Waffle Iron give-away!

With just a few minutes of your time, and a little bit of luck, your next batch of waffles could be baking in this hot little number...and it even comes with a box of waffle mix!

Have you seen the waffle iron give-away at Heart and Soul Cooking? Just click on the link to visit Geri and get the scoop on how to enter.

While you're there, you may want to check out the rest of Geri's delightful blog. Some mighty fine things going on there...

Foodie Friday - Simple Shrimp

Here's a tongue twister for you to try - Spectacular Super Simple Shrimp Supper. Repeat continuously while you're preparing this dish, and by the time you've gotten it right, dinner will be on the table! Yes, it comes together that quickly, and it's wonderfully tasty to boot. It's one of our go to meals on a busy day. I really don't have a recipe for this, but I can give you some guesstimates and a game plan for preparation. You can, of course, adjust the amount of any ingredient to suit you or your family's tastes, and you can double amounts for a larger group. Most of the ingredients are probably staples that you keep on hand, and this makes it a perfect meal for unexpected dinner guests.

One 15oz can of plain stewed tomatoes
Olive oil
One small to medium onion, diced
One or two cloves of garlic run through a press or finely minced
A few liberal splashes of dry white wine
Minced fresh parsley
Minced fresh basil
Salt
As many shelled, deveined shrimp as you'd like to add (You can also use bay scallops, sliced sea scallops, tiny fresh clams that have been well scrubbed or any combination of the seafoods mentioned)
Hot cooked pasta of your choice - my husband and I prefer linguine
Freshly grated pecorino-romano or parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper

Briefly saute the chopped onion in the olive oil. (Do not let brown.) Add the garlic and saute for another 30-45 seconds. (Again, do not let brown.) Turn off the heat and add a few splashes of the wine...maybe 1/4 cup or so. Turn the heat back on, and add the stewed tomatoes. Break up any large tomato pieces with a wooden spoon. Toss in the minced herbs and a tiny bit of salt, if desired. Give everything a good stir, pop in the seafood and cover. After a minute of two, give the mixture another good stir, cover again and let the seafood cook through...this will only take a few minutes. Turn off the heat, and let rest a few minutes for the flavors to marry. If necessary adjust seasonings, then toss with the pasta. Pass the pepper mill and grated cheese around the table for each diner to add according to personal preference. Crisp garlic bread and a tossed green salad are perfect accompaniments.
I wish I had gotten clams when I made this last week. They make this dish look a little more spectacular when they're sitting on top of the pasta peeking out of their shells, and they add a nice briny flavor to the sauce.

Now please stop by Designs by Gollum and see who else may have an easy entree up their sleeve. Our hostess, Michael Lee, will have a link ready to help you navigate the internet waters.

Food for Thought

The Time Traveler's Wife *****

I tend to avoid reading anything that even remotely resembles science fiction. It's a genre that has never appealed to me. That being said, I was making it a habit to avoid The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I didn't bother reading the New York Times book review. I ignored it when I saw it on the end shelf at the library or in a book store display. I ignored it when it appeared on the best seller list. Need I say that it never appeared on my long hold list at the library? Yet, the book seemed to be presenting itself to me at every turn. Odd, no?

Then one day, it appeared in my hands, carefully wrapped in pretty paper and tied with a bow. A birthday gift...ughhh. I smiled graciously, did a little ooh-aah dance, said thank you, then tossed it in to a carton of books being packed for our move to Pennsylvania.

It was several weeks before the book surfaced again. I was rummaging through moving boxes stored in our unfinished home. I needed some books to read while we waited in a residence hotel for our house to be move in ready, so I tucked it into my tote bag.

That afternoon, I opened the book and started to read. The Walcott poem was the first glimmer of hope that I had for this being a good read. It appears before the dedication and a prologue. It was the first hook...the prologue was the second. A few pages into the first chapter, I was a goner. A love story was emerging. Sure it was a quirky love story with the time travel twist, but the characters were finely drawn and complex. With each passing page, I was drawn deeper and deeper into their story and their unique problem.

