This might be one of my favorite and most despised sayings. When the things that happen are good, I love it. When it is something not so good, don’t say it to me. Usually it is heard when something that is not what the person wants occurs and some well-meaning person tries to point out that although not planned, maybe the occurence will set the stage for something positive. It is hard to see that in the moment but looking back, sometimes it is so obvious.
The night before Thanksgiving in 1998, most people home from college or newly graduated were getting ready to go out to the local bar and catch up with old friends. I assume that is not just a New England but correct me if I am wrong. Where I am from, it was a huge night and was always an unplanned high school reunion. But that Wednesday in 1998, we had just come back from my grandfather’s funeral.
I am so lucky that in my 32 years, I have only had three people close to me pass away and all were over 85 and had led very fulfilling lives. But, as anyone knows, it is still hard and this was my first grandparent that I had lost.
My Poppy was a quiet man, and spoke few words, but he was hard-working and proud. When I started to become interested in boys and show him pictures of proms, he would remind me that boys will wait and to focus on school. He would also tell me to write the names and dates of people and events on the back of pictures so I would always be reminded of the people in my life at various times. And one of my strongest memories is how he would say goodbye to his grandchildren. He would put his left arm around our shoulder, kiss us on the cheek and take our hand to shake it and there would always be folded dollar bills in his palm. And then the words would follow, “Put this away, save your money.”
I was crushed by his death and dealing with death was foreign to me even at 21. I remember laying on the couch feeling so drained and getting a phone call from a friend. He wanted me to go with him to a party at an old high school teacher’s house. This teacher had a son who graduated with us and the party would have a lot of old classmates as well as old teachers. I first said no and he pressed saying he would take me home at any point. So I went. And who knew that this was my “everything happens for a reason” moment.
At the party, I was reintroduced with a guy that I had met a few other times. He was currently a guidance counselor at my old high school as well as knowing my sister who was a junior there still. In our previous meetings, there were no sparks and sometimes more of an annoyance. But as we talked that night, he made me laugh. A lot. And he made me forget the morning activities even just for a few hours.
He asked me out that night and although it took us another month before actually going on a date, fate was definitely working. Maybe through my Poppy? Since I had a degree and a job, maybe he approved of my interest at boys at this point in my life?! I like to think our ancestors help us out like that even from ‘above’. The best part of my new relationship was that it was just so natural. Neither of us looked back and a little less than 2 years later, we were married. And 6 months after that I was knocked up, but that is another “everything happens for a reason” story!!! Are you noticing a pattern of not making decisions and just relying on fate? 
I am also a fan of traditions and one of my little ones, is to make some baked goods for my hubs to take along for his coaching staff before the big turkey day game. I take my role as head coach’s wife seriously although you will not find me at any games. It has been proven that I am bad luck. If they are winning and I show up, they start to lose, and as soon as I leave, they will catch up and pass the other team. So, I bake. And for these big (usually ex-football players) I do not healthify anything, so close your eyes if you are afraid of butter!
Sunday Morning (or anytime) Muffins
(makes 1 dozen)
-
3 cups flour
-
1/4 t salt
-
3.5 t baking powder
-
1/2 cup sugar
Mix together, the add:
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1/2 cup melted butter
Mix all together.
Roll out or press dough out onto a floured surface. You really don’t even need a rolling pin.
Put little indents with your fingers into the dough.
Carefully pour another (yes, I know) 1/2 cup melted butter on top of the dough. It gets messy.
Mix:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 t cinnamon
Sprinkle evenly over the butter soaked dough.
Roll up into a log.
Cut into slices and place sliced into greased muffin tin.
Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Then go for a run to burn off the calories! 
Happy Turkey Day everyone!
Hello all. Hope you are all having a good week so far. Mine has been pretty good. Except I still have eye issues so I am working from home tomorrow and dragging my bloodshot eyes to the optometrist. Has anyone out there had laser surgery? My mom did and loves it. If this continues, sign me up.
This recipe is a great way to use up some apples and it is perfect for bringing to a brunch, to a potluck and just when a friend is sick.
