Rock To Wind A String Around

After a full week of crafting hearty, stick-to-your-ribs fare, like pot roasts, ziti, and of course, the Thanksgiving feast, I was eager to eschew the umpteenth plate of stuffing (my personal Thanksgiving favorite) for something lighter and cleaner tonight.  A mixed green salad with cilantro-lime dressing was the result.  Strongly flavored, full of fiber (and cilantro!) it was exactly  what I was looking for:

I made some tortilla strips in a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes, added them to a big bowl of organic lettuces, cilantro too,  and grape tomatoes with a few black beans thrown in for good measure.  Usually, I’d flavor the beans, but the dressing was flavor enough.

Cilantro-lime dressing

2/3 cup of cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup oil (your choice)

3-4 T fresh lime juice

1T red wine vinegar

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

and salt & pepper to taste

I whirled all of this together with my immersion blender, but I think a food processor would be a better choice.   While I prepped this, I threw a few frozen shrimp in a hot pan for a quick saute’.  They needed a little olive oil and some smoky paprika for a little depth (those shrimp, so shallow) and between the shrimp and the beans, the salad had staying power, and deliciousness!  This was a much  better choice than stuffing tonight.

Happy Friday!

Thank you for all of your many kindnesses.  Anne’s boys are doing quite well, all things considered.  I think there is much relief mingled in their sadness.

This week, even without the helpful hands of my spouse, and with Anne’s death, was still quite lovely.  It was a true delight to see the cousins play together–I think Astrid will be quite sad to see the fends leave tomorrow.  As usual we ate too much, slept too little, and managed far too many children in one house, but we all had a good time.  We took everyone to a local rec center yesterday and had a stellar time. The littles played on the indoor playground, and the bigger boys had lots of time for rock-climbing.  Everyone marvelled at the “freeness” of the center (it IS a word, really) and I was reminded once again that we live in a very nice corner of the universe.  Tonight, after the biggest dinner ever,  I planned a scavenger hunt for all of the members of the family who are 7 or older.  The two teams went out with long lists and came back with pictures an hour later.  I stayed home with sleeping babies and finished cleaning the kitchen so that we’d be ready to eat dessert when they came home.  Everyone had a good time, despite getting lost, so I think it will become an annual event.  We do a lot of things during the big family Thanksgiving in the name of ‘tradition,’  running around in the dark looking for sleighs, lawn ornaments, and acorns seems like a good thing to add to the mix.

We settled down to dessert after Team A  trounced Team A2 189 to 187. While my mother-in-law and I made Martha-worthy desserts, the tastiest dish was the pumpkin pie that Albert earned this morning when he ran the  Turkey Trot.  5 chilly miles in just over 35 minutes–he was pleased with his time and his great race shirt, not to mention the pie.  The big boys ran the kids race too, and no one got frostbite, despite dire predictions from Pops.

Everyone leaves tomorrow, an unusual Thanksgiving happening.  Most years, we get an extra few days with Pops, but it will just be the 4 of us, and mountains of laundry come dinnertime.  We’ll be sad to see everyone go, sadder still to see mountains of laundry, and we’ll look forward to doing it all again next year.

My friend died today.  I knew it was coming, have known for months that she would not be here for New Year, and yet the news,  it has shaken me to my core.

I’m so grateful to have known her, this friend who personified grace under fire. The world will be a much emptier place for her mother,  her boys,  for all of us who loved her.

cancer really is that painful…

18 hours left until the rest of Albert’s family arrives–Good thing I’ve got my Playtex 18 hour bra!

I’m doing 7 things at once, adding non-necessary items to my list, and I’m singing about it.  Mostly, the song goes like this,

“Oh Albert–how could you be working out of town?

Your family arrives tomorrow

You promised to take this week off

You are a rat bastard, but, I love you, I love you–yes I do

Imagine how great the world would be

If you were here to wrangle the turkey

and make beds and scrub

You are a rat bastard, but I love you, I love you,  I do”

There are additional verses, the ones about the full work schedule on Friday and for most of Saturday are really lyrical, but I’ll save those for another time.  I’m sure it’s clear that I could be happier about the current state of affairs.  It’s not really his fault exactly, but it’s still frustrating.  i have a boatload of EOR stuff to accomplish and it clearly won’t get properly tackled until next Friday.

Posting should be sparse over the next few days as well–Hosting 8 additional people in your house for a week isn’t conducive to blogging, or sitting or sleeping, I think.  It will truly be fun to see everyone though.  Elliott is the oldest cousin, Cousin M is 7, D is 3, Astrid is 2, J is 18 months and S is newly 1, so there will be loads of people to adore.

Back to scrubbing the powder room.  I feel another chorus coming on…

or come to my blog, where I say I will post later, but it’s a complete falsehood. 

We’re already making holidays merry and bright here in Cowtown.  Pops arrived late last night, and today, we forced these nice people to play cards with us–our favorite game needs at least 5 players, so we lured them to the house with the promise of dinner, and then kept them hours longer for fun and games.  Actually, they came even earlier than dinner to take professionalphotos of the 4 of us.  La dee dah!  Astrid was a pill through most of the photo taking, even though she adores Amy & Joel.  They are real photographers though, so they’ve promised to work wonders with the scores of shots involving nose-picking, blanket-holding, and let’s not forget the favorite Christmas pose, the shoe-chew.  Yes, at more than one point in the photo session, Astrid Meklit opted to dangle a Mary Jane from between her teeth.  I’ve already told my mom (hi mom!) she’d be receiving photos for Christmas.  Now she knows just how lovely they’ll be!

