Recipe for Fiddleheads

I have been working for a while on 101 in 1001 list and it is finally finished. My 101 activities/goals to do in 1001 days will be posted very very soon. Very excited for it!

And just to keep you smiling, happy Monday morning from this guy:

I wanted to get the fiddlehead recipe officially down on paper? blog..so I could post it and put it up on the recipe page. I didn't really measure anything or time it so use your own judgement

What you need:

fiddleheads (I used about two handfuls)

olive oil

sea salt

chopped garlic (I probably used 4 large cloves but keep in mind that we like things really garlick-y around here)

1. Wash fiddleheads very well...rinse, rinse, rinse. Trim the ends. I also pulled off a lot of the foliage looking crap. 

2. Bring salted water to a rapid boil. 

3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and add in  chopped/minced -whatever- garlic. 

    

4. When water is boiling, add fiddleheads until bright green, about 4-7 minutes or so. I guess. (Not sure).  Drain fiddleheads and immediately rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. 

((When I was making these, I turned off the heat on the skillet at this point and just let the garlic continue infusing into the oil as I was waiting for the rest of the dinner to come together))

5. Saute fiddleheads in the garlic/oil mixture for a minute or two, add sea salt. 

6. Serve. 

Since it was just us, I didn't bother with real dishes. We didnt even use utensils. Yep, sometimes we eat with our hands. 

I also want to give the disclaimer that I am not a photographer. I am using the camera on my phone. Good enough. 

The Never Ending Day

I am somewhere between exhausted and on my second wind. I was dragging on my to-do list for this weekend but now, at quarter to eight, I am just about winding down.

 

My day was non-stop with a trip to Panera to work on progress reports (I managed to get about 5 out of the 30 or so that I need to do), followed by grocery shopping.

 

I came home and prepped in the kitchen for a few hours

•  salad for lunches for the week with locally grown spinach (thanks to the farmers market from yesterday, honey roasted peanuts, chopped red cabbage, cranberry cheese. I just have to add avocado and dressing each day when I pack it
• sliced a ton of vegetables for roasting, grilling, or steaming through the week including red cabbage, yellow peppers, orange peppers, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers
• made a GIANT batch of salsa- I doubled the batch so it can last for at least two weeks with Ryan and I both dipping into it every day
• cut up an entire watermelon

I also finished washing the last load of laundry and folded and put away all five loads that I have been accumulating throughout the week. I don't mind folding laundry though-I actually find it relaxing.

 

I vacuumed the rugs in my bedroom, the teenagers bedroom, and the stairs. I skipped the office though. I scrubbed the master bathroom and took care of the massive pile of dishes in the sink along with emptying the dishwasher.

 

I didn't get a chance to do an official workout but since I worked up a sweat while doing all the cleaning by moving quickly, I am counting that as a workout for the day.

 

In between doing all of this, I unsuccessfully attempted through various means of getting my pictures from my phone to the computer. Massive failure. I was working on the "before pictures" but still am not ready to post just yet. Hang on, its coming!

 

Well, my house is (sorta) clean-at least areas of it are clean. Hey, that's the best I can do today. I'm going to shower and get into my comfy clothes followed by the rest of the evening of working on progress reports and trying to get the last of the "before post" done.

Fiddleheads and Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout

Last night, Ryan and I have the house to ourselves tonight.  I wasn't hugely successful in my yesterday's to-do list and I am okay with that. I got in a good core workout that I found here and a run/walk right around the pond right off the service road/trail that is literally next to our house. It was refreshing and so nice to be able to access to all these amazing trails are at our backyard.

Yesterday afternoon, after bringing the teenager to where he needed to go, we made a stop at our local butcher for a rack of ribs, a local farm stand for some fresh vegetables, and then to a new-to-us  local liquor store for some good brews.  I love staying local and our new home is in such a great location for all of these places.

We've been going to the same butcher for quite a while now-it’s a few towns over from our current house but it’s absolutely worth going to instead of a large grocery store.  Ryan slow cooked the ribs over the charcoal grill. One half rack had a maple-glazed marinade and the other rack had a teriyaki glaze. The ribs were thick, easy to pull off the bone, and succulent. (At the bbq, the 7 year old son of a family friend described the ribs he was eating as “succulent”. Perfect way to describe a good rib but coming from the mouth of a 7-year old made it that much better.)

 

 

The farm stand was an impulse stop and a good one at that. We walked away with a giant bag of fresh spinach and something new to us-fiddleheads. Ever heard of it??? We were told by the extremely nice farmer that it is very similar to asparagus. I did some research and found that it is NOT safe to eat raw but once boiled or steamed, can be eaten or incorporated into soups or further sautéed.
I ended up boiling them in salted water and then blanching the fiddleheads followed by sautéing them lightly in olive oil, garlic and sea salt. They were delicious!

      

                Ahhh, and then the liquor store.  We found a great place within walking distance to our house than sells a decent variety of craft beers. Granted, they have yet to jump on to the bandwagon of the mix-a-six but it’s still an awesome find, especially considering the location.  I walked away with a selection that I am eager to try and will post about as I taste them.

