Cookbooks, a Recipe and Meatless Monday, Oh My!

As most of you know I have a serious love affair going with cookbooks. At the present time I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 not including the four+ 3-ring binders I have filled with pages of printed and handwritten recipes and my recipe box. Not as many as Linda but still a respectable number. And I use every single one of them. If not for the recipes then for inspiration.

So when I saw that NPR put out a new list of the best cookbooks of 2009 I had to see if I needed to invest in more cookbooks. Why? Because I have a couple of theories in this life....one of which is: one can never have enough cookbooks. Someday when I want to totally disillusion you all I'll tell you the rest of my life tenets. They are sad.

Anyway if you want to check out the list of cookbooks click on the title. For me? I just don't NEED any of them. Want? Oh yeah, I want.

The 10 Best Cookbooks Of 2009

by T. Susan Chang

JR and I have become enamored with Avocado Salad.

It's creamy.
It's tasty.
It's easy.
I need to share.

I can't remember what website/cookbook/blog I found the initial recipe but since I've changed the recipe so much it really isn't the same. I'll give you my recipe. Jen and Matt, I'm sorry, I know you don't like avocados so just move along.

Avocado Salad

2 avocados, diced
2 green onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tomato, seeded & chopped
1 teaspoon pimento, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon curry
salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop onions, celery and pimento. Toss into a bowl.
2. Cut tomato in half. Squeeze over a bowl or into sink to get the seeds out. Chop.
3. Cut avocados in half, longways. Run your knife longways then again shortways. Basically, you want to dice it within the peel. Scoop out into the same bowl as the onion, celery, pimento and tomato mixture. Save the skins. You are going to use these as your serving dish.
4. Add lime juice. curry, salt and pepper. Scoop into avocado skin halves.

We eat this like this and any leftover we eat with chips or with shredded lettuce. The curry just takes this salad over the top. Serve this with hummus and chips, a glass of wine and you've got a complete meal. Trust me on this, fruit (wine & avocado), vegetable (celery & onions), grain (chips), and protein (hummus).

Meatless and yummy!

Am I good or what?

Yeah, I can justify all my food choices.

Notice that wine is a fruit.
Am I wrong?
I don't think so.

Love,
M

Fueling an Obsession

This

+

=

Woobly Table in the Making

Love,
M

RTT - Yay for a 3 day work week!

It's Tuesday!
Yay for Tuesday!
Yay for Tuesday because it is random!
Somehow that doesn't make any sense.
Somehow I'm not making any sense.
Yay for Tuesday!


Click the button for more randomness. They are more likely to be making sense.

Who in their right mind names their kid Clovis? I mean do they want to have their kid beat up at school every.damn.day? Sure, maybe people don't name their kids things like Clovis anymore, I AM looking at a 1949 yearbook, but wasn't that considered a shit kicker name even 60 years ago? Gauging from the photo of this guy I don't think I'm that far off. Now, I don't want to anger anyone here but if you've named your child Clovis please give the kid a chance by calling him by his middle name. Unless it is Ogle Laird. Yep, that's another one.



I got an interesting email the other day. Someone from Randalls/Safeway offered me a $25 gift certificate if I would post about budget friendly recipes and their new "2 hour turkey". I chose not to participate at this time. I don't really feel completely comfortable encouraging people to buy turkeys. I'm not naive enough to think you all are having nutloaf for turkeyday (please, JR is not even having nutloaf) but I have vegetarian buttons all over my blog and I feel pretty invested in it as a lifestyle for me. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to get into the reviewing things for money. It felt kind of dirty (which excited me in a whole other way but I'm sure you don't want me to go there).

What I've decided to do is not review the turkey but leave the possibility open for other things. I've also decided that any remuneration I receive will be either given away to you all or given to charity. What do you all think of this plan?




I've spent the last 6 hours writing html and php so my brain is fried. Writing code makes me want to drink. Let me rephrase that; makes me want to drink, MORE!


The Boy has got me hooked on Pandora Radio. Now, I can listen to the blues all day with very few commercials. I can thumbs up or thumbs down whatever song I like. Thumbs up and they just play more like it. Thumbs down and the song is immediately stopped. It's great. I'm transfixed. I'm powerful. I have control. I'm omnipotent.

