A Very Short Tour of my Kitchen

Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love. 

Craig Claiborne

My son came to spend Sunday afternoon with me. He surprised me the above little gift.  I love when people appreciate my food.  Heck, I love when people appreciate me.

A cook can never have too many spices...especially now with this low-sodium diet.  I'm always looking for ways to spice up my food.  Speaking of spicing up food....

This is my sodium-free meat sauce on Garden Delight Penne Rigate.  Now, I have always loved my pasta.  Pasta and homemade sauce was something my mom really knew how to make.  I just cannot seem to get my sauce to taste like anything.  It is so bland, just like eating plain noodles.  I try and I try and add all kinds of ingredients, but nothing seems to work.  The above was made from...

6 plum tomatoes

1 tbs. no salt tomato paste

garlic powder

basil

oregano

chop meat

olive oil

It smells utterly fantastic, and when I heat it up at work, everyone is full of ooh's and ah's, but it is utterly tasteless.  Anyone have any suggestions?

And finally, hubby found the above oil painting on the street about 18 years ago.  It's a cornucopia, a ceramic jar, and a couple of pears, quite appropriate for this time of the year. It remains an important part of our home.

"A True Home - A roof to keep out the rain. Four walls to keep out the wind. Floors to keep out the cold. Yes, but home is more than that. It is the laugh of a baby, the song of a mother, the strength of a father. Warmth of loving hearts, light from happy eyes, kindness, loyalty, comradeship. Home is first school...for the young ones where they learn what is right, what is good, and what is kind. Where they go for comfort when they are hurt or sick. Where joy is shared and sorrow eased. Where fathers and mothers are respected and loved. Where children are wanted. Where the simplest food is good enough for kings because it is earned. Where money is not so important as loving-kindness. Where even the teakettle sings from happiness. That is home."

Author: Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Monday This and That

We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to

remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy, and doubt,

that peace and abundance may manifest for all.

Dorothy Day

My weekend was fairly quiet.  On Saturday I made a quick trip to my favorite fruit stand. Didn't get to go shopping for Halloween decorations as I was literally running in between the raindrops.  Summer fruits are thinning out now.  I did by some dinosaur plums, sugar plums, huge black grapes, and some lichee fruit.  My Asian client suggested I try the lichee fruit because of their health benefits, and I will say, they were pretty good.  

Some very strong storms blew through the area later in the evening, ushering in the cooler air. Woke up on Sunday and was finally able to open the windows and let the air blow through the house.  A touch of Autumn is in the air...but will it last?  That is the question. Summer just doesn't seem to want to let go.

Weather is a great metaphor for life — sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.

Terri Guillemets

On Friday, I came home from work to discover hubby had been trying to 'improve' my keyboard.  A one-fingered typist, he can never remember where the letters are so, when the letters fade away, he is lost.  So, while I was at work on Friday, he decided to engrave the letters on with a heated nail.  Then his plan was to fill in the engravings with marker. Needless to say, it didn't work out as planned and the keyboard was ruined.  The "a" button had to be pressed down several times to get it to work and several other much used buttons were a mass of melted, then dried, plastic which hurt your fingers when you tried to use them.  I guess you know where he was on Saturday.  Yup, he was sent to get me a new keyboard.  Now, he is talking about putting cellophane over the keys. He says that is what the store clerk told him.  I guess it's better than melting them.

Have you ever noticed how much harder it is to get up than when you choose to get up. I do love my early morning hours of darkness. I keep the lights off, pull the curtain aside, and sip my coffee as I look out over my courtyard waiting for the sun to rise. My neighbor's windows are all dark and silence prevails. It is only me and the the silence of the night time world. But, awaiting the dawn is a part of my early days at work.

On my late days, I usually go back to sleep until about 7:30. I have found that if I get up at my usual time, I either spend hours performing chores about the house, thus wearing myself down before it is time to even get ready for work.  Or, I end up lounging about, reading, and rocking, and by the time it is time to leave, I am just too comfortable to get up and go. So I use my late days to catch up on my rest. 

