Experimenting with Seasonal Vegetables

Balsamic Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes

I am determined to like vegetables. It hasn’t come naturally. And I’ve decided that I’ve handicapped myself by years of nightly rotations of corn, peas, and green beans. So I’m scouting out seasonal fresh vegetables, then discovering delicious, simple ways to prepare them.

This recipe, which I found in a rack of recipes in the produce section of Safeway, was the biggest hit at our table so far. My delight began with the aroma as I peeled the parsnips. Distinctive and fresh, it piqued my curiosity for the taste experience. If you aren’t familiar with parsnips, they look like large cream-colored carrots. And don’t worry: the checker at Safeway didn’t know what they were either.

Try this as a richly colored, nutritious accompaniment to a OAMC entree:

Balsamic Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes

3 parsnips, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 large onion, quartered, then quartered again

¼ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking sheet with nonstick spray. Scatter parsnips, sweet potatoes and onion on baking sheet. Whisk together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and drizzle over the vegetables. Sprinkle with rosemary and salt. Bake 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring midway through.

Serves 6.

 

Beauty in Midland, Texas

Having grown up in Kansas, I try to be careful in describing Midland, Texas, where I visited this week to speak at a women’s event. I bristle when people describe Kansas as flat and dull. Places that are “home” always have their own beauty in the eyes of the people who live there.

But Midland is so flat that at first it disturbed my equilibrium. How do you get your bearings without some up and down? It’s dry, with scrubby bushes and oil wells.

However, the women I met in Midland know how to create beauty in their homes and in their relationships. Maybe the contrast sparks creative energy. But beauty in Midland is alive and well.

In the home of my hostess, Beverly, I pulled off my boots, carried the ice tea she gave me, and padded along on the dark wood floors from room to room, entranced. None of the rooms was unusually large, but the 12-foot ceilings with crown molding gave stateliness.

The furniture was massive, comfortable, and – the main thing – careful thought had been given to the décor items. Accent lamps were turned on to warm just the right places. Autumn leaves and pumpkins placed me contentedly in the season. A plaque on the inside of the back door – the last thing you’d read as you left for the day – read “P.S. I love you.” I felt like a welcomed participant in a beautiful, well-lived home.

Beverly and I arrived at the church for the event in our “10-minute heels,” as she called them, because they hurt after 10 minutes. My presentation was called “Bring Home the Wonder of Christmas,” and my hope was to wrap the women in the wonder of the Christmas story, and give them practical ideas to center their family traditions and celebrations on the Christ Child.

The church gym had been transformed with a collage of round tables, each decorated by a woman or two by whatever Christmas theme struck their fancy. I sat at Cindy and Jezel’s table, where we had snowflake placemats, elegant silver-rimmed white china, with a Christmas tree and paper Maché snowmen in the center. Blue linen napkins were tied with big silver bows.

Here’s another beauty, that of relationship. Our table hostess Cindy had come with her mother, and her daughter-in-law. Table groups included mothers and daughters, women and friends.  When I gave time during the presentation for table discussion, the women chattering easily with each other about Christmas traditions and expectations.

Based upon my experience, there is much beauty in the heart of Midland, TX.

Testing a Holiday Once-A-Month Cooking Cycle

Ready for a cooking day

Mimi and I are testing a new downloadable two-week Once-A-Month Cooking sampler for our website that is geared to helping people cope with the nightly needs for dinner that don’t go away when the holiday baking and extra cooking start. Our goal was entrees that are lean and inexpensive, plus one good breakfast open for a weekend, and a company dinner entrée.

First time through testing a new cycle involves lots of stop and start (wash hands, dry hand well so I don’t get the paper wet while writing, take notes, start again — where was I?…) to refine the recipes and get a logical Assembly Order.

I started cooking late afternoon on Thursday, but had to leave for an evening commitment. I cleaned up the kitchen as much as possible before I left, putting the chopped veggies in the frig, then came back to finish assembling the last two entrees: Cumin-Crusted Pork Soft Tacos and Beef Flank Steak with Mushroom Stuffing. The latter is the company dish, but having tasted the former, I can say they would work too!

I drug up to bed that night, glad to have finished. And now we’re enjoying the bounty. It was so nice when Tim called after a bike ride with his girlfriend Beckie on Sunday afternoon to say come on over, we have plenty of Sweet Potato Casserole for dinner (with sausage and pasta – yummy).

Mimi has prepared the new cycle too, and today we’ll meet to compare notes. See if any recipes don’t make the cut, and what needs to be tweaked. I’ll stop on the way at Starbucks drive-up for lattes and pumpkin bread. Brain food for us!

A Day in Small and Large Circles

Recently something my friend Mimi told me has revolutionized how I greet each day. “Imagine that you’re drawing a circle around yourself,” said Mimi. “Who will be within your circle today?” Those are the people who deserve your best.

