A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Caprese Salad with Pickled Green Tomatoes

 

Auntie Miranda went with friends to The Keeter Center in Branson for dinner the night before last night.  The Keeter Center is the small hotel and dining room run by the Hospitality Dept of School of the Ozarks.  And run very well.  We have a respiratory conference down there that's dynamite as a conference and The Keeter Center as a venue is superb.

In the dining room, Auntie chose this Caprese salad with fresh red and pickled green tomatoes.  She said she took one bite, rolled her eyes in delight, and said to the waiter "Can I get one of these to go?"  I went to bed early that night but it was waiting for me in the fridge when i got up the next day. 

Wow. I don't know how much better it could have been fresh because it was still incredibly fresh, crispy, and wonderful the next day.  This is definitely a do at home thing too. I know you can buy green tomato pickles, or even better would be to can them from the garden.  I'm thinking even fresh green tomatoes mixed with red tomatoes and fresh mozzarella would be wonderful fresh out of the garden....maybe drizzle a little honey across the top with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar to add that sweetness from the pickling syrup.

Thanks Aunti Miranda! What a lovely and healthy lunch. We'll definitely be working on a home recipe for this one!

Niece Jordan's Birthday Party

 

It might seem a little odd that most of the family parties are at my house but I think it's about me being the oldest of our five kids and our mom having passed away 20 years ago. I've become the matriarch of my little family, sort of Grandma by Proxy.  So for many years, the niece and nephews have all expected to have their birthday parties at "Aunt Gonnie's". 

Since I make the cakes and do most of the cooking, it's very convenient for me.  I've always felt a little guilty that I'm the one who learned to cook but, being the oldest, I was the sergeant-at-arms in my mother's kitchen for as long as I can remember, and my little sister, Jordan's mom, being six years younger was mostly kicked out to go play.  Lucky her in ways!  Not that she's a bad cook, she just didn't get the same experience I did in the large family/trial by fire way I did.

  

Jordan requested her menu, which is our tradition, Ziti "with pepperoni" and "strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream and blue roses".  I can dig it.  Ever since Jordan was a toddler her favorite meal has been spaghetti but as she's gotten older she's added the spicy pungency of pepperoni to her favorites and strawberry cake has won her heart since she was a baby.  That I bought strawberry cheesecake ice cream to go with it was like a strawberry sugar nirvana shared by all.

The menu board to the left is a little freebie bank whiteboard give-away we got years ago that's always been my little party cheat sheet. It's on the fridge so that I, and anyone in the kitchen helping me, can consult to avoid the common after dinner "Oh crap! We forgot the ___" moment.

 

I'll give the recipe below. We found the Ziti with Pepperoni to be an excellent choice for a crowd, easy to prepare in advance and a hit with everyone. 

It is also my entry in this week's Presto Pasta Nights, created by wonderful Ruth at Once Upon a Feastand hosted this week by Sara of I'm a Food Blog .  On Friday of this coming week, be sure to stop by to see all the pasta doings going on.

Additionally on the menu:

 

Basic spring salad of leaf lettuces, chunked zucchini, celery, spring onions, tomatoes, shredded carrots, and edible flowers from the garden:  Sweet William and Purslane.

Accompanying the salad was a host of bottled dressings for the timid and a home-made lemon vinaigrette for Auntie Miranda and I, made from lemon balm and parsley fresh from the garden.  The recipe for this also, is below.

Later this week a post a few pics of the "garden", not traditional rows or square foot, my garden is a fairly ambitious collection of pots on the back porch...I'll also write a separate post on the cake with more behind the scenes pics of making the gumpaste flowers.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, vivacious, growing-up-way-too-fast, fabulous niece, Jordan!

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: The Mediterranean Diet

"One of these things is not like the others...." in that you've already seen it:  the yogurt-creamed gazpacho.  The night Lynn and James came over for dinner was an all-out Mediterranean Diet pleasure and one of the first days in a long time that I actually did get all 8 of my fruit/vegetable servings (with one to spare!) in for that day and all 8 glasses of water we're supposed to get each day.

The water count is fine. I can deal with that.  But the veggie's and fruit servings are, let's be honest, more difficult in our society.  I've been diet diary-ing for a lot of years and there are lots of days when Gene and I only get one or two servings max.  Think about it.  Say you have eggs and toast for breakfast, a hamburger (or other fast food sandwich), fries, and soda at work (which is certainly not unheard of), and then you come home tired, not wanting to cook and have a piece of chicken with some potatoes or rice, maybe some bread, and some quickly heated up corn, peas, or green beans. What's that leave you with?  A barely edible canned veggie at dinner and the ass-berg lettuce and anemic tomato on your burger. That's really not enough vegetables, and taking a multi-vitamin, the panacea of our generation, doesn't cut it either. It's better than nothing but not much unless you're taking pharmaceutical-grade supplements.  You just don't know what you're getting and the body processes them better when they come out of real food.

New to The Daily Tiffin

I'm a new writer to The Daily Tiffin, subtitled For A Healthy Family Lifestyle blog. It's a nice place to go for current information and recipes about all things healthy.  I'll be in a revolving schedule posting about once a month showing/giving lunchbox ideas and recipes.

