doctor said, “you’re anemic.” what to do, what to do?
good thing this is near us. Hilltop Steakhouse is long-time icon of this area, and one of the first places husband took me when we were newly married. they maintain their own butcher shop (a huge walk in freezer–brrr, painful during winter but worth keeping your hat and mittens on for). the prices make me vow to come back at least once a month.
the idea is from eetsmakelijk.com, when chef thess went out to a post valentine dinner and blogged some mouth-watering entrees.

yum neua
or grilled sirloin steak tossed with thinly sliced cucumbers and red onions, on a bed of green leaf lettuce, dressed with a fish sauce based dressing and garnished with fresh mint and cilantro leaves. sprinkled with toasted ground rice.
dressing (perfect hot sour salty sweet combination, but add more or less of each ingredient as your taste buds require):
2 tbsps. lime juice
1 tbsp. fish sauce
3 tsps. sugar
1 finely sliced red chili
and here’s some other treats we’ve had lately.

chicken in sweet wine and mushroom sauce over linguine
(adapted from a famous big Italian American chef–i have revised it too much i don’t think he’d be happy to be associated with this! chicken instead of veal, and i was out of Marsala, so i used Muscat which turned out too sweet. so we had to tweak it a bit. i added some red wine and my precious brown veal stock, and Maggi, and salt and pepper…but it was delicious nonetheless)
5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, pounded thin and dredged in salt and pepper seasoned flour
1/4 cup olive oil
8 ozs. baby bella mushrooms
1 cup marsala wine
2 tbsps. cold butter
thyme sprigs
heat up skillet to medium, add olive oil, and brown the chicken until deep golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. do not crowd the chicken as they brown so do this in batches. put the chicken aside in a platter.
add the mushrooms and saute over medium low heat until juices run and dry out a bit. add the Marsala and let reduce by a third over medium heat. season with salt and pepper. add the butter. return the chicken cutlets into the pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5-6 minutes. add the thyme leaves.
husband’s conclusion: always taste as you cook! “season, season, season….”
sweet reward:
banana split at home 
my children inhale ice cream, which is sanctioned by the pediatricians as a dreamy source of calcium anyway so we let them indulge. it’s our job to search out the sales: fuel oil price rises directly correlate to the price of ice cream so we buy when it’s buy one get one (only the brands with no more than 3-syllable- ingredients though).
it’s long been my plan to have a “make your own banana split” day… i’d make my own ice creams if i had a lot of time. but to the marketing people who conjure up the names for the ice cream: i want your job! 
i whipped our own cream and chopped up fresh strawberries (macerated in a bit of lemon juice and lots of fine sugar) and our own chocolate fudge sauce. canned pineapple and toasted almonds (yikes i forogot maraschino cherries!) and that was enough to put my kiddies in “dreamy chocolate,” strawberry, and “pistachio pistachio” heaven.
alistair little’s chocolate fudge sauce from green and black’s unwrapped (boy is it hard to orient myself to ml’s and oz’s!!)
125 ml. heavy cream
5 ozs granulated sugar
1 oz. butter
75 ml golden syrup (Lyle’s)
75 ml milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
100 grams (3 &1/2 ozs.)dark chocolate, preferably 60% minimum cocoa solids (i used Baker’s anniversary special edition)
put all ingredients except chocolate in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over moderate heat, stirring constantly until mixture is a pale caramel color, about 10 to 15 minutes after coming to a slow boil. remove from the heat and beat in the chocolate pieces. stir in 35 ml (about 1& 1/2 oz.) of cold water. if the mixture is still too thick, add more a spoonful at a time, until of good pouring consistency.
this is it for a while, unless i can bribe one of my kids to blog for me :)..
i need to have something done (not liposuction or plastic surgery, sadly! heehee), and we have somewhere far away to go to… thank you thank you all you beautiful friends. i shall return!

MacArthur Park