Food Friday--Peanut Butter Fudges

I am weird in that I don't care for regular chocolate fudge.  I'm not crazy about chocolate in general.  Or fudge.  But this fudge.  This peanut butter fudge.  The recipe has been in my family for thousands of generations.  Not really.  I'm pretty sure Marshmallow Creme didn't exist thousands of generations ago, but this recipe has been in my family for at least 5 generations.  It's sweet and buttery and according to my teenage son, worthy of a sigh of contentment.

Peanut Butter Fudge (the old fashioned way)

What you need
2 cups pure cane sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup marshmallow creme
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

What you do
Grab a big bowl, preferably glass or ceramic, and add the peanut butter, marshmallow creme, butter and vanilla in it.  Then grab an 8 x 8 (or 9 x 9) inch pan and butter the inside thoroughly.  You could also use a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex baking dish if you wanted, but your fudge will not be as thick.

Now that you have done that, cook your sugar and evaporated milk together over medium heat stirring constantly until it comes to a full, rolling boil, then stop stirring and let it boil until it reaches soft ball stage, 234 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Now, pour your sugar syrup into the bowl with the other stuff and mix it all together with a wooden (or bamboo) spoon, and once everything is thoroughly combined (it will be thick!) transfer it to your buttered dish and smooth out the top.  Let it sit until it firms up and cut into approximately 1 inch squares.  Trust me, one or two squares that size is plenty.  Store in an airtight container for up to a week.


Now, want to know an easier way to do this with fewer ingredients that tastes almost as good?

 (not my great grandmothers) Peanut Butter Fudge

What you need
8 ounces unsalted butter, plus a bit more for greasing your pan.
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What you do
Butter an 8 x 8 inch pan lined with parchment paper.

Then put your peanut butter and butter in a large, microwave safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Nuke it on high for 2 minutes, then uncover and stir, re-cover and nuke it for 2 more minutes. Be careful when working with it, it will be HOT.

Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and stir with a wooden spoon. The fudge will become hard to stir and will lose it's sheen. Spread it into your buttered parchment-lined pan and cover the top with parchment paper. Refrigerate until cool and set, about 2 hours, then cut into 1 inch squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.  

(Thanks to my mom for handing over the coveted first P.B. Fudge recipe, and thanks to Alton Brown for the much less time consuming second one.)

Food Friday--Marshmallow-Oreo-Squares

It is nearly 2:00 in the morning and I am working on a paper that is due Sunday.  It's a ten-pager that I only found out about earlier this week.  So far I have completed seven pages and now I am stuck, so I figured I would post a recipe.  :)

I don't really know what to call this except OMG-my-teeth-are-rotting-out-of-my-head sweet.  If you like Oreos and Rice Krispie Treats, you might like this.  It's easy, I'll say that much for it.  The teenager in my home likes it, but thinks that instead of crushing the cookies, I should have run them through the food processor, and I think he is right.

I will post a picture of the finished product after I get the paper done.

Yummy!

Marshmallow Oreo Bars

What you need
1 bag of Marshmallows
1 package of Oreos (not the Double Stuff unless you want to kill yourself with sugar)
4 Tablespoons butter

What you do

Place your marshmallows (you could even make your own if I gave you the recipe!) in a large, preferably glass bowl. 

Cut your butter into chunks and toss randomly on top of the marshmallows. 

Either crush your Oreos, or run them briefly through a food processor.  You want them ground up, not liquefied, so don't leave them in too long. 

Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap if you must, making sure to let some overhang the top--this is for you to grab hold of and remove the sticky mass from the dish,

After the Oreos are dealt with, put your bowl of marshmallows in the microwave and nuke until they are big and puffy, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Stir the Oreo particles into the marshmallows really well, then dump into your lined baking dish and smooth the top the best you can. 

Let cool, then remove from the dish and cut into squares.  Give your dentist lots of money for dentures because your teeth rotted out.

Food Friday: Slow Cooker Apple Butter

There has been no food for the past couple of weeks.  This makes me sad.  I have been so busy that I have not had a chance to post.  This morning, against my will, I am up MUCH earlier than I wanted to be, so I thought I would go ahead and do this before my day explodes into insanity. 

 It's funny, I adore raw apples, but once they are cooked, I will not eat them anymore, with one exception.  Apple butter.  It's sweet and cinnamony and brown and thick and yummy.  This is just about the only kind of cooked apple I will eat.  My husband liked it, and my picky teenager asked if he could just have a jar of it and a spoon, so it MUST be good!  And it's easy.  Just pop it in the slow cooker and forget about it overnight.  In the morning when you get up, your house will smell amazing and you will have this goodness waiting for you to put on toast, or bagels, or waffles, or ice cream or oatmeal or to just eat with a spoon. 


Apple Butter

(If you have some kind of apple peeling and coring gizmo, I highly recommend you use it.  All the peeling and coring made my carpal tunnel syndrome flare up.)

What you need:

5 1/2 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used a mixture of 3 or 4 kinds of organic apples)
1 1/2 cups of sugar (the original recipe called for 4 cups of sugar, so if you like things so sweet just being in the same room with them rots your teeth, use more.  I only used 1.5 cups and it's still a bit too sweet for my taste, but good.)
2-3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

                                                                 5.5 pounds of organic apples

What you do:

Place your chopped apples in a large bowl, or if you are like me, just pop them straight into your slow cooker.                                                   
                                                           
Sprinkle them with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt and mix them well.
                                                            

                                                                  All sugared up! 

Cover and cook on high for one hour.

                                                  Cooked on high for an hour and stirred

Stir the apples, and reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 9-11 hours longer, until dark brown and thick, if you are awake, give them a stir every once in a while, if not, don't worry about it. 

Uncover and cook for another hour (this helps to get rid of some of the liquid, making it thicker.  YUM!)                                
                                                          
Turn the heat off, and you can either whisk your apple butter until smooth, mash with a potato masher to keep it a bit chunky, or just stir it again and leave it really chunky.  It's up to you.  I mashed mine with a potato masher. 

                                                                 Cooked and mashed

Finally, spoon the apple butter into freezer containers, leaving a half-inch of room at the top, let cool completely, cover and freeze.  Or just stand there and eat it out of the slow cooker with a loaf of warm fresh bread.  Not that we did that or anything.  :)

                                                                   Ready for the freezer         
                                                                       

 

                                                                    Fun Size! 

 

                                                          

                                           Can you find the gratuitous kitty?  She's hiding! 

Food Friday: Milk and Honey Bread

Bread.  It has kind of a bad reputation.  It's high in carbs and therefore is bad for us.  But it tastes so good!  Especially warm from the oven, slathered with butter and raw, local honey.  Or apple butter.  Or jam.  Or just butter.  Or just plain with nothing on it. 

I stayed up late last night baking two loaves of this particular bread, and impatiently waiting for it to cool enough that I could slice it without burning my fingers.  I don't have any photos of it being made because it's really hard to take pictures when you are up to your elbows in flour.  I will post a photo of a finished loaf, though, so you can be tempted by it too. 



