Rainy, Lazy, TGFTDW

I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night and still slept til nearly noon! I just wanted to get my money's worth out of this Three Day Weekend and sleep until I was good and ready to get up.

I am almost through with the laundry I have procrastinated about doing all weekend. I have spent time crocheting, watching kitchy 90's TV shows (Sliders, for one) and generally lazing about. It has been nice to rest. I've also been eating food that was as minimally processed as possible and have lost 5 pounds since last week. YAY!

Tonight's meal won't be tops for health since it incorporates salty, country cured ham but it is the kind of thing perfect for a cold night - ham pie. I am using organic milk and cage free eggs and that should help:) I am looking forward to those fat little biscuit dumplings:)

Tomorrow night will be healthier. I found some cooked yellow summer squash and mustard in the freezer to have with baked boneless skinless chicken and green field peas. Since I bought all three of the vegetables fresh from a produce stand I know how they were cooked, so that's good on the "minimally processed" front.

I am trying to cut back on the meat we eat so I'll probably hold back some of the chicken tomorrow night to use for another night. I just have to figure out how...

I have to learn how to post pictures so my text doesn't get messed up! The top left picture is the beginning of the project, the top right is the completed scarf:)

Full Steam Ahead

For years I have gotten Garden Fever when the first warm wind of spring blew my hair into my face.
What I kept forgetting was that was a bit late for some of the gardening plans I had. This year is different. THIS year, I thought about spring here in January so I can start my garden prep over time instead of in one expensive rush.
I bought a tiny seedling green house and some lavender seeds and started them last night. They will germinate and end up in larger pots in about a month - and I will buy those larger parts in a few weeks.
I don't own those pots yet, or the next round of seeds or peats pellets to start them in, but only because of the application of exteme restraint on my impulse to Get It All Now.
This is an impulse I have battled for as long as I have had my own money to invest in a project.
I pick up hobbies and then buy more supplies than I need to execute any planned projects. I have jewelry fittings, loose stones and magazines that I haven't touched in a year. I have yarn called "Fun Fur" with which to make scarves in a multitude of colors and haven't picked up a crochet needle in six months. I still have a yoga mat, yoga block and yoga mat spray (not to mention yoga clothes) I bought for a class that I attended twice.
Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. I almost think that my purchases are the curse that ends my interest in these hobbies.
Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your view), Christmas ate me up financially and I have to be cautious until some card balances come down before I fling myself into a frenzy of propagation supplies purchasing.
Maybe I'll actually remain interested in this project long enough to get my French Mimosa tree started:)

Day One of 2011

Sometimes, doing next to nothing is the best thing to do.
Today was a prime example of that.
I woke up much earlier than I should have considering it was well after two when I closed my eyes with a skinful of champagne.
The cats made sleepy, grumpy remarks about my removing myself from the nest they'd built around me and two followed me into the bathroom to observe contact insertion. Rowboat jumped up to help and skidded into the sink. She's such an easygoing, un-selfconcious kitty that her attitude was unaffected by gravity's insult and she sat on the drain to watch.
Motorboat, her twin, flung himself against my calf to draw attention to the depths of starvation to which he'd been reduced and howled.
All followed me to the kitchen for morning kibble. After putting food down on the back deck for the anti-social Tuxedo I took a fresh, cold bottle of water from the fridge for breakfast on the couch.
Shortly after I brought in the paper and let a few of the furry horde out into the yard the rain began.
When I am not driving, the sounds and smells of rain are signals to my body to sleep. I have never had enough sleep that a rain storm couldn't induce somnolence and today was no exception. I had only been up for three hours after eight hours of sleep when my eyelids began to droop as the barometer dropped. The snoring cat in my lap added to the desire for sleep so I grabbed my airplane pillow, snuggled under my couch blanket and drifted into my sleep place.
Hours later the nap plane landed and the rain was still falling.
I had the luxury of doing more nothing, planning dinner, cleaning something, or going somewhere.
I decided that doing more nothing (as most people would see it) was the winning ticket.
I played with my cats, exfoliated my hands, put dishes away, admired the color of the rain-wet leaves on my orange tree, talked to the cats, talked to my mom, talked to my husband and pondered healthy meal plans for the week to come.
Day One of 2011 was low-key, stress free, and happy.
I anticipate more action on most of the days to come so today was one nice, last restful day before I have to dive into the fray once more.

