by Krista | Apr 29, 2010 | Plucky Thursday
Hello, dear folks. 🙂 I’m so sleepy that I’m quite terrified to write anything here lest it turn out to be complete gibberish! 🙂
It’s been an intense week but a good one, much heartache in the beginning but now I’m basking in the glow of unexpected, but most welcome, resolution and peace. I’m gonna sleep like a rock tonight. 🙂
Until then, I’m mulling over little things that have brought me joy lately:
My “nest” I made on this oh-so-rickety bench outside my door.
This gorgeous view from the bench!! How I love to lay here and look up at the trees, watching the setting sun turn everything all glowy and wonderful. 🙂
My hardy lavender plant that has somehow survived moving, pot breaking, drowning, and my utter lack of a green thumb. 🙂
I’m also grateful for roasted broccoli topped with toasted Parmesan cheese. I usually make a big batch, fully intending to eek it out over several days, but I never manage it. It’s just too yummy! Especially all those toasty, salty, scrumptious bits of cheese that stick to the pan. 🙂
What “little things” are making you happy this week?
Roasted Broccoli with Toasted Parmesan
Ingredients:
1 large head broccoli, washed and cut into florets
olive oil
good salt and freshly ground pepper
4-6 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese (pre-grated won’t melt properly)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Toss broccoli liberally with glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Spread on baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes or until tips begin to brown.
- Remove from oven and nestle broccoli close together. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and return to oven. Roast for another 5-10 minutes until Parmesan is browned and toasted.
by Krista | Apr 28, 2010 | Spring
I’m tucked in bed on a blustery evening, watching a grey squirrel as he laps up water from a puddle, then dashes over to a large cedar tree, grasps a dandelion stem with two paws, and starts nibbling. 🙂 So cute. 🙂
I had a lovely walk today, storm clouds black in the east as the sun shone brightly from the west, glimmering through new green leaves, dappling the stream.
The wind was gusty and cool, reminding me of my recent trip to Seattle when my pals Trish and Todd took me to fabulous little park overlooking downtown Seattle…
…and the ocean. We huddled against the chilly wind, delighting in the pearly sky, so peaceful after the rain.
We ate deliciously greasy burgers, salty fries, and thick milkshakes at
Dick’s Drive-In.
After our adventurous weekend, I was craving oatmeal cookies with chunks of dark chocolate. My favorite recipe is Betty Crocker’s because they always turn out and are wonderfully chewy. Using dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet renders them heavenly. 🙂
Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chips
(From Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup dark Ghirardelli chocolate chips
Directions:
- Heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients except oats, flour and chocolate chips.
- Mix oats, flour and chocolate chips in separate bowl, then stir into wet mixture.
- Drop dough my rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown.
- Cool.
by Krista | Apr 27, 2010 | Spring
It was just past 5 a.m. as we continued our sunrise stroll through Old Town Ljubljana in Slovenia. The streets were empty save for a few brave souls heading to work, clattering across the cobble stones on bicycles or click-clacking through the square in high heels.
The Ljubljanica River was dark and mysterious, flowing silently under the balustrades.
We gazed in mute respect at the stunning monuments to warriors, victims and leaders of the past, wishing we could read or speak Slovenian so we could know their stories.
I was delighted by this unexpected Art Deco flourish, imagining elegantly dressed women swishing through these portals on their way to fine dinners or afternoon tea.
I don’t know what I expected of Slovenia, but it wasn’t this. Stately buildings and curvaceous bridges alongside modern salons and homey pubs. I loved it.
As the sun rose over the towering gables, the clock struck 6 a.m. and it was time to load up the van and head to Croatia and Bosnia. Our early morning wake-up had left us positively ravenous, and just few miles down the road we pulled into a gas station to see what we could rustle up. Bursting in the doors we stopped in amazement at the classiest little cafe we could’ve imagined! Tiled counters with sparkling glass covers held steaming trays of sizzling sausages, fresh fruit, glossy peppers, pastries, and fresh bread studded with seeds. We were in heaven! We loaded up plastic trays, collected napkins and darling little wooden forks and knives and clambered back in the van. Delicious!
