Category: Diabetes

This doesn’t deserve a separate posting, but…

bgibson135

Last night I was hungry, but didn’t know for what. I finally decided to fix a clam/pesto/pasta dish. But, the difference was that I also added some hot pork sausage to the mix. I use the Knorr’s Pesto mix that comes in a package, and normally just add that to the clams and angel hair pasta. But, as with other things, like clam chowder, adding a little ham makes the flavors pop.

I used about half of a sausage pak, but cooked the sausage down. This did make the mix “heavy.”

As I was finishing off the left overs tonight, I knew I needed something to cut the heaviness and I came up with the idea to make a simple salad with English cucumber, sweet onion, and sweet bell pepper in red wine vinegar with some Equal sweetener. This did work very well together. **Posted later from the previous sentence: I made some Tzatziki Sauce to go with this meal. I had modified the clams & pasta, by adding finely diced Shallot (I had bought them at Whole Foods in Raleigh the other day.). I also added finely diced Shallot to the Tzatziki. This too cut the heaviness of the sausage.

As I was just taking my nightly grouping of pills, I thought of something else that I wanted to write about. I had decided that I wanted to travel to Hamlet today (Monday) so that I could have lunch at Seaboard Station. I’ve written about Seaboard Station elsewhere, but recall that they have the best fried chicken. In fact, a couple of years ago I ate there and have attested to the fact that I had the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten, in my whole life, and that includes the fried chicken my mom made when I was growing up… all the fried chicken I’ve had at all the church and associational meeting and dinners throughout the years, and KFC or Smithfield’s Chicken -n- BBQ or anywhere else.

And, the fried chicken I had there today was also very, very good, as was the pork chop, the steamed cabbage and the Sara Lee carrot cake. *I would still like the recipe for the Broccoli Casserole that I had at Jeff’s church last year. I’m not like Donald Trump. This was the best broccoli casserole I’ve ever had and would definitely like it again and again, but I don’t know how to make it.

But what I actually wanted to write about was that since I was planning to have a good lunch, I didn’t want to eat my regular breakfast so I decided I would just order a country ham biscuit from JK’s Restaurant. My JK’s breakfast normally consists of one egg over medium, a couple of patty sausages, some of their home fried potatoes, and I eat the edges of the two slices of whole wheat toast (dry – w/o butter). Oh, and I have their coffee which is good, but I prefer the strength of the “Breakfast Blend? Starbuck’s coffee I have at home. I buy the already ground coffee at WalMart. I don’t recall the name of the coffee which I preferred before Covid, but I used to buy the “whole bean” at Harris Teeter and grind it myself at home. When Covid hit, HT stopped selling the whole bean coffees that you could bag yourself.

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but during Covid, when I wasn’t going out to eat breakfast and couldn’t resupply from HT, I finally ran out of the last whole beans that I had. It was then that I went to my kitchen cubboard and found an unused bag of already ground Cracker Barrell coffee. I would imagine that Deborah had given this to me as a Christmas present some time, but since I preferred to grind my own (figuring that freshly ground would have more flavor – same reasoning for grinding my own pepper) It had remained unused. Not sure if was still unopened when I found it, but I made some coffee from it and thought it tasted pretty good. The next day I made some more, and it was pretty good again. And finally on the third day when I made it again and it was good, the thought came to me. “I hate Cracker Barrell coffee, but this I like.” And I do hate Cracker Barrell coffee, that they serve in their restaurants. So much so that I would always order hot tea instead of coffee. *I haven’t been to Cracker Barrell in a long while, but for several years, when I was still unretired, I would go there for breakfast every Sunday morning, except for a few holidays, and when I might be off visiting relatives or on a mini-vacation. I usually went to the Fayetteville CB next to I95.

So with Covid, I finally finished the Cracker Barrel “gift” coffee. The Covid booster shot finally came along and on the day that I took it, I also went out for a haircut, and I went to Cracker Barrell (the one over by the WalMart nearer the Mall) to buy some more of their coffee. But, what? The package was no longer the same. The package I had tried at home had shiny coppery colors, but the new package was a shiny aqua color. I checked and they only sold two types of their coffee: Caffeinated and Decaffeinated and neither package had the coppery color.

And what? I got the new bag home and made a pot, and it wasn’t the same at all. I don’t recall if it was awful, or just not the same, but in either case it wasn’t what I wanted to drink most mornings so I had to start looking for an alternative.

I tried various types and blends from various sources and each package usually cost about $9 a bag. This was an expensive process since after trying the coffee just once from each bag, I knew, “Nope, I don’t like that either.” I don’t recall how long it took, but finally I tried a bag of Starbucks’ coffee that I bought from WalMart, and it was it. Not what I had pre-Covid, or the Cracker Barrell “gift” coffee I had enjoyed, but a good strong flavor that I liked over and over. *Seems that Walgreens currently has this bag for $7.99 which is about 50 cents cheaper than WalMart.

I probably drink more hot tea than coffee for breakfast, but will probably have coffee at least once a week, and may even re-heat yesterday’s coffee the next day. And, I normally drink from a large cup that is about two cups worth.

Since about 1985, I have enjoyed Bigelow’s “Earl Grey” and “Constant Comment” teas. I think Rick and Linda Bell introduced me to both of these as I would be over at their house a lot. Rick & Linda were the pre-cursors to Russ & Deborah. Earl Grey is flavored with Bergamont, and is very distinctive. The Constant Comment is flavored with citrus or maybe orange. And despite how tea aficionados suggest drinking these, with lemon, or with milk/cream, I like both usually with creamer, but as a change up Earl Grey with lime juice or Constant Comment with no creamer.

I’ve tried other teas throughout the years, but normally haven’t found any that I like better than the two listed above, until… I tried Taylor’s Scottish Breakfast tea and the first time hated it. But fortunately I tried it a second and third time, and fell in love with it. I would describe it as having a “heavy” flavor. I probably drink more of the Taylors tea than Earl Grey or Constant Comment, but still like all three. And then there is Rooibos, which I think I first tried when I bought some loose tea at Whole Foods several years ago. It has a distinctive flavor and reddish color. After all, Rooibos means “red bush.” I like this with creamer also.

I forgot to mention Raspberry Royale also from Bigelow, because I had completely run out of this tea and had not drank any for quite some time. I first tried this tea when I was on a short vacation up in Virginia. I had stayed at a Quality Inn in Lynchburg and the next morning as I was leaving I went up to the office. They had a Continental Breakfast area, and I looked over and saw an assortment of Bigelow teas (individually wrapped bags). I saw the Raspberry Royale tea and took a packet back to my room. I made some hot water with the room’s coffee maker and used a small styrofoam cup to brew the tea. I tried it and it was good, so I took the cup with me to my car and drove to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.

After breakfast I came back to my car and the Raspberry Royale was cold, but I thought, “It will still taste good cold.” And it did. I finished it off later along the route. And that’s how I came to love another Bigelow tea. One time I bought a 6 pack of Raspberry Royale (6-20 ct. boxes) from Amazon and gave them away that Christmas as presents.

Until just recently I didn’t know where I could buy Raspberry Royale. Amazon wanted about double the price you should pay for a box of 20 tea bags, or you had to buy the 6 pack. I didn’t want to do either, and finally I thought to search on the Wegman’s web site. To my surprise they showed that they did carry Raspberry Royale in their Raleigh location and it was listed at a reasonable price. So, a few days ago I was at that Wegman’s and yes, they did have Raspberry Royale, so I bought two 20 ct. boxes. I’ve already had two cups and this is also one of my favorites. I have 5 favorites.

About a year and a half ago, I came up with a drink mix that I now call “Bill’s Drink Mix,” and I drink some almost every day and about a carafe full each day. It has four ingredients that include: Pomegranate Lemonade (mix from WalMart), Sweet Tea (mix with or without Lemon from WalMart), some orange juice, and some cranberry juice. Now all four ingredients are necessary, or it is just not the same and isn’t pleasing to me. But, I have used brewed hot tea to make this mix and that is an ok alternative if I’ve run out of the little flavor packages. Oh, and this mixture is good cold or hot. Hot, it may remind me of what Tang (the orange flavored drink from many years ago) would taste like if heated.

Not tea, but I’ve also tried milk mixed with Turmeric and sometimes have also added powdered ginger to this concoction. When I do that it starts to remind me of Egg Nog. Not exactly but sorta.

I do like egg nog, and the season is once again here, but I rarely drink it, or buy it because it has a bunch of sugar and would throw my blood sugar off. In fact there are quite a few foods, drinks and places to eat that I no longer go to, or rarely go to before I became more serious about keeping my blood sugar under control.

About a year ago I bought some Homestead Creamery Egg Nog, in a glass bottle like the one shown here. The shape is that of the old milk bottles that the milkman (before my time, if ever in the country) used to deliver milk, but I think slightly smaller than actual size. Well, I didn’t throw the bottle away after the egg nog was gone, and now I reuse it for my Half-n-Half. I like the cold feel of the glass for some reason as I pour it into my coffee or tea.

I rarely go to any buffet style restaurants, and several no longer exist since Covid. I was in the habit of eating from Taco Bell once or twice a week (1 Burrito Supreme, 1 Bean Burrito, and 1 Crunchy Taco) and at the last I might just choose two of the above instead of all three. I would bring them home and add sour cream and sweet onion (chopped) and I might make my own salsa including some of the Herdez’ “Salsa Ranchera” sauce. I haven’t driven through the Taco Bell drive-thru in months. *Let me laud the Taco Bell staff that served me when I did go through their drive-thru. They were great at taking my order, preparing it quickly and getting me on my way without a problem, and they did that over and over, and I thanked them repeatedly because I saw this as exceptional service in a low-end job. And, I don’t mean to slight them by labeling it a “low-end” job. It’s fast food, fast cheap food to some degree.

I can make a delicious salsa at home but the problem is that what do you eat it with? Tortilla chips or beans? Either can throw my blood sugar off, so I try not to buy chips. At one time I couldn’t control it. If I bought a family sized bag of tortilla chips or potato chips, I would eat the whole thing… and might finish them off by the next day. But then I found more will power, but then what? The chips go stale if you open them, and then don’t eat any more for several weeks. I will say that IGA sells a smaller bag of Wavy Potato Chips for about $1.48 that is just about right. I can have three helpings from this smaller bag. And, I normally do not buy potato chips, but these are special to go with the Pastrami Reubens that I make at home. I don’t fry fries at home, so these chips have that saltiness that along with a dill pickle spear makes the perfect accompaniment for the Reuben sandwiches. But then again the Pastrami & Swiss are both fatty and salty and bad also for the blood sugar, along with the seeded rye bread.

I’ve learned to like Sauerkraut, and I combine it with my homemade Thousand Island dressing which only has the following ingredients: Dukes Mayo, ketchup, chopped sweet onion, sugar free pickle relish, and some hot sauce (Texas Pete, or Tabasco… NOT Frank’s). After realizing that the Thousand Island dressing “turned” the sauerkraut in a very pleasant way (like sugar turns vinegar — making pickle juice), I thought, “well why not make a side dish out of sauerkraut mixed with some Thousand Island dressing” and it worked. This side would be good with a pork chop too.

I said I rarely go to a buffet, but just recently, about two weeks ago now, I drove up to Asheboro, NC for another visit. I had breakfast at David’s and they have a great price on their breakfast specials. But for lunch, I found a Chinese Buffet restaurant and ate there. It was so reminiscent of several of the Chinese buffets I’ve visited throughout the years. In fact, the chicken on a stick, or the egg drop soup, or even the sliced bananas in a cherry sauce are classics. I really enjoyed eating at this buffet, and hopefully will go back again, but not often.

