It Was a Perfect Day!

A 'Queen Elizabeth' Rose Adorned the Dining Table!

A Fruit Salad with Lemon Verbena!

The Herbal Husband Shared His Favorite Waffles!

My gift, A Souvenir Spoon!

The Birthday Cards I Received!

Time in the Garden to Pick Raspberries and Bugs!

Picked Enough For Another Batch of Raspberry Jam!

K-P Duty for Lunch!

The Herbal Husband Prepared a Wonderful Causa!

Spiedino di Mare

Dessert Rosa for Me!

We Enjoyed Our Dinner and Especially Dessert!

Well, I hope you can see what a great birthday I had!  The Herbal Husband took care of making breakfast and lunch.  Well I did help with lunch boiling the potatoes and eggs!  Here is a link for the causa recipe.  I got to work in the garden.  We had a little drive to Ohio and had a lovely dinner.  Now back to reality and not eating so much and moving more tomorrow!  Thanks to everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday on Facebook and here.  It was a beautiful day here.  Back to summer heat tomorrow and over the weekend.  If you are in the U.S., have a great Labor Day weekend.  Talk to you later.  

A Favorite Lunch on My Birthday!

Yes, another year has passed and I'm a year older!  The Herbal Husband has made Causa for me for lunch on my birthday for the past several years!  It is one of my favorite Peruvian dishes.  He takes out the heat for me because I can't have it any more.  It is just as good without it.  We even had frozen peas from our garden in the mix.  Very special.

It is a humid soggy day here in the garden.  Can just relax on my birthday!  Hopefully, you are having a great day as well.  In addition to my special lunch, we are going out to The Pines Tavern for my birthday dinner.  I'll share photos later.  Talk to you later.

Lavender Lemonade

Mixed Seafood Grill with Lemon Risotto and Green Beans

My All Time Favorite, Coconut Cream Pie!

Well, as you can see I oinked out for dinner.  I'm going to have to quit eating for a few days to get back on track!  Oh, the mixed seafood grill was 8 shrimp, a small lobster tail and a crab cake.  Delish!  I was even thinking of calling ahead and asking or demanding that the cream pie of the day be coconut and guess what?  I didn't have to beg, call or demand.  The cream pie of the day because it was my birthday was coconut cream.  They make the best and I did kindly share some with The Herbal Husband.  I had a very good time.  The restaurant was busy.  Having a cup of chai to neutralize the calories!  Well, that's all I have.  I'll talk to you Friday.

Arroz Con Pollo From the Other Night!

Well, I have been slacking in the blogging department.  I wanted to share another Peruvian masterpiece from The Herbal Husband.  I thought I had share this recipe before, but it appears I'm keeping it from you.  We were getting in a rut with meals.  The same food every week.  So when The Herbal Husband mentioned arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), I was in!  Here is the recipe:

Arroz con Pollo

Serves 6-8

1 whole chicken cut in pieces or 8 thighs with skin and bones

1/3 cup of oil

1 medium onion diced

1 fresh hot pepper or powdered hot pepper to taste (It was left out of ours

    and it was just as good without it.)

1 cup cilantro leaves, minced

1 teaspoon of granulated garlic or 2 cloves of garlic minced

¼ pound of fresh peas or a small bag of frozen peas

3-1/2 cups of long grain rice

Salt & pepper to taste      

¼ teaspoon of cumin

3-1/2 cups of water or chicken stock plus additional cup of beer,
 water or stock to be added at end of cooking

1 sweet red pepper, diced

Marinate chicken pieces with salt, pepper, cumin and hot pepper (if powdered) for 15 minutes.  Heat oil and fry chicken to seal in juices in a Dutch oven.  Keeping chicken in the pot, add the onion, then garlic and cook until light brown.  Stir to keep from burning.  Add water or stock and cilantro.  When mixture comes to a boil, add rice and simmer covered for 15 minutes or until liquid is gone.  Add fresh or frozen peas 3 minutes before being done with the diced red pepper.   If desired, stir in one glass of beer, water or stock (about 8 oz.) to rice at end to make it moist and help it finish cooking.  Turn heat off and let it sit on the burner covered for 5 to 10 minutes until rice is done.  

The purple bits you may see in the photo are purple potatoes that were an addition to this version of the recipe.  The Herbal Husband said not to list them as an ingredient because they are not traditionally in arroz con pollo.   So there you have it.  Maybe dinner for you tonight if you are still searching for a dinner idea.

It was raining cats and dogs a little while go.  We don't have snow at the moment.  Thank goodness, but snow back in the forecast for tomorrow night!  Winter is not through with us yet.  Stay safe. Talk to you later.  

