July 27, 2012 by Andrea

The Good, The Bad, And …

It has been an interesting couple of days. I’ve gone into work a bit more and have a few new projects to occupy my time before I go back full time in August. The one that frustrates me most is having to administer the retakes for an End of Course exam. For those unfamiliar with Florida testing requirements, we test kids until everyone – teachers, students, administrators and parents – are all ready to snap, and then we test a little more. This past year we spent eight weeks testing. Yes, eight weeks of the school year. I fully admit that not every student spent eight weeks testing, but for a smart 8th grader with two high school courses, that student would have tested in 8th grade Reading, 8th grade Math, Science, Writing, Algebra or Geometry and potentially Biology. I had one student (a junior) who ended up testing in Reading, Math, Geometry, Biology, US History and the College Placement Test. I am all for solid data, ensuring students have mastered material, and improving educational opportunities and outcomes; I just think we need a new approach – one that does not require multiple choice questions and tests designed by people who do not teach.

That is my rant for the year. I will make every attempt to not bring it up again and move on to happier topics.

On a good and not so good note, I tried salmon for the first time this week. I picked some up at the store the other day, and grilled it that evening with my veggie cake experiment. (I’ll come back to the salmon in a minute). The veggie cake was based off a Sarah Molton recipe for corn cakes, but as corn is not on Bob’s new eating plan, I completely changed the recipe. Instead of corn, I used two cups of grated carrots and zucchini. To that I added one large egg, some almond flour and coconut flour (no wheat) some chili pepper paste, cilantro paste (it keeps longer than fresh cilantro until I can get it to grow in the garden) a touch of baking soda and a splash of buttermilk. Yes, I know I should measure and report quantities, but I don’t measure when I cook most of the time, so I honestly have no idea how much I used. I mixed all that up, and then fried them in a little bit of olive oil until both sides were nicely crusted. I moved them to a cookie sheet, added a slice of tomato and some cheese (I used the Corra Linn from Scotland – a sheep’s milk cheese that has a great flavor) and popped me in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes. The results were fabulous. Lots of flavor, some nice texture and a grain free, meat free option that could become a meal unto themselves.

The salmon, on the other hand …. Well, I grilled it and had a hard time telling when it was done. Part of the cut was very thin, and part was very thick. Thanks to Bobby Flay’s grilling cookbook, I was able to figure out when they were done, but … I did not care for the taste, and hated the texture of the fish. It vaguely reminded me (the texture that is) of foi gras which I cannot stand. So I had three bites of the fish and decided it was not for me. Unfortunately before I totally finished dinner, my stomach rebelled and it appears that while I am not technically allergic to fish (according to the allergy test) my system cannot handle it. On the up side, Gracie and Jessie seemed to like the fish just fine.

John is in town for the weekend so hopefully we will have some good outings with lots of pictures. I’m thinking the Edison and Ford Winter Estates tomorrow if the weather holds.

July 25, 2012 by Andrea

Eating Heathier

One of the difficult things about changing how we eat is coming up with new recipes that will translate into relatively quick weeknight dinners once the school year starts up again for me (in less than two weeks!!!). So to that end, I’ve been taking pictures of food, noting what has worked and what we didn’t like, and tried to figure out how to adapt recipes for less prep time, or how to store prepped meals in the fridge.

So … Sherry pork chops with vegetable timbale

This awesome little dish was pretty easy, except for the chopping part. The pork chops were simple – salt and pepper on the chops, into a hot pan and, after tuning over once, add a splash of sherry to “deglaze” the pan. Brown on both sides and then popped in the oven for ten minutes to finish.

The vegetable timbale came from my “Joy of Vegetarian Cooking” cookbook and could have been a meal unto itself. Not being sure about it, however, I opted for the pork chop with it. I chopped green and yellow squash, but you can use almost any veggie for this one. It is kind of like a warm, savory custard (it does have cream and eggs in it) and it does have some texture if you don’t purée the veggies too much. I will say, this was a great tasting dish and I loved the flavor. I have to see if I can make this ahead of time and just cook it on a week night. If I can it is going in the rotation.

My veggie basket this week contained lots of really pretty carrots. I saw a lot if really neat side dish recipes but very few main dish ones featuring carrots. But I did find this …

This is a Moroccan Stew and I have to say he flavors were fabulous even though I did not have cardamom on hand. Potatoes, butternut squash, carrots and onions make the base of this dish and are finished with green and yellow squash and chick peas. I’m pretty sure if Bob were sticking to the “slow carb” thing religiously, he would not have eaten this, but since he is focusing on limiting grains and starches, he happily ate it. The only complaint I have is the chick peas. I want to like beans, I so want to like them. But, alas, I don’t. The flavor is fine, but I absolutely hate the texture. Falafel is great and I love it, but whole chick peas … not so much, so note to self – skip the chickpeas next time and up the veggies.