It was such a fond memory for me that this weekend, as storm clouds gathered overhead, I had to replicate it. I gathered all the fixings then set to sauteing bell peppers, onions, and farmer’s sausage with glugs of olive oil and lashings of black pepper. Perfect. 🙂
by Krista | Apr 26, 2010 | Bootstrap Monday
How was your weekend, dear ones? 🙂
Mine was quiet and relaxing, a lovely retreat all by myself so I could get better. I thoroughly enjoyed short walks to the creek, naps in the sunshine, and…
…I even started sketching again! Something I haven’t done in ages. 🙂 My perspective is wonky and I couldn’t draw a decent face to save my life, but I had such fun anyways, especially with a fresh package of new markers to experiment with. 🙂
I decided a retreat wasn’t a proper retreat without something desserty, so I pondered my options. I remembered reading an article in an old Victoria magazine about a young girl who loved staying home sick from school because her grandmother always made her homemade pudding. I do not love being sick but I do love pudding, so I dug out my Betty Crocker cookbook and settled on little bowls of creamy butterscotch. I added my own flair by using almond milk and finishing it off with a sprinkling of black salt. 🙂
I’m not sure why they call it black salt since it is decidedly pink.
Regardless of the name, it tastes marvelous atop sweet pudding, and I felt thoroughly spoiled. 🙂 I also felt spoiled because my cute-as-a-bug, elderly neighbor lady stopped me the other day and asked if I would mind if she planted flowers all around my apartment. Would I mind?? I was tickled pink! 🙂 So today I grinned from my armchair as I watched her marching about in a turban and leopard-print wellies making everything beautiful. I’m a lucky, lucky girl. 🙂
Butterscotch Pudding with Black Salt
(Adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)
Ingredients:
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp black salt, more for garnish
2 cups milk or almond milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
- Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute.
- Gradually stir at least half of the hot mixture into egg yolks. Stir into remaining hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir one minute.
- Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
- Pour into dessert dishes. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.
- Sprinkle with black salt and serve.
by Krista | Apr 23, 2010 | Fabulous Friday
Good morning, dear folks! 🙂 I am grinning so big because my gimpy knee is finally healing up after the car accident and I’m able to start taking real walks again. HOORAY! 🙂 Earlier this week I headed out on a particularly blustery day and to my delight found a whole sprig of lilac laying in the street in danger of being run over. I happily rescued it and it’s now adorning my coffee table in a particularly fetching styrofoam cup. 😉
After work yesterday I went out to explore my new neighborhood, strolling past farms and meadows and through the woods.
It did my heart and body much good to be out in nature again. 🙂
On Wednesday my dear friend Deb came over for dinner, and while the rice finished cooking we took an evening ramble out to my creek. Mmm, it was gorgeous! The creek babbled gently as the sun set through the trees and brisk breezes brought gusts of fresh air from the woods. Everything is so lush and green along the banks now. I just love it. 🙂
The fresh air made us hungry and we headed back to the house for dinner. Deb is one of those lovely folks who is actually pleased when you experiment on them with new foods (love that!!) so I tried out a vegetable curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s “
From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail“, and served it over brown basmati rice.
Jaffrey says that this curry is a great favorite at wedding banquets in Guyana, while in India they serve it without cabbage.
The curry features chickpeas, potatoes and cabbage simmered with fried onions, garlic, peppers, curry powder and roasted cumin. It turned out even better than I’d hoped! Somehow the textures and flavors are perfectly suited to each other, resulting in an almost creamy curry that satisfies without feeling heavy.
What lovely thing are you looking forward to this weekend? 🙂
Chickpea, Potato and Cabbage Curry
Ingredients:
1 cup dried chickpeas
1 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 wiri-wiri peppers or 3 bird’s eye chilies, chopped (I didn’t have either so I added a pinch of cayenne)
4 Tbsp corn, peanut, or olive oil
1 Tbsp hot curry powder (I used mild)
1 tsp roasted and ground cumin seeds (I only had powder)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4″ squares (I didn’t peel mine)
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups green cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch squares
Directions:
- Soak chickpeas overnight in 5 cups of water. Drain the next day, put in a pan, add 5 cups fresh water and bring to a boil. Cover. reduce heat to low, and cook very gently for 1-3 hours, or until chickpeas are very tender. Add boiling water if necessary.
- Drain chickpeas, reserving broth. Pour liquid into measuring cup and add water to make 2 1/2 cups.
- Put onion, garlic, peppers and 4 Tbsp water into blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour oil into soup pot over medium high heat. Put in paste from blender. Stir and fry for 2-3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook another 2-3 minutes, removing lid to stir frequently.
- Add curry powder and roasted cumin. Stir ones and put in chickpeas, potatoes, salt, and the reserved liquid. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- Add cabbage and a further 1 cup of water (I used chicken broth). Stir and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, or until cabbage has just softened.
- Taste for salt before serving.
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