Life is a poem...

It has been a few days. Sorry, no truly my deepest regards. I haven't cooked much this week from being in bed all day Sunday and then spending Monday making sure I was feeling 100% better. But I am back and ready to get in the kitchen, but first a little bit about my week or in particular my night last night!

So my dad is a poet. By day he is an attorney and yadda yadda that is great but by love and passion he is a poet. He is having 2 books published this year, one by Dos Madres a small but wonderful local press company here and another by Wordpress later in the year.

Last night he had his first reading in quite a while. It was wonderful. We were in the tea room of this delectable local bakery. 30 people together quiet and listening to his words. He spoke smoothly and with emotion. Real emotion, the kind of emotion that my sister and I looked at each other and got tears in our eyes. Beauty. I remember when I was a kid listening to my dads poems. I have every single one of his chat books from the 70's with his poems in it, they sit nicely on my bookshelf all in a row.

So life is a poem. My poem has included so much beauty and laughter, it has traced the lines of many pages and still after every word there is a smile. A joyous poem perhaps.

Here is my dad reading a poem he wrote for our wedding:



Here is one of my fathers poems. Read it, then go back and read it again. When you are done the second time think about it and perhaps read it again.

Walrus
It slips from my heart
Like the walrus slips
From the ice into the sea
Diving deep to dig for oysters
In the mud with his ivory tusks

But it always returns

I feel those wet flippers
And the pain from two huge tusks
Pulling that dark slippery wrinkled form
Back onto my heart
And I am frightened
Until I feel the warmth from his blubber
Which the Eskimos eat
And burn in their lamps
And I want to live and receive light
From him too

I shake again
When the walrus moves
Knowing he is hungry
And must go
I cry wait
As he slides into the water
And I hope for
The day
When my arms
will be strong enough
To wrap around and hold
The broad neck
Of this mustached whale horse

to ride him into the dark
Into the warmer water
To dig in the mud and watch
For polar bears and kayaks

By Gerry Grubbs

A recipe I must share!

My cousin Windy sent me this recipe yesterday. These look great and I can't wait to try them. I love food that you can sneak vegetables in it and the kids will still love them.

What is your favorite recipe that "hides" ingredients:

Good Morning Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegtable oil
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups peeled, chopped apples (I actually grate mine)
2 cups peeled, grated carrots
1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 c sliced almonds

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add oil, milk, vanilla. Mix well. Stir dry ingredients. Fold in apples, carrots, coconut, raisins, and almonds. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes.
ENJOY!

I am really looking forward to making these muffins! Thanks cousin for sending this my way!

Thankful Thursday

Here I am, my husband has been gone most of the week traveling with work. He was home Tuesday night for dinner and we had soup. Roslaee just fell asleep and I am going through years of recipes I have collected, scribbled and torn out of old magazines. Deciding on what to keep, what to pass on and what to get rid of so no one else has to experience them.

Grocery list making is well under way also. As well as laundry and floor sweeping. Motivated, perhaps a little.

Well, here it is. My weeks menu:

Friday- Chicken Noodle Soup with Cheddar Biscuits
Saturday- - Out, deservingly
Sunday-- Happy Shrimp Stir Fry w/ Brown Rice
Monday- Tuna Noodle Casserole, because if I make this the kids will be so good. I really should make it more often.
Tuesday- Grilled Turkey & Cheese Sandwiches w/ Tomato Soup
Wednesday- Tacos w/ Homemade Tortillas and Guacamole

The menu this week is quick and simple cooking as we have stuff 3 nights this week which means Jimmy goes home from work, we eat and head back out! Busy. What does your menu look like? What are some of your favorite things to cook?

Fried Cabbage

I must share this as oddly enough I have been craving it a lot lately.

So easy, cheap and yum!

Fried Cabbage- a few different ways!

prep- 5 minutes
cook-20 minutes
serves - 3 adults +

1/2 Head of Cabbage, rinse it and chop it up into bite size pieces

It should look something like this:


3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil, you can use all OO if you would like
Salt and pepper

optional ingredients:
1 heaping teaspoon sugar, Optional
5 pieces of bacon, real bacon not turkey anything! Optional - if you use bacon you can skip the butter and olive oil

If using the bacon- get big skillet out and fry up your bacon. Get it nice and crispy.
Take bacon out, chop it up and save for later.
Keeping your bacon grease hot, go ahead and throw in your cabbage and start frying.
If not using bacon, just heat up your OO and butter in pan until hot and then throw in cabbage and start frying.

If using the sugar go ahead and add it now.
Salt and Pepper it REALLY good. I use a lot of salt, probably close to 2 teaspoons.
Fry it really good until the cabbage looks brighter in color and is limp. I also like some of it to get a little crispy around the edges. This takes about 15 minutes.

Once cabbage is done add your bacon back in (if using!) and toss it together. Feel free to set your skillet right on the table and let people just start eating. So good!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the cooked cabbage, but will snap one next time I make it! We also had vegetable soup last night, recipe is coming! Which had the other half of cabbage in it and after we all ate our fill of fried cabbage I just threw the little bit of leftovers in the vegetable soup!

Better than your moms Chicken Noodle Soup!

Ahh, really what is better than a warming bowl of chicken noodle soup. It warms you from the inside out and delights every bit of you! Served when your sick, on a nice fall day as the leaves turn or today when this snow hasn't stopped falling since the night before!

I love chicken noodle soup. It is budget friendly, healthy and so delicious! ok, ok here is my recipe!

Chicken Noodle Soup

prep- 2.5 hours includes making stock
cook- 25 minutes
serves- A lot!

Stock w/ chicken (recipe below!)
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
4 Carrots, sliced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped
Chicken broth, optional
Egg noodles or any other fun pasta shape you have in your pantry
Dried basil
2 bays leaves


Stock:
Carcass of your roasted chicken
Vegetable peels - carrots, onions, garlic (I keep a bag in the freezer full of peels from previous meals- makes making stock easy!)

Place your carcass and all the pan drippings in your stock pot. Add vegetable peels to this and a bay leaf. I would also add about 1/2-1 tablespoon of salt.
Cover with water and bring to a boil. I let this simmer for a few hours on my stove. I love how it makes the entire house smell yummy! You can cook over medium-high for about 45 minutes to an hour if you don't have time. But for this I would recommend making the time. So good.

After a few hours you should have this dark broth in your pot. Ok get out a very large bowl and your strainer. Strain you broth, throwing out the vegetables but NOT the carcass, just yet!
Cooking it slow and low see how the meat is falling off the bones. I am not one to like dark meat, picking bones etc but for this soup I would do it anytime!
I pick through the carcass getting all of the meat off of the bones and adding it directly back into my broth. I normally can get a good amount of chicken from the carcass.

Ok leave that in your bowl.
Put your stock pot back on your stove, I don't even rinse it.
Add about 2 tbs olive oil to your pot and turn heat on medium. When that is hot go ahead and add your onion. Saute for a few minutes then add your garlic. Add a heaping teaspoon of salt to this now and listen to it sizzle!
Next add your carrots and celery cooking for about 5 to 8 minutes.
Once everything looks nice and sauteed, onions are translucent go ahead an add your broth with the chicken. Add your bay leaves.
Now, you can leave this as is and save for another day or keep it cooking for dinner that night!
If you are planning on eating go ahead and bring to a boil- taste it, see if it needs more salt. Sometimes if the broth doesn't taste "chickeny" enough I will add a cup or two of chicken broth.
Once it is boiling go ahead and add your pasta- about half a bag.
Once your pasta is done EAT IT!

Serve in nice big bowls making sure to get all the veggies, chicken and noodles!