Here are some musings to start out your week.
According to this book we now have a new list of things we're not supposed to eat:
Salmon
Asparagus
Black Beans (maybe all beans - not sure)
Tomatoes
Apparently they make us 'inflame' - whatever the hell that's supposed to really mean.  Ugh.

If you are having some trouble keeping your man around and/or you want to ensure that you'll be keeping the one you've got close by then give this article a read.  It worked in the fifties - unfortunately women alcoholics were at epidemic levels but I'm sure that this is a coincidence.  I'd say a shopping trip for lacy, pink gitch (our word for underwear) is in order.


The huge food box this week.  I ordered hella stuff... not even all of it is pictured.  This is my form of retail therapy - forget the lacy, pink hitch.  Already freezing the blueberries for later use.

This guy is at the top of the charts in the UK.  This makes me more than a little jealous and definitely angry at the state of popular music in North America.  The first time I heard the song I thought it was good.  The second time I listened I thought it was really good.  The third time I put it on I repeated it three times.  Watch the video all the way to the end... PLEASE.

This article reminds me that sadly we don't learn from history.  I understand militant feminism, I really do... I'm just not always comfortable with it.  I'm glad that the author here makes the point that this is not a new phenomenon but rather centuries old.

D put me onto this comic strip.  'Why I run'.  Amazing.  I understand the 'Blerch'.  Reading it resonated but felt oddly vulnerable, almost emotional at the same time.

BTDub - I made peach ice cream again and wanted to post it because I changed the sweetener in the recipe to a mixture of brown sugar and .... wait for it... honey.  I know, right.  Then it felt lame and I decided not to post it.  Plus I just felt kinda lame for even making ice cream again and posting the recipe would feel super-hero-lame but now that I've written it down here I suppose that none of it makes any difference.


I'm digging deep with this recipe because it's emptying the dregs of my fridge.  The leftover roast chicken.  The broth that I made from the carcass of the chicken.  The frozen corn that needed to be used up from last year.  Ok - that's the freezer I realize.  The dreaded, inflammatory black beans.  I left out the equally inflammatory tomatoes though - god be praised.  We can eat this with only half of the guilt and bloating that we might otherwise feel if it were made with tomatoes.  I couldn't call this white chili because it's not.  It's speckled.  Speckled chili sounds weird and unappetizing.  So this is officially chicken chili.  More like chicken and bean stew with chili seasoning but you get the idea.  You will notice that it doesn't have much in the way of spices because I discovered that I'm out of things like cumin and ground coriander which sucks.  I seasoned this bad boy up well enough though and thanks to a well done broth it came out quite tasty.  Feel free to season yours as you might any other chili.  This came together for me in about 20 minutes.


Chicken Chili with Black Beans and Corn adapted from 'Simply in Season'

1 med onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 - 3 cups cooked chicken, diced
2 cans black beans (or a mix of black and red kidney), drained and rinsed
4 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth) - low salt if possible
1 1/2 cups corn
2 tsp salt
3 - 4 tbsp chili powder (to your taste)
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp thyme
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
3 - 4 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup (or so) fresh coriander, roughly chopped (I did not have this lying around)
heaping 1/2 cup cheddar or jack cheese, shredded

Heat a large, heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium heat.
Add a couple of heaping tbsp of olive oil (or whatever you use).  Throw in the onion and sauté for about 2 minutes.  Turn the heat down to med/low and add in the garlic.  Cook together until the onion is soft and a little browned on the edges.
Add in the diced chicken, rinsed beans, chicken broth and corn.
Heat through just until starting to simmer and then turn the heat down just low enough to keep the stew barely simmering.
Add the salt, chili powder, oregano, thyme, chipotle powder and mix well.
Add in the corn starch just a tbsp at a time, mix well after each addition.  Add only enough corn starch to get the liquid to the thickness that you are happy with.
Add in the coriander and the cheese and mix.
Check the taste and adjust if necessary.
Simmer for another 15 - 20 minutes and serve with a dollop or sour cream and some more sprinkled cheese.

I really really really want corn and tomatoes in my life... raw, roasted, grilled, sprinkled with some salt, some feta cheese added.  Whatever.  I really want it.  I've been craving corn and tomato soup with black beans.  It sounds wonderful, right.  I just can't bring myself to make soup in the summer.  It feels wrong.  I don't know, maybe I'm ok with wrong.  What I've distracted myself by doing instead is eating this ice cream.  I am currently on my third scoop - taken secretly, straight from the freezer when my kids aren't looking.  It's so not wrong.  Maple and Peach.  Maple because I had it and thought that it might be cool and I saw the combo somewhere else and it looked like it worked.  Peach because it's peach season - dude!  Where have you been.


