Tied in Knots

We are living in the electronic age. Everyone knows this. If you didn't, well, you've been living under a cyber-rock. Technology is wonderful...and horrible....all at the same time.

Evidence? That mess of look-alike black cables seething in your desk drawer, or jumbled about in the junk drawer of your kitchen. So many cables....a different one for every device. Ipod...camera....phone (one for everyone in the house, and each one unique), Kindle....GPS.... you name it, it comes with a cable.

Now, try finding the right one when you REALLY need it.

SOLUTION!!! Its sheer genius, really. I reorganized the basket I have in my computer desk where all the mystery cables reside. All it took was some 6-inch scraps of PVC, a sharpie and some zip ties.

Now, if I can just keep the husband out of it, it might just STAY organized!

Testing, Testing...

Anyone out there big scotch aficionados? We are trying to identify this old bottle....

Vegan Challenge - Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole

You might say I am venturing into unfamiliar territory. You could say I am getting out of my comfort zone. It would be reasonable to say I am eating outside the box.

I am going Vegan.

Okay, okay, stop laughing. Allow me to clarify. I am taking on a vegan challenge with a group of friends at work for one week. This is a part of a program that our Wellness Committee at work is promoting over the summer. The challenge is coming up next week, but I am trying to test drive a recipe or two in advance so that I know if I can stomach it or not before I invest in all the expensive vegan ingredients.

Today’s experiment? Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole.

Inherently, this recipe poses a couple of issues for me. One being that I am not a big fan of sweet potatoes. Two being….ditto for bananas.Three? Well, carbs and starches tend to be my DOWNFALL in the weight loss routine, not my salvation, but hey. Its only a week, right? Also, this recipe seems to harken to more autumnal days instead of the 100 degree heat wave we’ve been enduring here, but I digress.

The pluses? I need SUBSTANCE for breakfast. If I can’t have meat, then I need something that’s going to stick to my ribs. Oatmeal seems to be a reasonable solution. After some investigation on the good ol’ internet, I turned up this little gem of a recipe at Oh She Glows and decided to give it a whirl. I have included my notes in the recipe below, but head on over to the site for the original recipe.

If you saw my Facebook post last night, you know that I definitely had my reservations as I was putting this together. Let’s just say that the unbaked mixture is…..visually unappealing. It is a very easy recipe to throw together and the ingredients are mostly basic. I didn’t have chia seeds, and they are not an ingredient that is even remotely available in my area. Heading back to the web, I found that flax seeds are a good substitute and I happen to have a jar of flax seed meal in the pantry, so I subbed that out for the chia seeds. Other than that, no problem at all!

All of that being said, fresh out of the oven, this is a pretty tasty little dish! I doubled the original recipe to make a 9x13 pan so I would have plenty to share at work today, and I am pleased to say it has met with rave reviews! It is definitely something I would be more inclined to eat in the winter, with its cinnamon, nutmeg, oats and sweet potatoes, but it definitely has the “stick-to-your-rib-ability” I was looking for, and it makes a large enough quantity that I can eat breakfast from the pan all week long!

So, for my first dish in the lineup, not bad at all! Next up – Veggie Burgers! Stay tuned!

Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole

Oatmeal Ingredients

·         1/2 cup rolled oats

·         2 cups soy milk

·         1 small sweet potato, peeled, chopped (made 2 cups raw or 1.5 cups cooked)

·         1 ripe large banana

·         1 tbsp chia seeds (if you omit, you may have to reduce the milk. I used flax seed meal instead of chia seeds)

·         1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract

·         1 tsp ground cinnamon + 1/8th tsp nutmeg + 1/4 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

·         2 tbsp pure maple syrup

Crunchy Pecan Topping

·         1/3 cup chopped pecans

·         2 tbsp Earth Balance (or butter)

·         2 tbsp flour (I used spelt flour)

·         1/4 cup brown sugar (I used Sucanat)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in the peeled and chopped sweet potato. Cook over medium heat, for about 5 minutes, until fork tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Give the pot a quick rinse and then add in the oats, milk, and chia seeds. Whisk well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low-medium and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. With a potato masher, mash in the cooked sweet potato and the banana into the pot. I left some chunks for texture. Now stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, nutmeg, vanilla and salt to taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Cook on low for another few minutes.

