Putting the “Naughties” to Bed

Of all the things people call this decade; the zeroes, the aughts, the singles, my favorite is the ‘naughties – I don’t think it’s going to catch on, but I wish it would.

It’s been an interesting ten years, don’t you think?  New Years Eve 1999 had my family down for the count with a terrible virus.  My four year old son and I watched the new year come in while my husband and 1 year old daughter slept through their fevers.  Ten New Year’s Eves later and my 14 year old is in his room playing video games, my 11 year old is uploading video to Youtube and at 8:41 PM, my husband is finally on his way home from work.

Ten years ago I never could have imagined that we’d be a homeschooling family – I don’t think I’d ever heard the term ‘homeschool’, so I couldn’t have imagined it, but I love it and I’m so glad that we traveled down this path.

Ten years ago I was designing websites for a living, but I never could have imagined how the internet would change everything we do and become such a social playground integrating so many aspects of what we do and who we are.

Ten years ago I had seen people make friendship bracelets, but never imagined that I could design and create my own jewelry using semi precious stones and sterling silver and hammers and stamps and wire.

Ten years ago I could not even imagine my life as it is today.  I can’t wait to see what the next ten years hold!

To all of my family and my friends old and new:
May your troubles be less, And your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door. Happy New Year!

Stuffed Shells

For Christmas this year we invited friends over, but the different families weren’t going to be able to make it at the same time.  In order to make sure that there was fresh yummy food whenever I needed to serve it, I decided to make half trays of stuffed shells. We could cook what we needed and the leftovers would be lovely the next day.

This made almost 4 half-trays, about 60 stuffed shells.

4 disposable aluminum 1/2 trays

2 boxes jumbo shells
8 large cloves of garlic chopped
1/4 c. of olive oil
2 (2lb.) containers of ricotta cheese (allow them to sit out for a bit so that the cheese is softened enough to work with)
24 oz. of shredded mozzarella (the bags were on sale for 3 for $5 – so we went that route)
2 small bunches of parsley, trimmed and chopped
salt and pepper

(You could also use 2-3 eggs to help blend the cheese mixture but some of our guests can’t have eggs.  I omitted them and we didn’t miss them at all!)

A double batch of quick tomato sauce – you could use your favorite jarred sauce (probably 2-3 jars), but the home made version is so easy and much more budget friendly.

Put up a big pot of salted water to boil, cook the shells according to package directions.  Using a slotted spoon or a hand held colander, gently remove the shells from the water and put them on a flat baking sheet.  Use extra care to make sure that you don’t break them.  When they’ve cooled enough to touch them, drizzle olive oil over them and gently toss with your hands to keep them from sticking together.  Cover them with damp paper towels until you’re ready to use them.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine the ricotta cheese and 1/2 the mozzarella.

In a saute pan, heat the oil on med. heat and saute the garlic for just a minute or so until the smell is released.  Be careful not to let the garlic burn.  Pour the garlic oil mixture over the cheese mixture and mix well being sure to combine well.  Salt and pepper to taste and mix again.

To prepare the aluminum trays, lightly spray with Pam and then put a thin layer of tomato sauce on top of that.  Using a large spoon, stuff each shell with the cheese mixture and place neatly in the tray.  I found that three rows of about 8 shells worked very well.

Top with spoonfulls of the tomato sauce

If you’re doing this the day before, stop here.  Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate until your party.

Preheat oven to 350 and cook covered trays for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, carefully uncover and top with mozzarella cheese.

Put back in the oven and cook until the cheese is how you like it.  10-20 minutes.  We like our cheese browned on top. Remove from oven and let it sit for 10-15 minutes to allow the cheese to firm up a little bit.

It was enough to feed an army and was even better the next day.  You could double, halve, quarter or eighth this recipe to suit your purposes.  It was ridiculously easy and to make just a few and serve with a tossed salad would be a lovely family dinner.

Endive and Pomegranates

Oh my.  This is so tasty.  My family has asked for it three times since we first made it a month ago.  It started as an idea to make the fennel pomegranate dish that I made last year for the first time. Unfortunately the supermarket was out of fennel – which surprised the produce guy as much as it surprised me.  He said, “I don’t think we’ve ever actually run out of fennel before and I’m not even sure when it’s delivered, because no one ever asks.”  Leave it to me, right? Anyway – as I stood in the produce section trying to figure out what would be a good substitute for fennel (besides anise, I don’t like anise), I couldn’t think of anything.  So I thought that I might just make it into a more traditional salad.   I walked over to the lettuce and they had beautiful endive.  I love endive and I don’t use it enough because it’s so expensive.  I figured though, that I wouldn’t need that much so I bought 4 hearts.  Chicken breast was on deep sale and pomegranates were 2 for 2 and I was going to round it out with rice, so I figured the cost wasn’t too bad. I brought it all home and here’s what I did.  Super easy, I promise!