Then my whole musical world comes crashing down when I get in my car. My thumbs up or thumbs down ability is stifled. I feel at the utter mercy of the DJ and let me tell you the DJs here in Houston leave a lot to be desired. The 2 guys in the morning make me want to reach into the radio and pluck their eyes out. So, in the morning it is NPR, at work it is my new best friend Pandora and when I drive home it is whatever is the least annoying. I seem to have developed a very low tolerance for annoying.

Well, that seems to be my limit for today. There is a party upstairs for one of the systems guys. He's going to West Point. Big ol'Best Wishes for him. And good for us because we get cake. Mmmmmm.....cake.

So have fun today.

Love,
M

Meatless Monday - Spinach Dumplings

This Sunday turned out to be another Happy Hour dinner. JR is right it is becoming a tradition.

In order to justify our (my) obsession with happy hour type foods I've decided that I'm doing this so that I can bring you all plenty of holiday potluck/party foods. Yeah....that's it. A public service. I'm providing a public service. I'm giving like that. HA!

This week's menu was: Spinach & cheese triangles, Twice baked roasted red potatoes, and Curried avocado salad. If any of you want any of these recipes please send me your email address. I'll send you them as an attachment. If you want I'll put together all the recipes from the last 3 weeks. What do you think?


The Spinach and Cheddar Dumplings were from last week. These were just as good reheated in the oven (not the microwave. they become mush) the next day.

Spinach and Cheddar Dumplings
1 package Won Ton wrappers, you’ll need a dozen or so
1 – 10 ounce package of frozen spinach, thawed & squeezed dry
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
¼ medium onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
2 eggs, beaten separately
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Thaw spinach and squeeze dry between paper towels. Put into large bowl.
3. Put onion and oil in skillet. Cook on medium for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion starts to soften. Add garlic, a couple of grinds of salt and pepper. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Add to spinach.
4. Add cheddar cheese and 1 egg. Mix well.
5. Take one won ton wrapper, place 2 tablespoons or a little less of spinach mixture in the middle. Brush second beaten egg around edges of wrapper. Fold up opposite corners until they touch. Fold up remaining corners. Press all edges to seal.
6. Place on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray (my one homage to healthy). When cookie sheet is filled brush all dumplings with leftover egg.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until a lovely golden brown.
8. Serve warm.
Serves 4

Yet, again another successful meatless starter.


If I don't get a chance to say it later this week, please have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Love,
M

Important Medical Update

Important medical update sent to me by the awesomeness that is Miss Julie. She knows that I'm a health nut and can use all the advice I can get. I'm sure she would be only too happy that I passed it along to you folks.

Monday, November 09, 2009

'I Love This Doctor'

Papa B sends us this critical medical update.


Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speed up heart not make live longer; that like say you can extend life of car by driving faster. Want live longer? Take nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. What are these? Vegetables. So, steak nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop give 100% recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take water out of fruity bit; get even more goodness that way. Beer also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: If you have body and you have fat, ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Cannot think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No Pain... GOOD!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTEN!!! Foods fried in vegetable oil. How getting more vegetables bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only do sit-ups if want bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: You crazy? HELLO... Cocoa bean! Vegetable!!! Cocoa bean best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for figure, explain whale.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

and...

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

Executive Summary

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.




Love,
M

Wordless Wednesday - Irrefutable Proof of Dorkiness

It doesn't get any better than this.






Love,
M

RTT - Proving I'm a Dork One Interview at a Time

It's the day of the week where randomness reigns. Keely's got it all going on over here. Go check it out. After you get done reading my post please.

I'm feeling more dorky than ever today. I think there are stages. Yesterday I was scared dorky. Today is nervous dorky. Why this week more than any other? Well you should ask. This week was the official unveiling of my digital library. This was a big deal. At least in my mind.

Part of this big deal was that I was interviewed by campus media. This scares the shit out of me. Why? Because I know myself. Here are some things that I know now about myself in relation to this interview:

• I know I should look to see if they posted it on the university website.

• I know I should do this before some intrepid librarian does it for me then posts it on YouTube. (cause you know they will)

• I know I should see if they sent it to the PBS station on campus.

• I know my hair looked like I had stuck my finger in a light socket.

• I know stuttered.

• I know I wish I had the confidence of MaryAnn.

• I know that I didn't have the confidence of MaryAnn so I most likely looked like a dork.

• I know that the interviewer was really nice to the poor stupid librarian standing before her.

