Re: from Gail re: menus for the time you will be with us for the Xmas weekend

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Thanks for doing this.

Replies below.

 > From: "Gail" <http://www.cox.net/~g3>
 > Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2016 22:50:02 -0800
 >
 > Hi Robert and Noelle,
 > 
 > I have finally figured out what foods we will be serving. I have been
 > working on this most of this afternoon and evening as this kind of planning
 > is quite time consuming. These are choices as a lot depends upon what
 > activities you want to do while you are here. For ex. you usually get
 > together with friends while you are here, so we don't know whether you are
 > planning on doing that this time. It's up to you as long as you leave
 > sufficient time to help Don operate his new laptop computer as well as go
 > through the slides Noelle wants to take if Don and I haven't had enough time
 > to do all of that ourselves before you arrive. 

It does sound ambitious.  If there is just a proper subset of slides which
you have gone through, we can take only that subset rather than the whole
kit-and-kaboodle.  In fact, doing this move piecemeal may be better.

Obviously, getting Don working with his new laptop will have to be the
highest priority.

 > Fri. eve. 12/23 Dinner after you arrive. We suggest going to the only vegan
 > restaurant there is in the SB area that we know about which is the one in
 > the Mesa area that you and we have been to before. We checked, and it is
 > open that Fri. but not Sat. nor Sun.

Sounds good.

 > Sat. eve. 12/24 Dinner: We could either go to China Pavillion restaurant
 > downtown where you can get vegan items while the rest of us order regular
 > Chinese food. They are open 12/23 through 12/25. Or, and maybe I prefer this
 > idea so we aren't eating in a restaurant two evenings in a row, I could make
 > a homemade soup that has vegetables in it and turkey meatballs - the latter
 > I can leave off of Robert's bowl. I would serve this with herbed pita bread
 > toasts. 

Sounds good.  I'm assuming that the broth will be vegan.

 > Breakfasts: I will make a cranberry bread and have on hand breakfast fruits
 > and non-nitrate/nitrite breakfast meat. One of those breakfasts, we can
 > always have eggs such as an omelet or there are always cereals with 1% milk
 > on hand, etc.

OK.  I can have cereal with soymilk.

 > Lunches: One lunch I can make a New Orleans style "Saints Muffaletta
 > sandwich". The other day we always have regular sandwich bread, mayonnaise,
 > mustard, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese, and poultry or
 > non-nitrate/nitrite lunch meats on hand as well as vegetable sticks and dip.

Since we'll be receiving our box full of vegetables this week, we should
probably bring some of those down.

I'll plan on making Broccoli and Chard Puree.  I can have that with some
flat bread or tortillas.

 > Snacks: I will most likely have egg nog on hand for a snack, as well as
 > mixed nuts, peanut butter, and trisket crackers. Because we have to make an
 > appetizer for 2 events this week before you arrive, we may have some of them
 > left over which will be homemade cheese sticks and a warm
 > crabmeat/celery/canned artichoke hearts, cheese dip/spread to put on
 > sourdough or French bread slices. 

OK.

 > Christmas 12/25 evening dinner: Main Dish: "Easy short ribs braised in red
 > wine"

I'll plan on bringing ingredients for Tom Tofu.

 > served with egg noodles or wheat or spinach noodles with a mixed
 > cooked vegetable of carrots, onions, and celery. As I recall, Robert doesn't
 > like celery, so he could leave that off of what I cook before I put butter
 > on them.

OK.

 > By the way I also have on hand about a half package of fresh kale
 > that Robert can cook and eat.

Will it still be fresh by the time I get there? :-)

 > Salad: "Cape Cod chopped salad" which has
 > apples, pecans, etc. in it.

OK.

 > Dessert: Persimmon cake with pecans in it served with yogurt vanilla ice
 > cream. For Robert, as a reminder I have in our freezer a gluten free pie
 > crust that he can use to make his own pie. 

I think I'll pass.  We'll just pick up a pint of soy ice cream at your
local Trader Joes.

 > Some of the other activities we could do with time permitting if you are
 > interested while you are here are: go watch ice skating at Goleta's new ice
 > skating rink - about a year old that we haven't seen yet, go on the trolley
 > to see the Holiday lights at night where I think they serve hot chocolate,
 > watch our Netflix movie called "Indignation" re: Christian and Jewish
 > issues, look at our Portugal/Spain Spring 2016 photos as well as our
 > Thanksgiving 2 trips recently to Boston and Sherman, TX for family reunions,
 > go to the SB Zoo which we haven't been to in quite some time where they have
 > some relatively new baby animals, and watch the surfers in the Rincon,
 > Carpinteria area which I don't think I have ever seen - or anything else you
 > would like to do. If you plan to visit with the Trunks, we would enjoy being
 > a part of that or they could join us for that Sat. soup supper if you let me
 > know ahead so that I can make enough for extra eaters. 

I think we'll be quite busy aside from all the events and activities.

 > I think that is everything I can think of now to get this to you so you can
 > do your food shopping tomorrow.

Yes, thanks.

 > If you have any questions regarding any of
 > this, please feel free to ask as well as let us know more about your plans.
 > I almost forgot, what do you want to do Sat. AM in terms of whether I should
 > arrange to get a substitute for me as the other regular tennis players would
 > like to play tennis on 12/24 that morning from 9:30-11:30 AM? Please let me
 > know about that as soon as you know and can.

I think we'll be fine without you.  That might be a good time to help Don
set up his laptop.

 > The weather here has been very
 > cold lately, but we hear that it will warm up perhaps to 70 degrees by the
 > time you arrive.

Good to know.

 > We look forward to seeing you soon.
 > 
 > Love,
 > 
 > Gail