How does this help? Somehow zooming in on those people I will interact with today, bringing them sharply into focus, helps me appreciate each one and any influence I might have on them for good or for bad.

Today’s small circle is potentially minute because I’m keeping 5-month-old Adeline. But for sure in my small circle I will see the guy shutting down the sprinkler system, my family home for dinner, and whomever Adeline and I meet on a stroller walk. Each person important.

Ah, but each day also has a large circle, people whom I will influence perhaps without even knowing it. People who are influenced by my work, or messages I send through cyber-space, or telephone calls.

This small concept has made me think more keenly, and approach more prayerfully, the interactions in the small circles and the rippled-out large circles of my days. Each of us is important, each day is significant; it helps me to be intentional by beginning my day zooming in and zooming out.

House at Rest

Now that it’s fall at the cabin, steam rises from the lake in the mornings because the water is, finally, warmer than the air. New snow graces the peaks like a sifting of powdered sugar.

It’s time to close the Inverness, which has pipes above ground that freeze, and summer-only insulation. Closing the cabin involves a cluster of routines, which I’ve finally committed to a computerized list, including changing all the sheets and leaving a dust-sheet on top, cleaning out the frig and pantry, and lowering the rattan blinds. The guys tinker with the more fun chores of storing the grill, the swing, and the boats. When the car has been loaded and we’re ready to head “down the mountain” for the final time this season, we go to the dock to lower the flags.

As I’ve written in a previous blog post (see Flags as Social Media), people here fly their flags when they’re in residence. So lowering the flags is the final period on the long, full season that has been Summer.

Our routine is to fold the flags military-tight, then talk about the highlights of the summer, and pray a prayer of gratitude. Gus the standard poodle loves the place as much as we do, and lays his head on one lap or another as we sit on the dock for this ritual.

So now the cabin, which in my last blog post was at play, is for a long season at rest. A caretaker will shutter the windows. Soon snows will enfold it in slumber. Inverness will do what homes do when we leave them for an extended vacation. It will hold its confidences and sit at peace, condensing the essences of home in preparation for its people’s return. We, in turn, will shift our living to active weekend commitments at home, and dream about next summer at the cabin.

House at Play

Rest and play are like the inhale and exhale of home, keeping the atmosphere from growing stagnant, keeping it a place we want to come to.

Sometimes you have to “set up” play – plan it, provide the time set apart and the equipment. Sometimes it just happens, and that’s the very best.

One of our summer at-the-cabin friends, whom our son Tim has grown up with, is Jeff Eldridge, owner of Liberty Puzzles, wooden puzzles renowned for their whimsy pieces that are shaped like birds or bonnets or wagons or such.

Jeff graciously gave us a puzzle recently, and the addiction struck. Jigsaw puzzles are as bad as knitting that way. You can’t quit until you find one more piece, then one more, one more….

The moment in the picture just happened. But I also like to set up a card table with a jigsaw puzzle in the winter, sometimes over the holidays. Working puzzles provides great talking time, because it’s relaxed and you’re not looking one another in the eye. Like when Mom is stirring or chopping in the kitchen and a kid opens up and talks.

Find ways that your home environment is conducive to play. Set it up. And let it happen.

Granola Recipe that Travels the World

Mimi in Rwanda

My friend and cookbook partner Mimi Wilson grew up in Congo, and has lived in Peru, Ecuador, Jordan, on a Navaho reservation in New Mexico, in Rwanda, and in Denver. She is a world citizen, seamlessly moving in and out of cultures, with her respectful and gracious manner. Mimi may not know many words of a local language (although she speaks Swahili and Spanish), but she communicates easily heart to heart.

Wherever she stays, Mimi loves to share tips and tricks of food preparation – using local ingredients, of course. Then I reap from her experiences. “I’ve put together a Once-A-Month Cooking of recipes from Kigali,” she told me recently. “I’ll send it to you.”

Mimi loves to share her recipe for granola, called  “Fusha’s Granola.” Fusha is Mimi’s childhood African nickname, which means “something soft and sweet.” Her family calls her Fusha.

When Mimi lived in Jordan, a friend liked her granola so much that the recipe is now printed on the packaging of her family’s wheat germ. Mimi gave the recipe to women at a retreat in Tanzania, and one attendee is now making and selling it. And a friend in England asked Mimi if she could sell the recipe to a cereal company.

Here it is for you for free is Mimi’s world-traveled recipe:

Fusha’s Granola

Place ingredients in large bowl and mix well

3-1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

Then in smaller bowl stir together

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup honey

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla or maple flavoring

1 teaspoon almond extract

(Add after baking) 2 cups dried fruit, such as raisins, craisins, candied papaya, candied pineapple, candied mango

Combine two mixtures and stir well.   Place on greased baking sheet with sides and bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 30 minutes.  Can be baked longer if a drier cereal is desired. Add at least 2 cups of dried fruit. The recipe can be double easily. The house will be filled with a yummy aroma!

