Tonight’s James Beard dish is pretty basic on the surface: lamb shanks braised in red wine and beef stock with a bit of tomato paste, bay leaves and other herbs. But as usual, we at the Bistro like to change things up a bit, so we couldn’t just serve plain old white beans alongside: our beans are a bit dressed up with bacon, onions and shallots, and some fresh rosemary and thyme. You can really smell the perfume of the herbs coming off this dish and making the beans and the lamb even more flavorful.

But, of course, that’s not all. We’ve got a full lineup of other standards and specials to tempt you. Like a little spice? Has the great weather today made you feel like pretending for a while that you really do live someplace where it’s always warm like this? Go Jamaican tonight with a jerk barbecue mahi-mahi accompanied by tropical fruited rice, rich with bananas, papayas, pineapple and coconut. Or try something else on the specials that’s caught your fancy. For example, the Four-Cheese Macaroni & Cheese with Smoked Chicken and Black Truffle:

This is creamy, smoky, cheesy comfort of the best kind. Or maybe you’d prefer a “Petit Poulet” (chicken) wrapped in bacon with cornbread-andouille sausage stuffing and a cranberry-orange chutney. Or an Italian seafood cioppino, rich with South African lobster tail, scallops, shrimp, mussels, clams, crab leg, Italian sweet sausage and penne pasta in a spicy marinara broth, topped with tempura calamari.

Whatever you do, again, you want to keep one more course in mind, because, as always, there are some beauties in our dessert case. Some of the ones we have on hand right now: pumpkin pie topped with maple-brown sugar whipped cream; triple chocolate cheesecake; and fresh vanilla-bean ice cream. Oh, and did we mention we still have Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie?

It’s Saturday night, and it’s going to be a beautiful one. Come celebrate it at the Bistro!

Fruit Fights the Flu

If you’re not eating the recommended 5 fruits and vegetables a day, here’s a new reason to head to the produce aisle
By: Amy Palanjian

Fruit fights the germs we’re exposed to in the winter. “The vitamin load keeps your immune level high, allowing you to fend off colds and flu,” says Amy Howell, Ph.D., a research scientist at Rutgers University. Fruits also reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Try the five below to give your immune system a boost.

Apples
The most popular source of antioxidants in our diet, one apple has an antioxidant effect equivalent to 1,500 mg of vitamin C. Apples are loaded with protective flavonoids, which may prevent heart disease and cancer.

Papayas
With 250 percent of the RDA of vitamin C, a papaya can help kick a cold right out of your system. The beta-carotene and vitamins C and E in papayas reduce inflammation throughout the body, lessening the effects of asthma.

Cranberries
Cranberries have more antioxidants than other common fruits and veggies. One serving has five times the amount in broccoli. Cranberries are a natural probiotic, enhancing good bacteria levels in the gut and protecting it from foodborne illnesses.

Grapefruit
Loaded with vitamin C, grapefruit also contains natural compounds called limonoids, which can lower cholesterol. The red varieties are a potent source of the cancer-fighting substance lycopene.

Bananas
One of the top food sources of vitamin B6, bananas help reduce fatigue, depression, stress, and insomnia. Bananas are high in magnesium, which keeps bones strong, and potassium, which helps prevent heart disease and high blood pressure. 

I got this from the Men’s Health Magazine, however, we can all benefit from this info! Remember it is better to eat a whole orange than to have a glass of OJ!

 Have a healthy day!

Whoa! That’s a lot of papayas, was my first thought as we drove up to the house for the first time in almost three months. Even in the approaching dusk, I could tell that there were at least 60 fruit spread among 4 papaya trees.

When you’ve been away for almost three months, you’re grateful for anything left alive in the garden at all, but everywhere I looked, there was something not only alive, but thriving. My sweet potato patch has taken over its corner of the yard, and in the process, swallowed a lawnmower and a wheelbarrow. In addition to the papayas, there are two green clusters of bananas, plumping up on the banana trees, and the grapefruit is bowed down with heavy fruit. There is even about 30 fruit on the three-year-old satsuma tree (a first!). In the garden, there is a melon vine that is still setting fruit, enough basil to stock the freezer with pesto for the winter, and a bounty of eggplants and sweet and hot peppers.

Sweet Potatoes swallowed the lawnmower!

Bounty of hot peppers

There is still a lot of work to do (the weeds had an excellent summer too), but I was pleasantly surprised by the rewards present for a lazy farmer.

Or I should say “laissez farmer,” not only because we are in New Orleans, but also because this garden has been left alone, to just be, with little human intervention, for the past three months.

And, with little effort on my part, my freezer is full of rabbit. There’s two does and a buck left to continue to supply us with meat for the future, but thirteen rabbits ended up butchered a few weeks ago and I am benefiting with the most tender white meat I’ve ever tasted. I browned it in a little duck fat left from my muscovy ducks and the results have been marvelous.

Tarragon Rabbit in the Dutch Oven

Hawaiian Chicken Salad

3 whole chicken breasts – skinned and boned
1 1/2 c Sour cream
1/2 c Chutney, finely chopped
1 t Curry powder (more to taste)
1/4 ts Ground ginger
1/4 c Toasted shredded coconut
3 Cantaloupes
Small honeydew melons
Large papayas
Pineapple Chunks or other fruit (optional)
4 c Shredded lettuce (optional)

Place chicken on steamer rack over 1 cup boiling water. Cover and steam 15 minutes or until cooked through, but still moist. Dice or shred meat. Combine sour cream, chutney, curry powder and ginger until mixed. Mix dressing with chicken and coconut. Chill. Cut cantaloupes, honeydew melons or papayas in halves, remove seeds and fill cavities with chicken salad. Or, spoon chicken salad on shredded lettuce and garnish with slices of fruit.