This one deflated slightly, they don't normally do that. 

Milk and Honey Bread. 

What you need:

pinch of sugar

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

2-1/2 cups warm milk (110° to 115°)

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons salt (I only use 1 teaspoon because I think 2 is too much)

8 to 8-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 

What you do:

 

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with the pinch of sugar for 5 to 10 minutes, or until foamy. Add your honey, butter, salt and 5 cups of flour; beat until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough--it may not take all 8 cups.  The two loaves I made last night only took about 7 cups.  It depends on the humidity and altitude and the type of flour you use.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place it in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  (I don't really have a warm place in my house when it's cold outside, so I put my dough in a glass bowl and set it on top of a heating pad turned on low.) 

Once your dough has doubled in size, uncover it and punch it down.  Divide it in half and shape it into two loaves. Place the loaves in greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans, then cover them and let your dough rise until doubled again, about 30 minutes. (Again, I place the pans on the warm heating pad.)

Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.  If necessary, you can cover the pans loosely with foil if you notice the top of your bread is browning too quickly. Remove from the pans and cool your yummy bread completely on wire racks.   

 

Next week, I will teach you how to make home made apple butter to put on your yummy warm bread.
 

 Bread recipe slightly adapted from Taste of Home. 

Food Friday: Crackers

I wasn't joking when I threatened to teach you how to make crackers.  They are easy and fairly tasty.  And I don't know anyone who doesn't like crackers.  These can be fancy-schmancy crackers or just nice plain crackers, it's pretty much up to you. 

Crackers

What you need:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup warm water

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For brushing on the dough: 1/2 cup water with 1 teaspoon kosher salt stirred into it
For topping: coarse salt, black pepper, and seeds: poppy, sesame, caraway, celery, flax, pumpkin, whatever you like

What you do:

You can do this all by hand and the crackers come out the same, but it's easier in a stand mixer.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, wisk your flour and salt then stir in the water and olive oil.  Turn your mixer on medium speed and mix the dough for about 5 minutes until it forms a nice looking ball.  The dough will look kind of questionable for a while, but will come together into a nice, smooth ball. 

Now, remove your dough hook and shape your dough into a ball, put it back into its bowl, and coat it lightly with olive oil and cover it amusingly with a shower cap or less amusingly with plastic wrap and then just walk away and let it rest for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour.

When you come back, pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.  Grab a rimmed baking sheet that is approximately 12x17, flip it upside down, and heavily flour the bottom of it.  Divide your dough in half, and put one half on the floured baking sheet and roll it out until it almost completely covers the pan.  It will be thin!  Go ahead and trim off anything that hangs over the edge and brush off any extra flour. 

Now, get your salt water and brush the dough with it, then prick the dough all over with a fork, then sprinkle on whatever toppings you want, or just leave them plain. 

After sprinkling on your toppings, grab a pizza cutter or a sharp knife and score the dough into cracker shapes the size of your choice.  Don't worry about cutting the dough all the way through, the crackers will break apart just fine once they are baked.  If your dough bunches while you are scoring it, just pull it back out straight, no big deal. 

Now, put the baking sheet in the oven and bake the crackers for 5 to 10 minutes, until they are golden brown around the edges.  Remove the crackers to a cooling rack and they will get crispy. 

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.  You can either use a second baking sheet, or re-use the first one, just make sure it is cooled completely before you do. 

Once the crackers are all cooled, break them apart and store them in an airtight container and feel all smug because not only do you make your own cheese, you make your own crackers, too.  :) 

Food Friday: Fat Free Paneer

Cheese.  Cheese is one of my favorite foods.  I particularly love goat cheese and recently was fortunate enough to get my hands on some fresh, soft rosemary-garlic sheep's milk cheese that was amazing.  Expensive, but amazing. 

This cheese is pretty tasty, too.  Paneer is a mild, fresh (unaged) Indian cheese that is used a lot in South Asian cooking.  It is easy to make and even my picky 14 year old will eat it.  Even if he has to pick it out of whatever awful thing I have put it in that he won't eat, he will eat the cheese.  :) 

Please note:  This recipe uses fat-free milk.  You are welcome to use whole milk or 2% milk for a 'richer' tasting cheese, but then it won't be fat free.  Still good, though. 


Fat Free Paneer
makes approximately 12 ounces of cheese

Ingredients:

1 gallon fat free milk ( or milk of your choice)
8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

What you do:

Line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth and set this in your sink.  (If you want to collect the whey for other use place the colander in a large bowl.)

Pour your milk into a stainless steel or enamelled pot and set over medium heat.  Heat slowly, stirring frequently so that the milk doesn't scorch, until it reaches a gentle boil. 

Reduce the heat to low and stir in the salt.  After the salt is dissolved, slowly drizzle in the lemon juice, stirring constantly.  Stir over low heat for about 30 seconds, then remove from the heat and let sit for about 15 minutes.  You should now have curds floating in the liquid.  Gently pour the contents of your pot into the colander (Or use a ladle and transfer it that way) and strain out the liquid, leaving the curds in the cheesecloth.  Gather the corners of the cheesecloth and tie it, squeezing out as much liquid as you can.  Place back in the colander in the sink and let it drain for another 2-3 hours.    

For firmer cheese, place a plate on top of the cheese and weigh it down with something heavy, like a large can or a brick while it is draining.  This will press out even more liquid, giving you a nice, firm cheese.  Store covered in the refrigerator after draining. 

You can eat this as is, or use it in your recipes, and you get to feel all superior and brag to your friends because you made your own cheese!  :)    Next week I may tell you how to make your own crackers, too.  :) 

Food Friday: Baked Pancake

Pancakes are good. This baked pancake is REALLY good. It's puffy (until it deflates or if it decides not to puff in the oven which happens sometimes), light and tasty.

The directions sound a lot harder than it actually is. Once you do it you will be like "Oh, that wasn't so bad!" And you will be right. It's not. :)

Please note that if your ingredients are room temperature, the pancake fluffs more than if you use everything cold.

Baked Pancake

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (2% and whole both work well)
1/2 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, cut into a few pieces (I use unsalted butter)

Heat the oven to 425, then put a 10 or 12 inch skillet (or Pyrex pie plate) in the oven to heat while you prepare the batter.

Beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl, then beat in the milk, then the flour and salt and beat until the batter is just smooth.

By now your pan should be very hot. Quickly remove the skillet from the oven, drop the butter in and put the skillet back in the oven and close the door for a few seconds. Remove the skillet from the oven and swirl the melting butter around to coat the bottom of the pan. Now pour the batter into the buttery pan and return it the oven. Set your timer for 15 minutes, then go peek at it, you want it to be puffed and golden and quite brown in places, and it could take as long as 20 minutes, it depends on your oven.

Remove from the oven and the skillet. The pancake will deflate somewhat, but it will still taste yummy! These are good plain, sprinkled with powdered sugar or drizzled with maple syrup or spread with jelly or jam or honey.

