Wednesday, August 20, 2008, by Leigh Anne
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As I promised yesterday, today I am sharing the yummy dinner we had for Jim’s birthday celebration.
Because of his Meiner’s Disease (an inner ear condition that causes terrible episodes of vertigo and hearing loss) Jim is on a special diet.
The doctor’s have put him on the Zone Diet. If you are not familiar with it, the basic concept is that you always eat a protein, fat and carbohydrate together and you eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day.
The diet has really helped his condition - he was having episodes every two weeks and hasn’t had one since he began the diet two months ago. The side benefit of the diet is that you lower your cholesterol and lose weight! He’s lost over 15 pounds so far.
Cooking for him has become a bit of a challenge. One thing he can eat though is fajitas (without the tortilla).
So for his birthday I made these fabulous fajitas - a recipe I found over at Our Best Bite.
I have made lots of different fajita recipes and I have to say this will now be my “Go To” recipe for Fajitas - they are fabulous!
Fajita marinade
1/4 C fresh lime juice
1/3 C water
2 T vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic , pressed or finely minced
3 t vinegar
2 t soy sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke* (I used 1 tsp.)
1 t salt
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t onion powder
*If you’re not familiar with liquid smoke, you can find it near the bbq sauces in a small bottle And please don’t make this without it! It’s definitely one of the key components. It makes things yummy and smoky and super flavorful. And if you’re wondering, it actually is real smoke in liquid form.
For the Fajitas:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3-4 large ones). Steak is also great.
Bell Peppers (about 3 large ones) I used a red, orange and yellow.
1 Onion, I used a Walla Walla Sweet Onion.
Mix all the marinade ingredients together and place in a zip-lock bag. Before you put the meat in, reserve a little marinade to use at the end.(about 1/4 a cup) Then toss in the chicken or steak, and bell peppers and onions or if you want more marinade for the meat do not include the peppers and onions. Just coat them with some olive oil and salt before griling. Marinade for at least 4 hours, but longer if possible. Then grill outside on the bbq, or indoors on a skillet (cast iron is best) or grill pan. Use the reserved marinade from the bag to baste meat as you cook. (This is not the 1/4 cup you reserved)
Here are some tips from Our Best Bites to help make your fajitas truly fabulous!
1. I usually double the marinade, or 1 1/2 it because I have this weird thing where I like to see my meat swimming. Once it’s all combined, immediately reserve about 1/4 cup, and set it aside.
2. I then butterfly my chicken, or pound it thinner, because that increases the marinade-to-chicken ratio! 3. I toss all of the meat in the bag of marinade, but leave the peppers and onions out. Only reason being that I usually want all of the marinade for the meat (see above weirdness), and the veggies get a splash of it at the end with the marinade I reserved. But if you have enough marinade, go ahead and do the veggies too. 4. I slice my onion into about 1/2 inch slices, and leave the slices in tact. Then I quarter the peppers. 5 When they’re ready to grill I toss the veggies with a little olive oil and salt and pepper if I haven’t included them in the marinade.When everything is cooked slice the meat, peppers and onions into strips. Combine in a bowl and pour in the reserved marinade (do not use the liquid that the chicken was marinading in.Serve with tortillas (I used the uncooked tortillas from Costco and cook them up fresh!)
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Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Tuesday, August 19, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Today is my husband’s birthday. I’ll be kind and not tell you how old he is. I will tell you though, he is older than I am.
We actually celebrated his birthday on Sunday because early this morning he left on a business trip. We celebrated with a yummy dinner (I’ll share the recipe tomorrow) and a homemade marionberry pie - his request.
After dinner we went to visit my mom and dad as my dad is recovering from surgery. When we returned home we found a surprise waiting for Jim at the front door. It was a birthday note from his good buddy Declan.
Declan’s mom had helped him make the card because, you see, Declan is five years old.
Isn’t he cute!
The inside of the card was pretty cute too…
A picture of Declan, Jim and a pile of mulch!
Declan’s mom had encouraged him to draw a picture of something that reminded him of Jim.
Each spring and fall we have a pile of mulch dumped in our driveway for our garden. When the boys were at home they were Jim’s helpers. Filling the wheelbarrow full of mulch and pushing it to the backyard, trip after trip after trip. They loved it - NOT!
Once the boys were gone from home Jim could never convince the girls to help him, so he was on his own, until….
Declan!
