Treatise on a Quiche...

I was in the cooking mood.  Cooking is one of my purest pleasures in life. 

Pie Crust (I will assume here that everyone has their own favorite piecrust recipe.  If yours is for dessert piecrust, of course reduce the sugar)

• lay in pan, pick bottom
• fit aluminum foil to pan
• fill with rice, dried beans or pie weights if you have them (mine appear to be misplaced)
• bake 400 degrees for 15 minutes
• remove from oven, remove foil and beans, brush with 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• bake for 5 minutes more, remove and place on rack
• reduce oven to 350 degrees

• Saute' bacon, remove, drain pan then saute' onion/shallots

• beat 3 jumbo eggs with 3/4cup heavy cream and 3/4cup whole milk; add salt and freshly ground pepper

• sprinkle 1 cup shredded Gueyere cheese (or Swiss, but remember always, quality of ingredients sings the tune to the palate) over bottom of crust; add onions, add bacon; top with another cup of cheese. pour egg/cream mixture over

• At this point I cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.  Bake for 35-45 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.  Cool on rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTE TO SELF:  YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIS CRUST.  THE DAMNED THING SHRUNK.  FORGET THE PIE PAN AND BUY YOURSELF A GOOD QUICHE PAN AND ANOTHER SET OF WEIGHTS.  YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER GIVEN DAUGHTER YOUR GOOD QUICHE PAN.  SHE PROBABLY USES IT AS THE CAT'S BOWL.

RANT TO SELF:

FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE!!!  WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER BUY/USE ICEBERG LETTUCE WHEN THIS (BABY BIBB) IS READILY AVAILABLE AND IS THE SAME PRICE.  ICEBERG LETTUCE HAS ONLY ONE TASTE...BITTER.  CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?

AND ANOTHER THING:

WHY WOULD YOU BUY A PRE-MADE SALAD DRESSING FULL OF CHEMICALS AND PRESERVTIVES AND WHO KNOWS WHAT WHEN YOU COULD MAKE THIS...

DANA'S HOUSE DRESSING

In bottom of your salad bowl combine:

3 spoonfuls olive oil...not Wesson, not Crisco...OLIVE

(I just use my spoon that is the one that goes to my salad tossing long handled spoon and fork.  It's the porportion that counts not the spoon.  Use any big spoon you like as long as you end up with enough dressing.)

1 spoonful vinegar (Now, it's 1 spoonful if I'm using an imported French Tarragon (my preferred) because it's fairly mild but if I use Balsamic or anything else, I reduce it to 3/4 spoonful)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

pinch of coarse salt

grind of coarse pepper

handful of finely diced shallots

mix, mix, mix (by stirring) all of this together to emulsify.  It will become thick as you stir until your hand gets tired.  Now, here's the beauty....you can, up until an hour or more before your dinner just lay your lettuce on top of the dressing and keep it all in the refrigerator until dinner is served. Toss just before serving.  I seldom add anything else to the salad, not wanting to gild the lily.  One in a while, if I find a really beautiful tomato, I will dice it and add, but here in Florida that is very seldom.

 I always serve salad as a first course, not with the meal.  I do this because I really do believe that a truly good salad stands on it's own and deserves to be appreciated that way.  With the meal, I try to balance textures, colors and taste.  I want the salad to awaken the tastebuds and give a hint of the marvelous tastes yet to be savored...Foreplay, if you will.

Training Day...

DISCLAIMER:

NO PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS HAVE BEEN DETECTED IN THIS ATHLETE...unless, of course, Snausages count.

I am, if anything, stubborn....

As with any athlete and coach, we critique our taining videos, trying to analyze errors and how we can improve...excuse the headcoach's hanging bra strap.

Eh?...Stop Mumbling!

Today the sun shines. After so many days of heavy rain, I don’t even complain about the heat. I am just glad to close my eyes and hold my face to the sun. I stay so busy, wondering in odd moments as I do household chores, how I ever found the time to work. My husband is glad to have me home. He’s unlike me. He likes having someone else around all the time. He has the dog and now, once again he has me. I’m not sure which of us he prefers. It really isn’t important that I know. Why should I inquire and hurt my own feelings if I don’t get the answer I want?

