Make it! My Take on a Fresh Tomato Spanish Tortilla

I've never loved tomatoes more than I have this summer.  I'm not actually sure why.  Maybe it's because I've planted fewer tomato plants and so each red or yellow orb seems a little more special.  Maybe the tomatoes this year just taste different.  Either way I'm enjoying tomatoes more that ever before.  But here's the thing,  I don't like store bought tomatoes. Call me a brat, but I just don't.  I'll do without. From the garden though? I'll find a way to incorporate them into breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

This took less than 5 minutes to prepare.

And speaking of breakfast, lunch or dinner, here's a terrific and simple dish that's as lovely to look at as it is delicious.  If you're lucky enough to grow your own tomatoes  (or zucchini, or squash, or any other tasty veggie), or have neighbors that share, this will make for a flavorful meal at any time of the day. It's high in protein, and anywhere from $.20-$.65 per serving and makes 6 servings (1 egg a piece).  Bulking it up with potatoes and veggies is a great way to get some more vitamins and filling of tummies. It's a perfect vessel to use up more shabby vegetables or tomatoes. 

The hallmark of a traditional Spanish Tortilla is thinly sliced potatoes and eggs cooked in a round dish and sliced in wedges.  If you'd like a more traditional preparation, see here. It's a simple dish similar to an omelet, but my version is easy and takes less time (well - if you have leftover roasted potatoes like I did that need using up).  It's also just so pretty to look at.  You can serve it hot or cold.

As with anything I cook, this is a loose recipe.  No need for strictness here.  Add anything you want really that sounds yummy to you.

Here's how I made mine...

Easy Spanish Tortilla with fresh Tomatoes

6 Eggs

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Smoked Paprika

Small handful (1/4 cup-ish) shredded cheese (I used a Trader Joes 4 cheese blend with parmesan)

Tomatoes or other veggie thinly sliced

Leftover roasted potatoes

Fresh parsley (any green herb - dried or fresh works)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put your eggs in a round baking dish. Sprinkle salt pepper and smoked paprika to your taste.  Add in the roasted potatoes that you served four days ago at a dinner party and need to use up because you will simply not waste any more food.  Slice tomatoes thick or thin and lay on top of the eggs (the tomatoes, not you). Sprinkle with cheese even if you are lactose intolerant because: CHEESE.  Add some fresh parsley to the top.

Cook until eggs are done (probably 20-30 minutes or however long it takes to clean the kitchen).  I do a quick 5 minute broil on high at the end to get that beautiful golden top (keep a watchful eye so you don't burn it).

Try to forcefeed your daughter who hates tomatoes. 

Golden and bubbly. Prepare to stuff in face.

 That's it! Easy huh?  

Do you make egg pies or Spanish tortillas in your home?

Make it! Sunday Blessings and Moroccan Inspired Plum Chicken

Yesterday was a lovely mix of lazy and productive--exactly how I like my Sundays.  I spent a good chunk of the morning in bed, followed by grocery shopping, cleaning and cooking.  I like a tidy house, but often let the laundry get a wee out of control (out of sight out of mind in that basement laundry room). I've been working on keeping up with the laundry almost everyday, and so far it seems to be helping with the transition back to school, and maintenance of my sanity. Keeping on top of things throughout the week allows for these blissful Sundays. 

I had two good friends over for dinner last night. They also happen to be neighbors, so it's easy to throw together impromptu dinner parties. When my little girl is with her dad I spend extra time in the kitchen experimenting with recipes, dancing to Otis Redding and sometimes having a nice adult beverage along the way. I like having an afternoon to myself now and again, but when I make something delicious, I am always so disappointed she missed it being the little foodie she is. 

Blissful but sweaty, very sweaty, in the kitchen.

I had an abundance of plums from my generous neighbor Suzie, so I wanted to work as many into the recipe as possible.  I had picked both purple plums and yellow, but the yellow ones were already overripe and needed to be used immediately.  If you don't have a source of free plums, you could try prunes, raisins, wilty apricots or peaches, and even an apple or two.  Anything to give that touch of sweetness. 

I had my heart set on Moroccan chicken after my friend Deborah mentioned she had some recently.  I googled "Moroccan chicken" for inspiration on spices and searched the cupboard and found that I had smoked paprika, cumin and turmeric.  Those would be the smoky, savory flavors balancing the sweetness of the plums.  Moroccan recipes are often a wonderful marriage of sweet fruit and smoky, spicy flavor. 