At one time I visited Hibachi Grill at least once a week, but since Covid, I may have only returned once or twice. It may have been over a year since I last had a meal there. I guess I also became aware of how often you either became ill from eating the food, or got a cold from all the other people messing in the food you would eventually eat. And, I don’t need that. *When you are younger you don’t pay attention to someone with a cold, but after a cold really messes you up… I might hear someone walking down the hall at work, and they were coughing or sneezing, and I would slide my chair over and shut my door quietly. I’m also aware now when I am out and some coughs or sneezes. It reminds me of why I both like to go out, a why I don’t like to.

I do go out, almost every day, and where do I go? I go to several groceries each day. In season, I may buy raw peanuts, okra, or brussels sprouts at Pate’s Farm Market. Or, corn on the cob, broccoli, asparagus, or Romaine lettuce at WalMart… Sweet Red/Orange/Yellow Bell Peppers, Gala Apples or Cauliflower at Food Lion… Harris Teeter has the Greek God’s Yogurt and Tilapia… Sprouts has all those bins of nuts and dried fruits… I may make a special trip up to Wegman’s in Raleigh for their White American Cheese, the Intense Brie, Bucheron, or their Ciabatta rolls… Whole Foods in Raleigh has the Capricho de Cabra Cheese, the Dolce K Olive Mix… and Farm Fresh may have Red Chard or some of the okra chips, and IGA “has the meats” or eggs.

I’ve found Lidl has a good price on Smoked Oysters for about $1.29 a can and I like them with my homemade hummus. **And that’s where I start talking about my Braun Multi-Quick tool that has a food chopper, whisk, and stick blender so I can make hummus from Garbanzo beans, or make salsa with tomatoes, sweet onion and some hot peppers from the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh.

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**While in Aldi’s yesterday, I bought a tin of Smoked Oysters for $1.25. I haven’t tried them yet. ***I think I just tried these for the first time and here is my brief review: The oysters in the tin are larger than most of the other brands, and I didn’t think the flavor was quite as good, but pretty close.

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If I am in Asheville in the early spring, I will look for ramps at the WNC State Farmers’ Market. And the last time I was up there I found the Dulse (seaweed flakes) at Earth Fair and bought a couple of those little sifters.

After years, I finally broke down and bought 48 clean, brand new, squarish shaped glass spice jars with aluminum lids and the plastic sifter caps that you can use, but don’t have to. And, I’ve already filled up all but about five of them. But, I see that I don’t use many of them or often, except for the garlic powder, marjoram, cayenne powder, and Italian seasoning along with the pink salt that I add to regular white salt and then grind them in my food chopper.

I would briefly like to mention (how brief can it be by now?) that I am really proud of the re-use of my Lazy Susan that I used for my spices before buying all those spice jars. At first I just put the Lazy Susan on the kitchen floor, but then it came to me to see if it would fit on the countertop, to the right of my stove. I already had my sweeteners there, and the kitchen utensils were against the wall in a large ceramic jar. Would it fit? I tried putting the sweeteners on the Lazy Susan first, and then I thought about adding the ceramic jar of kitchen tools, and then flour & cornstarch, and the oil brush (for brushing various oils on pans, or the waffle iron before cooking). It worked perfectly, and now I just rotate the Lazy Susan to easily switch from the sweeteners (for coffee or tea), or the cornstarch for the stir fry. See:

I found that I like the Indian Long Pepper’s pungent flavor, but it’s odd shape and hardness means you can’t just use any old pepper grinder. I found a hand grinder that had a microplane bottom and this works perfectly for the Long Pepper.

I’ve cut back on the fried apples and bacon I enjoy for breakfast, but I’ve even made a special spice blend and put it in a separate shaker for when I do fix these apples (Galas normally from WalMart but also might be from Food Lion). For years I only used cinnamon and sugar (later Equal Sweetener) on the apples, but then I thought that incorporating all the “warm” spices might work, and it did/does: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice (which includes all of them already mixed). Not sure if coriander is thought of as a warm spice, but I include that also in this mix.

So, I am now rereading some of the above posting and realized that I never told you what I had originally thought about. My stories do seem more like those told by Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion.” He would start a story, and shortly into telling it, he would lead you off onto another completely different tale, for most of the story, only at the last to bring you back to the original story, and tie that up in a neat little bow. More than once I said to myself, “How in the heck did he get me off on that other tale.” I miss the weekly visits. They were “comfort food” that I ate, not with my mouth, but with my heart and mind. And once again I digress. This was what I wanted to say. So I found myself at JK’s restaurant for breakfast on Monday morning, just like I had for so many other times, but with the limitation that I wasn’t going to have my normal breakfast there, but only a country ham biscuit with coffee.

I walked in the front door and stood in front of the “Please Wait” sign and one of the waitresses who was obviously busy called back to me as she whisked herself back into the kitchen with some dirty dishes, “I’ll be back to get you as soon as I can.” So, I stood there and then a couple of gentlemen came in behind me, but they didn’t wait at the sign. No, one gentleman was obviously older and in need of getting to a table so that he could rest himself in a chair. The other gentleman was a bit younger and seemed to be an unofficial caretaker of the more fragile man. Not sure if the protective relationship was due to friendship or to family relationship. And so, I am still standing there, which by now is a little irritating because almost immediately after these two gentleman sat at “their” table, another waitress comes from the back, whips herself around and stops at their table and starts to take their orders.

Finally, a third waitress comes to the front and starts to determine where she wanted me to sit. I already had in my mind that I would like to sit over in the back corner, a booth next to the cash register. I’ve been seated there several times in the past year. It is a comfortable spot, especially since the current practice is for each waitress to bring the customer’s receipt and payment up themselves and then bring any change back to their table before they left. So as she started forward, past me, to lead me to the table, I stopped her and asked if I could sit in the back corner, to which she replied, “I was just planning to seat you there.” And my reply was, “Perfect.”

Now a fourth waitress brings me a menu and asks what I would like to drink. I’ve come prepared with a Rooibos tea bag (a Harris Teeter store brand), but I’m willing to pay them to bring their tea bag, and I will make the switch myself. I’ll have some hot Rooibos tea with my country ham biscuit and take their unused teabag with me when I leave. She picks up on my exchange plan and says, “So you just want hot water,” and starts to walk away. And my comment trails off with her, “But I’m willing to pay you for your tea.” She brings back the hot water which she refilled later in the meal.

I took the menu and started to look for “Country Ham Biscuit” and I found it, but off to the side there was a price. No, not just a price, but something that might have been written in a contract between an Indentured Servant and their Master. “You will work seven years for your freedom.” But in this case the amount said $7.49. I looked again. Yes, it said that a single country ham biscuit would cost $7.49 and that was without coffee. I’m not sure how expensive a price I would have endured for a country ham biscuit that morning but this price was far beyond reasonable. There were prices for bacon biscuits, and sausage biscuits (patty or link), and egg biscuits. All of these within the more reasonable price range. I think $5 and some change might be reasonable for a country ham biscuit, and if I were in a rush, I might even “choke down” a $6 tag, but not $7.49. I can make a country ham sandwich (I’m probably not going to have a biscuit at home.) for less. At least I think I can. But I do question if I can, because several years ago I ordered a sandwich and some soup at Panera Bread and whatever the price was at that time, it seemed exorbitant. And I said to myself that I could make it cheaper, and later would go on to try and prove that assumption. *Was in again, a short time ago, and noticed that the country ham biscuit had been repriced on the menu to something more reasonable.

And, that is where the assumption began to crumble. By the time I had added up all the charges for the various components of the same meal, I couldn’t make it cheaper and I would still have to factor in the cost of running the dirty dishes through my dishwasher… and I couldn’t make just one meal, but had to make more than a meal, because you can’t purchase just the right amount of ingredients to make a single meal. You want to make vegetable soup, but you can’t just make enough for a single bowl, or even two bowls. You open a can of corn = 15oz., and green beans – 15oz., and roasted diced tomatoes – 15oz., and then you dice some onion, and carrots, and potatoes, and maybe throw in another 15oz. can of garden peas. I love garden peas (but they affect my blood sugar also). And I use ground beef instead of beef stew. And by this point your 3Qt. pot is almost full, but you’ve got to add the chicken stock and if they are in season you want some diced okra for that special flavor to your soup. Okay, you can get frozen or canned okra (another 15 oz.). *So I’ve also tried halving the ingredients. 7.5oz. of each, and the other half gets thrown into a large Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids container to be put away in the freezer. You can put the corn, green beans, tomatoes and even the okra in a single tub. Thaw them all out, when you’re ready, next time, and cut up the carrots, onions & potatoes afresh.

**But, anything I put in the freezer is subject to a long hard life in the “Great North,” up beyond the Tundra and into that frozen region where, if left too long, nothing survives. And my freezer is packed with several meals worth of chicken, ground beef burgers, pork chops, shrimp (peeled, deveined with tail off), calf/beef liver, steak, tilapia, and sausages (Kielbasa, Andouille, Jimmy Deans, etc.). I am pretty good, currently, about taking out one or more frozen items to thaw for tomorrow, or at least later today. The Skylark Calf’ liver thaws in about 1 hour and cooks quickly on the stovetop. The Pender’s liver pudding (mush) is ready for the pan and the chopped onions by the next morning. Oh yeah, I forgot, the Round Bone Lamb Chops from Publix have to thaw.

But “No,” I’m not going to pay $7.49 for a single country ham biscuit… at least not this Monday morning, so I order a sausage biscuit (and some mustard) and the waitress asks whether that will be patty or link sausage. Patty of course.

JK’s biscuits are distinctive. They are crumbly in a slightly negative way, and the chef will cut the biscuit in half and toast it on the grill, sometimes, even if you don’t ask. The mustard was the right touch for this, but the biscuit did crumble and it seemed that there just wasn’t enough sausage to even out with the bites of biscuit. *I may take a picture of the menu the next time I visit, focusing on the $7.49 country ham biscuit price especially. For me it’s like listing “Country Ham Biscuit” and then instead of a price, you put a caveat, “WE DON’T WANT TO SELL ANY OF THESE” where the price should have been listed. I can imagine myself standing over in the line of people waiting to, NOT buy their country ham biscuits.

With my Taylors Scottish Breakfast tea I would probably like to have a toasted English muffin with a little butter on it and some Orange Marmalade, or perhaps raspberry jam. Or maybe have some melted cheese, not cheddar, on whole wheat toast. Or maybe even an Egg McMuffin type of sandwich with the egg over hard, a slice of fresh ham, and melted cheese.

[NOTE 02/14/25]: Interesting, as I was re-reading the above posting, and after adding the picture of “the best fried chicken” I’ve ever eaten, I noted the very last comment, above. Since the time of the comment, I found “Sourdough English Muffins” at Publix, googled about, and saw they were Diabetic friendly, so I bought a package (and several packages since). I ended up making a darned good “Bill McMuffin” at home using some Wegman’s White American Cheese, a slice of Hatfield pre-sliced ham, and an egg cooked in my microwave onion cooker. The muffin is first toasted, and then the cheese melted before the egg & ham go on.

A beautifully shaped “Bill McMuffin.”

The first one of these was so good that I ended up making one each morning for several days, and not only worked through several packages of Sourdough English Muffins, but also the whole pre-sliced Hatfield Ham, which had been on special at Harris Teeter (across town, where Pharaoh’s Legacy is located). *Unfortunately I couldn’t get another Hatfield Ham, and I bought a more well-known named ham, but I don’t think it is as good, and I lost the desire for my Bill McMuffins. *I do intend to buy another Hatfield Ham and see if the desire returns.

But, I am now in a brief “Egg Salad” period, on toasted Sourdourgh bread (also from Publix) and with some microwaved bacon. Recall that I think microwaving bacon is THE WAY to go. It is quick, and not messy (as long as you have a plastic microwave safe plate cover). *I am surprised how much egg salad you can put on each (half) slice of toast and it not fall off while you are eating it. I guess the right amount of “grass fed” butter & Dukes mayo makes the smushed egg all hang together really well.