 

Food Friday: Red Beans and Rice

Red beans and rice.  Such a simple recipe and yet it is so good.  All three of us happily eat this.  I do not use the ham that the recipe calls for, but I will use sausage (smoked sausage, kielbasa, or veggie sausage).  My son picks out the sausage and gives it to his dad, but the beans and rice he devours.  We have a friend from New Orleans and his mother gave me the cookbook that I adapted this recipe from.

Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Take one-two pound dem red bean an' put dem in a big pot, dere.  Den you wash dem bean real good an' watch out fo dem little rock an' chuck dirt.  W'en dem bean real good clean, fill up wit planty water, fo'-five quart.  Trow in nice ham bone wit planty meat lef'' on, or one-two poun' ham chuck.  Don' fo'get to remember two-t'ree onion, fo-five toe garlic an' planty salt an' peppeh.  Now, boil dat all down til dem bean planty sof' an' dat gravy planty thick.  Serve dem over steam rice wit' Tabasco sauce.

Did you get that?

Would you like a translation?

2 pounds dried red beans
1 meaty ham bone or 1 1/2 pounds pounds ham chunks or smoked sausage of your choice (or none at all, but it will taste different)
2 large onions, chopped
4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf (optional, but I always add it)
Tabasco to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash dried beans and remove any foreign matter (I often find rocks and dirt clods in my dried beans).  Place in a large pot and add 4 to 5 quarts of water, the meat (or substitute if using), onions, garlic and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 3 hours until the beans are soft and the gravy is nice and thick.  Serve over cooked rice with Tabasco sauce.

Yes, I just told you to cook the dried, unsoaked beans.  Trust me.  You do not need to soak them overnight, or do the quick soak method, either.  The beans cook just fine without soaking.  I have not soaked beans in years, I always do it this way (with one exception, but that is for another Friday).  

Food Friday--Two-fer. Flour Tortillas and Sodium Free Taco Seasoning

So, I am in school yet again.  All of my classes are online which is nice for convenience sake, but the amount of homework is insane.  The homework is why I missed posting on Friday, so I am making up for it by giving you two today. Though they kind of go together.  One of them is the sodium free taco seasoning I have been using for years now.  It's really good, and better for you than the packaged stuff you get at the supermarket.  I have pictures to share, but they will be uploaded later.  The battery in my camera is dead and must be charged before I can get the pictures.  

Sodium Free Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika (sometimes I use smoked paprika for a slightly different flavor)
1 teaspoon ground oregano

Mix everything together and use, or make a whole bunch and store it in an airtight container, which is what I do.  It's really tasty .

 This recipe makes approximately the same amount you would find in a boughten packet, so enough to season about 1 pound of whatever you are wanting to season.  This can also be used as a nice salt-free rub for dry marinating stuff.  Just rub it in, cover and refrigerate for a few hours to overnight.


The other recipe I have for you is an experiment that I decided to try a few days ago.  I was very pleased with the results and will be making these again.

Flour Tortillas

What you need:

2 cups All Purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or olive oil)
3/4 cup warm water

What you do:

Combine your flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.  Add the vegetable oil and using a fork or pastry blender, cut the oil into the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.  Add the water and mix until thoroughly combined.  Cover your bowl with plastic wrap, a tea towel, foil, or whatever you have handy for covering bowls and let the dough sit for 30 minutes.  It will NOT rise during this time, it just needs to rest.

Heat a dry heavy skillet or griddle.  I use enamelled cast iron.  Once the dough has rested, flour your hands and pull off a golf-ball sized piece and shape it into a ball.  Place on a floured surface and roll to desired size and thin-ness.  Place it gently into your hot skillet and cook about 30 seconds, until it is starting to blister.  Carefully flip it over and cook the other side about 30 seconds, then remove to a plate lined with a towel and keep covered while you cook the other ones. 

Eat them warm with butter and honey, or use them for their actual purpose.  They are good for soft tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, wraps, whatever!  They are fluffy and chewy and tasty. 

Ignorance is bliss?

I am enrolled in a class this semester called “Science, Technology and Society” and for our first discussion we had to talk about how technology has positively or negatively impacted our society.  One of my classmates noted that healthcare has come so far that we can now help people live so much longer than we used to.  His comment was inspired by Phyllis Diller’s’ death at the age of 95.  He explained that in his opinion, quality health care is important to the health, well-being and life span, but that it seems that only the wealthiest people have enough money to be able to afford that good health care.

I agree with him completely, and in my comment to him, I stated as much, and then went on to include my feelings on nutrition.  Good nutrition is extremely important.  If a person does not have money for good, healthy food, they are not going to be terribly healthy people.  If all you are putting into your body is junk, you will eventually gum up the works and the body will break down, and develop things like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.  I went on to say that unfortunately, healthy food is more expensive than the not-so-healthy foods, and the same poor people that cannot afford health care also cannot afford healthy food.

One of my classmates jumped into the discussion at that point and stated that healthy food is actually cheaper than other foods, and that even the poorest person could afford to buy healthy foods if they really wanted to.  According to her, the reason the super poor people buy incredibly cheap food is because that is what they are choosing to eat.  She claims that the poorest people are eating fast food every day and they are choosing to eat cheeseburgers and fries instead of a “cheaper” salad (which if it comes from a fast food place is really not a healthy alternative unless one elects to leave off the bacon, cheese, croutons and the fat-laden dressing-also, it’s not cheaper).  Also according to her, being overweight is a choice.  She stated that every person on this planet would be thin and perfectly healthy if they only made better food choices.

I have so many issues with her statements.  I will begin with her claim that poor people choose to eat unhealthy food and could easily afford to buy healthy food if they really wanted to.  She said that she can buy an apple for $.89.  Let’s do some math here, based on a real-life experience.  Once upon a time, in the fairly recent past, there was a family of 3 that had a food budget of $10.00 per week.  With that $10.00 three (3) people needed to be fed three (3) meals per day for seven (7) days.  That breaks down to be 21 meals per person for the 7 day period.  For $10.  Total.  If we do a little more math, we find that this family could spend approximately $.47 per meal (to feed all three of them).  (To break it down even more, there were a total of 63 meals—3 meals per person, per day, for 7 days.  3x3x7=63.  So that gives us a total of $.15 per person per meal.) 

If this family bought my classmates’ $.89 apple, that takes almost two meals worth of money.  I promise you, that family did not buy any apples.  So, what did they buy?  They went to the cheapest store in their town and bought macaroni and cheese, 3 boxes-for-$1.00 and ramen noodles 12 packs for $3.00.  That’s seven meals for $4.00, a little more than they should be spending, so for the remaining 14 meals there was either nothing (mainly a breakfast option) or more macaroni and cheese.  They had a little money left over and they used that money to buy milk to make the mac-n-cheese.

 According to my classmate, this family was choosing to buy carb-heavy, unhealthy foods instead of apples and other healthier foods.  She swears up and down that family could have eaten healthy foods if they wanted to.  I guess technically she is correct.  If this family wanted to only eat one meal a day, and share one apple among the three of them for their other two meals, they could have eaten somewhat healthier.  But these people chose to have their stomachs mostly full rather than almost starving. 