As are most of my "recipes" (I put "recipes" in quotes because I'm an off the fly cook and think that a little confidence and a few techniques in the kitchen are far more important than any recipe), this was an easy dish, and relatively frugal.  The price per serving was approximately $2.24 per person, but could have easily been cheaper if I had used cheaper meat and veggies.  At one time I would have only have had the option of using less expensive ingredients.  I think you could easily get the recipe down to at least $1.25 per serving if not lower if using less expensive chicken and veggies (i.e. not organic).   For me, while I do adhere to a budget, I choose to put some of the extra money I have now towards food.  It's valuable to me.  I didn't always have that option when I was in my very lean years where I was living on $150/month for two people to eat.  The important thing is that we try to fill ourselves with nourishing food within our budgets that are enjoyable and healthy.  

I did serve this with some sides from the garden, but it is easily  an entire filling meal on its own. Lemon rice would also be delicious with this dish. 

Without further adieu...

Moroccan Plum Chicken

Ingredients:

5 chicken thighs (feel free to use more, this is how many came in the package I bought)

1/2 pound of rainbow carrots (bag is 1 lb)

1 onion

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or some other oil

Spices (turmeric, smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper) 

Kosher salt

Potaoes (I think I used about 1 pound - I abide by the "use as many as can fit in your pan" rule"). 

1/2 jar of Trader Joes Green Olive Tapanade

8 skinned plums (Since these were free I didn't factor them into the overall cost.  Possibly slightly unfair, I know). 

Chicken thighs are a cheaper cut of meat no matter if you buy conventional or organic.  The higher fat content in the meat makes this an extra flavorful and juicy cut.

Start by taking your meat out of the package and put them on a plate.  Salt them generously on both sides with kosher salt.  Sprinkle with turmeric, smoked paprika, and cumin an both sides.  I like the chicken to be out of the fridge for about 40 minutes before I cook it.  It really helps to get all that flavor in there.  

Take your overripe plums and slide the skin off (an easy task with such ripe fruit).  Pop the pit out by squishing the plum with your fingers. I squished the plums into pieces into a small pan just using my fingers.  Sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon. Honestly, I don't know if it's entirely necessary to cook the plums to bring out the flavor.  I did for about 20 minutes and the results were smashing - but feel free to experiment. I think I could have cooked them much longer and reduced to a sweeter concoction.  This makeshift plum sauce would be incredible over ice cream, mixed with dessert rice, or in cottage cheese or yogurt. 

Chop up your potatoes, carrots and onions and toss with oil, salt and black pepper in a bowl.  Toss with the plum sauce and place all that yumminess into a baking dish.  I broke my large casserole pan last week (it exploded, long story), and so I used an old Corningware pot that was generously given to me after a neighbor on the block passed away. Lay those juicy chicken thighs right atop that lovely veg and then top each thigh with a scoop of green olive tapanade (it's best to scoop out what you need first in a bowl and then place on the chicken as you don't want to contaminate the rest of the jar with chicken germs).

Not the prettiest picture, but I swear to you, this was delicious!

Pop in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 mins to an hour or until the potatoes are done. I finished off my cooking with about a five minute broil. If you prefer your chicken not quite as well done, add in after the potatoes and veggies have cooked for a bit. Enjoy with friends or family.  Or if you are lucky, friends you love enough as family, and family you like enough as friends. 

My lovely friends and a giant air conditioner tube.

The Frugal Haps with Photos!

The garden is still chugging along in early September.  The zucchini and cucumber are still producing, albeit they are scraggly and so pitiful looking they seem as though they are begging for mercy (pull me you wicked woman!).

Yesterday's snack all from the garden.

Tomatoes are in fine form, and if you can believe it, strawberries are still coming.  Large and red berries and healthy green plants.  I hope to expand to an entire bed for them next year next to the raspberry bed I hope to have. Oh garden dreaming...

My sweet neighbor Marianne gave me lots of spicy lettuce to transplant, and I hope they survive my ineptitude (I replanted them yesterday in full sun). 

The pumpkin patch was overtaken by the blight, but we were able to get a great haul of sweet round pumpkins.  We gave away several to the neighbors, and will save two for my niece and nephew. The few remaining will be part of our fall decorating.

We will keep a few.  One for me, the girl, and our kitty Charlie.

If the weather is nice and I have good energy I tend to go hog wild on my day off.  I take off every other Thursday without pay so I can take my daughter to school and take care of home necessities.  Yesterday was a blissful day of good health and lots of yard work.  Those are my favorite days. It also happened to coincide with the local nursery's fall clearance sale.  Can anyone say FRUIT TREES?!  I was able to pick up a Dwarf Fuji for $10, a peach tree for $10 (we will see how that does in this climate), and a beautiful ornamental somethingerother.

