In search of a recipe with beans , and how not to burn the kitchen.

Good Morning, I woke up this morning listening to the sounds of the birds out my window.  Knowing I have the whole day to myself, I immediately start thinking of ideas of what to cook from scratch.

The first cookbook that came to mind to read was ” The Whole Food Catalogue” by Nava Atlas.    Fetching a piece of notebook paper, I start to jot down page numbers of interesting recipes.  I settle on Navy Beans, I happen to have a bag of the dried beans.  In my kitchen, I keep a  list of calcium rich foods, navy beans included.   My Whole Food Cookbook, reports that Navy Beans are very nutritious, high in potassium, phosphorus,iron, zinc, and the B-vitamin complex compared with other legumes.

First , I measure 1 cup of the dried beans and add it to my stainless steel pot  filled 2/3 full of water and I add 2 Tsp of baking soda.  I had just read on-line about  precooking  the beans with a little baking soda eliminates the gas.

My entry for Facebook reads : ”  now cooking Navy Beans on the stove to make a soup I found on-line; and my Next new recipe is : Mangu- boiling Plantains and mashing a D.R. recipe one of my co-workers told me about.”

Well this is funny.  After setting my kitchen timer for 25 minutes, I walk back upstairs to my desktop computer and start browsing on-line for another recipe.  But before I left the kitchen, I cast a glance at the two green plantains sitting on top of the counter  next to the stove and I add to my notebook paper list ( we are a frugal family and  have not submitted to I-pad3 frenzy or I-phone).  ” Need – to cook the green Plantains , Mangu recipe.  I type in my Google reader, “Mangu recipe”, and   jot down the basic recipe.  I hear the kitchen timer go OFF.  I have a few minutes, I think to myself.  I switch back to look at another Navy bean.  As I’m about to  recipe copy and paste onto a word document, the home telephone rings. As I get up from the desktop computer to go get the phone, I now smell the boiling navy beans.  It is my mother calling, as I rush down the stairs to the kitchen to see my stainless steel pot boiling up to the top with foam, I turn off the heat.  Whew, I say to my mother, “It’s a good thing you called, I would have burned the beans. Saved!!!

Here is the Navy Bean Recipe: ( Which I’m modifying )

http://food.lainehardy.com/tag/soups-stews/

1 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Onion [about 1 cup, chopped]
2 Carrots [about 2 1/2 cups, sliced]
3 Garlic Cloves [minced]
1 Yukon Gold Potato [skin on, chopped]
2 TBSPTomato Paste
4 cups Vegetable Broth [or water with good quality veggie bullion]
Sea Salt [to taste]
1 TBSP Smoked Olive Oil
2 1/2 cups Navy Beans [cooked till very tender*]
6 Collard Green Leaves [about 3 cups, sliced thinly]

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large pot. Sauté onion for about 5 minutes, add carrot + garlic and sauté a few minutes more. Add remaining ingredients + bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 25 minutes. Season with sea salt to taste.

What to do with 2 green Plantains:   make a Mangu

Making Mangu is the same process as making mashed potatoes. You will need green plantains, salt, butter (or ghee), and an onion (you can also add cilantro when you saute the onion). You can buy green (make sure they are green with no yellow coloring) plantains.  These, I found at my local big Vegetable/Fruit market but you can also find at an Asian Supermarket.

• 4-6 green plantains (not ripe)
• a little more than 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil or butter
• sea salt to taste

Cut plantains into chunks, place in large pot, cover with water and bring to boil.  Once water starts to boil, plantains should be done within 10 minutes.  Another recipe source  says boil for 25 minutes.  Plantains take longer to cook than potatoes. (You’ll know when they change a deeper yellow color and you can easily insert a fork into a piece.)

Once plantains are done. Remove cooked plantains from water (save 2 cups of the water to add while mashing).

Mash cooked plantains.

[This is where I get out my trusty Hand -held "potato masher", he he. I like simple kitchen tools.  There's not much fancy about me in the kitchen.  I still have my Grandma's apron hanging on a hook on the Pantry door, just dreaming,  no,  my soft, faded, blue and  pink pattern   " Grandma's " apron is hung on  a  tall baker's shelf/ with a single wine rack.]

Gradually add  water, 1/3 cup olive oil and salt.  Continue mashing and mixing until smooth (some lumps are okay- the plantains will stiffen as they cool).  Top with  sauteed onions and serve immediately.

Everything came out delicious. I sample both the soup and the mashed planntains with a little butter and Lite salt.

We’re headed out to a Bruce Springsteen concert.  I made a quick menu for a tailgate party I’ll share in another post.  It is quesedillas with pulled pork and Shredded cheddar and mexican cheese,  sliced cukes on the side, Marble cake for dessert, and bunches of green grapes.

