Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Archive for April, 2019

White AND Yellow Roses

Posted by terrepruitt on April 29, 2019

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes, Cambrian Yoga & Cardio Dance, CYCDOur rose bushes are at it again. When we first moved in we had VERY ORANGE roses, WHITE roses, and light pink roses. Over the years our orange roses have been not-as-orange when they first bloom then they fade to pink. I wrote a post about it – Yard Roses. Well, now our once white roses bush that has been yellow for years is now producing BOTH white and yellow roses. We have not done any type of grafting. But the white roses look REALLY white in the sun. But looking at the pictures they seem light pink.

I think it is odd how the roses have changed colors over the years.

It has been years and I still don’t know how to properly care for the roses. They just grow wild. Whenever I want to cut some to bring them in I do. And whenever the bushes start looking really unruly I hack them down. The last time they got a good hacking my husband had done it. I always have a fear that they won’t come back from such a drastic cutback, but they do.

Here are some pictures of the white and yellow rose bush. Do you see the photo bomber in three of the pictures?

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Do you have roses in your yard?

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Yellow Yard Roses

Posted by terrepruitt on April 26, 2019

The reason I started my Friday Photo post was to share some of the pictures that really have no place elsewhere. These are roses from a bush that was a little plant I received when I left my last corporate job. I thought I had posted about them before, but it is not coming up in the search. This picture is from 2016, but the bush is still alive and it does produce roses!

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Eggplant Omelette

Posted by terrepruitt on April 22, 2019

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes, Cambrian Yoga & Cardio Dance, CYCDA couple of weeks ago one of my friends posted a picture of something on Facebook. He might have actually posted a link to a video, but I try not to click on links on Facebook because I just end up down a black hole. But the name of what was in the link was included in the post – Tortang Talong – so I Googled it. All I found originally was videos of how to make the dish but they were not in English. I eventually found one in English. I watched it, but didn’t make note of the recipe because it seemed pretty easy. Tortang Talong is Filipino Eggplant Omelette. I love eggplant and so I was very excited to try this. When I looked at the videos they showed thin eggplants not the globe ones. But they were also shorter than the ones I see at the store. I figured I could just cut it to make it shorter after I roasted it.

Well, after I roasted it, it didn’t seem like a good idea to cut it. One of the eggplant exploded out of its skin – which is ok because the skin gets peeled off. I decided to use the entire eggplant. I had originally decided to just try this “omelette” without anything added to it, but then I started thinking of it as an omelette and decided to add mushrooms. Then, while cooking the mushrooms and eggplant I decided to add cheese.

Since I was adding topping, it made me wonder how the toppings would be incorporated into the omelette, I looked up one recipe that said to pour some egg on top. Well, my two eggs in the pan didn’t really allow for “pouring” on top so I used an additional egg. So I ended up using THREE eggs per eggplant.

So while this was good, it just tasted like eggs and mushrooms to me. I didn’t even get any of the eggplant flavor. I think I want to try it next time with fewer eggs and perhaps NO TOPPINGS.

The on English video I had seen topped it with meat. When I mentioned that to my friend on Facebook he said he usually didn’t use anything except a lot of garlic!

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1 lb of mushrooms
1/2 of an onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
garlic salt

two eggplant (not the globe ones)
six eggs
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup of cheese

Turn oven on to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put the eggplant on the pan. Pierce the skin of each one (perhaps that will keep them from exploding). Put the pan with the eggplant on it in the oven. Let the eggplant bake for about 25 minutes. Then take them out and turn them over and let them bake for another 25 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting, chop the onion. Clean and slice the mushrooms. Heat up the olive oil in a pan, then cook the onions. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook the mushrooms, adding garlic salt as you cook the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are cooked remove them from the pan.

Mix two of the eggs in a dish large enough to hold the entire eggplant (it needs to be long and wide) adding garlic salt to your liking.

Once the eggplant is fully roasted peel the skin off of each one. Leave the stem attached. Then place one in the dish with the mixed eggs. Use a fork to mash the eggplant. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese on the eggplant, then add 1/2 of the cooked mushrooms. Spoon the raw eggs on top of the eggplant coating the toppings. In another dish mix one egg and pour it over the eggplant and toppings.

