Mashed Cauliflower

The weather the past couple of days has been warm but dreary.  Now that leave is over and David is back to work I'm trying to re-adjust to being home alone all day.  I'm surprised how much I miss having a job.  I'm a total homebody and I hate starting a new job, but even I see how ridiculous it is for a woman with no kids to not have a job.  There just isn't enough to do.  But I'm trying.  I've been spending my time looking for recipes with foods I can actually eat.  Cauliflower seems to be pretty popular right now.  I've seen it as a pizza crust, blended, mashed, baked, you name it.  I'm not really a fan of cauliflower, but these recipes got me curious.  So with all this time I have, I decided to give cauliflower a chance.  The rain and the gloom inspired me to make a comforting bowl of mashed cauliflower.  I was pleasantly surprised with how good this turned out.  I can imagine how much better it would be with butter, sour cream or cream cheese, but with this diet, it was good enough for me.

Mashed Cauliflower

 I found this recipe at Comfy Belly but added a few changes

Ingredients:

• 1 med. head of cauliflower
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced (I added more because I loooove garlic)
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. thyme (opt.)
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (opt.)
• 1/4 C. almond milk (or any milk, unsweetened)
• 3/4 C. water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut off the stock and chop the cauliflower into smallish pieces (it'll blend up easier with out big chunks) and put them in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the garlic, salt, olive oil, thyme, and red pepper to the bowl.  Mix until cauliflower is evenly coated.
4. Spread the cauliflower out on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 min. or until the edges start turning brown.
5. Remove cauliflower from oven and place in a blender.
6. Warm the milk and water (I put them in my Pyrex measuring glass and microwave for 30 seconds-1 min.).
7. Add liquid to the blender and blend until smooth.

Serves: 4 or so

Comfort food and new directions

One of David's favorite meals I make just so happens to be one of my childhood favorites.  So simple and easy, pizza bread is a breeze to put together.  Just pick up frozen bread dough, pepperoni, shredded mozzarella, a bit of parmesan, and your favorite marinara sauce for dipping.  The only thing about using frozen bread dough is  its pretty hard to roll it out, it just keeps bouncing back.  Most of the time I have David do that part for me.  Muscles! 

It looks so delicious to me right now!  Too stinkin bad I can't eat one part of that delectable cheesy bread on my new diet.  Since moving to Texas I've gotten these dry itchy red patches on my skin and around my eyes.  I've gone to the Dr a few times and they just keep giving me some sort of steroids which only makes me better while I'm taking it.  While visiting family in Michigan my eyelids turned bright red and puffed up like mad.  I wanted to know why and I wanted to know how to fix it.  My in-laws told me about this holistic practitioner in Lansing that could run some tests and maybe figure some things out.  He uses urine, saliva, and blood to figure out whats going on inside your body.  It was super interesting.  I found out that while I am dealing with outdoor allergies (which I've known since I was 5) there was also some stuff going on inside my body so its like a double whammy.  I am now on a sugar free, gluten free, yeast free, dairy free, tomato free diet.  Yikes.    I know you're supposed to focus on all the things you can eat on a diet like this but since almost everything I usually eat has sugar or gluten in it, its quite the change. But if this fixes me it'll be more than worth it.  And maybe it'll get me in prime shape for swim suit weather....silver lining.


Oh and David and I decided he should try for Special Forces.  That's what he enlisted for, but he dropped his SF contract when he found out we wouldn't be able to get married on the date we had set.  If he gets selected after completing the initial 3 week training he would need to re-enlist and we would be moving to NC. 

 In all the unknown that is military life, it is so comforting to know I serve a never changing and omniscient God.
*Cherise

Quinoa

 This stuff straight up scares me.  Maybe its the name.  Maybe its the fact I didn't even know it existed until a couple years ago.  My curiosity got the best of me though and I found this fried rice recipe sans the rice.  It was surprisingly easy.

  I LOVE peas and carrots.  They are tasty and colorful and add a great texture.  And you can't have fried rice with out the egg of course! 

For my first fling with quinoa I was pretty impressed.  Its something different and the extra protein is always welcome in my often meatless diet.  Next time I make this I'll be sure to have some Thai sweet chili sauce around to spice it up a little. 
For the recipe: http://www.peasandcrayons.com/2012/01/keen-wahhhh-adventures-in-cooking.html

*Cherise

A year...and some months later

"Nothing you do in faith is a failure."

John Avery Whittaker (Adventures in Odyssey)

I am so HAPPY.  So BLESSED.  So Content. 

And, in case I ever forget, God really does know what He's doing. 