But, it seems that when 7:30 rolls around, I have to drag myself out of the bed. I just hate to leave the comfort of my dreams. Yet, I will go to bed on a Friday or Saturday night, prepared to sleep half the day away, but I find myself rising at 7:30 and feeling quite refreshed. I'm wondering if this is psychosomatic. Is it because I know I don't have to go to work?

Speaking of work, I guess it's about time to get this day started.  

And remember:

If you see a friend without a smile; give him one of yours.

Proverb

TGIF

There is a beautiful spirit breathing now
Its mellowed richness on the clustered trees,
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods,
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds.
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned,
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,
Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down
By the wayside a-weary.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As we reach another Friday, I find myself sighing with relief. I really do love Fridays..Another week of work in the books.  Not much planned for this weekend.  Since it is not a cooking weekend, it will be one of those play-it-by-ear times.  I do know that for sure I will be heading out to the fruit stand on Saturday. Have some new veggie recipes I am hoping to try.  I find myself eating less and less meat nowadays.  

I am thinking also of stopping at the 99 cent stores and see what kind of Halloween decor I can pick up.  I feel like a little kid at this time of year.  I guess it is because I have some great childhood memories of this day.  I find myself especially looking  forward to Halloween this year. This  will be the first Halloween in my new apartment, and I know there are a few children in the building so this year I'll be sure to buy a little candy.  (Halloween wasn't celebrated in my old neighborhood.)

As far as reading goes, I bought a Kindle book, "Halloween Spirits: 11 Tales for the Darkest Night" and am looking forward to curling up and reading a few spooky stories. What will really put me in the mood is some Halloween decorations so I guess I'd better put some holiday shopping  on my weekend agenda.  

Well, that's my weekend in a nutshell.  What about  yours?

I hope you all have a lovely, peaceful, joyful weekend.

Ode to Autumn

Busy, busy times here for me.  Tons of filing to catch up on at work.  Trying to dig out some long sleeved blouses so I am prepared with the change in weather comes, and I don't know why, but I think the cool air is going to come on us quick when it does come. It has been pretty darned miserable here this week what with the remnants of the hurricane and all that tropical air so it's hard to believe that Autumn is right around the corner.  But, last night was one of my late nights, and as I was walking home at 8 pm, I noticed that night had already arrived, a sure sign that the signs are a'changing.

With that in mind, I'd like to close today with a wonderful poem by John Keats.  Hope you all enjoy.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats

The Fads of Yesteryear

“Every Generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.” 

 By Henry David Thoreau.

Last night when I got home from work hubby had just gotten back from the laundromat, and he was sorting the clothes. And as he began sorting through his white socks, I couldn't help but chuckle as an old school memory flashed before my eyes. Amazing, as I get older, that little things such a pair of white socks can trigger thoughts of a time long ago, or perhaps school starting this week has triggered some of my own school time memories. Whatever it is, it was a great reminder of how different things used to be.

What I remembered was a time back in the day when someone who wore white socks was a 'nerd'.  I remember how a handsome young man would walk past us and we'd point and mutter, "Oh, he's wearing white socks" as if it was a fashion mistake, and back then, it was.  In classrooms, we used to point and laugh, and I find myself feeling pretty bad about it because I was teased myself and know how it felt.  But I wanted to belong so much that I went along with it.  Of course, some of the very same boys that teased me were the object of our ridicule, but two wrongs do not make a right.

And as I sat there reminiscing, so many other memories came to mind. My gosh, I remember how we had to lay on the bed, and sometimes even use pliers, to zip up our jeans because they were so tight. I wonder how I stood it. Today, I cannot wear anything tight around my waist. Anything tight is just so uncomfortable. Today's youth has gone in a completely opposite direction. I shudder when I see today's teen-agers with their pants hanging down to their knees. If underwear was supposed to be shown, they'd have called it outerwear instead. 

