2011 brought about a few changes for the Spatula household.  Here is a nutshell recap.  April marked the ten year anniversary of my sister, Therese’s death.  It is hard to believe that it had been ten years, it still feels like yesterday.  My sister, Clare and I traveled to Columbus, Ohio and met her daughter there for the weekend.  We celebrated her life that weekend with wine, shopping and eating at her favorite Columbus area restaurants.  We miss you T!  I didn’t take a lot of pictures that weekend, but did take this picture of a picture that my niece had with her.

I finished the graduate certificate I was working on from UNC in the first half of the year!  That was a relief.  I worked a LOT over the summer.  Between my summer responsibilities in Jackson and another part time job in Ann Arbor, I often didn’t know where I was going each day until I checked my calendar! It was a great summer though.

My friend David moved back to Michigan from the other side of Lake Michigan.  It is great to have him and his dog Gus back!  Hobart and Gus get along well.  We took them for a walk around Ann Arbor together and they hung out on the side walk outside Arbor Brewing during dinner.

Of course we went to several shows.  I can’t even think of all of them.  Two of the most memorable ones were Elvis Costello in Royal Oak and U2 at Spartan Stadium.  Chet was sick and couldn’t go to Elvis at the last minute, so I took my friend Sheryl.  It was a great show.  Seeing U2 was unbelievable.  Here is a picture of the stage from my seat.

Chet and I took a vacation and visited friends in upstate New York in August.  It was wonderful to hang out with Tia and Ben. Hobart got along well with a dog 1/10 of his body weight!  Of course this was after he hip checked him when we first arrived and accidentally sent him flying off the porch!  We came home with Taylor Pork Roll and lots of Yuengling Beer.

The school year started and at first it felt like part time work since I was only working in one place! That quickly changed, as my schedule became as crazy as ever.

We celebrated my birthday in Traverse City, extending my trip there for a conference.  We were a little scared about Northern Michigan in the first week of November.  The weather was unseasonably warm and I got to show Chet how beautiful Northern Michigan is!  It was his first trip.

On 11/11/11 we met a very nice female springer pup who needed a new home.  We agreed to take her for a “trial” to see how she got along with Hobart.  I am sure you can guess how this story ends.  By Thanksgiving she was a permanent part of the household.  She is a sweet dog and after a “touch and go” start with housebreaking, she is doing great!  She is good for Hobart and for us.  We have gotten a lot more exercise since she has been around!

We traveled to the Chicago area for Chet’s 50th Birthday and attended the NU/MSU Football game Thanksgiving weekend.  I wore purple.  If you don’t know, I am a Wildcat Football Fan.  Go Cats!  It was a very wet game, but dinner out with the family afterwards was great!

My friend Beth gave my blog a little overhaul.  Isn’t it pretty?  Thanks Beth! We got to meet her adorable daughter Ada.

Hobart was a little freaked out with a baby around.  He barked every time she cried or made sound.  Sunday was actually much better with the baby.  Here is a picture of her guarding Ada during a nap.  She also liked to sniff her head.  Who doesn’t like to sniff a baby’s head?  What a smart dog.

We stayed home for the Christmas Holiday and had a relaxing break.  I can’t believe that it is time to go back to work tomorrow!  Chet and I are both looking forward to a happy and healthy 2012!  We have some mutual health and fitness goals.  I will refrain from a laundry list of resolutions and just live.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the current recipes published by Weight Watchers!  I own several of their books and have multiple recipes flagged to make in the coming weeks.  This is one that I have been making for several months and I don’t think that I will ever tire of it.  This morning, I was out of canned black beans, so I substituted pinto beans and it was still delicious.  I am an equal opportunity legume lover, so you could use whatever one you like best.

I also have to say that this recipe has taken the place of a much loved dish at a local restaurant that closed recently.  This is a much healthier alternative to the Eggs Enchiladas that were served at Soup to Nutz Bistro.  The recipe is a bit “Sandra Lee-ish” but it is delicious, nonetheless!  This recipe serves four, but it is very easy to keep the bean mixture and the polenta in the fridge for several days and make individual portions daily.  I ate this four times in one week a month or so ago!  I prefer my egg fried over medium in a teaspoon of olive oil.  If you are on the WW Points+ Program, it adds one P+ to the recipe, but I think it is worth it for flavor and you get a serving of a good fat in as well.