Declan loves to help Jim, each season he anxiously awaits the arrival of the mulch in our driveway. In fact this spring five year old Declan was knocking at our door as soon as he saw it in the driveway.
He proceeded to knock on the door every 20 minutes for several hours to see if Jim was ready to come out and “work”. Jim tried to explain to him that he was working inside right now but would be out in a while.
Finally, on Saturday morning Jim and his buddy Declan spent hours “moving poop” as the boys use to call it. Declan had his own little wheelbarrow and own shovel. He worked hard and Jim was so cute and patient with him. For his birthday, Declan received his own kids sized garden gloves from his buddy Jim.
When they were done working Declan wanted to know when Jim’s “mom” - that would be me - was going to make his favorite chocolate chip cookies.
That is the cutest part - Declan really considers Jim his friend, his buddy, not someone that is older than his own father!
I guess that is one way to feel young - hang out with a five year old!
So Jim - Happy Birthday from your family and from your buddy Declan! We love you!!
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Categories: Connect, Family
Monday, August 18, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Only 10 more days - 10 more days until I have to get in the car and drive my daughter to her new life as a college freshman.
I have been keeping myself busy getting her ready to go. It’s amazing how much stuff you need when you leave home. All that stuff you share with your sister that you now need for your own - blow dryer, straight iron, makeup, shoes, clothes, computer, etc. Tessa is very concerned that half her wardrobe is going to college!
I have a growing pile of “college stuff” in my bedroom - hoping it will all fit into the car.
I don’t know why this is so hard for me - Cali is not my first child to go off to college. I have sent two boys off to college. In addition, I have sent both boys off to foreign countries for two years as they served missions for our church. (That was HARD!) During those two years I only talked with them four times! (Christmas and Mother’s Day)
So you would think that the third time of sending a child off to college, only a few states away, would be easier. Especially since I can talk to her anytime I want, text message her, email her, leave her messages on her facebook wall, keep connected through our family blog and even see her via our computer webcam - but it’s not.
Maybe it’s because she is my first daughter to leave home.
Maybe it’s because it means that more than half of my children have now left home.
Maybe it’s because I know that things are never the same once they leave home.
Maybe it’s because I will now only have one child at home - for only 3 more years (don’t even get me started on that one!).
Maybe it’s because it makes me feel old.
Don’t get me wrong - I am so excited for her. She is going to my alma mater, my husband’s alma mater. She will be at the same school with both of her older brothers. She is going to have so much fun!
But I am going to miss her. I miss my whole family being together - eating together, playing together and yes, even arguing together.
As I was working at my computer the other day I looked out my back door and saw this little tree frog.
He was hanging on …
I feel a little bit like that frog - just hanging on.
I know I will survive this - I have before but tears still fill my eyes everytime I think about her leaving, they fill my eyes as I am writing this post.
In the hopes of easing my pain a bit we have planned a Girl’s Road Trip to take Cali to school. I am loading up my Suburban with woman I love - both of my daughters, my mother, my neighbor and friend Debbie and her daughter Hannah who has been best friends with Cali since they were four!
If nothing else I will have a lot of shoulders to cry on on the way home!
So for those of you who have been through this before too - any words of wisdom for me?
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Categories: Connect, Family
Friday, August 15, 2008, by Leigh Anne
The temperature hit 100 degrees here in Portland today- at least that’s what my car said and it is suppose to be even hotter tomorrow. Not being a “hot weather girl” I am grateful that we don’t have too many of these days in Oregon each year.
But when it gets hot like it did today nothing sounds or tastes better than ice cream - especially homemade ice cream.
It has been a while since I have shared a lemon recipe so I decided that homemade lemon ice cream was what we needed. We have made this particular lemon ice cream at our house for over 30 years! The recipe was given to us by a friend of my mother’s when we lived in Alta Loma, California.
As you know, I love lemon and this lemon ice cream is perfect. The original recipe calls for raw eggs and I must admit - I make it with raw eggs. I have done so for over 30 years and so far so good. I also eat raw cookie dough!
But if you don’t eat raw eggs you can pasteurize your eggs by mixing the eggs and milk to make a custard base and then cook to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which will destroy salmonella, if present. Use a food thermometer to make sure the mixture reaches the correct temperature. After cooking, chill the custard thoroughly before freezing.
This time I made the ice cream in my table top Cuisinart ice cream maker so I cut the recipe in half - if you are using a full size, electric ice cream maker you can use the full recipe.
