Eat...Read...Sleep

Ashley and Hannah (friends here in Florida) and myself are on a personal improvement mission for 2011. Bucket lists have been established for the year (being all zen and everything we will take care of next year, when next year comes). We are also all "Eat Pray Love", "The Love Dare", "Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway", "The Happiness Project", and just for kicks "Think and Grow Rich." What can I say...we are multi-taskers. We are mothers, so that is how we roll. Ashley, being a shrink turned Batista, likes to make us see the picture in three dimensions while keeping us jacked up on caffeine. I like to keep everyone's belly full, and Hannah is there to show us how to keep it real (she is excellent at calling BS when she sees it).

Today was an Eat, Read, Sleep and repeat sort of day, with a little happiness project thrown in. Scott had Fiona, so I have an empty and quiet house.

EAT (while trying to keep pace with Bruno Mars' mood swings - First he loves her just the way she is, then he wants her to tell the devil he says hey when she gets back from where she is from, and finally as he wants to be a billionaire so freaking bad (his girl is rich) and has completely forgotten to take his meds "Girl, I wanna marry you."

Makes me feel rather sane.

I digress.

Mushroom/ Potato Soup:

1 onion diced

2 carrots peeled and diced

1 clove of garlic

sea salt

stick of butter

4 cups of chicken stock

few lbs of potatoes

2 large portabellas chopped

rosemary- lots of it.

3/4 cup white wine (more if you want to get sloshed while making this).

1/2 cup heavy cream

shredded cheese... and sour cream for topping.

Cut the potatoes up and boil or steam until al dente.

Soften the carrots, onions, garlic in a skillet with some butter and rosemary.

Add some salt.

Add more butter to the skillet

Add the portabellas.

As shrooms start to soften add the wine... and let simmer until reduced some.

Put mushroom/ carrot/ onion mixture in large pot with chicken stock.

Add some salt.

Let this cook for a while took so it infuses the stock with flavor.

Add cream.

Let simmer for a bit.

Eat it.. with cheese and sour cream.

If you want the base to be thicker add flour to the mushroom/ carrot/ onion mixture before putting in the wine. Or, blend some of the cooked potatoes with stock and add it in.

READ - Harry Potter for the 6th time, and Jeffrey Archer's "Kane and Abel".

SLEEP -Initially I had intended to work on number 9 on my bucket list which is to be completely still and silent for two hours without going to sleep but that didn't work. However, sleeping falls into my home work category for The Happiness Project, so it's all good.

REPEAT - I had a great dream about apple cake. I got up and made one. I had to because I'm a "make your dreams come true" kind of girl. I will post the recipe later.

Cheers and Happy Eats!

Lucinda

Pizza on the Fly

I once thought that I would never be able to make pizza, because it was my understanding that the pizza dough took a day to ferment, rise, and do its thing. In my world things can change day by day and moment by moment, and my plans always seem to go awry. Thus, planning one day what I am going to have for dinner the next, just isn't something I do. Don't get me wrong, I have a general idea of what I am going to cook for the week, but what day I eat what is decided by the many variables in my, sometimes, hectic life.

With that said, I am now in pizza making heaven, done on the fly, without any planning required with my recipe below. I like my crust crispy and haven't tried to make this any other way, so if you want thick and gooey...sorry, but you are going to have to plan ahead.

Crust:

2/3 cup warm water

(not too hot or you will kill the yeast. It should be warm to the touch, unless you have poor circulation and your hands are always cold, in which case, you should use a thermometer and have your water between 110 -115 degrees.)

1 package of yeast

a spoonful of sugar (this is not required, but helps feed the yeast)

mix the above together and let it sit for a few minutes or more (you will see it start to foam slightly)

pour this in a mixing bowl and add flour. I am not sure how much, but if you pressured me to guess.. I would say around 2-3 cups. (should be doughy but not sticky).

If you want to get fancy you can add herbs or seasonings to your crust while it is still sticky.

Roll it out to a very thin and put on a pizza stone.

Bake for about 5 minutes. (sometimes I get lost in thought and forget to do this step, still tastes wonderful but just isn't as crispy)

Add sauce and toppings.

Bake until done.

Yum Yum.

Cheers and Happy Pizza Eats!

Lucinda

A Love Story, of Sorts.

