Thank You, Thank You

I truly appreciate all the odd jobs that you took care of for me. It is a smile for me everytime that I walk into the SR and see the curtain rod and straight curtains.
What a smart and clever girl you are!!!

I had a MARVELOUS time with you and hope we can connect every two to three months in the future. I got a new smart card for the family room TV receiver and installed it. It made for a much sharper picture. WOO WOO
technology is great when it works as it should.

Monday, Monday

The recipe sounds delicious and I will have to give it a try. I plan to put some stew on when I get back from church duty to have tonight and tomorrow.

Bridget has had two attacks in as many days. Poor little girl, I wish there was a cure for her condition as she is a real sweet heart. She follows me everywhere and is sleeping at my feet as I type. I look forward to you meeting her.

Today with a dirty house and laundry to the ceiling and church duty, I do not think I will be doing much else but handling that. Everyday the plants are bigger and more things come into bloom. Such fun to see it all. I have plans to make out my shopping list for our "to-dos" while you are here today and start gathering. Bet I forget something, as I always do. I am so looking forward to seeing your smiling face and giving you a hug.

Healthier Eating!

Was prowling around on foodnetwork.com and found the Ina section. It's nice because if you choose each episode it has the recipes from that episode. I'm capturing one here because I don't know how far back they'll keep them. Handy! I can build my own Barefoot Contessa cookbook!

Here's the link to her "top 100" recipes and they're labeled by difficulty. I don't find that as handy as the indexing by episode but maybe because I tend to remember the episodes. It IS neat that it also shows what cookbooks they come from.

Barefoot Contessa Top 100

This is the one from the other day with Ribolita. I thought that sounded like a fantastic healthy soup main dish. Her's made enough for 12 but this recipe calls for half of what she used in the recipe so it's resized. Probably still makes way too much for one or two but I bet you could freeze this one. Another great thing about the food network stuff is each recipe has a comments section where other folks who have tried it can comment and I find that pretty handy. A lot of people said they substituted canned beans and juice and used canadian bacon for the panacetta. Looks pretty darn easy to make!

Ribolita

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 1/2 pound dried white beans, such as Great Northern or cannellini
• Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus extra for serving
• 1/4 pound large diced pancetta or smoked bacon
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 1 cup chopped carrots (3 carrots)
• 1 cup chopped celery (3 stalks)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
• 4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded savoy cabbage, optional
• 4 cups coarsely chopped kale
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 4 cups sourdough bread cubes, crusts removed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions

In a large bowl, cover the beans with cold water by 1-inch and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to soak overnight in the refrigerator.

Drain the beans and place them in a large pot with 8 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and continue to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the beans are tender. Set the beans aside to cool in their liquid.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large stockpot. Add the pancetta and onions and cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the carrots, celery, garlic, 1 tablespoon of salt, the pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the tomatoes with their puree, the cabbage, if using, the kale, and basil and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for another 7 to 10 minutes.

Drain the beans, reserving their cooking liquid. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, puree half of the beans with a little of their liquid. Add to the stockpot, along with the remaining whole beans. Pour the bean cooking liquid into a large measuring cup and add enough chicken stock to make 8 cups. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Add the bread to the soup and simmer for 10 more minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve hot in large bowls sprinkled with Parmesan and drizzled with olive oil.

Tuesday Tidings

It's certainly been a busy week! I bought some new lamps this weekend (it was one of those three lamp sets) and I spent the entire evening last night putting them together. I have something to say to those folks about their "Patent Pending" easy packaging. Once I was able to un-entomb the lamps from the styrofoam, it was pretty easy. Of course that led to a massive dusting as I shifted lamps around the house---if you move something, you have to dust underneath it. I keep telling Kevin that's the Rule of the Universe.

Did you get the picture of Paula, Lisa and me at the church dinner? Kev sent one from the phone. We saw a really great concert by the Franz Family . You've probably heard them before as they travel a lot doing bluegrass gospel. Very talented. If you get the chance to see them, highly recommended!

