Beeeee-u-ti-ful

Okay, this is important. Please check out the link below. I'm so stoked! And mad!

http://www.americathebeautifuldoc.com/

It has come to be commonplace to hear young ladies of all shapes and sizes declare such tired phrases like "I have fat thighs!" or "I'm too chubby!" even though they are still in the midst of adolescence and assaulted by growth spurts regularly.  I look at these young gals and think, 'Wow, if they consider their skinny selves to be too plump, what must they think of a healthy sized mama like me?'

But then I wake up and remember I'm astonishingly beautiful no matter what I look like. I wish those young ladies would realize how truly beautiful and special they are, and stop picking themselves to pieces. 

When did things like substance and curves become unattractive? And why the propensity to desire to be like a Barbie doll-excessively thin, impossibly large bust, plastic skin and all?  I betcha didn't know that Barbie was modeled after a comic strip in German publication Bild Zeitung that was about a fictional prostitute, did ya? Do a basic Google search on Bild Lilli and find out more!

Sorry. Rabbit hole.

And just look at all the stuff we have to 'improve' ourselves. Take a walk around your local drug store and let the selection sink in...it's amazing! The quantity, the prices, the serums, lotions, powders, masks, foundations, lipstains, creams, hair colors, it's simply mind boggling how we ever got along without it all.

I'm reminded of the old lament--if only people would spend as much time on improving their insides as they do their outsides, maybe the world would be a better place.

Of course, that's not to say that improving your looks is a bad thing. I'm all for good grooming, staying clean, well-trimmed, and fresh. But how far is the leap from enhancing one's looks to all-out reconstruction of the body? It's when we get to extremes like plastic surgery for teens who don't like the way their nose looks, or bleaching a toddler's teeth so she can be better prepared to compete for a pageant that I begin to inwardly curdle.

Anyways, it's been the fashion to despise one's outer self for as long as, well...forever, I guess. As long as beauty products have existed, there has been a drive to perfect the outer image.

I remember when I was little, my mom used to frequent thrift and antique stores...the motive was to entertain her passion for acquiring anything eclectic, beautiful and useful. We had inherited a little wall-hanging chest of drawers that her grandma had purchased at a bargain because it was missing a drawer. Just the thing to keep buttons, spices, and other important doo-dads in, it had a nice flat surface that was of course covered in tiny, eclectic, beautiful and not so useful knick-knacks. One of those was a silver tube that caught her eye at a thrift store. When she brought it home, I popped open the cap, and was surprised to find lip balm. From the 1890's. Still in there. Yum. My sister asked about the flavor of the balm, suggesting that the primitive beauty product manufacturers of the time probably made it in beef stew flavor. Gross! Mom ended up placing it atop the little chest of drawers along with an ancient compact and a fabric flower. We never did find out what flavor it was. Probably a good thing!
 
Another good thing to look at and absorb is the fact that the average sized woman of today "is 5′4″, has a waist size of 34-35 inches and weighs between 140-150 lbs, with a dress size of 12-14" according to an article written by Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP on her WebMd expert blog, part of the WebMD site.If that is true, then why do the fashion editors constantly choose only one body type to represent what clothes look like on women? I'm all for diversity on this issue-why can't the fashion people choose a wide variety of body types to model for them? Pretty comes in all shapes and sizes, and I for one, would love to see what the new clothing lines would look like on a body that's closer in shape and size to mine instead of a tiny pre-teen!

Sorry to rant. Or, no, I'm not sorry. I'm happy to have my little piece of cyberspace in which to position my soapbox, yell a while and shake my fist into the air, then return to my daily routine.

Now for a recipe of dynamic, voluptuous proportions. I did some research online, read a few cheese making books, and blended a few techniques and through trial and error came up with a way that worked for me. It's the basic science of separating the cream and the water that gets you to the point of cream cheese, and I'm not sure who has copyright on that process...anyways, here is the way we make:

HOMEMADE CREAM CHEESE

It's a lot simpler than it seems. Trust me!

First, get yourself a carton of sour cream, I prefer the full-fat variety. You will also need a wire strainer (One of those little ones, I have one about four inches across, and it hooks across a coffee mug perfectly.) or some cheesecloth.

