I call this the firecracker

I call this little number the firecracker. Not that it has anything to do with explosions. Just cause it's the 4th of July. It's simple:

Fresh squeezed orange juice from 2 sweet oranges
3 TBSP Cointreau
1 oz 100 % agave tequila

Shake and serve over ice.


If you don't have a shaker, don't worry. I just use a large mason jar with a lid. It works perfectly.
Also, you should serve this in glassware that you love, since this is just for fun.


I used the glasses that my parents used to use when they played bridge. I have a vague memory of  reaching up over the table and sneaking a taste of someone's whiskey in water. At the time, I thought it tasted like sweet watery rubbing alchohol, burning a path down my throat.  In some ways that drink was way more firecrackery than the one I made, though not as tasty. So if you're celebrating today, I suggest you try mine. Or make up one of your own. Ooh... maybe with cayenne pepper? Now THAT would be firecrackery. Happy 4th of July!

Monday Food-Venture

Yes, I'm aware it's Monday. But that doesn't mean we have to just roll over and settle for take-out. C'mon. Work with me here. Start by getting some pasta going on your stovetop in salted boiling water with some olive oil. 

Next, saute some chopped veggies with onion and roasted garlic in olive oil. I used 2 small zucchini, a small bunch of amaranth, and some portabella mushrooms.



After it wilts, add some spaghetti sauce, salt and pepper and basil. I set aside half of the saute mix, which I will use tomorrow to top a grilled pizza. The remainder of the sauce was added to drained fully cooked gluten free pasta. (You can use regular old elbow macaroni). There was easily enough leftover for lunch tommorrow too!


Pretty tasty.


I wanted a salad too.



Honestly, I'm not a big fan of arugula, but I keep trying it in different ways, just in case. So you can't imagine how happy I was to finally find a way to love it, and it was soooo simple. I just added a sliced avocado and a super sweet & juicy Valencia orange from my fruit share, plus a drizzle of honey ginger vinegar. That's all. Somehow those creamy citrusy sweet peppery flavors all work well together. Must say- I enjoyed this even more than the entree. Not bad for a Monday.

Fabulous friend-focused weekend

Didn't even turn on my computer this weekend. Needed to spend some quality time with a couple of my peeps.

Meet Teresa. I call her Trees, because I'm lazy.  We hung out Friday, on my day off. She has many talents, including putting up with me. It is a skill, for sure. She also has a black belt in Kung Fu. I think maybe its a double extreme power belt or something. I only know fake Kung Fu, and she is OK with that.  We've been friends for a long time. Since 9th grade or something. I actually knew her in 7th grade, but didn't like her due to a misunderstanding involving a guitar and a piano that I'm not going to explain. Our oldest kids are about two months apart (I only have the one), so we were even pregnant around the same time, which is a good thing because I didn't know jack about babies. Right after she had Tim, and she was all doped up on C-section meds, she called me and said it was no problem, having a baby was no big deal. If she wasn't slurring so much, I'd have believed it for sure. She can be very convincing.

She can also spot a wild blackberry at 50 paces. Which is exactly what happened about 50 paces into our walk around Round Lake. It was about 90 million degrees out at the time.

Jay the dog came with us on the walk, though even he seemed to protest the heat. I was a little jealous of his being able to just jump in the middle in the lily pads to cool off in Duck Lake.

 All in all, we enjoyed a fabulous, ridiculously hot day, and got to catch up on some important conversations.
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Jay testing the waters

Jay's turtle-like head.

Looks inviting, doesn't it?

Saturday, I drove down to Whalan to hang out with Tammy. She's one of the hardest working people I know. And I work in clinical research, so I know alot of hard workers.  Besides working at the Mayo, she also owns the Cyclin' Inn- a really awesome rental home on the Root River that you should go to sometime. And a mini-golf course, right on the bike trail. Don't even get me started on  the strawberries, the horses, the carriage rides, all the chores she does up at Duane's, the cabin, the giant garden, and the rental home in Champlin. Oh, and all the stuff she does for the town of Whalan, pop. 62.

So, needless to say, I was happy to pitch in a little. We worked the evening shift in the food booth at the Fastpitch Softball Tournament up the hill. We had a great time. And by now, the locals know me pretty well, so there was plenty of razzing back and forth to keep us entertained.

