The Crab Chronicles

Lime Love

I learned early in life that in our house, lime juice rules. Not lemon juice - who wants to deal with seed? - fresh lime juice. In the Thompson house, limes are da bomb.

[OK, that's all the slang I will try to use.]

Limes are very nutritious. They burn fat. So the recipe below is health food. Don't say a word about the sour cream. (You can substitute yogurt if you want to, but I can't vouch for the results.)

When you make tuna salad with canned tuna, a good squeeze of lime juice makes it special. Ditto for any fish. Want the tastiest baked fish ever? Coat your fish with mayonnaise, lime juice, and a sprinkle of onion powder. Bake at 350 for 10-30 minutes, depending on how thick the fish is. YUM.

My favorite lime juice recipe is the one below, for Elva's Fruit Salad. Michael has been bugging me for a week to make it.I thought I'd give it a shot, for a yummy holiday weekend treat. I love it too.

ELVA'S FRUIT SALAD

 

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

juice of 1/2 lime

Mix above ingredients until sugar is dissolved, then taste.It should be quite tart so add more lime juice if you need to.

Fold in:

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 tall can mandarin oranges,drained

1 tall can pineapple tidbits, drained [I like fresh pineapple]

2 cups washed ,seedless grapes [green look pretty]

Cover and chill til ready to serve, at least an hour ahead -- or more- if possible, to soften the marshmallows.

Just before serving, fold in 1 cup toasted walnuts, lighted salted.**

Elva: "I'm pretty sure I've shared this recipe many times but I had to look it up so thought I'd send it because it is so easy and good for a holiday week end. Measurements don't have to be exact. Mike has been asking for it so we'll double it in order to have enough."

My aunt Jane also has made this salad many times to take to events, and it's always a hit.

TOASTED WALNUTS

Take 1-2 cups of walnuts and put them in a big plastic bag with some melted butter and sea salt or kosher salt [they stick better]. Toss your nuts around. [hahahaha] Put 'em on a baking sheet [covered with foil if you're lazy like me] and run that in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. YUM.

Below is my photo of the fruit salad I made this morning. Doesn't it look pretty?! Mother said "You couldn't put it in a PRETTY bowl?!" Well no, I'm not a Food Stylist and I don't want to wash a glass bowl. [I know it looks like there is bacon on top but nope, those are the toasted walnuts.]

I went out to water the gardens this morning and look what I found - itty bitty baby zucchini!!Aren't they precious?!

If you can't find the zucchini, put on your reading glasses...!

 

Tiny Burritos and Grief

We had the best dinner last night that I've fixed in a long time. I had never tried Mexican chorizo sausage until yesterday when Mike and I went to the farmer's market, and a lady was making and giving away these tiny burrito things with chorizo and queso.

I am not a huge Mexican food fan. I can eat a burrito now and then, or a taco without lettuce, but otherwise, I'd just as soon have a burger or something.

I took one bite of that tiny burrito and fell in love. Then I had to run around and find all the ingredients so I could make them at home.

I had a really busy day yesterday between yard work, cleaning out the linen closet, and helping Mother with some things in her room. By the end of the day I was beat. I contemplated a "fallout" night, which around my house means you eat leftovers, or whatever "falls out" of the fridge or pantry. Problem was, I had cleaned out the leftovers Saturday in anticipation of buying more food.

So I browned up the chorizo sausage - the aroma was spicy and wonderful - and Mike made guacamole. We found two ripe avocados and the market. We have a system. I chop the tomatoes and onions and squeeze out the avocados into a bowl. Mike adds the fresh lime and seasonings, and mixes and tastes. It was the perfect accompaniment to the tiny burritos.

The queso was a bit hard to melt in the microwave. Eventually we got it there. I've always thought Mexican cheese was too bland, but the chorizo was so spicy, the cheese needed to be a bit bland.

I almost overcooked the little tortillas. I cooked them in the skillet like I saw the demonstration lady doing, but my first three got a bit crunchy. Usually I just nuke big tortillas when I make burritos.

If I was a good blogger I would've taken photos last night, but I didn't.

Mother and Mike loved the tiny burritos. They love Mexican food anyway. The only thing I will do differently next time is take some of the grease off the chorizo. That was kind of messy to eat.

Before I forget, Mother has recently published some great food blogs. Check them out.

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Mike was in a better humor yesterday, as the day wore on. He was very sweet about helping me with things.

