Mother's Day brunch | Blog influence | Dental woes

I found this orchid waiting for me in the kitchen on Sunday morning.

My Mother's Day this year was special and — for our family — unusual. We're living in the same city with all three of our children for the first time in ages, and instead of a card and a phone call, our oldest son and d-i-l hosted a Mother's Day brunch. The guest list included my husband and me, our three sons, our d-i-l and granddaughter.



Our oldest son prepared all the food except for a large tray of beautiful stuffed poblano peppers that our youngest son made (based on a recipe from Vegan Brunch).



Noah made his brunch specialties — crispy fried potatoes and tofu scramble. Plus there were lots of extras like bagels and sourdough bread with spreads, orange juice, and strawberries.



This is my (first) plate.



Here's Noah relaxing in the back yard after his workout in the kitchen. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with temperatures in the 70s so we were able to eat outside and lounge the afternoon away.



Not everyone was lazy. Miss E had work to attend to in the garden.



Later in the afternoon, while Miss E napped, Noah went to work and Grandpa babysat, two sons, my d-i-l and I went to Goodwill to see what we could find. I didn't get any kitchen stuff but look at this skirt! I love it.

It was a wonderful day, and I was honored to share it with my beautiful daughter-in-law, a very special mother to a very special little girl!

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Blog influence



I often read blogs very early in the morning before I've had breakfast, and that sometimes leads to my wanting to eat whatever I see popping up on the computer screen. Last week while I was catching up on The Airy Way posts, I saw a besan omelet, and stew with dumplings. The omelet looked like something I could whip up quickly so I did. I used mushrooms, carrots and onions for my omelet and it really looked like an omelet until I removed it from the pan, and it broke apart. I enjoyed it but for some reason my stomach was unhappy with my breakfast. :( The inspiration to make stew came in handy later in the week when things started going wrong.

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Dental woes ... a cautionary tale
About two weeks ago my husband had dental surgery to receive a dental implant and correct a problem with an old implant that was pressing on a nerve and causing pain. This seemed like it would be fairly routine, but last Thursday morning, he awoke to pain in his jaw, and went to see the surgeon, who said he couldn't see anything wrong. He prescribed penicillin as a precaution. My husband wasn't convinced that all was well but he took his drugs and went to work.

He came home early from work saying he felt unwell, and went to lie down. I went to pick up our granddaughter from school, and brought her to our house for the afternoon as previously planned. I kept checking on Ken every half hour or so. When Miss E went home, about 6, I went to check on Ken again, and was freaked out by what I saw. He looked like he had a tennis ball in his cheek, his speech was slurred, and he had a fever. I immediately called the surgeon, who met us at his office at 8 p.m. where he inserted a drainage tube in Ken's abscessed jaw, prescribed two strong drugs, and sent us to urgent care where Ken could receive IV antibiotics. We arrived at urgent care 9:30 p.m.

As if this weren't enough stress for one night, while Ken was receiving his IV, a disturbed man with a gun called 911 and threatened to kill his wife — who was in labor in the birthing center — and their baby. He was seen on a surveillance camera, and the entire medical center was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape and police officers, and put under a lock-down. No one could enter or leave the complex without a police escort. By the time we left at midnight, we were able to exit through a guarded door, and were offered an escort, which we declined. I still don't know how the situation was resolved — everything was hushed up.



Once Ken got a little of his appetite back, I focused on making soft foods. First I made rice pudding by cooking white rice in the rice cooker with LOTS of water, raisins and a bit of maple syrup. When it was cooked, I mixed in enough soymilk to achieve a soft, creamy texture.



Then I remembered the stew, and cooked potatoes and carrots in the pressure cooker for four minutes. I brought the pressure down and added vegetable broth, cauliflower, miso and chickpeas. I mixed up a dumpling dough flavored with fresh dill and cooked the dumplings in the covered stew pot for 15 minutes. Delicious! And soft.

