"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating - Luciano Pavarotti

I was explaining to a friend today why I started a food/blog journal. I was saying that I am not always in the mood or don't always want to cook, but sometimes cooking is very similar to when the MUSE visits in my studio and ideas and energy to create seem to just start to flow. Sometimes just the thought of a vegetable, herb, or food memory propels me into action even when I am tired. And like Luciano says: thank goodness we stop to gather around a meal.

With the recent loss of my Mom hovering in my thoughts, I thought of how she cooked. I think it was one of the ways she was the most creative. She lived many places and was always meeting new friends. The photo above is of the Tommy Giachinno (sp?) family, circa 1946?? My sister, Pam will correct me if needed. I remember hearing about the Giachinno family. They were good friends of my parents and Tommy was a good friend and co-worker of my father. They were new to U.S.A. from Italy. When my mother cooked pizza back in the mid-1960's, she always told us about when she learned how to make pizza from the Giachinno family. I can imagine lots of family gatherings on the weekends with combined family meals, laughing, discussing the latest political topics, and then gathering around the piano as my mother played memorable popular tunes. The pizza she made for us, and later huge youth gatherings, was delicious. And this was way before Pizza Hut. She made the crust from scratch - fresh yeast based dough - kneaded by her hands - in an intuitive way - she had this sixth sense about kneading dough, letting it rise at just the right amount, then "punching it down" to let it rise again. A spiced tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, black olives, onions were added on top. OH! I wish I had a recipe. That was one of the frustrating things about learning Mom's cooking. She just "knew" how to make things, and wondered why I couldn't just as easily learn them. Later, I would push her to let me write down the recipes. It was hard to write down a "dash" of this, or "a cup or so" of that. The worst was when she said, "Until it looks right."

I'd like to think that I was the one that enamored my husband when we fist started dating, and perhaps I was, but I have now learned that Lamar was most enthralled with my mother's cooking: Lasagna, Chinese Chicken Chow Mein, homemade Chicken Vegetable soup, for example. Imagine his surprise and disappointment when we married, he found out I had not inherited my mother's natural skills in cooking. Poor guy. He was a breakfast person, I was not. Soon after we were married he asked for a good breakfast on a Saturday morning. With sleepy eyes I tried to make biscuits, then frying bacon, then scrabbling eggs. He asked if I would make some cream gravy, with a pleading grin. Well, this young newlywed did not want to let him down, so I attempted to make cream gravy. I had seen my mom make gravy a million times. Surely it could not be that hard. So I put some oil in the pan. Sprinkled some flour, and stirred it in. Spices: salt and pepper - that sounded right. What next??? HMMMM I added water to make it into gravy. Great! My first breakfast as a wife was ready. You know the rest: The Gravy was a big disappointment. I didn't know where I had gone wrong.... I described to Lamar how I made it...... and he said "WATER???!!! you put water in the gravy??? OH no, it supposed to be made with milk!" We laughed. And now we still laugh about that big mistake every time I make white cream gravy for breakfast. (which isn't very often anymore.)

Well, sorry to end without a recipe, it was kind of a ramble, but also therapeutic. I promise a real recipe next time. Maybe Mom's Chicken Cheese and Vegetable Soup that she created to inter into a Campbell Soup Competition. It is really good. And I do have the recipe for that one!

Feeling Creative: A Yummy Sandwich & Veggies

I'm home at 8 pm tonight. Whew! Monday's start early for me. I attend an Enameling class taught by Jan Harrel at Glassell School of Art. Class begins at 9:30 AM which means I need to leave the house at 8:15 at the latest since I'm driving from Spring, Texas. However it is always worth the early call, and long drive. It is so good for my creative spirit to walk into the Art School, see and chum with my fellow metal artists, and get my creative juices flowing from the inspiring Jan! I went to my studio after, and the juices really began to flow - I just started working, enameling, then annealing some copper squares, then hammering, then opened a book that inspired me 10 years ago... I really needed all this today.
The last several weeks has been.... well, a very tough time in life. My Mom fell on March 6, 2012. This was the second break of a hip in two years. She rallied again, as usual, but started to fade soon after. She just was not strong enough this time. So just a week before her 94th birthday, she quietly passed to heaven and was welcomed in Heaven by her love, Woody, and a chorus of others to a better and happier place. My sisters and I planned a memorial service in Shreveport, La. It was sweet, sad, happy and joyous all at the same time. We said a fond farewell. We were warmed and comforted by friends. If you have ever hesitated to send a note or make a call when someones Mother dies, as I have in the past, I now know how comforting each and every note, text, and facebook reply can be. It's amazing how she shows up in spirit: a moment in a movie, the smell of bread, a song on the radio.
When we got back home from the service, my husband and I knew another difficult time was ahead. The next morning, we waited by the phone for him to hear from his boss whether he had a job or not. We knew... well, I knew that we would prevail, and find a better, new chapter in our lives if we had to.... but still it was one of those anxious filled, sick feeling in the stomach, mornings. He finally got the call, and soon, still on the phone, he was giving me the thumbs up signal. WOW. I was so happy and proud that he was able to retain his job with the company. We were happy for the rest of the day, but knew that something else would be hanging over his head. On Wednesday, he would have to call 6 great employees that they no longer had a job. We made it though that week, more aware of the power of caring friends, prayers and the importance of our long lasting, 35+ years of being together, to help each other in times like these.
His new job has changed to cover the area south of Houston and South Texas. We have been talking about moving closer to "Town" , rather, "H" town for about 6 months, especially since I decided to move my studio closer to my school and Galleries, where I sell my creations. It became more obvious with his new job, how much this made sense. So in the recent week, we have been looking for a new home in Houston, and will putting our home in Spring on the market soon.
We had a "stager" at our house yesterday, ( a new profession in the past few years?) suggesting all those things to "show" our house. It all made perfect sense but, it is still takes an emotional toll for a stranger to come in to your house and ask you to take down the pictures of your grandchildren, and strip down the vine I have been nurturing and pruning for the past five years. And she wants me to iron my pillow cases!!! I don't think so....

