June 28, 2010

No Excuses, Just The Facts

I'm not going to make excuses for why I haven't been here. I'm a rut, and it is what it is. I've gotten a few e-mails asking where I've been so I thought I'd pop in and give you a little update...

It's summer and we've had guests, play dates, outings, a big 7th birthday to celebrate and we've been having a lot of fun! That being said I'm tired. I've been fighting depression for a while now and it's an exhausting process all around for those of you who have experienced the situation first hand.

My nurse practitioner has been fabulous about going through this with me. She gave me one medication that at first appeared to be working, but soon not so much. We recently decided to try another medication and this one appears to be working better, but it is still in the early stages. But one thing that has changed is that my muse is back! For a while there she had left me.

So what does that mean?

It means that late last week I went back to a story that I had written the first chapter to about a month ago. I started writing and it has just been pouring out of me. And you know what? I never think anything I write is good, but this story, this story really is! I've been writing every day and the story is just falling out on to the paper and I actually let two people read what I've written. They liked it too, so I feel like I'm on the right track!

That being said I've been busy with life and I'm really enjoying writing again. I'm also being inspired by all of the local fresh fruits and vegetables that are beginning to be available, so food will be back soon. My "garden" is doing well too, if I can keep the damned ground hogs out of my plants!

So bear with me, while I work things out. I'm here, I'm just lurking in the shadows for the moment.

I hope you all are having a fabulous summer! I am...Except for the heat of course! ;oP

Posted by Dianne at 8:57 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

June 24, 2010

Pop Over To Daffodil Lane and Say Happy Birthday To Alexis!

If you get a chance take the link and pop over to Daffodil Lane and say Happy Birthday to Alexis. The comments amuse her!

Posted by Dianne at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2010

Grilled Peaches And Pound Cake With Peach Ice Cream

When my parents came to visit this past week they brought me their old grill. We used to use it when we camped out at the lake in the summers and it was just sitting in Mom's garage collecting dust. I had hoped to bring it back with me when I was in Tennessee a few weeks ago, but both trips there just wasn't room in the car. We killed two birds with one stone; Mom got the grill out of her garage and I finally have a grill again! My mom's only request? "If you decide later you don't want it you have to find somewhere else for the grill to live!" Deal!

I have to admit that charcoal freaks me out a bit, especially the kind that is drenched in chemicals to ignite. You know me, I'm not much of a chemical person and avoid them at all costs. I was thrilled when we found a natural charcoal that was made from hardwood charcoal and put together with a vegetable binder!

I was further thrilled when I realized by purchasing a charcoal chimney you didn't need lighter fluid!

There's a bit of a learning curve with this apparently and this go around wasn't perfect, but I got it smoking!

And then we really got it going!

Next time I'll put more charcoal in the chimney and put the paper underneath it instead of the in the chimney itself! You live, you learn! But no lighter fluid! Woot!

Overall this really is a simple, yet delicious summer time treat that gives you a bit of wow factor, yet doesn't take a ton of time or a lot of effort. I love fresh, simple desserts like that!

What You'll Need:
Peach ice cream
Peaches, cut in half and pitted
Pound cake, sliced (Note: You can buy one at the store like I did this go around, or you can make one. This is my favorite.)

Obviously you'll want to make your ice cream ahead of time and have it ready to go.

Next up grill your peaches:

I actually grilled the peaches with our dinner and then let them cool off before we ate them. They were fabulous! It's simple to do, just cut the peach in half, remove the pit and place it face down on the grill. Grill for about 5 minutes or until tender.

How easy is that?

Next grill the pound cake!

Slice your pound cake and place the slices on the grill:

This process basically just toasts the pound cake and deepens its flavor! Toast each side about 1-2 minutes until golden:

Now you're ready to put your dessert together. A slice of pound cake, a grilled peach and a scoop of peach ice cream and voila...Dessert is served!

See easy peasy!

Notes: You can grill many fruits. Apples, bananas, pineapple, plums, nectarines, etc.

Posted by Dianne at 11:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 18, 2010

I Love This Time Of Year!

I love this time of year, or well more truthfully I love the produce that is available! The hot weather, snakes and bugs I could do without, but the blueberries, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables are pure heaven!

Yesterday Alexis, Grams, Pop and I set off to go on a little adventure. We went to lunch and then I wanted to go over to the orchard and see if they had any peas since mine didn't really do much this year. They had peas, but more importantly they had tomatoes and peaches! I was thrilled!