Rainy days of summer, in the forecast for the next few days

Ahhh, for all the joys of summer, there’s the rainy days and thunderstorms as well.   Wish I had bought that pair of polka-dot rain boots at Target last fall!  The boots were brown with multi-colored polka-dots.  I took a pic with my cell phone camera, but alas,  do not have a cable to download the numerous photos.  There’ a ton of fun photos

I see a shadow!

Shadows in the backyard today; the beautiful snow is still here.

So what do you talk about while you’re getting a  diagnostic mammogram done?

Since I was the first early am appointment , my mind was fresh with the mornings news.  While  in the first examination room, we talked about the news of Congressman Christopher Lee and what he had done to transpire the quick resignation. I added that I asked my husband, “so what do you think of that?; his answer as he’s preparing a bowl of breakfast cereal, ” you’re safe with me.” I smiled and giggled. The radiology technician had said,  ”You can bring that magazine in with you.” So , in between images and waiting for the development and retaking more positions of first the right side and then the left, I continued reading the page on the “Mermaid” that had caught my eye. So, I shared with the technician, since we’re both waiting. The mermaid is a young woman from New Zealand wearing a prosthesis, who lost one leg at the age of seven , a congenital disease, and the other at age 16.  When she was coming out of the water one day, a little boy approached her and asked her if she was a mermaid.  That gave her an idea, and she contacted a scientist , who constructed a prosthesis like a mermaid’s tail with digitally enhanced shiny scales.  She swims in the waters of New Zealand for recreational exercise.

What do you think about while you’re waiting for the technician to perform her duties for the next procedure, an Ultrasound. I say, ” It’s been such a cold winter.”  ’Do you remember how many days of heat we had in the summer?” She said” Yes”.  I said , we decided to vacation in Maine where we hoped it would be a few degrees cooler and there would be a breeze at Old Orchard Beach.  ”Do you know that so many  French Canadians vacation there  that there are signs in some of the store fronts and restaurants that say “we speak French”.  Also, the amusement rides have signs in french , for example , for the “Funhouse”, in neon colors of purple. There is a dessert that we have here in the Middle Atlantic states, called Pizzelle eaten generally during summer carnivals.  In Old Orchard Beach, there is on the menu for fruit fillings such as  apple, cherry, blueberry, as well as the favored tomato sauce or powdered sugar.  ”I  haven’t heard of the fruit type before.” I said, they also have something with a brown gravy with fries.  She said, “That’s a New Jersey thing, I’m from Staten Island”. ” Oh really, I’ve never eaten it and I’ m from New Jersey, as I laugh.  She relayed, It’s seen mostly at diners,  french fries with melted mozzarella cheese on top and brown gravy as a dipping sauce on the side.  ” Have you ever prepared this at home?” ; No, I don’t know what kind of gravy it is.  Hmm, I’ll have to look this up, a home-made recipe in the making. The radiologist comes in with the Ultrasound technician to see the actual views.  Let’s look at 1:00, and 12:00, these are positions on the lefts side; these are cysts. Let’s look at 8:00, there is a dark area, ( a shadow ),  is called a nodule.  You will need to call your Dr. and schedule a needle biopsy and get a follow-up mammo  in six months for the left side.  Next , I ask ” how do they do the needle biopsy?  ”THe radiologist puts Lidocaine, the same thing that the dentist uses for your teeth to numb the area.  Okay, I say.  Life is a long road full of twists and turns , but I believe, you must stop along the way to appreciate every moment you have.  That’ why I love these new age digital cameras, and I am always taking pictures of every day moments.

Shortly after I returned home from the Radiology office, I received a call from my Gyn Dr’s office, refrerring to my results today as a class 4.   She gave the names of 3 Breast Specialists to call to make an appointment with , asked me “what did the radiologist say?”  She said, that she sees a dark spot, I refer to the title of this post as ” I see a Shadow”. It was time to leave for work, and to be left wonder what consists of class 4.  Class 4 is a suspicious abnormality with , requires a biopsy and this category can be malignant in 25-50 % of the cases.  I’ll have to read up more about this.

I found out this year from my mother that we have a family history of breast cancer, my maternal grandmother’s sister had it.

http://www.imaginis.com/breast-health/mammogram-interpretation-categories-and-the-acr-bi-rads

Rescued Miner from Chile likes”Elvis” music.

October 13, 2010, at 9;15 am :

The twelvth miner from Chile was just rescued by the name of “Edison”,

requested Elvis music to be sent down to sing-a-long  with the other miners during their time trapped in the Chilean mine.

