Nicole Sauce - The Tennessee Waltz

Now’s the time to find chicks in Nashville

2009-03-20T20:34:00Z

AAAh it is that time of year again - I like to start baby chick season with this video:

I especially like the tasteful way they address the chicken waste issue.

Found a few places in Nashville to get your chick as well - they are listed in this article I wrote for Examiner.com as the
Nashville Country Living Examiner.

Nicole Sauce - Nashville Country Living Examiner!

2009-03-16T19:06:00Z

Examiner.com just made me the Country Living Examiner for Nashville!

Good Food with Friends

2009-03-16T15:55:00Z

A few weeks ago, Melissa and JP came out to the holler for a quick visit. We had a great time and Melissa advised me through my first home made pasta adventure with my Kitchenaid.

The food was fabulous!

Melissa also brought a brown rice salad that was to die for. Here it is on her cooking blog!

http://www.strawberryberet.com
/2009/03/brown-brown-rice.html

Easy Sour Cream From Half and Half

2009-02-26T04:33:00Z

Driving to the store for a carton of sour cream is not economical when the nearest store is 12 miles away. Yet green chili rellenos (baked from the frozen stock of the summer) just don't taste as good without the creamy additive in the rice.

A few weeks ago, when faced with this problem, I started wandering around the Web looking for recipes. After testing a few, I found that the half and half, plus the last few tablespoons of sour cream method is the easiest. The biggest surprise was that the resulting homemade sour cream tasted much better than the very batch that supplied the "sour cream start."

The way I do this is as follows:

2 cups half and half
1 quart-sized mason jar
2 tablespoons sour cream

Put all into the jar. Cover. Shake it! Wait 12-24 hours until it is firm and enjoy.

My theory is that it tastes better because the half and half that we put in our coffee is of a better quality than the cream used in commercial production of sour cream. Or maybe it is just fresher.

WARNING: Don't used ultra pasteurized half an half - I get mixed results with it.

I had a little fun with my new Storm and shot a casual video demo - not bad video quality for a phone.

Government Bailout/ Stimulus Plan Video: Food, Eggs and Politics!

2009-02-18T00:56:00Z

This video has it all - food, politics and even a chicken reference! H/T to Liberty on the Rocks' video crew.

T-Shirt Tomato Strainer Bag

2008-08-14T15:36:00Z

Here is a photo of my home-made T-Shirt Tomato Strainer Bag. For the record, I bought NEW undershirts for this purpose.

Funny Education Reform Video - and a good idea!

2008-08-06T19:44:00Z

H/T Ben Cunningham

Thank You Lannae Long!

2008-05-12T16:32:00Z

As many know, I have been on a hard road schedule the last 4 weeks. I was lucky enough to have a fellow blogger friend fill in while I was out and about.

For those of you who have not seen Lannae Long's blog, you should check it out. She has a number of great restaurant reviews, photo documented cooking adventures, and she even manages to post blog entries when she is on the road. She is so good at blogging that local chef's invite her to their pre-release tasting sessions!

Please help me thank Lannae for posting to this site to keep things rolling!

Redneck Yacht Club at Centerhill this Saturday

2008-05-06T02:06:00Z

This just in from my favorite real estate agent who is also a musician:

THE REDNECK YACHT CLUB sets sail this weekend at Hurricane Marina on Center Hill Lake! We play at 7pm. Here are the directions! From I-40, take Exit 273 toward Smithville / McMinnville.

Follow TN-56 South for 3.5 miles. Turn RIGHT onto Floating Mill Road, and follow the signs towards Hurricane Marina.

A friend of mine, Steve Williams, wrote a country song entitled "Redneck Yacht Club" with a buddy of his named Tom Shepard and it was a big hit single a couple of years ago by Craig Morgan.

Now Steve and Tom have starting doing gigs calling their act "The Redneck Yacht Club".

Most of the gigs are at marinas as they're playing up the "boating" thing. That's what this is all about. We're doing songs they've written along with some Jimmy Buffet tunes and other fun stuff.

Tell everybody to come out!

The 2005 Song performed by Craig Morgan:

More importantly, a performace by the BAND:

Coffee

2008-04-23T02:29:00Z

photo of my coffee from Bongo Java

Hi there! I am Lannae from LannaeLong.blogspot.com, and I get to be a guest blogger on Nicole Sauce's blog. I get to blog about whatever I want on Nicole's blog, so I decided to blog about my coffee cup. When I was in college, I drank a lot of coffee to stay awake as much as I could. I probably drank between 1/2 a pot to 2 pots of coffee per day. I had THE original travel mug, and it was attached to my hand at all times. I would walk around campus that way, and everyone knew me as the one with the coffee mug. The mug was red plastic, it once had writing on it but that paint chipped off, it only held up to 12 oz, and the base of the mug was a disk shape, so it could fit into the mug holder that could be glued to a dashboard of a car. Since I did not have a car when I had this mug, I just carried the mug by its handle. That travel mug got me through 4 years of college, 3 years of grad school, nearly 10 years in Philadelphia, and about 4 years in Nashville. Where that mug went, I am not sure. I sure wish I still have it because it, filled with coffee, got me through all of college and my 20s. Sometime during grad school, I bought a 2nd plastic coffee mug, but this one is bigger, it is 16 oz, and it came from one of the hundreds of Dunkin' Donuts in Boston, it is as spherical in shape and it has that disc at the bottom for the dashboard, and this plastic travel mug had "The Big One" painted on the side of it. I still have that Dunkin' Donuts mug, but the paint has chipped off the sides, and ti looks like it says | - \ . _ ) ' |_` instead of The Big One. I actually use the Dunkin' Donuts mug everyday at work, and it has been my work coffee mug for over 10 years now. Day in and day out I use the same mug. This mug is attached to my hand most of the morning, and co-workers expect to see me with this mug in my hand. Since I am older now, I can't tolerate full caffeine anymore, I drink only 1/2 caf and 1/2 decaf now.

So I guess I want to say that today is Earth Day. Even before I knew what Earth Day was, I used my coffee mug to get re-fills from the student union, from the coffee shops and from my own coffee maker. I really don't care to use paper or styrofoam cups because that just don't hold up as well as my old faithful coffee mug. I also like using my own mug because I am cheap, and and many places offer discounts on coffee if you bring your own mug. Believe me, as a poor college student, getting a discount was a big motivator to make something like reusing a coffee mug a habit. I am so glad my cheap ways fall in line with Earth Day, so this blog post can tie in my coffee mug with Earth Day. Other than that, I really don't have much to say about Earth Day accept reduce, reuse and recycle. I am sure good at reducing the number of coffee mugs I use, and I have been re-using it everyday for definitely over 10 years. I have no need to recycle it yet, as it is still a perfectly good mug.

Missive from the road from Nicole Sauce

2008-04-22T17:56:00Z

Guess what we learned how to cook?

HideMyIP dot Com

2008-04-11T16:00:00Z

We've all seen people get into big trouble on the Internet because they were traced via their IP address. Especially folks who post commentary on politics from work, which is traced to their company.

Luckily, the Internet has solved this problem for us (along with many other ones).

HideMyIP.com is one way to mask yourself. You can hide behind a thicker screen of anonymity. It is wonderful.

Just a tip for the day.

I am heading into the great traveling void for 2 weeks and will post infrequently. Anyone care to be my guest blogger while I am away? There needs to be more cooking content for awhile.

Oh yeah - coming soon - my first attempt at grass fed pork chops!

I Saw the Future of Social Networking the Other Day

2008-04-10T15:07:00Z

This article from TechCrunch is interesting. Their mother effing pop up ads are annoying though.

Special Interests

2008-04-09T14:31:00Z

So, we all hear about how special interests are controlling our government. You know - BIG OIL - PHARMACEUTICALS - ETC...

(Tee hee hee - I just realized the word "harm" is in pharmaceuticals...)

In any political discussion, you will hear about some industry that represents their interest through bribery or lobbying to glean special favors through the coercion of government.

Well, don't get me started today on the role of government in the business world - I am sure that is a different Thought of the Walk.

No, no - What I wondered yesterday was this:

Why don't these same people get outraged when the specials interest of an ever growing government are preserved at the cost of its citizens? You do not hear complaints about "GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY INTERESTS."
Why don't people RAGE about the teacher's unions becoming so intertwined with the government that they not only do not help children learn, they also do not HELP TEACHERS TEACH?

If you get pissed off about special interests of BIG OIL being represented, then you should be outraged when the GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY keeps you from getting decent internet service, or worse, causes a mother and child to be separated because of national origins.

On no particular schedule, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.

How to waste time with YouTube

2008-04-07T00:15:00Z

Spend all weekend adding your favorite 80s tunes to a playlist, then embed it in your blog:

Support Wine in Tennessee Grocery Stores

2008-04-04T23:50:00Z

From the comments field:

Jenni wrote:
"Free the Grapes" is supporting direct shipping from wineries.

If you want to be able to purchase wine in Tennessee grocery & convenience stores, show your support at www.redwhiteandfood.com
Reply to this

Can we add booze too?!!

Trader Joes Coming to the Wrong Side of Town in Nashville

2008-04-04T15:26:00Z

Well, Lannae just tipped me off to the good news: Trader Joes is FINALLY coming to Nashville!! Read the article here.

Now, I can understand why they chose the former Wild Oats building in Green Hills: Trader Joes always seems to try to move into pre-built places with parking lots. However, I am dismayed that they did not consider the other side of town.

Yes, I will fight frickin' traffic and no decent freeway access just to get a year's supply of coffee and a case of pasta sauce every so often, but had they chosen a more accessible location, I would have fit them into my regular rounds.

Now the next question is: Will they built a separate entrance to sell 2 buck chuck?

As we all know, Tennessee's State Government thinks that wine is so extremely dangerous to our populace that they safely stow its sale away in specialty stores with liquor. Beer, on the other hand, is ok for general consumption seeing as you can't get drunk off of it. (These people make no sense.)

Does this piss you off too? Check out Free the Grapes.

The Realist and the Idealist, Part 2

2008-04-04T12:35:00Z

...and ANOTHER thing.

Leftover fish and rice are very good when combined with spinach, fresh tortillas, grated cheese, and enchilada sauce, then baked at 350 for 20 minutes.

Just ask Nicky Cheese if you don't believe me.

On no particular schedule, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.

The Realist and the Idealist

2008-04-04T02:30:00Z

I was talking to a friend today and realized that realists and idealists need each other.

In my little world the realist needs the idealist to spout of what seems an impossible dream to make their more realistic solutions seem possible.

On the other hand, the idealist needs the realist to find compromises to the ideal in the interest of avoiding complete catastrophic failure.

Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk

2008-04-01T00:26:00Z

You see it everywhere - a CRISIS:

Health care crisis: “The best thing people can do for me is to write their Congressmen about the health care crisis,” White concluded. “Insurance is too expensive for even working families to afford. Baby boomers alone could change the laws if all of them would use their voice.”
Global warming crisis: "This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes ..." (Sorry about the ad you have to look at before reading the article.)
Obesity crisis: "How bad is the obesity crisis in the United States these days? Well it is approaching critical ..."

The crises pile up to no end. They form a giant heap of fear driving us to take action. In most cases, the suggested solution is to enact government controls:

Health care crisis = Socialized health care system
Global warming crisis = Legislate all consumption and mobility
Obesity crisis = Legislate food production and consumption

What I want to know is this: Why are the solutions to all our crises about legislating OTHER people to change? Why are they not about looking at what you, the XYZ crisis activist do to CAUSE your alleged crisis to begin with? And what YOU should do to fix it?

If everyone would look inward and take responsibility, instead of blame others, there would be fewer crises...

...and don't get me started on the legitimate definition of crisis.

On good days, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.

Robot envy

2008-03-27T14:21:00Z

I have robot envy AND it is a woot off day.

Robot Envy Update: 8:32

This just in from a friend - "Do it!! Pull the trigger!! We’re long time Roomba owners and love it. A big help with two kiddos and a perrito. "

Now I REALLY have robot envy!

Kolaches – a taste of Texas, er, I mean the Czech Republic, I mean Czechoslovakia, Oh, Československo, wait that’s not right...

2008-03-14T13:56:00Z

...but they are so good.

Last weekend, we wandered to Austin for a visit. Along the way, we got very hungry and stopped at a Chevron gas station on Highway 71. Hruska’s was the name of the food and trinket store attached to the Chevron, and it harbored a surprise: Kolaches.

Not alone in my opinion, these kolaches were fabulous. Freshly made and in many varieties, the bread covered meat (or vegetarian filling) pocket is served hot upon order.

Apparently, kolaches were originally a sweet treat , but they have morphed into a savory meat filled snack in the Austin area. It was hard to find a meat filled recipe, but here is one.

Nice development.

10 step program to getting your Lenovo networking stuff to work...

2008-03-13T03:05:00Z

Why did all wireless and ethernet networking devices stop working on my Lonovo Thinkpad T61p?

I have to admit, when I recently fixed a friend's T61p that was unable to connect to ANY network connection, I thought he had done something weird to his computer.

NOPE.

Today, I did a full update of my firmware through Lenovo's updating interface. Guess what? When I was done, NONE OF MY FRICKING NETWORK CONNECTIONS WERE FUNCTIONAL.

Luckily, I remembered what made his stuff work:
1) Go to start>Control Panel
2) Open "Administrative Tools"
3) Open "Computer Management"
4) Open "Device Manager'
5) Navigate to the network adapter area and right click on your wireless device, choose properties
6) Under Device Usage, choose "Do not use this device"
7) Apply all changes
8) Right click on the network adapter and choose properties again
9) Under Device Usage, choose "Use this device"
10) Apply all changes

If you are not good to go at this point, call your tech support person and freak out on their ass.

Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk

2008-03-12T12:02:00Z

Last Friday, a guest came into town and we made breaded and baked boneless pork chops. They were good. As of today, we still have two in the fridge, along with a yuppy salad we presented at that meal.

Know what would be good?

1) Slice up the left over chops
2) Simmer with pre-made spaghetti sauce (I have tons in the freezer that I made in January)
3) Cook 1 pkg of noodles
4) Mix all well

Name the dish Pasta al Dente with Lightly Breaded Crispy Pork in a Spinach Red Sauce.

