Ode to a Silpat

Cooking in an oven can be very droll
When using an oven that turns delicate dishes into rock lumps
Yearning for a way to come up with a solution
As visions of cookies, steak fries, and broiled meats dance in my
head.

Alas, the stark reality of clean-up leads to meals on the stove-top or grill.
Is this how it is to be until the newest, most high tech kitchen
appliance is purchased?
Nay! All I ever needed was a Silpat to make healthy food with only a drop of oil.

Oh, wonderful, slick Silpat with your weaved underside.
How do you make each dish cook so evenly?
Even during times of multi-tasking forgetfulness,
Silpat graciously forgives as foods with crusty bottoms and gooey tops
Become evenly cooked and delicious once more.

Truly something so magnificent in the oven must take hours to soak clean.
Ne'er fret, overworked homemaker!
Simply wipe off after a quick rinse in the sink.
After it dries simply roll it back up.
Patiently the next delectable meal awaits!

I've always loved to cook, but I've been held back at times due to old ovens that turn brownies into bricks or leave permanent crusty residue on pans.


Well, with my silpat mat, no more.

What initially looks like a basic cooking pat becomes a new love as food cooks evenly, making clean-up a cinch.


I've used it from the basics like cookies to more adventurous tries with roasted vegetables and fries. Everything cooks evenly instead of past woes of having overdone bottoms in order to have the tops cooked.

It makes me enjoy my oven again, as I now trust it to make sweet, slightly tempermental desserts to the more hearty, savory casseroles.

And after it cooks everything evenly, everytime? Clean-up is embarrassingly easy as I lightly wipe it off.

Yes, dear silpat, we are a match made in heaven as I combine your even cooking with my desire for homemade dishes.

Fruit, Glorious Fruit!

Sidenote: I know that I posted on the previous blog about the April Fool's Day joke played on us, but as I was making a post about it, it really wasn't very funny anymore.

It was simply a freak snowstorm that we got after a previously beautiful sunshiney day, but then we got a blizzard on Monday that cancelled school for the first time this year (and it takes a lot to cancel school around here), so that wasn't so clever anymore.

I also pretended a round piece of chocolate on the floor was actually a little doodle that had flung out of Eliza's diaper that I made Chris pick up. But, I didn't execute the prank very well and he didn't think it was very funny since he was getting into police mode for training. Oh, well.

Sorry for the build-up, so let's talk some fruit, shall we?!




After yet another Bountiful Basket, I was able to make a delicious dessert for Easter dinner with some fellow cop families.


I used my family's sugar cookie recipe for the crust, then a cream cheese and whipped cream frosting. I added orange zest to both, then had fun with the fruit!

With the exception of canned mandarin oranges (I didn't want to section the tangelos I got), all the fruit's from my awesome Basket I get every few weeks: kiwi, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and fresh pineapple.

We had corn on the cob for dinner a few days ago (which the kiddies LOVED) and smoothies for breakfast this morning. It's so fun planning a meal around the afforable yet fresh produce, and it's always SO delicious!

Now to make something scrumptious from the broccoli that the kiddies will also eat. Chris loves the small green shubbery, but I usually have to disguise it in order for the kiddies to partake.

Maybe they think they're eating trees and know that we don't normally do that? Not sure, but I'll figure something out!

Delicioius Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Anyone?

I participated for the first time in Bountiful Baskets after my fellow cop wife and good friend Kimber kept praising it. I also forgot to take a picture of my bounty, so here's her post since she's a lot more efficient than I am to actually take pictures of the goodness before putting it away and pulling up recipes.

Chris's biggest concern of doing Bountiful Baskets (which was a liable one, I grant him that) was that we don't know exactly what we're getting and it could go bad before we use it. I tried to prove to him earlier this week that I'll use what we get by finally doing something with all the oranges we had received from Christmas.

