Spaghetti Squash Toss

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When my wife and I first got married, over 20 years ago, we both were working full time.  At that time, we agreed that Monday-Saturday my wife would cook dinner, and I would cook dinner on Sunday evenings.  There were two reasons for this arrangement.  First, she worked closer to home and would always get home before I did, so it made sense for her to cook dinner during the work week.  The second reason is that she is a better cook than I am.

First, a confession.  I used to really enjoy cooking.  There are several cookbooks in my library from when I belonged to a cookbook book club.  When I was a single man, I used to enjoy cooking dinner for my dates.  I remember one time a friend and I had a double date with two sisters.  I was going to cook some Chinese food in my wok.  Their mother told them they should check my trash can for empty carry out containers to be sure that I actually cooked the meal.  I had.

I am not sure where or when I lost interest in cooking.  Part of it could be that for most of the last 18 years while raising our son, I have worked two jobs.  I think maybe I am just tired.  In addition to being tired, my cooking creativity has been severely lagging.  Most of the time, I usually resort to cooking something from a kit or something simple and basic that does not take a lot of time, either with cooking or with prepping.

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Now, my wife does not work, and our son is away at school the majority of the time.  Our living situation is not the same as it was when we first got married.  I maintain that I work six days a week and that Sunday is my only day off from all of my jobs, though I do spend a great deal of the day running errands and working on my blogs and other social media.  Still, she insists that I still abide by the arrangement we made when we first married.

With my recent diagnosis of having arthritis in my neck and in my back, I recently started reading The Inflammation Syndrome by Jack Challem.  I picked it up at the Natural Products Expo in An
aheim when I was attending the show for my job.  A supplement company had Challem there as a guest autographing and giving away free copies of the book.  Recently, I prepared one of the recipes that I found in the book.  It was a dish that featured spaghetti squash which I have never had before.  I wish I had taken a photo of the dish for this blog post.  I am going to include the recipe below as it turned out very well.

Spaghetti Squash Toss


Ingredients:

• 1 medium size spaghetti squash
• boneless skinless chicken breast or 10 to 20 shrimp and scallops (I used shrimp and scallops)
• olive oil
• 4-6 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2-3 ounces of baby spinach leaves (I left this out as my wife does not like spinach)
• juice of 1 to 2 lemons
• juice of 1 lime
• juice of 1/2 an orange
• Sea salt and black pepper

Directions:

Bake the spaghetti squash for an hour or so at 350-375 degrees until the skin is soft to touch.  When the squash is done, cut in half length wise and remove the seeds.  Run a fork along the fruit to create spaghetti like strands.  While the squash is baking, stir fry the chicken or shrimp and scallops in olive oil with the garlic, basil and oregano over medium heat.  Add the spinach and continue to stir fry.  When the stir fry is nearly cooked, add the lemon, lime, and orange juices.  Serve the stir fry over the spaghetti squash.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  The stir fry takes about 10 minutes, so you can time that to be done when the squash finishes baking.

It was a nice change of pace from our usual fare.  It did take me quite a bit more prep time than I am used to when I normally cook.  First I had to peel and devein the shrimp which is something I have never done before.  Usually, when I cook shrimp I boil them with the shell on.  Then I had to chop and mince the garlic, and juice the fruit.  It probably took me about 15 minutes to do all that before starting the stir fry.  I will have to find some other uses for spaghetti squash as it was nice to discover a new food to add to our diet. 

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I Love Pumpkin

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the plethora of items that are available made with pumpkin.  There is a local bakery here in Bowie that makes Pumpkin danishes that I just absolutely love.  My wife picked up two of them for me last week.

This is also one of my favorite times of year when it comes to Starbucks.  I do not treat myself to Starbucks as much as I used to these days, but this time of year I have to treat myself to a Pumpkin Spiced Latte.  It also means that it will soon be time for them to come out with their Eggnog Lattes.

There are several locations where I can pick up other pumpkin goodies like pumpkin donuts, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin cheesecake.  Of course, for more adult treats I can always pick up one of several pumpkin brews available at the liquor store.