I served it with some mini lemon butter cookies I bought at Target - aren’t they cute!
If it’s hot where you are - stay cool! Enjoy some ice cream!
Homemade Lemon Ice Cream
4 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 cups whole milk
2 cups whipping cream
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Add sugar and beaten eggs slowly, beat well. When stiff add remaining ingredients. Mix well and pour into freezer and freeze according to manufactuers directions.
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Categories: Friday Favorites, Nourish, Recipes
Thursday, August 14, 2008, by Leigh Anne
So this is my third Barefoot Blogger recipe. I’m not setting any world records for cooking my way through Ina Garten’s cookbooks but I’m having fun.
So far, 2 of the 3 recipes we have made are ones I never probably would have made otherwise. That is one of the reasons why I joined the Barefoot Bloggers group - it is pushing me outside my comfort zone. Forcing me to try new things.
I have found that it is a technique that works well for me -I commit myself to a group rather than try to do it on my own. I do really well with that accountability thing.
It worked the same way with my book group. I hesitated joining a book group for years but now that I have I love how it gets me to read books I never would have read otherwise.
Have you ever done that - joined a group or organization that pushed you out of your comfort zone, that got you to do things (good things) you wouldn’t normally have done on your own?
So onto the recipe - Panzanella Salad is a traditional bread salad from Tuscany, usually made with day old bread with a combination of tomatoes, basil, olive oil and vinegar. It was chosen by Melissa of Melissa’s Kitchen
The recipe called for yellow and red peppers, I had red peppers on hand so only used those. I used cucumbers and basil out of our garden.
The vinaigrette uses Champagne vingar - I used white wine vinegar.
We were invited to a Barbecue this past weekend so if was the perfect opportunity to give it a try. The bowl was almost empty when we left so I guess that is a good sign!
Panzanella
3 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 small french bread, cut into 1 inch cubes (6 cups)
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 large, ripe tomatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cucumber, unpeeled, seeded and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 red onion, cut in 1/2 and thinly sliced
20 large basil leaves, coarsley chopped
3 Tbsp. capers, drained
For the vinaigrette:
1 tsp. finely minced garlic
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. Champagne vinegar
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently for 10 minutes or until nicely browned. Add more oil as needed.
For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together.
In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers. Add the bread cubes and toss with the vinaigrette. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Serve, or allow the salad to sit for about half an hour for the flavors to blend.
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Categories: Barefoot Bloggers, Nourish, Recipes
Wednesday, August 13, 2008, by Leigh Anne
A few weeks ago my friend Sherra was describing this amazing salad she had just had at Paradise Bakery. Since Sherra typically doesn’t eat anything green I figured it must be a really good salad if she liked it!
After she described it I had to google it and find a recipe for it. She was right - it is great.
It is a perfect summer salad because it incorporates all kinds of yummy fruit - some canned and some fresh. Not only is it yummy, it is so pretty with all the different colored fruits!
You could easily adapt it to whatever was in season and in the off-season just use canned fruit.
Just customize it according to whatever fruit you have on hand. I used Kraft Poppyseed Dressing.
The Perfect Summer Salad
aka Paradise Bakery Summer Berry Salad
1 lb. romaine lettuce
1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 can mandarin oranges
1/2 cup toasted pecans
poppyseed dressing
Slice fruit and combined with lettuce and dressing. Enjoy!
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Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Tuesday, August 12, 2008, by Leigh Anne
How about joining me today for a walk through my late summer garden - there’s plenty to see.
Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!
Wish you were here to see it in person! Happy last days of summer.
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Categories: Nest
Monday, August 11, 2008, by Leigh Anne
I had been struggling with what to blog about today. Since returning from Minneapolis last Monday I have been struggling with a major head cold all week. My head hurt, I coughed a lot, had trouble sleeping and basically felt like I had been hit by a truck - a big truck.
I accomplished only what I had to this last week (which did include finishing Eclipse so I can now read Breaking Dawn that my daughter is finished with) and I wasn’t feeling motivated about anything.
Then I went to church yesterday. My “leaving for college in two weeks” daughter, Cali, was asked to sing in church. She had practiced during the week and prepared. She sang a beautiful version of the hymn “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.”
About halfway through the song Cali lost her place, she is not sure what happened but she couldn’t figure out where she was. She had to stop and ask her accompanist where they were. All in front of our large church congregation. As you can imagine she was embarrassed and frustrated.