• I know that the interviewee was really a dork. More than a dork. Wait? What is more than a dork?

• I know that this is only one of the interviews that I have to give. Next up is NPR.(hold me).
  

• I know I am so screwed.

We just found out our that our beautiful girl doggie, Nessa, is allergic to the proteins in regular (aka cheap) dog food. What does this mean? It means that we have the choice of buying her prescription dog food or vegetarian dog food. Let's look at our options a little more closely.

Prescription dog food: made with duck, venison or rabbit and costs the moon. (too hoity toity for this household). Now, I'm no mathematician (why I went to library school) but I'm thinking that when a 16 pound bag of dog food costs $60 and I have a 65 pound dog to feed. It's going to cost me?????? Uhhhhhhh....wait, I was never good at story problems let alone algebra. TOO DAMN MUCH!!!

Vegetarian dog food: Let's run our numbers one more time. Okay, let's not. A 16 pound bag of veggie dog food costs about $10 plus shipping but if I buy more than 2 or 3 bags the shipping is free. Even I, with my limited math skills, can figure out that our dog is going vegetarian.



You asked for it. So I'll be doing it. I'll be posting the spinach and cheddar dumplings and the olive pasties (pasties....snicker...I'm so immature) recipes on Friday or maybe as late as Saturday. Since, I'm a fly by the seat of my pants cook I'll need a day or two to remember what and how much of what I put into each recipe. Then try them out one more time because I'd hate to give you all faulty recipes. JR will love me even more.



It got really cold down here last night. Into the low 40s. That's cold for here. Cold enough that JR wanted to turn on the furnace for the first time. Being the tightwad that I am I told him; No, just go put more clothes on. We decided to just go to bed instead. Move along, nothing to see here...... HA! fooled you. We're too old for that kind of thing on a week night.



Well, it's getting to be time to head to work. Let's see if I can top yesterday's idiocy. This ought to be a no brainer since I have a 3 hour lunch meeting with a bunch of architects. At least they won't be talking about architect thingies and if I'm real lucky I may be able to pick up some consulting work. It's a shake of the dice today. ****Come on, mama needs a luxury cruise****



That is enough out of me. Scroll back up to the link at the top. Yeah, I am too lazy to link it down here, thank you. And if I was really demanding I'd insist that you leave a comment. Maybe the word insist needs to be changed to beg, plead, or whine since I'm feeling pretty vulnerable today. it's that whole interview thing. It totally freaked me out. Can ya tell?

Love,
M

Happy Hour Dinner, Again?

Tuesday:
JR: That was a great idea to have happy hour food for dinner. We should do it again.
Me: Okay


Thursday:
JR: What are you planning for happy hour dinner this week?
Me: I don't know. I was thinking of not doing it on Sunday. I've got that big thing at work coming up on Monday and I'm not sure I'll have time.
JR: What! But it's a tradition.
Me: When did it become a tradition. We had it once.


Sunday morning:
JR: Have you got everything done for work?
Me: As done as I'll ever be.
JR: Great, that means you have time to make happy hour dinner.
Me: *sigh* Sure, I'll whip something up.









From top left clockwise:
Olive pasties, Avocado and Cream Cheese Roll, Spinach and Cheddar Dumplings.


With the holidays coming up I thought I'd start featuring recipes that can easily be made ahead and taken to all those potlucky type things that come up.



First up:

Avocado and Cream Cheese Roll

1/2 pound (8 ounces) of cream cheese, room temperature
2 small or 1 large avocado
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced (or sun-dried tomato pesto or tapenade, store-bought or homemade)
1 cup Cashews
Small crackers

1. Place the cream cheese between 2 pieces of parchment or waxed paper. Roll out to form a rectangle about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long. Remove the top sheet.

2. Sprinkle diced sun-dried tomatoes over cream cheese or spread pesto or tapenade. I happened to have tapenade in my refridgerator so that is what I used.

3. Remove the flesh from the avocado and smash until smooth. You can leave small chunks. Spread over sun-dried tomatoes and cheese.

4. Using the bottom sheet of parchment roll up the cream cheese to form a log. I found this to be the messy part of the procedure. You may have better luck at this then I did. Do what you can to make it log shaped.

5. Put cashews into a blender or food processor and grind up. You want fairly small pieces but not dust. Coat cream cheese log with cashews.

