Sassy Water

I love Pinterest. There are so many interesting ideas there. One of the latest I've been eager to try is Sassy Water. I repinned it from one of my friends who had repinned it from a lovely blog named Carolina Charm. The original recipe I followed is here.  Sassy Water is supposed to help eliminate contaminants, fat, and excess water weight. Plus, it just looked so pretty I had to try it.

I started out by grating fresh ginger, something I had never done before. I've baked with ginger spice before, of course, but always used the dried powder out of a little spice bottle. I've learned that the smell of freshly grated ginger is heavenly. Plus, I just like the looks of it. It reminds me of Earthroot from World of Warcraft. I used the little pokey side of a standard grater and had so much fun grating and enjoying the aromatic smell that I ended up with a little too much - you only need a teaspoon. (I tossed the extra into some oatmeal, which I heartily recommend.)

So that's what the other side of the grater is for.

Next you need a medium cucumber, sliced thin. I sliced my cucumber much thinner than the cucumbers in the picture in the original recipe. I also had to cut out a suspicious looking section of my cucumber, leaving just slightly less than a full medium cucumber.

Another useful side of the grater that I never used before. Who knew it could do more than grate cheese?

 

 

 

Next, the lovely lemon - possibly one of the most delightful substances on earth. The smell of a lemon always takes me back to about age 11 or 12 when I was a knobby-kneed skinny bookworm girl, shimmying up the side yard tree to sit on a gnarled old limb and read, provisioned with slurpy refreshment in the form of a half of a lemon. I know, that's weird, but it seemed refreshing to me at the time.

Had to use the knife for this slicing job, about 1/4 inch slices.

The final ingredient - mint leaves. I got these from Kroger. There are way more than enough for Sassy Water in this package. I will probably make more pitchers of water, but I'm contemplating other uses for the mint leaves, too. They smell divine! Pinch the leaves off the stems. I think I used 14-15 leaves. Recipe calls for 12, but some of mine were kind of small.

Such pretty little things.

Okay, now toss it everything into your pitcher. Doesn't it look pretty?

Recipe says to add 8-1/2 cups of water. I found that 8 cups of water filled my pitcher. (Maybe my cucumber was large instead of medium.) Next, let stand in the refrigerator overnight. This was the really hard part because I wanted to drink it right away over ice, but I restrained myself.

The final product!! Beautiful aromatherapy!

Okay! So when I got up this morning, the first thing I wanted to do was taste test my Sassy Water. The original recipe said to strain it, but I didn't want to do that. I poured it, bits and all, into my glass. I noticed a delicate taste of cucumber straight away, which was a little weird in a beverage but not at all unpleasant. There was just a hint of ginger; I think it was the perfect amount. The lemon and mint flavors were also a bit understated, but when taken all together it made a refreshing blend of flavors for a cool, light summer drink. I thought it was just about perfect.

CHEERS!

Let me know if you decide to make this!

Kathy

Twisted Pinto Beans and Cornbread

I made the best bean soup and cornbread EVER, through what I call "accidental cooking adventures." I happened to see a recipe for U.S. Senate Bean Soup (view original recipe here), and I was eager to try out a recipe that was over 100 years old. A quick check of the kitchen cabinets revealed I had no Navy beans on hand. Well, I'm not one to let a little thing like not having the main ingredient stop me from pressing on, so I substituted pinto beans, which I like better anyway. (Note: I find the pintos agree with my tummy better if soaked overnight in water before cooking. I drained and changed the water a couple of times, too. This produces a much less gassy result, in my experience.) I made a couple of other substitutions, simply because they're what I had on hand: (1) dried parsley instead of fresh, and (2) diced deli ham added near the end of the cooking cycle instead of starting with an actual ham hock. So ... I ended up with something quite unlike the original recipe - which I still want to make - but my result was splendid all the same. The hub, who is not normally a big fan of pinto beans, declared it delicious and ate it two days in a row. See photo below:

