And the Roof Has Been Raised!

The final roof trusses were placed yesterday.   I wish I'd had my camera so that I could have taken a wider lens shot.  Complete with the traditional tree on the last rafter.

Scenes from the Feast

The star of the show:

A 17.24 lb bird roasted for 30 minutes at 400°F and 3.5 hours at 350°F.  Perfect!

Some of the supporting cast:

Stuffing baked outside the bird, mashed turnip, and mashed butternut and acorn squash.

Younger son's mashed potatoes!

The cranberry sauce is homemade from cranberries I picked out on the new property!

Pumpkin Pie!

Apple Pie!

Mince Pie!

Pecan Pie!

I didn't take picture of the apple cider sangria, but boy was that tasty!!

Our Traditional Thanksgiving Menu

Despite all the cooking shows I watch, all the Pinterest recipes I pin, and despite all the "Holiday Meal" articles in Cooking Light and Real Simple, the Thanksgiving meal in this household doesn't change much.  At least not as far as the what MUST be on the table, no matter how many people are around it.

First and foremost is the turkey.  It has to be large, at least in the 16-18 lb range, even if it's just the 4 of us, like this year.  We have to have tons of leftovers to split between at two households at the very least.  This year's bird weighs in at just over 17 pounds.  I roast this the way my mom did:  in the oven at 325°, covered in foil, until the last half hour.

The bird is stuffed with a relatively plain stuffing.  The stuffing HAS to start with Pepperidge Farm herb seasoned CUBED stuffing.  As my mother taught me, I had celery, onion, some more herbs (a tad of sage, thyme, FRESH parsley, a bay leaf or two), and it MUST have capers in it.  Occasionally I get "fancy" and I've been known to add some pecans, cranberries, or walnuts, but I'm generally booed when I do that.  My mom always stuffed the bird with it, but my husband and sons prefer the stuffing baked outside the bird.  So I do both.  I don't like the dry stuff -- I like the soggy, juicy stuffing!

Accompanying the bird:  mashed potatoes, mashed butternut squash, and  mashed turnip(rutabaga!).   Nothing fancy.  Just those root veggies, boiled or pressure cooked, mashed with real butter, and salt and pepper, and milk in the case of the potatoes.  This year I'm trying something new!  Since my RA diagnosis, I am having a hard time "slicing and dicing", and peeling squash can be a real chore.  I am roasting my squash whole first this year, and then peeling and mashing.  I don't know if my family can stand the innovation.
 If my sister's family shares the meal with us, we add green bean casserole with the crunchy fried onions on top, and rolls.  We have 2 kinds of cranberry sauce - whole berry and sliced, mixed sweet pickles and olives, celery and carrot sticks, and most years, creamed pearl onions.  And of course, the gravy.

And the pies.  NO VARIATION ALLOWED.  Even with only 4 people.  One pumpkin, one apple, one pecan, and one mince.  As my husband states:  "You NEVER make pie, except at Thanksgiving."  That's not entirely true, but I dislike pie making as a rule.  I don't exactly know why, because with the availability of good "ole Pillsbury Ready Dough . . . .

The only place I get to try new things are on the unessentials like beverages.  We traditionally have cider available, water, and wine.  This year I am trying something that sounds really good to me - Apple Cider Sangria.  Here's the recipe, which I gleaned from Pinterest.  This recipe comes from this blog HOW SWEET  IT IS.

Apple Cider Sangria

YIELD: SERVES 4-6

 

PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

 

TOTAL TIME: 10 MINUTES

ingredients:

1 bottle (standard size) of pinot grigio
2 1/2 cups fresh apple cider
1 cup club soda
1/2 cup ginger brandy
3 honey crisp apples, chopped
3 pears, chopped

directions:

Combine all ingredients together and stir, stir, stir. Refrigerate for an hour or so (or longer!) before serving.

[Regular brandy can also be used, I simply used ginger brandy to give it more autumn flavor.]

