Salad: The Rule of Five

With cooking, it’s taken me many years to realize that a recipe doesn’t need a thousand ingredients to be good. Generally the simpler the recipe the better. This rule, however, does not apply to salad. Anyone who’s ever been to a good salad buffet (thinking Sweet Tomatoes here) knows what I mean.  In order to be considered an “awesome salad” it will usually fall into my Rule of Five.  Lettuce + 5 or more items = awesome salad.  Here are some examples of awesome salads:

Chinese Chicken Poppy Seed Salad:

Lettuce  (Romaine is what I use)

Brianna’s Poppy Seed Dressing

Broccoli Slaw

Toasted almonds

Crunchy chow mein noodles (or the thin crisp rice noodles if you’re Nancy)

Grilled chicken breast

Bell Pepper (red, orange, yellow or green)

Pear & Candied Walnut Salad:

Lettuce (Baby greens/spring mix)

Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing (Kraft Light Done Right Raspberry Vinaigrette)

Candied Walnuts

Pears

Craisins

Shaved Parmesan cheese

Crasin Goat Cheese Salad -1 item short, but the goat cheese is so rich I think it counts as 2 items:

Lettuce (romaine again)

Brianna’s Poppy seed dressing

Craisins

Crumbled Goat Cheese

Walnuts

French Dressing Veggie Salad:

Lettuce

French Dressing (hard to find French these days- it’s the red tomato-y dressing)

Carrots

Green Onion

Cucumber

Tomato

Whatever other veggies you have around: Cauliflower, Broccoli, etc

Mexican Salad:

Lettuce

Ranch dressing

Chunky Salsa

Black Beans

Tomato

Corn

Black Olives

Tortilla chips

Grilled chicken (optional)

Caprese Salad:

(no lettuce)

Tomato

Mozzarella

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Basil (fresh if you can swing it- dried if you can’t)

Salt & Pepper

Worth Fighting For

Disney’s Mulan. Who would have thought one movie could have so many applicable themes. The title of my blog was inspired by the song “A Girl Worth Fighting For” or as Natalie says “A Gerber Funny More” – but that’s a different story.  Mulan reminds me a lot of myself: she puts family first in her life, she struggles with becoming the person she knows is inside her, but she is still strong in spirit (strong willed perhaps?).

So what is worth fighting for?  Possessions are fleeting, friends can come and go (especially when you move a lot), but God willing these three things will always be with me: Faith, Family, and Self.

On Faith- I am a Christian. <Insert Apostles Creed>  This blog won’t be preachy- it’s about my life and being a follower of Christ is part of my life.  I’m by no means a perfect person. I struggle just like everyone else.

On Family –  Toby and Natalie are my life. They are the fist thing I think of when I ponder: what is worth fighting for?  I adore them, they make me laugh and smile, they make me angry, they make me cry with happiness as well as frustration, they are everything good to me.  I expect to be blogging about my family quite a bit- especially my daughter who does and says the most hilarious stuff.  Stuff about Toby I will keep to a minimum to respect his privacy.

On Self:  I think some may wonder if fighting for “self” isn’t just a selfish thought, but if you don’t fight for you, then who will?  As far as the blog goes- this will manifest itself in talking about the things I love to do like cooking or history/archeology. It will also be things I struggle with – like my continuous battle with weight. It will also be about successes and maybe things I’ve learned.  

So with that said: Let the Blogging Begin!  

Chopin's Op 64 No 2

I started playing the piano at age 12. Unfortunately, I have not been consistent in playing for all these years. The desire to play comes in waves for me. This time this piece of music got into my head and I just couldn't shake it. Chopin's Valse Op 64, No 2.  Chopin was an amazing pianist and composer, however his creativity in naming his pieces lacks immensely. It’s hard to get excited about a piece called Opus 64, No. 2. However, in spite of it's terrible name it is an amazingly beautiful piece. Listen here:

You Tube video of Chopin's Op 64 No 2

      I have never been interested in Chopin mostly because his stuff is just really difficult, but I just can't get it out of my head.  So bless my husband, he helped me drag down my digital piano from upstairs and here I am, at it again. As per the usual steps I pull out all the stuff I used to know how to play and see how terrible I do.   It’s a little scary at first, but it seems to come back quick.  All that said, this piece may still be a bit beyond my ability, but the way I see it, there’s no harm in trying -well maybe a little to the ears of those listening.  Wish me luck in my newest adventure!