Apple Cake
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
Beat together. Add:
- 1 cup applesauce
- 0.5 cup OJ
- 2.5 t vanilla
Mix together well and add:
- 3 cups flour
- 3 t baking powder
- 0.5 t salt
Mix until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, mix:
- 5 apples, peeled and chopped
- 6 T sugar
- 3 T cinnamon
- 0.5 cup nuts
** Tip **
If you let the apple mixture sit and create some juices, when you add it to the batter it makes the cake so moist and distributes the flavors.
Add the batter and the apples together and pour into a greased bundt pan.
Bake at 350 for about 1 – 1.5 hours depending on your oven.
Sorry for the bad picture. My father happened to be at my house and could not wait to tear into the cake. So before he left, I cut him a huge chunk to take home and then snapped a picture of a slice in case I forgot before it was all gone.
In other news, I can’t believe the holiday season starts next week! We go to my parents house for turkey day and my in laws come too. It is nice because we have never had to choose whose family we will spend the holidays with. We just do them together. I love it for totally selfish reasons. I can’t imagine not being with my parents and sisters. What do you all do? Parents? Friends? In-laws?
Every Thanksgiving I usually bring some sort of antipasto for an appetizer. Last year I made a salad of mixed greens, roasted butternut squash, candied pepitas and cranberry vinaigrette. This year I am thinking pears, walnuts, pom seeds and greens. I am also in charge of a dessert. Sure, we do the traditional pumpkin pie, but we like to experiment with new stuff too. So, I am trying to find a good recipe for a pomegranate cheesecake or something. I was thinking of trying to healthify a little without telling the fam. Maybe like a nut based crust instead of cookie crumbs and maybe something with greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Nothing too drastic, I have to ease them into it!!!
What are you guys and gals (or really all gals) making for the holidays? Any recipes or dishes that are a must have? In our house it is the candied yams. Gooey, crispy and so NOT healthy!!! The poor yams, once so nutritious. Now smothered in butter and brown sugar…oh well, Thanksgiving is once a year!
Have a good night everyone!
Rhode Island is the home of Hasbro toys, maker of Mr. Potato Head. Back in 2000, the state decided to create these huge fiberglass potato heads and put them at points of interest in the state. For example, you might find Sparkle Spud near the outdoor skating rink in the center of downtown. Or Shore Thing Potato near, well, yes, the shore. But seeing as how my sister is now a Pediatrician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence and ever the kid at heart, she had a wedding pic taken with the original Mr. Potato Head and another spud, I mean stud, her new hubs. (I know. I know. I can’t help it.)
So taters get kind of a bad rap among the dieters and I get it. The most convenient and certainly tasty way to eat the spuds are in the form of spears, fried in hot vats of oil and doused in salt. My mouth waters just thinking about it! But done right, these tubers can be a healthy part of a diet. They are pretty low in calories (and that is without the sour cream, bacon bits, and cheddar) and high in B6, Potassium and fiber.
My recipe for Baked Potato soup can be made vegan by subbing rice milk, soy milk, etc. and omitting the cheese and turkey bacon. Yes, my recipes includes some cheese and turkey bacon. But the deal is, I used a sprinkle of cheese on top so you could really taste it more than if it was mixed in. And in the whole pot, I put 3 slices of turkey bacon.
Another thing about the soup is there is no right or wrong way to do this. All personal preference.
Baked Potato Soup
- Bake 4-5 potatoes with the skins until tender
- Scoop the flesh out and use the skins in something else, like these.
- In a large pot, create a roux of a little butter (or substitute) flour and then adding 1% milk.
- Once the roux is thick and bubbly, add the potato flesh
- Add in seasonings such as salt, pepper, garlic, scallions, chives, whatever you like.
- At this point, I pureed with a stick blender and thinned it out with a little more milk, but kept some lumps.
- Then I added the cooked, chopped turkey bacon and a defrosted bag of frozen broccoli florets. Everything needs a little green.
