The house of nuts

Things have been a serious whirlwind--train, work, can, kids, work, cook, work, worry, work.


Work
The good news is there is a new VP at work and he thinks I rock. The bad news, I have to work my tail off to make sure he continues to think that. This week he is on vacation and he left me with several "can you look into this" assignments while he is gone. I went for acupuncture and he asked me pretty early on how things were at work. I spent an hour on his table, mostly just breathing and its amazing how much better I felt when I left.


Training
Last Sunday I did a "Brick n Pic" with the local tri club. They were wonderful to hang out with and someone always stayed at the back of the pack with me. I should never, ever have run before my ride. My heart rate was zooming the whole time and the ride was pretty miserable. My back was killing me after climbing but thankfully Mr. Don fixed that! This week I've done pretty well keeping up with the training but not the bike, they have the road torn up on the course and I hear it is NASTY, I'll need to do that when I come back from NY.





Canning
I picked 23 pounds of peaches (along with raspberries and blueberries) last Wednesday. That meant I had a lot of fruit to deal with! I did my first batch of peach hot pepper jelly. Gman asked if I could make the bits not float to the top. I read that rotating the jar during the process helped with that so I flipped them over. Oops, I went to bed without flipping them back. Now I have nine jars that look like this....

Kids

I don't know if it the end of the summer or what but they are non-stop fighting, talking, singing and getting into things they shouldn't. Boobah can't wait for school to start and I can't wait to have one drop off in the morning and no pick ups in the afternoon. On the other side, how the heck did my baby get old enough for Kindergarten?

Other Random Stuff

We are off to Albany, NY this morning for GMan's sister to get married this evening. We are brining our 18 year old neice back with us to visit for a week.

Playing Domestic Diva--Tales from the Kitchen

After church yesterday I remembered that the local farm where I've been picking my own produce was closing for the season. After watching a bit of Mehmet Oz on Oprah last week and on Discovery Health yesterday I was feeling the need to eat more food in its natural or near natural state so that I wouldn't shrivel up any time soon.

I picked 19.7 pounds of apples, at 20 pounds you get a $.50/pound discount so I jogged back into the trees for a couple of apples to put me over the edge. I picked Stayman, Pink Lady and Suncrisp apples, who knew that I'd become an apple snob?! The Stayman (men?) make the best pies, the Pink Ladies and Suncrisp are both supposed to stay for months in the fridge. After hunting and gathering apples I headed home. On the way the light bulb went on over my head that Trader Joe's opened down the road from our house on what my friend calls "the monstrosity on the corner." A HUGE retail center including Costco, Best Buy and Lowe's on what used to be open space and farm land.

I picked up the much heralded Chili Lime Chicken Burgers which lived up to the hype as a tasty, nutritious burger alternative. After licking it and deciding she didn't like it Boobah revised her opinion, ate what was on her plate and asked for more! A culinary victory and at $3.69 for a package of 4 a relatively cheap and easy dinner option.

I turned the remainder of the last batch of apples into a quick applesauce to serve with dinner. PDQ declared it the best applesauce ever. Boobah declared "it has cinnamon in it, I don't like it!" How she knew about the cinnamon, I have no idea but to each her own. With the new apples I put together two pies--one for home and one to take to a friend who just had a baby as the perfect end to a fall dinner. I LOVE this apple pie recipe with my own adaptations. I put walnuts in the topping, put a bit of caramel sauce on the top of the apples and finish it off with the topping skipping the lattice top. For a really pretty pie to impress I will cut out dough with an apple shaped cookie cutter and put it over the topping. Anyway, no time for the cream and extras but this pie all by itself rocks!

Finally I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Cranberry muffins from the latest Cooking Light. They are moist and delicious. A perfect fall breakfast and even reasonably good for you.

**************************************************************************

Today I am back at my desk and thankful to have a job that is interesting, relatively flexible and lets me work with really good people.

Yum-O

How can you add some extra nutrition to your meals without having the nightly battle over eating your veggies? Head on over to Maven Says to check out my review of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious for the Parent Bloggers Network.