Heck, garnish it with Italian parsley and this idea will never be discovered for what it is: LEFTOVERS.

Increasingly often, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.

Oh no, you put palmolive in the dishwasher...

2008-03-10T22:41:00Z

I guess I am not the only one to recently get the infamous call. You know, the one that reminds you of a lesson you once painfully learned?

My dear roomie called me from work to let me know that instead of dishwasher detergent, liquid dish soap had been put into the office dishwasher. With results much like those pictured on ABlogAboutThings.com's site, we had to quickly figure out how to get rid of the bubbles.

After cruising the internet, we discovered the following. There are a billion ways to get your dishwasher back to normal:

And yes, the vinegar worked.

10,000 places I would rather donate my charity dollars

2008-03-06T15:44:00Z

An unverified report from across the pond claims that a non profit called Living Streets is testing padded lamp posts to keep people from injuring themselves while walking and texting.

Now the news...

*Unverified because I have only watched the YouTube vid.

Sushi Day, Part 5: Miso Soup

2008-03-05T15:54:00Z

My first Miso Soup lesson (circa 2002):

After 9 hours in the air, and still recovering from walking pneumonia, all I wanted upon arrival in Japan was miso soup. Luckily, we were invited to a Japanese household for dinner. We ate at a special low table with a quilt for warmth called a kotatsu, something that would fit very well at our holler home during the winter.

This was the menu:

Caesar salad
Spaghetti
Other various western dishes

Japanese people can be excellent hosts. I was polite, but a little disappointed.

As things were winding down for the night and we were sharing cultural stories, my host asked if there was any traditional Japanese foods I would be interested in trying. Not wanting to impose, I simply asked questions about how different dishes were made and what Japanese people traditionally eat. When miso soup came up, my host got very animated.

My host explained that miso is the solid by product that is produced when soy is fermented for soy sauce production. His family made their own miso and he jumped up to show me what it looked like. His wife then showed me how to make it and we all had a round of miso.

Instead of making it like most of the on line resources say you should, they made it as follows:

2 green onions diced
2 ounces tofu, cubed
a handful of dices seaweed
2 tablespoons seaweed
2 cups of water
1 dash of fish sauce

Place water and seaweed on the stove and bring to a near boil. Whisk in the miso, add tofu cubes. Add a dash of fish sauce. Pour into bowls and garnish with green onions.

Most on line sources recommend that you use dashi instead of water, as shown in the video below. I suspect that the above method was used because there was no convenient way to produce dashi on a whim.

How To Make Miso Soup

Health benefits:
Recently, I have eaten more miso soup (sans tofu) because it is only 40 calories per serving and thus makes an excellent snack for a woman with a cooking blog who wishes to maintain a certain BMI. It was nice to not that miso soup is not only a yummy low calorie snack, it also has health benefits.

Live long and prosper

2008-02-29T15:02:00Z

I love it when science fiction creeps into society. Check out this pic from woot.

Apparently, no one wanted to run around looking like a Star Trek character, because these have not done so well in stores. Even funnier is Woot's warning:

"WARNING: Works only with 5th-generation iPod Video. Woot, Inc. and it subsidiaries cannot be held responsible if you wear this in public and get beaten up for looking like a tool. Not officially licensed for Star Trek convention usage. Do not use Myvu while driving, walking, running, flying a plane, captaining a boat, driving a train, riding a bicycle, or piloting a Segway. Boy, imagine somebody wearing one of these on a Segway. Talk about a total loser. Not for sale in stores anymore, we don’t think. No nutritional value. No cash value. No honest, hardworking American values. Not much value at all, come to think of it. Action figures sold separately."

Oscars flip the bird to the world

2008-02-26T15:26:00Z

I did not watch the whole event, but noticed on my way through the room that the way the oscar logo was cropped on the TV when they listed people's names looks like a giant fist with just the middle finger up. At first, I thought I needed glasses, but then my roommates agreed. Maybe we all need glasses?

Sushi Day: Part 4

2008-02-20T01:19:00Z

Rolling, rolling, rolling... Keep rice moist and joining...

For a successful roll, you merely need to:

Not use too much wasabi - wooowa - unless you need to really clear those sinuses.
Keep your rice the right consistency. Lannae Long recently went into much more detail on this than I do.
Make the roll thickness consistent the whole length of the roll.
Have fun with it - no need for perfection unless you want it - we're doing this at home for kicks. If you want to be a sushi chef, you will need more than my little blog posts on the topic.

We decided to do "California Rolls," but with a few personal alterations (like the addition of carrots because I need more vitamin A .

We sliced stuff up as thin as we could.

We coated our bamboo roller in plastic wrap to ease cleaning.

We moistened the Nari and patted down a layer of rice over about 2/3 of the area of the Nari - just the right consistency, carefully added a tiny amount of wasabi for flavor and carefully laid out the veggies and crab in neat rows.

After that, we rolled the stuff by putting a bit of extra vinegar water on the still exposed seaweed, carefully turning the rice filled part of the roll until the exposed seaweed meets, pulling back on the roller to really compact all the contents, and finishing the roll. Here is where people have the most trouble - the compacting part. You just can't compact a roll too much - the more compact, the prettier and better it will hold together. I usually ruin 1-2 rolls if I have not rolled in a long time because, guess what? I don't compact them enough.

Another key to success is a sharp knife for cutting the contents and the rolls into bite-sized pieces. Alas and alack, we are in a furnished rental in Houston and there is not a sharp knife to be had, so our pieces ended up a little "frayed" They still taste the same though...

We set the table, had a toast and began our meal. BTW - It was grrrreat! Thank you to Jim Kidwell who taught me to do this.

Part five is coming soon (Miso Soup, baby.)

Sauce - Burned

2008-02-09T00:52:00Z

Ever wonder how I got my name - Nicole Sauce? It's from the band... Played around with Windows Movie Maker - it was one of the most frustrating two days of my life. Every change I made, I had to restart the program, so the transitions are not exactly as I would like, but here is Sauce's first video...

Nicole Sauce sings in, You got it, Sauce!

2008-01-29T23:40:00Z

OK, I am playing around with YouTube and thought I would embed this video for kicks - unfortunately the song cuts off at three minutes. Or maybe that's fortunately . Sushi Days to continue soon...

Sushi Day, Part 3: Inarishushi

2008-01-28T19:13:00Z

Since the key to great sushi, besides finding the fish, is getting the rice just right, I usually start the day by making Inarisushi. This is a fried bean curd pocket stuffed with rice.

The folks over at Electric Gourmet actually explain how to do this from scratch, but I just buy the pre-seasoned, fried, canned version. They also have some interesting rice preparation tips, but I try to keep sugar out of most things and make my rice as follows (No steamer here):

Making Sushi Rice

Read the package to find the proper ratio of rice to water.

My package calls for 1.25 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. It also says that one cup of rice yields enough rolls for two people. After rolling most of the yield from cooking two cups of rice, THREE of us decided that they meant two large and very hungry railroad workers. The leftovers fed me lunch AND dinner the next day.
Wash and drain the rice until no more milky white liquid pours off.
Combine rice and proper amount of water in a sauce pan.

If you feel like adding 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar to each cup of rice, put the vinegar in the measuring cup first, then finish off the measurement with water.
Cook rice and water on high until it boils, stir it to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan, then reduce heat to low and set time for 20 minutes.

On some electric stoves, I turn the burner off because it retains so much heat that simply bringing the rice to a boil, then turning off the burner is enough.
Cool rice by running it under cold water or cooling it in the fridge.

Some people warn of cooling rice in the fridge, but I have never had a problem. I just make sure it is well covered so it doesn’t dry out.
Fluff the rice. Once the rice is done, check it for consistency.

Good sushi rice is sticky, but not gummy or TOO sticky. If it is gummy, you probably cooked it too long. If it is too sticky, reduce the amount of water you use.

Inarisushi the easy way

1 can of pre-made bean curd wrappers
1 cup rice
¼ cup rice vinegar

Mix the vinegar with the cooked rice. Stuff rice into the bean curd pockets, fold the flaps in to close the pocket, and place on a tray with the fold side down.

Tip: If I am going to refrigerate these for later use, I drizzle the extra bean curd marinate over them to keep the moisture in

The Vinegar...

Fried Bean Curd Pockets

Stuff the rice into the pocket - do not press too hard or the pocket will tear.

Fold the flaps down.

Place the Inarisushi on the tray with the folded side down.

Sushi Day, Part 2

2008-01-27T23:59:00Z

A little something to get us in the mood for sushi…

Sushi Day, Part 1

2008-01-27T21:53:00Z

Bellaire Rd. Home to Houston’s Chinatown. In this part of town, even the road signs are translated.

Richard (my temporary roommate) and I hit the Welcome Market, which caters to the Chinese population here and found enough stuff to try a Japanese favorite: Sushi.

The Basics for Rolling Sushi

Sake (Sushi is just no fun without it)
Nori (The roasted seaweed sheets you roll sushi in)
Sushi rice (Always best to have the right kind of rice)
Soy sauce
Wasabi in a tube (I am too lazy to make it from powder this weekend)
Rice vinegar
Plastic Wrap
A bamboo rolling pad

Some tips

Cheap Nori is harder to roll than expensive Nori, but the most expensive Nori is also not the best to roll with. Get smaller amounts of different brands and decide for yourself which you like best.
If you coat your bamboo roller in plastic wrap, it is way easier to clean later.
There are many flavors of Sake and some are served warm, others cold. If you have the change, get several small bottles of different grades to try them out.
Sushi really is best made with Sushi rice – and you need to cook it right or you will have a rolling challenge. A rice steamer gets the best results, but following are instructions for making it in a pot since I have no steamer in our temporary Houston dwelling.

I am still laughing...

2008-01-23T23:03:00Z

I am still laughing over this post from Lannae's blog.

What is the green salsa they serve in Houston made of?

2008-01-18T00:34:00Z

That's right. Houston. For 4-6 months. The country livin' dream is on hold for a little while.

Mark drove me down here and helped me settle in, then took the car back up to the Holler leaving me in Houston with Mighty the Cat and a bicycle. While together, Mark and I managed to try a few Mexican places and discovered the lovely green salsa of Houston.

From the Homesick Texan's blog, a recipe for this divine creation:

Ninfa’s Green Sauce
Ingredients:
3 medium-sized green tomatoes, coarsely chopped (you can substitute yellow if you can’t find green ones, but never use red)
4 tomatillos, cleaned and chopped
1 to 2 jalapenos, stemmed and coarsely chopped
3 small garlic cloves
3 medium-sized ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
4 sprigs cilantro
1 tsp. of salt
1 1/2 cups of sour cream

Method:
Combine chopped tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic in a saucepan. Bring to a boil (tomatoes provide the liquid), reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Place tomato mixture with the avocados, cilantro and salt in food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into a bowl and stir in sour cream.

Makes 4 to 5 cups

Looks like we'll try to make this in the Holler soon! I am happy to see that it does indeed include avocados. I was starting to get an identity crisis each time I tried to call this yummy sauce "Guacamole" and got corrected.

Photo from Wikimedia who states the following: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

My Favorite Chess Pie Recipe

2007-12-24T20:59:00Z

Once again, it is time to bake a chess pie as we are invited to a friend's house for dinner. This is my favorite recipe from about.com:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/chesspies/r/bl00510a.htm

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon white cornmeal
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

PREPARATION:

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, melted butter, cornmeal, buttermilk, salt, and vanilla. Blend well and pour into an unbaked 9-inch pastry shell. Bake in at 375° on the bottom rack of the oven for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and bake 20 minutes longer.

The only adjustments I make are to cut sugar content in half and add 1 shot of bourbon. It is a hit every time!

Rack of Lamb, Take One

2007-12-21T03:25:00Z

In anticipation of an upcoming co-cooking event with two new Nashville friends, we brought two racks of lamb into town from the Holler. Unfortunately, with the holidays in full force, we have not managed to get together to cook the racks.

In honor of a certain birthday boy, lamb ended up on the menu for the evening. Much to my surprise, there was another two racks of lamb kicking around in the freezer. I am not certain how our lamb ended up with four sets of ribs, but we will leave that musing to another day.

I decided to try this recipe: Roasted Rack of Lamb.

Trimming the meat was a little weird and it seemed like I was cutting away some good chunks of meat, but it looked right when it was done.

Using the above recipe, I first caramelized onions, added a dash of red wine, then seared off the lamb. We had to cook it for about 23 minutes until it reached 130 degrees. Because our lamb is free range and grass fed, it has less fat than other sheep. Therefore we added fat in the form of two strips of bacon. Pigs meat sheep. j/k

It got served on a bed of cabbage with a potato carrot puree. It was fabulous.

Potato Carrot Puree

3 potatoes (squared)
4 carrots (squared)
1 onion (squared)
1 tablespoon dill
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon turmeric
Enough water to cover the squared veggies
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons cream

Combine all ingredients except the cream, turmeric and dill in a sauce pan and simmer for about 25 minutes or until finished. Add turmeric and dill and simmer for 5 more minutes. Pour into blender, add cream and puree. Salt to taste.

Non-cooking related rant

2007-12-05T23:35:00Z

Since this is a cooking AND technology blog, it is time for a little rant.

In the role of hiring manager on behalf of one of my clients, I recently posted a part time job announcement. I got many resumes from people who had clearly not even bothered to go to the website of the company to see what the place does. Worse, the cover letters I received were mostly canned ones. Many applicants did not go so far as to bother to customize their canned letters. They left the terms "your company" and "the position" as is, rather than to translate them into the actual company name and position name.

As a hiring manager, I infinitely prefer the 4-5 sentence email explaining why the applicant wants to work at OUR company over some stupid canned collection of meaningless words that some professional job coach thinks will get you an interview. It won't with me.

COME ON FOLKS!

If we are going to pay you $15 or $20 per hour for a job that a temp agency would give you $8.50 to do, is it not worth your time to put a little work into a cover letter?!

Maybe go to the website and learn about what we do?

Sheesh!

Plumbing, not cooking

2007-12-04T18:18:00Z

Well, I thought I would write about cooking this week, but the Holler Homestead had different plans for me. Our water main broke Friday.