I enjoyed a Doc’s Apple Cider as soon as we got home. Honestly, it tastes relatively standard to me. It’s only slightly crisp but a tad too sweet.  Nothing to write home about. In case you were wondering, it is 5% alcohol by volume.

 While the ribs were slow cooking, we sat outside and enjoyed one of the drinks from the local liquor store. I decided to have the  Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout by Widmer Brothers. At a 9.3% alcohol by volume, an IBU of 70, and given a rating of 93 according to ratebeer.com, it is described as “An extremely rich and complex beer. The addition of raspberries during the fermentation process results in an almost purplish color with a beautiful brown head. Warm chocolate and roasty notes compliment the hop bitterness.”

 Ryan thought it was good, but not for him. He generally doesn't care for the fruity accents in his beers and his first comment was, “I can definitely taste the raspberries”.

 I thought it was delicious and rich with hints of the raspberry flavor but just a tad too hoppy for my liking. There was a slight bitter taste that lingered for a moment after each sip-something that I generally don’t care for but some beer drinkers love.  All in all, I would absolutely drink this again.

Question for you.

Have you heard of fiddleheads?

If so, do you have any tried and true recipes for the fiddleheads?

Weekend plans and the 5-30 Full Body Workout

Aaaaah, sleep-in Saturday (well, till 8:30) .I have a plan-free weekend ahead of me and I intend to take full advantage of it. The teenager had a friend sleep-over so he should be occupied for the day and Ryan and I will get to be alone tonight.

Friday Recap

I am feeling pretty good right now. I have been keeping up with being more active and taking time to get in a workout here and there. I even opted out of getting together with some co-workers (I just started the job a few months ago and this would have been the first time doing this....it would have been really nice but......) I opted out because I knew if I went, I would not have gotten a workout in. ((My goal is to wear and feel comfortable in a bikini this summer))

When I got home, I immediately did the 5-30 workout from Danica at It's Progression and I really really liked it. My arms are wicked sore (in a good way) today from the plank jacks and plank holds. 

Afterwards, I went out for drinks with some of the girls and had a really good time. I almost thought about backing out because I was tired from the week and didn't want to have to drive in the pouring rain, but I am glad I went. Nothing fancy, just the local TGIF about 20 minutes from my house- a place we used to frequent back in our early days. 

After a hard apple cider and lots of chatting about recipes, work, and other things, we said our goodbyes for the night and I was home and in bed by 11:00. Perfect. 

Weekend Plans: 

This weekend, despite not having any official plans, I am hoping to be productive as possible:

-Go food shopping for the week, which also includes making a meal plan and grocery list (something that typically takes me a while to figure out)
-Prep food for the week. So far on this list (without making a general dinner meal plan for the week) is: salad for lunch, hard boiled eggs, Sweet and Tangy Salsa, a bunch of shredded chicken, cutting up some vegetables to have on hand for roasting throughout the week
-Progress reports for my students-they are due at the end of this week and I figure it would be easier to just sit at a Panera and get them all done.
-Along with general upkeep (maintaining dishes and laundry), I'd like to clean the master bathroom and vacuum all the rugs (two bedrooms and the stairs)
-Workout Saturday, workout Sunday. Not sure what I will actually do yet, but I'm sure I'll find something.
-Finish the "before" post-I've been working on this one for a while and would like to get it done, along with a few other posts/pages that I've been working on for a while.



Enjoy your weekend!

~Sarah

Yummies

 I was greeted by this guy, bright and early this morning, who was very ready to go outside.
 He was READY to get out the door after he spotted a squirrel. There is nothing funnier than watching Mulder chase after a squirrel once it has run up a tree. Mulder tries to jump, climb, dig...anything to get up the tree to get that squirrel.

Anyways,
I attempted to do this workout last night when I got home from work. I was in the middle of it when my phone rang from a friend who I don't talk to that often. (Actually, I talk to his wife/my best friend nearly every day) so I picked up the phone to chat and then gave up on my workout. Friendships are more important to me :)

I liked the concept of doing as many rounds as possible in a four minute interval followed by a one minute rest.  So, I am using the same format for my workout tonight:

8 minute warm up of as many rounds as possible: 50 jumping ropes, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 alternating lunges
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 burpees, 10 over head presses in holding squat position
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 20 jumping jacks, 5 up/down planks
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 mountain climbers, 10 tricep dips
1 minute of rest/stretch
4 minutes of as many rounds as possible: 10 jump-tucks, 10 leg raises
3 minute of rest/stretch
This will round out to a total of 30 minutes. I'm going to turn the ringer off to my phone so there will be no distractions this time!


Anyways, I posted about this recipe when I gave the recap of the bbq that we had a few weeks ago.

When my grandmother made these while I was growing up, I started referring to them as "yummies" and the name stuck. I'm assuming they were originally called Oatmeal Squares or something equally as boring.  I don't know why, but she stopped making them for a while and recently I asked her about the "yummies". An hour later, she called me back telling me she dug through her old recipes and found the recipe for the yummies. They are a big hit in my house, and even the teenager (who is reluctant to try any new food) was eager to taste these.

