YUCKY DAY!

Today is a very blah and yucky day. It snowed this morning and has now changed over to rain. So now we have about 3" of YUCKY SLUSH!!!

BUSY WEEK!!!

Boy this is getting tough. I've been taking pictures but being that PJ's been home, we're always on the run. I don't have time to post. So today will be quite a few days worth!

Mon Jan 26

PJ bought this new kitchen gadget that slices, dices etc. He wanted to try a recipe from the cookbook that came with it. He made the Health Salad.

It's green cabbage, red cabbage, zucchini, carrots, red onion if you want, I added some Dicon, and then after you julianne everything, add some F.F. Red Wine Vinegarette. Toss together and enjoy. It was delicious!

Sunday Jan 25

My friend Kris, recomended me for the Who's Cooking LI Life section of Newsday. It was in today's newspaper!!!

Sat Jan 24

What a great day. Pop's threw himself an 88th birthday party with his friends and family. His 2 closest friends, his golfing buddies, surprised him with a belly dancer! Pops had a BLAST and totally got into it!

Fri Jan 23

I decided to try my hand at posting on Craigslist. I've always done Ebay but their costs are too high and this just seems easier. So I decided to gather up my scrapbooking magazines that I saved to use in the workshop that I used to teach. Now that I don't do that anymore, what do i need them for! So on to Craigslist they went and today someone's coming over to buy them!

YUMMY LETTUCE WRAPS

Last night I made Aaron McCargo's recipe for Szechwan Lettuce Wraps. I had no clue that the szechwan sauce was spicy! The lettuce wraps looked pretty but were inedible! PJ and I each ate one and couldn't believe how spicy they were. Our noses were running, ears itchy and mouths were on fire! Oh well, in the garbage they went. In the recipe there's a Dicon as an ingredient. It looks like a fat white carrot but I think it's in the Radish family. It's my new favorite ingredient! I had some shredded carrots and Dicon, cubed chicken and bean sprouts left over that didn't have any sauce on them. I decided to mix them all together and I added some Asian Sesame Salad Dressing with it and made lunch. Boy were they good. Just a change in the sauce and there's a new winner!

Spicy Szechwan Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Prep Time:
15 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
16 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
6 servings
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts 1/4 cup shredded daikon radish 2 carrots, shredded 1/4 cup bean sprouts 3 stalks (1/2 cup) scallions 1/4 cup Szechwan sauce 1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, for frying 2 tablespoons butter 1 lemon, juiced 1 head Bibb lettuce leaves
Split boneless chicken in half. If too thick, pound out to make thinner.
In a medium bowl, mix together radish, carrots, bean sprouts, and scallions. Add Szechwan sauce.
In a small bowl, mix together five-spice, cayenne, salt and pepper. Season chicken breasts lightly with rub. Cut the chicken into strips.
In a large skillet over high heat, add the grapeseed oil. Once hot, sear the chicken breasts for 4 minutes on each side. Add butter and lemon to pan and baste the chicken for another minute. Remove chicken to a platter to let cool. Once cooled, dice or shred the chicken.
Place a spoonful of the vegetable mixture and the shredded chicken onto each leaf of lettuce. Roll and serve.

BECOMING A VIGNERON

Today we have an expensive decision to make. We heard about a grape leasing program at the Cayuga Ridge Winery on Cayuga Lake, NY. The program sounds like so much fun and we've met people who have done it and still are!

This is from the web site:

Join other friends of the vine and become a

CAYUGA RIDGE ESTATE VIGNERON.

In the finest wine making tradition, have your very own vineyard to tend during 2009. It’s fun, easy and very rewarding! Lease a 10 vine minimum of either: CABERNET FRANC (red), RIESLING (white), CHARDONNAY (white) or CAYUGA WHITE.
During the Saturday morning coaching sessions you will learn viticultural practices in order to nurture your vines into a successful grape crop. You will learn to tie, “sucker”, and shoot position your vines at appropriate times during the growing season. You can have the fun of harvesting your own grapes or we can make them into wine for you at a reasonable cellaring fee. Your ten vines will produce five cases of wine.
Our staff will help care for your vines by fertilizing, weed controlling and spraying when necessary. For those of you who can’t tend your own vines personally, but, who want to take part in the 2009 Vigneron program, our staff will diligently care for your vines.

So we need to figure out if we should wait or try it this year. We'll miss the May workshop because we'll be at Scott's graduation but we can hopefully attend the others. Instead of me taking pictures (I don't want to drive 5 hours to do that!) I've borrowed theirs!

Today is dedicated to DAR

I'm spending a good part of today getting all of my paperwork, documents and pictures in order so that my application to DAR will sail through without any problems.

My cousins and I have done extensive research with the Somerset Historical Society and have documented 13 generations! We can go all the way back to Wilhem ANGEN_EICK born about 1590 coming to New Amsterdam in 1650. The one piece of the puzzle that we can't seem to find out is where is my Grandfather buried! We have pictures of headstone going back to the early 1700's in the Ten Eyck cemetary but can't figure out where he is. Go figure!

While looking through my photos, I found this picture of my Grandparents wedding.

Front: My Grandmother Veronica (Her real name was Gretchen!) and my Aunt Dot (Dorothy Reith), they were sisters.

Back from the left: Best man was a vetenarian but don't know his name, my Grandfather Abraham, Uncle George (Bauer, brother of Vera and Dot) and Uncle Charlie (Reith, Aunt Dot's husband)

We woke up to snow this morning...

I didn't know it was going to snow again. It's so pretty when it rests on the branches of the trees.

I'm cheating a little. The picture below is from our little dinner party last night. Being that it went into the wee hours of the morning TODAY, I'm counting thispicture as today's picture!