Amaryllis and Christmas Goodies

 

I suggested to my husband that I would like an amaryllis for Christmas. He bought me two! In the past the plant has been in a pot. I have never seen them attached to a decorative board. On Christmas day none of the blossoms were visible. Today the first bloom opened fully. You can see there are some more flowers slowly opening.

The bulb on the other board has growth, but not yet stems.

It will be nice to have a second plant that blooms later in the winter.

We still have Christmas goodies to eat.

I bought the Cheryl's cookies for myself. I froze some of them. Just 5 left on the plate. 

The red tin holds the last of the Moose Munch. There were 3 bags, and I must confess though they were a gift to my husband, I am the one who has eaten most of it. We did get an early pre-Christmas start to munching.

The See's walnut fudge I just opened up today. I have been saving it for this weekend. I had a piece at lunch. Delicious!

Still have in the jar peppermint pretzels that I bought pre-COVID. I opened the large bag around Thanksgiving time. We are still working on the tuxedo cake I bought on sale at Costco. I froze some of it; looks like we will finish the unfrozen pieces for New Year's Eve for my husband's birthday. I am grateful that I did not lose my sense of smell or taste from the COVID infection. 

HAPPY 2024 TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

Pomegranate arils

 

Kroger has been selling fresh pineapples the past few weeks for 98 cents each. I decided I would like to try some pomegranate arils with the pineapple. 

I tried getting the arils (seeds) from a pomegranate decades ago. I do not remember the details, but I swore off such a messy challenge. However, I remember reading on Cafe Sucre Farine blog that Chris also felt intimidated by processing a pomegranate until she heard about a fairly easy way to do it. 

After washing the pomegranate, you cut it in half horizontally. You hold a half in your non-dominant hand seed-side down over a bowl in the sink. Then you whack it with the handle of a wooden spoon. That is her description: do not hit hard, whack hard. 

I was having some seeds fall out, but it was kind of slow-going. When my husband saw what I was doing, he offered to do the whacking. He got a tool from the garage (hammer?) and used the heavy handle. You can see the splatters which is why you want to do it with the bowl in the sink.

You can see that we left a few arils in the "husk". We would have more than enough for our purposes, and Chris suggested eating them in 3 or 4 days or freezing them after that. Some of the white "membrane" falls into the bowl during whacking, but it isn't very hard to pick out of the arils.

I may try putting some arils on my cereal; maybe my husband will try some in his yogurt. The link I gave above has lots of suggestions for using pomegranate arils. Now that I have found an easier way to process them, I may buy some more pomegranates from time to time. 

Eddie Merlot's

 My husband has been wanting to go to Fort Wayne to eat at a classy restaurant as he put it. We had lunch at Eddie Merlot's today.

 I did end up with COVID rebound like him. I still have a cough and since mid-day yesterday (Wednesday) a swollen gland below the jawline of the left side of my face. Apparently, a painful swollen salivary gland is a possible side effect of having COVID according to the internet. I can swallow today with just a little pain. Yesterday, swallowing on my left side set off a spasm of pain so bad I had to avoid doing that. Anyway, we are no longer contagious and felt well enough to eat out.

Eddie Merlot's has a prix fixe menu for lunch. Since we were splurging to celebrate Christmas and "surviving COVID", we chose that option. I would say the other 3 couples in the dining room also went that direction. There were large steaks and burgers and sandwiches listed on the other side of the menu. Most of the burgers ran between $17 and $19. The steaks more than $50. 

 Eddie Merlot's is known for having quality steak; I chose the NY strip and my husband had Steak Diane. My steak was melt-in-your- mouth perfection. 

One of the classy touches was a steak knife with an etched monogram.

The salad was good and plentiful, nothing outstanding. It came with the salad dressing in a serving boat.

My husband said the bisque was good, but it was in a tiny cup. We were brought bread and butter before the first course arrived.

I found the creamed spinach too salty and did not finish it.

When we had finished our meal, I visited the ladies' room. When I returned, a little silver plate with dark chocolate rounds with an E stamped on them awaited me. Before I left the table my husband had commented it would be nice to have a mint or candy. We were too full for dessert. His wish came true.

