There's No Place Like Home

Ever since our house caught fire on Christmas Day, we've been living here on the third floor of the Residence Inn with three small dogs and a pair of bad attitudes. Not really, considering the former facts, it's amazing how we've maintained the latter on a pretty even keel.  Sure I've had a couple of meltdowns; but that's to be expected, isn't it? And there was that night earlier this month when I chose to camp out on the futon in a cold spare room just because I wanted to sleep in my own house, just for one night. I couldn't sleep in my own bed, of course. There is no bed to sleep in. The bedroom furniture was totalled weeks ago. There are holes in the ceiling and the rain blew in all last week. Wow, I don't even own a bed right now! That's a strange thought.

Still and all, we have been remarkably fortunate. The restoration people seem to be doing a good job. We're all safe, healthy and employed.  Just think, we could be in Haiti right now......by comparison to that, life's pretty sweet, we're only stuck on the third floor of the Residence Inn. I've got a fold out sofa here in the suite. This is an open invitation to any Haitian who needs a safe warm place to sleep. If only helping were as easy as extending an offer. We can't all go to Haiti to help; but I strongly encourage anyone who hasn' already contributed to please make a donation to Food for the Hungry or Red Cross or the charity of your choice to support the Haitian Relief effort. God bless you for it!  Peace.

I hope it all comes out OK for you...

Today I was walking in the mall with a friend. We spotted a little boy, approximately four years old, running our direction. Just as he dashed past me he looked up and said, "I've gotta go POOP!"

He was so adorable.

Isn't it interesting how just about any activity can be news when you're four? Let's hope he doesn't learn to Twitter anytime soon................

Guava Love It

So as promised in my previous post, here is how I used the NOT-quinces; but actually GUAVAS. After spending a lot of time on the Internet and getting entangled in endless links, I finally ran across an obscure reference to a sauce recipe to be served over grilled chicken breasts. Since I didn't want to make breads or desserts with my guavas, this seemed like a reasonable alternative. Note: I would like to give credit where due:  http://whatscooking.us/2008/12/18/pork-chops-with-spicy-guava-sauce/.  It took an incredible effort on my part to reconstruct the twisted path back to the link where I originally found the recipe but I finally succeeded. (Note to self: bookmark this stuff the first time around, it will save hours of frustration.)
 The recipe originally called for pears over chicken breasts and was adapted for use with guavas over pork chops. I used guavas over chicken breasts. The results were delicious and unusual; like nothing my husband and I had ever tried before. (and that's usually a good thing.)


Here is the recipe:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grilled or baked
6 guavas, seeded and diced; (or 3 pears, cored, peeled and diced)
1/2 cup sour cream
approximately 1/2 can fire-roasted jalapenos (the author used 1-2 chipotle adobado peppers)
1/2 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


To make the sauce:

1. Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add the guavas and jalapenos and stir constantly. Use a potato masher to reduce mixture to a course puree.
3. Add the sour cream, stir, lower heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Cover grilled chicken breasts with sauce and serve.

Enjoy!

Quince? I Think Not!

Last week, my Bountiful Basket contained about a half-dozen of these small yellow fruits. Someone there at the pick up location said they were quinces; but "they looked kinda funny." Armed with that information, I went home and did a search on google (what else?) Images of quinces showed a somewhat pear-shaped yellow fruit and recipes for jams and jellies. This left me in a bit of a quandry. Did I actually have quinces or did I have something else?

The only thing to do was to give jam-making a try, so try I did. What I got was a lovely syrup, but no way this stuff would stand up to the label of Jelly. Ah, well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Imagine my chagrin at discovering yet more yellow mystery fruit in my Bountiful Basket this week! Only this time I think the person with the fruit identification skills was more accurate: Guava! So home I went, once more to google for a more positive ID; and there, before my eyes, a photo of fruit that looks just like my photo above (only not as pretty :-)

Yes, they are guavas. Mexican guavas to be precise. I'll be cooking with them tonight having already found a recipe I want to try. Will report results. 