- Done. Adjust the flavor, consistency to your liking and serve plain or with a little shredded cheddar. It was so rich tasting that a small bowl goes a long way when served with a salad.
It tastes to good and it is great comfort food. I don’t think I would want to eat this often for a couple reasons. It is rich and although could be so much worse, it is calorie heavy. Use is more as the side to a salad entrée. Also, I feel like this is more of a treat than a staple.
But don’t neglect these little guys. Like everything else, in moderation, they can be part of a healthy diet. As long as after eating them, you don’t become the couch version!
Completely politically NOT correct and pretty crass, but I do love some Eminem. I find his lyrics pretty hysterical and since I am certain I will never be a target in a song, they make me laugh. And his videos crack me up too.
So, what has been going on in the blog world? I have been MIA and I could give you some excuses:
1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Once I am sucked into a book, I neglect almost everything else (children included) until I finish it.
2. Work has been crazy and due to the nature of my job the last two things I want to look at when I get home are my laptop and my phone. Hence no blogging.
3. I felt burnt out. I was tired of listening to myself so I spared all of you.
4. Weird gross eye infection. I wore my glasses for a week straight, used some old (but not expired) drops from when the kids had pink eye, and refrained from any and all eye makeup. I don’t think I have been without black eyeliner for that long since I started wearing makeup. Everything seems okay now, but not to take chances, I do have an eye appointment this week.
5. No food. We have certainly been eating, but nothing new, nothing exciting. It was a pretty blah week after seeing some great food from Foodbuzz, I was content to look and not blog.
So, that it is. All my reasons. But I am back and hopefully will continue to feel rejuvenated. Here is what you can expect this week:
1. Baked Potato Soup
2. Apple Cake
3. And a mystery…
But to start off the week, I leave you with my experience with chocolate hummus. I started the whole dessert hummus awhile ago with some Pumpkin Spice hummus here. That was good. Chocolate hummus is even better.
How can three ingredients be so good? Chickpeas, cocoa powder and agave. Well, I guess four if you count that I added some water to thin it a little. We have dipped everything from apple slices, graham crackers, vanilla wafers…everything is good.
Any other suggestions for chocolate hummus? I was thinking bananas, maybe even oatmeal? And yes, it was kid approved!
So, I am glad to be back, hope you are glad to have me! And although I have not been commenting a ton on your blogs, I have still been reading. See you soon!
♥ E
Sorry if this post is incoherent. I am wiping my eyes after crying watching Grey’s. As someone who is not a big crier, anything that has to do with a child sick or worse brings on the total waterworks.
Ok, back to cheese. Or actually lack there of. When we were growing up, one of my favorite quick dinners were veggie stuffed baked potatoes with cheese sauce. My mother would bake potatoes, top with a ton of mixed veggies and then top with homemade cheese sauce. Not anything orange, but real cheese sauce. Yum.
I have a recipe coming up soon where I needed the insides of the potatoes but not the skins. I seriously contemplated ooey, gooey potato skins, but thought better of it. Instead I made myself a couple of vegan cheesy veggie potato skins.
I used the vegan cheese sauce recipe I got from Oh She Glows.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups water I only used about 3/4 cup bc the veggies will release some water
1 cup plain Almond Breeze (may use other non-dairy milk) same with the almond breeze
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon garlic puree
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric (curry powder) I did not have any.
1 tablespoons tahini
black pepper to taste
- Mix everything in a blender
- Pour into a sauce pan, cook until thick and bubbly
- Add the veggies
- Pour the veggie cheese mixture over the potato skins
This was a very good and satisfying lunch. Plus I felt good about not wasting the potato skins! Please don’t judge based on the pics. It is not very photogenic, but very tasty.
Time for bed, before Private Practice makes me cry too! Have a good night!
Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My daughter and I have been doing yoga on the Wii My Personal Fitness Trainer game every night and after we finish that, we have the bedtime routine, the cleanup routine and then I am pretty beat.
