anniemiz

Mmm Mmm Monday: Apple Crumb Pie

Kevin made this tasty apple crumb pie (recipe from allrecipes) to bring to Thanksgiving Dinner.  We went to Kevin's brother, Chris, and Chris's family, wife Kirsten and daughters Ashley and Sydney.  He followed the recipe exactly so I'll just copy and paste it below.

Ingredients

• Pastry for a single-crust 9-inch pie (Kevin made the crust from a recipe at allrecipes, but I can't find the particular recipe at the moment)
• 6 cups chopped, peeled tart apples
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cold butter (he added a little more butter)

Instructions

1. Line a 9-in. pie plate with pastry; flute edges. In a large bowl, combine the apples, butter, sour cream, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon into pastry shell. For topping, combine flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling.
2. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the apples are tender. Cool on a wire rack.

He also broiled the pie for a few minutes after baking in order to brown the top a little.

Workout Wednesday: Cred

I seem to have gotten my first workout-related injury, thereby immediately earning some serious workout cred (in my mind, at least).  This injury's worse than the bowling injury that beset my right middle finger for entirely too long, keeping me away from the lanes for over a year and putting a serious crimp in my bird flipping.  I think I did something to my Achilles tendon.  This website is very informative about Achilles injuries and notes the symptoms:

• Pain—aching, stiffness, soreness, or tenderness—within the tendon. This may occur anywhere along the tendon’s path, beginning with the narrow area directly above the heel upward to the region just below the calf muscle. Often pain appears upon arising in the morning or after periods of rest, then improves somewhat with motion but later worsens with increased activity.
• Tenderness , or sometimes intense pain, when the sides of the tendon are squeezed.  There is less tenderness, however, when pressing directly on the back of the tendon.
• When the disorder progresses to degeneration, the tendon may become enlarged and may develop nodules in the area where the tissue is damaged.

I have the first two; fortunately, I haven't noticed the third thing yet.  I started feeling sore about a month or so ago and mentioned it to Mike the Trainer Guy who cut out the impactful exercises.  In the past, we had discussed doing an outdoor session at the high school track, but never got around to doing it.  It came up again, but Mike said I prolly didn't want to do it what with my leg hurting and all.  I said, Let's do it!  How bad can it hurt?

We had the session this past Saturday and by that afternoon my leg hurt, as they say in the vernacular, like a mofo.  I did the RICE thing (rest, ice, compression, elevation) -- actually, I did the RCCE thing bc I didn't have ice cubes so used a bag of frozen corn kernels instead -- and that helped somewhat, but still!  And the next morning!  Who knew a body part could be so sore?!  Sunday, I woke up -- so far, so good -- sat up and swung my feet to the side of the bed and owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Merely hanging my leg unsupported in the air hurt!  I took more aspirin and did the RICE thing some more, but basically shuffled around the house like somebody's ogre sidekick.  Fortunately, it felt much better by Monday morning.  Oy.  I was just about to write, 'I'll never be that stupid again', but didn't bc that's not true.  I will be at least that stupid again and most likely more stupid, but perhaps I can confidently say I won't be that stupid in that particular way again.

St. John's Light on Main

St. John's Episcocal Church is located at 226 Cornelia St. in Boonton.  A few months ago they opened up a storefront at 506 Main St. in Boonton, just a few blocks away from where I work.  It's a community outreach kind of thing called St. John's Light on Main.  This picture is from their grand opening and came from their website.

 

I don't know the people although the woman 2nd from the right in the light blue shirt is The Rev. Laurie Wurm, St. John's Rector.  We've been to a couple of their fundraising dinners (which have been delicious!) and she's said a few words there.  The guy on the left in the back with the black shirt on has also been working the dinners and he's always so happy and smiling, just like in this picture.  Good for him!

