Not too long ago I posted a question on Facebook. I asked how people cooked corn on the cob. I shuck mine then roll them in aluminum foil and cook them in the oven.
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Corn On The Cob
two cobs of corn
aluminum foil
butter
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Peel the husk off of each corn cob, also, try to remove all of the silk. Then wash the corn. Place the corn in a piece of aluminum foil with some butter. Roll the cob up in the foil. Put the corn in the middle of the rack with the rack set to the middle of the oven. Cook for about 60 minutes.
Take the corn out of the oven and let cool at least 20 minutes. Butter and salt, then serve.
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I don’t like to have the silk in my teach so I try to remove it all before I cook it. I also rinse the corn off because often times the husk is dirty and I sometimes get dirt on my hands and then handle the corn. I also rinse it off because I like to have a little bit of moisture in the foil wrapping when it is cooking. My husband prefers his corn is cooked in the butter, whereas I like to put the butter on mine after it is cooked. So with his piece I put in a tablespoon or two of butter and with mine I kind of just rub some butter on. Just enough to give it a little fat to cook with.
I know this is a long time to cook, but we like it. It just take planning. I have to remember to put it on at least an hour before we want to eat it. It has worked out good the last two times that I cooked it, I cooked it an hour and a half before we wanted to eat so it was able to cook and cool before we ate.
I planned on posting about it, so I took pictures of the prep, but by the time it was cooked I had forgotten and didn’t take any more pictures. But I am sure you know what cooked corn on the cob looks like.
In this past organic produce delivery there was a little watermelon. They call them personal watermelons. They are so cute. I decided to slice it open, cut it up, and put it in the fridge. Wow. It is a very good melon. Since watermelons have so much water in them I don’t think of them as having much nutritional value, but a quick internet search shows that they aren’t just water.
Red and pink fruits and veggies contain lycopene which is an antioxidant. Studies suggest it can help reduce the risks of getting asthma and cancer. Antioxidants help fight the formation of free radicals known to cause cancer. Watermelon may help protect against heart disease, while a study showed a supplement of watermelon extract helped with high blood pressure. Lycopene is also thought to help act as a sunscreen. With watermelon being over 90% water, it can help keep things moving in the digestive system.
Vitamin A contained in watermelon can help your skin and eyes. While Choline, an essential nutrient that is naturally present in some foods, helps with metabolism, among other things, and may help with chronic inflammation. And beta-cryptoxanthin may help protect against inflammation.
Percent Daily Values (%DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
I have a post where I suggest adding watermelon to you salad greens, specifically, arugula
Information also says that while watermelon might seem high in carbohydrates, is has a glycemic index (GI) value of 80 and its glycemic load is a 5. So it is not a bad sweet.
I know two people who don’t like watermelon and I find that very odd. I pretty much think EVERYONE likes watermelon. These benefits seem to make it a good snack.
What do you think? Do you like watermelon? Do you cook with it? How do you eat it?
Last weekend my husband and I went to a wedding. It was so fun and so beautiful. I didn’t have a moment to check in with the bride regarding how it went (as in were there any “issues”), but to me, a guest, it was perfect. The time leading up to the wedding she had the “Oh no, what ifs . . . ” but I tried to remind her that most of the time guests don’t have any idea about all of the little things that can go “wrong” and do go “wrong” at a wedding. It is up to the bride to just take it in stride as the thing that really matters is the marriage. So, if anything went wrong, I didn’t see it. The venue was gorgeous, she was gorgeous, it was just a great event. I loved this runner that they had. Interesting, yes?
There are standing yoga poses, there are sitting yoga poses, there are reclined yoga poses, there are prone yoga poses, and there are some yoga poses that require the person to be on their knees. There are a lot of reasons being on one’s knees might be uncomfortable. Sometimes people just fold up their yoga mat to give them extra cushion under their knees. Some people have opted to bring in additional cushions and pads to put under their knees. Recently one of my students discovered this gardener’s knee cushion. She purchased it on sale at Orchard’s Supply. She bought it but wasn’t sure it would work, but then after she tried it, she told everyone else about it and they all came back the next week with one.
If not being comfortable on your knees keeps you from doing yoga, perhaps getting a gardener’s cushion could help. Now there is a different between “being uncomfortable” on your knees and “not be able to be” on your knees. I know there are knees out there that people are just not able to be on. If that is the case then a cushion is not going to help. This post and suggestion is just for the people with basically healthy knees that need a little cushion.
This cushion is a Laura Ashley cushion but I don’t see it on her website, but I bet there are other ones out there that are like this one. It is covered in neoprene (the stuff wetsuits are made with) or something like it and it feels more comparable to a memory foam cushion then just foam or rubber. Some pads are made of form or cushion-y rubber, but this is different. So, if you are in the market for a cushion for your knees to use in yoga you might want to look into gardeners’ knee pad/cushion. Then you can do yoga and your knees will thank you along with the rest of your body.