Which reminds me something I haven't shared! Because of my neighborhood's issue with sewer runoff into the Puget Sound, I qualified for a free rain garden from the city! Well, almost free.  I did have to pay $384 for the 200 gallon cistern, but I had wanted one of those for years.  I was able to water the yard with it yesterday. 

The garden is gorgeous and between labor (lots of digging underground pipes) and plants, it was nearly $2,800 FOR FREE!

I really love my time in the garden.  It feeds me (both literally and spiritually).  I love sharing my bounty with neighbors, and they in turn are so gracious in sharing with me.  In fact, yesterday my neighbor Suzie invited me to pick tons of plums from her yard as they are dropping like crazy.  And my sweet next door neighbor Mary shared several different kinds of tomatos!

Thank you Mary!

Along with the photo of the yummy plums, I'll leave you with the classic William Carlos Williams poem on that very subject...

Thank you Suzie!

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Robin Williams' Final Gift

Photo Credit: Peter Hapak for TIME Magazine

*Today's post is not frugality related, but  something I feel compelled to write about. 

By all accounts, Robin Williams was a generous man - not just financially, but with his time, through his kindness, and his humble nature that made it possible for him, one of the biggest stars in America, to relate to his fellow human beings in everyday life.  Both the famous and non-famous seem to have the same account of this man: generous, kind and funny.  Good god was he funny.  But like Pagliacci, the famous clown, Robin Williams was struggling with a deep pain that millions of people struggle with worldwide.  A very common, and very dangerous illness that few like to talk about and even fewer admit to experiencing: Depression. Robin Williams’ legacy in life was the gift of laughter and entertainment, but through his tragic suicide, his insurmountable pain, he has left us with another gift – blowing wide open the dirty little secret that causes so many to suffer in silence and is the number one cause of suicide worldwide.  And it may save lives.

Like a fungus, depression thrives in the dark – isolation, shame and solitude keep people from getting the help they need.  Like Robin, many of us who have struggled with depression wear a mask of happiness to hide what society deems a flaw in personality, rather than an illness.  Whatever the cause of someone’s depression – stress, life events, medical factors, chemical imbalance, spiritual causes, there are very real physical changes happening in the brain.  And when it goes untreated for long enough – the consequences may be deadly.  People can hide depression for a time, but not forever. If not exposed in the light of day, the fungus will destroy its host – and leave many others shattered with grief in its wake.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 800,000 people commit suicide every year worldwide, and depression is the leading cause of suicide, yet I still hear people making jokes about things like Prozac flippantly.  Whether medication is a solution or not is not the point – depression is no laughing matter.  Breast cancer killed half that many people in 2010 according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  When was the last time you heard a breast cancer joke?

There is an episode of my favorite t.v. show, The Office, that makes commentary on the insensitivity and lack of awareness about depression and mental illness.  In the episode Michael calls a meeting to read out of the “suggestion box” that hadn’t been in use for years.  Michael pulls out a sheet of paper and reads, “We need better outreach for employees fighting depression – Tom.”  Michael (played by another gifted comedic actor, Steve Carell) insists it’s a joke, they don’t even have a Tom in the office – until Phyllis reveals that Tom did work there years ago, in accounting, and shot himself.

People with depression often feel embarrassed, less than, and are many times in denial of their own condition.  When suffering from undiagnosed OCD that led to serious depression at 19 years old, no one even believed I could be depressed.  I smiled, was pleasant, and as I had been my whole life, an optimist.  I wore a mask because I was afraid of what people would think about me. However, as most people that have experienced a mental illness at some point in their life will tell you, you can only hide for so long.  Eventually untreated mental illness will cause your world to fall apart.  That’s why it is so crucial for people to feel safe and unjudged in regards to depression and other mental illnesses, so they can get the support they need early on.  Mental illness can happen to anyone, and will affect everyone at some point in their lives either directly or indirectly.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, I’ve heard people argue that depression should or should not be classified as a disease, similar to cancer. That is just semantics, and beside the point.  Depression is an illness of the brain and it can be treated in various ways.  However what is crucial in the collective fight against depression is that we begin to talk about it as if we were talking about any other illness.  Take away the shame, and the insults, and replace it will empathy and questions.

People with Depression often feel ashamed, worthless, and flawed.  They feel like a burden and maybe the world would be better off without them.  This isn’t just pessimism, this is the thinking of a very ill brain.  I believe that because he led an extraordinary life, people will be able to say, “Robin Williams was a good man, a kind man, a talented man and he suffered from the illness that is depression, like me.”  

Depression is not a flaw of character, and it may have taken the death of one of the greatest characters of all time for us to really see that. 

Back To Basics

A bouquet from my gentleman caller in my $2 vintage vase that I love!

