Foodie Weekend

One of my friends came to town this weekend for a conference and we made a three-day affair out of the event. Amy got to attend her conference and Katy and I got to cook for her and all hang out together. These two love to talk about food, plan food and especially enjoy food. They both have some food allergies so it makes it even more fun to cook together because we get to discover food in new ways.

This is the menu from this weekend. Hopefully it sounds as good as it tasted.

Thursday

Dinner: Penne pasta with a garlic, veggie, ground turkey tomato sauce

Friday

Breakfast: Katy's Breakfast Burritos (eggs wrapped in a brown rice tortilla w/ almond mozzarella cheese, avocado and salsa)

Lunch: Hot, fresh gluten-free bread with almond butter and jam

Dinner: Brazilian night (black beans, garlic jasmine rice, kale sauteed in olive oil, lemon and garlic)

Saturday

Breakfast: Blueberry smoothies and eggs

Lunch [Brown bag while attending the conference): Salmon salad sandwich with avocado mayo, apples & carrots

Snacks: Trail mix, cashews, almonds, blackberries

Dinner: Pad Thai w/ asparagus at Noodles & Co.

Dessert: Cherry amaretto coconut ice cream

Sunday

Breakfast: Egg and toast

Lunch: Veggie tacos with fresh cilantro and feta

Snacks: Maple raspberry scones

Dinner: Garlic baked salmon with an avocado remoulade sauce, asparagus sauteed in olive oil, garlic & salt, spinach salad with chopped almonds, apples, blackberries with a citrus vinaigrette, zucchini and yellow squash veggie medley and crash hot potatoes

Dessert: Cookie dough coconut ice cream w/ 2 chocolate chip cookies

Monday

Breakfast: Tuscan Baked Eggs

Lunch: Hummus & Barbecue Onion Wrap

Thanks to several great food bloggers for sharing their excellent recipes. One not featured in this list is Elana at elanaspantry.com. We didn't have time to make her chocolate chip cookies or some of her other great recipes, but I utilize her recipes weekly in my daily cooking. It is such fun to be connected across the Internet to great people who cook well. I had my computer in the kitchen most of the weekend as I was referencing recipes and I realized with the iPad in existence, we are just steps away from having permanent computer screens in our kitchens so we can pull up any recipe in our collection of virtual recipes. Can't you see the iPad installed on the front of your kitchen cabinet so all of your recipes are eye level for you? That will be fun!

As far as pictures of all the food are concerned, I didn't snap a single photo. I think I get so absorbed in the cooking that I entirely forget (or I am too tired) to chronicle the event in photos. I will continue to work on incorporating more photos.

Also, after typing out this menu, I realize we consumed a lot garlic this weekend. I think staples in any kitchen include garlic, salt, lemons and olive oil. Those were used in abundance and they made everything taste yummy!

In addition to all of the good food, I pick up little tips and tricks from friends as we cook and experiment together. From Katy, I learned about the art of compiling her breakfast burritos and the way to warm a brown rice tortilla to perfection. From Amy, I learned about adventure as she experimented with several citrus vinaigrettes inspired by the ingredients available to her. From both, I get a delight in good food shared among friends.

Good friends and good food make for a great time.

Springtime in the East

              

I'm enjoying the springtime weather out here. This is Adam, Sam and Julia in the magnolia tree in the backyard yesterday afternoon. These three are munchkins and I'm so happy I've been able to be out here visiting them. Last night after they went to bed Amy, Andrew and I sat on the front porch and sang songs while Andrew played the guitar. It was pure bliss. Just music and friends. 

Amy and I haven't done much painting but we have organized a few rooms, eaten some good food and had some groundbreaking discussions. All good times.

I'm having too much fun and now I remember why you go on vacation--to get away. I didn't realize how much I needed that. I can't wait to get home and plan the next trip. 

The Buggy Ride

I was visiting Amy the other night at her parents' home near the lake. 

Around 9:00PM we decided to go for a ride in the Polaris around the lake to watch the sun set. This is what the Polaris looks like. See, no windows. (Pssst! This is a key to the story). 

The first part of the ride was lovely. The lake was calm and placid. We could hear the crickets chirping and the evening was cooling off.  

We drove to the south side of the lake by an apple orchard where the breeze was mild and gentle and the air seemed really sweet and fresh. 