There was something about the name that struck me as a little different, but I couldn't put my finger on it until Kevin pointed out that the name -- St. John's Light -- sounds like a light beer.  (Now 20% more fulfilling!)  I could certainly see their logo on a beer can or bottle:

 

I stopped in on my walk home from work today, just to check out the joint.  I had traded emails with Rev. Wurm to get info on the after school homework help and internet access that I'd read they offer.  I figured it'd be a good resource to know about for some of our younger patrons.  Tonight I went to check out the place itself.

It's a very cheerful looking place and seems very welcoming.  Longtime readers will recall that I'm not religious, although I have been known to frequent fundraising dinners of religious institutions.  I'm aware of the kind of good works in which most of the local houses of worship are involved, so I'm happy for my measly $10/dinner ticket to go to support those works.  Yes, yes, I suppose that, in a way, the money also supports the continuation of the religion itself.  I'm unsure if that's a good, bad, indifferent or mixed thing.  Religion, that is.  But that's a pretty big question, one I won't address here.

What I will say is that when I think of the good that's done in the name of/as a way of living one's religion, I think of some of the kinds of stuff that St. John's does: the homework help; the free cyber cafe; the free books; first Friday kids' movie nights; third Friday Family Fun nights; career coaching; food pantry; lunches for people in need; etc.  This line from their About Us page sums up what I like about their approach:

The way we treat one another says more about our beliefs than what we say.

Click on the above links for more info about St. John's in Boonton.

Mmm Mmm Monday: What a Lucky Man He Was

Kevin has been such the lucky dog lately.  He's won his fantasy football league weekly thing 4 times already this season.  He won 5 tickets to watch a game from a fancy pants corporate box at the new Mets stadium (he and his buddies had a blast...I like when he goes out with the guys...he comes back buzzed, overfed, stinky, and generally presents himself in quite a foul state, but he's had so much fun!...they go out 1x or 2x/year...one time some of them ended up in the Hudson and one guy lost half his clothes there...as long as they get themselves a car service and stay on the side of legal activities for the most part, I don't care what they do).

One of the best things he's won lately was a big electric roaster.  We went to the annual tricky tray dinner fundraiser for PATCH, the cat shelter.  With your dinner ticket purchase, you get a sheet of tricky tray tickets (say that two times fast).  Kevin put ONE ticket in the bag for the roaster.

Here's my strategy for these things: I know it's all for a good cause and all that bs, but I admit that I like to come home with at least one thing.  I cruise the aisles of prizes and settle on one item and put all my tickets in there.  Yes, I put all my eggs in one basket (sometimes it seems like it all comes back to chickens).  Usually, there's one thing that grabs my fancy right away.  Not this time, although if I were familiar with roasters I would have put my tickets in it's ticket bag tout suite.  I finally did settle on the roaster.  I put in the whole sheet of tickets included in the dinner ticket price plus $60 worth of extra tickets (and here I stop to emphasize, once again, that my Thursday Thrift posts are really more of an academic rather than practical exercise).  And the winner is......Kevin with his ONE ticket.  Here's the roaster:

He's made a number of things already.  He's using very basic recipes at first, just to get the feel of the thing.  Here's a chicken (again with the chicken) pre-roast:

Post-roast:

All that yummy goodness in the bottom of the roaster, just begging to be deglazed:

 Pork roast:

An early Thanksgiving meal:

 And yes, I generally fall off the vegetarian wagon when Kevin cooks this kind of stuff.  For some reason, I've developed more of an aversion to eating pork and beef than chicken (!) and poultry.  I don't think I had any of the pork roast; I prolly had at least a few bites of the chicken; I definitely had the turkey...that's my plate right there.

The roaster does exactly what the oven does, but it seems so handy!  I think I like (in theory, not in practice, bc I haven't actually used the thing myself):

• it's portable; you can move it into another room if you like; when Googling about these things, one guy says he likes to put it outside during hot weather bc it avoids heating up the kitchen and they often eat outside anyway
• bc you put it wherever you want, e.g., on the counter, it's at a convenient height: no bending or lifting
• you can wash it in the sink which is easier than cleaning an oven; even a self-cleaning oven needs to have the residual stuff wiped out of it which requires that one get down on one's knees

Pretty much any oven recipe can be made in the roaster, but here are some links to roaster recipes found via Google:

• cooks.com
• Nesco
• Rival

Friday Cat Blogging: Vet Visit

Our kits have had a tough year.  I mean to write about it, but I feel the need to be in a certain mood and have a good amount of time to go into it wrt their illnesses.  I just haven't been in that mood and/or had the time.  And I'm still not and don't.  So today I give you our handsome 3 year old tuxie, Edison.