Backup.

Mark and I bought a place in the country that was totally trashed, but for a very good price. We are fixing it up and moving out of Nashville, though we will keep our Nashville apartment for now.

So, instead of a nice casserole recipe, here is what happened last Friday:
1) Mark went to the Holler Homestead.
2) Mark turned on the well water system.
3) The termite sprayers were there and went into the garage where the water main had burst.
4) Mark turned off the well water system.
5) I drove to the Holler Homestead by way of Lowe's.
6) Everything I had gotten did not work for what we needed, but it turned out that the previous owner, who had repaired said pipe with two hose clamps and a radiator hose, had bought all the parts we needed. He just had never gotten around to actually repairing the pipe.
7) Mark and I, together with our helpful neighbor Pat, fixed the pipe.
8) We celebrated having water in the house again with a nice dinner of pork chops.

Recipe: Grilled Pork Chops

4 pork chops
Salt, pepper, rosemary, Mark's special grill spice mix (available for sale through this site soon)

Rub the spices on the chops and grill for about 4-6 minutes per side until done.

OK, I lied, there is a recipe here - the quick cook chop recipe post water pipe fixing. We served the chops with broccoli spoon bread, salad, and biscuits.

A nice photo of the Holler Homestead property... (Pre bonfire)

Cats and toilets, oh my!

2007-11-28T02:40:00Z

If only we had this problem with our cats...

Look Mom, I made up a hot sauce recipe. Nicole Sauce's Hot Sauce

2007-11-21T02:48:00Z

At last the time has come for the leaves to fall from the trees, the nights grow colder, the night comes at 4:30 in the afternoon. This weekend, we finally admitted something difficult: The green tomatoes left on our vines are never going to get red, and the jalapeno pepper plants probably won't make it much longer. It's final fall harvest time in our garden.

We ended up with a gagillion (ok - about 2 gallons) of jalapenos and I have been looking for weeks for things to do with them. At the end of the day, I decided to try to make my own hot sauce. All the recipes on line seem to call for seedless peppers, but our stock of them are so small at this point in the growing season that taking all the tiny seeds out would take a very long time. As usual, I peeked at a recipe, then made alterations. Here is the result.

Nicole Sauce's Jalapeno Hot Sauce

2 cups chopped jalapeno peppers
1 large tomato
4 teeth of elephant garlic
1 onion
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tsp salt

Grind all non-liquid ingredients together in a food processor - or chop the heck out of them. Place the mixture with the vinegar and water in a pot. Simmer for freaking ever until the sauce is pasty, like tomato paste but a bit less firm. Allow the mixture to cool. Puree the cooled sauce.

Serve with bread and olive oil, or put it on your next burrito. Heck, we were eating the sauce on our crackers last weekend. Even our friend Richard loved it - he said the balance of sweet, sour and HOT was perfect.

Richard, your Tupperware of sauce will be in the mail after Turkey Day. Happy Birthday!

Positive effects of the Nashville heatwave

2007-08-21T00:45:00Z

Aside from the happiness caused by half days of school to protect the little kiddies from heat exhaustion, and an excuse to jump in the lake, we have discovered an unexpected reason to celebrate these 100+ degree days: A bumper crop of peppers.

When I laughingly planted seeds from our New Mexico Ristra, we expected maybe ONE pepper. With our lovely heat wave, however, we have been enjoying these fresh stuffed peppers from the garden. I have even started experimenting on making my own Ristra! Unfortunately, it will be a small one if I get it going because we can't stop adding stuffed and baked peppers to everything!

Coming soon - what to do with too many Jalapeno peppers - We will try to make this sauce:

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/11452/hot-pepper-sauce.html

Used Plastic Food Grade 55 Gallon Drums

2007-08-16T19:46:00Z

OK, I thought it would be easy to find used plastic 55 gallon food grade drums, but it is not to be. First of all, most people think you are crazy when you call them and ask, "Hey can I have your manufacturing garbage please?"

Most food manufacturers I have spoken with so far in Nashville already have a service that helps them out with this and I am beginning to think that folks around here don't typically set up rain barrel watering systems for their gardens...

Since I hate paying for water AND taxes, I aim to get most of my yard water from the skies for free.

One source I have found, where you can find them used for $10 each is:

Nashville Barrel & Drum Service Inc

7401 Cumberland Dr, (615) 799-9449

They are currently out of stock. Sigh.

LATE BREAKING NEWS
Coca Cola has them:
http://green.thefuntimesguide.com/2007/02/rain_barrel_construction.php

Ana is at extension 486 and they are only available Thursday mornings. She recommends that you call Wednesday to verify that they have barrels for sale that week.

Re: Coordinated planning urged to avoid Midstate sprawl, traffic

2007-07-31T19:12:00Z

Ok, I can't NOT comment on this article, but I did not want to set up a profile (one of about 50,000 that I have out there on the WWW).

From the Tennessean:
Coordinated planning urged to avoid Midstate sprawl, traffic

"Without a regional approach, some planners say, there's not much hope that Nashville and its suburbs can stay ahead of the curve and avoid the sprawl and traffic, pollution and even crime that have swallowed up so many peer cities.

'When you do piecemeal development ... it doesn't function,' said Bridget Jones, executive director of Cumberland Region Tomorrow, a local nonprofit that encourages regional planning. 'And that's when people start raising Cain about it.'"

Doesn't function??

What?!

Take it from a girl who FLED the city of Portland, Oregon, the nation's SMART Growth capital to come to the promised land of Nashville, TN, you DO NOT want regional planning.

Regional planning is inflexible and opens up your "region" to tinkering from special interest groups, from environmentalists, to anti-environmentalists, to big box stores, to real estate agents, to experimental planners.

Here are just a few reasons that Nashville is a better place to live than Portland, Oregon (a similarly populated area):

For the price of a small home in Portland, Oregon, I can own a much nicer small home here, plus two rental properties. In fact, if you look at the MLS, you see houses for 65k on a regular basis. A person at minimum wage can afford the house payments on 65k. In Portland 65k won't get you a studio. In fact, at minimum wage, you have to move away, depend on government assistance, or crowd into a place with many people.
Nashville Traffic. What traffic? Sure, you have rush hour here - stress on the word HOUR. In Portland it is rush hour almost all day long. Worse, you never know when rush hour will turn into parking lot hour due to something unexpected.
Lot sizes are in general larger in Nashville than in Portland and the growing season is much longer. Anyone want some of my extra organic vegetables? I have plenty - and I didn't have to try to sue my neighbor for building up instead of out and blocking my sun.
You can build what you want in Nashville. No kidding, in Portland, I actually witnessed a city discussion about the color of siding that a builder wanted to put on his building. Then the color was voted on by a committee. Keep in mind, the builder was proposing nothing outside of the zoning requirements.
Less street violence in Nashville. Do you know what it feels like to not have shootings in front of your house, or just around the corner? We are not all on top of each other, so it is easier to be nice. I could be wrong. Just a guess...

The trouble with planning is that folks make a 10 or 20 year plan, then regional needs change mid way through, but you get stuck with the plan, which, like rail, can't easily be moved or altered.

Looks to me like Nashville is doing just fine untouched... I wish they had better produce, but I suppose that is merely a demand issue.

Rotated Disc: Took Computer Break, back to our recipe for blackberry crisp

2007-07-13T01:15:00Z

My sincerest apologies. I rotated a disc in my neck and computer work is painful, so I have been using my computer hours for the work I get paid for .

Having successfully made it through my first post neck disorder pilates class, it is time to finish my previous post.

What we did:
Substitutes 4 cups of blackberries, gleaned from Nashville's own Shelby Park - Unlike our friend Lannae Long's blueberry experience, there are gagillions of blackberries in the park, if you get there before everyone else!

Because the berries in this state are about 1/4 the size of blackberries in Oregon, and about 1/4 as sweet naturally, I dusted the berries LIGHTLY with sugar.

Then, after reducing the cinnamon content by 50%, followed the recipe.

As luck had it, we had homemade vanilla ice cream in the freezer and it melted nicely with the crisp.

My only adjustment: Next time I do 1.5 times the topping.

Ms. Long - I have your Trader Joes Syrup...

Recipe I will try - well sort of - tonight...

2007-07-03T01:45:00Z

APPLE CRISP

4 cups apple slices, peeled
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup oats, rolled (raw)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter

Put apples in shell baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients, add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle crumb mixture over apples. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until apples are tender. Makes six servings.

Serving Size: 1

Submitted By: Dolores Campbell
<from: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1913,132186-243193,00.html>

Blackberry, Mobipocket Reader, and ManyBooks.net

2007-06-16T21:04:00Z

For many years have I resisted the sweet temptation of the Blackberry. Oh, it called to me in the late 90s, or was that 2000? At the time, I was quite happy with my PalmPilot. Then, in 2003, when it seemed inevitable that I get one, I again resisted the craving for a Blackberry as I did not want to be expected to check my email all the time.

This year, it came to a head - I needed some sort of mobile email/internet device if I wanted to do my job well, and the Blackberry, with its great network and scroll wheel, won. I know, I know, the iPhone is probably better, but I have already heard complaints about answering incoming calls while driving... I will wait for that wave to come.

About a month ago, I discovered something GREAT about my handheld: It displays books and scrolls fast enough for me to read them. I have almost completely transitioned to reading all books on my Blackberry. Better yet, you can get tons of out-of-copyright books for FREE. They even have ebooks in German.

Here is what I did:
1) Download and install Mobipocket Reader on your pc and also install in on your Blackberry.
2) Download free books from somewhere like manybooks.net (I like their website best and am giving them a donation.)
3) Open MobiPocketReader on your computer and import the free books.
4) Synch your Blackberry with your PC to load the books and you are SET.

No more lugging piles of books on trips. All you need is your Blackberry and enough juice to read for hours and hours.

Of course, you may also BUY ebooks, but I am having fun reading all these old books. My latest category is "Banned" books. Check out Mark Twain...

Coming Soon: A Beverage Recipe Test

2007-05-05T20:55:00Z

From Mom's comment on my blog:
"saw recipe w/ sparkle (haven't tried): 3 kinds of melon, 2 shots tequila, 2 shots orange liqueur, sugar (?!), juice of 2 lemons (limes!), fresh cilantro: mix and eat."

Since Mom arrives tomorrow or the next day, I say LET'S TRY IT!!!

More on that coming soon...

All the kittens now have names. What do you think of Tigger here? He could really use a nice family. Want to adopt him?

Much-Awaited Bleu Cheese Burger Recipe - Oh and Another Cute Kitten Pic

2007-05-04T01:00:00Z

In spite of having quintuplets to raise, we have managed to cook outside quite frequently since the warm weather hit Nashvegas. Indeed, the birds are singing, flowers blooming, garden growing, and grill is more than ready. In fact, I was sad to note the first mosquito of the year, which can only mean one thing: Nylons when I wear skirts for the next 6 months.

Mark has perfected a new recipe...

Bleu Cheese Burgers

1 pound ground beef

1 small container of bleu cheese crumbles

1 cup diced mushrooms

1/2 cup diced onions

2 tsp garlic powder

Mix this stuff together, shape the burgers and grill. They are SUPER good. One thing we learned: Thin patties are better. The first batch we made were so thick that they were raw on the inside and we had to nuke 'em.

All the kittens have tentative names - what do you think of little Cali here?

"The Grey One" Gets Adopted - and a Name: Tarzan

2007-04-30T21:21:00Z

Look who was the last one to open her eyes. Her sister and brothers had long ago began to peek about the room, but little Tarzan here was still doing her best imitation of Popeye.

It looks like a firm commitment has been made to this little creature, including a name. From now on, little Tarzan will hear her rather odd moniker when we pet and play with her.

Now, I could object to her designation, but, really, it is up to the adopting family what they will call their furry friend.

Tarzan is developing into a curious little thing. She often walks toward us when we come to visit the kitten box and she is not afraid to leave brothers, sister, and Mamacat behind to say hello. Se also really likes being in little closed places.

Hopefully she will live up to her name and begin swinging from the trees - or Mighty's tail.

Speaking of Mighty - she has started her own blog.

Introducing the Newest Member of Our Family: Staubie

2007-04-20T16:35:00Z

Staubie just came back from the vet, testing negative for FIV and Feline Leukemia! She is now an official member of our family here in Nashville.

Her introduction was lauded with a pat of butter that she and Mighty each got to eat a piece of in the interest of encouraging them to like one another.

Indeed, they have worked out an initial truce and we only let them hang out when Staubie wants out of the kitten room and Mark and I are home to supervise.

In addition to the proud mama, are her four chubby kittens, now a week old. So far, we have no open eyes, but "the orange one" is showing signs of developing slits. He is also the fattest of the four, though he is learning to share his mama's milk.

Following are photos of each kitten after one short week of life. Let me know which one you think is the cutest... We are open to ideas for better names too!

The Grey One

The Orange One

Minime (Because he looks like his mama)

The Calico Gal

"The Grey One" and a Quick Way to Deal With Leftovers

2007-04-18T15:09:00Z

Well, with all the new and interesting things to look at in the house, and five extra little creatures to care for, we are not spending as much time as formerly in the kitchen. Sunday, I awoke to a fridge full of leftovers from the past week and an urgent need to use them up.

The solution? Boil 5 potatoes, mix them all together, add gravy and cheese, and the meal is ready to go.

Left Over Casserole

1 cup left over gravy from Easter dinner

4 potatoes, boiled

2 carrots, boiled

Handful of spinach, uncooked

1 cup left over green bean casserole

1/4 cup left over grated mozzarella cheese from that pizza we had

2 slices left over lamb shank roast

1/2 cup left over turkey meat from Easter

Garlic and onion powder

Salt and pepper

2 cups grated cheddar

Slice up the cooked veggies and layer them with the above ingredients, salt and pepper. Mix in the mozzarella and gravy. Cover with the cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes.

TIP: If you don't have gravy sitting around, use something to add moisture such as soup stock or milk.

So back to Kitten Care. Mamacat (Staubie) is a great mother, but she is losing some interest. She is a kitten herself, so we are on the alert for abandonment or low milk production. So far, she is feeding them well enough as far as we can see.

