An Apple a Day.....

As you may well know from previous posts, I go to work in mortal fear of not having enough to munch on, while I complete my tasks, and keep my executives happy. This is simply irrational, I know. But, I am a grazer, not one of those people who can sit down, consume three large meals a day and be done with it! I feel it is healthier for the human body as well, since putting down large quantities inevitably makes me feel sluggish and overly-full. So, for work one day, in keeping with my desire to retain my newly-enjoyable weight loss, I brought this for breakfast.

A GIANT, HUGE, MUTANT Fuji apple, as well as my new love, Special K fruit crisps.  They are like a cross between a pop-tart, and a strudel. Crisp on the outside, but soft and fruit-a-licious on the inside. And no, they are not paying me to say this, I simply love them!  I am veering off topic faster than normal. Anyhoo, the point is; this apple is LARGE, large I tells ya! Just to show you how big it is, I put a standard-size bottled water next to it for this picture...

Now that is ONE BIG APPLE! New York City, eat your heart out! I sincerely doubt I will be able to eat the whole thing in one go. 

In my continuing effort to try to eat healthy work lunches (and since I clearly must have enough food to sustain me through a work day), I created a new salad-y mix up I called "Fall Salad". I call it that because to me the colors are very Autumn-like, as well as the flavors.

What do you make in certain seasons only? Do you crave roast turkey when it is not Thanksgiving? Christmas cookies in July? Do tell!

I threw arugula in my happy lunch box, along with red bell pepper, cucumber, scallions, red cabbage, pepperocini peppers, and chunks of lovely Danish Bleu Cheese. It looked almost too pretty to eat...almost...

I don't know, I guess the shape of the arugula leaves reminded me of trees losing their leaves this time of year, and it left me in a cozy Fall mood. I paired it with a slightly sweet dressing, Catalina, as a counterpoint to the sharpness of the peppers and arugula, and it was amazing, and I happily crunched through it all day at work.

Eat well, and happy grazing my friends...stay tuned for a step-by-step meatloaf tutorial...comfort food here we come!

I've got a wedgie!

In the interest of revisiting some classics, and due to a rapidly deteriorating head of lettuce, I decided to make the 1950's staple, an iceberg lettuce wedge salad. I knew I needed an easy side dish, as my main course was a little intense, being a crab-and-shrimp stuffed flounder that needed my time and attention. 

Preparation is simple, you rinse out the lettuce quarters once they have been cut, and place them on paper towelling to dry. You dice up red bell pepper, scallions and whatever other vegetation you'd like to adorn the wedges. I have been known to fry bacon and crumble it over the top as well. Mine also has luscious bleu cheese crumbled over the top.  Then, place the wedge, open leaves facing up, on individual plates. Next, sprinkle all the vegetation, bleu cheese, bacon etc., over the top of the wedge. Sprinkle with a little salt, and very fresh cracked black pepper, and this should be your result.

My wedge was a little small compared to the rest of the bunch, so I bulked it up with a little sidecar of more lettuce. I mixed together ketchup, mayonnaise, relish, lemon juice and salt & pepper for my own home-made thousand island dressing, and doused the lettuce with every last bit of it.  The results?

Well, a little rough-chopped Italian flat-leaved parsley and we are in business! 

What retro-classic have you been working on? Is it diner-style meat loaf? Clams Casino? What is your favorite dish from back in the day?

The salad was cooling and delicious, and Dear Husband really enjoyed the textural aspect of the classic wedge salad, because crunching through the multiple layers of lettuce in each wedge, gives a whole new dimension to what your salad can be.

Eat well my friends, and stay tuned for a huge announcement!

A Little Night Music

Man (or woman, for that matter) cannot live by cooking each night, ya know. So, last night we were able to join some close friends at Simon & Seafort's here in Anchorage. Click on the "our menu" link, and look at all those appetizers! With the exception of the potato chips, our group had every....single....appetizer. We all also sampled each of the desserts, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Some of the highlights...

