Soggy it’s not …

Delicious it is! “Pan Bagnat” was the latest new lunch item for me. From the French, it means “soaked bread”. I enjoyed it with an apple and somewhat dry carrots.

The stuffed loaf of French bread included tuna, artichoke hearts, celery, orange pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and a bit of onion. It was in the fridge overnight before I sliced it, so the juices mingled and soaked into the bread. Yummy! ~~K

Moo!

Other than “oink” and “I’m too full”, that’s the word that came to mind after over-indulging in this delicious grilled T-bone steak meal at home Saturday evening. D and I both did reserve some of the steak to eat another time since the almost one-pound cut was probably the equivalent of 3 portions excluding the bone. I’m not used to eating that much red meat at once (most of you know we eat a lot of chicken).Other grilled items included onions and green beans to accompany the salad and baked potato. It’s nice to be able to eat like this every now and then (when the steak is on sale). ~~K

Another Gadget

Bought this USB cable at the Dollar Tree …
and fortunately it works great – on both the camera and the GPS! Both ends are retractable so it saves so much space. I keep it in a smaller leather case in my purse that also has the camera. Now that I know it works, I hope to pick up a few more to keep at school. ~~K

New Menu Item

I had the most beautiful, delicious lunch. Of course you recognize the whole wheat tortilla, celery, carrots, red pepper, and hard-boiled egg. But the glob in the center?
It’s a beet and walnut puree. The recipe is from “Spain…On the Road Again” but I improvised a bit:

1 handful walnuts
1 can sliced beets, drained
1 drizzle olive oil
no water
1 regular small spoon of tahini
1 long squirt of lemon juice from the “fake’ lemon
1 full twist of fresh sea salt

I started by pulsing in the food processor but there must not have been enough substance, so I switched to a different container and used the immersion blender – it worked great! It made just a bit over 1 cup. I’ll definitely make this again – I’ll use it in place of hummus now and then – I can see spreading it on the tortilla, chopping everything else to sprinkle on top, then rolling it and eating it as a wrap. ~~K

Converter Magic…

Instantly – more channels! Our TV that is not connected to satellite could display six channels: 11-13-24-27-30-36. I was amazed to learn that each of those channels broadcasts more than one set of programs. Now we get great reception on 16 channels! Look at a sampling of our choices
Channel 27 here in BG offers 4 sets of programming – and all ones I like. We watched an episode of “Spain…On the Road Again” – it was like eavesdropping on Gwyneth Paltrow’s private trip – classy – fresh grilling outside – lots of vegetables and wine…
Very low key, personal – a great travel show compared to the pace of most others - http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/episode_guide.shtml the web site has recipes too. ~~K

Snow in Morocco and It’s Cold Here

I guess it was time for me to get a geography lesson - I didn’t realize Ifrane (where M K&Z are) was known as Little Switzerland. They recently received 14 inches of snow – quite a plus for the local ski resorts. I was also surprised to learn the coldest recorded temperature in all of Africa was a negative 23 C (around –9 F) in Ifrane in 1935! Al Akawayn University’s web site home page has a beautiful winter slide show now – check it out at http://www.aui.ma/
Ok, out of Africa and back to the Midwest USA – it’s COLD! It’s windier today so I went online to see what the temperature felt like if you factor in windchill:

Our weather hub was showing –12 at the same time; perhaps the online probe is out in the open while our probe is under the deck railing. I checked Ifrane's weather - it's 45 F there now.

Pics are really computer screen shots rather than digital photos – apologies in advance if they’re hard to view. ~~K

That’s a Negative

Hope you’ve arrived safely wherever you need to be this morning!School is closed today so I’m snug at home (68 degrees in here); but look at that outside temperature –6. ~~K

Colorful Eats

As I was preparing my lunch this morning I was struck by the bright colors.
Leftover teriyaki chicken wings from last night, one wheat tortilla, some red pepper, celery, carrots and an apple.

Again at supper I thought the colors were “flavorful”. Meatloaf, traditional salad, rice with garlic, green peppers and fresh orange and red peppers (I bought them the other day for 34 cents from what D calls Meijer’s “used” vegetable rack). ~~K

Where’s the Beef?

In the freezer and in our tummies!
I bought a whole center cut round roast for $1.99 a pound the other day. I realize it’s a bit of a tougher cut of meat, but at that price I thought it might add some variety to our menu. I cut off two “steaks”; D grilled them in the stove’s oven since the weather is so yucky, they were tasty, but not tender.

The rest is now in the freezer.

