Good intentions and Bon Appetit

Well, I fully intended to write another four pages this afternoon or tonight, but two hours in the office this morning left me with more work to be done this afternoon and evening, plus I had to tie up some loose ends of my own business. And Christian and Jacob came for leftover sloppy Joe because Mommy is, as Christian says, "working on the beach at Playa del Carmen." She's on a fam trip--a trip to familiarize agents with the various hotels, etc, that they can recommend to clients. It's actually a lot of work, but it also has its benefits--I imagine she was sipping margaritas and eating fresh seafood tonight, while we ate leftover sloppy Joe and canned green beans. One of my less imaginative meals, except that my sloppy Joe is really good.
All evening I'd think I was going to get my desk cleared and go back to the novel, but it was 9:30 before I did that, and my creative juices have run low. I'm having a hard time naming the town where I want to set the mystery--I have a town in mind as a model, but I'm going to make it a little bigger, offering a few more comforts, so I don't want to use the name. Actually there's a cafe there that is also a model for the cafe in my story. Ooops, just gave that away, didn't I? Anyway, the town is not Ben Wheeler, which I've visited often, but a town near there, so I decided to just call it Wheeler. Then I talked to my friend Charles, who for years had a ranch at Ben Wheeler, and he tells me there is already a Wheeler, Texas. The trouble with Texas is that the state has already used all the good names--so many towns, so many names. Back to the drawing board, just when I was getting comfortable with Wheeler.
The real reason I'm not writing at 9:30, beside that I'm sleepy, is that a new copy of Bon Appetit arrived today and it is beckoning me with a cover blurb that promises the ultimate shepherd's pie. If there's anything I love that's it. But I am doing really well on Weight Watchers points this week-maybe if I keep it up, I can have a splurge. Meantime I'm going to read tht recipe and think about who I'd like to share it with.

The Christmas flurry

I've been a laggard about blogging the last few days. One night I just didn't feel I had that much to say, and last night my computer did it's funny thing again where when I try to restart it, it reloads updates for hours on end. It started it at 1:30 yesterday afternoon and was still doing it when I went to sleep--most frustrating.
It's been a busy week, and I don't know why I scheduled so much for the last week before Christmas vacation. But Wed. I spoke to a book group luncheon (much fun, I think I blogged about it). Wed. night Jay and Susan came for wine and gift exchange. Thursday I spent all morning in the office, trying desperately to wrap up loose ends, and then went to a retirees luncheon--lovely music, good food, a pleasant time. Friday I was out the door at 8:30 to speak to two groups of elementary children at The Montessori Academy in Arlington. The younger ones (grades 1,2 and 3) were wildly enthusiastic, each raising their hands that they wanted to be writers, and we talked mostly about how a book goes from your computer to a published book (isn't it wonderful--even at that age they all work on computers!). They were full of questions, and the 45 minutes flew by; grades 4, 5, and 6 were more restrained--only a few who wanted to write, sporadic questions, with long silences between that left me thinking frantically about what story I could tell them. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn't my grandest moment. However, I was paid handsomely, and by 11 a.m. I was back at the office, again cleaning up last-minute details, and then for a Christmas staff lunch at a local Lebanese restaurant with a terrific buffet. Last night Jordan and Christian and Jacob came for King Ranch casserole that I had cobbled together the night before--Jacob didn't like it, but we all did. Then we went on a tour of lights around the city, which was lots of fun--I haven't done that in years. Jacob mostly enjoyed it, turned a bit whiny, but, hey, it's the holidays--even three-year-olds feel the excitement=stress.
I have decided my problem is that I like my own cooking too much. I've gained 3 lbs. in the last couple of weeks. I really really need to banish chocolate from this house. But Wed. I think I mentioned the lunch hostess cooked Doris casserole from my cookbook--and I ate two helpings, plus I ate dessert. Last night I ate two helpings of King Ranch chicken--I'd been wanting it for a while, and it tasted so good! And there were those chocolate chip bars left from the party that just stared at me until I had to eat two. A bad day for Weight Watchers points.
Today I have tried to be good--ate grilled (notice, not fried) oysters for lunch at the Flying Fish with my dear friend Charles (so glad to see him getting out) and his daughter Marsha. So far I've resisted chocolate. And tonight--ONE serving only of King Ranch, plus a bit of leftover cheese spread and the peas Jacob didn't eat last night. I'm trying to clean out the refrigerator, but that's a disaster for a diet.
Tomorrow I'll make sloppy Joe for the Frisco and Houston Alters, who will all spend the night, and we'll leave at 6:00 a.m. Monday for Colorado. The pet sitter will be at the house, the alarm service is on, and the neighborhood patrol has me on their list so I feel safe about leaving. Yet it's always a wrench for me to be away from home for more than one night. On the other hand, I know I'll enjoy the trip and being with my family. Look for sporadic blog posts.

