A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Blogging By Mail: From Ireland and To Estonia

Stephanie, the Happy Sorceress of Dispensing Happiness put together this wonderfully small world event called Blogging by Mail where she took on the huge challenge of playing musical mailbox with a huge list of people all over the world, all sharing their favorite "small things" with each other.  (Thanks, Stephanie!)

My Mail Blogging genie turned out to be Deborah of The Humble Housewife who lives and caters in       Ireland.  But get this:  her husband is originally from my town--Springfield, Missouri.  How freaking cool is that? 

By her choices, Deborah shows that we have lots in common! Baileys? Yum!  A good paring knife and a small pastry brush--YES!  Tea?  Boy, howdy.  Marmalade?  My FAVORITE!!!!  Candles? Love 'em.  Chocolate? Hiding it from Gene.  Shamrock cookie cutters?  Deborah must have ESP because I almost bought some this year and then decided to not be frivolous.  Grumpily frugal.  Now I can enjoy them next year and not feel one bit guilty--thanks Deborah! How did you know?

There is nothing like getting a present in the mail. It turns us all back into children with a pure joy of opening a surprise.  As an adult, it's also the entryway into a special bonding among foodies.  Isn't it nice to know there are "others" out there like us that share this passion?

Thank you so much Deborah for both your goodies and your kindness!  I'm now an avid reader of yours and a cheerleader in your corner on your catering business--best of luck.

Who did I send my box of goodies to, you might be wondering...

Evelin at Bounteous Bites is an adorable young woman who is 17-years-old and already an accomplished cook. I was so grateful to Stephanie for sending me her name. Her blog is so fun and impressive. I don't mean to hound on her age but I was blown away when I realized just how much experience she has under her belt.  In a way I related to her. I, too, was in the kitchen at a young age so by the time I went to college I was sort of the "Mom" in the kitchen to my roommates.  I noticed also, that like me, Evelin loves to bake and all of her desserts are beautifully done.  I thought she might enjoy a few of my favorite little things to cake decorate with so I put together a care package of Wilton pastry bags, couplers, tips, food colors, and then some fun candy jelly flowers and lollies.  I can't wait to see what lovelies she makes with these new kitchen toys. 

Happy (Early) St. Pat's: Corned Beef, Colcannon, & Green Bread

Happy St. Pat's Day  a little early! I'm working most of the weekend including Monday but I wanted to share this meal with you.  Yum! St. Pat's food is one of my favorite go to for celebratory meals. Don't know why I don't prepare it more often.  Actually, the Reuben is my all time favorite sandwich and corned beef hash and eggs is my favorite breakfast. Can't go wrong with corned beef and cabbage in any form!

By the way, the green bread is a joke. It's simply my standard white bread everyday recipe that I added green food paste coloring to for some St. Pat's silliness.

As for the holiday itself, St. Patrick is credited with both driving the snakes and the pagans out of Ireland. As Ireland's patron saint, Patrick is attributed with using the abundant shamrock as a teaching tool to explain the three-in-one nature of the Trinity.

This is my entry for this weeks'  Weekend Herb Blogging, originally created by the lovely Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.  This week, WHB is hosted by Kel of the fabulously photographed Green Olive Tree.  Check out all the other entries after Sunday evening.

Cardamom is a spice, not technically an herb, but Kalyn's focus is on all herbs, spices, or plants.  Cardamom, my favorite spice, is used quite a bit in northern European and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Bread Baking Babes: Royal Crown's Tortano

The second I opened the email invite to join Bread Baking Babes from Tanna, I knew I wanted in.  The second she sent the first month's recipe and it had "Crown" and "Royal" in it, I knew I was in love.

Okay, enough with the bad jokes. This bread was really fun, though long and complicated to make. I'm not saying it was hard, it was just different.  The dough was different, wetter and sloppier, which hurled me out of my comfort zone but in the end I enjoyed those sweating moments of wonder and Gene and I both are enjoying the big round loaf of chewy, hearty bread with a wide spectrum size of bubbles in the crumb, and that chewy/crisp crust that made every hour and every turn worth it.

This bread so inspired me that after baking it on an airebake metal pan, Gene and I went to Lowe's where I bought a couple of unglazed slate tiles to use for a baking stone and a couple more small ones to heat up for the bottom of bread baskets or to throw into a roaster to create steam for my next attempt.  Cost?  $1.88 per large tile and .99 cents per small tile.  That works for me.

You know what I had the most trouble with?  The baking part. Actually, my crust color is much lighter than what this recipe called for but at the time it FELT so dark.  I've told the story many times that I grew up in the kitchen of a cake decorator. I was my mom's apprentice, basically. In the cake frame of mind, overbaking is kin to a sin.  I can still hear my mom's voice saying "White cake is supposed to be WHITE!  Not BROWN!"  So there's something embedded in me that has a hard time letting any crust get dark brown. Someday I'll get over it and allow myself to bake a bread to a deep dark golden browned crust.  But I bet you I'll feel guilty the first time I do.

By the way, the flour I used made for marvelous-tasting bread. It's King Arthur European-style Artisan Flour, available (in this area--Springfield, MO) at The Cheddar Block on West Republic road between Kansas Expressway and the bridge that crosses over James River Expressway.

