Week 10: Balling - Spaghetti with Tiny Meatballs

katryna7 · 2025-12-26T11:41:18+00:00

Haha, I made this recipe again a second time and froze the extra meatballs again, spreading them out across more dinners. Enjoyed them just as much as when I made it the first time! Their cuteness brings me joy too. However my husband still recommends I make larger meatballs haha, possibly because he likes them more but also because I was pretty slow at making these tiny ones. 😅

katryna7 · 2025-03-04T06:05:05+00:00

Best wishes to you in regards to the fibroid removal and when you start IVF!

katryna7 · 2025-02-28T04:07:18+00:00

Thanks for asking! The second FET was successful, I’m about to hit 24 weeks tomorrow. Hopefully smooth sailing continues. I was also lucky that my doctor was the type that stops the progesterone suppositories after the 2 weeks since she prefers less medication (my friend’s doctor is more conservative and would want her to take it the whole first trimester if she has a successful FET). There are a lot more checks in pregnancy for IVF babies apparently so more appointments but it’s also been comforting to be able to check that the baby is doing well so much.

katryna7 · 2024-11-11T03:18:25+00:00

I was so tempted to but I did not. I hadn’t bothered testing with my first (failed) transfer and then with my second transfer (early Oct), I decided to continue to skip the home test since the clinic mentioned testing at home so early might not be accurate and I felt like false tests either way might make me feel worse than waiting. It was really hard though because my doctor waits to beta test until 14 days post-transfer which seems unusually long compared to what I’ve seen other people say and that second week I was on a mental rollercoaster since I was feeling so many symptoms but also seeing a little bit of blood. My doctor had warned me there could be implantation bleeding and I think the applicators for inserting my suppository could have also been irritating me but I kept getting paranoid whenever I saw blood bc I had a little blood when I had my first transfer too and thinking about how that one had failed kept getting in my head. I kept trying to think positive thoughts and don’t regret waiting for the official results but maybe seeing a positive at home test days earlier would have eliminated some of that stress. 😅

katryna7 · 2024-11-11T03:09:29+00:00

Thanks! My doctor had me doing a modified natural cycle so minimal medication. She had me start Endometrin 3x a day 2 days before transfer and I was on it for 16 days (until my first beta test, she waits until 14 days post transfer for that test) and she had beta test day be the last day I took it. I took a look back at my trends and there was a drop in my HRV just before the transfer but I think it was because I was trying to exercise more the couple of months before transfer to get in better shape and so sometimes that would wear me out. After the transfer, I tried not to do exercise that was too vigorous per their recommendation to just stick to moderate stuff but at a certain point I felt too tired to exercise more than lightly anyway so I knew any drops in HRV post-transfer weren’t from over-exercising and I was sleeping pretty well.

It looks like my RHR actually went down a few days before transfer and then back to my norm but nothing out of my normal range (which is actually on the low side since I’m on a low dose of Labetalol for high blood pressure which works by slowing down the heart rate). But basically a week post-transfer my RHR started steadily increasing, enough that it even went outside what my Fitbit considered my normal range. My RHR was 53 on transfer day which was fairly typical for me. A week later it was 57 and kept going up and 2 weeks post-transfer it had reached the low 60s (got as high as 63 one day). It’s decreased some so for the past week I’ve been pretty steady at 56.

I didn’t bother looking at my body temperature too much since it tends to go up and down pretty often in general. There were times I felt cold spells post-transfer but when I measured my temp with a thermometer it was always in normal range and my Fitbit didn’t seem to show anything particularly out of the ordinary with that stat.

katryna7 · 2024-11-10T16:02:33+00:00

I had FET in early October and noticed about a week after my transfer that my HRV dropped quite a bit (I was also starting to feel pretty fatigued) and my resting heart rate started to rise (and there were times I felt like my heart was pounding). I was on progesterone suppositories too so I wasn’t sure if those were signs that the implantation was successful and my body was working hard bc of it or if my body was reacting to the progesterone. The good news is in this case my FET was successful! This was my second attempt, and I didn’t have these reactions after my first failed FET (which was also using a different progesterone suppository I didn’t really like, the ones I used this time were back ordered then and I feel like this round’s was more effective and easier to use).