Over the Labor Day Weekend we went to the Greek Festival in Belmont. The festival is held at The Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross. I wrote post about some soap that we get at the festival. We get the soap every year. We’ve only been going the past three or four years. This was the first year we went into the church. I think it was the first year that they were doing tours in the church, but I am not sure. I was so amazed at the inside of the church. If I am reading the website correctly, the “church” basically started in 1955 with twelve people. The church buildings were not built until 1964. My cousin who attends the church was reminiscing about how the church didn’t always have all of the mosaics pictured. The website says that the dome and the pendentive arches had the mosaics installed in 2004. I noticed a year on one of the walls. It was 2014. So it seems that the mosaics were installed over time.
Sirio Tonelli is the artist behind the art. According to his/their/that website they do mosaics for a lot of different churches. The size of the tiles in each of these mosaics was about a half of inch square. Yes, these murals are made from thousands of 1/2 inch square pieces of glass. It is amazing! This site has some better pictures of the inside of the church.
My pictures do not capture well, the beauty of the mosaics. They were very bright and very shiny. There were so many people trying to take pictures I was just doing so in a rush. Plus I was rather enjoying just looking at them and trying to take it all in and didn’t think to take a well planned out series of photos, I just started snapping as we were starting to walk out.
It is a very gorgeous church. I was amazed. I loved it so much primarily because it was so blue.
I know I just posted a picture of Teagan LAST Friday, but I was going through some pictures and I found this one. WOW! Now you know why we changed her name from Smokey to Teagan. This was taken in February 2016. So, I guess I do have some good photos of her, just not as many as I have of her sister. And this one – in 2016 – was an anomaly. She wasn’t fond of getting her picture taken. She is getting more used to it now, as I stated last week.
I have been sitting at my desk for hours now trying to figure out what to post about. I had a few ideas but then when I checked my blog to see if I had posted about them already, I had. Some subjects I have revisited and that, to me, is fine, when I consciously revisit a subject to add to it or change my opinion on it or to talk MORE about it. But I don’t like it when I post about the same subject again as if I didn’t post about it once already. I know I have done that at least once, I am sure I have done it more. I really try not to do that. I search my blog but sometimes posts don’t come up for the search I am using at the moment. Sometimes I KNOW I posted about something and I still can’t find the post. Anyway, my husband has been coming in to show me some clothes he is considering purchasing. Then he said, “You should post about that.” He was talking about (Amazon) Prime Wardrobe.
I had never heard of Prime Wardrobe, but a couple of days ago my husband said something like, “I am buying some clothes. Well, maybe?” I was confused so I asked, “What do you mean ‘maybe’?” And he explained that Amazon has a pick, ship, try on, choose, and send back service. So he picked out some clothes, they were delivered, he tried them on, decided what he wanted to keep, then is sending the rest back. I know there are a lot of services like that – like Stitch Fix, but I didn’t know Amazon had one. It is for Prime Members.
I sometimes buy clothes or shoes from Amazon and I make sure they have FREE RETURNS, but this is a whole new ball game! The clothes come in a resealable box. That is cool. Usually when I buy something I open the packaging very carefully so I can put the item back in it and carefully tape it closed, but this box has a strip that you use to seal it back up.
This is all very interesting to me.
Well, as usual, when I find something I find interesting I like to share it. Especially since that is how we all learn things. We share.
Did you know Amazon had this service? Have you ever tried a service like this (I know they have a lot of different ones)? WOULD you ever try a service like this?
Soap. You might be thinking, “AGAIN?!?!?!” Yeah, again. When I find soap I love I like to post about it. Although, I am remiss in regards to this soap. We got some of this soap last Labor Day at the Belmont Greek Festival and we loved it. I bought a particular scent and I was going to buy some more on the website, but I couldn’t find that particular scent on the website. But I was still going to buy some, but I didn’t (I don’t remember why, probably got distracted and never went back to it) and then here we are Labor Day again — so we bought a lot. I don’t even remember what scent I had wanted, so I just bought a bunch of different ones. This soap is so nice. It lathers up really well and they have a large variety of scents. The vendors are very nice. I cannot remember how many places he said were carrying it now, but I remember being amazed. You can either buy if from their website or at the stores that carry it.
There are a couple of different types of soap. I like the Goat’s Milk and Olive Oil mix. My husband bought the Half Goats Milk and Half Olive Oil kind. The mix is made with Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Goats Milk, and Olive Oil*. As I said, it lathers well. As per the website: no “harsh chemicals, NO parabens, NO sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and NO other sulfates found in most soaps.” And it smells great. We got a variety of different scents.
Coco Mango
Lemongrass (half and half)
Egyptian Musk
Blueberry Thyme
Lemongrass
Plumeria
Sandalwood
Milk & Honey
Aegean Sea (it looks like sand and sea!)
Tuberose
Plumeria (a different look)
Lavender
Believe it or not we only bought a few compared to how many scents they have. There are a lot more scents available, such as Almond, Coconut, Cranberry-Pomegranate, Cucumber-Melon, French Vanilla, the list goes on and on!