Heat 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Once it is hot slide the eggplant with toppings into the pan and cook. When one side is done, flip the eggplant over and cook the other side.

Repeat the process for the other eggplant.

Once cooked it is ready to eat!

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You can use any topping you’d like. As I mentioned the video I watched had ground beef and I think peppers. I saw some recipes have seafood. My friend just like garlic.

I want to try this again but with fewer eggs to see if the flavor of the eggplant will come through. Perhaps I will use fewer eggs for mine, but not my hubby. He is not as a big of fan of eggplant as I am.

Have you ever tried Tortang Talong?  What do you add to it?  What is your method?

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Under The Sea Filigree

Posted by terrepruitt on April 19, 2019

I love this art form. Quilling. I bought this card for my niece. She likes octopuses. It is really cool. I love the the colors. I like it so much I am posting it as my Friday Photo.

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Cranberry Pear Flavored Pork

Posted by terrepruitt on April 15, 2019

Oh, really simple recipe. I am sure you can use any sweet balsamic you have. If you don’t have sherry, wine will do. I mentioned the balsamic vinegar we purchased in November when we were in Napa in a post, Cranberry Pear. It is so good. I should have gotten the larger bottle. Anyway, this is a four ingredient recipe that has a lot of flavor. So yummy. I cooked it last night and I can’t wait to eat the left overs tonight!

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4 Boneless pork chops
1/4 C Cranberry Pear Balsamic Vinegar*
1/2 cup Dry Sherry
lavender Salt

Pour the dry sherry in a baking dish (if the dish is large you might need more than 1/2 cup – you want at least 1/4 of an inch in the bottom of the dish) arrange the pork in the dish. Pour a little of the vinegar on top of each chop, then sprinkle each chop with lavender salt. Let sit for 15 minutes (longer if you have the time). After 15 minutes, repeat the process of pouring some vinegar over each one and salting. Let sit for 15 minutes (longer if you have the time).

Preheat oven to 375° F. Put the dish in the oven for about 10 minutes. After baking the pork for 10 minutes take the dish out and turn each chop over. Sprinkle with more lavender salt. Then put the dish back in the oven for another seven minutes.

After seven minutes, take the dish out and check for doneness. Everyone likes their meat cooked differently so you may need to put it back in the for a few more minutes. The ones I used were not very thick and they were not very large so they cooked PERFECTLY in 14 minutes. (But I also did the first round on a higher heat because I had something else cooking at the same time. And I lowered the heat on the second round.)

*this is a white balsamic vinegar

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These were simple and delicious. I love using balsamic as a marinade for meat. I think it pairs very well with pork. Usually I marinate the meat for longer, but I didn’t this time, but they came out great.

Do you have a sweet balsamic you like to pair with pork? Do you have a favorite balsamic?

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Five Years

Posted by terrepruitt on April 12, 2019

It never feels right just letting the day pass without a mention. And I know the day has passed, but I thought I would post a picture of my mom for my Friday Photo. It has been five years. Whenever I go looking for photos, I get sad because we really didn’t take that many. We often just hung out and didn’t get made-up and we both always wanted to at least have hair and make-up done in photos – silly, I know – so I don’t have a lot.

1948 to April 11, 2014

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Avgolemono – My Way

Posted by terrepruitt on April 10, 2019

I am not sure if I have said this before in other posts, but for 38 years of my life I did not really care for Greek Food. I was not a fan of tomatoes and it seemed like there was a lot of tomatoes in the Greek food here. When I went to Greece my mind was changed. There wasn’t tomatoes in everything and I liked the way they cooked their food. Although I still believed I didn’t like Greek Lemon Soup. I am not a fan of the lemon flavor for the most part so I never tried it. When there was opportunities to try it there was always either rice, celery, or carrots in the soup in some combination. I do not like rice in soup and I am not a fan of water-laden carrots. I do not like celery. One day we were at a local restaurant and my husband ordered the Greek Lemon Soup. Even though he “doesn’t share food” he let me have a spoonful – it was delicious. It was simple, just chicken and pasta! Ahhhh . . . . I found some Avgolemono I liked! So I decided to make some. I found a lot of recipes online with celery and carrots and rice in some combination, so I didn’t look past the ingredients.  I wasn’t finding one to use.  I knew I wanted to use pasta.  I had purchased some orzo online with the sole purpose of making Avgolemono, but I hadn’t planned on making it the night I ended up making it. I did not make a special trip to the store for ingredients.  So I made the soup with what I had on hand, which was a limited number of eggs and canned chicken. Just to put it out there, there is NO CELERY, NO CARROTS, and NO RICE in this soup.