The obligatory food box shot... I hope somebody cares because I feel kinda dumb posting this.  I thought briefly about taking shots of my fridge and freezer to show you all... why?  Why would anybody care about the organization of my freezer?  Why did the thought even occur to me?  It's a slippery slope.  Next thing you know, I'm taking shots of my sock drawer so that you can all see how well organized I am and how many colours are in there.  Slippery Slope.
I realize that summer vacation is about more than sitting in a park reading or seeing how much you can accomplish without leaving the couch.  Problem is that I'm enjoying those things so much that it's hard for me to find room to care about anything else.  If I could sit and read in the park with a drink - say a beer or glass of champagne - it's probable that I would never leave.  Unfortunately, one can't do such a thing in Ontario because we're all conservative like that apparently.  In this particular instance though it's a good thing.
I finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire.  I have the third and final book on my kindle.  I just can't decide if I want to go for it.  I waited a year in between reading the first two and, unlike The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, I feel like I don't need to wrap this all up and find out what happens.   Speaking of kindle - my little niece has written two books and published them on amazon for kindle.  They are both adorable... the books and my niece.
I cooked 'nuff' food yesterday.  Roasted Chicken with carrots and gravy.  Green Beans, Shitake Mushrooms and Sorrel with Soy Sauce glaze.  Roasted eggplant, fennel and zucchini Pasta sauce (recipe to come for this one).  I wanted to make crackers but then wondered what I would do with the crackers.  If I make crackers then I feel compelled to go out and get cheese to go with them.  If I go out then I should get some grapes too because those go nicely with crackers and cheese.  Once I'm out I should pick up some potatoes because we need... Ok, that's it - no crackers.  Still, felt good to fill up the empty fridge for the week.  Except that the whole time I really wanted Corn and Tomato, Black Bean Soup.


I thought you might be wondering if this ice cream is as good as it looks.  Yep.  It is.  I've eaten three more spoonfuls since starting this post... my kids still don't know.


Peach Maple Ice Cream adapted from Pies and Plots
makes about 1 litre

Custard:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup 10% cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
Peaches:
4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

For the Peaches:
Place the peach slices in a bowl.  Add sugar and vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Over medium/low heat simmer the peaches in their juice until there is almost no juice left.  Peaches will be soft and mushy.  Set aside to cool.
Custard:
Combine the heavy cream, 10% cream and milk together.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan combine the cream mixture and the sugar.  Heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Once the mixture has just about come to a simmer, turn the heat down to low.
Stir small amounts of the cream mixture into the egg yolks, stirring to combine.  Once about a third of the mixture has been stirred into the yolks then add the yolk mixture back into the cream mixture.  Turn the heat up just a little and heat until you feel the mixture thicken and use the wooden spoon test.
Remove the mixture from the heat and pour through a sieve into a bowl.
Add the maple syrup and vanilla.  Stir and then cover with plastic wrap (placing the wrap right on the custard so that it doesn't form a crust) cool to room temperature and then place in fridge for about 4 hrs or overnight.
Remove the custard to a ice cream maker and make according to manufacturers directions.
At the end of the churning cycle add about 1 cup of the cooled peach mixture and run for another 5 minutes.
Remove the ice cream to a freezable container and freeze until hard.
Soften briefly before serving.

I feel like I've blown my wad in terms of what I have to say this week.  I even gave you pictures of this week's food box.  What that means is that a whole lot of potentially meaningless and definitely random thought paragraphs are coming right up...
I'm at the halfway point of my summer break.  I think that I've finally gotten work 90% out of the way and can spend the rest of the month without it eating away at the back of my brain.... mostly.  That helps me breath a little bit easier.
I realized the other night that I don't talk about myself very much at all.  There are very few people who I really talk to.  Mostly, I listen and offer my two cents worth of advice and/or perspective.  I wonder if people notice that I don't talk about me?  (They probably do) I wonder if it pisses them off that I don't talk more about myself. (don't know about that one) Most people seem perfectly happy to talk about themselves and don't return with terribly probing questions.  Definitely, no one has ever asked me about my lack of personal dishing, leading me to believe that no one notices.  It's not that I have nothing to say about myself, my life, my situation.  I do.  I feel like I have to be very careful about what I say because I'm kinda out there sometimes [a lot] and that doesn't always go over well.  Still, shouldn't I be looking for more people that I can really talk to... and I mean really.  Maybe it's not 'them' - Maybe it's me.
This blog is a place where I open up a whole lot more.  I think that the act of typing it out helps me work out what I'm truly thinking and feeling.  There have been many times when I've typed something out that I've gone back and deleted  - sometimes the whole thing and sometimes just significant portions.  This probably seems hard to believe because most of the time it reads like I don't even spell check.  [This, sadly, is true]