6. Roll up in parchment and park in your refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. You can make this 6 to 8 hours ahead of time then set out for 30 minutes before serving.

7. Serve with small crackers.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did. Besides the whole rolling it into a log shape it was really easy to make. I plan to take it to our holiday party at the library. I think it will travel well.

If you want the recipes for the other items please let me know. I'll write them out.

Remember it's Meatless Monday today and if Monday doesn't work for you any day is good.


Love,
M



PS: This is my four hundredth postaversary. I thought it completely fitting that it was a food related one.

Where I bore you with historical stuff and shiny objects

These are digital surrogates of some very cool photos. Taken back in the mid-1930s by Luis Marquez. He enlarged and hand-tinted each of the photographs. When you look at the originals you can actually see the paint.

Kodak developed kodachrome and kodacolor film in 1935 and 1942 receptively and AGFA developed a color film in 1936. Unfortunately or fortunately for us, Luiz would not have had access to any of these. Color film was not in use in Mexico until somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 years later.



Luis Marquez was one of a very few Mexican photographers. He also turned out to be one of the more famous ones. Probably because he was very talented.

Though staged these photographs represent aspects of Mexican life and spirituality. You can tell they are staged because if that woman had been walking around without shoes on, her feet would have been dirty. Turns out that Luis was something of a control freak. He collected the costumes for the models to wear, told the models which outfits to wear, and gave them the props and told them how to hold them.

Luis then gave copies of these photographs to the wife of the Texas State Governor, Mr. Allred. Mounted in a tooled leather case. Now, I could chide him for his use of leather as a binding but this would seem a tad bit stupid. One, the guy is dead. Dead people just don't listen real well. Or if they do you can't tell. They just lay there all dead-like. Two, very few people had concerns about animal cruelty and vegetarianism and stuff like that back then.

He gave the photos to the Governor's wife in an attempt to interest them in sponsoring his works. He was looking to get the photos made into postcards. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you will know that postcards were very popular back in the early 20th century. They were purchased to be mailed to friends and family. They were also highly collected.

By having some of his photographs made into postcards and distributed cheaply Luis would have been able to make a name for himself. Great idea. Too bad it didn't quite work about that way. Or at least, not when it came to the Allreds. They turned out to be totally unhelpful. I'm not sure why. Most likely it didn't fit in with their life plan.

Four of his photos appeared in the May 1937 edition of National Geographic. Which would have been a coup. He also was published in a few other books and guides in the 1950s.

Soon color film made it's way to Mexico and Luis was right there to greet it. Making him progressive and controlling all at the same time. But these personality quirks didn't take away from the grandiose imagery and beautiful colors he achieved in these photographs. Perhaps it helped. His exacting nature makes these more than just snapshots of everyday life but brings them into the realm of still-lifes.

Think of the artistry of not only the composition but the hand painting of these photographs. This guy was incredible and very few people know of him or his work. I didn't until we came across these buried in a box with a whole bunch of the late Governor's things. Then I just had to find out more. It's the plight of a librarian. To always try to find out more.

So there, you made it to the end. You can wake up and take your head off your desks. Please file out quietly.

I'm going to call this my spin for this week. It sort of epitomizes the types of posts I do. Plus, Jen is giving us a free-for-all spin this week and I'm nothing if not opportunistic. She has links of others that are participating. Check them out here.

Love,
M

The Wonderful World of Being a Science Geek Mom

Latest chat with The Boy

To truly understand this conversation you must know that we are from the Seattle area originally and most all of our family still lives there.

The Boy: http://www.marriedtothesea.com/110909/being-a-dick.gif

8:47 AM me: How do they know that?

8:49 AM The Boy: they traced back the genealogy using the being a dick gene

8:54 AM me: because I'm sure that there is a genetic marker for being a dick

You have it because you have uncles who are dicks

on both sides

8:57 AM The Boy: obvious you and dad have the recessive form

which means you arnt major dicks like me and ben

me: just minor ones

sorry to pass that along

8:58 AM not a lot I could do about it

I haven't heard that they have been able to isolate and repair that particular gene. Have you?

9:01 AM The Boy: whoever does will probably win the nobel

9:02 AM me: no doubt

and well they should

You too could be passing the "being a dick" gene down to your children. Hopefully, with careful research and most likely millions of federal research dollars a cure can be found. If not I potentially see millions of "dicks" born everyday.


