Just another day in paradise

My microwave has died. Sometime this afternoon it went kaputz. It happened after two bags of microwave popcorn but before I went to use it for dinner. To make matters worse, it was the primary plan for dinner.

You see this morning I had given the oldest kid the choice of what to make for dinner with the understanding that he would make it with my assistance. So he chose his favorite, which is baked potatoes. Now you also have to understand that today is the first hot day we have had all year. The first day to really go over 90. The first day that I flipped on the air conditioner. It was not a day that I would normally make baked potatoes. But I wanted him to be excited about learning how to cook. And I had let him choose. And I actually had all the important ingredients even though it is two days before payday; and I was pretty sure that any other thing he would want to eat I would not have the ingredients for. So I thought about it and decided that we could pretty much cook the potatoes in the microwave and just crisp up the outsides for a few minutes in the oven. That way I would not have to have the oven on for a long time and heat up the house. Yeah, that was a good idea.

Now it would have been a brilliant plan. And I would have had plenty of time for making dinner. I showed him how to scrub the potatoes, how to pierce them, how to check for bad spots, etc. And then we stuck them in the microwave for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes were over I went to check them to gauge how much longer they needed to cook. And they were still cold. But the microwave was hot. Smoking in fact. With that acrid burnt plastic smell.

Of course, this was the moment that hubby walked in from work. What had been until precisely that moment a calm, controlled, cheerful cooking tutorial went to everything spinning out of control. Child #1 proclaimed that the microwave was broken. Not to be left out, child #2 announces that the rabbit got under the porch and that we can't get her out (this was true, but nobody had seemed worried about it until this precise moment when it suddenly became a crisis which needed immediate attention in his eyes). Back to child #1 who is holding up the broken rubber band gun and asking if dad can glue it back together. Sheesh, you would think that I was some incompetent ninny who was just sitting there waiting all day for hubby to come home and fix everything. Let's just say that "bombarded" was how hubby felt.

But we moved on and dealt with the "disasters" according to importance. First of which was to get the baked potatoes in the oven to cook them the old-fashioned way while hubby investigated the microwave. We pretty much concluded that it is dead. Done-for. And it is only about 3 years old! Of course long enough to no longer be under warranty. Where is that Maytag repair man when you need him? And why do those ugly behemoth microwaves from 20 years ago still work?

We also concluded that baked potatoes take a long time to cook in the oven when you were not planning to cook them in an oven. And using your oven for such a long time makes your already hot house even hotter.

We finally ate dinner. I stuck with my tutorial and had him cook the bacon and prepare everything else. But can I just say that you never realize how much you use a microwave until you don't have one! I even grew up without a microwave so I should have no problem with this; but I am already wondering how I am going to survive until I can get to the store and get a new one purchased and installed. I might even have to drink my coffee while it is still hot! No re-zapping it to heat it up for me.

We did also get the bunny out. Hubby just sprayed down the deck with water and out she hopped! The rubber band gun will soon be glued. So all around we survived.

But to add insult to injury, I went to take pictures to go with this post and discovered that I had left my camera at my sister's house this weekend......

How Does Your Garden Grow?

As we just returned from vacation, I thought I would take a stroll around the yard and see how the garden is growing. It is mid-June and has been a particularly cold, wet spring.

This is my pot of herbs growing right outside my kitchen window. It makes me happy.

Rosemary, parsley, basil, cilantro, and dill.... Very happy.

This makes me SAD. It is my strawberry patch. In years past it has been lush and abundant. But we separated and replanted the plants this year to renew the bed and, as you can see, it is just not coming back so well. I don't know if it is the bedding mix that we added or what. But it makes me sad. No strawberries this year...

This pot makes me happy. Mixed lettuce greens.

It looks like our lettuce will go into July this year!

Very happy! The start of snow peas!

More happiness! Our big patch of lettuce is coming on strong.

Isn't it pretty?

But this makes me sad. Bolting spinach.

It means the end of our spinach is near.

And bloomin' lilies! Happy!

But as one flower starts blooming, another quits. Here is my clematis, the blooms almost spent.

But all hope is not lost. See those lighter green leaves? They have buds which will lead to new flowers later this summer. Not as many blooms as in the spring, but just a little bonus.

This is our mass of potatoes with raspberry bushes in the background.

Yum, yum, happy.

And see those flowers? That means that we will soon be able to dig up some potatoes.

Oven-fries, now that makes me very happy!

A Little Hike

Today is beautiful weather (after a lot of rain lately) and it is not too hot. The perfect morning for a little hike in the nearby foothills. To top it off it is the second day of summer vacation which is a time still ripe with possibilities and determination that we won't just slump into a puddle of goo for the summer. Two weeks from now all bets are off. But today we are full of high hopes.

So along with a few other mothers and a group of kids we started off. And I am happy to say that I did okay.... Except for the uphill. Which is only about half the hike. Which only helped to underscore how totally out of shape I really am. But I did fine on the downhill. Why, oh why, must all hikes go uphill at some point? And I am pretty sure that there is always more uphill than downhill. Oh, I know that elevation-wise they have to be equal when you complete a loop; but I know that they sneak more uphill in!