I will let you know how it turns out!

I don't have any pics to share today.  Maybe tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And Some Constructive Stills

My First You Tube Video

So, today was the day they started setting the roof trusses on the new house.  I stopped at the house on my way home from work.  I just so happened to have my  iPad with me and decided to try my hand at a video.  A learning experience for me!  The first truss I "videoed" didn't record.  Although I'd set the iPad to record, I forgot to press start!! Of course I didn't realize that until I'd videoed for about 2 minutes.

This is my 2nd attempt!

In Which Our Heroine Survives a Stressful Day

My day started about 3 am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.  I started worrying about how I was going to accomplish everything I needed to accomplish, and I couldn't turn my mind off.  I was also concerned about a tricky meeting I had first thing, and due to somebody's else's poor planning, I wasn't ready for my social studies classes for the day.

I arrived at school at 6:30 am carrying 6 doz mini muffins, 2 pumpkin breads, 2 gallons of cider, and my usual lunch box, water bottle, Ipad, and bag.  Do I make 2 trips from my car, up the stairs to my room?  Of course not!  I made it successfully to my room and plopped everything down.  All the way to school, I'd been trying to come up with an activity for social studies, and finally made a decision.  I went to make some copies, and the copier had been turned off which means an almost 20 minute wait for it to warm up.  Meanwhile at 6:45 am I had to meet with a teacher from another school about a possible grievance.  (I am the grievance chair for our educational association.)  The teacher was extremely upset and I had to try to get as much info from the teacher as I could, give the teacher some advice, and decide what the next steps were.  That meeting lasted till 7:15 and then I had to go out to bus duty, making sure the stuff I needed copied had gotten copied.  Classes started at 7:30 and the teaching part of my day began.

The reason for the breakfast goodies was because today was my first "Breakfast with Books" day.  My kids are required to read 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  They keep journals, and instead of doing traditional book reports, they write weekly letters to me about their books.   About every 6 weeks, they are required to do a book talk.  So today was their first book talk.  We arranged our chairs into a circle, and then each student presented their talk.  I gave everyone a chance to ask a question, and kids got excited when they realized someone else had read a book they liked.  After everyone had shared, they had a chance to munch and sip on cider.  During the 2nd period class where I did the same thing, the principal came in to see what was happening, and he got into the act and shared a book he liked.

The day continued -- social studies was a bit looser than I like, a fire drill, but we finally got to the end of core classes.  We were scheduled to have an assembly at the end of the day. To make a long story short, the planned assembly didn't happen, and the principal shot from his hip to fill the time.  The whole school ended with 40 minutes of recess on a pretty chilly afternoon.  And then I had afternoon bus duty.  By the time I got back to my classroom it was 2:30 and I had exactly 1 hour 45 minutes to grade 42 timelines, 15 vocab assignments, 5 miscellaneous ELA papers, and 42 sets of social studies questions,  bring my grades up to date on the computer, and do my report cards!  I left my classroom at 3:55 (and left it quite a mess!) with all of that done and headed to a 4:00 meeting at church.  I had called the meeting so it would not have been good for me not to show!  Fortunately, it was an easy meeting - we are working on revising our by-laws, and I was home at 5:00.  Dinner was on the table at 5:30.   And now . . . .I am done!

No Power but . . .

We survived the storm quite comfortably.  We received almost 4 inches of rain in less than 12 hours and we had wind gusts up to 45 mph with sustained winds of between 30-35 mph.  Our power went out about 5 pm yesterday and it's still out (9 am Tuesday), but since we have a generator we are enjoying "luxury camping."  We have heat, hot water, shower, refrigeration,  a few lights, and a couple of "live" outlets to use.  So I can plug in my Keurig, a toaster, or other small appliances - just not all at the same time!  No word yet on how long the power will be out.  Only about 10% of my town lost power, but I live on the outskirts and our power line comes in from the west whereas most of town gets there power from the east.  NH has over 200,000 people without power (out of 1.1 million).  We didn't get any damage on our property.  Most of our big trees came down during the 2008 ice storm.  The new construction also survived unscathed.  However a friend of mine got a tree through her roof and there are a lot of trees and limbs down elsewhere.  School is cancelled for the second day in a row - not a wonderful prospect for getting out early in June!!