Oh, and I’ve had Pu’er tea both of the last two mornings with my egg salad. Half-n-Half & sweetener yesterday, and just sweetener today. And, today I actually tasted what I consider “tannins” so I googled to see if Pu’er has tannins, like other teas, and “Yes” it does. [end NOTE]

[NOTE]: I don’t think I had this problem with an earlier can of Sauerkraut from Wegman’s, but this one was a shame. By the time I pressed most of the liquid out of the can of sauerkraut, the can was filled with less than half of the solid cabbage product. See right pix.

[end NOTE]

Quinoa Salad Like Publix Deli’s

bgibson135

The Publix I usually go to, just down from Harris Teeter in the Tallywood Shopping Center, discontinued their Deli salads a few years ago. I enjoyed this Quinoa Salad, but also they had a Wakame Seaweed Salad that I liked. I found a jar of Seaweed Salad at Hex in Cary but it has to be “doctored” to take on the flavors that I liked from the Publix salad. Add: soy sauce, red wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes. This reminds me of of the Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix at Whole Foods. Not because of the flavors but because of the complexity that makes up the mix.

I was just on the Publix web site and here are the listed ingredients for their Quinoa Salad.

Ingredients

Quinoa Salad {Quinoa, Lime juice, Canola Oil And Extra Virgin Olive oil Blend, Water, Lemon Juice, Sugar, Contains 2% Or Less Of The Following: Orange puree (Orange Pulp Cells, Concentrated orange Juice, Water, Orange Peel, Orange oil) Sea Salt, Sesame Oil, Spices}, Dried fruit And Nut Mix (Cranberries{Cranberries, sugar, Glycerin, Sunflower Oil}, Peanuts (Peanuts, Canola Oil), Roasted Pumpkin Seed {Pumpkin Seeds, Canola Oil}) Spinach, Edamame {Soy Beans}.

Edamame and soybeans are from the same plant but edamame is picked from the immature soy plant in July and August before it is fully mature. “It’s like picking a tomato that’s still green.” Green edamame is harvested from a still-ripening soy plant.

*I have made this Quinoa Salad at home successfully, but not it quite a while,

As I read the first paragraph I think on how diverse my palate is. Seaweed salad, Quinoa salad, Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix, smoked oysters with homemade hummus, turmeric & vinegar added to tomatoes, sweet bell pepper and sweet onion. Chicken livers & gizzards. Beef/calf liver. Souse and liver pudding. Goat & cow cheeses.

I’m also reminded of the changes that have occurred to the Tallywood Shopping Center since I first came to Fayetteville about 30 years ago.

On the corner was a small garage that I went to for basic maintenance. I don’t recall the name of the place, but the building, after several years of being vacant, was torn down and a drive-thru coffee shop built. Next to the coffee shop location is Biscuitville, which recently (is that one or two years now) replaced the Hardees. And a MiCasita which had been next to a carpet store. But in the back where the new Publix was built were several smaller shops and a (was that?) Belks. One of the smaller shops was School Tools Of Fayetteville NC, which moved for a few years over on Robeson Street, but now is just down from the Harris Teeter and the Post Office.

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The first Publix I recall visiting was in Georgia some years ago when I was visiting either my dad, or my half-sister Donna. Don’t recall what I bought, but after visiting another Publix, elsewhere, I noted that they were a “cut above” and with greater choices. I like this Publix and have a good rapport with the bakery. They will half a loaf with no grumbling. I like the Round Bone Lamb Chops that they have imported from New Zealand.

I also like the frozen shrimp that I use for my Zucchini/Kielbasa/Shrimp dish, but more than once have found that they either don’t have a clue that they sell this product, or can’t manage to put it on the shelf (in a timely manner). And “on the shelf” is rhetorical because the shrimp are in a freezer with a see-thru door. After asking about these, I found myself in a Cary Publix where I had no problem getting the frozen shrimp. *The shrimp come in a resealable bag, but sometimes I divide these into about 15 shrimp in smaller bags and then put them all back in the big reseal bag. Then I just have to put the smaller bag into the microwave under the “2.0” defrost setting. It takes less than 15 minutes to thaw the shrimp, and that allows for the time to cook the pasta (the small shells) . And both of those happen as the kielbasa, onions, and zucchini (with a little tomato to color the sauce) are cooking. *This process reminds me of the precise process I use to make my Pastrami Reubens (Rachels) which turn out perfectly almost every time.

Butter the outsides of the two slices of seeded rye bread and toast’em. Flip them over after the butter and bread are browned and put on a slice of Swiss on each and melt the cheese. Squeeze out the moisture in the sauerkraut to be put on the sandwich, but also put some more sauerkraut on a plate to be mixed with the homemade Thousand Island dressing. *It came to me that if the sauerkraut and dressing were good on the sandwich, they would be good together as a side dish, and they were/are.

The Thousand Island dressing consists of: Dukes Mayo, Heinz Ketchup, Relish, finely diced sweet onion (Vidalia), some hot sauce (Texas Pete not Frank’s), S&P.

I don’t heat the Pastrami but place a slice or two on each toasted slice of the rye bread. The idea being that the melted Swiss and the Pastrami will both keep any extra moisture from leeching out from the sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing and making the bread soggy. And, this works!

The sandwich has a lot of flavor and it isn’t messy, although it could be. Add some chips and a Ranch Dill pickle and maybe a side of the sauerkraut & dressing, and you have a good lunch.

And the Ranch Dill (spear) is easily made. Buy a cheap jar of the Dill Spears at WalMart. Buy a cheap package of the Ranch Dressing powder (about 50 cents at Food Lion) or the Hidden Valley packet for about $1.50. You can drain the juice to mix with the powder and then pour it all back into the pickle jar. Seal it, and put it in the fridge for a day and then enjoy, as needed.

IGA currently has a small, but not single serving size, bag of Wavy potato chips that only costs about $1.48.

The rye bread and the chips are a “splurge” for a Type 2 diabetic, and the salt and fat in the Pastrami…

Did I mention that the plastic container that the Hillshire Farms Pastrami comes in is reusable? If you can buy the Pastrami at WalMart for less than $5, then that makes the reusable container “a deal.” And the company has intentionally made this container easily reusable. Their advertising is printed on a cardboard sheet which is attached to the red “see thru” lid with some of that stretchy gluey stuff. Peels off easily. I have quite a few of the Rubbermaid Easy Find storage containers, but the Hillshire Farms tubs work well for many other things. I recently put some homemade hummus and black bean hummus in a single container. The differences in color of the two hummi (I’ve never used the plural of hummus before, and am not sure if there is a plural… but I know that it ain’t “shrimps,” but “shrimp” looked good in the container. But these smaller containers also work for leftovers, and now that I think of it, I put my bacon (uncooked) in one of the Hillshire Farms tubs. I slice the bacon in half and both halves then fit easily in the small tub.

Couscous & Quinoa Salads

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I have made a quinoa salad before and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. But, it wasn’t something that I included in my regular foods rotation.

This Couscous Salad looked good and I could either create it as is, or modify it to my liking:

I think the basic ingredients shown above include:

  • couscous
  • seedless cucumber
  • tomatoes
  • walnuts
  • raisins
  • coarsely chopped fresh herbs ( any combination of )
    • fresh parsley
    • cilantro
    • basil
    • dill
    • mint
  • S&P

And the dressing was something simple like:

  • lemon juice
  • Dijon mustard
  • honey

I would probably substitute Agave Nectar for the honey and have already.

Oh my! The above Couscous Salad was delicious. I did add some olives but I don’t think they added anything to the overall flavor. I had this salad with baked tilapia, which was very good, again. The panko breading is “spot on,” and adding the Spicy Chili Crisp to the fish just highlights the coolness of the salad. But, I also tried a variation on the salad by using the Jalapeno Lime Dressing which I had tried some time ago. This dressing is much more savory.

The couscous took about 10 minutes to cook. A cup and a half of water brought to a boil, then add a cup of couscous and half teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil again and then lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. While I was preparing the couscous, I chopped up some English cucumber, Campari tomatoes, sweet onion, chopped cilantro and added walnut pieces and raisins and S&P. When the couscous was done, I added it warm to the other ingredients and then in this case put some of the mixture on two different plates. On the one I used the suggested dressing and on the other the Jalapeno Lime dressing. *Forgot, but I couldn’t find the fresh garlic so I used the powdered garlic for the JL dressing. I think I still have enough salad for another meal.

As I was reading I asked myself what category couscous would be put under and the AI suggested that couscous was like pasta, a small pasta also like orzo. And in reading the recipe I think I saw that the chef suggested that you could also use small pasta (maybe pasta shells) instead of the couscous.

I might also add the following, which I consider as having Mediterranean influence: Sweet Onion, Tomato, Sweet Bell Pepper and flavor with vinegar, cumin and turmeric. And I think I’ve also added olives to this mix. The turmeric gives a strong acrid taste. I’ve also added sweetener to this. I think I also added turmeric to some dill pickles.

Tilapia

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I spent about 11 months in rural Alabama in 1984. This was the time just after I had attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky but left after two and a half years. The S.I.F.A.T. farm was located between Lineville and Wedowee Alabama.

S.I.F.A.T. = Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology – or – Servants in Faith and Technology.

While there, we visited Auburn University which was about an hour south of us. I wasn’t interested, but they were just beginning to research growing Tilapia, a fast growing fish, in farms. I’m not sure when the first time was that I tasted Tilapia, but I think my impression was that it was rather tasteless. *The above link to S.I.F.A.T farm is actually a link to the videos I took back in 1984, when I was 30 years old. They were created with a VHS camera and later digitized and then posted to YouTube.

Now, forty years later, (and I am surprised by counting the number of years since I was down there) I am starting to buy, prepare and eat Tilapia at home. And, today I fixed a small fillet (about 3.5 ounces) which I had bought at Harris Teeter for only $1.8X. This had a slightly pinkish flesh which surprised me. I even asked the fish monger about this color and he said that the fish was “wild caught” and the color was probably due to what the fish had eaten. *The Tilapia fillets I have been buying at Fresh Market are much larger, and they have a distinctly whitish flesh. I took them to be much like the flesh of a flounder.

Today I fixed this filet by baking it in the oven at about 405 degrees for about 10 minutes. I first soaked the filet in some homemade buttermilk (regular milk with a little vinegar added) for about 10 minutes. While it was soaking I put some Panko bread crumbs in a shallow dish, added some grated Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried cilantro, marjoram, cayenne powder and S&P. I then put the soaked filet in the plate and flipped it adding some more of the flavored crumbs, patting them down so they would stick. At the last, I put a few tiny dollops of the Spicy Chili Crisp. I then put the filet on the wire rack that Mary Ann had given me some time ago and put it all in the heated oven. I set the timer for 10 minutes and went to play a game online.

It seemed like it took almost no time before I started hearing the timer’s beeper start. I got up and checked the filet. There was some slight browning on some of the bread crumbs. *Oh, I had also steamed about six or seven thin asparagus spears to have with the fish.

Oh my… it was so good! There are few things I have made, for the first time, that actually are so pleasantly surprising. I wanted to add the Spicy Chili Crisp to this fish and it turned out great. I can’t imagine adding fish to my regular diet, but this may be a game changer. And, because this fillet was so inexpensive, I’ll be returning to Harris Teeter. *I may fix some cabbage slaw and also some baked beans. I may have to leave off the baked beans for dietary reasons, but the slaw & beans are perfect for fish.

I just checked online and you can freeze fish that have been marinated in buttermilk. My thought is that I can buy three filets at HT for about $6, and freeze two of them after marinading them in buttermilk first. Doing this would mean that slipping fish into my meal rotation would be super easy. Hamburger, pork chop, lamb chop and chicken and now fish. I haven’t wanted to fry fish and baking it has worked twice already.

