family time – Peaceful Reader

Travel Time

If I were to be able to whisper in President-Elect Joe Biden’s ear or lucky enough to have a working lunch with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris I would ask them to make some changes to the Affordable Care Act to make it more like Bernie’s Health Care For All because while the ACA covers many people and has helped us go in the right direction I just don’t think it’s finished. We need to take it further. Why? Because we have a huge deductible as a middle class family and when we get hit with something our health savings accounts dwindle accordingly. America has such potential and I hope that we are only beginning our true journey toward that; instead of going backward. I listened to a podcast talking about this today as I journeyed home. And this is not to say that America isn’t great already but anything great can always be better. Am I right? Why settle…

I generally flip flop between listening to music on my phone or listening to podcasts. The last few weeks have been filled with a variety of podcasts: Up First from NPR gives me a quick 10 minutes of news every day. I don’t watch news programs ever so this keeps me up on a few major events and we leave it at that. Anything more critical my husband will read me from the newspaper as a good husband should. I also listen to SLJ’s The Yarn and Heavyweight plus I just discovered Teaching Hard History from Teaching Tolerance. I listened to one yesterday and had aenjoyed hearing correct spins on American history. I can’t leave out Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us which always makes me happy.

I spent last night hanging out with Groovy Girl in Iowa City. I felt terribly guilty moving about Iowa because we are such a flaming hot Cheeto for Covid cases. But our plans had been made months ago before our cases surged, we needed some mother/daughter time, and we are both extremely pro-mask. So we picked up Thai food for lunch and ate in the hotel and then we made a quick grocery run so she would have snacks through the next two weeks before she comes home for Thanksgiving. We had a great time cuddling, reading together, watching a couple of things on Netflix (hello New Girl-you still make us so happy) and basically stayed in and away from other people. My hope is that her sophomore year may be filled with the joys of college as it’s meant to be. I don’t want to get used to this as a new norm.

The two cool bookstores in town are both open only for curbside pickup so we couldn’t wander any exciting aisles for books, which we do totally understand and appreciate yet scratch our heads in confusion as people stream to sorority or fraternity house functions, and the bars-all open! The idea is to get over this not just live with it but I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir. Take care of yourselves, take care of your people, and be kind.

Happy February!

We are in the middle of some crazy weather here in Iowa. School is already canceled for tomorrow. I’m excited to sleep in a little bit extra but tomorrow night we have to road trip to Des Moines so fingers crossed the weather will be calm. NO major blizzards.

Luckily with all this freezing weather I have an excellent book to read; The Nix by Nathan Hill. It’s our book club pick of the month and I’m the host for February. I’m fascinated by Faye, Samuel’s mother, as she’s portrayed as a hippie/radical who questions the politics and policies in the 60’s and still. There is also a small Iowa connection.

Other than reading we’ve been putting together puzzles at our lovely Grandma Bruch heirloom table. My husband’s brother and his wife came for a long weekend recently and we put together a cool puzzle of record albums from Uncommon Goods. This inspired us and Groovy Teen said we should always have a puzzle going at this table. We never eat there anymore so it is now deemed the puzzle room. Now we have a puzzle of old baseball cards in the works.

While our family was here I made a recipe I’d made years ago, a sweet potato chili, which we had with loaves of fresh bread. I do love cooking for people and chili hit the spot for how cold it was that weekend. I’ve also been binge watching Stranger Things; it’s a little creepy for me at times but Groovy Teen (who’s watched it all several times) holds my hand at critical moments. I’m also finally caught up on This is Us; always a cry fest for me! The fire was just too much. We’ve also had a great time playing Spot it! and Listography. We lead crazy fun lives.

Stay warm out there, wherever you are.

Holiday Hoopla

Christmas is over and thank heavens. The holiday is a bit of a mountain to climb; all the preparations of gifts and food, keeping everyone happy and moving in one direction, the right amount of drinks and frivolous fun balanced with close family time. I would think this would all get easier as the kids get older.

There were many parts of the holiday that I enjoyed and will savor over the course of 2018 and I plan to put a little more thought into next year’s plan. Next year I don’t want to be the one person constantly in the kitchen preparing food. We’ve always had interesting meals for holidays, we don’t tend to have a big platter of meat as the main course. This year we had two vegans to work with and it was no easy feat. As per my last post I did prepare an almost all vegan spread and they were delicious recipes. Even with a perfect spread it was still off. Next year I’m just going to have a ton of Indian food pre-prepared, ready to heat back up and served around the table.

Everyone has expectations for the day and I have a sinking feeling that somehow I was not a good cruise director. Although I think whatever plans I had made or not made wouldn’t have mattered. What is it about holidays and family gatherings that bring out the negative or at least hurt feelings? It begs the age old question “why can’t we all just get along? It takes a lot of empathy to understand trauma and depression and while I am a caring person I feel like I’m being slowly pulled down the rabbit hole. So instead I’m putting my whole spirit into ushering in 2018. Let it be a good and peaceful year.

