Painless Pasta

SURF REPORT: No effin' clue, sorry...

Today I am grateful for things that are quick and painless.

Last night I had to do one of the hardest things ever imaginable. I had to make the decision to put my beautiful girl, furry friend of 14 years, to sleep. I am fortunate. Fortunate to have been chosen by her that day at the pound and fortunate to have her in my life for so long. Her illness was controllable for months with no pain, giving me precious time to grow into acceptance. Time to indulge her with her favorites – ice cream, the puffy parts of popcorn, and a good roll on the sunshine warmed cement. To pet her and love on her every chance I got. And then yesterday, she just wasn’t fine any longer. Her seizures came on very rapidly, and as everyone said I would, I knew.

It was time.

I’d hoped that by some miracle there was something the doctor could do, but he confirmed what I already knew sadly in my heart. He let her pass quietly in my arms; silently, peacefully. Peace was not something she’d had a lot of the last few days.

Pets are such a wonderful part of our lives. I know that being a good pet owner means you have to make the last decision -the most difficult one- for them. I promised myself I’d do everything I could as long as she didn’t suffer, and when the time came, I would not selfishly try to keep her here. Knowing you did the right thing brings a lot of peace of mind.

A shame it doesn’t do a bit of good for your broken heart.

I don’t feel like cooking today.

So today, I am happy for the two recipes below, because they sit in my fridge, pre-made, waiting to be yummy without effort beyond water boiling. Combined with a handful of pasta and some grated parmesan, they make a delicious and easy pasta, or yummy spread and topping for fresh baked bread. (I’ll give you my recipe for that another day). These two recipes come to you in their full quantity, refrigerate and enjoy at whim.

Hammy’s “What do I do with all this extra Basil?” Pesto:

INGREDIENTS:
• 2.5 oz Organic basil (2.5 oz = a fistful, roughly)
• ½ c Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Big fatty cloves of fresh garlic, pressed
• ½ c Pine nuts
• 1/3 c Fresh grated parmesan
• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Toss into a blender or food processor and pulse till smooth. Yep, that's it.

Refrigerate and enjoy on pasta, pizza, bread… you call it.

Slow Roasted Tomato Toppers

INGREDIENTS:
• 8 (10, 12, 14… how hungry are ya?) Roma tomatoes
• Salt to sprinkle
• Fresh thyme to sprinkle
• Olive oil to drizzle

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut tomatoes in half, line baking sheet with tin foil, place tomatoes skin side down on sheet. Sprinkle LIGHTLY with salt, let sit for 20 minutes.
2. Pre heat oven to 250
3. Roast tomatoes for 4 hours at 250. Yes, I said 4 hours. Maybe do it on a Sunday while your checking your Fb or something…?
4. Pull out of oven. Tomatoes should have pretty much flattened out and dried up a bit. If not serving immediately, let cool.
5. Sprinkle liberally with fresh thyme and drizzle lightly with olive oil.
6. Store in airtight container in the fridge.

For Pasta: Cook up a handful of pasta, cut up about 4-5 of your tomato toppers, toss with pasta and a spoonful of pesto. Top with fresh grated parmesan and a little fresh basil.

For Bread: Slather bread with pesto, top with a tomato topper. Eat.

Rainbow Chasin'

SURF REPORT: April 21, Grandview: JUNK. Only person out is a lady in a garbage bag walking her golden. She must think I am crazy...



This morning, I hopped out of bed a bit late – 6:30 AM - dosed the cat with her steroids, started the coffee pot, and gazed out the window at what they are calling our “unseasonable rain showers”. Well, it’s a little overcast out the kitchen, but the sun is trying to break through… Remembering that ridiculously high number on the scale at Miz T’s house this weekend… I decide my fat a$$ needs to risk a few raindrops.


Let me back this up a bit for you. I don’t own a scale. I don’t believe in them, I think as long as you are happy with how you look, numbers don’t matter. Numbers LIE to you and tell you you’re fat. Your expensive designer jeans however… they don’t lie. And I did happen to notice that I only have two pairs that relieve the stuffed sausage look of my thighs lately… so when I visited my best friend, I got a little curious.

Remember when I said “If I ever hit 140 I’ll worry about it”?

I lied.

Turns out 138 is all it takes to make an otherwise sane skinny girl insane.

