Nice weekend . . .

. . . mostly helping a friend via cooking, but also had a good swim workout and had some nice grandchildren time.

Post-swim nutrition

I've always observed that I "eat like a horse" after a swim. But this morning, as I was munching on some granola for my post-second-breakfast snack (maybe I eat like a hobbit?), I thought: "Ah: oats! I really am eating like a horse!"

I'll skip the hay, though.

So much to do, so little time

Just realized that I let the calendar eat up my preparation activity time, so have to sacrifice at least some of prayer group tonight. My to-do list:

• bake cornbread
• make pie crusts
• par-bake bottom pie crusts
• make pumpkin and mince pies
• make cranberry sauce
• toast breads for stuffing

Oh, not much!

Huge heart smile

When a dear friend from overseas asks you for your current cranberry sauce recipe and you realize that means you'll be sharing Thanksgiving dinner together across the ocean!

Giving thanks to God for both of you, for your friendship and your service (especially in unsettled times), and praying that God continues to bless your budding family abundantly.

Today's pageview zip code

Gary, IN  46403, 46409 - I've definitely driven through these on my way to and from Chicago. I went through the second one on my first trip, on my way around to Oakbrook Terrace, and through the first one when my bride and I made our Chicago trip the following year. We had a great weekend in which we took in a play (Cabaret, with Teri Hatcher) and a baseball game (Orioles at White Sox), and I introduced her to both Maggiano's and Giordano's, as well as had my first Chicago style hot dog.

I just remembered that there was a third trip, too, to set up for a trade show in 1997. In fact, now that I think about the details, I'm pretty sure the trip I mentioned in last week's post actually followed that one, and that this trade show trip was when I visited both Maggiano's and Giordano's for the first time.

Today's pageview zip code

Hammond, IN 46324  I drove through here on my first trip to Chicago, a business visit to train field engineers to use our new knowledge base. I stayed in Oakbrook Terrace and road the El into the city for my first visit. I had dinner at Maggiano's with our department head, and had my first Giordano's pizza. Before I left our local service manager took a few of us to a very foggy dessert at the top of the Hancock building, after making us momentarily fear for our lives by turning the wrong way on a partially closed street.  I'd later return with Teri for a weekend date, but we didn't pass through this zip code together because we stayed in the city proper.

Today's pageview zip code

Indianapolis, IN  46204. We've been in this zip code numerous times, and I've never been there by bicycle. Once when we were heading to a wedding in Illinois, we decided to stop in Indy for dinner. We were in the downtown area, and asked some random local for a suggestion. They sent us to Bazbeaux Pizza - which sounds as incongruous as the new Wei's Pizza just down the street from us that we haven't tried yet - on Massachusetts Ave. With a great selection of artisan pizzas, we have made a couple of returns on subsequent trips to town.

One of the things . . .

. . . that I need to let go of is that mini-mourning that comes whenever someone posts a delicious-looking recipe that makes my mouth water for just a second, until I realize that I am never going to taste it.

But I suppose that this is not too different from the many things after which we lust - a word that should not always have the sexual overtones with which we have almost exclusively associated it.

It was a pure-hearted question

But no, I would not like enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, wheat bran, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, dextrose, oat fiber, honey, contains 2% or less of: propylene glycol monoesters, dried molasses, baking powder (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), wheat starch, modified corn starch, mono and diglycerides, salt, calcium carbonate, eggs with sodium silicoaluminate added as anticaking agent, corn starch, propylene glycol monostearate, soy flour, cocoa processed with alkali, polysorbate 60, hydroxylated soy lecithin, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium sulfate, niacin, iron, tbhq and citric acid (antioxidants), vitamin B6 hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin mononitrate, vitamin B12 and milk for breakfast.

But I really do think it was very thoughtful and loving of you to offer.

Spoiling the broth

Do Not ask me if I'm sure the fish that I've taken out of the oven is done and then - immediately after I answer - check it "just to see what it looks like," unless you're ready take over the cooking.

Food for the weekend

Okay, I'm griping a little here, so if you're not up for that, go away.

As we were eating my soup at my wife's cousin's house on Friday, I turned to her and asked, in all earnestness, "May I please be finished cooking for the weekend?" I like to cook, but I've had a full slate of it this week, so after missing out on watching The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey while I picked turkey bones out of the meat (or vice versa), I was ready to be done. She agreed that would be fair.