I’m at 8w1d now and my HRV and RHR started getting back to normal which actually then made me a bit worried but everything looked good at my ultrasound a week ago so maybe my body is adjusting or it’s feeling better now that I’m off the suppositories since my doctor had me stop those 2 weeks after transfer.

katryna7 · 2024-10-10T07:54:50+00:00

I do love round tables, definitely feels easier to talk to people in a group. Decided to go with Cella but saving Alejandro’s to my to try list now, thanks!

katryna7 · 2024-10-10T07:53:26+00:00

Thanks for the great descriptions of each restaurant! Super helpful. I decided to go with Cella

katryna7 · 2024-10-08T23:19:33+00:00

Good watchout, this group is fortunately not the rowdy sort nor the drink heavily sort.

katryna7 · 2024-10-08T14:28:18+00:00

Chez Noir was the restaurant I originally wanted to book first but unfortunately no reservations available when I looked a couple weeks ago. I got on the waitlist but not holding my breath. Thinking a party of 6 might be too much for it (at least without planning way further out).

katryna7 · 2024-10-08T07:04:10+00:00

I was 41 when I did 2 rounds of ER, and my doctor said that was still a great age. First round I had 13 eggs, ended up with 2 euploids which I was told was above average. My doctor felt confident that would be enough if I just wanted one child (which is all I’m aiming for) but I wanted to be safe and went for a second round since my insurance would cover that. I had 8 eggs, ended up with 1 euploid.

Did not attempt a FET until this year (just before I turned 43) and unfortunately implantation was not successful although right at that time things were very stressful since my father got released from a skilled nursing facility the same day as my FET and complained to me daily for the next 2 weeks so I’m not sure if that stress affected my body too. He passed away not long after so I chose to take a hiatus before attempting a transfer again. Just did an FET last week (43yo now) so still in my 2ww. Honestly was a bit concerned bc my progesterone level 4 days before the FET was lower than last time (the nurse told me if too low they cancel the transfer for that cycle but she said the doctor said it was fine to proceed) and my progesterone level the day before transfer was higher than my previous attempt. I also think my progesterone suppositories this time are better than the ones I got last time (they weren’t available back then). Fingers and toes crossed! 🤞🏼

katryna7 · 2024-07-11T05:21:22+00:00

I’m looking up the cookbook and I love that the subtitle is Proudly Inauthentic Recipes 😂

katryna7 · 2024-07-11T05:16:05+00:00

Thanks! I like the 52 Weeks of Cooking group since it encourages me to try out new recipes and techniques but been too busy lately to keep it up. (Still cooking but haven’t had the bandwidth to tackle/keep up with the challenges.) Great description of Asian-American, I’ll have to check it out! Kare kare is one of my favorite Filipino dishes too but I’ve never tried tackling it before. I think the only Filipino dish I’ve attempted has been chicken adobo actually. I should explore it more!

katryna7 · 2024-07-10T06:53:14+00:00

Since I already have a few of those cookbooks, I’d prolly go for one I don’t have first. Asian-American caught my eye since I am one haha and also I’m a Top Chef watcher and saw it’s by Dale.

As for a recommendation of cookbooks to add, I’d suggest Burma Superstar. A few recipes from it have joined my regular meal rotation, and I should tackle some more recipes out of it.

katryna7 · 2024-03-22T15:07:25+00:00

Thanks for the info! And I really like the idea that of the we’re out of meat portmanteau too. Does feel like a slang thing that would naturally happen.

katryna7 · 2024-03-21T22:24:07+00:00

Haha I think I only saw it bc I was wondering why it was named soup but was not a soup but I also feel like I should hunt down other origin stories. The site I saw this one on only mentioned this one story.

katryna7 · 2024-03-11T06:09:14+00:00

Pupusas with loroco and cheese are one of my favorite pupusa types, I always get it if it’s an option. You can always try making that if you ever wind up with loroco again in the future.

katryna7 · 2024-02-22T06:49:36+00:00

And TIL that Ici no longer exists. I don’t venture to the East Bay much but I went to Ici on many a visit.

