Living It With Lisa

Sea Bass in Rome

Sound crazy doesn’t it?  But oh is it good.  On our first trip to Rome at our first meal in the city that night,  the manager suggested fresh fish baked in salt.  We couldn’t even imagine why it wouldn’t be very salty.  It is not!  It was so delicious and moist.  What was even more amazing before they prepared the fish they presented it to us on a platter.

Needless to say I came home and started researching recipes and have made it several times now.  The latest being when Des, Aleta, Robin and Gordon came over for dinner this week.

This time I made it with Red Snapper.  I bought two that were about 2.5 pounds each.  Had the fishmonger GGS them.  AH HA … that is what I learned when I picked them up … after I said a myriad of words obviously being a newbie to fish cleaning lingo.  That means Gut Gils Scales.  You end up with a fish that is ready to cook.  Yes, it still has the head on.  In the picture … one fish is already stuffed with fresh lemon and thyme, covered with Kosher Salt and ready to pop in the oven.

Since I was having a very simple fish I decided that my menu would reflect that.  I wanted the appetizer to be a little heavier and the salad to be unexpected and the sides to be simple yet flavorful.  It was great that  all the elements were easy and that was a good thing because we didn’t get back from taking Des and Aleta on a boat tour of Lake Santa Fe until 5:15pm and Robin and Gordon were arriving at 6pm and I hadn’t prepped anything!

Our Menu included Mussels Diablo for an appetizer (in a spicy cream sauce).  Entree’ was of course the Red Snapper baked in Salt accompanied by Zucchini with Cilantro Mint Gremolata and Red Quinoa.  The Salad Course was Shaved Fennel with Granny Smith Apples.  To complete our meal we had Affogato for dessert.

It was a wonderful meal if I say so myself.  I tried two new recipes on this menu and they were keepers.  The zucchini dish and the salad are new to my collection, were delicious and will be served again.

What was very interesting Robin and Gordon had never had mussels before and loved them.  They also had never experienced Quinoa.  Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a super food and the mother of all grains.  (More about Quinoa in another post).  It is my new favorite side dish, cereal or salad!  Also, Gordon didn’t really like zucchini but LOVED it with the gremolata. See there is always a way to serve a vegetable and like it!

My ‘m.o.’ … if a guest has an allergy … pay attention.  Otherwise present a creative menu and let them discover a tasty way to enjoy what they thought was not to their liking.  Because as you know, it may only be the way it was cooked.  Many times being mushy and tasteless.  Fresh, with high flavor is an amazing way to tantalize the tastebuds.

Willing And Able

A special thank you to my helpers who gave themselves names … WILLING aka Robin and ABLE aka Aleta who set the table and kept the dishes in the dishwasher and out of sight!  FYI my new name is AND!  What fun!

Are you STILL struggling with grief?  All of us have experienced loss of a loved one or know someone who has.

What many do not know is that on Feb 16, 2009 our family lost grandson Austin Tyler Johnson age 3 months to SIDS.  A perfectly healthy baby boy died on his fathers’ 30th birthday.  A few months later I lost my dear friend Cynthia. Truly a double emotional whammy!

As we enter the holiday season we are suseptable to getting sick.  Our immune system is lower.  One reason could be the amount of sugar we eat in all those extra carbs and calories at Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

I found this article to be simple and straight forward in helping us to understand exactly what happens in different areas of our bodies.  The article is short and to the point and EASY to implement.

Those who think they have no time for healthy eating, will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

EDWARD STANDLEY

Where were YOU five years ago?

Where are you NOW?

Take a minute and look back 5 years ago.

Where were you in your life?  What were your goals and dreams?

Now, take a snapshot of your life today.  Have you been able to check off some of those dreams and goals?

Are you driving that dream car, living in the dream home, taking the exotic vacations, or are you settling and barely surviving?

What are you going to DO today?

Start planting your daffodils today!

Go Green:  Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it “home”, can’t digest it, so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

This information was in The New York Times several weeks ago as part of their “Spotlight on the Home” series that highlighted creative and fanciful ways to solve common problems.

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog & provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent Undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5. Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the Collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential Nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

10. Stressed out and don’t have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

12. Looking for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but it won’t leave streaks and won’t harm your fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

The incredible edible egg!  The simple and classic boiled egg, is one of the finest and easiest edible delights known on earth, with just 70 calories, and full of nature’s most perfect form of protein.