I've been a bit preoccupied lately.  As a single mother working full-time, it happens - sometimes seemingly at the slightest change in wind.

But this thing that has come along is more than just a change in weather, and I feel like I am learning things all over again - maybe even for the first time. 

In short, I'm dating someone.  Now I've dated on and off for years, but nothing ever serious.  I've been single close to ten years.  So this thing - er, um, this man - has had quite the effect on my life, and even on seemingly unrelated things like my budget (I'll explain more on that below). 

Many positive things come with a boyfriend, but I've found it's a learning curve for me - there are all the internal questions, the anxiety, the wondering.  One thing that's required in love is certain, and there is no real way around it, there's always an element of risk involved.  Those are the big guns - the big heart questions, the dance of getting to know someone that comes with the territory of romantic relationships.

And yet, there's another thing I've noticed affected by being in a relationship, and that's my spending.  Now, I've found a man that enjoys paying for things.  He's old fashioned that way and while it's certainly not expected, it's really refreshing to know that he likes being generous in that way. I reciprocate at times, but he pays for most things we do together.  Where I tend to spend more in dating is buying clothes, paying for things out of convenience because of time constraints, and when I cook for him I don't hold back too much and if there is a special ingredient I want to get, I'll get it. Then there's things like buying lunches at work - which there is no real excuse for, I just happen to be doing it.

I don't want to be too hard on myself here, but I do want to become more aware and reign it back while still allowing for some fun.  I need to get back to the basics.

Does your attention to finance change when life changes?

Here's a poem I like about change.  I'm not going to claim I know exactly what it means, but I like the imagery and the way it sounds in my head as I read it.

The Beautiful Changes

BY RICHARD WILBUR

One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides   

The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies

On water; it glides

So from the walker, it turns

Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you   

Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.

The beautiful changes as a forest is changed   

By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;   

As a mantis, arranged

On a green leaf, grows

Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves   

Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows.

Your hands hold roses always in a way that says   

They are not only yours; the beautiful changes   

In such kind ways,   

Wishing ever to sunder

Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose   

For a moment all that it touches back to wonder.

Garden Delights and Wise Words from John Updike

My only potatoes of the season, some zucchini, purple beans, and the last of the snap peas.

The garden is full of delights this time of year.  Some things, like lettuce and snap peas which burst onto the scene with reckless abandon, have drifted off into a slumber in the summer heat.

Still growing like mad are zucchini, cucumbers, purslane, kale, tomatoes, carrots and pumpkins.  I've probably got at least 30 pumpkins growing at the moment and I'm hoping there will be enough for the neighborhood and family kids to all get one for Halloween this year.

Just three pumpkin seeds in a little mound of dirt is all it took this year,  The bees have been busy pollinating the large blossoms. 

I had not anticipated the success of the pumpkin patch this year!

While I can't always count on her help in the garden (except for the harvesting part!) my daughter loves to make "fairy houses."  She will spend considerable time on making these homes pleasant for the fairies of her dreams.  Sometimes the fairies leave little gifts.

It might be hard to see, but this has everything a fairy might need!

So much growth and so much wonder takes place in the garden.  Lessons are learned in both patience and acceptance.  What becomes merely a memory of hard work, gives so much in the growth of plants.  That is, until it is time to work again.  The time in the garden rarely does feel like actual work to me for some reason.  Even sore muscles and sweat translate into joy.

Here is a poem I love from John Updike about hoeing in the garden. 

Hoeing

I sometimes fear the younger generation will be deprived 

of the pleasures of hoeing;

there is no knowing

how many souls have been formed by this simple exercise. 


The dry earth like a great scab breaks,

revealing moist-dark loam--

the pea-root's home,

a fertile wound perpetually healing.


How neatly the green weeds go under!

The blade chops the earth new.

Ignorant the wise boy who

has never performed this simple, stupid, and useful wonder.


~John Updike

Make It! Watermelon Shaved Ice

Nothing beats a cool slice of watermelon on a hot day...right?

Until last night I didn't think so, but that was before we tried a little experiment in the kitchen with frozen watermelon.

I had a bunch of watermelon leftover from a party that needed to be eaten up quickly.  I had heard you could freeze it, so I popped the cubed pieces into a tupperware and into the freezer.

My kiddo really liked how it tasted frozen, but I thought I'd try to improve on the fun and pop it in the food processor.

This may work with any number of blending tools, but I used a hand powered food processor a friend gave me for my birthday.

It turned out perfectly! So sweet and delicious and powdery, and free from all the typical nasty chemicals and colorings and artificial sweeteners that come with regular shaved ice.

I think this would be really yummy with frozen peaches and nectarines too!