My Birthday

Yes it is. Today I am one year older. I don’t feel my age.  When I look at myself and compare myself to others the same age, I never think I look as old as they do. But I know that to everyone else, I’m one of the unfortunate ones who DO look their age.  Guess I’ll go on believing it’s in your heart what counts.  AND… by the way, I’m not that old! 🙂  You know those little on line tests you take to determine your age based upon life style? Well my age would be on or around 32. Ok – I exaggerate. But REALLY, it’s gotta be pretty close.

This morning, Ted took me to my fav. breakfast place :  Creekside Diner. I had my favorite breakfast. The Vegetable Giambrotte.

The menu page for Giambrotte

 

 

 

The Breakfast Giambrotte complete with sunshine

For the rest of the day, I’ll reflect on my life.

Interested? Well, ok, just the highlights.

• born in Montreal, Canada.
• Favorite childhood dog, “Romper”.
• lived in Teeton England for a couple of years.
• lived in Wylie, Texas for another couple of years.  We had 2 horses, Shangrila and Lucky Sabe.  Two dogs: Romber and Paddy, a golden retriever. Rabbits. 
• We finally moved to New Hartford, New York. I graduated High School at New Hartford. Went to college for a Bachelors in Marketing, SUNY Oswego. Got my Masters degree in Business.  Moved a few miles down the road to our current house in Utica, NY.
• Rode and showed Saddlebred horses. Won at the 100th Anniversary Show, Devon, PA .  Most rewarding show experience!
• Worked for my father in Industrial Turbines, then for Chicago Pneumatic, and finally, through my father and other connections, the great opportunity to begin the adventure of running my own business. Had two of the most wonderful German Shepherd dog friends, Ninja (first) and Frisko (second).
• Met my wonderful husband, Ted in 1997. Married in 2000.
• Today – Ted and I share a wonderful life.  My sister Sue and I still work together. My parents are still happy, healthy and living active lives in Myrtle Beach, SC.  And I have my 3rd GSD, Shane (he came along last year in December).  What a blessed person I am!   

What were the activities of the day? Not much. As I said breakfast.  I did some chores. Ted and I went cross country skiing but it was cold, windy, my gloves were wet from running this morning, then my ski pole broke. Oh well. We went home, lit a fire, poured some wine and Ed’s Sherry and got warm.

Tonights Dinner:

Tuna Tamale Pie with Broccoli and a Dundee Cake for dessert. Ted wasn’t looking forward to it since he doesn’t like polenta.  He LOVED this meal!

Tamale Pie

Note: Now a true Tamale pie is made with ground beef or you can use ground turkey. But since I eat neither… tuna was the substitute since Mr. T wanted some other protein in it, rather than just beans.

• 1 can 12 oz Tuna
• 1 TBS chili powder
• 1 cup Salsa
• 1 4oz can green chilies
• 1 15 oz can pinto beans
• 2 TBS sliced Calamata olives
• 1 1/2 TBS dried cilantro
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Polenta
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 TBS parsley or cilantro
• 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
• Olive oil

Heat a large pan on medium and add tuna, chile powder, salsa, chilies, beans, olives and cilantro. simmer.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Cook polenta by adding 3 cups water to pot. Add 1 cup polenta, 1 tsp salt, parsley or cilantro and boil, stirring constantly until thickened. I cooked it on medium, reduced heat to simmer and continued stirring about 10 minutes.

Pour bean/tuna mix into cooking dish. Top with 1/4 cup cheese. Top with polenta – spread evenly. Drizzle with EVOO. Top with rest of cheese. Cook 20 minutes. Turn oven to broil and broil 5 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes.

Serve with steamed broccoli.

Tuna Tamale Pie with steamed broccoli

Dessert… well that is a Dundee Cake. I made this a few weeks ago, but with this cake, you have to continue to pour beer over it.

Finally, we didn’t need a whole cake, so here is the 1/2 that we had for my birthday:

You all have a great night. God Bless!

Dundee cake

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Gone Fishing …again

This morning was a cold one, 5 degrees. When it’s that cold, I never know how long Shane and I will last outside. But we went out for over an hour, running 7 miles. Our route took us all the way up Sherman, down Higby, right on Valley View (yippee! down the hill!).  We went straight across the street, thinking it was Mohawk, but it wasn’t. So we got lost a little bit in the questionable part of town. We did a U-Turn, found our way back toward familiar territory.  Shane is being a real bug this morning so obviously 7 miles is no longer far enough. 

No breakfast news yet this morning, so here is a recap of last nights eats.

Saturday Dinner

Saturday night I came up with a very tasty Seafood dish.  Not sure what to call it. I’ll go through it first and maybe something will strike me as I type:

• 2 TBS EVOO (flavored oil would be best)
• 9 spring onions, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1/2 tub grape tomatoes, sliced
• 2 slices “Smart Bacon” (meatless bacon substitute)
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce (or your favorite)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 small tilapia fillets
• 8 raw shrimp, take the tails/shells off, rinse and dried
• 6 sea scallops, rinsed and dried
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat EVOO on medium high. Add onions, celery, grape tomatoes.  Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook 45 minutes.  Add the 2 strips of bacon-less bacon, crumbled. Add wine, sauce, and water – raise heat and bring to a boil.   Salt and pepper the seafood.  Add the tilapia, reduce to a simmer – cover, for 3 minutes.  Add scallops. Recover 3 minutes.  Add shrimp, cover and cook 4 minutes.

Carmelized green onions, celery, grape tomatoes with Seafood mix

For the accompaning vegetable, I followed a recipe from an excellent book I recently finished “The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry” by Kathleen Flinn.   The recipe is located on page 258 “Chicorees Frisees Classique” = Classic Belgian Endives.  I reduced the ingredients for the two of us and also made a few changes.  See the book for original recipe.  Kathleen Flinn attended the Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris. She writes a FANTASTIC account of her time there and offers recipes at the end of every chapter. Definately a good read.

• 2 Belgian Endives, sliced in 1/2 lengthwise and triangular cores removed.
• 1 TBS Smart Balance (substituted for butter)
• 1/3 cup white wine (sub. for chicken stock)
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 TBS lemon juice (ratio of lemon to rest of ingredients increased in my version).
• 8 oz Sugar Snap Peas (not included in original recipe)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add endives carefully, cut side down and cook 2 minutes. Turn over VERY carefully. Cook 4 more minutes then add wine, sugar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, Snap Peas. Let simmer, covered for 20 minutes – until tender. 

Page 258 of Kathleen Flinn's "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry"

 

 

We both really enjoyed this dinner for two.

Carmelized Green Onions in a Seafood Red Sauce ... still don't have a name

Can someone help with a name? My creative energies are M.I.A. apparently.

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