Beautiful Books to Hold Your Beautiful Thoughts

I've been making lots of these beautiful journals and sketchbooks. They make wonderful gifts (or a wonderful gift to yourself!) One of the best things about them is that the covers are removable and can be used over and over. When you fill the pages in your first journal, just slide it off and put it on your new one. Here are a couple of photos of my most recent creation. Did I mention they also have cool pockets on the inner covers to hold photos, ticket stubs, or momentos and a ribbon bookmark?

The background fabrics are some of my hand dyes.

The beautiful books are $30 each + shipping. I've got lots of colors and styles or can customize. Think of all the possibilities for holiday giving....

When the world hands you black bananas, make banana bread...

Did you know you can freeze those black bananas that sometimes happen when you just can't eat the whole bunch in time? Well, you can, and it's a good thing, too; because once you get 6 or 7 of them stored up, you have enough to make banana bread. I don't mean just any banana bread, I mean the ultimate luau queen of banana bread: Hawaiian Banana Nut Bread. (oh, the Tiki gods tremble in anticipation!)

• But first I've got to tell you about defrosting the black bananas and what to do with them once you do.
• For starters all you need to do to defrost them is to lay them on a towel on your kitchen counter.
• When it is time to peel the bananas, don't even think about it.
• Instead, lay a piece of waxed paper on your kitchen counter to catch the extruded fruit.
• Snip the stem off one end and squeeze out the pudding-like banana filling as if it were toothpaste.
• It requires very little additional mashing.

Ooh and it's kinda fun and soooo un-messy.

Here's the recipe:
6-7 black bananas, mashed
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. chopped nuts (I like pecans)
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 C. mashed bananas
1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple (drained)
2 tsp. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients by sifting onto a sheet of waxed paper.
Combine beaten eggs and oil and vanilla. Stir in pineapple, Add dry mixture and banana mixture in two alternating amounts, stir to blend. Fold in nuts.
Turn batter out into greased and floured baking pans. This recipe makes either 2 large size loaf pans or 3 small loaf pans. Bake at 350' for 1 hour and 5 minutes for the 2 large loaves and 1 hour for 3 small loaves.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Wonderful served with cream cheese and sliced strawberries.....or just wonderful plain if you're sharing with a friend or a smiling husband!

I wish I'd taken a picture...

It's a shame I didn't get a photo of the Mexican grey squash that came in this week's Bountiful Basket. I'd never had them before and they're quite lovely. Striped in shades of grey-green, shaped like a short,stocky zucchini. I looked for a recipe on the internet; but didn't find anything that really caught my eye. Last night on the phone with my sister, Annie; (who, by the way, is a fabulous cook,) I mentioned the squash. She suggested an old zucchini and crookneck squash recipe from my mom. So that's how I cooked them, (with my own slight adaptations of course.) They were amazing.


Baked Mexican Grey Squash

Prehead oven to 500'. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" metal baking pan. (500' is too hot for glass)
Wash and cut the stems off 4 or 5 Mexican squash and cut into roughly 1" cubes. (no need to peel them and no particular points for neatness)
Microwave the squash in a covered microwave safe bowl with 1 cup of water and a little salt for 12-14 minutes until tender. Drain.
Break the squash pieces into smaller pieces with a fork or spatula.
While the squash is cooking, crush 36-40 Ritz-type buttery crackers. I stick them in an unsealed ziplock bag and scrunch them with a rolling pin, but you can use whatever stress relief method you wish.) Set about a third of the crumbs aside for topping.

Stir in 6 T. butter
          4 t. sugar
          1/4 c grated cheddar cheese
          1/4 c sliced almonds
          crushed Ritz-type buttery crackers (don't forget to reserve 1/3 of these for topping)
           2 eggs, beaten
          salt and pepper to taste  

Turn into baking pan, top with crackers crumbs set aside earlier, and bake at 500' for 10 minutes. It comes out of the oven a light golden brown.

Soooooo yummy!   
From my kitchen to yours.  Linda