Spicy Beans with Eggs and Polenta

Adapted from Weight Watchers Points Plus Cookbook

for printable recipe, click here

• One 16 ounce tube of prepared polenta, cut into 12 equal slices
• One 15.5 ounce can of low sodium beans (black, pinto, kidney etc.)
• 1 cup salsa (I used NSA Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa from Trader Joe’s)
• ½ teaspoon chili powder (I used regular chili powder from Penzeys)
• 4 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• ½ cup reduced fat pepper jack cheese
• 2 T chopped fresh cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste (I used a spicy habanero sea salt and black pepper)

Preheat oven to 425.  Place polenta in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.  Spray tops of polenta rounds lightly with nonstick spray.  Bake until hot, approximately 20 minutes.

Combine beans with salsa and chili powder in a small saucepan; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Heat skillet over medium heat.  Eggs can be cooked to order.  I prefer to fry them over medium in one teaspoon of olive oil per egg and seasoned with a bit of spicy salt and black pepper.  When egg is done to your liking, top with 2 T cheese and allow to melt in the pan for a few seconds.

To serve, place three hot polenta rounds on a plate and top with ½ cup of bean mixture.  Slide one cooked egg with cheese on top and garnish with a liberal sprinkle of cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Points Plus = 8 as written.  Adjust accordingly if you choose to cook your eggs without fat.

I was a very negligent blogger in the last quarter of 2010.  I have plans to blog more regularly in the new year, although I don’t want to state a bunch of blogging related resolutions here!  Maybe one day I will be a real blogger who researches posts and blogs a few weeks ahead of holidays with ideas and recipes that I have tested and tried out and share with you with ample time to make them for your holiday!  That is a bit lofty.  This blog’s tagline should read “hey, I made this” or “hey I ate this here and really like it!”  I am a home cook who likes to eat and likes to share creations with others.  I am not a planner and not timely with the posts.  My neighbors think I am crazy when they see me taking a picture of my dinner (outside in natural light when we have it) before I eat it, but hey, that is me!  I am also the crazy lady pulling out the camera in a restaurant!

Because of my blogging negligence since August, 2010, I have a lot of pictures that I hope to share over time on here.  I still can’t believe that I haven’t shared the stories of our Labor Day weekend trip to Philly or my birthday dinner at The Girl and The Goat in Chicago!  Life has been pretty crazy, but 2011 should be a little calmer.  We shall see.  Those two events are on my “to do” list. 

I started out this New Year’s Day with plans to make a traditional Southern New Year’s Dinner.  I bought Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens.  Since one of my “goals” for the new year is to not waste food, I decided to turn those black eyed peas into chili with the Longiza (can someone tell me how this is different from chorizo?) that was in my fridge from last week’s trip to the Honeybee Market in Detroit.  I wish I had a recipe to share, but what started as loosely following this recipe from Homesick Texan turned quickly into a typical chili making experience for me.  I used the longiza, onion, garlic, chicken broth, black eyed peas, canned fire roasted tomatoes, ground chipotle pepper, the juice of a lime, a touch of cinnamon, a little Piloncillo or Mexican Brown Sugar.  It tasted a lot like the chili I made for the BWL Chili Cook-Off in 2008.  It wasn’t the Hoppin’ John that I envisioned making when I bought the Black Eyed Peas, but I was very happy with it!  It needed a little chopped cilantro, but I was not about to head to the store just for that, especially since that would have involved changing out of my pajamas!  I settled for a sprinkle of shredded cheese and a dollop of greek yogurt.

Since I also had a bunch of Collard Greens, I needed to come up with something to do with them.  I could have cooked them up with some onions, garlic and bacon, but then I remembered this recipe that I bookmarked yesterday!  The recipe from Ezra Pound Cake is exceptional.  I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, except I used regular cream cheese instead of the low fat variety and 2% Greek Yogurt in place of the sour cream.  This dip is so flavorful that I am sure it is great with low fat dairy as well. 

I have resolutions for 2011, but haven’t put them down in writing or really put them into words in my head yet.  The BIG resolution for both me and for Corky involves getting “back to our fighting weights”, also known as the weights we were when we started dating over six years ago!  This picture is of the two of us at my niece Jenny’s wedding in 2005.   

