Sylvia's Scenario

I am ready to start eating "clean" again and get back on my plan with   Hannah Freese, RD .    I am actually craving salads right now after so much Christmas celebrating.  We had family gatherings on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas so it was non-stop there for awhile. Plus, we had the grandkids sleepover at our house beginning the 21st thru the 26th so I made a point of having everything ready for the family gatherings before that. That was a good thing because we had horrendous weather including an ice storm so we couldn't go out much at all. We woke up on the 23rd covered with ice! Needless to say, it caused major havoc with Christmas traveling since our airport was basically shut down.  But it did not effect us.  The grandkids are happy playing nonstop at our house especially after going to the Nutcracker.  They made up all kinds of Nutcracker games.  We had so much good food during all the celebrations, of course. Our Christmas dinner was

Merry Christmas everyone!  We are slowly recovering from a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations but now I can take some time to absorb it all and wish everyone else a Merry Christmas, too.  I hope you all had as wonderful time with friends and family as we have had. Our Christmas card this year was a photo from Cannon Beach, Oregon.  We were able to get out more this year and have a couple of family vacations; one to Montana for a niece's wedding and then to Seaside, Oregon where we celebrated Bruce's birthday.   It is such a relief that covid is getting under control now and we feel more free to do things again.  It has been a good 2022 for us.  If I had to sum it up, I would say it has mostly been about the grandkids this year.  We have tried to spend as much time with them as we can since they will be moving away in 2023.  So once again, we will soon need to travel to visit them.  Instead of Japan, they will be moving to Spain for Nick's job.  I try not to think about it

Merry Christmas!  We are in full Christmas-mode around here now.  Last night, I made gingerbread men and I think I finally found a recipe that I really like.  I've mentioned before that I like my cookies soft moreso than crunchy and this recipe makes a very soft and chewing, not-too-strong gingerbread and I love them.  Don't they look cute?  The grandkids will love them.  I left some  plain in case the kids are in a decorating mood next time they come over.  Either way, even the plain ones are delicious.  I also made ahead some of my infamous  sugar cookie  dough in case the kids want to make cut-out Christmas cookies, too.  My kitchen is always prepared for any type of cooking/baking activity, you can be sure of that, especially this time of year.  Last night, Bruce made his fifth batch of almond roca  while I fiddled around with my new gingerbread recipe.   I've already made (more than one batch of) my usual Christmas cookies... Spritz cookies ,  my favorite  Chocolate Sn

This is a nice saucy chicken recipe that we had for dinner after a day of rain, sleet and snow.  Yes, it's that time of year.  The suburbs got more snow than we did here in the city which is fine with me.  The grandkids had a very fun time with it. Me?  I like the snow just fine as long as I don't have to drive in it with all the hills around here.  To be perfectly honest, I'm just happy staying warm and toasty inside making Christmas cookies or thinking about the next thing to cook for dinner.  If it's not soup or stew, then it has to be something with lots of sauce.  I got this recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD ; Bruce added a baked potato to his plate that was prefect for soaking up all the sauce because it is so tasty.  I wanted to make this recipe because it included kale.  I'm not much of a kale connoisseur so usually avoid it but it's so full of nutrition (being a "super food")  that I do try to find recipes that I might like.  And this is one of t