Soul Humming

Dinner as Art

as i cut into a couple purple onions tonight i was arrested by the beauty, symmetry, and artistic loveliness within each one.

i couldn't stop taking photos of their abstract qualities.

 

 

 

and then i sliced into a tomato...

 

it all became soup which started boiling.

the cream was lovingly added.

and a striped panini.

until all this elevated dinner into art.

take time to look at ordinary objects with an artistic eye this week. i'd love to see what you find. i'm challenging you to post to your blog or facebook page with your own elevated everyday thing. holler and let me know if you play along. i hope you will.

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." J.R.R. Tolkien

Reflection, Evaluation, and Planning

 

 

I am not one to make New Year's Resolutions. I think they are a trap. I said this last year but I'm telling you again. I think we should all be trying to be better versions of our own authentic selves each and every day, not just on January First.

Still, I do think that the end of the year is wonderful time for looking back and taking stock on how the past year played out. I am a very introspective person. I am constantly weighing my decisions and choices and trying to figure out how they could be better, kinder, or more gentle. I have a hard time with gentle. And once you have kids every error of your ways is amplified and echoed back. So I am an enormous work in progress.

Very soon I will have my 47th birthday. I don't know about you but 47 sounds old as hell to me. Yet, I feel great physically. I'm getting outdoors and exercising regularly for the first time in a long, long while. I'm surrounded by good people whom I love who are supportive, smart, and make me laugh. What could be better?

And yet I am starving for so much more. When things get too comfy I am drawn to everything that terrifies me. I try to come up with new ways to shake things up, cut off the excess, and conquer new peaks.

One way I'm planning on making myself mildly miserable on the path to make myself better (I know how hard this is going to be for me, hence the misery) is to go along with Whole Living's 28-day Action Plan. I caught the tail end of it last year and so wished I had jumped on board in the beginning.

This year, my husband and I are going to do it together. So that will make it a little bit easier, I hope. But, feeding two little boys while on a detox from dairy, sugar, wheat and processed foods might make me a bit wacky. In the end, I know it will make me a bit better.

The plan is to change your diet fairly strictly for the first week in an effort to detox your body. This is combined with physical exercises to strengthen and detox your body, as well. And there is a media fast (no t.v. for the week which sounds like heaven to me) from the computer and t.v. There's a plan to de-clutter, simplify, and refuel.

By the second week the diet is less restrictive. It really is an attempt to establish an eating regime based on no processed foods but instead full of flavorful, healthy vegetables and lean, organic proteins. Each week reintroduces foods slowly and adds new challenges in exercise, simplification, and mental positivity.

I'm looking forward to the challenge. I know it will be difficult. I've done this sort of thing before and it is really hard for me. If you tell me not to drink coffee all I can think about is coffee. And I am a hard-core sugar addict. So there's that. But with preparation I am hoping to be successful by replacing coffee with caffeine-free tea and finding something (anything!) to combat the sugar.

Are you up for the challenge? Grab a copy of Whole Living magazine (it's a great mag by Martha Stewart) or follow This Link to get the plan. Here you can see the four weeks broken down onto one page. I'd love to have some friends come along on this journey with me. It would be wonderful to have you join in the challenge!

Preparations are underway...

2004

...For our annual Christmas Progressive Dinner.

Last year, it was our turn to serve cocktails.

And we had charcuterie.

And a nice cheese tray.

2009
This year we are in charge of the main course!

It's gonna be busy around here today.

I'll post photos after we have recovered from the celebrations.

Be sure to make time to get together with your friends this holiday season. I think it is wonderful to have traditions with all the people you love.

 

Meatless Monday

 

I'm not really a crunchy granola girl. But I might have a sesame seed covered heart. I take my own cloth bags to the market, even for the produce. I won't buy certain fruit if it comes from halfway across the world when I know there is a local variety available. I want to cut my carbon footprint as much as possible. I didn't grow up in an urban area. I know what it takes to raise an ear of corn. So I support my local farmers' markets. I eat fish that are sustainable and aren't on the watch list. Don't worry! I'm not going to get on a soap box here. I just want to try to help keep the planet alive in my own little way.