These were our views. 

This is the road we were on. You can see the beginning of the orchard up on the left. I think we passed all of three or four cars on our drive. The stillness and quiet were intoxicating. 

Amy was the driver of our little escapade. We were driving straight into the sunset so she borrowed my shades so she could see better.

We stopped just past the apple orchard and sat watching the lake. And then an amazing, gorgeous, soul-wrenchingly beautiful sunset to help us bid goodbye to our day together. 

We watched a flock of birds lift off from the marshlands surrounding the lake. 

The peace and calm of the setting seemed to sink into my spirit. 

As we bid adieu to the sun. 

As the darkness settled in and the lake turned even more still, we realized it was time to head back. Amy had kids to put to bed and I needed to drive home. It had been a perfect kind of evening. 

That is until that point. 

The hot, dry July air had cooled with the setting sun and a stronger breeze was now blowing off the lake as we took off in the Polaris and drove past the orchard. It was once we passed the orchard that things started heading down hill. 

See there really are marshlands or wetlands or boggy, mucky places all around the lake. Which are host to breeding grounds and infestations of, you guessed it, mosquitos. Or as we learned later, their more innocuous cousins: the lake bug. The lake bug looks like a mosquito and acts like a mosquito but does not bite like a mosquito. Small comfort. 

As we passed the orchard we seemed to drive head on into a cloud of these little critters. And I mean head on because if you remember the Polaris has no windows. So we were the windshield. And driving any open vehicle at a speed of 20 miles an hour or more really does make you a windshield as those tiny, little buggy bodies began to die quick deaths by smashing against our faces, in our hair, and across our chests. 

Amy and I freaked a little but we were soon through the cloud. I pulled my face out of my shirt and Amy did the same and we looked at each other and laughed. Well, at least we would have a good story to tell when we got back about the killer cloud of lake bugs that we drove through. 

We were congratulating ourselves on our little adventure when suddenly we hit another cloud. Yikes! Only this cloud of lake bugs was longer and deeper than the last one. I kept my mouth shut but that didn't prevent little bugs from suicide bombing against my lips and teeth as we passed by them. 

After escaping the second cloud, Amy and I stopped to reconsider our options. We were still about two miles from her parents' house. The sun had gone down, we were on a dark, deserted road in the middle of nowhere in an open buggy. We could see more clouds of lake bugs ahead of us, but decided our best option was to pull our shirts over our faces, keep our mouths closed and be the death march to some more of those over-friendly lake bugs. With the darkness settling in, Amy put sunglasses back on because as the driver, she needed to be able to see where I had the luxury of closing my eyes as we drove through each cloud. And it is much easier to see if lake bugs are splatting against your sunglasses rather than your cornea. 

Plus, we were on the southwestern side of the lake. In one more mile we made a crucial turn straight south that would take us away from the heavy wetland area of the lake and likely the infestation of lake bugs. 

So, Amy put on the sunglasses and I closed my eyes and we gunned it.  

It was sweet misery as we approached the crucial corner. We sped through cloud after cloud of lake bugs with barely a moment to recover between each episode. I was shrieking with silent laughter (remember, do not open your mouth or you will swallow a gallon of lake bugs) while Amy was simply shrieking, high-pitched in the back of her throat, but shrieking nonetheless. It was like a mimed panic. Do not open your mouth (or your nasal passages or your eyes, if you can help it) for within nanoseconds you would feel the wriggling little corpses of numerous lake bugs as they gave up their last gasp of lake bug life. 

It was a misery the lasted but minutes, but seemed a near eternity until we made that last fateful turn to the stretch of road taking us home. Here the air was dryer, the lake was further away, and we could stop and shake the still-writhing hordes of dead lake bugs out of our hair and eyes and mouths. 

That is until we turned the corner. Whatever vain hope had accompanied us previously that the corner would bring relief was soon dashed to smithereens as we turned into what can only be called The Great and Continuous, Mile-Long Cloud of Millions of Buzzing Lake Bugs. A cloud that stretched the entire length of road we had to traverse to get home. 

I think it must have been worse for Amy driving. She could see the lake bugs dying against her sunglasses. And as the more sensitive and intuitive of our duo she seemed to feel each one of the thousands of little bodies as they collided with her hair and her face and her body. 