In a small bowl, pour out all the sour cream that will fit in your strainer, and add a little salt or other flavoring. You could use anything savory or sweet, I guess. Just don't use too much of anything-a little goes a long way here.
Some fun flavor ideas might be:
cinnamon and sugar
sea salt
chili or cayenne pepper or paprika

chives and garlic powder
parsley or thyme
or use a dried soup mix like Lipton instant tomato, or garden veggie, etc.
(What the heck, make one of each and use them on plain bagels!)

Stir a bit, making sure your salt or spice gets distributed evenly. Transfer the seasoned sour cream into your little basket strainer or a few layers of cheesecloth. Place the basket strainer atop the rim of a large mug or a suitable bowl to catch the drips of water that will naturally occur. Or if you are using cheesecloth, I suppose you could tape the ends to the side of the drip-catching container. The idea is to suspend the sour cream over something that will collect the water that drips out of the cream.

Place this little set up somewhere in your fridge so it won't be disturbed for a while. Just tell the kids it's mommy's little science experiment, and it is going to be velvety and delicious once it's done.

Then let gravity do it's work. Check the consistency in a few days. You will be surprised how thick it gets! Depending on the temp you keep your fridge at, you could have cream cheese in as little as a week. Yay!

Once it is of a suitable thickness and consistency, it's ready for spreading! Discard the dripped out liquid, and break out the bagels!

Eat well, have fun, and love lots!
Antonia

Reviews and a Recipe

I just finished reading one of the best food-related books I have ever read.
I still hold The New York Times Cookbook high up on a pedestal, but it may come crashing down from it's gilded perch after I try some of the recipes and ideas from The Flavor Thesaurus, by brilliant author Niki Segnit. Niki presents food and it's flavors as an artist would her paints, color-wheel style. The individual colors are replaced by flavors-and it's a fascinating fresh perspective. She breaks down every imaginable flavor of food-using terms like woody, citrussy, earthy, and briny, among others, to describe how everything tastes. Then she goes ten steps further and suggests what seems like thousands of possible flavor combinations within her 'flavor wheel'. Nothing is exempt or forgotten-she devotes an entire section, for instance, to Anise, and how it pairs with all kinds of foods, many of which I would never have thought of or considered.

Segnit also offers some unusual stories and anecdotes on meals and preparation.The recipes, if you can call them that, are actually little gem-like stories of how she found or experienced food combinations, and tales of discoveries of impeccable joining of flavors. This woman knows hot to eat, and she's not afraid to say it.

The author presents a whole new way of looking at sustenance altogether-possibilities abound whether you are a meat-lover, vegan, vegetarian, have gluten concerns, are frugal or lavish, or just want to satisfy your appetite with something other than your regular rotation of meals. Well worth the read. I liked reading chapters before going grocery shopping. It got my mind whirling.

I have also fallen in love...with ceramic knives. I first spied them on the Simply Ming cooking show-he was slicing ahi tuna into paper thin slices or something-and I vowed some day I would try them. Ceramic made all kinds of prep tasks look effortless. My husband Bill recently found a small selection at, of all places, Harbor Freight, (known for it's selection of contractor-type tools) so he surprised me with a treat. They were ridiculously inexpensive, and very nice. I think the mid-sized one cost him about ten bucks.

 My new ceramic lovelies!

Slicing through a raw potato was like cutting room-temperature butter. They are incredibly sharp! Cutting veggies the other night, I had one of those 'oh that was close' moments. I somehow managed to just ever-so-lightly nick my open palm, quite by accident. Sometimes I get in my own way, it seems! At first I thought, I'm fine, just got the surface. Not! Further inspection proved a tiny, precision cut that indeed did qualify for a band-aid. These beauties can be very unforgiving with careless use, so I found.

Nontheless, I anticipate many years of faithful service from these svelte little knives. 

Today's food idea, then. Oddly enough, it does not require ultra-sharp knives, but it is fun to make on a cold day anyways. Since it's kinda gloomy out today, an homage to my Grandpa, Giacomo, who lived in the reigon of Italy called Tornimparte, L'Aquila. I believe the province or county, as we'd call it, was Abruzzo. Here is a reigonal dish that will warm your tummy. 