Recipe found here: Hawaiian Chicken Salad

It’s been a lovely week here, with temperatures dipping into the low 40°s and reaching the 70°s.

The Oasis is progressing nicely. I will take a week ending photo once the light goes down a bit. Yes, the sun is blazing out there and I have the door and windows open (as I have had most of the week).

PAPAYAS

Earlier in the week I was pleased to see that the papaya seeds I planted, before the last cold snap, had sprouted up with a vengeance.

I replanted a good number of these seedlings, tasted one (sweet and peppery at the same time), and gave the rest to other people in the park.

After giving them away (which I don’t regret) I learned that the sprouts are recommended as a salad topping, and that the dried seeds can be ground and used like pepper. Since I had another papaya on hand (gifted from my business partner), I saved those seeds and am drying them now.

COCONUTS

My business partner and his family went wildnerness camping on an island last weekend. His yard is full of papaya and coconut trees. He brought along some coconuts and experimented by roasting them on the fire. I was the beneficiary of two of these beauties.

On Monday I cracked one open and proceeded to scarf down more than half. I couldn’t stop because it had a great smoky, roasted aroma and flavor. The next morning I wished that I had stopped before I ate so much. The old saying “Too much of a good thing” certainly applies to coconuts; and that’s all I am going to say about that!

VOLUNTEER TOMATOES

The papayas  and coconuts were just the beginning of the natural abundance I enjoyed this week. I took a look at my poorly managed (see “neglected”) compost heap and noticed some strange looking sprouts poking out. Surely this is sign that no composting is taking place? It’s OK, because I got a bunch of volunteer tomatoes for no effort (other than burying some kitchen scraps and ignoring them).

The little rascals have since been relocated to The Oasis where they are getting plenty of water. As soon as I planted the newbies my first tomato plant (purchased from the flea market) has stepped up to the plate and started to flower (I think it may be showing off).  I have no idea which variety  any of these tomatoes are, but I hope to get a good mix.

CITRUS JUICE

Another gift from my business partner was a big bag of locally grown Indian River grapefruit and oranges. Since we have orchards to the west of us, the fruit flies are plentiful. The bag of citrus has been attracting fruit flies all week and I finally got annoyed enough to do something about it.

Yesterday I washed the fruit (although it doesn’t look like it) and proceeded to make juice.

This handy little juicer strains the seeds and pulp and collects juice in the cup with a pour spout.

The lid holds the fruit in place while you twist to squeeze.

Here is the aftermath. I added a little raw sugar to take away the bite and ended up with 3 1/2 quarts of excellent juice.

OKEECHOBEE BASS

To top off a week of goodness we got a knock on our door yesterday. It was our neighbor, Fred, bearing a nice bag of filleted Okeechobee Bass. We sell wild caught Florida shrimp and have a bartering agreement with Fred.  We get our fill of shrimp and he gets his fill of bass so every now and again he comes by for a trade. He even brought some homemade batter! Since last night was our fifth wedding anniversary (we don’t make a big deal out of spending money to celebrate) we had a little fish fry and enjoyed the tastiest, freshest, most delicate bass you can imagine. Sorry, no pictures. We ate it too fast.

OUR ANNIVERSARY  PRESENT TO EACH OTHER

A couple of weeks ago AJ’s mother asked us to sell our Volvo to her so that his sister can have it. This care is safe, runs well and is in great shape. It has a few cosmetic issues such as a bad headliner, cracked dash and peeling paint. It is also two colors, since I smashed it up a little and AJ had to replace a fender and some other body parts. Still, it’s a great car and perfect for a young, “carefree”  person, such as his sister. Our perk for letting go of this car for super cheap was that his mom would finance our purchase of a “new” car. Neither of us believes in paying the outrageous price of a new car only to have it depreciate immediately; so new to us means “old but in great shape”. The hunt for this car and the surprising result will have to wait until we pick it up. AJ will immediately get to work sprucing it up (although it is already stunning), and when he is finished I will post the story of the search and some nice photos of the gift we got each other on our fifth year married.

Ever since the early ‘70s, we have been on the universal precautions bandwagon. 

First, we introduced latex gloves in the healthcare setting in doctors’ offices and in hospitals.

Next, individuals who prepare and serve food in restaurants, cafeterias, etc. also started using latex rubber gloves.  So what are the chances you can develop an allergic reaction to latex rubber?

The majority of those affected develop only localized symptoms such as skin irritation and burning, itchiness, redness and/or swelling of the hands or those areas exposed to the latex.  Next, are those unlucky allergic people who may have reactions that are more serious and progressive.  Higher-risk areas include the dentist’s office, operating room or emergency department and gynecologists’ offices ― just to name a few.  So get a medical identification card and/or bracelet to inform of your latex allergy! 

So where else do we see allergic reactions to latex rubber?

What am I seeing in my office?  Just the other day, a restaurant owner who supervises food preparation (personally) was exposed to foods and products served by staff who wear latex rubber gloves. When tested, we learned she had become allergic to latex rubber and had two potentially life-threatening reactions as a result of exposure in her own restaurant. 

If you are allergic to latex, be aware you may also react to the following foods: Bananas, avocados, chestnuts, apples, carrots, celery, papayas, kiwi, melons, potatoes and tomatoes.

Finally, defense being your best option, click here  for a consumer-friendly list of products that may contain latex rubber.