This has been a public service announcement brought to by Michele and The Boy.

Love,
M

Friends in Need

I'm passing this along for our blogging friends, Heather and Mike. Please keep them in your thoughts today and if you could donate that would be greatly appreciated.



I don't think there are too many people reading this who didn't have their
heart broken on April 7th of this year. That's the day we learned that
Madeline Alice Spohr, whom we all knew as Maddie from The Spohrs Are
Multiplying, was suddenly taken from her parents, Heather and Mike, when a respiratory infection coupled with a collapsed lung was more than her 17-month-old body could fight.

Thousands of people across the country mourned with Heather and Mike, and thousands came
to their support by donating to the March of Dimes in Maddie's memory. Since then, the Spohrs, along with family and friends, have created Friends of Maddie, a fund dedicated to supporting
families of critically ill or prematurely-born infants during their stay in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with supplies, help finding temporary lodging (because the NICU isn't always within commuting distance of home), and by creating a network of support.

Friends of Maddie uses your donation to put together Support Packs for families who find themselves overwhelmed with the care of an at-risk newborn. The packs include items such as reusable water bottles, snack bars, tissues, mints, and most importantly, a tri-fold binder with a note pad and accordion file to keep track of paperwork.

"We're hopeful it will make it at a little easier for parents to keep track
of everything," Heather says."You get SO many papers, business cards, etc.,
every day, and it's hard to keep track of everything."

She should know, she lived the experience. Maddie's sixty-eight-day stay in
the NICU is chronicled on Heather's blog and her husband Mike's blog as well. Readers across the country followed every setback and every victory.

What message would she like to pass on to parents in the same situation?

"Patience. Take things a day at a time and live in the moment. Don't look
down the road or things will get REALLY scary and overwhelming," shared
Heather.

The reaction to the packs has been terrific, according to Heather, "We've been getting a FANTASTIC response from everyone! We weren't expecting such a big response so we are really behind in getting back to everyone, but it's a good problem to have!"

By now, you are all wondering how you can help, right? I knew it. You people
rock. Your options:
* Donate! I know, the economy is bad right now, but every little bit helps. Or...
* Let your local NICU know about Friends of Maddie or...
* Do you work for a company that might bring a valuable service to
NICU parents? Contact FoM!
Or...
* Just spread the word! Write a blog post! Send out a tweet! Y'all
know how this works!

Mike and Heather's loss is unimaginable. In spite of their grief, they have
found a way to pay forward all the love poured out from thousands of hearts
across the internet.

Love,
M

RTT - Just a whole lot of silly

Let's all get our random on.
Don't know what RTT is?
Where have you been?
Living under a rock.
Click the purple image up there.
It will take you to a place where random is as random does.

My beautiful niece is having a hard time passing her drivers test. It took several (as in we kind of lost track) tries for her to pass her written test and when she finally took her driving test she came within inches of killing the examiner. He didn't think it was all that funny when she took a left into oncoming traffic. Now I just read that someone has taken her driving test more than my niece.

Woman passes driver's test on 950th try

See Darlin' you can do it. Auntie Michele is pulling for you.

Latest painting.

Here in Texas there are some interesting sayings but my all time favorite so far is: "he/she is as happy as that crazy sow in the peach orchard". (Or I think that is how it goes, Jan do you want to jump in on this one?) From what I understand the sows get wild and crazy drunk from the fermented peaches that fall from the trees. When I first heard this saying I had to have it interpreted. They have a million of these little gems don't here. I'll pass them along when I hear them.

Cats are trainable — and that’s not a punchline

Program teaches layabout felines to work for their food

It’s not just shelter cats that need more, though. People expect pet cats to “just hang out, which isn’t realistic,” says Melissa Chan, behavior specialist at the Houston SPCA. Cats are naturally active animals, she says, and “one thing I wish I could tell every cat owner: Cats want to work for their food.”

You can't prove this by JR's cat.



Pita Pizza is just pizza topping on store bought pita bread. Toss them on a baking sheet drizzled with a little olive oil. Top with your favorite topping (if you need hints about this we'll need to talk). Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Pita bread makes great pizza crust because it gets the right amount of crunch on the edges and still retains that yummy chewy in the middle. Don't believe me? Try it!


