High hopes and squash

I love it when something you're hoping will be good, turns out great. Whether it's a day, a person, or a meal.

It was kind of cold and dreary out today, so I thought it would be good to make something that would warm up the house, and my insides. I had seen a recipe that came with my CSA veggies to make Delicata squash into a black bean and squash taco. Yeah- I know- I thought it sounded kinda weird too. But I knew I could make it smoky and spicy by changing up the ingredients, and hoped that would make it taste good. Notice I said 'hoped', not 'expected'. I think one key to happiness might just be to keep your hopes high, and your expectations realistic. That way, great things are that much greater. And not-so-great things, are just something you tried, that hopefully you learn something from so it turns out better the next time.

Also key to happiness...bacon!

So I chopped up half of one squash, an onion, a poblano pepper and sauteed it in a pan with a two cooked pieces of bacon and a little bit of bacon fat (to make it good!- bacon is like food insurance)

Once the squash is pretty tender, add the spices. I added cumin, adobo seasoning, salt, and chipotle pepper to give it some smoky heat. Then stir in one can of black beans and cook until heated through.
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Don't worry if it doesn't look gorgeous- its the taste that matters. Plus you are going to cover it up with that pepper jack cheese you just shredded.  Stuff the heated mixture into some blue corn tortilla shells (or the yellow kind, if you prefer), and top with cheese.

And since you were a good listener, and you kept your expectations low, you might just be pleasantly surprised at how great they are. In fact, you might even go back for a third taco. Because anything is possible. (That's where the hoping part comes in!)

Here's wishing you the cool sensibility of realistic expectations and the positive energy to keep your hopes high!

Random observations of hot soup, hats, and old photographs

The kind of tired I am today is overachieving on regular kinds of tired. And yet, my late afternoon attempt at a nap after work was a fail. I have a hard time sleeping on planes anytime day or night, or in my own house when its still light out. Though, for some reason, I am able to blissfully nap in the middle of the day when I'm camping in a tent.  Go figure.

Anyhoo, when my brain is like this, I get distracted easily.

I thought it'd be best to make something easy for dinner. So, on my stove top, I put some celery and roasted onion in a pan with a little oil, until it started smelling aromatic, then I added water and salt, and some butternut squash and sweet potatoes that I had roasted earlier. I started in on my chores and let it all simmer on low.

Early into my chores, I decided I need to find a certain picture in one of my photo albums, so I opened up my travel trunk/ coffee table where I keep them, and started looking through the albums. I don't know how long I was looking- at least an hour- when I realized I had forgotten what I was looking for, so I closed the lid, and went to check on my soup.

It was interesting looking back. Here are some observations I made:

• There are not many pictures of me in my albums. Probably a combination of the fact that I generally don't like getting my picture taken, and I'm usually the one taking the pictures. 
• I was a bleach blond for only one year of my life. For some reason, I have lots of pictures of me as a blond, though I didn't necessarily look any better as a blond. So why? Maybe I just wanted evidence of my year of trying to have more fun?  :) Its a mystery to me.
• Also, in my daily life, I rarely wear hats, yet in a disproportionate number of pictures I'm wearing a hat. Sometimes a baseball cap, sometimes a floppy sun hat, sometimes a cowboy hat. What is it with me on vacation wearing hats? 
• Amanda was a really happy kid. I have many many many pictures of her looking super happy and loving life.
• I used to go camping A LOT!
• Clearly I like waterfalls. And pictures of waterfalls, the ocean, lakes, and sunsets.
• I have been on a lot of really fun trips to many beautiful and interesting places. I find this interesting because I didn't really start to go anywhere until I was in my early thirties.

I'm sorry I didn't scan any old pictures for you today, but I'm too tired to operate advanced technology like a scanner. You'll just have to trust my observations as the truth. (Or a slight exaggeration of the truth)

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my soup was done. I just needed mix it on the stove top with my immersion blender, add a little more salt, and stir in a little cream. Delicious!




As I was cleaning my blender, I caught a view out my kitchen window that made me grab my camera and run out on my deck and take this picture of my back yard, looking up at the sky.

Adjustable expectations and broccoli

Another long day at the O.K Corral today. It would have been so easy to just stop at Billy's on the way home and pay someone else to cook and serve me up a burger and fries and a beer for dinner.

But today was CSA day. Usually this is something I really look forward to. This evening, however, it was a little stressful because I wasn't sure I'd make it on time to pick them up. Luckily, I barely made the last call for fruits & veggies! I hurriedly threw the beautiful squash and broccoli and boy choy and carrots and onions and Lord knows what all else, into my bag, and headed for home.