Dr. Clifford W. Bassett is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Long Island College Hospital and on the faculty of NYU School of Medicine. He is the current vice chair for public education committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. No information in this blog is intended as medical advice to any reader or intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition.

The Papaya fruit is native to the tropics of the Americas, and was cultivated in Mexico and Central America. The papaya is a melon like fruit with yellow-orange flesh when it is ripe and it is sometimes called “tree melon”. Papayas are a good source of vitamin A and C and it has an enzyme called papain which is used to break down tough meat fibers.

Papayas taste a little bit like pineapples and peaches but they are not so tart. The fruit is ripe when they attain a completely yellow hue. Eat them within a day or two if they are ripe. Papayas smell sweet when they are cut. There are two varieties of Papayas. The popular one is the Hawaiian variety which is widely found. They are pear shaped, weigh about a pound and have yellow skin and other is the Mexican variety which are much larger and found mostly in Latino supermarkets.

Include Papaya in your diet along with other fruits and wouldn’t you like it if fresh fruits were delivered at the doorstep of your workplace? Hi5 Produce’s Corporate Fruit Delivery will do this for you and this is a place where everyone will find something they like with Hi5’s excellent variety! Every Hi5 Corporate fruit basket is packed with at least 10 different types of fruit. The staples, which are available all year round, are oranges, apples (Fuji), bananas, and pears. The rest of the basket is dependent on season, preferences, and cost. They also have special fruit baskets prepared on request if they are informed earlier. You could have the pick of the seasonal fruit as well as they have seasonal fruit baskets. Their spring fruit baskets and their summer fruit baskets contain a variety of delicious peaches, white peaches, nectarines, white nectarines, plums, pluots, apricots, mangoes and strawberries. There is also an increase in berries and cut melons, as these hit their peak potential at this time of year. Their fall fresh fruit baskets and their winter fruit baskets include an increased variety of local apples and pears, including Gala, Gold Delicious, Red Delicious, Granny, Pink Lady, and Pippin apples. The pear variety includes Bosc, Danjou, Red Danjou, Comice, and Asian pears. Citrus varieties are available as well as tangerines, grapefruits, blood oranges, and tangelos. Check their online website for more information http://www.hi5produce.com/

The honey tastes like orchids. Its divine. I bought it at the farmers market on Saturday for 5 bucks. It was the most expensive thing I bought. There are some cutesy honey sellers at the market, and I don’t go for those. No little labels with kitschy names or terrible puns for me. I like my honey in an old jar that’s dirty on top, no label, no nothing. That’s the good stuff. I found it tucked away at one of the fruit seller’s booths, near the rambutans, with a piece of torn cardboard behind it that read $5 in scribbled black magic marker. We brought the twins to the market and made out like bandits. I don’t even know how we fit all those papayas in the car.

I had a real love/hate relationship with papayas when I was pregnant with the girls. Its to be expected with a pregnant lady and a fruit that tastes like perfume. Good perfume, tasty perfume. Some days it would make me gag to even think of them and other days I’d make S fire up the waffle maker and pile my Belgium waffle to the sky with yummy pink papaya.

Back to the honey. It really does taste like orchids. Its just delicious. I can taste everything, all the flowers and fruits and smells. Island honey, island bees. The problem with commercial honey is not that it tastes bad, it doesn’t. The problem is that it all tastes the same, its too…..controlled, like it was made by robot bees. There’s nothing to identify. Certainly no orchids.

I’ve been here over a year, but there are some things I will never get used to. One of them is orchids. Where I come from, people put orchids under glass half spheres like cakes. They display them like fine art in temperature controlled rooms, whispering when they walk by so as not to upset them. They leave them to relatives in their wills and aunts claw at each other over them like cats over tuna. Here, they pull them out of the ground like weeds. They are weeds. They grow everywhere. Everywhere. There’s nothing precious about them.

I’m precious about my maple syrup. We shipped gallons and gallons with our possessions when we moved to this island. We bought it at a farm stand in Maine. Once you start using the real stuff you just can’t stomach that Aunt Jemima crap. Now its all run out and we’re devastated and constantly plotting our next trip to New England and how much we can take back with us.

S took the girls for a walk the other day and brought back loads of strawberry guavas. He boiled them into a syrup and we had it with our pancakes. It was yummy but now its all gone and I’m pre-occupied with how we’ll get more maple syrup.

Poor Mumu has a terrible rash. Its strange, she did fine with rice cereal, oatmeal, papaya, banana, avocado, applesauce, etc, but organic apple juice really put her over the edge. It must have been more acidic than she could handle. I put it in her oatmeal last night, and she was broken out by morning. She’s uncomfortable and clingy. Poor little pineapple.

I want to take them for a walk, but the vog has rolled in so thick and heavy I can’t see two feet in front of me. I hate the vog. Everyone does. It looks like fog but its not. Its surfurous fumes from the volcano. Normally its all blown away by the tradewinds, but if the tradewinds die down for any reason and can’t carry it off we’re stuck with it. Its a bit ironic. The air on this island and pretty much the cleanest in the world. Literally. No smog, no pollution, we are industry free and out in the middle of nowhere. Except. Except when the winds dies down and there’s vog. Then the air must be the worst in the world. The volcano goddess was merciful to me when I brought my preemie twins home. There wasn’t vog for months and months, thank God. Their little lungs. Now its back to inconvenience me.

I’m writing long entries these days. I guess its because I’m just bopping along, stream of consciousness style, not really reading what I’m putting down or trying to tie it together. Maybe its laziness, but it seems more fun this way.