Plus we got to kayak down the river beforehand, which is always  nice. Especially on a hot day.  We did not golf though, as it was a jillion degrees out before the sun went down, and even the strawberry pineapple cake flavored vodka slushy could not convince me to swing that club.

All in all, the weekend was a great reminder of how important it is to spend time with your friends. Life is too short to let too many of those opportunities pass us by.

Grill-tastic!

I have been having way too much fun wih my new infrared grill! Plus today was CSA day, so I got a ton of new fruits and veggies. Yay!!! A feast of fresh grilltastic summer foods!

Of course there were burgers. Nothing fancy. Just salt and pepper. Not even any bread or condiments, but they were nice and juicy, so they didn't need any. Because the infrared is much higher heat, yet food isn't touched by flames, they didn't shrink as much as usual. (These were not made with lean ground beef either.) They also were less char-colored. I'd say the jury's still out on whether that's a plus or minus for me.


I love certain veggies on the grill. Fennel is one of my very favorite vegetables to eat raw (sliced really thin), roasted, or sauted, which is weird because everyone says it tastes like licorice, but I don't like licorice.So I guess I don't agree with everyone.  No matter, tonight I tried it on the grill and loved it! Here, I cut the stems, cut off the frilly fronds, and quartered the bulb portion. I also sliced a small zuchini the long way, and one cipiciolli onion in quarters and added them to the bowl. Then I drizzled the veggies liberally with olive oil and sprinkled them with kosher salt. Everything but the stems and fronds went into my veggie grill basket, which is handy because the smaller pieces don't fall through the grill and yet the small open squares allow contact with the grill surface, so they get nice grill marks and carmelize well. Be sure to add the stems after a couple minutes. Then add the fronds right before you're ready to pull it all off the grill.

Dessert was the simplest plan of them all, and one of the best! The hardest part is slicing the fresh pinneaple. I had Amanda pull up a video on youtube for me, because I so rarely think to buy fresh pineapple and had forgotten how to do it. If you use a sharp knife its easy. After you get the outside layer and the 'eyes' removed, instead of slicing horizontally in rings, stand it on end, and slice downward in long slices. To prepare the grill, spray a quick shot of vegetable oil on the grate before it is heated. When the grill is heated, lay the slices on the grill in the opposite direction of the grates. Keep a close eye on the fruit, and flip the slices just after grill marks appear. Cook both sides and pull off the grill. Slice into bite sized chunks when ready to eat. Delicious as is, or served over ice cream.

The kinds of things you can eat for dinner when it's just you

So, I bought an infrared gas grill today and am super excited to try it out. But I didn't get home and get it all set up until about 8 PM, so I decided to forego breaking it in until tomorrow.

And since Amanda was not feeling so great, she just wanted rice, so that meant I could make myself whatever I wanted for dinner. There is great freedom in this; I recommend doing this from time to time. It frees you from the constraints of letting others dictate what you get to call "dinner".

For example, I've been craving fresh guacamole, so I bought Rick Bayless's Frontera mix (lime, tomatillo, and cilantro based) because I love it. And it is easy. Just mash a ripe avocado in a bowl, and pour in half the packet and stir. Serve with a nice thick corn chip. (My favorite is Garden of Eatin' organic blue corn chips, but any sturdy chip that can hold up to chunky guacamole will do.) I add in fresh chopped cilantro and some white onion, chopped small, and rinsed, if I have it on hand.  Tonight I did not. I did however, already have kohlrabi cut into sticks in my fridge, so I tried dunking some of them into the guacamole in place of some of the chips. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty tasty. And that was dinner tonight. Don't judge.

Here are other things I've called "dinner" when no one was around to make a fuss:

• Radishes, salt, and butter, on gluten free crackers.
• A variety of olives from the olive bar of Byerly's or Kowalskis; most typically with other deli finds such as a nice salami or some rotiserri chicken.
• Hommus and raw veggies.
• Cheese and crackers, with wine.
• Eggs
• Potato pancakes. I consider them a dinner pancake. I actually don't ever make them for breakfast.

May we all have the courage to try weird food for dinner, and the wisdom to know which ideas are worth sharing.

