Recipes
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Friday Thoughts
I’m a day late to wish you a very Happy Winter Solstice. Longtime readers will perhaps remember that I have shared this photo before. It is a time lapse photo from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, of the path of the sun on the Winter Solstice, taken December 21st, 2012. Fairbanks is outside of the Arctic circle, so the sun does technically come up every day of the year, but in the darkest days, it peeks above the horizon, then skits along for a bit, before setting a few hours later. Speaking of the Winter Solstice, I read at Light and Momentary that although after the Solstice, we get a…
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Pasta alla Norma
Sometimes, I just want a bowl of pasta. One pasta that I love is Pasta all Norma, with eggplant, basil, and cheese. I love this recipe from the Mark Bittman for the New York Times, but I don’t love the idea of frying the eggplant. I don’t like how much oil it absorbs, and how it stinks up the house and makes a mess. Happily, helpful folks have commented their modifications to the recipe, which I wrote down, and went ahead and used them. Ted is low carb…he loves pasta and bread and so on, but it doesn’t play so well with him anymore, so he tries to avoid it…
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Mayonnaise Turkey
We’re having Thanksgiving at our house this year. There will be 8 of us (2 of whom are vegetarian), and I’m making 2 turkeys. We do this every year, to ensure enough leftovers. Ted was reading the New York Times the other day, and they had a recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey, where you dry-brine it, and give it a mayo treatment. Why not (aside from the fact that I am not fond of mayo as a condiment, but why not rub it all over your turkey?) However, while we do have a subscription to the NYT, access to their recipes is a different subscription, which we do not have. Facebook…
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Thanksgiving Prep
This is the current situation at my house. I have washed the good china, and just finished polishing the silver. I’m not going to use our good crystal glasses this year, they are too fragile and I don’t want to risk them getting broken. Back when we got married, almost 30 years ago, couples registered for china, silver, and crystal. We don’t use them often, but we do use them a couple of times a year. Sometimes for Valentine’s Day, always for Canadian Thanksgiving, and then if we have Christmas or U.S. Thanksgiving here. We celebrate two Thanksgivings, just because it is fun. Ted was born in Canada, though his…
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Hummus Bowls with Spiced Lamb
Most weeks, I do the cooking around here Monday – Thursday, we get take out on Friday (started during the pandemic to support local restaurants, and kept the habit), and Ted cooks on Saturdays and Sundays. This last Saturday, he was planning to make pork chops for dinner, along with some Brussels sprouts, but was looking for something to make for our daughter, who is (mostly) vegetarian. She will eat a bit of fish, but pretty much limits that to sushi and fish and chips. He came across this recipe, and thought it might work well with some Beyond Beef. Then he thought, hey, let’s skip the pork chops and…
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Shakshuka
I realized the other day that I haven’t posted in over a month, and that it was a month between my last couple of posts too. Also, my last post was just a political meme with no input from me. I will try to do better, I do have things to tell, and I want to come see your blogs as well. I sat down with the intention of writing a ‘catching up with J’ type post, but now Ted wants to go to see a movie, there is a new library that is opening today, I need a shower, blah blah blah. So, here is a recipe for a…
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Healthy Lentil Chili
Photo and recipe courtesy of Food Network. While cleaning out my kitchen cupboards last weekend, I came across a lot of lentils. Brown lentils, green lentils, black lentils, and red lentils. I make a couple of dishes with green lentils, like my lentil and tuna salad, and vegetable lentil soup. I have a yummy red lentil soup recipe with warm spices. This time, I thought I might make something with some of the brown lentils, and I wanted to make something that wasn’t soup. So I went to google and came up with this recipe for Lentil Chili. Looks delicious, and bonus, it’s vegetarian and no bread or noodles, so…
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Meme Monday – Thanksgiving Edition
