Tuna Slaw

This combination has been in the back of my mind for a few weeks. It's one can of tuna, chopped cabbage, cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, cumin, cayenne, salt, and pepper. I made it last night and could have eaten the entire thing in one sitting with a few whole grain Ritz crackers.



I didn't measure anything out, just mixed it to taste the way I normally do with tuna salad and cole slaw. It's a combination of the two, and is a great way to use the leftover cabbage from the cole slaw my mom sent me home with last week after a family dinner.

twd ~ Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

This week's TWD pick is by Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen.

Thank you Jessica!

This dessert is definitely one that I would never have made on my own. It involves making a jam of cranberries, oranges, and sugar, and then putting that between two layers of shortbread. Sounds finicky. Plus, the name both intrigued and intimated me - Shortbread Cake...shortbread cookies I know, cake I know, what is shortbread cake?

It's delicious! And it's much simpler and easier than it sounded to me. I was even left thinking that this would be a great dessert to whip-up for guests at a dinner party. You are supposed to let the dough refrigerate for about 20 minutes or so. I didn't want to wait and only left it in about ten, and it still turned out wonderful.

I halved the recipe and put it in four ramekins. It was the perfect amount for all four. (Notice only three in the pictures? Alas, one didn't make it to photo-time.) The ramekin was the perfect thing to eat it in because the filling was a bit messy around the edges. The cranberries gushed out such a bright, beautiful color! This would be great for Christmas parties!

Blonde Redhead Show

I love music, but I tend to stick to my old favorites instead of searching out new tunes and rockin' up-and-coming bands. I know people who spend lots of time and energy finding awesome music, and it works for them because it's a passion that brightens their lives. I let them pass their wisdom on to me. I don't mind secondhand goodness.

So when my sister was going to be visiting for the weekend, and wanted to go see a band I'd never heard of before, I was in without a second thought. The band - Blonde Redhead. Nice name huh? I liked it, and the venue was great.

We got there a little late and a little stressed. Right before leaving, a full glass of water got accidentally spilled into my sister's boyfriend's laptop who is a grad student and had lots of hours and papers and whatnot inside. Who wants to go to a concert when the darn thing won't turn on and all might be lost? (Why are these things not waterproof yet?) But he handled it well, and we went off to catch what we could of the show. Best idea ever. It cheered everyone up a bit.

The music was ethereal in a way. The guitarist/singer and drummer are twins, which I didn't know until I noticed they both looked a lot alike onstage. It threw me at first, and had me wondering if the lights and stage were playing tricks on me. The female singer/guitarist was rockin. Her voice is very unique and crystal pretty. Although I couldn't understand a single word she sang, and for one song she donned an alien jellyfish mask. I think I needed to know the lyrics to understand that one.

Most of the songs were swaying tempo, but one was a complete rock-out. It was my favorite. Good show.

Since it was the Friday before Halloween, my sister and I painted our faces and sprayed our hair red and purple for the show. Such fun!

Grilled Watermelon

Back in September, I prescribed myself a week at the Southern Cross Guest Ranch in Madison, Georgia. It was just the week away I needed! It was lovely and fun and absolutely relaxing. And the food...oh, it was heaven!

This was one dish that I just had to ask the owner about - grilled watermelon. So simple that it can be easily added to any grill-out and so delicious that it'll be a star! Plus, it's pretty.So what's the recipe?
Grilled watermelon wedges - they seemed to be lightly grilled on both sides, just enough for flavor but the middles were still fresh. The wedges were about 1/2 inch thick and the width of a small saucer.
Salad - greens! sprinkled on top of the watermelon.
Goat's cheese - sprinkled on top of the salad.
Balsamic reduction - Balsamic vinegar heated over medium heat until reduced and drizzled on top.

The combination of the sweet watermelon and balsamic, the salty cheese, and the crunchy greens is so genius. I ate two big slices!

This was another great dish - toasted pita with pan-fried feta and tomate on top, drizzled with herbed olive oil. Yum!

Around the Family Table - A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing?

Laurie David, the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," is out with a new book - "The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time." I've never seen the movie, haven't read the book, and don't have kids...but it interested me nonetheless, especially when I saw all the comments sparked on the Huffington Post article announcing their new Friday night Family Dinner Downloads - oh, yes, they will provide ALL the materials needed to make a perfect family dinner and dynamic - the recipes, the tips, the questions and topics. Given the perfect set-up, a perfect family follows, right?

So it made me wonder, who is the "they" that flies so easily off my tongue.

Well, looking at her Bio, I found out that Laurie David had a hand in Ideal Bite! Never head of it? It used to be a daily email that arrived in my inbox, very chic and cute, giving tips and reasons for going green. I loved it and missed it when it stopped coming. It got turned over to Disney Family and the Ideal Bite that I liked disappeared.

Please don't do this to family dinners. They don't have to fit a formula. Both the Arianna Huffington and Laurie David expostulate this as well, that it can be simple food and the important part is sitting around together talking and eating and sharing. But as written, it comes off to me more as a disclaimer. Anyone can do it! Just to make sure, we'll sell it to you by telling you exactly how to do it, so you don't mess up. We've got your back.

Plus, both use generalizations of the days past when everything was rosy and families sat down to dinner together, and use experiences from their own pasts to illustrate the point. It's a 'what we and our families did right, and the rest of America is doing wrong.' Is this the only difference between their families and the families sitting in the middle or low-income class brackets? I highly doubt it. So where's the methodology behind the reasoning that family dinners will solve all a family's problems?

Where are we? Evidently still in a U.S. where access to big names (which are in abundance in the book) and big money can give you an opportunity to turn your everyday experiences and ideas into more money and big names. Now I love trashy reality tv shows, but that's what they are. What is this? Is it really part of the rumblings of the push for a food revolution in the U.S.? I suppose I'll have to read the book to find out. However, unless my library gets it, I'm not going to have a chance. Nope, I'm not buying this one. While I agree with the general theory behind it, heck, I even did a research project on the folklore and importance of food preparation and family dinners, too much surrounding it smacks of an elitist enlightenment that makes me want to vomit last night's dinner. Is there a chapter on cleaning it up?

twd ~ Peanuttiest Blondies or Werewolf Balls

This week's pick promised to be delicious! It has lots of chunky pb, the batter tasted great, and it smelled so good baking...until it started burning. I made the blondies a week ahead, and put the batter in the freezer, planning to bake them the night my sister and her boyfriend flew in from nyc. The burning really threw a hitch in my plan.

So, I scraped off the burnt tops, and crumbled it into pieces. Then I made a caramel sauce with sugar and milk, drowned the blondie bits in it, and used the caramel to bind the bits into balls. Since it was just before Halloween, I called them Werewolf Balls. The name got an odd look, but guests had no problem finishing them off. Oh well, they turned out okay, but I'll definitely be trying the real recipe again soon!



For the recipe, check out Bakeologie http://bakeologie.blogspot.com/ by Nicole.

twd ~ Mini Caramel Pumpkin Pies

Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs picked Caramel Pumpkin Pie for this week's TWD. Oh, Janell, thank you.

Thank you for picking such a wonderful seasonal dessert. Pumpkin in October!

Thank you for making it one that's so easy to mini-fy.

Thank you for making it one so good that everyone in my women's group now thinks I'm a great baker.



I stuck to the recipe this time, except that I cheated a little on the crust. Since I was baking it during the week for a meeting, I bought pie crust and cut circles out, like cookies, and put them in my muffin tin. It made perfect little caramel pumpkin pies that were a huge hit! A couple of people even took some for the ride home. This was two yums up!