Happy Thursday

Good morning and good evening world.  Just to let you know, that visitors have just passed the 20,000 mark.   Wow.

Sit down and have a cup of tea with me while you read along.

It’s that time of the year for a hot cup of cocoa!

You are welcome to leave a comment.

Rainy Day

rainy day at beautiful Hershey gardens!

We'll walk through the park between the raindrops or umbrella is best.

What are some things to do on a rainy day?

Cook, play music, watch a DVD, there’s more, no wait . There’s something that’s more fun to do. Did you guess it right?
It is to create a photo collage on Picassa 3.
For this week’s Photo challenge with the Faceboook’group Oh SHoot! Digital Scavenger Photo Hunt:

Spices: on my kitchen shelf and plants.

Thrifty Thursday and How to use your I-Pod, Not

At my friends's house with "Rani"

Well, It’s Thursday, I’m going to the dentist and I want at least one new song added. Looks like it’s not going to happen by 11:15 am. My goal is to learn to be more tech savvy. There is help out there in cyberspace, by way of google searches. 

Google Searches I did:
1.How to download music from my I-pod from I tunes

Actually, there’s a balance of $5.46 from my I-tunes gift card, but when I select- purchase “Firefly”, info screen came on to select credit card info, Oh well, I spent $1.29 ; the gift card not used today.

2. I-pod says “Do not disconncet, but the screen is frozen”

Here’s what I did:

I turned off the computer.
I did this because the volume button was not producing any sound, and this was suggested by yours truly to do last night.
Once I turned the computer back on, the next thing was to double click on the desktop the “I-tunes” icon.
I did this. I tunes came into view. This time I see Syncing in progress. While speaking on the phone to my husband (shhh.. he’s at work), said look for “Sync”.
Sync did the trick. Hmmm. It’s such a long time since I added a song, I forgot about how the process works…..Syncing.
Yeah!!!! The song Firefly is now on the I-pod. Now I can eat my breakfast and be ready for the dentist. I’m such a chicken, sometimes. But don’t you dread the dentist, too no matter how nice the dental assistants are and the dentist.

I See An Angel

Angel shelf

angel collection

“I See an Angel”, “It’s right there”.
I’m standing in the modest living room in front of a china cabinet used for a mixed display of nicknacs, some photos, cards with sayings, mementos.
As I’m looking to the very top, I gaze at the collection of antique tin cans, one has a cameo image, blue in color, another is an old Hershey advertisement. Where is the angel?, I say to myself, thinking.
I hear her say from her present position in the wooden rocker by the window, “It’s right there”, persistently.
“Where”, I say. She persists, “It’s right there, the top shelf”. I do not see one on the top shelf so I say, there’s four shelves in this cabinet, are you counting the very top? “No”, she said. “Don’t you see it?”.
Now, I know that there’s a small wooden shelf by the front door’s wall that has had for many years a collection of angels in varying styles, a stained glass one in shades of pink, a white and crystal one, and several others. In fact , I photographed the shelf last Christmas.

Yesterday, was my first day off for a stretch of eight days. Yet the night before, I said, “I’m so tired, It doesn’t feel like I’m on vacation.”
Once I wake up, my mind starts thinking of what I have to do. My sister still needs her bloodwork retested. Do I need to go there to help.
Let me cook this healthy recipe, so she can build up her iron, she hasn’t got the hang of taking the iron supplements three times a day even though it’s in a day-of -the week pill box.
I had found a recipe the week before Thanksgiving for a soup that’s high in fiber and iron
Then my husband presents me with this word-processed list of fun things to do this weekend, my first weekend off since my vacation week in September, I’m not kidding.
I cook for three hours, starting while I was making my breakfast. I was having fun actually. You see, I love my digital camera. So , While in the process of making a dish, I stop to capture my efforts on film, just for fun.
Once, I’m done. I feel tired. I take a nap, then I call, up my mother.
I tell her that I cooked up some food and I’m coming over. She responds, “We have food here. Now, I know that , there is some food, but she’s not cooking. So, I say, I’m bringing it over”. She said, “I haven’t had polenta in a very long time”.
When I get there, soon after tasting some of what i had brought, I discover that the ID is missing again. Silently, I say to myself, “Oh ,no, not again. She kneeling on the floor, going through a pile of letters and bills. I take a sigh, and start to look elsewhere, maybe it’s with the old box of hair barretts where it was found just a week ago, when it was first lost. Then, I start to look for something else that was misplaced, not really lost, just moved to a different place then where I last saw it.
I’m thirsty, I get myself a drink of cran raspberry juice and resume my hunt. I find the medium-size notebook and place it beneath the phone. During this process, I hear he say, that there’s a prescription that has run out, and that she has stopped at the pharmacy and the Dr. has not responded.
I take a nap, waking up and feeling refreshed, I decide to call the pharmacy myself. It’s ten minutes to closing, and I learn that this pill should not be stopped. But I say, she says she hasn’t has it for three days. I say, “I’m coming right down, I can be there in five minutes, ( a three day emergency supply, until monday morning. ) It’s eight o’ clock, and my husband’s waiting to have dinner with me. I call him at 8:15 p.m. and relay what just happened, you’ve eaten by now, I hope. Yet, I still need to have dinner; glad that I had cooked some delicious food this morning.