[NOTE 02/17/25]: It has been a while since I baked a tilapia at home, but I took a frozen, buttermilk marinated filet out of my freezer yesterday and thawed it. It still had good flavor, and I coated it in the flavored Panko/Parmesan coating with a few dollops of Hot Chili Crisp on top and baked it for about 10 minutes. Turned out good again. I had fixed some Asian Cucumber Salad and also did some Stir Fry Green Beans. It all worked together for a light meal. [end NOTE]

[NOTE 07/27/25]: A tilapia filet from Publix. I did the same breading as above, but baked at 450 because I couldn’t find the temp in my previous writing. This time I had corn on the cob and steamed cauliflower. I seasoned the cauliflower with Spicy Chili Crisp and some toasted sesame oil. Once again this was a delicious meal combination. I should fix it more often. [end NOTE]

I don’t want to forget to write about my trip to Asheboro, NC yesterday. I had breakfast at David’s again (second time) and their special was less than $6 before tax, but this also included your drink (coffee). This breakfast came with two pancakes (sugar free syrup) a couple of eggs (over medium) two small sausage links (I forgot to ask for patty.) and hash brown potatoes. Not sure how they can afford to make any profit while only charging less than $6 for this meal. *The David’s Breakfast Special(s) have gone up, but they are still delicious.

I went to the Asheboro Public Library afterwards and looked through a cookbook, taking pictures with my phone as I did. The Library was going under extreme renovation and even part of the inside was taped off limits. There was a tall crane but I didn’t see what they were lifting. It might have been heating/air equipment replacement.

I went to lunch about 2:00 pm and was looking to waste some time so that I could visit a nearby Ice Cream Creamery that opened at 3 pm. I guess they open the ice cream shop about the time school is letting out.

I first looked for a restaurant that served a Lamb Gyro (Mediterranean) but only found a food truck so I didn’t want to eat there. I then just decided to drive around town and stop somewhere that caught my eye. Eventually I came to a shopping area and saw a Chinese restaurant.

I really enjoyed my meal, a buffet, there. The food was reminiscent of several other Chinese places I had frequented through the years. I even had a banana, some jello and a chunk of cantaloupe. The cantaloupe was perfectly ripe and with a little salt so delicious. I had an egg roll and they had the hot mustard which almost blew my brain apart. Just the way I like it. I had some soup, egg drop mixed with the wonton soup and a few chopped spring onions. I had the chicken on a stick, and the jalapeno chicken, etc. I was so full after the buffet that I decided not to go for ice cream.

I am looking for the Hershey’s Raspberry ice cream like I had at the little ice cream parlour that is in the back of the Pharmacy in Newton Grove. They only charge $2 for a scoop of ice cream on a cone, but they discontinued the Raspberry which had little chocolate cups filled with raspberry gel. Not sure if the Hershey’s Company stopped making it, or if the shop just wanted another flavor. *I just found the name of this ice cream online: Roadrunner Raspberry – White chocolate ice cream with raspberry swirls and raspberry filled chocolate cups. **I finally bought a half gallon of the Roadrunner Raspberry ice cream from Publix. It was good, but I ate the whole thing in a few days. Not good.

IRONY: I just used the the online Hershey’s Ice Cream Store Locator to try and find the nearest grocery that carries the Hershey’s Roadrunner Raspberry ice cream, and ironically… it is the Kinlaws Grocery Store. The joke is that this store burned down a month or so ago. *It is 07/27/25 and the Kinlaws lot has been cleared, but nothing has been rebuilt yet.

I was looking for Hershey’s Ice Cream sources, but then just a day or so ago, I was googling and found that Publix carries a “Roadrunner Raspberry” flavor of ice cream, that’s not the Hershey’s brand, but their own brand. Today I was in Publix waiting for extremely fresh Sourdough Bread to cool and walking around the store and thought to look for the ice cream. Sure enough, there it was. The price is a little over $6 for the Half Gallon size container.

But, the problem isn’t the price, it’s the half gallon container of ice cream. It has been a long time since I bought any ice cream to bring home and put in my freezer, and currently, there isn’t enough space for a half gallon of ice cream. Still, I am probably going to buy this and either put some in small containers, that will fit, or throw some away. This is a splurge, and I don’t need the great amount of sugar, nor the calories. *It would be better if the ice cream shop in the Newton Grove Drug Store just brought back the Roadrunner Raspberry ice cream, and charged the $2 for a single scoop in a regular cone. That was a deal! But they discontinued it some time ago.

[06/25/25]: So I was in Publix this morning, and it’s promising to be a really hot day. Looks like we may have a week’s worth of days with the temperature reaching 100 or higher. I wasn’t planning on buying anything in Publix, but I just wanted to “touch base” with a familiar place for shopping. I looked at breads, rolls and muffins in their bakery. I took some pictures of a lot of their wines, thinking I would try to have Gemini (AI) give me an extensive inventory from the photos I had taken. There were no “round bone lamb chops.” And then I was closed enough to their Ice Cream aisle that I thought to see if their Roadrunner Raspberry had returned. It had. It was less than $7 for a half gallon and that was the only thing I bought, going through the self-checkout quickly and thinking that I had bought ice cream on one of the hottest days this year. I also was thinking that I didn’t have any room for a half gallon container in my freezer. I moved stuff around and it did fit, but the freezer is packed.

Harris Teeter “Roadrunner Raspberry” Ice Cream
Mini Chocolate Cup w/ Raspberry Jam Filling

I scooped out a small bowl of Roadrunner Raspberry and even took a picture of what it looked like in the container. You could see a couple of those mini sized chocolate cups in which is supposed to be raspberry jam. There were swirls of raspberry going through the vanilla ice cream. It was good. I missed it.

*I had a couple more egg rolls today. Bought them out and brought them back home and made my own hot mustard. I had them before I fixed my Tilapia.

If I could just flavor my eggplant fritters in a way that pleasantly surprises me like the Tilapia did today, oh boy. *As I was re-reading the previous sentence it came to me, why not flavor the eggplant fritters like I did the tilapia, except for the Spicy Chili Crisp… maybe even with the Spicy Chili Crisp.

I drove to Benson today and bought some thick cut pork chops (two 2 paks) and bacon (2 of the cheap bacon & 1 of the peppered bacon) at Lee’s Fresh Market. The chops were “on special” again, and were less than $2 per pound. When I came back to town I stopped at Harris Teeter and bought 3 small Tilapia fillets, took them home, marinated them in homemade butter milk (regular milk & vinegar mixed). I then packaged two of the fish fillets in sandwich bags and put them in the freezer. The third fillet I coated with the seasoned Panko crumbs and baked it at 405 degrees for about 15 minutes. I also put some of the Spicy Chili Crisp on the fillet. Once again the Tilapia fixed this way was delicious! For dinner I heated a portion of the thick cut pork chop that I had bought previously (not today) and I fixed a helping of mashed potatoes from a very small Russett potato. I put just a tad of the Spicy Chili Crisp on the mashed potatoes and it made them even better.

Eggplant? No eggplant at the IGA in Benson, or the Food Lion near the Mall. Harris Teeter had a few very large eggplants, but I didn’t need them that big. The eggplant was the only thing on my grocery list that I didn’t come home with. Recall I’m going to try and season an eggplant fritter like I did the Tilapia. I’ve never had good fortune in making eggplant at home. *I’ve had delicious eggplant at a few restaurants throughout the years, and go home with the intent of repeating those flavors at home… but no. I liked the texture of the eggplant fritter I made a few weeks ago, but they were a little heavy, and the flavor was okay, but not great. Also, what sauce am I going to put on them? I’ve put marinara sauce on fried eggplant before, and that would probably be good.

I actually could bring the seasoned Panko encrusted Tilapia into my meal rotation, and took those first steps today. Two in the freezer, and I know what to mix with the Panko: add some grated Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried cilantro, marjoram, thyme, cayenne powder and S&P and a little Spicy Chili Crisp.

I had ordered a VinChef wok today, and it arrived TODAY, before 10 pm! That is amazing to me but I am guessing that since we now have a working Amazon distribution center a few miles away that “Black Friday Specials” are already stored locally, and can be delivered that quickly. I had seen a YouTube video where a chef was cooking something in a very nice looking pan. This got me looking for the vendor that sold those pans. I noted that there was a hexagonal pattern in the bottom of the pan, and around the inside border was an ornate repeating flame pattern. This looked really elegant to me. I wanted a pan that I could put in the oven, and hopefully in the dishwasher.

Above: The new Amazon Distribution Center in Fayetteville, NC.

Version 1.0.0

Let me say that “out of the box” this wok looked great! It is a good look all around. It has a glass lid and the handle came unattached, but had an odd shaped wrench to finish the job of attaching the handle to the wok body. *I haven’t tried it yet, but have already placed another order for the same wok to use as a present for Chad and his bride to be. I checked and the “Black Friday” special price was still on so I pushed through Checkout quickly and it should arrive by Monday. I was planning on getting them an electric wok, but this may fit the bill, AND it was inexpensive. Only $43 and some change. *I have a book that gives ideas on how to do stir fry. I’ll need a couple of utensils and I still may try to get them a nice knife because having a good knife (the right tool) makes things so much easier. **It is amazing how my mom and me never had a large kitchen knife, or at least I don’t recall one that we ever used. Even on a large, tough ham bone, or some other tough cut of meat we would use a little kitchen knife. I have quite a few good knives from WÜSTHOF, but rarely use them except for the small tomato knife. I might not buy WÜSTHOF if I was starting out again. I might have preferred a different handle style.

  • Hot Mustard
  • Sesame Seeds (white)
  • Sesame Oil – Toasted
  • Soy Sauce – Kikoman
  • Spicy Chili Crisp
  • Stir Fry Vegetables – canned (Walmart)

I think it odd that both Hershey’s Ice Cream and Publix both have a version of “Roadrunner Raspberry” ice cream. But even stranger, is that there currently are two TV shows based upon a French detective series. One show is called “HIP” (High Intellectual Potential) on HULU, and the other is called “High Potential,” an ABC show. For both shows to be on at the same time, is amazing to me. Very many years ago, I was watching a Police show which had an ensemble cast. At some point, I realized that I had heard most if not all of the dialogue in the episode, but I had heard it from different actors in another Police show on a different network. That was strange and I found that the two shows had used the same script.

Still it’s not unheard of for a popular movie or TV show to be remade years later, with a more Hip cast. I watched an episode of “Elsbeth” and realized that it reminded me of “Columbo,” which I haven’t watched or re-watched in years. The current detective hounds the perps just like Peter Falk’s character did back then. And while watching “Will Trent” I realized that the ensemble cast in this show reminded me of “The Mentalist.” I still love the first 10 minutes of the first episode of “The Mentalist.” The classic line said by the main character to his fellow officers as they rush into the room, as he stands in the kitchen where the wife has just put four bullets in her husband’s chest (bright white shirt and all), “Honest, It’s not as bad as it looks.” And they cut to commercial, and I said to myself, “Now that’s great writing. I’m going to love this show.” And I did until, they killed Red John, and then later revealed, it wasn’t the “real” Red John. Once they did that I told myself that they could do that over and over and just keep the audience hanging on forever. But, not me. Several years later I did watch the last episode of the show.

For great writing, I recall the opening sequence in “Diagnosis Murder” the Dick Van Dyke series, where a man has fallen over dead in the aisle of a city bus. His body is blocking the other riders, and someone has bent over him and turns to the others and says, “This man’s dead,” to which one of the other impatient riders, a young male professional says, “So’s my career, but you don’t see it laying in the aisle blocking traffic.” I would love to see that sequence again, and I’ve looked, but haven’t found it yet.

