Thinking Thin

After a couple of months of celebration I find myself in the position of once again beating myself up for overindulging in food and drink.

Last year I went on a pretty good diet....by pretty good I mean I not only went on a diet for more than a week, I stayed pretty true for closer to 5 months. AND I joined a gym. AND I actually went to the gym. More than once a week.

OMG...what they say is true...diet + exercise actually work. Who knew?

And I lost weight, more than I have ever lost before in any stretch of time. Which is good because quite frankly I have more weight on me than I ever have in my life. Not a good feeling just to look in the mirror and not love what you see, but also not good to have your doctor threaten you with medication of you don't get your blood pressure/sugar under control.

So I made the change in my life and found that it did make a difference, the weight came off little by little, my clothes started bagging on my butt and I felt better about myself not only for the loss of the weight, but for the thought that kept rolling around in my head. "Holy crap, I CAN do this!"

And then the holidays came. I know this is a piss poor excuse, but I am using it and will probably use it in years ahead. The days are shorter and I felt less and less like skipping off to the gym with a big bottle of water and more like hunkering down on the couch in my cozy living room with a glass of wine and something that falls in the category of comfort food.

Every day I kicked myself for it knowing I was going to gain weight back and have to work harder to get back where I was at. And yet, I did nothing about it.

Until now. :)

Like most Americans at the beginning of the New Year I tend to set goals for myself that include diet, exercise and depriving myself of tasty adult beverages for a period of time. Most often I do 2 out of three as it tends to be a bit much for me. I don't really want to turn in to a cranky brat and my friends thank me for this. :)

I didn't gain as much as I thought I had, but it is just enought to piss me off and make me want to get rid of it and more ASAP. I am not sure how much fun my food blog will be this month since I am probably going to be eating a LOT of salad, but I will try to bring something fun to the table.

Tonight I made an old favorite of my family's out of LOTS of veggies leftover tri tip from last nights dinner. Very good diet food as it is heavy on the veggies, light on the meat and little or no carbs. Think Chinese omelet with savory gravy. It makes for a good breakfast too which is good because this recipe makes quite a bit! Note the positive words scattered throughout the recipe. :)

Egg Foo Yung

1 cup Bean Sprouts (Good DIET veggie!)

2 SKINNY Carrots, peeled and grated
2 Green Onions, chopped SMALL

1 Celery Stalk, sliced THIN (another good DIET veggie!)

1 can drained Straw Mushrooms, chopped in to SMALL pieces

1 1/2 cup Tri Tip, sliced THIN & chopped in to SMALL pieces

You can also use chicken, pork or shrimp...I tend to use whatever meat I have in the fridge that is healthy & seasoned well.

7 Eggs (preferably from HEALTHY chickens)

Beat and season with...
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix all together and pan fry in a non stick skillet, if needed, use Pan or nonstick spray. Should make about 8- 5" cakes.

I like to use a small omelet pan to help keep the shape so the egg doesn't leak everywhere.

LIGHT Gravy
1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth
1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
2 T Soy Sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne

Thicken with 3 T water and 3 T flour

Serve hot with gravy and keep thinking THIN!!

Fresh starts

So maybe mixing tequila shots with wine wasn't the best idea.....but it sure was fun at the time!

We spent New Years Eve at a friends house on the hill, celebrating with a fantastic group of people, eating delicious munchies, imbibing all manner of delicious adult beverages and were dropped off at our front door by the limo provided by our gracious hosts. Plus I got to kiss my sweetie at midnight and slow dance with him under the stars and a full moon. Not a bad way to end what was really kind of a crummy year overall.

I awoke today to the tune of the ten little drummers making an album inside my head and welcomed the first day of 2010 with a bottle of water and 2 Excedrin.

And a craving for something tasty. Donuts maybe? Something with bacon perhaps? Something that was easy, that is for sure.....My brain can't handle much more just yet.

mmmmmmm.....coffee cake.

I think it cures what ails ya because I felt better before it was even out of the oven :)

Quick Coffee Cake
1/ 2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Streusel
2 T flour
2 T butter
5 T brown sugar

Blend dry ingredients and cream in the butter until smooth. Add sugar, egg, milk & vanilla and pour in to a greases 9x9 pan.