Cold Day~No School Day!

The temps have dropped to an alarming number of -11 degrees. It is super, super cold. The dogs don’t want to go out to potty and the wind whistles through several of our old windows.

Our traditional snow day breakfast is chocolate chip pancakes with all the toppings and hot chocolate. Today we substituted hot cider leftover from the holidays. There were no complaints…

Yesterday Groovy Girl went to the video store with my husband. He was on a quest to find the next Game of Thrones and she was “just looking.” She came back with 2 games; an olympic event game and Little Big Planet 2 so we’ve spent some of our morning pretending to be Olympic athletes in archery, swimming, and gymnastics. The results tend to be hilarious as the only true gamer at our house is the teenage boy and he slept until it was pancake time.

I have two books I’m trying to finish today; an ARC of Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint, which is excellent and one of my favorite authors Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello. I’m trying to finish it so I can pass it on to my friend Jen in Colorado. Teenage boy can take it to her tomorrow when he leaves us again for the balmy state.

I love a day off yet I have a lot of work to get done at school plus I feel like it can be a hard day for many of our students who are left unattended and don’t have delicious pancakes for brunch or even a bowl of cereal. What’s the temperature in your neck of the woods?

Dinner; A Love Story

My friend Janice gave me this book, Dinner, A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach, at the end of the school year. After reading many positive reviews about it I’d looked for it at the library (always out) but I didn’t want to shell out 30 some dollars at our Barnes and Noble for the book. Now if I’d actually gone to the bookstore, sat down and started reading I would have fallen in love with Jenny’s writing and walked in a lovely trance to the check-out counter. Lucky for me, Janice did that for me! Thank you dear friend!

She knew this book would appeal to me as I work hard to make dinner for my family every night because I think it is really important to sit around the table and eat together. It’s more than just eating, even when there is complaining.

I have not finished reading this book but I did cook my first recipe from it yesterday. And just like the whole Julia Child trend a few years ago I started with the very first recipe, chicken cutlets. As a former full-time vegetarian it is still always startling to my family when meat is on my menu. They used to only get meat on Thursdays when my husband was in charge of meals and then (usually) only turkey burgers.

I liked Rosenstrach’s first story of her mother going back to school and that this is what was the go-to meal she taught her husband to make as she hurried off to law school. I grew up in a busy household like that; my dad’s go-to meal though was scrambled eggs.

The chicken cutlets turned out fantastic and everyone finished their plates. There are only three of us now at the table as College Boy made his big move to Colorado. We had the cutlets, corn on the cob, salad, and beets (fresh from the farmer’s market). It was a delicious summer time meal. Groovy Girl ate her entire chicken breast and couldn’t finish two of her beets because she was full. She LOVES beets so this was a major change of events.

The veg head that lives permanently in my heart and soul knows the beets are better for her but she seems hungry for meat as well. I found my happy chicken breasts at Target. On short notice I can’t find organic chicken breasts here in my little town anymore. It is very important to pay attention to where your meat comes from so where it says chicken in this recipe I recommend organic or farm-raised breasts if you can. If the package says “natural” it doesn’t really mean what you think it does. I do have three farm-raised whole chickens on order from my favorite farmer though.

Here’s Jenny’s recipe:

Breaded Chicken Cutlets
(aka Grandma Jody’s Chicken)

total cooking time: 25 minutes

A few generous glugs of olive oil (5-6 T.) more if necessary but remember you are not deep-frying here.
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs or Kellog’s corn flake crumbs that have been salted and peppered
4 boneless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb), rinsed and patted dry and pounded like crazy

Add the oil to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Set up your dredging stations: one rimmed plate for the eggs, one plate for the flour, and one plate for the bread crumbs. Using a fork, coat your chicken pieces first in the flour (shaking off any excess), then in the egg, then in the crumbs, pressing the chicken into the crumbs to thoroughly coat.

Fry each breast in the oil for 3-4 minutes on each side. I did all three in my large skillet with no problems. The cutlets are cooked when the chicken is firm to the touch but not rock hard. I used my meat thermometer and they were at 120 degrees.

Remove and drain the chicken onto a paper-towel lined dinner plate tented with foil if you have more pieces to fry. Add more oil to the pan and fry the remaining breasts.

**Note: Feel free to add any of the following to the bread crumbs; a pinch of cayenne, a tsp of dry mustard, fresh thyme or oregano leaves, some ground flax or sesame seeds, or freshly grated Parmesan.

There is a whole sidebar on pounding the chicken-which I needed being a newbie meat pounder. I even had to borrow a mallet from my husband’s tool bench. The important part is to put chicken between two sheets of waxed paper on a cutting board, and pound away to flatten chicken for even cooking.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many more food-related posts. I love the new look! Happy healthy cooking!