And for something that I’ve looked for, but just can’t remember enough about the classic actors to track down the movie… It was a movie, probably from the 1960s. There is a Psychologist, or Psychiatrist, and he is having a group session with several women. One of the women arrives late to the group. They are sitting around in a circle. The woman starts explaining that her husband likes for her to hum “Show Tunes” while she is giving him head. But, she doesn’t state it as plainly, but the whole audience knows what she is talking about as she describes looking for the sheet music (either at the library or music store). And you, meaning me, sort of goes, “Wow, I don’t believe she just told us that.” *What classic male actor from the 1960s could play that kind of role. I think I’ve seen this movie at least twice, but it has been a long time ago. The doctor might have even been working at a Clinic or facility that had large grounds, and athletic activities, and inside the classic torture equipment that was once thought to help “crazy” people get better… shock therapy, ice baths, etc. And, it wasn’t “One Flew Over the Cuckcoo’s Nest.”

Maybe an actor like Cliff Robertson, or Warren Beatty, John Cassavetes, or Bradford Dillman, or maybe even Frank Sinatra. Maybe I should go for the actress, someone like Maureen Stapleton

Ozempic

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I started my first injection of Ozempic on September 18, 2024. These were weekly injections and the first four weeks I was to inject a .25 dosage. After that, I was to inject a .5 dosage. I didn’t notice any changes the first week, but thereafter I started to see reduced resting blood glucose levels and my weight started to fluctuate slightly downward. This morning I was slightly above 250 lbs. *If you can lose enough weight the Type 2 diabetes should disappear, but losing that weight, at my age and level of inactivity is very difficult. I am currently trying to maintain a daily calorie count near 1,880.

A future SHARPS container.

The easier to use injection system was with Trulicity. They provided a separate epi (not sure if that’s the correct designation) pen for each injection and the needle was hidden, only coming out after you pressed the pen button and going back inside after the solution was expended. Therefore, if you rested the pen on your stomach (alternating on each side of my belly button about a couple of inches) before pressing the button you never actually saw the syringe. This is the more preferrable system since there is a slight reluctance to inject yourself, even if the needle is both short and narrow.

OZEMPIC 1 MG PEN INSTRUCTIONS (PDF)

But the Ozempic needle is short. Maybe about a quarter inch in length and is extremely small gauged. It doesn’t hurt going in and you just have to wait for about five seconds for the delivery and then add an extra count of about 6 to complete the process before removing the syringe. Then, put the cap back on the syringe, unscrew it and put the used syringe in your “SHARPS” container. I am currently using one of my empty Diltiazim bottles as a SHARPS container. The plastic is thick and will protect from the used syringes poking through the bottle.

I had used Trulicity for several years without a problem until it became unavailable for refill not quite a year ago. I then switched to Rybelsus which was a daily tablet but didn’t work well, and then finally Ozempic which is working tremendously well! Why did Trulicity become unavailable? It may be that it has become in short supply because of persons starting to use this drug to help them lose weight.

[NOTE 10/31/24]: I’ve probably mentioned this elsewhere, but if not, this is a good time to mention that the beautiful blue cloudy sky at the top of my blog postings was something that I cut from a web cam view from the Beaufort Hotel web cam one morning. When I look at it closely I am amazed at how artistic this sky actually was. It’s not a doctored photo either, although it looks to have some photographic filter applied to it.

Another note to make here is that last night I finally purchased an upgrade to my WordPress web site (eptemplate.wordpress.com) and now can access that site with a new URL: billggibsonii.com I would have preferred a different “top level domain extension” of something other than .com, but this extension was the least expensive to maintain annually at just $13. [end NOTE]

[NOTE 11/13/24]: Here are a couple of graphs of my weight and resting blood glucose levels:

[end NOTE]

[NOTE 11/20/24]: I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but this is a reminder for myself. The first round of Ozempic I was required to take a dose each week at .25 and on the fifth and sixth weeks to up the dosage to .5. But, I took that to mean that I should keep the dosage at the .5 level thereafter. However, I noticed that the second Ozempic package was just like the first. It had spaces for me to enter four .25 doses (four separate weeks) and then the .5 dosage for the last two weeks. But, if I take .5 dosage for four weeks, I end up with two unused syringes. I think that is correct, but I need to ask which way I should be dosing myself.

This isn’t important, but a couple of years ago (that means two years ago) Jim Sharpe was very ill at Thanksgiving. So much so that He didn’t come out of his bedroom until late afternoon. He looked horrible. His skin was translucent (like really old people get) and he was slow at answering questions put to him. He answered correctly, but the answers were extremely slow for Jim Sharpe. But, the next visit (probably a couple of months later) I was hesitant at going in his bedroom (they had moved it to their music room and had a hospital bed) because I just didn’t want to see him in the condition he had been in back at the last Thanksgiving. Finally one of the nurses convinced me to step in to say hello to him.

To my surprise, Jim although still looking ill, no longer had the translucent skin and his mind was a sharp as it ever had been. I said something to him and he fired right back with a direct answer.

It seems that he had been overdosing himself with some of his medications and this had caused his severe decline. But once his kids got him back taking only the correct dosage, his mind returned.

I think I have more respect for Jim Sharpe because of the way he handled his final days, that from all the previous years I had known him. He was a class act, and went as I would hope to go. I guess it might be that he was confident in the life he had lived and was prepared to go on to the next life. [end NOTE]

I take a series of pills daily. There is a morning batch, and an evening batch, and I give myself an Ozempic shot once week, usually on Wednesday.

I have a routine that helps me remember to take my morning pills and my evening pills. Each week I refill the daily pill trays in advance. This weekly pill tray is beside my easy chair.

Each morning, usually a little after 7 am, I take the day’s pill container (morning & evening pills) to the bathroom and take the morning dosages. I also weigh myself and test my “resting blood glucose level,” and record these online.

I leave this daily container on the stand beside my bathroom sink. In the evening, usually after 7 pm, I look and see if the morning pills have been taken, and if the evening pills are still there, I take them. Once I’ve taken all pills for a day, I return the empty daily pill trays back to the weekly container beside my easy chair. And the process repeats the next morning.

I misplaced one of my daily pill containers when I went to visit Mary Ann. Don’t know if I left it there, or if it slipped down somewhere that I haven’t yet found it, but that is now a long time ago. So, I decided to use the little glass vials (two sizes) that I had bought to make a unique chess set to organize my daily medications and found a flexible rubber ice maker in which they fit easily. Morning meds, labeled with the day of the week in the front, and the smaller vial in the back for each day. This has worked well, although sometimes the larger pills may get caught in the vial temporarily. *The rubberized ice tray also works well to organize my AA & AAA batteries for my remotes. That would be 14 batteries per tray.

I am surprised at how quickly each week’s worth of pills go by. But that is “life in the fast lane” for a 71 years old. *I have a calendar posted to my bathroom wall, above my weight scale. I keep a note card on which I record my daily weight, and later post it to my online site, myfitnesspal.com . I also write “OZEMPIC” on each Wednesday on the calendar, ahead of time. This is a reminder to take my Ozempic shot that day. I put a check mark by the word Ozempic once I have taken the shot.

There have been a few times, when my pill routine has been interrupted, or totally forgotten. If I’ve covered my weekly pill trays with a book or magazine (usually I do not), then I may forget to take my day’s pill trays to the bathroom. Or, I think there have been a couple of times when I was going out of town for the day, and in a rush forgot to take my morning pills. *If I forget, I try to take the dosage I’ve forgotten almost immediately. Then if there are several hours till the next scheduled dose, I try to spread the time out “a little.” But, the idea is to get back on track, ASAP.

[NOTE 02/18/25]: So it didn’t take long for me to have a specific instance of forgetting to take my daily pills. We have a winter snow storm predicted to start tomorrow morning. I had a list of items (mostly food purchases) that I wanted to make early (first thing) today, so I checked when Walmart would be open and it opens at 6 am. It was a little after 6 am so I rushed to get dressed and wrestled with the thought of eating out, or getting items, and then returning home to eat. I got out the door, and stopped at Walmart first. Not a lot of people there yet, and I quickly got everything+. Then I headed up to get gas and that went quickly also. I decided to go to the Rainbow for breakfast. I rarely go out for breakfast, but for years, I might eat at the Rainbow at least 200 days out of the year. That would be eating every weekday morning, on my way to work. But now, most days, I have the time to fix breakfast for myself and enjoy what I fix more than eating at a restaurant.

So, I “had time to kill” before Harris Teeter was scheduled to start selling their Rotisserie Chickens at 11 am. It was still before 9 am, when First Citizens Bank would open and I could cash a check. I did cash a check there later. I then went over to Harris Teeter, hoping they might start selling the prepared chickens before 11 am. My plan was to see if HT had the Plain Greek Gods Yogurt. Seems they don’t, more times than when they do, but they did, and I took a container for my cart. I think I also bought a couple of shallots, and I did see one woman get a chicken brought out to her ahead of time, but I decided to wait a little while longer so I took my cart over to the Starbucks in HT and sat down, able to see where the Rotisserie Chickens would be placed for sale. About 10:30 am I saw one of the HT workers bringing out what appeared to be Rotisserie Chickens. It was and I got my red box and headed to the check out. I then stopped by Publix to change the date for me to pick up my “half loaf of seeded Rye bread.” I had scheduled for pickup on Thursday before finding out that it was supposed to be the aftermath of the pending winter snow/ice storm. I changed the pickup day to Saturday, and according to WRAL Weather, that should be warmer & less angst about travel on the local roads.

I got back home and got everything inside (two trips), and had lunch (chicken livers, Asian cucumber salad, and a slice of Sourdough bread.). At some point I go to bed for an afternoon nap and about 4:20 pm, I wake up and head to the bathroom. I look over and see that my day’s pill container isn’t on the counter beside my bathroom sink. “Oh, heck!” I went and got my forgotten pills, and took the morning batch immediately. I might wait until 9 pm tonight to take my evening doses. So, that is a specific example of how my mind can get distracted from taking my pills. And, I am in the process of washing some dirty towels, clothing next & my dishes may be finished in the dishwasher. [end NOTE]

Ozempic

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I stopped taking Rybelsus a couple of days ago and started my first weekly Ozempic injection this afternoon. Rybelsus was in tablet form and required me not to eat or drink 30 minutes before or after taking the tablet. My way of satisfying this requirement was that I would take my Rybelsus tablet after midnight and stopped drinking hot tea during late night.

Before Rybelsus, I had been taking a weekly Trulicity injection. About 10 months ago, I couldn’t get my perscription renewed in a timely manner. But after getting another 3 months supply, the next time I ran out of Trulicity, I was unable to get it replenished for over 2 months. This led me to ask my physician for an alternative, which became Rybelsus. But it did not appear that Rybelsus was as effective as Trulicity had been, so now I have switched to Ozempic.

I was a little wary of taking that first shot because the process was slightly different between Ozempic and Trulicity. The Trulicity pen has a separate pen for each injection, but the Ozempic pen can provide multiple doses. You just switch to a new, unused syringe for each injection. You don’t see the needle with Trulicity, but the Ozempic syringe is uncovered, but thin and very short. I did not feel it go in as I pushed it in my belly and the only discomfort was after the counter reached “0” and during the six second countdown.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR 1 MG OZEMPIC PEN

[NOTE 09/29/24]: Last Wednesday I took my second injection of Ozempic. I hadn’t seen much difference after the first shot, but now, I think the Ozempic has “kicked in.” I have had four straight mornings where my resting Blood Glucose Levels have been 126 down to 102, and my weight has been going down too. This morning I was below 250 for the first time in a long time (249.8). The weight loss was unexpected, even though I know the scuttlebutt about these types of injections and weight loss. *After all, a couple of months ago I was unable to get my Trulicity prescription refilled, even after two month. That’s not right, but I don’t know how to legislate that long-time users should take priority over those on the newer “weight loss” bandwagon. [end NOTE]

a Day & a Half

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[ADDENDUM 01/22/25]: Little did I nor anyone know that just five weeks after my visit to Asheville, that Hurricane Helene would come through Western North Carolina & Asheville and devastate the area. I had such a wonderful visit. The last place I visited in Asheville before starting back home was the New Morning Gallery in the Biltmore Village area. The flooding covered this area with a great deal of mud and destroyed many buildings. This was a high end shopping area, that was, and then wasn’t. I think the New Morning Gallery is still closed, and it has been about four months since the Hurricane. [end]

Gosh, what didn’t I do in the last day and a half?