Well, that's all I've got. Go check out all the trainable cats over at Keely's place (remember the little button?).

Love,
M

Happy Hour Dinner - Meatless Monday

There is very little JR and I like better than Happy Hour food. You know, those little munchy (I'm using munchy as a word Blogger and I don't care what you say. Some days I hate you so don't make me kill you) thingies that you order up at half the price during happy hour. It is always the best part of dinner.

Sunday night we decided (okay, JR had no voice in this decision. I make. He eats. ) that we would have Happy Hour dinner. This is in no way like Junk Night. Someday, I will explain my theory about teaching my children how to fend for themselves by forging and serving themselves their own dinner. It wasn't because I was lazy. I was teaching a life skill. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, we (uh um I ) made happy hour food for dinner. It consisted of Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Pita Pizza, Stuffed Mushrooms, and Guacamole Stuffed Potato Skins. Add an alcoholic beverage of choice and dinner was served.




Let me share the Guacamole Stuffed Potato Skins recipe with you.

Guacamole Stuffed Potato Skins

5 medium sized red potatoes; baked, cooled and cut in half lengthwise.
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons flour
3 small avocados, peeled and diced
2 Tablespoons Sun-dried tomato pesto or chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
2 tomato slices, cut into 8 wedges

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scoop out centers of potato halves, leaving about 1/4 inch thickness. Coat with olive oil. Coat skins with flour. Place in single layer, skin-side down on baking sheet. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. You want them a bit crunchy.

2. Put 2 of the avocados in a bowl. Add sun-dried tomatoes, cumin, paprika, and lime juice. Mash it up.

3. Divide up avocado mixture up and stuff into the potato halves. Top with last avocado chucks and tomato wedges.

These were so awesome that I foresee a fight over the leftovers for tomorrow's lunches. Since, I pack the lunches I'm thinking that JR is going to be missing out. As Miss Julie would say; "I'd eat that".

Once again, I took a perfectly good recipe and adapted it for my nefarious purposes. I saw something like it in the current edition of Vegetarian Times magazine (pg 74 if you really want to look it up). My recipe is so different as to be not even the same

This is one of those; "let's take food and stuff it into other food" things. Something that you can never go wrong with in my book. Think about all the good food stuffed in other good food. Manicotti, mushrooms, and calzones. Though technically calzones are food wrapped in food but let's not quibble.

I also made some Pumpkin Pecan Spice Bread and painted an oil painting. Had a very productive weekend for a change. This is the first time I've been able to paint anything but small watercolours since moving to Houston. It felt good.

I used some medium gel that changed the way I paint. It is amazing stuff. I had to work really fast because the gel shortens the drying time by more than half. It was like speed painting. Totally freaked my out at first. Then I got the hang of it. I like the way it turned out. Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow. The gel in the paint and the flash on the camera are not playing nice.

Hope you all had as productive of weekend and your upcoming week is terrific.

Love,
M

Bathing Beauties

I once again came across something I found interesting and being the OCD librarian I am I just had to share. The thing I came across is actually the last photo in this bunch. It made me think about how bath suits had changed in the first forty years of the 20th century.

What?
Everyone doesn't ponder these things?




1906

I spent a little time culling through my collection of family photos looking for ones where the ladies were dressed in swimwear.
JR's grandmother is the one on the far left and his great-aunt is on the far right.
They were in a lake near their boarding school in Minnesota.
I, too, would be wearing that many layers to get into any lake in Minnesota.
I don't think they swam so much as waded.
With that many clothes on they probably would have sank like a rock.

1923ish

In less than 20 years the suits get skimpier.
Or maybe, it's because this woman was a hussy?
Let's be honest this is Atlantic City, at that time a rather fast city.
Actually swimming in this suit would have been a lot easier.
Not sure about the shoes though.

1939

This photo was taken at a lake in Montana.
The two women were college friends of my mother-in-law.
Swimsuits had become very daring.
Those college women!
They are so progressive.
They still have caps though.
One can not be to careful of the do'.

1948

10 years later and swim caps are out and skin is in.
We are a bit more au-natural.
Is it just me or does the one on the far right look like a bra and tap pants?
These photos were taken out of the 1948 University of Houston Yearbook.
I'm assuming that they were taken on Galveston beach.
Once again, progressive college girls at the beach.