Flotsam and Jetsom

The end of another year looms. Some of those minutes were wasted, many were productive and hopefully the coming year will bring more happy minutes than empty ones.
In looking at 2010, there are things I learned...I taught myself to crochet well enough to make what I had in mind. They are fluffy scarves with beads woven into them so that they are like necklaces.
I learned that I need to plan my Luau weekend more carefully to allow time for a nap between lunch and night activities.
I paid attention to how my mother makes cabbage so that I can follow suit and have good food while dieting. The trick is no more than 8 minutes of cooking with the seasoning of choice (bacon slice, chicken broth), then drain it and keep it warm til eating time. The cabbage is tender but not mushy.
Chablis is an acceptable gulping wine.
Dried garbanzo beans taste like field peas when reconstituted. Canned garbanzo beans do not.
Brussells sprouts grow on a stalk.
Greek spaghetti sauce requires cinnamon to make it right.
The roads on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten pretty much suck.
I can cook in 2 or 3 languages. This is important when you are in a non-English speaking country. Like French St. Martin, where they really can speak English but don't want to:)
I can make a dessert with an overripe banana, Kahlua, butter and the contents of someone else's pantry.

To Be Continued.

Gumbo, Baby!

The coolness creeping up on us masqueraded as Spring for me one day this past week. I was walking with my best friend along a route we'd covered many times over the years and our conversation was also scampering over old fields with new fodder.
Our trip included crossing a short bridge that always makes me feel closer to the sky. In the few seconds we were at the apex I looked up, as I always do, to see what particular flavor of blue sky I was being graced with when a sharp breeze came across the bay and for that quick interval of seconds I smelled Spring.
Spring is still months away despite my hope to skip past fall and winter to my favorite time as a Daughter of Demeter.
There are still green things to harvest and eat, canned things from summer and cured meats from the last cold time to bring together in my favorite cool weather meal, Gumbo.
Shrimp, crab, fishies and chicken have no place in gumbo for me as a Florida girl. I don't like chicken and think burying crab or shrimp in soup-y stew-y things is WRONG. More on that later.
For now, this is my way to accept Fall.

Basic Sausage Gumbo

1 large red onion, diced
1 pound country sausage, sliced in 1/8" pieces (use 1/2 this amount if you are watching bad fats and boost the flavor with Vigo Ham Soup Base to taste)
1 green pepper, diced
4-5 stalks celery, chopped
2 32-oz cans petite diced tomatoes
2 cloves diced garlic
1 32 ounce container chicken stock
1 16 oz bag frozen sliced okra OR 2 cups fresh sliced okra
2 tsp sea salt
tbl paprika
many grinds of pepper
pinch paprika
some crushed red pepper and a bit of Cavender's
pinch or so of rubbed sage
ROUX

