Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

So yesterday was Thanksgiving.  The kids were out of school all week, so I asked them to clean out their closets, which was, in a twisted sort of way, meant to make them grateful for what they have.  And it worked, because they got rid of a few things, some of which had LONG overstayed their welcome, and told me that now all the stuff they have in their closets is stuff they love.  This makes me happy, and it makes them happy, and now I feel like the things I'm getting them for Christmas will have places to live.

On Wednesday Oz brought them up to see Mama at work in the office, so I took them around a little bit and then they hung out in the waiting room until it was time to go home.  (Work is good, still circus-ish, but next week we're training one more new person and then we should be actually fully staffed, and that is a wonderful feeling.  I won't be in the main office on Monday because the girl at the satellite office had a family emergency and is dealing with that, so I'm covering for her, but it should be an easy day.  I digress.)  Then Oz and I changed clothes, took the kids over to my brothers-in-law's (how on EARTH does one make that plural possessive??  Because two of them live there, and they are my brothers-in-law, but should it be brothers-in-laws'???  My brain just exploded) apartment where the kids spent the night with both of the guys as well as my mother-in-law.  It was a crowded place, but they had a great evening/night, and Oz and I went for dinner and then met up with a friend and her new hubby down at a bar where we drank beer and ate sweet potato fries and played darts until my contacts were about to either fall out or adhere themselves to my corneas from sheer fatigue.

We got home safely, took showers, and crashed, but then Oz and I both got up around 5:30 to start the meat for Thanksgiving.  He took charge of the brisket on the grill - I had put on the dry rub on Tuesday evening, so it'd been soaking up the flavor for about 36 hours - and I handled the giant leg of pork that was going in the oven.  I used this recipe, and OH MY WORD it was the bomb dot com.  We threw the meat in their respective cooking places and went back to bed for another 45-50 minutes… and then we adjusted the heat and did it again.  Around 7:30 or so we both actually decided it was time to get up for good, so Oz started the coffee and we began the process of cleaning the house for our guests while letting the parade play in the background.  For the record, I never thought I'd prefer Matt Lauer and Al Roker as hosts, but they would've been preferable to the folks on CBS.  That was painful.

By 10:30 the house was mostly ready, which was good because my mom showed up about that time and I know I wouldn't have been able to do much cleaning after that... besides anything else, my mom never arrives without looking like she's moving in, and this time was no exception.  She had a box of fabric scraps for Boo, a box of needlework books and shirts for me to browse through, as well as a pie and the non-liquored-up version of something called Apple Pie Moonshine.  We added the booze shortly after she got here, and it is just as delicious as the web site promises.  Dangerous stuff.

My kids and in-laws arrived not too long after my mother, and from there on out, it was Party Time.  There were people cooking, people talking and laughing, and just everything Thanksgiving should've been.  One thing that was different for us this year was that I had sent out an open invitation via Facebook for anyone who needed/wanted a place to come and celebrate Thanksgiving with friends, and I had a couple of folks take me up on the offer.  I was so glad they came, and I hope - I think - they had a good time.  We all stuffed ourselves to the point of pure indigestion, I do know that!!

A few people left early, but most of the family and a few friends hung around into the early evening hours.  My mom got to play with a baby, and my kids were good with the older ones, so there were no incidents that I'm aware of.  My husband and his brothers wandered down to the fire pit for a while and had some bro time, and I just enjoyed talking with everyone and catching up.  It doesn't happen often enough.

In addition to all that, I scored a beautiful ring.  When my grandmother had moved into an assisted living facility a few years ago, she had handed me the ring that had belonged to her when she married my grandfather.  The stone was amazingly beautiful, but the setting was dated and far too large for my finger.  Oz and I had briefly discussed getting the stone re-set at some point in the future, but that date had never been determined.  When he and I were struggling with our relationship issues earlier this year, I figured it would never happen.  Then he and I had our come-to-Jesus, honest-to-goodness, heart-to-heart about everything, and we turned a corner.  A month or so ago, I told him I would wear a ring again if he A) got the stone put into a ring that was MINE and mine alone and B) took me on a few successful dates and re-proposed to me.

