Category: Food

The Healing Power of Texas Tamales

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

Thanksgiving 2007 is now a wonderful memory.  However, at the time my daughter was struggling with life a bit, something she rarely does.  As a single mom she was attending law school and had moved many miles and hours away from her support system.  Law school is grueling at best but for just that moment in time, I think she was trying to stay afloat and hanging on by a thread.

She was home for Thanksgiving and the kitchen was alive with the sound of laughter, spoons scraping pans and stories of past escapades.  My children had taken over my kitchen and I was standing outside the door, loving the scene in front of me.

Kat had asked for tamales to round out our normal Thanksgiving fare and we had not been able to find any.  Although tamales are a staple over the holidays in much of Texas, we had waited too late to order them.Texas Tamales

My son, Rich proclaimed we would just make our own tamales.  In our family, we tend to think we can tackle anything, even though none of us had ever attempted to make homemade tamales.  So after a trip to the grocery store we were ready to get started.  The plan was to get things ready the night before Thanksgiving and then assemble them on Thanksgiving Day.  Making tamales is a lot of work! While we didn’t follow a recipe for making the tamales, we did look up how long they should be cooked.

Up at 6:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning, we set up an assembly line.  Richie made all the fillings and was in charge of preparing the husks and spreading them with masa.  The rest of us assisted with the actual assembly.  We made traditional pork tamales for the kids and black bean for me.

We had a wonderful time stirring, mixing, rolling and wrapping tamales, but most of all, we laughed and talked and made unforgettable memories.  All because a sister wanted tamales and a brother was determined she would have them.   We haven’t had a Thanksgiving without tamales since that year.

We skipped the Black Friday sales and opted for family time all weekend.   That is a tradition, I hope we can continue always and forever.

Memories of A Middle Child

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Writing4 Comments

Growing up in a family of 5 children is lovely and maddening.  As family position goes, I am right in the middle. To my older sister and brother, I was the baby.  To my two younger sisters, I was one of the big kids.  Honestly I was probably more the baby since we three older siblings were so close in age.  My oldest sister was born on July 6th, 18 months later in January my brother was born.  Queue forward to July 6th 18 months after my brother was born; I was born.  Yes I was born on my sister’s third birthday.  How I love to remind her, I am wonderful gift!

Whichever I am, one of the oldest or the baby, I was very shy and terribly dependent on my mother when I was young.  So when my grandparents invited me to spend a week with them in Rush Springs, OK, no one thought I would go.  Especially not my mother, who assured me no one, would be able to come pick me up before the next weekend.

Hello world!
Hello world!

But I did go and I had the time of my young life.  For just one week, I went from being the middle child with four siblings to becoming an only child.  For one entire week, I had my grandparents completely to myself and was allowed to wander around the farm on my own.  I named each chicken and watched them pecking the ground for hours.  I climbed the apple tree and I talked to my grandparents.  I felt like a princess.

My two favorite memories of the week were the weekly trip to the grocery store and my grandmother making lemon pudding.

The grocery store was unlike any grocery store you would find today.  It was a small locally owned store crowded with shelves of canned goods, dry goods and fresh produce.  But my most vivid memory was the “drawing”.  We had been wandering the narrow aisles, mostly window shopping, but a few things made their way into the cart.

Suddenly, it got quiet in the store and Mr. Teal, the grocery store owner called out, “Who wants a ticket.  One dollar for a chance at this week’s basket of groceries.”  A current of excitement moved through the crowd.  Understanding my grandparents were extremely conservative with their money, I was shocked when my grandfather was one of the first people to pay a dollar for a ticket.

What a wondrous thing it was.  It was my first experience with the pure joy of chance and anticipation.  For only a dollar, there was a chance to take all those groceries home for free.  Mr. Teal drew numbers from a cup and called a few numbers.  I watched my grandfather’s face.  With the complete faith of youth, I waited for him to go collect the groceries.  Of course our number wasn’t drawn and we left without the groceries.

Even though I was disappointed when we didn’t win, I remember vividly, how I felt waiting with my grandparents for the “drawing.”  It still makes me smile.