One of the reasons that I have been thinking about pumpkin today is that I received an email from Kraft.  In it, was a link to their website with literally hundreds of recipes for pumpkin dishes and desserts.  I saw one recipe for a pumpkin pie that I made one year that I got from a Philadelphia Cream Cheese cookbook that has a layer of cream cheese and a layer of pumpkin  

One of my coworkers might be an even bigger pumpkin fan than I am,  plus he does a lot of baking, so I forwarded the link to him.  Hopefully he will find a few of them to his liking and make a few of them and let me sample them.

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The Sense of Smell

Image via WikipediaOur sense of smell serves us in many ways.  The smell of certain foods cooking can illicit responses within us.  For instance, whenever I smell my wife's chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, I immediately start salivating.  There are other food aromas that can bring about similar responses.

Smells can also alert us to potential danger.  There have been times when I have awakened in the middle of the night because I thought I smelled something burning.  Fortunately, it was something that had fallen on the burner while my wife was cooking so it was nothing to be alarmed about.  There were other times when somehow my wife's laminating machine was turned on accidentally, and I could smell it heating up.

There are other smells that alert us to things that might need attention.  My son still has issues with his toileting thanks to his special needs.  So there are certain obvious smells that tell us when he needs to have his Depends changed.  Smell can alert us to when foods have gone bad and are no longer safe to consume or prepare. 

There are certain smells that I am particularly sensitive to and can cause an adverse reaction.  At times, I often wonder if I am perhaps a bit to sensitive to olfactory stimulation.  One of the odors that I respond to negatively is when somebody wears too much cologne.  I am not talking about getting a subtle whiff of perfume or cologne when you are near somebody, but the overwhelming smell of somebody who seems to bathe in the stuff.

In my opinion, there is an appropriate amount of cologne for somebody to wear.  When applied correctly, perfume or cologne can be quite pleasant.  One should apply just enough cologne so that if you are in the near vicinity of that person that you can get just a sense of the aroma.  In some cases, it can even help to spark a sense of arousal.

Unfortunately, there are some who seems to think that the more smell good you put on, the better when in reality the opposite is true.  When I get into an area with somebody who has too much cologne on, I tend to have a negative physical reaction.  This reaction includes getting headaches, having my eyes itch and water, and a general sense of nausea.

Lately, I seem to be experiencing a lot more folks who are using too much cologne.  I will give you a few examples of the types of things that I have been experiencing.  At work, I park in a parking garage and have to go through a door to a small area where there are five elevators to take us upstairs.  I have entered that area to see nobody else around, but the strong smell of perfume remains in the area.  I have intentionally avoided getting into elevators with some that I recognize as heavy users.

The other day, I was sitting at my desk in my cubicle.  Somebody walked past my cubicle with an extremely strong odor of cologne.  More than a half hour later, I could still smell the cologne. I have also walked into an empty mens room to the overwhelming smell of cologne.  Sometimes I wonder which is worse, the smell of too much cologne or the smell of what is supposed to happen in there.

Years ago, when I worked at another job, we had a senior VP who used to bathe in  expensive cologne.  We could always tell where he was by the smell.  One time, I was walking near him in the hall of the building when he slapped me on the back and asked how I was doing.  I went to my office and he went another direction.  While sitting at my desk, I thought I smelled him, but I didn't hear him enter the office.  It was then that I realized that when he slapped me on the back he left his cologne on me.

I am not anti-cologne.   In fact, just the opposite.  When applied subtly, it can be quite an effective enhancement to one's persona.  However, when you scent lingers long after you have left a room, you have crossed the line from sensual to offensive.

Man-made Meat

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The 4th of July weekend is one of the biggest weekends for cooking outside.   To me, there is nothing better than a juicy steak or hamburgers cooked outside on a grill.  They taste even better when grilled over charcoal instead of propane.

One day during the past week, I was reviewing some food news emails when I saw a link that I had to click.  The link led to a news article called "Man-made Meat May be Just Around the Corner."  The scientists have developed an in vitro process in which they take stem cells from cattle and allow them to multiply.  After the cells multiply a billion times they can create muscle mass which can then be used to create a burger.  They expect to have a burger ready to be tasted in 12 months.

