A part of me truly dislikes the saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I know that the meaning behind it is full of wisdom. You should make the best of whatever situation you’re in. The problem is, that whenever the saying comes to mind, it usually means that life is giving me lemons. And that is not always fun.
Nate and I were supposed to have a date night tonight, but he called around dinner-time to say that he’d have to work late. He had to work until 11pm, to be exact. And instantly I felt my spirits drop. It didn’t help that work had been extremely hectic, and I had pretty much survived by continuously thinking about spending an evening with my hubby. Sigh…
But on the drive home, as I listened to Chris Allen sing Live Like We’re Dying, I decided to stop pouting and to just make the best of an evening alone.
Sooooo…. I took out my favorite cookbooks….
… and made a huge pot of corn chowder. I had some leftover ham in the freezer, so I tossed that in as an extra treat. There’s something about cooking a pot of soup that just calms me down.
Baking a pie on the other hand…
People always tell me that I make a great pie crust, but they do not see the excruciating agony that goes behind just one of my crusts. Almost every time, the first crust I make sticks dreadfully to the countertop or completely falls in half when I try to delicately lay it on top of my pie pan. So then I make a completely new crust and this one usually comes out better, although I have to carefully mold it together to patch up the thin spots. It’s an interesting thing to see and is proof that a cooking show on television is NOT my calling. But if it all comes out in the end and I present the pie with a smile, then all is well that ends well.
So anyway, onto the subject of bananas. As I was mulling over the whole ‘making lemonade when life gives you lemons’ thought, I came to the conclusion that I really should make some fresh lemonade… just cause. But I only had one lemon and that wouldn’t make much, so I instead grabbed for the large bunches of ripe bananas that were sitting on top of my fridge. Hey, they’re both yellow!!
Nate and I are having his brother and one of his gal pals over tomorrow night, and Nate had asked me to make my Banana Fluff Pie. So I sliced the bananas, made the fluffy filling, and poured and layered the thick goodness into my crust. And it did help me to feel better, especially since it made my slightly lacking crust look pretty.
But the happiest moment of all came when Nate called again and said, “Hey, Hun, I get to come home early!”
These tortillas are really small, I couldn’t find the medium size, so instead of just filling half and flipping one side over like I normally would I used one tortilla as the bottom, and another as the top. On there is the black beans, onion, red pepper, orange pepper, and weight watchers Mexican cheese.
All put together with the chicken added. I used a reduced sodium packet of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning to flavor the chicken, and a spoon-full of fat-free sour cream on the side for dipping.
And there are leftovers, so tonight’s dinner will probably be some sort of variation of this, involving all the same ingredients. After dinner I settled in on the couch for a long night of Olympics watching. I was so happy for Lindsey Vonn and her gold medal! She was absolutely sobbing when they were trying to interview her. Sadly I fell asleep before the Halfpipe competition ended, and even know I know the results I’m going to try to watch the video clips at some point today.
Every now and then I get a hankering for an old Southern favorite. This week it was angel biscuits, also known as “honeymoon biscuits” because with yeast, baking, and baking soda, they are just about guaranteed to rise, even for novice bakers. The original recipe featured ingredients we don’t use for health reasons–like lard or Crisco–but the recipe is easily adaptable.
Now cut the cold butter in quarters, lengthwise, and then slice the butter thinly. Work the butter into the dry mixture quickly, using a pastry cutter (shown here). If you do not have a pastry cutter, you can use a fork, but it will take longer, and you’ll need to take breaks to keep the butter cold.
After you cut in the butter, the dry mixture should have a mealy texture. Now stir in the dissolved yeast and buttermilk or kefir, just until you’re sure that the yeast is fully incorporated. Stop. Do nothing else except cover the bowl securely. Biscuits, like pie dough, do not like to be overworked. There is enough liquid in this mixture that the dough will sort of kneed itself.
Can you see the bits of butter? That’s good! Those will help build flaky layers when you roll out the dough. Now walk away for several hours or even overnight. Here’s another dough picture while you wait. Mmmmmm: bits of butter.
Take the biscuits out of the oven. Admire them. Smell the combination of biscuit and yeast.
