No, not Chicago.

Although I love that toddlin’ town, with it’s broad shoulders and tower, formerly known as Sears, I am talking about my adopted home town, St Louis, MO.  It’s right on the banks of the mighty Mississippi and bordered by the great Missouri River and the Meramec River.  Kind of an island, if you will, even though I am the only one that sees it that way.  It’s a great monolith of small cities–over 80 total–making up St Louis County.

The actual City of St Louis is an entity unto itself, not a part of any county, and has quite a few unique properties.  It is governed in many ways by the state of Missouri and not by local government.  Its police, schools, and fire departments are all state controlled, a practice started during the Civil War because St Louis was sitting on a demarcation line between north and south. But, that’s a piece of history for another discussion.

When we moved to St Louis, we treated the area as if we were tourists. 20 year later, we still act like tourists. There are so many fun things to do, so many festivals, museums, parks, sports, bike trails, and free activities that every weekend is packed full of entertainment. There are historic sights and great monuments, like The Arch, to see and discover. The bike trail system connects to the Katy Trail, a former rail line turned bike path, that you can get on and ride almost all the way across the state. It also connects to trails on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River allowing a person to bike along the Great River Road.

Forrest Park is the icing on the St Louis cake. It’s a city park larger than Central Park in New York City. The major museums are located in the park, including history, art, and science center, as well as the world famous St Louis Zoo. All are free to anyone wanting to walk through the doors. But the park offers more in the way of lakes to fish in (catch and release) as well as miles of pedestrian and bike trails. There are baseball, soccer, and rugby fields along with tennis and handball courts. An outdoor ice skating rink is operated from November through February each year and then there is Art Hill, crowded with sledders when even an inch of snow falls.

What the rest of the country may refer to as ‘fly over’ territory, I call the rare jewel in the heartland of America. I’ll probably always act like a tourist and continue to enjoy the rich diversity of the area.

Yes, sappy as it may sound, simply put, St Louis is my kind of town.

The vegetable of the day is the carrot.  Not those tiny cocktail type carrots you buy for lunch boxes all bright orange and cute.  Not the ones that come all ready cleaned and 50 to a bag. 

No, I’m talking about good old fashioned carrots, 8 to 11 inches long, medium orange in colour, with a fancy, frilly bouquet of greenery on the top.  So good raw or roasted or ‘coin’ sliced and boiled or steamed with olive oil or butter and a little salt.  If you are an old movie buff (I mean the movies are old, not you), you may remember Scarlet O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind,’ on her knees in the mud, holding a carrot up to the heavens.  “As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again!” She was pretty darn grateful for that dirty stick of a carrot.

I would suggest that you don’t need to be near starving to appreciate a good carrot.  One way I prepare carrots to give them yet another dimension of deliciousness is to turn them into soup.  Here’s all I do:

Wash 8-10 carrots and cut off the ends.  Cut the carrots in to 3 inch chunks.  Put them in a pan of cold water, just enough to cover them, and bring the water to a boil.  Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender.  Take them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and retain the cooking water.  Let the carrots cool to room temperature.

When the carrots are cooled down, put them in a blender or ‘bullet’ and add about half of the cooking water.  You could use vegetable or chicken broth if you like.  Blend and add extra water/broth to thin down the soup to the consistency you desire.

Put the mixture back in the pan and reheat.  You can add milk or some cream to this soup and make it more decadent.  I season mine with some nutmeg, a little salt and some white pepper and serve it with a little sour cream and some pepitas on top. 

Very fast recipe, especially if you prepare the carrots ahead of time.  When you get home from work, you can just toss the carrots in the blender and get started.  The process will only take about 20 minutes, including reheat time.  Another great thing about this soup is that it is very inexpensive.  I usually get either a 2 lb bag of carrots for $.99 or a 5 lb bag for about $2.  

Simple, yummy, inexpensive, and so very good for you.  All that cartoon watching when I was a kid did pay off.  Love my Bugs Bunny.

I admit it.

When I first started making pancakes, I used the best pre packaged mix available–Aunt Jemima.  My Mom always made her pancakes from scratch but I thought it would be way easier to use a mix, and a mix I did use.  It was good.  It had a bit of sweetness to it.  It was easy.  It only needed one ingredient added–water.  Who couldn’t do that?  And, you could still say it was home made. Tongue in cheek here.