To view the rest of the Bread Baking Babes web sites, click on the links below:

A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Nami-Nami (Pille), Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

Presto Pasta Nights #45: Split Pea/Alphabet Pasta Soup

For the lovely Ruth at Once Upon a Feast's weekly Presto Past Nights blogging event, I made soup. Again. But really, can you ever eat enough soup?  It's filling. It's good for you. It's comforting.  That's a win-win.  This time it's a little difficult to see my pasta so I'll show another pic. 

Not only does this soup have split peas and alphabet pasta in it, it also has yellow and brown lentils, wild rice, and barley. Then, when I made it I added onion, carrot, green and red pepper, and celery which makes it vegetarian.  I haven't decided to go exactly back to strict vegetaranism but I have decided to make most of my meals non-meat. I have to have a little wiggle room for seafood and the occasional steak.  It's like any diet. Once I say "absolutely no more of that food will ever be consumed by me again" is the exact moment when I can think of nothing else and would walk on a bed of nails on my knees to get that, so knowing myself, I'm saying that I will eat much less meat than ever before.

Just FYI,  I didn't put all of those peas, lentils, rice, pasta, etc., together but I was glad when I saw it at the Amish Store in Branson and will be buying more.  They have several dried bean/pea soup mixes that are just wonderful. With the veggies I can saute at home and herbs I can add myself, it's a full but quick meal to put together.

The mixes can also be ordered directly online from The Amish Country Store.  Most of the products are made by Missouri Amish families.

Weekend Herb Blogging Celebrates Two Years: Rice and Beans with Zucchini and Annatto

Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen is celebrating the two year anniversary of everybody's favorite food event: Weekend Herb Blogging.  Congratulations, Kalyn! Check with Kalyn's site from Monday on to see the round-up of all the wonderful herby and veggie dishes from around the world.

Her celebration coincided with my personal celebration of 1) having friends in from St. Louis and Woonsocket, RI that I haven't seen in --forever!--and 2) my one day shopping spree.  I've really been working on my spending habits this year, as in, trying to reign my spending habits in and I've been pretty successful so far.  It feels good to feel more in control of the whole instant gratification thing, if you know what I mean. But I did allow myself one day at one store with my friends to go a little nuts. That one store was The Amish Country Store in Branson where they have my all time favorite aisles of spices. The Amish Country Store is a family owned business that stocks furniture and food products produced by local Missouri Amish families, along with a variety of about 150 fresh spices brought in weekly in bulk and repackaged into smaller containers. Usually I stock up on fresh home-bottled (canned in glass jars) goods and Mrs. Miller's noodles but on this trip I concentrated on refilling my spice cabinet.  Here's my haul:

From top left to right: ground annatto, dried celery flakes, dried red and green bell pepper (I like having those on hand for when I need seasoning but the crisper is bare), red popcorn and coconut oil (I was weak), dried lavender, dried chamomile flowers, star anise, Hungarian paprika, cardamom, lentil and pasta soup mix, and  Tupelo honey.  You'll be seeing a lot of these things in the coming weeks.

My featured spice for today is: Annatto

Daring Bakers: Milk Chocolate & Caramel Tart

I found this challenge to be just that: challenging.  While I have an extensive background in baking cakes, tarts I'm not as familiar with so this was fun in a slightly stressful way, let me put it that way. I've never before made my own mousse or caramel. I've always wanted to do both but yesterday was a first for both. I learned a lot, mostly from my mistakes. But that's the whole point of being in the Daring Bakers group. I wanted the challenge of exploring new baking territory.

For a list of all the challengers, click on Daring Bakers for links.

Not to continue complaining about my knees but I'm going to anyway. Still having problems with them. Still miserable at work (from my knees only) and had a doc appt yesterday about them.  We're going to try a new painkiller that's non-narcotic, thank God, and maybe some joint fluid therapy.

In the meantime, I admit, even though cooking is still relaxing for me, I have to be careful on my days off not to spend too much time standing or it makes it worse for work.  This little project was four hours in the kitchen!  I'd put off making the tart until right at deadline time so there was no doing one little thing a day crap. It was a straight on onslaught with putting things that needed cooling into the freezer and cutting out all the middle man of time I could.

Let me walk you through my experience with this little recipe.  For one, the first thing it says is that the shortbread pastry will make three tarts. Well, I didn't need bulk, I needed ONE.  But instead of dividing everything by three, since dividing two eggs into three parts, gets dicey, I divided everything in half and went from there. I think I ended up with a little too thick of shortbread crust but it's good and we'll survive the trauma of having a thicker crust, you know?

I did make two alterations to the recipe. We're supposed to run the recipe as is but I had a couple of problems. For one, this really was a hit and run this time so it was one trip to one grocery store and one afternoon. So when I couldn't fine the hazelnuts on my pass through the grocery store, I chose to read "hazelnuts" as "almonds".  And I left the cinnamon out of the crust completely.  My husband, Gene, hates cinnamon and since I'm counting on him to eat a goodly portion of this thing, it made no sense to alienate my audience from the beginning.

Weekend Breakfast Blogging: St. Lucia Buns (Lussekatter)

Well...hell...

Okay, for breakfast blogging I made the theme to be "Ethnic Dishes with a Twist", the twist being that everyone should make a breakfast recipe from another culture, country, or ethnicity than their own.  Everybody else has been doing a great job with this event and I finally had time tonight to complete mine. I couldn't decide what to do at first.  One of my ideas was to make congee just because I see it on the menu of every big city hotel we stay in where there's a high percentage of Asian tourists.  Then I read a recipe and found that it's basically a rice porridge. That's fine. Actually, I love rice for breakfast with just a little butter and milk on it. I know that's not the same thing but somewhere along the line I lost my enthusiasm.

