The Day After

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Woke up this morning feeling like HELL. Headache, body aches, nausea, and a 101 degree temperature. Advil was my friend. Had lots of fluid too. They weren't kidding around when talking about getting hit hard the day after the second dose.

Was on the couch most of the day. Had a view of this very cute dog. 

Didn't eat a lot today. Had some cereal in the morning and some soup at lunch. I was starving by dinner time which I took as a good sign. Was craving pot pie all day so we had the leftovers from last night for dinner. Symptoms reduced by bedtime but still had a slight fever. Decided not to go to work tomorrow just to be on the safe side. 

Vaccine Day

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Got my second shot of the Covid-19 vaccine this morning at 11:00. 

Glad to be done with it. It's a tangible sign we're moving away from this pandemic. 

I hear lots of folks have a strong reaction to the second dose 12-15 hours after it's administered. I'm going to take advantage of feeling well while I can. 

Smoked one of the little Cohibas Warren brought back from Havana for me. 

And listened to some jazz. 

For cocktail hour I had an Old Fashioned sweetened with maple syrup. Delicious. 

Dinner was a pot pie. 

We watched North by Northwest during dinner. One of my favorites. This is one of the first movies Dale and I watched together when we first met all those years ago. I remember watching it at his old apartment on Harriet Avenue. 

Dining In: A Golden Hour

Sunday, February 28, 2021

I came across an old recipe that Brenda gave us about 6 years ago when we were visiting them in Grand Junction. 

We haven't made this in a number of years so it was a welcome rediscovery when I found it this morning as we've been in something of a rut with our current rotation of meals. It turned out great. The only thing I would change would be to add an extra cup of cheddar cheese. 

We watched The Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, and Jack Klugman this afternoon just prior to cocktail hour.

I did a search on Apple Music for the theme song to the movie and came up with an Andy Williams version. We listened to the whole album during cocktail hour. 

Dining Out at Red Stag Supper Club

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Well, we had such a good time eating out last Saturday that we decided to try it again tonight. Red Stag Supper Club here we come. 

                         

They closed at the beginning of the lockdown in February 2020 and didn't reopen until a week ago. Many other restaurants reopened in June of 2020.

                             

I've been looking forward to their Wisconsin style Old Fashioned since I made the reservation last week. I had two of 'em and they were awesome. Dale had red wine. 

     

We started with the meat, cheese, and relish tray. It was all great especially the beets and the pear chutney. 

       

For dinner Dale had a grilled salmon fillet which he loved. I had a prosciutto carbonara linguine and I absolutely adored it. It came with parmesan, peas, egg, and cream. 

     

Matthew, our waiter, took really good care of us. He told us he hadn't worked as much during the pandemic but was obviously so excited to be back at it again. He was attentive, pleasant, and just plain wonderful. You could tell he was so happy to be working again. 

  

For dessert Dale got the carrot cake which was heaven; very dense, not over sweet including the frosting. I got the Grasshopper. Now I've only ever had this drink with ice cream. This was more like a Brandy Alexander and used cream instead. It was amazing and I loved how they lined the rim with Giradelli powdered chocolate. 

                        

We listened to Bachelor Pad Royal from the Ultra Lounge series to get us into the mood and atmosphere of the restaurant. Interestingly enough the music played at the restaurant was all 1980s hits: Xanadu, Gypsy, Rock the Casbah, Flashdance, all tons of fun. We both reminisced about the 80s, especially the summer of '83 which was the first summer Dale lived in Minneapolis and the first summer I held a job at Dayton's Department Store. We were both off of work at 10:30 and probably crossed paths on the while waiting for the bus on Nicollet outside Dayton's. 

          

It's so nice to be able to eat indoors at restaurants again. Dale's feeling okay about it due to the precautions the businesses are taking. I feel the same way and I've also had the first of the two doses of the vaccine which also helps ease my mind. In just a week we've done Jax and Red Stag, two of our favorites, due to pent up demand. 