A Couple More Construction Pics

I'm just hoping that these walls are still standing once Sandy get through with us.  The prediction is for steady winds between 35-45 mph with gusts up to 60 mph and 3-5 inches of rain.  School was cancelled today even though Sandy isn't expected to actually get here until early this evening.  It IS blowing and raining, but neither very dramatically . . . yet.  I'd prefer to keep it that way.  I have family on the coast in Virginia and Connecticut, and our son is in southeastern MA where winds are expected to be be MUCH harder.

From the foot of the driveway . . .

In back of the house - walk in cellar door, looking westerly.

And also from the back looking toward the east.  

We will have a slider in our master bedroom going to a deck.  Behind our new house are 10 acres of woods and wetland which we also own, so we will have lots of privacy.  And a chance to see lots of wildlife.  We walked out a bit on the land last week and found a small cranberry bog.  We picked a few handfuls of berries - maybe 2 cups worth which I will use on Thanksgiving.  We saw many deer trails and LOTs of bear scat. 

More Progress!

Progress is being made!  The house is being built by high school students in our regional building trades program.  They work under the guidance of a teacher who is also a professional contractor.  He hires other professionals to guide the students in the various aspects of construction.  Considering the fact that students work only 2 hours a day, the house is coming along rather quickly.  We've had a couple of weather delays to contend with.  (Hope the potential superstorm fizzles as have the last couple of other potential threats the last few years!)

Here's the front wall.  There will be double windows on either side of the front door.

And from the inside looking out the front door:

Turning around and looking out what will be a sliding door out the back from the dining area to a deck.

This is a view of what will be the master bedroom - also with a slider out to a deck!

And this the garage foundation being poured.  We will be able to walk into a mudroom from the garage, and then into the kitchen.  A nice change from 30 years of walking across the driveway to the garage --- no more soaking wet trips with grocery bags!

The roof trusses are coming Nov. 14 so that will probably be the next batch of pics!

Busy as a Bee

There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day!

You'd think that after teaching nearly 20 years I'd have figured out how not to have so much planning, grading, and organizing to do.  I find myself heading into the classroom at 6:45 am and leaving it most days at 4:30 -5 pm.  I've had few days even longer.  I do try not to bring a lot of work home, at least during the week, and have been fairly successful with that.    The year has gotten off to a good start student-wise, and things seem to be on a fairly even keel school-wide.  I do have outside the classroom responsibilities that sometimes get to be a bit much.  I chair our district's staff development committee which is responsible for tracking recertification hours for all teachers/administrators.  I'm also an officer in our local education association (aka "the union.")  Both those groups have hit a few snags that take up time. I was training a team member to take over as staff dev chair after this year, but due to one of the "snags", that person resigned from the team.  Everyone else is brand new!

On the personal front my job as the moderator for my church has been quite stressful.  We are dealing with a couple of issues, and just as soon as I think something is finally resolved, another wrinkle appears.  We are currently dealing with some trespassing teens - not a major problem yet, but it's just one more thing.  As long as I've been in town (over 35 years) my church has had an open door policy.  We've never locked the sanctuary, believing that anyone who needs it should be able to come in.  A few local teenagers have recently been hanging out --- not in a respectful way, but also nothing majorly wrong.  As far as I know the worst thing they've done is race a wheelchair down our ramp from the chancel. Obviously they shouldn't be playing there.  Most of the congregation is elderly and they are quite nervous.  A few parishioners have been startled by their presence, but nobody has identified who the kids are which makes it hard to solve.  And of course, nobody's called the police.  I contacted our school resource officer because the kids are either in my middle school or in the adjacent high school.  I think he'll be able to sort things out once he has a chance to do some nosing around.  