My other idea was to look up into my own family tree.  I'm Swedish/Norwegian on both sides but we have no Scandinavian hand-me down food traditions and that makes me a little sad.  I decided to make my own. Ever since elementary school when I first heard of St. Lucia Day, I've been been wanting to wear lit candles in my hair.  After all, I am the oldest girl of family.  But amazingly, Mom and Dad weren't real hip on that whole fire on my head in the wee hours of the morning while I'm baking bread thing.  I don't know why.

But I'm an adult now so I can wear lit candles in my hair if I want to. The problem is that now that I'm adult the idea has lost its appeal.  But not the thought of the St. Lucia buns.  I don't have a lot of practice with saffron but I do use and love cardamom, my favorite Scandinavian spice.  Put the two together and I call that Good Eats or Yumm-o or some other phrase that isn't already in the lexicon by people who might possibly sue me for using their trademark phrase.

St. Lucia (Sankta Lucia) Day marks the beginning of the Christmas season on December 13th. Sure, I'm a little early but let's call this a practice run. The tradition is for the eldest daughter in the family to serve saffron buns to her family while wearing a white dress with red sash and a crown of candles. It's a romantic tradition if not particularly approved of by Smokey the Bear.

My saffron buns didn't come out exactly as I would have liked them. They're a little overdone but they still tasted good.  Thankfully, Gene smelled them and pulled them out of the oven for me. You know that children's book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"?  Well that was my day yesterday.  I made the lussekatter tonight to try to distract myself from the fact that I'm having big trouble with my knees (now both) again in the form of some very wicked fluid retention on both and pain going with it. But, I was able to get into my primary care doc today so hopefully he'll be able to figure it out and fix it.

This is what the buns are supposed to look like:

Quite a bit lighter than mine and without the weird plumped up black raisins. I have NO idea what that was all about but the buns still tasted good once we knocked the demonic looking raisins off so what the hell.  We'll eat these up and next time, like December 13th, when I make them again, I'll be less distracted and pull them quicker from the oven.

The recipe follows.

BOUNCING EMAIL MYSTERY SOLVED!

To anyone who has not already sent me their link, another participant clued me in to the problem:  I had my email address followed by .com instead of .net. 

My deepest apologies everyone. I didn't catch it at all even after reading my post several times.

Anyone who is still sending in or who wants to resend to make sure I've gotten it, my true email addy is Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal (dot) net.

Again, I am so sorry for the confusion and bounced emails but to be honest I'm glad to know it was this rather than that my server wasn't delivering my mail.

Let's extend the deadline for a couple of days through Wed the 29th and I'll do the round up on Thursday the 30th.

Weekend Breakfast Blogging #14

I'm proud to be hosting the Weekend Blogging Event #14, created by Nandita over at the Saffron Trail blog.  This has been one of my favorite events since I started blogging.  I have a friend, Jean, who says one of the nicest things about staying at a friend's house is having someone cook breakfast for you.  I totally agree.  Sometimes we glide over breakfast but it's the best meal of the day.

Our breakfast theme for the August is Ethnic Dishes with a Twist. The twist is to make a dish from a culture, country, or ethnicity other than your own.  I see recipes all the time that I've heard of but never tasted and I think this month is a good time to take a little walk out to the edge and try something new.

The deadline will be Monday, August 27th 10pm central time and I'll post the round up on Tuesday, August 28th.

To participate, please send me:

Your name:

Blog Name:

Recipe:

Permalink:

Photo if you want one included:

My email is Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal (dot) com.

I can't wait to see what new recipes we all try this month!

First Day Back at Work: Lunch Box Meals are Back Again

Lunchbox contents from top to bottom, left to right:  Protein snack bar, Crystal Lite individual pack, Protein shake, Cold Sesame Noodle Salad with Peanuts and Parsley, fresh pitted cherries, zuchinni sticks, baby carrots.

Last night was my first night back at work at the hospital (respiratory therapy) in right at three months.  For the two people I haven't whined to I had a knee injury followed by an incredibly long diagnosis journey, followed by surgery exactly five weeks ago.  Last night was my first night back on the job and it was a doozy.  But such is life. Right now my life revolves around Aspercreme and ice packs.

Since I'm also back to wanting to take good, healthy meals to get me through my shifts rather than go to the cafeteria...I know. You'd think a hospital cafeteria would focus on only extremely nutritious food but the sad fact is no one would buy it. We have a nice salad bar and they do serve a poached fish several times a week but I wasn't consistently seeing or buying what I should be eating so, like a lot of people, I brown bag it. Or in my case, I cute little Japanese bento box it.

IF I can find foods that are fast, satisfying, and pretty in my fridge. Otherwise, it's a challenge.

Last night's lunch fulfilled all three.  The cold sesame udon noodle salad was inspired by Sher, at What Did You Eat's Spicy Sesame Noodles with Peanuts and Basil. That photo looks so inviting to me that I had to make it even if I didn't have all the ingredients in the cupboard.  Real creativity in the kitchen, mine at least, is brought on by cravings, a skimpy pantry, and an unwillingness to go to the grocery for one or two items.  So my Sesame Noodle Salad with Peanuts and Parsley sved my day. Or dinner. Depends on how you look at it.