When I met Scott I was living in Arlington, VA, which is just over the river from DC, and a stones throw from the Pentagon. I am not trying to be vain here, but my apartment was absolutely beautiful. I lived on the 22nd floor, had a billards room, library, and computer room in the lobby. There was a doorman, and an elevator that went to the Crystal City underground which is a shopping plaza complete with a pharmacy, coffee shop, bookstore, dry cleaner, grocery store, and access to the Metro without ever going outside.

Scott worked a short distance from my apartment, but his place was way out in the suburbs. This meant that he was constantly staying over after we had spent our evenings out, so that he wouldn't have far to travel for work in the morning. Eventually, I told him he ate too much and would have to start paying part of the grocery bill. He duly did. A few months later, I explained that he basically lived there so he was going to have to start paying part of the rent. This, he decided, was not a good idea. Instead, he convinced me that we should move to his place in the suburbs on the Maryland side of DC, where the rent was a 1/3 of what mine was. I agreed, and looking back , it wasn't the smartest decision I have ever made, considering I agreed to it before I had even seen it. However, I was in love, and love has the ability to put the logical part of your brain into a drug induced coma, without you even knowing it.

When I first went into his house, I had to do a double take. He had moved into this house shortly before he met me, and had never quite unpacked. Furthermore, when his ex-wife moved to New York she had left quite a bit of her things behind, and he didn't know what she wanted so he kept everything. Meaning, there was a path between boxes to his bed. And the clothes, oh how Scotty loves his clothes. He had an entire room devoted to clothes and shoes, with absolutely no regard to organization. It looked like the men's section of some department store had puked all over everything.

The first night we were there, I sat down on a pile of clothes in a chair, and cried for him to take me back to Arlington. The poor thing, he took it in stride, but I am sure I knocked the air out of his soul.

The next day I did three things.
1. I got my attitude in check. I remembered when I was a little girl that my mother would dry our clothes on the heater vent in the winter because we didn't have a dryer, and how in the summer my brother and I would put our sheets in the freezer so that we could fall asleep without air conditioning. Scott's house had both a dryer and air conditioining, so by comparison I was doing alright. Time to leave my snobbish personality back in Arlington where it belonged. Plus, I was in love, and it shouldn't matter where we live as long as we had each other, right?

2. Hired a cleaning lady.

3. I signed a lease on the most beautiful, wonderful, lavish office building in the city right on Pennsylvania avenue complete with a doorman. I could still have my cake and eat it too. After all, I could always spend even more hours at work.

In the grand scheme of things it was a very short period of my life that I spent in Maryland, and it wasn't long until I had moved on to better places. However, something happened when I lived there that would change my life forever. I met a kindered spirit...Scott's roomate named Maurice.

Maurice is one of the sweetest souls a person could come across in this lifetime. His heart knows no malice, his smile is ever present and genuine, and my crossing paths with him became a pivotal moment in my life.

He was in the finals throws of graduate school to become an architect. He didn't date, and to this day I am not sure if he does. Not because he isn't good looking, or the sweetest thing since honey, or that he wouldn't be a catch of a lifetime for some sweet girl, but because he is incredibly shy, and when I say shy I mean VERY shy.

So how did this shy sweet soul spend his evenings? Cooking, oh how he could cook. I remember him staying up all night baking a chicken and then turning it into the most wonder curried chicken salad my tastebuds had ever encountered. I was in food lust.

He introduced me to the world of food love, and how food can be a canvas for one to paint a part of themselves. While Scott worked late into the evening, Maurice and I would stay up cooking and playing scrabble. He would introduce to me to far off flavors, and I introduced him to good ol Midwestern fried goodness.

At that point in my life, I assumed that all edible substances were food, until he showed me otherwise. At one point I used coffee mate flavored creamer in my coffee. I offered Maurice some and his gentle response was "I don't eat hydrogenated fats." "Hmm, what the freak is hydrogenated fat?" I asked. And so it began...my devotion to real food. I shudder to think that if I hadn't have crossed paths with Maurice, I might still be eating margarine, or consider velveeta cheese an actual cheese. Oh my, what a scary thought!

So there you have it... my Maurice...instigator of my life long love affair with food.