We had to clean out the linen closet in his bathroom. The plumber came last week and fixed the tub. The people who lived here before us did extensive renovations, and both upstairs bathrooms were spiffed up and updated nicely. However, the idiot that put in the new shower in Mike's bathroom didn't caulk the tub or set in the fixtures properly, and water was leaking into the dining room ceiling and making a huge mess. So our plumber had to cut a hole in the wall of the linen closet to fix the fixtures properly. So all the stuff had to be unloaded last week. Yesterday Mike and I put it all back.

I had all the linens in Alesia's room. When we were done putting them back in the closet, I looked at the room and realized, I really need to clean it up more, and spiff it up for guests. She isn't coming home to live again, I am sure, not anytime soon anyway. It made me sad. She is off living her own craziness and there's nothing I can do about it.

Grief takes many forms.I've been grieving for my daughter for months, but I realized yesterday I need to re-commit to moving my life forward, and accept that my daughter is gone. I want to laugh more. I want to not cry so much. I need to get more healthy.

Life goes on.

My Favorite Recipes [volume 1, appetizers]

We had a pretty routine day yesterday, and the details would bore you [and me] to tears, so I thought I'd post a few recipes. [Those of you who don't cook, sorry...] Two of these came from the Henderson Family Cookbook that I compiled some years ago. (My paternal grandmother was a Henderson.)

Cheese Gobble

This is a great favorite of all the Thompson clan.  My cousin Frann named this “Cheese Gobble” because it gets eaten up so fast!

16 oz. Sharp cheddar cheese, grated                     1 tsp. Garlic salt

1 large onion, chopped                                             1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce

1 large jar pimentos                                                   ½ cup mayonnaise

            Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and mix until smooth. May need to add more mayonnaise to make it more spreadable. Season to your taste. May use more Tabasco or fresh garlic. Pack in small containers and allow to ripen overnight in the refrigerator.

            To serve, bring back to room temperature. Good with crackers, sliced apples (dipped in lemon juice), or Fritos. Microwaves nicely, too.

Hot Crab Dip

I don’t think we ever had a big dinner party that Mom didn’t make this and put it in the chafing dish to keep warm. After everyone left, if there was any left over – there was never much left – I would stand there and eat it up with a spoon.

2 cans (6 ½ oz) crab meat               4 eggs, boiled & chopped

3 cups soft bread crumbs                  3 T. chopped parsley

2 T. chopped green peppers           3 T. chopped green onions

3 T. lemon juice                                 Salt & pepper, garlic powder

Parmesan cheese                              Onion powder (to taste)

1 can mushroom soup                        2 cups half & half

2 t. prepared mustard                       1 cup mayonnaise

             Mix all ingredients, except only use half the bread crumbs and omit Parmesan. Pour into a 2 ½ qt. casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and Parmesan. (Can make it the day before and refrigerate)

             Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Keep warm (can use chafing dish). Serve with toast points.

Apple Dip

 I’ve never served this at a party that it didn’t get gobbled up entirely, and I always get asked for the recipe. It is heavenly, even if you don’t much like apples. Green apples work best, the tart offsetting the sweet dip.

 8 oz. Cream cheese

¾ cup light brown sugar

pineapple juice

½ tsp. vanilla

½ pkg. Bits o’brickle toffee pieces

3-4 Granny Smith apples

 Take out the cream cheese to soften. Wash and slice apples. Set slices in pineapple juice [dip each piece in juice and set it aside, so the apples won’t darken] and refrigerate. Mix together all other ingredients and put in a bowl. Just before the party, arrange the slices around the bowl of dip. The dip will be thick at first, so it’s important to set it out and give it time to soften up.

My grandmother Cordelia and my cousin Frann, around 1955.

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Sometimes when I was a kid, Mother would make several appetizers and we'd have them for dinner, just the four of us, or the three of us when Dad was out of town. I loved those dinners. Dad liked a traditional dinner of meat, vegetables, and two pieces of plan white bread. He always wanted his bread.

When I was in college I started having Academy Award viewing parties, and Mother would want me to serve elaborate hors d'ouvres and I'd want to go simple. I usually ended up putting bowls of M&Ms around, and maybe buying some blocks of cheese and Ritz crackers. Another good trick is to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cut them into fourths and put them on a plate. Kids especially like that. If you want something to place around in little bowls, mix up some peanuts, M&Ms, raisins, and pretzel sticks. Always a winner.

Bus Rides and Fat Worms

It's o-dark-thirty in the morning [I love that expression] and I have already taken my son to school. Why? He is taking the bus to Alabama on an all-day field trip to the US Space and Rocket Center. I know he will have fun. The teacher had the good sense to rent Greyhound buses and not make them ride on school buses.

When I was a freshman in high school, in Knxoville, the entire newspaper staff went to Memphis for a convention, and we were on school buses there and back, for 8 hours. The air conditioner on the bus barely worked, and although it was spring, it was hot. I spent most of the trip trying to get comfortable and snooze, and failing.