OK - now for the recipe:
On my way home I was dreaming of stopping by our favorite BBQ place and ordering a chopped pork sandwich "to go." Alas, they are closed on Mondays! Grrr. I drove into the parking lot, said some choice four letter words, then drove on. I began thinking.... fish sticks? (in the freezer) NAH! OK, I'll just open my white wine and fix a turkey sandwich. Then I thought of the grilled veggies I've been wanting to make. Mental inventory of the fridge told me I had some carrots, and some yummy asparagus. OH - and I have a vidallia sweet onion - CARMELIZED onions came to my mind. Anyway, here is what I whipped up after and long day, and past few weeks:

Turkey Sandwich: pretty much the usual: toasted whole wheat bread, a little mayo, with crumbled goat cheese, smoked turkey sliced extra thin, fresh spinach, walnuts, avacado, carmelized onions ( fried in oil, when they start to get dark, sprinkle with turbinado sugar and remove from heat when start to brown.)
Veggies: I sliced several carrots with an old fashioned julianne or mandoline cutter, into ribbons lengthwise. coat with olive oil in a long dish. Throw in a few oz.s of Pomograntite juice or other, lemon juice, S&P, Ginger powder, garlic powder, Tony's. Then micro for 2-3 minutes to soften. Prepare a grill pan with a bit of oil and heat.
Slice your vidalia onion thin. then cut circles in half. Throw all into a oiled iron skillet and start to brown.
Make your sandwich, stove grill your carrots and asparagus, then put it all together - you know the drill.
It was SO yummy.
Life is about to change again..... but there is always: Wine, caramelized onions, friends, lovers, and the creative spirit.

Salmon on Spinach

Back home from a road trip to Victoria, Tx to celebrate the marriage of friends, Hubby and I were home by noon on Sunday. Our Starbucks banana nut bread had worn off. The weather was perfect, so I went straight to the back yard to see what was blooming. My big bushes of Rosemary already had lots of fresh stalks, and smelled heavenly when I stroked some of the leaves. Suddenly, I had grilled fish on my mind and taste buds, so we dashed off again to our nearby HEB grocery - they usually have the best fish market. Ten minutes later we were at the check out counter with a nice wild alaskan sockeye salmon, a bag of spinach, some toasted almond slivers, a big semi-firm avocado. At home, I pulled out a small package of crumbled goat cheese from the fridge, and a box of Cous-Cous from the pantry. Luckily I had some fresh garlic and lemon juice on hand to start the marinade for the fish.

THE FISH
I drizzled the whole fish with olive oil.
I finely chopped a few buds of garlic. I wanted the garlic to really seep into the fish quickly, so I warmed the garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil in a tiny bowl in the micro about 15 seconds. Then spread it all over the fish with my favorite tiny spatula.

After shaking some garlic powder, ground salt, fresh ground pepper, and a dash or two of Tony's, I pierced the fish all over with a fork. Then I drizzled the whole thing with lemon juice.

I pulled the leaves off of a stalk of rosemary from the garden, and chopped it up into small bits. Earlier when I warmed the garlic it smelled so good when I pulled it from the micro, I wondered how good the rosemary would smell if I did the same to it. I tossed the rosemary bits into the same little bowl with another teaspoon of Olive oil, and zapped it for 10 or so seconds. MMMMM the smell was fabulous so I spatula-ed the rosemary onto the fish. WA - LA..... the fish was ready to marry itself to the spices, while Hubby was alerted to start the grill.

ACCOMPANIMENTS
Cous-cous
The Master Grill chef (aka Hubby) predicted the fish would cook in 12 - 20 minutes. So when the fish went to the grill, I started the water to boil for the Cous-Cous. It was the "basil-tomato" flavored type, so I thought "Oh, Good, even more spices!" When it began to boil, I tossed in the grains and a small bit of butter, stirred it up - then put on the lid, turned off the fire. DONE! How could that be easier???

SPINACH
I rinsed a whole bag of fresh spinach and towel dried it. I put the whole thing straight onto a grill pan - no water - no nuthin' - then sprayed it with atomized olive oil, sprinkled it with S&P - garlic powder, Tony's, and a few shots of Tabasco. Turned up the heat to medium and tossed it a bit for a few minutes. Just when it was about to get wilty, I removed it from the fire.

THE FINISH
Well, it took a bit longer to cook the fish. No worries, the cous-cous was getting extra fluffy, and I put the spinach on warm.
I sliced up half of the avocado and spread a few slices on each plate. Sprinkled it with lemon juice, garlic powder, and S& lots of P. Master Grill chef presented a beautifully grilled fish on a platter, while I served up a scoop of cous-cous, and a nice bed of spinach across the plate. I sprinkled the spinach with crumbled goat cheese and the toasted almonds. Then served a third of the fish on top of the spinach.

Again, it was such a pretty, bright, non-humid day, we ate our scrumptious meal out on the patio. I looked at my watch. Our meal including shopping took just a bit over an hour. SO worth the time, SO Tasty and SO easy. I estimate the whole thing cost under $30 mostly due to the nice fish: $18. However, one third of the fish will be part of our quickie supper tonight. I love the weekends.