I scheduled a one night stay at the Quality Inn at 180 Tunnel Road in Asheville for Monday night. At first I had looked at a different Quality Inn further down Tunnel Road, but then I saw a couple of negative reviews so I looked at the other Quality Inn. It seemed nicer, but for just a little more money, and still not $100 a night. *I had stayed at the other Quality Inn several years ago, and it had been a pleasant stay, but I’ll have to admit that the room was much better this time.

I guess I should mention my reason for my brief jaunt to Asheville, North Carolina on Monday & Tuesday of this week. I got a notice last week that they would be repaving and repairing various parking areas where I currently live, and that certain areas would need to be vacated, by 8 am, on selected mornings. I decided to make a quick trip, out of town, so I wouldn’t have to deal with parking in another area. I’ve done this at least once previously, several years ago. I also ran away once when a hurricane was coming through, back in 2018. I ran all the way to Milledgeville, Georgia that time, and ended up having to stay at a cheap hotel for a week because flooding had made it impossible to return to Fayetteville for that length of time.

The Milledgeville trip was fantastic. I didn’t have to worry about food, or the hassles of being homebound in Fayetteville, because Milledgeville was sunny and comfortable, and there were loads of places to eat. I did try to return to Fayetteville a day or two before I should have, and ended up having to stay at another cheap hotel in Siler City, NC for a couple of nights. Eventually, I found the one way back into Fayetteville but I had to drive from Siler City to Pinehurst/Southern Pines and then up toward Raeford, and then back into Fayetteville. This was the first route that the flooding had subsided to make it possible to return home.

So, that was my reason for my impromptu trip.

At the moment, I don’t recall what I had for breakfast on Monday… oh, I just remembered. I had a tin of Amour Potted Meat, which I had bought at WalMart. I had also bought a half gallon of regular milk for about $1.99 but only drank about a third of it, but that would still be worth the cost. *Because I didn’t refrigerate the milk, leaving it in my car overnight, I poured it out Tuesday morning in the toilet in my room (#125).

Old Perfect NW Airlines Logo

I didn’t want to eat a lot for breakfast because I was going to have lunch at the Seaboard Station in Hamlet, NC. But, on the way to Hamlet, I first drove by the Maxton Airport and was surprised to find that the retired NW Airlines jets that ran along the fence line from the airport terminal were all gone. ALL gone. I did see a few large sheets of slightly curved metal, one of which I think still had red paint on it. I’m guessing these might be the few remaining pieces of the old jets. Maybe broken down for scrap. *Recall that I think the Northwest Airlines logo, from a few years ago, was the “perfect logo” for English speakers.

U.S. Army Parachute Team Annex (Maxton, NC)

But, as I continued to drive around the end of the airport, nearest Maxton, I looked in the sky and saw a couple of sky divers rapidly descending. They were coming down fast and spiraling almost horizontally. I even questioned if they were actual sky divers *Not sure what they would have been if they weren’t real men with parachutes. Two came down and disappeared on the ground, and then I saw two or three more, one at a time coming down. They were all down as I came around the end of the field and I honked, but was away from them, so not sure if they were even aware of me. I never saw any airplane from which they must have jumped out of.

I headed back into Laurinburg via Hwy. 74. I stopped by the Scotland County Memorial Library and ended up buying about 10 hardback fiction novels to prime the Little Lending Library pump. They were only a dollar each, and I think I also left a $2 donation. The librarian helped me bag the books in a couple of plastic grocery bags and as I walked out the door I met a woman coming in. She let me go through the door first and made a comment that “Anyone that reads that much, deserves to go first.” I laughed to myself thinking that I wasn’t planning to read any of these books, but wanted them all just for the LLLs.

It’s Thursday afternoon and I’ve already dispersed all the $1 hard back fiction books that I bought on Monday. I also got rid of about 8 “Our State” Magazines leaving one magazine with each book (or one with a couple of books). *I did buy a couple of large cookbooks at the Northwood Temple Thrift Shop (Thursday 22nd) this morning. I had never been at this store before yesterday, when I was allowed inside, on a day when the store was actually closed, but the workers were friendly and let me look around. They were open today and I went in to shop. I paid $4 for one book (Americas’ Test Kitchen) and $1 for another large book. *Amazingly, having lived and worked in Fayetteville since 1995, and retired here about five years ago, and as many times as I passed this thrift store, I had never actually gone in. Through the years, I had seen people’s donations sitting beside the building. I guess it was the years of working & administering the efforts at the Hem of His Garment in Onslow County, I just have little or no interest in a thrift store. **I did buy some old Craftsmen screwdrivers for a couple of bucks each, several years ago, but that was in some other town I was visiting while on one of my vacations.

On the way to Hamlet, I made a detour to Gibson, NC. I’ve been to and through this little town many times over the years. It has a nice old train depot that has been painted yellow. There is also an old bank building that, when I first saw it, had a keystone that had a date written on it. I think it might have been in the 1920s, but that was removed by someone who bought the building several years ago and then painted the outside walls in a couple of bright, gaudy colors. I think maybe a burnt orange and an aqua. Don’t recall exactly, but they ruined this building and now the outside has been painted a light gray. *I say ruined because I had an idea that this little town would be perfect for filming a TV series or movie about a small town. There is also the G.V. Pate building which I think was probably a large hardware or agricultural supply store in the past. It’s was closed before I ever visited Gibson the first time. Oh, and the railroad tracks almost magically curve around back of the town after leaving the colorful depot.

After all of my meandering, I still arrived a little early, just before 11 am, at the Seaboard Station Restaurant. This was about 30 minutes earlier than most visits, but that was because I still was going to have to drive to Asheville after lunch.

For lunch, I had a couple of pieces of fried chicken, and a thin pork chop, some steamed cabbage and black eyed peas with some sweet onion. I sat at the same location that I had the last visit.

Seaboard Station in located in an old multi-story home, painted white. The dining area is located in several rooms on the first floor, and they have even added a room that must have been an “outdoor” porch at one time. This is all inside now, but there is a large opening, between rooms, that was once a window. Now it has no glass, and you might even be able to reach through this opening and take something off another diner’s table.

There was a man, Russell, sitting at the same table that he had sat the last time I was there. He is a retired cabinet maker, who’s wife died in 2016, and he has found that making knives is now fun. He is a Type 2 diabetic and wears one of those 14 day devices that records blood sugar levels without finger pin pricks. I think he said he was taking Wegovy, which was also a single shot a week, and needed to be refrigerated, like my Trulicity that I used to take.

After lunch I rode over to the library in Hamlet a few blocks away. Looked at the books for sale, but nothing there of interest for me.

A little after noon I left the library but stopped next in Rockingham at the Thomas Leach Memorial Library. No books there for me either. Later, I stopped at a Circle K, just past Monroe, before reaching Charlotte, to fill up on gas.

I chose to navigate through Charlotte instead of going around and paying a toll. Interesting about Charlotte, there was one sky scraper that had a large horizontal fixture at the top of the building. This reminded me of some of the fictional large buildings shown in the Westworld series, but this was real. *I looked this up on Google Maps when I returned home. I think it is just from certain angles that this cross bar appears.

The rest of this trip was long and boring, up the Interstates.

I made it to Asheville about 4:30 pm and went directly to the Folk Arts Center to see if they knew about the “space ship” mug and who might have made it. I had asked the last time I was in Asheville, and they still had no idea. After the Folk Art Center, I went directly to the East Village Grille,. It was late afternoon and the sun was brightly shining through the large westward facing window.

[NOTE 02/28/25]: Today, after about seven years of trying to recall or find out where I bought this mug, and who was the potter that made it, I finally caught an online thread, found an image similar to my mug, followed the artist’s name and even found a YouTube video by the artist, Claudia Dunaway, and even more surprising, the video showed several steps in how she made my mug (or one of thousands like it). Go here for more info on the mug, the potter & her husband, who drew the cartoon spaceship. [end NOTE]

They had updated their menu so that it is much smaller than the first couple of times I ate there. The original menus might have been twenty pages, dual sided and covered in heavy plastic. Now there are only about 5 pages, which each might be printed on a thin plastic.

I looked but saw nothing about a Pastrami Reuben. I asked the waitress if they still served a Pastrami Reuben and she said they had stopped serving pastrami some time ago. So, I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak with steak fries and a diet drink. The cheesesteak was delicious, but I only ate half and took the rest, along with some of the fries for a snack later. **So, they no longer serve a Pastrami Reuben. Yet another example of a past pleasant culinary experience disappearing over time. I am 70 years old, so I guess out with the old and in with the new. No “Sticks-n-Stones” pizza, too? Damn.

On the other hand, I do know how to make a delicious Pastrami Reuben at home, with homemade Thousand Island dressing, served with wavy potato chips & sauerkraut (on the sandwich, and as a special side). Mix some sauerkraut with the thousand island dressing and it makes a good side dish, maybe not just for Reubens. Would probably work for a fried pork chop, or even a hamburger.

I think I went to the Quality Inn directly after dinner and then went for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway later. It was about 7:13 pm and the sun was going down, but some areas along the road were well shaded. I looked ahead and saw something in the shadows, large and black, meandering across the road. I said to myself, “That’s a black bear.” And then moments later, a smaller black bear followed the first across the road. I slowed my car down, because I didn’t want to crowd them. Moments later a couple of cars came up behind me. As I passed the two bears, they were walking slowly up the side of the mountain disappearing into the undergrowth.

I drove along the Parkway for several more miles, passing a few overlooks, and going through at least one tunnel (maybe two) before turning around and heading back down to town. I get off the Parkway at the entrance to the North Carolina Arboretum and then headed back into town passing the WNC Farmer’s Market.

I had decided to park my car at the front of the motel and not at the side nearest my room. I figured that with no one being around at the end, it would be a good place to try to break into a car. I did notice an outdoor camera this morning. *The room had been renovated with nice fixtures & a quiet flush toilet.

This morning as I drove around downtown Asheville, I drove through the downtown tunnel and then turned around and came back through it. As I exited the tunnel, I made a sharp left turn and headed up a road that took me up one side of this mountain and then over it and beneath a stone bridge (Which I did not drive around to find if I could cross it.). From Google Maps & Street view, I think this overhead bridge is just for foot traffic.

As I came back down the mountain, on the side nearest downtown Asheville. I approached two wild turkeys. As I passed the house, there was only one of the turkeys still visible and it had that beautiful bronze, almost metallic looking plumage. *So last night I saw two black bears in the wild, and this morning I saw a couple of wild turkeys in downtown Asheville.

I went to the WNC Farmers Market just as it was about to open at 8 am today. I took with me, my Cara’s Corner bright yellow shopping bag that I had been given a couple of years ago. Cara’s Corner is still in the upper corner of the Market. The man was most helpful. They had no Gumbo File, but I did buy some lentils @$2.29 lb. and another type of bean I had never tried, Anasazi @$4.89 lb.. Anasazi beans are also called “New Mexico Cave Beans,” a heirloom variety related to kidney beans. *The man said he liked these beans and apparently they form a tasty gravy. My thought, about which I did not ask him, was that he might just be a vegetarian & that is why he didn’t season these beans with some kind of meat. I also bought some Danish Blue Cheese. This cheese looked good in the display case. And somewhere in the past I’ve bought & ate Danish Blue. Later at home, this was a good flavored blue cheese.

I just came across this Anasazi bean recipe online: Anasazi Beans and Rice with Kielbasa Looks like I have everything that goes in this recipe at home already. Kielbasa, celery, onion and sweet bell pepper, yum! I see from the photo of the finished dish that the beans turn a solid light brownish color, losing their distinctive burgundy & white mottled raw color in the cooking process. *I think it was the October Beans that I tried from Cara’s which were shaped like limas, but also had the mottled burgundy & white uncooked coloring which was lost after cooking. And I think the October Beans took on a kidney bean flavor. I have said it elsewhere in this blog, why buy October beans when you can get a can of re-fried beans, that are mashed up kidney beans.

