Big Changes for a Little Family

I know a young family that is going through some positive, healthy changes. Papa has been diagnosed with diabetes and is determined to live healthily by making lifestyle changes. The little red-headed family go for outings that include, well, the outdoors and playing and walking and getting fresh air and exercise.
We will call them the Neats*. Joffe and Ifer Neat have a lovely toddler daughter we will call Cerise for the pink in her cheeks. Cerise has always eaten well because the Neats are thoughtful, planning parents who want the best for her. Ifer has been a clean eater for a while and now Joffe has joined the party.
I know a little about this kind of eating so I invite you to join me in some of the recipes I reccomend for a tasty, healthy life for my friends the Neats.
*My friend JackiOh! is the originator of this family's nickname.

Portable Petit Quiche

1 14 oz container Better n Eggs (BNE)
sea salt, pepper to taste
choice of healthy additions: minced, sautee'd onion, bell peppers; grated sharp reduced fat cheese (I like extra sharp cheddar), drained chopped green chilis, drained salsa solids, leftover vegetables, etc.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, coat an 8-cup (large) muffin tin with non-stick spray.
Pour BNE into a mixing bowl, add salt and pepper and one whole egg. Whisk together and add a tsp of milk or 2 tsp cottage cheese if you have it. Add no more than 1/4 cup of grated cheese, stir in, and then add no more than 1/4 cup of whatever else you want - finely minced turkey and cooked onion and peppers or salsa that has been pressed through a sieve. I like to use cheese and a little can of chopped green chilis from which I've squeezed the excess liquid.
Stir until everything looks even and then pour into the greased tin. Pour evenly into each cup, bake for 20-30 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into a quiche-muffin comes out clean.
These will keep for days in the fridge. Let them cool, pop them out of the tin and wrap each one in a piece of waxed paper and a paper towel. They re-heat easily in the nuker. 30-45 seconds on high with their wrap loosened a bit and they are ready to eat after a cooling minute or two.

5 minute Breakfast Sandwich
When you have a little extra time but still need to move while eating, this is a nice change.

Whole Grain Bread, toasted
3-4 slices turkey bacon
2 eggs
butter
salt and pepper

I believe in giving your body stuff to digest that it recognizes. My body knows what butter is, the crap in Cholesto-butr, I Can't Believe This Is Margarine etc is not recognizable. Just use you fats in moderation.

Frizzle up a package of turkey bacon (Butterball is nice) on Sunday and stick in a zippy bag in the fridge.
Monday morning, get the zippy from the fridge and remove 3 slices, put on a paper towel.
Put a 1/2 tsp or so of butter in a small non-stick pan on medium, pop two slices of whole grain bread in the toaster and whisk the eggs to a little froth. The pan should be ready so add salt and pepper to the eggs and pour into the pan. Turn heat to medium high and scramble the eggs while the bacon is doing 15 seconds in the microwave. Toast, eggs and bacon should all come up at once now - top the toast with the eggs, then bacon, add top slice of toast and press together. Wrap it in a paper towel and head out:)

The latter recipe sounds very simplistic but that is the point - a few movements that take very little time can keep you from making a drive through mistake that will cost you MORE in terms of money, time, and most importantly, nutrition.

Help your good intentions become good actions; think before you open your mouth - whether eating or speaking!
And thanks to the Alex Sink campaign for the ads. I've voted, and look forward to Ms. Sink as Florida's next Goernor:)

Sint Maarten 10-10-10

Here we are on Oyster Bay in Sint Maarten on their first Independence Day!
I just made a modified version of Spanish Bean soup for the doughty PJ7 DX-pedition ham radio operators housed in the condo - Charlie and our friend John Miller K6MM from California.
The guys are waiting for a ship to arrive with all of their equipment. However, true to the ingenuity this hobby requires, they have cobbled together a couple of stations and are on the air and making contacts.
We can see the French side of the island across the bay from our bedroom and living room windows. The water is that sweet blue the Caribbean offers that is a blend between the shade of a true turqoise and blueberries mashed in champagne.
Sint Maarten Soup
1 stick smoked sausage, sliced
1 bag dried garbanzo beans, cooked and drained
4 large diced potatoes
2 large yellow onions
2 cloves garlic (sliced in half)
64 ounces chicken stock
EVOO
1 liter bottled water
Paprika, sea salt, Cavender's Greek Seasoning to taste

