I’m not a fan of the word retarded (I still remember bursting into tears during my 7th grade math class when some jerky kids used it to make fun of my developmentally disabled brother.) but this video is still pretty great.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Author: Faith
Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast
This week I’m taking a look at Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast
May’s a crazy month for us. It includes Nathan (and my dad)’s birthdays, Mother’s Day, and our wedding anniversary (9 years this week!).
I wanted to make something a little special for dinner so I used this steak recipe. There was a bit of um, shall we say scope creep? The recipe called for 4 oz tenderloin steaks but the market was having a crazy sale on ribeyes so N’s dinner ended up looking like this (mine was smaller):
So it was fresh and fast but not so light. However, the flavor of the sauce was really good. And I’m officially in love with the salads we had with it: iceberg wedges with blue cheese dressing and dried cranberries and candied walnuts. Crunchy and fresh–yes, super healthy–eh, no.
Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Red Wine-Mushroom Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (about 1/2 inch thick)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- butter-flavored cooking spray
- 1 (8-ounce) package presliced baby portobello mushrooms
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 tablespoons better
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
Instructions
Heat a large nonstick skiller over med-high heat. Season steaks with salt and pepper. Coat with cooking spray. Add steaks to pan: cook 3 min or each side or until they reach your preferred degree of doneness. Move steaks to a serving platter and keep warm.
Add mushrooms to same pan. Coat mushrooms with cooking spray, saute 3 min or until browned. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loose browned bits. Cook until the liquid is almost all evaporated. Remove from heat and add butter and rosemary. Stir until butter melts. Pour sauce over steaks and serve.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size 1 steak and 1/4 c sauce)
The Verdict:
3 out of 5 stars. This is a decent weeknight-dinner type of cookbook. Clear directions paired with recipes that use mostly fresh, easy-to-find ingredients make this book good for singles or couples that want to be able to put dinner on the table quickly and have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Detailed nutritional info is included so you can figure out your points if you’re doing Weight Watchers. However, most recipes make 4 servings so it’s not really geared towards families with several kids.
Overall, I like this book. Recipes from it will probably make it into our regular dinner rotation (once we set up a regular rotation).
Letter: Month Thirty
Dear E,
I know that this last month was hard at times (we both came down with a nasty stomach bug and it took you a good two weeks to fully recover) but as I type this the moments first and foremost in my mind are the good ones.
This Mother’s Day was the first that you were involved in. You and your dad picked out some lovely peach roses at Costco and you presented them to me with a big smile and a “Happy Mother’s Day!” And then later that day you kept wishing me a “Happy birthday!” which was also nice.
Your teachers at preschool helped you make a little set of flowers by tracing your hand print and stuck them in a little flowerpot with your name on it. I’m usually not very sentimental and I know you basically had nothing to do with making them but I surprised myself by tearing up a little when you gave it to me. I think I’ll keep it forever.
Speaking of preschool, you really love it now. For a while you would whimper a bit when I dropped you off (but quickly cheer up). But now you LOVE it. As soon as I help you down from the car you run into your classroom and start playing. And most mornings after you wake up you ask “ride in the car? Preschool?” It makes me happy to see you enjoy playing with other kids.
You’ve gotten really into music lately. Your dad and I love music (your dad especially) and we usually have it playing. You have a hodgepodge set of toy instruments that you like to play: drums, a tambourine, a guitar, a recorder, an accordion, and a xylophone. One of your favorite things to do is to pass out instruments to me and your dad, tell us we’re “in a band” and then count us off “one, two, three, one, two, three” at which we all start playing like mad. It’s a lot of fun.
Love,
Mama
Thank you, Wonder Pets
We have a low ledge along a wall behind one of our couches. E loves to climb over the couch and inch his way along the ledge and climb all over the couch in general. I’m pretty low key and don’t care about it since our couches aren’t anything special and he isn’t likely to hurt himself.
But sometimes he does gets stuck.
This morning E was attempting to slide off the couch and under a table we have next to it (which he knows is NOT allowed) and he got stuck. He looks over at me and says, “I’ll help you, Mom!”
I ask him if he meant to say, “Help me, please” and he agrees and says it with a smile.
I pull him out and plop him on the couch and then he says, “Thanks, Ma! Good teamwork!”
It cracked me up and almost made up for the hours of my life I’ve spent listening to Linnie, Tuck, and Ming Ming too–almost.
On Family
My mom really cherishes the memories she has of us kids when we were little. She’ll tell us stories of cute things we did (sometimes rather repeatedly 🙂 ). Because I’ve heard these stories so many times sometimes I kind of have flashes of déjà vu when E does something my mom told me I used to do as a child myself.
his weekend E ran unprompted to the corner of our yard set aside for a garden (but which is currently only growing dandelions) and carefully picked a bright yellow flower. And then he ran back to me and proudly thrust his little flower up at my face and said “Flower for mama!” It was very sweet.
I did the exact same thing when I was two or three. My mom relishes retelling the story, delighting in the toddler sweetness. I’ve heard it recounted so many times that sometimes it feels like I almost remember when it happened, fist clenched tightly around a yellow weed as my chubby little legs pump across the grass.
Like most people, my family is of essential importance to me. My religion teaches–and I believe–that families are able to be together after this life. The more I live and I experience the same things as a parent that I did as a child the more I feel like a link in a gleaming chain that stretches on and on.