Sweet potato fries with some sort of ketchup, and my favorite, a lovely spicy whole-grain mustard.  Those went so fast, we definitely should have ordered another. But, between the wine flights, and all the other goodies, we felt we must keep the variety coming.  Then, a pretty respectable showing of Buffalo wing tastiness....

I apologize for the quality of the photo ~ it was the cel phone, NOT the wine! I promise! I did try to capture some of the other dishes, like the tower of three appetizers which included teriyaki tenderloin tips, a crab and artichoke dip that was outrageous, and a shrimp dish which rested on a lovely mashed potato pillow, but alas, it all went before I remembered...but oh my word, it was all delicious! The meatloaf sliders caught Dear Husband's eye, so the order was promptly placed.

Dear Husband dipped them in marinara sauce and pronounced them tender and delightful. We all then passed around the best creme brulee', berry cobbler, bread pudding, molten chocolate cake and regular cake. The cakes came with cute little scoops of ice cream, and miniature gravy boats full of brandy sauce, and vanilla sauce, and were absolutely amazing. The best part? Well, other than having a really good time smack-dab in the middle of a work week, the appetizers are half price from 4:30 to 6:00! AND, there are many four-dollar drink specials during that same happy hour time frame! Of all the unique discoveries we've made in Anchor-town, this one ranks pretty high.

What local gem have you found in your town? What is the tastiest bargain there?

Eat well my friends, and splurge every now and again on a week night, it is so worth it!

Experimental Cuisine

Everyone that knows me, knows I have weighed about the same my entire adult life ~ with the exception of pregnancy! This has been one of the greatest gifts I feel that I have been given. In addition to being blessed with very good health, my weight has never been an issue. Then......I moved to Alaska. 

The nature of the climate here makes it rather a necessity for me to be indoors for a large part of the year, and totally vulnerable to the goodies I want to create, hiding in my pantry and refrigerator, just waiting to jump out and yell; "MAKE MEEEE TONIGHT"! I, of course oblige them.

So, fast forward two years, and I have joined the human race. I need to lose weight. I determined that my method would be to stop eating the fattening breakfasts here at work, serve my supper on the salad size versus dinner size plate. My work breakfasts became healthier, like this........

The result? Six pounds lighter in less than two months! The feeling of success at something I have never tried to accomplish before is wonderful! I did it all while still eating what I enjoyed, and just cut a few of the not-Pixie-friendly items out.

What personal success took you most by surprise? How did you accomplish it? How long did it take?

Eat well my friends, and get ready for some comfort food...it's Autumn!

Celebrate!

I am proud to announce that my blog has been approved and added to The Foodie Blogroll, as you can clearly see on my sidebar.  Go check them out here and check out their giveaways, contests and oodles of food blogs. Thanks Foodie Blogroll! Love, Pixie (Allison).

Rib-Tickling good!

Well, the winner of the triple-threat hummus taste-test is....

TA-DA!!  The roasted garlic flavor!

I feel compelled to say that although all three varieties were just fine, and the roasted red bell pepper variety was great on the more bitter vegetables, the roasted-garlicky goodness won hands down. Thanks to Tribe for providing a great and wholesome product that I can trust to be good enough to not have to dirty my food processor making hummus on a weeknight, you rock!

Growing up in South Florida, where the chain of rib restaurants called Tony Roma's was invented, I miss that sweet, yet tangy barbecue sauce, and lots of it, on tender baby back ribs.  I did some internet research, and like most everything nowadays, there are copycat-style recipes out there. I settled on one that sounded the most like what I remember, and began by letting the ribs chill out over night with a nice dry rub. Then, it was time for a thirty minute parboil. This is what a rack looks like after a night in rub, and a good thirty minute soak in the hot tub.

Then, in the proper procedure for the authentic recipe, the ribs are slathered with the home made sauce, and returned to the refrigerator for a few hours. My hunch is that this process acts as a marination...here they go, getting wrapped & ready for fridge time...

