wanted: natural lighting for my food

I didn't know what to call this post. On the one hand, I made this delicious pasta with leeks, bacon and lemon. On the other hand, my gripe is that I have no real natural lighting in my house, and so any time I want decent pictures of food, it's carried outside to take on a flat surface.

Today's picture was taken on top of the doghouse.

Prior to today, I was a leek virgin. I've seen them used in recipes, I've seen them in the store but I've never had the guts to use them in anything or even order them in restaurants.

This ends now.

I made this pasta, and I am in love with the leek. I have popped my leek cherry. It was a memorable experience.
Leek Pasta

• 1 lb pasta (I used campanelle)


• 5 slices of raw bacon, chopped


• 3-4 leeks, well rinsed and cut in disks (just the white and light green parts)


• 1 tbs minced garlic


• salt and pepper


• the zest and juice of one lemon


• freshly grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

Bring salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to your preference (mine is slightly more done than al dente, personally). While pasta is cooking, in a large pan on medium high heat, add olive oil, leeks, bacon and a little salt. Stir to coat leeks, and cover. Stir occasionally. When bacon is almost fully cooked, add garlic.

When pasta is done, save 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain. Add pasta to leek mixture (once it's done to your taste, of course), along with the lemon juice and zest and pasta water. mix fully and serve hot , topped with cheese.

honey, you have mustard on your face

Spencer decided at 16 months that he liked to dip his chicken nuggets in anything he could reach. A few times it was sour cream and salsa, and then we decided to give him a container of honey mustard dressing to make his dips. He loved it. However, afterward he ended up with this on his face:

What the heck? I did a bunch of research -- was he allergic to honey? But this was more of a contact rash - it was only around his face where the honey mustard touched. All my research said that honey was used to get rid of rashes, not cause them. So it had to have been the mustard. Any ideas? It wasn't a homemade dressing, but a Beef O Brady's pre-packaged container. And it didn't bother him and went away after about an hour.

not too hot for lizard sex

And I have to tell you, when the female scurried off, I saw lizard dong. It was an odd sight to see.

privacy vs. the evil pepper

This is my back fence. See all the evil Brazilian pepper behind it? That's also our land. I'm tempted about once a week to go back there and chop down all that pain-in-the-ass pepper. However, I love my privacy and that stupid weed maintains my privacy between us and the road beyond the fence. Not that we'd really lose too much in the way of privacy, given that it's a dead-end road off a road that is not well traveled, and there are about 2 houses on the whole road.

But still! I like my privacy! So for now, the pepper will stay ... at least until I buy myself a chain saw.

happy father's day!

This was Spencer and Daddy sometime around Father's day last year. Happy Father's day to all the dads out there! Spencer taught himself to take his diaper off today, so we awoke to a bare baby ... thankfully no accidents were had, but I guess maybe we'll start thinking about getting a potty a little earlier than planned. Hubby meant to take two Tylenol cold pills and accidentally took two Benadryll pills (doseage: one) so after a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon, he is knocked out on the couch. Poor baby!

cleaning out the fridge

When I start having anxiety attacks, sometimes the best thing for me is to keep my mind off of it. Such was Friday, when my attacks that have been going on for a week came to a head and I was pale, clammy, shaky and a bit hysterical at work. By the time I got home I was doing a little better except that I was back to not breathing well, so I decided to clean out the refrigerator. I really didn't think the fridge was that bad, but when I got into it I realized there was leftover PW's meatloaf from last time Becky came to visit (I think 6 weeks ago, amazingly nothing growing on it). And there were numerous other things, including a lot of veggies that were okay but obviously not going to last long.

So this morning I made "clean-out-the-fridge" breakfast casserole:

Black Forest Ham (from the Omelet Muffins), green onions, zucchini, tomato and mushrooms

Mozzarella slices, mixed Italian cheese (I don't usually buy pre-shredded cheese, or sliced cheese for that matter. I tend to forget them).

Yummy Casserole

Not the prettiest cut, but it was very good. Also used: 9 eggs (3 whole eggs and 6 whites), garlic powder, salt and pepper. So clean out you fridge, and as long as all you have isn't mustard and Jack Daniels, you might have a delicious breakfast casserole!

Deconstructed Omelet muffins

I was flipping through my RR magazine, and saw these in an advertisement for Cabot cheese. I don't usually have Cabot cheese on hand (for cheddar and the like I usually just get the generic), and I didn't have egg substitute because, well, I like real eggs. But they looked like something tasty to take to a brunch potluck of the like, so I thought I'd try my hand at them with ingredients that I'm likely to have. I like to think of them as more like deconstructed omelet cupcakes or muffins than ham-egg-cheese cups. Better name, yes?

Deconstructed Omelet Muffins

• 6 slices Black Forest Ham


• 4 eggs


• 2 Tbs milk


• 1 cup shredded cheese


• 1 1/2 slices of bread


• chives


• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 6 cupcake tins (1/2 a regular muffin sheet) with cooking spray.

Scramble eggs and milk. Place 1 slice of ham in each tin - edges will stick out the top. Rip your 1 1/2 slices of bread into 6 pieces total, put one piece in the bottom of each, then pour eggs evenly among all. Salt and pepper to your taste, and put a pinch of cheese on top.

Cook approximately 15 minutes. Use a small spatula to remove from muffin tins. Garnish with chives.

Serves approximately 4-6