Waiting for the plow guy to come and do our driveway, I’m trying not to be too antsy. Normally my husband snowblows the driveway, but not this year—the year of the knee. I cannot and will not operate a snowblower. I’m not that much of a feminist.
The word of this winter will have to be patience. That’s the only way we’re gonna get through it.
OK, I’m back in a good mood now. I had a lovely Christmas Eve.
I felt profound gratitude for four things last night:
1) I have a good son. Mothers of good sons, you know what I mean! Last night my son drove me to church for choir practice and came back an hour later to sit with me during the service, which was especially meaningful as my husband couldn’t make it to church this year due to his knee surgery. My son offers his arm when we walk through icy parking lots together. ❤️
2) SINGING: I just love it. Especially on Christmas Eve at our beautiful candlelight service.
3) My husband felt well enough to go out to dinner with us after church. It was his first time in a restaurant since his surgery a month ago.
4) A negative mammogram. Ladies, you know how good that feels. Even if you’ve never had breast cancer, we all have friends or family members who have had it. (I got my results on Christmas Eve at 10pm.)
And now we await the arrival of our “celebrity guest” (as my son is calling her)—my precious one-year old granddaughter and her parents.
Merry Christmas!
I wanted to make things easy on myself yesterday as I am doing all the cooking, while my husband recovers from total knee replacement surgery. (His leg still aches too much to eat out in a restaurant.) I had the idea of making chicken parmigiana with store-cooked chicken cutlets, but the price for TWO of them was $16.99, so I decided to make them myself.
Believe it or not, it was my first time making chicken parm. I looked at NYT Cooking’s version of the recipe, but then decided to go with something simpler that Google turned up:
I like how there’s a baked version of the recipe (if you don’t want to fry the cutlets in oil first), but for my first time making it, I decided to fry the cutlets.
I didn’t have sliced mozzarella, so I used about 8 ounces of grated mozzarella and it was yummy. I also didn’t have basil, so I topped with a bit of fresh parsley leftover from my Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken.
My husband was very appreciative (as always) of my efforts and I liked it too. I used store bought marinara sauce (Rao’s), so it was really pretty easy.
I recommend buying high-quality organic chicken breasts (like Bell & Evans) and slicing them into cutlets yourself before pounding.
The healing process for my husband’s knee replacement is ongoing. Sadly, we had to cancel dinner with our son for his 25th birthday tonight, because my husband just isn’t ready for restaurants yet. There’s still a ton of pain, swelling, and stiffness, which apparently is normal at this stage (3 weeks post-op), but he’s never dealt with anything like this, so it’s pretty hard.
I decided to try a recipe I saw on NYT Cooking “most popular recipes of 2025” list—Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken. It looked easy and it was. My husband loved it. He said the flavor was great and it really was. I even made my own croutons, which soaked up the delicious sauce perfectly.
New England is experiencing real “depths of winter” cold right now. (It’s giving late January vibes.) Given the very cold weather and the knee, I think this was a success. And so easy.
Here’s the recipe:
Slow cookers (aka crockpots) are the best, right?
As Shelly told me, arthroplasty recovery is gruesome. Between the bruising, the swelling, the pain and the really gross incision, it’s a major yuk…especially for the medically squeamish.
I was pretty stressed out dealing with my patient this weekend. Sadly, that resulted in me getting overly annoyed in a couple of situations. (The only one I feel badly about is the pharmacy tech at Walgreens—it wasn’t her fault that their printer didn’t work and she couldn’t give me his prescription.)
I appreciate the many great suggestions I got for Bingeworthy shows during this time of very little activity for me and my patient (aka my husband).
I am pleased to report that we have found a worthy successor to Poldark and it is…drumroll please…The Diplomat (also on Netflix). Although it’s not a period piece like Poldark, it’s got a lot of the ingredients we like: Europe; excellent actors (many of whom are inevitably Brits); good writing; good production values, and very little violence. There are 3 seasons out (22 episodes) with a fourth in production. As everyone knows, Netflix releases entire seasons at once, so all shows are bingeable.
In the non-binge department, we are enjoying Pluribus on Apple TV+. I believe they drip those out on Fridays. It’s my understanding that Vince Gilligan created the show specifically for its star Rhea Seehorn. She’s so good in it. And she’s an American playing an American (not an incredibly talented Brit playing an American—a pet peeve of mine!)
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
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