Blend the streusel ingredients together and sprinkle over the cake batter evenly.

Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Eat it hot, right out of the pan. Soooooo goooood!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

A bit of Summer in the heart of Winter

Sometime in the latter part of summer when the last of the heirloom tomatoes were giving themselves to us one at a time so stubbornly (did anyone else have a bad tomato year?) I came across a few plants on the first tier of my Dad's ranch that were overflowing with golf ball sized cherry tomatoes. They didn't have the sweet tart "pop" of the sweet 100's that we prefer for salads and eating raw, but were more mild and filled to bursting with seeds and juice.

Never one to waste something like this, I set out to fill two 5 gallon buckets and a large bowl with these little gems and tried to figure out how I could somehow easily preserve them so that somehow I could have fresh tomatoes somewhere down the line when the farmers market doesn't yield them and the supermarket tomatoes are tasteless fleshy blobs.

So I stemmed them and soaked them. Triple washed them and went through them to get rid of any blemished, squishy or not quite ripe ones. Sorted out the bugs and picked off the last of the tops and proceeded to cook them down, batch by batch.

And there were a LOT of batches.

Then I strained out the seeds from a couple of batches.

But there were a LOT of seeds!

So I got a little lazy and cooked them down a bit and mom helped me pack them up in 1 quart Ziploc bags that we froze and split between us. In reality, she actually packed them up because by the time they were cool, I was in my bed a few miles down the road.

Since then I have used a bag or two for spaghetti sauce, but tonight decided that I wanted something so comforting that I think every American child has it imprinted on their brain as one of the top 10 comfort foods of all time.

Tomato Soup served with......

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches! (you knew that was coming!)

Currently suffering from a head cold, allergies and an earache I decided about mid day that this was exactly what my inner child was crying for.

So here I am in my kitchen enjoying a few of my Christmas presents and making a nice batch of Tomato Bisque to go with grilled cheese sammiches. :)

New bamboo cutting board made by my sweetie....that gets stored so nicely in it's custom made rack. How awesome is he? If you are in the market, I can put in a good word to Santa or St. Valentine or the birthday fairy.


Shiny red Dutch oven with which to make all kinds of delicious meals. Isn't it nice that we are so color coordinated for our maiden voyage in the Dutch oven???



Fuzzy red Mary Jane slippers with sparkles to slog around on my cold tile floors (they had to match the Dutch oven, ya know?) . You know you think they are sexy....

And a new laptop with which to type my blog from right in my kitchen instead of schlepping my lazy ass upstairs to type on the old desktop. :)

Christmas was unexpectedly great, this year in general was pretty awesome. Hope yours was just as blessed.

Tomato Bisque

1 quart tomatoes in juice-you can use canned if you have to!
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled & diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, diced
1 bay leaf
1 T sugar

Bring all ingredients above to a simmer in a soup pot for about an hour or until carrots are tender. Strain through a sieve remove bay leaf and smash as much of the vegetable through as you can. Return to soup pot.

2 T butter
2 T flour

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour, stir and cook for just a few minutes. Add to soup pot and whisk over low heat until incorporated and the soup starts to thicken a bit.

1 C Milk (whole milk or cream, no low fat stuff as it will curdle)

Scald milk and add to the soup. Season with S&P as needed.

If you are looking to step outside the box, you can flavor this with any number of herbs or spices including the traditional Italian basil, oregano and rosemary. You can garnish with croutons or lump crab meat, swirl in a little creme freche for ultra decadent soup.

Or you can serve it as is with a buttery toasted grilled sourdough Swiss and cheddar filled sandwich that is cut in to triangles and call it a day.

Guess what I did?

Best. Meatloaf. Ever.

Or so I am told.


By everyone I make it for.


I happen to think so as well. (visualize me tooting my own horn. Toot toot!!)

Passed down to me by my Mom and to her from my Nana, I am unsure of it's exact origins, but if you google "Sicilian meatloaf" you are bound to come up with something very close. Seasoned very simply, with the addition of a little V-8 juice, it is flattened and rolled around ham and Mozzarella. Over the years we have made one minor update in substituting prosciutto for the original deli ham that was called for.