Afterwards, we stopped in nearby Trader Joe's so my husband could buy some cereal he likes there. Then, off to Costco. The parking lot was packed! I returned my recalled Quaker Oats granola. I didn't have a receipt, but the clerk easily called up the sale using my membership card. I had received a call from Costco about the salmonella risk, and later saw the news on the internet. I had put one of the two-pack in Tupperware. The lady reimbursed me for both packs. She emphasized not to eat the cereal in the Tupperware. I did have some diarrhea (one bout fairly severe) the day I had eaten the cereal. I thought the milk caused the problem. I really liked that granola, but now I am not sure about buying cereal from Quaker Oats. I was glad to know and remove the cause of my digestive problem, however. 

I bought a Costco chicken, some breakfast frittatas, some mini naan, some Dove soap on sale, and unplanned a tuxedo cake. We had eaten this rich cake before; today it was on sale for $5 off. I will probably freeze most of it. It might be my husband's birthday cake on the 31st. He added a pair of pants and hearing aid batteries. The checkout lines looked long, but actually all of the registers were open and things moved quickly. Everybody was in good spirits with lots of "Merry Christmas" expressed to the customers. 

I dozed off in the car and took a nap in my recliner once home. This weekend we will try to do a little bit of house cleaning. I had told my house cleaner not to come this week (she also missed the 6th when we first had symptoms but hadn't tested yet) as I didn't want her getting COVID from us right before Christmas. She will delay until the 28th when hopefully we can get back on a normal schedule. 

December 22nd Wrap-Up

 

The couple that has been waiting for its fire-damaged Grace Village condo to be restored told my husband that they have been told December 22nd is the wrap-up date. You can see in the photo that the condo does look about ready for occupancy. The refrigerator is visible through the kitchen opening. Looks like they chose to go with laminate flooring which is probably wise since they own a dog.

 Because of window screens, I could only get a good photo through the glass patio door, but a look through the bedroom window indicates the doors and closet doors and lighting is in place now. I could see through the pass-through window between the kitchen and TV room/den somebody painting the garage walls today. It may be that there has to be some kind of inspection before moving in. Their little dog will be confused again since the condo where they have been staying has a flip layout from this condo. Over 10 months is a long time away to remember how things were; the dog has memorized a whole different layout for home. 

My husband felt almost back to normal earlier this week. Thursday afternoon/evening he had a runny nose and chills again. Yesterday sneezing and coughing. I found out there is something called COVID rebound. His home test yesterday showed positive so he is to isolate for another 5 days (or less if a subsequent test is negative and he has no fever). The Grace Village receptionist has COVID now, too. Several residents, also. It's not surprising since folks are attending holiday concerts and parties now. I am not 100% well but except for a slightly stuffy nose and occasional cough I feel pretty good. 

For Christmas Day I have ordered a Bob Evans holiday feast which is prepared dishes to be reheated and prepped: mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey breast, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, green beans, pumpkin pie, rolls. We will pick it up at 1 p.m. December 24th from the local Warsaw restaurant. I will need to make room in the refrigerator. My husband's sister and her husband will join us at our home midday. 

Hope you are well and that your plans are falling into place.

COVID Drops In

 My husband and I have been pretty careful about exposing ourselves to the COVID virus. Starting in November we went back to live streaming our church services. I mostly do my grocery shopping online with parking lot pickup. It is true that my husband goes to the Y to work out 3 or 4 times a week. Last Saturday he went to the Wawasee Middle School craft show, a humongous affair. 

Tuesday afternoon he felt ill with runny nose and fever and chills. Wednesday morning he took a home test for COVID. He tested positive. His doctor's office had him come in to use its test. Yes, he has the virus. 

Wednesday morning I had a runny nose. Thursday a headache and sore throat. Last night a cough and chills. I took a home test yesterday; it was negative. This morning with a temp of 100.2 I tested again. Yes, I have COVID. 

We both received the Moderna Spikevax in October. Hopefully that will keep us from getting terribly ill. 

My husband received a prescription for Paxlovid. He is feeling better after a few days of taking the medicine. I had a teleconference health visit this afternoon. I too was prescribed Paxlovid. 

It is a busy time of year. We were to go to a Christmas concert Sunday afternoon. My husband will be out of isolation Sunday. If he feels up to it, he may attend the concert with his sister. He has to wear a mask the second round of 5 days. I won't be out of isolation until Monday. I probably won't attend Bible study, maybe not choir practice. Our choir has its Christmas concert Friday night. Will I be able to sing? Not unless I feel a lot better in the next few days. Time will tell. 

The nurse practitioner I spoke with during the video conference was surprised I had not had COVID prior to this. Over 3 1/2 years since it started, COVID finally came home to us.