I've also been attempting to participate in a book study group at church.  We're reading and discussing Brian McLaren's book , "A New Kind of Christianity."  I have been hungry for this kind of discussion group, and it's been very enriching and nourishing.  There are 8-10 of us who meet each week --- a fairly diverse group of folks, and it's led by an ordained member of our church (tho' she's not our pastor.)  I've had to miss a couple of meetings due to sheer exhaustion.  The group meets from 6-8 pm every Thursday and have just been some days, that I couldn't push myself to get there.

We've also been getting the new house built.  Here are a couple of photos I took this afternoon:

The first wall --- the window is in my master bathroom and the other end of the wall is part of the pantry.

This is the basement looking out toward the back of the house.  We'd had a driving rainstorm which is why there's water on the floor -- not all the floor has been installed overhead.

More basement.

From the back of the house looking into the basement.

Standing in my mudroom looking across my open concept dining/kitchen/living room to the non existent bedroom walls!

The leach field for the septic tank.  I guess we will have a green front lawn!

From the road, looking at the front of the house.


And finally I have been knitting!  I made a couple of Christmas gifts that I am not sharing here, not yet anyway.  I've also started this scarf.

I bought the pattern and yarn at the NH Sheep and Wool Show in May 2011, and finally got it started.  It's an alpaca cobweb lace from Long Ridge Farm.  The pattern is called "Two Rivers Wrap."

Finally, the meds for RA seem to finally be having a positive effect, so while I am not painfree, it's not the debilitating pain I was enduring earlier this year.  I still struggle with fatigue, and I am certainly not where I want to be, but things are improving.

So as I said in my title, I have been busy as a bee . . .though I'm not sure how busy this one was.  It was on the brick path to my front door --- it was alive, though probably just barely.

By the way, my first name, Deborah, means BEE!

More Construction

The foundation is in!  

Looking to the southwest from the east side of the  house

Looking to the north from the back of the house

 Looking from the back towards the northwest -the bumpout will be part pantry and part master bath.

 The basement will be a full walk out which is the door you see.  Above this will be the kitchen, great room, and part of the dining area  --- open concept.

From the front, looking southeast.  I'm near where the front door will be, entering the great room.  The jog represents an office in the front and the master bedroom behind.

I have a hard time visualizing the space.  Even though I have the floor plan to look out, I'm having a hard time "seeing" where the walls are.  My husband says the house is bigger than he thought, and I think it's smaller!!  Time will tell.  Rain Thursday and Friday held up the installation of the floor beams and sills this week.

A New Adventure!

 

We recently purchased some land, not too far from where we live now, and we are having a house built on it for us.  We currently live in a very large century-old home that is much too big for just the two of us. We're looking to downsize, and we are looking ahead to our senior years where we will want one floor living.  The new house will be just over 1600 sq ft, about half the size of what we have now.  The home is being built by students in the Building Trade program at our local high school.  They are supervised by a master builder, who hires subcontractors who are willing to teach the students their particular trade.  We of course, pay for all the materials and the services of all the subcontractors, plus all the licenses and building fees.  We also made a donation to the program.   We're trying to build green as much as possible too.  We drive by the site everyday to and from work, plus my husband's bus company transports the students from school to the work site!

The work has begun!

The concrete for the foundation will be poured Monday.

This past weekend was spent visiting several home improvement places - from Home Depot to some locally-owned places.  We've talked to two kitchen designers and are trying to figure out exactly what we want, and   of course, how much it's going to cost.  Our plans call for an open concept kitchen, dining area, and great room.  There will be 2 bedrooms, plus an office, and 2 baths.  We will have a finished walkout basement, a mudroom/laundry room, and 2 car garage.  We have an estimate on cabinets and granite counters from Home Depot, and we're waiting for a similar proposal from the local designer.  I hope we can work with the locally owned business.  We are buying all the lumber from them.  It's exciting, but there are so many things to think about!!

