l lput it in recipegullet later) Blanching. Hmmm another first. The beans are simmering in vermouth as I type. The ribs are ready and so is the rice. (yeah the rice worked this time) We have to eat early on Wed and Thurs nights because we have music lessons to get to. Tonight is piano for me and tenor sax for Ry.

Ah, but I do everything by recipe. Actually it's kind of driving me crazy that I can't remember where I put it or what cookbook it's in.

so while we're waiting for dinner pics etc, your tag team is doing asian tomorrow. Specifically from some of the recent Chinese Pictorials in the china forum. My choice is likely to be the honey garlic pork chops with (yes, more rice). Do you think I could get away with my stir fried asparagus? Assuming I can remember where I put the damn recipe of course!

That coffee pot is excessively loud! But it does make good coffee. The eating machine known as Ryan has arrived. He's scarfed three mini muffins. (no I didn't make them, I was too scattered today to think about baking, but maybe tomorrow!) and some lemonade and has gone to hide in his cave, I mean room). I am now attempting rice in my rice cooker yet again.

Coincidence? I think not. Miss Maggie was the one who started Dave and I on this journey folks. Unfortunately, she felt she wasn't able to blog and so graciously handed over her spot to Susan who had been interested in quitting. Miss M, welcome aboard our freedom train. We're delighted you're here.