My other favorite memory was of my grandmother making a lemon pudding in the large country kitchen.  She stirred fresh milk into a sugary mixture in a pot on the stove-top.  She was making a pudding and I asked if she was making a banana pudding.  My mother often made wonderful banana pudding with vanilla wafers.  She said she was making a lemon pudding and we were going to put lemon cookies on top!  Then she explained she always put sugar cookies on vanilla pudding and lemon cookies on lemon pudding!  I have no idea why that was so remarkable to me but I always thought it was extremely creative!

There were so many good memories from than that week but these two memories transport me back to my grandparents farm and a wonderful week with two of my favorite people.

Good Friends and Fresh Vegetables

On By DGThomaIn Food, Friends, Writing2 Comments

I participate in our local Farm to Work, a program of the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, TX.  As defined on their website, Farm to Work is an employee wellness and Farm Direct marketing program that delivers farm-fresh, locally grown produce right to employees at partner worksites.Fresh Vegetables

Every two weeks on Monday, we receive an email reminding us it’s time to order our produce.  Last week, my email was delivered, but my reminder notification didn’t display.  At 7:00 PM I was leaving the office for the day and remembered it was the week I needed to place my order.

Frantically searching I found my email and immediately realized I was too late.  The stated deadline to order was 5:00 PM.

Not willing to give up quite so easily, I replied to the email with a message asking if it was too late to order and included the explanation of how I missed the deadline.  I’m sure the order email is only monitored for payments and orders, so I received no response.

On Wednesday when the produce was delivered to our office building, I was feeling sad to have missed my vegetable delivery.  My sweet friend Nena stopped by my office.  She often has to remind me it’s time to pick up the order, so she asked me if I had picked up my vegetables.  Of course I had to share the whole story of how and why I missed the deadline.

Smiling she said, “I’ll share. I have extra.”  Responding that it was okay,  I explained I was going out-of-town and it was probably better that I hadn’t placed my order.

“No”, she explained, “I really have extras.  I was the last one to pick up and they gave me extra produce.   I told them I would share.”    Feeling blessed, I said, “Okay, I’ll take a bell pepper and maybe one zucchini.”

She sat her bag of vegetables on my desk and pulled out a zucchini and a pepper.  But then asked, “Do you like potatoes?”  When I replied yes, potatoes were added to my pile of veggies.  At this point the pile was getting large enough to require a bag to carry it.  As I searched for a bag, she added peaches, okra and a butternut squash.

I have to clarify.  When Nena said she got extra veggies, she actually picked up a few extra pieces of produce but not more of everything.

At this point, I have as many vegetables as she does if not more.  Honestly, it was like the biblical story of thee fishes and the loaves multiplying.

Although she did pick up a few extra vegetables, in truth she is really a dear friend who decided to share her vegetables with an absent-minded, forgetful friend who forgot to order timely.   Good friends and vegetables what a lovely way to brighten a day.

Pinot’s Palette – Painting and so much more!

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

I’ve wanted to try one of those instructor led classes where you paint a picture in a couple of hours that is advertised as something “you aren’t embarrassed to hang on your wall”.  I just haven’t made the effort to find out more information.

Thankfully, it wasn’t left up to me to follow through.  My granddaughter, Jillian recently surprised me with registration to a class at Pinot’s Palette .  She registered us for a class to paint a picture called “Rain Kisses”.  I was completely on board for the class but I assured her, my picture wouldn’t look anything like the example in the email.

All I had to do was make flight arrangements and pack a bag.  It was lovely that she made the effort to plan a weekend together for just the two of us.  Jillian picked me up at the airport and after a wonderful lunch, we headed to the store to pick up snacks for our class.  Our beverage of choice was sparkling water.  They do offer a stocked bar, but we are too young for alcohol.  Okay, at least Jillian is too young.   We made it to the class and were immediately greeted by lively music and a smiling hostess/artist.  We were directed to our seats where our names had been written in chalk by our canvases.   Our paints were already out and a canvas sat on an easel waiting for our creativity to complete it.  Jillian and I discussed grabbing our snacks early on, but I suggested we wait until half-time.  Jillian indulgently explained it’s a painting class, there is no half-time.

