Frog In North Georgia

I should avoid all things celestial.  Yuk.  I tried this blueberry Celestial tea and it is very weird.  I don’t know why.  I read the label and it says blueberry and some herbs and other pretty normal tea things.  I made sure it wasn’t the spicy type like the raspberry that I disliked so much.  But it is still icky.

Apparently, if I want caffeine free, I must drive to the Trader Joe’s.

Tags: celestial tea, trader joes.

As I’m looking in my refrigerator and pantry today, I also take a look at allrecipes.com.  I enter in two of the various ingredients I might want to use, cream of mushroom soup and ground beef.  I find Goulash II, and a host of snippy comments about it.

I don’t know the author of Goulash II.  But I’m thinking why go here?  What is with the bad attitude?  Okay, you don’t like the recipe, don’t like the title, whatever.  I don’t get why the snottiness is necessary.  Are these high school students or something?  If not, then they really need help, as in prayer.

Goulash II - Allrecipes

Not only is this not “goulash” this is not a recipe. This is a “dump”!

Poor allrecipes is now tainted by the same type of idiots who frequent message boards.  How sad.  That’s my cooking and society lament for today.  Now I shall return to my pantry which my husband overstocked and try to figure out how to reduce its contents into our dinner.

Tags: allrecipes, bad attitude, cream of mushroom soup, high school students, message boards.

This is a tip from the American Diabetes Association.  I found it the first time when I was pregnant and had gestational diabetes.  I looked it up just now to share on the blog, since it is so difficult to eat right at the holidays when there are so many tempting sweets and muffins around.

If you have time, visit the nutrition portion of the site.  Though it is aimed at those with diabetes it has generally helpful nutrition information.  (This is not a paid advertisement.  I just thought you all might enjoy the information.)

Create Your Plate

1. Using your dinner plate, put a line down the middle of the plate.

2. Then on one side, cut it again so you will have 3 sections on your plate.

3. Fill the largest section with non-starchy vegetables

Tags: american diabetes association, dinner plate, gestational diabetes, non starchy vegetables, nutrition information.

This is the easiest cauliflower recipe and tastes really good.

1 head cauliflower
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar cheese

Chop and steam the cauliflower.  Mix cauliflower, mayonnaise, mustard and place in a broiler-safe casserole dish.  Add pepper to taste. Top with cheese and place under the broiler for up to ten minutes - until cheese makes a nice crust.

Change the mustard and/or cheese each time you make it to go with whatever else you are serving, or to use what is in your refrigerator.  Gruyere and country mustard is really good with fish and wine.  Swiss and honey mustard is good if you have guests with more plain tastes.

Tags: casserole dish, cauliflower recipe, cup mayonnaise, dijon mustard, head cauliflower, honey mustard.

Photo by L. Marie

Something lovely has happened.  The local grocery store now carries Fol Epi cheese.  Yum! I love Fol Epi cheese.  It is sweet and nutty, somewhat similar to Swiss cheese.  But it has a much more creamy and buttery texture.

Yes, I know it is considered weird and snobbish here to have several different types of cheese in the refrigerator and get genuinely excited when another variety appears in the grocery.

Today was our second trip to the grocery this week.  DH has become a fan of Jacques Pépin and needed ingredients to try a new recipe.  Yum again.

Tags: cheese variety, fol epi cheese, Jacques Pepin.

This is one of my favorite recipes, Shrimp and Andouille Sausage with Mustard Sauce - Allrecipes.

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add angel hair pasta, and
   cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until al dente. Drain, and set aside.
2. Place sausage in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir
   until evenly browned; drain. Mix in shrimp, green onions, mushrooms,
   and garlic. Cook about 1 minute, until shrimp are opaque. Remove
   mixture from skillet, and set aside.
3. Pour wine into the skillet, and scrape up browned bits. Cook until
   reduced by about 1/2. Mix in heavy cream, and continue cooking until
   reduced by about 1/3. Stir in mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Season
   with salt and pepper.
4. Return sausage mixture to the skillet, and blend into the wine mixture.
   Cook and stir until heated through. Serve over angel hair pasta.

I have tried making it without the cream.  We liked it so much in the first place, that the cream didn’t seem important.  But it is. It’s what keeps the mouth from catching fire.  Using one cup of cream works out fine, however.

Also, I like Allrecipes because it’ll make a grocery list for me.  And I’m lazy that way.  I also use a whole package of andouille because the kids have boycotted shrimp.  Stepson doesn’t eat shrimp unless it is fried.  DD doesn’t eat shrimp because of the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo.  It’s an ethical decision.

Oh, and I’m told by DH that angel hair is not manly enough pasta.  The thinnest pasta that he is willing to consume is vermicelli.  None of that fairy pasta.

Tags: andouille, angel hair pasta, favorite recipes, finding nemo, grocery list, little mermaid, shrimp, stepson.

In one of our last shares from the CSA we received radishes and arugula.  I wasn’t really sure what to do with them.  So I chopped up the radishes and threw them in a chicken salad for crunch.  And I used the arugula like lettuce.  It came out well.

Chicken Salad With Radishes and Arugula

Tags: arugula, chicken salad, crunch, csa, Radishes.

Barton and Guestier is my favorite bottler.  I pretty much like all of their wine.  I especially like the chardonnay, which is very dry and clean tasting.  I really dislike wines with a woody aftertaste, which are very popular and easy to find.  bleck.

Barton and Guestier Label

Today at the grocery store… I could not find the Barton and Guestier.  The horror.  A while ago, they did this terrible thing.  They changed the label.  The odds against me knowing the name of the bottler are astronomical in the first place. But changing the label makes my odds of finding the brand ever again somewhere near zero.

Then, the store rearranged all of the wines, rearranged the entire wine section.

I did eventually find the Barton and Guestier brand, with two different labels, one bright and colorful and the other very fancy looking.  Neither of them were chardonnay.

I am seriously bummed.  I sadly examined the Australian wines and decided no, because I’ve already tried them.  I decided against several French and Italian brands because they had only pouilly-fuisse and vouvray and pinot grigio and I wanted chardonnay.

I finally purchased some French brand called Red Bicyclette, which makes me slightly suspicious, because shouldn’t it be la bicyclette rouge?  I will ignore that and call it marketing.  I haven’t tried it yet.

Tags: barton and guestier, bottler, chardonnay, wine.

We’re still enjoying the vegetables. Though I goofed and forgot to take one vegetable this week, and shorted myself. Not good.

DD ate all of the corn on Saturday again. This time there were six cobs. But four of them were wormy, so ended up being more like halves.

We had a very pretty looking, elongated, squash that was green and white. I don’t remember the name of it. But it was good.

On the way home we listened to Vegetable Town on the Barenaked Ladies Snack Time cd. I forgive them for being Canadian.

Tags: Entertainment, food.

The corn is on a Dora placemat, because DD wanted to eat all of it. She did eat all but one half piece. Three and half ears of corn is a lot for a kid who only weighs 30 lbs!

Close-up of the corn, though it is difficult to photograph its sweetness - for me anyway.

Cherry Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

I made a tomato salad with the roma and cherry tomatoes. I have decided that I prefer it with heirloom tomatoes. We have basil too. I just left it out because I was not in a basil mood at lunch.

Here are the tomatoes and squash waiting their turn to be eaten. They look pretty don’t they?

DD is very fond the the striped squash. The variety is called Beautiful. At Halloween every year, she wants something similar for her pumpkin.

Tags: basil, cherry tomatoes, corn, halloween, heirloom tomatoes, pumpkin, squash.