From chicken soup to pickle soup

Tuesday - Chicken soup for lunch, and then, we are soupless.  Never mind that the gorgeous pork, apple and sweet potato stew I made the other day is sitting in the fridge, waiting to be devoured.  Never mind that the smell of sweet cinnamon and earthy cumin emanating from that stew could drive a sane person hungry.  Then there is the rich, complex sauce contrasting perfectly with tender cubes of tasty pork ... never mind, you get the idea.  If you have not checked out the recipe for the Vaguely Mediterranean Pork, Apple and Sweet Potato Stew, I recommend you do so.  Buy a box of Near East Couscous, any flavor - I love the pine nut - and prepare it according to package directions.  Nothing easier.  Serve it with the stew, then sit back and enjoy the accolades.

In the meantime, I have to replenish my soup supply.  Once again I am planning on preparing that dill pickle soup recipe I found online.  That will require a stop at Publix, and I won't know until the end of the day if I am up to it.  Stay tuned.

I've paid little attention to the news these last few days, and just now trying to catch up.  So, did the head of the Veteran's Administration really lie about his military service?  Wasn't he hired to clean up the scandals, not create a new one?

Islamic terrorists are asking US domestic terrorists to blow up the Mall of America, and several other well-known and/or super-sized malls around the world.  The Secretary of Homeland Security is taking the threats seriously, which is more than you can say for the President.

"No boom today.  Boom tomorrow."

Ah, forget the dill pickle soup.  A very full and productive day at the office, and it's time to go home and rest.  I feel a rant coming on about kidnapped Christians in Syria, and that is going to consume some energy.  No energy left to go to Publix, and besides, I have leftover shrimp with lobster sauce in the fridge.

Not a bad day.  I worked, I napped, I knit, I had some leftover Chinese food.  I got to see Terry in the office.  She will be back full time starting Monday, which is a good thing.  I have missed her.

Contemplation of Cats, Canines, Cauliflower, Cooking, Baking, Biscuits, and Brownies

Sunday - My back hurts but it was worth it ... the doggies are clean!  They were very well-behaved while being showered, shampoo'ed, and blown dry, but there are four of them and I was on my feet for quite a while.  So I think it fair to say we are all knocked out from the experience.

The good news is that their hair - Yorkies have hair and don't shed - is sweet-smelling and soft to the touch.  The other good news is that I do not need to cook as I have a ridiculous amount of prepared food in the refrigerator.  That doesn't mean I don't have the itch to cook, but there is no need.  Especially as we have plans for sushi tonight, Cory's choice of restaurant for his birthday.  I probably would have chosen a.lure in Savannah.  Ha.  Still dreaming about fois gras on a deep-fried Krispy Kreme.  Sushi it is.

I have been thinking about baking beer cheese biscuits and brownies.  If I don't have to cook, I might as well bake, right?  Also, I have cauliflower mac n cheese and dill pickle soup on the brain.  That may explain the brain fog.  As Captain Picard would order, "make it so."  If only it was that easy - I can control my mental food meanderings a lot easier than I can control the symptoms of CPS.  Jean-Luc, you big faker.

In a whirlwind tour we've so far hit CVS, Petco, and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Target next, so Rob can pick up his new glasses.  Then to Publix, back to CVS, and home.  And somewhere in there, a stop at hhgregg to look at DVD players.  This was Sunday on speed, and good thing I had my cane.  I've also been asking Rob to push the shopping cart, which is absolutely not the way I normally roll.  Pushing the shopping cart has always been my job, one I emotionally inherited from my grandmother-who-raised-me, and having to ask someone else to do it was a bummer.

Incidentally, what is going on with these businesses that do not capitalize their names?  Who decides these things, e.e.cummings?