The best part was the entire lunch took less than fifteen minutes to prepare and I was on my way.  It's all about a little juggling. While the noodles boiled, I prepared the vegetables for the salad and the rest of the veggies in the lunchbox.  By the time the noodles were cooked, everything was packed, the dressing for the salad was made, and all I had to do was toss it all together and scoop it into the bento.  You can't beat that with a stick, like my grandmother always said. Have no idea what it means but it feels right for this case.

My lunchbox noodle salad is my entry this week in Ruth of Once Upon a Feast's weekly Presto Pasta Nights event. Check her blog Friday to see all the pasta dishes being served up this week.

Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty

Ever since Kyleen, the Texan New Yorker, pointed out that to me that if you Google "Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty" a link to a post on my blog from almost a year ago shows up as the number 1 link, I've been feeling a little guilty.  The post that got me up there on Google was a post for Frito Chili Pie and only mentioned Peggy Hill and Apple Brown Betty.  I feel like a bad girlfriend who's led all those people on without putting out.  But today is the day we remedy that. 

By the way, that happened a couple of months ago.  Since then I've dropped to number 3.  Which is a little strange considering that ever since that post, I've been getting fairly regular traffic from people looking for Peggy's Apple Brown Betty, but recently I've gotten a half dozen or more google searches for that every single day!  It makes me wonder if one of the episodes that features the Brown Betty has aired ln syndication lately. 

Happily on my part, for all of you "Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty" searchers on Google and Yahoo, here's your recipe.

I'll be honest.  I had never made or eaten it before. I looked at several recipes, all with variations on a theme but in general the dish seemed to be a cross between a crisp and and bread pudding.  I chose a recipe from Epicurious because I wanted to get something representative but also something from a site I felt pretty comfortable trusting.  I like all the recipe sites where anyone can upload recipes but a couple of times I've been disappointed in the past.  Not this time.  This Brown Betty turned out to be a simple, straight-forward, fresh-apple tasting dessert with a crunchy topping like crisp, but with a soft, comfort-carby mouth feel like a bread pudding. It wasn't nearly has heavy as I thought it would be which was a plus for these hot summer days.

Do you ever stop and think about how much our food is influenced by pop culture?  When I say Apple Brown Betty, everyone who watches King of the Hill immediately knows what I'm talking about.  Does the beverage Romulan Ale conjure up a memory?   How about Carmela's ricotta pie that bribed the reference letter for Meadow's college application or the baked ziti we drooled over for six seasons?  In Las Vegas, several of the 7-Elevens have been temporarily changed into Kwik-E-marts for the summer, selling "good Squishee", Krusty the Clown cereal, and Homer's pink donuts.  If you had the opportunity, would you go in?  I would. 

Food is so much a part of our culture in every facet: celebrations, family time, snacks, and even driven by our pop culture or there would be no market for the Star Trek Cookbook and Entertaining with the Sopranos and Artie Bucco's Sopranos family Cookbook. I suppose one could look down from one's nose and call it a travesty.  I call it fun.

Excuse me. I'm off in search for a recipe for Vulcan Plommuck soup.  Since Vulcans are vegetarians, it will probably be good for the diet...

Fairly heavy on the cardamom and nutmeg, Peggy's Brown Betty is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, WHB is hosted this week by Susan of Food Blogga.  Sunday evening, Susan will have a list of all the herby spicy dishes cooked this week.

My first Run in with Truffles

Who knew that these four simple ingredients could serve up a homey, comforting, light meal?  I do now. 

Last night Gene was out helping a friend move a bunch of furniture so  I was left on my own for dinner.  Just yesterday morning I was saying I'm determined to get back into fresh meals packed with nutrition most of the time and away from grabbing something drive-through or take-out.  Last night was the first challenge of my new resolve/rededication.  I chose a simple pasta over a burger and I'm so glad I did.

The four ingredients above complimented each other perfectly.  I tossed the warm pasta that I had boiled in salted water with a splash of chicken stock with a couple of Tbsp of omega-3 loaded walnut oil and a few drops of truffle juice.  Then I re-seasoned the pasta with the very finely ground and light Maine lemon salt.  At that point I could have stopped. I couldn't wait to dig in because the smell, woodsy and citrussy, made it an act of willpower to finish grating a little truffle and asiago on top, let alone taking the time to photograph the dish. But even with "all that", once the pasta was cooked, the whole dish took less than five minutes to put together.

You know what really surprised me?  As light and subtle as that pasta was I ate less than half (but all of the truffle bits) and was well-satiated for the evening.  I've never had truffles before so I have nothing to compare this too, but what I ate I really liked and the walnut oil set it off well.  The only word I can use to describe the taste is woodsy.  Sort of along the mushroom line but not exactly, something primordially satisfying to the senses.

My dish is this week's entry in Ruth's, of Once Upon a Feast's, weekly event Presto Pasta Nights.  Run by her site later in the week for more great pasta ideas for the week.

Daring Bakers Newbie--My First Bagels Ever!

One little thing to talk about before I start the bagel post--for those of you who missed the ending about the cake I mailed to Sher of What Did You Eat, the cake did arrive by 10am the next morning and it traveled really well, better than I thought it would. The only visible sign of having been shipped is that the plastic wrap left a faint pattern in the top of the fondant. That's it.  Sher said she and Bob really enjoyed it and so did her friend Nancy, who dropped by after work.