I cut off a hunk for a crock pot roast; cut some up into chunks for a crock pot stew; and it’s been years since I’ve made Braciole so I sliced some thin, later I’ll pound those slices flatter, stuff it, roll it, and cook it in the crock pot with some spaghetti sauce. Hopefully the slow cooking in the crock pot will tenderize the meat. ~~K

Too Many If’s

If it’s warmer than 30
If it’s cooler than 80
If the wind is calm
If the road isn’t snowy/icy/slippery
If it’s not during a thunder storm

I’ve tried running in the cold and wind, but it only proved I’m a fair weather outside runner. I thought my “rule” would be to run when it was no colder than 30 degrees F. I then adapted that to say the wind chill temp couldn’t be lower than 30. While running Dec 27 in 60 F with 25mph wind (in NW Ohio) it was difficult just walking into the wind much less doing a RUN (my knees really felt the extra effort). I then had to make an addendum to my rule – the wind can’t be greater than 15mph. I think this should apply even in hot weather as I recall some warm breezy runs!

There have been some exceptions: I’ve been known to run when it was 86 and B and I had an enjoyable run during a light rain (it was raining even before we walked out the door).

Notice my great Christmas presents I’m wearing to help me be safe and comfortable during my runs – snuggly fleece and a wrist heart rate monitor!

Saturday I ran 3.1 miles on our home treadmill, but slowly – it took almost 35 minutes. My warm up was .25 mile and the cool down was another .25 mile. I need more confidence and balance to not hold on.

I finally made it to the Y today after school. 3.125 miles around the track – I walked a minute after each mile, but did each mile between 10’30” and 11’00” – I used my headphones with music and tried to keep the beat so it should have been 6 mph – I’m trying to get faster, but not experiencing much success yet. ~~K

Diner Dinner

Do you ever crave a greasy-spoon diner breakfast? But for supper?Well, we did and prepared it all at once (other than toast) on our cool-touch griddle. Good eats! ~~K

Now on Tap …

Smoothies! Well, actually this is a frozen mango margarita – yummy!Fill lines on the container side indicate correct proportions of liquid ingredients and frozen ingredients to make three tasty servings. How convenient – it fits in the fridge and has a spigot that works well. I’m enjoying this Christmas present! ~~K

Gadgets or Necessities?

Our recent visit to the appliance store yielded several “modern” purchases.

The 21st century digital world forced us to purchase converter boxes for our old-fashioned analog TV sets, none of which are flat-screen, but at least the one is 32 inches (not sure what we’re going to do with the third old set unless there’s a really good deal on a converter later). I’m glad D ordered the vouchers when he did – I hear the government did not allocate enough money for this project. I also read that Obama thinks perhaps the switchover date should be postponed – time will tell!
As our power went on and off (mostly off) over several days just before Christmas it apparently wrecked havoc on our landline’s wireless satellite phones throughout the house. We ended up getting one base unit with two handsets as a replacement system. I’m still not properly using all of its new features – almost too many “bells and whistles” on these newer gadgets.
When our not-that-old microwave recently decided to stop working; B&R’s old microwave (stored in our garage) was turned into our daily warming workhorse. I wanted a bit larger microwave and still like the convenience of the other one for warming things up on the patio as needed (remember those warm-weather days?). So, here’s another purchase:
Washer, refrigerator, now all of this -- what will we “need” next? ~~K

Great Lakes Crossing

Years have passed since D and I were at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, so we took a round-about drive up there last Saturday. I say round-about because of the construction on I-75 – thanks to our Garmin GPS Nuvi, we had a pleasant venture through residential neighborhoods, especially the Orchard Lake area. I don’t think I would be able to retrace our route, though.

I forgot that TJ Maxx and Marshall’s were anchors and had a great time looking through their deals. We spent about 5 hours shopping (picked up a few presents and stocking stuffers for next Christmas). Instead of going back to the car and unloading before continuing our trek we took advantage of the lockers (a very nice convenience item in nasty weather).

Not that many unusual shops, but still enjoyable. I did get interested in security – as I tried to get my camera out of my zipped purse, the security guard meandering on the Segway was almost out of site before I was ready to snap – I had never seen one of those people movers in action.
At the half-way point, it was time to decide where to eat. Our last meal there had been at Game Works since the RainForest Café was so busy. Today our timing was perfect since we were willing to eat sheltered under the “mushroom bar” rather than on the main floor. I thought the frog stool was a bit out of place with the other “animals”.
We had a great view looking out through the rain dripping over the edge of the mushroom.
I guess I became so engrossed in the biome and my meal (chicken-fried steak) that I forgot to take any “food” pictures.
We were there over an hour and sat through three thunder "storms" complete with lightning before continuing our indoor venture – I'm sure we walked several miles. A very enjoyable and productive “day trip”. ~~K

D’s Favorite Pie

I finally got around to using the rest of the pie crust I mixed up several weeks ago.

I had intended to make D his hamburger hash pie earlier,

but it was just as delicious and appreciated now as it would have been earlier during the holidays. ~~K

Breakfast Treat

Thanks to my daughters I had the best sweet breakfast

– carrot muffin with dollops of honey Greek yogurt – yummy! ~~K