It's All About Inspiration

This was the sunrise sky this morning at about 6:30a.m., it looked especially inspiring....

The weather forecast is for a hot and humid days and weekends, so I was inspired to make tonight's dinner early in the morning, so I did, and all was ready by 10:00a.m. This will also be our lunch tomorrow and probably dinner Monday night. We have a BBQ on Sunday to attend, so don't need to worry about a fancy Sunday dinner. Anyway, I just need to re-heat it in the microwave. As I said, temps expected in the mid-90's not really too hot for July in So. Calif., but too hot to cook spaghetti sauce and boil the noodles! I just cooked the noodles and sprayed them with a little non-stick spray before covering and storing them I've done this plenty of times and you just have to heat up your portion sizes.......

My sauce bubbling away, smelling wonderful so far....

Main ingredients. Not shown is, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, pineapple extract, water. Cooked sausages Sliced raw "sausage" Marinated for one day in fridge tightly wrapped. Speaking of inspiration, I read Rita Ho's friend, Gertrude Wan's, food blog, "My Kitchen Snippets" (if I knew how to link it, I would). She wrote a wonderful recipe the other day for tangy sweet and spicy chicken legs which I tried (with thighs and baked instead of grilled since I have no grill). The seasoning and taste reminded me so much of the flavors of linguica, I decided I would like to try making my own linguica to use a a base for my father's infamous spaghetti sauce recipe. Years ago, I learned a recipe for home made Mexican chorizo, and it always tastes good, so with just a few changes in the seasonings, I figured it couldn't be bad..... Linguica is a Portuguese sausage flavored with garlic and paprika, sometimes vinegar or sherry, it's put into casings and smoked, but it still has to be cooked. My Dad's father was 100% Portuguese from Madeira. My Dad used to make his spaghetti sauce quite often as we grew up and he eventually perfected it and wrote the recipe down. I have made it lots and lots of times, true to his instructions, but of course, everyone has their own version. I changed around a few ingredients, did a little web research and came up with this: Homemade Linquica "Sausage"

1 pound lean ground pork

2 tsp. vegetable oil 1 tsp. chili powder

1 Tblsp. chopped garlic (I use minced jarred)

2 Tblsp. brown sugar

4 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar

1 Tblsp. paprika (I used smoked to give the smokey flavor of real linguica)

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all the seasonings in a zip-lock bag or other plastic bag, then crumble in the pork, really mix well by massaging all the seasonings together with the meat. Push into a log shape, wrap tightly, then place in another bag, roll up, place in fridge for at least 8 hours, up to 3 days.

Slice the log into 12-14 pieces, saute in a little olive oil till browned on both sides and cooked through, try to keep the pieces from breaking apart by not crowding them and flipping only once.

Remove to a platter. (I cut them in half before adding to the sauce)

Linguica Spaghetti Sauce (kinda like my Dad's)

1 large can tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

1/2 cup Madeira wine or sherry

one half a soft-ball sized sweet onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 teasp. cinnamon

1/4 teasp. red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

1 teasp. pineapple extract

1/2 cup water

1 recipe cooked linguica

After you cook the meat and remove it, in the same pan, saute the onions, cover for about 3 minutes to sweat them, add in the sausage, pour wine over to deglaze, add the sauce, paste, and rest of seasonings, stir gently, bring to a boil, stir gently, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for one to one and a half hours, tip lid toward the end, if sauce is too thin. Cool in pot for about 1/2 hour, spoon into plastic container, store in fridge till ready to serve for dinner. Meanwhile, cook your noodles (we like Barilla thick spaghetti, one pound). For dinner, spoon out desired amount of pasta and microwave, covered, with a little water, then microwave desired amount of sauce, pour over pasta and serve with garlic bread and freshly grated Parmesean cheese.

Thank you Dad and Gert for your inspiration. And thank you morning sky for inspiring me to get cooking early. I even had time to stew together some fresh strawberries and rhubarb to make a crisp in the morning. I cleaned as I went so the kitchen is not even that big of a mess! A nice weekend in store here in paradise.....

Bunnies, Breakfast, and Cattin'

I really just wanted to post the cottontail bunny pictures, but just had to include this shot of my favorite breakfast food which I have been eating almost every day.