The instructor was wonderful and did a great job guiding us through the process.  Our first step was to paint the entire canvas gray.  I believe I excelled at this point.

In the Beginning

We laughed and joked and had an amazing time.  There were two young ladies sitting beside us discussing the female figure and how one of her legs was raised as she kissed her guy under the umbrella.  One of them said, who was it that started that leg thing?  Wasn’t it in Princess Diaries?  I smiled and said, “Actually, I believe it was Doris Day.”  The girl smiled tolerantly and said, “Well yes, but we were talking about the 90’s.”  I’m thinking she had never heard of Doris Day.  Jillian on the other hand smiled and nodded her agreement.  I should add that her favorite animation at around the age of three was Betty Boop!

The instructors are actual artists.  They lead you through the process step by step and while it isn’t without a bit of effort and maybe some skill, it was much easier than I anticipated.

Since we were going to be out late, (after 10:00 PM) I suggested to Jillian we go for breakfast instead of a late dinner.  We chose the  Village Inn for our late night breakfast of omelets, waffles, chocolate chip pancakes and hash browns.  It was delicious and we had leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

As we ate and discussed our mutual pictures, I pointed out that Jillian had painted a much better “booty” for her guy than I had.  Laughing at/with me, she informed me I was a “hoot!”

20141016_212417

Friday was spent running errands and getting ready for a garage sale on Saturday. After purchasing a new shelving unit we spent several hours working on putting it together.  Normally I’m pretty good at assembling modular furniture but this shelf was becoming quite a challenge.  Maybe I was tired but I put the top piece on backwards and had to start over about halfway through the assembly.  Finally I was ready to put the doors on only to discover the bottom was backwards, so maybe the sides were the actual problem, but we took it back apart and started over again.  By now our hands were sore from the screwdriver and we couldn’t get the small screws to the doors to turn.  Giving up temporarily we went to bed leaving the shelf to be tackled another day.

Early Saturday morning we went to my daughter’s to start the garage sale.  It was a beautiful day for a sale and while we didn’t have a landslide of customers, we had a wonderful morning together and a freshly organized and cleaned garage!  We also met some lovely people.

Saturday night was shelving unit round two.  After a nice dinner with my son-in-law and daughter, Jillian and I went shopping for an electric screwdriver.  What we came away with was a nice soft handled manual version with various sized ends.  It is absolutely amazing what a night’s rest, good food and the right tool can accomplish.  Jillian and Nana 1, shelving unit 0!  It went together like peanut butter and jelly.

Blue 2

The weekend flew by and Sunday morning arrived way too soon.  I am amazed at how much Jillian has grown up and what a caring responsible young lady she has become.  I was encouraged that she is still my sweet little girl.  She drove me to the airport in her sleep shirt and fuzzy Minnie Mouse sleep pants with the sound of Boston’s Greatest Hits playing in the background.

20141019_090402

Spaghetti Squash – the Fun Vegetable

On By DGThomaIn Food, WritingLeave a comment

“Spaghetti squash is a slightly oblong variety of winter squash.  When raw, the flesh is solid and similar to other raw squash; when cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like spaghetti.”

Spaghetti squash defined courtesy of Wikipedia.  It’s the “strands like spaghetti”  that make it fun!

The first time I was introduced to spaghetti squash was about 30 years ago.  My dad, who loves to garden, was intrigued enough by the concept to pick up some seeds and plant them alongside his zucchini.  Like most things my dad grows, the spaghetti squash flourished.Spaghetti-Squash Whole

Having no idea how to prepare spaghetti squash, I stuck it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes and starting poking it with a fork every 15 minutes or so until it was somewhat tender.  We didn’t cut it in half until it was finished cooking.

Once we cut it, we scraped and discarded the seeds.  My kids had a blast shredding the inside.  However, shredding it was more fun than eating it.  The flavor of a spaghetti squash is pretty bland and my preparation didn’t include any seasoning.

