Out with the Old and In with the New

So, another new year is knocking at the door.  The older I get, the faster the years go screaming by, and I get farther and farther behind.  Much like all the other occasions in my life, my family has grown accustomed to celebrating them with traditions and foods.  We traditionally eat certain foods every New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  I can't say that we have truly prospered or had better luck for eating them, but we can't stop doing it now.

The Chinese believe that fish and seafood bring about fortune and luck.  They represent moving forward.  The German believe eating pork can bring the same, because pigs root moving forward as well.  The Chinese eat noodles to begin a new year because they represent long life.  The Chinese also believe that eating eggs will bring fertility, but I choose to believe it is more about new beginnings because we do not need any fertility around here.  Irish eat cabbage at the start of a new year because it is believed to bring luck and fortune.  Spanish people twelve grapes at midnight New Year's Eve, one grape for each month of the year.  They believe this will bring good luck each month to come.  Mediterraneans consume pomegranates for great abundance, because there are so many pom pellets inside one pomegranate.  Being a good southern girl, I have to eat black eyed peas and cornbread, and some kind of greens.  The black eyed peas are eaten for prosperity, the greens will bring you greenbacks in the coming year, and cornbread is just tasty.

That being said, I have come up with the New Year's menu for this weekend:
Salmon puffs (salmon-cream cheese mixture rolled in puff pastry)
BLT Salad (spinach, bacon, tomatoes, boiled eggs, and croutons)
Pork Loin (garlic and herb)
Black eyed Peas (with ham and bacon)
Cabbage (with bacon)
Parmesan Noodles (wide egg noodles with garlic and Parmesan)
Peppered Deviled Eggs
Red Seedless Grapes
Pomegranate-Blueberry Smoothies
Chocolate Cake (my neighbor's 40th birthday is NYE, and I'm making her a cake)
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (I really like carrot cake, that's all)

I bought sparkling cider for the girls to drink at midnight, as they share their wishes and goals for the upcoming year.  The best part of NYE on the ranchette is getting to shoot fireworks at midnight, and we are not alone with that activity.  Last year, we could hear fireworks for miles, and for a long while after midnight, too.  The girls helped me pick out party hats and noise makers, which I usually begin to regret purchasing by 8:00pm, long before midnight.  A good time is expected for us all.

I wish for you all to have a great new year.  Hopefully the Mayans just got tired of writing out the calendar, and the end of the world is not that soon.  I have so many more celebrations to plans!

Happy New Year!

Winter Break and the Crazies

So, in just a matter of days, the kids will be out of school for a couple of weeks over Christmas.  I go a little Crazy every year deciding what 'little something' I can get the girls' teachers that will be useful or wanted.  It was a lot easier when the girls only had one teacher all day everyday, back in elementary school.  I know the teachers get a lot of things from their students at Christmas, but I hope that the thing I come up with is not the worst gift they receive.

This year, I decided on 'Snowman Soup'.  A bag filled with Hershey Kisses, candy cane-stir stick, a dozen snowman shaped marshmallows, and a packet of hot chocolate mix.  Fairly easy to assemble, and easy for the girls to take and distribute at school.  The hardest part was choosing the font for the print style on the poem.  I hope the paper stuff stays stuck on long enough to get the little gifts passed out.

I need a nice idea for a gift to a bus driver.  The girls' bus driver is retiring at the winter break.  He's been our bus driver for the past year, but he's been driving a bus in Midlothian for decades.  He really loves the kids, and I want to do something special.  I was leaning toward premium coffee and homemade cookies.  If you have a good idea, please let me know!

My next Crazy obstacle is planning what to buy and prepare to eat during the kids time off from school.  I'm not used to having lunch on hand everyday.  I hope by starting to think about it now, I might actually have a plan in place by the time they are out.

Hopefully, I won't be too Crazy before they return to school in January.

These are the Salad Days

Because summer in Texas is HHHHOOOOTTTTT, I have been trying out menus and recipes that do not require the oven, cook top, or even the outside grill when possible.  I am trying new salads, sandwiches, and lighter fare that doesn't take long to prepare.  I haven't been able to eliminate the heating of food items completely, but I have definitely cut back.

I have been trying out new salads, for sure, and the one I tried last night is very good!

Market Salad
(net carbs 4g)

3 boiled eggs
4 thick slices bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
2 cups green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces, cooked and drained
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil, chives, or italian parsley
4 cups washed salad greens, of choice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1.  Place eggs in small pot with water to cover; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Immediately remove from heat. Cover; let stand 10 minutes.  Drain; cool eggs to room temperature.

2.  Combine bacon, green beans, basil, and salad greens in large salad bowl.  Peel and coarsely chop eggs; stir into salad.  Combine oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in small bowl; whisk and drizzle over salad.  Toss gently to coat.


I used basil and cilantro, romaine lettuce, and I doubled the dressing mixture.  Steve said that it could have used more bacon.  It was very tasty.  I served it alone with garlic bread sticks.

Give it a try.  I hope you like it as much as we did!