Oz and I had discussed rings off and on since then - I'd sent him pictures I'd found on Pinterest or Etsy of custom rings that I liked, and he'd found a local jeweler who does custom work, and I'd even gone in and met the guy and had my ring size determined (5 1/4, in case you're curious, which is an odd size) - but I did NOT know that the ring design had been both finalized and finished, and I certainly did not know that Oz had picked it up.

So when he re-proposed to me in front of almost all his family and mine… well, what else could I do?

I said yes.

I'm thankful for my family (and friends!) each and every day.  They make my world wonderful.  Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, if you're in the USA, and if you live elsewhere in the world, that you have a great weekend!

Inventing Recipes - Never a Planned Exercise

Five years ago, almost exactly, I invented a recipe out of necessity to use up thawed meat and ingredients I had on hand.  Since I was not raised in the kitchen, stepping away from recipes and just making things on the fly isn't something that has come naturally to me.  I can make some things without them now, but mostly I've memorized the ingredients and techniques and use standard ingredients - stir-frys, curries, gumbo, etc.

Tonight, however, was Wednesday, which means that Oz was working late.  I had planned to make shepherd's pie, but when 5 o'clock rolled around, I had absolutely no inclination to make mashed potatoes, brown the meat, put it all together, and wait.  The kids were puttering around, and so I asked them if they wanted shepherd's pie or if they'd rather just have tomato soup and grilled cheese.  They were fine with the latter.

But then… after I'd dumped the soup into a pot and was rummaging through the fridge for the cheese for sandwiches, I ran across a small container of leftover taco beef that I'd nearly forgotten about.  And I got an idea. And thus Sarah's Tomato Taco Soup was born.  The kids loved it.  And they wanted me to share the recipe with you so that the deliciousness can be passed on to others.  If you try it, let me know!  And enjoy!

I'm sort of a food snob, so this was the tomato soup I used.  You use what works for you.
Pacific Foods have no idea who I am or that I buy their product.

A few notes before you begin reading the recipe:  When I make taco meat, I sauté the ground beef and onions together, then add seasoning.  I make up my own taco seasoning using chili powder, cumin, salt and a little bit of pepper.  Very simple.  I used Velveeta in my recipe tonight since I was using up the last of it for the grilled cheese, but just about any sort of real cheese would probably work as well or better - cheddar, Mexican blend, whatever.

Sarah's Tomato Taco Soup

1 box or can tomato soup (not condensed is probably preferable)

1 c. cooked, seasoned taco meat/onions

2-3 oz. shredded cheese

1/2 c. corn salsa

Extra taco seasoning (chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper), to taste

Tortilla chips for dipping

Begin by heating the soup, then add the other ingredients.  Stir until the cheese melts.  Season to taste.  Serve hot.

Productivity and... Wait, It's Almost October?!?

I discovered today (quite by accident, I assure you) that tomorrow is the first day of October.  I knew it was coming, because Oz and I spent the weekend watching helplessly as our hands and feet carried us around the house and yard putting up Halloween decorations, but I somehow still expected September to last another week or three.

My mantel.  Most of it, anyway.  You can't see the black roses in this shot.

I may have a serious Dept. 56 problem. 

I didn't even notice the candle had fallen until just now.
Wow, I'm observant.

Suck it, Pinterest.  My son's closet offers
better choices than your store-bought ones any day.

Still, we got a lot done this weekend.  In addition to all my decorating, Oz changed out the rocks in our front garden.  I say 'garden' - that's not entirely an accurate description unless you consider a rock garden a garden, which I guess I don't.  This unplantable space is good only when it rains, because it floods like the Flavian Amphitheatre during sea battles, which keeps the porch from flooding, and I like that, because a waterlogged porch isn't on my list of things that make me happy.  Formerly it held a bunch of red-brown lava rock and several very large pieces of sandstone.  Both Oz and I thought those didn't match the character of the house, and I can also tell you from experience that walking on lava rocks with your bare feet is a bad, bad idea.  The new rocks are much nicer on the soles.  Lava rocks also are not a very effective barrier for plants because they're lightweight and somehow maintain a lot of space in between the stones.  I had to spray for weeds, which I hate doing, about every month or so, and even then the weeds were multiplying.  Oz put down a new double layer of landscaping fabric under the new rocks, which makes me love him even more.  We'll see how this holds up.

