The boys' music video from tech camp. They won Best Video :)

Enjoy!

Roasted Peach... Salsa? Chutney?

I wanted something different to go along with a pork tenderloin I'm making for dinner tonight.  I figured the leftover shriveled farm share peaches would be perfect. Until they were missing from the fridge!  So off I went to buy some "Late Season Tree Ripe Peaches" at the grocery store.  Of course, they were under ripe, but I figured since I was cooking them, it really didn't matter.

This is one of my favorite combinations, sweet and savory.  You can lower the savory by using sweet onions or omitting both the onions and the white pepper.

The only problem I have is what to call this? A salsa, chutney, fresh jam?  Let me know if you have any suggestions!  For now, it is...

Balsamic Roasted Peaches

4 Peaches, cubed (leave the skin on, its just easier)
1/2 onion, diced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil (or neutral oil if you want something sweeter)
1 tsp brown sugar
pinch salt
pinch ground white pepper

Preheat oven to 450
Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  Put peaches and onions in a bowl and add dressing.  Mix until everything is evenly coated.
Place peaches on a lined baking sheet, taking care not to add any excess dressing
Roast for 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes


Serve the sweet and savory version with pork, chicken or fish.

If you made the sweet only version, serve over vanilla ice cream, angel food cake or pound cake.  Or use for a filling in a cake (dice the peaches instead of cubing them, and you may want to stir them every 10 minutes, they may only take 30 minutes to cook)

Well, Google and my phone are arguing again.  There will be a photo here eventually!

Emotional Fallout from a Mommy and Me Pedicure

I know I don't post over here much, but this isn't really a running related post, so I thought I'd put it over here instead of on Not Just A Half.  But this is definitely something I need to get off my chest.

For the past 2 summers, I've taken my youngest to get a pedicure.  It's kind of our end of summer hurrah.  B is 6 this year.  We go to the salon in the mall which has a kiddie size pedicure chair, complete with a fuzzy bear head on the back of the chair, so it looks like a giant stuff animal.  B loves the pampering and the awesome colored toes! This year, the toes were painted a brilliant blue with sparkles.  It's a great hour of "Mommy and Me" time, without my husband or my oldest.  We chat about important things, including summer camp, what we think first grade will be like, the best part of vacation, anything that pops into B's head.  It's a great time and we both love it and look forward to it.

This year, two days after the pedicure, B comes home from camp and tells me the some of the kids were laughing, because they said his toes were "girly".  Yep, B is Brian, a 6 year old boy, who plays flag football, loves video games, and is in Cub Scouts. And he loves getting pedicures, having his toes painted any shade of blue and has been begging me to take him to get a "finger-cure" (aka manicure).

After a nice conversation, I think I got most of the story out of him.  On Monday, a bunch of boys and one girl were laughing at his toes during Water World. One of the counselors noticed and told the kids to knock it off.  Then, on Tuesday, one of the boys was trying to take off Brian's sneakers, and a counselor told him to knock it off.  The boy said it was a game, then proceed to try to take another kid's sneakers off.  To me, it sounded like he was trying to get Brian's sneaker off to look at his toes, and then covered it by going after another kid.

Brian never got upset, he was more annoyed than anything.  He wanted to change from sparkly blue to a robin's egg blue, because, although he never directly said this, I think he felt it was the sparkles that made the kids decide his toes were girly.  Brian didn't view "girly" as bad, just as "not him" (in his words "I'm a boy, my toes are boys").  We talked.  His main concern was not to be laughed at again.  We found a pair of swim shoes for the next day.  He was thrilled because now he didn't "need" to take his polish off.  I told him I was very, very proud of him and I cried myself to sleep that night.

There's two things that just stab my heart about this.  The obvious one is that MY kid was picked on.  I am proud of how he handled it, but I wish didn't have to happen.  That's the other one, that it happened.  That in the enlightened state of Massachusetts, children are still taught that girls wear nail polish and boys don't.  That "girly" has a negative connotation.


If you look around, you see programs to encourage girls and women to break into typically male dominated fields and activities.  Groups such as Society of Women Engineers, Engineer Girl, Girls on the Run... and of course, the women centric races, such as Zooma (where I'm an ambassador for the Cape Cod race this year), which promote a non-competitive spirit.  I think it's wonderful that these organizations are giving women a safe place to grow, and be themselves, but have you stopped to think about the other side of the coin?  Where are the organizations trying to encourage men and boys to break into female dominated fields? (I'm going to guess that it's because "the pay isn't good in those fields" but that's a discussion for another day). Why don't we teach boys how to be less competitive instead of excluding men to allow women to be non-competitive?

If we truly want to have a society, where men and women are viewed as equals, we can't just encourage half of society to break through the barriers.  We have to educate the whole society to allow the barriers to be removed.  I know that there will be two boys on this planet that will help remove the barriers, but I would love to hear from parents of other boys who will help.  I need to know you're out there too.

Banana Glazed Pork

I started this post the other night, but it took me a while to get the photo imported (love the new auto-import function between phones and google+! Made it so much easier!).  Anyway, dinner from Tuesday, on Saturday!

Not So Kid-Approved Dinner

We have the Cooking Light Kids-Approved cookbook.  Everyone once in a while, my kids will pick a recipe and we'll make it.  Tonight, the 7 year old decided we were making Pasta with Winter Squash.  I didn't quite have everything, so I modified it a bit.  But, it didn't matter, the 7 year old took a big bite and started crying.  He did not like it at all.