I tried to engage my classmate in further discussion, but she refused to talk with me anymore,  insisting again that it’s a choice.  I’m sorry, near-starvation sharing one apple amongst three people (and having that count as two meals) or sharing a box of mac-n-cheese twice a day?  We chose the macaroni and cheese.  (Yes, the family in question here is mine.) 

I was also going to comment on her statement that being overweight is a choice.  I will not get into detail right now, but will say that for some people, yes she is right.  Some people do make bad choices and that is the reason they are fat.   I know someone like that.  However not all overweight people are fat because of their food choices.  Sometimes there are other things going on that make it difficult-to-near-impossible for them to lose weight, no matter what they do. 

So, what I would like to say to her and to everyone else who may read this:  Please be kind when judging other people.  We don’t know what is going on in their life that has led them to make the choices they make.  It’s not really our place to judge others anyway.  Also, if someone challenges our opinions, we should be open to at least listening to them.  They may not be correct, or we may disagree with them, but it may also be us that needs to be set straight. 

 

Food Friday: Rosemary-Parmesan Butternut Squash Gratin

Yes, it's a heck of a name, but it sure is tasty, to the adults in the house anyway.  No surprise that my picky teenager won't eat it.  That's okay, though!  More for the people who do like it.  :)  I got this recipe from Catherine Newman.  She is amazing and I have never made anything of hers that turned out bad.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Rosemary-Parmesan-Butternut-Squash-Gratin


1 butternut squash (2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt (I use iodized sea salt, if you are using Kosher salt, double the amount, or leave it out)
1/2 teaspoon freshly chopped rosemary (or dried, if that's what you've got)
Black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 400 and grease a casserole dish.  (I always use non-stick spray)

Arrange the squash in the casserole. Combine the cream, salt, rosemary, and black pepper, whisk it with a fork, then pour it over the squash. Toss the squash a bit to coat each piece with the cream mixture (Catherine and I use our hands for this), then cover tightly with foil and bake in the middle of the oven for half an hour.

Somehow, I managed to not take any other pictures of this... Anyway, here it is ready to go into the oven.

Uncover the squash, gently stir in half the cheese, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and bake, uncovered, another 15 minutes or so, until the top is browned and the squash is tender when you pierce it with a knife. Allow the casserole to stand for 5 minutes before serving so that the cream can thicken up.

Food Friday--Veggie French Dip

Veggies.  We can't get enough of them, but sometimes we want something more than just a plate full of veg.  :)

These sandwiches are filling and good, and fairly easy.  I have made them with zucchini and another time with portobello mushrooms and it was good both times.  Even my finicky teenager happily ate it.  This recipe also makes a yummy Caramelized Sweet Onion Jus to dip the sandwiches in.  Messy, but good!

Veggie French Dip with Caramelized Sweet Onion Jus

Ingredients:

3 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 small sweet onion, very thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 small zucchini (about 2 pounds)
4 whole-wheat or multi-grain sandwich rolls

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add 1 tsp of your oil.  When the oil is hot, add the onion and saute, stirring often until the onion is soft and starting to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Add your garlic and saute for about 1 minute more.  Add in the tomato paste, soy sauce and vinegar and cook until most of the liquid is gone, around a minute.  Add the vegetable broth slowly, scraping any browned bits from the bottom and sides of your pot.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the sandwiches are ready to serve.

While your jus simmers, trim and discard the stem and bottom ends of each zucchini.  Slice the zucchini lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips.  Coat 2 baking sheets with 1 tsp of oil each.  Lay the zucchini strips on the baking sheets in a single layer and pop them into the oven.  Roast them for 10 minutes, then turn the zucchini strips over and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes, until it is brown and very tender.

If necessary, slice your sandwich rolls in half (but not your fingers!) and place them in the oven during the last 5 minutes of zucchini roasting time.

Remove zucchini and rolls from the oven and divide the zucchini evenly among the rolls.  Using tongs, remove the onions from the jus and divide them among the sandwiches.  Ladle about 1/2 cup of the jus into small bowls and serve with the sandwiches for dipping.

Enjoy!

A Day in My Life

I was looking through some posts I had made on my other blog and found one that I felt needed to be shared.  It's a pretty typical day in my life.  :)  Also, we no longer live in the house with the freakish toilet.

This happened in 2008, but it's still funny (and still totally what my life is really like.  I swear, I couldn't make this shit up).

A day in my life (slightly edited from its original form--names have been removed or changed)

The day started out normally with me needing to use the toilet the instant my eyes were open, so I did. When I flushed, the toilet backed up and I had to plunge. (this happens probably four times a week with this toilet. It will back up with just one square of t.p. in it, too. I am not joking.) As I was plunging, the plunger managed to suck up a wad of toilet paper and as the paper squished back out of the plunger, the plunger made some weird sucking noise and doused my legs and t-shirt with disgusting toilet water resulting in my having to shower immediately and clean the bathroom floor. Grrrr...

Fast forward...

I am making vegetable soup (and it smells GOOD!) but while I was preparing the broth, I had adventures. I was opening a can of garlic-herb broth to add to the pot, and when I popped the top open, the broth exploded all over my shirt (not the toilet-water shirt, a different one). The second can exploded all over my arms. So, now, I smell like very strong garlic... this is not necessarily a bad thing, but since I had just gotten out of the shower moments before I did this, I was slightly frustrated.

Second (third? Do the two cans of garlic broth count as one event or as two?) thing to happen was I was holding my can opener (that I had just used to open the broth) in my hand and my cat decided he needed to investigate the can opener. He hopped up onto his back legs, put one of his front paws on my buttock and the other he used to bat at the opener. This was great fun for a few seconds, then he tired of the game and wanted to be back on all fours. Well, his claw had become caught in my pants, and he could not get back to the floor as he was stuck. In my pants. He is yowling and scratching my butt in his efforts to get away, and he somehow managed to pull my trousers down in his efforts to get free. So, I had to have my son come and rescue the cat and me as I was standing there covered in garlic broth.

There is more to the original post, but it's about our dog turning into Houndini and performing amazing feats of harness escape and the feeble attempts at catching him, but is not quite as funny as this bit.

So with this post and the story of me locking myself out of the house and having to break in through the kitchen window, you should be getting a pretty good idea that my life is better than a soap-opera and is rarely boring!

Food Friday--Spiced Green Beans

We all like green beans around here (except frozen ones. They squeak annoyingly when chewed), so we tend to eat a lot of them and I am always looking for new ways to cook them.

Since I recently found out from my doctor that I am having blood sugar issues and I need to be mindful of that, I was looking at a diabetes-friendly-recipe website, dLife, and came across this recipe for spiced green beans. I made it for the first time last night and my husband and I liked it okay, but our teenager seemed to feel that this recipe had been delivered from the 9th plane of hell by Beelzebub himself. At least he enjoyed snapping the beans with me. :)

If you try this one, please stir the beans frequently and watch out the last 5 minutes or so. Mine boiled dry and I had to add a little bit more water.