Sucky lighting alert!

Papaya! Haven’t had this in ages, and my brother made papaya milk on Sunday night so there was leftovers that needed to be used up! And you know what happens whenever there are leftovers in my kitchen!

Verdict–very interesting taste! Papayas are soft like bananas and pears, so they’re great in terms of contributing to sweetness and flavors, but I thought there was a very very very small undertone of bitterness? It didn’t bug me–but worth noting!

Um yeah, the chunky coffee was kind of an experiment in itself…I still had half a cup of papaya milk leftover so um…I think you can guess what happened next! It was actually pretty nasty! The flavors did not match, the coffee was wayy too strong and bitter! I ended up adding the whole thing [after forcing myself to drink half the cup...] into my oats–and it tasted great! I don’t know how that works.

Ooooh yesterday mom made the most awesome dessert ever–walnut soup!

SO GOOD.

Anyway–this morning I was so hungry that I had two formal snacks [I usually get bites of other food after my "formal snack", but I never photograph those 'cause that's boring ]

Post-yoga snack #1:

Bran flakes, cheerios, blueberries, milk.

Snack #2:

Mom’s vegetable soup! I haven’t had turnips in ages!

Off to look up plane tickets to California! Anyone got any good restaurant recommendations?

Thinking The Lions: Life, only funnier!. This appeared there first.
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It’s hard to cook for a family; everyone has their likes and dislikes, some of which appear to be entirely random. I’ve many times wondered if the kids decided one day that they needed a personality of some sort, and that the best way to have a personality would be to like or dislike a kind of food.

It’s easy to create a personality, after all. I’ve done it lots of times. I invented a new signature for myself when I was 19. I read an article about how people with flourishes and flashy signatures are optimistic, energetic people. I wanted to be optimistic and energetic, too, but that’s a lot of work, always being upbeat and doing stuff. So instead of becoming optimistic and energetic and hoping my signature followed suit, I sat down for about a half-hour and worked out a new signature with flourishes and doohickeys and things, and once I had that down, I assumed that the optimism and energy would ultimately result.

I also made myself a fidgeter because a long long time ago, I read that fidgeting can burn up to 800 calories per day. Ever on the lookout for a way to work out without actually exercising, I decided that fidgeting would be a good way to go, so I learned to fidget — and not just any old fidgeting, but cross-training fidgeting: I tap my heel, I bend paperclips, I go get coffee, I go dump out my coffee because the coffee we make in our office is god-awful terrible, I bend more paperclips.

The Fidget Workout (Copyright ME) is only one of the many workouts I’ve invented in my life in hopes of, like I said, not actually exercising. I used to be quite the exerciser; in my 20s I worked out 5 or 6 days per week. Now, I watch How I Met Your Mother five or six days a week, and my “workouts” are not so much workouts as brief breaks from TV. I’m not as bad as those people who look up how many calories are burned doing laundry, but I’m well on my way down that path. My workout this summer has been something I call “Baby Workout” and involves– try to follow this now — taking the Babies somewhere and playing with them. That somewhere might be the living room, and it might be the park. To get them there, I put them in the stroller and walk and jog behind it, so that we arrive at the swingset (or the couch) with me gasping for breath and covered in sweat, and the Babies! confused, a little, at the way we sped up and slowed down to get there, and also at why I am leaning down with my head between my legs and dizzy.

So I have experience in creating workouts and personalities, and that’s why I think the kids sometimes use food to establish a personality: because it’s easier than learning about current events or having hobbies. Instead of being “the kid who reads nonfiction a lot,” because that’s boring and requires reading, they can be “the kid who likes bratwurst as a sausage but doesn’t like bratwurst patties because they are round,” which requires no work whatsoever. The Boy has tons of these kinds of quirks; he likes salami but only if it comes from the deli. He has to have “real” mayonnaise and swears he can taste the difference between that and Miracle Whip. He might be able to do that, but he can’t tell the difference between deli salami and Oscar Mayer salami; I know because we just buy Oscar Mayer salami and put it in a deli bag. We even told him that’s what we do, in an effort to convince him that there’s no difference. He didn’t believe us: “You wouldn’t go to that much trouble,” The Boy told Sweetie. But we would, and we do.

The kids also have no gray areas; everything has to be black and white with them. They can’t just not be in the mood for something. They have to hate it. Make something they love for dinner, but they’re just not hungry at the moment, and they hate it. We might order pizza for dinner, which they love, but they’ve been snacking and so they’re not ready for dinner, and The Boy and Middle will both say “I hate pizza.” Point out to them that they actually love pizza, that in fact they eat pizza for breakfast sometimes, that sometimes The Boy gets up late at night to come down and eat pizza, and they’ll try to differentiate that.

“That was different,” they say. Pressed to describe the difference, and they’ll hit on whatever the can. It was warm, they’ll say or I only like cold pizza or That pizza had melty cheese; this doesn’t. Random, ad hoc justifications that might as well be I was facing east when you ordered that pizza.

Faced with that, Sweetie and I soldier on and try to make things that are new or exciting or tasty, which is how one night we ended up having “Rachael Ray’s Jerky Turkey Burgers With Papaya Salsa.” The “Rachael Ray” cookbooks we have were my retirement gift to Sweetie when we finally hit the point where she could stay home with the kids all day; I gave her those cookbooks and a Rachael Ray food processor because she liked watching Rachael Ray’s cooking show and was excited about being able to cook fancy meals. It didn’t work out quite like we’d all hoped. One day trying to make meatballs, I broke the food processor. Then the Babies! learned to walk, taking away any freedom Sweetie used to have because walking Babies! are Babies! that are capable of walking into their playroom, picking up the talking toy globe that they got for their first birthday, and walking back to the TV and hurling the globe at the TV, so walking Babies! are also “Constantly Supervised Babies!” Also, Sweetie went back to watching Law & Order reruns instead of Rachael Ray.

