happy fathers day

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there, but most especially Happy Fathers Day to my very own Pa. I am thankful for my father every day, but I take this day to reflect on a few of the many things I am thankful for.

Pa's Lessons

1. Budget. When I was young (perhaps 8), Pa explained to me that I could not buy all of the books that I wanted because we must budget our money. This (seemingly) two hour conversation has been fondly referred to as 'The Budget' conversation ever since.
2. Never ever ever give up
3. Appreciate the outdoors
4. Anything is possible. My father always made me believe I could do anything I set my mind to, and he never made me feel that that thought was followed by "even though you're a girl."
5. Fresh tomatoes from the garden will never be matched in quality by anything you can buy from the grocery store.

I just watched the most inspiring Fathers Day video. What a devoted Dad, huh?

What are your favorite Dad/Pa/Father/Grandpa moments?

fruit salsa

My friend Carrie just got back from Africa (read about the project she worked on here), and so naturally her and her husband had a party to welcome her back. They provided burgers and potato salad and sangria (yum!), and we all brought a side. I decided to bring fruit salsa and cinnamon sugar tortilla chips, which is kind of the dessert version of chips and salsa. It was a pretty easy dish as long as you don't mind chopping (I used to hate chopping until I got a santoku knife - thanks Mom!!).

Fruit Salsa:
two golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and diced
8 oz raspberries, diced (is it really possible to dice raspberries? no, it is not - do the best you can)
1lb strawberries, diced
2 kiwis, diced

Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips:
10 flour tortillas
cinnamon
sugar
butter flavored cooking spray

Mix all the fruit together. Chop and add the apples last so that you can immediately add them to the other fruit. The juices from the other fruit will keep the apples from turning brown. Chill the fruit in the fridge for 15 minutes or longer, and then enjoy with tortilla chips (keep reading for recipe).

There are probably lots of ways to make these tortilla chips, but here is the method I found easiest: Lay a couple of tortillas on a cookie pan. Spray with the cooking spray. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar all over the tortillas. Spray again with the butter spray. Use a pizza cutter to slice the tortillas into triangles. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. Repeat for all tortillas. I used the smaller tortillas (not sure of the size, but the ones for tacos, not 10" burrito tortillas), and could fit three per cookie sheet.

We broke out this dish as a dessert (along with some peanut butter chocolate bars from Kat - yum!), and it was really yummy. I'll definitely make this dish again, especially because its pretty awesome to be able to say you made your own tortilla chips. But if you'd like to save some time (or its just too darned hot to turn the oven on!), you can pick up a bag of cinnamon sugar tortilla chips at the store. I know Trader Joes has some, but I'm not sure if all grocery stores carry these.

If you have leftover fruit, there are lots of other things you can do with it. Tom and I had it over yogurt this morning for breakfast.

What are your favorite summer cookout dishes?

**Pictures to come

hold the lettuce

I absolutely love bacon. I could give up chocolate for the rest of my life, but if someone told me I could never eat bacon again I just might die. I actually contemplated becoming a vegetarian in my early 20's (oh wait, that just made me feel old.....), but bacon was really the thing that kept me from going for the gold. I don't usually keep it in the house because that means I'll eat it (I usually at least try to be healthy). Tom, however, does not try to keep bacon out of the house, so I am given no choice but to eat it.

When considering what to eat for dinner tonight, I spied my fresh-from-the garden tomato and thought of the bacon in the fridge and knew that I needed a BLT (hold the L). I toasted some white bread and added some mayo (on both sides!), three slices of maple bacon and a fat (1/2" thick) slice of tomato.

I'm not even going to pretend that I "forgot" to take a picture of this dish. Tom's camera was sitting right next to my BT, and I decided that y'all could probably envision the dish just fine without a pesky snapshot. My only regret? That I didn't cook more bacon.

holy macaroni!

Mac and cheese must be the best comfort food ever, and since I've been craving it all week, I decided to give it a go tonight. Its a simple recipe, but a bit different than the standard.

8 oz macaroni, cooked
8 oz light sour cream
8 oz mild cheddar cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
12 oz light cottage cheese
1/4 cup skim milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Mix together, put in a 9x13 inch pan, and cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

**Feel free to use higher fat versions of all of the ingredients, but I found the recipe rich enough for my tastes by using these lighter varieties.

I chose not to add a topping, but this recipe would probably be even better if you put some sliced cheddar cheese on top and baked it (just how my mom makes it!!). You could also mix bread crumbs and melted butter together and put it on top.

My family always used to put a jar of stewed tomatoes (from the garden!) on our mac and cheese, and that is how I like my mac the best. Since I didn't have any stewed tomatoes, I put a little of my leftover gazpacho on top instead and it was pretty yummy!

Yay for eating homemade mac and cheese while watching 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs.'

Side note: you could also add bacon bits to this dish...... this was Tom's special request, and though I aim to please, you've gotta draw the line somewhere don't you?

