Diary Recipes

Last week I spent a long weekend at home in Houston with the specific purpose of taking a dance lesson with my dad for our father-daughter dance for the wedding. He chose "My Girl" for our dance because it reminds him of the time we went to see Father of the Bride and were late to the showing and had to sit in the very front row for all 105 minutes of the film. I guess my parents remember it differently than I do, because apparently it was a great memory for them! So, since today is also his birthday, I thought I would tell you a little about him so you can truly appreciate how big this was for him.
When I was growing up, I didnt understand why he had to take work calls on a Saturday or check email on vacation. My sorely underdeveloped brain just figured he loveddddddddddd work! I mean, why wouldnt he? He got to travel to exciting places like Finland,  San Francisco, and New Jersey (I had a thing for diners when I was a kid...so what?)! He had something called an "expense account" and sounded like the boss. Pretty sweet gig, IMO. But of course, his long hours and constant high stakes work environment sometimes wore on my mom and me. Hed miss some of my high school plays (and who could blame him??) and sometimes wasnt able to make it home on weekends if work was especially chaotic. So I went through a long period of not appreciating my dad. I guess I just figured if he wanted to be more involved, he would.
But then, I went off to college--a very expensive college that my parents paid out-of-state tuition for and never made me cover a cent of, btw--and moved to D.C. and started working my own jobs. And then, something clicked one day. I started to understand what made it worth it to my dad to put up with incompetent staff, delayed flights, and shitty hotel room service. It made sense to me why he checked his Blackberry constantly and took calls in the middle of dinner. It was because he wanted to give my mom and me EVERYTHING. He never wanted to have to say "no" or "maybe next time." He was determined to give us whatever life we could have imagined. And I think this dance lesson crystalized my dads whole being perfectly: do whatever it takes to make my family happy. Even if that means learning to dance.
My dad suffers from "White Man No-Rythmia," but he didnt let that stop him last week. He carefully studied the jitterbug steps the instructor taught him and practiced them over and over, counting out "and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" till I told him that usually you only start the count at 5, until we finally ran out of time. He worked just as hard in those 90 minutes as he does for work (which, from my description is obviously a shit ton), just so he could be prepared for our one dance at my wedding, where he will walk me down the aisle and pass me off to be Kyles problem. I dont tell him often enough, but I really love him and Im proud to call him my Dad. Even if I will never understand the Subway sandwich thing.

Leave a comment with your birthday wishes for the ol guy!!

Dear friends, thank you very much for all the support and well wishes during my absence. Things have been busy at the personal front lately that I had hardly any time to post anything in my blog, even from my drafts. Now I have a lot of catching up to do with all your posts :)

Coming on to the recipe, I made this payasam today for Krishna Jayanthi. I found a packet of whole wheat sevai at my nearby Indian grocery and the ingredients consisted of 98% whole wheat, which a perfect choice for a low-carb dessert…..ideal for those who miss out all the sweet indulgences during the festival season. The same payasam can also be made with whole wheat angel hair pasta, and also transformed into a low-fat and sugar-free version with fat-free milk or half and half and Splenda.

INGREDIENTS:
1. Wheat sevai or whole wheat angel hair pasta, ½ small packet. This comes to a cup when broken into small pieces.
2. Milk, 1 to 1-1/2 cups. (Low fat or fat-free milk also works perfect for this).
3. Any sweetener of choice, ½ cup or more depending upon preferred sweetness.
4. Cardamom powder, ½ teaspoon.
5. Ghee or butter, 1-2 tablespoons.
6. Raisins, 2 tablespoons.
7. Cashews, 2 tablespoons.
8. Coconut milk ¼ cup.

PREPARATION:
Grind the coconut with ½ cup of water to a smooth paste. Dry roast the sevai until it changes to a light reddish color and let it cool. In the same pot, add the ghee and let it melt. Roast the cashews and raisins until the nuts turn golden brown and the raisins plump up. Add the milk, coconut milk, ¼ cup of water, cardamom powder, and sweetener and let it come to a boil. Add the sevai or noodles mix everything well and cook until the sevai is cooked. This can be served hot or cold.

Please check out my sugar-free rice and moong dhal payasam here.

This is the utmost healthiest snack for you and your family that you can easily make on the weekend to last when you have an impromptu outing...

Servings: (20 bars)
Prep: 10 mins. |
Cook: 20 to 25 mins.

Posted by Sandra

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (for homemade blend, click here:  Sandras Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey (see the link to recipe for Homemade Alaska Fireweed-Clover Honey)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper, and spray with butter-flavored oil.

In a large bowl, stir together oats, flour, brown sugar, raisins, wheat germ, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and pecans. In a smaller bowl, whisk the oil, honey, egg, and vanilla, and then pour into the flour mixture in the large bowl, and mix by hand until the liquid is evenly combined.