Great MILF Swap Report Out

Lotta over at Mom-O-Matic instituted the Virtue or Vice MILF swap to keep the MILFs on our toes. I was fortunate to have Katrina over at Embracing the Real Me. I must say I am awfully tardy on getting this posted. Find the camera, oops its dead. Try to find the charging cord, try again, try again. So, you'll just have to settle for a picture from the internet of the fantastic Lousiana Cookin' magazines that Katrina passed along to help me learn to cook Cajun and have yet another Vice! She also sent along some information on Rayne, LA, a Cajun cookbook and a Lousiana tour guide. The last time I visited LA I was pregnant and in the three week span between doctor's visits I gained 12 pounds so I know it is the land of the vice!

Thanks Katrina! Sorry for being perpetually late!

In a pickle

Somewhere early in the summer I decided I wanted to make pickles. I wasn't thinking any old pickle either. I wanted to make my grandmother's sweet pickles. They stand out in my mind as one of those things that makes me think of grandma and family gatherings. Not only did her pickles taste great but they were a bright green color that caused much giggling among my cousins and I.

Grandma is in a nursing home after a stroke last November (right after she got off the red hat float in the Christmas parade). She isn't quite who she was before mentally or physically and it has impacted me more than I might have thought. Part of me wants to make sure I can preserve (pun intended) our family history. Unfortunately, no one can find the recipe. I have scoured the Internet and found a similar sounding recipe and the wise ladies over on gardenweb.com confirmed that their family recipes included green food coloring which they have since omitted.

I was originally a bit daunted by the prospect of making ANYTHING that takes 8 days. Really, my attention span is more like 8 minutes. I like to bake bar cookies because it takes less time. Like so much else, this has been a process and I've learned to enjoy it. Yes, you do something everyday for 8 days but the work isn't hard. The first 4 days I boiled water and poured them on the cukes. Yesterday I made the syrup, added my food coloring and cut the cukes into chunks. Tonight, it is syrup boiling and on Sunday the final canning of the pickles.

Just seeing grandma's crock in my kitchen makes me smile. During the summer it often sat in the chair by her back door. There was a smell of cucumbers and spices in the air. My first batch is a single recipe and it fills maybe one third of the crock, I remember hers being filled right up to the top and I realize how much work it must have been--I bought my cucumbers, she and my grandfather grew theirs in a rocky plot in the backyard. I have the crock, hopefully the recipe will be close enough that we can all remember the "good old days."

Being the ant--my obsession with summer produce

This weekend I felt a bit like the ant laying up stores for the winter while the rest of my family played grasshopper. I am sure all my little bugs will enjoy it this winter. There is such great fresh food available right and I want to take full advantage. Next week we starting getting a weekly box of produce from Shaw Farm CSA. This weekend I put away 4 quarts of peaches and 4 bags of lima beans to eat this winter, as well as adding to my blueberry stash.

Friday night I picked these at Larriland Farm, putting my blueberry picking total for the summer somewhere up around 15 pounds (not bad for someone who never picked a blueberry before! It was a beautiful night, there was the threat of storms and a wind that cooled things off. I was out in the blueberry patch all by myself. Although there were a lot less berries than the last time I was out, the picking was a whole lot easier, no worrying about the green ones, they just weren't there. I can home and made blueberry muffins (with a little help from the girls) for breakfast on Saturday morning. I used this recipe from Food Network. Alton never steers me wrong. They were great right out of the oven. This morning I wasn't nearly so impressed, they were a bit dry. I would guess that has more to do with my over baking in the convection oven than Alton's recipe.

In addition to the last of the blueberries I picked the first of the summer peaches. I picked just over 20 pounds (to get the discount, I am a sucker f0r a discount). It was the first day of peach picking and the trees were heavy with fruit. I had a good time ducking into the middle of the trees to find the juiciest peaches--lots of them were still on their way to even "firm" ripe. Once home I spent lots of time on the computer trying to find new recipes to make with my bounty. So much for new recipes, I went for the tried and true cobbler recipe combining my blueberries and peaches.

Fruit Cobbler (from the Gilman United Methodist Church Cookbook)

Cover the bottom of a 9x9 pan with fruit

Mix together:

3/4 c sugar
3 TBSP butter
1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c milk

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients and then add milk and stir until it comes together. Spread over fruit (don't worry about covering the entire thing).

Mix:

1 c sugar

1 TBSP cornstarch

1 c water

Pour over the entire pan.

Bake 40 minutes at 375F.