4. Make the crunchy pecan topping by mixing together the pecans, flour, Earth Balance (or butter), and brown sugar with a fork. until very clumpy. Pour the oatmeal into a baker dish (I used a 4 cup/8 inch casserole dish) and spread out evenly. Now sprinkle on the pecan topping.

5. Transfer the oats to an 8x8 casserole dish and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, at 350F. After 20 minutes, set oven to BROIL and broil on low for a couple minutes, watching very closely so you do not burn the topping. Remove from oven and serve. Makes 3-4 servings.

Nutritional Info (based on 4 servings with soy milk, without topping): 217kcal, 4 grams fat, 7 grams protein, 6 grams fibre.

Working My Fingers to the Bone….

I always thought the saying went “If you love someone, set them free”.

Apparently that is just a loose translation of, “If you love someone, go through hell and back to make them a custom shooting vest in full-on Remington colors, and practically inaccessible mesh fabric normally only available to wholesalers”

At least, that is my husband’s translation.

Allow me to give you a little background information. See, my husband is a die-hard Remington Arms fan. Which, in turn, makes us a Remington Arms family. The hubs is also a stickler for detail. So, when he started shooting trap competitively last year, the wheels in his brain started turning.

He wanted a Remington shooting vest. I could not deny the appeal. So I went shopping. As it turns out, Remington does make a shooting vest. It looks like this:

Very nice, no?

NO.

If you are going to go Remington, you’ve got to go big. At least, that seems to be how my husband’s mind works, because he quickly shot down this option in favor of a Remington Green and Yellow vest. Did you notice the material the vest is made of? Yes, that is mesh. A utility fabric. Normally only available to wholesalers. And he wanted a Remington logo on it. And he wanted coordinating green padded shoulders. And he wanted it for CHRISTMAS…..ahem…last year.

Needless to say, I didn’t make it. But, in all fairness, I told him that wasn’t going to happen when he asked for it. I had way too many other projects already in the works with a Christmas deadline. What I DID do, however, was scour the internet for green or yellow mesh and coordinating twill. It took awhile, but I managed to pull together all the elements needed and then…..stalled.

And stalled.

And STALLED some more.

I didn’t want to do it. I really didn’t. It was going to be a nightmare. They don’t make patterns for shooting vests. I know people who can just look at a garment and recreate it, without a pattern. I am not one of those people. So finally, shortly before Father’s Day (this was the secondary completion date requested by the hubby), I began work in earnest.

If you think velvet is a pain to work with…. corduroy….anything at all….nothing compares to the nightmare that is MESH. Especially THIS mesh. It has very large holes and for any piece of material you want to attach to it, you better have another piece of material BEHIND the mesh for the thread to grab onto.

And so…. After several days, more than a few “pinned” fingertips, and multitudes of curse words, the best Father’s Day present EVER was born.

Silly man thinks he’s going to talk me into making a matching one for a friend of his.

Silly, silly man……

Wine On!

Just a fun little craft project to brighten things up around here!

October Food 'n Flix Roundup!

This month, I was lucky enough to host the October Food 'n Flix Roundup, and boy did I have fun! Ratatouille is one of my all-time favorite movies to watch with my Little Man - and it never fails to make me HUNGRY!!!

We didn't have a large number of submissions, but I believe its all about the quality, not the quantity, and we certainly have quality food right here!

Heather, of Girlichef, and our lovely founder of Food 'n Flix, was inspired to make this Ratatouille Omelet, and I like the way she thinks! What a fun way to have breakfast!