And then of course, we will have to sell this old house.  The good thing is that we've already done a lot of major work on this house -- a new roof within the last 5 years, a new driveway 2 years ago, and a new heating system last fall.  Most of the rest of the work is cosmetic.  We don't have a mortgage on it, so that will be one pressure off us when it's time to sell.

No Rest for the Weary

It's late Sunday afternoon (or early Sunday evening) and I should be all rested up and ready to go for another week of school.  But I'm not.  Today was a too-busy day, too full of stress, and too-empty of rest.
Sunday isn't supposed to be like that.  I went to church this morning, kind of wishing that I could stay home because I really could have used a lazy morning.  But I was one of 4 mission speakers this morning.  Our stewardship drive kicked off today, and I had been asked to speak for about 5 minutes on "How I Live my Faith."  I don't mind speaking in church and in fact have occasionally preached on a laity Sunday.  But it did add a bit of stress to the morning.  What was difficult today was the church council meeting afterwards.  I am  moderator of my UCC church.  For those of you who aren't familiar with congregational-type churches, the moderator is the lay leader of the church and is the church's representative in legal matters.  One of the "perks" (??) of the job is that I get to run the monthly council meetings.  They take place on the third Sunday of every month right after church, and generally last about 90 minutes.  We have a large council - about 20 members and everybody has an opinion.   We generally have good meetings but today there was a lot of emotion and even some conflict.  Our church has several large mission ministries, and we have been having some difficulty with the leadership of one of them, and matters have come to a crisis point.  Despite all the efforts of a number of good people, today people got angry with each other.  I take that probably too personally - I can't control other people's anger, but I wish I had been able to find a less contentious path through a pretty thorny jungle.   The meeting lasted almost 2.5 hours and by the time I got home I was exhausted.  Since then I've had to deal with several phone calls from parishioners who needed to talk, and I had to write my monthly column for our church newsletter.  And of course, there was dinner to be cooked and cleaned up after (thank God for a wonderful husband who knows when to pitch in without asking!).  And now it's almost 7 pm, and it's time to get my things together for work, and maybe, just maybe sit and knit a bit --- if my hands cooperate, that is!

A Week In (to the school year)

We went back to school last Monday (8/27) and spent 90% of three days in workshops and meetings.  On Wednesday we held an Open House for parents and students from 1-3 pm which was surprisingly well-attended.  Although it was meant to be informal, and parents were told to come in and look around, but "teachers are working", and we were told to continue working, it just wasn't possible to continue with tasks when several sets of parents surrounded you with questions.  Since the parents who came to visit my classroom were anxious because their kids were entering the great big MIDDLE school, we felt it was important to take the time to answer their questions and reassure them.  I came home each day quite tired!

Thursday was the first day with kids.  It was one of the best first days I've had in my career, but I have NEVER felt so fatigued as I did by the time I got home at 4:30 pm.  It took every ounce of willpower to walk down to my car, drive home, and get into the house.  This is one very unwelcome side effect of  RA.  I went to bed quite early.  Friday was also a good day with the kids, but by planning time (1 pm) I was so exhausted I couldn't even eat my lunch.  I was home by 3 and I took a short nap.

Aside from the alarming fatigue, this is the smoothest start to school I can remember.  I share 44 6th graders with my teaching partner.  I know that the first week of school is the honeymoon period, and it's rare to have behavior problems the first day or so, but I was quite impressed with their listening skills.  We do a whole grade activity on the 2nd afternoon which requires absolute silence and nonverbal communication.  (The whole grade - 144 of them-- have to arrange themselves into 12 groups corresponding to their birthday month, and then within each group, they have to arrange themselves in chronological order.  All without talking.  This normally takes kids about 1/2 hour with frequent adult reminders to work in silence.  They accomplished the first part of the task in less than 10 minutes, and the 2nd part in about 5.  We had to scramble for another activity!

