[speaker001:] if you don't cook though what do you like to eat if you go to a dinner party
[speaker002:] well uh I'm uh a bit of a seafood lover I suppose uh I have a health problem in that I my cholesterol is high
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] so I'm in the in the process of bringing that down so I don't eat a lot of beef or pork or almost none
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so I would say most likely a dinner party would be you know would include some kind of fish seafood or you know or poultry type dish as the main course
[speaker001:] uh-huh well uh I was just thinking as I was listening to this recording go over and over till they found a party for me to talk to I could talk about a dinner party I had uh Sunday
[speaker002:] but uh  right
[speaker001:] and it included some seafood so that would probably be uh appropriate for you
[speaker002:] well uh that sounds good yeah
[speaker001:] uh I had uh some people from Germany visiting and they are uh fans of American shrimp
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] so I did a kind of a stir fry dish with shrimp that you shake up in a bag with a little parmesan cheese and flour and then uh quickly uh fry up in a little olive oil and then uh take out of the wok put some uh red strips of red pepper and green pepper in
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] stir that a little bit uh add some uh sliced mushrooms and then put the shrimp back in with a half a cup of white wine and just bring it to a simmer
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and then you serve it on rice and it's really a a pretty low cholesterol dish
[speaker002:] yes that sounds sounds really good uh
[speaker001:] because its done with the uh shrimp and the olive oil you don't use any kind of beef fat or
[speaker002:] um-hum right yeah
[speaker001:] no no animal fats in it
[speaker002:] right and that's
[speaker001:] And it's very popular and it looks very pretty and uh with rice and a salad you've got a a meal
[speaker002:] yeah right that that really sounds good uh I'm a a uh frequent as frequent as possible traveler to the New Orleans area and so we eat a lot of seafood my wife and I eat a lot of seafood when we go down there
[speaker001:] um oh that's a good place to get it I miss it I lived in Houston for a long time and we loved to go over to New Orleans to eat
[speaker002:] and uh yeah uh oh did you  but uh we we have not been there uh since last summer but uh it's we're looking forward to going back as soon as as we can
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh but we eat eat a lot of shrimp and uh eat oyster dishes and uh we like uh things like uh the poor boy sandwiches with the fried oysters on them course I'm not supposed to eat fried oysters any more but that's uh we like that that and uh love gumbo
[speaker001:] oh yeah oh yes
[speaker002:] and uh
[speaker001:] oh I wish I had the recipe for my grandmother's gumbo she used to make the most wonderful crab meat gumbo with shrimp and all sorts of other goodies in it
[speaker002:] yeah right yeah
[speaker001:] goodies in it My job was picking the crab
[speaker002:] oh yeah so uh
[speaker001:] not my favorite part
[speaker002:] but uh but I guess uh my like I said I'm not a cook so my wife probably does or does definitely do you know all of the cooking for you know when we have a dinner party uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I help with with what I can and uh you know we don't have uh uh something on the order of what you had uh you know it don't main dish and probably some kind of a starch and a vegetable
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh we eat a lot of rice and and uh the the bell peppers that you uh sauteed are just right up our alley we eat a lot of that a lot of mushrooms
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] well the reason for using those is that it makes such a pretty colorful dish People always exclaim when you have the red and green peppers and if I'm making a whole lot uh I use a yellow pepper as well
[speaker002:] right um-hum
[speaker001:] for one pound of shrimp I use one red pepper one green pepper and oh maybe half a dozen ten mushrooms medium sized mushrooms
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and that's plenty for four people and if they're light eaters you can squeeze in six
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah if you if you wanted to uh put a little crunchiness in that uh throw a few cashews in it
[speaker001:] but oh yeah that's good uh my husband is a Chinese cook he doesn't do much cooking either but he loves to cook Chinese and he has a marvelous uh chicken with cashews and
[speaker002:] yeah but uh right and uh right the cashew chicken is is I I really enjoy that
[speaker001:] and the Szechuan peppers now those are not the hot ones those are the little round pink ones
[speaker002:] oh yeah just right
[speaker001:] and oh they are wonderful that uh he does that uh uh chicken with cashews and Szechuan peppers and he also not at the same meal does a wonderful vegetable dish with Szechuan peppers but use that uses either asparagus or um
[speaker002:] right yes
