First week of cooking with Jamie

This week went very well!  One thing I have learned was even if a recipe doesn’t sound all that great, do try it!  I was very pleasantly surprised at some of the flavors and combinations that came out of my kitchen this week.  A spritz of fresh lemon or lime can really make all the difference in how food tastes, which must be why a lot of chefs use it.

The other three meals I made besides the steak were a tomato pasta dish, chicken chow mein and chicken korma.  The pasta dish was very simple, it pretty much illustrated how unnecessary it is to rely on jarred spaghetti sauces.  Just a few ingredients and if you start the pasta water first, the sauce is done well before the pasta even hits the water.  Very fresh and tasty, and GARLICKY, whew!  The only problem is that my family likes a lot of sauce and this made a scant amount.  That’s OK with me but everyone else complained.  The chow mein was really good, had a lot of vegetables and greens and was seasoned very simply.  Even my son (the pickiest of us all) ate some of the noodles and liked it.  The chicken korma was a little scary at first.  We like Indian food here but my past couple of attempts at cooking it were not so good.  I hoped that since the Brits love their curries, that this recipe would be great.  I followed it right to the letter and it was fantastic!   I will now be a lot more trusting of the rest of the curry recipes in this book.

Once again the book I am using is Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Food Revolution.  I see on Amazon that I have the first edition, the reprinted one has a different cover and I’m not sure if the recipes are the same or not.

On tap for this week:  Sweet and sour pork, Moroccan stewed fish, Camembert Pasta, Curry Biriani and Cracking burgers!

Journey through the cookbook

A dear friend of mine showed me a very well-loved cookbook one day.  She said that when she was married in the 70′s, every new bride got one.  (She was living in London at the time.)  She said she cooked everything in that book and many of her friends did too.  I thought this was fantastic, to have cooked every recipe in one book.  I considered the books I have in my kitchen and decided I wanted to do the same thing with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution cookbook.  The recipes are not difficult, they use very common and fresh ingredients.   I have tried a few recipes from the book and have liked them.  The recipes cover a wide range of dishes, from classic seafood to roasted dinners, soups, curries, and stir-fries.

Yesterday I planned my menu for the week and today I shopped.  Then, I cooked the first recipe in the book – steak sarnie.  I did change the recipe a bit based on what I had available, but basically it is a steak rubbed with salt, pepper and rosemary, with a grilled portabello mushroom on top and some fresh watercress.  Underneath all of that is a piece of grilled ciabatta bread (we like to call it “Chewbacca bread” since we are Star Wars fans here) soaking up all the yummy juices.  The recipe calls for a filet mignon that you butterfly, and that would have been good as well except I have quite a bit of steak in the freezer from a side of beef we split with the family.  So today I used a T-bone steak, and placed the slices of bread that I’d grilled under the meat.  I topped it with watercress and the grilled mushroom, then the whole thing is drizzled with olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

We were so unbelievably amazed at how good this tasted!  The rich steak had just enough flavor from the rosemary, the watercress gave a bit of green freshness, the mushroom was good and earthy and the lemon brightened the whole thing.  The best part was taking the bread and mopping up all the juices.  Oh, so good.  So good it should be illegal.  It’s company-over-for-dinner good.  Really, really amazing.  And so simple!  I cooked mine on our charcoal grill with some natural lump hardwood charcoal, but it could easily be done inside on a grill pan.

As I continue through the book, I will try to make the time to blog about the results, saving the blog posts for the really amazing dinners, like the one tonight.  Good eating at my house!

May!! Right?

We have had a ridiculously cold spring.  The cold weather we had in April seems to want to continue into May as well.  I just don’t think I should need to run the furnace here in May!  Maybe in the UP, but not here!  A couple of days ago it didn’t even get out of the 40′s.  Our danger of frost is supposed to be over now but I am not sure… there is still a snap to the air that tells me it might not follow its usual pattern this year!

Spring colds seem to have made their way through our household.  This time it has involved large amounts of congestion and drainage from both lungs and sinuses, and even my ears feel clogged up.  It appears to be taking longer than usual for these symptoms to improve.  My energy is pretty much gone and I’ve been reduced to a pile on the floor.  I haven’t been sick like this in a while so although I am thankful that I got through the winter without much trouble, I will be happy to see this monster dissipate.

To make my cold even more fun, I realized I hadn’t been feeling well for the past few weeks.  I was exercising and eating better and had been feeling great after having lost over 20 pounds, so I couldn’t understand what the trouble was.  After doing a little trial and error with some supplements I’d been taking, and after consulting Dr. Google (only due to a lack of information in any of my books), I decided I’d been taking too much Vitamin D.  There is a line of thought in medicine right now that feels everyone is deficient, that everyone should be on supplements, and that it is nearly impossible to overdose on it.  Apparently I am an exception!  When I found the information I was looking for I was amazed that I had been experiencing almost all of the symptoms listed here.