Fast forward to Saturday evening at home. Around 3:30 I went out for a short bike ride after the Big Game, then started watching the Iron Bowl because there wasn't anything else going on. I've really watched very little college football - and only a few pro games, too - this year, so I didn't feel too badly about indulging in another game. A while later, maybe close to 6, my wife said she was going next door for a minute, which I mistook for "going to the store," and asked her what she was getting, thinking she'd decided on something to cook. She repeated herself for my clarification, left for next door, and came back without my noticing. When I started feeling really hungry, about 7:45, I went upstairs to check on what our dinner plans were. Seeing that she was in the bathroom, I knocked on the door and started to open it, at which point she yelled and I realized she was trimming up the dog a bit more; I knew he was going to need a little finishing up following my start of the job earlier in the week, but in my opinion the timing wasn't so great.

So I went into the kitchen and got myself a bowl of leftover soup and sliced a piece of bread, since it was apparent that although I wasn't having to cook, neither was she going to. I was pretty irritated, actually. A while later, maybe after I'd gone crazy at the incredible Auburn touchdown at the end of the game, she came down and explained that she hadn't been yelling at me, but had dropped the clippers when I started to open the door and just hollered in reaction.

And it seems that she had gotten herself a "snack" and had been in the middle of eating it when she noticed that it was 5:30. Instead of mentioning that and telling me that I was therefor on my own for dinner, I guess she just left me to figure that out on my own.

After having it in one form or another for five meals since Thursday, I am not eating turkey tonight.

(On an unrelated note: when I float the cursor over a capital "I" with the bottom and vertical bars aligned, it looks like a mini-ellipsis.)

More Thanksgiving 2013

What a great weekend, with very little thought of the dark past.

First, the relatively inconsequential stuff.  Even though the bird was more done than I was going for as a result of losing track of time when my cousin-in-law and his wife got here, it didn't get dried out because of it. I almost decided against using my frozen mincemeat from last year because I thought it looked too mushy, but changed my mind after test-tasting it. What a great decision. And I remembered from last year that even though the pie crust recipe says to roll it out to a quarter-inch thickness, that's really too thick. I rolled them that thick, then took the guide wheels off the rolling pin to roll it just a bit thinner. Turned out perfect, for both my mince pie and the two pumpkin. The decision to get an extra turkey breast also turned out great. I don't think we'd have run out of meat, but wouldn't have had much left over for soup and sandwiches. I also remembered to add a bunch of broth to the fabulous stuffing that I reprised from last year, since I don't cook it inside the bird. It was much moister as a result, and I also remembered to add an extra cup of diced apple; between the two corrections it was even more delicious this year than last!  I did forget about the strawberry applesauce I'd planned, but it isn't as if anyone lacked enough to eat.

It was fabulous having our oldest and her children with us, and our oldest grandson's girlfriend, too. I don't think that our daughter realizes that she was the main reason why dinner was so late getting to the table - we couldn't really proceed without the mashed potatoes, and she didn't get here in time to have them done at the time we specified for dinner, but that wasn't the end of the world, either, and the only complaints about dinner being late were from her kids.

After dessert and a minor panic when our oldest daughter mistook some splatters on the side of her truck for scratches in the dark - and let's spare her the speculation over where I think the roots of that might lie - we headed south to Tim and Kathie's place to hang out with them for another day. Our dog did great on the drive, and once he got used to being around the other dogs he had a nice visit, too. We got there too late to watch the entire DVR'ed Ravens' game, but I had listened to it in the car and knew the outcome. We speed watched the first half, then saved the second for Friday morning while Kathie was replacing the ingredients I'd left behind in our efforts to get out the door. The soup was better than ever, thanks to some fresh sage and Kathie's recommendation to use frozen noodles rather than dried. Oh, my, what a difference the latter made!  We finally got my wife caught up on An Unexpected Journey while I worked on the soup. Then started in on The Hunger Games while waiting for it to be time to head out to Thor, The Dark World. It was a nice piece of entertainment; they're making some nice comic-book movies lately, but let's face it: they're comic book movies. Still, we all enjoyed it, so that's more of an observation than a complaint. Then we headed home, where we finished watching The Hunger Games with a piece of pie and, for those of us so inclined, a glass of port.

Kathie was scheduled to work on Saturday, and Tim was slated to be at the model race car track, so we headed toward home by around ten. It was a gorgeous, sunny day for a drive, and we listened to the Big Game along the way, which I watched the rest of when we got home. In our 27 years here I've successfully avoided being infected by Buckeyes' fanhood - which will pay off as Maryland joins the "B1G Ten," but it seemed unfair to me that a team could not lose a game in two years and still get shut out from a shot at the national title (even if last year was their own fault because of sanctions). The game was thrilling. I then got in a short bike ride, and after getting home watched the Iron Bowl, which turned out to have an even more exciting finish than the OSU-UM game. Wow. The Buckeyes still have business to take care of next week, and I won't be heartbroken if they should lose, but they belong in the title game if they win, and now they should be there. I can't imagine a one-loss Auburn team would beat them even with their victory over the Tide.

