What’s for Dinner

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I never had to learn to whip out 3 meals a day, on a schedule. Instead, Carl and I have been able to figure out a more flexible eating pattern, based on everything from my first reading of Adelle Davis’ Let’s Eat Right to stay fit, to the Mexican meal schedule of 6 meals a day.

If I don’t think about food until I’m hungry, then it’s panic mode and often required a plea to Carl to cook me something immediately. But I try to plan ahead, think of an old favorite or a new recipe I want to fix.

The latest planning and prep ‘device’ is that Carl has agreed to be a veggie chopper. For example, this afternoon he shredded/Julianne 5 quarts of salad veggies, (carrots; celery; red, yellow and green bell pepper; zucchini; , small white cabbage; and daikon radish. These were put into plastic containers and refrigerated. For a salad meal, half a container (2 cups) are either spread over salad greens or eaten straight with our favorite dressing. Mine is Flax seed oil (with garlic and chili) and Umi vinegar.

After the salad veggies, Carl chopped broccoli and sliced mushrooms for a new recipe I wanted to try from SparkPeople.com. Although there was less broccoli than the recipe called for, it was great over rice, with a bit of Tamari.

Garlic-Spiked Broccoli and Mushrooms with Rosemary

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 cups sliced button or cremini mushrooms
  • 4 cups chopped broccoli
  • 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp. dried).
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Directions

  • In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.
  • Add garlic and saute 1 minute.
  • Add mushrooms and saute 3 minutes, until mushrooms release juice.
  • Add broccoli and rosemary and cook 3 to 5 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender.
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings.  (cals: 56.1   fat: 2.7 g   protein: 3.9 g   carbs: 6.6 g   fiber: 3.2 g)

Printed on Sparkpeople.com with permission from the American Institute for Cancer Research

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The Red Greenhouse….. Tomatoes Galore

One of the more interesting recent activities had been canning up the unexpected bounty of the new tomato house, or the Red Greenhouse. Finished in mid July, in the midst of of cold gray summer, we didn’t expect to see many red tomatoes. But alas, due to what was obviously prime tomato growing conditions in the red-greenhouse, great quantities of big green tomatoes were hanging on the overgrown plants by mid August. Hoping to get some ripe before the big freeze, we picked off all the flowers and turned off the water.

Over the next two months, we picked the tomatoes as they began to ripen, hoping this would force the plant to keep trying to produce more ripe tomatoes. And we continued picking every few days as the green tomatoes began, w showing a respectable amount of color. The front window sill and bookcase were covered with tomatoes, ripening into a range of colors from red and orange to gold, stripped green zebras and a maroon colored Purple Cherokee. And lots of Roma tomatoes and little Sun Golds.

And the results? We harvested nearly a zillion tomatoes, most of which were roasted for several hours in the wood cook-stove oven, slow cooked for a day or 3 on the back of the wood burner, and then canned.

Now to find lots of ways to eat all these tomato sauces and pasts before next season.

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Life after the Peoples Guide to Mexico revision

During the last year or two, I have often thought of reviving my blog. But every time, I would remember that yet another deadline for finishing the Peoples Guide to Mexico was passing, and resolve not to allow myself to get distracted by fun things like the blog.

Now, the PG revision is gone. A week after Carl finished his updates, I finally got all the pieces pulled together and off to Avalon. The patience of our editor there, Grace Fujimoto has become legendary.

So, inspired by Carl’s Sasquatch Observatory, I am plunging back in. Also inspired by Carl going on this blog and setting up the new purple background…..

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Another Year Older

It’s been over a year since I’ve put up anything. Why? Well… Life keeps happening….

However, I recently set my screen saver to random pictures from iPhoto and it has been so much fun seeing snippets of our life that I’m going to try to start adding to the blog again,

Spring is Oh So Early this year. In fact, winter lasted the month of November, which included snow and then a wind storm that blew down 8 major trees on the homestead and a bunch of small ones. The big ones are slowly working their way into the new woodshed.

The woodshed has been dreamed of for 20 years and imagined in numerous places. Finally, friends Greg and Marshall helped us put it up last fall. It has three bins, and the first bin is stuffed with 5 cords of green wood drying for next winter. The second bin is slowly filling with wood from the blowdowns. Continue reading

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Aunt Unie’s 100th birthday party


In mid December I flew down to California and helped my father’s oldest sister Aunt Unie, celebrate her 100th birthday.

It was also a chance to visit with Aunt Juanita, my cuñada Martha, and many cousins, including Aunt Unie’s son Jack.

Click here for a whole lot more pictures

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