And that high-pitched shriek, she'd been shrieking in the back of her throat? Well, it turned in to a full-blown panic attack when we hit the Great Cloud. Still keeping her mouth shut and her sunglasses on, and still managing to keep the Polaris on the road, Amy began a frantic tango of survival, the likes of which I have never been privy to witness in this life and hope to never see in the next. 

It was a combination of one crazy arm swinging wildly brushing over her body while she drove with her other elbow as her hands shook desperately through her hair trying to dislodge the thousands of dead bodies now residing on her scalp. And the shriek only grew more frantic with each centimeter that we traveled along that long, heinous ride through bug oblivion. 

It was a shriek that only further incited my now gasping, chortling, unable-to-breath self. Between the bugs dying a thousand deaths upon me and Amy's crazy, life-or-death tango drive, I was a goner. Such a goner, that as I doubled over and gasped for air, I committed the unpardonable sin and opened my mouth. 

Only to swallow a vat of lake bugs. 

Too yummy. 

Somehow we made it home. Somehow Amy conjured up enough willpower to keep us on the road and in relative safety until we reached the barn next to her parents' house. Then she jumped screaming, full-throated now, out of  the Polaris and into the dark night. 

And I would not see her again until every bug and been picked clean from her own writhing body. 

What a ride. 

What I Miss About Having Company

Regular meals 

There is just something about having children around that pops me into a mode of regularity. They must eat on time. Otherwise you and they will start out the day snarling at each other. And end the day that same way. Routine feeding times seem to make everyone much, much happier.  

Little Adam and a friend

Daily trips to the grocery store

I know this will sound insane to most of you, but I actually liked going to the grocery store each day. Now, if I was really well prepared, I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store every day, but my mode of cooking usually involves forgetting one absolutely essential ingredient for each recipe. That forgotten ingredient is always something that is not stocked in my cupboards at the moment so in order to make the recipe correctly, I either have to borrow or buy the item. And what I've found is every recipe tastes a whole lot better if you use all the essential ingredients rather than just some of them. When I'm cooking for just myself, I'm willing to leave out an essential ingredient and see what I come up with. This has made for some interesting meals and some rather scary-looking science experiments. When you have all the ingredients, a recipe or meal actually tastes good. 

Julia loving this sweet baby

Thinking about entire meals for three meals a day

I went to bed thinking about what was for breakfast, what we would do for lunch and how we were going to manage dinner. I found that without a doubt, it took at least an hour to make and consume breakfast and lunch. Then we had to clean up! Dinner was worse. It took me at least an hour to an hour and a half to put together dinner. Then another hour to eat and clean up the mess made. Then it was right into the bedtime routine. It didn't seem like things calmed down until everyone was actually asleep and you and I both know that this could take a long, long time when it comes to little kids. 

But it stretched new muscles in my brain to be thinking, planning and preparing several meals a day. What vegetables go well with this chicken? What kind of fruit should we add to this meal? Do we have potatoes or rice today? It gets so boring just worrying about yourself all the time and it was fun to try out a bunch of recipes to tantalize the crowd. And while there were successes and failures, I can't wait to do it again. 

Amy with our great friend, Shannon

A cooking partner

Of course, it is always more fun to cook with someone. And when that someone makes yummy, yummy meals herself, it makes the cooking process so much more fun. We found too that we complemented each other rather well. I'm great at the overall planning of the meal and Amy was excellent at the details. She knew just what we needed to give the a better texture to the spinach salad, what seasoning to add to the rice to give it a fuller flavor, and what kind of fruit would top the meal perfectly. It was great fun to do it all together. 

My clean house

 I admit to being my mother's daughter when it comes to hosting visitors. I want everything just so. My house is never so clean as when I'm hosting people. Sure it has something to do with wanting the guests to enjoy themselves, but it also has to do with functionality--at least in my little space. If the kitchen is going to be ready for the next meal, it is necessary to clean it up now. If the kids are going to have a room to play in, then we have to fold up their futons and put them away. If everyone is going to get ready, the bathroom has to have fresh towels and more soap. I loved the shining usefulness of my space when it was crammed to the rafters with people. 

Sam and his friend, Drew

Little sleep but more energy

Couldn't everyone use this? The energy came from having so much fun with my friends. The lack of sleep was for the same reason. 