Spiced Green Beans

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves , crushed and peeled (we like garlic, so I used 3)
1 lb fresh green beans , trimmed and snapped (a good job for an angsty teenager.)
1/2 cup cold water
2 tsp ground allspice (to taste)
1 pinch salt (to taste)
1 pinch black pepper

 Directions

1 In medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned.
2 Add the green beans and the water and bring the water to a boil.
3 Stir in your allspice, salt, and pepper.
4 Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes, until the beans are soft. Stir frequently--especially the last few minutes and make sure they don't boil dry!

I need some better dishes!  

Also, gratuitous cat-in-a-bag.  

Invisibility and prejudice, another random journey through my brain.

Do you ever feel invisible?  I do.

There are days that I feel like no one notices my presence, or if they do, they disregard it almost immediately.  I will be in the middle of a sentence and the person I am talking to will get up and leave the room.  Or I will be talking and someone will interrupt me and when I try to continue speaking (after they have finished) no one seems to hear me or someone else interrupts me.

This morning I was trying to talk with my husband about something that had slightly angered me.  He was scrolling through posts on Google+ and only half listening and whenever I stopped talking to get his feedback on what I had said, he commented about one or other of the posts that he was looking at, and I am fairly certain that by the time I finished talking, he had not been listening at all for a couple of minutes.

He is not the only person who treats me as though I am invisible.  Most other people do too.  My husband and I were sitting side by side at a party a couple of weeks ago and someone approached us and invited my husband to their party.  Not both of us, just him.  While I was sitting right there.

Anyway, that is not what I intended to write about this morning, I just needed to vent a bit I guess.

What I wanted to write about is the attitude I have encountered toward people on food stamps.  Many of the people I have dealt with have been very nice about it, but there have been a few people that copped an attitude with me.  I was paying for my groceries with my food stamp card and the guy behind me in line said "It must be nice to not have to pay for your food."  I just looked at him and didn't say anything, but I was thinking "Oh yes, it's great.  It's great to know that my water and sewer service are going to be shut off in a couple of days because I can't pay those bills.  It's amazing to know that my phone service is going to be shut off because I can't pay it.  It's nice to know that my mortgage payment hasn't been made in five months and that if it's not all paid up by next month the bank will take my house away and my family will be homeless.  It's great to be humiliated and judged every time I pull out the card and tell the cashier 'It's EBT please.'  Yes, sir, it's very nice."

Prejudice against poor people is rampant in the United States, and I don't completely understand why.  Yes, some people are poor because of their own choices and actions (or lack of action), but not every poor person is to blame for their circumstances.  We should try to have a bit more compassion for other people.  We never know their trials and situation.  We can't know what circumstances have brought them to the point they are at in their journey.  Instead of judging, we should accept and respect other people (until the give us reason not to, as some of them will.  But we shouldn't go into every situation expecting that we will be disappointed.)

Sorry if this is disjointed, I'm dizzy and tired this morning and having some thinking issues.  :)

Food Friday--Cream Cheese Salsa Chicken

It's early.  My cat decided it would be fun to wake me up at 4:30 this morning by kneading my butt and then meowing in my ear several times.  When that didn't work, she started playing with the coat hanger on the closet doorknob.  That did it, so now I am awake and pondering food, and she is happily curled up on my desk sound asleep.

I decided to post this recipe for a couple of reasons.  Chicken is about the only meat my son will actually eat, and this stuff is pretty good.  Also, I am considering making it for dinner tonight so I can post pictures of it later on.

This chicken mixture is good served over rice (or your favorite grain) and it is also good wrapped up in flour tortillas like enchiladas, which is what the recipe originally was.  I have used boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts for this, whichever one I can find on sale, but I only use boneless, skinless because if it has bones or skin I get completely grossed out and can't even touch it (also, I don't have much money and I don't want to pay for bones).

I feel the need to add here that this is one dish that my meat hating son will almost beg me to make.

Also, I'm sorry about all the "to taste" notations you find in my recipes.  I often don't actually measure stuff when I cook, I just add until it looks right.

Cream Cheese Salsa Chicken

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, either cut in strips or bite sized chunks
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced (or less if you don't like garlic)
1 to 1.5 packages reduced fat cream cheese, or to taste
1 to 2 cups of your favorite salsa, to taste
2 tablespoons Olive oil or some non-stick cooking spray
Rice or other grain to serve over,
OR
10-12 soft taco sized flour tortillas and some yummy cheese to top them with

If serving rice, get that started.

Heat the olive oil (or pan coated with non-stick spray) over medium heat until the oil shimmers.  Add in your onion and bell peppers and saute until the veggies are starting to get soft.  Toss in the garlic and chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until the chicken is cooked through.  Add your cream cheese and salsa and stir until the cheese is melted and the salsa is incorporated and everything is nicely coated with the sauce that forms.  Remove from heat.  Serve over rice OR wrap about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture in each flour tortilla, place in a baking dish coated with non-stick spray, and bake for about 10 minutes at 350.  When you take them out of the oven, sprinkle a little cheese over the enchiladas and serve.


I prefer this served over rice, but my son prefers it in flour tortillas and then topped with Tostitos Salsa Con Queso.  We made it topped with melted Velveeta once, but that was kind of gross and I won't do it again.

The red and yellow bell peppers can be swapped out for green bell peppers if you would like as the green ones are generally cheaper.  The red and yellow are prettier and in my opinion they taste better than the green ones.  Also, to make this vegetarian, instead of chicken, a couple pounds of mixed, sliced mushrooms would probably be good.

Food Friday--Stirring! Er, I mean Risotto!

Risotto.  Rice and butter and cheese.  And stirring.  Wine, shallots and garlic and chicken stock.  And more stirring.  Pretty simple, and yet so tasty.  My teenager and I both adore risotto.  My husband not so much, so I make this with the shrimp from last Friday and everyone is happy.  This recipe makes a lot, so if you find yourself with leftovers, just add a little more chicken stock to it before you reheat it and it will be almost as good as freshly made.        


2 cups Arborio rice
1 shallot, finely minced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3/4 cup good quality Parmesan cheese
6-8 cups chicken stock, hot but not boiling
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil



Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté the shallots and garlic but don't brown. Add in the rice and stir to coat the rice with the oil. Once the rice is well coated, add the wine and stir until the wine is all absorbed.

Start adding the hot chicken stock about 1 ladle full at a time, and stir vigorously until the stock is absorbed. Continue adding the stock 1 ladle at a time, stirring until it is all absorbed by the rice. Keep adding and stirring until the rice is done--it will take a good twenty minutes (or longer!) of constant stirring and (less constant) stock adding. After about 20 minutes, eat a grain or two of the rice to test for doneness--it should be firm but not hard or crunchy.

Keep stirring in stock until the rice is a firmness you like. As you stir, the rice will take on a nice creamy, thick consistency.

Once the rice is done, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter, then the cheese.