And today, well, we are battling the Pig. The Swine. The H1N1. Or at least I assume. My son has a fever and so I am home with him today. Poor Matt got up, got dressed, was telling me they were playing soccer in gym and was ready to go. As we sat down to mini bagels with pumpkin butter and an egg white omelet, all of a sudden, Matt drooped. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes heavy and he barely touched his breakfast. He had a fever. So school for him. And working from home for me.
So, what do we do to break up the day when the motrin kicks in and boredom sets in?
Bake, of course!
Matthew’s favorite cookies are snickerdoodles and after washing his hands and using purel, we set out to make some snickerdoodles.
I followed the recipe from Betty Crocker that said it is a lightened version. You can find it here.
Sick Day Snickerdoodles
| 1 1/2 | cups sugar |
| 1/2 | cup margarine, softened |
| 1/2 | package (8-ounce size) reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel) , softened |
| 1 | egg |
| 2 | egg whites |
| 2 3/4 | cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or unbleached flour |
| 2 | teaspoons cream of tartar |
| 1 | teaspoon baking soda |
| 1/4 | teaspoon salt |
| 1/4 | cup sugar |
| 2 | teaspoons ground cinnamon |
| 1. | Heat oven to 400ºF. |
| 2. | Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the margarine, cream cheese and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Cover and refrigerate dough 1 hour. |
| 3. | Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with bottom of drinking glass. |
| 4. | Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. |
These are so good! They are nice, light and fluffy. And Matthew declared that they are very moist. He must know how much I hate that word because he kept repeating it until I acknowledged that they are definitely moist. They were also very quick to whip up and I would suggest really watching them in the oven and using the top rack. The sugar on the bottom burns quickly.
We are back on the couch, Matt watching a movie and me working. My sister, the doc, is coming for a house call soon. Her payment will be in the form of Snickerdoodles!
Hope everyone has a nice day and keep washing those hands!
How are all the recovering ghosts and goblins? Anyone suffering from a major hangover or a sugar crash?
We ended up have a great Halloween 2009 and I will let the pictures do the talking.
Monster Bash
My Pink Punk Pirate and my Spooky Skeleton Pirate. No masks allowed at the dance so my face painting skills were tested.
There was dancing…
and some sort of fun only boys can have.
The Horribles Parade
My glam pirate with the crotch of her tights at her knees!
I had a happy, cute scarecrow despite some initial concern.
(btw, his class was one of two in the WHOLE school not allowed to wear costumes. I still feel make it a school policy to have it be more of a “Harvest Festival” with no costumes or do not allow individual teachers to decide for themselves to buck the system)
Halloween Night
Ready to go! For the past 6 years, Boston has had gorgeous trick or treating weather. It was in the 60’s a slight sprinkle that lasted less than 5 minutes and beer made this year’s perfect!
Counting the loot. Miss M’s hair was pink and glittery and the flash made it look like it glowed!
And then we were pooped.
And now for the Chia Chip Cookies.
I started making chocolate chip cookies from my Betty Crocker cookbook (like we needed more treats) and half way in realized I did not have enough flour or any eggs. Oops. So I am just providing a little fyi for all you bakers. Oat flour works very well in chocolate chip cookies. And 1/4 cup of chia gel subs for one egg and adds a little nutty crunch and other nice benefits. I might start baking with chia gel more often.
Hello all. Thank you for all your comments and thoughts on the Horribles Halloween parade. It seems it is more of a controversial topic than I realized. Like I have mentioned, although I was raised Catholic, my family was never super religious. So Halloween was very superficial and held no real meaning at all except to dress up and get candy.
But apparently, some cultures maintain that Halloween has roots in devil and satanic beliefs. And yet, other cultures, specifically the Irish and Scottish view it entirely different. They began a tradition based on summer’s end to stock supplies, slaughter livestock for the winter and get ready for the “darker half” of the year. They also believed that the border between this world and the other world became thin and spirits wandered through. They used this time to honor their ancestors but to ward off the evil spirits, they began dressing in costumes to disguise themselves.