If you like to treat yourself to soap that is nice on the skin or you like to gift special soaps as gifts I would suggest you try this. I am sure you would be able to find a scent you would love!
Wow. This cat was letting me take her picture. She was moving the entire time, but she was letting me take her picture. This is kind of a new thing. I think she is beautiful. Remember that black cats have a more challenging time being adopted due to the superstition that surrounds black cats. For cat lovers that is very puzzling, but for those with the beliefs that a black cat is bad it is an actual deterrent. So . . . if you are in the market to adopt a cat, please consider adopting a black one.
The other day I made dinner from leftovers so I really had no intention of posting about it. But I can’t stop thinking about it because it was so good. I throw a lot of dinners together and I can say I like them, but sometimes some are just way better than others. I am not a fancy eater so I am not a fancy cook. I use the same basic ingredients and spices over and over. (Yes, I think of Marge Simpson!) Sometimes I get adventurous and use a different spice, but when I am just trying to throw dinner together in a hurry and use what is in the fridge, I use the same old things. Sometimes my leftovers have an amazing second life and that is what happened the other day. I used some leftover chicken and broccoli rabe to make a pasta dish. It was yummy. The secret was the browned garlic. Not even garlic cloves, just powered garlic, but it tasted just like the fried garlic cloves from my childhood.
Zucchini, Chicken, Tomatoes, and Browned Garlic Pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can chicken, drained
Kiawe Smoked Garlic Hawaiian Sea Salt
cumin
turmeric
a few pieces of broccoli rabe, cut into smaller pieces
butter
2 1/2 zucchini, quartered and sliced
garlic salt
garlic powder
two handfuls of cherry/grape tomatoes, sliced in half
thin spaghetti
Now the chicken mixture I used was left over from the night before. So in order to not overwhelm the other flavors you don’t want to use a lot of broccoli rabe.
Heat up the olive oil. When the olive oil is hot toss in the chopped onion. Cook the onions then add the broccoli rabe pieces. Sprinkle is with garlic salt (or the Kiawe Smoked Garlic Hawaiian Sea Salt, if you have it). Keep stirring and mixing up the broccoli rabe, onions, and salt. Then add the drained chicken. Sprinkle a little bit garlic salt and a little bit of cumin over the meat. Then sprinkle a little turmeric – enough so that you see it on all of the chicken, but not too much. Mix and cook. Remember that the chicken is cooked so you are just warming it and allowing all the spices to be absorbed into it to flavor it.
Turn the saucepan on to boil the water for the spaghetti.
Transfer the chicken mixture to a dish for later. Or if you want to have two pans going at once:
Melt the butter in the pan. Turn the pan up high, let the butter start to get brown then throw in the zucchini. As the zucchini is cooking add some garlic salt (or the Kiawe Smoked Garlic Hawaiian Sea Salt, if you have it). Move the zucchini around, trying to brown both sides. – Somewhere in here you are going to add your thin spaghetti to the boiled water to cook. – As you are moving the zucchini and going for that nice browned color, sprinkle some garlic powder into the pan. The pan is hot enough that when the garlic powder hits the hot pan it starts to brown pretty quick. Keep stirring to allow that browned garlic to adhere to the zucchini helping it to brown. Once your zucchini is almost done to your liking, add the chicken mixture. Mix it all together. Then depending on how cooked you like your tomatoes add them. Sprinkle more garlic salt on to incorporate the tomatoes into the flavor of the dish.
Once your chicken, zucchini, tomato, broccoli rabe mixture is cooked. Add it to your drained pasta.
I don’t typically cook SPAGHETTI. I do not like it as much as linguine. I usually use linguine for pretty much all my pasta dishes. But I was in the store not too long ago and I saw “thin spaghetti”. I thought it was just like angel hair pasta – which I do not like, so I wasn’t going to bother. But when I held them up together the thin spaghetti did not look as thin as the angel hair pasta so I thought I would try it. I like it. I will probably still stick to linguine, but I might pick up the thin spaghetti every once in a while.
Anyway, this was really good. I really liked it. I am convinced it was the “browned” garlic. The dish tasted like the garlic cloves from my childhood. Now, honestly when I was a child I didn’t really like the fried garlic. But when I got older I did. And I do. I just don’t make it because – that is just a lot of garlic fragrance to subject people to. So this is prefect in that I get that flavor, but I don’t go around smelling like really STRONG garlic (face it, I am pretty sure I always smell like garlic, but not as much as when you fry it and eat it).
Do you like garlic? Do you like angel hair pasta? Do you like cooked tomatoes?
I don’t like to have the silk in my teach so I try to remove it all before I cook it. I also rinse the corn off because often times the husk is dirty and I sometimes get dirt on my hands and then handle the corn. I also rinse it off because I like to have a little bit of moisture in the foil wrapping when it is cooking. My husband prefers his corn is cooked in the butter, whereas I like to put the butter on mine after it is cooked. So with his piece I put in a tablespoon or two of butter and with mine I kind of just rub some butter on. Just enough to give it a little fat to cook with.