In other news:

We saw the Wolverine movie in the theatre yesterday and two hours later I had forgotten that I'd seen it.

I rented Trance the day before that and will never forget that I saw it.

Why is Blurred Lines so popular when this one exists - I must ask.

Lastly, please take a moment to be super impressed that I've posted three times in one week.  Three Times.


I took this very simple, very homey cake to a girls-night-in recently.  It was definitely one of those situations where I didn't say much about myself.  But I brought cake and that should cover my butt.  Besides, my friends had a lot to say.  The cake, despite it's humble appearance, has a lovely crumb, robust taste and comes together quickly and easily.



Banana Cardamom Cake adapted from 'Good to the Grain'
makes 1 9inch round cake

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup red fife or whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)

Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.  Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Set aside.
In another bowl combine the butter and sugar.  Beat until creamy (mine never quite got there).
Add the bananas and beat until well incorporated.
Add the eggs and beat until definitely creamy.
Add the yogurt and beat until well incorporated.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture.  Mix just until everything is wet and smooth.
Pour evenly into the prepared pan. Give it a little drop on the counter to get out the air bubbles.
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes but check after 50 - tester should come out clean from the middle of the cake.
Cool.

No less than 3 times over the past week and a half have I found myself intimately discussing women's bodies.  It wasn't the good kind of discussing unfortunately.  It made me sad.  It reminded me that for women body image hasn't changed much since the late fifties.  Very sad.  It reminded me that as a woman body image is going to be an uphill challenge for the rest of my life.
One conversation was regarding the royal pregnancy (which, can I just reiterate here - I don't care much about at all beyond 'it's nice they had a baby') and more specifically the royal post pregnancy body.  Now this I care about.  I am absolutely incensed that Kate is being maligned for having a post pregnancy belly not two days after giving birth.  I must give kuddo's where kuddo's are due.  Since most celebrities either don't show their post-birth bodies until they've lost all of the weight or they have surgery immediately after the birth, I must applaud Kate for what must have been a very gutsy and honest decision... to walk out of that hospital.  Guess what.  That's what most women look like after giving birth.  It's beautiful - she and her beautiful belly are powerful and gorgeous.
Another conversation was about a woman's legs and booty.  A performer was wearing a wonderful pair of shorts which beautifully showed off her ample thighs and booty.  She wasn't skinny.  She had cellulite (OMG).  She was gorgeous.  Not just her face but all of her... absolutely gorgeous.  My friend thought that, although this woman had a beautiful face, she needed to keep that thigh stuff under wraps... clothing more specifically.  Allow me to clarify that the performer was not wearing anything obscene.  To clarify further, I don't believe that cellulite is obscene.
A third conversation was about not wearing shorts... for many years because of insecurity and fear of judgment.  By the third conversation I was starting to feel frustrated, angry and even militant.

This weeks food box contents - for those interested.

So now I start thinking out loud.  Just rambling really because I can't even quite put together what is most upsetting for me about this whole body image thing.
Cellulite, jiggling, flat stomach, ripped abs, stretch marks, arm flab... hell, even grey hair.  Everything must be altered according to.. to what?  Social convention?  I don't even know but it feels like we are never good enough unless we've changed stuff about how we look and therefor we are constantly working on changing it so that it better matches what we see on a page or on a screen 'cause sure as shit our mirrors don't reflect those images back at us.  I wonder:

Why do we judge each other's bodies with such damning severity?
After all of these years, is Twiggy still the only benchmark for body beauty?
Is my daughters generation as obsessed with body image as my generation is/was?
Who cares if people think I'm fat?  I'm not hiding.

I've been reading this blogger quite a bit over the past few months.  I especially loved what she said about running and really exercise in general.  She has given me hope that there are a growing number of women out there not constantly judging themselves and others against this extremely rigid model of beauty or so-called normal.

I love what this photographer is promoting.  Sometimes I feel like I'm going to cry when I look at the pictures.

