Sue's World

Lunch Cravings

My mouth is watering and my stomach is growling but I keep doing new things instead of eating lunch.  Now I know what I want.  Hot dogs.  A nice, juicy Nathan's hot dog with dill relish and mustard.  I'm still in my robe so I'm not firing up the BBQ but the broiler is warming up.  Mmmm...!!!

Beet Red

Last week in the weight loss/healthy living group I lead I noted we should be trying new things and getting out of the rut.  I boldly announced I would try some new vegetables and the first would be beets.  I've only ever had canned beets and they are horrendous to me.  Blech!  My dear friend Joan has noted freshly roasted beets are yummy; I always just glossed over that but this week I bought a bunch of fresh organic beets and this afternoon I tried them.

I tossed them with a bit of olive oil and roasted them for an hour.  I peeled the skin back on one of them and gingerly took a bite.  DELICIOUS!  It doesn't need any seasoning.  Okay, Joan, you were right.  And now that I know I will add them to my rotation this Fall/Winter. 

I think my next adventure will involve turnips.  I am not sure I've tasted a turnip before.  Hmmm!  I'm also going to start eating veggies again that I love but that hubby doesn't.  I can always eat them at lunch since I'm home.  Last week I cooked up some fresh spinach with mushrooms and tomatoes and had that twice for lunch.  Yummy!  A good friend of mine makes mashed cauliflower to resemble mashed potatoes.  I think I'll give that a whirl too since I love cauliflower.  I'm guessing I could always freeze what's left.  I see a whole new world opening up.  I like the idea of ditching some of the starches in my diet and adding more delicious veggies especially with soup/stew season coming.   I bought some sweet potato soup from Trader Joe's a week ago and polished it off in four lunches.  I am sure hubby would like that; we're big fans of sweet potatoes.

It's a bit bittersweet thinking of food right now.  It's just before 5pm and I'll be starting to cook soon (BBQ pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes) and my mouth is watering, but I had a visit to the dentist today and my mouth is sore.  Wah!

Pink Perfection

A couple of weeks ago, hubby and I went out for Mexican food in the neighborhood.  I saw filet mignon tacos as a special and ordered.  To my horror, they had big chunks of meat that was pink inside.  I'm a "well done" girl.  I go so far as to order my meat with the explicit instructions that there can be no pink.  And here I was with these pink chunks of filet.  It didn't occur to me that they wouldn't ask my temperature preference and obviously I didn't think to say something.

I braced myself and took a bite.  Mmmm...tender.  In fact it was the most tender meat I've ever had.  I didn't get sick (as had happened years ago). 

Last night hubby and I went to Outback Steakhouse and I was in the mood for something different.  I saw filet with mushroom sauce served with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies and I ordered it.  Again...didn't think to say anything and when my plate came I saw beautiful slices of PINK meat.  Again, I braced myself.  And once again I was amazed at how yummy and tender and delicious it was.  Okay...I'm starting to think I need to try this with other meat.  Hubby assured me it was cooked.  It was pink, not red.  and it was soft and tender and....  I will definitely order that again.  The mushroom sauce was really good as was the rest of the meal.  Mmmmmm!

Not a good idea to write about food at dinnertime.  My mouth is watering!

Copycat

When we were in DC we thought we'd be eating at the hotel for breakfast but after our first morning we knew we needed a better solution.  Paying about $20 apiece was bad enough, but when the food was awful that was it.

We ventured out into the neighborhood and were delighted to find a McD's a minute from our hotel.  We got hooked on the yogurt/berry parfaits.  At $1 they are a steal AND they are delicious!  They layer vanilla yogurt with berries then give you a little packet of granola for the top.

Yesterday I bought nonfat vanilla yogurt and fresh berries.  I served them as dessert last night with little shortcake sponges.  Today for a snack I just had the yogurt and berries and that reminded me again of the parfaits.  Since our trip I've been looking at cereal aisles for granola but haven't really found anything I liked so much.  I didn't want big clumps.

