Refrigerator Clean Out

What I Found:

1 large sweet potato

1 green bell pepper

1 large onion

6 whole baby bella mushrooms

1 package of 5 Johnsonville Bit O' Garlic Irish Sausages

1 small package of organic baby broccoli florets and carrots

What I Did:

Threw it all together, added 1/2 cup water, drizzled with a tige of good olive oil, added freshly ground pepper and some French sea salt, baked at 350 covered for 30 minutes, stirred and baked uncovered until sausages browned, 15 more minutes

What I Got:

Big Doings' at Chez Nous

Today is THE big day at Chez Nous.  As I am typing this at 10:59AM EST in the USA, our SIL Janet and our friend, Shirley, are sitting in a Virgin Airways plane winging their way from London to Miami.  We will greet them at Terminal E at six o'clock this evening.  I am really excited to have two weeks of girl time with these two wonderful women.

In honor of our visitors "our girls" were groomed yesterday.  Yes, before you begin to sputter, "But, but, you said Rico was a boy dog.  What's the deal?"  Well, technically that is correct.  Anatomically, it's somewhat correct as he has some boy parts.  But, we've always had girl dogs.  It was always Razz and Taffy, The Girls.  Everyone referred to them that way.  When we got Rico, John constantly referred to him as a her.  He is rather sissified, I will admit.  He has no idea how to raise a leg to wee.  I have finally decided that in the name of expediency, I will follow John's lead.  We refer to them as "The Girls" as in, "Have you let The Girls out recently?"  Rico hasn't a clue as to what he is so it works for us.  Yesterday The Girls were groomed at the very best dog groomer in the world, Scott at Groomingdales.  The photo is of Scott and his lovely wife Diana holding our Girls.  All four of them are just beautiful, aren't they? One...Two...Three...Everyone say "Awwwwwwwwww, how cute!"

This morning I have made a Quiche Lorraine and a Salade Carrottes Rapees.  It's difficult to know if they will be hungry or not.  On most transatlantic flights one spends eight or nine hours doing nothing but eating and napping.  I know that John and I will want dinner so the quiche and salad is a great light dinner with fabulous leftovers potential for tomorrow's lunch.

OK...off to do some more shine and polish around here...

About Those Potatoes

OK...I spelled it wrong in yesterday's journal entry...shame on Me! It's Dauphinoise. And, the real true name for the dish is Gratin Dauphinoise. The name gratin dauphinois refers to the Dauphine' region of France, where this method of preparing potatoes is a specialty. The ingredients composing a typical gratin dauphinois are thinly sliced and layered potatoes and cream cooked in a buttered dish rubbed with garlic^.

The link below is to the BBC TV cooking section. It is a video showing how to make Dauphinoise Potatoes. That being said, I make mine in a much easier way. I offer the video because the chef is adorable and he sounds almost exactly like my husband. My recipe follows :

www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/recipes/100.shtml

Dana's Dauphinoise Potatoes

Serves 6

2.5 pounds potatoes (6 very large - I use Yukon Gold)

3-5 cloves finely diced fresh garlic

butter for gratin/casserole dish

half and half or light cream

salt and pepper

nutmeg

shredded cheese, Swiss, Gueyere, etc (OPTIONAL)

Peel potatoes and slice (unlike the BBC chef, I slice mine about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch thick. This keeps the slices firm and from mooshing up)

Put potato slices in large sauce pan and just cover with cream or milk. Add nutmeg, about 1 Tablespoon

Bring cream to gentle boil and cook potatoes for 10 - 15 minutes, just until slightly done but still firm

In the mean time, brush the casserole dish with softened butter. Sprinkle with the diced garlic

Remove potatoes from cream using slotted spoon and place in gratin

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and shredded cheese

Pour cooking cream over to almost cover. Do not completely cover potatoes, but bring cream up sides of potatoes. Top with a bit more cheese and add a couple of tablespoons of cream on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The reason I love these potatoes more than American Scalloped Potatoes is that it is so much easier than making the traditional white sauce (bechamel). In this recipe, by pre-cooking the potatoes in the cream before baking, the starch from the potatoes is the natural thickening agent for the sauce. Also, these are just as rich, tastier and less fattening.