Love JJ

Bane of My Existence

Allergies.  I've had them all my life.  One of my most vivid memories from childhood is sitting in the green dodge pickup in a cornfield, eyes watery and swelling with my sister while my parents picked corn.  I also recall throwing up a bunch of water when my mom tried to force a Benadryl down my throat after probably 10 minutes of me trying to swallow it myself.  I don't hold it against her, I was plenty old enough to be able to swallow a pill.  Fast forward to present day, not only do I have to deal with allergies during spring and ragweed season, but I just happened to move to the allergy capitol of the world.  Central stinkin Texas.  It is the only place that has pollen going crazy year round.  And its not like I'm allergic to a food that I'm at least able to avoid, I'm allergic to the world around me.  TX sure has done a number on me.  I wake up every morning with red, swollen eyes.  Worse yet my neck and face are covered with red itchy patches.  So ugly and so uncomfortable.  I finally went to a Dr. yesterday.  I had a really nice nurse who just happened to live near the base in LA we'll be moving to this summer.  She said she never had allergies there but she got them here.  She gave me hope, as well as the nickname for the town I'll most likely be living in, Diseaseville.  Its actually called Leesville.  Precious. The Dr. prescribed steroids (I need to take advantage of this and do some lifting) and gave me a special lotion to take care of my face.  Its day 2 and things are looking up.  That's not completely true.  I'm feeling better in the allergy department but I woke up this morning with a pounding headache, unable to take any painkillers because of the steroids.  I think I'm going to blame the nausea and puking that ensued on the pain.  I barely got a piece of toast down so I could take my steroids for the day.  Needless to say (this seems like such an unnecessary phrase but whatev, I said it, deal with it) I've spent the day on the couch.  Thank goodness for the Amsale Girls marathon on WE because every channel I usually watch involves food which I just couldn't roll with today.  Please let tomorrow be better! 
             *Cherise

Monogram Door Decor

There was this adorable twine covered monogram door hanging I came across on pinterest.  

 You can purchase one here:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/78019133/monogram-wreath

I decided to make my own.

This blog takes the thinking out of the project: http://www.twotwenty-one.com/2011/09/jute-wrapped-monogram-wreath_13.html

    Just a note: I did not use 2 rolls of jute twine.  There should be plenty of twine in one roll to cover the letter.  You'll just have to use the same roll when you change the direction you're wrapping.

 

This is what mine looked like.  And this is where the problem arose.  An L just can't hang straight.  I thought and I thought and I thought.  Then one groggy morning when David's 4:45am alarm put me in that, not quite awake but not really asleep mode, it hit me.  Put the letter in a frame.  And so it began...

First I went to Goodwill to find a frame that would  fit my L nicely.  I found an ugly gold one with an interesting texture that worked wonderfully.  Unfortunately it was an already framed picture and I couldn't tell if it had a back other than the paper that was stapled to it.  A few weeks later I went back and found a really plain frame for .99.  I brought it home, removed the glass and painted both the frame and back black.  I already had black paint but if I didn't I definitely would've bought spray paint. The cheap kind would be fine for this project.

Next I traced the frame back on a scrap of fabric.  If you don't have a large enough scrap Walmart or any craft store should sell fabric scraps for cheap.  Once the fabric was cut out I put dots of hot glue (Kindergarten teaches you everything important) around the entire back starting at the top then immediately placed the fabric on the glue so it really sticks.  Make sure the edges are glued down good so the fabric won't bunch up when you put it back in the frame.

Once I put the frame together I placed a fair amount of hot glue on the back of my L and held it firmly against the fabric for a few seconds.

Lastly came the ribbon.  I used grosgrain ribbon about an inch wide.  This part was a little annoying because it causes some measuring.  To be completely honest I didn't really measure mine but I would suggest measuring from the middle of the frame to where you want the bow to be placed because that's better than eye balling.  Once I knew how long the ribbon should be I added about 7 inches to give me plenty of room to tie the bow.  I glued the ribbon at a slant across the back of the frame for more stability.  I was pretty liberal with the hot glue this time.  I am horrible at tying bows.  I googled "how to tie a bow".  Ridiculous, but it actually was pretty helpful.  http://www.wikihow.com/Tie-a-Bow.  I snipped the ends to where I wanted them to be and VOILA!     

     *Cherise                         

Your mouth is like a magazine...holder

 I left my plastic magazine holder in Nebraska thus my current magazines have no home.  While making a quick trip to Target I located these cardboard beauties in the dollar section.  That place gets me every time.  But this time my purchase was as useful as it was impulsive.  Its has a sea foam green background with black bird dotted birch trees.  I think its rather darling and totally worth David's hard earned dollar.

I also purchased a mockingjay shirt yesterday.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted but at least it didn't have a dumb actor's face on it.

                                *Cherise