Phoning it in

Ha. I figured it out. I blogging from my new iphone. Wheee anyway i wanted to tell anybody still reading my infrequent posts that a marvelous app for iphone is called paprika. It lets you download any recipe online into a database, rather than just a proprietory base like allrecipes or bigoven,etc. So when i see a recipe in a mag i just use paprikas browser to find it and download it sounds good to me

I have downloaded 4 from Good Housekeeping and typed one of my own in so far. New note: watching a food show.... Looked up the website with paprika app and saved it. Wow. Never moved from my recliner

Chicken and Sweet Potato Skillet

This is what I had for dinner last night:

The recipe is loosely based on this one.  Very loosely.  I used 2 small gala apples and I used shredded swiss chard instead of brussel sprouts.  For seasonings: salt, pepper, cinnamon, coriander.  It called for thyme. I also put some chicken broth in way before it was called for; those sweet potatoes don't get tender by themselves.  The swiss chard was put in at the end and wilted down. 





I think I added a squirt of lemon juice at the end, for a splash of fresh flavor.  I don't think I will ever use brussel spouts.  The apple, onion, sweet potato makes a nice flavor combination.  The chard is not very bitter, but adds some color and a bit of bite.  Kale would be too bitter.  Oh, and bacon makes everything taste better!

(Bacon and onion was sauteed first.)

The more recipes I read the more they look alike, with tiny differences.  Remember what you like and substitute in these skillet dinners.  I also am trying to use my mom's old iron skillets more; they are nonstick after all these years and no worry about fumes.  This skillet is the smooth surfaced black that they no longer make.  Glad I saved it, all through the years of teflon.................

New Header and Expanded Concept

Yes, I have been ignoring my blog.  This summer I "crawled down the rabbit hole" of digital scrapbooking.  I started with boxes and boxes of photos and zero knowledge.  I bought Memory Mixer 3 and Photoshop 8, a lovely scanner and printer and lots of printer ink. 

I probably have made 400 pages.  Am scared to count.  I pretty much turned it into a full time job.  I joined a yahoo group that posts all the freebies that wonderful digital designers share with the digital world.  I made heritage albums of my and my husband's parents, and grandparents and us as children.  I made multiple minibooks for my grandkids of all their exploits.  The same for both nephews.  I learned techniques and pored over scrapbook sites......do you see why there was no blogging?

Yes, I kept cooking because I like to eat good food.  I just did not tell you about it.

For Christmas I got a nice, shiny, new iPhone.  With a camera.  I am going to try and remember to snap a picture of my plate every night and tell you about it.  Unless it is embarassing. 

The "expanded" scope of this blog is because my primary interest is in digital scrapbooking and I figure I will be more likely to blog a new scrap page I made every day than to talk about food, for now.  I have a scrapbooking blog, but want it all in one place, especially since this blog feeds into Facebook, so if my friends want to see what I am creating scrapbook-wise as well as food-wise, they can.  Or not.

I made this scrapbook page today.  I love old pictures and my mother left a lot of them.  This one was taken in Indiana in the days of the Model T, obviously.  I added the quote, which I think is as appropriate today as when it was made, back in the 19th century.  The scrapbooking part is a freebie Quick Page that I rotated to get a horizontal opening.  I am terrible at keeping up with the provenance of all the freebies out there, but this one is called Everyday Opulence.  I'll try to do better about that.

Christmas and Fruitcakes

I just had to share this article that was reprinted in my newspaper this morning, about fruitcake traditions.  Click here to read Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory.

Our family ate a lot of fruitcake.  In the 60's my mom made homemade fruitcake, generously dosed with bourbon.  My husband's mother did the same.  We actually loved it.  The fruitcake finally morphed into fruitcake cookies, also wonderful.  When Larry and I were stationed in Iceland with the Navy, a family friend sent us a tin of fruitcake cookies heavily laced with bourbon.  We joked that we were surprised Customs let it through, it smelled so strongly of the liquor!

Homemade fruitcake sadly gave way to the infamous Claxton Fruitcake.  My parents were members of Civitan and that was the fundraiser for years.  I dutifully ate some of the little squares, then finally refused, they were so flavorless

(I imagine it was the lack of being soaked in 'spirits').  My mom had the final Claxton fruitcake in the back of her fridge for years.  When she sold her house and moved to be near me, we had to pry it off the fridge shelf, where it had glued itself.  I don't think she wanted to throw it away!

I have not eaten fruitcake in years, but I guarantee I would enthusiastically eat a slice of either my mom's or Momma Mable's creations.  I think fruitcake became a big joke when it stopped being steeped in a wine or liquor dampened towel from Thanksgiving til Christmas Day.  Mmmmmmmmmmm.................

Happy Holidays to all and maybe you will find a fruitcake in a gift basket this year! hehehe.