Just had a few spare minutes so thought I'd drop a line. More later!

Slow Compost

Maybe it is the cold weather, but it seems the compost is sure slow. At this rate, I can never make enough for the yard needs. There is no smell other than an earthy one, so I guess things are progressing ok. When you hear that you can make compost in 6 weeks, I have come to believe they are exaggerating a bit. Maybe if all the materials were chopped into tiny bits that would be so.

We are enjoying a warm-up and I hope it is extending to you too. The nights dip into the 20's but the days are up to the 60's. Bridget had another attack yesterday. She is still not eating and just sleeps a lot. They are always so scary and I always wonder if she will recover. Poor little girl. She is such a sweet heart and such a beautiful dog. Everyone that sees her comments about her looks.

I am off today to a yarn shop that is having a 25% off sale. I want to pick up some needle punch yarn while it is on sale. Diane is going with me so it will be fun. It is still way to wet to work in the yard unfortunately. I notice that the daffodil flower buds are really swelling and should start blooming pretty soon. Next year I definitely plan to add more as I just love seeing the yellow cheery flowers herald spring.

Random Monday Thoughts

The Fiesta Casserole on page 311 of the America's Test Kitchen cookbook is outstanding! It also makes a huge amount so I'd either plan on using the aluminum foil trick for freezing some for later consumption or halve the recipe. Double star and sticky note on the page.

The Tramontina 6.5 quart enameled Dutch Oven is apparently a myth. Not to be found anywhere! If there's some at your local Walmart, I'd run and not walk to pick one up. I haven't totally given up but may wind up picking up the Lodge one which has also gotten very high ratings. They were downgraded for being .5 quart less in size an $15 more in price. I'd love to understand why the red version of the Lodge is $20 cheaper than any other color. Isn't that weird?

I picked up the 12" Tramontina all-clad style skillet at Walmart for $20 as everything I have is non-stick. Love the weighted bottom. ATK and the Barefoot Contessa are correct---browning in these pans is ever so much better than non-stick and you get those little brownie bits at the bottom they always make stuff with. They're also correct that this is NOT a pan to make eggs in as they stick to the bottom like Elmer's. Unless your name is Faye in which case it's the perfect pan because you get the broken and battered eggs after they're scraped from the pan.

I have way too much to do around the house and not enough time to do it. Yeesh.

Bed Bath and Beyond has the Oxo box grater for $17.95.

We saw Last Chance Harvey. Very predictable story you've seen 50 times but Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson were really good in it. Absolutely worth a matinee. I wouldn't pay full price. We still want to see Gran Torino and Frost/Nixon but haven't.

Whole Foods Market carries the real Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. There's one in Lakewood by you. They say buy only what you'll use for a week or two and store it wrapped in foil or parchment paper. Parmigiano is one of the lowest fat highest nutrient cheeses available---who knew? There's a Whole Foods by my office so I'm going to give theirs a try. They have a parmigiano crisp recipe at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/parmigiano-reggiano.php that sounds like it would be totally awesome served with a stew or hearty beef soup.

New Interest

I have a renewed interest in cake decorating. I do not know if you remember or not but in the late 70's and early 80's I took several cake decorating courses and really enjoyed baking and decorating cakes for family and friends. I have not done any since, but have been looking over my old notes and think I would like to try it again.

The several days of warm weather have had me out in the garden doing a lot of little chores. I am still in the process of removing rotting timbers and I will be so glad to have them all gone. There seems to be no end of clean up and pruning chores, but each new one completed makes the yard look better. Hopefully by the arrival of spring all will be done. The live oak has begun to drop some leaves. This is a weeks-long process each spring and is unbelievably messy, but the tree is so glorious the rest of the time that it is worth it.

The daffodils are growing almost visibly and I so look forward to seeing the sunny blooms. I wish I had gotten on the ball and planted more last fall. I want to add more compost bins as I mentioned to you. I truly enjoy turning the bins and watching debris turn into black gold before my eyes.

Quilting today, so I need to get going.