This picture is hanging up in my bathroom and on the refrigerator as a constant reminder of how skinny we once were!    I had Weight Loss Surgery in December, 2003.  While I am not happy with the weight gain I have experienced, I am still close to 100 pounds lighter than I was in 2003 and thankful for that!  2011 will be a year of going “back to basics” and following “the rules” that I have gotten away from.  One other thing that I know is needed and I know that I won’t be able to maintain a healthy weight without, is regular exercise.  My biggest goal in this process will be figuring out a way to get active and STAY active in 2011.  I am open to suggestions on that. 

Here is to a 2011 full of activity, good food, moderation in all things, good friends, family, love and good health!

So, why have I been the absent blogger of late?  The school year has been pretty crazy and kicking my butt.  On top of that, I am taking classes online through UNC-Chapel Hill and that program is also kicking me in the butt!  With all this butt-kicking, I have not had the time, energy or motivation to get on here!  I just completed semester four (of five) semesters in the UNC program and was happy to hear from a friend in a previous cohort that the fifth semester is a “little slower paced” than the fourth was. 

Corky and I were planning on traveling to Phoenix for the holidays, but at the last minute we changed our plans.  We are here in good old Lansing, Michigan for the holidays and have a list of things to get done over my break.  Some are not fun, such as cleaning out closets and “simplifying” our possessions.  Others are very fun, such as spending some quality time together, getting out of the house for exercise for both us and the furry four-legged member of our family and heading to Detroit for the Christmas Market at the Eastern Market on Thursday.  I also added several items to the list last night which all involve cooking and blogging. 

Yes, I really did this to my dog.  Can’t you just hear him say “Oh no, you di’int.”  One more thing I can check off the list:  humiliate Hobart, check!

I started off the cooking adventure yesterday and am happy to say that so far, I am batting a thousand!  As many of you know, Corky and I do not always agree on what to fix for dinner!  “Why do you have to try all these new things?”  “Can’t you just make something simple.”  The man could live on Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Fajitas and an occasional Burger or Cheese steak.  I made cheese lasagna last night which got the “thumbs up” from him AND I recreated the red pepper walnut spread we had at Jolly Pumpkin in Ann Arbor and he loved that too.  Of course now I am feeling a little cocky and think I can do no wrong!

The last time we were at Jolly Pumpkin, we had an appetizer at the bar and ordered the Grilled Flatbread with Three Spreads:  hummus, edamame and red pepper walnut.  They were all delicious, but our favorite (yes, we agreed) was the red pepper walnut.  I even tried to get some information out of their Executive Chef, Maggie and the only hint she offered was that it “had cinnamon” in it.  I found this recipe online from Gourmet and decided I would start there and tweak the seasoning a little it to try to come up with something close to the delicious spread we had in Ann Arbor.  I haven’t been to Jolly Pumpkin in several months (maybe that needs to be added to the Holiday Break TO DO list?) so I don’t know if it is really that close to their dip, but it was really good and I will continue to make it.  I have to say it is “inspired” by the red pepper walnut spread I had there that day!

print recipe

Adapted from Gourmet and inspired by Jolly Pumpkin Café & Brewery

· 8 ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained

· ½ cup fresh bread crumbs

· ½ cup toasted walnuts

· 1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar

· ¼ teaspoon cumin

· ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

· 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used Penzey’s Black & Red Spice)

· Salt to taste (I used Vulcan’s Fire Salt from The Spice House, since I used mixture of cayenne and tellicherry black pepper)

· 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients except olive oil and salt in food processor. Process until nearly pureed. With motor running, add olive oil in a slow, steady stream and process until smooth. Taste and add salt if needed. Adjust seasoning with additional cayenne if desired.

Makes ~1 ½ cups. Serve at room temperature with grilled flatbread, crackers or vegetables.

I have made a lot of salads this summer.  A salad that is light on the refined carbs, high in protein and filling makes the perfect summer meal for me.  There was my remake of the Raw Asparagus Salad I had in Orlando which was not a meal type salad, but a more of a delicious side salad.  Then there was the Spring Milk Cheese Salad with Dates that I keep planning on making again before the Beemster Graskaas Cheese leaves the market.  Yesterday I blogged on my discovery that the combination of Watermelon and Feta is truly delicious and not as odd as it sounds!  Earlier this week, while pouring through my subscriptions in Google Reader, I came across another salad that I knew would be on my table in short order.  Meeta from What’s for Lunch Honey posted a recipe for an incredible Garlicky Marinated Halloumi Cheese with a Roasted Tomato Quinoa Salad.  I had most of the ingredients on hand and could not wait to try this recipe. 