It freezes and travels raw and ready to be cooked beautifully and I have brought it on many a camping trip only to be hailed as the goddess of the kitchen, a title I think is pretty well deserved. It also makes for the BEST meatloaf sandwich the next day. And the next day. And the next if you still have leftovers.

In making it tonight I came across one glitch in my planning. After searching the pantry I found I had no bread crumbs. Gasp! What's a girl to do???

Crush up some fat free herb seasoned bread crumbs and voila! I am a genius sometimes.

Sicilian Meatloaf

2# Lean Ground Beef
2 Eggs
1/2 C V-8
3/3 C Bread Crumbs (or crushed croutons!!!!)
2 T Parsley
1 T Oregano
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 Clove of Garlic, minced (or 1 tsp Garlic Powder)
6 slices of Prosciutto
1 1/2 C Shredded Mozzarella

Mix all ingredients except Prosciutto & Mozzarella in a bowl. Turn out on a large piece of waxed paper or parchment paper. Shape in to a rectangle as shown....

Lay down Prosciutto and sprinkle mozzarella over the meat, leave one edge clean to seal the loaf

Roll up into a nice fat roll, keep seam side down and pinch the ends so the Mozzarella does not leak out during cooking (waste cheese??? I think not!)

Bake at 350 for about an hour + 15 minutes. The interior should be about 150-160. Take it out and let it rest.

Slice and serve with awesome gravy. Mashed potatoes are a natural side dish, so go ahead and indulge. :)

The gravy is best made with...you guessed it! Homemade beef stock!

Heat 3 T of oil or bacon fat (Pork fat rules!) and add 3 T of flour, cook for about 5 minutes until it starts to brown a bit. Add in 2 Cups of stock, whisking the whole time to break up the lumps. Cook until thickened and add 1/2 cup of V-8. Season to taste. If it is not thick enough, add some more flour to your V-8 before adding it in and it should thicken up.

If you are in the desert on New Years Eve or camping somewhere where beef stock is not a viable option and not lucky enough to have my friend Jamie's kitchen supplies, packaged gravy does quite well, just don't forget to add the V-8, about 2 packages of gravy to 1/2 cup V-8. :)

They call me Toffee Claus

I had a bright spark of inspiration a few nights ago and it led me on the path to another whirlwind day in the kitchen. Knowing that I might get goodies from friends for the holidays and taking heart to Brock's statement of "We need a tradition" I decided to spend the day making confections to hand out to a few of our family members and close friends.

I scoured my fridge & pantry to see what I had on hand, what I would have to buy and also took inventory of items that I could use up in alternate recipes.

Inspiration number one....My Mom's Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook 1953

Gooey caramel candy with just a little bit of sea salt (my updated addition) and crunchy butter toffee studded with various nuts.

Inspiration number two....the Ziploc bag of candied orange peel leftover from another baking day.

Almond Florentines with Candied Cherries & Orange Peel with a Smear of Dark Chocolate

Inspiration number three....a personal craving for more salty sweet stuff led me to find a recipe for pulled Salt Water Taffy.

After a quick trip to the market and a stop at the .99 cent store for packaging and I was set to go!

Round 1 was Pecan Toffee....perfection in itself!

Round 2 was batch one of the Caramel....too hot to taste, but it looked pretty damn good!

Round 3 was Almond Toffee....again, perfection!

Round 4 was batch two of the caramel...might have overcooked this one, gotta wait for it to set and find out.

Quick break to drop a sample of toffee for my friends at Ventura Rentals and to go visit my BFF who was having her own cookie day with her mama & sister in law....mmmmm....puppy chow and peanut butter kiss cookies!!

Back in the ring for....

Round 5 was a go at the Salt Water Taffy....Looked right, smelled good, colored pretty. But then I started pulling it, and pulling it, and pulling it....and then like some cartoon strong woman, I pulled so hard that it snapped! And I had pink, peppermint flavored rock candy scattered all over my kitchen floor. Arg.


It wasn't even good to eat, hard enough to break in pieces, but too chewy to eat without fear of losing multiple fillings. Toss in the trash and move on!

Quick check on the caramels revealed batch one as perfect as hoped and batch two overcooked and solidified in to a very pretty caramel colored tile. I guess I could give it to Brock for skeet shooting?

I was 3 and 2 at this point and not feeling as confident as I had earlier in the day.

