She Redeems Herself With Roasted Vegetables

Last week I recounted my disaster in the kitchen with chicken stir-fry. This week I will redeem myself with not one, but two, super easy recipes that are not only delicious, but good for you!

The first recipe is one of my favorites. Last week, Keetha and Larramie suggested roasted veggies, and yes ladies, I love them too. In fact, roasting is the only way a reluctant veggie eater like me can stand to eat things like brussels sprouts....hate them boiled, but love them roasted with garlic and olive oil.

The great thing about roasting is that you can really use anything you have on hand, which makes it a great way to clear out the vegetable drawer. In this case, I had a small bag of broccoli and cauliflower, beautiful cherry tomatoes, a small log of pepper coated goat cheese, and some extra virgin olive oil.

Combine all of the above in a oven-proof dish, sprinkle with the olive oil and roast at 400 F for twenty minutes or until the veggies are tender.

While the vegetables are roasting you can prepare this simple but tasty salad. It consists of cucumber, Greek yogurt, and a blend of Greek seasonings. I love this Greek seasoning blend because it has this wonderful contrast of savory seasonings with the fresh taste of mint.

To assemble the salad: slice the cucumber, add a dollop of yogurt, sprinkle on the seasoning and gently mix together.

What both of these recipes have in common is the simplicity of their ingredients, which allows the food to shine through, and is the key to most great recipes. Quality, fresh ingredients, cooked to bring out their flavor, not disguise it.

One of the most memorable meals I ever ate was a potato purchased from the farmer's market, baked and served with olive oil and salt and pepper. And that's when I love cooking the most, when it becomes about celebrating the food, not the cook, not the technique.

This week I've been unpacking the dozens of cookbooks I've collected over the years and I realize that I want pay more attention to cooking as a means to eat well, not fancy. My favorite cookbook authors wrote about that, Laurie Colwin, MFK Fisher, wrote beautifully about how a simple meal, prepared with care, could get one to sit up and pay attention, and later to remember that meal, where you were, who you were with.

I remember that as I prepared these dishes for our lunch, I thought about sharing them with all of you and wanted to do a good job and hoped the photos would turn out. I remember that this became our lunch, it was beautiful sunny day, and Mom and I enjoyed the meal very much.

Unpacking

Today the movers arrived with the truckload of boxes and furniture that I've had in storage in some form or another for the past fifteen years.

As I mentioned in my last post about this 'stuff', originally brother John and I had planned to do this move ourselves. After seeing how many boxes actually arrived, and the effort it took FOUR men to unload and distribute the boxes and furniture over three levels of house as well as putting together two large beds...well, let's just say it was money well spent.

The driver and the movers who actually carried each box to its directed space, were so incredibly professional, so kind and patient, that they made what could have been a very stressful event, nearly a pleasure.

Honestly, I don't think John and I would have been able to handle it on our own, and I doubt the twenty-six foot truck we'd planned to rent would have held everything. And what a relief it was instead to simply have to open the boxes that were already in their right place, instead of having to first drive them 2,000 miles.

After the movers left, I began the long process of unpacking boxes. This is going to take a bit longer than the unpacking we did in December, but the good news is...this is it, no more stuff in storage.

The even better news is that this stack of boxes (above) won't have to be unpacked until next Christmas. By the way, I discovered that I actually own five artificial Christmas trees, which means that I better be hosting some Christmas parties, because I'm going to have the best-dressed house in the neighborhood.

So this afternoon I started with the boxes of books that will go in my loft upstairs. As I shelved the books, I was reminded of how my reading tastes have changed over the years, and in the ways they have remained the same. I still enjoy cookbooks and classics, although that one book on how to 'plan your at home wedding', has yet to be used.

And then, I came across a stack of journals that I'd kept over the years. One in particular interested me, a gratitude journal from 2000. Reading it was bittersweet when I came across a couple entries about sending out a book I'd written and loved so much to agents. It was bittersweet because I know now that the book was rejected and all that stated hope did not come to fruition. It was uncomfortable to realize that as much as some things had changed, some things remained unattainable.