Who knew? I totally didn’t. I just got a thrill of dressing up and luckily it was before the whole trend of slutty halloween costumes came into play! In my youth, I dressed up as Raggedy Ann, a Ballerina (shocking, I know!), a punk (ooh pink crimped hair and plastic jewelry) and a Harlequin clown. No french maids or Sexy Cops in my house. My mother would never have let me leave the house! Hopefully that trend dies a quick death before Miss M gets older otherwise I forsee a lot of arguments in my crystal ball!
So, I will do my best to keep you updated as to the Halloween festivities this weekend. As for beliefs, to their own and I respect that. But if you come to my house, know that it is purely for fun.
I recently cleaned out the garden and guess what? I forgot about the carrots! Despite a pretty bad weather for most crops, we got some pretty decent looking carrots so we had our own harvest!
Now, what to do with them? So we washed, peeled and tried a carrot. Hmm. Not bad. But not really sweet.
They needed a little somethin, somethin. So, we chopped them up and served with my healthier twist on buffalo wings. You can find how I did it here. Sometimes I serve as a little snack, sometimes as lettuce wraps. Either way, white meat, no breading, and no oil certainly make this something you don’t feel guilty about enjoying. I have tried low fat blue cheese but quite honestly, it is not worth it. A little bit of the good stuff is so much better than a little more of the watered down version. Use sparingly to not destroy the good you are doing by eating a healthier buffalo chicken.
Any late harvest for you?
I am a pretty big Black Eyed Peas fan, but that is not where I am going with this post. I have not felt much like posting lately because I did not have much to say. Until today. Wait a minute…I need to get out my soapbox to stand to on for this one. I hope I don’t offend anyone because this purpose of this post is quite the opposite.
It started with such a minor issue. A parade at my kids’ school coming up on Friday. My daughter was in it last year and she brought her Halloween costume to school, dressed up along with her classmates, teachers and administrators of the school. The school marched, the parents smiled and all had great pictures and memories.
My son is in the same school this year and has been very excited for the last few weeks to participate in the festivities. Hubs and I have arranged to be there during the work day and the camera is charging. Then last night I got a notice from my son’s teacher about NOT sending in costumes as his class will be making costumes to go along with a book they read in class. I was initially confused thinking that maybe I missed something and asked my daughter if she was doing something similar. She did not think so. That is when my son spoke up and was even more confused as to why he was not allowed to wear his Skeleton Pirate costume to school. Now anyone with children can attest to the fact that 5 and 6 years olds have a tough time relaying all the facts.
So this morning I called the school, explained that I was looking for information as to why my son could not bring his costume and is this a school wide change or should my daughter still bring her Halloween costume. As a parent, I want to be able to make my kids happy, but I also want to make sure I know the facts as well as be able to explain the logic as best as possible to a disappointed 5 year old. I know my son and he is the type who needs all the information up front and then can be okay with something.
What happened next, made this silly little thing seem so big. The teacher called me back (she is a long term sub and we have not met yet) and when I asked if the policy had changed, she got pretty defensive and said it had nothing to do with policy. She explained that the class agreed to not wear their costumes and make costumes to along with the book. So far so good. I don’t agree with a class having to be different from the rest of the school, but I was okay with this.
She went on to say that they have a very diverse class, some are from different backgrounds, some are bilingual and some are not accustomed to American holidays. WHAT?!
I am not a big fan of confrontation, so I explained I just wanted to make sure I did not miss something and I thanked her for her time. As I continued to ponder this feedback from her, I kept thinking, “not accustomed to an American holiday.” But, we are in Massachusetts?? In the United States of America?? Why not celebrate an American holiday?
Rewind to my school years. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school through college. I am not religious now, but we celebrated the Catholic holidays growing up and we still maintain the traditions. But I remember my family going to a friend’s house and celebrated Hanukkah with them. They taught us the Dreidel game, let us light a Menorah and we ate the food. It was so much fun! Then I remember going to an Episcopalian church with another friend. We listened to a story from the Bible and then went to a rec room and got to make our own play dough and watch the teacher churn cream into butter. Again, another great experience.