New rocks.  Way better. 

I also hauled myself into the kitchen and made cake doughnuts and triple-chocolate cookies.  The doughnuts were for me, more or less, and I realized how dependent I've become on my cast iron pans for frying things when I decided, for some unknown reason, not to use cast iron to fry the doughnuts and the kids came down during the middle of a very frustrating fry session and hollered, "FISH STICKS!!!!"  Suffice to say the doughnuts were getting a bit burnt.  I couldn't get the oil temperature to stabilize to save my life.  Stupid electric cooktops and non-cast-iron pans... I will say this, though.  Toss burned doughnuts in cinnamon and sugar, and all is forgiven.

Please ignore the state of my sink.
We're focusing our negative energy on the pan.

Not forgotten, though.  Stupid pan.

Mmmmm taste the char.  A food blogger I am not.

The cookies were payment to Oz for all the effort he's put in around the house lately.  He's been working overtime to keep me fat 'n' happy, and he's succeeding admirably.  He's been dying for cookies for a long while, so I finally hunted down the recipe I'd saved on Pinterest and made him a gigantic batch (seriously... the recipe made 95 cookies.  NINETY-FIVE.  That number hasn't seemed so significant to me since I was in catechism class as a 6th grader and had to learn about Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in great detail).  I prized a dozen out of his clutches and took them to a friend's house because she was driving us to dinner at a restaurant downtown where we met up with two other women and scored free lemon drops courtesy of the anonymous gentleman who left before the drinks were served so we couldn't even thank him and tell him that for some of us **hackhackMEhackhack** that was the first drink they'd ever had that was sent over and purchased by someone else.  Delicious.

Triple-chocolate cookies make the Oz Cookie Monster happy.

So, anyway, tomorrow is the first day of October.  My son will turn 11 in a week and a half.  I'm really not okay with this, but apparently it's not up to me and time will march on whether I like it or not, and if you try to tell the boy that he isn't allowed to turn 11, he will laugh at you.  Don't ask how I know.  He lost his sixth (seventh?) tooth of the year yesterday, and he's got yet another tooth that's actually being absorbed (GROSS) because there's nothing to push it out and he refuses to let me pull it even though it has no root.  Soon his mouth will be full of adult teeth and adult thoughts emerging as adult words.  With teenage attitude, of course, but the seeds are planted for eventual maturity... I hope.

I simply cannot believe how quickly this year is going by.  I really do think it's time to hibernate now.  Anyone wanna join me? 

More Baking Therapy! (Recipe Included)

Breakfast is one of those meals that I don't fix.  Well, I do fix it, but not at the normal breakfast time of day.  I'm not sure who decided breakfast should be in the morning, anyway, because I'm fully on board with the idea of eating breakfast foods 24/7.

I digress already.  This is going to be one of those posts where I do that, I think.  

My kids eat breakfast daily.  They wake up starving, especially M1, and there are enough studies out there that point to all the good things that breakfast does that I hope their breakfast habit lasts throughout their lifetimes.  But if I want them to eat breakfast, I have to make sure we have it around... right?

I used to buy a lot of breakfasts - Pop-Tarts, boxes of cereal, frozen French toast sticks (OK, those still happen sometimes), granola bars.  But these days I try to make most of the kids' breakfasts, particularly because M1's breakfast consumption has risen in proportion to his height.  I was making regular waffles, but he was eating 2-3 at a time, and a batch of waffles was only lasting a few days.  I felt like I was spending all my time trying to keep up with the eating and making massive quantities of food for no good reason.

The saving grace actually came from my grandmother.  When she moved into her retirement home last fall, she gave some of her foodstuffs to my mom, sister, and me.  The thing that's relevant to this post?  I got the buckwheat flour, and with that, I got her handwritten buckwheat pancake recipe.

That recipe makes for the heartiest pancakes/waffles I have ever tasted in my life.  Seriously.  Look how thick this batter is!

Viscosity - this has it.