The Joy of Vegan Baking
I bought the highly-regarded The Joy of Vegan Baking
The book covers a wide variety of baked goods and most recipes are accompanied by tasty-looking photographs, always a big plus in my eyes. Probably the biggest selling point of this book for me is it uses easy-to-find and rather inexpensive ingredients. Some vegan cookbooks call for a lot of exotic ingredients like coconut oil and specialty flours that are pricey and require at least a few trips to a specialty store to gather. Except for things like soy butter and non-dairy milk this book uses pretty standard baking ingredients which I really appreciate.
I used the book’s recipe for chocolate cake to bake some cupcakes for N’s birthday this last week. It’s a variation of Wacky Cocoa Cake. They turned out well except they were a little underdone. I checked them at 15 minutes like the recipe said and ended up pulling them out at 20 minutes because I was afraid they were burning. They were really moist and pleasingly on the dense side.
The cupcakes didn’t quite rise all the way (maybe I over-mixed?) but I just filled the little divots in the middle with frosting–ta da! Flavor-wise I think this is just as good as a normal chocolate cake mix cake. I’ll probably make this recipe again and try and figure out how to fix the sunken tops.
Chocolate Cake Recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 c granulated sugar
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
- 1/3 c canola oil
- 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
- 1 c cold water
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 f
- Lightly oil a bundt pan, 9-inch sprinigform pan, or muffin tins
- Combine all dry ingrediants and mix
- Create a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients to it.
- Mix until just combined.
- Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes
- (For cupcakes, check for doneness after 15 minutes)
- Cool on wire rack and then run a sharp knife around the inside of pan to loosen the cake.
- Cool completely before frosting.
Yield: one 9-inch cake of 8 cupcakes.
The Verdict:
4 out of 5 stars. If you’re interested in milk-free, egg-free baking for either health reasons or food allergies this should be one of the first books you get. It’s covers a wide range of baked goods and most recipes use easy-to-find ingredients (I’m looking at you, Babycakes
When Blogs Collide: *sniff, sniff* Edition
My friend Elaine from clothed much is moving away today. *sniff* Elaine was the first local friend I met through blogging. I’m going to miss hanging out and hitting up dicey warehouse stores/chowing down on Korean food with her.
On Monday night I got together with crafty girls Melissa from IS•LY and Susan from Freshly Picked to give Elaine a nice send off.
(Photo courtesy of Melissa)Best of luck in CA, Elaine. You will be sorely missed!
(And now I’m off to the gym. Ahem.)
Happy Birthday, N!
N recently had a birthday and so E and I made him some egg-free, dairy-free chocolate cupcakes. After feeling rather down about E’s food allergies last week it made me happy to watch E lick the batter bowl clean like a normal kid. (E was also a big fan of said bowl-licking.) And the cupcakes were really quite good.
(I know I know–he’s getting a haircut later this week.)
Happy birthday, N! You are the best.Recent Holga Pics
When I drive to the store or gym I pass this rundown boarded-up house with grazing horses. I never drive past it without feeling a pang of regret that I didn’t bring my camera. It’s surrounded by tract houses and 100 ft from the freeway but I like how this tiny pocket of land seems locked in a bubble of rural decay.
Well, last week a storm was rolling in and the sky was darkening nicely and I said enough is enough and turned the car around and went home and got my Holga. These shots are my favorites from the roll.
I’d love to go back with my Holga and some color film and my tripod and take some shots around sunset but that will have to wait until I get a new tripod: E broke mine last week. *sniff*
Cookbooks on Trial
I’m not a very good housewife. I’m struggle with keeping my house tidy and organized and with cooking healthy meals from scratch. The reasons behind it are varied: I have trouble remembering to put things away after I’m finished with them, working from home and looking after E keeps me pretty busy, I rather spend my free time goofing around on the internet or pursuing another one of my too-many hobbies, etc…not to mention I’m just kind of lazy.
It’s not that I don’t have good intentions. It’s just that my good intentions usually don’t get past the research/inspiration phase. So I end up picking up things on sale that I think will help me be a better person and instead they mostly clutter up my house.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Exhibit A:
This is pretty much every cookbook I own…that I haven’t cooked out of. I have a few others not pictured that I’ve used.
Yeah, I didn’t realize there were so many until I stacked them all up together. In my defense, it’s taken me 9+ years to collect so many. And a lot of them were bargain books; the books in the series on the right were mostly $2 or $3 each. Also, several of them were gifts. (Speaking of gifts, please don’t be offended if you see a book you gave me here!) Cookbooks are some of my favorite gifts to receive and I really like reading them. I just have trouble getting to the part where I, um, actually make use of them.
But not anymore! Presenting Cookbooks on Trial. Every week I’m going to cook a recipe/meal from one of the books until I’ve gone through them all.
It’s not the most thorough way to review the books but it will at least let me get a feel for each book and I’ll hopefully improve my cooking skills in the process. And N is looking forward to getting at least one nice homemade meal a week (I know, I know–the bar is set pretty low around here). But speaking of N, he’s been nothing but supportive and excited about this project. He helped me name my project (and he didn’t even blink when he saw all the books stacked up together). I love that guy.
Anyway, I’m pretty serious about this and I’m hoping that blogging about it will help keep me on track. Watch for the first installment later this week!