Round 6 was the Almond Florentines, so lacy & pretty just begging for a coat of chocolate on the flat side!



Round 7 was another batch of caramel, I was NOT going to let it get to me!!! Crossing fingers all the same.

Got my groove on....it was perfect!

Round 8 was Cashew Toffee....damn I am getting GOOD at this toffee stuff!!!!

Round 9 was Pistachio Toffee at the request of my darling who's only complaint was that I didn't make enough. Gotta love that complaint. :)

Round 10 was all about packaging. Cutting the caramels in to 1" squares and then cutting the waxed paper to fit and THEN actually wrapping the little guys. Breaking the toffee in to reasonable sized pieces, counting the cookies to figure out how many everyone got....Then bag, bow, ribbon, ornament & tag.

Somewhere in between rounds 7 and 9 I browned some Italian Sausage and heated up some spaghetti sauce from the freezer for dinner too. Is it any wonder I was conked out on the couch shortly after I inhaled my dinner?

I love my new tradition and am looking forward to expanding it next year!

Crunchy Butter Toffee

1 C Sugar
1/4 C Water
1 Stick Butter
1/2 tsp salt

Cook all ingredients over medium high heat until it hits 285 (hard crack) and is a golden caramel color. Remove from heat immediately and stir in 1/2 cup of whatever chopped (salted or unsalted) nuts you have on hand.

Pour in to a very well buttered glass pan or on to buttered marble and let cool. Lift and break in to pieces.

You can also drizzle or smear with chocolate if you are so inclined!

Then if you are lucky like me you make puppy eyes at your boyfriend who will cheerfully deliver it to your loved ones since you have to work the next day.

What are you thankful for????

So many things, so let me get started!

My family is fairly set in its traditions for Thanksgiving. My moms side of the family shows up the night before or around noon, the football game is on and at approximately 1:00 ish we decide that it is damn near 5:00 in some part of the world.

A bottle of bubbles gets popped and the girls toast to our family and the fact that we are here together and lift our eyes to the sky, raising a glass to my Nana who left us some years ago, but is with us at every family gathering.

I am thankful to have spent as much quality time as I could with my Nana before she passed.

The boys then gather around the counter where we have vodka, Clamato, Tabasco, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, Magi seasoning, horseradish, fresh lemons, olives & celery and proceed to make Bloody Mary's in various degrees of preference....extra salty and no vodka for Bapa, no olives for Uncle Jay, tons of horseradish for Brock....you get the point!

I am thankful that my Bapa is with us on every holiday and is as sassy as they day is long. And that he passed on his personality and twinkling eyes to my Uncles Jay & Brian.

In anticipation of a fabulous and very hefty meal, we limit our consumption of appetizers to cheese & crackers, venison sausage from Dad's latest hunting foray and last, but in no way the least as there are usually several bags.....of Puffy Cheetos.

The McKaye branch of the fam just can't have a gathering without these, no person is immune and we are not afraid to fight for the last one. Orange fingertip are a badge of honor and woe to the man (or woman) who brings the crunchy variety instead of the puffy.


I am thankful to whoever the genius is that invented Cheetos, but wish that my Uncles would bring a crispy bag once and a while for mom & me. I am also thankful for my Dad and Brock who know how to bring home the "bacon" or elk or deer for us to snack on!

For dinner this year, Mom opted to try something a little different for our main course and the centerpiece of the meal...instead of doing a brined and baked turkey, she ordered a specialty from cajungrocer.com.

Meet the Tur-duc-hen!

Partially boned out turkey (wings & legs intact), stuffed with a boned out duck, stuffed with a boned out chicken, stuffed with Cajun sausage. Sounds insanely good, right? There isn't anything in there that none of us like, and yet....

It was kind of boring. It lost a lot of liquid and didn't have much flavor in that you could not tell one meat from the other once you cut it up. Plus, there were no good drippings in which to make gravy, so that kind of sucked and we had to fake it. And fake gravy is really not the best kind, Next year we go back to brining the turkey, stuffing butter & herbs under its skin, roasting it and fighting over crispy morsels of turkey skin while waiting for it to be carved.