When I think about the crazy that surrounds weight loss on this continent it makes my head spin.  Keeping us  - most especially women - unhappy with their bodies means that a lot of people make a lot of money.  A lot.  Quite frankly, none of us can keep up with all of the diets and 'good' advice.


To conclude my not-so-well-put-together rant:  I don't believe that skinny is beautiful.  I don't believe that fat is beautiful.  I believe that being a woman is beautiful... whatever her shape and size.  I'm so tired of fighting against the machine that my insides hurt.  I believe that I am beautiful because I am.

Here is a recipe of food that tasted good.  Eat and love yourself.


Roasted Summer Vegetables with Sausage and Rotini
serves 6

2 fennel heads, cut into 1 inch thick slices
2 red pepper, seeded and cut into 1 inch thick lengths
2 yellow or green zucchini, halved and cut into 1 inch thick slices
4 italian sausages (about 1 - 1 1/2 lbs), halved
5 - 6 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
4 cups rotini pasta, cooked al dente (as per the package instruction time)
juice from half a lemon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup (approx. - think a generous sprinkling) parmesan cheese, grated
drizzle more of olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place all of the vegetables on a big baking sheet or cookie sheet.  Add the olive oil and toss the veggies to coat everything.  Spread the veggies out evenly on the baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add the pieces of sausage to the top.
Roast for about 25 - 30 minutes or just until the veggies have browned nicely at the edges.
(Meanwhile - cook the pasta if you need to)
Remove the baking sheet and cool slightly.  Sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg.
Combine the veggies and pasta together in a large bowl and toss well.
Add the lemon juice and toss.
Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and toss.
Drizzle with a little more olive oil if you like.

What does one do when one is having a birthday party barbecue that one might not have necessarily wanted to have but it seemed like the least worst of a few bad situation possibilities?  Well, one certainly does not try to reinvent the wheel.
What does one do when one is having a birthday party barbecue that is the last big thing on her to-do list before truly and properly going on vacation? (stay-cation, whatever) She absolutely does make things as easy as possible for herself.  Oh - and she definitely goes for a run because she's going to need it.
What does one not do when one is having a birthday party barbecue?  Well, one doesn't stay up late watching a movie... except that's what I did.  Not my smartest move but it was a good movie - 'The Trotsky' a canadian flick with Jay Baruchel, set in Montreal, wonderful.  Who can resist.

I haven't been any kind of big time home entertainer or anything like that but I've learned one thing through my years of experience.  It sounds wrong when I say it out loud.  It's ludicrously simple, ridiculous even.  It seems counter-intuitive in this modern age of healthy.  Here it is:

Make Dessert First.

I know.  I know.  Most of us don't even consider dessert.  Why would we when we can just buy it - it's so much easier.  But I can't.  Especially for birthdays.  I'm riddled with guilt if I purchase something... even if I get their name written on it.  Whatever it is you are having for dessert make sure that you've figured it out and either bought it or made it first.  It will set the tone for everything else.  It will change how you feel about the entire meal, the whole event.


And thus I found myself on the eve of the birthday party barbecue that was the lesser of many evils, making birthday cake.  What turned out to be a great birthday cake and a not too sweet icing that made the perfect quantity for the cake (ie. no leftover icing).  Birthday cake or homemade dessert or just damn good dessert of any kind will make up for any number of dinner party violations.  Violations like having a broken toilet and therefor making your guests go to the basement to use that one.  How about forgetting that people need plates for appetizers that drip (oops) or forgetting napkins altogether.  Then there is the lego that's as plentiful as dust in our house.  It took Kid #2 two days to get it all in one area and even then our 94 yr old Auntie was finding them under her feet sometimes.  Yup - even with all of that you will be excused if dessert is good.  And it was.

Our two birthday girls are the first two on the left.  Lovely Ladies.

Nobody here is a birthday girl or boy.

White Cake with Buttery Chocolate Icing adapted barely from Epicurious
makes 1 two layer cake

2 1/4 cup cake and pastry flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk at room temperature
6 lg egg whites (about 3/4 cup or just a little more) at room temperature
3 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unsalted butter soft but still coolish

Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the pastry flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix and set aside.
Combine the egg whites, milk and vanilla.  Mix well and set aside.
Add the butter to the flour mixture and start to whisk or mix together (if using a mixer).  Once a crumbly texture has formed add all but a half cup of the egg whites mixture and continue mixing at high speed for a couple of minutes.
Add in the rest of the egg whites mixture and then mix for another minute or so.
Pour evenly into the prepared pans (I did a little slam on the counter top with mine before putting them in the oven) and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out of the middle clean.
Cool for about 20 minutes before removing from the pans and then cool completely on a cooling rack before icing.