     

Dining Out at Jax

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Dale and I haven't dined inside since we took Mom to Jax back in June of 2020 when restaurants reopened for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic lockdown in March of that year. I made that reservation online and realized afterward that I hadn't made it specifically for the patio since we weren't comfortable eating inside. I called the next day to see if I could request a change. The person who answered the phone sounded like a twelve year old and assured me that, yes, our reservation was indeed for the patio. Turned out it wasn't. When we arrived they had no record that the reservation was for the patio and couldn't seat us there because it was full. We decided we were okay with the dining room since not many people were in it. 

   

We decided we were ready to try indoor dining since I've had the first dose of the vaccine and Dale is feeling more comfortable about it. We're both back at our workplaces now after months of working from home so we've become a little more comfortable with the idea of indoor spaces. I made a reservation for Jax. We both identified that we were a tad nervous but, more than that, a little jazzed. 

       

To put us in the mood we listened to Jackpot! The Las Vegas Story on the drive over to the restaurant. It's a 1990s era compilation CD of space-age bachelor-pad pop with a Las Vegas twist. 

I started with a Sidecar and Dale had red wine. 

   

Our appetizer was the onion rings and they couldn't be more perfect. They came with ketchup and a creamy sriracha sauce dip which was spot on.

   

For dinner I had Uncle Joe's prime rib sandwich on rye while Dale had the chicken pot pie. Both were amazing. 

   

Dale skipped dessert but I couldn't pass up a Pink Squirrel. I had been way too long. It was heaven and well worth the wait.

  

The main dining room was quite full however we were seated in the back dining room which was mostly empty on our arrival. However, it quickly filled up and it was encouraging to see Jax doing such good business. On the drive home we each remarked more than once how wonderful it was to eat inside at a restaurant. It's been way too long and I hope to never take it for granted again!

Thanksgiving 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thanksgiving was scaled back this year due to the pandemic. We often head out to visit Pete & family for the holiday but that was not to be this year. When we've been in town for the holiday over the last few years we've gone out to eat. Also, due to the fact Covid-19 cases are surging again we decided not to have Mom over. We did, however, run a care package to her after we finished our dinner today. 

The day melted away seemingly quite quickly due food prep here and there throughout. There was time in between for the scaled back Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. . .

...and a Bloody Mary. . .

...and the coloring of the turkey in the Star Tribune. 

We ate at 3:15. Dinner was awesome and we watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. 

After we ate we got Athena taken care of and then ran a care package over to Mom. She met us at the entry to her building with her mask on and seemed pretty excited to be getting delivery on Thanksgiving. She texted me that she was impressed with the amount of food. She also texted how delicious she though it was. Pictured above are Mom and I during a pre-pandemic Thanksgiving. I believe the photo was taken at Jax in 2015. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - The Turkey Rests

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Temperature taken. It's supposed to be 165. The thermometer in the photo is still registering. 

Athena took it all in with a great deal of interest. 

Thanksgiving 2020 -Turkey's Out

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Dale had put the turkey in the oven at noon and it came out at 2:00. As it rested he got the Brussels sprouts ready and took care of boiling off and mincing the giblets. 

We think the giblets are the liver, heart, and something else, not sure what. 

The were boiled for 45 minutes at the 4.5 setting on our stove. 

Dale basted the turkey with white wine this year. Usually we use red. 

Thanksgiving 2020 - Stuffing

Thursday, November 26, 2020

We usually do Stove Top for our stuffing. Kowalski's was out so I decided on a different option. 

I used Pepperidge Farm's Sage & Onion cubed stuffing and followed the directions on the back of the package. It really wasn't too much more difficult than Stove Top. The basic recipe calls for simply adding onion (I used green) and celery (two stalks worked fine). I used the stove top method. 

One suggested option was to add apple. I used Granny Smith. I did this in the last 20 minutes before we planned on serving everything up although I chopped the celery, green onion, and apple in advance. It all turned out great.