And now we come to the chicken dish of the week. I’m not sure if I should call this a chicken salad, tropical chicken or chicken with pineapple and peach salsa. This was another “no recipe at all” dish and it came out pretty darn well.

It is a simple chicken breast, pan fried in a tiny bit of olive oil. The red leaf lettuce makes the bed for the chicken and I topped it with pineapple, peach, cucumbers, tomato and red onion that was marinated in a little lime juice. This one is a very easy and quick dish, so as long as I have pineapples available, it can be a week night staple.

Tonight I am attempting salmon for the first time. First time cooking and first time eating it, so we shall see how that comes out. I’m more interested in the zucchini and carrot cakes I’m pairing it with.

If anyone has any suggestions for weeknight meals, I’d love to add them to the experiment list!

July 23, 2012 by Andrea

French Lessons

There are a few things I dislike with such intensity they border on fear – talking to strangers, talking over a computer and attempting to speak aloud in a new language. I tend do do ok with understanding languages, but when it comes to attempting to speak, I freeze. I understand where this come from – I hate making mistakes in front of people; I hate being wrong. This is not to say that I am never wrong or don’t make mistakes. I do both with great frequency, but I still hate it. So what am I doing tomorrow as part of my quest to learn French? I’m going to talk to a native French speaker over the computer in French. Take the three things I don’t like and do them all at once. I figure the only way to get over this fear of speaking in a foreign language, and really learn it, is to just try. Similar to my fear of bridges, I’m going to approach this the same way – grip the stealing wheel, take a deep breath and hope to the heavens that there isn’t a strong wind or j#^%+s who wants to make the trip as miserable as possible along the way.

I think I’m doing fairly well with the French. I am still having problems with differentiating who, when and what, but that is just going to take memorization and practice (there is a reason Emmie and I are starting this a year out from the Brussels trip). The vocabulary is coming ok, and I’m even getting, at least according to the computer, the pronunciation of most words correct. I’m still having trouble with “chaussures” which pains me as I L-O-V-E love shoes.

Speaking of shoes, Gracie also likes shoes …

or at least shoe boxes.

Au revoir!

July 21, 2012 by Andrea

Sarasota

I have always lived in states that have coast lines. There is something about having access to the sea, however far away (desert of California was not exactly close to the ocean) or how small an access (Alabama) that just makes me feel better. Maybe it was growing up in a coastal state, maybe it was spending summers at the shore, maybe it is somewhat evolutionary, maybe it is my need for an escape route – who knows – but a coast line has always been a requirement for me.

Sarasota has some of the most beautiful beaches in the U.S., maybe in the world. At least all the beach ranting lists I’ve seen always have some Sarasota beaches in the top ten. Could be the lists I see, could be that they really are that pretty. I’m going for really that pretty. We had some bad storms come through recently, so after the farmer’s market this morning mom asked if I would want to head to the beach to check it out. Sure. It’s been a while. Bob went with Suzanne and family when there were here in May and from the pictures, the beach looks pretty good.

Lots of sand, clean water, a little seaweed, but hey, it’s nature. Today, however, there were no swimming sings and flags, lots of seaweed and the beach has shrunk dramatically.

I’m sure they will restore the beach area; dredge up and move sand and everything else that goes into beach restoration. I just hope they do it quickly even if I only get to the beach once a year. Until then, I’ll be happy with sites like this one …

July 19, 2012 by Andrea

Stuffed Veggies

Usually when I cook I start with a recipe, decide there is something in it I don’t like, don’t have or just don’t want to do, and change the recipe to fit a) my very picky tastes and b) what is in the house. Today, I just went to the fridge, pulled out some stuff and cooked. No recipe and I have to say, the stuffed pepper and zucchini came out so well, I’m now trying to remember what I did so we can have it again.

I started with a little round zucchini and a yellow pepper I found at the farmer’s market Saturday. They need to get used. I had pulled out ground beef, so out came that. Onion, yellow cherry tomatoes, and some of the Scottish cheese. Brown the beef, add some tomato paste and spices (chili pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning I think) and a touch of water, add veggies and simmer. I layered the beef mixture and the cheese, placed the little dears in a shallow baking dish, cover and pop into the over. Cooked at 350 for about 40 minutes and out it came.

This dish was so cute when I pulled it out I’d the oven I had to take a picture of it. Still didn’t know how it would taste, but it was really, really good. So … lesson learned – take what you have and some really good food can come out of it.

