Birth of a Dragonfly

By the time we noticed the alien-looking creature emerging from its shell, the most difficult part of the process must have already occurred.  From then it took around half an hour to completely hatch, let its wings unfold and get ready to fly.  Amazing!

Garlic Roasted Chicken

Cover the bottom of a large pot with olive oil.

Add in:

1 inch chunks or half inch slices of 2-3 large potatoes, or equivalent of any other kind.

4 large carrots, cut in 1 inch pieces

4 celery stalks, cut to same size

1 large spanish onion, cut to same size

2 entire heads of garlic, all cloves peeled

Clean a small - medium chicken and rub the skin with salt and olive oil.  Place on top of the vegetables in the pot.  Pour 1 cup of any white wine over the top.  Cover and cook in 350 degree oven.

After 30 minutes, add another cup of white wine, and several tablespoons of butter on top.  Keep it covered.

At 60 minutes, add another cup of white wine, a few more pats of butter, and uncover it.  Let it brown for the last 30 minutes.  At 90 minutes it's ready.  The potatoes will be soft and the garlic cloves just lovely.  Serve the wine sauce from the bottom of the pot with the veggies and chicken.

 

Cindy's Dump Cake

1 Stick of butter or margarine

1 Can of crushed pineapple

1 Can of cherry pie filling

1 White cake mix

Spread the crushed pineapple with its juice in the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.  Next dump and spread the cherry pie filling over the pineapple.  Then spread the dry cake mix over the pie filling.  Finally, slice the butter/marg and place the slices on top of the cake mix.  Bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes.

It's incredibly yummy, rib-sticking, make you feel like a little kid again good.

Next, I'm going after Mary for her pea salad, and then this blog will have a perfect meal.

Mom's Salads

Here are Mom's salads, apparently based on the Metropolitan Market's salad bar in Seattle.  Use whatever quantities you like:

Chick peas

Grape tomatoes

Chopped red onion

Cumin

Vinaigrette dressing, or Drew's garlic italian

Also:

Cooked or canned corn

Grape tomatoes

Chopped red onion

Salt, pepper

Vinaigrette dressing, or Drew's garlic italian

Amazing Scrambled Eggs

Some of the best eggs I've ever made:

1 or 2 small onions minced very fine (around 1/3 cup)

4 torn up slices of "flat cheese" (otherwise known as American - I've recently replaced the traditional Kraft singles with Horizon organic - who knew that any brand could possibly taste better than Kraft?)

10 eggs

a few tablespoons of milk

salt, pepper

Whip them all together and cook over medium-low heat with olive oil, stirring constantly until done.  They'll be the creamiest, tastiest scrambled eggs ever.  Doesn't sound like much, but they are fantastic.

Dreaming of Summer

Photos of previous summer gardens...

Cholesterol

Had my first physical in a decade and the doctor told me my cholesterol is so low I should be bragging about it.  This is me bragging.

The diet is 99% vegetarian + dairy + moderate weekly red wine + daily latte + lots of whole grains, olive oil and raw onions.  Yeah, and toothpaste.

Awesome Salad

I just ate such an insanely good salad I had to write about it.  It had:

A big bunch of mesclun greens from the CSA's greenhouse

Apples from the CSA, don't know what kind, sliced thin - super sweet juicy crunchy

The dressing was:

Olive oil

Spoonful of organic lemon juice

2 spoonfuls of the awesome apple butter from the CSA

Leaves from a few sprigs of fresh thyme also from the CSA

salt, pepper

All thrown together and practically inhaled it was that good.  Just picked up a box of veggies today and they are amazing!

What This Consumer Wants - Feb 1 09

Better online TV.

I understand that online ads have a very limited reach - nobody in their right mind ever clicks on them to look at anything.  Who wants to waste their time with that?  Not me.  Unless I'm shopping.  Which I don't do much anymore.

Now when I go online, I'm not going to Amazon and buying books - I'm going to Hulu.  Or CBS, or Fox, or any other network that posts online episodes of my favorite shows.  Bravo?  Forget it.  All they ever have are 2 minute clips of Top Chef and other shows that do absolutely nothing to entice me to tune in on a certain day at a certain time in a certain location where my tv happens to be, to spend 20 minutes out of my hour long show watching crappy ads.  Get your episodes online, and I'll watch them.  On my laptop.  Whenever, wherever I am.

Hulu's new thing is giving you options for your forced advertising.  You can either watch the 40 minute episode with about five 30-second commercial breaks, usually the same commercial five times, or you can opt to watch a 2+ minute movie trailer first.  I go for the movie trailer every time.  Why?  First of all, commercial breaks of any kind suck.  Second of all, I love movie trailers.  I remember going to the Neptune theater in Seattle with my mom to watch a 3 hour showing of movie previews.  Another time it was a 5 hour showing.  Awesome!  Movie trailers are the only thing that get me out of the house and to the movie theatre to pay way to much money to watch it on a really big screen with really really loud sound.  So with Hulu's movie trailer option - I'm not only happier in my online viewing, I'm also easily convinced to go spend money elsewhere.  Keep it up, Hulu, and please - work on getting more stuff and getting it sooner.  You're my favorite content site, hands down.

Cream of Tomato Soup

This one is entirely with veggies straight from our garden, plus a little bit of dairy:

Cook with 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper:

4 cups pulped tomato

2 cups shredded zucchini

Saute in olive oil, salt and pepper:

1/2 chopped large yellow onion

2 stalks chopped celery

4 cloves of garlic

1 cup chopped carrots

Blend the sauteed veggies with some of the tomato soup - then add it all back to the soup pot.

In a separate pot melt 2 tbsp butter or garlic butter with 1/4 cup of flour, then add 1 cup milk.  Add it all back to the soup pot.  Add more milk until the taste and texture is creamy and yummy.  Serve it up to anyone who doesn't hate "veggables".

Cheesy Rice and Beans

Saute 1/2 chopped large yellow onion with 1 chopped tomato in olive oil.  Add 1-2 cups rice of any kind, salt and pepper, and mix.  Put mixture in a mixing bowl.  Heat up 1 can of pinto beans, rinsed off.  Add to the mixing bowl.  Add 1/2 cup grated cheddar.  Mix until the cheese melts.  Serve it up to the kids.

Fennel Potatoes

Cut in medium pieces and boil - a bunch of red potatoes - 4 to 6 cups worth, or as many as you have.

In a large casserole pot saute:

olive oil

2 tbsp butter

1/2 of a chopped yellow onion

several chopped green onions

handful of thinly sliced celery (1/2 - 1 cup)

handful of thinly sliced fennel bulb (1/2 - 1 cup)

salt, pepper

Add the soft boiled potatoes, mash and mix with more olive oil over medium heat until lumpy, mushy, smashed.  Add 1/2 cup shredded parmesan and mix until melted in.  Then serve it up.

Tweet

I learned how to twitter recently, and one of my friends found me there.  I discovered a snazzy "twidget" with which to tweet while online.

The newest updates are that Detlef passed away last summer, and his new friend Squeaky, who I think misses him, is bringing kittenish excitement back into the house.  And chipmunks, and mice, and birds, and little rabbits...

I've now laid a wood floor in the office, removed and reconfigured cabinets in the kitchen, and will be working on re-finishing stairs next.  Fun stuff.