After we went to the orchard we cut across country to pick up some charcoal on the way home. My mom brought me our old charcoal grill that we used to use when we were camping at the lake and I wanted to break it in so to speak! Along the way we came across another orchard and they still had some strawberries! They also had blueberries so I was really thrilled given they are my favorite fruit and all!

We ended up with Swiss chard, peppermint, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, orange cherry tomatoes, cherries, raspberries (for Alexis), cabbage, peas and broccoli! Not bad at all!

This morning we had fruit for breakfast:

I had berries with granola and cocoa nibs. I had planned to have some Greek yogurt too, but my yogurt had gone the way of the Dodo bird!

For lunch we sliced the tomatoes and enjoyed them on sandwiches. Have I mentioned I love this time of year?

Now if I can just find some garlic scapes!

So what's available where you live?

Posted by Dianne at 4:33 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

June 15, 2010

Party Punch

As I've mentioned before Banana Punch was a big thing when I was growing up for parties, showers, etc. I wanted to make some for Lex's birthday party (Which ended up being canceled, but that's another story!) but I wanted to make it a bit simpler overall and have less volume, yet a more concentrated punch base that would take up less room in the fridge/freezer and this really fit the bill!

Overall I ended up liking this more than the original Banana punch! I love when that happens! Just remember to mix this up at least 24 hours before you need it since you have to freeze part of the mixture.

Let's get started!

What You'll Need:
2 - 12 ounces cans of frozen orange juice (Note: A variety without high fructose corn syrup.)
2 - 12 ounce cans of frozen pineapple juice (Note: Ditto on the note above.)
2 - 12 ounce cans of a frozen pineapple, orange, banana blend (Note: Did I mention no HFCS?)
1 - 64 ounce bottle of apple juice (Note: Look for a variety that is just juice.)
4 cups of organic cane sugar
The juice of 4 lemons
Ginger ale (Note: It is possible to find varieties of ginger ale with no HFCS too.)

First you need two very large bowls. I like to use gallon glass bowls.

In each bowl add 1 can of frozen orange juice, pineapple juice and a pineapple, orange, banana blend. Next add 1/2 of the bottle of apple juice, along with sugar and the juice of 2 lemons to each bowl. Stir to mix.

When both bowls are mixed add the mixture from 1 bowl to a pitcher and place in the fridge. Divide the mixture from the other bowl into two equally sized containers and freeze until solid. (At least 24 hours.)

When ready to make the punch pour 1/2 of the mixture from the pitcher, with one container of the frozen mixture into a punch bowl. Cover with ginger ale and stir to mix. Serve immediately. Repeat as needed.

You can keep adding ginger ale to the original pour into the bowl until it becomes unfruity and then add the second round of liquid/frozen mixture.

Notes: You can use a mixture of other juice if you like, but I really like this mixture best. Crushed frozen strawberries would be good. And I have it on very good authority that the addition of a little rum to this sort of mixture makes a very nice adult treat! ;oP

Posted by Dianne at 11:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 14, 2010

Greening Your Pantry

I'm posting today at The Greenists about Greening Your Pantry! Come by and tell me about yours!

Posted by Dianne at 8:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 10, 2010

Easy Peasy Mexican Rice

Usually when I make Mexican rice it's more of an entailed sort of experience. (I'll share that recipe with you later this summer!) The other night I really wanted some Mexican rice because we were having fajitas, but I was pressed for time so I decided to make something a bit more quickly and this is what I came up with!

This recipe is quick, easy and delicious. It's just perfect for a weeknight when things can get a bit hectic!

What You'll Need:
Extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup of uncooked rice
1 - 10 ounce can of Rotel
1 - 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 - 4.25 ounce can of green chilies
A pinch of sea salt
A pinch of finely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 tablespoon of chili powder

In a large pot saute onion in a little olive oil until tender.

Stir in rice and cook for 1-2 minutes to "wake it up" a bit.

Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix. Cook for 20-25 minutes until mixture thickens and rice is tender.

Sinfully easy, but oh so delicious! I like recipes like that!

Notes: You can use brown or white rice. Wild rice even works.

Posted by Dianne at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 9, 2010

Today We're Going To Take A Detour From Food and Talk About "Stay" by My Friend Allie Larkin!