To see the cake, how it arrived, and what it looked like cut into, click HERE to go to Sher's weblog.

What a great experiment! I was really pleased with the results. So now we know: you really can mail cake and get it there in one piece (bad pun) and edible.

To the Daring Bakers founders, Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice and Lisa of La Mia Cucina, thank you for including me into the group.  I love the whole concept of challenging ourselves to new baking heights, especially the whole idea of mixing it up between sweet and savory, cakes to pies to breads to whomever's-turn-it-is-to-name-it.  Because my--cough cough--expertise--cough cough is in cakes and decorating cakes, I was thrilled to try my hand at bagels, something completely different from my norm. 

I do make loaves of bread and dinner rolls all the time for our meals, by hand at times and by having burned through three (yes, THREE) bread machines over the last 15 years of my marriage (the first was a wedding gift), but I've never tired bagels or pretzels. I've thought about it but the DB group and this challenge gave me the proper motivation I needed to take the plunge, pun intended.  For those of you who don't get the joke in "take the plunge" you will as soon as you read the recipe and see the pics.

This month's challenge was created by Jenny of All Things Edible and Freya of Writing at the Kitchen Table and the recipe's title is:  Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels.

I'll tell you what my very first thought was when I printed off the recipe and it printed off to 3 1/2 page--"(Screw) me! I wanted to be in this group why?!"  I then mentally added and "Oy!" just to stay in theme. 

Well, you know what? A couple of the techniques were different from anything else I'd done before but it wasn't really "hard".  Putting them together, following the recipe, and coming out with a usable product at the other end was not difficult, BUT, what was really difficult was getting them any resemblance this side of heaven to each other.  I know, and the recipe reaffirmed, that a real bagel is formed by hand and that they're not completely uniform, but let me show you something that explains my personality and why that lack of uniformity bugged me--

This was my hors d'oeuvres table from the Pampered Chef party I hosted the other night. See my cheese tray in the front?  Let me make it a little easier for you--

There are three layers of cheese slices in each row, lined up to perfectly fill edge to edge.  My husband walked up behind me while I was carefully slicing each piece as evenly as possible and using a ruler I keep in the kitchen to line up the front edge exactly.  He stood there for a while. Of course he was admiring my precision, I thought.  Nah.  He looked at me with the same look of disgust he'd have if he found a booger in his coffee and said "You are the biggest control freak I know and THAT'S the proof, right there."  And then he walked away LAUGHING at me. Not WITH me. AT me.

I was a little put out by that comment, especially since he disrupted my concentration on making my cheese exactly even on every side.  How could he say such a thing just because I like inanimate objects to do what I want them to and to do it in as uniform a manner as possible?  Is that so much to ask from a world that revolves supposedly on the chaos theory? 

I didn't think so either.

So my point of that story is if you are like me and you're a big control freak one of those people who likes everything to be prettily perfect in every way... this recipe is even more of a challenge than Jenny and Freya had any idea it would be because those little buggers do not like to be the same size, shape, consistency to each other no matter how much you poke, roll, shape, slap, dunk, or swear at them.  And believe me, I tried all of those things, especially the swearing, and they still came out an attractive bunch of bagels on the whole but not even close to consistent and perfect. Sigh. So look at the recipe as an exercise in humility and plow through anyway because the end result will forever ruin you for a grocery store-bought bagel.  I think Gene and I each ate four a piece the first day.  Hmmmm...maybe making them often isn't such a good idea.

To see how the other members of the group fared, click on any of the blog names in the list on the left, titled "Daring Bakers".

A Handful of Cherries and a Quartet of Stems

Our friends Leigh and Darrell just got home from a 10-day cruise to Alaska. I've seen a few of their pics Leigh has emailed me.  You know what was the strangest part of that is? To see them dressed in parkas and ski pants to climb the glacier.  It's over 90 degrees here every single day and they were in parkas and ski pants last week.  You know what was stranger? To see how blue the glacier really was.  I know that sounds simple but seeing it in commercial pics isn't the same as seeing it in the real live vacation pics of friends who were just there last week.

To catch up and hear vacation stories, they'll be coming over for dinner Wednesday. To offset the glacial chill of the Alaska pics, I wanted a particularly summery feeling centerpiece for the table. Have not a clue yet what I'm cooking but the centerpiece is done... IF Gene and I can stay out of the cherries. They're so good this year, juicier and plumper. Mounds of fragrant cherries in the fruit bowl are the one sure sign of summer to me.

Even though it officially happened four days ago, Welcome Summer!

Although I've said this before, it still remains true: Janelle at Talk of Tomatoes and her Centerpiece of the Month event always reminds to put the pretty back into eating dinner. Sure, dinner is about the food but it always tastes better and feels more luxurious when you sit down at the table with china and napkins and centerpiece.  Nothing wrong with taking the extra time to add a little beauty to our everyday lives and I thank Janelle for helping me remember that.  Check with Janelle the first week of July to see the round-up of tablescape ideas. 

So if you don't like cinnamon...

...how do you make Fench Toast?  Actually, it's not me, it's Gene. Not that not liking cinnamon is a bad thing, it's just such a common spice that avoiding it is tricky sometimes.  Don't let me give you the wrong impression.  He doesn't hate cinnamon and he would never be a jerk and  say anything rude even to me but the truth is given a choice between cinnamon and no cinnamon...he'll go without.