We moved the family into our office room so that they would stay nice and warm. This went over with Staubie like a lead balloon. It took about 12 hours for her to adjust. I slept in the room with her on and off during the transition to make sure the kittens were ok. We decided not to take her to the vet this Friday since the move because we think the stress will do more damage than the checkup will do good.

My sister has fallen in love with "The Grey One" from afar and is scheduling a visit. You can see by the pic, that this little gal is a winner!

We closed on the duplex, then...

2007-04-13T22:36:00Z

We just bought a rental property here and were cleaning it up, when we heard a meow at the door. "Staubie" appeared to have perhaps lived there before and she was looking a bit thick around the middle. After asking around the neighborhood, we decided to let her adopt us and took her home. To keep her separate from Mighty, we made her a nice little bed in the garage and went to sleep.

Look what we saw the next morning...

There goes the neighborhood!

Pad Thai Nicole Sauce Style, part 2

2007-04-07T19:41:00Z

The key to a successful Thai cooking experience is to prepare everything before you start cooking. Food is cooked quickly at high temperature, so you don't want to be trying to peel garlic while your onions burn.

Mark helped me prep the meal. We diced, sliced, grated and cleaned up. Here are the ingredients we used:

1 cluster of broccoli (not a whole BUNCH)
1 bunch cilantro
1 tiny zucchini
1 spike of celery
2 tiny peppers (I don't think they are the Thai green ones, but you can get these in the normal grocery store)
2 carrots
1/2 cup peanuts
1 pound white asparagus
Some left over diced mushrooms
6 spikes of garlic
1 onion
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
2 fish fillets and one chicken breast cubed
Half a package of rice noodles

Before dicing, slicing and grating
Rice noodles must soak in hot water (the package says hot tap water, I use cold water that has been heated on the stove) for 15 minutes. Set this up first so that the noodles are softened for the frying stage. Do not over soak, you will end up with gummy Pad Thai.

Asparagus prep
1) First I cut off the bottom inch of each spike

2) Next, I peeled the lower half of the vegetable

3) Finally, I cut it into bite-sized chunks

Cooking

First, I sautéed the onions on high in olive oil. Next, I added 1 tablespoon of rosemary, diced peppers and the diced garlic. After about 60 seconds, I threw in some cilantro and added dashed of soy sauce.

When the spice mixture was looking good, I tossed in the meat and fish. I added more soy sauce and covered to simmer for a bit.

I began adding in the veggies (longer cooking ones first) and threw in sauces for fun. Thai food often has fish sauce, but there is none in the house, so I used shrimp paste instead. Also in the mix: lime juice, red pepper paste, green curry paste, Thai red pepper sauce.

When the meats looked cooked, I tasted the sauce and added more spicy pepper paste and an extra spoonful of shrimp paste.

Finally, I added the softened noodles and fried the mixture for about 5 more minutes. For fun, I threw in a spoonful of peanut butter.

Note: I left 1/2 my cilantro and all the grated carrots and chopped peanuts out of the mix.

Meanwhile behind me, Mark set the table, decanted the wine, made a pitcher of ice water, and lit the candles on the table.

I serve Pad Thai Nicole Sauce Style (read: larger portion and Americanized) in a large bowl with fresh garnishes. Today, since we were out of bean sprouts, we garnished only with grated carrots, cilantro and ground peanuts.

Quote from Mark: "The thing that is so good about Pad Thai is the interplay between the fresh vegetables and the cooked ones."

Pad Thai Nicole Sauce Style, part 1

2007-04-07T17:46:00Z

While in Washington DC earlier this week, I discovered a gem: Sawatdee Thai Restaurant. It was the best Thai food I have had in this country. Qualify that with the following, however: I appear to live in a Thai food vacuum.

The food in Thailand is much better than the Thai food in most Thai restaurants in the US, but that is usually the case. It has, however, been a constant source of disappointment that most Thai places serve Vietnamese-tasting foods and/or substitute cow's milk for coconut milk in their recipes (yucko!).

So far in Nashville, I have not found good Thai nor Chinese for that matter. It seems the Asian chefs have chosen to avoid this fine region, or host special events like this lovely event for the Chinese New Year. Anyone reading this who has recommendations, please DO chime in!

We decided to use my skills gained in a cooking class in Thailand, and try to make some Pad Thai in Nashville with a twist - We only used what was in the house or available for purchase at Kroger's.

Pad Thai never tastes the same way twice when I make it, because I don't measure anything and have not had the "proper" ingredients around since moving to Nashville. Here is what last night brought:

What we already had
1) Thin rice noodles in a box
2) Onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms
3) A motley assortment of sauces

What we bought at the store:
1) Bamboo shoots
2) White asparagus - they hat if for $1.99 a pound!!

3) Broccoli, tiny peppers, zucchini

4) Peanuts - Mark grabbed salted ones, so we ended up washing the salt off...

Tune in later to see how we prepped the meal...

Two Aldi Gems: Priana Garlic Gourmet Pasta and Frozen Mussels

2007-03-31T17:23:00Z

The hard part of moving to any new area is finding things, like groceries, that are similar to what you used to get. While at Aldi last weekend, I bought a few experimental items and they ended up tasting GREAT: Priano Garlic Gourmet Pasta (made in Germany) and frozen mussels (Packaged in Scotland).

Priana Pasta
Mark and I have taken to buying "Amish Noodles" at Krogers because they are wider and have no strange extra ingredients. When I looked at the back of the Priana label, I was pleased to observe only two ingredients: Wheat and garlic. Better yet, these noodles are cheese-eep. We made the following dish with them and they were fabulous.

Recipe: BBQ Pork ad Asparagus Pasta

1 package pasta
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 Ristra Red Pepper
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup wine
4 teeth of garlic
1/2 onion
4 grilled pork chops, diced
12 spikes of asparagus
1 tablespoon rosemary

Set water to boil for pasta. Sautee diced onions, garlic, rosemary, pepper. Add 1/4 cup wine. Simmer for about 2 minutes. Pour in pork bits and tomato sauce.

While this is happening, the water will boil, put in pasta.

Add Spaghetti sauce to the tomato mix. Add Cut up asparagus to the boiling pasta when it is about 2 minutes from completion.

Strain pasta and asparagus when done and mix with sauce. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.

Mussels
For $2.50 you get enough mussels for two people to eat as an appetizer, or enough for 4 servings of mussel pasta.

I just bought 8 boxes for my freezer...

Produce Update: Aldi

2007-03-28T14:22:00Z

Looking for cheap groceries while in Germany? Just find an "Aldi" sign and walk inside. You will find the shelves stacked with cardboard boxes of foods at low prices. Aldi does not waste time or money on fancy displays, and true to German Grocer tradition, if you want a bag for your items, you must buy it.

For months, I have wanted to check out the Aldi on Gallatin to see if it was anything like its German parents. Upon entry, I was struck by those same stacks of boxes. The only difference was most of the product lines (no fancy chocolates, alas) and the volume of food and things to buy. In Germany, the store is crammed with things. At the Gallatin location, the aisles are wide and easy to navigate.

One happy thing happened: In the produce section, the vegetables were in better condition AND cheaper than those at the Kroger on Gallatin. That's right, this German-owned grocer managed to acquire better vegetables than the major chain store down the street. There were fewer choices of what to buy, but nothing was rotting or spotty.

Since I can't always drive to the Greenhills area of Nashville in the hopes of finding good produce, I think Aldi will soon become a regular haunt of mine.

Check out was just like the do it in Germany - only the cashier smiled. She quickly scanned in my item and stacked them back in my cart. Aldi saves money by having customers buy their bags, bag their groceries, and return their carts via a $.25 cart deposit system.

All in all, It was a positive experience. I only wish Tennessee's restrictive alcohol laws would change to allow wine and liquor in grocery stores. Can you say "Cheap German Wine"?

It is interesting to note that Aldi is willing to have their Aldi chain in this state, but has no apparent plans to bring in their more trendy Trader Joes retailers. I think it's the wine laws.

So still, we have no three buck chuck.

A New Discovery: Sauerkraut in Baked Chicken

2007-03-19T18:13:00Z

This weekend, we took turns operating a rototiller in the front yard to get ready for early spring planting. The house is over 50 years old and so is the grass. Breaking this ground was HARD work. Needless to say, I didn't have much energy to cook an extensive Sunday meal.

To make things simple, I grabbed a chicken, washed it, then looked around for spices. We had apples, sauerkraut and rosemary.

Not to be discouraged by the lack of spices around, I cut up the apple, stuffed it into the bird with the sauerkraut and sprinkled the rosemary on top. The bird baked for 1.5-2 hours at 350 degrees and ended up being the best baked chicken I have ever made. Here is the recipe:

Rosemary-Sauerkraut Baked Chicken

One 4-5 pound chicken (reduce ingredients for smaller birds)
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
1 apple of the season
1 cup sauerkraut (get the good quality stuff or make your own)

Wash the chicken, inside and out, with warm water (make sure all the innards are outtards). Place in casserole dish or roaster for cooking. Cut the apple into chunks. Stuff them inside the bird. Shove the cup of sauerkraut into the bird. Place Rosemary leaves on top of the bird and rub them around a bit if you want to get the flavor into the meat (which you do). Bake covered at 350 degrees F until the bird is done.

Please use a meat thermometer to make sure the bird at the center is 180 degrees, you really do not want to get food poisoning.

Uncover and bake for 2-4 minutes to brown the top.

Prep time: 5 minutes at the beginning, 5 minutes when it is done.

Kitchen After

2007-03-17T00:58:00Z

It's funny - It doesn't look dramatically different in photos, but BOY is it different!

Asparagus Season Arrives Early in Tennessee

2007-03-16T23:45:00Z

In Tennessee, we have already had days of sunshine in the upper 70s. The grass is beginning to grow again. Our daffodils are just about finished and tulips are on their way. And we have asparagus for cheap in some markets.

That's right, Spargelzeit is upon us in Tennessee a full month before Oregon. The Germans go crazy for the vegetable during this time of year, hence the name "Asparagus time" or "Spargelzeit." Upon seeing the good price and fresh-looking sprigs of this ancient vegetable with many health benefits, I quickly bought about eight bunches.

We have been including it in all our recipes, but here are a few that center around the vegetable...

Asparagus Salad
1) Cut as much asparagus as you want into one-inch lengths and boil. Drain.
2) Allow them to cool and melt a pat or two of butter over them.
3) Salt and pepper to taste.
4) Cool in the fridge and serve in a large salad bowl with olive oil drizzled over them.

Asparagus Pasta
1) Make your pasta and red sauce as normal.
2) Cut asparagus into bite sized chunks.
3) Sprinkle them on the top of your pasta dish, add parm, and you're ready to rock n roll.

Oregon Grilled Asparagus
1) Cut the asparagus into lengths and soak in soy sauce for about 30 minutes.
2) Grill on low until the asparagus is tender.

Asparagus / Butternut Squash Enchiladas
1) Make this recipe: http://nicolesauce.com/2006/12/15/the-polotics-of-a-winter-wonderland-and-butternut-squash-enchiladas.aspx
2) After removing from the oven, sprinkle already boiled pieces of asparagus on the top.
3) Place casserole back in over and broil for about 2 minutes.

I saw another interesting recipe for grilling asparagus where you take a stick of butter and seal it in tinfoil with the vegetable, then grill it.

Of course, Mark asked the logical question after we began eating piles of asparagus: Will this make my pee smell funny? It is interesting to note that, at least on the blogosphere, many don't get the allure of the vegetable. One writer found the whole process of Spargelzeit in Germany baffling. He/She goes on to review the whole urine effect. Note in the comments that buttered asparagus-tinfoil-grill recipe.

Now, I can understand not liking this veggie. As a child, I seem to remember a time or two when I was served (not by my own mother) this delicacy stringy and cooked until it hardly kept its shape. Sort of an asparagus mush. It was bitter and terrible.

So some tips:

The proper way to boil asparagus: Bring water to a boil with asparagus in it. Turn off the burner and wait a few minutes. This will leave the vegetable softened but still firm.
The proper way to cut asparagus: A friend once told me a helpful secret. Grasp a spine of asparagus just below the crown and at the bottom and snap it in two. From where it breaks and lower is where it is stringy and tough. Discard that part.
The proper way around the proper way to cut asparagus: Don't want to waste so much asparagus? In Germany, they use much thicker and much whiter asparagus. To prepare this well, all you do is use a potato peeler on the lover half or so of the spike of asparagus. Removing the skin, removes the stringy unpleasantness. This also works for thick green asparagus.

Day Three Four Five and Six For Kitchen Remodel

2007-03-16T23:26:00Z

OK, OK - I have gotten many an email, call and now a comment waiting for the kitchen results...

I have good news - It is DONE!

Day Three Skinny: The kitchen was all back together, but the dishwasher would not turn on. Luckily, we got a sink. When I asked about the garbage disposal, the contractor said, "Oh Sh*t."

Day Four Skinney: I came home from a very rough day at work to a fully functional, remodeled kitchen with no tile countertops.

Day Five Skinny: I laid all the tile, except the backsplash. OH YEAH! The BACKsplash!! Back to the store to get more tile.

Day Six Skinny: I got up early and finished the backsplash. We grouted later in the day. We toasted a job well done with a little bourbon.

Was it over budget?
- Yes, of course it was. These things always cost more. Let's start with my tile budget - I FORGOT the backsplash. However, the contractor honored his estimate, bless his heart.
Did it take longer than it was supposed to?
- Hell ya! But only a day or two. Melissa would be proud.
Is it how you want it?
- Heck no! I can't afford what I want. But I am quite happy with what I got.

Before:

After:

Mark has all the other photos on his computer. I will upload more soon.

Day Two: Oh Dear, There's a Hole In The Wall

2007-02-22T01:46:00Z

That's right, a hole in the wall. Luckily no BFB (big <expletive> boulder). However, getting the piece of drywall to patch the unexpected hole proved to be more than a four hour adventure, during which time the work crew sat around with nothing to do. At the end of the day, there were no cabinets in the kitchen, still a hole in the wall, and no sink or dishwasher installed.

Additional costs

Nothing So Far

Unexpected Disasters

Big hole in the wall behind the cabinets

We reconvene at 8:30am tomorrow...