The two main characters are Clare, the wife, and Henry, the time travelling husband. Henry never knows when he'll be subject to moving though time or how long he'll be gone. He doesn't know if he'll be going back in time or forward. He starts popping in and out of Clare's life when she is only six years old. She brings him food and clothing, since he's always hungry after one of his passages, and also arrives naked. Some of the food she brings him is quite odd. She later confesses that she wanted to find out if there was anything he wouldn't eat.

Henry is due to appear on Clare's 18th birthday, and she prepares a picnic 'feast' for him. She doesn't know how to cook, and seems to have no desire to learn, so she puts together a rather odd assortment of prepared items from her parent's larder. It's all part of a seduction plan that only an 18 year old could plot. You'll have to read the novel to see how it plays out...

Henry does know how to cook, and when they meet in 'real time' and begin their adult courtship, he prepares a dinner for Clare's 21st birthday...vichyssoise and salmon. He wants to take care of Clare and cooking is one of his offerings...an expression of his love.

By the time Henry is 43 and Clare is 35, he has had a glimpse of what the future has in store, and he begins worrying about leaving Clare alone. The couple also have a daughter, and he's concerned that he won't be there to take care of them. In an effort to prepare Clare for her future, he gives her cooking lessons. After Clare prepares her first meal, and realizes that she can now cook, she stares across the table at Henry and thinks, 'Don't leave me.'

I was rereading this book when the Food for Thought meme came about, and I'm now happy that I was. It was the perfect vehicle for me to join in the fun.

And just a closing thought...the perfect book can be like an abiding true love. You can be narrow minded and refuse to allow it to enter your life, but if it's meant to be, it will somehow find you and endure the test of time.

Please click on the Food for Thought button at the top of the page. It will take you to Once in a Blue Moon where our hostess has supplied a Mr. Linky connection to help you travel to other sites celebrating food and the written word.

Foodie Friday - Muffin Madness

Baking muffins may not be the way to keep that New Year's resolution to lose weight, but it's certainly keeping my kitchen warm during the terrible spell of cold weather that has been invading the hills.

Last week I made a batch of French Breakfast Puffs, which are far and away my all time favorite morning goody. An ordinary, plain muffin becomes spectacular when dipped in melted butter, and rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. I limited myself to 1 1/2 of these darlings, but it wasn't easy! On a good morning, I could polish off several of these in record time.

This week I tried a 'new' savory/sweet treat. The recipe for Bacon-Cheddar muffins has been languishing on a note card in my recipe box for such a long time, that I now have no idea who gave it to me!

A sweet muffin is studded with crumbled, crisply fried bacon and a smattering of sharp cheddar. My husband really enjoyed them, and they were definitely tasty, but I think I'd prefer these with less sweet and more savory. An extra strip of bacon, a little more cheddar and less sugar would be more to my liking. Have to admit, they did photograph well though, in spite of the fact that I'm having camera problems...

You can find the recipe for the French Breakfast Puffs at The Pioneer Woman. If you're one of those rare mortals who have never been to her blog, you're in for a real treat. She's one heck of a good cook and also just published a new cook book! Simply click on the link, and you too can become addicted to these tasty little morsels. I'm gonna hold back on the Bacon-Cheddar muffin recipe until I play with it a bit. I'm thinking it needs a little tweaking.

Now scoot over to Designs by Gollum, and see who else has been firing up their ovens to keep their house warm. Michael Lee is our hostess for Foodie Friday, and she has Mr. Linky up and running.

BTW: I've got a great dieter's tip to share. Go ahead and make that recipe that's on the forbidden list, then find victims, (excuse me, I meant to say something more like friends, family, co-workers,) with whom to share. You'll be surprised how quickly a basket of warm muffins can disappear!