And how about massively poofy/teased hair? When I entered high school, the more bouffant your hair, the better. We called it the 'beehive', and it sure did resemble one. Actually, it surprises me that bees never tried to make their homes in our ready-made nests. We'd go through a can of hair spray every day just to get it to stay up there.  And forget about running a comb through it.  Makes me think of how hard it was for a boyfriend to romantically run their fingers through our hair. Forget about it.

What about Bell bottoms and midriff blouses. Weren't they just the greatest or as we used to say 'the grooviest'? Brings to mind one evening that I was headed to a dance with a group of my friends. I was wearing a pair of flowered bell bottoms and a new white midriff blouse and really felt pretty good about the way I looked. It was a convertible and the top was down as we drove along, all of us were smoking cigarettes. (Smoking was cool back then. If we only knew)  Well, it was definitely not a good idea to smoke in a convertible. We were almost to the dance when someone cried out "I smell smoke", and we all looked around to see where it was coming from, thinking maybe an ash had blown onto the car seats. Well, turns out it wasn't the seats at all. It was my new white blouse that the ash had lit upon and I arrived at the dance with a hole that had been singed onto it.

Then there was the year I entered high school.  Wig hats were the fad back then. These were hats that puffed up were a hat, but combed out resembled a short wig. Now that I think about it, they never 'really' did look like a wig at all. These  hats came in a variety of colors, all pretty fake looking, but most of us chose white or silver. Well, to make a long story short, on the day I wore mine, I decided that I was going to skip the first class so I headed over to the soda joint and hung out. When I arrived at school for the next class and took my seat, I was immediately sent to the principal's office. It seems that they'd made an announcement during the first period that we were not allowed to wear our 'wigs' in school, and everyone who was wearing them had to take it off. But, of course, since I wasn't there, how was I to know?  Got three days of suspension over that one.

Remember culottes? I don't think they ever really went away. The came as dresses, shorts, skirts, but these, too, were not allowed at school because they resembled pants, and girls were not allowed to wear pants to school.  Oh, in the cold weather, our mom's slipped a pair of pants under our skirts, and that was allowed, but as soon as we got to school, they had to be removed along with our coats.

Some say they were too strict with their dress codes back in the day, but as I look at today's kids as they head out to school, I wonder if a few rules wouldn't be in order. Girls in mini skirts so short that you wonder how they are able to keep themselves covered when they sit and low cut skinny tops and boys with their butts hanging out just don't seem appropriate to me. And, it's not just those girls who go to public schools.  On the contrary, some of, no, most of these school uniforms for girls in Catholic schools barely cover their thighs.  

Times certainly have changed, haven't they?

Vegetables, Vegetables, and More Vegetables

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

--Henry David Thoreau--

I am really learning to love my vegetables. Well, actually, that's not exactly true. I've always liked my vegetables; it's fruit that I had a hard time with. What I am loving is trying new recipes instead of just boiling and serving. Since I have been on this low sodium diet, many dinners can be bland, but playing around and spicing up my vegetables has made my meals a bit more interesting.  I've also been dressing up my recipes with multi-colored peppers. 

In fact, I bought the greatest cookbook for my Kindle this past week.  It's called 'Serving Up the Harvest' by Andrea Chesman, and it is just full of recipes...all for vegetables.  Vegetables and recipes are arranged by season, and all of them look so easy to make and tasty.  I couldn't wait for this weekend to try some out.  I've also been  testing some of the recipes from "Celtic Folklore Cooking" by Joan Asala.  Fantastic is all I can say about it.

On Sunday I made some Roasted Spicy Cauliflower. It called for cardamon, but I couldn't find it.  Also called for some cayenne, but when I got home from the market, I realized I had forgotten it, so basically I substituted and created a recipe of my own, and it still came out good. I just add things to taste when I create so there is no way to judge the amounts. I did take a picture, but it really made the dish look unappetizing.  Cell phones are not the best way  to get a true representation of a food.