Easiest Fish Tacos Ever

I am a little behind, but I mean well.  Over the holiday weekend, I managed to cook and eat everything I had planned.  Saturday, we had fish tacos.  I prefer soft corn tortillas and pan seared fish instead of deep fried fish.  This recipe is quick, simple, and very tasty.  30 minutes prep, 30 minutes total time, 9 ingredients.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 can (10 oz.) mexican diced tomatoes, drained liquid and reserve
2 tablespoon cilantro
3 cups tri-color coleslaw mix
1 1/2 pounds tilapia, fillets, thawed if frozen
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 corn tortillas

 Directions:
1.  Stir together sour cream and 1/2 cup liquid from tomatoes in small bowl to make sauce; set aside.  Stir together tomatoes with remaining liquid and coleslaw mix in bowl; set aside.
2.  Sprinkle fish with cumin and salt.  Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Place fish in skillet; cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until fish flakes easily with fork.
3.  Separate fish into 12 pieces.  Place 1 piece on each tortilla, top with 1/4 cup slaw and 1 tablespoon sauce.  Fold tortillas in half; serve immediately.

I hope you try them.  They have become my new favorite quick fix meal.  Let me know if you like them, too.  I serve them with...

Black Bean Salad

1 can of black beans, thoroughly rinsed, and drained

1 1/2 cups frozen corn, defrosted

1/2 cup chopped green onions or shallots

2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced, or 1 whole pickled jalapeno pepper, minced (not seeded)

3 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro

1/4 cup fresh chopped basil

2 Tbsp lime juice (about the amount of juice from one lime)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar (to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Make sure to rinse and drain the beans, if you are using canned beans.

In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, onions, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, basil, lime juice and olive oil. Add sugar and salt and pepper to taste. (The sugar will help balance the acidity from the tomatoes and lime juice.) Chill before serving.

It's a light summer meal, quick and easy, and easy to make ahead to assemble and eat later.

Oh, and the ice cream we will eat

Ah, yes.  There are two givens in Texas.  Extreme heat and ice cream for my birthday and the 4th of July.  Last Saturday, we drove out west to pick up the girls from camp.  On the way home, we stopped in Weatherford, TX at the Farmer's Market.  We bought tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, seeless watermelon, and yellow meat watermelon.  The main reason we picked this Farmer's Market was because we were in the Peach Capital...so we bought peaches, too.

Every year, we make homemade ice cream.  In th beginning, we made large batches of one flavor, but over the years, we have morphed to smaller batches of more flavors.  Recently, it has become the Homemade Neopoliton, 2 quart batches of each.  Steve willingly spends the entire afternoon in the garage making batch after batch.  It usually ranges around 100 degrees, and that my friends is how I know he still loves me.

I am using my tried and true recipes for the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, but I've been searching for the perfect peach recipe.  I have narrowed it down to two.  One uses eggs just like my other three recipes, along with cream, but adds cornstarch...and I am supposed to cook it in the microwave, which I've never done with the other batches.  The other recipe uses condensed sweetended milk and no eggs, so no precooking is necessary.  I prefer the precooked style recipes because it makes a custard-like base.  The egg-less recipe also uses twice as many peaches.  Decisions, decisions, decisions...the winner is the egg based recipe, but with more peaches.  I really hope that works!

This afternoon, I am going to blend and precook all the ice cream batches.  They need to be very cold before we freeze them, so will just sit in the refrigerator and wait until Saturday. 

As if I didn't have enough to do

My favorite pasttime hands down has to be cooking.  I find that cooking is theraputic and relaxing.  It allows me to think through my concerns and rewards me with savory or sweet goodness when I do.  I can cut and chop, and catch up on dvr'd programs.  I can blend and stir, and still here the latest story from one of my daughters.  Besides a completed project somewhere inside the house, I can't think of anything I do consistantly that brings me such satisfaction as a happy, full family.

I plan menus each week, or most weeks, and I am always looking for new and interesting things to prepare.  I know that many of my Facebook friends could care less what I am cooking, but some of them like to cook as well.  I decided to create another blog that I can, on occasion, put up my latest food finds.  For those of you that take the time to look, I hope it inspires you to find new foods, too.

I have been working on my upcoming menu for the Independence Holiday weekend.  My birthday is the 3rd of July, so as you can imagine the 4th is my favorite holiday.  In years past, I have planned international themed menus, traditional menus, and simply fun menus to correspond with the days before and just after the 4th of July.  Every year, my best friend, Steve, and one of my three favorite daughters, Renata, make homemade ice cream for me.  Typically, we have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.  Steve's favorite homemade ice cream is peach, so this year he gets to make himself ice cream, too.

Friday, July 1, we will have margherita pizza and garlic parmesan boneless chicken wings.  I love the simplicity of margherita pizza-fresh mozzerella cheese, basil, and tomatoes. I am planning to let Renata help me make the pizza dough, and Kegan will help dress it.

Saturday, July 2, we will have fish tacos, black bean salad, and red velvet cupcakes.  I was watching the Food Network last Thursday and one of the shows was about fish tacos.  She fried them and that is not my favorite. It sparked a memory of the fish tacos at The Oasis on Joe Pool Lake.  They are on flour tortillas and the fish is seared on the griddle.  I made them Thursday night, and I liked them so much they are on for this weekend. 

Sunday, July 3, we will have brisket, potato salad, old fashioned macaroni and cheese, grilled corn on the cob, and all the fixins' for eating the brisket as tacos or as bar-be-que (pickles, onions, jalapenos, pico de gallo, cheese, etc).

Monday, July 4, we will have a lot of leftovers, I'm sure.  Just in case, I will have burgers and hot dogs on stand by.

I will shop on Tuesday, start prepping on Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully, start blogging the recipes, pictures, and thoughts on Friday.  I hope that I can make it sound good enough to try it yourself.