Ken is feeling a lot better but not completely OK. He visits the surgeon again tomorrow to decide if the implant will have to come out, something I don't even want to contemplate. I don't think I ever want to get an implant. Believe me, this experience has not helped me overcome my fear of dentists.

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Pay it forward
There's still one day left to enter the pay it forward contest. Do it.

Tuscan stew

As I write this, there is a serious glut of snow and frozen snow outside. I can't even begin to tell you just how much snow there is, but it's ridiculous. (The picture is of my husband standing next to the end of what used to be our driveway.) I know the skiers are thrilled, and it's pretty, but enough is enough. There's lots more on the way and it's too cold. The only thing to do is make soup.

I'm going to give you the "actual" recipe and tell you what I changed. It's really an ideal soup to make in the summer, but it's hearty enough to enjoy on a wintry day as well. With a couple of substitutions, it works as a satisfying meal on a cold, and I mean really cold, winter evening. The recipe calls for a medium zucchini for which I substituted a white turnip, and swiss chard for which I substituted bok choy. I also think escarole or spinach would be a good choice for the chard. (I'm not a big fan of chard, but if this were summer and we had some in our CSA box, I would have used it.) There are also sprigs of fresh rosemary, but if you don't have any, used dried. For the bread, I used a 100% whole wheat baguette from Whole Foods. It was just the right combination of crusty and chewy, but it wasn't stale. I didn't have stock on hand so I used water and miso.


Tuscan Stew
4 to 6 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, 1/2 inch dice
2 medium carrots, 1/2 inch dice
1 medium zucchini, sliced (or turnip, 1/2 inch dice)
2 sprigs rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 cup red wine
1 can diced tomatoes (use fresh tomatoes in the summer)
1 can small white beans
4 cups torn stale crusty bread
chopped swiss chard (or other green like bok choy or escarole)
6 cups stock (or water)
2 level tablespoons red miso (or salt to taste)
olive oil
In a large stock pot (5-6 quarts), saute for a few minutes in 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, the onion, carrot, zucchini (or turnip) until the onion begins to soften. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Add the wine and cook 8 minutes. Add the tomato and stock (or water). Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. If you are using water, put 2 tablespoons miso in a small measuring cup and add a small amount of hot liquid from the pot. Stir to dissolve the miso in the cup then add to the pot. If you are using stock, you may need less miso so taste the soup before dissolving the miso and adding to the pot. Stir in the chopped greens, bread, beans and rosemary. You can add cayenne if you like your stew spicy. Grind fresh pepper over individual bowls.

p.s. I had this soup reheated for lunch the next day at work, and it tasted even better. It was rich and satisfying.

We loved this stew so much we made it twice in one week. The second time, I had my husband make it to "test" the recipe. Because this blog is geared towards fast and easy cooking, I usually use canned beans and such. But cooking beans from scratch results in a richer dish, and while it takes a little more time, it's not really hard. Here's a speedy "no-soak" method for cooking beans. Put one cup of washed beans in the pressure cooker with eight cups of water and bring it to pressure. This takes about ten minutes. Turn it off and let the pressure come down natually. This also takes about 10 minutes. Drain the beans and add eight new cups of cold water. Bring to pressure and cook about 10 minutes. When the pressure comes down, skim out the beans and measure the liquid to have the six cups needed for the recipe. Add more water if needed. Proceed with the rest of the recipe. My husband seasoned the resulting stew with 1/2 teaspoon of salt (add more or less according to taste) instead of miso. He also used a stale loaf of unbleached white sourdough baguette from Trader Joe's. Another great stew.

Now a little caveat. I was attempting to double check the cooking times for pressure cooking the beans so I could be accurate, but around the same time, I received the news that my first little grandchild, a beautiful little girl, had just been born in Seattle. Amidst all the excitement, phone calls, video chats and emails, I kind of lost control of the timing thing. I think I'm close, based on experience, but please forgive me if I've erred! I'll try again in the near future and correct the recipe if needed. In any case, this proves that cooking beans can be easy and requires minimal attention!