I baked zucchini bread using Gretchen's recipe and put one loaf in the freezer. Gman and I loved it, haven't gotten the kids to try it yet. I also put together a peach pie and put it in the freezer as a surprise for dessert one night next week when we are on vacation with my family. So that is the end of the baking for the weekend.

I also gave canning a try for the first time this weekend. I LOVE hot pepper jelly so I decided to give it a try. I used this recipe from the nice folks at SureJell. I am not sure how it tastes yet but it did all set up and the jars sealed (love the little pinging sound as they go). Since the jelly went so well I was on a quest to make pickles as well. I am in search of the recipe for my grandmother's sweet pickles. My grandmother is in a nursing home following a stroke and my Mom can't find the recipe. I found one on a forum that I sent to Mom to go over with grandma and see if it sounds close. It will be a big project, its a 10-day process adding boiling water or syrup to the pickles every day while they process. The end product is so worth it, both in taste and for the memories of the big crock sitting in my grandparents kitchen for most of the summer as she made different kinds of pickles. Until I find the recipe, a crock and 10 days where I have time to tend to the pickles everyday that project is on hold.

To test my pickle making skills I started out on Sweet and Spicy Pickles. Next time I will heed the warning to wearing gloves while dealing with the jalapenos! My skin cracked on my index fingers kind after using the mandolin to slice all the peppers. It was kind of like when you put Elmer's on your hand as a kid and then moved it. Not so cool when its your skin. No long term harm though, things are back to normal if a little rough today. Again, all the jars sealed, now they need to age 10 days before we give them a try.

Very busy domestic weekend. It reminded me again how much I hate my kitchen, not nearly the room I'd like to do these big projects but thinking back its WAY bigger than my grandmother's kitchen and she turned out all kinds of good stuff.

You can take the girl out of the country and more

...but I don't think you can ever really take the country out of the girl. I headed back out to the farm this evening and picked another 5 lbs of blueberries. Its much quicker picking without my "helpers." It was almost as fun listening to the other people and their theories on the best way to pick. There are two distinct camps--pick everything that is ripe off one bush before moving on is the first. These people will scan the bush up one side and down the other not leaving a single ripe berry. Then there are the random pickers, they kind of mosey from bush to bush picking a little here and a little there. With the girls I followed the first method, it gave them some goals to work towards. Tonight I picked a little here and a little there--mostly going deep into the bushes for untouched berries that took a little work to get to or at the very top of the bushes where it took a little doing to bring them down to pick them. I was reminded that you can't be in too big a hurry or the really good ripe ones will fall off onto the ground--something to be said for slowing down, taking your time and experiencing the journey as well as the rewards. I stopped at the farm store and got a few more green beans and some just pulled onions as well. I am really trying to focus more on local food this summer.

On the way home from said berry picking I stopped and bought a canning pot and rack. I am determined to make some pickles this summer with local pickling cucumbers. My grandmother made fabulous sweet pickles. They were bright green from a little added food coloring and so sweet. My father used the juice as his ingredient in potato and pasta salads. I've never braved canning before so wish me luck! I also requested the recipe for this great frozen pizza sauce my mom made when we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with. If I hit the jackpot on tomatoes I might try canning a few quarts of those as well. In the serious 'burbs canning supplies aren't that easy to come by believe it or not!

Finally, I heard this story today and had to pass it on. The receptionist at work is a dear sweet woman who is in her early 70s. She is about the nicest person you will ever meet. She's been at the company for many, many years--she used to work with punch cards if that tells you anything. Gman stopped to get me for lunch on Monday and she was beside herself, a young friend of her family was dying of breast cancer that had spread. They called the whole family in saying she only had hours to live as her liver was shutting down. It was obvious that she was distraught over the impending loss. She stopped me this morning and told me that shortly after the announcement that she had hours to live another group of doctors came in and cleared everyone out but the woman and her husband. They had been pouring over her medical records and noticed that there was a sign of a fungal infection in the early days after she was admitted. No one had paid attention. This can sometimes cause it to look like the liver is shutting down. They started a treatment and her numbers had miraculously fallen over night. The nurses were running to get the doctors every time new lab work came back because they couldn't believe what they were seeing. I really felt like this, in combination with what I've been reading lately from Especially Heather, Schmutzie, and Toddler Planet was a reminder to slow down and appreciate what I have...every. single. day. You can join in supporting WhyMommy in her fight against inflammatory breast cancer by adding the Team WhyMommy button. Head on over to Canape Sun to get your button. She is starting chemo at 8:30 AM on Thursday, keep her in your thoughts.