Well, I made a small batch of the Anasazi beans with the Kielbasa (but no rice as per the above recipe) this morning. It looks like the burgundy part of the bean sloughs off and you are left with a brownish, kidney bean looking and flavored bean. Nothing to write home about. If I wanted a bean with a kidney bean flavor, I would fix kidney beans. So, out of the four unusual dry beans I’ve bought at Cara’s Corner, none of them are worth fixing a second time. As I said elsewhere, the Yellow Eye has a mild Black Eyed Pea flavor and that is probably why the Black Eyed Peas became the more dominant bean.

I went to Earth Fare after the WNC Farmers Market and they had the dulse I have been looking for for quite some time. I bought their only two containers for about $7 each. *Funny, but as I was passing through Morganton, I looked over and saw a Food Matters Market. I did a double take because I knew of only one other market with this name, and that was in Brevard, NC. **I checked with an employee and sure enough there are only two of these. She didn’t know why this one was in Morganton. ***And, what? They didn’t have Gumbo File either, but they did have the dulse so I bought another container for around $7. Now after a long draught, I have three packages of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables Dulse. I think I also bought a couple of jars of Minced Ginger. Well, I either bought the ginger here or at Earth Fare. I think I bought the Andouille Sausages at Earth Fare because I had an extended, friendly conversation with the butcher, who was having a minor problem with a gentleman as I walked up to the counter.

I came back to the Quality Inn and got some ice to put in a small container (a plastic Bento Box container that once had a couple of smaller plastic side containers that fit in the bigger box) and put the cheese and a couple of Andouille Sausage links in it. The ice had completely melted by the time I got home and the water had turned a brownish color. Not sure if the sausage was ruined, but I put both links in the freezer. I think the cheese is okay and plan to try it shortly. *The cheese was still good. I had a little with a few of the black sesame rice crackers about midnight.

You’ve got to understand that I might never be on Hwy. 18 going through Morganton, NC again, but I just looked over and saw the name. I had a vague memory that I knew this grocery (health foods store) from having visited one near Brevard, NC several years ago. I think I had been to the Brevard location at least twice, but really don’t know why I was passing through this area. I still had time to kill so I turned around and pulled into the Food Matters Market parking lot and went in.

After Earth Fare I headed up to Weaverville and stopped in the Mangum Gallery in downtown. One nice thing is that there is a small parking lot across the street. No charge, free parking, and just walk across the street to several of the shops. There were several “artists” around this parking lot painting, but facing in different directions.

There was a young man, in the Mangum Gallery, working on some of the pottery and I ended up asking him if he had ever seen or knew who created my “space ship” mug. I showed him a picture from my phone. He didn’t know who, but directed me to to a guild gallery that also had a school for students. It began with an “O” but I don’t recall if it was Odyssey or not. I didn’t go there. *Checked online and it is the “Odyssey Clayworks.” Odyssey Center for Ceramic Art

After the gallery, I drove over to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have a back route that leads me up the mountain and I come back down the Parkway, past the Folk Arts/Crafts Center, and then out onto US70. This time, I drove past the East Village Grille, on my left, and turned right at one corner of the VA Hospital. This road goes past the “staff/bus” entrance for the Folk Arts Center and under the Parkway. I then headed back to US70 which ends up below where the Parkway entrance/exit is located on US 70.

I then headed back to the New Morning Gallery and managed to get a parking space on the street at the very end (or head) so I didn’t even have to worry about leaving the parking space.

You enter the Gallery on street level and there are a bunch of stairs that lead up to the display area. But, I know where the elevator is located and I now take that up. They have blocked off one corner that was used for display, but now is used for storage. I looked at quite a few mugs and bowls and asked a female clerk about my “space ship” mug. She didn’t know it either. A gentleman also working there said there was a Guild location around the corner, and across the street, but I did not go there afterwards.

I did buy a cheap green Mangum soup bowl. It is a little deeper than the couple of bowls that I already have. The others might be shallow salad bowls. I say cheap because this bowl was only $34 plus tax. This is an old price because I see that most new items are now priced in the $60 – $80 range. Or at least they were at the Folk Art Center.

After the New Morning Gallery I headed out on I40, but pretty soon meandered back over to US 70. I did this because I needed to kill about an hour and a half. The actual driving time to Yadkinville from Asheville was about 2.5 hours.

I meandered through several towns on the way to lunch at 3:30 pm at the Yadkin Valley Seafood Restaurant in Yadkinville, NC.

I rode around Morganton for a short time, not finding their library although I saw the Library turn signs from several directions, but never saw a building labeled “Library.” Actually, I just checked with Google Maps and Street View and I drove completely around the Library but any signage was so small I did not see it. I do recall the parking lot across the street but didn’t know it was for the Library.

The cute blonde waitress with the nice behind wasn’t at the restaurant today. Probably long gone. I wasn’t even sure back then of how old she might have been. She might have still been in high school, or maybe in her early twenties.

Yadkin Valley Seafood Restaurant (Yadkinville, NC)

I asked my waitress what diet drinks they had and I thought she said Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. I said, “Oh great! I’ll have Diet Dr. Pepper.” Later when she brought my drink, it looked light in color and when I tasted it I wasn’t Dr. Pepper. I asked her about this and she then said, “Oh, we don’t have Diet Dr. Pepper. I thought you said Diet Mountain Dew.” I told her it would be okay, and it was, but as I ate and thought about this, I wasn’t the only person who didn’t hear well, because I know I said “Diet Dr. Pepper” in my reply. If I had heard her as she stated, I would have chosen Diet Coke.

My waitress charged me correctly for my meal but it seemed to be about $3 higher than I thought it should have been so I only gave her a $2.50 tip on a $20 meal. I checked on my phone later and saw that she had charged me the extra price but then I realized I had ordered scallops, popcorn shrimp and flounder, and the scallops were one of several items they charged extra for in their combos.

So after my lunch, it was about 4:30 pm and my GPS was suggesting the quickest route back home was through Winston-Salem and then just south of Greensboro. I decided that going through those cities in rush hour traffic would not be best so I made my own navigation. First I drove from Yadkinville to Mocksville.

From Mocksville to Lexington, and then from Lexington to Asheboro.

I turned around in the Davidson Funeral Home parking lot to get my GPS directions to Asheboro. There were some Hispanic kids (boys & girls) walking across town and I passed them or they passed me a couple of times because I had gone in the opposite direction to see a little more of town and then turned around to get back on track.

Each of these three segments took a little less than 30 minutes. After Asheboro, I headed south, but turned off to come through Seagrove and Robbins, NC, and this segment I had driven before. *I thought I had been to Lexington before, but maybe not. I had been through Lincolnton, NC several years back.

Robbins, NC (I’ve bought gas at this store before, but not during this trip.)

I do want to return to my stay at this Quality Inn in Asheville. The motel was obviously older, but I asked and they had started renovations in 2021. Everything was superb! The toilet had a quiet flush. The shower and the sink had good fixtures and there was plenty of hot water (although I did shower close to 6 am). There were all the amenities: mini fridge, mini microwave, TV with at least 80 channels and a remote, an iron & ironing board (which I haven’t used in probably 25 years) and a blow dryer for your hair. I got ice in the ice bucket and had my “Bill’s Drink.” I had carried my empty carafe and several packages of the dry flavored drink mixes and even had a bottle of mixed orange juice and cranberry juice. So, I wasn’t lacking at all with my personal drink as I normally have at home. I also had a medium avocado which I cut open with a metal spoon I had brought with me, and then scooped all of it out a little at a time. The avocado was perfectly ripe, but I had no salt and that would have made eating it perfect.

The bed was comfortable and had maybe five pillows on it. I think I registered that the pillows were a little hot during the night. The room had been renovated perfectly. Perfectly modernized and for the nightly price worth it. I saw nothing in the room that was a negative. No negative smells or stains, etc. The air conditioning worked fine. Locks on the door. Water pressure in the shower fine.

This morning I decided to go out for breakfast and I got dressed and headed over to J.K.’s. On the way over, I remembered that this was Wednesday and that J.K.’s is closed on Wednesdays. Instead of going on to Zorba’s, I passed by there and went to the Harris Teeter to fix a breakfast from their breakfast bar. I had scrambled eggs, cheese grits, a biscuit and sausage gravy, a small dollop of corned beef hash, and a couple slices of bacon. The total for the breakfast was a little over $9. The items on this bar had good flavor and I would try this again. *Recall that I had enjoyed the Harris Teeter lunch bar many times before I got something “bad” from that bar and my throat started to close up. Since I had tried everything previously, I’m thinking that maybe someone used some chemical cleaning solution and that remained on an item causing the allergic reaction. I stopped eating the lunch buffet there for several months and later tried it once again, with no problems, but never went back to it on a regular basis.

This morning the air was cool in Fayetteville and it reminded me of how the air had been fresh and cool as I was driving around Asheville the morning before. Asheville was a pleasant change.

I fixed some Anasazi beans yesterday and now have a pot of Andouille & Lentils on the stove at 2:01 am Thursday morning. I can already tell that the lentils are going to provide a much better flavor. And, the Andouille seems to be better than the Kielbasa, although I like the Kielbasa for my Kielbasa/Shrimp/Zucchini dish. I’ve also added Savory to the lentils, which I didn’t put in the Anasazi beans.

And yes, I have just tried them and they are really good.

Garlic Cauliflower

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Beef Liver, Sweet Potato, Steamed Broccoli & White Mountain Bread
Roasted Chicken, Cabbage Slaw, Tomato Chutney & Sesame Crackers
Pork Chops, Steamed Cabbage, Tomato Chutney & Onion/Peppers
Liver Pudding, Polenta,
Scrambled Egg & Grape Tomatoes
Round Bone Lamb Chop, Garlic Cauliflower & Bread
Tarragon Peas & Grape Tomatoes

Garlic Cauliflower I steamed my cauliflower first and in a separate small skillet I made the Garlic Sauce with Avocado Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, chopped garlic, smoked paprika & some Equal sweetener. I normally will “turn” anything with vinegar with a little sweetener, and this worked well.

[NOTE 01/29/24]: I am making a note regarding the term “London Broil”. Somewhere online, not very long ago, I read an article that said that “London Broil” wasn’t a type of meat (steak) but a way of cooking on high heat and close to the burner. I explained this idea to Jeff Mitchell yesterday when I was visiting to watch the NFL Playoffs. But this morning, early, I am not finding that article and it seems that London Broil is steak that has little fat content and needs to be cooked on high heat, near the burner, to keep the meat tender. But, I may continue to use the term “London Broil” when describing how I cook the Round Bone Lamb Chops and the Pork Chops in the oven, on high and near the top burner. Cooking it this way provides an amount of “char” on the meat, which means “flavor.” [end NOTE]

I cooked the lamb in the oven as London Broil. The round bone lamb chops normally are sold in pairs (not always) and usually I eat one and put the remaining one in the fridge for another meal. This time, I cut the larger chop so that I should now have two meals remaining. I’m trying to eat a little less, because I know that less weight makes it easier to control my Blood Glucose Level. The Garlic Cauliflower was just mildly sweet but I could see this and German Potato Salad (both have vinegar & sweetener) as being interchangeable as sides. I added some dried tarragon to my garden peas, and a little sweetener. I think I also drained the original liquid from the canned peas, and added Chicken Stock back and maybe a dollop of margarine. *I also went to the extra trouble of making a slice of garlic bread (white mountain bread slathered with margarine, and sifted generously with garlic powder). This toasts in the oven quickly.

