Also, red or yukon gold or sweet potatoes over white. Sweet have the same carbs as white, but the carbs are absorbed slower so it helps keep the sugar spikes down. Brown over white rice. For me, white rice, pasta, and potatoes are my spikes. I eat them, but try to limit them. I controlled mine by diet for about 18 months before I asked to be put on meds. I still eat what I want, when I want, but smaller portions if I know it's something that will spike mine. Each person has their own triggers. You can not go strictly by the book. I can eat ice cream, not sugar free, and not have much more of an increase than if I ate a big bowl of fruit, but much less of an increase than if I had rice or pasta. It's common sense and knowing what your system digests the best. You are giving a wonderful gift. Just cook as healthily as you always do, and you will do just fine. So many non-diabetics panic when they have to cook for us, but you don't need to. You already know how. And all these sugar substitues are not good for anyone. Of course naturally occuring sugars are better than cane/beet sugar, but a little isn't a big deal. If we sit down with a piece of cake piled high in icing, yes we'll have a problem, but it's OUR problem, and we don't have to eat it. The cake itself won't hurt us if we substitute it for another carb for that meal once in a while. Tami

My thin athletic DH has been pre-diabetic for about 10 years now. He checks his blood sugar, both fasting and 2 hours after a meal about once every two weeks. I do cook differently - but just a bit. Pasta is now a once a month meal, and served with sauces made with lots of veggies. The pasta is also whole grain. Bread is never served with any meal. Sandwiches - well, I like them, and he never did, so our sandwich lunches are everything you'd have on a sandwich, minus the bread. His is served with extra lettuce and a knife and fork. I make our own soups, not only because I think canned soup tastes like crap (he loves canned soups!), but because I can control the sodium, and make sure any flour ingredients, like noodles, are made from whole grains. I showed my DH the diabetic cookbook - and no, there wasn't anything in that book he was even willing to try. As a cook, I thought most of the recipes were gauged to please the "add a can of soup" group. I've never cooked that way, so their substitutions were still more sugar and salt than I've ever used. We do lots of quick stir fries with lots of veggies and a bit of meat. Brown rice or barley. We haven't cut out everything tasty, but bacon (UMM, bacon), is now a condiment rather than a main ingredient. DH's fav pasta sauce is a browned sliced of bacon, diced, a bit of minced garlic, lots of chopped mushroom and cabbage. Add a bit of the pasta water, toss with the pasta, top with parmesan - the good stuff, not the Kraft shake cheese.

Re: stains It was not clear from your phrasing if the stains came as a result of cooking the pancakes or if the plancha had stains out of the box that just seem unremovable after cooking on them. As I noted above, the first time I used my plancha/griddle, I ran it too hot and got some pretty good burned butter stains. I was able to remove those stains by applying undiluted Dawn dish detergent and scrubbing with a dampened blue ScotchBrite ((non-stick suitable scrubbie) Took a bit of elbow grease but that cleaned off all the stains. There seems to be a Demeyere Non-Abrasive Cleaner and Stainless Steel Polish. User reviews seem very positive about it doing a good job with burned-on oily stains. A google search showed it to be available from the likes of Amazon, BB&B, etc. Also did some checking on using my old stand-by, Bar Keeper's Friend (BKF). The Demeyere instruction booklet does advise against using "abrasive cleansers" but that seems to be about harsh scrubbing with the likes of Comet and Ajax. A google search on BKF + Silvinox turned up recommendations for making a wet paste of BKF and water. Daub it over the stains rather than scrubbing. Let the wet paste sit for an hour or so letting the Oxalic acid do its thing. Then, wash it off or scrub with non-stick-suitable cloth, sponge, etc. OTOH, if the plancha came with the stains out of the box, it can be returned or swapped for a replacement. My shipment even came with a return label in the box in case I wanted to return it. Also, replacement of marred units was discussed in the Chowhound thread. They recommended calling "Susan" at the Zwilling warehouse at 800-777-4308 about returns and replacements.

Although fish boils are very popular around the lake here, I have yet to get to one, it's on my bucket list. I have done salmon or tuna on the grill, frozen fish would be the best thing I could get where I live right now, and considering how expensive it is, not any particular incentive to serve it for entertaining, although I have. And I also love enchiladas and baked ziti or any other type of pasta, but in the summer I like to take full advantage of the grill. I did the kebabs two years ago for a porch party and it was easy peasy to prepare ahead of time and marinate, and easy to serve. Also easy for picky eaters to avoid something they didn't like from the selection. I think I did some type of rice pilaf in an insulated serving dish and I think I made it ahead and reheated. Now I have an instapot which I would use as to avoid heating up the kitchen. I can't remember what I did for sides . . . but I made a whole round two layer frosted cake for dessert (chocolate with almond coconut frosting) served up on my crystal cake stand, and almost no one ate a slice . . . I get so frustrated at how all my friends never eat desserts anymore. I mean I get it, I don't either, which is why I always want to make some nice fancy dessert that I never get to eat when I entertain, for special. And then I end up with a ton of it left over . . . A friend brought fruit salad and that was what folks ate, it was good too. I had a friend over a couple of weeks ago and we just loved noshing on guacamole, hummus and spinach dip on the porch with some store bought sangria. So easy as I bought everything at the deli. But it could also be home made in advance too. Pita and corn chips. I always make some type of chopped salad in the summer, marinating the veggies a bit ahead of time and then serving them over fresh chopped lettuce. So many great combinations. One of my favorites is home grown tomatoes, crumbled bacon, diced avocados over lettuce with whatever else seems good. Or just the tomatoes and other veggies with a green goddess dressing. If you want to stick with a bit of a Mexican vibe, yellow rice with peas makes a tasty and colorful entry. In fact, that may have been what I served last time. It's just rice with tumeric added, and whatever seasonings you like . . . peas optional, just for the color constrast. Could use red onions or red peppers too. Here's an unusual potato salad I like to make in summer for my lighter Mexican meals. I tasted it from the deli at Wegman's once and fell in love with it. I also sometimes make sweet potato salad but find a lot of my friends don't like it even though it looks pretty. If you par boil sweet potatoes they are nice on the grill though. Latin Red Potato and Corn Salad - Recipe from Wegman's Edited to add that I forgot to mention another dish that is always well received, a southwestern black bean and corn salad. Here's a link to one recipe. I'm not sure if it is exactly like the one I got from Annie on CF years ago, but very similar if not exactly the same. https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/all-purpose-southwestern-corn-black-bean-salad