So, I grated a whole bunch of orange zest which I've frozen to sprinkle on things (we'll be having rice krispy treats for dessert tonight with orange zest on top!), then I squeezed all of them for juice, which took FOREVER and only resulted in, like, 2 cups from over 15 oranges, so I've hoarded that for myself since the kiddies won't appreciate all that hard work.

Lastly, I soaked the remainder of the orange peel in vinegar, put a little sugar in with it and cooked it in the crock pot for a day until the vinegar smell got too strong. The result?

Orange-infused vinegar that I'll put on salads! I now feel so resourceful (and who doesn't love the smell of fresh oranges in the house?) that I felt completely thrilled to get my basket Saturday, knowing I'd use the produce.

And oh, boy, will I! (Note: I pulled the pics below up on the internet)

Right when I got home, I cut up one of the bosc pears and had some colby jack cheese sticks with it (a lovely fruit and cheese platter like above would've been nice, especially brie, but I worked with what I had), enjoying the fresh snack that I saved so much money on!

Such as:

Fajitas with the orange peppers and red onions,

maybe this Greek dish with the spaghetti squash,

and onion soup from all the onions I now have.



Yum! On to some fresh cooking!

The Power of Music in Yellowstone

Clear back in July I went to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone with my mom and her childhood friend. We stayed at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and ate some scrumptious food (crab cake eggs benedict was AMAZING, but so was the lobster, grilled pear salad...

well, pretty much everything we ordered)

What really made the whole trip was the Lake String Quartet,

especially when they played this:

To truly get what I mean about mood music, you need to listen to this piece while I try to explain the atmosphere.

First, sidenote. My brother Nathan had me read Leo Tolstoy's "The Kreutzer Sonata" while he was taking a Russian literature class in university so we could "discuss it further" since they didn't have a lot of time in class. We talked about the power of music and how it can affect a person to do things that they otherwise wouldn't do or act on repressive emotions because the music has brought them to the surface.

I've grown up with a lot of different types of music in my life, and I firmly believe that's true. Some may not fall victim to this, but in other cases, it can connect people-individuals or a whole room-together for vice or virtue. End of sidenote.

After eating an incredible meal of lobster tails, roasted mutton and delicious side veggies, I left Lake Yellowstone Hotel's dining room with my mom and our friend Ron to discover the quartet in full swing. There were other hotel guests seated throughout the sunroom, so we pulled up a chair. They played some Hendrix (AWESOME!), Beethoven, and then Dvorak began.

They cleared the seating away and put the quartet in the middle

One fellow caught my attention early on. Nothing in particular stood out about him physically, though he was very attentive to all the songs while sitting behind the Quartet leaning against a wall. When Dvorak's New World Symphony began to play, he closed his eyes and became fully enraptured with the piece. All around me hotel guests were melding into the music.

Suddenly, we were all connected as we let this piece touch us in our own way, and when it ended on its last note, the air was tangible with emotion. With the exception of those I traveled to Yellowstone with, I didn't know anyone else in that room. There were people from nearly all the states of America and other countries, from hikers to empty-nesters to families young and old. Yet, we all were connected because of the emotions the music drew out, however sappy that may sound.

At one point, the aforementioned gentleman wept quietly as he softly moved his hand to the music, eyes closed the whole time, almost like a wallflower conductor. I saw this and felt an overwhelming connection to this stranger because of the music, causing me to get a bit teary-eyed seeing the personal impact the music had on him. The connection was kind of like our spirits shook hands and introduced themselves to each other.

After the music ended with "Happy Trails" we all sat there a few more minutes soaking in the beauty of an evening in Yellowstone National Park. I didn't talk to the fellow or anyone around me, but it was so neat to just sit and listen to the peace and contentment that went through the room after such good music.

As amazing as the trip was, it was the music (and admittedly, the good food) that I will remember the most. It's amazing what kind of power music has over me and triggers memories of all my other senses; when I hear this Dvorak piece, I remember the sights, sounds and smells of that day and it makes me happy.

What kind of power does music have over you?