I convince myself they are healthy because they are made with oatmeal. That makes them healthy, right? And if I use sugar free preserves, it must make them even healthier. Obviously.


They are ridiculously easy to make and best of all, don't require a lot of dishes. I literally used one mixing bowl, one measuring cup (the 1/4 cup measuring cup), a small dish to melt the butter, and the 1/4 tsp measuring spoon. Oh, and a spatula to mix and spread it.


Here is what you need:

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

10 oz. jar of apricot (or any flavor) preserves.

Mix all the ingredients, except the preserves, in a bowl. It will be a thick, lumpy like consistency. Spray a 9x 13 pan and spread a layer of the mixture on the bottom, reserving about a cup or so of the mixture for the crumb topping.

Use a spatula, or your hands, to press the mixture down, covering the entire area. (It will seem really thin).
Spread the apricot preserves, leaving a one-inch or so border along the perimeter.

 



Sprinkle the crumb mixture on top.

 Bake at 350 for 22-28 minutes, until crust begins to turn a golden brown.

Let cool and then cut into squares.

Warning: The preserves are extremely hot when coming out of the oven, so resist eating right away!

Enjoy!!!!

Mmmmmm....salsa

So, I am typically not a huge salsa person-I mean, I'll eat it if it happens to be in front of me, but I usually don't go out of my way to buy it or eat it.

And then, I stumbled upon this recipe from Inspire, Design, and Create and fell in love with salsa.

Even  Ryan, who LOVES LOVES LOVES salsa and goes on a quest to find various kinds of salsa, has requested of me to make this regularly and keep it in the fridge. (I not so secretly became thrilled with myself that my boyfriend loves my "cooking")

I served this at the barbeque we had over Memorial Day weekend and it was a huge hit.

So here's what I used:

-1 of each pepper: yellow, red, green, orange
-1-2 jalapeno's, depending on how spicy you like your salsa.
-1 red onion
-1 can of each: black eyed peas, shoepeg corn (I used a can of white corn. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing), and pinto beans.

-Somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of olive oil ( First time I made this, I used 1/4 cup but found that it was too much)
-3/4 cup of sugar (original recipe says 1 cup but I am trying to reduce the amount of sugar)
-3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
-ground black pepper

How to:
Bring the oil, sugar, vinegar, pepper to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Let cool down.

Meanwhile, chop up the peppers, jalapeno's, red onion. I use a chopper which contains all the small pieces and makes it soooo much easier, especially because all the pieces are the same size.
  

Drain the beans and corn.

Mix the peppers, onion, beans, and corn in a large bowl.

 

 

 Add the liquid mixture once it has cooled down and give it another good mix to get everything coated.

Let sit in the fridge overnight before serving.

It makes a good size batch and keeps in the fridge for a while.


Enjoy!

Handling the homework situation

I probably should give an update on the "no-yelling" challenge.

It's been tough to maintain a calm demeanor when the Teenager is talking back/being lazy/being stubborn...or dare I say it, just flat out being stupid. (don't judge me for proclaiming to the internet world that my teenager sometimes acts stupid) but....I have reduced the yelling drastically. 

Sometimes, I still raise my voice...not to the point of yelling non-stop, but that firm, tone of voice. When I worked in the middle and high schools, I called it my "teacher voice" and told my students all the time to make sure I don't have to use my "teacher voice". 

This self-imposed no yelling challenge, for me, has been about the teenagers school/homework situation. Without going into to much detail, the teenager has always had a difficult time in school. Generally, he is the type of person that if something seems too difficult or frustrating, his initial thought is to say "screw it". The thing is, if he put in some effort and determination, he could do a lot more than he wants to give himself credit for. 

Anyways, I emailed his teacher and asked for daily emails regarding his homework completion from the night before as well as what his homework will be for the night. In addition, she also reports how his behavior was for the day. 

I also sit down with the Teenager to check his homework, daily. Its annoying and time consuming on both of our parts. The teenager gets irritated having to go through every piece of homework with me and even more irritated when I tell him he needs to fix something or put in more effort. This is usually where the long groan comes in followed by the phrase, "it's fiiiiiine",  and where I have to bite my tongue to not scream at him for being rude or saying what I am really thinking: "Well, if you just put the effort in the first time around, you wouldn't have to go back for a second time."

I know it's more important to stay calm during these moments because raising my voice is only going to cause more damage than good. To me, having the teenager learn the process of hard work and effort on something that he finds difficult is more important than causing fights about  his reactions to it. Baby steps. It's all about the baby steps. 

But....its working! For the past 2-3 weeks that the daily emails have been going on, the teenager has been more honest about his homework, and hasn't had to stay in for recess AT ALL because of missing homework. And....his behavior has been great this whole time as well. It really seems that his own awareness has increased! His teacher has reported that he is participating more appropriately during class discussions and asks relevant questions about his homework. I think its because, when he has a difficult problem on his homework, I force him to write down the problem, and to write down why he can't figure out the answer. This, in turn, has allowed him to really understand how to ask the right question when they go over the homework instead of just copying down the answers, and in essence, giving up on it.

I'm really proud of him lately.

And I have been very sure to let him know all of his efforts have been paying off.