But, I have evolved.  I now make most things from scratch and try to avoid anything pre packaged.  Not to say I wouldn’t use something in a time pinch, but I do try to cook from scratch these days.  It’s the only way I can really (kinda) know what is in the food I prepare for myself, my husband, and guests.

This evening was declared ‘breakfast for dinner’ night and I had decided to make pancakes and toss in some sausages for my company.  Two kinds of pancakes were in the offing and one of them I will share with you here.

The special one was for the non-meat eaters.  Full of protein, vitamins, and good taste, it was bound to be a winner.  I think at the end of the evening, it was a full thumbs up.

Here’s what I did:

2 cups of shredded potatoes (you can do these fresh or use freezer hash brown shreds that are thawed out, preferably ones without added oil)

1 cup of shredded or finely chopped zucchini

1 cup of shredded or finely chopped carrots

1/2 cup whole wheat flower

3 eggs

seasonings of your choice (I used salt and pepper and chives)

You can add minced onions and/or peppers to this if you like or other minced vegetables.

Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes before starting to cook.

I did the cooking with two different oils to see if I could determine a difference. First, I put olive oil in a fry pan and heated it and added enough batter for one pancake. When the pancake starts to bubble all over (including the middle) flip it over. Let it cook about another minute, then remove it from the pan. I also tried this with coconut oil. Same process. Although the pancakes didn’t taste any different, when I was cooking them, I smelled a difference. Coconut oil certainly smells like coconut and smells sweet to me. I thought when I tasted the pancakes they would have a sweetness but they did not. I couldn’t tell one pancake from the next.

When I served the pancakes, I offered butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, sour cream, and Greek yogurt–unflavored. The comments were good. Everyone seemed to like them.

I think they are a versatile dish. They can be used as a main dish or side dish and they could be served with a meat course if that would work for your family and company. Because they contain protein, vitamins, fiber, minerals, and great taste, they can be a great addition to any meal.

So, Aunt Jemima, move over. Vegetable pancakes are on their way.

They make some pretty mean soups.  I mean, I grew up with them and so did most of you.  But, it’s time to put away the little kid canned stuff and go for something a bit more grown up.

I’m going to share with you a secret recipe I invented for tomato soup.  It’s easy, extremely nutritious, creamy, low calorie, and delicious. 

Take one can of whole, petite, skinned tomatoes (you can use a similar amount of peeled, fresh tomatoes if you have them).  Put the tomatoes with about half the juice in a blender, retaining the rest of the juice.  I use a ‘bullet’ blender and it works just right.  Add about 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin.  Blend until smooth. If you need to thin the mixture, add some of the juice you retained from the tomatoes.

Pour this mixture into a sauce pan and add seasonings of your choice.  I usually add celery salt and some pepper.  You can add some water or vegetable juice to thin it if necessary or some milk if you like.  You could spice it up with oregano or some garlic or onion according to your own taste.

I make this in less than 10 minutes after work and it tastes like garden fresh soup.  Also, it doesn’t have any of the added sugars or preservatives of canned soups.  So good and so easy to make it just the way your own family likes it.

FYI On the pumpkin.  I often use pumpkin to add vitamins, creaminess, and flavor.  If you work with pumpkin for a while you will find it very useful in all kinds of recipes including desserts.  The canned pumpkin works fine but if you can get a hold of a pumpkin and make your own puree, it’s even better.

So goodbye little Campbell kids and hello robust home made tomato soup.

Eating clean.  This could imply that a person is neat and does not require a bib or drop cloth when they eat.  Or, it could imply that the food a person is eating has been washed first or sanitized.  Or, it could mean something completely different.

The ‘something completely different’ is what I have been studying lately.  I have been a student of nutrition since high school and practiced a vegetarian lifestyle on and off for years.  My natural cravings tend to be for vegetables and whole grains so the eating ‘clean’ idea isn’t totally new to me.

What is new is that it has, once again, become a fad or trend.  There was a time in the early 1970s when the media was telling us that within 20 -30 years there would be no meat left for us to eat and at least half the world would be starving due to lack of productive farm land.  This time around we are getting the same message but it also includes the warning of a world wide lack of water for food production (as well as for drinking, washing, etc.). 