This year is also unusual, because for the first year ever,  I have only 2 students who receive special ed services.  I  usually have 8-10 of the group who either get pulled out, or have extra support in the classroom.  We do have a couple of kiddos who will be part of our tier 2/tier 3 program for behavior, but from what we've been told, they are in that program more because they need a super quiet place to work/go when they get overstimulated.

So, I'm expecting that it will be a good year.  I'm hoping I will get a handle on this RA thing, and figure out how to pace myself.  It seems clear that I will have watch the number of things that go on my plate!

Monday - 7 Days Left

So, it's the last Monday of summer vacation.  Next week we go back for 3 days of inservice, and then the kids come back on Thursday.  It gets a teeny bit harder every year to go back!  I can't complain - this has been a terrific summer for relaxing.  Despite my health issues, I've taken it easy.

So how did I spend today?  I slept in until all of 7 am, and then enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee and the internet.  I have a routine -- check email, hit FB,  head over to Ravelry, check out several blogs, check my school email, then head back to FB to play my games (Words with Friends, Pyramid Solitaire, Bubble Safari, Bubble Witch Saga.   I gave up on Gardens of Time and Hidden Chronicles because they were too dependent on continually adding friends to progress!).  By this time it's past 8 am, and I got a couple of phone calls from friends and family.  I spent the next hour showering, breakfast, and getting laundry started.  I had a few more phone calls, and I finally emptied a bookshelf that needed clearing out.  I filled a trash bag, and filled a box with giveaways.  I headed back to the kitchen and tackled the refrigerator.  Since today is the day we get our new basket of produce, I really needed to see what was left over in the veggie bins.  I cleaned them out and decided to make a refrigerator cole slaw --- red cabbage, Napa cabbage, some fennel, carrots, a pepper, and an onion all got shredded.  That took care of most of the produce that needed using up.  Then I pureed a largish zucchini and made a cake with it as a treat for the week.  This was a new recipe I found on Pinterest.  Mine doesn't look as pretty!  The glaze was much too drippy on my cake.
But I'll bet it will taste good!

   By the time all the baking and slaw-ing was done, it was time for lunch.  I spent the afternoon finishing laundry, reading, and then made a trip over to the farm to get our new basket.  We got a lot of cukes and squash, too much for just us, so my husband took some to a friend.

And now it's about time to start dinner, and then . . . some knitting and the start of slowly adjusting my body clock back to school bedtime!

Grilled Pizza with Garden Fresh Veggies and Goat Cheese

This was my first attempt at grilled pizza.  We had a plethora of basil and tomatoes fresh from the local farm.  (We belong to a CSA and we've been greatly blessed with an abundance of produce - the vegetable pizza toppings are all from the farm!  )  I even made my own pizza dough which I haven't done in years.  Here's what I learned.  The dough was a bit too bready for our likes - we like a thinner crispier pie.  That was definitely a function of the baker!   Another time, I'd divide the dough into 2 batches and roll/press it out more thinly before grilling. I'd also probably make smaller pizzas which would make it much easier to flip when it was time to do so.  My pie was probably about 14 inches in diameter which made it hard to manage without a second set of hands.  Perhaps another time, I'd lightly grill the onions and peppers first.  The bottom of the crust started to get a bit too charred, but the toppings were still pretty uncooked so I ended up bringing it in and putting it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, until the cheese got runny.    Taste wise, it was pretty good.

Here's what I did.