A Nice Warm Lunch on a Frosty Day! Well, Not Really!

Once again the tropical Herbal Husband comes up with a satisfying lunch.  If you can't quite tell by the marvelous photo, it is avocado topped with chicken salad, a hard boiled egg and tomato and lettuce and maybe a couple of big green olives (a weakness of mine).  The avocado is a healthy fat, the chicken salad is made with lite mayo, a hard boiled egg is my favorite quick protein snack and tomato and lettuce is just great nutritious  filler.  I sprinkle it with a Tuscan Sunset Italian salt-free blend from Penzeys Spices.  Perfect.

Well, it is just cold and snowy here.  Take a look.

We got that gray 'Burgh day going on.  I think tomorrow may be a sunny day and I will get out and take a few sunny photos.  Promise.  Gotta go and work for my next lunch by shoveling a path to the car and getting the car cleaned off!  Talk to you later!

Peruvian Chard Pie Recipe Translated!

Spinach Pie, Peruvian Style
Ingredients:

1 lb of frozen or fresh spinach, well washed.  (I would say if using frozen, use two 10 oz. packages thawed.)
1 medium onion, diced
1 teaspoon of ground garlic
2 tablespoons of canola oil
salt, pepper to taste
8 oz package of shredded mozarella and provolone cheese mix
1/4 cup of sliced black kalamata olives, pitted.
1 package of prepared frozen puff pastry preferably square or rectangular, in the frozen food section of the super market.
4 or 6 medium eggs
1 glass Pyrex glass dish, 8 inches square and 2-3" deep, sprayed with Pam.

Preparation:

First, defrost the package of puff pastry for 45 minutes before starting the process.
Warm the oven at 350F(electric) or 240F(gas) (I'm not sure that it isn't the same for electric and gas.) until its ready.

Defrost the spinach or boil the fresh one in some water until it's cooked and reduced. Leave to cool in pot.
Saute the onion, with the oil, garlic, salt and pepper, until cooked.
Add the olives and let it rest.
Mix the spinach with the saute and add the cheese. Mix well.

Place one of the crusts flattened in the bottom of the Pyrex folding it well to cover the sides.
Pour the warm mix of spinach, saute and cheese in the mold.
Make four(or six) holes at each corner of the mix deep enough to place a raw egg in each.
Cover the pie with the other flattened crust and crimp the edges. Make vents with a knife for steam to escape.
Place the pie in the oven for 1 hour, or until it browns nicely.
Once baked, let it cool for 15 minutes.
Serves 6 portions.
And enjoy this delicious pie!

These are The Herbal Husband's ingredients and directions.  I have tried to keep them as he wrote them.  I just added a couple of thoughts to make it clearer.  Ask questions if you need to.  Errands day and Panera lunch.  Enjoyable.  It is cold here.  Talk to you later.

A Peruvian Chard Pie!

This was a joint creation by The Herbal Husband and me.  He grew and picked the Peruvian chard and made the filling from an old recipe that a friend of his mother's made for the family in the 50's.  Some days we are just stuck there in the 50's.  I bought the puff pastry and formed the bottom and top crust.  Hey, I contributed the foundation!  This was a different kind of pie because there were several eggs dropped at the last minute on top of the filling before the top crust was placed.  I will get you a translation of the recipe when it is done.

You can see the egg hanging out of my piece of the pie.  It was hard boiled, but sunny side up.  It is a very nontraditional chard pie.  Maybe more typically Peruvian.  Hey, anything made with puff pastry is a winner in my book.  I just can't have a huge piece of it.  Semi-beautiful fall day here.  Hope you are having a great day.  Talk to you later.

The Herbal Husband's Guacamole Recipe!

Get out the scoops and dig in!  Oh, sorry.  You need to make it first!   I'm here to share The Herbal Husband's Guacamole recipe.  Now he says please make it your own if there is something that he has left out.

The Herbal Husband's Guacamole
Feeds 2 Hungry Gardeners at Lunch or 4 Normal People as an Appetizer.


2 ripe avocados, mashed
2 small tomatoes or 1 medium tomato, diced
A couple of sprigs of parsley, chopped
A bit (1 sprig)  of cilantro, chopped
A bunch (4 or 5) of green tops from scallions, chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash avocados with big fork, add salt and pepper to taste and one teaspoon of olive oil (maybe less).  Mix it, taste it and then add the scallion tops (and if you want more onion flavor, add the bottoms).  Then add the chopped parsley and cilantro (and again, add more of each if you like it).  I do like cooked cilantro better than raw so he doesn't put in as much as he could if I weren't around!  Mix together and add the tomatoes at the end.