A different shot, showing all the racks - ready for some absorption-o-flavor!

After a couple of hours in the fridge, I coated the ribs with some extra sauce, and placed in a nice low oven (250) for two and a half hours. I suspect the low cooking temperature is one of the keys to success to these ribs, because then the sugars in the barbecue sauce do not burn, and create that awful over-done taste. A short broil and brush with sauce at the end, and here you have the meal....

I made my Asian slaw, crunch-tastic with Napa cabbage, red cabbage, cilantro and other assorted goodies, and my barbecue baked beans, rich and smoky with bacon and onion, and I was lucky enough to have a shortcut, by using some of the extra barbecue sauce that I made for the ribs.

What is your favorite childhood barbecue memory? Do you make something that takes you right back?

The verdict? Outstanding! I was back in Miami, circa 1979 or so, eating ribs at Tony Roma's with all my friends and family. The ribs were tender, but not so falling-off-the-bone as to be just mush meat, the slaw was perfection, with the crunchy cabbages, and sesame flavor, and the beans were tender and tasty indeed. Eat well, my friends, and make something that takes you back to a great memory. See you later in the week with a new chicken dish I'm excited to have created, and curried lentils!

Tasty Tribal Temptation

Ah, the weekends in Anchorage! Time for cooking, eating, and oh, did I mention cooking? Dear Husband lived up to his husbandly-ness by driving me around to my favorite Pixie-land destinations (read - food and specialty food shops). But, once again, right there under my nose, at the good old Commissary on Elmendorf Air Force Base, was THIS!

Well, the good folks over at Tribe have certainly got it right, the taste-testing will commence tomorrow, along with the return to the work week. Of course, once I ventured over to their wonderful site, I found a one-dollar coupon for it...AFTER purchasing it. That's exactly how my luck rolls...but I digress. You know, as a working adult, I constantly fight the "Sunday Night Depression", whereby your mind is consumed with the fact that your freedom and free time are evaporating with every minute that ticks by.  So, to fight this negative and unproductive trend, I play a little game with myself. It's quite simple, and one must simply have the discipline to wait, and be rewarded! I make sure that I have a little something special, whether it be a new item of clothing, a special candy or snack, and I must ignore it until MONDAY! This week, it is my little 3-flavored tray of creamy garbanzo-beany goodness.


How do you make sure that you are taking care of you, during the work week?


I shall cut fresh carrot, red bell pepper, cucumber and take tiny, sweet grape tomatoes to take a little dip in the 3-kinds of fun hummus. I wonder which one I will like the best? Could it be the roasted red bell pepper? The garlic? Or will I just like the classic the best?  Next post will reveal all (sshhh, maybe the Tribe people will back the truck up to my door and send me enough hummus to swim in! YAY!!)

Since I've been delving back into classical French cooking, I decided to make Bouillabaisse, a very classic, very French fish stew. I was chomping at the bit to trot out a bit of my gourmet Pixie-skills, and it went very well. No pictures, alas, the nature of the stew required it to be served piping hot, straight after spooning on the rouille, and with lots of warm French bread.  I took a very long route to show you what I found for making the lovely dish........

No my friends, that is not some alien celery plant, it's FENNEL! Not only that, IT'S ORGANIC! IN ANCHORAGE! My cup runneth over! The licorice-tasting bulb and fronds of which the Italians are very fond of cooking with. As I prepped it for the stew, I had to julienne the bulb, and tasted some of the strips. I was pleasantly surprised, as in the past I did not care for it's  strong flavor. Now I can see utilizing it more frequently in it's raw state, as well as in cooked dishes.


Have you ever started liking something that you never did before? What was the one thing that tipped you to the other side?

Eat well my friends, and stayed tuned for the results of the triple-threat-hummus taste-test, and this coming weeks' post about the re-creation of the famous Tony Romas' baby back ribs! And please be kind, and do something special for yourself for the work week. Life is short, and sometimes, when we are hurting a little bit, being your own Mommy is just what the doctor ordered.