“Rachael Ray’s Jerky Turkey Burgers With Papaya Salsa” is the official title of the recipe; in our house, it would not quite match up to that title. I made these for dinner a couple of weeks ago when I had some free time on a Saturday. I told Sweetie I would make dinner, and she asked what we were having. I read the title of the recipe to her, and said:

“We’re having papayas!” I was very proud.

Sweetie asked: “Do they sell papayas?” she wondered.

“Sure,” I told her, certain of it the way I’m certain of everything that I need to be true in my life, whether or not I actually know the answer. I’m certain even when I have no idea if I’m actually right.

“What do they look like?” Sweetie asked me, and I had to admit, I didn’t know. I’ve never bought a papaya before. I guessed maybe they looked like a pineapple. “Are you sure?” Sweetie asked, but I wasn’t, so I did what I always do when confronted with a question like this — I googled it.

I google everything. I google anything that in a less-digital age I would have called one of my parents about. In the past, I’d ask my mom (who’s a nurse) about various aches and pains or weird dizzy spells I’d had, or cooking questions, or child-rearing questions. I’d ask her those things even though my mom’s answers to those questions was the same answer no matter what question I asked her: Drink more milk. I’d like Mom works for the Milk Board. Call her up and say “I was out jogging with the babies and now my feet hurt real bad,” and she’ll say “Drink more milk.” Call up and ask how to “saute” something, and she’ll say “saute” is French for “drink the milk.” When Sweetie and I were getting married, Mom left us a message that she had an idea for the reception; before I called her back, I was pretty sure that it would be to have all the guests drink milk.

I never asked Dad for as much advice as Mom’s, because when I ask Dad for advice, the answer begins straightforwardly but works its way around, eventually, to one of Dad’s three main topics of conversation: Social Security, gambling, or how he’s going to move down South because it’s cheaper to live there. I never, ever say that Dad might not need to live somewhere so cheap if he’d just gamble less. Eventually, Dad probably will move down South, where he’ll move in next to a casino that cashes Social Security checks, so he’ll have hit the conversational equivalent of the Unified Field Theory.

Luckily, I don’t need to call my parents for advice like that because I can now just google it, like I google everything, and like I googled “papaya” that Saturday to find out what one looked like. I was unimpressed with it; it looked a lot like a watermelon on Atkins, a skinny elongated pear that looked boring. Tropical fruit shouldn’t look boring. The tropics are exciting; fruit from the tropics should be exciting. If I’m going to have something with papaya in it, I want the papaya to look exotic. It should have had stripes, or spikes, or maybe little arms and legs so it could dance around singing some sort of catchy reggae song.

But I knew what one looked like, so I went and got that and the rest of the ingredients and came home to cook up the Jerky Turkey burgers with Papaya salsa only to learn that most of my ingredients were banned from our household because of e coli scares; specifically, Sweetie saw me getting ready to chop up the jalapeno pepper I’d bought and ruled it out because at the time, jalapeno peppers were the suspect in an outbreak of e coli. I tried to reason with Sweetie using various argument tactics:

First, I pointed out that it was only one jalapeno, and that it was very unlikely that there’d be much risk in one jalapeno.

When that didn’t work, I said that I’d be cooking the jalapeno, which would kill any of the e coli germs in it. (I said that despite being completely ignorant about whether that would, or would not, work.)

That didn’t work, either, so I tried resorting to definitions. “It’s a JERKY burger,” I said. “That means it’s hot. It has to have the jalapeno or the recipe’s wrong.“

Still nothing, so I ended by pointing out that the e coli hadn’t even killed anybody yet. I knew by then that I’d lost the argument; when your thesis in an debate is based on nobody has died… yet from doing whatever it is you want to do, you’re not coming from a position of strength.

So we didn’t have jalapenos for the burgers, but I forged ahead and made the Non-Jerky Turkey Burgers and while they were frying up, I tackled the Papaya salsa, which required that I cut up the Papaya, and I wasn’t sure how to do that. I wasn’t even sure which parts of the Papaya were supposed to be eaten or not.

That happens every single time I buy new fruit and it’s why I mostly stick to apples and bananas, and why I even more mostly stick to Doritos and the like: It’s far less confusing to eat a BBQ Ranch Frito than it is to eat a pomegranate. A bag of Cheetos is easy to eat; the bag is inedible, everything else is fair game. But cut open a pomegranate, and I’m in a mystifying world of pulp and seeds and skin and meat and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be eating or cooking. Am I supposed to get the seeds out? I wonder. Nobody eats seeds, so get rid of them, I think, but then I remember Persephone eating six pomegranate seeds and having to stay in Hades forever, so then I wonder if I am supposed to be eating the seeds, but also, if I do, will I go to Hell?

Fruit is confusing. Cookbooks don’t help. Chop up Papaya, they say, without telling me whether I’m supposed to peel it, or eat it with the peel, or core it, or something.

I finally opted to peel the Papaya and chop it up, then mixed it up with the other ingredients, and mashed it around, and created what turned out to be about 3 gallons of Papaya salsa. Papayas are not only confusing, they’re big. I had four burgers, four buns, and an entire punch bowl of Papaya salsa, which I was putting on the table when Middle walked through the kitchen, saw the salsa and said “I don’t like that.”