Day One: Cabinets Arrive

2007-02-21T01:09:00Z

As is often the case, day one arrived and there was no contractor. In fact, a former job was taking extra time, so ours got rescheduled until Wednesday.

At 7pm, the contractor dropped the new cabinets off... We made pancakes in honor of Fat Tuesday.

Additional costs:

Nothing So Far

Unexpected disasters:

None So Far

Half Homemade Pizza and a New Kitchen Coming Soon

2007-02-20T00:55:00Z

Well, the post Atkins transition is done and, though my weight fluctuated abut 5 pounds, it is now a steady 158 and lowering on the sparkpeople.com method. One of the really good things about their method is that it allows me to eat pizza, with the crust, and encourages a lifestyle change. Their web tracking system is pretty good too!

That said, we've been cooking almost solely at home these days and making quite a mess of things. With no dishwasher to keep up to the task and counter tops that always look dirty to me, the time has come for a little kitchen remodel.

Now, several years ago, I embarked on a similar project. 12 moths later, it was not done and my lovely roommate was about to move out from the frustrations if living in a perpetual construction site. This time, I tried a new method: waiting 7 months to schedule the update so that the contractor is tried and true, I have a window in my schedule to do my part, and I have saved enough money to deal with surprises.

Here is the plan, we will see how things shake out:
Tuesday: Phil (contractor) comes in and removes the cabinets and counter top in the kitchen (and makes them disappear forever). He then sets up the plumbing and wiring for the dishwasher and disposal. Mark and I pick up the dishwasher at Sears. Phil installs new cabinets (which I bought today) and the subcounter top for tiling. In the evening, Mark and I spread a thin layer of adhesive on the bottom of the marble tile so that it sits level tomorrow.

$650 in labor
$900 in cabinets
$300 for the dishwasher

Wednesday: I get up really early so that I can set tile first thing in the morning, even before cooking coffee, then go to work. Mark takes the tiles that need to be cut to Lowe's for cutting and comes home to set them. After work, we grout together.

$280 in tile and tiling tools

Thursday: Phil drops in and installs the sink and dishwasher and they miraculously work the first try. Mark and I move stuff back into the kitchen.

This is our fantasy. I will give a daily update of the actual time line and project cost as we go. It should be interesting. Meanwhile, we are having the lazy man's pizza before we lose the kitchen for a few days.

Half Homemade Pizza

1 cup sauce
6 OZ pepperoni
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 cups Mozzarella cheese
1/4 diced onion
1/2 cup diced GREEN olives
1 Boboli-style crust

Put your pizza stone in the oven and heat for 15 minutes at 400 (if you don't have a pizza stone, run out and get one, they are really cool). Open oven and assemble pizza on oven rack. Place crust on stone. Put on sauce, mushrooms, onions and olives, then a layer of cheese, then the pepperoni. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until the pizza is done. Serve.

Before

Vegetable Stock

2007-02-12T00:15:00Z

A friend was amused that I could not eat the amount of meat required on the Atkins diet to stick with it. She remembered travelling high and low in Germany, seeking vegetarian dishes for me. This was a near impossible task in the erly 90s. Especialy in EAST Germany. Subsequent visits have been much easier for the vegetarian visitor, with many menus having more healthy options than the typical American restaurant.

Though I do eat meat and am healthier for it, my vegetarian years taught me many cooking tricks that have made my meat dishes turn out better than standard fare. One trick I learned in my early vegetarian days was how to make a vegetable soup stock. Keep in mind:

I was in college at the time and had little to no cash
I had time on my hands to do this
I hated tomatoes. I still don't really like them all that much...
Squash was out of the question (yuck)

It starts like this:

Every time you have vegetable scraps, put them in a tupperware container in your freezer. Make sure they are clean before you freeze them. The best scraps are onion and garlic peelings.

Wait for the pile of vegetable scraps to grow.

Waiting...

Waiting...
When you have enough to fill a pot, cut up one onion (peel and all) and put the frozen veggie mass into a large pot with the onion. Top it off with water.
Bring this mixture to a boil, then simmer for 4-6 hours. Make sure to keep water in there.
Strain out all the vegetable mass and simmer the soup broth down until it is as concentrated as you want it.
Salt to taste, then freeze if you don't want to make soup.

I use this stock in many things, from Rissoto to squash bisque (I got over my dislike for squash). The best part from my small l libertarian perspective: It's super cheap to produce!

Atkins Day 5: Glazed Grilled Ahi And Defeat

2007-01-27T17:37:00Z

Today, I was so sick that I almost lost my cookies after dinner. After doing a little poking around online, I decided that Atkins, while it has caused me to lose weight this week, is not the right choice for me. On Thursday, I was so weak, I couldn't make it through my Pilates class, and swimming 2,000 yards would have been impossible. My conclusion? An active person really needs carbs to function.

The whole time I was on the diet, I did not crave sugary foods, but rather fruits and grains. Mark, having lost 10 pounds in a week, agrees that we need to slow down the weight loss and go about things in a more balanced way. WebMD.com has been a good source of information, as has simply googlesearching "How to safely stop Atkins." We decided, since most of the initial weight loss on Atkins in only water weight, to be careful about how much fat we consume.

We are transitioning int he following ways:
1) High fiber, whole grain foods. No white foods.
2) Lots of veggies
3) Low fat consumption
4) Seeking protien somewhere besides meat - but not cutting out all meats

www.sparkpeople.com has turned out to be a great resource for this strategy. They set up an individualized plan for you, tell you what you can consume, then give you all sorts of online tools to track what you are doing and compare if it is what you should be doing. They are much better than WeightWatchers because they are FREE!

Hats off to those of you out there who are able to stick to this diet.

Recipe of the Day: Low Carb Glazed Ahi

1 shot brandy

1 spoonful rosemary

1 spoonful hot peppers

Salt and pepper

Lightly salt and pepper both sides of the ahi, rub the rosemary and peppers over the outside of the meat. Drizzly the brandy on the steak. Grill until it is as cooked as you like it.

Day 5 Summary
Consumed: two cups of coffee, 2 tablespoons cream, 2 bites of steak (2oz), 2 hard boiled eggs, 4 cups lettuce, 1 cup broccoli, 3 slices summer sausage, 3 pieces cucumber, 3oz grilled chicken breast, 1 tablespoon blue cheese dressing, 48 ounces fizzy water, one cup jasmine tea.

Calorie Count: This is approximate - 650.

How I Feel: Nauseous. Headachy. Lethargic. Weak. Like my stomach lining was eating itself.

How Mark Feels: Worse than I do.

Weight at 8pm: 159.0 pounds.

Work Out: Are you kidding me?

Dear VoiceStream

2007-01-26T19:10:00Z

Dear VoiceStream,

In 1999, I got my first telephone from you. We chose you after extensive research on cellphone providers because you had great customer service.

After only six months on that first phone, it started to crack into two pieces. I did not know it at the time, but it turns out that I am really hard on things. As much as I try not to break them, the act of carrying them around in my briefcase makes things break. Your customer service folks politely refused to replace the phone, but gave me another one for free in exchange for a one-year service agreement.

A word on your customer service. They were helpful, listened and came up with a reasonable solution to my problem. The lovely Nokia that I got as a result lasted for years with nothing more than a little scratch on the monitor. Sadly, it lasted longer than you did.

Shortly after this time, T-Mobile bought you, dear VoiceStream, and I hoped that they would be smart enough to keep the VoiceStream customer service model, but add T-Mobile coverage and efficiencies. Alas, it was not to be.

Within a year, customer service had gotten so bad, that when I called with my first problem, the customer service representative actually tried to give me, A GEN X FEMALE, a fatherly lecture on proper cellphone plan usage. And this was the guy you employ to try to KEEP customers. A word of advice: Gen X female professionals don't respond so well to dominating male take charge of your life attitudes. It's not that I don't respect biological differences, it's just that these differences do not translate into my ability to know what good customer service is and the value of loyalty.

That's right, loyalty. I would have stayed with you VoiceStream turned T-Mobile, had you simply shown me that you cared about my business. Now, for years, I had never gone over my minute allocation and paid my bills on time. Had you simply met me half way on that phone bill, I would have increased my minutes and stayed with you until now in spite of your crummy network. But instead, you forced me to leave you for another provider.

When you realized that my number was about to port away, you called to ask me why and I told you. At that time, you mentioned that you would have met me half way had I mentioned that I was leaving. I decided not to bother explaining to you that your own customer service guy was too busy giving me a lecture to listen to the customer's issue.

Goodbye T-Mobile, hello Verizon Wireless.

Sincerely,

Nicole Sauce

PS - I consider this experience to be the first among an increasing amount of horrible customer care experiences in an increasingly customer comes 3rd or 4th world. Anyone who knows of a cellphone provider who has excellent customer care, kindly comment below.

PPS - Read my letter to Verizon Wireless in a few days. Comcast will eventually follow, as will AT&T.

Atkins Day 4: Pureed Veggies and Cheese

2007-01-26T15:27:00Z

Mark was reading about Atkins and it was described as the "Starvation Diet." This is how it feels. You feel like you are starving but you are not hungry. Everyone I have spoken with about the diet has said the same thing. The first four days or so, you have a low grade headache and feel weak, but then you get over the hump and feel great as you lose weight.

Well, we made it to day four and have started discussing if we will quit the diet early and just try counting calories. We fantasize about pizza, donuts (I don;t even like donuts), and crackers. Last night, Mark pointed out that the net effect of this diet has been that he and I want different foods. I was craving chicken celery soup and he wanted chicken breast salad.

Luckily, we managed to compromise on grilled Ahi and this new veggie puree I dreamed up. Now, this is not a strictly Atkins initiation phase compliant recipe, but it is about 6 carbs per serving and a welcome break from boiled eggs, celery sticks and meat.

Recipe of the Day: Veggie Puree
1.5 cups chopped broccoli
1 dries red pepper from the Ristra
.5 cups chopped brussel sprouts
.5 cups grated cheese
salt to taste
1/4 stick of butter, unsalted

Boil the heck outta the veggies and drain them. Put them in your food processor, add the butter and cheese and puree. Salt to taste.

This dish made us so happy after eating all that meat in the last few days that we bucked up and watched some Soprano's on the 'puter.

Day 4 Summary
Consumed: two cups of coffee, 2 tablespoons cream, 1 bite of steak (1oz), 1 celery stock, 1 pork chop, 1 hard boiled egg, 8 tablespoons of sauerkraut, a shot of brandy (on the outside of the Ahi, 1 cup veggie Puree, Ahi steak grilled (about 6 ounces), 4 cups lettuce, 72 ounces fizzy water.

Calorie Count: This is approximate - 950.

How I Feel: Nauseous. Headachy. Lethargic. Weak. More energy after dinner.

How Mark Feels: Like I do.

Weight at 8pm: 162.0 pounds.

Work Out: 1 hour of Pilates - I could not hold certain positions at the end and got really sore muscles afterward.

Atkins Day 3: Still Feeling Sick

2007-01-25T20:16:00Z

Ok, so dieting isn't fun, but I a thinking of all those new clothes I get to buy when this is over. Mark and I have begin to plan our Superbowl Sunday celebration. Vegetarian lasagna is currently at the top if the list, though a nice chicken ravioli might replace that.

Recipe of the day, German influenced: Pork chops and sauerkraut

1/2 package sauerkraut (or 32 tablespoons)

3 boneless pork chops

1 dried pepper from the Ristra

Combine ingredients and simmer for a very long time. These chops are really good with spicy mustard.

Day 3 Summary
Consumed: two cups of coffee, 2 tablespoons cream, 1 steak (6oz), 2 celery stocks, 1 pork chop, half a package of bacon, 3 hard boiled eggs, 8 tablespoons of sauerkraut, a shot of brandy, 72 ounces fizzy water.

Calorie Count: This is approximate - 1200.

How I Feel: Nauseous. Headachy. Cold. Lethargic.

How Mark Feels: Like I do.

Weight at 8pm: 164.0 pounds.

Work Out: 15 minutes of tossing the football around.

Atkins Day 2: I Feel Sick

2007-01-24T13:31:00Z

Such an odd think to be able to eat piles of meat and have absolutely no desire to do so. The morning started with no feeling of hunger and a slight nauseous sensation. This feeling is akin to being on the birth control pill: I am slightly dizzy and there is this lump in the back of my throat that makes me not want to eat. Half way through my noon work out, I was finding no strength in my legs.

Welcome to day two.

Our recipe for the day is pretty simple: Chicken Salad

1 chicken breast
1 tablespoon ceasar dressing
salt
pepper
hot peppers
1 sliced egg
1 1/2 cups chopped Romain (up this to 3 cups if you can)

Rub the chicken breast with the spice mix (light salt, pepper, hot peppers), drizzle a little olive oil on there and grill these babies. Serve the chicken breast on the bed of lettuce.

We invested $50 in a wonderful gas grill that was barely used last summer. This grill is now the best Atkins tool for cooking in the world. On Day 1, I tried to broil my breakfast steak and ended up setting off the fire alarm. As smoke billowed out the open front door, Mark recommended that we just grill a bunch of steaks at once while the weather is nice and keep them in the fridge to reheat.

Day 2 Summary
Consumed: two cups of coffee, 2 tablespoons cream, 1 steak (6oz), 1 celery stock, 12 shrimp drizzled with Cholula, 1/2 cup steamed broccoli, 1 chicken breast, lettuce, ceasar dressing, lots of fizzy water.

Calorie Count: This is approximate - 600. Starting to see why this diet works.

How I Feel: Overfull. Nauseous.

How Mark Feels: Like he has been fasting for 24 hours, but without hunger pangs.

Weight at 8pm: 164.4 pounds.

Work Out: 1 hour of Pilates.

Post Holiday Fad Diet: 2 Weeks of Atkins

2007-01-23T16:15:00Z

So, after all the food of the holidays and in spite of our snow shoeing activities, I find myself with a BMI of 25.5. This is officially over the line. I can be defined as "Overweight." For the last two weeks, Mark and I have discussed possible diets for me to try. Our roommate even piped in. At the end of the day, I have decided to test this Atkins thing for two weeks and measure the results. Interested in comparing? Click on the Weightloss Experiment Nicole Sauce category to view related posts.