I made a basic pizza dough:

        1 pkg dry yeast (in the envelope)
        1 cup luke warm water
        1 tsp salt
        1 tsp sugar
        1 TBS olive oil
        3 cups flour (divided in half)

Warm your mixing bowl first by running under hot water.  Put the lukewarm warm water in the bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.   Stir, and then add 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Mix at low speed and then gradually add 1.5 cups of flour.  When the flour is incorporated, gradually add the remaining flour.  If you're using a stand mixer (I have a Kitchen Aid), change the blade to the dough hook, and knead the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes.  Dough should look smooth and silky, and not be sticky. If it's sticky, you might need to add a tad more flour.  Remove hook, and form dough into a ball (or divide into 2-3 balls), cover dough and let rise about 20 minutes.  Punch down, and let rise another 10 minutes.  Roll dough out into size you want (or press dough into a pan).

To grill:

Spray your grill grate (gas or charcoal) with non stick cooking spray.  Then heat grill.  Spray the back of a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray (or use a large tray).  Place the dough on the back of the cookie sheet, and spray top of dough with non stick cooking spray.  Carefully slide the dough sprayed side down onto the grill and grill for about 5 minutes with cover down.  Check!!  The bottom of the dough will char but you need to watch it. The top will bubble up as dough cooks.  When bottom is done, slide back on cookie sheet and flip so that the charred side is up.  Place your toppings on the pizza and then put the uncooked side down on the grill.   Grill for about 5 minutes, until bottom is lightly charred, but not burned.    (This is where I had problems -- the bottom started to get too charred, even away from direct heat, and the top wasn't cooking fast enough)

Toppings that I used in the order they went on the pizza:

Homemade pesto -spread on the charred pizza
Thinly sliced red onion
Sliced fresh tomatoes
Green pepper strips
Dollops of goat cheese


My pesto recipe:

About 3 cups of basil leaves, lightly packed
About 1/3 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup of freshly grated parmesan
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup walnuts  (I was out of pine nuts!)
3 cloves of garlic

Put basil, walnuts, and garlic into food processor.  Drizzle some of the olive oil (2 tbs?) over all and whirl until chopped.  Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, and as you process the mixture, drizzle remaining olive oil into it.  Adjust seasoning, adding more lemon juice, garlic, etc. as needed.


I didn't use all the pesto for the pizza --- I had about 1/3 of it left over for the future.

We (2 of us) only ate 1/2 of the pizza --- the crust as I made it, was about 1/2 inch thick and bready, so it was quite filling.

I'm not sure how soon I'll grill a pizza again, but it was worth trying, and it did taste mighty good.

Three Weeks and Counting

Where is the summer break going?  Three weeks minus one day, and back on the treadmill we go!  My husband and I took a mini break this past weekend, partly to try to beat the hot, steamy weather.  He came home early Friday afternoon and we took off for Maine.  We had no particular destination in mind, just the desire to get away and eat some fresh lobster.  We headed up towards Portland, but were unable to find a place to stay.  Not surprising since it WAS Friday, and it WAS an August weekend.  We ate at Lord's in Wells Harbor.  We've been there several times before.  They have a terrific seafood chowder, perhaps the best I've ever had - it's chockfull of fish, shrimp, lobster, and scallops and (don't tell anyone) it's made with real cream.  I also had the "Three-Tailed Lobster" - 3 split lobster tails.  Pure ecstasy!  Since we couldn't find a place to stay we headed back south, and by chance found a place in Portsmouth, NH.  We got the very last room (due to a late cancellation) and enjoyed a comfortable bed, a spacious room, and glorious air conditioning.




 On Saturday we hopped aboard the Thomas Laighton, and took a 3 hour cruise of Portsmouth Harbor and the Isles of Shoals (about 6 miles offshore).  It was a gorgeous day on the water and there was a lovely sea breeze.  We arrived back home about 5 pm, just in time to enjoy a strong thunderstorm.

The steambath weather finally gave way to lovely dry weather and even a pretty coolish night.  This is a busy week:  Appointments today and tomorrow, and a day-long workshop on Friday.  I am also hoping to go to the NH League of Craftsmen annual fair on Thursday if all goes well.  A friend and I try to go every year and every year I add to my jewelry collections.

My Favorite Dish -- At Least at the Moment!

