# What's For Dinner Tonight: Episode 2021 – A New Hope **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [January 20, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015 "2021-01-20T19:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 204
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4062 "2025-05-06T02:07:53Z")
You are so right! I’ll murder a cup of ramen if I’m feeling like crap. 🙂 But Oregon’s weather has turned very springlike, so ramen will have to wait. I do have some chicken soup on hand, though… If I may ask, how did you do with the first Shingles shot? I was pretty miserable for a bit more than a day. So definitely dreading Shot #2, which everyone says is _“way worse”_ than Shot #1. (Yikes!) I do tend to suffer with vaccines – COVID are the worst. To date. On the bright side, I won’t have to have any more Shingles shots! The salmon and risotto were both perfect, so at least I had a nice Last Meal! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4063 "2025-05-06T02:13:13Z")
You can have the comparison, direct from the 'dope! Shot # 1: > [@So I Have Shingles](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-have-shingles/1001448/93): > > Shingrix first shot update: 24 hours later. Last night was… unpleasant. Much higher fever than earlier, head and body aches, alternating between sweating and chills. Sleep was, as to be expected, crap. Got up this morning, added more NSAID, and back to about where I was in my prior report: achy (especially injection site) with some head and body pain (which may be just as related to the horrible sleep), and low to mid range fever. But no more sweating/freezing cycles. With only a little … Shot # 2 > [@So I Have Shingles](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-have-shingles/1001448/103): > > I had my second shot on 8/30 (Friday). Friday night was fine, mediumish fever before bed though (around 99, up from my usual just shy of 98F per my doctor). Saturday? All suck, all day, fever went to just over 101 after which I made myself stop trying to make sense, took more pills, a shower, and tried to sleep. Today the fever is reduced back to the mid 99s, but my energy comes and goes with it. Fever spikes? Frenetic energy. Fever drops? Exhaustion. Still, if the experience of my firs… So, yes, second shot was worse, lasted a bit longer, but was just really unpleasant rather than dangerous, and thankfully resulted in just a few stupid/sloppy posts. Short version, for both I was fine for 8-10 hours other than a low to medium fever, then during the night it ramped up, left me feeling crappy the whole next day, and then improved pretty rapidly for the first shot, +1 day for the second. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4064 "2025-05-06T02:16:58Z")
Thanks for sharing that! Sounds like we both suffer a bit excessively from vaccinations. I’m tempted to board the Floppy-Eared Terror for an overnight so I can suffer in peace. He’s going for a nail trim at the kennel before I head to the pharmacy… if they have the room, I might just do it. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4065 "2025-05-06T02:21:20Z")
I can only advise for me, myself and I for this particular shot. It was a lot more noticeable than my reaction to say, Moderna Vax, which in turn was a lot more noticeable than how the Pfizer vax hit me during Covid (barely at all). Seasonal flu? Normally just a bit under the weather for 24 hours! But Shingrex was _easily_ the worst vaxx reaction I’ve ever had. So, obviously, YMMV. Do lay in some easy to prepare and eat foods, for which I’d say lovely Salmon and risotto leftovers ranks pretty darn high, plus the ramen, and maybe some other comfort food. I’m fond of getting premade (if I lack the time to make any) sweet rice pudding when I need something that is unlikely to challenge me. Ah, before I go _more_ off-topic, tonight was a lovely homemade quasi-guac since it’s May 5th (store Hass avocado, rehydrated-but-formerly-fresh from my MiL’s garden tomatoes from last season, lime juice, roasted Peublo Mirasol chile, garlic), tortilla chips, and a 505 Roasted Green Chile and lime marinated chicken breast, sliced and added to flour tortilla wraps with some mixed greend. Delicious! ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4066 "2025-05-06T02:27:03Z")
All excellent ideas, thanks. I will definitely have the comfort food angle covered! Interestingly, when I suffer from the COVID reactions, which for me are 3 days of what you endured with Shingles 2, the only thing I find soothing is a big steaming cup of coffee with heated milk. Why does it help? I have no idea. But it does. Your dinner sounds fabulous, and thanks for nudging us back on topic in such a delightful way! ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4067 "2025-05-06T03:34:44Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > how much (approximately) garlic and ginger did the original use for the 24 hour marinade? Bottles have already gone out in the trash, but I bought a squeeze bottle of the minced ginger and minced garlic, probably 12 oz. each. And used more minced garlic to make the fried garlic. Damn, but they were tasty tonight! I also toasted up some sesame seeds to sprinkle on them. Mama really liked them, that’s the main point 😄 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4068 "2025-05-06T03:44:10Z")
Hmmmm. For the presentation, I’d stick with the sliced cloves (just looks nicer IMHO), but I have a jar of minced Trader Joe’s garlic in the pantry that’s (checks quickly) 8 oz. I’m pretty sure that would be plenty for a mere 2lbs of wing sections. And I have a metric TON of shredded ginger in the freezer. My wife buys it in bulk fresh from Costco ever few months to make a morning ginger-lemon-tumeric-vinegar breakfast tisane, and I always salvage the ground up ginger after she steeps it in the lemon/vinegar mix but before anything else is added. I freeze it an ice-cube tray and use it in stir fries as a hack when I want a strong fresh(ish) ginger flavor and don’t mind the minor residual acetic acid tang. So that means I could technically make this as soon as I defrost the wings. Whelp, now I have plans for Saturday! ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4069 "2025-05-06T03:49:10Z")
