A blog of musings, experiences and morning coffee…
I love coleslaw but I have always taken the “easy and fast” way out with it, buying bottled coleslaw dressing or a coleslaw “kit” in the bag. Now I am a convert – yes, it took maybe 15 minutes to make this coleslaw dressing (and yes, I purchased a 14 ounce bag of shredded green cabbage, carrot and red cabbage, so I cheated a little).
Here’s my version of this recipe – a mash-up of several I have tried but none of which ever added up to my expectations. This one pleases my taste buds enormously.
Hubby and I have been needing to reduce calories. We do not spend as much time on the treadmill as we did before he went back to work. We try to get our minimum 7500 steps – preferring to make it to 10,000 steps on our Fitbit watches. But it doesn’t always happen. After taking off 40 pounds during the Covid-19 lockdown, I did not like that in the past 6-9 months I have gained back 10 of those hard to lose/lost pounds. Continue reading “A new twist on tuna salad”
This is a recipe I concocted from about 5 different recipes, none of which appealed to me. I took one ingredient from here and one ingredient from there and, voila! my personal version of shrimp scampi. Cheap vodka is ok because the alcohol cooks off before serving. We like to be skimpy with the pasta since we are working on trimming calories for weight control (hence angel hair or thin spaghetti).
COVID-19 changed our lives, and yet, those changes were already happening. My husband and I adopted an austerity program when we returned from Lisbon in June 2019. Several reasons led us to this program – a desire to retire permanently with more travel involved was a main reason. Home improvements (including upgrading kitchen appliances & a major bathroom renovation) was another. Continue reading “Our COVID-19 lockdown: gardening-cooking-exercise, Part 1”
I just made a 16-bean soup that is perfect for a 40-degree (or colder) winter day. It is really pretty fast to make – cooking times range around 2 1/2 to 3 hours for the beans to be perfectly cooked.
16 Bean Soup ala Carlanne
Servings=10
Total time=3 Hours
For my first experiment with this soup, I used both diced and sliced dehydrated potatoes.
Backstory:
I had received a free ten pound bag of Russets in the fall of 2020. With just the two of us, that was more than we could eat before it would go to ruin. So I bought a dehydrator and got to work. The mandolin is helpful with slicing of vegetables. I made the potato slices 1/8th inch thick. The dice was roughly a quarter inch dice. In order to keep the potatoes from turning an off color, after slicing and dicing, I put them into a pot of boiling water to which I had added the juice of a half of a lemon. They stayed in the water about 4 minutes. Then, with a spyder ladle, I lifted them out and into ice water to stop the cooking. Then I drained them thoroughly and patted them dry before putting onto the shelves of the dehydrator. It takes about 6 -8 hours to dehydrate the 6 shelves of potato slices at 165 degrees Fahrenheit. I then loaded the potatoes into quart mason jars and used a Food Saver type machine with a “wide-mouth” jar device to seal the jars. Then into the pantry they went.
Continue reading “Winter warmth – cheese & bacon potato soup”
Safeway delivered 4 
huge russet potatoes a couple of days ago. They look like they are this year’s crop, at least. I decided with one I would make a soup. With another I will be making Colcannon (Irish mashed potatoes) and the other two I am going to dice up and dehydrate for the coming winter. We can’t eat four huge potatoes before they go off so drying is my go-to method for preservation (although freezing comes in second, only due to space in the freezer which is full to the brim from our summer gardening bounty). I admit I am looking forward to just cooking with all the yum-licious foods I have been preserving since last Spring. However, I am growing weary of the preservation jobs. Continue reading “Creamy Potato Soup”
When we went to Sintra, not long after our arrival in Portugal, we wandered the village, looking at the houses, homes, Airbnb and shops near the train station. I was not as on top of my game as I would have liked in order to be able to enjoy the town. But I was hungry and thirsty. We had a late start on the day as well. Continue reading “Sabot Lucky Burgers – an afternoon in Sintra”
We decided to stay in town and eat at our favorite Tapas restaurant. The festival would go on until the wee hours of Sunday morning though it would not bother us. We could hear it and feel the thump of the music in our apartment, but when we close our windows they are very tight against sound.
It is Thursday, June 6.
While it would seem that everyday we are out tasting the bits of Lisboa and Portugal in restaurants and bars, but frankly, just like at home, it gets a little old for us to constantly be out eating and drinking.