Its cold enough out tonight that I surely could have stopped anyway- its not like anything was going to wilt in my car. But I knew I had a ton of good healthy food that needed to be used, so I sucked it up and thought about what I would make. With such a huge variety of veggies,stir fry seemed like the obvious choice: fast, easy, healthy, and you get to use a very big knife to chop stuff up. I am one of these weird people who likes to chop veggies. There is something both calming about rhythmically chopping piles of vegetables, and satisfying about taking out a small bit of aggression in a controlled way.

If you were to time me making stir fry, it almost always takes about 25 minutes. I put a cup of basmati rice in the rice cooker (2 cups water or broth), and get that started first. Then I heat up my pan with some olive oil, and start chopping the thickest veggies first: carrots, and broccoli take the longest. I throw those in over medium heat, then chop a spicy radish, half an onion, and two small bell peppers, and add them to the pan. I add some salt, Bangkok seasoning blend, and some tamari and let everything steam a little. Then stir it, and taste it, and add more salt and spice blend to taste.

See? Super easy and nummy! It just happens to work out that the rice and the stir fry are done perfectly at the same time. It gets a little more complicated when you add meat, and takes about an extra 10 minutes. If I had any thawed out tonight, I would have added chicken.

The best part is that now instead of feeling overly full from meat and beer, I feel good, and now I have plenty of leftovers to bring for lunch tomorrow! I'm so glad I pushed through the temptation to pull myself up to the bar in favor of doing something I enjoy and that makes me feel better.

Though honestly, I have to admit that if I had gone to the bar and ordered my burger, I'd probably be just as happy with the outcome. Which makes me glad that I apparently am, by and large, a glass-half-full kind of gal. No matter if you fill it with beer or wine or good tequila, I'll adjust with a smile.

 

Here's wishing you an evening of being waited on, or the ability to happily adjust your expectations. Cheers!

A short reflection on beets and the good life

Long busy day of hard work and reflection. My mind is full.

So I was super hungry when I got home. Luckily, I had roasted some golden beets from my CSA last night, so I was prepared. I quickly threw a small GF spinach and goat cheese pizza in the oven, while I made this beet salad (saving half for lunch tomorrow):

 

3 peeled diced roasted beets, a few tablespoons of feta cheese and roughly chopped walnuts, salt and pepper to taste. It was super easy and really good.  That, plus the pizza , and a small glass of pinot grigio, really hit the spot.

 

 

And now it’s time to change out of my work clothes and relax.  Life is good.

Because life is short and its good to face your fears

So I’m afraid of heights. I have been since forever. I used to let it stop me from doing things, like riding on the roller coasters at Valleyfair, but now I don’t. When I was maybe ten or eleven, my older cousins came to visit and tried desperately to get me to join them on the Corkscrew with them. To me, that was even worse than the tall coaster- it turned completely upside down. They were not successful in their efforts to convince me, so instead I spent the entire day with my aunt riding on the ‘safe rides’ like the tilt- a-whirl and bumper cars.  I hated that feeling of letting the fear win.

A few years later when I went back to Valleyfair, I just decided I was going to ride on every single ride. Starting with the corkscrew. As I was standing in that line, I was terrified. I actually thought I might die from the fear. I wanted to scream, just sitting there, looking at the first big hill in front of me. But I didn’t. And off it went.  It was over quickly. And I didn’t die. In fact, I was thrilled! I rode it three more times right in a row. Then I went on every other single ride at the Fair. Including all the rollercoasters. And I learned that fear probably isn’t going to kill us, so if something is really important to you, you gotta go for it. And also, I’m still afraid. Every time they strap me in. But I haven’t let it stop me. In fact, my favorite ride is the Power Tower (which feels like it drops you from a million feet high). I’ve even gone parasailing in Mexico. Where it was just a glorifed balloon, a rope, and boat.

Which brings me to today. A gorgeous fall day, leaves in full color, warm but not hot out.  I decided I wanted to go hiking on the bluffs overlooking the St. Croix River. My favorite place near the Twin Cities is the River Bluff Trail on the Wisconsin side of Interstate State Park. You actually climb up and down rocks instead of just a woodchip trail, parts of it are steep, and there are many places where you can walk right up to the edge of the cliff, sit on a rock, and hang your feet over the edge. It’s a safe trail if you don’t do anything stupid, and its well-populated this time of year, so I didn’t worry about getting lost or anything, even though I decided to go alone. (Yes, I have gotten lost when hiking alone in the woods before, but that’s another story). Today, it was perfect and fun and beautiful. And I pushed myself to go sit on an overhanging rock to and to swing my feet over the edge more than once, and I took lots of pictures to remind myself of the rewards of facing my fears...

