For the main dish at the Cherry Creek Chorale’s Saturday-morning rehearsal breakfast, I’m making my old reliable Union Square Breakfast Casserole. I didn’t make enough of my Caramel-Apple French Toast casseroles last time; I think for this event I’ll make a six-fold batch. But . . . I have some nice ham on hand that I need to use up, so I’m just going to dice that up and use it instead of the Italian sausage called for, and I’m going to make 1/3 (so two panfuls) without the ham so it can be vegetarian/kosher. I won’t have to brown sausage, which is a whole step in the recipe. [Also, later update: I didn’t do the fresh mushrooms, nor did I cube the bread. The casseroles were pretty thrown together, but they tasted great.] You do need to follow the recipe for the egg/milk proportions and for the basic amount of bread, but beyond that you can do pretty much what you want. Which I did!
Well, this past Friday, Nov. 1, was supposed to be an encouraging day because I had scheduled an A1C re-test, using the second kit in the two-pack that my in-laws gave me for my birthday back in March. (As I’ve said before, the A1C test measures what percentage of your hemoglobin cells have glucose molecules stuck to them, and since those cells live for only three months your results are seen as a three-month view of your blood sugar rather than the one-time reading you get from a simple glucose monitor.) That March test had registered as a 5.3, which was super, super great–but I wasn’t completely sure that it was accurate. Although the brand I had (from Walgreen’s) is pretty well rated, I just didn’t think I could possibly have a score that low. There’s been one time that I hit 5.7, which is the threshold for what is called “pre-diabetes,” the yellow warning zone that comes before the red alert of 6.5 of higher. Once you hit 6.5 you’re considered to have full-blown diabetes. I’ve usually hovered in that 6.0-6.4 range, and as far as I know I’ve never hit 6.5 My doctor told me at one point that he didn’t think I would ever topple over into full-blown diabetes, and I sure hope he’s right.
I have 
I wrote last week about my accidental weight loss of 2-3 pounds and how I’m trying to hang onto it. So far, so good. Yesterday was 115.5. I have my A1C reading on Friday, so we’ll hope that’s okay, too. But, just to show that life is always throwing a curve ball, that very same Wednesday I started getting sick, which doesn’t happen too often. Once in a while, though, maybe every other year or so, my chronic allergies and my chronic sinus problems combine to give me an actual infection. Nothing serious, and I’m not going to share any gross details about nose blowing or anything, but I was laid low through Monday after caving in and going to a doctor last Friday. Once I started in on antibiotics there was a definite improvement, but the process took several days. No floor exercises or walks took place during that time, and then we started in with snow and cold as of Tuesday. I wasn’t going to get out on the trail with those conditions, so the dreaded treadmill was in the cards. I wimped out yesterday but finally got myself upstairs today, putting in 45 minutes at a fairly slow pace and also doing a full round of the floor thingies. (I should do a post sometime about what I do, but it would have to involve a video. Have to think about that one. Let me just say here that I’m a firm believer in doing something simple and short, qualities that make the routine much easier to stick with.) In theory I’m back in the saddle.
This morning on the “Happier” podcast Gretchen Rubin gave a truly shocking statistic:
There’s been a friendly rivalry of sorts going on at our church between another woman and myself over who gets to do what food events. Neither one of us is actually running a business per se, but we both enjoy(?) putting on big meals. I had done our church Christmas party dinner (60-75 people) for about three years, then I said it was just too much. So my friendly rival (henceforth designated FR) took it over and did a spectacular job. I stayed out of the fray except for making desserts and my famous pink eggnog for several years, but then I sort of missed it. Last year I asked the woman in charge if I could do it. “Oh, I’m so sorry, but FR already asked if she could do it again this year, and I said yes.” So I stuck with my usual role. FR had also done the food for our annual women’s retreat for a couple of years, with the 2018 one being especially good. She made her grandmother’s green chile (chili? I can never remember when to use which spelling), and it was awesome. Plus she made this cold strawberry soup for dessert. Man! Plus, she made some little chocolate tarts that were . . . vegan. And in spite of that drawback they were honestly one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. So rich!