The most annoying and uncomfortable symptom was dry mouth/metallic taste.  No matter what I did, my mouth was dry and tasted terrible.  This made it difficult to eat.  Once I figured out what was going on and stopped the supplements, it took a few days for my mouth to stop hurting!  Then, when I got this cold, I decided I should probably start taking my multivitamin (which I often neglect) to give my body an extra boost since I haven’t really been eating that well in recent days.  Well, after 3 days of taking my multivitamin, all the symptoms I had were back!  I read the bottle and my multivitamin for women contains 200% of the DV of Vitamin D!  So now that is shelved for the time being.  Again, it took a few days for my mouth to start feeling better and my symptoms to subside, a real treat in the midst of a horrid spring cold.

From what I’ve read, it seems like most people do not have a reaction like this to Vitamin D.  I did feel better when I first started taking it this winter, so when next winter sets in (hopefully that will not happen for a few months now!) I will give it a trial taking the smallest dose I can find, and see how I feel.  It is a fat-soluble vitamin and is stored rather than excreted, so perhaps I do not need as much as many people or I am super good at absorbing it, or both.

In other news, we are about to venture into the world of charcoal/wood grilling and smoking.  We are going to get this grill and its smoker attachment and give it a go this summer.  Good barbecue is pretty much insurance that I won’t ever be vegetarian, even though wood-grilled veggies are divine!  We are making our final list of equipment we need, then we’ll be making our purchase.  I am looking forward to some good eating (and good homemade beer drinking) this summer!

Funny girl talk

I was snuggled in bed with my daughter this evening, getting her settled for the night. She started asking me questions.

“Mama, do you like white?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like pink?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like purple?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like yeyo?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like green? Pretty green?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like blue?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like red?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like me?”
“Yes, very much!”
“Do you like your eyes?”
“Yes.”
Then, after this nice long talk about telling her what I liked, she said, “Do you like poking?” and poked me in the eye! Then I replied, “No!! I do not like poking at all! Don’t poke eyes! It hurts!” That resulted in a bunch of giggling, a bunch more silly questions about what I like, what I don’t like (specifically poking, again), and lots of hugs and snuggles before we turned out the light.

I couldn’t have guessed that girl talk at bedtime would involve eye poking, but it did.

April What? Brings May What?

I think someone got the order of the seasons mixed up and sent the wrong weather.

Spring down here this year has reminded me largely of spring in the UP.  Short.  Winter = long, summer = somewhat short, fall = about 2 weeks, and spring = short.  Winter has gone on and on.  And on.  AND ON.  And on.  Last year, if you look back, we had crocii blooming at the beginning of March.  I am JUST NOW getting the first of our spring flowers.  NOW.  We have had ONE day where it got up to 65.  That was the ONLY day in the 60′s.  We got snow last weekend, and it only lasted a little longer than a day, but it was snowing so hard and in such furiously large clumps, that it was thundering.  At this point I really want winter to go away, desperately.  Just. Go. Away.

All the signs are here though. We have robins, and redwing blackbirds.  The seed catalogs have been pouring in for months.  I’ve had tulip and daffodil shoots coming up for at least a month now.  The summer camp information has arrived in the mail.  SUMMER CAMP.  Did you hear that?  SUMMER!!!  Yet I cannot ditch my wool socks, and I so desperately want to dig out all my summer clothing and see what still fits, you see I have lost 20 pounds now in total and I probably need new summer clothing.  But I am not going to start buying it until I can see that I really need to wear it.

Just to end this post on a positive note.  Last week was spring (HEAR THAT?? SPRING!!!) break and we spent most of the week in western Kentucky.  We had never been there before and it is a beautiful place!  We really enjoy ourdoorsy stuff and there are a lot of caves near Bowling Green.  We went to Mammoth Caves National Park (our first national park!) and explored a smaller place called Lost River.  It is a day’s drive from here, so not a bad trip… I do enjoy visiting the south very much although it would be nearly impossible for me in the summers… when it hits 85 here I want to puke so I can’t imagine it being worse.  They are having a late spring there as well, yet folks were still talking about putting their gardens in.

Which brings me back to, April what?  Snow?  Brings what?  May misery?  Come on, Mother Nature.  I know you can do better than this!

 

We have a 4 year old, and attemps at spring

On February 19, our daughter turned 4.  There are always the frustrating parts, but the good bits are great.  She can get her own drink of water, and dress herself most of the time.  She got a lot of barbies from her grandparents and aunt, and has discovered she loves to play with them.  She is so very sweet and demonstrative of her love for me, multiple times a day she comes up to me for hugs and kisses and lots of “I love you Mama!”  She can build a small jigsaw puzzle by herself and has started to learn to write her name.  She loves doing projects and happily makes friends with everyone.  Right now both kids are going to swimming classes and they love it!  It’s so wonderful and amazing watching them master this new skill.