I loved learning what my friends’ traditions and beliefs were at a young age. I still love to learn more about cultures and religions of other people. But what bothers me is that the public schools are now so afraid of offending certain groups or not including a group that they are excluding everyone! Teach my children about the Jewish holidays. Let them learn a Kwanza song. Bring in a parent of Indian descent to share with them something about their beliefs. If we keep separating groups and cultures, how will our children ever learn tolerance of those who are different?
Please, I do not mean that a Muslim has to join in something that is against their beliefs like alcohol. Or that someone who is Jewish needs to eat something that is not kosher. But why can’t the schools have celebrations and give student the choice to participate, observe, or decline completely. Maybe if we learned more about other customs, they would not seem so scary or (ahem) foreign. It is supposed to be education after all.
Maybe if we stopped worrying about being so politically correct we would realize that by trying to include everyone, we are excluding everything! And these are children! They don’t know what is foreign or not. Everything is new! Expose them. Some will enjoy it and some maybe not, but give them the facts! Just teaching someone about other traditions does not mean they have to turn their back on their own. And how are we going to be a solidified country if we keep everyone so compartmentalized?
Maybe then Matthew and Diego and Nilesh can all be friends who celebrate what they have in common and respect and enjoy each other’s differences.
We all enjoy the food customs of other other cultures (Thai, Indian, Greek, Mexican, etc) let’s try to enjoy some of the ways these cultures use food to celebrate and bring people together.
On that note, I leave you with two food facts.
1. When making a cauldron cake for Halloween, the amount of black food coloring used to dye buttercream will in fact stain your teeth.
2. Juicing cranberries alone yields a very bitter juice not easily enjoyed. Mix it with a couple oranges and yum. Notice the two DIFFERENT fruits compliment each other and can coexist…
Note: All photos are from Halloween 2008. I know that you are anxiously awaiting to see this year’s costumes!
So thanks to Deb and Averie for commenting on a post with nothing in it! Deb was nice enough to think I was being short, sweet and to the point, but alas it was a mistake. See, I found an article yesterday on MSN about how the norm is becoming bigger. What used to be considered overweight is now considered more normal and even clothing sizes are changing. What used to be a 12 is now a 10 so people can feel better about themselves.
I accidentally hit the publish button after writing in the title and I changed the posting time to later in the night so I could remind myself and go back and finish. But I forgot. And now I can’t find the article! Oh well. I still thought it was interesting and I had pretty strong feelings about it. I am not one to suppress my opinions so even though I can’t produce the article, you lucky readers still get to hear my take on it.
I do not believe that skinny is necessarily healthy and a larger body frame is unhealthy. But if we as a society are becoming accustomed to a larger body type, I think that is a problem. There is a big difference between a large frame and obese. And obese is never healthy. Do we need to all be a size 0 or 00? God, I hope not, but changing sizes to make us feel better? That is like telling a kid that he or she is going to be the next Tom Brady when they can barely catch, throw or tackle. It is setting up a false sense of confidence.
Please don’t take this as me implying that anything is wrong with a size 10. 12, or even 14. But we need to be realistic. Kids are becoming obese at really young ages. Type 2 diabetes is on the rise. And adults are carrying over horrendous eating and exercise habits that continue the cycle of obesity. An obese adult who lives on Coke, processed food and very little activity is not going to teach his or her child anything different.
I hope that I do not offend anyone, but I do think we need to stop lying to ourselves. There is a major problem in this country about what is healthy food, what is a normal weight and what is a good level of activity. We swing between seeing size 2 models being photoshopped to a size 00 and then see obese people asking to be accepted as they are. Something needs to change.
Has anyone see Wall-E? That is how we will end up. All huge, barely able to get out of a chair and being fed a diet of processed high calorie food and not even able to run in the park with our kids.
So that was what I had planned to post about. Until I forgot last night to do it. Not to mention I was totally sidetracked by this:
Yea!! Thank you again to Janetha for having the giveaway! And thank you to Xagave for the great prize package! I read through the cookbook and I can’t wait to make something this weekend with the Xagave. I will definitely post about how it comes out.
Thank you to all my readers and commenters and sorry about the fake out post!