Today I'm going to point you to another food blog. Back when i was in grad school at Emory, I was in Grad Senate with a gal named Julia, who has the funny/entertaining/useful blog Cooking for Gringas. Aaaaannnnndddd, her current blog post is completely fitting, because I happen to love mojitos, and I totally know where she's coming from when she says that you can't find a decent one anywhere. And since I happen to have mint in my fridge right now, I just may be using this recipe in the not-so-distant, courteous of Miss Julia...... http://cookingforgringas.blogspot.com/2010/06/bailamos-mucho-yall.html

lunchtime musings

it's my lunch break, and in addition to eating some leftover gazpacho, i'm also giving lots of thought to Pope John Paul XXIII's Daily Decalogue:

1. Only for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.

2. Only for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behaviour; I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to discipline anyone except myself.

3. Only for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.

4. Only for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.

5. Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

6. Only for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.

7. Only for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.

8. Only for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.

9. Only for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good Providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.

10. Only for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for 12 hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.

cold gazpacho on a hotlanta day

Phew, yesterday was HOT! It just came out of nowhere, and looking in my fridge I knew there was only one thing that I wanted to cook, and it certainly didn't involve adding more heat to the house. Thats right: I put together some veggies and made gazpacho.

Gazpacho is a wonderful Spanish treat, because it is easy, healthy, and very refreshing. I used this recipe, and the only revisions that I made were to use fresh tarragon and basil rather than dried. And I used low-sodium tomato juice (biiiiiiig mistake). Also, I used my immersion blender rather than putting everything into a blender. In fact, I would say that my immersion blender is right up there as one of my all-time favorite kitchen must haves (thanks Mom!), just after my pink garlic press (thanks Lisa!).

I must say that my gazpacho did not turn out exactly as I wanted to, and I think it stems from the fact that I used low-sodium tomato juice. I don't know why I did that. The dish really needed the full-salt variety, and after I made the soup and allowed it to chill for two hours it was evident that the dish was missing something. Adding more salt helped, but I think that full-salt tomato juice and maybe also more lemon juice would do wonders for this dish. The fresh basil was a delight, and I will add more next time I make this dish (I only used about two or three large fresh basil leaves).

The world played a lovely trick on me, and just before feasting on gazpacho the heavens opened and we were blessed with one of those huge thunderstorms that produces hail and cools the hot summer air. We switched out electric lights for the many candles Tom keeps around the house (gotta love the guy!), and drank cool white wine and ate cold gazpacho and Italian bread just as the air outside turned cool. Oh well, its the thought that counts right?

That Italian bread was no accident by the way. I have a delicious (I hope) recipe coming up later this week that calls for stale Italian bread, so we ate half of the fresh stuff last night and will use the other half once it gets a little old. I'm trying to embrace the whole "menu planning" thing rather than going to the grocery store every night, so if its ok with you I'm going to give myself one shiny gold star for this little pre-plan of mine.

Anyone have any tips for how my gazpacho could be improved next time? I'd like to have a good recipe in my box, because these hotlanta summers leave me with a need for cool refreshment.

And for the fun post of the day, check out this post: http://kfddesigns.blogspot.com/2010/06/hand-painted-knobs-for-sale.html This gal is truly inspirational, and I LOVE the hand-painted knobs, love that she is from Atlanta, love the idea of supporting an independent artist. When I get into redecorating mode, I'll definitely look her up. I'm kind of partial to the orange knobs, what about you?

Spanish Rice minus the box

We've all been there. You just got home from work, you're tired, the dog wants to go out, and all you want to do is veg out and eat potato chips. The thought of cooking anything is daunting, but you suppose you can whip up a box of Spanish Rice. But oh hold on.... Perhaps making Spanish Rice from scratch is almost as easy and tastes waaayyyy better than anything you can get in the supermarket.

Its true. I just made Spanish Rice and it was quick, easy, and if I may say so myself very tasty. I'll keep the instructions super short too so you can just get up and make some fancy rice right now.

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T olive oil

1 cup rice

2 cups water (if I do this again - and I will! - I'll use chicken broth instead)

1 15oz can diced tomatoes with chopped jalapenos

1/2 t cumin

2 t chili powder

salt

Put the onion, bell pepper and garlic in a pot with the olive oil on medium-high heat until onion becomes translucent. Add rice and cook until rice begins to brown. Add water (or chicken broth!), tomatoes and spices. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is cooked. If you're feeling super motivated, chop up some parsley and mix in to the rice.

Food pics below.

Notice how the garlic appears to be so important? Not accidental. Yummmm

The rice before it begins to brown oh-so-nicely

The ingredients just before they are covered

The finished product. Not afraid to admit I ate three bowls

Now you may not believe it, but this fine dish was my entire dinner. If I was cooking for both Tom and I, I feel pretty confident he would have insisted on a meat dish and a piece of bread to accompany this creation, but when its just me I prefer to rely exclusively on side dishes. If you are trying to lose weight, decrease your  grocery costs or save time, this strategy may also work for you. And if it wouldn't, I'm betting you could throw some chicken in this dish and make most of your family happy.

Are you partial to the meat/potato/side tradition of the good old U S of A, or do your 'side dishes' take center stage? Or, are you as fabulous as my Grandma was and eat your dessert first so that you'll never have to say "I'm too full for dessert?" 

If you have any cost- or time-saving cooking tips, please let the rest of us know!