My article is here:  Legumes to the Lunchbox Rescue  and then fell free to wander around for lots of great information.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Salad Dressings

(Great photo but I can't claim it.  For more salad ideas, see this and more at www.saladaday.org )

Salad dressings are my personal poison, along with Coca-cola. Fat and sugar, always my frenemies. I could eat salad three meals a day if only I could find dressings that taste like home-made rich, fatty, tongue-pleasing bleu cheese without calorie counts in ten digits.  Auntie Miranda and my friend, Ashley, have been helping me on this quest so I will gladly plagiarize their experimentations.  Okay, okay. I want to sound like I'm being evil but, really, they gave me permission.

Click on the link below for low cal/low fat salad dressings: two versions of Poppyseed and a Blueberry vinaigrette..

Diet update:  I've now lost 2.5% of my body weight so I'm 1/4 to my minimum goal of losing 10% of my body weight before Halloween.  The 10% goal is based on studies showing that for people with a significant amount of weight to lose, even 10% reduction will bring positive effects to health such as reducing blood pressure. 

So after I got back on the eating healthy bandwagon, I've done a little better about not drinking soda at work and not eating carrot cake from the cafeteria every time I have a difficult patient.

I'm getting more exercise too.  My friend Barb, from work, and I are going to water aerobics  The hilarious part is--we're the YOUNGEST people there!  But it really is a great workout for my knee and we're doing well.  We use the heaviest water weights for the arms workout and I can feel it the next day. We also actually DO the routines instead of just standing in the water gabbing like a lot of people around us. Not that I'm judging, I'm just saying Barb and I are working the routines.  We went two days last week. I also went to an hour belly dancing class one day which is like an hour ab workout.  It's harder than I thought it would be.  We were all sweating at the end so it was cardio as well.  I felt good about it.  Plus, I've been wearing a pedometer to work and I walked a total of 13 miles in three shifts and I did compressions at a code, trading out with Brian, for almost 40 minutes.  If you don't think that's a workout, you should be inside my chest, back, and arm muscles afterwards!  So to recap that's 3 exercise classes, 13 miles walked, and 20 minutes of compressions.  Not too bad.

Next week my goal is to go to water aerobics twice, go to bellydancing class once, and bike at least once, on top of the walking during work.  I'm trying to start small, do things I like, and not beat myself up if I don't accomplish everything I'd love, in my head, to do.  That goes for food and exercise, and doubly for the rest of the my life as well.

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.

I (Heart) Alton Brown and his Parsley Salad

I must have a secret "thing" for Georgia because out of all the Food Network stars my very two favorites are Paula Deen and Alton Brown. Sure, I get lots of tips and information and know-how from Emeril, Bobby, Giada, and Michael, but in my heart I know I could be friends with Paula and Alton.   I love Paula for her down-home style, you know, that quality that makes you feel like you're in the kitchen with your favorite Auntie Miranda and I love Alton just because he's Alton.  He's smart, sexy, funny, and so very talented. His show was one of the first ones I got hooked on when our cable company added on The Food Network. Every time I watch I am educated about food preparation and history, while being entertained. It's like he brings out the ADD child in your soul for a food party in the kitchen.

Using parsley as the green base for a salad was a new idea to me, but one that worked out delightfully in both taste and for the vitamin punch.  In the celery family, the word "parsley" in Greek means "rock celery".   Parsley is high in vitamins K, C, and A, and is a good source of iron, folate, and calcium.  It is also a gentle diuretic and natural breath freshener.

Parsley is one of the world's most commonly used herbs and is my choice this  week for Weekend Herb Blogging, created and hosted by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.  Run by Kalyn's blog after tomorrow night for a round up of all the herbs in use this week.

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.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Patchwork Slaw

This is a nice change of pace salad. I've been craving cabbage lately, with it's crunch and heartiness that I haven't been satisfied with in lettuces. Not sure what it means, but I'll ride with it for the time being.

This recipe is from one of my cookbooks, The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon.  Crescent and her late husband, Ned, owned a country in and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where I worked as a group event planner for a couple of years in the early 90's.  Gene and I loved the town. I've never lived anywhere like it. The town motto is "where the misfits, fit" and it's true. The population in the town is a hodgepodge of people from various backgrounds. No, really. I mean a REAL hodgepodge.  One 15 minute walk down one of the main streets filled with galleries and the boutiques of artisans will explain what I'm talking about more easily than paragraphs of more writing. The next closest description I can give to explain Eureka is to say it's like flopping Taos, New Mexico down in Wal-mart headquarters country.

This recipe is for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge blogging event, sponsored this month by Tami of Running with Tweezers (love that blog name!) for her theme of salads.    Check in with Tami to see the round-up of cookbook creations.  Patchwork Slaw, one of my favorite dishes at the Inn, the recipe is featured in Crescent's second major cookbook, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread. I remember how much I liked it but I don't think I've ever made it myself at home so I thought it was time to break it out and enjoy it.

This event was originally created by Sara at I like to Cook.

By the way, if you have this cookbook, look on the second column of the acknowledgement page and you'll find my name.

Hey, I'll take seeing my name in print anywhere I can get it.

Dr.'s Kitchen Monday: Heads Up--Vietnamese Cole Slaw

Dr's Kitchen today is going to be a heads up and a reprint of yesterday's recipe, reworked.  When I took my salad into work last night and showed it to my friend, Yung, who is actually Vietnamese, she said it was very similar to salad she's been making her whole life, with one exception. She crinkled her nose at the oil in the dressing. She said that she never uses any oil in the dressing, that the oil is "an American thing".  I think she's right. I don't think, in this, it would be missed at all.

So here is a reprint of the recipe, re-engineered a little for those of us on formal diets, and including the nutrition counts: