The Doctor is in...Views on family, faith, food...

If one needed an example of why I dont wholeheartedly blindly support Israel

here it is...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28699078/

T

Butternut with Sage Browned Butter Bisque and Butternut Muffins

I love butternut squash.
Moreover, I love that the plural of squash is squash.
Like deer.

If you've read below, you'll note that the twins have been enjoying butternuts as part of their developing palate, so I decided to embark on a butternut journey - with recipes lifted out of "Simply in Season" and of course, tweaked and kicked up a notch... (in my opinion)

Butternut Muffins Recipe:

The dry:
1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 cups of wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup of white sugar (I used 1/2 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of white sugar)
1 cup of brown sugar (in my first go around I left this out thinking it was too much sugar - did NOT play well with the taste testers!)
1 tsp of baking powder (the recipe called for soda - not sure why, no overtly acidic ingredients here, so i stuck with powder)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg (go buy yourselves so fresh nutmeg (see below) and grate it yourself, the dry bland crap in the tins needs to be thrown out)

1/2 tsp ground cloves (yes, you can grind your own cloves too!)
1/2 tsp ground ginger (i didnt put this in)

The Wet:
4 eggs (I used 2 eggs and 1 cup of eggbeaters - cut some fat out of the recipe)
1/2 cup of veggie oil
(mix your honey in here if using honey)
2 Tbsp of maple syrup (the real stuff - not high fructose corn syrup flavored with maple, k?)
2 1/2 cups of roasted butternut squash (cut two butternuts in half lengthwise, scrape out seeds, and roast at 375 skin side down for about 90 minutes to 2 hrs - scoop out the good stuff)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Mix wet together
Mix dry together
Pour wet on top of dry
Mix to combine (try not to overstir and mix like crazy or you'll get tough muffins)

Lube up a muffin pan and dish the batter into the muffin pan and bake for about 17-20 minutes.

Let cool on rack - then enjoy with some room temp butter...

Butternut with Sage Browned Butter Bisque

Dice one medium onion and one carrot.

Heat large pot and add approx 2 tbsp of oil (i used safflower oil - high smoke point, mild flavor - no use wasting olive oil here)

Cook the onion and carrot for about 8 minutes, until onion turns clear (no browning here)

Add 4 cups of stock (veggie or chicken)

Continue cooking for about 10 minutes or until carrots are cooked through

Meanwhile - take a half a stick of butter (just do it) and melt it down on medium high heat.

You'll start to see the foam of the milk solids start to turn brown after a while - keep cooking until most of the solids turn brown (dont want burned butter, though). Then turn off heat.

Wait a 2 minutes or so and add 5 sage leaves and let it "steep" - set aside.

After your stock and veggies are done cooking - add 4 cups of roasted butternut squash (see directions for roasting above - we roast in Pyrex pans skin side up sometimes too with a little water added to the pan... works well too)

Add 3 Tbsp maple syrup to the soup

Remove your sage leaves from your butter (you can leave them in too, i didnt) and pour in browned butter into the soup

Take out your stick blender or transfer the soup to a blender and blend away until the desired consistency - i like mine smooth. Transfer back to pot.

Add Salt and Pepper to taste (me, i prefer to use my white pepper for this soup - who wants to see black specks floating around in their wonderful orange soup?)

Then... heh heh - add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of heavy cream (amount depends...) stir it in on medium heat and call your family and friends, cause its time to eat

Optional - finish off the soup with a little nutmeg if you want and serve in bowls with some toasted bread...

Not the best pic - but it'll do...

Merry Christmas!!

T

Foods the babies are eating

Rice cereal

Oat cereal

Sweet potato (and other tubers)

Pears (Red Bartlett shown)

Go Bananas, Go Go bananas

Butternut squash

Acorn Squash

Mango

Apple (sauce)

avocado

Peas (they weren't totally thrilled with peas)

Cow's tongue

(ok, just kidding - not eating this..... yet)

They also are starting to drink out of cups, too!

This week - i think we'll introduce them to some chicken, white potatoes, and carrots.

TTFN!

T

London - eats report - Fish N Chips

Well, I've been in London since Wednesday AM (for a conference) and have to say that I REALLY like London. See my facebook page for a lot of pics, but i'll post some here for those who refuse to get on facebook (I, too, was a staunch abstainer until a few days ago - a blessing as I can chat with Cara while over in the UK as my phone doesn't work here).

I've tried to get out and see some of town, and if it werent for the amazing transit system here, I couldnt do it and get back to the conference...
I've been to the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (courtyard photo at right), Regent's Park and St James' Park...

I also had a go at some fish and chips.
Fish and chips is well, as one can expect - fish that is breaded and fried. Chips are essentially french fries.
I've gone twice now to the restaurant up the stree from my hotel (on the recommendation of the doorman)

The Seashell of Lisson Grove. Great selection of fish - cod, haddock, plaice, salmon, to name a few - you can also get Dover sole (real Dover sole) not fried but as a main dish. Their chips are standard grub - good, hot and creamy in the middle, but their fish is most excellent - i've had their cod and haddock as well as haddock chowder - really, really good...

Regent's Park

Me at Buckingham Palace - dressed in a suit to impress the Queen of course!

Change!

Whether you voted for him or not,

you cannot escape that last night was a

historic moment in American history.

Red or blue

White or black

OSU scarlet or U of M Blue

If you're cynical of the change he'll bring, listen...

We gave Bush 8 years

We put up with his poor judgment and poor English for that long

The least we can do is give Obama a chance to prove himself in the White House.

Remembering...

I got in the shower today after a long day at work and started to shave my head. I didn't use my regular generic Target brand shaving gel, instead I used this... I had a travel sized canister that I use for trips.

The smell of Gillette Shaving Cream immeditely hit me and I thought about Dad. I almost fell over -
He always used this kind. Some of the memories that flooded back and overloaded me were:

Watching him shave for the first time...

Sneaking into the bathroom,putting it on my face, taking his jet black razor and "shaving" at an early age...

That smell lingering on him just prior to him asking for one of the "Obsession for Men" cologne floating in the back seat of the car... Speaking of which, I drove the white Aurora when i was back home recently and the car still smelled of Obsession and triggered similar memories...

He would ask D and I when we got downstairs Sunday mornings before church, "Did you shave?" (we always tried to get away with not shaving) - he'd make us go back up and shave before leaving...

It's amazing to me that the olfactory synapses in my brain triggers this reaction every time I smell it - maybe thats why I dont take gel with me on trips - I take a little piece of Dad with me.

I miss him...

He would always be interested in what I was doing. It's one thing to tell a friend that your Phase 1 protocol is moving along well - Dad always listened with so well and took great interest and pride in his sons' accomplishments. You cant quite find that same level of attentiveness is others (not saying that others dont listen! just saying you could brag to your Dad and not feel bad, know what I mean?)

Why the cottage cheese?

Well... for one.. everytime I see cottage cheese I have this mental image of Dad eating sliced pears out of container of cottage cheese.

Recently a patient of mine, who loved cottage cheese, lost her battle with pontine glioma. I bought that container of probiotic cottage cheese, intending on giving it to her mom, but now I betcha my Dad invited her over to eat some cottage cheese - dont think she would have liked the pears, that would mean just more for Dad...

Oh Dad... she likes Sprite.... from the bottle... but you've probably figured that out already...

T