Now when I make spaghetti squash for dinner there is no comparison to the version I served 30 years ago.  I like to cook the spaghetti squash a day or so in advance and store it in the refrigerator until I need it.

My “recipe” follows but I have to say, on this one, I don’t worry about exact measurements.

Slice  a medium size squash in half and place the squash cut down side down in a baking dish. Add water to about one inch over the side of the squash and bake at 450°  about 20 minutes,  You should be able to pierce the skin with a fork relatively easily when done.Scooping!

When the squash is cooked, scoop out the seeds and refrigerate if you plan on using it later.

Instruction for preparing:

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet.  I prefer coconut oil.  Saute ½ of an onion chopped for about 5 minutes or until tender.  Stir in a clove of garlic.   While the onion and garlic are cooking, pull the squash from the fridge and use a fork to scrape the flesh into a bowl.

Stir the squash and a cup of tomatoes into the onions and garlic to warm them.  Remove the mixture from the skillet, add ¼ cup of black olives and ¾ cup of feta cheese tossing lightly.  Fresh basil leaves add a nice flavor if you have any on hand.

Delicious!  For our meal, I paired it with some freshly baked sweet potato fries, lentils and a quinoa vegetable medley for a wonderfully fresh meal.

Final

Cheerios and Shoelaces

On By DGThomaIn Exercise, Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, Travel, WritingLeave a comment

For several years, the  Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco had been an elusive goal.  It was on my “to do” list, but it seemed something always interfered.  Either my training schedule was off or the timing of the race kept me from being able to participate.

After all who wouldn’t want a medal from Tiffany!Meda

When I decided that I would take the time to train and would definitely run in 2008 I discovered the only way for me to participate was through a lottery.

Although I didn’t believe I would make it in, I decided to register and take my chances with the lottery.  I immediately started soliciting family and friends to participate with me.  My first call was to my daughter, who was in law school.  I convinced her to train with me so we could submit for the lottery as a team.  I soon had enlisted my sister and my son’s girlfriend as well.  Of course the unexpected happened and our team was selected in the lottery!  Now I was forced to train!

I was determined to stick to my training program.  I am notorious for getting pulled off my training schedule by daily demands.  As a result, when I went to visit my daughter and granddaughter in Tulsa, OK, I made sure to pack both my running bag and my commitment.

Tulsa has a very nice running trail not too far from my daughter’s apartment.  I got up early on Saturday morning, and created one of my favorite running snacks, (Cheerios, pecans, dried fruit and bits of a bagel).  Since I managed to forget my SPIbelt (a stretchy fabric pouch on a belt), I pinned a baggie to the back of my shorts and my husband and I set off for a quick 8 mile run.  I chose to run out 4 miles and back and my husband soon left me behind as I settled in at a comfortable pace.

Cheerios and fruit

At about mile three, my shoelaces began to loosen and for some reason, they were hitting against the back of my legs.  Frustrated, I stopped, retied my shoes and took off again.  My new shoes had particularly long shoestrings and soon I could feel them blowing against the back of my legs again.  Checking the shoes, I discovered the laces seemed fine.   Puzzled, I finished my run.

Dee and Dez
Dee and Dez

As I waited for my husband to meet me I reached for my snack, only to discover the baggie was empty.  Apparently, friction had worn a hole in the plastic and the snack mix had slowly dropped through until the bag was empty!  It turns out it wasn’t the shoelaces  hitting my leg, it was the snack mix.  I wondered why everyone I passed had such big smiles!  My husband confirmed that fact, when he said he followed the trail of Cheerios and pecans to find me.

Labor Day Celebration

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Writing1 Comment

Labor Day falls on the first Monday in September.  It is intended to be a celebration of social and economic successes for American workers.  What it has become is a celebration of eating food and family gatherings. (Made possible by the economic successes of American workers)

My Labor Day plans this year were to relax at home, foot elevated.  I was sidelined with a broken toe, my husband Ron was out-of-town and the rest of my extended family had made other plans.