Parents everywhere can say with me exactly what I’ve said: “You’ve never had it.”

Middle was not daunted. “I don’t like what’s in it.”

I said: “You don’t know what’s in it.”

Middle said “That thing you were chopping.” When I said that she didn’t know what it was I was chopping, she said “But I still don’t like it.“

We had the Nonjerky Turkey Burgers With Optional Papaya Salsa for dinner, and I had apparently used the right parts of the papaya, because I thought they tasted excellent. Sweetie assured me they were very good.

Middle mostly moved hers around on the plate and ended up eating almost nothing of it; even after she scraped off the Papaya Salsa I’d made her put on, she didn’t eat the Nonjerky Turkey burger; it had apparently been tainted by contact with “that thing I’d been chopping”, and she wanted no part of it. She ended up having a dinner consisting mostly of Cheez-Its. I tried not to be offended or upset: that’s just her personality.

I can

I can/We Can

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Blog post ideas from my notebook today:

1. A long, funny description of my new tablet PC ending with an explanation as to how long it takes me to write emails and so if you get an email from me and it is super short, you will understand.

2. Try to draw a picture with my new software and post it. This may be a problem because I can’t draw at all. Sigh.

3. Write Hebrews 4:11 at top. Talk about rest. Except when I start to write this post, it is all about my stupid hand pain again, so NEVER MIND.

4. Talk about Hugh taking kids to a drop-off childcare center. Complain about lack of family to watch kids. Realize there is nothing encouraging in this post. Scrap this idea quickly.

5. Write James 1:4 at top. Think about wisdom. Realize God can give wisdom if I only ask! Yeah! Try to write about this but then I go and get myself ginger ale and become totally distracted.

Good morning to all of you,

If you have been following my blog, you know that I am a fan of fruits. But can you eat as much fruit as you want and not gain weight?

Maybe yes, maybe not. All foods contribute calories to our diet but it depends on the portions you eat and especially on how you prepare them. When it comes to fruits, we know that some have more calories than others. Fruits in their natural state have almost no proteins or fat, except for coconuts and avocados.

Because fruit contains sugars, nutrition experts recommend 2 to 4 pieces a day.

Among the fruits that are low in calories we find melons, watermelons, papayas, and grapefruits with only about 40 calories per 100 grams.

Strawberries, apricots, oranges, pineapples, and tangerines have about 50 calories per 100 grams.

If you are trying to lose weight, count the calories in the fruit you eat as part of your general diet.

Have a good day,

Emilia Klapp, R.D., B.S.

About the Author

Emilia Klapp has a degree in Nutrition Science and is certified by the American Dietetic Association as a Registered Dietitian. With her new book, “Your Heart Needs the Mediterranean Diet”, she has helped thousands of people just like you reduce the risk of heart disease, lose weight and enjoy a more abundant life at the same time. For more information on the book and to receive a free especial report on the “Top 10 Mediterranean Curative Ingredients” go to: http://mediterraneanheart.com

I started growing papayas late last year and was surprised how fast they grew. Though I later found out that they can grow even faster after the first 18 months. Reaching heights of up to four metres in just a few seasons. Though don’t be alarmed. There is a way you can mantain your papaya to a reachable size.

If you look at the trunk you will notice leaf scars. Widely spaced leaf scars means that there was a growth spurt and so this part is hollow. The close scars indicate relative dormancy and this part is solid. You should cut about 5cm above the solid part with a pruning saw and cover with a tin or bucket to prevent moisture on the newly cut stem. Once the cut has healed it can be removed. The papaya should recover and bring out side shoots and begin fruiting almost immediately.

Here’s some of the ones I planted. All I did was cleaned the seed out the soft gel and let it dry out for a day or two before planting. This way it stops the seeds from rotting before germination. Though this time I did use old seeds that I collected over a year ago and they worked fine as long as it’s kept dry.

Place the seeds 2cm deep in the potting mix and keep moist but not wet, in a warm sunny position. If your seedlings haven’t emerged after 2 weeks, start again with new seeds as the seeds might not have been mature enough.

Papayas are great. Love it ripe or green. When it’s green you can make the green papaya salad. It’s originally a Lao dish made with sliced green papaya, mixed with ingredients and pounded lightly in a mortar and pestle.

Green papaya salad anyone?

To make this you will need:

• Green papaya, sliced thinly
• Hot chillies – as much as desired
• Cherry tomatoes – halved
• 1 clove garlic
• Fish sauce or anchovy sauce – desired amount or 1 Tbs
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs lemon or lime juice

Firstly, crush the garlic in the mortar and pestle into a paste, then add the chillies. Add the sugar now so the chillies don’t fly everywhere (be careful of your eyes) and once done add a handful or so of the papaya and tomatoes. Add the lime juice and preferred sauce to desired taste and lightly crush with pestle and toss with a spoon. Mix well and serve with sticky rice and water spinach (ong choy).

Tips To Building Your Dream Wardrobe (if you use my closet as a guide):

1. When putting together a wardrobe, keep in mind that you need many, many pairs of black pants. Black crops, black Bermuda shorts in stiff and relaxed cotton, black dress pants, black jeans, black sweat pants, and several pairs of black yoga pants. It doesn’t matter if you don’t do yoga – it is still good to have these black yoga pants because they go really well with:

2. Six to eight oversized, large, stained cotton t-shirts. Try not to get black because you already have so many black pants, but the key is LARGE. If you are wearing a shirt that is way too big, you will hide everything you hate about your body. Tell yourself that these shirts are trendy because they are in sort-of-trendy colors.