I started thinking about that as I prepared for Nandita of Saffron Trail's Weekend Breakfast Blogging Event.  This month it's being hosted by Trupti of The Spice Who Loved Me and she aptly picked the theme of "Spice up!" your breakfast. She didn't mean necessarily spice as in hot, just spice as in a new view, she said.  Well my view was locked onto French Toast, which I adore.  I like it 's rich egginess and the combinations of sweet and savory, rich from the milk and eggs along with light from the spices, usually cinnamon.

The first time I made French Toast at home for my brothers and sister was when I was about eight, maybe younger.  I was in the kitchen serving up simple meals pretty young but 30-cough-cough years ago that was just the way it was when you were the oldest of five kids.  You got drafted as the mommy aide-de-camp at a young age and you did what was expected of you. 

The recipe I learned to make French Toast from was an  egg mixture of milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Gene doesn't dislike that but it's not his favorite.  Today, I thought I'd mix it up a teeny tiny bit by subbing cardamom for the cinnamon and Gene approved. He said it was the best batch I'd ever made.  Funny, he had no idea what spice he was eating or that no cinnamon graced his plate, he just knew he liked it.

Fair Enough.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Lemon Chicken Scallopini Redux

My favorite dish in the whole world is Lemon Chicken Scallopini.  Everybody has a favorite and that's mine.  I've always been more of a salty/savory kind of snacker and lemon chicken scallopini fulfills all of my taste favorites: salty, savory, and tangy.

I love the way pounding the chicken makes it so tender, almost not meat-like. It loses some of that stringy, chewy, hardness that I hate about eating animal flesh whether it's steak, poultry, or fish.  Actually, to be honest, I tolerate beef (triglyceride gasp!) and fish better than the texture of chicken or turkey, unless the poultry filets are white and pounded thin.  Then, they melt in my mouth and I can plow through an full serving with no problem. Prepared any other way, I have to force myself to eat meat. I usually cheat and snack on protein jello, soup, bars, and shakes from Dr. Brenda's Carriage Park supplies or GNC.

This sauce is my all time favorite. I love the savory down-home goodness of the chicken stock mixed with the tartness of the lemon, the saltiness of the capers, and the muskiness of the 'shrooms.  Most chicken scallopini recipes also add bacon. Sometimes I add that but sometimes I skip it because the bacon can be the one traditional ingredient that, for me, throws the balance of the dish over into "too salty".  I like the earthiness of the bacon but the salt adds up even if you're using low sodium chicken stock so I can live without it or with very little. I know I'm going all Un-Emeril when I say that but this is the one dish that, in my opinion, can be undone by bacon specifically because of the saltiness.

I'll eat this sauce on almost anything. Feel free to think dirty on that one because I really love the simplicity of this sauce.  In the picture, I also fried the last bit of green cauliflower I had left from Aunt Miranda's produce jaunt last week.  Not only did it taste magnificent, it brought back great memories of all the lunches Aunt Miranda and I shared at Marketplace Cafe on National that is now the second Garbo's Pizzaria.  They served long fat wedges of fried cauliflower in this sauce and it was to die for. I don't know about Aunt Miranda but I remember nothing else on that menu EXCEPT the fried cauliflower appetizer.  Luckily, Gene hates cauliflower, no matter the color, and I got all three pieces.  That's okay. I traded him half of my chicken.  It was worth it.

Capers, a Mediterranean flower bud, high in Vitamin A and Omega-3 Fatty Acids, is my spotlight this week for Weekly Herb Blogging. Created by Kalyn of Salt Lake City's Kalyn's Kitchen, WHB is hosted this week by Astrid of Paulchen's Food Blog.  Check in with her late in the week for the round-up of heraliciousness.

New Mostaccioli Recipe & Some Housekeeping Items

First of all, after giving that shortcut mostaccioli recipe a week or so ago right after my knee surgery, I decided to do it again only in the longcut version and using a couple of new recipes.  The first is my reworking of a recipe for Olive Garden's Alfredo recipe (by the way, you gained 5 lbs and got 10 minutes closer to your future heart attack just now from simply reading the word "Alfredo") and a new spaghetti sauce spice mix I put together for a friend who's having severe emotional distress about Paris Hilton's incarceration Lawry's decision to stop production on "Spatini" spaghetti sauce mix. 

My friend, Cindy, wrote me asking if I had any idea where to find a copycat recipe and after combining a few Googled recipes, don't know if my mix will exactly match Spatini but after tonight's trial run I know it's pretty good.  I made up a batch of the mix for her to try out before investing a paycheck in McCormicks' since she doesn't keep all twelve, or whatever, herbs and spices individually in her cabinet like I do.  I put them in a pretty little jar and shipped them off to her today.  I suppose most people would have gone the whole way of finding a small box, grabbing some newspaper to crumple, and pack the jar in but I'm much too lazy for that. I simply masking taped the jar lid to make sure it didn't come off (not screw on) and walked it in naked in my hand to my local UPS Store.  I've used them a lot for gifts when I don't have time to wrap. For a couple extra bucks they'll wrap, pack, and track your parcel across the country. 