Scripelle M'Busse

Whisk the following together:

4 large eggs, room temperature

½ cup milk

½ cup flour (wheat flour yelds interesting results)

handful of fresh herbs, chopped (parsley, thyme or basil)

salt & pepper to taste

Fry 2 tbsp. batter at a time, forming small crepes. Fry until lightly browned on both sides and egg is set. Remove crepe from the skillet and fill with grated pecorino cheese, roll tightly, and place in a greased baking dish. Pour some dribbles chicken broth over, just enough to dampen, but certainly not flood your pan or dish. Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle more cheese on top and serve. Makes enough to fill a 9 X 9 baking pan. These are delightful with Italian sausage on the side. 

Eat well, have fun, and love lots!
~Antonia

Ohhhh Fuuuuuudge!

Remember in that movie, A Christmas Story, when Ralphie (as played by Peter Billingsley), was helping his Old Man change the tire on the family car? And he accidentally ended up throwing the lug nuts out into the snowy street?

Well, it hasn't been that kinda day for me. Actually, I was pretty productive. Chauffeur kids to outing, go home, clean house, put big pot of corned beef on to boil for tomorrows sammiches, scrub kitchen some more, make bread, do a thousand dishes, order a pizza for dinner, (hey, even I like to indulge at times and allow someone else to cook!), and set about making fudge.

During Christmas, I asked my dear brother-in-law, Jim, to pick up some powdered sugar on the way over to our house for the big celebration. I had made some dessert or other, and had completely run out of the lovely stuff. It usually works that way with me--it either rains or pours. At one point I went through a spate of pie making, so I kept on buying cinnamon...I ended up with about 5 jars of the stuff. But, I digress...

So, I asked Uncle Jim, as he's fondly referred to, to bring some over. He's a really nice man, and he works at a well-known-food-megastore-warehouse-open-to-the-public-wow-I-never-have-seen-such-a-huge-jar-of-pickles-kinda place.

Long story short, I now am the proud owner of a five-pound bag of powdered sugar which now lives in my freezer. I have yet to name it, but I am taking suggestions.

What to do with that much powdered sugar, one may ask...I say, make fudge!

Three Kinds of Fudge
Adapted from a recipe given to me by Sharon H., a loooong time ago. Seriously-the piece of paper it's printed on is hideous looking. But those are the best kinds-used, re-used, folded over and over, jammed into cook-books time and again, coffee rings adorning it. I think my thumbprint in chocolate sauce is on it. You get the picture.

In a saucepan, pour 3/4 cup of milk. Add one and a half sticks of butter, (not margarine, under any circumstances!), and three packages of chocolate pudding mix. While stirring ALL THE TIME, bring to a boil, and boil one minute. Turn off the heat, and add a tablespoon of vanilla, and enough powdered sugar until the mixture starts to become stiff and lift away from the pan. Add nuts if you must, but I prefer not to. This is some good basic fudge right there, but now let's play.

Variation #1 stir in vigorously (it gets kinda thick) one cup of natural peanut butter (unsweetened-no added goop-the kind you have to refrigerate and stir before using because it will separate) just after removing from the stove and just before adding the powdered sugar.

Variation #2 stir in completely one cup of cream cheese just after removing from the stove and just before adding the powdered sugar.

Again, you will know you have arm muscles after making any of these recipes.

Pour into a wax-paper lined 9"x9"-ish pan and set in the fridge. Once it's set firm, cut into squares, and enjoy! I think it's best to keep this in the fridge, just to keep it nice and firm.

Go ahead, you can make it, it's easy! I triple-dog-dare-ya!
Eat well, have fun, and love lots,
Antonia

Penne with Carbonara

Woo hoo! Thanks to Food Renegade for putting this link out there...check out the food-blog carnival-fun at http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-august-5th/

In honor of what would have been Grandma Nancy's umpteenth birthday, I made some lovely pasta tonight. When she was five years old, Nancy (the Americanized version of her real name, Annunziata) traveled across the Atlantic in the early 1900's with her mama, Anna Theresa, from Sulmona, near Rocca, In Italy. La Rocca, as it is called, is a beautiful town built atop a plateau that has a huge ravine on each side. (The ravines are dried up remains of rivers called the Lavino and Lanello.) It's simply enormous, and amazing that they all survive atop the oddly flat perch in the sky, looking at the Majella mountains. There the people used to keep sheep, and make lovely cheese and other delicacies. It is mostly empty now, as most of the former inhabitants have emigrated to other parts. It is said, however, that occasionally you can find pecorino cheese to purchase there, which is made from the local sheep and goats which graze nearby. Pecorino is a wonderful ingredient in the following dish:

