Reflections and Recipes

I feel like I've completed my first cycle although there are still a couple of weeks until I start the second one. I had a little soreness in my left shoulder and arm from the Neulasta (white blood cell booster shot) but nothing dramatic. Knees are a little sore (weak?) too. I finished my ten days of prednisone and procarbazine last night and am looking forward to seeing how that effects me the next two weeks. Feeling a little tired, I took a nap yesterday afternoon. I realized I was a little low on sugar and that may have contributed to my fatigue. I'm doing well and will start my second cycle on Monday, May 17. The key thing there is Monday. Being able to move the start of the cycle from Wednesday to Monday is important to me so that I can travel more easily for work. Only the first week of the cycle requires me to be home. Mondays give me more flexibility.

Yesterday we planted two trees. Our community has a program where you can purchase trees relatively inexpensively for planting in your yard. We planted a flowering crab and white oak. We also did a little cleanup around the yard and in the shed and started planning some enhancements to our gardens. We want to incorporate more species native to Minnesota in one area in particular.

We also prepared some great meals. We had ribs, cole slaw, and Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans (yes, out of a can but the ingredients were OK) on Friday. Saturday we made Bison Burgers with home fries.

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Click below for the collection of recipes or for an easy to print copy of a single recipe.

Collection of Recipes

Baby Back Ribs A friend of ours makes great ribs and we have used it for years. It's not so much a recipe as a prepartation guide. The real recipe is the sauce which I tried to model after Gates BBQ in Kansas City.

BBQ Sauce Sauce ingredients can be a problem for me so I've started to make more of them and other condiments. This sauce is very good and easy to make.

Cole Slaw What are ribs without cole slaw? I didn't want to buy it without knowing the ingredients. This is a great recipe for cole slaw. The spices really make it. The major ingredient is mayonaise so I made my own.

Mayonnaise A little fussy but it wasn't that hard to make. It turned out thin which was fine for the cole slaw. I have since found that I can get mayo with approved ingredients at Whole Foods and will do that in the future. But since I made the mayo - thought I'd include the recipe too.

Bison Burgers Simple and delicious. I really haven't prepared bison often but decided to try it. It's better than beef for burgers - tender, juicy, and so simple to make.

Home Fries Years ago I found hints to this recipe in a mystery I was reading. They are very good and our kids have loved them for years. And yeah, they're great with ribs and burgers.