Long, long discussions and excellent questions

And of course, the talking. The discussions that ranged over five days. The particular question that my friend asked me about an old, old problem and I didn't have an answer, which made me see the issue in an entirely new light. The airing of opinions and refining of tastes that occurred as we shared and explored an array of topics. The great long conversation of our friendship that has stretched across many years, many states, and many emotions. 

That's what I miss. 

How I Know My Cooking Needs Some Work

I’ve been baking lately with my company around. Most of that baking has involved experimenting with gluten-free flours to make pancakes, muffins, and cookies. My eight-year-old visitor, Sam, had some commentary on these experiments. I had made pancakes one morning and in typical fashion I didn't test the recipe before I made it for my visitors. The pancakes were only a borderline success. They were approved by the adult-only crowd but the kid-only crowd had some serious reservations. The next morning I made blueberry muffins with a different kind of gluten-free flour. This was the conversation that ensued.

SAM: What’s for breakfast?

ME: Blueberry muffins

SAM: Yes! I love blueberry muffins.

ME: Good, I hope you’ll like these.

(Pause. Sam approaches the bowl I’m mixing the recipe in and looks in it, then back at me. Worried look on his face.)

SAM: Umm, are you using the stuff that normal people use to make real blueberry muffins?

ME: No, I’m using a different kind of flour.

SAM: Hmmm.

Pause.

SAM: Well, you know, maybe I don’t like blueberry muffins anymore.

Yes. I have now contributed to the delinquency of a minor by giving him the urge to go and steal breakfast from the nearby grocery store rather than consume my blueberry muffins. Ouch.

That's What Friends Are For

I'm still deep in the land of visiting friends and post-wedding hype. Here is a photo of two of the best people I know: Katy and Amy. Can you believe I am friends with sisters? I'm lucky enough to have a relationship with both of these girls and a connection between all three of us. I think it speaks to the great hearts they both have and the warmth and affection they exude that they have both opened their arms to me. They are, of course, very different and indiviual women but they have similarities in thought or action that are striking at times.

I want this time/celebration/vacation to continue for a long, long time. Why can't I live permanently on little sleep, disrupted routine and excellent long chats? Kate's wedding was over a week ago now, but she and I finally went to lunch and reconnected after the hectic few weeks approaching the wedding. We broke down the entire experience and if it is what she imagined and wanted and came away with a resounding "yes!" Kate is happy with her beautiful day and her new husband and I'm thrilled for her.

And Amy and I have been chatting through several days of feeding children, cleaning up after children and entertaining children. We just couldn't take it any longer and stayed up most of last night to make sure we hit every major and important topic of discussion that had so far not been covered. I only wish it could have gone on longer.

I guess I'm just feeling rich and full and happy. I've seen one friend step into a brand-new life and I've spent some serious quality time reconnecting with the other who is in the midst of a very busy life. They have both enriched my life so much and I've spent a lot of time the last several days realizing how grateful I am for their influence, love, warmth and candor.

I'm just going to enjoy every moment I have while this little party continues.

If You Start Them Young

This was my house Friday evening. Three kids, one mother and me. They had just read the scriptures for a bit, they were about to have prayer and the kids were going to be tucked in their beds. But the kids were a bit restless and not quite ready to go to sleep. So, what did the mommy do? 

Yoga.

Yes, at 9:00 pm my little place was looking a bit like a yoga studio with everyone (except me--had to take pictures, you know) doing "up dog" and "down dog."  I wondered where else the world a mother was leading her crew in such an activity. 

But lucky me, I got to witness it. My dear, sweet friend Amy is here visiting for a few weeks and I'm thrilled to get to host her and her three munchkins at my house for part of that time. Amy and her husband live in Massachusetts and it has been far too long since she and I have been sharing the same physical space. 

It just makes me smile.

We've been friends for over ten years. We met when we were young, idealistic and full of dreams. Now were both a bit bruised from life's challenges and far less dreamy. But we still like to sit and really chew into our lives and thoughts and come up with "world peace." It is just so much more fun to do face to face than over the phone. 

So, to three-hour chat fests, cooking excellent food together, and Friday-night yoga. Friends are such a gift. 

Bicycle Built for Two

Congratulations to Katy and Barrett. You've really started the ride of your lives.