Luncheon for a Winter Day

I hosted a luncheon meeting yesterday for my Master Gardener committee.  I kept it very simple:  a beef stew that I've posted about here before, Beef Daube Provencal and the best and easiest cornbread ever, Homesteader Cornbread.  Since this was a meeting, we needed to get started, so Fresh Market came to the rescue for dessert with an assortment of their fantastic cookies for easy eating.  They were out of the Kitchen Sink cookies, but the ones I got were almost as good.

I made two batches of the stew, one in the oven per the recipe and one in the crockpot, on low for about 8 hours.  I couldn't tell the difference.  Since I wanted a thicker stew, I coated the beef with flour before I browned it.  There was plenty for my group of 10 plus leftovers for dinner.  My husband hates leftovers, but I told him it was new to him!  He cleaned his bowl.

The bonus?  A great meeting!  I'm so excited about what we're going to accomplish this year in Master Gardeners.  Check out our blog:  Garden Musings.

Homesteader Cornbread

HOMESTEADER CORNBREAD

Submitted by: Patricia Bergstrom

Rated: 5 out of 5 by 715 members            

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes      

Ready In: 50 Minutes

Yields: 15 servings

"A moist, sweet corn bread with a crisp crust is the goal, fully realized with this recipe."

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

2 1/2 cups milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder        1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

1.         Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2.         In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3.         Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

This recipe appears in the Allrecipes "Tried & True Favorites" cookbook. Buy it online at http://www.shopallrecipes.com/

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2007 Allrecipes.com     Printed from Allrecipes.com 9/4/2007

Attitude changes

Adapted from Plays With Needles:

...changing one word in your everyday speech can change your perspective and mood:  saying "I get to" instead of saying, "I have to" or "I need to" will improve your attitude. It's amazing how your attitude changes when instead of saying, "I have to make dinner" or "I have to run errands", you say, "I get to make dinner" and "I get to run errands." 

And

I recently found this passage and it is one of the positive ways I deal with my changing body. I hope it touches your heart as much as it touches mine.

• Recently, in a large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said:

¨THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE? ¨

A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern:

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans).. They have an active sex life, they get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia . Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don’t have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them not to mention how could they have sex? Therefore they don’t have kids either. Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends. With time we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren’t heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good gosh, look how smart I am…¨

I am learning to love being a whale and being so smart!

Believe in Positivity!

Jill

So true...

From Memphis Commercial Appeal Dec. 29, 2011
COMMENTARY

Treasure gift of found time while it lasts

By Lori Borgman

MCT Information Services

The week after Christmas is when nothing happens.

If you’re a teacher, you’re on vacation.

If you’re a student, you’re sleeping in.

If you work for a big corporation, your company may shut down and tell you to take the week off.

If you have a literary agent, she will tell you nothing happens with publishing houses from now until January.

Congress is on holiday.

Even the phone solicitors go quiet. They figure we’re all broke, having overspent on the holidays.

Even if you’re working, there’s a different tempo to the office. It’s a little more laid back, a lot less intense.

The week when nothing happens is one of the most enjoyable weeks of all.

It’s found time, like when friends are coming for dinner, you have everything ready and they’re 15 minutes late. It’s the best 15 minutes of the week. It’s 15 minutes of time you weren’t counting on, 15 minutes to clean out your wallet, organize your desk, answer e-mails or throw out old newspapers.

Time puts on the brakes in the week before we turn the page to a new year. The pace slows, the shopping frenzy begins to wane, the canned music stops, and here and there you find a few minutes to breathe.

You have time not only to fill the birdfeeder, but also to watch the birds. The chickadee is so dainty.

The nuthatch is crazy. The albino cardinal has returned. Surely, it can’t be the same one three years running.

There’s no need to sprint to the kitchen in the morning. The crowd is gone. They’ve left behind full trash cans, a smattering of leftovers and echoes of laughter.

You can take time to examine frost on the window if you like. Or enjoy the morning sun spilling in through the window.

You can make a cup of tea. The real kind, with loose leaves in the tea ball, and wait for it to steep instead of shaking the pot. You may even have the luxury of waiting for the tiny leaves that escaped from the mesh ball to sink to the bottom. If this isn’t the good life ...

You can linger over the cards you opened at warp speed before Christmas and threw in a basket without so much as a glance.

You might even find time to clean out your sock drawer, match the plastic lids and tubs and straighten up that mess under the sink.

If it has snowed, you can pause at twilight, watch the sky fade to pink and the snow turn to blue.

Time moving slowly, filled with simple pleasures: It’s a wonderful time of the year.

A Whole Lot of Hacking Going On...

This morning I discovered that my gmail account was hacked and an email sent to everyone in my Contacts saying that I was stranded in London and needed money.  First let me say thank you to everyone who has called and emailed to make sure I'm ok.  Yes, I am (and let me give you an updated address to send that money to…)

Second, let me say what a pain it has been to clean up everything.  Fortunately, Google has a list of steps to go through to check everything because I would never have thought of most of them.  Google also has a two-step verification process that you can opt into that may have helped.  When you sign on, not only do you have to put in a password, they send a text to your phone that you then have to enter.  I'm doing that now. 

I guess my brain doesn't work that way, but I just can't understand why some people are so mean.

Glazed Butternut Squash

I'm so happy it's getting to be butternut squash season!  I love this stuff.  And I found the best recipe ever for the roasted version in America's Test Kitchen's Light & Healthy 2010.






GLAZED BUTTERNUT SQUASH

Vegetable oil spray
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 lbs) peeled, seeded, and cut into 1" chunks
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light)
1 Tbl canola oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp cider vinegar

1.  Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the over to 425.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with vegetable oil spray.

2.  Toss all ingredients through cayenne together in a large bowl until well coated.  Spread onto baking sheet and roast, stirring every 15 minutes, until well browned and tender (about 45 minutes.)  Transfer to a platter and drizzle with the vinegar and serve.

Confession:  I've made this twice and I keep forgetting the vinegar part!  Would someone please do this and tell me how it works out?

I like butternut squash mixed with other roasted vegetables and as a soup, too. Last month's Cooking Light had a recipe for Mac & Cheese that used butternut squash as a base in place of the creamy roux.  It didn't pass the taste test with Mr. A, but he's so set in his ways.  Am I missing any other good uses for butternut squash?

Warm White Beans with Roasted Fennel

I made this recipe from Cooking Light (October 2011) for dinner tonight.  It was delicious and easy.  Walter loved it!  I added some grilled chicken that I cubed and froze from out last grilling session (a la Taylor) and it was a one-dish meal.

Get the recipe here.