Now, to shower and get to mass for the first Sunday of Advent.

Internal monologue

"Hmm.  I'm feeling kinda hungry . . .   "

About 15 seconds pass

"  . . . Wow. In fact, I'm feeling really hungry already . . . It isn't anywhere near lunch time yet . . . Oh, yeah: I haven't eaten my yogurt yet.  Duh.  No wonder!"

Apple crisp for breakfast

Rationalization - hey, there's oatmeal in the topping
Minimization - it was only two bites
Justification - it's better for me than a doughnut would be
Denial - I can choose a healthier breakfast any time I want to
Blaming others - my wife shouldn't have made such a delicious apple crisp
Blaming the victim - I'd never have eaten it if it hadn't been calling my name. It tasted so good!

Culinary snippet and rhetorical question

Life is a minestrone served up with Parmesan cheese
Death is a cold lasagna suspended in deep freeze

I know I'm weird, but I'm actually kind of fond of cold lasagna, though of course not deep frozen. But I'm wondering: what equates to a cold leftover pot pie, homemade two days ago from almost all processed ingredients - the onion was freshly chopped - with a side of newly opened cottage cheese that was dated July 15th but was fine? (I won't be eating out of that container of cottage cheese for long, and that pot pie is done for after tonight.)

Short shots . . .

If there's one thing worse than when the WOTD is already in the vocabulary of 98% of English speakers, it's when they don't bother to share any etymology, either . . .

Today I am having jealousy issues. I'm sure they will go away tomorrow, though, in my first free fall - well, of more than a few feet, of course; everyone has fallen that far . . .

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm glad to be a person who at least considers each day how I should be spending my time, rather than just deciding all day long what I want to do next . . .

So I've been asked to serve as treasurer instead of leadership team member. Maybe it's just the thing I need to get over my fear of dealing with money; maybe it's a good thing for me to do that with someone else's money, where there would be no chance for surprises. Umm, probably not . . .

Looking through possible recipes for Sunday and Wednesday, and realizing that most of the ones I'm rejecting look positively yummy to me . . .

Okay, time to get back to how I should be spending my time.

Day 2 (with pics)

Oh my!  What an incredible world!! What an incredible corner of it!!

Today started with a fabulous breakfast from our host, including lots of fresh fruit (including some delicious crepes), a delicious local sausage, and pecan flavored almond butter croissant french toast. Then it was off to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, and one wonder after another. The park focuses heavily on Kilauea, with the far more massive Mauna Loa as a backdrop to it. As we drove around Crater Rim Drive, after putting together our game plan at the visitor's center, we stopped first at the steam vents viewing area. ₂ fumes. Instead, her health status and energy level served as an effective barometer for keeping the visit from getting too strenuous for her knee.

View of Kilauea caldera from steam vents observation point

This provided our first impressive view of the Kilauea caldera, and had it been the last one we would have been amply impressed.

View of Kilauea crater from Jaggar Museum

The two successive stops were each more impressive than the last, ending with the well positioned Jaggar Museum with its observation deck. Had Teri been in better hiking shape rather than feeling sick, we might have been disappointed that the trails across the caldera are all closed due to SO₂.

Thurston lava tube

After spending a little time at the museum, we next headed down to the Thurston lava tube. This was also incredibly impressive!

Next up was a drive down Chain of Craters road. We didn't make it to the bottom before Teri ran out of gas, but viewed one impressive site after another until she had all she could stand.  On leaving the park we found a little cafe for some lunch - probably our most affordable meal purchase in our two visits to the islands, but appropriately so given its pedestrian quality. We then headed back to our room for a brief nap before trying to find a beach.

Roadside pull-off on the coastal road to Kalapala

Which turned out to be a vain errand, but we still had one neat adventure after another for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening. We drove along the ocean where I thought our host had indicated we would find a beach, but this was not the case (unless "rocky coast" is a synonym for beach on the leeward side of Hawai'i) until we ended up back at Kalapala and the black sand beach. We ventured down onto the beach this time, and though we didn't swim we did wade in the breaking surf. It was a special time (my only new pic from this visit to the beach is already on FB). We also took a family picture for a young mom and dad who were their with their two pre-school sons.