According to Wiki:

The Induction phase is the first, and most restrictive, phase of the Atkins Nutritional Approach. It is intended to cause the body to quickly enter a state of ketosis. Carbohydrate intake is limited to 20 net grams per day. The allowed foods include a liberal amount of most meats, up to 4 ounces of aged, hard or soft cheeses, three tablespoons of heavy cream, two cups of salad vegetables, one cup of other low glycemic low carb vegetables. Caffeine and alcoholic beverages are not allowed.

This rather conflicts with other instructions we found online, so we came up with the following compromise:

1) 20 grams of carbs per day for 2 weeks
2) Coffee and vodka are OK in moderation
3) We will try to eat as many veggies as we can fit into the 20 gram scenario
4) After 2 weeks, we get a day of fun (Superbowl Sunday), where we track nothing. After that, I am on a 1600 calorie per day diet, balanced Sparky style.
5) Ongoing maintenance will include one "fun" day per week where I can eat and drink anything.

There are many tools available to plan the first two weeks of Atkins, but I just decided to download a nutrition chart and go for gold...

Each day, I will update my progress and outline what I consumed.

Day One
Consumed: two cups of coffee, 2 tablespoons cream, one bacon-wrapped fliet (6 oz), 1 celery stock, 3/4 cup meat based stuffing, 1 cup cabbage, 1/2 small summer squash, 1 tablespoon blue cheese dressing, 1 shot vodka, a bite of grilled steak, 1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella, lots of fizzy water.

Calorie Count: This is approximate - 1500.

How I Feel: Overfull. Not happy, not sad.

How Mark Feels: Sick to his stomach.

Weight at 8pm: 166.2 pounds.

Work Out: None.

Recipe of the day: Stuffed Cabbage

2 cups ground meat
1 diced summer squash
2 tablespoons blue cheese dressing (buy one without sugar)
1/2 cabbage
3 tsp garlic powder
1 tablespoon spicy peppers
2 tsp salt
2 pats butter
1/2 cup Mozzarella
1 tablespoon Italian spices
1 tablespoon rosemary

1) Squish together spices, meat, diced summer squash and blue cheese dressing
2) Cut the cabbage into quarter pieces and pull out the center so you have a 1/2 inch thick shell
3) Stuff the meat mixture inside the cabbage
4) Place a pat of butter on top of each quarter
5) Sprinkle cheese on top
6) Bake at 350 until it is done

Note: I undercooked ours and had to finish it off in the microwave. Use a meat thermometer if you have one to make sure it is done.

Total carbs: 16. (That's 8 each)

The serving was too big to finish and I awoke the next morning still FULL.

How to Make Your Text Black in QuickBlog

2007-01-19T23:14:00Z

QuickBlog is the interface I use for my blog. It is quick and easy, but I find the templates are very non-flexible. For weeks, I have HATED the light grey word colors on the front of my blog, and couldn't find any way to change them. Then I remembered the old days when I used to code sited in Wordpad, handy copy of the HTML Blackbook by my side.

So, using that outdated technology, I came up with the following solution. This, ufortunately, has to be done in EVERY new entry, but I just can't seem to get access to the CSS to make the standard text display in black.

1) When you write a new entry, click on the HTML tab at the bottom of your WYSIWYG window.
2) Paste <FONT color=#000000>test</font>
3) Go back to the Design view an replace the word "test" with your entry.

When you publish an excerpt, be sure to also start it with <FONT color=#000000>, type in your excerpt, then add </font>.

Still No Love From Netflix

2007-01-18T00:03:00Z

It appears that in spite of my email, I will have to wait for my Watch Now tab.

Trying Boxed Wine in Tennessee

2007-01-17T23:44:00Z

Moving to Tennessee from Oregon has brought prohibition to the forefront of my consciousness. Every state has its own weird alcohol rules.

In Oregon, the state-controlled liquor stores have standardized pricing, the list of accepted liquors requires lobbying the OLCC (which is why you can't get good Kirschwasser in Oregon), some types of beer may be sold one place, but not another.

Utah has a "membership" thing happening. If you do not have a membership to an alcohol-serving establishment, you may not enter and buy booze. However, if someone sponsors you, you can get in for free. This means that pretty blonde girls don't pay, but the rest of us have to.

You can avoid the membership thing if you go to a restaurant that serves beer, but wait! SOME sections of certain restaurants have membership fees. I also noticed that, as a girl, my serving seemed consistently smaller than my male counterparts. Must be because women metabolize alcohol slower than men. Ok, not when you control for differing amounts of water in the body, but for our purposes, women are slower.

My trip to Charleston revealed a culture where every drink comes in a tiny little bottle. Bars have rows and rows of airplane bottles. I was told this is so they can track the drink taxes. It made my classical liberal hackles rise. Prohibition AND taxes. Stranger still was closing time: police officers shoed us out the door and made certain we didn't wander off with a drink.

Tennessee is topsy-turvey. Two different organizations oversee two types of the sauce. Wine and liquor may be purchased at a liquor store, but not on Sunday, never on Sunday. I guess when Christ turned water to wine, it wasn't on the Holy Day. Beer, on the other hand is available at grocery stores, but if you wanted to have it at a liquor store, well then I guess you'd have to build a separate store next door. Worse, you may not ship alcohol to or from the volunteer state. Well actually, wine.com will ship here, but wine.woot.com will not. JD must have figured out a way around this.

Indeed, buying wine in Nashville has proven to be a challenge. I used to buy it by the case from a wholesaler in Portland on Sundays. ($60 bottles for $20)

It took me 2.5 months to find myself at the right kind of store on the right sort of day with wine on the brain.

Following a tip from a friend, I decided to try a wine called Black Box. For $20, you get the equivalent of four bottles. This is approaching Trader Joes prices and since we don't have Aldi's popular grocery chain here (probably because they'd have to build a separate TJ's wine shop), I gave it a shot. Here's is what I discovered:

Pro's

It is more entertaining to open a box of wine than a bottle
It is more entertaining to get your wine into your glass with a spigot
It tastes OK
Seeing the box in my fridge reminds me of when I was a kid and we were really poor
$5 per bottle...

Cons

It is a challenge to keep the wine in the glass when you pour from a spigot because it comes out so quickly
The wine does not breathe in a bag (try a decanter)
Come to think of it, the charm of opening a box will wear off and I'll miss the ritual of the wine bottle
It "feels" so cheap
With one box equal to 4 bottles, it is tempting to drink too much because you never run out of wine

All in all, we are happy with the Black Box as long as it stays in the basement fridge where we can't get at it as easily.

Other helpful comments on Black Box Wines:
The Boxed Wine Spot
Looks like they are marketing their product, or??
See Sip Taste Hear
Interesting take on boxed Sauce.

2003 Bears' Lair California Cabernet Sauvignon From Trader Joes

2007-01-17T17:47:00Z

Bears' Lair has a nice label with two friendly bears holding hands. ACNielsen's label study supports this logo choice. It seems that US consumers prefer the warm fuzzy feeling of a mascot. And yet, this label also manages to look regal.

For those of us who troll Trader Joes for cheap wines that taste kinda good, Bears' Lair fits the bill. It has a robust yet not too strong flavor, no lingering wino aftertaste and it doesn't even turn my teeth purple over dinner!

One wine-ranker disagrees with me, however:

Judgementalist says: "I would suggest cheap vinegar instead."

Well, I guess my tastes might not be refined enough to agree. This wine is pleasant, goes really well with past and is one of those bottle I would buy by the case if Trader Joes would just PLEASE come to Nashville.

Summary: 2003 Bears' Lair Cabernet Sauvignon at Trader Joes

Flavor: Dry, mid to full flavored, no bad aftertaste
Color: Nice
Ideal temperature: Room is best
Response to decanting: It improves
Recommendation: Buy a bottle, take it home and taste it, and if you like it, go immediately back to Trader Joes and buy them out.

Movies On Demand

2007-01-16T16:29:00Z

Netflix announced today that they will offer movies for viewing over the Internet. Movielink already offers this service through a download-and-presumably-self-destruct-after-30-days system. Google Video seems well placed to add this fee-for-viewing option to their "Buy High Quality" button.

But Netflix is doing it differently. Their press release explains that their service is superior because the viewer may instantly see the movie and does not have to wait for the entire movie to download. hmm - sounds like Youtube... All you need is a PC (not a mac) and a high speed Internet connection to begin viewing. And all this at no additional cost.

That's right, read their lips...

The new feature will be included in subscribers' monthly membership plans at no additional cost, and the company said its phased roll-out is meant to ensure that subscribers have a great initial experience with the feature.

Hmmm, that means I may not be on the list to try this out right away. I sent them a desperate email requesting to be in early group, but have not yet heard back. They merely informed me that they might get back to me if I am lucky enough to be one of the millions of emails that deserves a response.

But, this has caused me, and likely countless others to reactivate our on-hold accounts. Nothing was more frustrating than waiting up to 5 days for my DVD to arrive in the mail.

Want to see a demo?
Hacking Netflix was kind enough to set one up for those of us who are not yet lucky enough to have this activated on our accounts.

Mark's Crockpot Beef Burrito Filling

2007-01-11T00:56:00Z

1 roast cut into 1/2 inch squares (indeed, we did have 2 roasts to eat this week)
1 onion
3 teeth garlic
2 16 oz cans green enchilada sauce
1 can green chili
1/2 cup meat stock
2 red peppers from the Ristra
1 cup white rice
1/2 cup diced cilantro

Combine all ingredients except for the rice. Cook on low for 6 hours. Add rice. Slow cook for an hour or two. Serve.

Beef Stew - It's What To Do (Follow Up)

2007-01-08T16:43:00Z

As is usual in my "little bit of this, add some of that" kitchen, the recipe for stew got altered at the last minute. After cooking the soup on high for about 7 hours, I noticed that the broth was a bit thin and added 1/4 cup of white flour to thicken it up. In addition, I added a tablespoon of dried dill.

Report from Mark: "The best stew he ever had."

A note about salt: I salted to taste before serving, then served again in an hour. I had to add more salt after the hour, probably because the potatoes absorbed the first round.

Stew - It's What To Do (When He Doesn't Want Roast Beef)

2007-01-07T18:20:00Z

Over New Year's, we had roast beef and mashed potatoes with Mark's mother. Two days ago, I flattened a round steak, stuffed it and rolled it up, then baked it. When I mentioned that we would have roast beef for dinner, usually a very popular announcement, Mark said, "Again?"

Clearly, it is time for fried chicken or pasta, but there is a defrosted roast to eat before it goes bad. Luckily, we ordered about $40 in vegetables from PlumGoodFoods.com this week and are well prepared for beef stew.

In fact, this is a meal that my busy bachelor friends will love because it takes about 10 minutes to prepare and is an impressive accomplishment if you have invited a girlfriend over for dinner. The only special tool needed is a crock pot - something every bachelor should have, and Jamin' Philip Gray agrees.

Beef Stew Instead Of Roast Beef

One Defrosted Roast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Two medium sized onions, diced
1 bay leaf
2 celery stocks
2 large carrots, sliced or cubed
2 medium sized potatoes, sliced or cubed
2 handfuls of spinach, diced
1/2 cup red cabbage, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 dry red pepper*

*While in Santa Fe in December, we had hoped to buy green peppers, but the season was past. Instead of fresh green peppers, dried red ones were available in large quantities. These Ristras are a beautiful addition to the kitchen and a great source for spice in day to day meals:

1) In a crock pot, place all ingredients.
2) Add 2-3 cups of water, depending on how much room is available in the crock.
3) Cook on high until the soup simmers, add water as needed to keep it moist.
4) Reduce to low and simmer until it is time to serve.
5) Remove the red pepper and bay leaf, then add salt and pepper to taste just before serving.

This meal is exceptionally easy to prepare because the only cooking time needed is the dicing of ingredients. I often use the crock pot for meals during the Legislative Session, when work demands much of my attention. Meals can be prepared in the crock pot, which I keep in the fridge until it is time to cook them. Because the crock slow cooks, I can turn the machine on at noon and have a nice meal at 7 with no pre-dinner cooking hassle.

Serve this meal with a nice loaf of artisan bread and butter and add a salad if you are feeling fancy.

A Trader Joes Wine Review: Rheingau Pinot Noir

2007-01-05T17:53:00Z

Germany has much healthier alcohol laws and practices than the US. In Germany, the drinking age is 16 for beer. If you are under 16 and your parents are with you, they may order an alcoholic beverage on your behalf. A glass of wine or cup or beer with a meal is not unusual for a teenager at the family table. When there is a celebration, Sekt, or sparkling wine, is often present. In this environment, many children grow up understanding that alcohol is something to compliment a meal or celebration.

Drunkenness is not unheard of in Germany. Just visit Oktoberfest and you will see Germans and foreigners alike in a state of wobbly intoxication. The partying in Germany is some of the most enthusiastic celebrating I have ever witnessed. However, the attitude about drunkenness seems much healthier. The drunkard in Germany is responsible for their own decision to end up in this state, even if they are an alcoholic. A drunkard may be viewed as annoying or disruptive, but it is also their fault for ending up that way. It is not a thing blamed on the evils of alcohol or addiction, but rather a challenge to overcome.

At 19, I lived in Germany and tried my first good red wine at an Italian restaurant. It was a Chianti, which I ordered mainly because I was confident that I could pronounce the name if the wine. The Italian waiter promptly corrected my pronunciation, but the wine was an excellent dry-but-a-little-fruity beverage that made my face flush pleasantly. For most of that year, I confidently ordered Chianti, afraid to try anything else for fear of another disastrous mispronunciation.

In the spring, my father visited and we headed to the Rhein Valley. The region is ideal for growing wine grapes. With Dad there, I was confident enough to try some German wines.

Surprisingly, the extra dry Rieslings in the area were superb - a minor miracle since every US-manufactured Riesling that I have tried since has been sickly sweet with a strong alcohol aftertaste.

It was exciting, in light of this, to find an actual German wine at Trader Joes in the $7 per bottle price range: The Rheingau Pinot Nior.

