6 posts tagged “susan beach”
Portions: 4 servings
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and quartered
1 pound of Yukon
gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound of turnips, peeled and quartered
6 cups of chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt, adjust if broth is salted
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Preparation:
Place butter in a 3-1/2 quart soup pot and melt over medium heat; add onions and sweat until translucent. Add apples, potatoes, turnips, chicken broth/vegetable broth, water salt and white pepper. Cover and bring to a boil; turn down to a simmer and continue to cook for 45 minutes. Puree with immersion blender; taste and adjust. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Servings: 8
Portion size: 1 cup
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 head of bok choy, finely slivered
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 medium shredded carrot
1 cup shelled soy beans
Dressing:
1/4 cup minced
fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 clove of minced garlic
Preparation:
Wash and drain bok choy. In a bowl, combine slivered bok choy, onion, shredded
carrot, soy beans. Place mint, cilantro
salt pepper, rice wine vinegar, sugar, mustard and garlic in a blender and puree. Just before serving pour over bok choy and toss ingredients. Dressing the salad at the last minute will keep it nice and crunchy. More recipes at www.isimmer.com on the recipe page.
Believe it or not AWOL is still
with us. As some of you may know from prior posts, our dwarf hamster gets out of her cage a lot. I couldn't take the late night chases and was
determined to stop the catch and release routine. Same strategy, I caught AWOL going for the food dish, we locked eyes and she bolted. I took to the chase and
scooped her up, put her in the cage and then...put the cage in the BATHTUB. Its
a good sized space, with nice high walls, the drain is closed and there is plenty
of room for her to to do laps when we leave her cage open for "yard
time". I told my mom she is a free range hamster. Sometimes she’s a bit freer
than I like.
How was she getting out? There was the slightest bend in the bars of the cage
and that's all she needed. Did she bend those bars? Hmmm-mighty mouse comes to
mind.
Since I closed the breech I've I tested the cage (in the tub) to see if she could get out. I'm happy to say the problem is solved. I'm sure there will be more adventures for AWOL, after all she does have visitation rights and she is very difficult to keep a hold of.
Miss AWOL has an interesting behavior that I can't figure out. She fills her exercise wheel with nesting and food and then runs in it. All I can think is that she craves adventure. Diego and I have decided that she is acting out an avalanche or mud slide and running for her life, hoping not to get dumped on. OR maybe she is trying to build on our chases and the bits that she runs from are ME…For two ounces of furry pet, she does give us plenty of amusement!
This is a true story about hunting for my eight year old son's hamster, AWOL.
AWOL broke out of her cage and has been on her mission for 24 hours now...
Throwing the clothes in the dryer is an every day affair, hamster on the loose or not. I did shake all the clothes out before tossing them in the washer. My first thought when I went to turn on the dryer was...hit the button, my second thought was...no, abort, don't hit the button…my third thought was "what is that thumping noise? OMG, I've done her in." I emptied the dryer pushed the button again. Not sounding good at all. It was making the same sound as the hamster wheel with food in it, only with a little thump and rattle with every round. "OH! So that's how it ends!!" I thought. Good job Mom!!! I think I gave up hope there, proceeding to take the dryer apart just to see what I could to see.
My car was parked outside at that time and the garage had been sealed off. (Almost used the yellow crime tape) Diego and I got home late, quietly entered the garage, and looked around while listening for no less than an hour. Frustrated and gloomy, we trudged upstairs to push on through four pages of homework, front and back. Once that was out of the way Diego got ready for bed. I said, I'll go check again to see if I can surprise her. (With no internal hope at all)
WHO-HA! There she was, cute nose and whiskers a twitching as we both froze and locked eyes for less than a split second. Then like lightening, she shot across the floor darting under the dryer. I used a stick to scare her out from underneath, blocked her in the corner and called for Diego. He ran down the stairs and coeced her in my direction. On my second attempt, muttering under my breath, I scooped her up, tossed her into her cage, and snapped the door shut with a rush of satisfaction and a high five. OH YEAH! LOCK DOWN BABY!
Report on AWOL'S 4th secret mission: Project Spider Web. Intent: to cause a complete upheaval in the garage---Mission accomplished. To put things in order will no doubt take me countless hours. That will take place only after I have rousted out all the eight legged tenants, big and little. Then I’ll I be able to put my dryer back together, which, BTW, includes reassembling the lint vent that leads outside. The only casualties on this mission were spiders. I'm sure Miss Houdini is comfortably spinning on her wheel as I write this. (Or is she?) Her new code name while on missions is Bratty Rat. A Robo hamster...What the *!#> was I thinking!
As I started to put laundry away Diego lay back waiting to be tucked in. He commented on cruelty while reading about an animal that wears a shock collar. This sparked my comment... "Hey, maybe we can get one of those for AWOL". His immediate response was "Hell no!" I said "DID YOU just say Hell no?" He said "Yeah!" We laughed so hard, after which I said..."Honey, the thing about swearing is you have to know where, when and around who you can use words like that. I'm okay with that one since I deserved it, and we have had one heck of a day. But none of that in school, around your class mates, and older people, except Grandma of course. Why? Cuz she wrote the book on cursing!"
So there you have it, AWOL'S fourth adventure. Oh! And if you ever want to deep clean your house room by room, I have the perfect little companion to help you with your mission. She likes working nights and hardly eats a thing.
I offered a gentleman a cookie today at work and he said, "Oh no, if I have one, it will be down hill for me every time you serve cookies. There should be a group called Cookie addicts Anonymous!" That made me laugh, but I totally understand his philosophy. I could attend a C.A.A. group occasionally myself. Hmmm, but what would we have with our coffee at group? That is a cookie conundrum! Here is the recipe for the cookies I baked off today.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup quick oats
12 ounces chocolate chips (or more in place of nuts, if you SO desire)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (OPTIONAL as I would rather add more chocolate and skip d nuts)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars together in or with a mixer. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir in oatmeal, chips, nuts and mix well.
Form into uniform pieces with a cookie scoop, place evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down for uniformity onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until golden. Makes about 4 dozen, 3-inch in size cookies.
Jicama and Avocado Salad with Lime Juice
When shopping for jicama pick
the smaller ones; they have the best flavor and texture. To get the most crunch out of
your jicama, cut it up, then soak it in salt water and refrigerate for as long
as 24 hours.
Ingredients:
1 pound jicama
1 pint basket of cherry
tomatoes
1 avocado
2 limes
1/2 teaspoon salt
a pinch of cayenne
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Peel jicama, then cut into 1/2-inch x 3-inch sticks and place in bowl. cherry
tomatoes; cut in half and add
to jicama. Peel avocado and dice into 1/2-inch pieces;
squeeze lime juice over
avocado. Season ingredients with salt and cayenne, then add
chopped cilantro and
toss. Refrigerate until served. Serves 4. For more recipes go to www.isimmer.com