So many recipes, so little time

Tonight I was leafing through my file of "Entrees Tried," looking for my tried-and-true directions (mostly time per lb.) for roasting a turkey. (Jean reminded me by phone that it will take a lot longer at 9500 feet in Breckenridge.) But I found lots of things that made me think, "Oh, I haven't tried that in a while." One was Welsh rarebit made with stout--delicious! Another was my wine casserole that I always called Judy's Sloppy Joe. And there were others--sometimes it makes me long for the days when I cooked for five of us and could use those recipes and many more over and over. You just don't cook things like that for one.
So what did I cook for one tonight? I kept eyeing the leftover roast chicken in the fridge, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. Besides, I keep remembering that Christian found the cat nibbling at it. But then I remembered I had mushrooms and a zucchini, so I sliced some of the zucchini, drizzled it with olive oil and Parmesan (the good grated parmegiano Reggiano) and broiled it--found when I ate it I should have added salt, so rushed back to the kitchen for a pinch of Kosher salt. I wiped the mushrooms with a wet paper towel--my mom used to douse them in salt water and she did get a lot of dirt out, but I have since been convinced by those who know more than I do that mushrooms absorb a lot of the salty water. So I wipe them. Sliced them and sauteed in a mix of butter and olive oil, sprinkled on a bit of Worcestershire and poured them over toast. Mom used to serve both sauteed mushrooms and steamed asparagus on buttered toast--I've since been told that's very British. But it was a satisfying meal for a cold evening--and cold it is, down to 23 tonight. It's been cold for days, and I'm tired of it, but I know the rest of the country is really in blizzard conditions so I won't complain too much. Besides, by Saturday it is predicted to be in the 60s Here's hoping.
The other thing that made me think I want to cook so many dishes is a cookbook. This afternoon, there was an Amazon box on my doorstep, and I opened it--I order from them all the time, so couldn't remember what I'd ordered, but it was something I hadn't ordered, a Christmas present from John and Cindy: The Silver Spoon Italian cookbook, a humongous book of 1264 pages and who knows how many categories of food. The ribbon place mark opened the book to the chapter on anchovies. Now I love anchovies--lots of people don't--but there are wonderful recipes for frying, serving au gratin, with truffles, and layered with potatoes. Fortunately I have neighbors who also love anchovies. Last Sunday I found a bit of salad dressing in a jar in the fridge and decided to use it for supper, since Jay was coming and he doesn't like Jordan's traditional blue cheese dressing. The minute I poured the dressing on I smelled anchovies and thought, "Oh, oh!" Everyone else commented at the dinner table that the dressing smelled of anchovies, and Christian said I'd have to go back to my other dressings. It was a recipe Sue had given me, but it may have gotten a bit stronger sitting in the fridge. Not much salad was eaten that night, and I threw away about a head of lettuce. Hurts my Scottish soul at the price of leaf lettuce these days!
More about the recipes I find in The Silver Spoon to come. I'm glancing now at a chapter on shad--I'm not even sure what shad is, except that it's a fish.
Some days I really wish I could run a restaurant to fix all these things but talk about a foolish pipe dream! Neither my bank account nor my feet would hold out.

Food for thought

Tonight 's dinner was sloppy Joe, an old stand-by recipe.. I make it with ground bison (low fat), beans (good for you), onion, ,canned tomatoes, and a bunch of other things including red wine. I figure it's good but fairly low in calories and fat content. I often eat it in a bowl like stew but tonight, for company, I put it on whole wheat buns. I like it better without the bun. But with salad, and the Weight Watchers hummus Jean brought for an appetizer, it was a great, easy and satisfying meal.

Today I was watching the Food Network--I often keep it on but muted when I work, glancing up every once in a while to see if it's something interesting. But today I had the volume on for one of those programs about how to feed a bunch of people on the cheap. The absolute indifference of these programs to healthy eating amazes me--fatty hamburger, inexpensive cheese, etc. I love to save a penny as much as anyone, especially these days, but I won't sacrifice nutrition and taste. Anyway, this chef said she chose corn tortillas rather than flour because she saved $2.20, but there was no mention of the fact that corn tortillas are much more nutritionally sound. I kind of lost track here, but I think I have to give her credit for making her own tortilla chips out of those corn tortillas. But then she was making salsa and raving about how much she saved by using bottled lime juice instead of buying limes--excuse me? The tastes are worlds apart. I can't imagine using bottled lemon or lime juice--when I do I'll know for sure it's time for the kids to cart me off to the old-folks home.

Next came Paula Deen with her total disregard for fat and calories and her absolutely scrumptious-sounding recipes. Today, she and her son were cooking steaks--the steak she proposed to eat would have fed me for at least four meals. But she was making stuffed zucchini. I often hollow out a boiled zucchini and stuff it with celery, onion, bread crumbs, the scraped-out part of the zucchini, and maybe a little cheese. First of all, Paula roasted the zucchini--much better than boiling--and then instead of bread crumbs she used chicken-flavored stuffing mix. She added spinach--great idea--and sour cream, of course. Oh, well, you would use low-fat. It looked scrumptious, and I plan to go on the food network to find the recipe if I can. Paula was in the next half hour too where she had a guests--I can't even remember what she was serving, except that she pulled out a pan of potatoes au gratin and asked the young man to dish them both up some. When he handed her a plate, she looked at it and said, "Are we on a diet?" It looked like a good helping to me. Lord love her, I don't know why she isn't as big as a barn. Sometimes I get bothered by that kitchy southern-ness, but on the whole I like her. My granddaughter Edie and I started watching the food channel together about three years ago, and apparently she still watches it. She's skinny, too skinny, but I hope she doesn't follow Paula's recipe.

My gripe of the day: the new Cowboy Stadium. There was no news on tonight--it was all the Cowboys big first game in the stadium, and the fans going wild. Get a grip here, people--by the end of the evening, most of you will have spent $500--tickets, parking, food, beer, etc. To me, the stadium is a great big symbol of all that's wrong with our culture these days--the bigger-the-better mentality, Jerry Jones making a fortune off it, when he already has several fortunes and lower middle-class people lost their treasured homes to make way for this monstrosity. Somehow, to me, it's linked to the self-absorption and rudeness that marks so much of our public life today. I did laugh when Jim said at dinner that it was like the '70s all over again. My response was that it was like the bouffant hair that lasted so much longer in Texas than anywhere else. Bigger is better--or that's what a lot of people seem to believe. Don't get me started on secessionists, tea-party people, or rude politicians--my blog would turn into a book.