This was a perfectly delicious dinner the other night.  I followed the recipe’s suggestion and only fried enough halloumi for one serving when I made it.  The only change I would offer is that if you don’t plan on serving all of the salad in one sitting, to not add in all the roasted cherry tomatoes.  Add them to the individual servings after plating it.  They give up a lot of liquid when mixed with the salad which is delicious the first go around but doesn’t make for very good leftovers! 

Thank you Meeta, for posting this delicious recipe and inspiring a great dinner for me this week!

I have had this recipe bookmarked in one of my favorite cookbooks for two years.  I kept reading other posts about how watermelon and feta cheese taste incredible together, but I just didn’t believe it!  After a recent string of blog posts with similar combinations, I thought…I need to finally try it.  I went back to that cookbook, Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson and read it over again.  I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for Nigella Lawson.  You could call her my “girl crush”…well her and Rachel Maddow, but that is a story for another day.  If there are any women I would “jump the fence” for it be one of them. 

I am not going to post the recipe here on my site, as my description of how to make this salad would pale in comparison with her description.  The way she describes food is truly beautiful.  From steeping red onions “cut into very fine half-moons” in lime juice to “diminish their rasp” and the description of pouring “now glowingly puce onions” onto the salad are truly food porn to me.  You can read her original recipe here on her website.  I warn you though…you may have a girl crush (or boy crush) after reading her recipe too.

WOW.  I don’t know what I was waiting for.  The flavors in this salad are incredible.  The clean taste of the herbs blend with the sharp cheese, red onion and sweet watermelon in a way that I would never have imagined and can’t even think of how to describe.  You honestly must try this.  Next time, I will go a little lighter on the olives and cut both the watermelon and the feta in a little less rustic fashion.  That way it will be a little easier to get the “perfect bite” on my fork with a taste of each element of the salad. 

As a result of this produce change, I have eaten a lot less beets and greens this summer! I have more than made up for it with broccolini though! I love this vegetable. Broccolini looks like broccoli’s taller and skinnier cousin (the skinny bitch). It is really a cross between broccoli and kai-lan or Chinese Broccoli (which, incidentally is also delicious and often found on the menu at dim sum restaurants). It is delicious and good for you! If you have been eyeing it in the market and have not tried it, I urge you to do so! If you are in the Lansing area, you can get it every week at Bella Harvest at the Lansing City Market and I have seen it on occasion at Goodrich’s Shop Rite in East Lansing, as well. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, they carry both a conventional and an organic fresh broccolini in the produce department.

I could post for several days on different ways I have prepared this awesome new favorite vegetable of mine. My favorite is on the stove top or roasted in the oven after tossing it with olive oil, freshly minced/pressed garlic, salt and pepper. You can roast it or sauté it until it is crisp tender and the heads are almost caramelized. I have also put it on the grill. If you grill it, you must watch it closely and make sure the oil you toss it with doesn’t cause the flames to flare up too much. I ended up with some discolored, slightly “blackened” broccolini because of this from my gas grill, as you can see in the picture below! It tasted great, but was not the prettiest thing to look at. The broccolini was served with a Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage and Tuscan Beans with Tomatoes and Sage. This was truly a great meal. The Tuscan Beans recipe can be found here at the blog of a fellow food blogger and member of the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers, Noelle. When she blogged on this simple “go to” meal, I immediately bookmarked it and knew that it would be on my table soon! It is simple and delicious and I highly recommend that you try it…AND the broccolini!

We always had a huge garden when I was growing up. With a garden comes a ton of zucchini and the need for creative ways to use it. This was one of my mom’s favorite zucchini dishes and one she made more than anything I can remember other than her Zucchini Bread. Last week I got a craving for it and had to make it. It turned out great and just like I remember it. I think I spiced it with a little heavier hand than my mom did, but it was as delicious as I remember it being. I consulted with my sister, Clare and we both agreed on the general ingredients. When she makes it, she often adds other vegetables to it that she might have on hand, such as fresh mushrooms or banana peppers. She also makes hers a little saucier than my mom did and serves it over rice. I like mine just as is with a little grated cheese on top. I picked up more zucchini and tomatoes at the market this weekend and plan on making another big batch and taking half of it to my mom. I believe this recipe could be listed in the “freezes beautifully” section…bonus points to anyone who can name the movie that line is from!