Buttery Chocolate Icing adapted from here
Makes about 1 1/2 cups (perfect for a two layer cake)

2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature and cubed
5 tbsp whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa powder.
Add the cubes of butter.  Using a mixer (or a very good whisk and a fast, strong arm) mix until things aren't dry anymore but quite thick.  Add in the whipping cream and vanilla and begin to mix slowly until the liquid is incorporated and then move to a higher speed and continue mixing until the cream starts to thicken up quite a bit (this will take a few minutes).  Once the cream has thickened to a nice spreadable consistency then get ready to ice the cake.
Refrigerate after icing the cake.

I exhale and realize that slowly, steadily, each time I exhale this week I will unwind just a little more.  It's a wonderful thought.  By this time next week I will have gotten through planning choirs for all of the remaining weddings for the summer, gotten all of the emails ready for those weddings, taken a group of 33 boys to sing the anthems at a Jays game honouring Carlos Delgado (the name means very little to me, a non-baseball fan, but I'm sure that you all are duly impressed), gotten through a lot of birthdays (I forgot to count this time around) and... well... I can't think of anything else.  Maybe there is nothing else.
I pulled the cookie sheet out of the cupboard today and tried to think of the last time I made cookies.  I can't recall it.  My mind is blanking and it's been happening a lot - I'm not worried though.  Sometimes the thought that I might not remember things is kind of comforting.  KT, knowing my gift anxiety and challenges, requested oatmeal cookies for her birthday.  I didn't make them while it was 2 billion degrees in the kitchen so they're a couple of days late but the were very cute and hopefully very yummy and now they are gone... some into her belly and some into her freezer.  Plain oatmeal cookies.

These are not plain, oatmeal cookies.

A royal baby was born.  Thank jeebus.  I'm not a monarchist in the least.  I somewhat resent the institution.  I definitely resent the imperial and colonial history that the institution represents and I certainly think that today we could find much better places to spend tax dollars (for Brits anyway).  However, the hoopla is going to be there whether I like it or not and I for one am glad that the child is with us... so we can have some peace.  I am also a little uneasy about the public spectacle of that extremely private event.  We didn't ask to see their wedding night sheets, did we?  It feels a little weird.


I met a guy who is just starting to train for a body building show.  He's already built but it will take another 18 weeks to get him show ready.  The diet changes have started and he's gradually ramping up his workouts.  By the time he's ready to show he'll be working out multiple hours a day and eating god knows how few calories to stay in his weight class.  Plus - no drinking.  The whole thing sounds scary to me.  The spray tan alone would decide things for me... no spray tan.

These super hero's have been watching my every move today.

KT was asking about my next tattoo and I'm really really ready to get one but the summer is realistically not the time.  I'm living on fumes (no paycheques in the summer) and you have to keep that new ink out of the sun for a short period of time.  A short period of time is pretty much what we call the season of 'summer' around here so if I have to keep a non-private-parts part of my body out of the sun then it could miss the whole summer.  Like hell.  I'll do it when I get back to work - with paycheques and work clothes.  I got it alllll planned though.


I thought that this parenting article pretty much covered me all around.  Cue sigh of relief and Wanda out.  The kids are out with two friends (who also happen to be brother and sister) having a play date which is why I'm sitting here writing this post in the first place.

This was my lunch and I thought you might care... I still might eat more.  It wasn't as filling as I thought it would be.

And finally, muffins made of stuff that isn't all salt, sugar, fat (a book that I'm just finishing up BTdub) but a little salt, sugar, fat.  Zucchini  - definitely in the clear.  Banana - yeah, it gets a pass.  Chocolate - I used good quality, organic, fair, righteous, humble and courageous - ok, we'll let it through.  I even threw some whole wheat flour in their just to make you feel that this was probably one of the best uses for that zucchini wilting in your fridge and that banana freezing in your freezer.  Kid #1 and #2 didn't even realize that it contained zucchini just in case your looking for a way to get something like that into your kids digestion system.

Please note super hero trio in the upper right corner... creepy.