Well I certainly hope you enjoy - we’ll be eating on it most of the week, as I get home so late from work that I don’t dare eat a full meal - two wings is enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4070 "2025-05-07T00:01:42Z")
Me Yesterday: > [@ParallelLines](#): > > If Oregon was getting the cold drizzly weather Colorado is right now (tomorrow it’ll be 46F as the HIGH, lows of 36) I’d say it was a perfect day to justify our mutual fondness for junky ramen carbs… Today - weather was accurate about the highs and the lows, but the hour of _SNOW_ (very cold rain before and after of course) wasn’t predicted. Of course, it’s still too warm to stick (especially with the resuming rain), but now I needed a different dinner. So I used the last of my poultry stock reserves and made matzoh ball soup (I keep a cannister of meal around for any such soup based impulses of course!) . To go with, I raided my freezer for a nice chunk of smoked corned beef - I grabbed a few post-Easter corned beef points on the cheap, and my Father in Law smoked one for me, which I had frozen in 1/2 pound packages. So in moments, I’ll have piping hot matzoh ball soup and a smoked corned beef sandwich on marble rye with sliced onions. Good stuff! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4071 "2025-05-07T00:29:00Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > So I used the last of my poultry stock reserves and made matzoh ball soup (I keep a cannister of meal around for any such soup based impulses of course!) . To go with, I raided my freezer for a nice chunk of smoked corned beef - I grabbed a few post-Easter corned beef points on the cheap, and my Father in Law smoked one for me, which I had frozen in 1/2 pound packages. So in moments, I’ll have piping hot matzoh ball soup and a smoked corned beef sandwich on marble rye with sliced onions. Good stuff indeed! Sounds better than the results of my foraging in the freezer, yet strangely similar! I still haven’t done my necessary grocery shopping but I came up with a vac-pac of deli pastrami that I had frozen last December (would have preferred Montreal smoked meat, but pastrami was all they had at the moment) and found I had some frozen won-ton soup. So pastrami on a toasted Calabrese bun lathered with Dijon and won-ton soup will be had tonight. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4072 "2025-05-07T00:31:03Z")
–Tips his hat at the fellow roast meats on bread + soup traveller!– ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4073 "2025-05-07T04:32:23Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > So in moments, I’ll have piping hot matzoh ball soup and a smoked corned beef sandwich on marble rye with sliced onions. Damn, that sounds good! > [@wolfpup](#): > > So pastrami on a toasted Calabrese bun lathered with Dijon and won-ton soup will be had tonight. So does this! 😃 * * * I am very happy to report that Shingles Shot #2 was – for me – pretty much a nothingburger! I came home, started feeling the effects with muscle soreness and a vague headache, took 2 Aleve, indulged in some “sorry-for-myself” foods (The chocolate-covered pretzels were probably gilding the lily. Probably.) and then took a long nap. When I woke up, the symptoms were much lessened (!!!) and have now all but disappeared. What a happy occurrence! No real appetite for dinner, though. I had a couple roll-ups of lettuce, smoked turkey and provlone cheese and that is more than enough for tonight. Leftover salmon and risotto will keep till tomorrow night. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4074 "2025-05-07T04:36:52Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > chocolate-covered pretzels You might want to eat some more of these just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4075 "2025-05-07T04:37:20Z")
Oh, I agree. 😃 Just in case, mind. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4076 "2025-05-07T04:44:18Z")
And of course, any other laid in comfort food (may it continue to not be needed 🤞 ) surely can’t be allowed to go to waste! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4077 "2025-05-07T05:05:18Z")
You can’t be referring to those Ruffles potato chips! Or that (other rare guilty pleasure) Hershey bar with almonds? At least I didn’t eat them _all_ tonight! ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4078 "2025-05-08T23:40:02Z")
I have half a Hershey bar with almonds sitting on the kitchen table right now! They continue to get smaller! ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4079 "2025-05-08T23:42:16Z")
LOL, funny how that happens, isn’t it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4080 "2025-05-11T08:04:08Z")
Dinner tonight will be chicken souvlaki with Greek style rice. Store-bought, not made by me, but freshly made and very good, with tzatziki for dipping. And a Greek Acropolis salad on the side. I’m not normally concerned about ethnic consistency in a menu, but hey, I have some left-over Acropolis salad and it’s very yummy! There’s also Greek salad for another time, to be had with Renée Greek salad dressing. I’ve grown to favour it over Caesar salad because I love the black olives, red onions, feta cheese, and other tasty stuff that’s in it. Plus the wonderfulness of the Renée dressing. I throw out the little packet of whatever the hell it is that comes with it. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015/4081 "2025-05-11T16:45:35Z")
I’m going to smoke a chicken this afternoon using the snake method with fajita seasoning. We’re going to serve it up with some grilled onions and a poblano, charra beans and tortillas for sides. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015.md?page=203) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-for-dinner-tonight-episode-2021-a-new-hope/931015.md?page=205)