According to the American Egg Board, the terms “hard” and “soft-boiled” eggs are really misnomers, because boiling eggs makes them tough and rubbery. Instead, these eggs should be “hard” or “soft-cooked” in hot (still) water, better known as coddling.

To create your perfect Hard-Cooked (Boiled) Eggs:

How many times have you had a rubbery egg? Boiling an egg should be simple and it is!  After reading different opinions I have discovered, through trial and error the following easy method that yields great results. Boiling an egg toughens the whites whereas coddling does not and it also gives the yolk a lighter texture.

1. Start with eggs that don’t have any visible cracks.
2. Do not add salt to the water.  Salt raised the boiling point of the water making the egg whites rubbery.
3. Use Eggs that are 3-5 days old.  Fresh eggs are too hard to peel.  The fresher the eggs, the harder it will be to peel because the white membrane will not release as easily from the shell.
   1. Check the sell-by-date on the carton to find out how fresh they are.
   2. Still not sure?  A simple water test will answer the freshness question for you. Place the egg in a bowl of water; if it sinks to the bottom,  it is very fresh. As it ages, the air pocket inside the egg grows, which buoys the egg up so it stands on one end. If the egg floats to the top and lays on its side, it is ready for the trash.
   3. The eggs that ‘stand up’ because of the extra air on one end.  That is a better egg of boiling and for peeling.
   4. If you know you are going to boil eggs, buy them several days ahead of time.
   5. Now that you have the best eggs selected, place them in one layer in your pan and cover them completely (about 1 inch) with cold water from the tap.
   6. Turn burner on to HIGH heat, bring water to a rapid boil.
   7. As soon as the water reached a rapid boil, remove the pan from the heat and cover it tightly with a lid.
   8. Set a timer for 13 minutes for large eggs.
   9. After 13 minutes, remove the lid and drain off the water.  This will stop the cooking process.  Shake the pot back and forth to crack the egg shells.
   10. Then plunge them in enough cold water to cover the eggs until they cool down.  The water will seep under the broken shells, allowing them to be slipped off without a struggle.

10.Let the eggs cool for at least 5 minutes in cold water, then drain.

11.To peel the egg start from the large end of the egg, which has an air pocket.  This lets you get under the membrane without digging into the white.

NOTE:  Remember to watch the cooking time carefully.  Overcooking causes that ugly greenish gray layer to form around the yolk.

Check out my other blog post if you are not sure how long to keep eggs.

As Joseph was growing up he has wondered … sometimes… just how I knew certain things.  I never revealed my secrets!  As a Mom you just ‘know’ certain things and have enough life experience to figure out the rest.   Yes, he did figure some things out as time went by and he got older … but until he has a child of his own … my secrets are mine!

I could NOT resist sharing this here because you mom’s out there will totally get it and remember the many times that you got the point across without a confrontation.  Game Over!

Enjoy!

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HAVING MOM OVER FOR DINNER

Ben invited his mother over for dinner.  During the course of the meal, Ben’s mother couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Ben’s roommate, Jennifer, was.  Ben’s Mom had long been suspicious of the platonic relationship between Ben and Jennifer, and this had only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Ben and Jennifer than met the eye.

Reading his mom’s thoughts, Ben volunteered, ‘I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you Jennifer and I are just roommates.’

About a week later, Jennifer came to Ben saying, ‘Ever since your mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the beautiful silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it, do you?’

Ben said,  ‘Well, I doubt it, but I’ll send her an e-mail just to be sure. So he sat down and wrote:

Dear Mom,

I’m not saying that you ‘did’ take the gravy ladle from the house, I’m not saying that you ‘did not’ take the gravy ladle.  But the fact remains that one has been missing over since you were here for dinner.

Love, Ben

Several days later, Ben received an email back from his mother that read:

Dear Son,

I’m not saying that you ‘do’ sleep with Jennifer, and I’m not saying that you ‘do not’ sleep with Jennifer.  But the fact remains that if Jennifer is sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now.

Love, Mom

LESSON OF THE DAY -

“NEVER LIE TO YOUR MOTHER”