For a while now I've been very excited to read "Stay" by my friend Allie Larkin. Allie and I "met" a few years ago when we were both contributors to Celeb Cause, which was a website focused on green activities/trends in the celebrity world. We both gave suggestions on finding green products. We stayed in touch after Celeb Cause ended and when Allie formed The Greenists along with Courtney and they asked me to be a food contributor I didn't think twice before I jumped right in!

I was very honored (and surprised!) to receive an advanced copy of Allie's book "Stay" and I began reading as soon as I took it out of the package! This is Allie's fist book and it is heart felt, sweet, moving and an all around good read! I read it in one day and loved every word! Allie's voice is so clear in this story you find yourself slipping right in to Van's shoes without a second thought!

Allie's dog Argo is used on the cover of the book and her other dog Stella joined in on the picture fun too!

To learn more about "Stay" check out Allie's website where you can find an excerpt from the book, a reading guide, a story synopsis and more about Allie and the story!

Also check out the preview!

"Stay" comes out tomorrow (June 10, 2010) so go get a copy! I promise you won't be disappointed! I can't wait for Allie's next book!

Cross posted at Daffodil Lane.

Posted by Dianne at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 7, 2010

Crawfish Gumbo

Alexis and I have been exploring a lot lately. I get in these modes when it feels like there is something out there just outside of my grasp that I'm supposed to be doing, or someone I'm supposed to know, but the universe hasn't decided to share yet. The other day we were out and about, having fun, laughing and just generally enjoying ourselves as we are prone to doing and I actually found crawfish at a local market! I was thrilled!

It's been years since I had crawfish, since before Lex was born in fact. When we lived in Anne Arundel county I used to pick it up at Whole Foods now and again, but I hadn't found any this area until the other day! The ones I found were already steamed, but hey, that works! A crawfish is a crawfish after all!

Alexis had a ball playing "helping me" with the crawfish. She had them "talk" to each other, have battles and even helped me in the process of cleaning/shelling them as you can see in the pictures below where she is my demo girl for the pictures. She amuses me, which is neither here nor there, but we really do have a lot of fun together!

Anyway...

I originally thought I might make etouffee, but ultimately decided I'd rather just make a big pot of gumbo! This turned out great! I was really pleased with the result. After all what's better than a big bowl of gumbo and rice?

What You'll Need:
5-6 pounds of whole crawfish or 2-4 cups of crawfish meat
1 cup of oil (Note: You can use olive or a clear oil. I've used both in the past.)
3/4 a cup of unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of finely ground black pepper
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch of celery, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 quarts of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of Creole or Cajun seasoning, preferably salt free
1 - 1 lb package of frozen okra or 2-3 cups of fresh okra sliced
Cooked rice

As I mentioned the crawfish I found were already steamed. I actually popped the bag in the freezer when I bought them a couple of weeks ago because I knew I wouldn't get to them right away.

I placed the frozen crawfish in a big pot:

Then I covered them in water:

Bring them to a quick boil covered and remove from heat. In this case these are already cooked so you don't have to cook them again, you just want to knock the chill off of them.

After about 5 minutes drain and place in a bowl to cool:

While the crawfish are cooling let's get busy with some other aspects of the gumbo!

Chop your trinity (aka your pepper, onion and celery) and set aside:

Now get to work on your roux!

Roux isn't difficult, though it has a reputation for being so. You basically have oil and flour and you cook it until it's a nutty brown. It will look golden and smell nutty. I love that smell!

How gorgeous is that?

Basically you add the oil to your stock pot, stir in the flour and your salt and pepper and cook on low to medium, stirring often until you achieve the nutty color/smell.

Many recipes call for you to stir roux constantly, but I'm not going to lie to you, that's not happening with me! There are very few things I'll stir constantly, custard being the only one I can think of right off the top of my head. I stir, then chop something, then come back and stir, and then do something else. Every two minutes or so I give it a good stir for 30 seconds or so, but not constantly.

When the roux is a nutty brown (this usually take 15-45 minutes depending on your stove top) add your trinity:

Cook stirring often until onion, pepper and celery are just tender.

Next add broth, Creole or Cajun seasoning and okra:

Cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

You will add the crawfish to the pot during the last five minutes of cooking or so. Now let's see how to "clean" them!

First look at your crawfish:

The "big" piece of meat on a crawfish is its tail. 5-6 pounds of whole crawfish sounds like a lot, but they are little and there isn't a lot of meat there! Some people like to suck the head, but I can't say that appeals to me at all.