While we were at Petco, we could not help but notice it was a cat adoption day.  While Robert set his jaw, I checked out every tabby there.  I had no interest in the females, other than noticing how absolutely sweet their faces were.  Two tabbies were asleep and refused to engage in conversation.  One handsome boy with a white chin, neck and chest was billed as "friendly" but there was no truth in advertising; when I offered him my finger, he sniffed, bit me lightly, and turned his back.  Alrighty then.                                
At Publix, I fought hard with myself to avoid new cooking projects for this week.  I have enough food in the refrigerator to throw my own block party.  With Robert's support, I did not give the meat counter even a passing glance, despite my recent thoughts of Swedish meatballs.  I whooshed through produce without touching even one head of cauliflower.  I did buy a jar of Batampte dill pickles; that chicken soup is almost gone and I have to have soup available.

Monday - Last night was one long adventure in sleep deprivation.  All four boys - Woodie, Anakin, Indiana, and Romeo - were bad to the bone, running and jumping all over our bed (and us) like it was the court at Amway Arena and they were members of the Orlando Magic.  No sleep adds to my stress, and stress adds to my pain.  Yesterday my brain was befogged and I could not recall words I needed.  I am afraid today may not be any better, and I have three trials.

I meditated, as I always do in the morning.  I took my medication, including two Advil.  That Gabapentin is not delivering the relief I had hoped for, something I will share with the doctor on Thursday.  I am approaching the point that I will have to leave the house and head to court.  Part of me feels like I am taking a short walk to my execution.  The other part is enjoying the sounds of birds tweeting up in the big, ancient trees near my house.

The tears are here, in back of my eyes, I can feel them, but I can't shed them.

Oh So Vermischt - Banana-Applesauce Muffins

During my long and chaotic life, I have had a number of mortifying moments, but Friday's events took the cake.  Or the muffin, since that is the recipe I am hoping to share, at least before the weekend is up.

First, let me say that I have pretty much decided to use the cane most of the time.  Here's my logic:  using it on the really bad days goes without saying; on the not-so-bad days, I walk around normally, which is to say, often.  I am always getting up from my desk to get something, or to talk with my supervisor or my paralegal extraordinaire, or to walk the 2 blocks from my home to the courthouse entrance. So there is always impact, although in the real world, walking is considered low impact.  I love to walk. Apparently in my fibromyalgic nightmare world, it is enough to rattle my nerves and cause to me to have one or more bad days.  I figure if I use the cane most of the time, it will help to absorb some of that impact, and assist me to avoid some of those reactive bad days.  So I was using the cane all day Thursday in court and in the office.  As it turned out, good thing, because by midday, I was starting to hurt despite my best efforts.  The downside is that I look like a permanently handicapped person.  Well, maybe that's not all that far from the truth.  But it sets people to worrying about me.  I guess I hadn't realized just how much.

Second, I have not been able to summon the energy or the interest to make up my face in the morning.  Put that together with the fact that I am in some kind of chronic discomfort, and I can only describe my face as ghastly.  Clean, but ghastly.  Oh yes, and my weight hasn't been this low since my gastric bypass surgery, when it fell below my post-surgery goal weight and way below my Weight Watcher's goal weight.

To sum it all up, I look like a candidate for a casket-fitting, and with the omni-present brain fog, I act like one as well.  So, when I did not show up for an 8:30 hearing on Friday, did not call or email my supervisor and paralegal, did not answer my phone, or return any messages ...

... my husband comes running upstairs to tell me there is a policeman downstairs for me - something about missing court - and for one crazed moment I thought the judge had ordered I be taken into custody for missing a hearing I hadn't realized nor remembered that I'd had. (Turns out my mistake the day before was checking the stack of files rather than the printed docket, but I didn't know that at the time, and just ran down the hall muttering "I don't have a hearing this morning, I checked!")  That I could even think that I was being arrested gives you an idea about my state of mind these past few weeks.

However, the truth of the matter asserted therein, as we lawyers like to say, proving that there was at least one phrase we remembered from law school, was that because I had been feeling so noticeably awful lately, when I did not show up for court, someone called my poor, beleaguered supervisor, and, having run to court in my place, when she could not reach me, there was a concern something truly terrible had happened to me.  In other words, I wasn't being arrested.  The policeman, who was actually one of my regular court deputies, headed out to check on my well-being, since I hadn't had much of that lately.  This is the same court deputy who escorted me home about a year ago, after the judge granted my petition for termination of parental rights following a lengthy, contentious trial, and the parents were somewhat upset with me.  I told you I worked with nice people, and for that reason alone, I am sorry my deputy had to see me in a robe, hair uncombed (who combs their hair when they are being arrested), and lacking certain foundation garments as well as my dentures.  My most profuse apologies to a fine gentleman, who probably ran out during his lunch hour to buy some brain bleach, or perhaps mental floss.  Yeah, it was that bad.

Thinking everything was back in some kind of order, I headed upstairs to get dressed, left a phone message and an email for my supervisor, and started to pull myself together ...

... when I hear Maria, Robert's long-time assistant, calling me, to tell me that DCF was on Robert's office phone.  So I ran back down the hall, this time muttering "what does DCF want, I don't have any minor children", forgetting for one crazy second that I work for DCF.  Fortunately, it was not one of the protective investigators, but rather it was my paralegal extraordinaire, doing the same thing the deputy had been doing. Apparently my inexplicable absence scared the bejesus out of everyone, (there was that time I was passed out in the car) and when I did not respond to my cellphone as expected (as I look at it now, it seems I missed six different phone calls from four different numbers.  Never heard them, and did not see them until it was too late to stem the tide of panic) she called my other paralegal extraordinaire, who is home recovering from surgery, for the number to Robert's office.

Can a person feel gratified and mortified at the same time?  The answer to that is a big, fat, honking yes.

I managed to get into work for all of 2.5 hours, because there were things I had to do, besides assuring my coworkers I was neither dead nor lying in a ditch somewhere out in Yeehaw Junction.  I had to get into the office to sign a stack of files the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I had to get to court for the 2:00 hearing I did know about. And then, because the day hadn't been weird enough, ouch, I got hit right across the back when the hatch back door of the Expedition fell on me as I was reaching for files.

So, as I told the only other MOT lawyer (this ain't New York, you know) during my 15 minutes in court (at which time the judge ordered me to go home and rest, which was nice to hear since just that morning I thought she was having me arrested) I was completely vermischt.  In fact, I added, I was on my way to verblunget.  Since we have a trial together on Monday morning, the poor man now has something else to worry about.

Despite my jocular writing style (too much watching Mel Brooks) none of this was really funny, and it all points to the bitter fact that I am going to have to make some tough decisions in the near future.  But not today. Today I am doing nothing more complicated than washing dishes, bathing dogs, and baking banana-applesauce muffins.

So far ... two out of three ain't bad.  The dogs still smell like dogs.

Banana-Applesauce Muffins

2 large, very ripe bananas
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup Musselman's chunky applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
good pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Set up a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.  Break the bananas into a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, then mash them with a fork.  There should be just about one cup.  Stir in the lemon juice.  Add enough applesauce to make 2 cups, then transfer to a mixing bowl.  Add the oil, beaten eggs and sugar to the bowl and with a wooden spoon, mix all the wet ingredients together until well combined.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir till combined.  Do not over-mix.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each one to the top. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes.  Move to a cooling rack and after 10 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan, and place them on a rack to cool completely.  These are wonderful.

The Spice Must Flow Again - Vaguely Mediterranean Pork, Apple, and Sweet Potato Stew

Thursday - My past two miserable weeks are taking a toll on my efficiency (ha ha). This has been my concern all along, since the CPS began flaring with annoying regularity.  Or irregularity.  But annoyingly frequent.  So maybe that should be annoyingly frequent irregularity?  Yeah, that's it.

I have been sitting on this unforgiving wooden bench since 8:30 this morning, and it is now 11:11 a.m.  I am waiting for my 10:00 a.m. case to be called.  And that's the way it is.  My back is starting to protest the less than optimal treatment.  I would love to head out to get something to drink (more coffee!!) and to be able to take my midday Gabapentin. Not that I have been taking a midday Gabapentin, but I am supposed to be and perhaps this would be a good time to start. Oh wait, the morning cases were not all called, have to come back at 1:30 p.m. for my 10:00 a.m. hearing.

STAY CALM

AND

DRINK COFFEE

And now I am sitting in a much more comfortable chair at counsel table, and I am deep in thought about ... banana muffins.  Well, my morning case has come and gone and I am just waiting for other counsel to review the order I just prepared.  So I am permitting my mind to wander, not that it ever needs my permission, and in addition to banana muffins I am thinking about Rachael Ray's recipe for Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin Mac n Cheese.  I am thinking about getting rid of the broccoli, for starters.  I love broccoli but not in my macaroni and cheese.  Cauliflower, though, that's another matter.  Cauliflower and cheese sauce is one of my favorite food combinations, and I look forward to combining it with some macaroni, and the other stuff in Rachael's recipe, like sour cream, Dijon mustard, and chives.  I make no representations about completing or even starting either of these recipes.

Instead, let's talk about Vaguely Mediterranean Pork, Apple, and Sweet Potato Stew.  Like the asparagus, prosciutto, and bananas, I had picked up the ingredients for this particular crockpot recipe on Sunday.  Today is Friday.  While the bananas have clearly benefitted from their room temperature rest on my kitchen counter, the pork is nearing its expiration date.  Time to rock and roll.

Last night I put the stew ingredients together in the large 6 quart crock insert, covered it and put it into the refrigerator overnight.  This morning, just before I leave the building like Elvis, I will turn the crockpot on low setting for six hours until I can check it for doneness.

The inspiration for this recipe came from one of 37 crockpot cookbooks (okay, maybe only nine.  Or eleven).  I made some changes (surprise!), mostly additions or increases, and one notable substitution of sweet potatoes for white potatoes.  What makes this dish vaguely Mediterranean is the use of cinnamon and cumin, a combination you see in Greek cooking, for one.

1 tablespoon roasted garlic extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds pork cubes for stew (best price was boneless pork ribs, which I cut into nice big cubes), seasoned with black pepper and granulated garlic.
1 1/2 medium sweet onions, halved and sliced, divided use
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 - 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 large sweet potatoes, prepared as below
1 1/2 cups baby carrots, cut crosswise into halves or thirds
2 medium Golden Delicious apples, cut into cubes
1 - 10 1/2 oz. can Campbell's chicken broth
1/4 cup Gulden's spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 generous tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 generous tablespoon ground cumin
kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper
dried thyme
dried chopped chives
1 1/2 cup frozen butter beans

Prepare the sweet potatoes: poke a couple of holes in each side of the potatoes, then place them into an aluminum baking pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for just 30 minutes, turning halfway through.  Remove from the oven and cover the pan with aluminum foil.  After about 15 minutes, remove the foil and pull the softened peel off.  Let the sweet potatoes cool completely (even better if you refrigerate overnight) before cutting them into cubes.

Assembling the stew: in a large deep skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the pork.  Cook and stir until browned on all sides, then add one sliced onion (reserve the remaining half onion) and the garlic.  Cook for just 10 minutes, then transfer contents of skillet to a 6 quart crockpot insert.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and apples on top of the pork and onions.  Pour the chicken broth into the can from the tomatoes.  Add the mustard, brown sugar, cinnamon, cumin, salt and pepper to the can, and stir with a wooden spoon to combine everything, scraping up any remaining tomato.  Pour this over everything in the crockpot, and sprinkle with the thyme and chives.  With a metal serving spoon, carefully turn the ingredients in the crock over and over a few times to completely combine and evenly distribute everything.  Cover the crockpot and cook on low for six hours, carefully stirring after 3 hours (if you are not there to stir, don't worry about it.)

With cool water, rinse off any ice on the frozen butter beans and add them to the crockpot.  Cover and cook another hour, just until the carrots are done.  Try to avoid overcooking, or else the pork will start to shred and the sweet potatoes will disappear into the sauce.

You could serve this without anything more than a salad and maybe some bread, but I like the idea of making some couscous with chickpeas, and vegetables like zucchini to go with this really flavorful stew.

I'm Not Chucking Asparagus (I'm wrapping it in prosciutto)

So there I was in the midst of my misery, when I got a friend request on Facebook.  I love friend requests.  What's not to love?  Thank you for being my friend!

This one blew me away when I saw the name.  It was from my sister.  Yes, I have a sister.  From another mother, but the same mister.  This request thrilled me because Nora is not big on computers, and has never been on Facebook.  But her daughter, my niece Rachel has, and to make it easier for my sister and I to keep in touch, Rachel set up the Facebook account. Things like that are better than gabapentin.  Thank you, Rachel, and welcome to Facebook, Nora.

There was no way I was going to have to chuck out almost 2 pounds of gorgeous asparagus, no matter how lousy I was feeling, so I gathered my strength and the shreds of my dignity, and headed into the kitchen.

We had picked the asparagus and prosciutto up on Sunday, during our Big Box shopping expedition.  BJs had nice mushrooms, so I grabbed a box, with plans on drowning them in wine and butter.  When it came to green vegetables, it was a choice of fresh green beans, Brussel sprouts, and asparagus.  I left it to Rob, and he went for the asparagus.  Good call.  I know a couple of ways to prepare asparagus, including drizzling them with an unctuous blender Hollandaise, but I opted instead to wrap them in prosciutto.  Easy, right?

Now it's late in the Hump Day, and I've been practically incapacitated by this freaking fibromyalgia, and I am worried about losing my asparagus to some kind of refrigerator jungle rot.  It's now or never, I figure.  I'll just take breaks between the steps in preparation.

1 3/4 pound fresh asparagus, woody ends trimmed (I just cut them with a big sharp knife)

1 pound thinly sliced prosciutto

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons "Mild" Jamaican Jolt Jerk Rub (or any herb and spice combination)

roasted garlic extra-virgin olive oil

freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Combine the softened cream cheese, lemon juice, and Jamaican Jolt and place into a ziptop plastic bag, pressing the mixture towards one corner, and making a small snip at the tip.  Lay out the prosciutto slices, four to six at a time.  Refrigerate the remaining prosciutto while preparing the roll ups.  Place two asparagus spears next to each other, towards one short end of each prosciutto slice. Pipe a column of cream cheese between the asparagus spears, then roll the prosciutto around the spears, covering the cream cheese carefully. Drizzle some of the olive oil over the exposed asparagus, and season with some of the pepper.  Place in the oven and roast the asparagus prosciutto rolls for 30 minutes.

So, with all the rest breaks, it is taking me for-frakking-ever.  The first batch of six came out beautiful but the asparagus was too tough after the recommended 20 minute cooking period.  The next batch is still in the oven with a 30 minute bake time.

For the last batch I am trying something I saw Robert Irvine do in one of his online recipes. Instead of roasting the whole package and hoping the asparagus and the prosciutto are perfectly done at the same time, I am cooking the asparagus first in boiling water, chilling it down immediately, and then applying the cream cheese filling and wrapping it in the prosciutto.  Most importantly, I am not putting it in the oven.  Prosciutto does nor need to be cooked to be eaten - think of melon wrapped in prosciutto, an appetizer that has never gone out of popularity.

I took a lot of pictures, so it will all make sense. I hope.

"Mild" Jamaican Jolt Dry Rub for those with a delicate palate:  (and here is a link to the original by Steven Raichlen)

2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup freeze dried chives

2 tablespoons coarse black pepper

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons granulated garlic

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

1 tablespoon dried thyme

2 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons dried ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.  Transfer to a large jar.  I keep this in my spice cabinet.

Later, after Cory came in from work and was piling his plate high with goodies from the fridge, we consulted regarding the asparagus.  This is a dish he knows well, as he has made it a number of times (without the cream cheese).  He liked both versions, and then told me how he handles the whole asparagus-doesn't-cook-as-fast-as-prosciutto issue:  he roasts the asparagus part-way first, lets the spears cool, and then wraps them in the prosciutto.  Returns them to the oven and voila! Everything cooks together, to the correct doneness, at the same time. My kid is a genius.

My personal preference turned out to be the cold version - boiled and chilled asparagus, a ribbon of seasoned cream cheese, all wrapped in prosciutto.  To my taste, perfect.