French Cut Green Beans with Dill Butter

from: Donna Hay Magazine March/April 2005

Ingredients
6.5 oz butter, softened
1 c caster sugar (superfine)
4 eggs
2 1/2 c almond meal, sifted
1 c all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t baking powder, sifted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2.5 c frozen raspberries

Directions
Heat oven to 320. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 min or until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Fold mixture through the almond meal, flour and baking powder. Spoon the mixture into a 9×12 baking pan lined with parchment paper and greased with cooking spray. Top with raspberries and sifted powdered sugar. Cook for 1 hour, 15 minutes

This may be served with whipped cream but is just as good alone.

from: Savoring the Spice Coast of India

Ingredients
1 C thoor dhal, masoor dhal, or yellow split peas
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 t mustard seeds
1 dried red chili
10 fresh curry leaves (optional)
1/2 C chopped onion
1 t minced garlic
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t ground turmeric
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1 t salt
1 t fresh lemon juice
1 t ghee

Directions
In a large bowl, wash the dhal in several changes of water; drain. Place the dhal and 2.5 C water in a 2-qt saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes (45 minutes for yellow split peas) or until the water is absorbed and the peas break up under pressure from the back of a spoon. Check to make sure it doesn't boil over.

When the dhal has finished cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the mustard seeds to the oil and heat until they pop. When the popping subsides, toss in the dried red chili and curry leaves . After a few seconds, add the onion and fr y until light brown. Put in the garlic and fry for one minute. Next, add the ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne and fry for a minute more. Stir this mixture into the dhal along with 1/2 cup water and the salt. Partially ocver and continue simmering another 10 minutes, adding more water if the mixture is too thick. It should be the consistency of thick pea soup. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the lemon juice and ghee to taste.

from: Everyday Food

Ingredients
2 T butter
1 pound french-cut green beans
1 T chopped fresh dill, or 1/4 t dried

Directions
To prepare beans, trim both ends with a paring knife or snap off. Cut beans in half into approximately equal size pieces, then carefully split each bean in half length-wise. Or just skip this and buy frozen beans already prepared for you.

Bring 1 T butter and 1/2 C water to a boil in a large skillet. Add beans. Cover; cook over med-low heat until tender, about 16-20 min (or much less if you used frozen beans).

Toss with remaining butter a nd dill. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.

Nutritional Info (1/4 recipe(
86 cals; 5.9 g fat; 2.1 g protein; 8.1 g carbs; 2 g fiber

Seasoned Dahl

from: Donna Hay Magazine March/April 2005

Ingredients
6.5 oz butter, softened
1 c caster sugar (superfine)
4 eggs
2 1/2 c almond meal, sifted
1 c all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t baking powder, sifted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2.5 c frozen raspberries

Directions
Heat oven to 320. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 min or until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Fold mixture through the almond meal, flour and baking powder. Spoon the mixture into a 9×12 baking pan lined with parchment paper and greased with cooking spray. Top with raspberries and sifted powdered sugar. Cook for 1 hour, 15 minutes

This may be served with whipped cream but is just as good alone.

from: Savoring the Spice Coast of India

Ingredients
1 C thoor dhal, masoor dhal, or yellow split peas
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 t mustard seeds
1 dried red chili
10 fresh curry leaves (optional)
1/2 C chopped onion
1 t minced garlic
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t ground turmeric
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper
1 t salt
1 t fresh lemon juice
1 t ghee

Directions
In a large bowl, wash the dhal in several changes of water; drain. Place the dhal and 2.5 C water in a 2-qt saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes (45 minutes for yellow split peas) or until the water is absorbed and the peas break up under pressure from the back of a spoon. Check to make sure it doesn't boil over.

When the dhal has finished cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the mustard seeds to the oil and heat until they pop. When the popping subsides, toss in the dried red chili and curry leaves . After a few seconds, add the onion and fr y until light brown. Put in the garlic and fry for one minute. Next, add the ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne and fry for a minute more. Stir this mixture into the dhal along with 1/2 cup water and the salt. Partially ocver and continue simmering another 10 minutes, adding more water if the mixture is too thick. It should be the consistency of thick pea soup. Remove from the heat.

Stir in the lemon juice and ghee to taste.

101 in 1001


Yesterday, Matt and I started a new project. A very large-scale project: 101 in 1001. The jist of it is that you do 101 pre-set tasks in the time-span of 1001 days, approximately 2.75 years. We have both made lists – though they do overlap quite a bit and we will be posting them and keeping up on our progress. One of my first tasks is to make some pages on this site to track our 101 tasks, and I'm getting close to being done. I know Matt and I are both very excited about this project. Continue reading “101 in 1001”

Patio Furniture!!