Strawberry Bliss

There is nothing quite like a red, ripe strawberry just picked and still warm from the sun. I grew up across the street from a U-Pick strawberry farm and its going stronger than ever. As a kid we'd go pick some but most of the time Mom would just stop and buy a quart on her way home from work, nearly every evening during those few short weeks that are strawberry season. We couldn't wait to see that sign up the first day that they were ready for picking. Mom would make shortcakes, we'd add strawberries and a little bit of milk. Really, there is nothing like it. For those few weeks that was an acceptable breakfast as well as dessert.

In addition to right out of the carton, sliced, on shortcake and on your cereal we made jam. Once we picked several flats of strawberries. That night we got hit by a really bad storm in the middle of the night and it took down a giant tree in the backyard. While everyone else worked on cutting, stacking and picking up limbs, Grandma and I spent the whole day making strawberry jam. Take off the top, cut the berries and then smash them, watching the bright red juice get all over everything. There was something special in knowing that while it wasn't quite like the fresh ones, there would be strawberry jam in the freezer all winter long. In addition to using on usual jelly things it made an unbelievable topping for ice cream. The berries that didn't get made into jam were cut up, a little sugar added and frozen so that we could enjoy them during the winter. No birthday party was complete without some juicy frozen strawberries to eat with the cake and ice cream.

In the picture is one of the three boxes of strawberries we picked yesterday. Beautiful red berries hung heavy on the plants. Just when you think there aren't any more ripe ones you'd turn back the plants to find the beauties tucked underneath. We carefully covered them up and transported them through 3 states and made it safely home. This morning I was off to buy the makings for my first solo go at strawberry jam. I was a little discouraged not to find Sure-Jell in the first grocery store I tried--back home all the supplies to freeze, can and pickle are right there ready to fly off the shelves when summer comes. I did eventually find it and get home to start the work. A few hours later I had 18 cups of strawberry jam, 20 cups of sliced strawberries and a strawberry pie to show for my efforts as well as two kids who snacked on them all morning long.

Its Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer. Having some of those berries tucked away reassures me that I can have a little bit of summer, and all the memories that go along with it, all year long. I'll be looking for other things from local farms to put away this summer, its one of the things that I remember fondly from growing up in a semi-rural area. I hope that although we live in the suburbs I can teach my kids to appreciate growing it, or at least picking it, yourself.

Of allergies and genetics

Last night we had friends over for fondue. I was psyched to find a recipe to mimic Coq Au Vin from The Melting Pot to cook our meat. They brought the cheese—I was shocked and amazed you could buy it already made in a bag, complete with wine—and bread. It was fabulous, until I touched my face. Apparently I touched my face near my eye, next thing I knew my eye started itching, when I mentioned it DH and the friends told me I probably needed to take something (and of course Gman wanted to take a picture). I freaked out when I got into the bathroom and my face was swollen and red and the eye nearly closed. I popped one of Ellie’s Benadryl strips and tried to enjoy my dinner. At some point my stomach was really crampy as well but got better with the Benadryl. Most bizarre was that the strip made my tongue a little numb, good to know before I give it to my kid.

I am guessing genetics have caught up with me. Sometime in her 30s my mother developed a shellfish allergy. It started as a gastrointestinal thing and then it moved on to hives and swollen lips. For years I’ve joked that I better eat it while I can because some day its going to revolt. Now, I am afraid its begun. I have inherited all of Mom’s other medical oddities so why not this one? I have been putting off dealing with the allergist for years, it was good enough to know that something would control my hay fever, I really didn’t need to KNOW what was causing it. I feel some serious empathy for Chris over at Notes from the Trenches who is finding out she is allergic to a whole host of things—things that are in nearly everything we eat. And Builder Mama and my friend Lisa who have kids with serious peanut allergies who have to watch everything their sons eat. At least you can avoid shellfish if you need to, although you don’t have to like it. I’m going to see my GP this afternoon and try to figure out what the heck is going on with my body. I’m hoping I will get at least one gold star for being 10 pounds lighter than the last time I was there!