The first thing you want to do is remove its arms. If it has big claws you might be able to get a small piece of meat out of the claw itself, but in most cases there isn't anything in there to write home about so if it's little like the one pictured above I wouldn't even bother.

Flip the craw fish over and hold it with your fingers like so:

Pull down on both ends and snap the crawfish in two:

It should break in to head section and tail section. Dispose of the head, unless you're one of those who enjoys that part of the crawfish.

Next hold the piece of meat that is sticking out of the shell with one hand while holding the shell with the other:

Tug gently and the meat should slip right out of the shell:

Every once in a while you'll come across a stubborn tail and you might have to crack the shell a bit, which you can easily do with your fingers, but for the most part they just slide right out.

Along the back of the crawfish tail there is a membrane and if you remove it you'll discover the vein right underneath:

Give the vein a little pull and it will slide right off to be disposed of:

Place the crawfish in a bowl or container and give them a little rinse to make sure they are good and clean:

Place cleaned tails in the fridge until five minutes before servings gumbo and then add to the pot just long enough to heat through.

Serve gumbo over rice with hot sauce, chopped onions or just all by itself!

Notes: You can do this process with shrimp too.

Posted by Dianne at 1:26 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 2, 2010

Gondolier Pizza in Athens, Tennessee

Today I'm going to tell you about a restaurant I really enjoyed when I was growing up in Tennessee...Gondolier Pizza! When Lex and I were in Tennessee in April I didn't get a chance to stop by, but when Jamison had to teach a class in Nashville in May, and Lex and I went back to my mom's house while he was there, I made sure to stop by with my mom, Darlene and Alexis one day for lunch.

Growing up we often ate at Gondolier after church on Sunday. My sister and I would normally get a pizza with black olives and mushrooms, while my mom and daddy would sometimes get the buffet. Also a favorite of mine is their Greek Salad, which I have mentioned before.

This go around we got a pizza that was half house special and half black olives (which is Lex's favorite variety of pizza):

The toppings where just as I remember, as was the sauce! So delicious!

We ended up getting a small pizza with black olives to take home since we demolished the pizza before Lex finished what she actually ordered.

To begin with I got a Greek Salad of course!

It too was so delicious!

Gondolier has locations in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Florida. If you like good pizza, Italian food and an awesome Greek Salad and happen to be in one of the areas of their restaurants I highly recommend them!

Posted by Dianne at 11:13 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

June 1, 2010

You Find The Best Stuff When You Go Out And About

This morning I had to run some errands and once I got through I had the urge to go exploring. There was a road off the main road that I always wondered where it went so I took it. Jamison works from home most days and Lex opted to stay home with him, so I was sans kidlet and in the mood for an adventure. I had a general idea where I thought the road ended up, I had a county map in the car if I got really lost, and if the road did in fact end up where I thought it would, then I planned to go over to the library and see if I they had a copy of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (which they didn't).

So I've guessed you figured out that the road ended up where I thought it would. I love it when that happens. So since I was where I thought I'd be I decided to stop by the orchard before I went to the library to see what they had today hoping to find some strawberries (Score!) and possibly some peas (No score, but he told me they'd be in this weekend or early next week!) because I'm slightly obsessed with both.

Unfortunately this year we weren't able to swing the CSA. We didn't have the upfront cash we needed to sign up at the time because well life's a bitch and all that, but that didn't mean that I wanted to totally forgo eating locally. There is just nothing like fresh, local fruits and vegetables, especially when it comes to strawberries! The strawberries today were a little dirty as you can see, but nothing a little water won't fix, and oh my...The smell! The smell is heavenly!

So I happily picked up some broccoli, spring onions and strawberries. I'll venture over next week in search of peas, and if I can keep the effing ground hog (who I have nicknamed "Satan" in case you're wondering) off my porch and out of my garden containers which he seems to think is a free buffet, then I might have some peas of my own to harvest too!

So what are you all growing? What is available at your markets? What do you look forward to most? I'm curious.....

P.S. Two days in a row with an entry? A sign of the apocalypse I'm sure! ;oP As you can see I haven't been blogging much lately. I'm easing back in to it and for a while I may just be talking about food in general, but feel free to tell me your thoughts on what is going through my head too. I have a few recipes to share too, just be patient with me as my mind is cluttered at the moment and I'm trying to figure out where life is heading.

Posted by Dianne at 3:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack