Sylvia's Scenario

We just returned from a Hawaiian vacation this week so for Valentine's Day this year, I decided to make Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts with the macadamia nuts I brought home with me.  I made them just like I always do using this  recipe  with the addition of Valentine sprinkles such as  these.   I put them in clear treat bags such as  these  and tied them with a cute Valentine ribbon; an easy, fun, yummy and quick Valentine gift. I took seven bags over to my sister's house who hosted a Valentine's dinner party.   My brother-in-law will often prepare a really nice dinner for us ladies on Valentine's Day and all the men will wait on us and we even get cute little presents.  My kind of evening.  That is why I decided to contribute my Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts for everyone because I know what a festive evening this turns out to be.   My sister, Barbara, does such a good job decorating and setting a beautiful dinner table f...

This year, we tried to make Valentine's Day special for us since it was the first year of not celebrating with the grandkids after three years. They are the ones that make everything special for us. And we are missing them so much after our trip to visit them in Spain.  But I sent them a big Valentine package of treats and they enjoyed that. That's about all we can do now is to send stuff to them, receive photos in our shared album and FaceTime whenever we get a chance. This year, Bruce and I are in Hawaii for Valentine's Day so... just that alone makes it special for us.  Before we left, we made reservations at our favorite restaurant since we come to the same place to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii each visit and we have lots of favorites. We even came here for our honeymoon 43 years ago.  Of course, most places have changed since then but we have fun exploring new places each time we come here. One of our favorite restaurants is Jackie Reys that we discovered a ...

Since we've been home from Hawaii, I've had the urge to cook some of my favorite recipes...plus some.  It always feels good to return from a trip and be able eat the comforts of home again.  The first day home I made my  Pumpkin Bean Chili  which lasted for a couple days.  It tasted so good especially being back in cold weather.  I make this recipe probably twice a month in the winter since it's a favorite.  Then I made a batch of  Clean Cream of Mushroom Soup , another favorite.  That was consumed immediately.  These two recipes were a real switch from all our Hawaiian vacation food, although we are still eating fresh pineapple daily.  I had received a whole new batch of recipes from  Hannah Freese, RD  for the month of February so I decided to make this new recipe from her and we loved it.  It definitely turns boring chicken breasts into an exciting concoction of flavors. I have so many frozen chicken breasts in the...

We are back on the healthy eating wagon after our Valentine's celebration last weekend so we made this wonderful salmon dish this week. I would say this recipe is good enough for a special occasion or for having guests over for dinner  (When social distancing isn't a thing anymore.)  We had to postpone our Valentine's dinner on Sunday because we got 9" of snow over the weekend and all driving shuts down around here because of hills so we shoveled snow instead.   It was a nice dry snow and we even had drifts around our house as if we were in the midwest or something!   We lived in Iowa for three years so we know what snow drifts are.   Just like I mentioned previously, I made my  Wine Braised Shortribs  for Valentine's Day and everyone loved them.  The grandkids just slurped down those tasty, juicy noodles so fast and kept asking for more.  I set a lovely Valentine's dinner table for everyone's holiday enjoyment and the grandkids got to decor...

I've got another super easy Valentine's recipe for you. In this era of covid, all we do around here is think about the next exciting thing we get to eat. At least I have an interesting hobby and Bruce loves being my taste-tester.  Since I joined  Hannah Freese, RD's  group, I'm getting caught up on all the latest nutrition research which is great for me since I am now retired.  And chocolate is one thing I've learned A LOT about.  Hannah talks a lot about chocolate because part of her eating plan is to stop eating sugar. Horrors! I know... I didn't think I could do it but she weans us slowly and everyday part of our early meal plans includes dark chocolate. I can give up sugar if dark chocolate is part of the plan.  The dark chocolate needs to be greater than 70% cocao because then you are getting beneficial chemicals called flavanols. Flavanols have benefits regarding blood flow, blood pressure, cholesterol, enhancing exercise performance, memory and cog...