As for the bunnies, they show up every morning and evening in our front and back yard to graze on the grass. We usually see two babies and three to four adults. They are so fun to watch and the babies come in quite close. I have some potted plants on the patio and you can tell the ones they nibble on during the night as they leave their calling pebbles all around! We really don't mind that they eat my plants, they are just so darn cute! Miss Kitty seems to be calmed by them rather than hyped up by the baby squirrels at the other house.

Now......this food.....I am telling you, is so good, I think I will never tire of it. I have had it for a snack, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For dinner, I add a can of tuna to the top and make two for Steve.

Here's how it's made (incidentally, this is my take on an old Weight Watcher's recipe which does not call for the lemon, balsamic, salt, or olive oil, but I needed a little more flavor to really enjoy it).

Take a nice piece of rye bread and toast it till it's nice and crunchy, (I like Orowheat Russian Rye, or Trader Joe's Bavarian Rye)

Spread it with the desired amount of cottage cheese, not too much, about 1/4 cup, (I exclusively use Knudsen in the big yellow tub.)

Slice up a nice tomato (on the vine type) and place the slices on the cottage cheese.

Sprinkle the juice of 1/2 of a lemon all over.

Sprinkle with a few dashes of good balsamic vinegar.

Grind a good amount of black pepper over, and sprinkle with a little Beau Monde Seasoning, or celery salt, then a little more sea salt to taste, tomatoes need salt in my opinion.

Sprinkle a scant (about 1 tsp.) EVOO over and eat like a slice of pizza.

You will be hooked in no time. BTW that is a small paper plate, small, golfball-sized tomato, and small slice of bread, and it is not fattening, and in fact I have been losing weight on this food. Between that and the sugar-free iced coffee which I make daily and keep sipping on out of fridge, I think I will survive the hot summer here in paradise.

I thought you would like to see this cute video of Miss Kitty greeting Steve, this is an almost daily ritual they do after he gets home from work and changes into comfy clothes; she loves her some Steve!

Welcome to My World

This is the "after" effect of her Holodeck experience, she's one happy kitty here.

This is her getting ready to perch on her lookout....



This is just a cool picture af a lizard on a rock out back, she would love to chase that lizard.....



This is a partial look the side view she sees...... looking down into the neighbor' s house in the forefront...the picture does not do the view justice.




Mt. Miguel, isn't it gorgeous here in Paradise?
=^..^=

When Miss Kitty gets restless from not being able to be an outside kitty (we have "Coyote Alley" at the back of the property), we let her out into the garage where there is a large picture window with a gorgeous view looking out over to Mt. Miguel. She has the best view in the house....she loves to rest there for hours and hours whilst thinking happy kitty thoughts,and taking happy kitty catnaps.....We call it the Holodeck, you know, from "Start Trek Next Generation"....I think I would like to just rest there for hours and hours and stare at the views and take happy kitty catnaps.......

Nothing But the Best

Sirloin Burgers for lunchFilet Mignon for Breakfast

All the Fixins

Perfectly cooked!

Bacon and mushrooms on top with Texas Toast, Strawberries and Raspberries

My Dad always liked to have nothing but the best. Last Sunday was Father's day and I wish my Dad were here to enjoy these nice meals, I know he would have loved it. We thought about our Dads all day Sunday and enjoyed these meals in their honor.....

Sometimes You Gotta Have It

Mac "N Cheese of course, or in this case, penne n' cheese. It needed hot sauce.

I have a kind of "go to" recipe I use for mac 'n cheese. I make it occasionally when I have an excess of milk or half and half, plus various selections of cheeses that have accumulated, and yummy breadcrumbs. Today, it is actually raining out, I have the aforementioned supplies and a hunger crave for it. Any pasta will do I think and penne is what I have. Most cheeses will do, in this case I used smoked gouda, mexican blend shredded, velveeta, and jalapeno jack.
The breadcrumbs were two leftover ends of a Bavarian Rye I enjoy from Trader Joe's, it seems to last a long time in the cupboard, it makes wonderful toast with cottage cheese spread on it for a quick breakfast.

