MICHELLE ~ My go to vegetarian dish is my cheese enchiladas, vegetarian refried beans and rice. Can be made the night before and warmed up, when needed, on a plate in the microwave.

IRIS ~ AWESOME!!! Looks like a cool end to the run!

Iris, looks like a fun race with lots of interesting scenery to look at! And your foster dog is soooo adorable. Speaking of dog-napping...

Saef, mirrors for different rooms, a make-up mirror - very essential, and a gift for a friend. What's narcissistic there?

Michelle, my family would make Mollie Katzen's recipe for Cauliflower Marranca (spelling?) from her Moosewood Cookbook when our vegetarian friends would come over. I remember really liking it, and it's a casserole in one dish so easy to transport & reheat. We always used brown rice. I found it posted on this blog. I like veggie chili or enchiladas, too!

So many Italian dishes can be done vegetarian. I'd go for that as so many can also be done as a casserole. But vegetarian chili is also good.

Vegetarian lasagna is delish. Vegetarian Pizza is also delish, the boys would probably enjoy a Pizza.

Thanks for the suggestions. I won't do pizza because at the funeral they kept talking about how the dad made amazing pizza every week for pizza night. He was quite a good chef. I think pizza would make them sad.

. . . no surprise that this post will be about DH, hhhm? He's going to quit this job. He's been there for just over a month. *sshole! Now the fighting begins about him getting a new job before he quits this one. He claims he "can't" job hunt unless he's unemployed. I think that's b*llcrap and completely unacceptable and will keep repeating that whenever this comes up.

That was relatively quick and painless, yes? I'm done.

Dagmar

I'm so sorry DAGMAR Your present situation with DH runs deep doesn't it?

One thing I wanted to mention to you Dagmar, about your past post and meeting people, is that at our church we have a variety of groups that meet on semi to regular basis for activities. We have women's groups of all ages that just go and do things together.

My sister in law loves her book club at church, she goes every Friday night. They have some food, wine and discuss the book of the month. My brother loves it too! Gives him an evening home alone

It is not necessary to be a member or even come to our church to participate. I have no idea if you have any churches in your area but there may be one that has something of interest to you.

Dagmar, I will definitely put him on a leash next time, although once he's freaking out it's hard to get it on him. Also, sorry about DH. I am starting to think you either need to get some professional help with him or give him some ultimatums. Like, if he doesn't keep his job while looking for a new one, you will not pay for any of his bills.

Carter is doing fine today. I'm working from home to keep an eye on him, but I think tomorrow DH and I will both go in to work and leave him on his own. He seems pretty settled with the e-collar on so he will probably just sleep all day. The pain killers the vet gave us seem to make him drowsy too and he gets one in the morning (tomorrow morning is the last one). In any case right now he is sleeping in the sunny spot by the back door as usual.

Michele, I would go for mac and cheese. Kids usually love it and it's always vegetarian although it doesn't always have many veggies in it. You could always do a salad on the side. Cooking light has a few recipes for it, and there is a good one from Martha Stewart that's for a "lighter" mac and cheese which has tomatoes which I love.

Saef, the mirrors sound lovely! I wish I had your antique expertise. Our guest bedroom set was purchased at a yard sale and had been in the previous owner's family for three generations, but I don't know anything about it. It's lovely and includes a vanity with bench and mirror.

Iris, good job on your race!

Allison, I think your 18-year-old would understand if you said it was an anniversary trip for the two of you and he wasn't invited!

Michelle, no pizza, it is thoughtful of you to be aware of what memories that might bring to the family. Vegie lasagna is really very good, that a salad, French Bresad ( maybe garlic bread ) and a pan of brownies, Who doesn't like brownies ? I use Duncan Hines Brownie Mix and everybody loves them.