For four days, I looked forward to opening this bottle and chose a night when I had worked until about 8 and could take the rest of the night to enjoy a glass of wine and a good book by the fire. This wine tasted much like a sweet, US Riesling, but was light red in color and came complete with a strong alcohol aftertaste. Blech.

One way to make it better, is to refrigerate it like a white wine. This reduces the aftertaste and makes it less sweet. Sweet wine lovers out there may enjoy this wine, but if you think dryer is better, leave the 2005 Rheingau Pinot Nior on the shelf and buy a nice Chianti.

Summary: 2005 Rheingau Pinot Nior at Trader Joes

Flavor: Sweet with a strong aftertaste
Color: Nice
Ideal temperature: Cold
Response to decanting: It gets worse
Recommendation: Don't buy

Maybe it is too young...

New Mexico Weather and Green Chilis Vs. Red

2007-01-03T04:10:00Z

Santa Fe - High winds brought dark clouds ready to dump over 12 inches of snow overnight while we slept in our cozy Motel 6 (with no internet access). The day before, while driving from Colorado to Santa Fe, a wall of snow was visible to the west of the highway. The pressure was on.

While in Santa Fe for only about 36 hours, we managed to eat three meals at different restaurants and it led to a debate. Are green chilis better than red? The answer is easy: It depends on the restaurant.

Oddly enough, while the food was quite good at the two restaurants that appear to be most popular, we found that the chili relleno and green chili with spiced beef at this place on Cervellos that was sublime.

Guadalupe Cafe had the best local reputation, and quite frankly a snobish attitude. The food was good, but in spite of multiple warnings about how spicy the peppers were, the green chilis were too tame for my taste. If you are at Guasalupe Cafe - order red.

Tomasita's Cafe was really full of people and we ate at the bar. They charge extra for chips and salsa, but the tamales were GREAT. Red and green are equal here.

The place on Cervellos that had the stellar relleno has a name that escaped me, but they have this great picture of Kokopelli on their sign. If you go nowhere else, so there for the relleno. It is located between the two Motel 6s. If you find this place and go to it - GO GREEN!

A good rule of thumb (to use a wonderfully non-PC term) is to order to color of chili that is on the "Specials" menu. For those of you who have been berated for using this term, here is a lovely article on the topic.

Experimental Stuffing Recipe Update

2006-12-26T18:20:00Z

On Dec 24, I posted a recipe I had never tried. I am pleased to report that the family thought it was great and we hardly have any left overs from this dish. I did a few things different on the recipe:
1) I forgot to add the garlic
2) I threw in a handfull of celery

All in all, Christmas dinner was GREAT, though a bit late due to the working schedule of my sister who was on call for the local hospital.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2006-12-25T17:03:00Z

A Lot in Colorado and Rosemary Sausage Pumpernickel-Cornbread Stuffing

2006-12-24T23:25:00Z

Stagecoach is so stunning that we have been looking at lots since August. Last week we found one with the a great view. After looking at comps, we made what we thought was a fair offer, came to terms with the seller and are on our way to our first country paradise...

With all the traipsing around on the lot, we really wished we had snowshoes on. The post Colorado blizzard snow drifts are above mid thigh in some areas of the land. After a morning of snow-filled boots and below zero temperatures, we stayed in and prepared for Christmas dinner.

The time is now to let the bread get stale for Monday's feast and we would have cut up two loaves of bread (one whole wheat, and one Pumpernickel), but the stores are out of almost everything. That's right, a Denver blizzard, paired with Steamboat Springs doubling in size with incoming visitors for the Christmas holiday has resulted in a Soviet-like grocery situation. People are actually waiting for the delivery trucks to arrive and buying the store out as items get here. Having given up on finding what I wanted, the following recipe will suffice for our feast.

Rosemary Sausage Pumpernickel-Cornbread Stuffing

1 batch cornbread, broken into crumbs
1 loaf Pumpernickel bread, cut unto one-inch squares and stale (good thing I bought this a week ago!)
1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage (muhahaha - I got the last of the sausage)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 onions
4 teeth garlic
1 spoon full of Mexican red peppers (Guess what I left at home? My turkish peppers )
1 cup turkey stock (made from the turkey neck because there is no stock at the gorcery store)
6 eggs (uh-oh, we only have 16 eggs left!)
2 hands full of mushrooms

Caramelize the onions, then add the mushrooms, rosemary leaves, Mexican peppers and garlic and saute. (I will propable add 1/4 cup of white wine at this point, too.) Brown the Sausage.

Put all the dry ingredients in a larg bown and add the onion-spice-sausage mix and the 6 egs and squish around with your hands.

Place in a casserole dish, pour the stock over the top, cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done.

If you try this one, let me know what you think as I have not yet cooked it. Update on flavor to follow the holiday.

Merry Christmas!

Blizzard - and a Blizzardy Frosting Recipe

2006-12-21T03:24:00Z

Snow is coming down in piles. My sister's husband is trapped due to airport closures. We are tucked safely away in a toasty condo. The cat is snoozing in her bed next to the fireplace. And there is a birthday to celebrate!

With roads slippery as heck up here, and the cake already baked, running to the market for some frosting doesn't sound very fun, so I whipped up the following frosting:

Nicole's White Blizzard Frosting

1 normal-sized container of sour cream (If you are in Germany, quark would be even better in this)
1 stick salted butter (1/4 cup, I dunnoh the gramage)
1 package cream cheese
5 Tablespoons organic sugar (It's all organic all the time at my sister's house)

Make sure everything is at room temperature and mix all this stuff together really well. I used a hand mixer for about 5 minutes. Add sugar if you like it extra sweet (I don't). Spread it and chill.

A word on quark:
Our friends at Wikipedia have one explanation of this yummy German food. But, if you just type "Quark" in a Wikisearch, you only get the more English version of the term and no other choices. Who will join me in the Quark revolution? We need to add a new Quark entry in the English version of Wiki and get the word out. Quark is also a food -- and a GOOD food at that!

Cornbread Mushroom Stuffing

2006-12-20T16:20:00Z

4 cups stale cornbread crumbs (Make the bread yourself to avoid cornbread with wheat flour)
2 cups vegetable stock
1 onion, diced
2 tblsp olive oil
2 tblsp died fresh rosemary, or dry equivalent
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 cup diced mushrooms
1 green chili from a can (You can use fresh ones, but I only found canned up here in the mountains)
2-4 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (not the Kraft bottle if you can avoid it)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil until a drop of water sizzles in it and add the onions. Caramelize them. Add mushrooms and sauté them. Add rosemary, stir. Remove from heat.

Mix the stale or toasted cornbread crumbs with the onion-mushroom mixture, salt and pepper, and diced green chili. Crack 2-4 eggs into the mixture. Eggs add moisture and hold the stuffing together - you can decide on the calorie-fat-tastiness trade off. Mix well.

Put stuffing mixture in a casserole dish, pour the vegetable stock over it, cover and bake for about 25 minutes. Add the Parmesan to the top and bake until the stuffing is done.

Other great references for cornbread stuffing:
Gluten A Go Go (sounds yummy - I'll try it for our January Turkey feast)
Kizzie's New England Cornbread stuffing (Not vegetarian, watch out for pop ups on this site!)
Coming for Dinner (It's a turduckon supporting recipe - I couldn't resist!)

Brad Edmond's Take on Stuffing:
Giving Thanks to Family, Friends, and the Market

But I also owe thanks to thousands of other people, without whom the Thanksgiving dinner I eat - along with most other meals I enjoy - would be beyond my reach. ...

My mom's oyster stuffing is but one example of this miracle. It is a wonder that we have access to oysters, for one thing! Although I live near enough to the bay, oftentimes the oysters are shipped from bodies of water hundreds or thousands of miles away. Each of the other ingredients has a long distance to go before it ultimately winds up in my hungry tummy.

With all my recent complaining about not being able to find things in the Rocky Mountains, it is rather amazing that I can get fresh mushrooms and rosemary in this vast, frozen locale.

Hobbit Salad

2006-12-20T15:02:00Z

One challenge we always face at family holiday meals it that some of the family doesn't eat meat, some of them are off wheat and most prefer the traditional dishes. This year, added to the turkey feast will be cornbread stuffing, hobbit salad and yam-cheddar casserole to meet these challenges.

Here's one for the halflings...

Hobbit Salad Recipe From Mom

Hobbit salad: romaine lettuce, pecans, feta cheese or other (I'm using Edam this year) cheese, tangerine crescents, red onion (optional). With raspberry vinaigrette.

Beginning Snowshoeing in Steamboat Springs Region & a Really Good Breakfast

2006-12-19T16:25:00Z

With all the tall passes around Steamboat Springs and not quite enough snow at the ski resort to make the $82 lift ticket worth it, this December has been a great opportunity to try snowshoeing.

Akin to hiking, this sport, at 10,000 feet, quickly takes the breath away - and not just because of the beatiful views.

Some things that were surprising to a newbe:

Your feet SINK into the snow 12 or more inches. I thought the shoes would allow us to glide on top of the powder.
The snow shoes really do help - just take them off and see how far you sink (but do it with somebody near by to lift you out of the pit you create).
Walking over "frozen" streams is scary because visions of falling through the ice, getting sucked under the water and suffocating dance through the mind. Mark thinks I am being silly.
A short distance gives you a pretty good workout, especially if you go uphill.
Bring lots of water.

So far, we have tried three locations in the region: Rabbit Ears Pass, Buffalo Pass and the pass above Stagecoach, Lynx Pass. Rabbit Ears was the most secluded location - we saw no one - and it boasted fluffy, puffy hills. Buffalo Pass had great trails, but also many people on skis, snow mobiles, snow shoes, and just hanging out. Lynx Pass is surrounded by farms and rolling views. We headed up a trail for several miles and found some of the best scenery of our trip. But a word of caution, it would not be fun to be stuck in any of these locations in a blizzard.

Stagecoach is a town with an interesting story. This town promised to be a great vacation get away in 1972, complete with ski resort and golfing for year-round activity. But the development firm that chose to support the award-winning resort town plan lost so much money on a different resort in a different state, according to locals, that the Stagecoach Resort went under in 1974. It is now owned by a "family," locals tell me, but is unoperational.

With so much growth emulating from Steamboat Springs, Stagecoach has experienced a recent realestate boom because you can still buy a house there for $450k. Stagecoach is located next to a lake, great for sailing, water skiing and swimming. Trout fishing below the resorvior dam is some of the best in the area. It seems like the time may be coming to put in that environmentally-friendly golf course, like the Salishan in Oregon...

After a hard morning of traipsing through vast white expanses, hunger sets in and Lucile's in Steamboat Springs (right next to Ace Hardware) is a good option. The eggs benedict there are something to crave and are only about $8. The serving staff is extra friendly, like those in Nashville, and we experienced a new kind of biscuit:

And best of all, they serve breakfast all day!

Christmas is Coming, ...

2006-12-18T17:18:00Z

...the goose is getting fat.

In our case it's a turkey and we are starting to get set. While it is premature to but anything parishable, it is not premature to bake a loaf of bread for the stuffing. It is not premature to get the ingredients for the Butternut Squash Pie (YOU try to find a fresh pumpkin in Steamboat Springs, CO).

Adding to the challenge this year is Mark's birthday, just days before the holiday. He has requested pizza and red velvet cake. Tune in tomorrow for the pre-celebration activities. This year, he will get to taste his first ever all organic, homemade pizza. It might answer the age old question: Does organic taste better?

Freshly baked bread is a yummy base for any stuffing and it doesn't have to take a million years to prepare. Geraldine Duncann taught me a spiffy shortcut back in my Southern Oregon days when I had the benefit of sitting in her kitchen, watching and helping as she experimented for her cookbooks. The following recipe is my invention, but Geraldine's shortcut method.

Homemade Bread for Stuffing

2 cups warm water
1 tsp yeist
2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-4 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground rosemary, or diced fresh rosemary

Take 2 cups of warm water and mix in the yeist. Add two cups of water, mix well, then walk away for 45 minutes and clean your livingroom, read a book, go on a short walk, or do whatever else you like to do. I personally like to write songs in such a break.

After the 45 minute break, add the olive oil and salt and rosemary. Add flour until it is dough (as in not too dense, but also doesn't stick like goo to your fingers. NOTE: remove your rings before touching the dough or they will get super dirty. Shape into a loaf. Cover the dough and walk away for another 25-45 minutes.

ASIDE: I often just throw the bread in the oven at this point for baking, but if you want lighter bread, wait for the second rising cycle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaf for 25-45 minnutes until it is done. The crust should be a nice golden brown.

Remove bread from oven and let it cool for 15 minutes, then slice the heel off, butter it and try hard not to eat the rest of the loaf.

In southern Oregon, we went through a loaf of this bread every two days.

The Politics of a Winter Wonderland and Butternut Squash Enchiladas

2006-12-16T03:49:00Z

Beautiful Colorado, a winter wonderland filled with contrasts. Farmers versus townies, high mountains and flat plains, lefty progressives and social conservatives arguing over where to overspend tax dollars. And the people are skinny here when compared with those in the south. Probably because if you don't ski, snowshoe AND run in a day, you have failed.

Or perhaps we can learn a lesson from my sister, the inventor of a really good and low calorie, low fat (yet yummy) Mexican-style treat: Butternut Squash Enchiladas.

Nysa's Butternut Squash Enchiladas (She uses organic everything when possible)

1 whole butternut squash
1.5 cups grated pepperjack cheese
Corn tortillas - about 10
1 can tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce
2 tablesppons or more of chili powder
1 tablespoon Cholula Sauce
Crushed red peppers to taste

Cut squash into 1 inch squares and bake them until they are squishy. We are at about 6800 feet so cooking tends to take longer here, therefore estimating the time for this is hard. Use the fork test.

Mix tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, Cholula Sauce, and crushed red peppers well to make the enchilada sauce.

Build the enchiladas casserole style: one layer tortilla, one layer squash squars, another layer tortilla, one layer sauce, one layer tortilla, one layer cheese and sauce.

Bake casserole at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes in Nashville, longer at higher altitudes.