Weekend Cooking; Mother's Day menu

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and many mothers will be taken out to brunch, lunch, or dinner to be celebrated. Yahoo. It is a wonderful day to show our mother’s how much we appreciate all that they do.

Now that I have a family of my own I don’t always get to spend the day with my own mother. I did send her a pretty e-card, my way of saving a tree. I know in my childhood my brothers and I gave her our fair share of handmade cards, bright floral arrangements (dandelions), and burnt breakfast foods all arranged on a tray. I know my mother appreciated what we pulled together for her as I appreciate what my kids have done for me on this sacred Sunday but what I think matters most is the everyday celebrations that we can share together.

I often call my mother in the morning as I’m driving to work. I have a peaceful drive to work with no chaos or traffic. I love how her voice reflects joy in my simple phone call. “How are you?’ What are you doing today?’ and we chat about the day ahead of us. When I’m making dinner I often call my mother with cooking questions especially as I get used to cooking meat which I did not do for years. “At what temperature is the chicken done at?”

Mother’s Day can even be celebrated at the end of summer as my mom and I put together our salsa using all her late harvest tomatoes. We cook and talk and reminisce about my grandmother, her mother. She loved to cook also, her specialty was jam and pies. Mother’s Day can be a year round celebration as we toast those who raised us and did their best. Whether you take them out for a meal, buy them a fancy bouquet, or just spend time with them the important element is thoughtfulness Think about what your mother truly wants; does she need another knick-knack from the drugstore or would she prefer just your time? Could you bake her muffins? Could you take her for a walk?

If my mom were coming to town I would make her this big crumb coffee cake if I had rhubarb in my freezer. If I could fly us both somewhere for breakfast I would fly us to La Jolla to eat at The Cottage~we’ve both always wanted to try it. I might also take her for pie at this little joint right here in Iowa. There are so many great ideas out there that go beyond-try and find one that includes food and time. Enjoy your mother. Seek her out on a regular basis though; not just on the second Sunday in May.

I predict my daughter will serve this to me come Sunday morning:

Mother’s Day Menu:

1 bowl of cereal light on the milk
1 piece of sourdough toast
1 glass of orange juice
with a flower or plant of some sort on the side

all brought to me in bed on a bamboo tray.
Sounds yummy, I know. Lucky me.

She has not yet mastered cleaning the kitchen up after this cooking extravaganza.

Here are a few sites to learn more about the origins of Mother’s Day as a holiday.

Mother’s Day History
Wiki article

This year my husband and Groovy Girl already gave me one surprise; an manicure and a pedicure so my toes would be sandal ready for the wedding we are attending this evening in Iowa City.

{my toes in purple}

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find more recipes and food-related posts. Have a wonderful weekend.

Weekend Cooking; What's good and right.

The family gathered.

Last week while the book fair was taking up all my waking hours I got a phone call from Teenage Boy, which is big in the first place as he texts but doesn’t “talk”. The reason for his anxious phone call was about dinner; specifically where everyone was for dinner? His voice belied that he was a teenager at all but more like the middle school boy I think of fondly. He was concerned that he was at home by himself and it was dinner time. At first I was less than amused because I thought he was asking why I wasn’t home to make his dinner. I kindly reminded him that he could easily make himself dinner, was quite capable of making a good meal for himself and tried not to sound annoyed. To that his response was “No, I can make my own dinner, it’s just that I didn’t know where everyone was and we usually eat dinner together.” Oh, yea, right.

We do usually eat dinner together. It does feel odd when one or more of us is missing from our vintage (old) linoleum table. And even though I think he’s listening as my husband and I make plans for the week he’s not always tuned in to the hum drum of what will transpire this week, like I’m won’t be home until after 8 on Tuesday and Thursday and my husband says I won’t be home Thursday night either and I’ll bring Groovy Girl to you at school. How he misses all that at said table I don’t know but we are making a new resolution to alert him to scheduling issues that will affect him.

The greater idea though was that he missed all of us being here at the same time, sharing a meal together. It is a tradition he’s had for the part of his life he remembers and I appreciate that this is important family time to him. He often is the one to start the “So what was the best part of your day?” even though when it comes back around to him he shrugs his teenage shoulders leaving that as his answer.

I made him happy this week by leaving 1/4 of a pan of these brownies at home when I made them for my 5th grade book club. Book club boys fought over the chocolate ones-I’d interspersed blondies I’d made for a funeral at church and Teenage Boy was thrilled to hear me say they were so easy I’d make more this weekend. He and his sister polished off the leftover goodies after school, leaving none for their dad much to his dismay. I guess I need to make sure big Daddy gets his fair share from this next batch.