Let me share with you what I learned today.  Imagine you were me, walking in to your local UPS Store with a clear jar chock full of dried greenish "herby" bits...and all the workers at the counter are college aged...and there are several customers in the store around you....now.....just think about that for a moment in a way that I didn't as I obliviously trotted in and said "I need to mail this to Woonsocket, please."  And then the kid at the counter with a big grin that I was sure in my naivete at the time would make him employee of the year because he was just so darn friendly, asked "What is it?"  And I, being stupid, answered "Just some home-made stuff for a friend..."

Cindy, the Narcs will be waiting for you when you pick up that box.  Sorry, dudette.

So here is the dinner, not as pretty as the other mostaccioli pic, but tasty none-the-less, and the recipes for both the Alfredo and the home-made, wink wink, Spatini are after the jump.

With all the herbs in the non-Spatini Spatini mix, especially my favorite Italian trio of basil, oregano, and thyme, the mostaciolli is my entry this week for Weekend Herb Blogging, created by the wonderful Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, and hosted this week by Rachel of Rachel's Bite.  Run by her blog later in the week to see all the herby dishes being created around the world, most of them hopefully legal.

Now on to some other miscellaneous stuff that I keep either forgetting to talk about or little things I just want to throw in here:

1)  I remember a little while back I was asked what my new camera is and I keep forgetting to say.  It's no big deal at all but I appreciate the asking.  I did have a Kodak something or other for several years but it has been slowly dying for the last year. I finally got fed up, went to a local camera shop, told them what I use it for which is basically not much. I'm not a big photographer so I just needed something super easy that takes decent pics and that I can't screw up. Really. That last part was the most important.  I just want it to read my mind and give me what I want. Is that too much to ask of an inanimate object?  Much the same as what I want from my husband.

I ask for so little in this world.

So when I talked to the nice man at the counter, Itold him I could only spend up to $200, fully expecting for him to sneer and get on the intercom and point me out as being a lily livered lost sales cause, but instead,   he said "you don't really need to spend that much.  I can get you a basic little Nikon that will have more functions and better pictures than what you have now and I'm pretty sure you'll be happy."  He was right.  It's just a little Nikon Coolpix L10 ($120) and I love it.  Takes better pics, has some zoom, takes video, all things my other cursed camera didn't do.  I am happy.  And I'm personally going to petition God to let him in heaven without hassle because he's the first salesman in my life who didn't lie, didn't only show me items that were at or over my budget, and he was nice.  Nice, I tells ya.  I've never really met a nice salesman before.

I'm putting him on my Christmas card list. 

He's my new best friend.  He, on the other hand is wishing he'd never sold me a camera because as my new best friend I emailed him pics of my new $4 Walgreen's thong sandals and asked for his opinion of if they make my toes look fat.  He didn't answer so I guess that means they make my toes look cute.  Right?  You see the logic here?

2)  In the realm of--Isn't this cute?--I finally ate (okay gave to the nieces) the last of the turtle cookies my fantabulous co-workers got for me following my surgery and at the bottom was this way cool cookie holder. I've made cookie bouquets before of my own using a basket and floral foam but check this out:

How cool is that? It holds something like 21 cookies!  So the next time I make a cookie bouquet for a sick friend there's going to have to be a return deposit on the container.  You know, something along the lines of "give this back or I'll burn your house down".  You know, something just stern enough to be listened to.

3)  Along the lines of alwasy be prepared and do so months in advance, I'm going to offer all of us some family Christmas party advice. Oh, nothing I thought of myself, but it is a great piece of advice that I found in a magazine at my surgeon's office.  It was so inspired to come home with me that it ripped itself out and made its way magically into my purse when no one I wasn't looking.

So heed this this wisdom on how to cope with horrifying family holiday parties because it was bought at the price of my integrity. From the November 2005 Oprah, and God knows anything Oprah prints is true because Oprah is God herself,

"The single best way to cope with familial turmoil is to give up the hope that your relatives will suddenly become cornucopias of emotional health.  It's true.  Your family of origin should give unconditional love, wisdome, and insite. And this will happen right after your hamster publishes its novel.  Instead of yearning for the a perfec tfamily, listen to teach Byron Katie, author of the book I Need Your Love--Is That True?  "If I had a prayer," she writes, "it would be this:  God spare me from the desire for love, approval, and appreciation.Amen."  This sound sharsh if you've never experienced freedome from these desires, which comes when you accept yourself."

I do believe that, so much so in fact that I will stand up in front of all of you right now and say that I no longer desire anyone's love, approval, or appreciation, if that's alright with you.

4)Check this out--The City Bakery in LA is selling Paris Hilton cupcakes complete with nail file (okay popsicle stick but I LOVE the fun of these). I found the pic/story on the famous TMZ website. Check them out. They're much better at reporting celeb news than Perez Hilton and they don't kiss Miss HIlton's "buttchops", as my deaf niece referred to her "buttocks" today.  www.tmz.com

5) And for our final little goldmine of the day...remember back when I did that really stupid thing and made those oils with the fresh herbs?  Then remember when I came back and told you to really, really, really, NEVER do that thing with the fresh herbs in oil?  Yeah, well, remember when a couple of you smartasses (Kyleen and Sher) said "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if you grew a biological weapon and then photographed it for us?"

Do I deny you people anything? Of course not.

