Food Is Love

“Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.”  ~Craig Claiborne, ‘Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Primer’

Cooking is one of my joys and I certainly had a joyous time today making dinner for my parents.  In my family, sharing a home-cooked meal is an expression of our love.  I am seriously going to follow the vegan diet I mentioned at the beginning of this month, but in the meantime I have visitors that I need to feed.  Visitors who really wouldn't like all vegan meals.

So today I once again got out my crock pot and fixed a flank steak I've had in the freezer.  I followed a recipe from http://allrecipes.com that I have been wanting to make for a while.  It is called Slow Cooker London Broil and can be found here.  I made it according to the directions, but added some things mentioned in one of the reviews.  Besides the flank steak, cream of mushroom soup, tomato soup, and a package of dry onion mix, I also added an extra can of cream of mushroom soup, a half a cup of red wine, garlic powder, onion powder, and lots of fresh ground pepper.  The meat was sooo tender and the gravy delicious.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  If I become a convert to vegan eating then I will make it for guests who are not of that persuasion--it is that good! 

Is Life Just a Bowl of Cherries?

In reality it rarely is, but it was for me yesterday. We've been gorging, I mean indulging, in fresh strawberries for over a month in our household, but when I went to get some more this week from my local market they were nowhere to be found. When I spied these beautiful California Bing cherries, however, I felt more than compensated. I love the sweet, but crisp and juicy flavor of cherries and it doesn't make me feel guilty when I pop them in my mouth one after the other. Their health benefits are well-documented here and they are versatile as a cooking or baking ingredient.

In fact, I found a wonderful recipe for a Mesclun and Cherry Salad with Warm Goat Cheese online at Epicurious. I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of using the fennel bulb--no fennel available in my market that day. We had it for dinner with grilled turkey tenderloin and some brown and wild rice. Delicious!

Everything's New in the New Year

Yesterday I mentioned that I needed some extra yarn and needles (besides those for the socks I'm currently knitting) to take to Sock Knitting Club so I could learn something new. Well, the new things I learned were the magic cast-on for toe-up socks and knitting socks on 2 circular needles. It was just a beginning and I was all thumbs at first, but I think I'm going to like this method of knitting socks. Thus far, on my first pair I've been using 4 dpns and try as I might I keep getting ladders when I change from one needle to the next.

The ladders are difficult to see in this view, but, believe me, they are there!

I was inspired by my introduction to these new techniques to do some reading when I got home, so I got out a book I've had on my shelves for some time--Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. Her encouraging attitude and clear instructions made me feel like this is something I can do. I never had the confidence to actually try knitting socks before, let alone on 2 circs, but I am challenging myself to try new things in knitting and crocheting, and in life. My second pair of socks will definitely use the magic cast-on and will be done on 2 circular needles. I am so grateful to my fellow Sock Knitting Club members for their assistance and support in my quest to become a more adventurous knitter.

Speaking of new things, I have joined Ravelry and am profitting from it in so many ways. One of the groups I've joined is called READ KNIT COOK. Its description is: A book-of-the-month of sorts. Every month there's a new knitting or crochet themed book chosen to read, a knit- or crochet-along, and new recipe ideas to try! For the cooking portion this month we were offered 3 different recipes. I chose Buzzard's Breath BBQ Sauce and made it last night for dinner. Instead of processing it in a blender and canning it as the recipe calls for, I used it as is after the simmering and combined it with some cooked Anasazi Beans and left-over pork tenderloin. Cooked for about an hour in the oven at 400 degrees--delicious! My Texas-born husband loved the bite of the habanero pepper in the sauce and yet it wasn't too hot for me.