I don’t pretend to know the details about world food politics, although I read about it daily and listen to news reports on the issues.  If people could get past the threats and the fears and simply focus on what might be good for their health, making a decision to ‘eat clean’ would be much easier.  I would take it to another level and say, don’t worry about the health issues either.  Try ‘eating clean’ and see what happens to your taste buds. 

Here is one very easy meal or side dish I make that tastes great:

Boil or steam brown rice or a mixture of brown rice/wild rice/other whole grains, in vegetable stock, according to directions.

Coarsely chop a variety of vegetables (including mushrooms) you have on hand and either stir fry them in a small amount of vegetable stock or olive oil or steam or roast them.

Toss the rice together with the vegetables/mushrooms.

If you are a meat eater, you can add any type of meat or fish.  Best way to prepare the meat or fish would be to oven roast or grill.  I think that type of cooking enhances the flavor without covering it up.

I eat the rice mixture with an egg sometimes or with beans when I need more protein or a more substantial meal.

It’s a very simple way to make a quick meal (30 minutes at the most) and it tastes good.  You just need to determine which vegetables you enjoy and find creative ways to prepare them.  If you like spicy foods, you can add chili or other spices to the rice or vegetables.  I personally like rosemary, thyme, and ginger.

For snacks I like apples and love celery and other raw vegetables like zucchini and yellow summer squash.  If you have more of a sweet tooth, grapes, berries, plums, pears and other fruits are great plus they are easy to take to work or carry in the car as a snack.

I also usually have a trail mix on hand with dried fruit and mixed nuts.  A favorite trail mix is the Wow mix from Trader Joe’s.  It has wasabi peas in it and packs some dynamite flavor.

It doesn’t take too long for your taste buds to enjoy the flavor of ‘clean’ food and the cravings you may have for fried foods and processed foods to go away.  I think the reason most people don’t ‘eat clean’ is because they think it takes too much time to prepare.  Not true at all. Almost everything I make can be prepared in 30 minutes. It just takes some planning and having the right foods on hand.

What I still have to work on is how to ‘eat clean’ when I dine out. I’m still at the point of needing that bib and drop cloth.

Music for Airports.  Lovely.  Brian Eno and his ambient music.

I have listened to Brian Eno’s music for years.  I believe his first ‘Music for Airports’ was released in 1978.  He used an interesting technique in developing the music.  He asked individual musicians to provide parts of the music but didn’t let them listen to the other parts first.  I like collaboration in the arts but I think this technique was interesting.  Brian didn’t want the other musicians to influence or inhibit each other.  He acted as the supreme composer and master minder.

And, it worked.

The reason behind his interest in airport music was this:  airport music was scary at best.  It was not good music to begin with and was played out by scratchy sounding systems and always interrupted by barely audible instructions to go here or go there.  It seemed to Brian to be an afterthought when it should have had a major position like the soundtrack of a really good movie.  After all, aren’t most of us a bit on edge as we wait to board a plane or wait to welcome an incoming passenger?  Shouldn’t the music be soothing and a bit interesting?

It wasn’t.

Brian found a way to make it be exactly the way he would like it to be.  And, I think it is what most of us would also like.

Take a listen to his music, in four parts now, and let me know what you think.

Cooking is pretty much like everything else you do.  You’ve got to go through a few failures, and I mean some pretty nasty ones, before you get good at it.  I’ve had some spectacular failures, mostly because I was not paying attention to what I was doing, or not following directions, or not using the right ingredients.

Here’s a good one.  My Mom and Dad had a recipe for the most perfect custard pie with a silken consistency and just the right sweetness.  Since my husband and I both love custard pie, I thought I would try it.  Dad said I couldn’t possibly go wrong with the no-fail recipe.  That should have been a tip off. OK, I figured I would give it a try but I wouldn’t attempt the crust.  At that time in my life, I was just not a pastry chef type person. Not that I am now.

I bought the pre made 9 inch crusts that come two to a package. I mixed up the custard ingredients and had the oven preheated. Everything was on target. Then, I got the pie shells out of the refrigerator, opened the package, discarded the wrapper, separated the two pie shells and poured in the custard. I sprinkled on just the right amount of nutmeg, then carefully put the pies in the oven. All was well. The reason this recipe works is that it starts out at a high temperature to set the bottom crust, then the temp is decreased for the custard to cook.