Dagmar, your SO needs to know that a future employer will find an employed person better qualified for a position than someone who has just quit a job after a month.
Does he think you are supposed to support him ?
If I were in your position I would tell him it is about time to pee or get off the pot. I would have been tired of all this a long time ago. No one can tell you what to do, you know what you need to do. 2 choices, go or stay. Only you can make the decicion. Tough, I know. Good luck with whatever you decide.
PS , Anne Landers or was it Abby Van Buren always said "Ask yourself this, "Would I be better off with him or without him?"

Keep it down BARGOO, Angie might hear you!

I'm also sorry Dagmar for what you've been going through. I can imagine it is hard, and I haven't walked in your shoes, but I don't think I would stay with someone who doesn't even try to help support the family. Especially if no kids are involved. Do you really see a future with him in 10, 20, or 30 years? Do you think things will improve? I'm sorry to say that, but from an outsider, it is hard to see his positive qualities, though I'm sure there are some. Prospective employers will not be interested in someone who doesn't have stable job history.

Jessica-- ouch to Carter! We've had many stitches two of our dogs. My Great Dane Jozi has had them once or twice, and our departed (and dumb) Doberman Ozzie, had them multiple times. When we lived in South Africa, we had tile stairs that had many levels-- you would go up a few, down a few, etc. Ozzie would run through the house every time he heard anything and trip down or up the stairs. He kept hitting his "knee", and needing stitches. After the third time, I told him he could scar. I just wrapped it after that.

Dh keeps saying he is going to try Bikram Yoga with me but hasn't yet. He *might* go tomorrow. I'd love to see how he does. I was telling him how you can't leave the room no matter how exhausted you are-- you are supposed to sit or lie down. He laughed at me and said he'd done much harder things in his life. It should be interesting....

Dagmar, during the past week, my mother & I had a brief exchange that made me think about cooking and adoption of new recipes and new ways of making things.

I made beef and barley vegetable soup, then I made a vegetable stir fry with marinated chicken, then I talked about making individual meatloaves in muffin tins.

My mother said she'd never think of making things like that, and her family never ate things like that, though maybe they would have liked some of the things.

It occurred to me that because her family were poor, they didn't go out to eat very often, and if they did, it wasn't usually to a little ethnic restaurant. There were no food shows on TV. And also, they didn't read many magazines, at least, not the kind with photographs of food and recipes included. They simply weren't readers. Thus, all my sources for learning about food and new things to try weren't available to them, or if they were, they did not avail themselves of these things.

They learned cooking in actual kitchens, from family and maybe neighbors. (This still astonishes me: They'd never had spaghetti till an Italian-American family moved in next door.) I picked up some skills that way, but not so many recipes. My recipes come from written sources, in magazines and on the Internet, and from TV shows.

It's a bigger food-related world out there for some of us. And that's a sign of education and privilege, even if not of wealth.

And Dagmar, I'm not ignoring or diverting attention from your situation.

I've had female and male friends in bad relationships.

I learned to support them but keep my mouth shut about the significant other. Because though they often mentally left the person they were with, or made plans to leave, they didn't. Not for years. And at times, in the false starts, when they decided to stay a while longer and give it a chance, and went through a happy period of reunion and re-commitment, they tended to disassociate from those who'd encouraged them to end the relationship.

In the end, they did end these relationships. But in several cases, it took years. Even a decade, for one, until children had pretty much grown up and didn't require care.

You'll do what you need to do, once you decide that you must. I have faith in your judgment.

I am assuming there is either something emotional that has kept you committed, though the bond is very, very frayed at this point, or something practical, like money or housing. (I know people who've stuck with someone they no longer loved just so as not to brave the Manhattan or Brooklyn housing market, or not to be stuck living on one income, after years of comfort with two incomes.)

Perhaps you are waiting for your father's situation to change and then will rapidly go through many changes, including with this relationship.

And let me add Dagmar, though I haven't personally walked in your shoes, I did grow up in a house where my parents should have divorced decades earlier. They never did divorce, though they were miserable, separated multiple times, etc. Eventually my mom died which ended the decades long misery. I truly never saw them happy or even anything close to it.