Happy Valentine's Day, Ya'll!

What could be better than Bacon Hearts for Valentine's Day?  I know its a little late but these would be a cute way to wake your bacon lovers any weekend morning.  : )  Check them out at   http://thepapermama.com/2012/02/bacon-hearts.html and ENJOY!! 

Peace out!!

What is Celeriac??

What is Celeriac??

 Pretty, isn't it?  No, not really.  But it is delicious.  

Celeriac is also known as Celery Root and it tastes of raw celery

with that tang you often get at the back of the throat

from eating a stalk of raw celery.

This beauty is worth looking for.  When you find it, 

be sure that it is heavy for it's size and firm.

You don't want one that looks dried out.

This evening I made it into a celery root / potato mash

with a bit of butter, milk and salt. 

This is the inside.  It is often a bit "pithy" in the center but still delish.  

Looks almost like a brain with a stem doesn't it? 

Maybe it makes you smarter . . . 

Peeled and ready to dice . . . 

Diced with an equal-ish amount of potatoes.

Follow your favorite mashed potato recipe and

enjoy the slightly tangy, earthy flavor of this delightful vegetable.

I guarantee that none but your foodie-est friends will be

able to tell what you've included to make this mash so amazing!

I apologize here as I missed a photo of the final dish -

it was inhaled for dinner with pulled pork and broccoli.  

Mashed celery root and potatoes looks amazingly like

mashed potatoes without celery root. 

If anyone desires a photo of mashed potatoes for comparison,

just leave a comment and I will get one posted for you right away.

LOL

Peace out, ya'll!!

Philosophy Day . . .

Here's the story - I paint floor cloths.  They are available through our shop on eBay - Umeboshi Dress.

That's Remy over there with my "first" > > >

Many of the designs are ones that I have recreated and I can make adjustments as requested.  And it's fun.  And I can, and have, gotten it done quickly.  Then a customer requested a floor cloth runner with a complicated geometric design that someone else had created.  It took me a good bit to figure out the spacing and things to recreate the original design.  But I did it.  And I made the runner.  And it was good.

And then  . . . a customer requested that runner in a different size.

The fallout of this special request was me sitting at my design (aka "dining") table with a pencil and graph paper and a ruler and a big old eraser doing that tap-the-pencil-on-the-desk-and-stare-off-into-space thing that the folks in the movies do right before inspiration hits.  At some point, this scene morphed into me sitting quietly in a corner . . . rocking back and forth . . . and mumbling something akin to "Fer the love of all that is holy in the universe . . . what do they want from me . . . how am I supposed to figure this out?!?!?"

And then I pulled my self together and I redesigned the runner.  And it was bad.  And I redesigned the runner again.  And it was worse.  And I had to walk away.  I went up to bed, read and fell asleep.  It occurred to me in my morning post-dream-pre-wake zone that perhaps the runner was not turning out the way I thought it should because the way that I thought it should was perhaps not the way the runner needed to be.  Hello . . . light bulb!


So when I was fully awake and standing in the shower I recalled this early morning inspiration and realized . . . da da da daaaaah . . . there are many things in life that are not the way that we think they should be.  (Pssst . . . . here's where the philosophy part comes in . . . )  And many times we can change something of who we are in relation to a situation and the situation - or our perception of it - will change.  Perhaps it is taking a moment to see things from the other side or remembering that there is an "other" side and moving forward with that knowledge.

Anyhew . . . I re-redesigned the runner and it works.  It's supposed to be gloomy weather tomorrow but I will be in my cozy, well lit basement making floor cloth magic.  I wish the same for you . . . in whatever "magic" makes you happy.  And let's all try to look on the bright ("other") side of life . . .

Peace out, ya'll!!

Recipe Day! : )

I woke up this morning and decided to share my dinner from last night with you all.  Well - you know, not the actual dinner from last night but a recreated version because is was so tasty.  And the good new is - I remembered to grab the camera and take pictures of the process.

You will need zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, leftover pork (I used pork butt but you can use tenderloin, rib meat or pork chops that you've sliced thin), some of the pork juice or chicken broth/wine/water and your cheese of choice.

Zucchini and mushrooms halved and thinly sliced.  Garlic is waiting to be chopped.

Garlic has been roughly chopped.  See below for details on the garlic and why it looks mysteriously unlike fresh chopped garlic.

Oil in the pan (because it looks so pretty) with a sprinkle of sea salt.

 Mushrooms and garlic added to the hot pot and oil.

Mushrooms are ready for the addition of the zucchini.

The zucchini has been added and tossed.

 See that piece of zucchini to the left below the mushroom and garlic - that's browned and carmelized.

 The pork and juice (which is gelatinized) have been added.

 

This is the warmed deliciousness all ready for the cheese.

By the time I turned around with the camera, the thinly sliced cheese had started to melt.

Served in a tortilla . . . last night was over buttered noodles but mashed potatoes, baked potato, rice or pilaf would all be delish!

Pork and Veggies with Cheese
(not a very inventive name but yummy none the less)
Serves one - can be multiplied into infinity and is only limited by your quantity of ingredients

Ingredients:
Half of a small zucchini - halved longways and sliced thin
3 or 4 mushrooms - sliced thin
2 to 4 cloves of garlic - minced
1/2 c leftover pork - I used pork butt that I cooked in the crock pot this weekend, you can use any leftover
1/4 c cheese of your choice - I had American
1 T pork juice if available (you can use chicken broth, white wine or water)
Teaspoon of butter or olive oil

Saute the mushrooms and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until the garlic is tender - about 3 minutes.  Add the zucchini and continue to saute until the zucchini begins to brown.  Add the pork and liquid (pork juice, broth, etc) and toss for a minute or so until heated through.  Top with cheese and cover until melted.

Serve in tortilla or with your starch of choice.  Also delish on a plate or topping a salad if you're going low carb.

Garlic Details:
I buy my peeled garlic in bulk at one of the 'big box stores' and then freeze the whole container.  If you look closely, you can see small ice crystals on the garlic.  Anyhew - I swear to you that the garlic cooks up white and looks just like fresh peeled.  I love this!!  As Martha would say - It's a good thing.  But if you ever meet her, please don't tell her that I freeze my garlic.  She'd never understand!


Peace out, ya'll!

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!