A Dog, A Son, and an Errand in the Night

Gus celebrating Drew's birthday. How could he not feed him?

Gus moaned in distress while we ate dinner, because we’d run out of dog food. Gus the standard poodle remains slim, I believe, because he only eats with company, when someone’s in the room with him. He’s not a nibbler. Or a table scrapper, for that matter (that I’m aware of).

After dinner, Drew offered to go with me to buy dog food. I wanted Drew to go for me because I’d stubbed my toe HARD that day, and I wanted to stay in my slippers. He didn’t want to go alone, but agreed he would go into the store and I could stay in the car.

Drew got out Gus’s leash, assuring me that’s okay to take him with us to PETCO. I knew that; it’s just that if it were up to me, I wouldn’t bother.

The three of us piled into the car and drove up the local fast food, big box shopping strip. I sat in the car and fiddled with my phone while Drew and Gus shopped. When they returned, Drew had the giant dogfood bag, fake bacon treats for Gus, and a dog tag engraved with our address, that Gus needed.

Of course it so happened that a big drive-thru Starbuck’s beckoned on the way home, so Drew ordered a Caramel Frappuccino and I a Café Mocha. Gus sat tall in the back seat, like the distinguished human he believes he is.

“Sometimes it’s just good to get out,” said Drew, as we headed home in the dark. It’s true. But it’s easy to forget as the nights turn dark and colder, and I just want to leave my slippers on.

When Your Best Friend Who Moved Away Comes to Visit

It’s been more than two years since my best buddy Anne moved to Washington, DC. But you haven’t heard a Part II of my lament because, frankly, I’ve gotten to see her often. She’s come back to visit several times, often staying two or three weeks at a time.

Therefore I do not share your woe if you have a dear friend who has moved far away – and stays gone. But what I have experienced is the spectator side of watching a friend reluctantly, but with gathering determination, put down roots.

Several factors have held Anne’s heart in Colorado (in addition to me) – she lived here her whole adult life and raised her sons. The sunny days calm her fibromyalgia. She loves to ski. She had a home with space for people and belongings. She had interior design clients.

But she and her husband now live in a snappy highrise apartment within walking distance of his job in DC. Here are the steps I’ve seen her taking.

She did the hard work of paring down what she took with them and decorated an inviting, attractive apartment. She and Glenn explore DC, Georgetown, and the countryside on weekends. She finally sold the car they had left here — the easier to get around when she came to Colorado. They have invited friends over for dinner whom they met in their building. This has lead to meeting and inviting over more friends in their building. They like these interesting people. They have found a church they like close to their apartment. She has taken on the planning of a black tie event in DC called Remember the Brave for families of fallen soldiers.

Each time Anne comes back here she attacks their storage unit again, the goal being to get the stuff into a smaller sized unit. Now her goal is to move the remaining stuff to a storage unit in DC. And she has quit taking on the new design projects that help her justify still another trip.

It is a slow process. As her friend, it is hard to know my role. I love to have her here. It’s like dorm living. But I know it’s best for her to continue to snap the strings, to extend roots, to develop the emotional connections that will hopefully allow a new place to become “home.”

Aromatherapy of the Home-Cooked Meal

One day while I was baking chocolate chip cookies the doorbell rang. A boy of about eight, our son Drew’s age at the time, had just moved in up the street. He had seen Drew outside playing and came over to get acquainted.

I invited Jeremy to join Drew where he was playing up in his room, but instead he followed me into the kitchen.

Jeremy stood on the opposite side of the counter while I measured heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough onto baking sheets. Maybe it was the apron I wore. But I think it was the aroma of the batch in the oven. Anyway, Jeremy poured out his story to me.

He said his mother had kidnapped him from his father and step-mother, and had hidden him in her home in another state, and he couldn’t go to school. Now he was back home, and one thing that he loved was that his (step) grandmother always baked cookies with him. I just nodded as he talked, while the aroma and the warm, delicious cookies made him comfortable.

This Monday, September 28, is designated Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children^TM by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA). Why? Because in their ten-year study on how parents can help their teenagers remain substance-free, they’ve discovered the simple, great value in kids and parents having dinner together and talking at the table.

So I encourage you to roll out one of your family’s favorite recipes and treat them to the aromatherapy of a home-cooked meal. Talk about something fun – no pressure. Something like “let’s go around the table and name best things about fall.” Keep it going and going. Maybe from this deeper discussions will come.

In life, and at home, it really is the little things, the family dinner-type things, that keep us all on track.