5 magic words . . .

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!

It'll cure what ails ya and make ya happy!  Or it could be just me.

The taste brings back memories of my childhood.  It was my favorite flavor for years and years.  And somewhere around the age of 12 a friend down the beach introduced me to mint chocolate chip ice cream in a mug with a shot or two of cold coffee on top.  Mocha mint in the land before flavored creamers.  In a word - YUM!  And the memory of sitting on that porch attached to the garage apartment with the warm breeze drifting across us as we sat in those old wooden and canvas sling chairs with a hand wrapped around an icy mug of deliciousness.  Please excuse me while I take a little walk down memory lane . . .

Peace out, ya'll!!

And so it goes . . .

I had the opportunity this morning to sit with a some great folks and talk about the "valleys" that we have all experienced in our lives.  You know - those times when things look bleak or something has happened and no light seems to be shining in your life.  I mentioned a sign that I had seen - When you're going through hell . . . keep going!! I believe that The Big G doesn't give us more than we can handle.  And he gives us others in our lives who are there to help us - if we let them.  So we talked too about allowing another to help you climb out of said valley.  The blessing for you is that your time there is shortened or the pain and suffering you endure is lessened.  But the real kicker is that you have opened up a space for the other person to be even more blessed because they were given the opportunity to do The Big G's work and feel the grace that comes from it.  Pretty powerful stuff if you ask me.  

I'm not one to go on about religion and such so I'll keep it short and to the point - even at my darkest moments, I find that my life goes along a whole lot better when I am grateful for what has come my way and express my gratitude to The Big G on a regular basis.  It reminds me how much I have to be thankful for, that this too shall pass and that it's important to keep up the two way conversation. 


Stay thankful, ya'll!!

The Empty Pantry - Almost . . .

This one's going to be short and dirty.

Last night I had Tuna Melt Nachos for supper.  I haven't been grocery shopping in a bit and I was out of bread.  There are crackers (3 kinds even) in the pantry so I certainly could have had the tuna salad on those but I wanted melty cheese and tomatoes in the mix and a cracker just didn't do it for me.  So . . . I dumped those tortilla chip shards on the baking pan, dolloped the tuna salad around, sliced up some campari tomatoes, topped it all with some shredded cheddar and mozzarella and popped it into the toaster oven for several minutes til everything got nice and toasty.  It turned out pretty well and I recommend it.  If you like the components, you''ll like the result.

As I sat enjoying my supper, I thought back to some other memorable-because-they-were-odd dinners that I've had.  Favorite to date had been popcorn and broccoli.  I was starving when I got home from work so I popped some corn to munch on while I planned dinner.  Ended up eating a ton of popcorn and then thought I should have something somewhat healthy so I steamed up some broccoli and topped it with fresh squeezed lemon and ground pepper.  It was all delicious - possibly because of its unconventionality.

My message today is - enjoy what you do in every moment - no matter how unconventional it seems at the time.  That is often where the fondest memories are born.

Rock on, ya'll!

For my first trick . . .

Yesterday (Sunday) was a fun food day . . . because I made something yummy on Saturday and baked it up yesterday.  I had the following ingredients in my house which usually aren't there - whole milk ricotta, baby zucchinies (that word looks kinda like that word you call your bottom - HA!) and a block of pretty tasty organic mozzarella.  I also had garlic cloves (I keep a ton of it in my freezer - buy the big container of peeled garlic in your monster-mart's cold produce section and pop it into your freezer when you get home - I swear is cooks up white and garlic-y looking), mushrooms (white button and cremini - which are marketed as 'baby portabellos''), an egg and grated parmesan cheese.


It went something like this - for an 8 in square pan . . .

Combine and set aside:

• 1 8oz container ricotta cheese - whole or part skim
• 1 egg
• Sprinkle of salt
• Hearty dash / grind of pepper
• 1/4 c parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c shredded/grated mozzarella (or cheddar or your favorite cheese to serve with veggies)

Next step:

• 1 pound mushrooms (of your choice - white button, cremini, portabello, etc)
• 7 - 10 cloves garlic - depending on your tastebuds
• Sprinkle of salt
• Grind or two of pepper
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp olive oil

Slice the mushrooms about 1/8 inch thick
Mince garlic
Heat non-stick pan over medium high with butter and olive oil in the pan
Add mushrooms and garlic when butter is melted and pan is hot
Toss and cook with salt and pepper until mushrooms are golden
Set aside

Zucchinl:
Rinse zucchini, trim stem and blossom ends and slice length-wise as thin as you can (I used a mandolin slicer)
NOTE: How much zucchini depends on how thick your slices are - mine were paper thin and I would have used about 2 - 6"ones.  "Would have" because the pan in the picture is smaller and I only used one zucchini . . .

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil an 8" square pan and layer the bottom with zucchini slices.  Top with about 1/3 of the ricotta mixture.  Top with 1/3 of the mushroom garlic mixture.  Continue to layer and end with zucchini.  Cover with foil and bake covered for about 20 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking another 25 - 30 minutes or until the casserole starts to puff up but is not golden brown.  Remove from oven and top with about 1/2 c shredded mozzarella, return to oven and bake until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let sit about 10 minutes to cool and set before serving.  Mine fell slightly as it cooled and was somewhat wet so I recommended the additional uncovered cooking time above.

This is kind of a lasagna with zucchini instead of lasagna noodles.  You can top with sliced tomatoes, add some artichoke hearts or spinach or onions or any other favorite veg to the mushroom layer, or perhaps throw in some black olives.  The possibilities, as they say, are endless.  This would also be good with chopped broccoli and cheddar in place of the zucchini and mozzarella.


