Day 85: Glazed Oranges

Menu:
Sausage Gravy ME
Biscuits ME
Glazed Oranges JC

Making the glazed oranges was a nice change. It was easy to make, except for all that peeling and paring. My glaze seemed to want to pass the oranges by but some of it did stick and I tried it and it is good. I probably wouldn't make it again because it is a sticky mess to to have to clean up. With this fairly easy dessert and the simple dinner I made, I felt like I almost had the night off from cooking.

Day 84: Dinner Supreme

Menu:
Supremes De Volaille A Brun JC
(Chicken Breasts Sauteed in Butter)

Brown Deglazing Sauce w/Wine JC

Steamed Sweet Corn ME

Mashed Sweet Potatoes ME

Cinnamon Muffins ME

Seeing as how Michael and I both are done with seafood for a while, we decided to have chicken tonight. I have never sauteed the breasts before but will now be preparing them this way a lot more often. The flavor is excellent and is very juicy and moist. I also made the Julia Child deglazing sauce to go over them. The flavor was exquisite, restaurant quality. I've already boxed up the leftovers for Michael's lunch for the next two days.

I do love regular potatoes...you can tell by my meat and potato way of eating that I am a meat and potato kind of cook. Still, I do like sweet potatoes for something different once in a while. Tonight after they were baked I pulled the peel away and then mashed them with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. This gave the sweet potatoes a pumpkin pie type consistency and flavor.

I try to make a wide range of vegetables every week. Tonight I thought it would be a good night to make corn. With it being yellow it lacks pizazz on a plate. But with the brownish chicken breasts and the orange sweet potatoes, the corn looked colorful. I made the muffins this morning to go with our poached eggs. I usually try to leave bread out of my dinner, but who can resist a muffin?

Facts:
Day 84 of 100 (365 days, that's funny.)

Pounds Lost: Scales are still put away.
Pounds Gained: It was Thanksgiving a few days ago, so I'm sure I'd be disappointed.
Happiness Level: 100%
Missing My Kids: 100%
Cooking Enjoyment: 100%
Eating Enjoyment: 100% (Juicy)
Meal Presentation: 100% (Pic looks yummy.)

The Live Lobster

Rebecca and I made a live lobster recipe tonight. Brian had to help us prepare get the lobster under control. Rebecca and I were a little afraid of the claws annnnd, well the movement. We got it all seasoned and ready for the oven. I taught Rebecca how to use a chopping knife. She went to town chopping green onions and such for the recipe. So once the lobster was done she chopped it and we made a fantastic dip. We are getting ready to kick back relax, watch a movie and enjoy some wine, cheese, crackers and of course the lobster dip.

Rebecca's Thanksgiving Turkey and Pie

My daughter made dinner for 7 people on Thanksgiving. She has gotten so much more confident with her cooking. We were all very impressed with how the turkey tasted. I have to say it was a beautiful bird by the time Rebecca was done with it. I still have not mastered baking a pumpkin pie and have it come out with no splitting or cracking. Rebecca's pumpkin pie was perfect! I think I need to take lessons from her. Rebecca my dear, Julia Child would be so very proud of you. I know I am.

My husband and I are having a terrific time in Texas. The plan tonight is for Rebecca and I to make Hors d'œuvre with a live lobster. I'll blog about that because we are using a new Julia Child recipe. Should be interesting because the lobster looks a little cranky and Michael has already given him a name. I'm not sure I can make a snack out of something that Michael is treating like a pet.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day and hope your shopping was bargain filled today.

Day 83: Steaming Mussels

Menu:
Moules JC
(Mussels In Wine Sauce)

Sweet Potato ME

Oyster Dressing ME

Salad ME

Canapes w/Crap Dip

While I have eaten mussels before at Asian Restaurants I have never prepared them. The recipe from Julia's cookbook suggested steaming them in wine sauce. I used vermouth and chopped the herbs fresh. And of course I added butter, lots of butter. We both enjoyed them and couldn't believe how much better it is to eat them freshly prepared. I served them with the oyster dressing that we had yesterday and a salad. I had crab dip from the baked potatoes leftover. I made canpaes and we spread the dip on that. Which by the way I will be making canapes with that crab dip at our next get together. A very simple appetizer but one that you can't leave alone. You just keep wanting to eat more. It's just cream cheese, minced green onions, chopped crab meat and a bit of lemon juice.

We are done with seafood now for a good while. I had the leftovers from yesterday and the mussels and needed to use all that up . It is gone now and we are back to land animals. If fish and seafood really is brain food than I'd say Michael and I both should be quite smart by now. We have no dessert because I think I may be seeing some leeway with my weight loss issue. I do some serious cajun dancing after each meal and am finally seeing some results. I am starting to curve where I should be curving not where I shouldn't . It's big curves but curves none the less.