[Above, me in high school on the newspaper staff, when I was a sophomore or junior]

I asked Mike if he didn't want to take a book to read on the bus and he looked at me like "are you nuts?" and said patiently, as though talking to an idiot, "Mom, I'm taking my iPod."

The funniest thing was seeing him pack snacks. He crammed a lot of pretzels [his latest obsession] into a plastic container, then grabbed several Little Debbie Boston Creme rolls in for later. Thank goodness they let him carry snacks and water on the bus.

He gets very cranky when he's hungry.

I had kind of a long, weird day yesterday. Had a weird text conversation with my daughter, then I had to do some running around in the car, for work, which is unusual. Traffic downtown was awful. I came home feeling restless, so I grabbed some dirt, some plants I bought the other day, and started gardening. It was soothing to my soul.

Mike had an after school activity, then he came and found out in the back yard and we chatted a bit. I was planting my first tomato plant and as I spaded into the soil, I turned up two fat, wriggling worms. "Yay! Looka there boy! Worms!" I chortled. Delighted. Michael looked at me like I was nuts. "Oh-kay, Mom...." he said. "The worms mean the soil is rich. It means composting WORKS!" I explained. "We've talked about this before."

I remember being 15 and thinking my parents were nuts to spend so much time in the yard. I didn't understand it at all. I hope one day that Michael will find gardening soothing, and he will want his yard to look nice. I hope he will want to grow at least some of his own food. I don't have the talent or the acreage to grow as much as my friend Cindy, nor do I like weeding, but gardening is a way of connecting to life that I think is essential to mental health.

It's also about letting go of control. You can control what you stick in your yard, sure, but ultimately weather, care, and God all determine what really happens with plant life. There's a lot of God in the garden. I don't know how an atheist could garden successfully.

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I know you're thinking, what has Dee been cooking lately?!

I made fried chicken last night, which I don't do often, but it was tasty. I dip chicken pieces in ranch dressing, then roll them in panko bread crumbs and fry in olive oil. It's not traditional, but so be it. I also made rice.

Michael made homemade guacamole, with all the precision of a persnickety chef in an upscale restaurant. I chopped onions and tomatoes for him. "The onions are too large," he frowned, after taking his first bite.

"Next time, chop them yourself," I said sweetly.

I used the leftover rice this morning and made Michael's favorite breakfast, fried rice with an egg. I wanted him to have a good breakfast before getting on that bus. If you have a picky breakfast eater, I highly recommend fried rice in the morning.

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Every once in a while I see something on Facebook that is really interesting, and my friend Laura posted this:

"Someone who hates you normally hates you for one of three reasons. They either see you as a threat, they hate themselves, or they want to be you."

Discuss amongst yourselves..

Sunday Birthday Dinner

I'm happy to say after the griping yesterday, I got things turned around and had a pretty good day. My house is a lot cleaner. We had an excellent dinner. I went to bed exhausted but so be it.

I find generally if I am restless or feeling ornery, if I can jump in and do some hard work, it helps my mood.

I finished cleaning the family room rug, and cleaned the living room floor.

I cleaned Michael's bathroom. It wasn't horribly dirty, but the floor hadn't been mopped in, like, forever, so that took a minute.Thank God for Swiffer mops.

I made Colton a birthday cake, which turned out wonderfully. Chocolate pound cake with cream cheese rocks.His birthday is today. We also gave him a cute tee shirt.

I had Lesleigh and Colton for dinner last night. I made beef stroganoff, Elva's Salad, strawberries and cream (recipe below) and we had the cake. Turned out wonderfully. Colton hugged me three times before he left. He and Michael ATE like you wouldn't believe. LOL

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM [easy version]

1 large carton strawberries

vanilla yogurt [about 3/4 cup]

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 cup sugar

Wash and slice strawberries. Mix everything else, and add in berries. Chill.

This recipe came about because I always buy strawberries and they don't get eaten at once, and they don't keep well in the fridge and have to be tossed out. The sour cream/lime juice/sugar combination can be mixed with any fruit. If you want to get fancy you could toast some walnuts or pecans and throw them on top.

Greetings from Pollen-ville

The pollen count here yesterday was over 9,000! Freakishly high, even for here. The azaleas are in bloom and everyone with allergies is miserable.. Yellowish film covers EVERYTHING.

Car wash places are very happy. They're doing record business. You get your car washed today, it's covered with pollen again tomorrow.

Poor Michael has been sniffing and sneezing and having a terrible time. His eyes are red and itchy. I got him Zyrtek, antihistamine eye drops, etc. Nothing really helps. He is asleep now, thanks to good old Benadryl.