3. Make sure you have one nice outfit that you can wear to all the weddings you will go to in the summer. If your husband has a big family and his cousins keep getting married, it is important to have a nice black suit to wear to these important events. Change the shirt you wear underneath the suit for each wedding so that it looks like a new outfit each time.

4. When you go to the fun outlet mall and find a large blue sweater that is kind of cute but also makes you look like a weird puffy cloud woman, don’t hesitate – buy the sweater in every color. Don’t feel bad when eight months later you discover the pile of sweaters with the tags still on in the corner of your closet in a heap. At least you were trying to branch out with the idea of wearing a sweater, even if you never actually wore one.

5. Always keep at least one salmon colored maternity shirt with a DOG BITE IN THE SLEEVE for nights when you want to cozy up with your husband while eating Chinese food and watching BBC America news. Surely he thinks your shirt is cute, right? You’ve had it for five years. You love that shirt. Why would you consider wearing something remotely attractive around the house when it’s just the two of you? And the dog bite in the sleeve just gives it character.

6. It is important to have at least one warm coat in the South for those chilly winter months. A large red quilted coat is just the thing to throw on for cold mornings. Buy one with a grey hood to fit neatly over your wet ponytail.

7. One money-saving tip: wear your husband’s gym socks instead of buying socks for yourself. They are large, soft, and comfortable. They are white – and will go with your black pants/shorts/capris/Bermudas/sweats really well. Think of all the money you will save by not buying your own socks.

8. Make sure to check the Target clearance rack for potential finds. And buy the blue crop pants with the word “cheeky” on the butt – even if you think that you may never actually put them on. It’s good to have fun and crazy pieces in your wardrobe for those “want to have ‘cheeky’ in pink bubble letters on my behind” days.

9. Instead of investing in a really good pair of jeans, buy inexpensive jeans that don’t really fit right because you don’t want to try on a bunch of jeans in the dressing room because you’d rather be home in your salmon-colored dog bite maternity shirt eating wonton soup.

10. Finally, a great tip to building your dream wardrobe is to walk into your closet, throw everything in a black hefty bag, and announce to your husband that you cannot live one more day in clothes that don’t fit. He will take a great deal of pity on you and tell you to go shopping. Watch a few episodes of “What Not to Wear”, realize you dress even more poorly than every person featured on the show, then get your cheeky self to a mall. Buy just a few clothes. But buy clothes that actually look decent. Keep the dog shirt for sentimental reasons but vow not to put it on anymore.

Last night, while Amanda waxed my lip, she asked me if I was nervous about my second interview tomorrow.

“Oh, no!” I chortled, “I am soooo good. The first time I was nervous, but I think Wednesday is going to go really well. They are just going to talk with me about the salary and the specifics of the position.”

Yeah. Um, well.

Then I went to sleep.

Here are the highlights from my dream (which woke me at 5:00am when I realized I had better get up out of my bed and pray because obviously I AM nervous):

*In my dream, I was at my interview in my sweats. Oops, forgot to get dressed for it. I was wandering around the school in my old clothes.

*Also, I brought my cherry calendar to the interview. Instead of my cool leather portfolio that holds my resume (well, o-kay, it’s Hugh’s portfolio, but whatever), I had brought my calendar covered with little red cherries. Oops again.

*As I sat there in my dream, the principal told me the bad news about the salary. It turns out that I won’t actually be getting paid for the job.

“Oh,” Dream-Jess said, “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

I DON’T THINK THAT WILL BE A PROBLEM!!!!! No, not at all. Because, really, why would you pay a woman who shows up at a job interview in her sweatpants holding a cherry planner!!!!

So, actually, I need prayer. There it is. A prayer request sent out me by for today (that I will CHILL OUT and TRUST GOD) and for tomorrow (that I will REMEMBER TO DRESS APPROPRIATELY…and not be nervous).

Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Jess

Oh. My. Gosh.

Since I have backslidden (pray for me) and have looked at my stats page – I have realized that THIS IS MY 200th POST!!!

WOO HOO!

200.

So, here are the rules for my 200th Post Giveaway:

1. Write 200 of your favorite Bible verses out in your comment.

2. Also, tell me 200 reasons you like my blog.

3. Give me 200 reasons I can use with Hugh to convince him to either buy me an iPhone or take our family to Disney World.

Then, just like that, you’ll be entered! How easy is that!

O-kay, um, actually, all you have to do is leave a comment. That’s it. I’ll enter you if you leave a comment. Sigh.

If you leave a comment on this post before Wednesday at midnight, then you are entered to win a…

FIFTY DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE TO AMAZON.COM!!!!

My favorite store EVER.

(It’s also the reason Hugh probably WON’T take me to Disney - because I’ve spent all our savings on books from Amazon. BIG sigh.)

AND- The giveaway is open to EVERYONE (even you, Hugh!)…

So…ENTER…ENTER…ENTER…

And I’ll let radom.org chose the winner Wednesday and announce it on Thursday morning…

ENTER…ENTER…ENTER…

YEAH!!!!!!

1. How do I stop listening to people I love gossip about other people I love?

2. When is it o-kay to be angry? What does “be angry and do not sin” really mean practically as I walk daily with Jesus?

3. If I start working again, will I ever make dinner or begin my big exercise program where I become extremely cute again?

4. How can I help my child stop complaining and whining so much of the time? Is this whining and complaining a reflection on my parenting? How much of my children’s bad behavior am I actually responsible for?