Regular Life Stuff

In the Dawg Daze Section:

Rico has owned our hearts for exactly eighteen days.  After Taffy's initial snubbing of him, they have bonded and sorted out the pack hierarchy.  I am Alpha female, which is as it should be.  The dogs know that.  Husband is still fighting the notion of it.  He's been fighting it since we met.  Taffy and Rico have had two dust ups.  The first when we were still in the RV.  Rico decided he would join Taffy in eating dinner out of her bowl as she ate.  She disabused him of that notion firmly and quickly.  He lived to remember his first lesson.  The second lesson was a bit harsh.  One evening last week, Taffy initiated play, butt up in the air, front end down and tail wagging woofs.  Rico had been begging her to play for days and she always ignored him.  Upon her initiation, they played for 30 minutes, running, chasing, barking, tails wagging, fun.  It was just wonderful.  The next day, Rico initiated play, butt in air, tail wagging, begging to play.  Taffy ignored him.  She walked away and he trotted behind her and sort of jumped on her back end. Oh, No, No, No, No No!  Again, Taffy let Rico know who was in charge of canine life around here.  As they say, "The wind blew and the fur flew."  I thought Taffy was killing Rico.  He was screaming like a girl.  I began screaming, husband grabbed Taffy and it was like a whirlwind.  Well, Rico didn't have a scratch on him.  I checked him carefully, fully expecting a trip to the emergency vet.  Nope.  Since then. over a week, it's been cool. 

It works like this.  Each dog has their own food and water bowl.  When dinner is served, Taffy goes to her bowl and eats.  Rico sits a respectful distance away and watches her.  She finishes her bowl and then walks over to Rico's bowl and takes one mouthful while he watches her.  She always takes just one mouthful, chews it and then walks out of the kitchen.  It's as if she takes that one mouthful just to show him that she can and will and he needs to accept that.  Once she has left the room, Rico goes over and eats his dinner.  Then he goes out and joins her.  That Taffy is one kick ass alpha female!  As long as she's in charge, it's all good.  She's a benevolent dictator and Rico gets it.  I wish he'd explain it to Husband...Look...This is what the three critters I live with do all afternoon...

In the Regular Life Department:

We're having guests over for dinner this evening;

Green Salad

Cassoulet with Cannellini Beans, duck breast, garlic sausages, pork and lamb

Dauphanoise Potatoes

Steamed Mixed Vegetable with Brown Butter Sauce

Golden Peach Cake with Whipped Cream

And the Winner Is...

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I write this with a humble heart filled with gratitude and a sincere appreciation for life.  I saw the oncologist yesterday.  I am again manufacturing white blood cells.  My levels are not yet normal, but they are climbing.  I feel better.  The sweats and the headaches have stopped although I am still somewhat fatigued.

This is the theory as to what happened.  I take the IVIG infusions to supress my immune system.  Some people take IVIG to boost their immune system because it is weakened.  To quote my doctor, "You have the Rotweiller of immune systems.  It is constantly on guard and wants to attack invaders.  It is termed a hypervigilant immune system.  If there are no invaders, it will attack whatever it can, in your case, the myelin sheath lining your nerves."  When I get the IVIG antibodies, it is to flood my system and wipe out those Rotweiller antibodies (anti-antibodies) that I make.  Conceptually it's like chemo treatment for cancer that has to wipe out everything to wipe out the cancer cells and then rebuild.  Fortunately, I am healthy and knocking out the white blood cells destroyed them, but I am capable (we now know) of manufacturing more.  I just have a critical period where I haven't made enough white blood cells yet and it can be very dangerous.  But we're aware of it now and can take precautions.

The only real question now is whether the IVIG does me enough good to make it worth taking the risk.  I decided not to think about that one today.  I mean, if Scarlett O'Hara can think about it tomorrow, why the heck can't I?  Instead, I made a Zuni Cafe Roasted Chicken.  It's really really easy and is very chicken-dependent.  I promise I'll write it up soon.  And furthermore, I will deny I ever said this BUT...it's better than a COSTCO rotisserie chicken in that unlike the COSTCO the Zuni chicken skin is crisp crisp crisp while the meat is tender tender tender.  And No, Dr. Federman I did not eat any of that crispy, scrumptious, tingle your every tastebud chicken skin.  I know my cholesterol is way high and that why you give me Prevastatin.  I was just ummmm you know, saying it about the skin....

Thanks especially to all of you for being so very kind to me and so very supportive.  I truly am humbled by you.  Now, I am going to take a nap and will try my hand at a corn pudding later.

PS: If I owe you an email::::waving at Holly and Jill:::I promise I will get to it soon.