1/4 cup canola oil

Garlic powder

Curry powder

Cumin

Ground ginger

Paprika for color

Cracked black pepper

...and of course, a head of cauliflower.

Preheat the oven to 450. Lightly grease a large sheet large shallow roasting pan with oil. I use Pam olive oil spray. Combine the oil with the garlic powder, curry powder, cumin, ginger, and cracked black pepper in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the cauliflower and toss to coat. Spread the cauliflower on the prepared pan in a single layer. Sprinkle with Paprika and roast for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the florets are tender-crisp and browned. 

I also made some low sodium Colcannon on Sunday.  Not difficult at all to do.  I just left out the salt.  Colcannon has always been one of my favorite Irish dishes and paired with some herbed carrots and a sauteed chicken breast it made for a great Sunday meal. In Ireland colcannon was associated traditionally with Halloween; in fact, no Irish Halloween was complete without a huge serving of Colcannon. Of course, it remains on my Halloween menu, but I eat it year round whenever I get the urge.

The Irish also used the dish as a form of divination. Traditional charms   that symbolized different things were placed in a pot of Colcannon. For example, a ring  would traditionally be hidden in a dish of Colcannon and the lucky girl who found it in her helping would be the next to receive a marriage proposal. Finding a coin symbolizes wealth while a thimble and button symbolize that one would remain a spinster or a bachelor throughout the coming year.  Another Irish custom was to set a plate of colcannon outdoors on Halloween night for the fairies and ghosts to munch on.

Pray for peace and grace and spiritual food,

For wisdom and guidance, 

for all these are good,

but don't forget the potatoes.

--John Tyler Pettee--

Happy Labor Day

The highest reward for

people's toil is not what

they get for it but what

they become by it.

John Ruskin

It's Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer. We always know this is going to be a three-day weekend because it is always observed on the first Monday in September. Memories of childhood abound at this time of year for the first week in September there were friends to see in grammar school and  stories to share about what we did over the summer.  Not that I had anything new to tell.  My summer's were basically the same.  I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's home, and that always made for something special.  I had friends there that no one knew (we went to different schools) so there were always tales to tell. Of course, there were secrets to keep as well.  Tales of trips to the town in grandpa's car to buy paper dolls were not to be told, and if my classmates knew I rode my grandmother's broom as if it were a horse, I'd have been laughed out of school.

Today Labor Day means an extra day of rest for me.  It's a day to kick up my feet and sleep as long as I want. For many, this is a time to squeeze in a last minute summer vacation, have a picnic, or a barbecue.  And others will be busy at the malls seeing what goodies that can pick up at the Labor Day sales.  Times certainly have changed.  We never thought of shopping on Labor Day.  First of all, stores were closed on holidays and Sundays back then, so even if we wanted to shop, we couldn't.  And then, who would want to spend their day in a store when they could be out there watching the parade and spending a last hoorah at the lake?  And there were no 'professional' lifeguards in my home town.  Lifeguards were teen-age boys who had to return to school like the rest of us...and all of us girls had crushes on them.

Went shopping on Saturday and spent my afternoon cooking in the kitchen. Autumn and winter fruits are beginning to appear on the shelves, and even though I am tired of summer fruits, I was hesitant to buy them, not because they didn't look appetizing, but because if I start too soon, I will be tired of them before next  years crop of summer fruits begins to appear. I did buy some grapes. Couldn't resist them.  To be honest, I've never seen grapes this huge. On Sunday I made some Colcannon and Spicy Roasted Cauliflower. Both were so  totally delicious, and I will be sure to share more tomorrow. This post is getting a bit long now, and it is a holiday, so I am sure you don't feel like reading a book.

Wishing you all a very happy Labor Day.