5. Will Hugh take me to Disneyworld this year if I whine and complain enough? (Oops. I actually wrote that before I thought about question 4. STRUG-GLE.)

6. Is is wrong to take all of my children’s used clothes to Goodwill instead of selling them on Craig’s List or in a garage sale? Does this make me a bad steward?

7. Why can’t I read any solid classic literature? I mean, I love books so much – why can’t I read some Dickens or Shakespeare or something?

8. What should I say to my grandmother when she asks me if I think she will ever drive again? When I know she never will?

9. How much time one-on-one do my children need every day from me?

10. How many calories are in my Grande Cinnamon Dolce Frappucino from Starbucks that I am drinking right now? With whip?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. When my husband told me to get a manicure for my interview tomorrow, I picked out the “Pomegranate and Fig” deluxe treatment. While this was being done I:

1. Enjoyed the vibrating and pulsing of the grey spa chair
2. Used the time to pray for God’s peace and joy
3. Worried that my hands might smell like a fruit salad tomorrow

2. Number of times Amanda put wax on my lip to get the hair completely off:

1. 2
2. 3
3. 14

3. Number of times I have looked over my resume and practiced talking out loud to myself over the last few days:

1. 0
2. 1
3. 2

4. Hours spent preparing for St. Patrick’s Day with the bevy of St. Patrick’s Day books, stickers, and decorations sent to my children by their out-of-state, mostly-Irish Grandmother:

1. 0
2. 0
3. 0

TRUE OR FALSE

5. I am having little or no difficulty imagining myself (gulp) actually having a job again.

6. I have told my husband that if I get this job, it makes sense for us to go to Disney World before I start.

7. When buying my interview outfit at the very, very evil Dillard’s department store, my check was DECLINED while my two daughters threw small plastic Frisbees at the mannequins and I tried to explain to “Ana” that there was no reason for this check not to go through.

8. When Hugh offered to go talk to Ana’s manager, I said “no”.

9. I wrote out a list of twelve things to do today to get ready for my interview, half of which my husband did while I was out getting my manicure.

10. My interview outfit is black and light blue, not the color of a papaya.

BONUS QUESTION:

Name the three branches of government and their function.

and finally, here’s quite an unreasonably delayed resolution to last post’s cliffhanger. the secret creation was…tada:

a bag made of bags!

i actually fused together several layers of plastic grocery bag to create a sturdy, water resistant material. then i made a bag out of it. while surprisingly attractive for something some people may consider to be made out of trash, it is just a prototype, practice bag. in fact, i was nearly done making it before i even measured anything…although that may be more of a testament to my aversion to measuring than anything else. anyway, prettier bags are hopefully on the horizon.

in other news, as you may have surmised from the title of this post, i am currently quite sickly. what was a mildly annoying sore throat blossomed into a highly annoying drippy/stuffy nose. despite the copious amounts of snot my body is producing, i was able to attend one birthday party and two art openings this weekend, AND hosted a wildly successful tea party. we dined on these little treats:

i also ran across some really cute, WAY CHEAP fabric at one of the most unlikely of places: wal-mart. i know, i know, it goes against everything you ever believed to be true, but look at the choice prints i picked up for only ONE DOLLAR A YARD.

only a significant shortage of funds prevented me from grabbing more. this is the kind of find that makes you shout “SCORE!” very loudly in the middle of the fabric department, much to the embarrassment of whoever’s accompanying you. or it is for me.

and lastly, i’ve forgone the craft-blogger stereotypical pet choice (cat) by adopting these beautiful little babies:

ahhhh, they’re so cute! the BF and i have joint custody of what he refers to as “the kids”. we quickly abandoned their carefully chosen names, and have resorted to calling them eatie and sleepy, because they eat a lot and sleep a lot (respectively). i am having way more fun owning mice than a normal person should. i won’t divulge how long i can spend simply sitting and watching them, because it seems like the kind of information most people would be embarrassed by, but let me tell you this– it’s better than television.

on that note, i’m out.

I don’t have a picture. I didn’t bring anything to Panera other than my calendar and my keys so I could not forever record the moment when I got to hug Cindy’s neck.

Ahhh.

Don’t you love the blog world? I mean, seriously. Cindy lives far, far away but has become this amazing encourager in my life – yet I had never met her until yesterday in Panera when she was driving through town and we got to spend some time together.

It was like we have coffee every week together.

After talking about our lives, I asked her:

“Cindy – best and worst part about blogging?”

Her answers echoed much of what I felt and it was great to actually have someone to talk to about it (because I know my husband and best friend must get tired of hearing it!). She talked briefly about insecurity – although I think she is WAY less insecure than I am. But it blessed me.

It blessed me so much that today for the first time in over six months I accidentally looked at my blog stats. Oops. Well, I want to thank my three readers. You are a blessing.

Actually, it was really surprising. The numbers used to define me – but today I barely felt ANYTHING. I feel like maybe I have gotten free in this area of measuring my worth.

(Um, sort of. I then checked my stats twice more. Block back on tomorrow. Sigh.)

Tomorrow I am going to buy an outfit for a job interview next week. BIG sigh. If everyone could please pray that I find something to wear that doesn’t make me feel like a giant papaya (no. more. trying. on. of. orange. business. suits. I. am. not. Joyce. Meyer.), that would be a blessing.

I heart some sort of decent outfit, too.

GO TO Cindy’s blog and read it ALL THE TIME. She is wonderful. She loves Jesus. She is the real deal. I hope she drives through my town again soon.