Back to the china closet, ” I see an angel”, she says”, I point to the lowest shelf,” no”. I look to my right, and touch the top of the T.V. ” No”, she says, “On the top shelf, insisting. I start touching things, and I still don’t see one. She says, yes right there.” No, behind that”. I touch “that”. It’s a white rolled up small handdrawn poster of some people in black ink. She gets up from the wooden rocker, she touches this, she said this edge against this (pointing to a nicknac ) , formed the shape of an angel.

“I see an angel”, she said, ……………….”Maybe it was me.

Father’s Day

Dad looks at birthday balloons

"Happy Father's Day Dad"

“Father’s Day 061101

The Wee Hours, Bird Songs and Blogs to Read

When You Wake Up In the Middle of the Night:

What Do you do? Have you ever been awake to hear the precise moment that the birds start to sing?; this morning it was at 4:20 a.m. and I decided to write about it.  The sounds of the birds are pretty, but if I want to sleep soundly, I place cotton in my ears; it’s just enough.
One day last year, my husband and I decided to try to find out the name of a certain bird that sings a song that either wakes me up or that I listen to after the alarm has rung and I have a few precious moments under the covers before I have to start the day.
There is a web site for names of birds and their songs, quite a long list. Both of us sat there listening to song after song but were unsuccessful. I’d like to have an image and name for the bird whose sound that I hear. It is melodic in a singsong way and seems to be calling, perhaps calling me out of bed.
The house is quiet. The only sound is the slow tapping sound of my fingers on the keys and the space bar, and the shift key.

One suggestion is to scroll down on your favorite lists for blogs. How many have you saved to favorites?
What are your favorite blogs?
Some of my categories are by countries:
Australia, Malasia- Kuching Daily Photo by Awang,
Spain-Madrid,Indonesia,
France-Nice daily photo,
Japan-called Hyotenka,
France-called Kate Hill a French Kitchen Adventure,
Malaysia-mysarawaks travelogue,
Buckingham England-BuckinghamDaily Photo. ,
Ireland-This Irish Photo, Itallian-Called Lucillian Delights,
Malaysia- Day to day Miracles and My lil Princess Diary (of a five year old).,
Vienna- Vienna Daily,
www.americanhungarianfederation.org

Blogs on Food:

Once Upon a Feast-Every Kitchen Tells It’s Stories,
The Pioneeer Woman Cooks
snickerdoodles.typepad.com

Parts of the USA:

Midwest, NYC , Florida-Palm Caoast-Sugar Queen’s Dream, Savannah Georgia called Buttercream and Roses, Florida called Lime in the Coconut, Birmingham Alabama-Alabama Daily Photo, Colorado called Colorado Lady, Montana-called Bluff Area Daily,

The Grape Escape by Muse Swings,
Iowa the Lost Continent, Iowa-Midlife by Farmlight, Boston-The Boston Bibliophile,

Blogs with a Christmas Theme:

You Would Even Say It Glows, Southern Christmas Nights, A quilter’s Christmas
There’s a Christmas blog where the person writes on the 25th of each month on Christmas entitled Rudolph Day, to keep Christmas close all year.
Blog on Alaska, Fastawake on Earth.
Wash Day Wanderings,

Blogs on Chocolate- Confessions of a chocoholic

Apotofteaandabiscuit.blogspot.com
How to add a blog List tutorial by A Southern Daydreamer
Horse Blog-called All Horse Stuff

Days of the Week Blogs:

Monday-Blue Monday Letter Game by Smiling Salley
Tuesday-My World Tuesday -by A Colorful World
Tuesday-Ruby Tuesday
Tuesday-Show Your World Tuesday by Thats my world
Wednesday- Outdoor Wednesday
Wednesday- Watery Wednesday
Friday- Skywatch Friday ( every week thee are aprox 300 participants)

Friday-Faire Tale Friday by Wistria and Roses
Saturday- Pink Saturday – Sweet Southern Journey
Sunday- Sunday Poetry Prompts meme-Can Do during the week and post later
Sunday- Scenic Sunday