First start the rice – saute onion and garlic in a deep, heavy bottomed pan.  Add the rice and saute till pearly, add the liquid (I used vegetable stock I had on hand.  Add the liquid, cover and cook according to package directions.  Don’t ever open a lid on a pot of rice until the time is up.  That’s the secret.  Rice is a dish best left alone.  Don’t forget to turn down the heat though.  I forgot once.  Once is all you need.  It took days to get my stove cleaned.  I never forgot again.

While the rice is cooking make the dressing and the salad

Dressing:
the juice of 1 large naval orange
1/2 c. white balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 big squeeze of honey (I guess about 3 tablespoons)
1/4 t. salt
2 grinds of fresh black pepper
Juice and strain the seed and pulp of the orange into a clean screw top jar, add the rest of the ingredients and shake well, set aside.

Salad:
The seeds of 2 pomegranates (See instructions here)
4 tangerines segmented
4 hearts endive

Here’s a quick vid on how I segment citrus.  Please to enjoy my NY accent.  (I never realize how bad it is till I hear it played back to me – I tend to think I’ve lost it – wrong!)

That wasn’t so bad was it?

Clean and rough chop the endive and put in a big bowl.  Add the pomegranate seeds and tangerine segments.  Cover and set aside.

When you’re ready to eat, shake the dressing very well (make sure the honey gets incorporated) dress and toss. Try not to drink the dressing straight from the container.

We grilled chicken to go with this, but you could certainly do pork chops, or fish, or even have it as a vegetarian meal.  It’s sooo good.

It’s Beginning to Look…

Wow.  How’s your holiday shopping going? Mine’s done. Sort of.  I may purchase one more thing, but then again I’m not stressing over it.

This year looks very, very different than years past. There will be about ten presents under the tree. I thought I was going to stress it, but I’m not. I thought for a moment about buying inexpensive items and wrapping them so that it wouldn’t look so sparse, but then I decided not to.  I feel like this is a really good lesson that I know I needed to learn and that I hope I’m effectively passing along to my children.  You see, we had a couple of years of plenty.  Really plenty.  This year?  Not so much.  And to say that we are not alone is an understatement.  There are so many people who are struggling that in comparison, we’re pretty ok.  We’re renting a house that we love, in a great neighborhood, we have wonderful friends, enough food to share (although we’re stretching it with pasta and rice a lot more), my husband has a job (although he’s working harder than he ever has for much less money – but who isn’t?), and we have choices.

We’ve been forced, this year, to analyze things; to really decide what we want to spend our resources on.  We’ve learned to make our own bread as well as certain condiments, controlling how much we spend and what we put into our bodies.  We’ve learned to repurpose things that weren’t being used and if we can’t find a purpose, we give it away to someone who can and those are good things (channeling Martha just a bit).

Another example is Christmas dinner.  We usually have a crown roast, or a beef tenderloin for dinner – which usually costs a ton of money for a dinner for four people when you add appetizers, sides and dessert – but not this year.  This year we’re having an open house, inviting everyone that we’re friends with and requesting that they bring a dish to share, we’re providing a dish as well as olives and crackers and cheese – we’re saving a fortune and I bet we have a better time than we ever had when it was just the four of us.

All in all, I’m grateful for what this year has taught us.  I’m looking forward to the economic upswing whenever that might appear, but we’ll be ok ’til then.

Happy Holidays!

WTH?

It seems over the past year I’ve been sick or injured for an awful lot of it.  Right now I’m nursing my fourth ear infection since May.  In addition to the ear I’ve had plantar fasciitis since August of ‘08, worse allergies than I’ve ever had before, various colds, aches, pains and the occasional rather sever headache (I hesitate to say migraine as it hasn’t been diagnosed, but let’s just say that when they hit I have no choice other than to lie in a cold dark room till it passes).  I have to wonder what the heck this is all about.

I’m certainly older than I used to be, but I’m far from decrepit.  I eat all my veggies, not too much meat and when I do indulge, I drink red wine.  All my numbers are good; cholesterol, blood pressure, thyroid, etc. and while I could certainly stand to lose a few pounds, my physical health is excellent.

My doctor suggested that I might be depressed, but after much thought and conversation we decided that I was far too interested in too many things and far too engaged in my life for depression to be a possibility.  My life is the antithesis of someone’s who is suffering from depression.

So what the hell is wrong with me?  I fear that my problem is hormonal, but for the life of me I can’t find a doctor who will do the testing that I’m interested in receiving.  I also find that I start too many things than I can possibly finish – there are so many things I want to do, but I can’t seem to find extra hours in my day for everything, so if you’ve noticed that I’ve started many things lately that I don’t seem to be finishing, trust me, I’ve noticed too.

I guess I’ll call the doctor . . . . again.

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