Penne with Carbonara

In a skillet, fry four strips of bacon until crisp and brown, but not burned. Turn your flame off. Put the bacon aside and let it rest on paper towels so the grease absorbs out. Drain the grease from your pan, and make sure you do not drip any to the underside of your pan. Don't want a grease-fire! I found this out the hard way. Relight the fire to a low flame, and add the following to saute-three tablespoons of butter, three cloves chopped garlic, a quarter of finely chopped onion, and stir until butter is melted. Then add three slices of mozzarella, and half a cup of cream or whole milk. stir until the cheese melts. Then add several good shakes of grated parmesan or pecorino, and stir until all the cheese is absorbed. Coarsely chop the bacon, and put it back in the pan. Add a can of crushed tomatoes, about a half cup at a time. Stir, stir, stir. Add, finally, a few good grinds of black pepper, and a smattering of marjoram and basil. Serve over penne pasta cooked al dente, and enjoy. Of course this is altered Carbonara, because of the addition of tomatoes. I put it in there because I love them so!Perhaps I feel they redeem all that lovely fat from the bacon, the butter and the cream. Oh, and the cheese, too....

Oh well.

Yeah, who am I kidding, it's comfort food.

Eat well, have fun, and love lots!
~Antonia

Chucks Challenge

I went to the library with a group of friends recently. We had lots of fun just hanging out, and then took a nice walk. When me and a young friend realized we had almost identical shoes on, we both thought it would be fun to see how many of you can identify the real All Stars, and the knock-offs.

Now for something completely different...

A few friends have requested my recipe for that most wonderful of comfort foods that hails from many villages in Africa. It is basically rice cooked with veggies and whatever kind of meat you may have. One of my favorite authors, Neil Peart, fondly dubbed the dish, "Rice With Junk on it." Mr. Peart is not only a fine writer, but also the fantastic drummer from the Canadian band known as Rush. What these three guys have accomplished in music is amazing, and Neil's books are as great as his insightful lyric writing and percussion skills. His website is pretty cool too--check out the "Bubba's Bar and Grill" section of his website, he's quite the foodie!

The dish in question is merely an adaptation of a meal frequently described in Peart's book, The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa. In the book, Peart tells many a tale of his travel group, and some of the parts I liked best were the passages he wrote about the food he ate while on his journey. Rice with junk on it was the name given to a common dish he was served after exhausting days on the bike trail. As far as I know, no 'official' recipe exists for it, which makes it all the more appealing. Kinda goes with the spirit of cooking I love to embrace. Take what you have, and make it mouthwatering.

So, for Mr. Peart, here is my version of Rice with junk on it. Thank you sir, for writing about this fun dish.

In a big skillet or pot, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add one pound of meat, your choice. Grass-fed beef is nice, either ground, chunks, or strips. Chicken works well too. I suppose you could use a pile of bacon or proscuitto if you are feeling fancy and your cholesterol count allows. Throw in some chopped onion or garlic if you like. Add some savory spices, like cracked pepper, or perhaps some oregano or marjoram. Cook the meat until it is browned. Strain off the fat if you wish, and add one cup of rice, and two cups of water or broth. At this point you can add veggies, but if you do, make sure you keep an eye on it so that you can add more liquid if it looks like it's getting too dry. Let the water come to a boil, cover the pot with a lid, and lower the heat until the flame is very low. Let it sit that way for about thirty minutes, and then turn off the heat. Let it rest five minutes, and voila! Rice with junk on it. Elegant, simple and most importantly, yummy.

This pairs great with a fresh green salad and a good helping of Rush music. You can also make it in the crock pot if you wish. Just throw all the ingredients into the crock and let it simmer on low for a good long while. We have this at least once a month.

To close, here is my little ditty called "Crock-pot prayer", from way back when I first became a mama, first published in that little zine that smacks of literary brilliance, Hip MaMa. Read this one to the cadence of the "this is my rifle' prayer as spoken en masse in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" when the soldiers are going to bed. 

Crock-Pot Prayer

This is my crock-pot.

 There are many like it, but this one is mine. My crock-pot is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my crock-pot is useless. Without my crock-pot, I am useless. I must cut my vegetables true, I must use the temperature gague correctly, or eat fast food, which is trying to kill my family. If we are to eat dinner at all in this house, I must cook crock-pot meals-I will!