The rice should be thick and creamy, and buttery and good, and your wrist should be sore and your fingers numb from the carpal tunnel syndrome all that stirring will give you. :)

And you can feel superior because you just made a dish at home that would cost you around $17 in a fancy restaurant. And you didn't even have to get dressed up. :)

Smells to hell, a random journey through my head

Weird confession time.  I like the smell of sulfur.  Especially burning sulfur.  Whenever I light a match, I always savor that sulfury smell.  If I could find sulfur incense I would burn them frequently so my house would smell good.  What?  It's not that bad.  My son likes skunk stench and I have a friend who loves the smell of gasoline.  I have another friend who has no sense of smell and so misses out on all the amazing smells that life throws at us.  She also misses out on the absolutely disgusting smells, too, so I do envy that sometimes.  :)

I have been told that it is good that I like the smell of sulfur since I am going to hell.  I have a couple of different thoughts about that.  One is that I don't necessarily believe in "hell".  I really think that hell is a state of mind.  We have the capability to create our own personal hell right here on earth.  We can make our lives good, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, or we can choose to make ourselves miserable and endure our own living hell.  The book (and movie) "What Dreams May Come" puts out the idea that our afterlife is totally under our control.  We decide what our own personal "heaven" looks like.  I think that applies to our own personal hells too.  Heaven and hell are a matter of perception.  My idea of what would be heaven would absolutely be someone elses idea of hell.

In my heaven it would be cloudy almost every day, with a mist or light rain frequently falling.  No fog, though.  Fog creeps me out.  Maybe one day a week, the sun would break through the clouds for short periods of time and also about once a week there would be a LOUD rollicking thunder storm.  In my heaven, the temperature would range between 60 and 70 degrees, and there would be flowers and green, growing things, and friendly tigers that wouldn't try to eat me, and no ticks or mosquitoes and I wouldn't be allergic to anything.  There would be other things, too.  The pets that I have lost over the years, all my favorite foods and my favorite people would be there, too, once it was their time.  And books.  Hundreds of thousands of books on subjects that I am actually interested in.

That is part of what I perceive as a perfect place.  Everyone is different and that is a good thing.  If we all liked the same things the world would be a pretty boring place.

Another thought that I have about hell is that I am damned to hell in most every religion that believes in it.  Everybody is.  All the Christian religions claim that if you don't worship their version of God you are going to hell.  I want to know how am I going to be in all those different hells at the same time?  The Center for the Study of Global Christianity tells me that there are approximately 41,000 different denominations of Christianity in the world, and there is only one of me.  The math just doesn't work out.

A Mormon that I once knew told me that they believe that hell is the eternal separation from their God.  There is no fire, no brimstone, no burning or torture or anything like that, just not ever being able to be in the presence of their God.  That is a concept that actually makes sense to me.  For a true Christian, what worse punishment could their be than being kept away from their savior?

I have other thoughts and questions but will save those for another day.

How about you?  Do you have any thoughts or questions that you would care to share with me?  

Food Friday--Smoky Garlic Shrimp

Shrimp.  What more is there to say about them?  Well, my 14 year old would say that they are gross and nasty and should just be left wherever they come from and forgotten about.  I disagree.  Shrimp are pinkish and curly and yummy on their own.  But when you cook them with amazing flavors, they become even more tasty.  This recipe is pretty easy to make, and is fairly forgiving.  If you don't have smoked paprika, use regular paprika.  The flavor is slightly different, but it's still good.  Also, I have never been able to find the sherry vinegar that the recipe calls for, but I have used apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar and a half-and-half combination of apple cider and regular white vinegars and it has always been tasty.


Smoky Garlic Shrimp


1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (thaw frozen shrimp by running cold water over them in a colander for 5 to 10 minutes)
1 teaspoon table salt (I use iodized sea salt, but it doesn't matter what kind you use) 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (5 or 6 large cloves, or more if you like garlic like we do)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar ( if you can find it.  Substitute apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar if you can't)
Chopped flat-leaf parsley

Sprinkle the shrimp with the salt and set aside for 10 or 15 minutes.  (I skip this step, but feel free to do it if you want)

In a wide skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil until very hot but not smoking. Add all the shrimp to the pan in a single layer (more or less) and sprinkle the garlic over it. Cook for a minute, then stir in the paprika and cook, stirring constantly until the shrimp are pink and cooked through--around three minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the sherry vinegar, sprinkle on the parsley, and enjoy!

Now, we sometimes serve this with a nice crusty bread to soak up all the yummy, yummy olive oil, and it is good that way.  I also sometimes make risotto and serve this shrimp over the risotto, which is also super yummy.  Also, my husband does not like risotto, but my son does, so he gets his dad's risotto and my husband gets our son's shrimp and they are both happy.  For a few moments anyway.

(Also, this recipe is adapted from Catherine Newman's Smoky Shrimp with Garlic and Olive Oil.  I adore her.)

Is honesty a lost art?

There is a saying out there, "No good deed goes unpunished".  Here recently, my family has gained precious experience with just how true that statement is.

See, for just shy of two years we have had no income.  We have been surviving on student loans and odd jobs.  I have recently started making and selling various baked goods to try to bring in money, as our situation is getting kind of desperate now.

We were receiving food stamps, but when we got our income tax refund, I reported it to my case worker, just like I had been told to, who then called me and said that we had too much money and so the state took our food stamps away.  So, basically we were punished for being honest.  We know other people who are also receiving food stamps that did not report their income tax refunds and they did not lose their assistance.  So if honesty is always the best policy, why are the honest people being punished?  Is honesty the best policy?

My karma (and my religious beliefs) tells me that yes, it is best to be honest.  I believe that whatever we send out into the universe, either good or bad, returns to us three times over.  So, if we lie or do something bad, that energy comes back to us three times worse than what we did.  The same thing happens if we do good.  We get that positive energy back threefold, too.

But sometimes it is difficult to be honest and to do the right thing, especially when you know that it will result in negative things happening.  Sometimes it is easier and less trouble to take the easy way out.  Unfortunately, that results in horrible things coming back around on us at some point in the future.  So I guess it comes down to being honorable and doing the right thing now, even though it will result in temporary hardship or doing the wrong thing now and making things easier in the short term, even though it will make things that much harder later on.

It is difficult to be a good person and to do the right thing, but in the long run, it's probably in our best interests to do it anyway.

Another observation I have made is that when someone encounters an honest person, they don't always know how to handle that.  We had gone to a big-box store one evening to do a little shopping.  In the parking spot next to us was a brand new coffee maker, still in it's unopened packaging.  We waited for a few moments to ask the person who was getting into that vehicle if the coffee maker was hers.  She said no, so we took it into the store and got in the Customer Service line.

Once we navigated through the throng of people to the counter, we handed the coffee maker to the lady at the register and told her that we had found it in the parking lot and thought it should be brought back in.  She looked confused as she took it from us, and after a moment she said, "Well, thank you for being honest".  Like it was something she had not encountered in a while.  I'm certain she does not happen across a whole lot of honesty in her job, but it still saddens me that she was so shocked by people trying to do the right thing.