The Herbal Husband has added a squeeze or two of lemon or lime juice, but I think it is very good just the way it is.  I like it better without the lemon or lime juice.  You may like it better with.  So hope you enjoy it.

We really have the stickies and ickies.  We got a couple of sunflower beds planted and I finally got seeds from last year's gift from Miss C planted.  I'll get photos of both beds so you can see the seedlings (hopefully) popping UP!  Hope you are having a great day.  Hope to add to The Herbal Husband's Recipes category from previous posts.  I did find a recipe for Causa and Lomo Saltado which are two of my favorite dishes from Peru so I added it to Herbal Husband Recipes.  I found a quick lunch idea of chicken salad in an avocado half as well.  We may have a cookbook before he is done!  Talk to you later.

Never The Wrong Day for This!

One of my favorite Peruvian dishes is Causa.  The Herbal Husband usually makes this for my birthday in August.  I could eat this once a week easily.  We had a lot of leftover mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving.  Never a bad thing, but we always try and make something special out of them.  Most of the time a summertime treat.  For those of you in the tropics, this is a really good lunch or even dinner item.  Way off track.  Lots of you are done with your holiday decor.  It may be a lite decorating season here!  It is snowing here and very cold.  Hope you are staying warm wherever you may be.  I'm off to exercise.  Talk to you later.

The photo shows a single portion.  For Lifeshighway and Jim Long:

TUNA FISH WITH COLD MASHED POTATOES

(CAUSA A LA LIMENA)

Serves 12

4 (6oz.) cans of white albacore tuna, packed in water, drained

3 lb. golden potatoes, peeled (about 8 to 10 medium potatoes)

1/4 t. cayenne pepper powder (to taste)

1 t. salt

1/8 t. ground black pepper

Juice of one large lemon

3 T. fresh parsley, chopped

2 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 T. light mayonnaise, (not salad dressing)

3 large eggs, hard boiled and chopped

12 large black olives, pitted and chopped

In a large pot, boil and cook peeled potatoes until fork tender (about 20 minutes).  Strain water and mash potatoes by hand.  Let cool.  While potatoes are cooking, hard boil eggs in separate pan.  Let cool, peel and chop and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix tuna fish, chopped onion, chopped egg and mayonnaise to combine.  Refrigerate.  Add olive oil, salt, peppers and parsley to room temperature potatoes.  Mix so all ingredients are well incorporated.  The potato mixture should be smooth not lumpy.  Taste to make sure seasoning is evenly distributed.

In a 9" x 13" pan, spread half of the potato mixture evenly on the bottom.  Then add all of the tuna fish mixture on top spreading evenly.  Use the rest of the potato mixture for the top layer spreading evenly.

Add black olives on top as a garnish.  Chill in refrigerator until it is ready to be served (not less than one hour).   Serve in squares on organic lettuce.

A Spicy Feast!

In trying to slim down, The Herbal Husband cooked this spicy (not hot) but tasty stew made with chicken thighs, potatoes from our garden, chicken broth (low fat and sodium), a jar of canned tomatoes from our garden, carrots and peas and cumin, turmeric and curry.  It was very good.  Going to have some leftovers tonight!  Yummy!  Hope you're staying warm!  It's going to be better soon!

This is My Favorite Peruvian Dish!

Oh wait, there are more favorite Peruvian dishes.  This just happened to be dinner the other night.  The picture is a little messy, because I jumped into it before I thought, oh, blog post!  Lomo saltado, literally translated it means "jump steak".  It has steak strips, tomato, onion, hot pepper without the seeds (There is a story about that.), vinegar, soy sauce at the end, peas, steak fries and served over rice.  Sort of like a Peruvian stir fry!  It's delicious!

Lomo Saltado (Serves 6, we think!)

1 (or maybe 1-1/2) pound(s) of sirloin steak, cut into strips
3 medium tomatoes or 1 beefsteak (or 1 jar of canned tomatoes) about 1 pound of tomatoes, cut in wedges
2 medium or 1 large onion,  cut in wedges
1 medium hot pepper, deseeded and cut in long strips
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. canola or vegetable oil
1 t. of granulated garlic
a sprinkle of black pepper
a sprinkle of annato or paprika
1/2 of a large bag of steak fries (or maybe more)
1/2 c. of fresh or frozen green peas
 A splash of soy sauce (can be light)
Cooked rice for 6 people
A small bunch Italian flat leaf parsley for garnish