Here's the hard part. You need a good pot (meaning not light-weight or thin bottomed), 8 tbls of good oil (extra virgin olive or grape seed oil, something good flavored and good for you) and 8 tbl flour.
Add the oil to the pot, heat over medium until shimmering and add the flour. Stir steadily to combine oil and flour until the mix is a soft gold, about 15 minutes. This stuff is liquid napalm so be careful not to get any on you. I like to use a flat whisk that has a heat-proof coating on it.IF YOUR BURN THE ROUX, DUMP IT OUT AND START OVER. Burned roux stinks and smells burned so you'll know if you've crossed that line. Roux requires constant stirring, no walking away to pour fresh wine or answer the door unless you have prehensile toes and can call them to stirring duty. You can easily ruin your dinner with burned roux.
After getting your roux pretty, thick and bubbly, pour in the vegetables (except okra) and stir very quickly to coat in the roux. The vegetables and the roux will act like you have just provided hem with a mortal insult by glomming together to make you think they're going to burn. Just keep stirring quickly with a wooden or other favorite spoon and it'll be OK:)
Continue stirring for about a minute to start the onions releasing their fragrance and then stir in one can of the tomatoes and about 3/4 of the chicken broth. Add seasoning and the sausage. Keep the heat at medium/medium high. At this point you decide if you want more tomato or not. I usually do, but at least one can of mine is whirred into a crushed state with an immersion blender. You can just buy tomatoes that are crushed already, but my pantry never makes that elusive can availabe when I need it.
This will also be the point at which you start thinking about adding the rest of the stock or not. A gumbo can be the consistency of a stew or a soup or in-between depending on your decisions along the way and whether or not you like rice with your gumbo. You can still change your mind as you move along the spectrum of cooking this dish.
Put the sliced okra in now, check seasonings, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Let it bubble along for about twenty minutes (range tops vary so if your's runs hot, get the heat lower so you don't burn your masterpiece). Check the flavor to see if you need salt/pepper/paprika/etc and add whatever your tastebuds dictate. Now is the time to decide whether you need that last bit of stock or more tomatoes if you didn't add them earlier. Make your decision, bring to a quick boil if you add anything, reduce to a low simmer afterwards. Cover the pot and let it simmer along for at least thirty minutes, an hour if you have it.

Gumbo is one of those dishes that becomes yours, just like really good chilis. The flavors and vegetable amounts that you and your family like are what matters.

Planning a Tasty Week, Lamenting a Short Weekend

I hurry. You hurry. We all hurry and we overlook important things along the way, or things that might make the day better or our frames of mind sweeter. Tonight's dinner is an example.

Tonight was supposed to have been a good dinner night and I made a very dumb mistake.
I had planned to have a grilled hunk o'beef with savory eggplant and potatoes au gratin. I had sliced and seasoned zuchinni, yellow squash, eggplant, red onion and portobello mushrooms to be grilled while the beef rested to use for another night.
The eggplant and potatoes were perfect - the one aromatic, the other golden - and the beef looked good.
The cut I had selected was, unfortunately, not the one I had intended. I had bought a hunk of top shoulder roast, which should be cooked slow-and-low, instead of chuck roast. I have done similar things before, thinking I grabbed a box of blackberry breakfast bars and discovering that blueberry bars were in my bag instead. My errors of Hurry are usually easily remedied. This one was Epic Fail.
When I applied my perfectly sharpened Rada knife to the rested beef, I detected a resistance that shouldn't have been so ...firm. I attributed that to the rareness of the meat. Beautiful, thinly cut slices of rare beef adorned our Fransicsan Apple plates. I had carefully positioned a portion of eggplant and scoop of potatoes before slicing the beef. These were pretty plates.
We enjoyed this aesthetically pleasing view until the time for eating began.
The beef was perfectly seasoned and grilled but tough as a boot - or as I would imagine one would be. We tried several different cutting methods (against the grain, with the grain, combo) and nothing helped.
The cats were delighted at their tiny bites of people food this mistake produced. We cut the rest into large chunks for the possums and raccoons who come to the back deck for meals and called it a win.
I'll serve the grilled vegetables with salmon filets this week so the grill wasn't fired for naught:)

Savory Eggplant
1 medium eggplant, topped and sliced lengthways
1 tin anchovies in oil
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup olive oil
Cavender's Greek Seasoning

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Cut a shallow, angled tic-tac-toe pattern into the flesh of the eggplant. Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a large skillet on medium high and when a drop of water "spits" in the pan add the eggplant, cut side down. While the eggplant cooks (reduce to medium low after about a minute), mash the anchovies into a paste. Put the garlic cloves through a press into the anchovy mix, stir in and add the 1/2 cup of olive oil.
The Eggplant halves should be golden - remove from skillet and place in a glass dish. The scoring in the eggplant should have opened the meat so you can spread the anchovy mixture across the surface and into the crevices.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until the eggplant is tender.
I only serve this when I am making beef but that's just me.

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:)