I seem to be on a recipe roll!  I've been experimenting over the past few months with Thai cuisine, and I've collected a few curry recipes.  We had half a bag of large shrimp in the freezer, and I had a bunch of veggies that needed to be used.  I didn't feel like a stir fry so I made a version of shrimp curry.  I didn't measure anything  --- I tend not to follow recipes exactly anyway.  This is one of those recipes you can adjust to the ingredients you have on hand and your own personal taste buds.  My husband said it was really good but he would suggest a tad more heat.  I opted on a more subtle heat, but it's really up to you!  If you need more heat, add more chili paste and/or serrano chili.

Here's what I did:

Deb's Shrimp Curry

2 medium carrots sliced into thin strips
1/2 large onion diced
1 clove garlic minced
1 TBS green curry paste
1 TBS Thai fish sauce
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk
1 cup (approx) chicken broth
sugar snap peas - about a cup
bok choy, sliced into bite-sized pieces (about 1 cup)
1/2 of a serrano chili diced
1 TBS tomato paste
juice of a lime
fresh basil, roughly torn - 1/4 cup?
fresh cilantro - 1/4 cup?  Reserve some for garnish
1 lb shrimp (16-20 count)

Optional:
siracha
diced ginger (about 1 inch can be added at start with garlic and chili paste if desired)

Saute the chili paste and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil for a couple of minutes over medium heat.  Add the onion, chili, and carrots and cook for another minute or two.  Add the coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce, and lime juice and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings (lime juice, chili paste), and you might need to add a tad more chicken broth or fish sauce).  Add the shrimp and the remaining veggies and herbs.  Simmer for 3-4 minutes until shrimp and veggies are heated through.  Don't let the veggies get too limp and soggy.  

Serve over hot rice or noodles.  Garnish with cilantro.


This serves 4-6 people depending on how hungry every one is!

Blueberries!

It's finally blueberry season around here, and we've got plenty.  So it's time to make our favorite blueberry pancakes!
I've been making these pancakes for many, many years.  It's from the Farm Journal Country Cookbook (1972) so that gives you an idea of just how many years!  It's really the only recipe I've ever used from this cookbook, and the book opens right to page 389 where it's located.  I used to have to make a double or triple batch when the kids were home and growing.  Now I just make the original size recipe, and often we have left over batter.  I also almost always substitute yogurt for the sour cream, and sometimes use buttermilk instead of regular milk.    I also use more blueberries than the recipe calls for!  
You can even make the batter ahead of time, and if it seems too thick, just add a bit more milk, and maybe an extra pinch of baking powder.

I just wish the camera battery had been charged!  This gives you the general idea though!

Sour Cream/Blueberry Pancakes


1 cup sifted flour (tho' I never sift it!)
3 tsp baking powder (AKA 1 TB)
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBS sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
2 TBS melted butter
1/2 cup blueberries

Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.  Lightly beat the egg, and then beat in the milk and sour cream.  Pour liquid ingredients over dry ingredients and blend until batter is just smooth.  Stir in the butter.  Fold in the blueberries.

Drop batter on hot griddle and cook until bottoms are brown and all the bubbles on the surface have popped.  Flip and cook until other side is brown.  Serve hot with butter and *** REAL *** maple syrup!  (We always warm our syrup briefly before serving.)

This makes about 10-12 4 inchish pancakes.

****I'm a maple syrup purist.  I can't abide the fake maple-flavored stuff.  True syrup is not thick and gooey.  It's thin (but very sticky) and runs down the side of your pancakes or waffles, pooling in delicious puddles.  The pancake or waffle also soaks it up like a sponge.  I do not order pancakes or waffles at  a restaurant unless there's a real syrup option and I will pay extra for it.  It helps that we live in maple country, so we can buy it directly from a local sugar house.  It goes a lot further than the fake stuff too, so while it IS more expensive, it goes a lot further than a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth or corn syrup based stuff.  Do I sound biased??  I am!