I am thankful for turkey skin...or duck skin...or chicken skin...as long as it is seasoned and crispy I am thankful. Trying to fit in to my pants afterwards is another story...

The sides, however, are a whole different ballgame!

Butternut squash with sage & brown butter, mashed potatoes (no fanciness here, just good old fluffy taters with butter & milk), Parmesan & Swiss chard stuffing, green beans with a mustard lemon vinaigrette & almonds, cranberry & fig sauce with port and from my friend Sarah, a jar of cranberry apple sauce.

Nothing ostentatious or over the top, just good food, prepared well and enjoyed completely.








I am thankful for my mom who I love to cook with and for friends who cook their tasty recipes and are good enough to share with me.

Dessert was brown sugar pecan cupcakes stuffed with pumpkin custard & frosted with caramel butter cream. My mouth waters just thinking about the butter cream because it is not only caramel which I will go for over chocolate any day, but it is also salty caramel....I can't come up with the words to tell you how good the butter cream is, you just have to hope I make it for you because I can't share this one!


Included in this issue is the Cranberry Fig Relish recipe....Ever since I "inherited" a cranberry sauce recipe from my friend Mandy's mom, I have had way too much fun experimenting on different ways to make that plain old jellied stuff in a can in to something amazing.

I am thankful for my friends....the ones who have contributed in the present or past, been a guest at our table for and the ones who I see rarely, but think of often.
Cranberry & Port Relish with Dried Figs

1-2/3 C Ruby Port
1/4 C Balsamic vinegar
1/4 C (packed) Golden Brown Sugar
8 Dried Black Mission Figs, Stemmed & Chopped
1-6" Long Sprig Fresh Rosemary
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1-12oz Bag Fresh Cranberries
3/4 C Sugar

Combine first 6 ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the rosemary and add in the cranberries and remaining sugar. Stir over low heat until cranberries have burst and the sauce thickens. Chill until it is time to serve.

I am thankful that I can write this and know that at least a few of you will appreciate it and hopefully try out one of my recipes.

XXOO
Happy Holidays!

Lunch with a friend

Once or twice a month, when the stars are in alignment and the goddess smiles upon us, my best friend Clover and I have the same day off together with no other commitments. This may sound far fetched and exaggerated, but it is altogether and sadly true. Between both of us working in hotels (where weekends are really the middle of our week), her holding another job, family commitments and other random things that keep us busy, we get to hang out fairly often, but it is rare to have a whole day of BFF time where it is just us.

If you have a BFF, and I hope you do, you recognize the value of this as worth it's weight in gold. No interruptions (except that one client who has my cell phone number of course), no time constraints, no agenda and no pressure. I am extremely blessed to have a few of these from various points in my life, from elementary school, high school, college and of course my mom, who I can hardly go a day without talking to.

As it draws near to my favorite holiday of the year, I just want to give thanks to my friends. You are what makes my life awesome and complete.

As Clover and I realized that we had all the time in the world, we decided to get out of our sweet little town and head up the coast to Santa Barbara where a flash of inspiration on a roadside sign led us to the Santa Barbara Zoo. On a mid week day it is about the most relaxing place to meander around and just talk and look at all the cool creatures. Small enough to make the circuit in about 2 hours and still have plenty of time for wine and lunch before going home.

We saw the gibbon eating

And we saw the penguins eating....

And we saw the gorilla eating....

I know you aren't supposed to stare, but I don't think a camera counts, right? Besides the grass is the most appetizing thing this guy was eating!

And then we saw the giraffe eating..... we have no clue WHAT it was eating.


After a full circuit of the zoo decided to get our own sustenance as we had worked up a powerful hunger in our travels.

We drove to the Santa Barbara Pier and parked on it just like a good tourist does.

Found a hidden wine bar on the second floor of the shops at the end of the pier....wine tasted with a sweet young man who had a hefty pouring hand.

Meandered over to Moby Dick's for a little lunch, which was not so memorable. But who cares when you have your BFF, a view of the harbor and ocean, a glass of wine in hand and a beautiful day with the sun shining on you.

After much good conversation we proceeded home and guess what we did????

Naps are just awesome!

Even when the lunch is kind of forgettable, lunch with a friend is really about the person you had lunch with and in my case, they are unforgettable.

Thank you for being my friends, when can we do lunch????