Sautee the onion, garlic and sausage in 2 tbl Extra Virgin olive oil until onions are translucent. Add potatoes and stock, season with 2 teaspoons sea salt and half tsp Cavender's. Bring to a boil and add garbanzo beans. Bring all to a boil, add a tsp of paprika, reduce heat to a simmer. Taste for seasoning after about 30 minutes. If broth is too strong, add water. Adjust seasonings every 15-30 minutes. Simmer for about 2-2/12 hours until beans and potatoes are soft.

Serve with a warm baguette and real butter:)

I soaked so many garbanzos I had extras which I have frozen to cook as a side dish. Re-hydrated garbanzo beans taste amazingly like field peas.

I love Food TV!

I have gotten on a Food Network kick again lately. I am trying the "Clean Eating" method of having a healthful and hopefully weight-reducing way of living so inspiration to cook is necessary:)
I am still playing with salmon; tonight was a solo meal of pan-sauteed filet topped with my modified tzsatzki sauce (cucumber and sour cream with sea salt), fresh avocado with lime and tomato slice with a few extra cuke slices. It was good, so tomorrow night when Charlie comes home we'll have the salmon cucumber sauce again with Picchio-pachio, a simple pasta dish of fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil and linguine.
Just ordered some Sensa, so we'll see how that works on my non-smoking cravings for all things food. I'm glad I stopped smoking but I really don't like being 40 pounds heavier:)

Fish!

Did you know that wild-caught sockeye salmon tastes vastly different from farmed salmon? It does - and enough different to change me from a salmon-hater (except for lox and salmon croquettes) to a salmon lover.

There is a uniqueness of taste to wild salmon that I look forward to experimenting with, but for my first preparation I used a Publix recipe as a jump-off point.

Coriander Salmon with Easy Dill Sauce; Cucumber Heart Salad

1 1/4 pounds sockeye salmon, skinned and cut into serving-sized pieces
sea salt, coriander, fresh pepper, EV olive oil

Light Sour cream, fresh dill


Salad

Two cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
one can artichoke hearts, chopped
One lemon, juiced and zested
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 cup diced red onion
5-6 oz bag roquette (arugula)

Whisk lemon zest and juice with oil, sea salt to taste and a little crushed garlic if you like. Toss the salad ingredients with the dressing - remember to use good olive oil for salads. DaVinci is among the best tasting grocery store oils you can get.

Mix 3/4 cup sour cream and 4 tbl of chopped dill, set aside (squeeze whatever is left of your lemon into the mix even if that amounts to an eighth of a teaspoon; it does add piquancy).

While the salad is setting up and melding flavors, rinse and pat dry the salmon. Season with about two teaspoons of coriander per side and a pinch of sea salt, fresh ground pepper. Press the seasoning into the fish, heat oil on medium high heat until water sizzles in pan. Add fish and cook about 4 1/2 minutes per side. The fish will look opaque and feel firm when done. Take up to plate, add sour cream mixture to pan and whisk for about 30 seconds to warm.

Add salad to plates, overlap with Salmon and drizzle fish with dill sauce.

One another note, my youngest kittens are black twins who have wide blue eyes and look like tiny bears. They have wrapped my husband around their miniature claws:)

My legs are brown!

I got back from the tanning salon this afternoon and realized I had allowed myself to be seen in public in a pair of shorts for the first time in I don't know how many years. My legs are brown and look quite nice!