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1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 onion
two cans of chicken (a little over 3 cups)
garlic salt

2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup orzo  (going forward 1 cup)
8 cups chicken broth

7 eggs
4 lemons / 3/4 cups lemon juice (more if you like it really lemony)

Juice the lemons. Set aside. (Zest one if you want some zest for garnish.)

Chop the onion. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Cook the onion then add the chicken to the pan to heat it up a bit*. Sprinkle some garlic salt on chicken while stirring.

In a large pot, melt the butter, then add the orzo to toast it. Add the chicken broth to the orzo. Bring to a boil. Then let simmer.

While the orzo is cooking in the broth mix the eggs together with a hand mixer. Mix the eggs at least 3 minutes on low allowing a lot of air to get into them making them frothy. After the “at least 3 minutes,” add the lemon juice slowly while mixing the eggs.

Once the orzo is cooked (about 15 minutes – test to verify) add the egg mixture to the broth BUT not all at once. Put a little bit of broth into the eggs while mixing. Keep adding broth a little at a time to slowly bring the eggs up to the temperature of the broth. Once the eggs are tempered add the mixture to the broth. Stir the egg mixture and broth together. Once it is all incorporated add in the chicken. Mix it all together. Then taste. Is it lemony enough for you? If not add more lemon juice. Or add some lemon zest as garish to each bowl – this gives it an extra zing!

*if using raw chicken cook it thoroughly

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I had typed this up to use as my recipe to make the soup. I figured I would need to play with it a lot in order to get it to what I was looking for, but nope. THIS. IS. IT. Oh, except I will use more orzo . . . perhaps a cup maybe more. But I really think that the orzo is all that I will adjust.

Originally I wrote the recipe with salt and pepper as ingredients, but I did not add any additional salt besides the garlic salt. And my husband added pepper to his bowl, but said it did not really add anything to the soup so he would not be using it, so I didn’t even try.

I am going to check in with my uncle who, I am told, makes Avgolemono all the time. I want to know what he does. Although, my husband and I really loved this and so for the most part I will probably just stick to this.  But sometimes it is nice to try things a little differently so that is ALWAYS an option.

How about you?  Do you like Avgolemono?  Have you found a place that serves one you like?  Do you make it?  How do you make it?

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Cute Hearts

Posted by terrepruitt on April 5, 2019

Holy Moly! I don’t think I have actually worn these. I forget I have them until I see this picture. I need to put them in an “in my face” place so I see them and remember to wear them! They are super cute. I think I bought them off of Etsy! Well, I am sharing them here because my Friday Photo is where I share pictures I have no other reason to post.  I think they are cute enough to show off.  I think I will show them off in my ears now!

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Broken Glasses

Posted by terrepruitt on April 3, 2019

Well, since I bragged about the good deal I got buying my glasses online, I think it is only fair that I post an update. As you know (if you’ve read my post) I purchased three pairs of glasses online. I was so excited because their cost was phenomenal. Well, as you can imagine since I have three pairs of glasses I don’t wear one pair all the time. I switch it up. One pair is a pair of sunglasses, but still, that means I am not wearing either of the regular ones while I am out in the sun. Well, I had my glasses on, then I put on my sunglasses, putting the regular pair in the case. Then when I got home I took the other pair out of the case to put them on and they broke. I am sharing because it has been about a month and a half and they broke. I am also sharing because I am sad, I contacted the company and I have not heard back from them. They DO have a warranty of a year and you can get a free replacement, but I wanted to verify that was PER PAIR before I requested a replacement, but since I have not heard from them I am assuming that it is and they are just waiting for me to request a new pair. So I am going to. I am still disappointed that I have not hear from them.

Well, I still like my other two pairs, so I wouldn’t necessarily say not to order from them. In fact, I think I am still going to order two other pairs from them. I want to try bifocals. I will keep you updated.

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****05.25.19 – I should have updated this weeks ago!  I received a (free) replacement pair and have been enjoying them.

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