Here he is at a follow up visit with his peeps at AERA.  Edison had a urinary blockage of unknown origin earlier this year.  I'll spare you all the details of catheterizations and bladder expressions and so on and get to the end result, which is that Eddie had a perineal urethrostomy.  From the linked website:

Urinary blockage is almost exclusively a problem reserved for males. This is because the female urethra is shorter and broader, in short, far more difficult to obstruct. When urinary blockage becomes recurrent in a male cat, it becomes time to consider surgical reconstruction of the genitalia to create a more female-like opening. This surgery is called the perineal urethrostomy or “PU” for short. Basically, the penis is removed and a new urinary opening is made.

Yay!  Eddie's one of us now!

Before I go any further, let me just get it out there that if your cat is having trouble urinating, it can get very serious very quickly.  What happens is that toxins that are normally eliminated from the body end up accumulating within the body when a cat has a total or even a partial urinary blockage.  Read the linked article for more info, but the take home message is: act immediately! 

When Eddie first started having trouble urinating, he was able to be expressed or catheterized.  At a certain point neither was possible.  By this time he had been referred to AERA.  Obvs, the urine has to come out and, since they couldn't get a catheter in him, they ended up having to do the surgery.

When Eddie first went to AERA, there was some discussion about whether to refer him to internal medicine or neurology bc he wasn't giving off many clues as to what might be causing his problem.  In the end, he went to neurology and, although his problem did not turn out to be neurological in nature (although they don't know what caused it, they know it's not neurological), the neurological team there still oversees his care.  Probably bc he's so handsome they don't want to share him with any other department.  But perhaps I'm biased in my estimation of his attractiveness.

Not the best patient under the best of circumstances (though not nearly the worst patient), Ed was a little unnerved during this visit bc, although he was in his carrier while we were in the waiting room, some unrefined hound was merely tethered to its owner and freaked Ed out by sniffing at him through the carrier with his big hairy snout.

Above he's with his team, Drs. Scarano and Massicotte.   Even though the surgery was a success, Ed seemed to need to sharpen his elimination skills.  He's been on meds to help with that and Kevin very dutifully monitors his medications and his outputs.  Eddie's been making steady progress and is being weaned off the meds with each visit.  Good job, Eddie!
 

Thursday Thrift: Holiday Thrift

Today's Thursday Thrift tips come from Woman's Day November 17, 2009 issue.  The cover promises '127 Ways to Celebrate for Less'.  Here's a few:

Shop for Less - According to WD, the mall is a terrible place to shop for less, unless you really know what you're doing (dunno what that means).  Instead, try:

• your house - again, dunno what they mean here; I think they mean to look around your house and see what you already have that might make an appropriate gift; perhaps a friend has always coveted the fancy old atlas you inherited from your Uncle Magellan...it doesn't impress you, but your friend might treasure it
• online - you're more likely to stick to your budget if you cut out the touchy feely aspect of in-person shopping; you're less likely to give in to physical sales pitches
• craft fairs - handmade and sometimes inexpensive; I like to go to crafty places when I travel and get a reminder of the trip; e.g., I often try to find a pair of earrings during my travels; I wear earrings almost every day and so some earrings remind me of a fun trip whenever I wear them; but WD's point is that you can often find lovely gifts at reasonable prices at crafty places
• thrift stores - especially good for friends that appreciate the frugal and/or the funk that can be found in thrift stores

Plan It Perfect - *snort*  The word 'perfect' has long been written out of my vocabulary.  I scoff in the general direction of perfection.  The article's point is that when you end up running out and grabbing gifts, you end up spending lots more than you would have if you had planned ahead.

