Same here… Tomorrow, I’ll go visit the scale and start the process of losing those holiday pounds.
Had to make some adjustments but stuck with the gist of it!
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Sorry someone ruined your holiday.
If you’re hosting someone, especially for a holiday / special meal, it’s unconscionable to just bail on it (unless there’s a real emergency, but even then it’s not too much to let them know).
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Feeling a bit of the same, but also acknowledging it was my own choice, so pulling back in favor of simpler things for a few days (or more).
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You both do a lot of loving and caretaking through making meals. Take care of yourselves, too!
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True. The main reason I cooked on the 30th is that I couldn’t find the take-out dinner I wanted in London, ON. 
I’m spoiled. All of you, with your ideas and recipes, have spoiled me. After a good 25 years of dining out a lot, over the last year, I’ve gotten to the point where I like my own cooking better than most restaurant food I can find.
I still seek out new things at restaurants, and I’m still wowed by stuff in Toronto ( apart from Ottawa, Toronto is the only big city I’ve visited in 3 years and 11 months , but who’s counting?). The average midrange meal now costs $30-$40 Cdn ($23- $30 USD) in my midsized city, and my family is happier eating a $45 piece of halibut or $45 leg of lamb I cook than eating a $120 take-out from a nicer restaurant.
The other thing that has changed recently, is that the prepared frozen meals, like frozen ribs, quiche and lasagna, aren’t going over as well when I’m not cooking or when I’m away. They get ignored for months. I don’t think I’ll be buying many in 2024, other than frozen perogies and frozen dumplings.
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We’ve seldom dined out in the past year, but have found more interesting items from the appetizers and salads sections of the menu. For us, the amount of salt in most restaurant meals is making them less tasty to us. With appetizers, sauces are more often served on the side and we remember to ask for “no added salt, please”.
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I’ve unfortunately developed a histamine reaction to most restaurant salads. It isn’t a true allergy, since it’s likely a sensitivity to a sulfite and maybe nitrates. I’m covered in hives after most restaurant salads, or raw garnishes, some Thai food, some Korean food and some cured meats.
I seem to be okay after most cooked vegetables.
Salads at home don’t cause hives for me, but I wash my vegetables really well.
I keep a running list of which dishes I ate where, each time I get hives.
I do like appetizers and first courses. I often do focus on those more than mains! I also like mezes and tapas, and other small plates.
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