With that in mind, we've started something new in our house this week. Have you heard about the Meatless Monday idea? It's where one day a week you go Veg. The goal of the folks behind Meatless Monday is to reduce meat consumption by 15% in an effort to improve personal health and that of our planet. Check out the website for Meatless Monday for great recipes, tips, and info on leading a healthy lifestyle.

Today is our first Meatless Monday. I've gone and off the veg wagon during my life. I have high blood pressure and a family history of high cholesteral. And I grew up in the South eating every fried pork product imaginable. So I'm excited to get back to a more vegetable-rich lifestyle in a training wheels kind of way. I'm looking forward to trying new recipes and finding a way to convince my kids that vegetables are tasty. They are going to take some convincing.

My little guys will eat some vegetables but not a wide variety. Neither of my boys will eat a salad, for instance, but they'll both eat green beans and broccoli. And tonight's menu is packed with vegetables. I've changed the recipe up a bit to substitute some of the items with those that they are more likely to eat. Dinner is still cooking so I'll have to tell you how it all goes next monday.

The recipe I'm using tonight is Conchiglie Tutto Giardino and it comes from this wonderful cookbook.

 

Here it is for you...

Conchiglie Tutto Giardino

(pasta with fresh vegetables - "the whole garden")

7 Tbs butter

1.5 cups thinly sliced carrots

1 cup chopped green onions

1 large red onion, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup thinly sliced radishes

1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley, packed

2 Tbs fresh chopped basil

3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

7 medium sized tomatoes (3 cups chopped)

3 cups thinly sliced zucchini

1 large green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1.5 cups dry white wine, or more to taste

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbs flour

1 cup light cream

6 oz tomato paste

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1.5 lbs shell noodles (conchiglie)

garnish with additional parmesan cheese

 

Melt 6 Tbs butter in large saucepan and add the carrots, both the green and red onions, parsley, basil, and garlic. Sauté the vegetables, stirring often, until they begin to color -- about 20 minutes. Cover the saucepan and simmer the vegetables for about 15 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, zucchini bell pepper, wine, salt, pepper, and sugar. Simmer the sauce, uncovered, for about 45 minutes to an hour.

I used yellow squash instead of zucchini.
 

In a small pot, melt 1 Tbs butter and stir in the flour. Cook this roux for a few minutes over very low heat, stirring constantly. Heat the cream and stir it into the roux with a whisk. Add the tomato paste and whisk the mixture again until it is perfectly smooth. Stir it into the vegetables and wine, along with the grated Parmesan.

Continue simmering the sauce over low heat, stirring often, until it is as thick as you want it to be.

Cook the shell noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are al dente, drain them completely, and pour them into a large, heated serving dish. Ladle as much of the sauce over them as you like, toss them, and serve immediately with more grated Parmesan.

 Serves 8 to 10

 

Just finished eating. It was Really Good! I would highly recommend it and will definitely make it again.

 

If you are interested in the Meatless Monday movement, there's lots of info online. Give it a try!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taste-Testing

Christmas vacation begins right now!

or Test Tasting? Our progressive dinner is this weekend. We're serving cocktails and appetizers this year. And yes, we served these last year, too. We got a bit wonky by not keeping track of whom was doing what so i'm a repeater. But I'm excited about what we are serving and about seeing my friends and having a night away from my lovely sons.

So tonight I am taste-testing (or test-tasting) pomegranate margaritas and milk punch. I like to have a choice of two drinks, one fruity and one creamy. And as I am really Not (with a capital N) a fan of egg nog I thought this milk punch might be the way to go.

I especially wanted a holiday drink using bourbon. I'm from Kentucky, the land of bourbon. We like our bourbon. And, my husband and I have a habit of touring distilleries when we go back South. This summer we visited Four Roses and have a very nice bottle of their finest spirits. It seems almost a shame to make a cocktail with it. It would be delicious over ice. But I don't think my friends are as friendly with bourbon as my husband and I are (not that I sit around drinking bourbon night and day). But it is a Southern tradition and we might need to share it.