My variation of U.S. Senate Bean Soup

Now, here in the Southeast U.S., we like cornbread with our pinto beans. I started with two boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix. I added eggs and milk as directed on the package. This would have been good as is, but I was in a creative mood. I cut about four stalks of celery into apx. 1/4-inch pieces, and the hub finely diced a small-to-medium sized onion. I also had about a half cup of shredded cheddar left over in the fridge, so I tossed that in also and rounded it out with about a teaspoon of minced garlic and about a half cup of mayonnaise. (Sorry, I didn't measure anything. This is accidental cooking, after all.) Voila, done with the mixing part. It looked great. About this time, I remembered I was out of cooking spray and had not yet mixed up the homemade cooking spray as was my good intention. Bah. I put about 2 tablespoons of real butter in an 8-inch baking dish and heated it in a 400 degree oven until melted. Then I tilted the baking dish until all the sides were coated with buttery goodness and poured in the batter. To top it off, I sprinkled a moderate dusting of black pepper and baked until it was done in the center. I started out at 400 degrees but became concerned that it would burn around the edges, so after about 10 minutes I turned the heat down to 350. The Jiffy package directions said to use an 8-inch baking dish for one package, but I used the 8-inch baker for both packages, so I had to bake it longer than package directions. Oooo, the butter gave the cornbread such lovely and crispy edges! This was delicious, one of the best things I've made through accidental cooking adventures! Crunchiness on the outside, moist and tender on the inside.

Flaky and tender goodness all at once. This smelled heavenly in the oven.

The black pepper dusting on top was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself.

If you try either of these recipes, with or without modification, let me know how it works out for you!

Yours in accidental cooking,
Kathy
 

At the end of my rope, er ... I mean cable...

Today I was looking everywhere for the adapter to plug my blood pressure monitor into the wall outlet. I was concerned its battery life was affecting my readings, and I knew there was an adapter around here somewhere. It wasn't where I thought it was, but then I remembered this plastic box we have that contains phone chargers, ear buds, all kinds of snaky cords and cables. I found the box, tore into it, and came up with a mess that looked like this:

I'm normally a patient, kind of serene person, but this kind of stuff gets on my last nerve. I had to go through it all to find the one item I wanted. I'm not even sure we still need all this stuff or still have any devices that use some of it. Bear in mind, I'd gone through it previously and taken out all the phone chargers that I thought someone else might use and gave them away. I needed a solution. Bear in mind, I'm not the original thinker who came up with the following idea, but I remembered my husband saw something online awhile back that inspired him to organize his desk drawer that was full of assorted cables and such that were similarly impossible to sort through when you wanted to find a USB cable or the charger for the Garmin.

Here's what you do:

Collect a bunch of these:

Everyone uses toilet paper, and there are actually some good uses for the empty tubes. This is one of them. You'll also need a Sharpie, ink pen, or some other writing instrument. I suppose if you wanted to get particularly fancy, you could make labels on the computer and thus include more descriptive text than I did.

Sort your cables, cords, and chargers into groups of like items. For the larger items, use one tube per item. For the smaller items that do the same job, you can put two or three in one tube. Mark the tubes in whatever manner helps you identify the contents. I recommend wrapping the cords and cables loosely so as not to damage the itty bitty copper wires or phoenix feathers or whatever other magic may be contained inside them. (If you're concerned about damage, then don't do this. I am not responsible for any problems you may have with anything. Fold or wrap your cords and cables at your own risk.)

The end result is shown below. I still may never use some of this stuff but at least I'll be able to find it if I do.

3-2-2012.01

Epic fail at keeping up with a blog, again. Of course on December 3 when I started this I had no idea that in 10 days I would barely recognize my life for awhile. Drama aside, on Dec. 12 I noticed something weird going on with my left eye. I went to my regular vision doctor on the morning of Dec. 13 and by that afternoon I was on an operating table having my retina reattached. It was a difficult case involving both a scleral buckle and gas bubble. That was bad enough but I had to have two follow-up repairs, one in December and another one in January. I was off work for weeks and finally had one brief spurt of improvement which allowed me to return to work on Feb. 3. After a persistent lack of improvement thereafter, my doctor advised a fourth surgery called a vitrectomy. Long story short, this involved drilling three 25-gauge holes into my eye, implanting another gas bubble, and for good measure another round of laser surgery around the buckle. I had to lie constantly on my right side with only a 10-minute break every two hours for 7 days. I had an appointment yesterday, and my doctor said everything looks as expected at this point. I still can't lift or lie flat on my back, but I can be up and about and sleep in any other position. I'm on numerous different eye drops throughout the day. I've been weaning off pain pills which means I have to tolerate some level of discomfort. I am functionally sightless in my left eye for up to 12 weeks, perceiving only colors and movement. My doctor and I had a discussion about returning to work, what I really think I am capable of doing under the circumstances. I think I am going to give it a try - going for at least a reduced schedule at first. Naturally, being a newly (albeit temporarily) blinded person, I have some practical concerns such as being able to get ready on time etc. Not that my employer would mind a late arrival, but I would be riding in with my hub as he goes to work because obviously I am not driving myself. Still, I think I want to try. I may not be up to my normal pace, but I think I can still be useful and relieve my co-workers of some of the burden. Besides, today if I squint hard from the lower part of my eye, I can almost make out the general shape of my hands on the keyboard with my left eye and that gives me hope.