I just saw this article saying today's pollen count was only 5,174. Rain is expected in the next few days. Whoopee!

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I fixed roasted cauliflower and shrimp salad for dinner last night. Mother loves shrimp salad and we had some leftover shrimp, which is rare. I bought 3 lbs. the other day from our fave fish market. So I made shrimp salad, which is just cold shrimp diced up with a little mayo, some lime juice, onion powder, and a little Old Bay seasoning. Mike took one bite of his and said "You didn't use dill?!?"

He proceeded to take his portion of the salad and add dill and other ingredients. Then he gave some of the new shrimp salad to Mother and said "Taste this. Isn't it better?!"

Thanks, kiddo.

Actually, it didn't bother me. I am glad he likes food and is willing to work on dishes to make them taste to suit him. He can make excellent guacamole, omelets, and several other things. I need to give him some more cooking lessons, maybe this summer when there's more time and we have more fresh stuff.

Colton came over to help Michael with math and stayed for dinner, and I made pork chops and Eggroll Cabbage, which he loved. Here's the "recipe" - I sautéed some coleslaw cabbage [found in bags, shredded, next to the bag salads] in a skillet. I added some soy sauce, onion powder, and black pepper to the cabbage, so it tastes like the inside of an eggroll.

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Kudos to my friend Lisa S. for posting this blog on Adoption Under One Roof, about the situation with Russia's orphans and Putin's attitudes towards the many orphans in his country. He needs to improve the situation in Russian orphanages before he says another word about anything. Conditions in most of those places are appalling.

How to Make A Great Pound Cake

I absolutely love homemade pound cake, and I have been watching my mother and grandparents make pound cakes since I was an infant. My grandfather, after he retired, taught himself how to make pound cakes because he loved them so much. I have been making pound cakes since I was a teenager, and over the years I have learned a few tips that help make the cake molto delicioso [that's "really good" in Italian, y'all].

Here are the tips: use Crisco for a moister cake, cream the heck out of the butter and sugar, and use almond extract as well as vanilla.

 

POUND CAKE

1 stick butter [real butter, not margarine]

1 cup Crisco

3 cups sugar

Cream the butter/Crisco/sugar a long time. Really let the mixer cream it until it's like buttah, y'all.

Add in 5 large eggs, one at a time, just beating them in carefully, but not overbeating.

Set out 3 cups of cake flour in one bowl on the counter, and a 1 cup of sour cream. In the sour cream, mix in 1/4 tsp. baking soda. Alternate mixing in the sour cream and the flour, beating well after each addition but not overbeating, until everything is incorporated.

Add in 1 teaspoon vanilla, and one teaspoon almond flavoring.

Bake at 350 about 90 minutes. Check it after 80 minutes, if you don't know if your oven runs hot or cool. No oven is perfect.

SOME COMMON MISTAKES:

Use real butter and real sour cream. Don't try to go low fat. Use real vanilla extract and real almond extract. The fake, or "imitation" kinds are not as good. Be sure and grease and flour your pan well. I use a bundt pan that's nearly as old as me, and just give it a spray of Baker's Secret.

A good pound cake will actually be better the second day, as long as you keep it in a good cake carrier.

Soup for Three

I have always despised the term "sandwich generation" but I guess that applies to me. It certainly felt like it yesterday. Mom was upset. Michael was upset. I was the middle. NOT a happy afternoon.

However, I think it's inevitable, when you have three generations living in the same house. There's no way everyone is going to be happy all the time.

We had planned to go out to lunch, but that got canceled.

However, I went over to see Lesleigh and visited with her. She has decorated her apartment a lot more, and it was fun to see that. Les let me vent to her a bit, and that helped.

Then my cousin Frank came over for a visit. He was in town for a funeral. He and Mother have always been more like siblings than cousins, and it was good to see him, spend part of the afternoon with him. I encouraged him to talk about his career, because I want Michael to learn more about different careers. Frank used to design and draw up plans for big industrial plants. Brilliant man.

For dinner, I made a big pot of soup, which I hadn't done in a long time. It seemed like a soup day. It was cold and windy. I was trying to make it like the Pasta Fagioli soup you get at the Mad Italian. I love that stuff. Mine was similar, but I added some ground beef. Michael ate a huge bowl of it, plus fritos. I decided to share my "recipe" here.[I throw in extra garlic powder, onion, etc., so it's never the same twice, but this is basically it]

Dee's Pasta Fagioli Soup

1 lb. ground beef

about 3 cups of tomato puree

4-6 cups beef stock

1 cup red wine

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

5-10 drops of tobasco

1-2 cups mixed beans [rinse off the beans in a colander first, then boil for 3 minutes]

1 chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion in some olive oil until soft, about 15 minutes. Brown the meat in a large heavy pot. Add onions to meat. Add garlic. Add everything else. Cook on low for several hours.