In the years since I wrote that journal, a few of my grandest goals remain incomplete. I jokingly mentioned this to my mother and added that in ten years some people managed to build empires, while I was still trying to break into writing. I often wish that I was one of those lucky ones who 'made it' on their first try. But then I reminded myself of all the things I'd experienced in the last ten years that the Suzanne of 2000, never imagined. I'd like to believe that if I apply the same persistence to my career goals that I applied to my house hunt, that I will eventually succeed.

And I also want to take a moment to simply be grateful for all that these boxes represent. Because gratitude really does matter. I am so glad to finally have my things around me, to be able to close this very long chapter of my life. I look forward to the next, and hopefully making progress on some of those things that are still left undone, especially that big one about how to meld career and purpose.

Good Recipe, Gone Bad

Originally I had big plans for this post. I took lovely pictures as I made the meal. I figured it had been a long time since I'd done a recipe post and I wanted to share what I was going to call "Cooking with Mom". Only it wasn't cooking with Mom....while I was busy making this chicken stir-fry, she was concentrating on her forte, chicken stock.

Which is probably why things went horribly wrong.You see, over the past several months, Mom has become a much better cook than me, thanks in large part to her patience, her willingness to follow directions, and her ability to take a slow, methodical approach to cooking. All of which is exactly the opposite of my philosophy toward cooking, or just about anything else.

Which may have a great deal to do with the disaster that soon ensued.

Earlier in the afternoon, we'd been at our local 'Natural Grocers' where Mom started up a conversation with a woman who described a quick and easy chicken stir-fry recipe. Since we are always looking for ways to incorporate more veggies into our lives. We listened, bought vegetables and went home to make dinner.

By the time we got home, I'd forgotten the recipe, so I looked up a new one that inexplicably involved a cup of white wine vinegar, which was so pungent that it made my eyes water.

Nevertheless, I pressed on, assembling my lovely baby bok choy, my organic broccoli, my free range chicken....

And these beautiful, otherwordly, Japanese mushrooms, called 'Bunapi' beech mushrooms.

I chopped them all. They were beautiful, I was so proud of my efforts.

After I'd poured the eye-wincing sauce in a pan and brought it to a boil, I added the chicken and vegetables.

And here is where things began to go terribly wrong.

I was supposed to reduce the liquid by half before adding the chicken and veggies. I didn't. Instead, after I added the other ingredients and realized my mistake, I turned up the heat and stood by hoping the excess liquid would magically evaporate. It didn't.

So I went into 'fix-it' mode: I added a cup of brown rice, hoping that as it cooked it would absorb the excess liquid. Two hours later, the liquid was absorbed, but for some reason, the rice never actually cooked, it was literally still crunchy...however, it did form a brown crust on the bottom of the pan.

By ten p.m. I resorted to the only logical action....I threw the entire mess into the trash. Which caused me pain, as I hated to waste the money invested, and of course those lovely vegetables which had been reduced to a mushy mess.

I've learned a couple valuable lessons from this experience:

1) I've never been a real fan of chicken stir-fry, so my execution of the dish suffered. This probably translates to other areas of life....if I'm not passionate about the undertaking, my commitment may not be up to the task.

2) At times, attempting to fix a situation is like chasing a snowball downhill...more is not always better.

By the way, while this mess was going on Mom was calmly making her chicken stock, which of course turned out brilliantly.

Moving On

photo credit: Ken Goudy's Moving Vans Collection


Last week I unpacked my last box and breathed a sigh of relief. What I should have done was laid down and taken a nap...because that last box was simply the end of Round One.

You see, I've got THREE storage lockers, representing fifteen years of nonsense that are now on their way to me from Florida. Yet, I've never left my desk. Magic? Well, we'll see when and if they get here.

At the very least it's been quite an adventure.