I’m taking a break from my alphabet related posts today, to share a couple of Thanksgiving themed memes. I’ll figure something out for the letter V tomorrow. We’re about ready for Thanksgiving. We’re going to Ted’s parents house this year, which is our standard. Last year, of course, was the outlier, and we had a very small Thanksgiving at our house. This year is closer to normal, there will be 10 of us. We divide and conquer when it comes to the cooking, and our menu is pretty standard. I will be making: Shrimp Cocktail (appetizer) – Ina Garten recipe, from Food Network My Grandma’s Fruit Salad – Originally posted…
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R is for Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
This is my favorite tomato basil soup recipe. It is from Ina Garten of The Barefoot Contessa. Roasting the tomatoes means that you can get a deeper flavor from your tomatoes, which is especially wonderful when tomato season has ended. A bowl of vegetable (fruit?) soup on its own is rarely filling enough for dinner. Around here, I will make it with Grilled Cheese sandwiches for Maya and me, and with some roasted chicken for Ted. He shreds it and puts it in the soup. It calls for a lot of basil, but it’s delicious that way. I don’t think I would EVER put a tablespoon of salt in this…
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D is for Dinner
The struggle is real, people. Sometimes, I have an absolute craving and as I cook on week nights, it’s easy to come up with ideas…and sometimes by the time I get off of work, I’m still interested in eating that thing and cooking it even. And sometimes, not. If it weren’t for Ted and Maya, it would be much easier, I would just have nibbles for dinner, which is what I would prefer anyway. Actually, I think Maya would be OK with that too, but it’s hard to do with Ted’s dietary restrictions. Sometimes I think of something I want, and it either doesn’t fit with Ted’s restrictions or Maya’s.…
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B is for Brussels Sprouts, Apple, and Pomegranate Salad
I came across this wonderful recipe vis Smitten Kitchen, whom I follow on Facebook. It’s a light, bright salad, and perfect for Autumn. Our neighbor’s sister has a pomegranate bush, and when she gives them some, he very kindly shares with us. So he stopped by with a couple of pomegranates the other day, and I decided to make this salad to go with our dinner. In her post, Deb (author of Smitten Kitchen) makes it as a salad for Thanksgiving dinner, and I often bring it to our family gatherings as well. Likely I will this year, too. Notes are hers, I just copied and pasted the recipe from…
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A Tale of Two Tarts
August and September are the best months for tomatoes. I can’t grow them, we don’t get enough sunshine in our yard. I’ve tried many times, and it always comes out that I spend far too much money and time on the water for the tiny little crop that we get. It’s pathetic. So I support our local farmers by going to the weekend Farmer’s Markets, and I get some pretty amazing tomatoes. So awhile ago, a cooking blog that I sometimes follow posted a picture of an amazing looking tomato tart on their Facebook page, and I decided that I had to try it. Happily, a few weeks later, we…
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Meme Monday – Salade Niçoise
I like to cook healthy, light meals. I also like to eat a big bag of salt and vinegar chips by myself, in little portions so it doesn’t seem like I’m actually going to finish the bag, but really, whom are we kidding? No one. One meal that I really like when it is summer and the tomatoes are good is Salade Niçoise. My recipe is kind of old school, and I prefer canned tuna to fresh. Ted prefers fresh, so if he is making the salad, he will grill tuna outside. If I’m making it, I find the expensive Italian tuna in a jar. I like to add avocado…
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Wordless Wednesday – Bastille Day dinner
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Friday Randomness
Today’s post is one of those potpourri type posts, where I have some ideas, but haven’t gotten around to putting them in their own blog posts, so I am going to lump them all together. Ted and Maya were away last week. Ted’s aunt, who lives in Salt Lake City, had a stroke last year. His mom wanted to go visit her, but of course she could not, due to COVID restrictions. Earlier this year, his mom fell and fractured her foot. It is mostly healed now, but Ted and his brother weren’t thrilled with the idea of her traveling alone. She is nearing her mid-80s, and is extremely active,…