Facts:

Day 83 of 100 (I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. No way I'd do 365 days at this point)

Pounds Lost: 5 (Yep, I pulled the scales out)
Pounds Gained: 0 (I just want to leave off where I started when I reach day 100.)
Happiness Level: 100% (Seafood does make you feel healthy and happy... and hungry two hours later.)
Missing My Kids: 100% (I'll get a holiday fix so I'm happy and thankful for that can't wait to see you guys)
Cooking Enjoyment: 100% (Very easy to steam mussels)
Eating Enjoyment: 100% (Discovered that we are big fans of mussels)
Meal Presentation: 100% (They photographed well, just not on the black plate had to use green)

Day 82: The Captain's Seafood Platter

Menu:

Homard A L'Americaine
(Lobster Tail Simmered w/Wine, Garlic and Herbs) JC

Grilled Vegetable Salad ME

Twice Baked Potato w/Crab Dip ME

Oyster Dressing ME

I attempted Lobster tail today. I would have done a whole Lobster but didn't know where to buy one and secondly, just the tail was $25.00 so I thought I'd just go with that for now. I kind of did a fridge and freezer cleaning for this meal. I had so much seafood on hand that I decided to just make a meal of it. If you don't mind the cost Lobster is actually fairly easy to make and very good. I did substitute some of the Julia veggies and went with more of an herb bouquet. I'd probably make lobster again. But, not for a while because after last night and tonight we need a seafood break.

I made the filling that actually goes in Crab Rangoon for the potato topping. If you want the recipe just let me know. It is very addictive though. You will find yourself just wanting to eat the filing by itself. I also rolled the hot baked potato in butter then lemon juice and then in sea salt before busting it and slathering it with butter inside. I salt and peppered it and then added the crab filling.

The oyster dressing reciple I had made a few weeks back and had some bread pieces left. And so I thawed the bread crumbs and made it again. This time I put hot peppers in it to give it a little kick. It had so much kick I got hives on my face for a little while after handling the peppers. While I had the lobster going, the oyster dressing in the oven and potatoes on their second bake, there just seemed to be something missing.

I got all the salad foods out, carrots, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and Swiss cheese. While fridge cleaning today I noticed I needed to use up mushrooms, shrimp and asparagus. So I put some butter in my saute pan and a little olive oil and kind of stir fried all that up until it was ready to be layed out over the salad. Just before adding it to the salad I did what I thought Julia might do and I made a beautiful wine sauce for it and then put it on the salad. Delicious. We had so much food that we put the leftovers in containers for lunch tomorrow. I"m stuffed.

Facts:
Day 82 of 100 (18 more to go...and I can start cooking quick and easy meals)

Po#@!....What scales???
Happiness Level 100% (Will be seeing my baby girl in a few and I can't wait)
The rest is 100 percent. The presentation is even 100%. Once I get the photos to upload you'll see what I mean. The seafood was gorgeous!

Day 81: The Oval Poached Egg

Menu:
Oeufs Poch'es JC
(Poached Eggs)

Ham Slices PE

Sauteed Mushrooms w/Wine JC

Apple Cinnamon Muffins (Michael Made These From A Krusteaz Box)

My attempt at making aspic didn't happen today. It just seemed too difficult. I'll have to try it another day. There was another recipe that has been intimidating me though, poached eggs. I've made this type of eggs before in a stove top poacher and even a microwave poacher. I thought both were just wonderful. And then, I made poached eggs the Julia way. Michael and I both sat there wide eyed with that first bite in our mouths. It just sort of melted away. We were in awe of a Julia poached egg. I will never again use my poachers. Julia's recipe has you to crack the egg and let the yolk and white fall as close to the water surface as possible. It took me a few tries to get this technique down because I kept thinking I was going to burn my fingers on the boiling water. But after dropping 3 eggs, I finally got the fourth one right on the surface. They boiled for 4 minutes very gently and then I removed them and had to place them in cold water to remove the vinegar that had been added to the boiling water. I have to say every bit of this was worth it. And I really appreciated this way of making poached eggs at cleanup time. The stove top poacher is a bear to clean. The pan with boiling water was a breeze.

I had left over ham in the freezer from ham and bean night a week or so ago. It is nearly impossible to buy a hunk of ham that hasn't been presliced. I did find a hunk but it was huge so I had to chop it up into small hunks. I pulled one of those from the freezer today and we ended up having ham and eggs and sauteed mushroom with a muffin compliments of Michael. This was an easy dinner to make and I'm ecstatic that I pretty much conquered the French poached egg. The one egg with the little wispy things, that's the first one I dropped and I hesitated and it made it a bit messy. But I did get better with each egg.

Facts:
Day 81 of 100 (19 more to go and 365 days isn't even remotely in my future.)

Pounds Lost: No Comment
Pounds Gained: No Comment
The rest is definitely 100% (Even food presentation is 100%)