We had hoped to entertain Pops In Norman Rockwell Land tomorrow, but we’ll be pushing mops, brooms and grocery carts instead, in preparation for the rest of the company.  Pops promises to do his part by entertaining the children with football, while Albert & I summon Mr. Clean.  Sounds like fun to me!

Questions will be answered, um, soonish…

Hey there internets family.  If you get a minute, please pop over to Shelby’s and drop off some love.  She could use it.

Riveting words from me scheduled later (okay, not really, but I’ll actually post something…)

Today is a busy day, busier than usual, it seems.  In the midst of Thansgiving visit preparation, I’m adding in some cooking for the family of a friend who is very ill.  Some items, like the cookie recipe, will be doubled–I’ll make the cookies for my friend’s house, and I’ll make the dough for my house, for next week.  Some recipes, like the chickpea curry and the citrus-cilantro black beans are being made just for my friend.  With all of this extra cooking, it will be a leftover night around here.  Good thing I put some of my favorite soup in the freezer after last Sunday’s dinner.  The best part of this soup is the flavor, the second best part is that Albert made it while I was out running errands last week.  Super easy, very tasty, healthy, and made with love–it really is my favorite!

Chickpea soup with golden spices (adapted from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven)

4 15 oz cans of chickpeas (or 2 cups uncooked, soaked for at least 2 hours)

1T olive oil

2 c chopped onion

4T chopped garlic

2t salt

2 large carrots

a few threads of saffron (you can leave them out, but they really do elevate this dish)

2 t roasted cumin seeds (I dry roast them in a skillet over very low heat) ground cumin works too, but the seeds are better

2t mustard (yellow, dijon, etc.–the recipe calls for powder, but I actually prefer the vinegar tang of the condiment)

1/4c lemon juice of apple cider vinegar

black pepper and cayenne to taste

2-3 T sesame tahini

Heat the oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven.  Add the onion, half the garlic, half the salt, the carrot, the saffron, and cumin seeds.  Sautee’ over medium heat until the carrot pieces begin to soften.

Add the drained chickpeas, 4 c of water and the mustard.  Bring to a boil and then simmer covered for about 20 minutes.  Add the remaining garlic and salt, the cayenne and black pepper, and the tahini. Puree’ the soup until smooth and thick adding a little more water if necessary.

Serve hot with chopped tomato, minced cilantro, and a drizzle of sesame oil (the oil isn’t necessary, but very nice)

We round out the meal with some pita, RADISHES!, and maybe a little feta and olives if we’re feeling fancy-dancy.  If not, pita and radishes are fine.

Tonight, we’ll finish the meal with a baking sheet full of cookie or two.  This is a Martha Stewart oatmeal cookie recipe worthy of a free ceiling paint job. Really, I made the cookies a few months ago, left a plateful for our painter, and in gratitude (for the cookies and a copy of the recipe–he’s an ace baker!) Russ painted the ceiling in our hall bath while he was here to remove the mirrors.  I can’t keep the power of this recipe all to myself–you all might need household jobs done for free too.
Oatmeal Cherry Toffee Cookies (oh Martha, how I bow to thee!)

Cream:1 cup soft butter (i prefer salted, although most purists would insist on unsalted.  Earth Balance works well in these too)
Add: 3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
Add: 1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift: 1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. soda

1/2 t salt

and

Add to creamed mixture
Add: 1 cup dried cherries
1 cup  chocolate chips
1 cup  toffee bits
1 1/2 cup oatmeal
Divide dough into 3 logs. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze. Cut into 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick slices. Put on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake
Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.

If the dough looks too soft, add a little additional flour or oats.  These can be easily veganized by substituting Earth’s Balance and an egg replacer of your choice.  These cookies are a little pricey with all of the chunky bits added at the end, so I haven’t attempted to make them with gluten-free oats and a gf baking mix, but I think they would work.

Happy Thursday!

So while I didn’t officially sign on to the every day blogging challenge for the month of November (I knew I’d be in Denver without my laptop), I have been blogging everyday.  Today, I got nothing. 

I’ve noticed that I have more than 3 readers most days (Hello, number 4!!!).  Someone must have a question, a need to know?  I’ll jump on the seven things meme in the next few days (shedding further illumination on my banal, germ-obsessed existence),  In the meantime,  ask away!!!

Oh right, unless you are my mother–I think she’s a reader now!

So, the small girl never fails to amuse.  She has a lot to say, makes up jokes and is developing a quirky sense of humor.  Occasionally, she is funny because she is two.

Example:  Last week we were at Michael’s, home of all things crafty.  Not surprisingly, Halloween items were priced to sell.  We passed a table of hats, mostly witch and wizard triangles, but there were several pink foam cowgirl hats.   Astrid’s been inordinately attached to the pink felt  cowgirl hat that Kim gave her. It’s now crumpled and dirty, so an 89 cent foam hat seemed like a reasonable replacement cost.  Astrid Meklit loves the new hat and plops it on her head whenever the spirit moves her.  As soon as she puts it on, she yells, ” I’m a Wit (ch).  A wit—heh, heh. heh. The chuckle is the best part.  i don’t know where she learned that witches cackle, and I have no idea why the witches in her universe wear pink cowgirl hats, but she is firm in her resolve:   Astrid Meklit + foam stetson=  wit. 

I am inclined to agree…