Another recent change I have noticed that goes along with honesty is in a store I frequently shop in, Aldi.  They do have plastic and paper shopping bags for sale, but people have to purchase them separately, the price is not included in their food purchase.  The bags are inexpensive and used to be available under the conveyer belt for customers to grab and put up with their food.  The bags are no longer located in places where customers can access them.  Seems that people were stealing the bags and lying about it, so management moved the bags behind the cash register where the cashier sits so if someone needs bags, they have to tell the cashier who then retrieves the requested number of bags and charges the customer accordingly.

I understand that times are hard for a lot of people, my family included.  I do not understand stealing shopping bags.  Aldi happily encourages people to bring in their own bags, whether cloth, plastic or paper.  They don't even mind if people grab boxes off the shelves to put their purchases in.  Maybe I am just too simple to understand the mentality that would cause someone to steal a $.05 cent shopping bag, but it just makes no sense to me.

If anyone has any thoughts, insights, epiphanies, bitches or whatever, please leave me a comment.  If you can help me understand the mentality of so many of the people we share the planet with, please enlighten me!

Food Friday--Black Bean Dip, now with photo!

This black bean dip is supposed to be a replacement for hummus.  I like black beans and I really like hummus, and I really do like this black bean dip, but I don't think it would be an acceptable hummus substitute.  It is tasty, though.  Also, instead of using veggie broth to thin the dip, I have used salsa, and it turns out pretty tasty that way, too.  (You can also substitute curry powder for the cumin if you are so inclined.)
                                                                    

So, it's not terribly photogenic.  It actually reminds me of wet dog food.  I assure you though, once it  is chilled, it's good!

                                                                   


Black Bean Dip

3 1/2 cups black beans
1 small onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 T ground cumin (or curry powder)
1 1/2 t olive oil 
2 T chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1/4 c vegetable broth (or salsa)

Drain and rinse black beans if using canned, and for the record, I always use canned for this.

Place olive oil in skillet set over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper and garlic and saute about three minutes, until vegetables are fragrant and starting to brown slightly. Add cumin, stir well, reduce the heat to medium and cook another two minutes. 

Place beans in food processor and pulse several times. Add the vegetable mixture and pulse a few more times. Add vegetable broth in small batches to thin the dip to the desired consistency. Garnish with chopped cilantro if desired. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator for up to 10 days. 

Serve with tortilla or pita chips, as a veggie dip, or if you want, just eat it with a spoon.  :)

Please note that I do not serve this with the cilantro because it tastes soapy to me.  In my opinion the cilantro is not needed and the dip is quite tasty without it.  

If you try it with the cilantro, let me know how it tastes!

Living, thriving, green

At "church" yesterday (Yes, "church".  I am pagan, but we belong to a group of pagans that meets every Sunday afternoon for rituals, forums and classes), a friend of ours mentioned that she would like to have a plant for her room.  Something living that she can care for that would help make the room more cheerful and friendly.  As I have a plethora of plants (inside and outside my home) I happily told her that I would give her a couple of mine.

These are in my kitchen.  There are more in the dining room.

                                                                         
Having a green, living thing growing in my home is something I can totally get behind.  I think I may have said this before, but in my not so humble opinion, my home is not a home without at least one cat and living plants in almost every room (not at least one cat in every room, just one or two total cats).  I believe this so strongly that I even have plants on a shelf in my bathroom.  What?  They help clean the air and make that uber-tiny room smell better.  The trick is keeping the cats from eating the plants.  :)

Why do I like to have plants?  There are several reasons why I like to have plants in my home.  I grew up in places filled with plants.  My mother always had beautiful plants, no matter where we lived.  My grandmothers had flowers and other plants around and inside their homes and I grew up admiring their beauty and colors and amazing scents and I thought that it was normal for people to have their homes filled with living, growing things--animals, plants, children.  Homes are places that should be filled with love and with life, and what better way to do that than to fill your space with things that flourish with loving care?

Schwartz the plant muncher, and teenage boy.  

                                                                           
Plants also clean our air. They filter carbon dioxide and some polution out of the air we breathe, making it cleaner and better for us. They also provide us with oxygen, something that is essential for human life. Also, I like it when people come into my house for the first time and notice the plants and comment on how beautiful they are and how happy they look.
My plants provide another benefit for me, too.  Whenever I walk into my kitchen and see them up on top of my desk, they give me a little psychological boost and make me feel better.  And, now I have a bonus happy!  My stargazer lilies are starting to bloom, so now whenever I am coming home from somewhere, or going out to check the mail, I am greeted by the beautiful lilies on my front porch.  This makes me unreasonably happy.              

One of my Stargazer lilies

                                                                 
There is one other thing that comes to mind right off that my plants do.  I have a philodendron on my front porch, behind the lilies, and that plant is home to a nest full of baby birds.  The baby birds and their parents have provided much entertainment for the cats who allow us to live here with them.

If you look closely, you will see the mommy bird in her nest.

Now, there are some problems with having plants, too. I have some pretty bad allergies and plants tend to collect dust, and sometimes their soil gets moldy and that is a problem for me, so I do have to be careful to keep the indoor plants dust-free and to not keep their soil so wet that it molds. There is also the issue of having cats and houseplants. Cats like to nibble green growing things, and not all houseplants are safe for cats to munch. Even keeping the plants up very high does not necessarily protect them from a small cat who is an awesome jumper, so special precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of both the plants and the cats.

Winnie, the other plant muncher.

                                                                     
Plants, cats, children.  Things that all flourish with loving care.  These are some of the things that make a house a home.  :)

Food Friday--Cheddar Lager Fondue

Fondue.  All three of us adore fondue.  I do not own a fondue pot, but I have a small enameled cast iron pot that holds heat very well, and does an awesome job at keeping the cheese the right consistency.  If you don't have a fondue pot, or a small enameled cast iron pot, a slow cooker would work to keep it warm, too--just get it started in a regular sauce pan and then add to a pre-warmed slow cooker, or just eat it quickly out of the sauce pan.  That would work, too.  :)


Cheddar lager Fondue

1 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (6 cups)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 cup Samuel Adams Lager
6 tablespoons frozen (thawed) apple juice concentrate
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In large bowl, toss grated cheese with the flour. Add olive oil to a large-ish sauce pan over medium heat. When hot enough to shimmer, add the garlic and cook 30 seconds until very fragrant. Add lager, apple juice concentrate, ground mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Heat to a simmer (let simmer 3 minutes if you want alcohol to evaporate) and gradually add cheese, constantly stirring until fondue is smooth and the cheese is completely melted. If it's too thick, stir in additional lager, one ounce at a time, until desired consistency.

Serve this with cubed bread, veggies, cubed apples, or your favorite fondue dipping items.  We all really like pumpernickel bread, lightly boiled cauliflower, carrots and broccoli, and just about any kind of apple.  This recipe makes quite a lot, and is one of our favorite fondue recipes.

Cats and dogs.

