Happy St. Patty’s Day!  We have an Irish family and this is always a fun day for us.  No green beer, but we do like to make some special dishes.

John made some Irish soda bread:

I had put some corned beef in the crockpot to simmer all day and we tried to make colcannon for the first time.  This is a traditional potato/cabbage dish. Kale is often used in place of cabbage, but I am not a fan of the kale.

Colcannon

• 2 to 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled (if desired) and cut into large chunks
• Salt for boiling water
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 lightly packed cups of chopped cabbage or kale (I used coleslaw mix)
• 1/2 small onion minced
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in a large pot with salted water (a couple good pinches of salt) until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain into a colander and set aside.

Place the pan back on medium heat and add the butter.  Lightly sautee the cabbage and onions together for 3 or 4 minutes until wilted.  Add the potatoes and milk, then mash with a potato masher until the desired consistency of mashed potatoes – lumpy or smooth!  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then serve.  Most traditional recipes call for you to make a well in the center and add melted butter, but I left this step off for calorie sake.

Good, no?  It was very tasty. An interesting way to get in some veggies Ours looks more colorful because the coleslaw mix has carrots and purple cabbage.

Wednesday is Bagel Day!  Check it out:

Looks so bright and sunny. It doesn’t look like -15 degrees, does it?  That’s -26 Celsius, FYI. Let’s make it feel even colder by converting it, shall we?    There is light at the end of the tunnel, though – it is supposed to break into the 30s this weekend! I told John I just might run around outside nekkid if it gets that warm.

Okay, not really.

We went somewhere different for breakfast.  Back to Cool Beans. We haven’t eaten here for breakfast in a couple years, I believe. Lots of coffee!

It’s very Adirondack/woodsy style inside, although they were playing country music. Sorry country music lovers, but I despise it. Really cannot stand to listen to it. Isn’t it weird how some types of music do that to you?

Still enjoyed my bagel, though.

You know what a perfect dish is for cold weather? Mac and cheese!  I love baked mac and cheese, but it takes a long time to cook and I am just not interested in boxed stovetop mixes.  However, Alton Brown has the best stovetop mac and cheese recipe.  This is our go to on weekends.  It doesn’t take very long to fix at all.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of pasta of your choice
• 2 eggs
• 5 ounces of evaporated skim milk (small can)
• 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 10 ounces of 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  While the pasta is boiling, assemble the sauce ingredients.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs. add the milk, hot sauce, salt and mustard powder.

When the pasta is done, drain and return to pot over low heat. Add the butter and stir to melt.  Slowly pour in the egg/milk mixture stirring constantly.  Now stir in the cheese a couple ounces at a time.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is all melted, the sauce has thickened up and it is piping hot.

Serve with hot sauce if desired (and why wouldn’t it be?)

This is so good! It’s nice because it makes a lot for leftovers as well.  Stats are approximate. With 6 servings, it comes to 386 calories, 32 grams of carbs, 20 fat grams, 20 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.  It is higher calorie, so I do like to eat it on long bike ride days, but it sure feels good to have during the winter, too!

Thanksgiving Eve! It’s been kind of a crazy week.  Crazy weather.  We were getting snow last night and it all turned to rain today.  Thank goodness for travel that won’t be bad around here.  I hope everyone has safe travels this weekend!

Here were my reads for the last month.  One book was crazy long, plus I got distracted with other things (the table).

First up was the bad one.

The book is about the wars between England and Scotland. A peace treaty was worked out and was to be cemented by marrying a Scottish lady (Jordan) to an English earl.  Of course, the English knight (William de Wolfe) who was to bring her to the earl fell in love with her and and the story goes from there and on, and on, and on. I liked the time period, but the main characters really were not all that likeable in my opinion. At first I liked them, but as the book went on, they both seemed emotionally unstable. Jordan really caused a lot of deaths to other people by her immature actions and William was willing to risk all those people just for her. William flew into strange rages which seemed okay with Jordan. Just peculiar. I became very annoyed with it by the end. On an editorial note, it was full of typos and really could have been made into 2 books quite easily.  I probably wouldn’t have borrowed the book if I knew how long it was – almost 900 pages. You don’t notice the length of a book on the kindle unless you actually look up how many pages are in it.  This was borrowed through the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This book is good on so many levels.  It’s really several stories in one.  The primary story is Henrietta.  She is a woman whose cervical cancer cells were the first that were able to be cultured and be used for science. In fact, her cells were so amazing that you can trace pretty much all of modern vaccines and advancements in medicines to her, like the polio vaccine.  It’s pretty amazing.  The other part of the story was Henrietta’s family and how this affected them.  They did not know about her cells being used and finding out created some havoc in their lives.  They have not been compensated in any way to date.  The focus for this section was on Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, and how she is trying to piece together and learn about the mother she doesn’t remember.  The interesting part is that Ms. Skloot became part of the story as well as her relationship with Deborah grew over time. Normally the writer doesn’t put themselves in the story like that, but it was pretty integral.  This book raises a lot of questions about medical ethics and privacy and made me think a lot.  Highly recommended.  Borrowed from my library via Kindle.

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Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup

An interesting side note on this book. Solomon lived in the town I live in right now! It was strange to read about Fort Edward and Sandy Hill (which is now Hudson Falls) and know that this man actually walked on these streets. 

Anyway, this is the story of a free African American in the North who was kidnapped and sold to slavery in Louisiana where he was for 12 years.  Of course, you know that he ends up free because he wrote the book, but this was a pretty gripping book any way.  He described life as a slave in detail and what life was like living on a cotton farm.  It was pretty matter of fact, which made it all the more chilling.  I know this movie is coming out soon and I already know I will be crying throughout the movie. 

I actually bought a copy of this book after trying to get it at the library forever. It was 99 cents for my Kindle.  Even a cheapo like me can afford that

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And now for Thanksgiving, here is the recipe for my famous cranberry sauce! It’s super easy.

• 1 package of fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup of orange juice
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• a cinnamon stick (3 inches or so)
• half of a vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. The cranberries will pop open as it cooks. Let cool and fish out the cinnamon stick.  Then serve!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will see you all on the flip side of the holiday!

Wednesday is the usual Bagel Day!  We are still riding for breakfast. It was in the low 50s and that is perfect for breakfast riding.

Mileage sits at 2139.

Keni asked a question the other day about the Prius.

Could you do a little review on your Prius now that you’ve had it awhile. I am considering one and like you I like to be very mindful of my pocketbook and utility usage.

How do I love the Prius?  Let me count the ways!  We adore this car.  I have dubbed it the “stealthmobile” because it is so quiet.

Also keep in mind that we had our other car for 13 years (and counting), so this was a big leap as far as technology and such.   It is almost too much technology.  I found myself wanting to look more at the display than the road at first,   , but that has subsided.

The gas mileage is great!  John uses the car for trips out of town about every other weekend.  I think most times we average 50+ miles per gallon, which is about double what our Saturn gets.  It rides really smooth and we don’t have a problem with acceleration or going up hills or any of those things you hear about a hybrid.

It also feels very, very safe. It has a million air bags and it just feels nice and solid.  The interior is really nice and we can do hands-free talking on the phone if needed (the law in NY).  We can also plug in a music player through the USB drive and bring all our tunes along.  It has a CD player, but we haven’t even used that yet.

Things I don’t like?  When the car is in reverse, it beeps until you put the car in drive.  When we are backing out of our driveway, it can take a while since we live on a busy road and it beeps the entire time we sit there waiting.  It doesn’t seem to bother John, but it drives me nuts.

I also don’t like the small back window.  I don’t feel like I get as good a view out the back as with the Saturn, but that is a wagon, so only another wagon would feel like that, but it does seem smaller anyway.

I also find that the finish of the car seems to be made of tinfoil. The Saturn has dent resistant doors (basically plastic) and they can take a beating. The Prius not so much. There have been a few dings and scratches put in it by just breathing on it, I swear.  Of course, *I* have not put any of these marks on the car. I won’t say who has, but you can probably guess

Those are pretty small things, though, and I would get a second Prius in a heartbeat! (Are you listening, Toyota??)

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Now on to some eats!

For dinner, I had a recipe pinned for a grilled coconut sticky chicken.  Hooray for actually making a Pinterest recipe!! I fiddled with the proportions and spice mix, but the basic gist was the same.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 can lite coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons oil  (I used macadamia nut)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder

It’s pretty easy. Just mix all the ingredients except the chicken.  Then add the chicken and marinate for 4 or more hours.  I mixed this up at lunch.  Then cooked it on the grill.

I basted once and had a ton of marinade left over.  This actually makes a lot of marinade and you could probably cut it in half.  Or use more chicken…

Served with plain rice, although the original recipe makes a sweet coconut rice to go with, which I bet would be yummy!

I think chicken thighs are just made for grilling, don’t you?

Stats would be about 160 calories if you have a 4 ounce chicken thigh (raw), plus about 50 calories for the marinade.  This was quite tasty.  Not really sticky. I had cut down on the heat because I didn’t want it to be too hot for John, but I certainly would double the hot sauce and more black pepper and it would still be fine.  I like the heat

Pink item of the day!

On to recipe number 2 for the Indian meals!  I have had Aloo Gobi in restaurants and it is quite good.  In fact, I had everything in my pantry/freezer to make this recipe! Aloo means potato and Gobi means cauliflower.  Quite obvious, eh? This was a tasty and easy recipe.  I found it here on Food Network and made a few changes.

Maybe not the most attractive dish, but the taste is what matters!

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 to 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon  oil
• 2 tablespoons of diced green chiles
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 10 ounces cauliflower florets
• 10 ounces of potato,  cut into cubes (similar size to cauliflower)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup water

First, do your prep before starting to cook.  Chop up the potato into chunks a little smaller than your cauliflower pieces:

In a small bowl, mix together the 1/4 cup of water, garam masala, ginger, garlic and turmeric.

In a saucepan, heat the oil and add in the chiles and the cumin seeds.

Stir for about a minute. The cumin seeds will pop.  Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add your cup of spices and water (be careful of splattering).

Bring this mixture back to the heat and cook over medium heat until it thickens up a bit.

This took just a couple minutes.

Then add the potatoes and cauliflower.

Mix well, then add the other 1/2 cup of water and salt.

Cover and simmer over medium heat for 20-25 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Stir halfway through.

You want most of the water to be evaporated off of this, so you can take the lid off when the potatoes are about done and let it finish if you have a lot of water in the pan.

This was quite tasty!  I think I would do the potato pieces a little smaller as my cauliflower was falling apart.  I also used frozen and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.

Lori’s notes:  I bet this would be good with sweet potatoes!  I happened to use 10 ounces each of cauliflower and potatoes because I just picked up 2 potatoes and weighed them, then did an equal amount of cauliflower. You can easily double this.  I think I might increase the green chiles a bit.  I like heat!

Nutritional stats:  For the entire batch:

415 calories

15 grams of fat

67 grams of carbs

12 grams of fiber

12 grams of protein.

I divided this into 3 servings, which is about 138 calories per serving.  Good as a side dish.