• create a schedule...of dedicated times to shop within the two months before the holidays; some shopping trips will be for holiday meal ingredients; some may be for gifts; put these trips on you calendar like appointments
• set your budget now ...their financial expert says to imagine how much money you'd be comfortable with gone from your savings account right after the new year; if you're okay with $1,000 going MIA and it's 10 weeks until Christmas (or whatever you celebrate), put $100 into savings every week so you have $1,000 to pay the bill in January.  I suppose you could just pay cash or use a debit card at the time of purchase.  If I know the money's coming out of my checking account today, I'm more likely to spend less.  Personally, I find any payment deferral tempts me to spend more. 
• allocate your budget...according to what you want to do this holiday season.  If you want to see people, spend your money on having a wonderful dinner to which you invite the people you most want to see.
• make your lists... plan ahead as far in advance as possible, including holiday menus, and make lists for the different kinds of shopping you need to do, e.g., gift, ingredients, etc.

Three Things You Shouldn't Spend a Dime On

1. wrapping paper - reuse incoming wrapping paper; have kids decorate plain white paper or construction paper (of course, that paper comes from somewhere); also, pretty pictures from magazines, old calendars, etc.
2. present mailing - bc you're being so organized and planning so far ahead this year, you'll be able to hand out gifts as you see people during the holiday season; for giftees who live out of town, buy online from sites that offer free shipping and to whom you don't have to pay sales tax
3. cell phone overcharges - catching up with people during the holidays may put you over your minute limit; buy a phone card now if you think this may happen to you

Mmm Mmm Monday: Black Bean & Salsa Soup

This Black Bean & Salsa Soup recipe from allrecipes is so good and so easy!  This time I made it pretty much according to the instructions; it probably lends itself to variations and additions.  It's fast, too: the stated "Ready In: 20 min." is right on.  The 4 servings are on the small side.  Dunno if you can tell from the picture, but that's 1 serving and it's in a shallow bowl.  I.e., the 4 servings here might satisfy 2 teenage boys.  Might.  As always, changes in italics.

Ingredients

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (used a whole can which is 14 oz....it was fine)

1 cup chunky salsa (you could prolly increase or decrease heat to taste via the salsa; I used a medium salsa today)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion (forget to get this so didn't use)

cilantro

Instructions

1. In an electric food processor or blender, combine beans, broth, salsa, and cumin. Blend until fairly smooth. (I used a blender.)
2. Heat the bean mixture in a saucepan over medium heat until thoroughly heated.
3. Ladle soup into 4 individual bowls, and top each bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sour cream and 1/2 tablespoon green onion.

Notes for next time:

• Reserve some beans -- maybe 1/2 can -- and do not put these through the blender.  Heat them along with the blended stuff.  I think it would have a nice look and texture with some whole beans in it.
• Add in some other veggies to zhuzz up the color and add some other tastes, e.g., corn, diced red pepper, diced carrots, etc.  Small pieces and don't put them through the blender.
• I put some dried cilantro on top, mostly for garnish.  Next time I would put some fresh cilantro in the blender.
• As with other recipes, I might add some spinach in toward the end of the heating time.

Workout Wednesday: Status Quo

Not much to report on the workout front.  I can say that walking to work has been a big hit.  Whoever invented walking gets a gold star, that clever dog.  It's not strenuous, but there are multiple benefits to walking to work:

• It's regular, if relatively brief, exercise.  Even at 15 minutes each way, that's 1/2 hour 5x/week, in addition to working out with Mike.  More importantly, it's 2.5 hours of walking/week I wasn't doing before.  0 to 2.5 in 5 days, that's me.
• I've come to appreciate the transition time between work and home.  Even with a such a short drive, walking is much more relaxing than driving.
• I can listen to some tunes!  The drive time is so short that I'd barely get a decent headbanging going before arriving at my destination.
• I like walking through my neighborhood, up/down Main Street, past businesses, running into people I know, checking out storefronts, etc., basically, nosing into things as I walk by.