Orange Cranberry Relish

2006-12-14T16:31:00Z

Cranberry jelly has often gotten the short end of the stick at holiday dinners. Served from a can with a slooping sound, the gelatinous substance often retains the can's ridge pattern even after slicing. Yet, cranberries are said to have many health benefits including fighting bladder infections, yeast infections and more. Better yet, they can taste very good if prepared right.

A food eaten by Native Americans before the new world was settled, cranberries also have shown preliminary signs of helping prevent cancer, according to the Cranberry Institute:

Anti-cancer - In 1996 laboratory studies conducted by University of Illinois scientists and published in Plants Medica demonstrated the potential anticarcinogenic properties of cranberries. More recently researchers at the University of Western Ontario demonstrated, using an animal model, that human breast cancer cells showed significantly lower incidence of tumor development when the experimental group's diet was supplemented with cranberries. Although these results are very preliminary, compounds in cranberries may prove to be a potent cancer fighter.

As a transplant to Nashville from Oregon, cranberries play an important role for the coming meal and my mother has an excellent and easy recipe for relish.

Mom's Orange Cranberry Relish

1 bag cranberries (In Nashville, you can order organic ones at PlumGoodFood.com, or go to Wild Oats
Two Peeled Oranges (I still haven't found a very good location for sweet oranges, but Lannea suggests The Harris Tetter in Brentwood, 8th Ave S/Franklin Rd)
Sugar to taste (I use a teaspoon - most will want 1-2 tablespoons)

Place cranberries and oranges in a food processor and grind them up. Add sugar to taste. Leave out for 15 minutes and stir, then store in the fridge until you need it.

If you do not have a food processor, I feel really sorry for you, but you can just dice ever thing up, then use a potato masher to achieve similar results. It takes about 5 minutes longer.

Cranberry Relish Recipes and Reference

Simply Recipes
A nice resource for many kinds of recipes. This recipe is more labor intensive than most of my cooking adventures, but looks pretty yummy.
About: Southern US Cuisine
Watch out for pop ups! This has a whole list of options.
Reader's Digest Cooked Cranberry Relish Recipe
I tried this recipe, or one like it, about two years ago with the following alterations: 1/2 the sugar (I like bitter) and two shots of premium bourbon. It was excellent!

What Did We Learn From Thanksgiving?

2006-12-14T00:11:00Z

Christmas is around the corner, yet we've barely recovered from Thanksgiving. The day, for us, will be filled with tasty treats, Colorado snow, and a large meal with extended family. With the Thanksgiving experience fresh in our memory, we prepare already, on December 13th, for the following meal:

Yummy Organic Turkey (brought in a car, with a cat, from Nashville, 1300 miles)
Orange cranberry relish (Mom's recipe)
Mashed potatoes (Tradition)
Gravy (Turkey mushroom)
Basil cheese yams (Nicole Sauce special)
Green bean casserole (Mark's childhood Kansas experience)
Stuffing
Corn Bread (We have folks with wheat allergies this year)
Fresh fruit
Homemade Icecream
Apple pie (From fresh pumpkin)
Pumpkin pie (For those who dislike pumpkin)
Hobbit salad (Mom's recipe)

Today, lets review some turkey tips in preparation for the holiday festivities.

Nicole Sauce's Turkey Tips
Want the perfect turkey every time? Butterball would recommend that you buy their birds and never worry again. But what if you want one of those fancy organic numbers?

Following are some things that will help keep the white meat juicy and your guests coming back:
1) Start defrosting your turkey in the fridge RIGHT NOW if you bought a frozen one.

Testimonial: When I was 20, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. The night before the big day, with 4 guests scheduled to eat at 2pm, I ran out an bought a frozen Turkey, then read about how to defrost it. My heart sank. We were going to have to have pizza for our holiday because I had neglected to buy the turkey in advance and defrost it in the fridge. Disheartened, I called my food scientist father. He told me about defrosting the turkey in a sink of cold water and it saved the day. Be sure to change the water every 30 minutes.

2) If you haven't bought your turkey yet, GO GET IT, so you can defrost it RIGHT NOW, if you buy a frozen one.

3) If you are both cheap AND procrastinate, and buy a frozen turkey the day before Thanksgiving, fill your sink with cold water, plop the bird in, still in it's shrink wrap, and change the water every 30 minutes until about 1am when it will be mostly defrosted except for the icy gizzards and neck stuffed in the middle.

4) Buy: Meat thermometer, baster, apple, onion, turkey grilling pan, tin foil.

Testimonial: That fateful first holiday meal was also in a region of Oregon where stores actually close on Thanksgiving. Though I had the tin foil, I ended up depending on my apple tree for the apple and the pop-up plastic thing for the bird. I feared salmonella poisoning the whole time, but luck was on my side.

5) Rub the outside of the bird with rosemary, basil and pepper and salt lightly.

6) Shove a whole apple and whole onion in the bird. Stuff around these two items with your bread stuffing. Make sure you put lots of milk in the stuffing you put in the bird so it doesn't dry the bird out.

Testimonial: In those early cooking days, I was quite impressed by local cooking talent Geraldine Duncann. (If you haven't read her book, "a is for coda wada," run out an buy it right now!) Actually, I am stimm impressed by her and she has shaped my cooking style with her "handfulls" of this and "dashes" of that. I was lucky to have had her ear before my big cooking debut and she told me of the apple trick. Stuff an apple in the bird and it will make it moist moist moist.

7) Be careful to properly insert the thermometer.

Testimonial: With a food scientist as a father, we would be grilled with very detail-oriented questions whenever we got food poisoning. Dad would be there with his medical book trying to figure out the culprit.He was fascinated by the topic. Unfortunately, the food poisonee is usually not so entheusiastic about the subject. The result is that I have a large fear of causing food poisoning and tend toward extra safety measures when cooking. Take it from a girl who has had salmonella poisoning. You don't want it and you don't want to describe it.

8) Be sure to seal that bird well in its pan with tin foil and baste every 30 minutes.

9) Add fatty tastiness by shoving a whole stick of butter in the bird's belly. Fat and moisture=yummy.

10) The apple is really the key. Trust me.

Check back this week to find more details on the other recipes and may your Christmas be merry, no matter what your religious persuasion.

Another Thanksgiving Blog From Which to Learn
Lannae's Food and Travel
A fellow Nashvillian narrates her Thanksgiving day

Technorati

2006-12-10T02:47:00Z

"Caramelized Onions"

2006-12-09T22:15:00Z

Recently, a friend wrote, "I made that rosemary lamb dish you do, but it didn't taste quite the same." She was referring to one of my famous shortcut meals: Rosemary Lamb Pinwheels, prepared by New Season's Market, mixed baby green salad from a bag, sliced fruit of the season and jasmine rice. It made me miss the grocery stores of Portland.

Being new to Nashville, it is almost impossible to find what is readily available in Portland: Fresh, organic vegetables that look and taste good at a close-to-conventional price point. In fact, I have been searching for any decent tasting orange or tangerine (organic or conventional) since October 15. The only decent quality produce here?

Green beans
Tomatoes
Collard and mustard greens
Sometimes lettuce
Onions

Some "local hippies" are trying to solve this problem by forcing their opinions on the local people, according to a post I found on Tiny Cat Pants:

On Tuesday night, I was at a meeting for this group of crazed hippies who
have this insane notion that you can change the fortune of whole
communities, not by coming in and deciding from on-high what those
communities need and imposing it, but by listening to the problems the
people in the community describe having and providing them with the training
and resources to solve their own problems.

I don't feel like I do much more than sit quietly and listen, since it all focuses a lot on community health, which means it's mostly medical students, doctors, and nurses*
talking about these projects. But I feel honored to be there.

One project they've been working on are setting up fresh produce markets in
parts of Nashville that don't have grocery stores. They call them "food deserts" these areas that are highly populated by folks who don't have regular access to transportation and don't have grocery stores within easy walking distance or on convenient bus routes**.

Sure, it'd be great if everyone chose to be healthy and buy lots of great produce and, believe me, I miss being able to buy good fruit, a thing you can't even find in Greenhills at Wild Oats, but will people buy it?

Aunt B continues:

... the woman giving the presentation said some very interesting stuff which
may pertain. Tennessee has a (word censored by Nicole Sauce - no offense, it starts with sh)-ton of poor people, many of whom are 'food insecure,' ... I should have written this down, but I think she said that one in four Tennesseans has missed at least one meal in the past year because they had no food. And yet, we rank extra high on the amount of obese people we have, too.

... though it seems on the surface, impossible, research bears it out
that, in America, the hungrier the population, the fatter. ... she thinks
it's that, when you are very hungry, the quickest, cheapest food is exactly the
food that's the worst for you...

And so, she thinks, people get into this cycle of not having enough money to
eat or to eat well and they get money, they rush out and buy junk food, load up
on it, and then have a period of not eating or not eating well again.

As an aside on the topic of nutrition for the food insecure, a free-market think tank in Oregon found research that found the following. Interesting to note that food insecure score higher on the nutrition points scale than the food secure.

Recent studies show that many households labeled food-insecure by the
USDA have above-average levels of nutrient availability, even when household income is low.

One such study, Food Stamp Participants Food Security and Nutrient Availability
(USDA, 1999), ... An unexpected finding was, Âfood insecure households
tend, other things equal, to have higher levels of nutrient availability than households that are food secure.

In addition to theoretical food stands (I have never seen one), there are various festivals and the farmer's market and more resources through fellow bloggers than a new-comer can find by driving around:

http://www.musenashville.org/2006/10/13/this-weekend/
http://www.nashville.gov/mc/boards/farmers_market.htm - apparently, we need a government agency to oversee the local farmers market. Must be why the variety of vegetables there is so limited.
OH CHECK IT OUT - one grocery store purpoted to have good produce. I am jumping in my car right now!! http://lannaelong.blogspot.com/2006/10/trick-or-treat.html
http://nashville.metblogs.com/archives/2006/07/vegetable_plate.phtml

But one thing that doesn't get much comment is the quality of the fruits and vegetables. A coworker and recent transplant agreed with me that the produce quality is poorer here than from her previous locale. My narrow experience with oranges, for example, has simply added to my fruit basket about 25 orange fruits that are juicy on one side and dry on the other. How do they DO that? Half dry oranges? Isn't Florida just around the corner?

Alas, with the latest hope centering on the coming of Whole Foods and perhaps helpful tips from other bloggers, my Rosemary Pinwheel Days are on hold.

But the onions here are great. And onions are easy to Caramelize:

Slice or dice the onions
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high until it sizzles when you splash a drop of water in it.
Reduce heat to med-high and toss in the onions, saute them until they are golden brown. This takes at least 5 minutes, sometimes more depending on your range's power and the frying pan you choose.
Cook as normal with the onions.

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy pinwheels, you just toss them into the onion mix after the onions caramelize, brown the meat, add 1/2 cup red wine and simmer until the meat is done. Serve the wheels with the caramelized onion wine sauce poured over it.

Rose Pepper and Nashville Restaurants

2006-12-02T23:42:00Z

One thing being new to Nashville is that every time someone asks where we should meet for lunch or dinner, I have no clue what to say. Only major chain restaurants come to mind, which is great if you want to know what you will get, but what about feeding a craving for authentic Thai food? (I mean the kind of authentic Thai food that has a green curry that will burn your socks off. In Thailand, this dish is very hot, but not according to the Thai people.)

Portland, on the other, hand has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the country. While living there, not only was there usually a nice small restaurant within one mile of anywhere in the city, but it was often run by a person with high hopes for making their mark on the culinary world. This made doing business over lunch and dinner, the habit of many home-office-ers like myself, very easy.

Resolute to discover something besides the Cracker Barrel in Nashville, we dropped in on the Rose Pepper Cantina last night. If Rose Pepper Cantina has a website, google hasn't found it yet, but Citysearch has a reasonably up-to-date summary.

The place boasts a flat screen TV showing sportscasts, interesting decorating ideas that I might steal and a HUGE outdoor porch that would be a lovely place to sip iced tea in the summer time. Lovely, that is, as long as you don't melt in the famed Southern Humidity.

Our Dining Story
8:30 pm on a Saturday and the place was packed with people much hipper than I. We were told that it would be 15 minutes before we could be seated so we opted for the bar.

Like most places in Nashville, I was shocked by its non-Oregon-ness. A child sat on his mother's lap in the BAR area while she chatted over food with a friend. Certainly, had this been Portland, there would have been a large fine for this transgression. We ordered drinks and laid into the chips an salsa.

Of the three types of salsa, my favorite was the hot red, followed by the yummy green. Mark preferred the mild red (which tastes of tomatoes) and the spicy red. The chips were freshly fried and they made the salsa taste great.

As is my custom, if I spot something on the menu that has the restaurant name, I order it. The Rose Pepper Rings were tempera-battered and fried pepper rings with a creamy guacamole sauce and chunky tomato salsa. They were spectacular. I will have cravings for this dish.

We also tried the tamales and tacos. The pork tamales were superior to the chicken. The only better-tasting tamale I know of was hand made by a neighbor in Tucson.

The kitchen must have thought that our waitress made a mistake when she put in the ticket requesting no beans (I have an allergy) because my plate had a healthy portion when the food arrived. The service was a bit slow, but the server was cheerful and kept us in booze.

Ranking

Atmosphere: Good - not a place to pop the question, but comfortable. The restaurant is proud of their unusual decor, but to a gal from Portland it looks like normal to me. I did like their idea of the light rope spiraling up a post with meshy fabric wrapped outside the lights. Nice to look at.
Business dinner capable? Not if your client is stuffy.
Food flavor: Best Amerimexican I have had this far in Nashville. Oh wait. It's the only Amerimexican I have had in Nashville... Those Rose Pepper Rings are superb.
Service: C. The German in me just can't go higher than that.
Cool-Factor: With a porch like theirs, this place ranks high in the cool-factor category.
People: Hipsters.
Blogger Interest: 3 - Only three people have anything to say about this place.

Any tips on where I should try next? Preferably a place where the bar tender doesn't suggest a Chardonnay because it is similar to a Shiraz? (Anything can happen in Tennessee.)

Links of note
Appon's Thai Food Recipes
An excellent collection of recipes available for free online!

Ramblings of a Gay Nashvillian
A fellow blogger has much stronger opinions on the Rose Pepper experience.