Culinary Anthropology

     So I love history and archeology. I actually considered archeology has a career at one point in my life. While that’s not the direction I went, it still remains a passion of mine.  I recently discovered two wonderful news sites for keeping up on the latest archeological discoveries.  Archeological News from Archeology Magazine  and Discovery News

The discovery.com one also has interesting stories about earth, space, dinosaurs, and tech in addition to my archeology and history love.

       A recent article in Discovery News was discussing a recent discovery that showed that early humans were “grinding their own flour and preparing vegetables for meals at least 30,000 years ago” Evidence suggests that they made their flour mainly out of ground cattails which apparently tastes similar to corn. It was probably made into some type of flatbread cooked on a hot stone.   Reading this article I can’t help but think- I wonder what that tasted like?

     Another love of mine is food and cooking. I read a little blurb in my October 2010 edition of Trader Joe's “Fearless Flyer” that their Bavarian Bratwursts are in- they are “made in Germany in the traditional style. Very traditional. So traditional that the recipe hasn’t changed since 1313!”  How cool is that? So I get this brilliant idea of- I wonder if there is a field of study on the history of food, historical recipes, perhaps a food historian? It turns out there is- it’s called a Culinary Anthropologist. It’s definitely not a mainstream for anthropology but there seem to be some anthropologists out there that do have expertise in said field.  

      A little more research and I undercover a website, with ancient recipes and links to Roman, Medieval, Elizabethan, and the list goes on and on into other cultures- modern and of old.  http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/ The ancient recipe section, claims: “These are all recipes from the 'ancient' periods of human history; essentially the Stone, Bronze and early Iron ages. These recipes are either re-created from archaeological evidence or they are based on traditional cooking methods still used by peoples elsewhere on the globe.” It does give the limitation that while we can know the ingredients are authentic through archeological evidence, knowing how they were precisely put together remains to our best estimation. Unfortunately cave drawings do not include recipe books.  Still despite it’s limitations I still find the site and recipes listed fascinating.  Sign me up for Celtic Pork and Apple stew, or maybe some Sweet Bean Cakes.

      So who’s coming over for dinner?

Food: the Language of Love

Eagerly anticipating the return of my husband after a week long business trip- my first thoughts go to- “I should make him a nice dinner.  I should make sure he has his favorite cookies.”   I have discovered that like many women –including my mother in law, I show my love through food.  If I cook for you, then you are dear to me.  Keep this in mind my friends and family: spontaneous gifts of food means that you are special. =)  To clarify, not receiving gifts of food usually means I’m just very busy and not that I don’t like you.  Love and Hugs to all my friends and family! Today, if I could cook for you I would make you: Peanut Butter Cookies  -except for Toby, m’love, you get Chocolate Chip.

“Gerber Funny More”

So back to Disney’s Mulan- one of the songs the soldiers sing while encamped is about having “a girl worth fighting for”. While singing with my darling daughter, who had taken an interest in said movie, I sing the line “a girl worth fighting for.”  She promptly corrects me saying that the line is in fact “A Gerber Funny More.” In my wisdom I try to reason with a 4 year old explaining that those lyrics don’t really make sense, going on to explain what the song is about and why they are saying “a girl worth fighting for.”  As you probably already know, reasoning with a 4 year old is pretty much a useless endeavor.  She continued to stubbornly and vehemently disagree with me. That day we both learned a lesson about “agreeing to disagree” and I for the first time saw that my daughter was going to be as stubborn and strong willed as me.  Yikes!