by Krista | Jul 7, 2010 | Bits 'n' Bobs
Good morning, dear ones! Summer has arrived in Washington at long last, and I’m a happy, happy girl. Up until now I’ve been wearing sundresses (and sweaters!!) in defiance of the weather. Now I get to wear them in celebration of it!!!
Every day going to and from work I pass the most beeyootiful ditches absolutely chock full of wildflowers. Every day I think, “I really need to stop and take pictures” and every day I don’t. Finally this weekend I roused myself out of bed and took a cloudy morning stroll along those lovely ditches.
Seeing those cheery daisies and frothy Queen Anne’s Lace among the waving grasses was pure bliss and brought back warm, happy feelings from my childhood days gallivanting over the windswept prairies of Alberta, Canada. What things in nature remind you of your childhood?
After that delightful amble I headed back home started my weekend blitz cooking. I try to do all my cooking on the weekend, big batches of curries and soups, large tarts and flavorful salads, hot cereals and banana bread, then divide everything into plastic containers that I freeze or chill until needed. By the end my kitchen is a horrendous mess and I’m rather frazzled, but I sure love opening my fridge the rest of the week knowing I have something good waiting for me when I’m too tired to think at the end of a long day.
This weekend my favorite dish is Green Chili Cilantro Chicken, a marvelously flavorful dish with a heavenly sauce made of yogurt, fire-roasted tomatoes, lemon, mild green chilies, ginger, garlic, and a whole whack-load of fresh cilantro. It’s one of those dishes that is, ahem, ugly, but ohhh, does it taste good!
It’s easy as a wink too, which I absolutely love. All the sauce bits are pureed so there’s almost no chopping required, and everything is cooked in the same pot. Perfect. I serve mine over Bhutanese Red rice, but it also goes beautifully scooped up with fresh whole-grain naan or pita.
Cilantro Chicken
4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and coarsely chunked
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chunked
1 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in two
2/3 cup fire-roasted diced tomatoes (or 1 medium tomato, diced)
3 cups fresh cilantro leaves and small stems
1 small can diced mild chilies (or 2-3 fresh hot chilies, chopped)
1 tsp tomato paste
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup plain yogurt
Directions:
- Puree ginger, garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, lemon juice and 2 Tbsp water in blender or food processor.
- Place chicken in glass bowl, pour over ginger mixture and stir to coat. Let sit covered in refrigerator for 1-24 hours.
- Puree tomato, cilantro, chilies, tomato paste, remaining salt, and 2 Tbsp water.
- Heat oil in pot over high heat. When hot, add chicken and marinade and cook, stirring often, about 10 minutes or until chicken is browned.
- Add tomato mixture and cook, stirring often, another 10 minutes.
- Add yogurt and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
- Serve over rice or with whole-grain naan.
by Krista | May 14, 2010 | Bits 'n' Bobs
Good evening, dear ones!! I’m in the process of transitioning to a new blog, fumbling and fussing as I go. Yipes! This is just a little test to see if everything is posting smoothly. I will be back tomorrow with a real post. Sleep tight!!
by Krista | Mar 24, 2010 | Bits 'n' Bobs
Yesterday was a rather rough day health wise, and I was feeling decidedly weepy and out of sorts, so I thought the best thing to do was go for a walk in the evening sunshine. Mums joined me and we had a good ol’ visit as we strolled, waving jauntily at neighbors and total strangers driving by in their trucks. It’s amazing the good a walk does for body AND soul. 🙂
When I got home, I decided the next best thing to do was crack open a mini-tub of blood orange sorbet I’d been saving, and treat myself to a few spoonfuls. Just a few, mind you, then back in the freezer it went. 🙂
It was the best medicine. 🙂 I learned from Amuse-Bouche for Two the beauty of having a little bit of dessert every day. Not a bowlful, just a spoonful. Not a fistful of cookies, but a single one, enjoyed thoroughly. I love that. 🙂
In other news, I’ve been trying to incorporate more buckwheat into my diet, and this weekend I made buckwheat pancakes with my Mum’s wonderful Honey Almond Sauce. As kids, my three brothers and I LOVED pancakes and waffles, but my health-conscious Mum worried about all the sugary syrup we used. So she nosed around her cookbooks and found this beauty of a recipe that has delighted us every since. It’s definitely not low-fat, but somehow using honey and ground almonds made us feel healthier. 🙂
So, I made the buckwheat pancakes (from a mix – I confess! But it was organic – does that make it OK?).
Slathered them with natural peanut butter.
Then topped them with the gorgeous Honey Almond sauce.
I smiled contentedly as I tasted that first bite. A rush of happy memories: brothers teasing and laughing around the table, fighting for the biggest pancake, Dad sipping coffee, Mum grilling pancakes as fast as we could eat them, sunshine streaming in the windows on a Saturday morning. Bliss.
Mum’s Honey Almond Sauce
(From The New Natural Foods Cookbook)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup ground almonds
Directions:
- Combine honey, butter and cream in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Stir in ground almonds.