Remember this photo.  You'll need to reference it later.  I'm pretty sure my grandmother developed this recipe to feed hungry husbands and farmhands who were heading out to or coming in from the fields.  At least, that's what I like to think.

The waffle maker is older than my kids... don't judge ;)

Did I mention there's no sugar in these except for honey?  And they're delicious?  And they're so hearty that my son can eat ONE and be stuffed till lunch?  M2 can cut one in half and be full.  *angels sing*

If you pin this, let me know!  I love finding my stuff on Pinterest!

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Hearty Buckwheat Pancakes (or waffles!)

1 1/2 c. buckwheat flour
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 T. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
--
2 T. honey
4 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
Milk, buttermilk, or combination (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 c.)

Sift together dry ingredients.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Mix only enough to combine them.  The batter should be thick and somewhat lumpy.  Coat a griddle with cooking spray and preheat over medium heat.  Use 1/4 c. batter for each pancake.  Flip cake when brown and keep warm in a 200-degree oven.  Serve with blueberries and maple syrup.

Blogger's notes:  I love the blueberry bit.  Cracks me up.  If I'm just using milk, I only need 1 1/2 to 2 c. total; if I use some buttermilk, I have to add a bit more to get the right consistency.  Also, these will soak up syrup like nobody's business!  I get ~14 waffles out of this, but your mileage may vary depending on the size of your waffle maker and the thickness of your batter.

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Enjoy!

TGIF

Friday:

1 oz. Kahlua
1 oz. Bailey's
1 oz. Amaretto
2 oz. heavy cream

Shake over ice.  Serve with chocolate syrup.

Feast of the Moors

First of all, an update.  The children's ears are still intact.  All four of them still contain berries.  They have a simultaneous appointment at the ENT, given to me by a very amused receptionist, next Tuesday at 9 a.m.  I fully intend to take photos of the final berry count. 

The berries in question, by the way, are hackberries.  I was just glad to at least know, because those aren't poisonous. 

Still.

-----

Moving on.

M1 has been studying Islam in history this year, and he's really enjoying it, so when we got to the Moors and how they ruled Spain for many years, I decided it was time for one of our traditions:  A "Feast."

There was a recipe for Pollo con Arroz in our history book, but since I *can't* eat pollo and M1 *won't* eat pollo, that was out.  So I went hunting for authentic-esque Moor-ish vegetarian recipes that M1 and I could (mostly) fix together.

We started out with a garlic Parmesan spread for our bread.  It was SO easy.  M1 mixed it up.

I love this photo.  Why?  Look on the counter, just to the left of the mixer.  See that cord?  See how it's not plugged in?  Anticipation Boy was incredibly shocked when he pushed the button and nothing happened.

Once he plugged in the mixer, we chopped up several cloves of garlic, then added about a cup of grated Parmesan cheese and mixed it all together with water until it made a paste.  Fresh cheese probably would have worked better, but it wasn't in the house, and I wasn't going to put on socially-acceptable clothes that day.  But I can tell you, this was DELICIOUS.  I recommend serving it at room temperature.

Then we whipped up a chickpea salad with honey dressing.  M1 loved it; the rest of us thought it was okay.

We made whole wheat flatbreads...

... and whole wheat polvorones (cookies).



The piece de resistance, however, was the paella.  I've tried making paellas before, and they've always come out as dismal failures.  I have now learned why. 

1.  Do not use long-grain rice.

2.  Do not use long-grain rice.

Short-grain rice or, in this case, arborio rice (which, yes, I know, it's pasta, but hey, I had it on hand) works beautifully.  This was a meat-free dish, but it could be easily modified to add chicken or other ingredients. 

And yes, I spent $9 and got the actual tiny little container of saffron for this dish.  I don't know how much it added in the way of flavor, though, so next time I might just stick with turmeric.

The real Moors will never know.

Tea for 12 and 12 for Tea

I had one of my teas on Sunday.

I love hosting my teas.  I started doing them a long time ago as an excuse to make a recipe I'm going to share below.  I think one of the first ones I did was to announce my second pregnancy, and I held it on Grandparents' Day.  It was fun.  I held those with my family for a while, but then they sort of fell by the wayside, so I decided to invite members of my mom's group to come and attend a tea.