Winter here has grown long in the tooth.  I heard this was the second highest snowfall on record and it is not letting its icy grip go anytime soon.  Since the blizzard we had about one day when it was 50 degrees, then that was promptly followed by another 8+ inch snowfall and another cold snap where nothing really melted.  We have had temps in the mid 30′s at best, and not nearly enough sun, so there is still quite a lot of snow here at my house.  Even with the return of the robins and red-wing blackbirds, even with the small shoots of daffodils and early tulips, you would never guess spring was just days away by experiencing our weather.  I will be more than happy to go get the mail with no coat on, and *gasp* wear my sandals outside.  My poor daughter is desperate to dig in the dirt and find beetles, she has had a lot of sad faces after poking the frozen ground with a shovel and declaring “None beetles!”

This week we did some dog sitting for a family member when they were out of town.  She is a nice dog, very calm and great with the kids.  We all enjoyed having her here and I am thinking it won’t be long now.  I am going to be kind of picky about the breed (blend of breeds preferred, I don’t want a purebred), so I am trusting that the right dog will find us when the time is right.

I have started exercising nearly every day, and this has been a very helpful change for me.  It has lifted the bit of winter blues that had set in, and I am finding myself feeling and looking better.  This is a good change for us because the kids need to see their mom caring for herself and setting a good example for them.  I will be so happy when we can go for long walks in the woods without coats.  At this time of year it always seems like winter will never go away!  But I need to have faith in the birds, flowers and fat buds on the trees, they reassure me that it’s really not far off.

Status Post Blizzard

I am sure that everyone and their brother is going to, or has already, blogged about the blizzard.  Now that will also include myself!

As many of you already know I am native to the UP of Michigan.  I am also Finnish so I have hardiness in my blood and a good amount of “sisu”.  So a little one-foot snowfall does not phase me in the slightest.  I feel that it’s a “Bad” storm when the snow goes on for days and is measured in FEET, and the heavy snow removal equipment up there (payloaders and such) are pulled off the road.  When M-28 is closed between Marquette and Munising, you know it’s a bad storm.

I was, however, pretty impressed when I opened up the garage door yesterday morning.  There was a drift in front of it that was nearly up to my waist.  We started the snow blower for the first time this season.  My husband blew snow all morning and realized that he was actually blowing it out of our road when he looked back and saw the mailbox way back there!  Our road had 12-15 inches of snow in it!  The county finally came through this morning to plow, but they will still need to make a couple more passes to widen the road again.  Somebody had gone through with a small plow so people could attempt to get out.  Our road intersects with a main road that was kept up pretty well throughout the day.  I shoveled snow 3 different times.  I spent some time clearing out a spot outside the garage door.  The drift was so high that it was taller than the top of the snowblower.  Then I wanted to be sure we could access our back door if we needed, so I spent more time shoveling out that part.  The snow there was easily up past my knees and some was waist deep.

The kids of course had no school yesterday and it was canceled today as well.  My husband’s work closed yesterday which is unheard of.  And anyone who actually made it in was sent home.

It does not appear that we will have thawing temperatures for the next week.  So this will be with us for a while.

We spent the day playing computer games, knitting, reading and napping.  Around snow removal, that is.

I was impressed that we got so much snow so quickly.  And that the storm pulled out as quickly as it did.  If it had gone on another day, I think our whole area would have been shut down completely.  As it were, a neighboring city had totally impassable roads and the authorities were telling people NOT to attempt travel there due to vehicles stuck in the roads and on bridges.

So, for this Yooper, it was another snow storm.  However, I have realized that I have grown accustomed to everyone getting worked up about 4-5 inches.  And it was impressive to see so much snow in our street, even full-sized pick up trucks were having trouble getting through.  But as soon as it moved out of the area, the sun came out and it was fine, except for an extra 12-15 inches of snow on everything!  This concludes my report of the blizzard of 2011.

Life After Life

I found this on Facebook this afternoon.  Normally I do not blog twice in a day, but because I am still in an active state of grieving, I wanted to share this.

 

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived.

 

Weeks passed and the twins developed. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy: “Isn’t it great that we were conceived? Isn’t it great to be alive? “

 

Together the twins explored their worlds. When they found their mother’s cord that gave them life, they sang for joy! “How great our mother’s love is, that she shares her own life with us!”

 

As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much each was changing.

 

“What does it mean?” one asked.

 

“It means our stay in this world is drawing to an end.” said the other.

 

“But I don’t want to go,” said one. “I want to stay here always.”

 

“We have no choice,” said the other. “But maybe there is life after birth.”

 

“But how can there be?” responded one. “We will shed our life cord and how can life be possible without it? Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us, and none of them has returned to tell us there is life after birth. No, this is the end. Maybe there is no mother after all.”