The Designer Shoe for a Broken Toe
The Designer Shoe for a Broken Toe

My plans were very non-specific . I anticipated a quiet day at home catching up on some reading, writing and sewing.  Happily, my plans changed.

On Saturday I found out my son was coming on Monday to spend the day and my husband was planning on returning early in the afternoon on Monday.  I love company and I love celebrations! I was excited I would have enough people for a quasi-celebration, but suddenly I needed to plan a meal for Monday evening.

I wanted to serve something non-traditional.  Normally, we would just grill burgers and hot dogs for the guys and maybe tuna steaks or shrimp for me.  That just didn’t sound appealing this time.

So stepping out from the norm, we came up with something a bit different.  Our menu consisted of Jalapeño chicken and venison sausage for the meat lovers.  For me, it was Lentil Hyderabad (lentils with spices and chilies) and a curry wild rice mix.  We bought some freshly baked Naan bread and grilled fresh sweet potato and Irish potato spears, lightly salted.  It was a wonderful meal, but even as wonderful as it was, my favorite part was the dessert. (Of Course!)

We sliced peaches, topped them with fresh blueberries, then sprinkled them lightly with a small amount of brown sugar and nutmeg.

Grilled Peaches and Blueberries
Grilled Peaches and Blueberries

We served the warm fruit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It was absolutely delicious and completely different from our normal holiday meal.  Considering it was last minute, I think it just may be one of my favorite holiday meals.

Catching flies with honey, Why?

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Friends, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

The real question is can you really catch more flies with honey?  And why would you want to catch more flies?  Not me!  But a loose translation of “nice things happen when you behave nicely” sounds a little better.

You hear a lot about people doing nice things for total strangers, otherwise known as random acts of kindness.  I think that’s awesome, and I wish I remembered to do it more often.

Honey? and Flies?

I recently had a great experience at Starbucks and it wasn’t because I had invented and ordered the largest and most obnoxious combination I could find.

My sister, Deb and I were meeting on the road midway between our respective homes.  She lives on the Texas coast and I live in Central Texas.

We met in the parking lot of a shopping center and after exchanging boxes and bags; we decided to grab a coffee for the road from the Starbucks across the street.

The store wasn’t particularly crowded when we walked in which looked promising.  However, when Deb tried to pay for her drink, the computers went down.  A manager came and took over the register but still couldn’t get the transaction to process.  My son and I were next in line and the barista and manager kept apologizing for the delay.

My son, Rich previously managed a retail store, so he just smiled and said he understood.  He assured them both that it was not a problem.  It was probably only 6 or 7 minutes of waiting. Rich entertained us all, the employees included, with jokes and stories. We all laughed and enjoyed ourselves despite the situation.

When my son and I were finally able to place our order, I handed them cash, since they seemed to still be having trouble with the card reader.

The manager shook his head and said, “No charge, you guys were great.  I’m sorry for the wait. ” What a wonderful surprise!  Maybe our drinks would still have been free if we had grumbled and complained, but the mood would certainly have been different for all of us.  (And yes my sister’s drink was also free!)

I’m not saying that I am never the grumbling complaining customer, but it was a wonderful reminder that sometimes being pleasant pays off.  Thank you Mr. Starbuck’s manager for making our day a little brighter!

 

The All Too Common Condition

On By DGThomaIn Family, Food, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

…Of having no patience.   Grocery store checkouts are crazy places to be at the best of times.  Our local supermarket HEB (The first initials of Howard E. Butt) is always packed with people.  Ducking in for a quick minute is a complete contradiction.

HEBEven knowing that, I still think I can just run in and pick up something quickly.  Yesterday I attempted to run into HEB and grab something light for dinner.  It was 3:45 PM in the afternoon.  How bad could it be?

My husband was with me and we decided on a salad with some fruit and sautéed shrimp tossed on top.  Splitting up to grab the ingredients, we tackled the grocery list. Mathematically it shouldn’t be possible to spend one hour grabbing 16 items, but that is exactly what happened.

One hour later we were making our way to the checkout.  Of course I was guilty of leaving my cell phone in the cart and heading off to pick up some tea.  In my defense, my husband was supposed to wait for me at the cheese counter and he wandered off to enjoy some of the food samples.  We spent a good 15 minutes trying to find each other.  I absolutely refused to have him paged over the intercom!