And attend they did. 

They're a fantastic excuse to break out (bad term, probably, but oh well) the good china and silver and pretend you're all lady-like when in reality the house is bordering on absolute chaos.

Plus... DESSERT!

I always make different foods for the teas, with the exception of one.  There's usually a cake, some sort of cookie or bar, and sometimes a pie.

Yes, it's smiling at you...

This time I made my Pear Pie.

Now, usually when I have these teas, Oz gets annoyed because I stress out.  I've gotten better with time, though I usually just barely have things ready when people arrive and so I've never had time to take photos.  This time, I was way ahead of schedule.

So I took pictures!

This is what the table looked like at 1 p.m.  I schedule the teas from 2-4 on Sundays so everyone can avoid lunch and dinner and just eat *my* food that day. 

OK, not really.  Mostly I just need time to get it all done, and if I held it earlier I'd have to fix sandwiches.  And I prefer just desserts.

This is what the table looked like just before everyone arrived.  I'm still missing two of my dishes, but they were in the fridge and I didn't want to put them out till people started showing up.

What are those things in the middle, you ask?

They're pavlovas.

They are why everyone really comes to my teas.  It's not the tea or the cake or the cookies or even the pear pie; it's the pavlova.  It does the hard sell for me.

Pavlovas are something I'd never heard of till I met Oz.  They are baked meringues topped with whipped topping and fruit.  The strawberry/chocolate one is very popular, so I've started making it every time and then vary the second one.  For my spring tea this year I made a peach/blueberry pavlova.

Nom nom nom.

People are always asking for the recipe, too, so I've decided to post it.  I love to make it more complicated than it really is, but if you have a stand mixer, it's the simplest recipe in the world (provided you can control the humidity in your kitchen and keep it below Oklahoma levels).

Make one for your family and/or friends; they'll love you for it!

-----

Pavlova


3 egg whites
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. vinegar
4 T. boiling water
1 T. cornstarch
3/4 pint whipping cream
1/4 c. sugar

Put all room-temperature ingredients into mixer.  Start at medium speed and drizzle in boiling water.  Turn to high and mix for 15 minutes. Turn off mixer and fold in cornstarch until thoroughly mixed. Pile mixture into a high dome on a flat tray covered with parchment. Make a depression in the center of the meringue for the filling. Bake at 275 degrees until meringue is crisp and has a hard shell, about one hour. Let it cool in the oven!!!! Beat whipping cream and sugar until stiff peaks form; spread over meringue. Decorate with fruit of choice.

Note:  I usually throw the cornstarch into the mixer during the last 1-2 minutes of mixing.  I also sprinkle some cornstarch onto the parchment paper to keep it from sticking.

More Thoughts on Laundry

A couple months ago, you might recall, I made my own liquid laundry detergent.  I made two gallons.  It was working beautifully, but I had someone comment that they had used the recipe and had their clothes start looking dingy after a couple of months.

I'm happy to say two things:
1.  My clothes are no dingier now than when I began this experiment.  I suspect throwing the vinegar into the mix has helped, because we do have hard water.  Or I could just be blind.  Or my clothes could have been fairly grubby in the first place.  There's no telling.
2.  I have just finished up the two gallons.  That means it takes about two (summer) months for me to use two gallons, which isn't a bad deal considering I do about half a dozen loads a week and have a top-loading machine, which means I'm supposed to use 5 oz. per load.  You front-loading types would get it even better.  I do more loads in winter, so it won't last quite as long this time (assuming the temperature ever drops below 90 around here), but that's all right.

I'll be making another batch this evening.  Very, very cheap laundry detergent that works is a very, very good thing!

Tostones!

I realized today that I seriously need to get some sort of tagging system set up for my blog so I can divide it into categories. I couldn't remember whether I'd posted this recipe or not and just spent the last 20 minutes of my life going through every blog post I've ever written to make sure. Bleh.

Anyway.

TOSTONES!

What are they, you ask? Twice-fried plantains. A friend of mine from Puerto Rico once showed me how to make them when I showed up at her house for lunch on time. I had no idea I was supposed to be an hour late! Gotta love learning new customs. I totally got the upper hand, though, because she taught me how to make these, and my kids love them.