MacKenzie Park

We were beginning to run out of daylight, but still wanted some real beach time if we could find it. So we headed back toward Pahoa, which I thought would be the quickest route to the only remaining areas on our host's map where we could hope to find a suitable beach. The roads we were driving on during all this time were incredible, including some winding one-laned sections, vegetation surrounding the road on both sides occasionally giving way to a view of the ocean and the rocky coastline. In one section, the lava trees seemed to form walls and a canopy over the road. We went to a couple of parks. First was Isaac Hale Beach Park, but again, we found only rocky areas; perhaps we didn't venture far enough away from the parking area. Next was MacKenzie Park, which turned out to be a good 50 feet above sea level, though the breaking waves splashed up onto the lava shelf at a couple of points.

Now that it was too dark to continue beach hunting, we returned to our room and changed clothes for dinner. And now I can believe that Kaleo's may be the best restaurant on the island. Oh, my, what a meal!! I had an incredible edamame hummus appetizer served with fried pita wedges; Teri's corn chowder was comped when it was served as it was the bottom of the pot and didn't have much substance, though what was there was delicious. My entree' was a fried ahi filet served with rice and a wonderful slaw that I just can't do justice. Teri had a yummy-looking chicken parmesan, and we finished the meal off with a banana lumpia served with ice cream. Oh, and we were sitting right next to a fine guitarist whose repertoire heavily overlapped my own, who it turns out is also praise and worship leader in his church and is going to be praying for me on Sunday during our citywide Pentecost celebration in Dayton.

Teri wasn't feeling up to a return to the observation deck for a night view of the Kilauea caldera, which I think would have been spectacular to see. However, on the drive back to our room, as we were amazed by the vast array of stars visible in the night sky, I noticed the Southern Cross before us. I hadn't seen it on our previous trip or earlier on this one, due to either light pollution on Oahu or cloud cover, but I have always wanted to. It turns out that my window of opportunity was pretty narrow, as I looked out for one more peak at the night sky before retiring for the night, but quite a bit of it is now obscured by clouds.

Not according to plan

I had high hopes for dinner last night, when my bride was working on it in the morning. The leftover chicken from Sunday was going to become a pot pie. When I called home at 5 I asked if it was in the oven yet, and when I sounded concerned that it wasn't, she indicated the recipe only called for it to bake for 20 minutes. Alarm bells reverberating around the inside of my skull, I mentioned that was probably not from the "cold in the refrigerator" state, and she assured me she'd had it out of the fridge for quite some time.

So I didn't panic when I walked in the door at 5:30 and she was just starting on the biscuit topping, even though she was planning to leave for Confirmation rehearsal at 6:15 and I needed to be early to my prayer meeting in case anyone else came for the rosary. She put it in the oven at 5:40, and when took it out 20 minutes later with the biscuit top looking lightly browned. After letting it rest for 5 minutes, she went to spoon out her meal so she could eat and then leave.

Only to find the biscuit topping completely raw below the surface.

After an additional half hour of cooking, checking it at 5 minute intervals, the crust was thoroughly browned on top, clearly trending toward burned if it were to cook any longer, and now only slightly still raw underneath. By then she was long gone, and I needed to leave, too. Lesson learned: having the filling still hot from cooking is important when making a biscuit-topped pot pie. I suppose if we'd reduced the oven temp by 15 degrees and cooked it for an hour we might have managed to eat dinner last night. If we ever try to make up a pot pie in advance, we'll be sure to use a recipe that provides for that option.

Let's hope tonight's lasagna goes better.

It's a good thing . . .

. . . that we don't live close enough to have O's season tickets.  I'd gain ten pounds!

Hungry (physically)

Imaginary conversation:

"Hey, America's on a health kick that shows no sign of letting up, but that's always gonna take a back seat to yummy desserts and convenience.  Let's start making healthy cookies! We'll make a fortune!!"

"Sounds great! See what you can come up with."

Six months later . . .

"They're still not very good. Nobody is ever gonna want these instead of their favorite chocolate chip or sandwich cookies, or even our own vanilla wafers. It was worth a shot, but we've just spent too much on this already. It's time to pull the plug."

"Wait a sec!  What if, instead of 'cookies,' we call them 'breakfast biscuits'?  After all, the middle of our name comes from 'biscuit.' We can market them as - oh, I dunno - a healthier alternative to donuts?"

"Well, they're certainly not more delicious than donuts, but they're at least a little more nutritious than fried dough.  It might work.  I don't know that there's much of a market for 'breakfast biscuits,' but maybe what we've spent on development won't be a total loss . . . "

And thus was born belVita^®.