Serve with Fritos on the side, and with a salad.

[NOTE: the word "fagioli" simply means "beans" in Italian]

Keep Going

I get the impression that Christmas celebrations are now kicking into high gear.That's OK. I'm cool with all of it except for the bane of my existence, TRAFFIC.

I'm not talking about Traffic the band from the 1970's.

Traffic getting home from work yesterday was AWFUL. Then today, around 1:00, Michael and I were headed up I-85 and the traffic was crawling along, for no discernible reason. Usually on Saturday you don't have such issues heading out of town. I pictured Atlantans with family in northern states all fleeing the city at the same time..

I decided this year to plot and plan my Christmas baking, instead of just approaching it willy-nilly like I usually do. I like making cakes and making food for people. I'm making some pumpkin bread (which is more like cake), some cookies, and Ina Garten's Herb Dip for some folks. I think sometimes people get turned off by so many sweets, so savory may be a good the way to go - depending on the individual, of course.Some folks can't handle that much dairy. They're getting cookies or something.

I am pondering how to make some cookies for a friend's daughter who is allergic to chocolate. Mike and I went to Publix this afternoon and got two big bags of white chocolate morsels, along with sugar, flour, and all the other paraphernalia of baking. I looked for macadamia nuts and couldn't find any. I don't care for white chocolate, so it's hard for me to work up any enthusiasm for eating these cookies, but I want to do something special for the child. What a bummer to be allergic to chocolate. I am assured that she CAN eat the white kind...

I have been hearing an upbeat and lively Christmas song [God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen] by the oddly named Barenaked Ladies, and if you're in a foul mood, listen to it. Great harmonies. One of my fave Christmas ditties. Oh, and it's a medley with We Three Kings, almost forgot that, so really two songs..

You know the letter I published here a couple of days ago? I sent the Christmas letter to a relative that told my mother she was sorry that I must be feeling "low." I was sort of surprised by that. I wasn't actually feeling low; more like relieved. I got through 2011 with my health and my faith intact. I grieve for my daughter; I suspect that will never go away. But I am here. We are all OK. (even Alesia, despite her poor choices lately). We have our house. We have kind and beautiful friends and caring family members, and even terrific neighbors who are also friends. PEOPLE are what make my life bearable.

The year is almost over. I believe that 2012 will be better for me. I have to believe that, or I wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.

I firmly believe that "When you're going through Hell, KEEP GOING."

I kept going.

I'm like the Energizer Bunny. Thanks for coming with me...

Passion for Cauliflower

I made the BEST frittata ever tonight, and I feared it would be inedible as I was making it. Sometimes the best dishes come from happy accidents.

The lovely thing about frittata is it's a one dish meal, but the bonus is you can use up your leftovers.

I was warned by Mother and Michael this afternoon, however, not to ever put cauliflower in a frittata again. I thought it was great.

They do not share my passion for cauliflower.

I always start off by sauteeing half of a red onion [or an entire onion if I have the time] in a bit of olive oil, Plugra, and lots of pepper. This makes the kitchen smell wonderful. While that's happening, I chop up more veggies, in tonight's dish we're talking red pepper, mushrooms, and some leftover lunch ham. I also got about 10 asparagus stalks and nuked them until tender/crispy, and added them to the mixture. It started looking dry. I thought, I need a bit more butter. I got a dish of butter frmo the fridge that was used on pancakes the other day and started to chip off a piece for the pan, and the whole semicircle of butter slipped and plopped right into the pan. We're talking half a stick of butter here folks. Yikes. I love butter but....

I frantically grabbed some fresh parmesan, garlic, and a can of potatoes, and threw everything in. Still lots of butter. I threw in some onion powder and Lawrey's seasoning salt. More parmesan. Now the smell was heavenly. I ended up throwing in about 5 jumbo eggs, and then ran it under the broiler for a minute. I put some grated colby-jack cheese on top and ran it under the broiler again.

Long story short: it rocked. Michael had two HUGE pieces, then had to go sit down, he was so full.

Go BUTTER!

A friend on Facebook posted this vegetarian squash lasagna recipe and at first I thought hmmm... doesn't sound good, but then I started reading it and salivating. I would totally make this recipe. I have a big sage plant still thriving on my back patio. I've never been fond of sweet potato but I can handle it if there are plenty of other flavors happening. Wow.