Get some plantains. Two or three of them are enough to feed my family of four. You don't want them totally green or you'll never get the skin off, but you want them fairly green. Too much yellow and they get sweet, and then they're still great for dessert but not for tostones. (I once got stopped in the grocery store by a Jamaican woman who was convinced I had no idea how to cook plantains because I was buying them green-ish. She had never heard of tostones. And then after I told her what I did with them, a little old lady stopped me for this recipe because she was curious, too. Plantains are apparently cause for grocery store curiosity.)

Chop the ends off, make a big slice down one side of the skin, and peel.


Slice them on a bias. You want to make them about 3/4" thick. More isn't bad. What I'm showing here is about as small as you want them. You'll see why later.

Heat up some oil and fry them in batches. When they start turning brown all over (flip them as needed), pull them out and let them drain on paper towels.

Yes, it's a dark photo, but it at least gives you an idea of how they should look after their first fry.

Then you'll need a couple of plates or a bowl and a plate. You'll put one of the fried slices on the back of the plate and smush it as flat as you can with the other plate or bowl. I like to use something with a rim so they don't get *tooooo* flat. In Puerto Rico and other Hispanic countries, they actually have wooden tostone makers (kind of like miniature tortilla makers), but us gringos have to make do.

Once they're flattened, fry them again. Drain them and sprinkle them with salt before they cool. *NOTE*: Go light on the salt. It sticks to the tostones like crazy, and the flavor can easily get overwhelmed by sodium. My friend used seasoned salt, but I react badly to MSG, so I just use regular table salt. I'm sure Mrs. Dash wouldn't be bad, either.

They taste kind of like potatoes but have a slightly different flavor. I love 'em, and I hope you will, too!

MOUSSAKA!!!

I probably should not be posting about food right now. The only thing I've consumed today has been a mug of coffee flavored with ungodly amounts of delicious caramel macchiato creamer.

I blame my friend Christy for the creamer, but the lack of eating is entirely my fault. Oz has been sent to remedy this problem with copious amounts of take-out. I'll be back to my fat and happy self before too long.

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share this gem of a recipe. Moussaka. I make the Greek version, and it is heavenly. Time-consuming but heavenly. And Oz won't eat it because he despises eggplant in any form. The kids count the days till he leaves on trips and they get to have moussaka. They have been known to consume an entire 10x14" pan of moussaka in one sitting.

Start by peeling and slicing the eggplant. Lay out a length of paper towel and sprinkle salt on the towels, then lay down the eggplant, and sprinkle more salt on top. The purpose of this is to draw out as much liquid as possible.

And believe me, eggplants contain a *lot* of water. You have to let them sit for about half an hour but longer won't hurt. Blot the tops, switch out the paper towels, whatever you have to do. Just get the water out. Salt is a wondeful eggplant diuretic. If only it worked that way for me...

Once you have all the water out, you fry the eggplant up in a saucepan with some olive oil. I have to keep the pan moving or they'll soak up tons of oil to replace the water, which I think would defeat the purpose. On the other hand, the slices become beautifully soft when the oil gets into them.

I just tell myself at least it's olive oil and not, say, coconut. There are worse things in the world, right?

After the slices are fried, they can rest on more paper towels till you're ready for them again.

The next step is to get the meat part ready. The recipe says to use 1/2 lb. of ground beef or lamb. My family eats like there's no tomorrow, so I go ahead and use a whole pound sometimes. That's what I did here. There's salt, pepper, onion and garlic in this pan, too.

After you drain the meat, you add in the flavors. I love the smell of herbs and spices cooking in my kitchen. The recipe calls for fines herbes. I don't keep chervil in my kitchen, so I make do with chives, tarragon, and thyme. I've never had any complaints.

You also throw in some tomato sauce and red wine. Stir it all together, put the lid on that, and let it simmer for 20 minutes while you're working on the béchamel sauce. Before it's all finished, you'll let this cool just an oonch and stir in a beaten egg to help hold it all together. Or you can temper the egg and then stir it in, if you're in a hurry like I usually am.