We'll see how long into the colder weather I keep up this healthy habit.  I didn't want to walk to work during the summer bco the humidity.  I didn't want to feel hot and sweaty upon arriving at work.  That's a gross feeling and it kinda stays with you all day.  Ick.  Part of me figures I'll not want to walk to work during the colder months.  Another part of me says, If Kevin can walk back and forth to the train station (mind you, that's about half the distance to my work) through the winter, I can walk to work through the winter.  It's kinduva macho thing with me.  Booyah!

I may need to get some gear.  Something reflective seems to be in order.  With the recent time change, it's dark when I leave and already my wings have been almost clipped a few times.  And so many people are flapping their gums on their cell phones while they're driving, blazing through stop signs, etc.  Grrrr.  I feel a rant coming on and rants aren't good for my qi.  Or something.  So I'll just let it goooooo.....

But as for walking: I highly recommend it!  Try it!  You'll pick it up in no time.

A Boy and His Gourd

Kevin's mom, Fern,  sent us this picture of his dad, Jack, with a ginormous gourd he grew.

Doesn't he look like a proud papa?  It reminds me of an I Love Lucy episode where Lucy tried to smuggle a salami from Italy into the U.S. by pretending it was her baby, just swaddled and sleeping in a blanket during the entire plane ride.

I wonder if Jack gave his gourd a name.

Mmm Mmm Monday: Veggie No Boiling Lasagna

Today I made this Veggie No Boiling Lasagna recipe from allrecipes.com.  All Recipes seems to be the place for me to get recipes lately.  I was going to make a slow cooker lasagna recipe from somewhere else on the internet, but this recipe used up more ingredients and, due to a sale on mozzarella and ricotta, I had a bunch on hand.  Here's the recipe; changes are in italics.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

a few garlics

1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced - didn't use this

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced - didn't use this 

2 (15 ounce) containers ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 10 oz. pkgs frozen chopped spinach, thawed

2 small cans sliced mushrooms, drained

Italian herbs to taste

2 (26 ounce) jars Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce - used whatever sauce I had on hand

12 uncooked lasagna noodles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook onion, garlic, red pepper and zucchini, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, combine ricotta cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. eggs, spinach, mushrooms & herbs in medium bowl.
3. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Layer 4 uncooked noodles, then 1 cup sauce, 1/2 of the cheese etc. mixture; repeat. Top with remaining uncooked noodles and 2 cups sauce.
4. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake uncovered 10 minutes or until the cheese browns ever so nicely. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This turned out pretty darn well.  I suspect I ended up with more cheese etc. filling mixture than the original recipe, what with adding the spinach and mushrooms.  And my pan floweth over a bit due to all that cheesy goodness.   I would definitely make this recipe again and expect that it lends itself to variation, e.g., broccoli instead of spinach.  I do think that I may need to add sauce when I heat this up for leftovers, but I won't know that until tomorrow.

Pictures will have to come later bc my laptop is in use on Kevin's lap as he follows his fantasy football team while watching Monday Night Football.

BTW, last week's recipe, Slow Cooker London Broil, did turn out well.  I will definitely make it again; in fact, I bought and froze a coupla London Broil just in case of an emergency that requires that one cook a London Broil.  We had this with some supah fresh potatoes from the farmers' market...they were heavenly.  I think the meat in that recipe would also shred well after cooking and do well over egg noodles (of which I also have an emergency package at the ready).  It ended up with a lot of gravy, as in way too much gravy, so I would reduce the liquid in the future, although one does want to keep the salt factor from the soup mix in mind.  As some reviewers suggested, you can play around and make your own seasoning if you prefer that to the mix or don't have the mix on hand (yes, yes, I have the mix on hand...I am so ready to make this again!).  Even with less gravy, I might increase the Worcestershire sauce and I might add in some other things to shuzz it up a bit.  As it is, it's a very meat and potatoes kinda meal.  Not that that's a bad thing.