I don’t do this always, but sometimes I add lime juice & sweetener to my steamed broccoli. I first learned of how good the steamed broccoli could be with lemon juice & sweetener at Red Lobster. I would order the steamed broccoli with the blackened fish lunch special. At some point I wanted a different flavor for the broccoli than just salt & butter and found the citric & sweet combo worked well. 

[NOTE 01/29/24]: I just noted in the paragraph above, that I was writing the word “cauliflower” but actually talking about “broccoli.” And oddly enough, I had written “steamed cauliflower” three times, but the last sentence (without even noticing) said “broccoli.” [end NOTE]

I probably first had a baked sweet potato, with sour cream, cinnamon and sweetener at one of the steak restaurant chains. Maybe Longhorn. I think I first ordered it with a cheap steak and liked it. But, I also like a “loaded” baked potato (Russet) with sour cream and butter. *It was probably America’s Test Kitchen where I first learned of the trick to a tasty baked potato. You pierce the potato skin all around the potato and then roll the potato in a saline solution (salt & water). The salt in the water sticks to the skin of the potato and forms a salty skin.

I like steamed cabbage, but also like cabbage slaw (with mayo & half-n-half, sweetener, vinegar). *I don’t usually add carrots to my slaw, but I have added sweet onion before and like that. I’ve also played with slicing the cabbage into thin, long slivers but sometimes have put the chopped cabbage in a blender with plenty of water and blending the cabbage until it is all just little fine bits. The water keeps the blended cabbage from becoming total mush, and each little sliver of cabbage is a consistent size. **I do like using Duke’s Mayo and some Half-n-Half and sometimes either a little vinegar or lime juice to thin it out.

The Liver Pudding shown above is a breakfast dish for me. I heat the liver pudding up in a small fry pan, on the stove top, in a little bacon fat. I peel the skin off the liver pudding and mash it down. It softens quickly. I also slice a couple of half inch wide polenta slices and put them in my waffle iron & press them down. Sometimes the polenta waffles brown just a little, but usually they just get warmed through. Still, I like these polenta waffles with the liver pudding and with the chipotle/avocado/chicken soup I make often. The chipotle/chicken soup has Southwestern flavors, so polenta, which is corn, works well, as do adding chopped cilantro leaves, or some chili or cumin powder.

The round scrambled egg is made in the microwave in my onion cooker. Currently, I have a bag of shredded 4 Mexican cheeses and I like adding that to my egg as it cooks. The cheese melts inside the egg. *I bought the 4 Mexican Cheeses blend with the intention of making a Southwestern Salad, but haven’t gotten around to it yet, mainly because the simple salad has a lot of calories. It includes: black beans, romaine lettuce, onion, ranch dressing & the Mexican Cheese blend.

I made a Cilantro-Lime Dressing when I fixed a salmon steak about a month ago. The dressing was good, different, but pleasant, but the next day my weight & resting Bgl jumped way up. I attributed the jump in the wrong direction to the dressing, but also wasn’t sure if I had eaten a larger portion of salmon than needed. Oh, salmon is pleasant, but it’s not something that I would repeat often. I will stick to my meat rotation of ground beef, steak, pork chops, lamb and roasted chicken (which I get from Publix). I do make a delicious tasting Seafood Chowder, which I do like to repeat. But, I prefer a little heat to the chowder and the end of the summer is when I can get some delicious peppers up at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh.

The savory rice thins crackers are delicious. They go good with salad and soups, and as a snack they take the Nueske’s Smoked Liver Pate and the two goat cheeses I really like, Bucherondin and Capricio de Cabra (sp). I had forgotten about the Bucheron Goat Cheese until about 3 months ago when I saw some in Wegman’s. I took a hockey puck of the Bucheron cheese home and when I tried it I recalled that this was one of the special cheeses I had tried years ago and liked. It might have been more than 30 years ago when I first tried this cheese, while I was living down in Jacksonville, NC. I probably couldn’t find it after I moved to Fayetteville, almost 30 years ago, and so I forgot about it. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but these crackers do not get soggy quickly when moisture hits their surface, so they provide a nice crunch with either soup or salad veggies.

I’ve found that Sprouts sells a cheap bottle of Pomegranate Juice. It does have a lot of sugar, but this juice also is supposed to be good at controlling blood sugar levels. *It is difficult to find low-sugar dried cranberries, but I like these with chocolate drops & either cashews or walnut pieces. When you do find low or no-sugar dried cranberries, they are much more expensive than the sweetened dried cranberries.

I was just watching TV, as I normally am, even if I am reading or doing something else on the laptop, and I saw a phone commercial. I don’t recall which company (AT&T I think.), but they have the young woman that was rather chesty, but has toned that down. What I found exceptionally funny was that the two women were looking at wedding dresses, and there were three white dresses displayed on mannequins with a sign that said, “Buy Two, Get the Third Dress Free.” One woman asks the other woman, “Is that a good deal,” to which the reply is, “No.” I started replaying this in my mind and suddenly thought that whomever wrote this commercial was very humorous. Ludicrous to think about buying two wedding gowns, and then to offer a third gown, even more idiotic, but how funny!

I had a really good pork chop, polenta, steamed asparagus and Greek salad.

bgibson135

The truth is that the Shrimp Burger with coleslaw and a side of fried okra & a cold Diet Pepsi (and a small plastic cup of Cocktail Sauce), was really delicious and… I just made dinner with a pork chop fried in bacon grease, steamed asparagus, polenta & a Greek salad and it was really delicious also. So was the gravy I made from the little bit of grease in the pork chop pan mixed with some Wondra flour and chicken stock. The gravy went well with the polenta and a little slice of pork chop, each bite.

The Greek salad was delicious, and the homemade dressing (red wine vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, Italian herbs, and sweetener) is spot on. The salad is simple: romaine lettuce, sweet onion, assorted olives, grape tomatoes and Feta cheese. Simple, yet easily repeatable, and consistently delicious.

And this homemade Greek salad went really well with the Lamb Gyro sandwich that I got from Pharaoh’s Legacy in Fayetteville (other side of town) last Wednesday. The next day I drove to Jacksonville, NC and had lunch at Marakesh Restaurant, and I had another Lamb Gyro there, with their small Greek salad. That was delicious also, but just a hair below the flavors of the previous day. Celebrated our birthdays, I together. I was born on Mary Ann’s 16th birthday, so she is now 86 years old, and I am 70 years old.

As far as I know I am in good health. I do have the pacemaker, to keep my heart from beating too slowly, and am taking one or more drugs to make sure it doesn’t beat too fast. Both of those seem to be working. And my Type 2 Diabetes has been better kept in check, until just recently when my resting Bgl has started to inch upward, I think because I am having trouble getting a refill for my Trulicity 4.5. Seems Trulicity is on back order across the board, not just CVS, but several CVSs, both n town and out of town (Erwin & Lumberton), and Walgreens (who said they were told not to order before February 23rd). That’s a full month from today. I’ve lost about 10 pounds in a little over 2 months, and my average resting Bgl has dropped about 30 points. My lows were just hitting about 150 about three months ago and for the last two months, just a few highs have been above 150. Quite a jump.

So, I feel relatively good. I’m able to live without assistance. Able to drive myself wherever, and daily to at least a couple of grocery stores (Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix, Fresh Market, Sprouts, Lidl, IGA, Walmart & Pates Farmer’s Market), and plan, days in advance, and cook my meals, with a relative sense of control of what I am eating, and varying the meats & veggies enough to not tire of any of it.

On the fly, I can change what I have scheduled to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, I replaced a salad for baked beans at dinnertime.

I’m enjoying reading the Connelly’ Bosch novels and am currently on my 5th, “9 Dragons.” 

Still wondering what happened to “the Overlook,” which I thought I had bought down in Washington at the Brown Library Book Sale last Friday. But, either I didn’t buy it, or I bought it and it has “magically” disappeared. I marked four novels (that I didn’t already have) on my phone as having been purchased in Washington. But, now I can only find 3 of them. I bought 10 Connelly hard backs in Washington. *Now, having mixed the books I had, with the new ones purchased, I can’t tell which is which, or even if one is missing.

From reading online, Eleanor Wish, Harry’s Ex, is murdered in “9 Dragons,” and Harry is exposed to radiation, which eventually leads to cancer, in “the Overlook.” I recall the Overlook story from the Bosch TV series. A woman’s husband is set up to steal radioactive material from a hospital, and then is killed by his wife’s lover (an FBI agent), which sets up the story to be told and the crime to be solved in that story. *The actress played a Princess of Mars (is that Barsoom) in the unsuccessful Disney movie. I liked the movie, but apparently the rest of the public did not, or at least not enough to pay for the exorbitant special effects. **The actress, Lynn Collins, who successfully played a “goddess” of Barsoom, is proof that movies can make “an ordinary looking woman” into a goddess, using makeup, wardrobe, lighting & camera angles.

So, at my age, I am facing, “the next moment” in which my life is severely changed, and in a negative way. I won’t be alive, or I won’t be able to live on my own, or cook for myself, or drive myself around (and that may be as few as five years more), or perhaps think clearly.

Sometimes I make homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, lime juice, olive oil, cumin seeds, S&P). I like to cut up some sweet bell pepper (assorted colors), a little sweet onion (Vidalia), halve a few grape tomatoes, add a few assorted olives and open a can of smoked oysters. I may even pour the oil from the smoked oysters into the hummus. I can make a meal off of this.

The replacement I bought.
Oneida Golden Julliard Cocktail/Seafood Fork.

I gave my whole Oneida Golden Julliard pattern away including the flatware box, and then I realized how dependent I had become using the above Cocktail/Seafood Fork, so I bought just one from the Replacements Showroom, just outside of Burlington. I use this fork a lot when eating olives, or the smoked oysters, pickles, or maybe even Spicy Chili Crisp out of the jar.

The Best Stewed Tomatoes…

bgibson135

I found this recipe for “The Best Stewed Tomatoes Ever” online. I did make a few modifications, but this just proves that it doesn’t take much for tomatoes to taste good, really good!

I’ve used Roma Tomatoes both times, and did the simple boil (for 30 seconds-1 minute) and then a quick “ice” bath. I only do 5 or 6 tomatoes total. I would have done six tomatoes the last time, but one of them had already begun to rot, and I only bought them a couple of days ago.

It is amazing how the boil/ice bath works to make a tomato easily peeled. 

I had part of a red sweet bell pepper that I large diced into the tomatoes, which I had cut up into smaller chunks. I also fine diced a regular onion and put that in the mix. I added some parsley flakes & salt, according to the recipe, but I also added some dried basil leaves (which I had grown last year, and then dried and put in a re-closeable sandwich baggie), and a little Splenda sweetener.

I bought a can of mushroom stems & pieces yesterday and then I went looking for a healthy “diabetic friendly” recipe. I had originally imagined stewing the mushrooms down to make a delicious mushroom gravy which led to thoughts of adding them to some Cream of Celery soup, but then I thought that the cream wouldn’t be as diabetic friendly as I would like. Not to add Half-n-Half to make this creamy, hmmm. 

I had some leeks, so I chopped up one small one, and some onion, and some sweet bell pepper. I think I added a diced carrot, some dried tarragon and just a little Splenda sweetener. I ended up eating this concoction as my dinner, along with some of the steamed cabbage I had cooked for lunch. 

*Beef Polska Kielbasa, waffle polenta cakes and steamed cabbage make a good, comfort food meal. I have recently started flavoring my steamed cabbage first with just a little Splenda sweetener. Then I may add a little margarine while it is steaming. Some S&P and some Celery Seeds. Once the cabbage is done, I put them on the plate, and flavor one portion with some bacon fat and another portion with Toasted Sesame Oil.

This worked. I had calf liver, with sauteed onions, some of the best stewed tomatoes (.5 cup is just enough), roasted cauliflower seasoned with smoked paprika & margarine, and a slice of the Tuscan Boule Loaf bread from Publix. I would do this combination again because it all worked together very well.

One surprise was that the sauteed onions complimented the roasted cauliflower.