And so you have my first go at sharing a 'recipe'.  Hope you enjoy it!  See below for additional shots of deliciousness.  And yes - I'm working on my food photography skills.

Peace out, ya'll!!

Showe curtain liners are NOT hot dog buns . . .

I believe that I am the victim of mid-term memory lapse.  Not to be confused with short term - can't remember what I ate for breakfast that morning - or long term - what I ate for breakfast on my 5th birthday - memory lapses. Those I can handle.  Its the mid-term that gets me.

By "mid-term" I mean those things that you know you've done before but not very often and at the time you possibly thought things would turn out one way and then they turned out differently than you had thought - or at least you kind of remember that they did.  Consider it to be similar to those times in your youth when you practiced in your head so many times the asking your parents if you could borrow the car / go to that party / get those jeans that you absolutely had to have.  You rehearsed it so many times you couldn't quite remember if you had actually articulated the question in their parental presence . . . or if they had answered.  Kind of the same thing here.

I bought (splurged?) on a new shower curtain liner the other day (moisture resistant polyester rather than that smelly and hard to clean and probably not good for you vinyl) and took a moment to install it.  As I was removing the old liner, I thought "Hmmm . . . exactly the same number of holes for hooks in the liner as in the shower curtain . . .  wonder if the new one will match up too?)  Now those of you who know how the world works will certainly consider this rather odd as, of course, the liners will have the same number of holes as the shower curtains.  Why wouldn't they?

Ahh . . . now we take a thought detour into the world of hot dogs and hot dog buns.  10 dogs and 8 buns.  They match up not!!  And some folks have suggested that its a corporate conspiracy to make you buy more dogs.  Me?  I consider it an invitation from the universe to make beanie weenies. 

So - in my defense - there are things out there in the world besides hot dogs and buns that don't match up so its not inconceivable that one might wonder about the day to day numbered items.  And I will continue to go "Hmmm".

BTW - Many brands' "jumbo" dogs come 8 to a pack . . .

Peace out, ya'll!

Thanks to Sister for admonishing me last evening . . . my well intentioned habit of blogging every day (or so) has apparently gone by the wayside.  So much for 'conscious living' as it hasn't seemed all that long to me. Where does the time go??

As a result, today was what one might call a 'taking measure' kind of day for me.  I woke up early and realized that a number of other things in my life, in addition to this here blog, have fallen by the wayside.  So I took matters into my own capable hands and rectified several of those malingering things and have set myself a "to do" list of remaining items that will be resolved shortly.  I have to say, its rather freeing.

See, I am not a habitual 'completion animal' like some of my revered friends.  You know the ones . . . they actually follow that recommendation that comes out every few months in an email from some magazine newsletter that they've e-subscribed to because it promised to share the 'secrets of the professionals' and all you have to do to organize your life is straighten up your entire home before tripping off to sleep each night . . . or they sit down and write the check the same day that the bill comes in and and either mail it off to be early or set it in a special place where they will surely remember to mail it on the appropriate day to avoid late fees . . . or they start cleaning out the coat closet and actually put stuff in a bag that they actually take to their car and they actually drop off at the local thrift store on their way to work on Monday rather than taking stopping halfway through the coat closet clean out (with everything strewn about the hallway floor) to take that one item that should really go in the upstairs hall closet up to said hall closet and then realize that said hallway closet needs a good clean out / reorganization and proceed to take every item out of that closet (and yes - leave those item strewn upon what used to be the floor) only to realize that there are items that should really go into storage in the basement and diligently take those newly liberated items down to storage hell and again start the rectification of all disorganization only to find that its time to make supper and now three areas of the homefront are neither organized nor passable by any but the most fleet footed mountain goat.  Whew!  We all know them.  And I, again, am sadly not one of them. 

Since I am of the latter and not the former, I will not set lofty goals.  But I shall take steps to insure that all my payments are received on the date due, that closets in my home are beaten into submission one at a time and that, with Sister as my witness, I will blog . . . every other day, at least.

Peace out, ya'll!!

What I have learned so far . . .

Who would have thought that blogging would teach me (remind me of??) so much so quickly . . . .

Number 1 - Just because you say you're going to do something every day does not mean that doing it will contribute to your life . . . or the lives of others.  Namely - if I have nothing exciting to write about, then perhaps I shouldn't write about anything.  Hence the last two days of incommunicado-ness in the blog universe.

Number 2 - It is my humble opinion that adding things to pancakes makes them tastier.  This was a hard learned lesson when growing up with Sister who is a purist in the food world - aka . . . do not add things to my perfectly good plain things.  That being said - pancakes for breakfast yesterday were more delightful than usual with the addition of a finely diced Gala apple that was sauteed in a bit of butter with cinnamon with some chopped pecans thrown in when the apples were still firm.  Poured the batter in the pan and sprinkled the apple/pecan deliciousness over the top.  Flipped those bad boys over when the bubbles popped and slid them out of the pan when their bottoms were golden brown.  G agreed that very little additional embellishment was needed thought I did indulge in a light drizzle of maple syrup.  A resounding YUM was shared by all.

Number 3 - It is amazing how things show up in one's world when one puts the time and energy into encouraging them to appear.  I truly believe that our thoughts and words have energy to shape our worlds - both collectively and individually.  And I am reminded on a daily basis that the 'power of prayer' often lies in the spoken and unspoken intention that eminates from those who are doing the praying.  And that God /The Universe / The Powers that Be responds to the energy of those intentions to bring about the results that most benefit all involved.  And sometimes we may not see it because we're looking for something else.


Number 4 - The number of things you want to get done in a week is in direct proportion to the number of pairs of clean underwear that you have left - the fewer the drawers left in your drawer . . . the greater the chores that  appear on your agenda.  I'm just saying . . .


Have a great one, Ya'll!!