Deb at Kahakai Kitchen made a gorgeous Roasted Ratatouille that just makes my mouth water.

Elizabeth from The Law Student's Cookbook found herself thinking like a rat and made Baked Cheesy Ravioli. Hmmm maybe I should start thinking like a rat. Cheese? Ravioli? You can't beat that at my house, either.

And, I finally have my own submission posted. Parisian Soup, which is my own little memory-inducing comfort food.A cream soup recipe from the 1970's, with lots of butter and LOVE in it.

It was a fabulous stroll down Memory Lane, thinking back to being in the kitchen with my Mom while she put together this heart-warming dish. I hope it was the same for all of you!

SOUP! for Food 'n Flix Roundup

Ahhhh Ratatouille. Such a fine foodie film in an unexpected wrapper. Of course, it’s a fun movie to watch,  but why did I choose Ratatouille for this month’s Food ‘n Flix selection?  My son.

No, Little Man did not say “Mommy, Mommy, you HAVE to pick Ratatouille!!” jumping up and down and threatening to hold his breath if I didn’t see things his way. Why, then?

Ratatouille changed our lives. CHANGED. OUR. LIVES.

See, I know this is going to come as a shock to you, but…. Mommy loves to cook. I know, try and contain your surprise. Well, Ty has always loved to be in the kitchen with me, form an early age. I have pictures of us washing dishes together, even.

But after seeing Ratatouille, Ty “got” it.  He understood the concept of creating a beautiful dish, a new “taste experience” and he began to question combinations, ingredients, and started accumulating his own kitchen tools, apron, and a step stool so he could cook with Mommy, on her level. He wants to get in there, hands on, and BE the chef.

Sometimes literally.

And so, when it was my turn to choose a film for Food ‘n Flix, the choice was easy.  Now I bet your question is. “So what did you cook?”

“SOUUUUUP???”

The look on Chef’s face as he realizes a possible catastrophe is about to leave his kitchen in the form of Linguine’s “soup”. This soup is inspired. According to food critic Leclaire, it is a “revelation”, and it is. In more ways than one. I have no doubt the soup was a phenomenal “taste experience”, as the critic states, but it is an awakening for both Linguine, Remy, and all of Paris as they discover (and re-discover) the world of food.

What was in the soup? Who knows. What started as one thing, became another, as was the case for not only the soup, but Remy and Linguine , as well. We saw stock go in and cream, as well as leeks and some herbs…..thyme maybe? “Rosemary? That’s an herb, right?” One ingredient that obviously went into it was Passion. A passion for food.

So could I re-create Remy’s soup? No, of course not. But here’s a bit of irony. When I was a girl, there was a soup that my mother made. I haven’t had it in many years, but just the thought of it takes me back home, to my mom’s kitchen, transported like Ego was to his childhood home. A few years back, I asked my mom for the recipe, which she gladly gave me…..and yet, I’ve still not made it.

Until now. The ironic part? It is called “Parisian Soup”

Ty and I spent quality time in the kitchen, putting our ingredients together with love, and turned out a heart warming batch of my mom’s Parisian Soup. In honor of Remy, Linguine, and yes… even Ego. 

Parisian Soup

Makes 3 quarts

16-18 ounce bag frozen vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot blend)

2 c. water

½ cup butter

½ cup margarine

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onion

1 cup flour

4 chicken bouillon cubes

6 c. cold milk

1 c diced ham

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp Accent

Salt

Cook vegetables in water until just tender – do not drain. Set aside.

Melt butter and margarine in a skillet.

Add celery and onion and sautee until tender.

Add flour, stirring until well blended.

Crush chicken bouillon cubes and add to this mixture. (I don’t keep bouillon cubes in the house, but I did have some chicken soup base, so I used an equivalent amount of that.)

Add cold milk and stir until thick and smooth.

Add ham and cooked vegetables with their cooking liquid.

Add seasonings.