Pasta with Winter Squash Sauce

1 acorn squash

2 tbsp butter

1 clove garlic

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 cup walnuts 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar

black pepper

1/2 lb pasta (not spaghetti, go with ziti or rotini)

Cut squash in half, seed and place in a microwave dish cut side down. Add 1/4" of water and microwave 8-12 minutes or until cooked and soft.

Peel, diced then mash squash until smooth. Set aside

Place walnuts in a fry pan and toast over medium heat until fragrant. Take off heat and set aside.

Melt butter in another pan and saute garlic until golden brown. Add sage, stir until butter turns slightly golden.

Add butter mixture to squash and mix well.

Cook pasta according to directions. Mix hot, drained pasta with squash mixture.  It will take a minute for everything to incorporate.  Add walnuts and mix to combine.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

You can have this as a main dish, or as a side dish with a meat.  Unless your kids already like winter squash's flavor and texture, this may not be a big hit with the little ones, but my meat eater hubby even enjoyed it!

But... you're doing it WRONG! Spaghetti Carbonara

There are a few dishes that everyone remembers from their childhood that should be made *just* so.  Making it wrong isn't a "difference of taste", it borders on sacrilegious.  Growing up with Southern Italian roots, for me, this food is Spaghetti Carbonara.

The American version contains cream.  While that is a tasty dish (cream AND bacon!) it is NOT Carbonara.  If anything, it's Alfredo with Bacon.  Then today, I saw a recipe called "Gluten Free Carbonara".  I'm thrilled there's a recipe for those who are gluten free (hint: just sub out gluten free pasta), but please don't follow the directions of putting eggs in hot pasta water!  It made a thicken eggy soupy-saucey thing, not Carbonara.

Now, I'm not saying that MY recipe is the ONLY version of Carbonara. I'm sure my inclusion of onions will raise a debate in purist circles.  But it's the method more than the flavors I'm concerned about.  True Carbonara is pasta tossed in some sort of cooked cured pork, beaten eggs and cheese.  In the good ol' days, the heat from the pasta would just barely solidify the egg (think poached), but now, the eggs are cooked a bit more for safety reasons.  I tend to cook my eggs until they're just not runny.  The residual heat will bring them to solid but not dry.

And now, my family's Spaghetti Carbonara:

1 lb Spaghetti
1/2-1 lb bacon, or pancetta if you're feeling fancy, diced (note: you can use veggie bacon, just add oil to the pan when you cook it)
1 onion, diced (optional)
1 cup peas, cooked (optional, I barely add them, but it is an easy way to get veggies in you!)
3 eggs
1/2 cup good hard cheese (parmesan, Romano, etc), grated
A good amount of Black Pepper (we don't measure the pepper, just keep grinding until the egg mixture has lots of black specks in it)

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan and let it drain
Make sure you have about 2 tbsp of fat/oil in the pan.  Take away bacon fat or add olive oil as needed
Saute onion over medium low heat until tender, but not browned
Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cooked bacon and peas, if you're using them
Whisk eggs and combine with cheese and black pepper
Cook the spaghetti according to the box's direction to your preferred doneness
Drain the spaghetti and put in the pan with the bacon
Turn on the heat to medium and add the egg mixture.  Constantly mix the spaghetti (I find using tongs is the easiest) until the eggs are just cooked through.  Use your own preference on "doneness".
Remove from heat.
Serve with extra cheese and black pepper.

Almost Instant Black Bean Soup

Yep, it's New Year's Eve. We're not doing anything special, heck, we're old and have kids.  I'm making fajitas and since it's all of 28 degrees and there's 8 inches of snow on the ground from a few days ago, I wanted black bean soup.  I popped on google and mashed together a few recipes. I'm writing it all down, so I don't forget! This was almost too easy to be true! and it way tastier than Panera's soup (and I really like Panera's!)

2 cans (16 oz) black beans, rinsed
1/3 cup of white wine (that last little half glass that I couldn't drink without getting stink-eye from the Hubby)
2 tsp to 1.5 tbsp Cumin (depending on your preferences)
Dash to 1/2 tsp Chili Powder (again, depending on your preferences)
2 tsp Molasses (if you use more cumin, you may want more molasses, aim for the same amount or slightly less Molasses than Cumin)
1 tsp Lime juice (more if the soup is too sweet)
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt and water or broth

Saute the garlic in a pot and added the wine when the garlic is fragrant.

Add about half of the beans and some water (or broth) to make it thin enough so you can use your immersion blender.  Whip it up until it's pretty smooth. Add water/broth to keep it the right consistency.

Add the rest of the beans, and the seasonings.  Puree some more if you want less whole beans. I ended up with about 1/4 of the beans left whole.

Simmer, covered on low for at least 15 minutes.  Add water/broth if it's too thick. Salt if needed.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream (or not, if you want to do the vegan thing)

______

I honestly think it's the sweet and sour of the molasses and lime juice that makes this soup.  Part of me wants to totally puree it, so I don't have the protein flavor center of the beans.  I did go with the lower end of the measurements, I'm not in the mood for super spicy tonight, but I could see it working with the bigger flavor punch.

*****
Edited to add: Ok, I pureed the whole thing. You'll need to up the seasonings. I added another tsp of lime juice, molasses and a 1/2 tsp of cumin. Plus almost a cup of water. and salt.  So, everything :)