The amounts listed in this recipe can really be considered recommendations. This recipe is very forgiving and you can vary the amounts of zucchini and tomatoes to your liking (or your garden’s bounty) or add other vegetables, like my sister Clare does! I ate this topped with a little Hot Pepper Asiago that we picked up from Hill’s Homecured Cheese at the Lansing City Market. You can serve it plain, serve it on rice or top it with a little grated Asiago or Parmesan!

Zucchini and Pork (printable recipe)

serves 4 – 6

• 12 ounces lean pork, cubed
• 2 T cooking oil (I used Zoye soybean oil)
• 1 cup sliced vidalia onion
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 6 – 8 cups sliced zucchini (split in half and then slice in 1/2 inch slices)
• 6 – 8 cups chopped tomatoes (I used a variety of yellow, red and roma tomatoes)
• 1 – 2 t smoked paprika (I used Hot Smoked Paprika)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat cooking oil in large dutch oven or frying pan. Add onion slices and garlic and saute until onions are translucent. Add pork and cook until no longer pink. Season with smoked paprika, salt and pepper and stir to incorporate well. Add zucchini slices and cook for several minutes, until they start to soften. Add tomatoes and stir to blend mixture. Turn heat down and allow mixture to simmer, stirring frequently to break up tomatoes and allow tomatoes to cook into a sauce. Adjust seasoning to taste.

The Waterfront Bar and Grille opened this summer and I finally got a chance to eat lunch there last Saturday.  Corky and I met up with our friend Karen and had lunch at the bar before doing our weekly produce shopping.  The menu was limited to four offerings on this date, but we were told the menu will be expanded soon.  There was a pulled pork sandwich, a roast beef sandwich and two quiches, zucchini marinara and bacon.  We opted to order the bacon quiche with a green salad (fruit salad also available) and the two sandwiches and share them all.  Here is our report card.

This was good!  The quiche was done perfectly, the salad fresh and the blueberry muffin delicious.  The Waterfront Grille sources their vegetables from the market vendors and the muffin is from Aggie Mae’s Bakery. 

The roast beef sandwich was on bread from The Grain Market with cheddar cheese and horseradish sauce.  The beef was a little dry, but the sandwich was overall good.

The pulled pork sandwich got everyone’s vote for the favorite of the three lunches.  The coleslaw was pretty darned good too.  It was crisp and didn’t appear to be mass produced, like most places.

Overall, we had a great meal at The Waterfront Bar and Grille.  The location is convenient for people who work downtown and for visitors to the Lansing City Market.  There is outside seating on the patio and plans to expand to an upper floor in the future.  It was a great lunch to accompany our regular trip to the market.  With the patio seating on the river and the full bar with a good beer selection, it would make an ideal happy hour spot too. 

Campfire cooking is one of my favorite camp activities.  For years, Friday night has always included a lot of pie iron cooking.  We have come up with some unbelievable combinations for pie irons.  There was Carrie’s Classic Reuben Sandwich in a Pie Iron with corned beef, swiss cheese and sauerkraut, dipped in Thousand Island Dressing of course.  Then there was Angela’s Beef Pot Pie with Dinty Moore Beef Stew inside a crescent roll crust.  There were also a few flops, like when I tried one filled with canned corned beef hash…epic failure.  There has been a variety of sweet combinations too that go well beyond the canned pie filling variety.  Bananas Foster can be made with bananas, butter and brown sugar in a bread or crescent roll crust.  The combinations are seemingly endless.  This year there were three pie iron combinations that stood out to me. 

Angela made a gorgeous caprese pizza with mozzarella, fresh basil and pizza sauce.

I brought a package of Pimento Cheese from Trader Joe’s and made a Pimento Cheese and Vidalia Onion Pie Iron.  This one was good, but just for the record, Pimento Cheese over a campfire gets freaking hot and very liquid and will burn your chin like hell.  If you try this one, let it sit for a few minutes before your first taste.

The Pie Iron Creation that I was most proud of was my Coney Dog Pie Iron!  On Saturday night we had hot dogs and hamburgers over the fire.  The Pie Irons were close by from Friday night and I decided to combine the two dinner plans into one and the Pie Iron Coney Dog was born.  This one went down as one of my favorite Pie Iron Creations, right after Angela’s Beef Pot Pie from two years ago and the Bananas Foster from years past. 

The Coney was served with raw Vidalia Onion and Yellow Mustard…a new Campfire Classic was born.