S'mores

More snow today, a wet, heavy snow that hung off the branches.

Dinner was lemon chicken breaded in panko; sweet potatoes with oranges and cinnamon; spinach, and polenta cut into flowers and browned in a cast iron skillet.

We had a fire and made s'mores.

This is what it looked like under the streetlight at 7:30 p.m.

Roasted Beets with Lemon Ricotta

Dinner tonight was salmon on spring greens with a honey dijon marinade; beets and carrots wrapped in foil and roasted with a head of garlic; the greens and red stems from the beets chopped and sauteed with olive oil and garlic; plain brown basmati rice; and another whole grain quickbread. My new favorite thing with roasted vegetables is mixing a little lemon zest into ricotta cheese and letting dollops of it melt onto the vegetables. Tonight I mixed in some of the roasted garlic, and some chopped chives from the windowsill.


This bread is my favorite quick bread yet, from the New York Times. I made the lighter version without molasses, and with part white flour. I used agave instead of honey, and added some flax meal. It's quick to mix up, and then there's warm fresh bread on the table in an hour. It has a beautiful crust. The cornmeal gives it some crunch. It's fantastic with butter and honey on it, or plain like D likes it.

I'm getting discouraged at how long it's taking me to figure out how to take good pictures with the new camera. I'm still happy that I can get usable shots in such low light. I finally broke down and ordered the full version of Photoshop to replace my old, unusable one. And it seems to be lost in transit. Now there's a delay to confirm that it hasn't been delivered, and to send a replacement copy . . . after waiting for it for so long, this last part is frustrating.

Snow Day Three

We are on Day Three of this strange sick day/snow day week. R has been sick, then they canceled school for weather. It's been three days since R or I stepped outside. This morning it was fourteen below when we woke up.

Charlie is loving the attention.







Ice crystals are still on the upstairs windows at 3 p.m. Yesterday it never got above zero. Right now the sun is out, but it's five degrees. No burst pipes, and so far the cars are starting up.

Fear of Frying

My R loves eggrolls, and I make them for her with a filling of carrots, cabbage, ginger, garbanzo beans, scallions and ground turkey. I lay spinach leaves on top of the filling and sprinkle ground flax seeds on top before I roll them up. I brush them with olive oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake them in the oven.

I don't really like them this way--they don't cook evenly, and much of the skin stays tough and chewy or worse, bakes to sharp edges that can cut your mouth. I have a fear of deep-frying, but I can't seem to replicate the bubbly, shatteringly crisp skin of a fried eggroll in the oven.

So today I emptied a quart of canola oil into my favorite All-Clad dutch oven, waited for it to get up to 350 on my jam thermometer, and put the eggrolls in.

R said, "That's what I'm talkin' about. This is just like Chinese Dinner." Which is what she has called take-out since she was two.

I made a batch the old way, to compare. This time I steamed the unbaked rolls for a few minutes, like you do with gyoza dumplings. That seemed to make the skin more tender once it baked, but half of them fell apart while they were steaming, and it's an extra step.

Here they are, baked on the left, fried on the right. I wonder how much oil they really absorb in frying, versus being slathered before baking. If they have so much good stuff inside and we don't have them very often, I think it's ok that they're fried. The bubbles and the crispy skin really are beautiful.

I also broke down and bought a new camera, with some help from my generous parents. I'm embarrassed to mention it because I have such a steep learning curve and it will be awhile before I can take competent pictures. But I'll keep practicing, and I'm excited to have a 35mm f/1.8 lens that works so well in close-up and low light.

More Christmas 2010

Stomach flu on Christmas eve! It was so sad.

We let her stay downstairs with us. This is my nephew feeding tinsel to Charlie before we stopped him.

Santa is coming!! (My Dad, who actually owns his own Santa suit and does this every Christmas.)

He's here!

Trying to stand up without getting sick. She said, "If Santa touches my head, I know I will get all better." It worked--she got sick for the last time right before we took this picture.

R and her Granddad are on the same wavelength sometimes. This is in front of the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. My Dad is so knowledgeable and widely curious. His historian's mind is constantly observing and sifting through and comparing. It must be a lot of fun to be him and live inside that mind. It's certainly fun to be around him. Going through a museum with him is quite an experience.

This is part of "La Jornada," a bronze installation in front of the museum that celebrates the early colonists.