Here's the recipe for the punch...

Milk Punch

• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/4cup whole or reduced-fat (2%) milk
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (or more) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups ice cubes
• Freshly grated whole nutmeg or ground nutmeg

Preparation

Whip first 5 ingredients in blender until foamy. Stir in ice. Strain punch into two 6-ounce glasses or mugs. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve. Note: I haven't actually made this one yet. Husband just got home and we're taking the kids out to dinner. I'll make this one upon our return.

Here's the recipe for the margaritas. I swear, they're the best darn things I've ever had. I love margaritas but this one is going to be my new go-to drink. I cannot tell you enough how yummy this thing is.

This recipe is for ten servings as I'm making a pitcher of them for the party. Also, the way I made them is a bit different. More on that at the end of the recipe.

Pomegranate Margaritas - SERVINGS: 10

1. 1 cup sugar 
2. 1/2 cup water
3. 2 1/2 cups pomegranate juice (I used Knudsen's Just Pomegranate juice)
4. 1 cup tequila (I used Jose Cuervo Traditional)
5. 3/4 cup fresh lime juice (I used fresh Meyer lemon juice instead)
6. 10 thin strips or slices cucumber, for garnish (I used fresh pomegranate seeds instead)

1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and simmer over high heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved; let cool completely.
2. In a tall pitcher, combine the sugar syrup with the pomegranate juice, tequila and lime juice. Stir well, fill the pitcher with ice and stir again. Pour into 10 margarita, martini or cordial glasses, garnish each with a cucumber strip and serve.

Now, here's what I did that is different from these instructions. I added some triple sec. A couple of recipes I had looked at used it and it is sweet. At the time I added it I had forgotten to add the simple syrup so the drink tasted a bit like a rusty old armpit. Pomegranate juice is very earthy and slightly bitter. It was in serious need of some sweetening. Once I realized I was missing the sugar water (simple syrup) all was revealed to me. And, I love meyer lemons. I also have a meyer lemon tree in my backyard. Also, I rubbed a lemon around the rim of the drink and then dipped the glass into cocktail sugar. Yummo! This drink is so, so delicious but be careful. There's tequila in here!

And here's some puppy cuteness, just because...

Five Golden Rings, Chocolate, and Snow

It would be oh so kind of Ruth to give me five golden rings today. I do love rings and five of them would make many fingers happy. But something tells me that five golden rings for each of the 12 girls might be too over the top, even for Ruth. I do wonder, wonder, wonder what in the world she has sewn up for us this year.

Here's her wrapped gift, which is a present in and of itself...

And inside she has given me...

This sweetly stitched home full of love!

 

"A house is made of walls and beams, a home is built with love and dreams."

 

It is so very pretty and I adore it. Thank you, friend!!

As you may notice I'm posting this very late today. We had a jam-packed December day. One son had a birthday party to attend and the other son was at baseball clinic. In the middle of all that I made chocolate pistachio biscotti (it is yummy!).

I'm test driving cookies for an upcoming cookie exchange. I am crazy about homemade biscotti.

And oldest son was feeling sad so I thought he could use a good cookie. He had picked out some decaf Candy Cane green tea and it was outrageously delicious with the biscotti.

Tom was at the USC football game (sorry for him) so as soon as youngest son was done at the birthday party, I gathered the kids up and drove to Fullerton for the last little bit of Winterfest.

 

Can you guess which son fell asleep in the car on the way there?

But they had trucked in snow and that cheered everyone right up. It was a great way for the kids to let off some of their never-ending steam.

 

Palm trees and snow? Christmas, Halloween or St. Patty's Day? 

 

 

Our Advent calendar has been full of fun things to do together thus far. I hope that you will have time this weekend to enjoy a little Christmas cheer with those near and dear to you, too.