After the pies were cooked and out of the oven and cooled, I sliced into the first one and it was, as promised, perfect. Unbelievable. I had done it. We ate the pie that same day. Yes, I know that was gluttonous. We couldn’t help ourselves. Next day we were having company and I was so happy to have an excellent dessert to serve them. Fortunately we had controlled ourselves enough not to dig in to the second pie.

Here’s where the disaster came in. I was chatting with our friends as they were sitting at our kitchen counter/bar and I got the pie out. It was beautiful. I put the knife in and felt a little pull back as I was slicing. Sure enough, I had left the paper liner in the bottom of the pie shell. Well at least I got some laughs and we all have a story to tell. I don’t like to be the butt of this type of story but maybe it was just my turn. The neat thing was that I managed to lift out the custard part of the pie, remove the paper, and slide the ‘guts’ back in to the shell. It still tasted good and we had some fun over the deal.

I remembered with some embarrassment that I was the one laughing the loudest when a friend left the package of giblets inside her Thanksgiving turkey. She was mortified that she did that and served the turkey to her in laws. At the time I thought, ‘How stupid. I would NEVER do anything like that.”

Live and learn.

I’m a long time star gazer.  I’m not a student of the sky and don’t know all the star formations but I love to go out at night and see what there is to see.

Usually, and I am not sure why this happen, if there is going to be a major sky event, it is either cloudy or raining or bitter cold.  This week, however, I got lucky.  The comet Pan-STARR has been visible several evenings, right after sunset, in the western sky.  The first evening the sky was clear and I didn’t know about the comet.  Learned about it on the TV weather about 4 hours too late.  Second night, it was cloudy.  Third night, I not only saw it but took a picture.  Very nice.  It barely shows up in the picture but I know it’s there and I’m glad I was able to see and capture it.  Fourth night, cloudy again.  The next comet visible in North America will be ISONS this November. 

If you like to look at sky spectaculars, there are some good websites to help you out:

www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013 and www.stardate.org

There are many others, of course.  These two have good information and nice pictures and some videos.

 You may also, like me, be a fan of meteor showers.  The Quadnantids are in January and I froze sitting out on the deck in the middle of the night to see them this year.  But it paid off big time.  Saw some beauties.  Coming up are the Lyrids, best seen on the night of April 21st and Eda Aquarids on the nights of May 4th and 5th.  Those will probably be best seen early morning.

I wish you clear skies, warm evenings, and a good pair of binoculars.

Housework.

Ugh.

There is something satisfying about cleaning a house but I still have a problem with it.  I like to be in the mood to clean house and somehow the dirt doesn’t go along with my mood schedule.  I have seen some very nice articles on how to organize cleaning so you do just a bit each day and by the end of the week the house is all clean.  Not for me.  I work during the day and serve on boards and have other duties at night so Saturday is my cleaning day.  Sometimes I can sneak in a load or two of laundry on a week night but not too often.

My big plan of attack on cleaning is to figure out ahead of time what my major cleaning project will be for Saturday a.m.  Each week I do one major clean up like emptying the china cabinet and washing all the ‘fancies,’ or switching out the closet from winter to summer clothes. I keep things picked up during the week so the house usually looks pretty tidy.  The routine cleaning just involves dusting, running the vacuum, sweeping, floor washing, cob web removal, and bathroom upkeep.

Somehow though it still seems overwhelming.

What helps me get through the tedium is singing. I make up songs as I go along based on the chore I’m doing. Sometimes they are re-worded popular tunes, sometimes re-worded show tunes, and sometimes just tunes I come up with. I also like to repurpose snippets of poetry I have memorized. Sonnets of Shakespeare, or Blake, and old nursery rhymes. I’ll write some of them down and share with you later. Not that there is a high demand for that type of ‘literature.’

In the mean time I will remind you of one of the best cleaning tunes of all time. From the 1937 Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

When there’s too much to do
Don’t let it bother you
Forget you troubles, try to be
Just like a cheerful chick-a-dee
And Whistle While you Work