Before God, I swear this creed-my crock pot and myself are defenders of good nutrition, we are masters of our enemy-junk food. We are the saviours of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace and quiet and time enough to do everything  that I must do in 24 hours a day and still get dinner on the table before 10 o'clock at night. AMEN!

Eat well, have fun, love lots!

Antonia

phun with phood phrases

Or, fun with food frases. I thought it might be fun to see how many commonly used 'food phrases' I could come up with.
Anyways...here are a few of my favorites:
walking on eggshells
don't open up that can of worms
no use crying over spilled (or spilt, depending upon where you grew up, I suppose) milk
I have egg on my face
after the fight, his face looked like hamburger
what a sour grapes attitude!
this won't amount to a hill of beans
when life gives you lemons, make lemonade
little girls are made with sugar, spice and everything nice (kinda like a good merlot?)
can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs (said during the middle of a crisis)
hey, sugar!
she's such a cheesehead
let them eat cake!
life is like a bowl of cherries
you are a peach!
I am going bananas
it's like pea soup out there

Can you think of any others??  I'd love to hear 'em.

And in honor of that last phrase, here is my recipe for Split Pea Soop.
My Nana Eleanor, the former Soup Queen of DuPage County, really likes this one.


Cover a hambone in water and add a bay leaf in a big stockpot. Boil until the water starts to evaporate and you are left with about half your original amount.
Strain your liquid, reserving it. Trim meat as desired from the hambone, (discard it after you are through trimming the meat off), and add to the liquid. Place the liquid and meat scraps back in the stock pot and add the following:

4 or 5 cans chicken broth (kinda gauge this from your meat stock you just made.)

about 1 cup dried split green peas that have been picked over and washed (sometimes little stones get in there!)

Let that come up to a boil and let it continue for at least 15 minutes. After that, bring the heat down so the soup is simmering. Watch that the foam from the fat of the ham doesn't cause a spill or a boil over-I usually cover it at this point, and keep a watchful eye over it.

While this is continuing to simmer, start chopping some veggies. Add them as you go.

1 chopped onion

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 carrots, chopped

at least 3 cloves garlic, chopped

Simmer until your peas are starting to impart a lovely green color to the broth. At that point they should be breaking down and disintegrating. If it is not enough, add more chicken broth. This will not detract from the richness at all.

This rocks with a loaf of garlic bread and a fresh green salad on the side.

Have fun, eat well, love lots,
~Antonia

My baby's a blogger.

Well, it's official! Olivia is now blogging. Come check out her interpretations of life as a homeschooled teenager at:
scramblede.blogspot.com

I was wondering when she'd catch the writing bug...part of the beauty of learning at home is that she can learn things at her own pace. Personally, I'd much rather she learn things like journalism, creative writing, composition and grammar through real-life experiences than by filling out endless facts on worksheet pages that will only be remembered for a test and then possibly forgotten. (I know, I'm cynical- of course that NEVER happens!)

Ok, off the soapbox now.

In other news, here is a fabulous picture that I took at our recent homeschool trip to the Aurora Fire House Museum. 

For those of you without x-ray vision, it reads: "I AM OLD...please do not climb on me."
I found it on an antique fire truck, but I think it would look great on a tee-shirt. Just sayin'.


Ah yes, food....I have been neglecting my duties here. So right now I am looking for great gluten-free recipes to share with my good friend who just found out her little girl has that Celiac thingie...not fun! I found a good one that I will make this weekend for retreat with my ladies.

Sausage Rosotto

In a large stockpot, place a half a package of Arborio fino rice and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Gently stir over medium heat for about a minute. Then add 6 cups of chicken broth, one cup at a time. When the broth has been absorbed and your pan is getting dry again, add another cup and stir it in. This is a very needy dish to make, as it requires a lot of attention. While you are waiting in between doses of broth, in a separate pan saute some Italian sausage over medium heat. Cook this until it is all done and the sausage is no longer pink inside. 

Then add some chopped onion, garlic and green pepper if you wish, cooking until the veggies are a bit limp, but not completely soggy. Cooked crisp, I guess.


When all 6 cups of broth have been added and absorbed, then cut up the sausage and add it and the sauteed veggies into the rice pot. Add about a cup of parmesan cheese and a bit more broth, maybe some parsley or basil, black pepper to taste, and VOILA! Risotto. Also good with cooked cubed chicken.


In the meantime, eat well, have fun and love lots!

Antonia