Dinner was good, although I felt a bit like I did when I was in college and we'd play "I never." Someone would say I never ate a goldfish and everyone who had drinks. I sat for long dry spells never touching my drink as I was pretty naive and inexperienced. As they traded awful ex-spouse/mother/in-law stories last night I realized how glad that I could just listen and laugh and NOT have a thing to say (and for me thats HARD).

No as bad as I thought

It turned out that my quad wasn't as bad as I feared. A little ice, a little heat, a little sleep and it felt much better. I threw caution to the wind and went to my spinning class at lunchtime yesterday. I didn't go all out, babying my leg a bit, but I got a great workout. I felt like such a jock working through the pain. Of course at the end of the class I got off the bike and caught my foot on another bike and twisted my leg in just the right way, OUCH. I went back to the office and sat with an ice bag (a Trash Tosser from Blink, they are great for all kinds of stuff!) on my leg praying that I wouldn't end up looking like I'd peed myself.

I thought that lunchtime exercise would get my blood pumping and I'd be on top of my game all afternoon. I was doing really well until about 2:30 and then all I wanted to do was put my head on the table and nap. Unfortunately, not an option.

We had our first run at making sushi at home last night. We weren't quite as proficient as we were under the close supervision of the Sushi Princess but they tasted great. We let the girls pick their fillings, Boobah didn't eat a lot, PDQ loved everything and ate hers as well as some of mine & Gman's. We'll definitely do it again, the only issue was the time, we used the table to make the rolls so then we had to clean it off so we could eat. The children were NOT patient by that time since they knew the food was "done." Gman took some pictures, I'll link up when he's posted since I got to put them all up last time.

Sushi Sunday

Yesterday afternoon we left the kids in the care of their favorite babysitter and in the company of Karateboy, Tippytornado and their grandma and headed to Baltimore for Sushi Sunday. I don’t know where Esmerelda found the Sushi Princess, but I’m glad she did. We learned to make maki or rolled sushi. I have to say, that in our little group I am the least enthusiastic about sushi. My friend Patty introduced me to it in Cleveland many years ago and we used to make the occasional lunch run. (By odd coincidence, the princess is from Cleveland as well!) I was always a bigger fan of the yummy tempura though. Yes, I’d eat the sushi but raw fish texture is not my thing and the stuff from the grocery store, even if I watch them make it is just a bit rubbery for my taste. Yesterday’s lesson made me a believer, we will be making sushi at our house in the future. Maybe, if we are brave, we’ll even let the kids help, they LOVE veggie rolls.

First, we learned the right technique for making the sticky rice and cooling it. Here are Es and I, just like the ancient Japanese women (ha!) fanning the rice to cool it off so we could season it. Unfortunately for us, she had an awesome rice cooker that none of us have—so when we try to do it on our own we’ll be flying a bit solo in the rice department. Although there mention of there being a sticky, yummy crusty part at the bottom of the pan, a delicacy in Japan, I have to do it once just to try it out.

We spent the next part of the lesson chopping the fish, veggies and egg. We didn’t venture into raw fish—we did use avocado, red bell pepper, scallion, cucumber, smoked salmon and cooked shrimp though and it was fantastic. She also suggested asparagus and I will definitely give that a try in the future. Then we made sauces—G-man hydrated the wasabi with water to get it to the right consistency. Then came my new favorite condiment, Thai chili sauce and mayonnaise. OMG, spicy, creamy goodness.

Finally, everything was ready to roll (ha, ha, I made a punny!). We got our mats, our Nori, and learned the correct technique for rolling our sushi rolls. Thin coating of rice, then sauce if you desire, a few strips of filling (really amazingly little of each ingredient), wet the edge, roll it up in the mat, and wha-la, out pops a long sushi roll. Put it aside for at least 5 minutes seam side down, cut and eat. OMG, creamy avocado, crunchy cucumber, creamy spice sauce, all held together with lightly seasoned rice, heaven. Oh, oh, I almost forgot, the pickled ginger. So. Good. I hate the pink stuff that I’ve had before, this stuff was amazing!

We had a great afternoon, the Sushi Princess was definitely a lovely woman. She opened up her home to us and let us play in her kitchen. The company was great and the food, it was to die for! So, if you’ve ever thought of trying to make your own sushi, I am convinced it is worth the effort.