So that was our little walk through of swim fashions in the early 20th century. We've come along way since 1906. For good or bad. When I think about it the timing on this post is a little late. I should have done it at the beginning of the summer. Screw the timing. I didn't come upon the picture until Monday of this week and I wasn't going to wait until next summer to share.

Love,
M

Wordless Wednesday - de Hub Range

What I wouldn't give for a gas range right now.

Love,
M

Random Tuesday Thoughts about Collections

I have various collections. Most are a hodge podge of things that I have collected, my mother-in-law collected, her mother collected, her mother's mother collected, my grandmothers collected.....you get the picture.

I think of collections like marriage. You take two people combined them, draw into the collection the families from both sides, add some more of your own and TaDA! You have a new collection.

A new collection of old and new.
A collection of rich and poor.
A collection of battered and pristine.

This is a small portion of my silver collection.
It illustrates exactly how I feel about families.
Hardly any of it matches.
Some of it is tarnished, dented or bent.
Some of it is shiny, elegant or simple.
All of it beautiful.

Here is a portion of another collection.
Another reminder in my house of how families like collections come together.
Who collected what? Starting from left to right.
Grey pot = mine
Flowered pot = my mother-in-law
Cream pitcher with leaf = my grandmother on my father's side
Cut glass pitcher = my grandmother on my mother's side.
A daily reminder in my kitchen of where we came from.

Our postcard collection.
This collection spans 10 years of collecting.
It covers several countries, states, ethnic and cultural groups.
Disjointed as only families can be; yet still together.

It has been passed down through 2 generations and as time plays out I hope it will be passed down to more.
It is valued by this generation more than you could possibly imagine.
It's continuity reminds me of family.

This is a portion of my collection of candlesticks.
It wasn't a collection until I pulled it all together.
Sometimes families happen that way.

Once again it is a combination of family pieces and new pieces.
In fact, everything on our mantle and hearth represents
the old and the new.
Am I the only one that thinks of family and collections in these terms?
Have any of you looked around your house and thought of the connection between family and their collections?

Every room in my house holds a collection of some sort to remind me everyday about the melding of lives and the importance of people coming together to make more collections.

Speaking of collection and family building, stop by my eldest son's blog for pictures of their move from arid Arizona to wet Washington. He has the sweetest picture of my DIL.


Wow! I got way off base on this one. I had plan to talk about how eclectic and random the collections in my house are; then it just morphed. I'm not even sure if this qualifies as a Random Tuesday Thoughts post anymore. To get the idea of how this whole RTT thing is really supposed to come down head over to Keely's place.

Love,
M

Wine Bottle Label Art

I want it stated right here; "I do not choose my wine by the art on the label". I choose my wine by rating and price. I like to get something that gets about 90 points or better within the $15 range. This is totally doable. As evidenced by my wine cooler.

JR likes to keep some of his beer in my wine cooler. Is there anything more wrong?

While I don't choose my wine by the label that does not mean that I don't enjoy the artistry of some wine labels. There are some seriously clever graphic designers hanging out at the wineries these days.

Remember the old Campbell soup ads?
If you answered no or if you answered "Oh those ads from like a hundred years ago? Yeah, I've seen them in museums." Just move right along.
That's what these remind me of.

This is a little hard to see but it is called the prisoner.
Nothing like a guy in chains and shackles to make me want to slug down a bottle.

According to the Orin Swift Cellers;
"The image is inspired by an original etching depicting a prisoner in chains Dave Phinney received as a gift from his mother and father."
I bet he didn't anticipate that gift under his Christmas tree.

I liked the tranquil feel of this one.
It is from the Duckhorn vinyards.

I love the tripping Maitre d.
Probably because this is a lot like what I look like when carrying a bottle of wine or anything for that matter.
Maybe it's an inner ear thing.
Maybe it's because I'm a klutz.
Most likely the klutz thing.

Fat guy in a tutu.
Enuf said.

Fat guy without the tutu.
Interesting, No?

Just as a side note. I did not buy any of these wines. I just wandered through the liquor store snapping pictures with my cell phone. The wines I did buy were being put in the car by my lovely husband.

I consider wine my fruit serving for the day. According to the FDA food pyramid I should be getting 1 1/2 cups of fruit per day. Done!

That's a vegetarian tree-hugging granola head for ya; trying to get in all those servings of fruits and vegetables the easy way.

Have a great day everyone.
Love,
M