Finally back together and ready to head to the checkout, we counted our items.  16.  All the express lines were for 15 or less.  Of course!  Yes, my nickname is Girl Scout at work, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get in the 15 item line and I didn’t see anything I was willing to leave behind.  So, we moved to the shortest regular line we could find.

We were standing behind a gentleman who didn’t have a cart; just something in his hands and only one person checking out in front of him.  Things were looking pretty good.  Suddenly this woman darts in with an overflowing basket and pushes in front of us.  The man looks up and smiles and says, “Man, I really hate to do this to you.  This is my wife”.  And she just smiles and says “Yeah, I’m a little slow”.

Shock took over and I couldn’t even respond.  It is amazing how quickly your anger can flair when you are already frazzled.  I left my husband and the cart and went in search of a different line.  I found one with only two carts and it seemed reasonable.  I motioned my husband down to get in line.  The elderly customer at the head of the line, checking out was almost done and the cart in front of us was full but at least not overflowing.

Even though, the lady had been almost finished when got in line, it was taking a while and I joked to my husband, she is probably writing a check.  Sure enough, that is exactly what she was doing. The checkout lady was holding the check up and reading it as if she had never seen one before.  “Unbelievable!” I was thinking, still fuming a little from the first lady who cut in front of us.

Finally finished, the elderly lady gathered her purse and was being helped to her car by one of the young store clerks.  The couple in front of us had their purchases on the counter and the clerk was starting to ring them up.  The lady spoke up and said, “I need to pay for these school supplies separately.”

What?  Now I’m normally pretty patient but I can’t believe what I’m hearing as she starts sorting the items into two stacks.  At least she didn’t pay by check.

When we finally got up to the checkout, it moved pretty fast. We did only have 16 items after all.

Texas Traveling – Blanco

On By DGThomaIn Food, News and Reviews, WritingLeave a comment

 

Traveling the back roads of Central Texas to enjoy the scenery and possibly avoid some major traffic is seldom boring and often entertaining.  I like to think of myself as a healthy eater, but I try not to be a fanatic.   I don’t eat most meat, so I’ve been called vegetarian.  However, I don’t really fit into any typical classification.  The carnivores (meat eaters) don’t claim those of us who don’t eat beef in a state where raising beef for food and income is a primary means of survival.  The “vegetarian” crowd disavow any connection to me because I do eat fish, and while the term Pescetarian (people who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish) is probably the closest, no one wants to be labeled anything that has ‘pesky’ in the name.

On a recent trip from Austin to San Antonio for a haircut, my husband and I stopped in the little town of Blanco for lunch.  Avoiding Dairy Queen and Subway led us to the local café.  The place was packed, which seemed promising.  We were seated quickly and waited patiently to order.  About 15 minutes later, we were still waiting to be acknowledged and I already had one foot out of the booth when our waitress finally arrived to ask for our drink choices.

Glancing at the menu, it looked like there were at least a few meatless choices, so when the waitress returned, I asked a few questions.

First I asked, “I think I might like to try the vegetable soup.  That doesn’t have meat broth does it?”

“No, ma’am, I don’t think so, but I’d be glad to check on it for you.  I know it has carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and ground beef.”  She responded.

Frowning just a bit, I asked, “Can you tell me what the choices are for the vegetable plate?”

“Sure,” she said, “There are green beans, pinto beans, salad, or a baked potato.”

Not too bad, I’m thinking.  “What about the pinto beans?  Do they have ham in them?”

“Oh, yes!  They’re really good!”  She beamed.  Not nearly as excited as she was, I tried again.  “What about the green beans? “

“The greens beans don’t have ham …..   Just bacon.”  She is starting to glance around, like maybe I have way too many questions.

Thinking she was about to make a break for it to let me think things over, I plunged ahead.  “Okay, then forget the vegetable plate and bring me the baked potato.”

Smiling widely, she said, “Would you like bacon with that?”