Sorry this post is a day late.  Yesterday was my son's birthday and we spent the day with him, trying to make sure he had a good day for as little money as possible.


A friend of mine had to bury one of her beloved feline companions recently and this has brought up some things for me.  I feel so bad for her as I know what it is like to lose a creature that is more to you than just "a cat".  Cats are her totem animal, so she has a special relationship with them.  This is something that I can fully relate to.  My favorite animal is the cat.  My totem animal is the tiger, and one of my deities is Bast, an ancient Egyptian "feline goddess".  As such, I too, have a great affinity for cats.  They are magical creatures for me, and they play a large part in my spirituality and magical workings.  They are not just animals to me, they are my friends.

Whenever I am feeling run-down, tired, out of sorts, or just 'off', often all I need to do to feel better is to have a snuggle with the cat that owns me.  If she is not available, or not amenable to snuggling right then, any friendly cat will help.  The feline energy is great for helping me recharge.

My husband does not understand my fascination with cats.  He doesn't really like cats, and has no idea how someone could enjoy their company. His totem animal is the wolf, represented in our home by a 75 pound German Shephard-Alaskan Malamute mix that looks more like a wolf than some wolves I have seen, and while I don't have any use for the stinking, slobbery thing, my husband really likes him.  This sometimes creates challenges in our marriage and the way we interact with each other.

We both have some of the attributes of our respective totem animals.  Wolves are pack animals.  Tigers are solitary creatures.  My husband is a slightly introverted extrovert.  I am a VERY introverted introvert.  He likes to go to parties and hang out with people while I prefer to either be alone or to be with one or two people (or a handful if I know them all).  Parties are something that I try to avoid whenever possible, but when I do go to one, I usually say hello to everyone I know, then hunt down the animals that live in the house and make friends with them.  If there are no animals, I try to find a quiet, out of the way spot and hang out there.  My husband gets frustrated and angry with me because I don't want to go to all the parties he wants to go to, and he doesn't understand why I don't want to go.  I don't understand his desire to be with other people as much as he seems to need to.  I have told him repeatedly that it's perfectly fine for him to go without me, that I really don't want to go, but he still gets upset.

So this makes me wonder.  Do we take on the attributes of our totem animals, or do we already have these attributes on our own?  I do not have an answer for this, but some of the people I have talked to about it in the past feel that we do take on the attributes of our totem animals, wether for good or bad.  Amusingly, though, there is one tiger trait that I just cannot get behind.  Tigers are carnivores.  They eat meat almost exclusively.  I don't like meat, and avoid it as much as possible.

The differences between my husband and I, and our totem animals, makes me wonder sometimes if cat people and dog people can ever really resolve their differences?  Can a person who doesn't like cats (or one who doesn't like dogs) learn to put aside their personal feelings for the creatures and live in harmony with someone who doesn't like their favored creature, or are we forever doomed to never see eye-to-eye and to always misunderstand the other and their critter?

Any thoughts?

Food Friday--Slow Cooker Veggie Curry

My days have gotten away from me this week and Friday almost passed without me posting a recipe.

I like to use my slow cooker and all of us in this house like a good curry, so when I found this slow cooker veggie curry recipe, I was thrilled.


Slow Cooker Veggie Curry

1 can light coconut milk
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 Tbsp curry paste (or to taste)
1 large onion, chopped
4 small Yukon gold potatoes, halved
4 cups butternut squash, cut in 1 1/4 in chunks
4 cups cauliflower florets
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 red bell pepper cut in 1 in pieces
1 cup frozen peas, preferably no salt added
3 cups cooked rice
salt and/or pepper to taste (optional)

Whisk coconut milk, flour and curry paste in a 3.5 quart or larger slow cooker. Stir in veggies except peas. Mix well.
Cover and cook on low 6 to 7 hours until veggies are tender.  Stir in peas, cover and let sit 5 minutes.  Serve over the rice if desired.

WTF, WDF?

I am frequently visited by the Weird Dream Fairy (WDF) and have all manner of strange dreams, some mini horror movies, some funny, some just downright bizarre. Last nights visit falls into the bizarre category.

My husband, son and I had been invited to a restaurant for a gift presentation. We did not know why we had been invited, just that we were told to be there at a certain time and to wear nice clothes. Later we found out that we were one of the poor families that were being "adopted" for the evening. It turned out that There were about a hundred people there, most of whom had donated money or gifts (and a nice meal at this expensive restaurant) for a couple of poor families.

We got there, showed the hostess our invitation and she took us to a large, round table and seated us with a few other people. They all smiled warmly at us as we were seated, then suddenly there was a man with a microphone calling out names. He said that the first gift basket was donated by the mother of a friend of ours and about ten other people and then he said that it was to be given to us. The fact that our friends' mother was one of the people who had donated the basket was just a coincidence. It was a huge basket filled to overflowing with all manner of things.

The other huge basket was given out and then we were each given smaller gift bags containing mystery items. In the dream I never got the chance to look into the bag as everything sped up right after that. Suddenly, food appeared on our tables, just like at Hogwarts, and immediately after the food appeared, the entire event was over and we were up and hugging people and thanking everyone.

Then things started to get weird.

My husband disappeared. Poof and he was gone, it was like he had never existed in the dream. The gifts we had been given were gone, too, so maybe he took them out to the car. I don't know. I went to the restroom and my face was feeling odd, so as I was washing my hands, I glanced into the mirror and noticed that somehow I had been transformed into the Human Barbie from the neck up and was so heavily Botoxed my face would not move.

After leaving the restroom, I met up with my son again and we went out the side door. This door opened into an enormous garage with a car being custom built in the middle of the floor. We came out of the door on a catwalk suspended about 30 feet in the air and we could look down onto the car and as we were standing there, I realized that a part was in the wrong place and I reached down and removed it. Now, how exactly my arms grew that long, I don't know, but they did. There were two young men standing beside us and one of them told me that I had no business messing with that car and I said "Of course I do. It's my car." And of course it was. But now, I was stuck on a catwalk, 30 feet above the garage floor and holding a bit of my car that I didn't want to just drop. I decided we would have to brave the stairs get to the floor so that I could put the part safely down.

When I say "brave the stairs" I am not joking. The staircase was made of a bunch of plastic milk crates precariously stacked on top of each other. These milk crates were filled with jumbled books. In order to reach the floor, we had to navigate our way down the rocking tower of milk crates without knocking any of them over. Of course about halfway down, my son found a book that he wanted to read, so he took it with him and we continued to fight our way down the milk crate ladder.

Once we arrived safely on the floor, we were no longer in the garage, we were outside in an alley and were being shoved into the back of a large, black car that I did not recognize. It was at that point that I woke up and realized that I had been sleeping on my face and part of my cheek was numb, explaining the bit about the botox and my face feeling weird.



I have so many vivid weird dreams I could write a lengthy novel. And most of my dreams are in full color, which I have heard is a sign of mental illness. Hmm. How about you? Do you dream in full color or black and white or something in between? Care to share a weird dream in the comments? I would like to hear about them!