 

 

Things I think about when my face hurts from vodka

It would’ve been fine if I’d stuck with just the wine. It was saying ‘ok’ to that evil vodka mango drink that did me in. But it was a gorgeous night, there was a fire, and I was in a great mood- so I went with it. Don’t worry- my brain will kick my a#@ if I try to make THAT decision again.

I should be doing yard work right now (unless I’m trying to go for the wild jungle look, in which case I may have perfected it.)  I tried earlier. Really. But the sun hurt my face. It’s just so darn, well, shiny. If I could wear sunglasses that covered my entire head, I would try it. I bet that would totally work.

Things I’ve done instead, to try to feel better:

• Sleep. That didn’t work. It’s hard to sleep when even the sheets hurt.

• Eat scrambled eggs with salsa. Sometimes that works. My tummy felt better, but I still wanted to stick my face in the freezer.

• Take a long hot bath in my whirlpool tub. That didn’t help either, but at least I’m super clean

So it’s just me, and my hurting face, and my foggy brain, duking it out now. These are some of the things on my mind today:

Tortilla chips should be shaped like my bowl, and be skinny on the edge, so they act like tiny salsa shovels for my mouth.

I have the most amazing friends ever. Some of my friends could literally kick your friends’ a@#es. Don’t worry though- they won’t do that, ‘cause your friends are cool too. I, on the other hand, only know fake Kung Fu. So I can mimic the noises and jump around and entertain you, but cannot actually protect you from danger.

Even though my face hurts due to my own stupidity last night, I am happy. Like, ridiculously happy.  It’s awesome. And I’m not questioning it.

 

When my dog, Marley, comes to live with me, I wonder if she will be able to do helpful stuff, like fetch the dirty dishes to the dishwasher for me. That would be awesome!

 

Though, most likely the best I can expect is some pre-washing of the plates and clearing scraps off the floor with her doggie tongue. Don’t worry- I will run the dishes through the dishwasher before I cook for you.

 

How super grateful I am to have a job I love, a nice modest home to live in, awesome food to cook with, and amazing friends and family and people in my life who appreciate me for who I am, and make me laugh and smile :) and put my right foot in and shake it all about. < Wait; that last thing there is the hokey pokey.  Just seeing if you’re paying attention.  I was starting to get a little sappy…

Alrighty then, because I’m brave/ stubborn, it’s time to try once more to wander out into the yard, hedge trimmers in hand. (I best wipe that hung-over look from my eyes first, so I don’t scare the neighbors.) Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of your day, and that you’re way smarter than I was about the whole following wine with vodka thing.

Homemade guacamole and a random story

 

Another quick yummy dinner! And super easy. Just some thick sliced tomato, sauteed greens, and homemade guacamole with diced onion, roasted garlic and creamy chiptole, all designed to top a burger. Here's the quick money shot:

I think a ground turkey burger would've been even better, but instead I used a veggie burger that I already had on hand. It was still pretty darn good. If I was hard-core about my cooking though, I would've gotten back in my car, and driven to the store. But you see, I'm not really a fan of grocery shopping, especially on a busy week night. Fan of food, yes. Grocery shopping, no. 

Thinking about my aversion to grocery shopping on weeknights made me think of an oddly humorous experience I once had (though I didn't think it was funny at the time)...

But before I share it, here's a picture of my toaster. As you can see, it's orange.

My orange tomato tonight made me think that you might want to see my orange toaster. Not many people have orange toasters. I like it.

Anyhoo, back to the story...

So one day, long long LONG ago, when I was still married, I arrived home in a super stressed out and not very happy mood after a long difficult day. I don't remember the circumstances; I just remember being upset. Don't ask me why, but he mentioned out loud that he thought it would be a great idea if I took the Blazer, so I could "get a break" and do some grocery shopping. I recall giving him a look like, "You DO know I hate grocery shopping, right?, " but then I thought better of saying any words out loud, and just grabbed the keys.  At the time, for reasons not worth discussing, we only had one car, and all I could think was I just wanted to get away. So off I went. And I drove, and drove. I don't even remember how far I went- I think to Little Falls and back, maybe further. I was gone a few hours.

When I walked back in the door, he asked, "Feel better?"
"Yep."
He looked at my empty arms. "Where are the groceries?"
"They were out," I explained.
"They were out of groceries?"
"Yep."
"They were out of groceries, at the grocery store?"
"Yep."I said calmly, gave him a look that suggested any more questions would be unadvisable, and just handed him the keys...