Anyway, as for the recipe, it's really simple, I call it Christine's Two-Timin" Mac 'N Cheese, because it uses 2 for each measure:

2 scant cups dry pasta

2 Tbls. butter

2 Tbls flour

2 cups milk, or half and half, or combination

2 cups cheese, any combination

dash salt

dash(es) hot sauce

2 Tbls fresh ground bread crumbs

Cooking spray, drizzle olive oil

Hot Sauce such as Louisiana for serving

Cook pasta in salted boiling water for about 10 - 11 minutes, while boiling make sauce:

Melt butter in saucepan, add flour, stirring, add milk, one cup at a time, stirring until thickened and boiling. Add cheeses, lower heat, continue stirring while melting, till smooth. Season with salt and hot sauce. Drain pasta, add to sauce, turn into sprayed baking dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs drizzled with olive oil. Bake in 400 degree oven (pre-heated) for about 20 to 25 minutes till bubbly. Let rest about 10 minutes, dish up and sprinkle with hot sauce.

Next

Uploading videos takes forever it seems, there must be a better way....here goes with another original by Steve, "Got My Mind Made Up On You".

.....that timed out after 2 hours......too bad, it's good....have to try again......well, happened again, so long technology for tonight!

Now I know that the videos are too big to upload, has to be less than 100MB, so here is one that may work, it's the group singing the birthday song to Bill.

Roadhouse Rangers

Roadhouse Rangers

John Knadle, Steve Zarp, Chris Dawes, Bill Zarp

June 13, 2009 - Bill's Birthday party








"Back in the USA", I'm so glad I'm livin' in the USA, I'm so glad.........






Bill Zarp's birthday playing lead guitar, songwriter, arranger, back-up vocals, band leader, music guru





Steve Zarp playing bass, lead singer, songwriter, a natural musician

I'm trying to post videos on Picasa that I took at last Saturday's birthday party (held at and for Steve's older brother, Bill) but can't figure it out. I'll try posting to my blog.

I did post some of the pictures on picasa.

This video is of the girls, Cat, Pam, Julie and Virginia dancing to "Back in the USA".

We Done Did It...Again

Miss Kitty wondering where it all went......she was an angel and cooperated by staying behind closed doors in the bathroom the whole time....she just was resting quietly every time we checked on her.

Steve in our new garden.....

These guys really helped us, Ken, Scott, Daniel, and Steve (lead) from Sullivan/United moving. Steve (husband) got a referral from one of his patients he drives who worked for this company for 52 years! They really pulled through, very professional, friendly, safe, and hard workers. We ordered pizza from Poppa John's after arriving at the new place, they went nuts picking and eating the oranges!

I wished at that point I could split into about five people, directing traffic, also the neighbor and landlady stopped by during the mess and I lost track of some of the stuff while trying to be polite, I'm still looking for that one special box that holds the remote controls....sigh.....nothing broken though and very successful move.

Then we went back to pick up Miss Kitty and assess our work ahead, the kitchen and garage were still needing some moving and packing, yuck.....

This is the new garage, totally packed with boxes, the interior of course got all the furniture and some boxes placed, and some of those boxes you see are already empty at least!

We got a call (on Easter weekend) from our homeowner, that she needed money and was going to sell her home. She was giving us 30 days to move. At first, we were upset and sad at the prospect of moving again after having just completed a major move just over one year ago. (Steve and I cleaned our my parent's almost 30 year old estate packed with stuff, of course family had cherry picked it over first, but A LOT of stuff remained, thank you Goodwill and Grossmont Hospital Thrift Korral for accepting so much STUFF. ) Even with that, we still have too much stuff, some remaining unpacked and boxed up.

After my initial reaction, I sobbed for awhile, then got over it and faced our prospects and plans with renewed energy and enthusiasm. We immediately started the search for a place. Of course, I looked up our rental rights and found that after a one year lease, the owner has to give 60 days notice, but we did not want to go through having realtors coming around, so negotiated with her that we would get it done in 30 days and she offered to give us a gift of $500.00 for doing so and promised no realtors.

Well, after a little searching, we were fortunate found a real gem that matched our criteria and even saves up a whopping $5.00 a month, and......comes with a gardener included. We were put through quite a scrutiny by the owners who have just lovingly restored this 1960's 3 bed/2 bath (one pink and one blue) home to the way her mother had it. They had been burned by their previous renters, an older couple who apparently caused a lot of damage by drinking and smoking all day, then fighting all night!