“But you have cowboy boots and jeans on!” Miz T exclaims… and it does not matter. That is 13 pounds of happy fat. Who knew that ditching a loser Australian and miserable corporate job would make me THAT happy? Whew… no wonder those denim leggings aren’t working out…

So, despite the menacing BLACK – not gray – cloud looming over the ocean, I pull on my Uggs and start over the tracks. How bad could it be, this is Leucadia. It’s kinda like Camelot of hippies. “The rain may never fall till after sundown…”

Out my door, I immediately run back in the house to grab my camera. RAINBOWS! Yes, folks, as you can see from the picture, it turns out

The Leucadian is the end of the rainbow.

Who knew?

Across the tracks, a light misting begins. But my feet are happy and dry in my Uggs, so whatever… I’m from Seattle; cloud spittle does not bother me. But what is that noise? It’s familiar, like the jungles of Costa Rica… It's...

OH GEEZUS - It’s the sound of torrential down pour on palm fronds!

WTF?

Where is this coming from, the sun is shining all around me! Nowhere to hide, running home would make no difference in the level of soaked. I continue to the beach. Another 30 seconds and the storm is gone as fast as it appeared. Just long enough to make an unfamiliar smush in the toes of my Uggs. Boo! More coffee…

But it did give me those precious few minutes to decide on my first recipe to share. This one is totally made up, idea stolen from my favorite restaurant in the ‘hood. It’s been tested over and over, and proven to be yummy. I even served it to my chef muse, Miz Martini, and she liked it so much that she stole the recipe too! So here we go:

Roasted Red Pepper Salad

INGREDIENTS:

-One really red red pepper, ribbed and seeded, cut in quarters longways.
-One package of herbed chevre. The real stuff people, with the goat on the front. Not that fake “goat cheese” crap. REAL chevre.
-Fist full of baby spinach
- Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour yourself a glass of wine.
2. Blister pepper slices under the broiler, skin side UP. This does not take long, so watch them!
3. Pull out pepper slices, flip, and stuff with herbed chevre. AKA spoon goat cheese goodness onto the insides of the peppers kinda like you would sour cream and cheddar on a potato skin. Pop under the broiler till melty and lightly golden on top.
4. Toss spinach with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Make a pretty bed out of this concoction on a plate.
5. Pull stuffed pepper slices out of the oven and nestle onto your bed of spinach.

There you are friends! Good and light eatin' for one. Enjoy the April Showers!

Welcome to My Madness

A friend of mine said to me recently “I always thought you should do something like that”… So here we are. Welcome to my madness. My creative obsession du jour is cooking! Tomorrow it may go back to jewelry, or dresses, or wooly pants for babies who only wear cloth diapers. Which, BTW, is an awesome idea…

Right. Back to the cooking.

So I am the 21st century June Cleaver of the bunch. The Stepford Wife. I should wear an apron and pearls every day, but that would just be overkill. I use all REAL ingredients… no fakey bleached, sugar free fat free taste free crap. Butter. Virgin olive oil. Heavy cream. Whole wheat everything. Raw sugar. To me, a little real fat and sugar is infinitely better than putting chemicals in your body. I repurpose/recycle/reuse/compost almost everything, I have a fairly decent herb garden and a small vegetable garden on my window sill. I live in Southern California… no way in hell I can afford property, but I do have cute little gardening pots, organic soil, and a whole lot of sun and ocean breeze flowing through my windows. Ya, I know, life is hard in paradise…

Here’s the thing: I have no man rushing home from the office because he’s late for dinner. No kids to smile adoringly from the kitchen table. (Right my marrieds? Isn’t that how it works in your houses? Hahahaha…) I’ll get to the point: I hear this so often… “This recipe looks so good, but who wants leftovers of the same thing all week??” Well, my darlings, if there is one thing Miz Sunshine is good at, its testing and faking recipies. And I am willing to share. Maybe you might have enough for lunch the next day, depending on what it is and your appetite, but for the most part… anything that looks good for 6, I can turn into Yummy, Party of One.

Books and books and magazines and printouts and scribbles of fabulous recipies… for 4 or 6 or 8, or -GOD FORBID- 12. Seriously? Who the eff cooks for 12 on a regular basis?

I cook for one.

Me.

Aside from the occasional contribution to the random family dinner gathering, ya… its just June Stepford.

So… you wont find a lot of meat here. A lot of veggie, fair amount of chicken, some bacon now and again… no cows and no fish. If you want cow and fish for one, I am not your girl. We got us here: pastas, chickens, soups, salads, veggies, potatoes in every form, baked goods and desserts YUM. I’ll warn you that the baked goods and desserts presented here most often would serve 12, but I leave those pretty much as is, and somehow I don’t mind eating them 12 times in a row… huh… weird…

Anyway. I hope you enjoy.

If ever you need the undoctored version of a recipe I use, please email me and I will point you in the right direction!

xo
Sunshine