Zucchini, Banana, Chocolate Muffins adapted from Martha Stewart
makes 12 lg muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup red fife or whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (scant) grated zucchini
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana)
3/4 cup (or so) chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F
Line a muffin tin with about 12 muffin liners.
Combine both flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg together in a bowl.  Add the grated zucchini and mix until the zucchini is well incorporated and completely coated with the flour mixture.  Mix well and set aside.
In another bowl mix together the milk and egg.  Whisk to mix.
Add the mashed banana and mix well.
Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and whisk together only until everything is wet.
Add the chopped chocolate and mix until the chocolate is evenly distributed.
Spoon into the muffin cups.  I filled mine just barely to the top edge.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes clean out of the middle muffin cup.
Cool before eating.

We are in the middle of a delicious heat wave in Toronto.  Oh sure, it's not my favourite thing but I'm damned if you find me complaining about it because before we all know it I'll be jumping on my bike in the middle of December cursing the cold and trying desperately to remember what it felt like to have the skin melted off of my bones.  Not one complaint.
There are however, some challenges when houses are built to keep in the heat rather than keeping cool.  We've managed to keep the air conditioning off during the day and use it only at night to ensure that we sleep and to cool the house down just enough for the next day.  Food becomes difficult though.  How do you eat and not heat up the whole house.  Canning hasn't even begun.  I can't imagine doing water bath canning in this heat.  I see all kinds of posts for jam and that kind of thing and I wonder where these people live.  My fruit is chilling out in the freezer.  Baking is absolutely out of the question.  We're not big BBQr's but we've resorted a time or two.  I've been working to come up with some things that we can eat and feel satisfied with but aren't just salads (which no one except me would eat anyway).
This is one of the things that I 'created'.  Almost no cooking required.  Just the couscous which is so barely cooking that it's hardly worth mentioning.


In other challenges...
Here is the food box contents for this week.  Decidedly green but a couple of colourful additions just to get my hopes up.



I am trying valiantly to not lose it in my own house but I swear if I here 'Hey Mom?' or 'Mooooom!' one more time... I just want to have space in my house to do my own thing.  I won't get into serious specifics but there comes a time in every day where I would like them to disappear to their rooms for the duration.  Oh to be able to watch a crappy movie or some trashy show with no questions.  To be able to eat some chips... or a whole bag... without anyone else asking to have some.  To get through the day without Kid #1 asking for money to do something with her friends and then trying to figure out what she can do to earn the money.  It's been all I can do to get them through two meals a day (they usually but not always take care of their own breakfast - thank jeebus)  Sometimes I just retreat to my room and just lie there on my bed with the fan going.  I've discovered that if the fan is going and I close the door then I can almost not hear anything downstairs.

Due to the heat I am working on shifting gears with my workout routine.  Running is a definite challenge in this weather but not just because of heat.  The air quality is more of an issue than heat.  Early morning or late evening are the only times when running for any distance is a possibility because it quickly becomes uncomfortable or even difficult to breathe.  Anything during daytime/rush hour times are that much worse because of the vehicle emissions as well as the temperature.  Fortunately up to now I've been able to find a day during the week that isn't sweltering in order to get my long run in.  The best news is that I'm up to 11k and no pain in either my foot or in my shin.


Corn, Black Bean and Couscous Tortilla's adapted from Food.com
makes 8 - 10 tortilla's

2 cups cooked couscous
1/3 cup onion, diced
1 cup (1 lg) red pepper, diced
1 lg can (1 1/2 cups) black beans, drained
1 1/2 cups corn (roasted would be nice but not necessary)
3 - 4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
dash of sugar

Combine diced onion and peppers together.  Add in the black beans and corn.  Mix well.
Add the olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder, chipotle powder, salt and dash of sugar.  Mix well. Add the cooked couscous and mix.  [Couscous - add 1 3/4 cups boiling water to 1 cup of dry couscous.  Cover and set aside for about 5 - 10 minutes (or whenever you need it).  Break it up with a fork and you're good to go]
Add it as filling to tortilla shells - a little cheese, sour cream, thinly sliced radishes and garlic scape sauce.

Garlic Scape Taco Sauce adapted from My Kitchen Addicition
makes about 1 - 1 1/2 cups

4 cups garlic scapes, diced very small
2 jalepeno pepper, seeded (optional depending on how hot you want it) and diced
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/3 - 1/2 cup water

Throw everything in a blender (start with just 1/3 cup of water though) and blend until it forms a thick paste - add a little more water to thin out as necessary.  I started the blender on chop and gradually worked up to liquify.