Pumpkin lentil salad, Gourmet Magazine and a young entrepreneur

When you are on Day 15 of a sprained ankle, day 15 of a no-good-terrible cold and day 6 of a wrenched back, somehow you seem to read a lot of news. There certainly is an entrepreneurial spirit in the ten year-old English girl who sought to sell her grandmother on e-bay.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/business/article_212259444.shtml

I was always told to be good to your kids because they pick your nursing home. Hmmm ... better be extra good to your grand kids also!

And then of course, there is the sad story of Gourmet Magazine. It's offices are being packed up and this lush, posh magazine has it's last issue in November. 68 years of celebrating food in the best possible way - it is a loss to the food world. Some thoughts can be found here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-25270-Minneapolis-Italian-Food-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Gourmet-Magazine-closes-its-doors



This 1989 book has seen me through birthday parties, my first attempts at a serious American beef roast with all the trimmings, holidays, appetizers and desserts. It's pages are stained and it remains beloved of my kids - who had many celebratory meals from this book and Gourmet Magazine.

In the midst of shuffling through news, I also managed to cook here and there. We have had wet, cold weather for six days. Something welcoming was needed. Bon Appetit (sorry, Gourmet!) has a recipe for spiced pumpkin-lentil-goat cheese salad in their October 2009 issue.

The link will give you the detailed instructions. I have to say this was a beautiful autumn side dish - and became my husband's lunch the next day. The tangy mellowness of the goat cheese with the sweet squash and "take me as I am" lentils blended in a way that exclaimed, "October is here." I will make this again. I did some changes. First - I bought chopped and already-peeled squash. Yes, I did. Peeling and dicing pumpkins and squash is probably the last thing I want to do on any given day. So I didn't use the pie pumpkin and nobody minded. Because my pieces were smaller than the pumpkin chunks, I also roasted it for only about 30 minutes. I add more cumin. After assembling all, I thought it needed a taste of - something. So I judiciously dripped a little white balsamic over the salad. It added some zing and tang and I will certainly do that again.

Doesn't that just cry harvest moon, All Hallows Eve and autumn leaves? Meanwhile, join me in a glass of bubbly or a bite of artisan bread and your favorite cheese in celebrating Gourmet's remarkable 68 years and mourning it's passing.

"No, today I'm a chicken."

I start my day between 6 and 6:30 a.m. with cement trucks, tractors, pounders (okay, I have no idea what the real name of the "pounder" is) and beeping waking me not so gently from my slumber. At 7 a.m., I stumble onto my patio with my coffee to breathe in the fresh scent of tar. At 8:30 a.m. I am at the theatre as 52 kids stumble into the dark theatre. At 8:40, an 8th grade student takes the stage and performs small plays for the students.
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"Do your Darth Vader play, Christie!" shouts a crowd of high school guys.
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"No, today I'm a chicken."
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And she was - for twenty minutes - a chicken performing in The Magic Fishbone (I knew Charles Dickens should have had a chicken in his story!). She performed as suggestions were shouted out from the sleep-eyed students and the more scarily alert ones.
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Is it a wonder I am craving "simple?"
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In May I wrote in my blog of my desire to live in a villa as Frances Mayes does and go to my terrace to pick baby lettuces. And now that it is July, I may. I transform my brain - as only a former actress can - and see my villa and my terrace.

My arugula - ready for picking.

Baby green lettuces - to be transformed into salads. But simple. After a morning with my squirrelly chickens, I have been coming home to adapt Pride and Prejudice. Twenty-seven characters (yes, I cut quite a few) and twenty two scenes - I want simple.

Arugula with shaved Parmesan. Salt and pepper and bit of oil and vinegar and done. Summer on my lips, simple, breathing in the spicy scent of the leaves - taking me to Italy.

Devoid of chickens.

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And again - simple - but a wee bit sweeter.

Roasted-honey fresh figs atop my baby lettuce with some sauteed prosciutto.

The simplicity of the dishes revives me. A glass of Pinot Grigio soothes me. And I fall into bed ready to do it all over again.

To eat (sweets) Or not to eat (sweets)?

After praising my new found ability to credibly bake (NOTE: not smashingly bake or beautifully bake) - but just "simply" bake, I have noted that my chubbiness has been expanding. I had resolved to not bake or eat sweets for the month of May. Oh, I know I had a cannoli ... or two ... or three... yesterday. But they were mini-cannolis, so they don't count. Besides, I walked off the calories stomping around the house.
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And then I went out and bought, radicchio, zucchini, "live" lettuce (yes, I know - as opposed the dead kind), tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, red peppers. And came home resolved to not look at a baked good.

I went soaring through blogosphere instead. And what did I find?
Cheesecake extraordinaire from Cream Puffs in Venice
Linzer Torte bars from My Tasty Treasures
Strawberry Shortcake from Elyse's Confectionery Creations
and from one whose kitchen strives to be healthy -
Chocolate almond macaroons from Sara's Kitchen
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And that's just the tip of the ice-blog-berg. Really! What's a chubby blogger to do? Devise an Italian salad. (NOTE: All my solutions to problems involve food.)

I dutifully took out my "live" lettuce, sliced 1/2 zucchini, chopped up a red pepper (okay I gave some to Sadie - my chubby blind dog - she loves her vegetables), threw on some olives, tomatoes and feta. Scattered some Italian parsley and radishes. Mixed 2/3 olive oil with 1/3 lemon, some chopped shallots and oregano and voila!




Okay. It's not a cannoli or a cheesecake. But it makes me feel virtuous. That I have a semblance of self-control. That I am master of the hand-to-mouth activity. It will do. Yes, it will do.

And now I will go back to savoring blogs. And bookmarking. For June. Or July ... or August.