Let me back up - about a week ago, after several weeks of consideration, I joined a tanning club. My fair, freckly skin has been protected for about the past ten years by determined sun avoidance. I love the feel of the sun on my skin and have felt deprived over these years but reminded myself that this exercise would keep my skin young.

Well, I am going to spend a week on some beach with my mom in June and decided I'd like to enjoy the sun rather than fearfully spackle myself with SPF 50 whitewash. I want to walk in the sun without fear of burning, smile at the sky with a golden face and enjoy the warmth of summer on my skin.

I have dutifully applied the proper products and gradually added to my minutes in the tanning bed and my legs are now a very pretty, healthy-looking tan. I am ready to wear dresses again, and skirts! No pantyhose, ever!

Spring and Renewal and Feeling Bright

Last weekend we had the first day of Spring and the day was windy and sharp with cool. Spring is more of a state of mind for me at this point, more about the promise I see in the buds on the Turkish Fig tree we planted today and the scent of the fat cream flowers on the grapefruit tree.

We had some homeless folks who are in a work training program come over to do planting and cleaning outside. The man was personable and bright, the woman not so much. It taught me a little about cognitive abilities that I usually don't have to consider. With her, you had to tell her about each thing that needed done twice. Him, no - got it first run and had already found a way to make it better before I could draw a breath.

I'll be looking for grants to write for this group tomorrow. Helping people help themselves is worth spending my time on.

Those little memory flashes...and PIZZA!

Not long ago, I was ticking through pleasant memories to pass minutes on a sleepless night. I went back to my last radio gig, when I had a really good guy as the music director and morning show and I side-kicked for him.
A side-kick just helps the 'funny guy' be funnier. Write some jokes/bits, be the straight man, be a good second banana. I had done that gig for quite a few guys and was usually their boss. The best ever was my friend Chuck who now works in a top 25 market.
I knew he was good from the beginning and I wished he'd come along back during the heyday of personality radio.
This guy taps into the best of everything. He brings joy to the world he looks at and can communicate that from behind a mike. And he isn't a pain in the ass to skeptical people like me.

He found me on FaceBook today and all of my shelved feelings for this little brother of another mother came back. He is, of course, older and his otter-slick black hair is now grey. And I still want good things for him and would cheerfully kick the pins out from under anyone who offered him harm. My poor dear, stuck with friends who haven't lost their redneck proclivities:)

Anyway, in those ancient days when radio was changing and we could record our voices over music on a hard drive and have it sound live, we tested the studio we were getting. We recorded some normal "DJ" time and drove to my favorite pizza place, Barnaby's, a few miles away and sat with a little radio on our table. We ordered pizza and beer and waited for the top of the hour to come to listen to his voice talk up the next song. We looked at each other with eye-brows arched and eyes opened large and then howled and slapped palms. IT WORKED, and radio would not be the same again.

The pizza was wonderful, as it always is at Barnaby's (Tallahassee, FL) and we scarfed it down so we could scoot back to the studios to see what other magic this new thing could help us do.


Publix Pizza dough
16 oz can good crushed tomatoes
Basil, oregano, thyme, sea salt, ground sage
mild Italian sausage, removed from casing and scramble-cooked
sliced white muchrooms and red onions
Mozzerella and Parmesan cheese
Pre-heat oven to 400

Mix the crushed tomatoes with the seasoning, add more to taste.

The closest I have had to create the at-home Barnaby's experience starts with dough from Publix. You do have to work it and stretch it and settle it on a cornmeal-dusted pizza paddle.
Once you get it stretched to a thinness (this dough bakes thick), prick it well with a pastry pronger or sharp-tined fork.
Slide it onto a pizza pan (I like the ones with holes in them, crisper crust) and put on bottom rack of oven for five minutes. Remove, give a few minutes to cool and then add as much of the sauce as you want, add toppings and cook for another 10-12 minutes.

Pour a cold beer, cut the pizza into slices and enjoy it with a friend.