After Matt wrote about our new patio furnture, Ani asked to see pictures. There's this one adn if you look off to the left, you'll notice another one. That's of our grill.

Colorado summers are the absolute best. We get nice warm days (with a few thermometer busters in there) and glorious, glorious nights. They're the perfect temperature and no humidity. We've been really enjoying being out-of-doors and Loki loves the new patio stuff too. He sat on the table under the umbrella when it rained and got on top of the grill during the party to see inside. Continue reading “Patio Furniture!!”

Open (Adoption) Season

Since we adopted Loki at the end of March, both my sister and Matt's have adopted animals from shelters. My little sister brought home Hop and Bun-Bun yesterday (not the infamous Commander Bun-Bun, but another Bun-Bun) and Hop. Hop is black, with huuuuge ears and Bun-Bun is white with red eyes and teeny tiny ears. She may be renaming them. I'm pulling for Commander Bun-Bun, Lt. Hop, and then she'll be Captain (or maybe Admiral?) Kelly. We'll call their cage the USS Litterbox. Or maybe I'm taking this navy thing a bit too far? I'm going to hound my sis to send me a few pics of the bunnies to add.


Anyhoo, Matt's little sister, Theresa, and her boyfriend, Brian, adopted a Lab/Rottweiler mix from the pound in Nashville. She's very little still, only 8 weeks old and they named her Pontiac … Ponnie for short. They estimate her final size to be between 90 and 112 lbs. Yikes! Continue reading “Open (Adoption) Season”

3-Day Weekends

3-day weekends are a great idea. In theory. The thing about them is if you feel like you've got all this time, you schedule more. And then any extra time you had is gone, plus some more usually. And that, is how our weekend went. We went to a graduation party on Friday. One of the “kids” I used to babysit for graduated from high school. On Saturday, we divided our time between helping Kelly search for her new pets (2 bunnies she's picking up today) and preparing for our own graduation party (Kelly's). Sunday was still more preparation and then the party itself, plus some clean-up. Monday we recovered from the party I felt absolutely awful (despite having had nothing to drink – I think it had to do with sinuses) and spent most of the day in bed. Yesterday evening, we went to my parents house to celebrate my paternal grandmother's 92nd birthday. And that, my friends, is my weekend. Busy beyond belief and totally exhausting. But lovely and oh so much fun.

And now, I will share a new recipe or two with you that we used for desserts at Kelly's graduation party. Continue reading “3-Day Weekends”

Raspberry and Almond Slice

from: Donna Hay Magazine March/April 2005

Ingredients
6.5 oz butter, softened
1 c caster sugar (superfine)
4 eggs
2 1/2 c almond meal, sifted
1 c all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t baking powder, sifted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2.5 c frozen raspberries

Directions
Heat oven to 320. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 min or until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Fold mixture through the almond meal, flour and baking powder. Spoon the mixture into a 9×12 baking pan lined with parchment paper and greased with cooking spray. Top with raspberries and sifted powdered sugar. Cook for 1 hour, 15 minutes

This may be served with whipped cream but is just as good alone.

Exhausted

It's entirely my fault, but I'm extra exhausted this week. I've had a ton going on at work, so I've been working longer hours and then staying up late because I don't want to go to bed yet. I barely get out of work mode and it's bed time again. It's so frustrating that I end up staying up later than I should. Things are starting to calm down, though and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend with Matt. Continue reading “Exhausted”

Back Yard

Summer is here an I finally have a back yard in which to enjoy it. When we lived in Nashville, we had a back yard and we used from late spring though early Fall. Then we moved to an apartment in WI. We couldn't put up a volleyball net or have a garden. Worst of all, we couldn't have a grill.

Now, for the first time in three years, we finally have a back yard again. Three weeks ago we bought a grill and this Saturday, we bought a table, chairs, and side bar, I think it's going to be a good year.

A Blogging State of Mind

As you can tell, I haven't been much for blogging recently. This week to be more exact. Matt's been in Cali, so I've had extra of everything that needs to be done around the house to do, and I've been waaaay busy at work, and work part deux, so I have not been blogging at all. I can't wait for the weekend when I'll get SOME relaxation. We're taking my mom to brunch and the spa tomorrow to celebrate a late mother's day so I'm really looking forward to that. But even more, I'm looking forward to my Matty coming home tonight. I don't know why, but these 5 days were waaaay longer than the 12 he was away last time. I missed him so much!