I’m off to scrub potatoes for tonight’s dinner and once I have those boiling I will whip these up for late night happiness. What is your dinner hour like? Are you able to eat together or is it in shifts?

From The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman
(328-329)

Fudgy One-Pot Brownies

Makes 12 huge or 24 reasonably-sized brownies

1 cup (2 sticks, unsalted) butter, plus butter for greasing the baking pan
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar ( I used turbinado since the color wouldn’t matter)
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 T pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose (unbleached) flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Butter a 13 X 9 baking pan.
2. Place butter sticks and chocolate squares in a medium-sized saucepan over low heat and let melt, stirring until smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt, then blend in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring to mix quickly so they don’t have a chance to cook at all. Blend in the flour.

3. Scrape the thick batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a wooden toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

4. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. When completely cool, cut them into 12 or 24 squares.

(It should say hold the family back while they cool-they made the house smell delicious and people were hanging close to the kitchen.) Enjoy…

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post. Click to her link to find many other eclectic food-related posts.

What's for dinner?

I dislike that question from my children. Don’t you? I want them to like what ever is set before them. Really I do. They rarely do. It is one way for them to take ownership of their little corner of the world. “But Mom….remember I don’t like onions [insert food of choice, rotates on a daily basis]”and said in a somewhat whiny voice. It’s okay, whatever I make is good for you and you’re going to eat it, said with a smile is my general response.

(Two Lodge skillets with pizza dough)

Pizza is one universal food they can agree on. Teenage boy has said he could eat it every night of the week without fail. His second choice of daily meals: buttered pasta. I know, right. So lacking in imagination. What happened to my boy who loved veggies, and tofu, and ate what I put down on the table ‘cuz he loved me!

I woke up this morning with pizza on my mind, even though I’ve cut WAYYY back on bread/gluten items. Over the winter I’d read an article in MS’s Living magazine about making pizza in a cast iron skillet. I didn’t make it then but it’s been jiggling in the back of my mind ever since. Today was the day.

(The big pizza got a sprinkling of black olives and sauteed portebellos)

I didn’t have a chance to make the dough this morning because I’ve been religiously going through my yoga routine first thing and then I had to get to my husband’s performing arts camp to help out. That was alright though as I thought when I bring Groovy Girl home she and I can make the dough and it can have half a day to sit. Not the best but okay. I can be flexible. I regretted this later as the dough was very sticky.

(Just out of the oven)

I used the Mel’s Kitchen Cafe dough I’ve used the last 5-7 times I’ve made pizza. How many times does one use someone else’s recipe before it becomes their own? Maybe never! I then googled pizza in cast iron skillet thinking I would come up with Martha’s article but nope I got King Arthur’s recipe instead. I like KA products and as I read through the recipe it sounded good. The skillets were slick. The pizza slides right out I added a garlic olive oil drizzle to the pan before I pressed the dough. The kids loved it, especially the thick Chicago-style crust. It was a little two deep dish for me and I limited myself to one slice but the flavor was great. Making the little one for Groovy Girl without the mushrooms and olives was perfect. She likes crust and red sauce with just a dusting of cheese. Using the skillet made it less of a production, which makes me think I could whip out a little one for her for lunch.

New Year's Day – Black-Eyed Peas

How many of you eat black-eyed peas, a symbol of prosperity, for the new year? It is a family tradition for us. Each year I’ve tried a new recipe and it isn’t always easy to find one that is meat-free. This one I found in a recent parade magazine in an article about Katie Lee from The Early Show. It was easy to make and tasted great.

Hoppin’ John

serves: 6

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 15-oz cans of black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup vegetable broth or water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, minced
Cooked rice
Shredded white cheddar
Hot sauce (optional)

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, red bell pepper, and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in black-eyed peas, broth, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low; cook 10 minutes. Stir in green onions and parsley.
3. Serve over cooked rice and garnish with cheese and hot sauce.

My Tweaks: I soaked a bag of black-eyed peas from the bag instead of using cans. Like lentils, they are easy to soak and cook. I did not add green onions and I used parsley instead of cilantro (flat leaf parsley) only because I had parsley from another recipe. I didn’t add parsley to the recipe but put it on the table as a “condiment” so my kids could add it if they chose. Same with the cheese as Groovy Girl is not a cheese lover. I used brown rice and my husband and I added hot sauce to our bowls, which added just the perfect amount of spice.

Cheers to prosperity in 2011.

Teenage Boy said “why do we keep eating black-eyed peas for dinner?-it hasn’t worked yet.” This led to an interesting discussion of how many different ways prosperity appears in our lives if not in cash form!
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and I’m late in posting because I took a three hour nap after church. It felt great and must be my way of shoving my head into the sand as my holiday break comes to a close. Tomorrow it’s off to work we go!
This is what comes up when you google the peas…