The scientists below that the studies could lead to sustainable, inexpensive meat production to meet the growing demand for meat throughout the world.  Studies estimate that the in vitro meat production technique would also use 35-60% less energy, use 98% less land, and emit 80-95% less greenhouse gasses than traditional livestock protection methods.  That should please those that still believe in anthropomorphic climate change, however, a lot of those same people also opposed things like genetically modified crops.  They might have a cow with beef produced in a lab.

I am not really show how I feel about the idea of burgers created in the lab.  I remember the furor a few years ago when I was working at a grocery chain in the area when some manufacturers were using GMO corn during the production process of things like tortillas.  There was a national recall of several corn products because the GMO corn had not been approved for production use.  The same when the FDA approved irradiation for ground beef.

I will say that the idea is fascinating to me.  With the higher cost of food products these days, the prospect of a lower cost protein food source is definitely appealing.  Also, with less grain being used for raising livestock, the cost of those products could also conceivably decrease as well.  However, call me old fashioned or a purist.  Natural is better.  I suppose that if it were to be thoroughly tested, then I might want to give it a shot.  What are your thoughts?  Would you want your burger created in a lab, rather than straight from the cow?

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Pillsbury Orange Sweet Roll Giveaway

Most days, breakfast for me consists of taking a travel mug of coffee and a couple granola bars in the car when I make my morning commute.  It is a rare opportunity for me to have a nice, leisurely hot breakfast.  It is exceedingly rare for us to do it together as a family.  Pillsbury products make it easy for you to have a good breakfast with the family.

The Pillsbury Company and MyBlogSpark recently sent me a special VIP gift pack to try Pillsbury's Orange Sweet Rolls.  The gift pack included a coupon for a free package of Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls and a photo album for keeping all those sweet family memories in one place.  This morning, I was able to take advantage of that free coupon and cook up a batch of Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls.

It brought back a lot of childhood memories for me.  Most days, breakfast for us growing up was a quick bowl of cereal.  On special occasions, or some Sunday mornings, we would get a special hot breakfast.  Sometimes it consisted of pancakes and often times, it consisted of hot Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. For some reason, I always thought they must be hard to make, but Pillsbury makes it simple.  It only takes about 15 minutes to serve some hot gooey sweet rolls.

There is no reason not to be able to start making special memories with your family, even as hectic as things get these days.  In fact, Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark are giving me the opportunity to let one of my readers get started by providing a VIP gift pack for me to giveaway.  Just post about your favorite breakfast memories, along with an email address that I can contact the winner to get their shipping information.  I will select the winner randomly on Sunday, March 14th.

My Quick & Easy Chili Recipe

I was hoping to talk my wife into starting a blog on cooking since she is a better cook than I am, but so far she is not willing to start one. After all, I am a guy, and I mostly know how to cook guy food. That usually means steaks and burgers on the grill. However, since it is winter, and there is nothing I like more than a good bowl of chili (definitely a guy food) on a cold winter's day, I thought I would share my fairly simple chili recipe.

First the ingredients:

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 medium size onion

a little vegetable oil (how is that for specific measurements)

1.5-2 pounds of ground beef

1 can of tomato paste

2 cans of diced tomatoes with green chilis

chili powder

1 can of kidney beans (optional)

Directions:

Take a large pot (technically a Dutch Oven, but since this is a guy recipe we will go with large pot) and pour enough oil in to cover the bottom of the pot. Chop the onion and garlic, add them to the pot, and start to cook over medium/high heat, stirring frequently. Once the onions are tender, and the ground beef and cook until brown. Once the meat is brown, add the tomato paste and the two cans of tomatoes with chilis. Once all of this is mixed well together and hot, add chili powder to taste (I usually use around 2 tablespoons). Now as far as I am concerned, the chili is done, but my missus insists the chili needs beans (I keep telling her it is called chili con carne, not chili con frijoles), so if you are so inclined, add a can of red kidney beans.

Well, there you go. Dinner is served. Pour yourself a big bowl, open a beer (do NOT pour into a glass, guys don't do that) and enjoy.