Time to Make the Donuts!

I am addicted to cooking shows.  Not every cooking show, I do have discerning taste (read I dislike Rachel Ray with all that is in me)....but there are some that I could (and do) watch all day!  Up there at the top of my list is Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.  Okay I know, it's not really a cooking show.  It's more of a "where to go and eat" show, but I would LOVE to have Guy Fieri's job.   

How awesome would it be to go around the country and check out cool joints and get the behind the scenes intro to how their best dishes are made?!   In fact, it gets to a point when I watch too much Triple D, where I crave something so badly, that I will go out to my kitchen and just make it or bake it!

Today's 'I can't stand it any longer' moment resulted in me making gluten free donuts.  Yep, I had to have a donut.  I had the best time playing with the recipe and making the little munchkin style things that I was actually disappointed when I was done!  I made one batch and then mixed it up and covered some with cinnamon and sugar, some with just powdered sugar. Some I filled with strawberry jelly and covered with powdered sugar....yum.  Add a cup of coffee and I was in heaven!   Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but I was on a bit of a sugar high!

Obviously, I can't keep baking things just because I want them - otherwise, I won't be able to leave my house at the end of my vacation.  It sure is fun to be able to use my culinary arts degree when a whim hits me - but I have to use the skills for good healthy food and not 'donut evil!'

As I mentioned above, I don't love ALL cooking shows - some are just annoying and insulting. I don't need to know that a teaspoon of salt should be measured exactly or that if you add vanilla to a boxed cake mix you can fake it as a 'from scratch' recipe.  That's all crap in my humble, albeit blunt opinion.  If you want to take a short cut, watch Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.  She takes a really complicated recipe and simplifies it so you aren't in the kitchen all day, but still preserves the integrity of the dish.  Basically, she still cooks and makes it really easy.

I don't think this generation should grow up thinking slicing cookie dough from a premade roll is 'homemade' - premade dough maybe a great treat and timesaver, but spend some time actually making cookies the 'long way every once in a while - maybe at Christmas.  Get the kids involved like my Mom got me involved and have them decorate the cookies.  It's a fun activity and I can tell you it really inspired me to learn to bake as I got older!  I wanted to recreate those food memories like Mom and Grandma used to make for us.

Making dinner as a family - even just B and I - really makes it all taste better.  Seriously.  I enjoy it so much more when we spend time in the kitchen together than I would if I was just slaving away and plating it for him.  Now I don't have kids yet and I know how crazy life can be - so even if it's hotdogs and baked beans, give everyone a job and make it a team effort - so the whole family can appreciate how much fun it is to 'make dinner' once in a while!

Let's keep cooking in our kitchens and not just on television.  Don't forget that while going out is AWESOME and I love it as much as the next person - it is cheaper to eat at home and there's nothing better than leftovers for lunch my people.   I don't claim to be Betty Crocker folks, but I do love to sit down to dinner and eat things I made with my own little hands - I love it even better when it's something made with B's hands too!

Happy Cooking Ya'll and have a great Tuesday!

Beware of the Sloth Attack

Well, it's July and hot as blazes outside here in Charlotte, NC.  I'm enjoying my week off so far, but not sure what I have to show for it!  I've always lived under the guise of doing - something, anything every day that I can look back on and be proud of.  So far, I've been on 'vacation' for five days and I've got very little to show for it.

I've had some fun and enjoyed my relaxation, but I'm not too sure I've been very productive.  If anything, during this phase of my life, I should be keeping busy and keeping my mind otherwise occupied.    Even my dogs sense something is up....there's something to be said about Bubbie intuition isn't there?  I've constantly had a Bubbie on my lap, at my feet or just sitting next to me for days now.  I love every minute of it.  They do get warm though!    I'm still fascinated that they have to be on me or next to me when it's 104 degrees outside! 

The only drawback to all of this 'Bubbie love' is it gives me an even bigger incentive to do nothing.  It's like a vicious circle of sloth!  I'm sitting here typing this when I should be figuring out what we're going to have for dinner!  My brain AND my stomach could just care less right now.  I assume that's just a side effect of my sloth attack.   My secret hope is that my sweet husband will pull a miracle out of his pocket and come up with something easy and appealing without me making a darned thing!  Miracles can happen you know!

This time off wasn’t really planned – it was a vacation of opportunity I guess you could say.  I had the time and there was nothing going on at work so here we are.  I should have planned something I guess, but with B doing homework around the clock, there isn’t a whole lot of time to go away or do even a day trip.

I’m on a ‘stay-cation’ I guess you could say for now.  I need to finish that stupid book I started a week ago and bake something.  That will help to make me feel productive I guess.  Maybe I can start to knit.  It’s too hot to dig in the dirt outside, ain’t no way I’m walking the poor Bubbies in this heat and honestly, even doing my favorite thing – grocery shopping could be risky.  By the time I hit the car, my food will have been cooked – so no grocery shopping for me!

(Wow, that’s depressing.  I’m on vacation and I want to go grocery shopping.  I need help.)

I hope the rest of you are enjoyed a wonderful weekend and have great things planned for the holiday week ahead!

For now, I’ll go back to my book, rotate the Bubbies off my lap and try to feel all perky and productive.

Happy Monday Ya’ll!



Namaste Ya'll

According to the FreeDictionary.com, yoga can be defined as:
.

1. also Yoga A Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility.

2. A system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.

I'm not really sure what I thought about yoga before today, but I know I always likened yoga with pain.  Not sure why, I guess just watching people on TV doing yoga always made me wince.  So this morning, when my friend Kiesha arrived at 8:55AM - I was totally unsure of what to expect.

Kiesha is a great friend whom I met through a former job who has become an accomplished yoga instructor and has started her own business called, Yoga-Me.  If you live in the Charlotte, NC area, I highly recommend you shoot her an email and check out one of her classes or even better, have her come to your house like I did and do a one-on-one session.  There was no pain - at all.  And in my world, that's saying a great deal.

It was probably one of the most relaxing things I've ever done that actually worked my muscles!  I can't wait until our next session - but I promise you this, due to my ridiculously short arms, I will never become a true yoga devotee.  It's true what they say about your arm length being equal to the length of your feet - tiny feet + short arms = awkward yoga to be sure!

My goal for doing yoga is really to gain back my upper body strength that was lost after so many surgeries - and if I get cut arms out of the deal, hey, I'll take it!  I'll never have Kiesha's 'guns', but I'll be satisfied with arms that look like they belong to a 40 something and not a 60 something! :o)

I also want to find some methods for stress relief - learning different ways to breathe based upon my situation could be really important - that and I'd love to find a way to go back to sleep at night when my brain won't be quiet.  I have a lot of those...maybe soon I won't!  Either way, I loved my first foray into yoga and I hope to learn much more about it - and soon!  You've been warned Kiesha!

As for today, it was another blazing hot one here in the South - I hope that wherever you are that you are staying cool, calm and relaxed - and enjoying your weekend!

Namaste Ya'll!  Happy Sunday and Happy July!