A while back I made some granola and today I set out to find a new recipe.  I think I ate my snack about an hour ago and I've since already made a batch of yummy granola.  :)  I modified the recipe a bit as someone suggested, reducing the amount of butter (maybe 1 1/2T) and brown sugar (about 2T).  When I spread the granola out I sprinkled it with some cinnamon and then chopped a small handful of almonds and put that on too.  I skipped the cranberries.  I was really just trying to get a bit of a crunch for the top of the parfait.  It tastes really good!  I have it drying in the oven right now (oven is off; just hiding it from the cats).

So now I need more berries and maybe we'll have parfaits for breakfast tomorrow.  I don't think McD's uses lowfat/nonfat yogurt; the consistency of theirs is more firm but I don't care.  With my really good light-and-fit yogurt, it's a healthy breakfast, snack or dessert.  Mmmm!

Spring Luncheon

A couple of times a year our women's bible study has a luncheon.  Each group decorates their own table and, of course, I had to sign up to do it.  I promise that next year others will get to do it...

I had in mind birds and nests and, over time, that morphed into more of a natural Spring theme.  I wanted real flowers so I got several pony packs of flowers.  With some I took out the individual plants and plopped them into clear party drink glasses.  With a few I put the whole pack into a baking pan and put individual plants around it to make it full and then filled a basket.

I love doing crafts but don't have too many opportunities to do them so I decided it was the right time.  I had a butterfly project in mind.  I found butterfly images on the internet and created a file with mirror images of them.  I found by printing the same file on both sides of card stock I would have a paper butterfly with printing on the front and the back. I cut them out and then glued them onto wires that I bent and then stuck those in with the flowers.

  So now I had a garden theme but still wanted t get my birds in there.  I played with paper birds but they lacked the dimension.  Duh - I decorate with birds in the home so I just grabbed a bunch of them from display and brought them along.  The result was my indoor garden.  It was a lot of fun.

I also cut some flowers and put them in a vase to add some dimension to the table.  After the party, I had the pleasure of planting the pony packs in our front yard.  Talk about recycling!

 

Haste Makes Waste...and a Clogged Sink

I am rushing around this morning.  One thing I had to do was put dinner together in the crock pot.  I peeled a large potato and a yam.  I looked at the peels in the sink and decide to let the garbage disposer handle them.  Wrong!  I ended up jamming the sink.

Ran around looking for the drain cleaner.  I am pretty sure I bought some recently but can't find it.  Grrr.  Now for the plunger.  Finally...success.  So my peel disposal shortcut wasted about 10 extra minutes.  Grrr.....

Failure to Carve

We had lunch today and then prepared to carve our pumpkins.  I experienced a first.  My pumpkin is so hard I could got get a knife more than 1/4" into it!  I tried "sawing" with a serrated knife.  Nothing.  WAH!  Hubby carved his giant pumpkin and I consoled myself by separating seeds from pulp.  We now have one carved Jack-o-Lantern and a nice batch of cleaned pumpkin seeds soaking in salt water.  Well, at least I did something productive.  In fairness, hubby offered to let me carve the big pumpkin but I was content to watch and get seeds ready.  I haven't roasted pumpkin seeds in several years so I'm looking forward to it.

I Smell Delicious

About an hour ago I noticed I smell delicious.  The scent?  A wood fire.  Huh?  I met Roxie and Fiona for lunch at Rattlers.  We all had salads.  Well, I will fess up that I had the sandwich and salad bar which means I had a little sandwich with my salad.  You can't sit in Rattlers and not get the scent of the wood fire that they use to BBQ their meats.  I'm surprised I don't smell like their garlic rolls because we sat right next to the place that they store them!

I was sitting at my computer and all of a sudden I noticed that I smelled like Rattlers.  Mmmm....delicious!

Photo Album from My 50th Birthday Party

At last I put together a photo album from my 50th Birthday Party.  Many thanks to cousin Denise who took the pictures. 

An Out-of-the-Ordinary Evening

It's Wednesday.  At 5pm my husband asked me if I wanted to watch a movie at home.  I said "yes" and we picked Sherlock Holmes.  We both liked it.  Now it's 7pm and the tri-tip and artichokes I'd planned would take a good 45 minutes to prepare.  Chi-Chis, he suggested.  Mmmm...rigatoni with meat sauce and yummy sourdough rolls and a glass of Pinot Noir.  Now that's a special treat!