The kids loved it when we reached this little grouping of rocks called Castle Rock. You could look out across the valley and see the city below.

All-in-all it was fun and I felt like I accomplished a little exercise for the day. I may even do it again.

Lily's Avocado Salsa

I know that other people make this salsa as well, but I always associate it with my friend, Lily. She told me that she has varied the amounts of ingredients quite a bit and has found that it seems like the only really critical part is using a good Italian dressing marinade. Green onions also seem to work better flavor-wise than any other chopped up onion.



So I am going to just give you the ingredients without any amounts and you can vary according to whatever you have.



Ingredients:

• canned black beans, drained


• canned corn, drained


• diced tomato


• green onions, chopped


• avocado, diced


• Italian dressing

Mix all and toss with the Italian dressing. Serve with tortilla chips. This is also stupendous with Oven-baked Chicken Chimichangas.

Spinach-Walnut-Citrus Salad

This is a very simple spinach salad that is originally from the book: You On A Diet by Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. (I can't figure out how to underline in my posting format!)

Dressing:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey (I admit, I always add more, probably like a tablespoon)
dash of cayenne pepper (don't leave this out, this gives it the extra something that it needs but it is not really spicy)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.

Salad:
1 large bunch spinach, washed and trimmed
1/4 cup walnut halves, raw or pan-roasted
1/2 orange, segmented
1/2 grapefruit, segmented
2 green onion, chopped

Toss spinach with dressing and walnuts. Add citrus and green onions on top.

I usually use a whole orange and a whole grapefruit because we like it really citrusy. I have also used a can of mandarin oranges drained if I have no fresh citrus available. I do think that the green onions are a pretty important part of the overall flavor.

Enjoy!

Val's Pear and Couscous Spinach Salad

More spinach recipes! Of course, I have to have a salad recipe. This is one that came from Val M. I will post the recipe just the way I got it from her, but I will add my comments and variations to it in a different color.

Note: I suggest that you toast your almonds and cook your couscous earlier in the day. This way your couscous can cool off some and you can just toss it all together quickly come supper time.

Salad:
*Chopped spinach (you can stem the leaves, stack several together, and cut with a knife or kitchen shears)
* 4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (I always use more bacon than this. I pretty much just cook up a pound, pull out about about half to give the kids separate, and then chop up the rest for the salad)
* green onions, chopped
* slivered, toasted almonds
* 2-3 Bartlet pears, thinly sliced (I always use a can of pears, drained and sliced)
* couscous (add 1 cup couscous to 1.5 cup boiling water. Turn off burner, let sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with fork) This makes a very generous amount of couscous - might not want quite this much.


Dressing:
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry (I never use this, I just never seem to have it. I am sure that it is better with it, but it is fine without as well.)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix and pour over salad just before serving.

Chicken Garlic Pizza

In continuation of my posting of recipes using spinach, I am adding this chicken garlic pizza that was my attempt at something close to Papa Murphy's delicious pizza. Not that it uses more than a handful of spinach, but hey, at least that is one more handful of spinach that is not in my fridge! While my attempt was loosely ruled by the Papa Murphy's version, as is usually the case with my cooking the actual product had some variations to account for what I had available and what sounded good to me.

The biggest issue for me was trying to duplicate the creamy garlic ranch sauce that PM uses. After doing a little searching around on the internet, I combined several recipes that I found. And you will never guess what the ingredients are for garlic ranch sauce.... GARLIC and RANCH DRESSING! Well duh! I also added some grated Parmesan. This is the ratio I used which worked well for an approximately 12 inch diameter pizza:

CREAMY GARLIC RANCH SAUCE:
1/2 cup ranch dressing
5-6 cloves garlic, pressed (or 1 heaping tablespoon)
1/4 cup Parmesan

I found this sauce to be pretty close. If anything, it was a little ranchy and not garlicy enough. But maybe my cloves were a little old and fresher cloves would impart more garlic flavor.





Spread the garlic sauce on your pizza crust and cover with spinach leaves. You want the spinach under the other layers or it will tend to burn. Here I used a whole wheat crust that I par-bake and store in the freezer. I will try to post this recipe sometime. But you could use whatever crust you prefer.

Top with thinly sliced grilled chicken and pepperoni (not on the PM version, but I had it and it seemed like it would be a good addition, which it was).

Top the meat with grated mozzerella. Over the cheese put diced Roma tomatos, sliced black olives and chopped green onions. Sprinkle some grated parmesian on top.

Bake at 400 (375 convection) for about 15 minutes. I like to bake it on a preheated pizza stone. Upon removal from the oven I let it cool for a few minutes on a cookie rack to keep the bottom crust crisp.

I think this pizza would also be good with any or all of the following: sun-dried tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts, sausage, bacon bits. I woulda added them if I'da had em! But it was still quite delish as it is.