Did I mention how cute they looked? 🙂

July 18, 2012 by Andrea

Summer Salads

I love summer in large part because it is a great excuse to eat salads, but salads that taste really, really good. The above picture is a summer salad with pecan crusted baked goat cheese. The cheese is a little special as it is one of the carried-back-from-Scotland cheese. The Golden Cross goat cheese is a firmer texture than most goat cheeses I’ve eaten, and has a great duel texture. This made for an interesting texture when baked, as the outer portion almost melts and the inner texture was just yummy goodness. Bob has liked the baked goat cheese salad before, but I almost became jealous with the way he gushed over this version. The salad is pretty basic, but the goat cheese and the black current balsamic vinegar with good olive oil, shallot and garlic. A grainless, meatless dish and everyone was very happy with this meal.

I recently went back to the CSA type veggie basket. Each week I get a little Christmas present of new veggies to try. I have discovered that I do not like dandelion greens, am ok with kale, do like sweet potatoes, and am very fond of most fruit. This week was a whole new experience – kohlrabi.

This odd looking veggie reminds me a little of cabbage, a little of a turnip and a very little of a something that I totally can’t explain. I searched a lot of websites to see how to prepare this thing, find a good recipe etc. and while I got a lot of ideas, I didn’t get a good recipe. Most called for mayo, which I I have a visceral dislike of, so no recipe. But, I did get some ideas and grabbed some carrots, celery, an apple and a spicy brown sugar dressing that I love to make a side salad for the pulled pork this week. The results …

Not as pretty as the goat cheese salad, but it tasted really, really good (and went very, very well with the apple braised pulled pork – yet another no grain meal that I actually really liked).

Hopefully the basket this week with have more new things for me to try. Until then – or something remotely interesting comes up – Enjoy!

July 15, 2012 by Andrea

Food

We got very lucky in Edinburgh and found an awesome Turkish Cafe for breakfast. Cafe Truva had an assortment of breakfast options, which works really well for a picky eater like me, and excellent coffee. I fully admit to being a coffee snob so when I find a place that makes a really good mocha (with melted, good quality chocolate) I’m a fan. On our last day there, we had limited time and decided, rather than see the palace, we would find a cheese shop. The gentleman running the cafe told us about a good cheese shop near the grass market, but it was not walking distance in the time we had. (well, not to get there, find said cheese shop, get back to the hotel, check out and get to the airport). We decided to check out and catch a cab to the grass market area and try to find the shop. We did (thanks to a great cab driver who knew about where it was) and we ended up with five different cheeses that we carried back to the US. Needless to say the last couple of days have been filled with cheese dishes. We did the above picture with home made bread, a tomato and cheese crust less quiche (not pretty enough to post a picture of) and a summer salad with shaved cheese.

Part of this comes from Bob deciding that he wants to loose weight. I’m not sure why as I think he is just about perfect as is, but it is his body and comfort level so ok. However, when he started talking about eliminating all kinds of food that I love … well … I we needed to talk. Before we left for our trip we talked about it, and now that we are back, I’m making an effort to support his effort. He wants to go to something called “slow carb” eating, but when I look at what you can’t have on it, my brain and stomach yell “nooooooo”.

So we look for a compromise. I’ll eliminate a lot of the grains, and processed foods (which includes soda which will be hard for Bob). I’m ok with limiting the grains and starches, but I’m not ok with eliminating so many foods that I pretty much can’t eat. (and since I do the cooking, I’m going to cook things I can eat.). We’ll start slow and see how that goes. I’ll get my dessert fixes out or when he isn’t around, and cook with lean meats and more vegetables. I even had a whole day of no meat and he didn’t care – really, goat cheese quiche and summer salad is not a bad way to eat. And I now have some lovely Scottish and English cheeses to work with for the next few weeks so we should both be happy.

This weeks menus includes chicken with braised kale, pork chops with kohlrabi and apple slaw, baked goat cheese salad and quinoa strawberry “salad”. If any of them turn out picture worthy, (and tasty) I’ll post pictures and recipes.

Until then! Hope everyone has a great week.

July 12, 2012 by Andrea

And We Are Back

We made it back. After a week of travel and adventure, it was lovely to sleep in our own bed with a few furry creatures happy to see us and just a little bit clingy. Bob and I both commented that this is the first time we have ever gone away for a full week and were not dying to get home by the last day – we could have stayed another day or two and been perfectly fine.

The trip back was a little more eventful than the trip over. Plane delays and what ended up as a tight connection was a little trying. The biggest delay came at Passport Control at JFK. Let me state, for the record, the people working at Passport Control, Customs and Security were wonderful, kind, patient and incredibly professional people. Every person we interacted with was polite, articulate and calm, which is more than I can say for some of the passengers they had to deal with. The first problem came with several international flights (5 I think) all landed at roughly the same time. Flight delays can screw up people, and this was no different. Because we did not have a “tight” connection (3 hours) we were in the general line. Those that had to rebook due to the very late (5 hour delay from Denmark) or those that had a 2 hour or less connection were taken first. I applaud this even as others grumbled about it. It took us about an hour and a half (not bad considering the circumstances) to clear passport control and mere minutes to clear customs and security. But then came finding our gate. We had one gate listed; got there, it moved; got to that gate and it changed again. I think we had three gate changes in JFK and they were not exactly close to each other.

