How to eat your emotions?

I recently had the opportunity to have a weekend away from home, without my son, and visited a friend.  While my friend had a bit of a heavy load on her plate at this time, we were able to enjoy each other's company and eat and drink our way through our emotions.  How did we do this?  With great enthusiasm!

It started with a decedant dinner of steak & lobster served along side cesar salad with fresh homemade dressing.  A joint effort we started by naming our lobsters: Jose, Ferdinand and my specialty, Dinner!  You would think that by naming your food you might be less inclined to eat it, you would think wrong around us gals.  We gave our lobsters a salt water "hot tub" and started on the steaks.  Start with some seasonings, add a little olive oil, sear in the flavour and transfer to the broiler to finish and top with some crumbled Borsin.  My friend shared her "secret" recipe for cesar salad dressing and before you know it we were sipping our Francis Coppola Claret and digging in to our feast!  If there were room for dessert we would have had more lobster but instead we moved on to un-buttoning our top buttons and having some more wine.

The source of the inspiration: Canadian Living magazine.  The cover had the token how to loose weight article overtop of the decedant dessert that would make you break that diet in a heartbeat.  So instead of feeling bad we started making the angel food cake and fresh lemon curd.  Great effort on our part and quite a success!  The bowls were licked to an almost immaculate state and the aroma of the cake filled the house.  We almost didn't wait until the next day to endulge.  I must say that by this time we were feeling relaxed and there were smiles all around. 

We started the day off right with coffee and Bailey's.  Who says you have to wait until later in the day to start drinking?  Taking our lead from a country song, the motto for the day was "it's 5 o'clock somewhere".  Breakfast was searved and eggs benny with homemade hollandaise sauce was served, back bacon and all!  I don't there is anything else you can say except, YUMMY! 

Next steps after feeling only slightly guilty at the indulgence of the last couple of meals, was a brisk walk to the the local grocery and liquor stores.  We did after all have to prepare for this evenings dinner and, we had a hankering for beer.  Absorbing the sunshine and vitamin D we smiled all the way back home.   Lunch was quick and simple with Mac N Cheese and fake Mac N Cheese (for those of us allergic to yellow #5).  Beer in hand we prepared the mascarpone whipped cream for the cake and the layers were formed.  Tea time followed behind beer time very closely and before we knew it we had a replica of Canadian Livings temptation in our bellies.  I would say that we were ready for our next meal but, who am I kidding we needed to digest and it was definitely nap time. 

As a special treat I was on dinner duty and made one of my family specialties "Arroz con Pollo" or for those of you who are not fluent in Spanish "chicken rice".  As no two women in my family make it exactly the same mine is a combination of my mom's and grandma's with my very own flare.  Post nap time rice was accompanied by our need for a vegetable in the form of more cesar salad and, the traditional accompanyment of potato chips.  Pour me another glass and dinner was complete.

If you thought we were done, you would have been wrong.  We continued our evening with a an informal wine and cheese.  Nothing says a good evening like Genoa salami and Camambert cheese.  By the time we were ready to turn in I think we have successfully eaten our way through, happy, sad, silly, melancholy, funny, and too many more emotions to count.  It was a weekend spent with old friends and new friends alike,  enjoying each other's company, great food and terrific wine!  Shouldn't all weekends be like this?

oops I forgot it's 8:30pm and I need to bake a cake for tomorrow

Yes, the Queen of planning sometimes gets lost in the calamity that is life.  That and since my 3 year old woke up from his late nap, he has been joined to me at the hip.  Looking at the clock at 8:30pm I realized oops I forgot, it's 8:30pm and I need to bake a cake for tomorrow.  What to do?  Not a problem, dig out my trusty new bundt pan and grandma's chocolate cake recipe and hop to it.  Flour and cocoa sifted, coffee brewed and all ingredients combined and in my oven by 8:48pm.  New record for me, as in between I was updating this blog!  With the right weapons in your arsenal (bundt pan, and a full pantry) preparing a cake in 18 mins is a snap. I dare you to try!

Latte anyone?

For years I have been longing for an espresso machine that would keep me in the caffeine high I am accustomed to without the high prices of "Starsbucks" as my 3 year old calls it.  To make an investment of this amount it took some debate and heaving consideration.  The math was done and when I found a machine that was refurbished at $400 less it weighed it seemed to tip the scales in my favour.  What to do next???  Select my coffee of course.  Having my roots originating in Costa Rica there was no doubt where I would be getting my espresso beans from; Cafe Britt!  The coffee arrived in a few short days and well before I had a chance to go purchase the machine, was this the order I should be doing things in? No worries too late now...  I finally got over the delightful (insert sarcasm here) upper respiratory infection and was able to pick up my machine.  Lucky for me there was one left with my name on it!  The math said that if we made 2 lattes a day for 11 weeks instead of going to a cafe it would pay for itself in savings.  Now how fast do you think it would pay for itself if we upped that amount to 4-6 per day????  It's hard not to have more than one when the espresso is smooth and not bitter and the milk is heated to the right temp and the foam is plenty.  I even went as far as to pick up all my favorite syrups and sprinkles.  It makes getting up a little easier, even when you've only had a few hours sleep.  Best part; the commute is no existent and pj's are acceptable attire.  Second cup?  Of course!

Beef & Barley Stew

As the weather changes it's time to spruce up those dreary winter days.  A great way to do this is a warm and hearty stew.  Not just any stew, a beef & barley stew with red wine!  Since I posted this photo I have already had the recipe request a couple of times so here it goes....

Ingredients:
1 kg stewing beef, cubed, rinsed and pat dried
1 bottle of a hearty red wine (I used a Chilean Cab Sav)
Chopped or dehydrated garlic
2/3 cup Pearl onions
3 Carrots
1 Red pepper
1 small sweet potatoe, peeled
9 nugget yellow flesh potatoes
1 can sliced mushrooms
1 can diced tomatoes or 1 cup grated fresh tomatoes
2 TBSP Italian Seasoning (basil, oregano, marjoram, rosemary)
1/2 cup barley (pearl or pot barley both work fine)
Stock or water
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F
In a dutch oven or other oven proof pot with a lid brown beef with 2 tbsp vegetable oil, salt and pepper.  Once brown add wine and stir to deglaze pan.  Continue cooking at med/high until 1/2 of the wine boils off. 
Chop veggies into similar sizes, if the nugget potatoes are small and tender no need to peel.  You can substitute regular potatoes but those should be peeled.  Add all veggies & barley and stir to coat.  Add seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.  Add enough stock or water to come up to the 3/4 full mark on your pot.  Cover and put in the oven for 45 mins.  Check occasionally to ensure there is enough liquid and add stock or water as needed. 

Serve with a crusty Italian bun or loaf and watch the dreariness disappear!