 

“But there has to be,” protested the other. “How else did we get here? How do we remain alive?”

 

“Have you ever seen our mother?” said one.

 

“Maybe she only lives in our minds. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good.”

 

So the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.

 

Finally, the moment of birth arrived. When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and cried for joy – for what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.

 

That is birth … and that is death.

 

Author Unknown

Winter

Many people complain, and even try to leave, but not me.  Yes, it is cold, but I am warm in my climate-appropriate clothing.  The snow is so soft and clean and beautiful.  It falls on the landscape like a soft down blanket.  The children love to play in it, they roll in it, they eat it, they dig in it.  I would rather wield a snow shovel than go to the gym any day.  Winter is part of Mother Nature’s cycle of life, without winter, could we have spring?

When I get cold and need to go inside, there is nothing better than snuggling under a warm blanket wearing my hand knit wool clothing, and picking up a knitting project or a good book.  Having a warm child on you is nice too.  It is a good time of year to care for the areas inside one’s home that tend to get neglected when we are all outside enjoying the summer.

How do you make peace with winter?

Loss

Death is part of life, this is true.  We cannot avoid it.  Throughout our lives, we will lose people, and eventually, it will be our turn.  In less than one month’s time, my family has experienced two great losses.  The first was one of my mother’s closest friends.  Our families were always together, all of my childhood, and as her children and I all moved away to start our own lives, we have remained close.  After a short illness, she died very suddenly and unexpectedly.  Nobody got a chance to say goodbye, save for a couple of her close girlfriends who had been there that day and the previous day to care for her.  But even they did not expect this.

The other was my sister-in-law’s father.  He passed away after suffering so greatly from cancer that they found last summer.  He fought and struggled so valiantly and I can only hope that he is in a place of peace and comfort now.  My heart aches for my sister in law and her family, as he will be greatly missed.

I had forgotten how much work it is to go through the grieving process.  Just as I think I might be feeling better, the tears come again.  There are 5 stages to the grieving process, and I believe I am now in the depression stage, which is stage 4.  The good thing, is that eventually I will be in the acceptance stage, there is only one way to go now which is up.

I came across the following post by a dear friend in the blog she used to have with some friends.  I am hoping she is OK with me sharing it here.  When I found it again, I cried so much.  I know the tears are healing and they need to come, and I should not fight them.  I will leave you with this thought, as it pretty much sums it all up.

Into the Ether

from MOMbastic by Anne W.

On Friday, a husband and four grown children encircled the hospital bed that contained their wife and mother.  Since the beginning of humanity, I imagine that loved ones have gathered around the dying in this way, speaking gentle words, smoothing a forehead, holding a cool hand, beckoning those who have gone before to act as ushers into the next world.

She was too young for this, not even 70, but lung cancer knows nothing of age.  She was a beloved wife, the mother of three sons and a daughter, the grandmother of six, the great-grandmother of one.  She played softball and loved to bowl.  My friend, one of her sons, said that she fought to continue living for over a year.

I read her obituary yesterday, and in it her family asked that instead of sending flowers, just live your life to the fullest, do something you love, and hug your family.

Two days later, 100 miles due south, a 43 year old man watched his mother and his fiancee have breakfast together.  His own breakfast was administered by a feeding tube.  His inability to eat by mouth was the result of extensive surgeries to cure what was originally a cancerous area on the base of his tongue.

It was a pleasant morning nonetheless.  Unable to speak for some months now, he had recently managed to squeak out the words I love you to his young son.   The boy, overwhelmed with happiness, had jumped up and down on the couch, breathless and joyful.  “Did you hear that Grandma?!  Daddy said he loves me!”

Despite surgery, chemotherapy, and experimental treatments, a mass lurked in the dark secret places of his neck, pressing on his carotid artery.  The growing mass systematically eroded the layers of that artery, and as he walked slowly into the bathroom on Sunday morning, the final layer was irreversibly compromised.  His fiancee, alerted only by an uncharacteristic cough, went to check on him.  She found him there and called his mother, my own husband’s aunt, who held him in her arms as his final moments came to pass.

Is it too much to hope that the last image his consciousness was able to hold was that of his son?  Perhaps his mind’s eye even replayed his son’s joyful leaping as he uttered the words every child longs to hear…I love you.

It is always hard to be reminded that we are connected to this existence by such a fragile tether.  As I kissed my own son’s pink cheek last night, I was even more thankful than I always am for the opportunity.  As I walked past my bathroom scale, I realized how insignificant its numbers actually are – the weight of my life means so much more.  As I climbed into bed next to my dear sweet husband, I took a moment to see clearly what a blessing he is to our lives.

Live your life to the fullest.  Do something you love.  Hug your family.  Sometimes the simplest advice is truly the best.