So here you go, kiddoes.  Photographic proof that putting fresh herbs in oil is a really stupid thing to do. Well, to be fair, putting them in isn't stupid if your intent is to poison someone but since that's not real high on most people's to-do list, we can put it firmly in the stupid category for the biggest proportion of the population.

Look, rejoice, and revel in all that botulism can be when left on the window sill unchecked.  Yum!

See what looks like cutesy cotton all around the thyme?  That would be clouds of noxious bacteria.  Put it down and walk away.

See all those little specs of white on the peppers?  I have no clue on this planet without a plate of agar what the hell that is.  I'm guessing probably nothing high on the county health inspector's "good" list.

The two on the left were both canola oil. The two on the right were olive oil. The olive oil subjects fared a little better with no visible bacteria.  My personal guess is the acid in the olives is keeping the bacteria in check but don't quote me on it.  But hey, my name's not Mikey and I'm not eatin' it.  Tomorrow they all get tossed.

So the next time you feel like emulating me on something like this, think harder.  But most of the rest of what I do won't get you into too much trouble. 

Chicken and Rice with a Twist: That's the Ticket

I was cruising blogs the other day and saw a photo and recipe name that struck my fancy on Cynthia's blog, Tastes Like Home.  "Cook-up Rice". Hmmm... just sounded good to me, comforting and filling.  In the post she said that she didn't have the recipe written down on the blog but if anyone wanted it, to email her. So I did.  Nice lady. Everyone go see her blog. Then make her crazy by emailing her for the recipe because it's fabulous.  You need it.  (She's gonna hate me forever.)

Please note that my dish doesn't look like her dish but all most of the important ingredients are there.  Okay, I switched the beans, all right?  I'm a gimp. I didn't want to go to the grocery for black-eyed peas.  In my pantry, I had the choice of kidney, lima, garbanzo, lentils, or butter beans.  I chose the last and it was delicious. Gene loved it too.  Cynthia says this is a traditional Guyanese dish and they often serve it on Saturday nights with fried fish, fried plantains, and a fresh salad.  Well, that sounds wonderful but I'm a whiney bitch today so Gene's going to have to go to Cynthia's house in Barbados if he wants all the accompaniments.  He was lucky to get the chicken and rice, if you know what I mean, rather than being handed the phone and Pizza Hut's number. It was just one of those days.

I'm not going to give a recipe because you can email herself (I told you I was feeling hateful) and, more importantly, I didn't quite follow directions. Surely by now that's not really surprise, is it?  Cynthia says to make the whole thing in a dutch oven. I said "Screw that! I'm not standing over a pot!"  so I ended up throwing the whole thing in the oven and forgetting about it for an hour.  I'm glad I remembered it, though, or we would have missed that delicious meal.  I'm never making chicken and rice my old way ever again. I've already folded up the email and stuck it in my recipe box. Thanks, Cynthia!

I think the key to this dish is the fresh herbs and the coconut milk.  Thyme is my favorite herb, always has been. I think I could almost suck the leaves off the stems.  Almost.  So because of the four sprigs of fresh thyme that went into it, Cook-up Rice is my entry in this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen, hosted this week by this week by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.

UPDATE:  The recipe--MY VERSION--is now posted. 

Click Below.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Look Ma! The Cauliflower's Changin' Colors!

Aunt Miranda sent a bag of goodies over the other day from her favorite produce department.  It's always fun when she does that (thank you, Auntie Miranda!) because it gives me new fun veggies to play with.  I'd heard of these but never actually had any in my hands.

That got me thinking about cauliflower. I love it: raw, cooked, pureed (the fake mashed potatoes), fried with lemon sauce (super yum).  My husband hates it.  The smell alone drives him away.  And I don't blame him.  Some people can get past it, some can't. Personally, I love cooked cauliflower but I've never been able to get past the smell of turnips cooking.  To each his own.

In any color, cauliflower is very good for you.  More so than you might think. For example, 1 cup of raw cauliflower gives you the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant.  On that basis alone, cauliflower is on the hit parade of "good for you" vegetables and is my addition this week to Cate at Sweetnick's Antioxidant Rich Foods/5-A-Day weekly event.  Check out Cate's site for more ARF foods.

I loves me some Vicodin...

I got a little ahead of myself yesterday.  But I swear I was feeling so good that it didn't seem wrong to be racing around the house on one crutch like a crack-fueled Tiny Tim.  I mean, come on.  I felt good. Really good. Too good for my own good.

And then as these things usually do, it bit me in the butt.

I must repeat after Gene:  I am not well yet.  My knee is still recuperating. 

I hate it when he's right.  That's just so f***ing annoying, I can't tell you.

So today I'll not be doing quite as much. I won't be cooking dinner. I will spend more time in the chair with my leg up, reading or watching movies. Gag. I mean, I love both of those things but I'm soooo tired of having to do them!

But while I was high as a kite and feeling mighty fine from my friend the prescription drugs yesterday, I made some kick ass mostaccioli and a created a yummy new salad.  I don't remember recipes very well.  I was stoned, okay?  It was pretty much a throw it together with whatever I had deal, but the salad was chunked cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in sugared vinegar scooped onto a couple of butterleaf lettuce pieces, and drizzled with green goddess dressing. It was very tasty.

We'll be eating leftovers today.  Cross my heart.  Where's my book?

My pasta is my entry in Ruth at Once Upon a Feast's Presto Pasta Nights this week (if she'll claim me after that post).  I lied, I do have recipes. Click below.