- If using on pancakes or waffles, serve warm. Otherwise, let cool until it is spreadable.
by Krista | Feb 3, 2010 | Bits 'n' Bobs
After a long week of illness, I’m finally perking up. Hooray! Just in time for sunshine too. 🙂 Thanks to a chiropractor appointment and some good pain pills I was able to sit outside yesterday with juice, quilt and a good book, soaking up healing rays and fresh air.
I’m reading “The Rose Cafe” reveling in vivid descriptions of the sun-drenched, intrigue-laden Corsica of the 1960’s.
Today I go back to work and my lunches are light and healthy. The first came about when, in my groggy state, I thought I was making a pot of millet porridge and ended up with quinoa. 🙂 Thankfully I had some perfect additions on hand to make a delicious salad. I tossed the quinoa with pesto then added quartered artichoke hearts and thinly sliced red and yellow bell pepper.
The second dish was beautifully simple. I had chilled polenta in the fridge, so I sliced it, fried it in a bit of olive oil with a sprinkling of kosher salt, spooned on a savory blend of mascarpone, chevre and green onion and topped it with marinated roasted bell peppers.
Now I must juice oranges and grapefruit, mix plain yogurt with apple sauce, vanilla and mandarin oranges, brew my tea and head to work. Hope you have a beautiful Wednesday! 🙂
Fried Polenta with Savory Cheese and Roasted Peppers
Ingredients:
10 slices chilled polenta
olive oil
kosher salt
1/4 cup (2 ounces) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup (2 ounces) goat cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 jar roasted marinated red or yellow peppers
Directions:
- Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Place polenta slices in pan, sprinkle with kosher salt, and fry until golden on each side.
- Mix cheeses with chives, pepper and salt.
- Dice peppers.
- Place slices of polenta on platter, spoon 1-2 tsp cheese mixture on each piece and top with bell pepper.
by Krista | Jan 14, 2010 | Bits 'n' Bobs
I feel overwhelmed this morning, my mind filled with the images and stories pouring out of Haiti, the heartache of dear friends, my own little struggles.
This week I finally found the courage to pull out my journals from my years in the cult. So much of those years are a blank to me. I can’t remember huge chunks of time, people, faces, experiences. They’ve all been blocked out. Until now I was happy with that. The things I remembered were bad enough. I couldn’t face any more.
But this week I was ready. Perhaps it was reading the WW2 stories, other accounts of escape and survival that showed me I was not alone, and I couldn’t be afraid anymore. Others have gone through far, far worse and survived to be beautiful people with healed hearts and bodies. I want to be like them.
I took several deep breaths, cracked open a journal and began to read.
My heart ached for my young self as I read page after page of sometimes daily emotional and spiritual abuse, brainwashing, and neglect. I wanted to reach in through those pages and give her a hug and tell her to hang on because everything was going to be OK. Sobs welled up inside me and I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to snatch her out of there, and grab all her friends while I was at it, whisking them away to a safe place where no one would hurt them again. I found myself wanting to break down the doors of those buildings where they hid us away from the world, those secret places where they could hide and justify their cruelty and lies, and shout at the top of my lungs: “It’s not true! IT’S NOT TRUE!”
I only made it through one journal before I had to take a break and just sit. Quietly. Silently. I plugged in fairy lights, pulled my favorite quilt over me, and just sat. For a long time. A lovely peace stole over me, and I started to smile. I realized I like my young self. 🙂 All these years I’ve been both sad for her and ashamed of her for not escaping, not getting out sooner, not fighting back. But as I read those pages I saw that I WAS a fighter.
Even in my darkest moments as I’m describing the bad things done to me I would write:
“But, I got to fall asleep in a pool of moonlight! How lovely is that?!”
“But, I got to see the sunrise this morning, and the sun is a puddle of gold on my head as I write.”
“But, it’s a gloriously rainy day, so how can I be sad?”
But.
Such a beautiful little word that allowed a young girl to find beauty and joy in a dark, dark place.
Then I cried. And cried. Such a huge release of pent up fear, pain, grief. I cried and then I wrote furiously, the words hurtling from my fingers, a rush of understanding, comfort and strength compelling me to write, write, WRITE!
When it was all over I discovered something wonderful: I wasn’t afraid of my past anymore. I wasn’t ashamed of it anymore. My old self and my new self met for the first time, a little shyly as we peered tentatively at each other before bursting into laughter, hugging each other soundly and twirling about the room.
We’re going to be OK.
So today, in the midst of so much pain and suffering all around me, I’m taking a moment to be grateful. I don’t know why terrible things happen. I don’t know where God is in the midst of it, why he doesn’t rescue everyone and keep them safe. I don’t know how to alleviate the suffering of the people of Haiti or of my dear ones. But I’m going to keep looking, for answers, for ways to comfort, love and heal. And I’m going to be grateful for healing, hope, love and precious friendship, the things that make life worth living.