Cali is an experienced performer - she has performed dozens of times in school musicals, concerts and competitions as part of a group and as a soloist.
Something amazing happened when Cali lost her place - the spirit touched her and it touched the congregation. You could hear the emotion in her voice and feel it in the congregation.
As she returned to her seat after finishing the song she of course shed a few tears and was disappointed with her performance.
After church, she had so many people come up to her, thanking her for sharing her talent and for bringing the spirit into the meeting. One sweet man told her that the spirit that was felt through her music and her performance was so much greater than the discomfort she had felt.
Another dear, older lady, told Cali that her performance had touched her more than any other song she had ever heard.
As Cali and I talked after church I shared with her that one of the main purposes of music, especially in a church setting, is to help us feel the spirit. Despite that her performance wasn’t flawless - her music had done what it was suppose to do - help people feel the spirit.
Cali expressed that she wished her performance had been flawless but I assured her that there was someone there today, in church, that needed her performance not to be flawless. They needed to feel the emotion and spirit that was in her sweet voice and in the congregation as a result of her imperfect performance.
Not being “perfect” is something I struggle with. I have high expectations of myself and of others despite the fact that I know none of us (including myself) are perfect.
I learned yesterday that through our imperfections and our mistakes we not only grow as individuals but we help others as well, we can touch other people’s lives through our imperfect ones.
I love you Cali and am grateful for the lesson you provided me with.
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Categories: Inspire
Friday, August 8, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Despite the long name of the dish it is a quick and easy one to prepare.
It is perfect for this time of the year when all those cherry tomatoes in the garden are ripe! If you don’t have cherry tomatoes just chop up any type of tomato.
This dish is one of my “go to recipes”. I always seem to have the ingredients on hand and it’s a fairly quick and easy dish to prepare and everyone loves it too! It is a “lighter” pasta dish as it doesn’t have any heavy cream or red sauce.
If I am taking dinner into a friend I will often make this dish and I am always asked for the recipe after!
Another sign that that a recipe is a keeper is if one of my college boys calls home for it - and this is one of those.
My friend Jeannena shared this recipe with me several years ago and we have been enjoying it on a regular basis ever since.
Do you have a favorite “go to” recipe? I’d love it if you’d share by leaving a comment.
Mediterranean Chicken and Bow Ties
4 quarts water
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. chicken flavor instant bouillion
8 oz. uncooked bow tie pasta
Bring first three ingredients to a boil. Add pasta, cooked to desired doneness. Drain, keep warm.
Chicken:
2 Tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil
1 lb. boneless chicken breast, cut into 2 x 1/2 inch strips
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup diagonally cut green onions (1/2 inch pieces)
1 small can sliced black olives
1 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp. chicken flavor instant bouillon
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved.
While pasta cooks, heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and garlic; cook and stir 6-9 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup water and cornstarch; blend well. Stir into chicken. Add onions, olives, 1/4 cup basil and 1/2 tsp. bouillon; cook and stir 2-3 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened and glazed. Pour over cooked bow tie pasta; add tomatoes and toss to coat. Serves 4 (I usually double)
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Categories: Friday Favorites, Nourish
Thursday, August 7, 2008, by Leigh Anne
As I shared with you on my Monday post, which was really Tuesday because I was a day late, I just got back from attending the National Convention for the direct sales company I am a part of it.
I like to take gifts for members of my first line team who are attending. If possible, I like to make it something homemade. Mainly because I enjoy the creative process - connecting head, heart and hands.
I found a darling idea for some personalized moleskin notebooks on a blog I visit - House on Hill Road. Erin had created these darling notebooks using some fabric and her sewing machine. She was so helpful when I emailed her with a few questions as I tried to figure out the best foot to use on the machine, etc . Thank you Erin!
I copied the idea and just changed the word to “Achieve” which was the theme for our convention and used orange and pink fabric which also went along with our theme. After a little practice of “writing” with my sewing machine, I think they turned out great.
Each one had its own unique personality as my “machine writing” varied!
I made each of my first line a flower pen in pink or orange and then tied it all together with some pink and orange ribbon.
I hope my team members enjoy them!
I purchased the moleskin notebooks at Barnes & Noble - they come in a 3 pack. I also found that an open toed foot (so I could see where I was going) worked best on the sewing machine. I did draw on the lettering first very lightly and then just erased it after I was done.
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Categories: Nest
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