[speaker001:] let's see what does he use asparagus is the one we like the best oh broccoli you can do the same dish with broccoli and also if you're really in a pinch you can do it with just celery
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah we uh we also uh uh cook on a do an occasional dish with uh some kind of a Mexican theme
[speaker001:] and it's pretty good uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh we you know have discovered that you can make you know just as good a Mexican food with uh with chicken or with even with turkey we we do cook a lot with turkey and it you can come out with you know good spicy Mexican food
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh and make it chicken or or turkey or something like that instead of going with the beef like when we make fajitas we can make you know chicken fajitas and and enjoy them just as well
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh I like them too I think they're great uh we I've been trying to convince the cook at uh at the place where I work uh we are kind of isolated and so we don't go out to lunch very often
[speaker002:] yeah and uh
[speaker001:] and we do have an excellent kitchen uh which is encouraging for people to stay around and uh eat and interact with one another at lunch we're a think tank
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so that's one of our functions is to get people to talk to each other and she has started cooking uh much healthier food much much more uh salad without mayonnaise and
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] uh much more main dishes without oils and uh and vegetable I mean and uh animal fats
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so I think we're improving our diets I don't know whether it's the California influence or whether it's everywhere but
[speaker002:] well I think it's everywhere I I I know that uh oh probably at least half of the people that I know are on some kind of a low fat diet for one reason or another or are low fat or no fat
[speaker001:] uh-huh well my husband's cholesterol is not real high but he his father had uh an early heart attack and so he is very conscious of his
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] uh physical condition and he walks a lot and tries to get uh to stay in pretty good shape and to watch out for high cholesterol and since I prefer the kinds of foods that one eats on a moderately moderately low cholesterol diet anyway that suits me just fine
[speaker002:] yeah we have found that uh since we've stopped eating so much beef and pork that when we do eat it it tends to upset our systems
[speaker001:] um yeah yeah
[speaker002:] and uh you know it's uh my wife in particular when she uh she said you know when she eats uh some kind of a beef dish if it's the the least bit spicy along with the beef itself that she really her you know her stomach really acts up so
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so we eat uh eat very little beef and uh we just
[speaker001:] yeah we don't either we just eat it once in a great while and uh it's usually if we're having company and it's somebody that we know is a big meat fan but there're fewer and fewer of those
[speaker002:] uh-huh right yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] so we also do an awful lot of cooking when it's just the two of us on a little tiny uh grill it's
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] oh it's less than a foot long and about eight inches wide and we just put a few charcoals in there and uh we can cook a piece of chicken we buy boneless chicken breasts and save us ourselves a lot of time
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] And that with uh do have you ever tried Lawrey's Lemon Pepper
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] you can buy it in the grocery store
[speaker002:] yeah I I don't know whether we've tried that or not I I know we've got a we've got a uh is that uh the salt
[speaker001:] it's a well it has sea salt in it
[speaker002:] yes I think we've got a
[speaker001:] but it's not the same as they have the Lawrey's seasoned salt and the Lawrey's seasoning Lemon Pepper and the Lemon Pepper's the one I love on chicken and fish
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] and uh yeah just barely brush it with oil grill it uh so it's not too done and sprinkle a little of that on it and then I add some lemon thyme from my garden
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and that makes an excellent and very easy to fix dinner
[speaker002:] yeah you know it's uh about fifteen minutes until noon here and we're talking about food and I'm
[speaker001:] well I hope you have a nice lunch
[speaker002:] yeah it's been a it's this is a this is a good timely conversation you know got my appetite going
[speaker001:] I'm just looking at our menu unfortunately we're having a terrible lunch here today for the cholesterol people because uh we're going to have Italian sausage and French fries I think I may stick to the salad bar today
[speaker002:] right yeah okay well it's been nice talking to you and uh or maybe we can have a good lunch and think about it while we're uh about our conversation while we're eating
[speaker001:] nice to talk to you too okay bye-bye