But … we are home and the pets are hanging around us today. Mom and Dad are coming up for lunch and my entire plan is to post pictures from the trip in a gallery page. Well, that and help the lizard Tigger just brought in escape. Welcome Home indeed!

Emmie and I have a plan (which we think makes the boys nervous, but hey – that’s our job). We are both going to attempt to learn French (she has a much better shot at this than I do, but I’m going to try it) and then we are going to plan next year’s trip to Belgium. Bob and Brad are allowed to attempt the French also, but if they choose not to, we will just talk about them in French and smile mischievously from time to time.

July 10, 2012 by Andrea

Edinburgh

Note: I had to create this post in a few stages due to no Internet connection at the hotel. So … some if the pictures are not exactly with the text, but the general idea is still there.

Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities in the world. It ranks right up there with Washington D.C. for me; while Bob appears to like the city, he is slightly less inclined to move to a place where the summer month still require a coat and sweaters. That and the whole "find a job" thing keeps us on Florida (and furry creatures that would not take a move well).

The trip to Edinburgh was a bit more eventful than I would have hoped. There were several exits closed on the M4 (I think that was the road) and then came trying to figure out Heathrow. We traveled on one airline, but apparently the flight was taken over by British Airways, so we needed to check in with them – which I did not know until a very nice gentleman told us. Then the information board told us to "wait in Gate 8," which we did (and were able to watch the remainder of the Wimbledon finals) but then it changed to "boarding at Gate 84" without warning. It didn't help that the sign indicated it is a 10 minute walk to gate 84 and boarding closes in 7 minutes. We were fine, but for someone who is compulsive about time, this was not good.

The rain also followed us to Edinburgh. It was clear and sunny until Monday when we arrived and managed to rain most of the day. Not hard enough to deter us, but enough that I know it is raining and cold (yes, I am a wimp). However, despite the dreary conditions, we managed to walk to Edinburgh Castle and enjoy the sights for a few hours. There were lots of people there, more than I remember from the last trip, but not so bad that you could not see anything. And, as I told Bob before coming here, the views from the castle are simply amazing.

We also strolled through the Crown Jewels of Scotland exhibit. While there were some lovely pieces, I do contend my ruby wedding ring beats the ruby ring of the crown jewels. Hands down, no competition. And yes, I am biased on this.

We also trekked to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I love gardens (D.C. has one of my favorite) and could wander them for hours. In this case, we wandered for quite a long time to get there as the gardens are not exactly in the tourist section of town. But … the trek was well worth it. There was an amazing Chinese garden and pond, a lovely Alpine flower display, a berch wall and, most impressive, the Queen Mum's Garden.

This is a tribute garden dedicated to the Queen Mother and it contains some of the most beautiful flower displays. I don't have a picture of the overall garden due to the loud, obnoxious, running and screaming teenagers that were there the entire time. But I did managed some lovely picture of the flowers. Just not one of the garden in it's entirety.

After the trek to and from the gardens, (uphill both ways in cold and rain, so Toby, you are never again allowed to complain about the 50 blocks in New York) we were ready for a nice meal. We had reservations at the North Bridge Brassier. I had looked around for good food options that a) had a nice wine selection, b) were in the city itself, c) had good reviews and d) were open Monday evenings. I came up with this one and hoped the food would be good. It did not disappoint. I will say, however, that (as much as it pains me to say it) Bob may have won the best plate of the evening award. I'm not saying he did, just that he may have. My dish was good, but had the chicken not been there, and I just had a plate of the accompanying food, I would have been a happy girl. Bob's pork belly on the other hand, was the star of his plate. Well seasoned, cooked to perfection and so good he did not want the meal to end. I felt that way about my dessert. Really, how can you go wrong with dark chocolate, marshmallow cream and yummy goodness in one cup? Answer – you can't.

While we may not be moving to Edinburgh any time soon, it is on the list for visiting again. I'm just hoping it does not take another decade to get back here.

Gallery July 8, 2012 by Andrea

Isle of Wight

This gallery contains 19 photos.

Saturday was our adventure day. We managed to get everyone up and out of the house early for a drive to Southampton(?) where we caught the ferry to the isle. Brad, Emmie and Logan did fine on the ferry while Bob and I were a little on the seasick side. It may not have been […]

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