Today we had an “issue.” Husband is getting more and more deaf with each passing year. His deafness has it’s comical moments. Recently when we were camping, I was seated outside under the awning. Flies were bothering me. As husband was inside, I loudly asked,

 “Would you please bring me the fly swatter when you come out again?”

 “What?” he replied.  

“Would you please bring me the fly swatter when you come out again?” I stridently shrieked.

 “What?” he answered once again.

“The fly swatter, I need the fly swatter!”

“Oh, ok, just a tic. Be right out.”

He walked out the door of the trailer a few minutes later and handed me a glass of ice water.

“What’s this for?” I quizzically asked.

“It’s what you’ve been screeching about for the last five minutes, your glass of ice water! Don’t you want it now?”

That incident I can laugh about, but it gets worse and worse as husband’s hearing deteriorates. I guess the biggest issue is that he refuses to even admit he has a hearing problem. His loss of hearing is isolating us from each other. We have a huge great room where we watch television. He has the volume of the television so loud that in the last couple of years I’ve just retreated to the office and mess around on the computer. I can’t even watch the television in our bedroom because his volume in the great room trumps mine in the bedroom.  When I have to repeat things three and four times, it's frustrating.  When I have to do it all day long it's fatiguing.  When I try to discuss the problem with him, he says he's hearing is fine, I just don't speak properly.  I mumble.  When I point out that he doesn't often hear other people as well he says, "well, it's your damn American accents plus you all talk like you have marbles in your mouth."

Now to today’s issue…last night I was in the office and the phone rang. I heard husband pick up the great room extension and say, “Yes, fine, that’s fine I’ll call the gate.” I went in and asked what the call was about. “Oh, the window cleaners you called will be here tomorrow at eleven.” Hmmmm I thought. “They weren’t supposed to come until Oct. 1^st” I said. “Well, that’s Monday so maybe they decided to come early” I added. I got up early and got the house ready for window cleaners, moving things, dusting wooden blinds etc.. Eleven o’clock came and went. So did twelve and one and two o’clock…no window cleaners. I called their office at 2PM. The secretary informed me that we were scheduled for Monday, October 1^st at 11AM and that she personally had confirmed it with my husband yesterday. I’m sure she did. But, as husband will not admit that he has a problem, he just guesses at what people are saying from the bits of language he catches.

I feel sorry for husband that he is going deaf. I feel sorry for me that he is going deaf. Maybe I’m asking too much to think he should admit he’s going deaf. When I tell him he’s going deaf and what a problem it’s becoming he gets defensive and says, “Well, I have the best hearing on my tennis team. You should see So-and-So and So-and-So, I have hearing like a German Shepherd compared to them!” 

 I feel sorry for So-and-Sos’ wives, too…

Dear May

Dear May,

How very clever of you to sneak in when I wasn't looking.  I'm glad that April is over.  It was a month of so many changes for us, returning from the West, listing the house for sale, trying to resume our lives here.  April flew by.

Did you know that you have always been my favorite month?  I loved the rebirth that you heralded with the strong Daffodils, gentle Crocus and oh my goodness, those Lillacs.  That was in another place and another time, another life.  Here, in the tropics, you are just one more month of sunshine and warm temperatures.  Here, you are the harbinger of the heat and humidity that will arrive and last until November.  I wonder, does it make you sad to carry the hurricanes on your coat tails?  Does it confuse you that we're ripping out our Impatiens because they are getting so leggy(Busy Lizzies to the Brits) rather than hoping all the frost is over so that they can be planted?  It reinforces that to everything there is a season, doesn't it?

I just wanted to let you know that I still love you.  I love you and I love your cohort October.  I love my memories of you and of my Grandmother's gardens.  Those memories last me a lifetime.  Thank you for them...

Christmas Day 2007

Greetings of the Season 2007

Dear Friends,

We hope that this holiday greeting finds you surrounded by love, laughter and the warmth of the season...

John & Dana