Un petit experiment

Disclaimer: if you are really into wine and feel very strongly that people MUST know what they're talking about when they talk about wine, this post is not for you. Unless, you are drunk on wine at this very moment, and then you will either be cursing at the screen, or laughing. Let's hope its the latter. Meet my Vintura. I call him Vinny.

I met his twin brother at a party and thought he was the coolest thing evah! You are supposed to pour red wine in the top, through the filter (see close-up), and it is supposed to make your wine taste better. In particular, it is supposed to make inexpensive wine taste like expensive wine. That's nice, if it's true, but it's not the reason I wanted him, The real reason was for the cool gurgly noises it makes when you pour wine through it. Combined with the slick appearance, it's a real conversation piece.

 The deal is though, they are pricey. So while I was an admirer, I didn't exactly run right out and buy one. You can imagine how excited I was when a good friend got me one of my very own for Christmas. "Oooooh!" I squealed, then jumped up and down hugging the box.

 I have used mine quite a bit since Christmas, and am still enamoured. I've even run some test experiments on friends to see if they could tell a difference, and have gotten responses ranging from "I'm not sure. I think so. I mean, they SMELL different" to "Yep. I can definitely tell the difference".

But these were not double blinded tests. I always knew which glass I was handing them. Maybe I smiled more when I gave them the aerated sample. As a clinician, I knew I could improve the study design.

I needed a volunteer test subject. As I was the only one home, I consented. To ensure the study was double blind I selected two identical wine glasses, and put a tiny piece of clear tape on the indent on the bottom of one glass, and I carefully poured that glass half  full with the $9.99 test wine, a petit syrah by Cupcake. Next, I put the other glass under the filter, and slowly poured the same amount of the same wine through the funnel contraption into the second glass until it was half full. Then I rotated the glasses around each other and back the other direction for a couple minutes, like I was playing a game of Pin the tail on the donkey, except no one gets dizzy. And there is no donkey. Or tail. The purpose of the spinning randomizes the choices so I wouldn't know what I was getting.  And I truly didn't know, so I took one of the glasses, and sniffed. Hmm. Didn't really smell like anything- faint fruit maybe. Then I tasted some.

This face says, "I'm not sure what to think of you.






After cleansing my palate, I picked up the other glass and lifted it to my nose. Hmmm. "Smells like blackberry, and something else, maybe a hint of dark chocolate? Though honestly I could've just read that on the bottle. It seems like all dry red wines claim to taste like chocolate.  So I tasted test sample #2.

This face says, "I think we can be friends."

It was now time for the unblinding. The second glass was tapeless. hah! Vinnie, you are worth more than your just good looks and funky noises!

Adventure Pack Day

I took the day of rest seriously today. So much so that I did not change out of my lobster jammies until after noon today. And I did not really cook either. Unless you call this cooking: slicing one pink lady apple, two small Murcott tangerines, and what was left of the Perlette grapes, and mixing them together in a bowl. I call it fruit salad. I don't blame you if you find this culinarily boring.

What I DID do, was go on a small adventure with my daughter. Per Amanda, this apparently requires an Adventure Pack. (See picture)The contents may vary, but these were are some items carried with us today: 1) a notebook and something to write with. 2) a jar with a lid, with small holes drilled in the top 3) a camera 4) an empty envelope 5) sunscreen 6) water bottle and 7) an adventure book by Keri Smith- filled with ideas for items to collect or observe and note your findings.

Next, select a locale to conduct the observation. We chose Coon Rapids dam, a few miles down river. The picture below is from the middle of the dam on the Mississippi River, looking toward my home.  Can you see it? (It's just around the bend to the right, and up the hill.) Probably not, unless you have super powers. Though if you had super powers you would probably be too busy trying to fix the world to read this blog.

We both observed a rainbow, visible just above the only smooth part of the water beneath the dam, next to the rapids.




















Amanda also picked up about a dozen rocks on the path back toward the parking lot. She put them in a jar to observe later, and plans to bring them back when she's done.

But then it was time to go back home because we were having the Gries family over for game night. Which usually means Killer Bunnies! And laughing so loud that the vibrations set off the doorbell.

All in all a successful experimenty relaxing day.