Wash, cut and chop parsley as a garnish and set aside.  Preheat the oven for the fries per package directions.  The fries can bake while you are preparing the rest of the dish.  Marinate the meat strips in a container with the garlic, annato or paprika and pepper.  Let it rest on the side.  In the meantime, cut the onions and tomatoes in wedges and set aside.  Using your largest skillet (ideally 14" wide x3" deep), heat the oil on high, when it's hot, add the meat and brown to keep the juices in.  Once the meat is browned, add the onions and saute the onions for a few minutes and then add the tomatoes, stirring to mix the flavors.  Once the tomatoes are soft and the juices mixed, add the vinegar, stir to combine.   Then add the peas, lower the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes.  Finally, add the hot pepper, cover with a lid and turn the burner to low heat until the pepper is cooked.  Add a sprinkle of soy sauce just before you serve.  To serve,  place several fries on the plate, use a ladle to dish some saltado on top of the fries and garnish with parsley.  Serve rice on the side or how I like it with the rice on the bottom not the side!

This is a translation from The Herbal Husband's brain to blog page!  If you don't understand a step, we will hopefully be able to help you through it!   A quick story about the hot pepper.  Make sure that you deseed it!  The Herbal Husband didn't think that the pepper I bought one time was hot, he left the seeds in!  It ruined the dish!  He couldn't even eat it!  Hope you enjoy it!

I Had a Special Day Yesterday!

Yes, yesterday was the day of my birth, 50 plus years ago!  The Herbal Husband always has a way of making my day a special one.  Here is the treat he made us at lunchtime.  It is called causa.  It is a bed of mashed potatoes made with olive oil and lemon and then tuna fish salad with mayo, onions, sliced black olives and herbs on top!  A home grown tomato, an egg, fresh parsley and a nasturtium to garnish.  His cooking is always made with love and care.  Especially when he is cooking for me!  I think I must have been Irish or Peruvian in another life, because potatoes are my favorite in any way, shape or form!

We then went to the movies to see "Taking Woodstock"  The movie was good, but what would have made it even better if the music from the concert had been in the background.  Unfortunately, it wasn't!  Then it was off to a late lunch, early dinner at P. F. Chang's China Bistro.  One of our favorite Chinese restaurants!  Just let me say that we finished our meal with the Great Wall of Chocolate!  The Herbal Husband couldn't believe that we actually finished it!  It was enough chocolate to last until next year!  They also have a fantastic dessert called "Banana Spring Rolls."  Actually that is my very favorite, but I thought the Herbal Husband would enjoy the chocolate dessert better.  I'll get my spring rolls next time!  All in all it was a wonderful birthday!  We also ran into a friend who is a very creative designer and artist.  He is also the designer of the Herbal Husband's citizenship sampler.  You can check out that post here.  John, it is getting close to be finished!  He has his designs on etsy.com and I have added his link in my favorite herbal links and other good things.  So please check it out!  It is the first link called "Embellishments 4 Life."

A Favorite Peruvian Dish

Two of the Herbal Husband's favorite foods are on the plate to the left, beans and rice. He even likes burned rice at the bottom of the pot! He spiced the rice up with a little turmeric, organic peas and red pepper. Curcuma longa or turmeric comes from the Arabic kurkum, meaning saffron, a yellow dye. The plant is grown in India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It is a dark yellow powder, tasting similar to ginger, slightly bitter and pungent, gives a pleasant flavoring and a golden yellow color to food. The color is long-lasting, the flavor is fleeting, so it is used in small amounts. Turmeric is one of nine standard ingredients of Indian curry (the others being ginger, cardamon, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and cinnamon). It is also used as dyeing materials and leathers. I found this information in Simon & Schuster's Guide to Herbs and Spices. I have always thought it strange that beans and rice are on the same plate. The Herbal Husband told me that in the 17th century Chinese coolies were brought over to Peru to work in the fields and rice was grown. Always learning something new!

Baby, It's Still Cold Outside!

Well, last night was the coldest night in 15 years! It was minus 7! Fifteen years ago it was minus 22! When the Herbal Husband and I met 25 years ago, we were watching a PBS special on Railways of the World one evening. The program was talking about the railways of Peru. The one statement that stuck with me is that Peruvians enjoy eating! The Herbal Husband loves to eat and cook! Soooo we enjoyed the tropics indoors with a little Peruvian speciality for lunch. Shrimp cocktail, Peruvian style! Yummy! The avocados from Chile have been wonderful this year. So to spoil me a little bit more, the Herbal Husband mixed some thawed chopped shrimp (you can leave them whole if you wish) with some light mayo, salt and pepper, granulated garlic and some frozen peas and carrots, slightly cooked. He placed that on top of the avocado, but you can also chop up the avocado and place the entire salad on a plate (or back in the skin of the avocado) with a lettuce tomato garnish. Chopped scallions and parsley are sprinkled on top. Makes you think of summer on a very cold day in the 'Burgh!