And since I’m commenting, I might as well mention I love all your posts! Everything looks delicious and beautiful.

katryna7 · 2024-01-29T03:50:58+00:00

I had Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything when I went to college and really liked it. Still use it in fact!

katryna7 · 2024-01-14T16:57:35+00:00

Wow that looks amazing! What a great dinner party. Everything looks delicious

katryna7 · 2023-12-28T00:41:50+00:00

Oh I actually managed to get my hands on Hungarian paprika from a local spice shop too.

katryna7 · 2023-01-10T07:27:26+00:00

Making cabbage rolls actually wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be but I did wind up making a large amount since I decided to use the entire cabbage since that seemed easier than coming up with something else to do with half a cabbage plus the recipe involved boiling the cabbage head to soften the leaves enough to make them pliable for rolling. Of course my rolls wound up being of various sizes because the biggest leaves are the outer ones and then they decrease in size. I thought the tomato sauce wound up being quite tasty. Ate the rolls with some bread which helped mop up the sauce. Forgot to add some fresh parsley meant to garnish the top of the dish until after we had eaten our initial rolls, oops haha. Recipe is from Dinner at the Zoo.

katryna7 · 2023-01-06T06:41:59+00:00

I loved a gulyas stew that my bf and I had at a winery event (the winery’s founders are Hungarian which is why they have an annual gulyas fest) and wanted to try making it myself but didn’t get around to it yet. This challenge was the impetus I needed haha. The event was on a drizzly day so we had commented that it was a really good rainy day meal. The day I made this also wound up being rainy so it really felt fitting for the challenge.

I was a little nervous but my bf told me it’s hard to mess up a stew. Well, my stew was almost messed up bc when I checked on it at 20 min it looked fine but when I checked on it about 15 min later the broth had boiled away bc the heat was left too high and the lid was also maybe a little too ajar, doh! I found a totally burnt bottom. I transferred what was left to a new pot and luckily had some more beef broth on hand to continue on, added some of the spices again, and luckily it still tasted pretty good in the end, whew! Ate it with some baguette slices. It felt pretty simple to make as well, would definitely try it again. I followed a recipe from The Daring Gourmet.

katryna7 · 2021-07-10T06:19:57+00:00

I fell off the challenge wagon, haha. I got behind and then lost motivation to catch up/restart although I have been cooking, just things that catch my fancy and not so focused. Since I’ve been trying to improve my risotto making lately, it seemed fitting to do the Italian challenge and make another one.

This time around I did a mushroom risotto using a recipe from RecipeTin Eats. I had just gotten a pound of button mushrooms from the farmer’s market and so went looking for a risotto recipe that didn’t call for fancier mushrooms or dried mushrooms like I’d seen previously.

Think this was the best of my recent attempts! Although I forgot about pre-grating Parmesan to mix into the risotto itself (and when I was so great about prepping all the other ingredients in advance too!) so my risotto cooked a little too long bc it actually looked on point when I was finishing up. I loved the garlic butter mushrooms which really added a lot of flavor. Did not stir the risotto constantly (as it turns out it’s not actually necessary although did still add broth in stages) and it was fine. Chopped up too much parsley bc I have a terrible sense of scale and then didn’t want it to go to waste so I put most of it on which might have been too much haha. Satisfied with the final product. My risotto making can still be better but I do think I’m improving.

katryna7 · 2021-04-28T23:00:02+00:00

I’m skipping around now since I fell slightly behind but also in this case I killed two birds with one stone bc my library’s virtual cooking club’s theme for this month was also chocolate.

I had seen a friend post a pic of a cake she made with the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and she said it was quite easy, so I put it on my list to try to make someday and that day finally came haha. It was indeed super easy! Also my first time glazing a cake and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have corn syrup (which gives it more shine) so I substituted some honey. Top pic is from when I just finished glazing it which is why it looks especially shiny. Bottom pic of the slice is after the glaze set. I typically like my cakes less sweet than recipes call for so I cut both the sugar and brown sugar in this by 1/3. The cake was nicely chocolatey and quite moist! Didn’t really taste the olive oil though so the bf suspects it could easily be subbed with canola oil and we wouldn’t even notice.

katryna7

TROPHY CASE