Creepy Good

Once a week my sweet mother-in-law picks the kids up at school and spends the day with them. This week my sister-in-law played along with them, too, and they made these creepy cool cupcakes.

There was a mummy, a cat, a black widow spider, frankenstein, and many other fun monsters. With cinnamon spice and red velvet under those mounds of frosting, these are sure to magically disappear.

She also gave me a ghostly spoon and a vampire spatula from Williams Sonoma along with Halloween themed silicon cupcake cups. She's such a sweetie.

I'm off to the second school Halloween party of the day. I hope you are having a great Friday!

the land

the one thing i miss the most about being in kentucky (besides my people) is the land. i am pretty certain that i feel my most true, my very best, when i am walking in nature. that was where i spent most of my time as a child. i have extremely distinct memories about a particular little meadow way back behind our house in hickory, kentucky.

 
i would pick little tomatillas (i don't know what they really were. they were those green plants that look like a tiny, veined paper lantern. and if you peel that off it looks like a tiny, round, green tomato) and make a party for my dolls.

 
nearby was a little pond and big cattails where i would catch frogs. i would sing songs. i would play and play and play all by myself. i miss that.

sometimes i will go hiking here and that is like a tiny bit of soul plumping. but usually it is very dry and the hills are pretty. it's not the woods. still, i find i can worship in any place the good Lord has made. and so i go.

this past saturday we went up to the mountains to oak glen, california to visit the apple orchards and grab our own little piece of autumn in the country. it was so lovely. since neither of the kids are playing soccer this fall, our saturdays feel like we are on vacation. no one has lost their cleats, no one is complaining about having to rush around and be out the door so early. instead we are having long weekends of being together on adventure. it's really been the best thing for our family. i don't know when everyone has been this happy and relaxed all together at the same time.

  

 the two orchards we visited had already picked all their apples. you could buy them (and boy did we) in bags, or as freshly pressed cider (you could even press your own), or as doughnuts,

 
or apple butter, or apple bread, or, my favorite, carmel apples, or the biggest apple pie (which my husband is nuts over. i'm not a big apple pie person but i may breakdown and eat some of this one. a small child could live in it. it's that enormous).

but we did pick raspberries.

 

i wondered if the kids would be into it or if they would think it was too thorny and too much work.

they loved it. they searched for the most purple berries they could find. and their small stature was definitely an advantage.

 
we picked those berries right in the belly of the hills and laughed and talked and had the best time.

 
it was one of those days that i felt so blessed to have every single second.

next, we went to the second orchard for lunch. they had a big, outdoor barbeque, live blue grass music,

hayrides, a petting zoo, a pumpkin patch, a haystack maze and, of course, candy.

isn't he a good Daddy, to let that boy lollygag all over him while eating rock candy. i bet that all that sugar that fell on his head just helped make his hair shiny. :0)

this morning i am yearning so much for the shade of the trees, the crunch of the leaves, and the call of the birds. but remembering this weekend is enough for now. i hope that wherever you are, you can find time to get outside and enjoy the crisp, fall air. hold hands with someone you love. count your blessings as you revel in the beauty of the land.

 

today

"when you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." - Buddha       

it was such a good day. jam-packed with many favorite activities with my family around me all along the way.

we made it to the farmer's market (my favorite saturday morning place to be) for locally grown, in-season, organic produce, gloriously fresh cage-free eggs, and delicious local goat cheese (and hawaiian shaved ice!).

afterward, the kids played with their friends. the honey watched football. i hammered and filed several pendants.

i had help...

later, we bathed the cats for the first time (and i have the scratches to prove it).

we had an amazing dinner of bruschetta, fettuccine bolognese, conchiglie gamberi, and panna cotta and watched dogs 101 on animal planet together. everyone has an opinion on what sort of puppy we will get. so our research is including the children and the big people.

as this day is winding to a close, i am thankful for so much. even though we didn't do anything big and amazing, it is the small precious moments that string together to create this beautiful life.