We passed muster and of course agreed to her terms of keeping things nice, which we would do anyway. We were finally able to put all my plans in motion. I approached it like a project manager and all plans after that went like clockwork and we completed the move by May 10, within the 30 days. We totally cleaned out our previous home, which was exhausting, but we done did it! Thank God we only moved one mile away. It is in Mom and Dad's old neighborhood, so we feel right at home here. It is beautiful here in Paradise.

Time to move on....

Guess this will be my last post for awhile while I get busy with all the stuff I need to do. I do plan on blogging some more in the near future so I hope if you are reading along, you'll come back to visit later on....

The baby squirrels have gotten so big I can hardly tell them from their mother. Five of the eight survived and I suspect they will be moving on too in a few weeks. I will miss my baby squirrel family, they were a daily source of amusement and inspiration.

I Think Paul Would Approve

In my quest to clean out my fridge and pantry, I have been pretty good lately at using what I already have and tonight I had a frozen half pound of ground sirloin and a nice hunk of lettuce and a tomato. Needless to say, I like Paul's dressings and I must have 5 to 10 bottles of opened dressings taking up room in my door! Well, I decided to just combine them and mix them with another favorite, Wishbone French, so that's what I did. I hated throwing out the bottles, as I always felt a sense of comfort knowing I had so many Pauls in my fridge, but.......sigh.......

The dressing came out so good and I am determined not to buy any more until my new mixture is gone (now residing Paul lonely light Honey-Mustard bottle). In fact, I had the leftover salad for lunch and I love this combination of dressings, some light, some not, but I don't like a ton of dressing, and I also supplemented it with a few dashes of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, fresh pepper, YUM!

So, as far as the ground sirloin, I decided to make a recipe similar to how you would make Hamburger Helper. I had a cup of macaroni left, a wilted carrot, wilted celery, and 1/2 a wilted onion, half a can of tomato paste, 1/2 carton of questionable milk, 1/3 bottle of flat champagne, what else, well, you get the picture.....don't judge me.

I actually had made this recently and wrote it out, so I just made it again with a few adjustments:

This is the quick sauce, simmering away.

After about 30 minutes of simmering, added the cup of macaroni, salt, and more water. Cover and let simmer about 12 to 15 minutes, till nice and tender, stir in 1/4 cup Parmesan (freshly grated), and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Another turned-the-wrong-way picture.....grrr......sorry....anyway, nice and good dinner with leftovers ready for an easy Saturday night meal. Bake it this time in the toaster oven with a little olive oil and some extra cheese on top. How could you go wrong?

GRRR......



See how nice the dressing looks on the fresh lettuce and tomato, yes they were fresh. Paul would have loved this dinner I'll bet. Steve and I did.

Just turn your head again, sorry....

Here's my recipe for what I'm calling Stove Top Bolognese Sauce with Pasta

1/2 pound ground sirloin

2 strips thick bacon, sliced into strips

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 or 2 chopped celery stalks

1 peeled, chopped carrot

1 garlic clove, grated

2-3 T. tomato paste

1 cup beef broth or (bullion mixed with water)

1/3 - 1/2 cup Madeira, or other wine

1 cup milk

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

crushed red pepper flakes to taste

1 cup pasta, macaroni, penne, etc.

extra salt

1 cup water (or canned tomatoes) you need the sauce to be somewhat thin to absorb the pasta)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (fresh)

In skillet with lid, over medium heat, start to brown the beef and bacon, adding the onion, brown till fat is rendered from the bacon and meat is cooked, add in the carrots and celery, stir for about 5 minutes, add the garlic, stir 30 seconds, add the tomato paste, incorporate, then pour in wine and boil a little, a few minutes, till reduced a bit. Add in the broth, milk, give it a seasoning with salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Boil, then cover and simmer 15 to 30 minutes. Remove lid and add in one cup of water, and the macaroni. Boil, cover, and simmer 12 to 15 minutes, add the cheese, take off heat, and let sit with lid on for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with lettuce and tomato salad, with dressing of choice.

I hope you try my recipe sometime when you have to clean out your fridge.....