Originally, I'd planned to fly down to Florida, meet up with my brother John, rent a big truck, and do the move ourselves. And then we remembered that we're not the spring chickens, that John's business is picking up so he actually needs to stay in Tampa and not take off for Colorado for a week, and that we're not spring chickens capable of lifting and moving THREE storage lockers full of furniture, boxes filled with heavy books, and yes, assorted nonsense.

Plan B: I was still going to fly down to Florida and 'supervise' the movers who would come to my storage locker, pack and load my nonsense, and move it to Colorado. The problem with Plan B was that I would have to fly my sister up here to hang-out with Mom while I was gone. However, my sister Vicky, has a job, goes to school, and has teen-aged boys who need to be transported here and there.

Plan C: I find a local mover in South Florida who is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, moves the local university football team, and generally seems pretty reputable. I speak with the owner of the company and he assures me that my presence is not needed.....they'll handle everything. Which is what has happened so far...on Monday they went to my storage lockers and packed everything. On Tuesday the driver and his crew arrived, loaded my belongings onto his fifty-eight foot truck and ....fingers crossed, next Thursday all will arrive here safe and sound. Fingers crossed.

I'm going to miss the cross-country drive, because as much as I hate to leave the house 90% of the time...give me a road-trip and I'm the first one in the car. On the other hand, I won't miss loading and unloading all the stuff that would have been following me. It's going to be a big enough challenge to unpack everything when it arrives.

And beyond these logistics, this move leaves me feeling wistful. This is the last of the things that remained in Florida, and the things that I first put into storage fifteen years ago when I left New York. In some ways, going through these boxes will be like an archeology project...I'm not quite sure what I will find or how I will feel. It will certainly add a sense of permanence to this move to Evergreen, which as much as it has been dreamed of, makes me also realize how much I have also become used to the freedom to take off at will. This is going to be interesting.

The Sky Here is Beautiful

We have been on an 'outdoors' theme this week. I thought I would end the week with a few pictures of the amazing sunsets we are lucky to experience here in Evergreen.

I'd always thought that nothing could beat the spectacular color show of the Florida sunset in summertime.

But I'd say these are in the running.

The depth of color, the big open sky, the pattern of the clouds. It's incredibly breathtaking.

Have a great weekend!

More Snow Pictures

As promised, here are pictures taken after we received twelve inches of snow on Sunday.

It's actually been a real treat, because for the past three days it has remained cold enough to keep the snow on the ground.

So we get to enjoy the beauty of this winter wonderland.

One of my favorites images is the contrast between the blue of the sky and the green and white of the snowy pines.

As you can see, the steps to our front door are buried under the snow...

As are the steps leading up to the deck. Just saying.

Unfortunately, it's going to be 60 F by Friday, which means that this is probably short lived.

Darling Deer in the Snow!

I was going to upload pictures from out latest snow, as per a request from my brother John.

And then this afternoon, I looked out the kitchen window and saw these five adorable little ones, looking for lunch among the bramble.

After I took their pictures and then loaded them onto my computer, I knew today's post had chosen itself.

What is so incredible is that the deer were not bothered in the least when I stepped outside to photograph them.

Mostly, the ignored me.

Except for this little one. Who either really enjoys getting its picture taken.

Or is going to come to my door and ask me for compensation the next time I try to take a picture.


P.S. John, I'll have those 'woods in snow' pictures up tomorrow.

Elk in My Backyard: Part II

Last fall I posted pictures of a small herd of elk in the backyard of the house we were renting on Gray Hawk Drive.

I was so thrilled because I've always considered elk a good luck talisman, so to have them in my yard, was a good omen! Plus, beyond the superstitious stuff they are simply majestic and incredibly beautiful.

Which is why I was thrilled the other day when I saw not one, but three, gorgeous male elk just outside our front door.

These are pictures from my latest sighting. They've shown up twice now. Which makes me feel really lucky!

Instead of the Year of the Rabbit, I'll call this my Year of the Elk.