Press evenly into the prepared baking dish. Bake 20 to 25 to minutes, until the edges are slightly golden. Remove from oven and place the baking dish on a rack to completely cool before removing to a cutting board, and then cut into 20 honey granola bars. – Enjoy.


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INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs. pork sirloin tip roast, trimmed, and cut into 1-1/2" cubes (Purchased in a 2-pk @ Costco; used 2/3s of a 3lb. roast)
2 tablespoons light olive oil
4 cups hot water
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
½ teaspoon organic black peppercorns
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon organic pickling spice
1 teaspoon organic chili powder
1 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon organic ground paprika
4 tablespoons organic arrowroot powder [or cornstarch] (mixed w/1/4 cup cold water to dissolve and form slurry)

--Prepared steamed rice

Garnish:
--Toasted sesame seeds

METHOD

Begin preparing steamed rice.

Heat dutch oven to medium-high heat. When hot, add olive oil, then pork and sear for 5 minutes; turning and doing so on other side for an additional 5 minutes (try not to disturb chicken while browning). Add all other ingredients, except cornstarch and water for slurry, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover setting lid slightly ajar, and simmer for 50 minutes. Remove lid, re-whisk the cornstarch and water slurry, and while gently stirring with a spoon add to pot and bring to boil to thicken.

Serve Pork Adobo over steamed rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

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Our house, it is not big enough. Actually, it has a "granny flat" that has been used as a summer cottage by Mr. Ferdzys mom and her housemate. They have decided they like it so much, they want to move here permanently. And that means an addition. To help save some money, Mr. Ferdzy is supplying some grunt work.

Oh, and by the way, THIS is what a person has to do to get it to rain around here. Leaving the laundry out on the line overnight just doesnt do it. You have to call up and order a truckload of cement.


Well, it wasnt really a truckload. It was just a bit more than the minimum order. Since the minimum order was way more than we needed for the footings, we decided we would put a better sidewalk out in front of the house. That meant a week to dig, line with boards, and half-fill with gravel.


Did you know cement trucks come with a "remote"? I didnt. Kind of cool, really... but you have to supply your own navvies.


Flattening the cement.


Row, row, row your boat, gently down the Ankh...


Ah! Perfecto! Although it is to be noted that every time we do construction my gardening tools, not to mention some of my household tools, are never the same again.


The almost-finished sidewalk. We just have to remove the wooden forms, and cut some lines to prevent cracking and frost heaving. And plant some shrubs and things. But almost done, har.

Now, if youll excuse me, I find I have some laundry to do.

A new gluten-free dairy-free pumpkin cupcake recipe for Fall.

Before I get to my pumpkin cupcake recipe, I need to wander off a bit. Just briefly. Because it's who I am. A person who wanders. Ponders. Finds solace in books. I've been like this since girlhood. Curious. Serious. No good at catching balls. Or dressing dolls. I am beyond inept with hair. And eyeliner. Nail polish. I get anxious and non-verbal if I have to wear anything that isn't a pair of jeans.

It might be because I'm a child of The Sixties, that starstruck Age of Aquarius, when kindred souls united for peace, beauty, and rock and roll. As Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right," and there was that "...sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave."

I've been remembering the beautiful wave lately. The idealism. The hope. The belief that there is more to life than collapsing in front of the television and microwaving hot dogs. The belief that beauty- as Steve Jobs believed- is important, has value. That we are deeply interconnected. That life on Earth is precious- from the house sparrow to the living sea. That we are part of a vast and mysterious collective- not merely of our absurd egos (who natter inside our heads and squander our attention on drama, conflict, acquisition and the need to control)- but of a newly unfolding awareness of astonishing inner space and outer space. Infinity in every direction. The Universe is far more capacious than we ever dreamed. Perhaps even multi-dimensional. A Multiverse.

Which begs the question.

Who am I? Really. I know I am not the car I drive or the laundry detergent I use. I know I am not what I identify with. I am not what I embrace- or reject. Though for years I thought so. I believed my opinions created a self. Made me Me. Now that I am old enough to have lived through countless opinion reversals, I realize opinions are temporary.

And not defining.

Just as I am not my baby teeth. Or my once lactating voluptuousness. Or my sprouting silver hair. Or what music I listen to. Or what jeans I outgrow. I am not even the woman baking pumpkin cupcakes for her readers. Or am I?

Well, maybe I am. Just a little. But wait. Doesn't that make me the sum of what I do? I bake therefore I am? I am trying lately not to be so much of a human doing. And more of a human being.

It's not as easy as one might think.

And therein lies the trouble. The whole thinking thing. Our brain. Our wired hardware. It disconnects us. It addicts us. It overrides the heart and soul of what is really going on. The being we really are. Beneath the seductive and glossy surface of things. The spark that burns from the greater whole.

I see that spark in you. In your words and comments. In your avatar's eyes.

And that spark?

It's why I made you cupcakes.

xox


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