Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: dinner

A Recipe For Mike’s Garden

One of the Summer things I look forward to is fresh Gazpacho made from Mike’s garden. So far this year we’ve made and consumed gallons of the stuff. It is WONDERFUL! So here’s the basis of it. I never cook by a recipe (much to my mother-in-law’s chagrin) I tend to cook by feel, taste, available ingredients, and health requirements. So this is the source of my inspiration when making Gazpacho but the results always vary a bit depending on how many tomatoes, peppers, onion, etc. are coming in from the garden.

Gazpacho

1 ½ pounds tomatoes peeled and diced

1 medium white onion chopped

1 medium cucumber peeled seeded chopped

1 cup green bell pepper seeded chopped

2 cups tomato juice

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cup lime juice

2 large cloves of garlic peeled and finely minced

Seeded chopped jalapeno to taste

½ teaspoon of Nature’s Seasoning (or ¼ teaspoon each of salt and black pepper)

Combine all ingredients in large bowl refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve each bowl with 1 Tablespoon of fat free sour cream on top.

10 servings Each serving contains 83 Calories, 6g fat, 1g Protein, 8g Carbohydrates, 2g Fiber Exchanges 11/2 Vegtable 1 Fat

It’s a team effort to make it. There’s a lot of chopping and peeling and seeding involved. Sometimes when there’s lots of tomatoes I puree tomatoes with salt and pepper to use for the tomato juice part. The nutrition information was estimated by my MasterCook program. I usually don’t use that much olive oil, about half that. I at times I add a bit more lime juice just so the color stays bright and I like the kick it adds. It’s really better if it sits in the fridge over night before eating. Then enjoy! It’s worth the effort!

September 10, 2012
Yesterday, A Day With No Internet

Stop SOPA and PIPA Blackout

Yesterday, like so many I went black from the internet. I thought I’d have withdrawal pains. But I didn’t. No I had weather front pains but not internet withdrawal pains. However a point had to be made SOPA and PIPA are dangerous. I’m not for pirates I am for artists. Heck I make my money from copyrighted material that’s mine. I support protecting that totally! However I also make my money expressing myself which I don’t want limited. Apparently the sponsors of the bills got the message.

I worked on my outline update for the steampunk novel edit/rewrite. I read a book. I cleaned the bathroom. All good and worthy things I could do without the internet.

Aaron and Adam cook

Then I called to make an appointment for a massage. The very best Christmas gift I got was a certificate for 6 one hour massages. Now that I’m over the stomach bug and aching from weather fronts I thought it was perfect time to call. I was expecting to schedule one for next week. But nope she had an opening at 2pm. With a bit of scurrying (shaving my winter legs among that) I was there. Best massage of my life! She did a full hour and half! I left totally relaxed.

Sara, Mistress of Pancakes

Then I came home to Aaron and friends preparing dinner for Mike and me. Our anniversary was the 17th and we went out. So our gift from Aaron was he’d make dinner. It was breakfast for dinner. There were six of them in the kitchen cooking away.

While waiting Mike and I were talking about the Italian ocean liner that sank. The liner captain that in my Navy Captain husband’s view was a criminal for his negligent actions causing the sinking and abandoning his post during the evacuation. Mike wanted me to hear the Coast Guard shouting at the man to get back on his ship and coordinate the evacuation efforts. I said I’d read about it on the 17th. No I needed to hear it, hear the Coast Guard’s voice and the anger in it. “Google it,” he said. I told him I couldn’t and I was blacking out the internet in my life for the day for a purpose. It was the first thing I searched for this morning and yes that man was pissed. I don’t speak Italian but it’s plain that man is pissed.

Ahh…

So after a wonderful dinner being so darn relaxed I couldn’t keep my eyes open I went to bed at 8pm and slept like a rock. I got up at 8 am to a new day with internet, still full from dinner, news the SOPA and PIPA bill sponsors had abandoned it, and joints that move more smoothly. Really I can’t think of a better internet blackout day – except one with a reliable car.

As usual I’d love to hear from you. You are welcome to comment here. It’ll show up when I get it. You can also find me on Google+, Twitter (@marylouiseklund), or Flickr (click on the photos). If you want to email me you can at gmail.com or yahoo.com I’m marylouiseeklund on either one.

Until next time!

January 19, 2012
The Things I Don’t Miss About Christmas

Many people paint a rosy picture of their childhood Christmases. In hopes of being a bit more practical I will admit there are many things I don’t miss about my childhood Christmases. Not that they weren’t great Christmases but there are some things I’m thankful I DON’T have to do any more.

I don’t miss getting dressed up to sit around the house. Yes, my Nanny (what I called my maternal grandmother) required everyone to look like a Norman Rockwell painting but better dressed. Didn’t work, I was uncomfortable in a dress or skirt and knee socks trying to play with my new toy. Give me jeans any day and I’m a happy camper, better yet sweats to just wear about the house enjoying myself.

I don’t miss having to make my bed and display my gifts. Well I didn’t HAVE to but my Nanny liked it. It did make writing thank-you notes much easier. Besides it’s easier to play with Barbies on a bed when you are in a skirt than in the floor.

I don’t miss the good china. Yeah it’s nice and I carried that stupidity to a new level when I was a young married woman by having specific Christmas dishes (well we used them all winter because they were winter themed). No really the meal tastes just as good on every day dishes and is much less stressful to do.

I don’t miss all the stupid school stuff. When I was in 5^th and 6^th grade our class went about singing to different places and putting on some odd variety show. We wore orange-yellow shirts with our names on them in fuzzy purple letters (our school colors were purple and gold but gold was expensive so orange-yellow stood in). I’d “blossomed” to a C cup by the 5^th grade and they had to shorten my name to fit on the shirt. It looked like one of the girls is named Mary and the other Lou. I don’t miss that.

I don’t miss the oyster stuffing. I like oysters steamed or smoked. I don’t like them in stuffing. Enough said.

I don’t miss the cut up stuff in the gravy. Why my grandmother insisted on chopped boiled egg and chopped turkey giblets put in the gravy is beyond me. I like my gravy plain like my coffee. They’re both beverages right?

Really, this time of the year many people wax nostalgic about their childhood Christmas. However being the cynic with a good heart I don’t want to gloss over the stuff I didn’t like (besides Mary and Lou are still hanging around, albeit a bit lower now).

Yes, there are things about my childhood Christmases I miss. They can all be summed up by one miss—I miss the anticipation. I miss the build up to Christmas. The excitement was so much I felt was going to burst and squirmed with delight at that feeling. It built so much until on Christmas Eve night I couldn’t fall asleep and my parents would take me on car rides to get me to go to sleep . I’d be in my pajamas with a blanket watching the dark sky and Christmas lights go by until I fell asleep.

No for me it’s gone. I get glimmers here and there of the thrill. The closest sustained anxious feeling like that is when I race from the car to the bathroom in Target wondering if I’ll make it in time. (Hey there’s anticipation and squirming involved with great joyous relief when I get there). No the anticipation isn’t the same.

Still looking on the bright side, I get to wear sweats, not wear the girls names about in public, enjoy a plain gravy while eating off my every day dishes, and skip making my bed that day. All in all life’s pretty good.

December 25, 2010