Now... if I could read directions correctly, I'd know that I'm supposed to make a roux and THEN put in scalded milk. But I am a horrid person who can't follow a recipe properly to save her own life, so I put the milk in the pan to scald...

... and then, when the milk is scalded, toss in the butter, whisk while it melts, and then whisk in the flour.

I'm probably crazy with luck, but I've never had a sauce turn out lumpy this way. I'm not sure what I'm doing to deserve such great luck. I'm sure next time it'll be a miserable failure. And yes, I use black pepper. I know a true béchamel contains white pepper so that you don't mar the beauty of the sauce, BUT... I don't keep white pepper and this is going into something that's going to be topped with a spice, anyway, so I personally doesn't feel it matters.

Oh, and folks... don't use skim milk or margarine. Splurge on the good stuff. You won't regret it.
Once your sauce is ready, it's time to layer. Eggplant slices, the meat sauce, and some Parmesan cheese go into a well-greased pan. Top it with the rest of the eggplant and the béchamel. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Don't be shy. Use fresh nutmeg, too. It's a good reason to get some.

Why, yes, I am a food freak. Why do you ask?

After an hour in a 350-degree oven, you have this beauty on your hands. It won't last long, but if there are leftovers, they're also delicious cold after a night in the fridge. I don't make this often, and now you know why - who has time for meals that take hours to prepare? - but it is sooooo worth it.


----------

Moussaka

2 large eggplants, peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/2”-thick slices
Salt
Olive oil
-----
1-1/2 tsp. butter
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. fines herbes
1 T. dried parsley
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 c. red wine
1 egg, beaten
-----
2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
3 T. all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
-----
3/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1. Lay the slices of eggplant on paper towels, sprinkle lightly with salt, and set aside for 30 minutes or more to draw out the moisture. Then in a skillet over high heat, heat 2 T. olive oil. Quickly fry the eggplant until browned, adding more oil if needed. Set aside on paper towels to drain.

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, onion and garlic. After beef is browned, sprinkle in the cinnamon, nutmeg, fines herbes and parsley. Pour in tomato sauce and wine and mix well. Simmer 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and stir in beaten egg.

3. To make béchamel sauce, scald milk in saucepan. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Lower heat; gradually pour in hot milk, whisking constantly until it thickens. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Arrange half of eggplant in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover with all of meat mixture and 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese. Cover with remaining eggplant and remaining Parmesan. Pour béchamel sauce over the top and sprinkle with nutmeg.

5. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

6. Drool and enjoy.

Food bloggin' time!

I love food. There is no good reason why I shouldn't weigh twice what I do given the Foodiness of Me. There's just something zen about getting into the kitchen and creating good food, whether it's a classic, heart-warming, soul-soothing dish or something completely unique that nobody else has ever heard of.

The other day I felt the urge to create a blueberry sky pie. I hadn't made one in the entire 10 years that Oz and I have been together, and he'd never even heard of it. I have discovered most people haven't. I'm not even sure where I first heard of it, but I knew what it was supposed to taste like and roughly what was supposed to go in it, so when I found this recipe on Cooks.com, I ran with it.

Start with graham cracker crusts. The recipe makes two pies (plus a little more) so plan accordingly.


These plus some blueberry pie filling are all the ingredients you'll need.

Yes, I made my own blueberry pie filling with the berries the kids and I picked a few months ago. And I made the crusts.

Cooking is zen. Usually because I tend to ignore the children and their shenanigans while I'm cooking, but I made the crusts after they went to bed one night, so clearly I get more out of it than a moment's peace and quiet.
Mix together the softened cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk and frozen lemonade.

Fold in the whipped topping. Resist the temptation to lick the spatula. Lick the inside of the whipped topping container instead because something's gotta give.

Add the blueberry pie filling and fold that in, too.

Drool.
Overfill both pie shells, add lids, and refrigerate.

Eyeball what's left and think about giving it to the kids because that'd make you the BEST MOM EVER.

Remember that you're supposed to be on a diet and then wonder why you put yourself on a diet the same day you plan to make pie and figure that if you're going to be that self-defeating in the first 24 hours that you deserve every ounce you've ever put on.

Eat the leftovers.

Enjoy!