Cheers and Happy Food Love Eats!
Lucinda

Eat My Rainbow (cake)

For Fiona's 4th Birthday, in December, we had a Mad Hatter tea party, and I felt a rainbow cake was just what the birthday girl needed. I am not of fan of fake dyes. They are made of funk, it has been argued that they are carcinogenic, and above all else, have been proven to make children act a little crazy (The crazy train is leaving the station, and for my own sanity, I would prefer my child not be on it). So, I decided to make a rainbow cake without artificial dyes, and here is how it all went down:

Attempt 1: Used whole wheat flour for the cake which made the colors dull. Didn't account for how much liquid the dyes would add, and ended up with something that tasted like bread pudding and the colors looked like a rainbow of different puke colors.

Attempt 2: Used cake flour and butter, reduced liquid but not enough. Ended up with a very dense cake and weird coloring most likely because of the fantastic yellow butter.

Attempt 3: A few hours before party was set to begin, I used an organic cake mix. Want to make something of it? No, I didn't think so. I used coconut oil as the fat, and added almond extract to hide the taste of my homemade dyes. I left out all other liquid.

Separate the batter into as many different bowls as you colors want to use.

Make your dyes by running different fruits and veggies through the juicer:

Orange: Carrot. Red: Beet. Green: Spinach. Purple: blueberries. Yellow: saffron (this you soak overnight in water).

Add the juice to the batter.

Stir. Keep an eye on the consistency to see if you should add a bit of flour to thicken or more juice to smooth.

Do this for all your different colors.

Yellow

Purple

Red

Orange

Now that you have all your colors you are ready to build your cake.

Put a base color in.

Add your second color.

And the third color.

And the fourth color.

And the final color.

Bake and enjoy.

Yep, it is that easy. Well, two failed attempts notwithstanding.

Cheers and Happy Eats!

Lucinda

Contraband

One of the things I crave the most, now that I live in Florida, is farm fresh eggs from my friend Janel's chickens. If you have ever had them, you know why. The yolks are orange, which is due to the superior nutrition free range chickens that eat bugs and grubs have over commercially produced eggs (even organic, free range.. blah blah blah ones don't compare). These eggs are unmatched in quality and flavor! These eggs are so wonderful that I would almost be willing to trade my right arm for them, and most definitely my left. These eggs are so wonderful that... ok, you get the point.

With that said, when I got ready to head to the airport after staying at Janel's Monday night, she asked if I wanted to take anything with me. My response was "Eggs of course." I called the airlines, and got a big fat NO (due to the fact that they are classified as liquid), but trusting in the good karma that often allows me good fortune, I decided to risk it. I took them to the airport, and asked a security officer that was scanning my checked bag if I was going to be able to get them through security and once again I got a no. However, I am not easily disheartened when I have my hopes set on something, and I wasn't going to give them up until they were taken from me. Want my eggs? Come and get them. I am egg woman, hear me roar!

At any rate, I anxiously went through security in Kansas City, expecting at any moment, for them to confiscate my contraband. However, an amazing thing happened, which is that they didn't even question them. Oh, happy day.

Then I got on the plane and thought about the cabin pressure, and was wondering if the change in pressure would break them. However, all that worry for nothing.. they made it safely to DC.

I had a three hour layover in DC, and decided to venture outside security for coffee, and lunch. Immediately after I did this, I realized how stupid it was, because DC is no joke about security, and my eggs were surely doomed.

Reluctantly, I finally headed back through security. I even agreed to go through the porno scanners in the hopes that if I didn't make a scene they wouldn't notice my eggs. Well, I set off the scanner, had words with the security officer, but they still didn't take my eggs!

I got on the second leg of my journey, and strapped my precious cargo in the empty seat next to me, and took a snooze knowing that barring an unforeseen plane crash... in which eggs would be the least of my worries, I was home free with my free range deliciousness! Or, at least I thought.

Thirty minutes outside Orlando I was awoken by two flight attendants cackling loudly with another passenger. As I opened my eyes, one of them said, "You're awake, we can now ask the million dollar question." They were all wondering if it was, in fact, eggs that I had strapped into the seat next me. I gave them an appraising look and asked if I would be in trouble if they were. They responded with "Well, we can't believe you got them through security, but we aren't going to take them from you now, we were just laughing about the fact that you strapped them in." Ahh, well in that case I opened them up and let them look at my little brown, white, and greenish blue beauties (Araucana chickens lay greenish blue eggs).

Now time for a souffle!

Cheers and Happy Eats!

Lucinda