Sylvia's Scenario

Our daughter came home from college for Spring break and requested corned beef and cabbage for dinner because she missed St. Patrick's Day since it was in the middle of finals. So, I happily obliged. We had another delicious dinner complete with our green drinks. Welcome Home!

Somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature it's Spring.  I know its Spring but I'm craving warm, comfort food as it is pouring down rain and snowing in the mountains and in many places around the country still!  I remembered this lentil-curry recipe that use to be one of my favorites many years ago and thought it would be a good one to try again on this cold, dreary Meatless Monday. Meatless Lentil Curry  6 servings 4 onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup brown rice, uncooked 4 Tbsp. oil 2 tsp. curry powder 8 cups water (or I use chicken broth) 4 Tbsp lemon juice 2 cups dry lentils 2 - 10 oz. pkgs frozen chopped spinach 1.  Saute onions, garlic, and rice in oil for 3-4 minutes.  Add curry powder and stir through. 2.  Add water (or broth), lemon juice, and lentils.  Stir and simmer covered until tender (about 30 minutes).   3.  Add spinach.  Cook another 15 minutes or until spinach is thawed and heated through.  Stir to mix. 

Please take some time to think of the people in Japan and give support however you can.  I will be observing this day of silence for bloggers and thinking of Japan and thinking particularly of my son who is in Japan for work with his wife, who is Japanese.  They are south of Toyko, so out of harm's way for now, but experiencing aftershocks, power outages, etc.  I am looking forward to his safe return back to the U.S. on Monday.  But my concern continues as his wife plans on staying with her family in Osaka for a while longer and for all the Japanese people who have been effected by this devastating earthquake.   For Japan with Love http://www.shelterbox.org/

What are you doing to celebrate today??

Today, the First Lady will break ground for the 3rd year in a row on the White House Kitchen garden.  She started the garden in 2009 with $200 getting local children involved, one of her many attempts to address childhood obesity in our country.  Now the garden is 1500 square feet and a huge success.  The White House uses produce from the garden for the Obama's family dinners and even State dinners!  They also donate any excess produce to a local DC-area food shelter, Miriam's Kitchen. The White House vegetable garden uses vegetable seeds saved from the gardens at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. Jefferson was responsible for bringing many fresh vegetables to America—he reportedly asked for vegetable seeds to be brought back when anyone he knew went abroad. .....wrote Heather Lacey of Can You Dig It. Way to go, Michelle!  I hope they are having better weather today than we are…

Makes 1 loaf 4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 1 cup currents or 1/2 cup currents and 1/2 cup golden raisins 1-3/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk 1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter and flour a large baking sheet, knocking off excess flour. 2. Add together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in food processor and process until well combined.   3.  Add the  butter cut-up into flour mixture and pulse until the flour mixture becomes course crumbs. 4.  Transfer flour mixture into a bowl and add currents. 5.  Add buttermilk and stir just until dough is evenly moistened but still lumpy. 6.  Transfer dough to a well-floured surface and gently knead with floured hands about 8 times to form a soft but slightly less sticky dough, then form into a ball. 7.  Pat dough ball into a 8-inch round on baking sheet. Cut a 1/2-inch-deep X on top of each loaf with a sharp kni

Thursday is St. Patrick's Day and you know what that means? It means Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner. It's not a hard meal to prepare. Just throw it in your crockpot and let it cook all day and you have a wonderful meal to celebrate your St. Patrick's Day. Anybody can do it and you don't have to be Irish. Don't forget the Irish Soda Bread . Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage Makes 4 servings Corned beef shrinks by about 50%, so for generous servings (and leftovers if you're lucky), buy about one pound of meat per person. 4 carrots 4 to 6 red potatoes, quartered 1 medium head cabbage, cut into 6 wedges 1 4-pound corned beef brisket 1 tablespoon corned beef spices or pickling spices (or spices that come with the brisket) 1.  Place carrots, cabbage, potatoes in the bottom of a large slow-cooker or crock pot. 2. Rinse the corned beef brisket and place over vegetables. Fill crockpot to just cover the meat (with vegetables underne

It's that time of year again to start planning the garden.  Our garden boxes survived pretty well over the winter.  The best produce is right from your own garden, so fresh, sweet, packed with nutrition and makes for a very fun family activity.  Not to mention the satisfaction you'll get from eating something you grew yourself.  Even if you don't have this kind of space, tomatoes are always an easy option to grow on your patio or porch.  You can't buy these kind of delicious, homegrown tomatoes at the grocery store...so what are you waiting for?  Let's start planning your summer garden now!    Some of the chives are coming up from last year.   The catnip has also survived the winter and is starting to shoot up.  The cats like it.  They remember their favorite little corner of the garden from last year :)    We still have 5 chickens left from the 10 chicks we got 2 years ago.  Shall we get more?  Another deci