Under a Red Roof ·

A Switcheroo and Thirty Grams

February 11, 2010 in Cooking + Baking, Eating by Colleen | Permalink

Hi there!

How are you today? Confused, perhaps? As in, where is the quotation that is usually posted here on Thursday? That Colleen is like clockwork with those. Well, I didn’t figure you wanted to be inundated with them, and therefore pulled a little switcheroo with my anniversary post on Tuesday. Nineteen years. Ms. Keller certainly got it right. I love finding just the right combination of someone else’s words and my photo, not that the right combination of my own words is exactly simple. Writing can be hard.

Tablecloths are easy, however. I am really loving this one. It is my latest find from the bins, and oh so adorable – how cute is that little lady next to my muffin? It’s cheery, too, like a lemon yellow, full of sun and smiles kind of day, which, by the way, is what we’ve had in great abundance in these parts these past few weeks. It has been wonderful and a bit odd, I must say. I cannot recall a sunnier winter in my eleven here in Stumptown.

Hmmm, I have no segue way for what comes next, drat. It’s tough going from writing about sunshine and cheer to um, fiber. My naturopath wants me to eat 30 grams a day. While I definitely appreciate the benefits of healthy bowel movements, lower cholesterol, lower risk of cancer, I have to say that, save for the not at all pleasant psyllium drink I have morning and evening, it is not so easy to get-r-done, and this is coming from someone who really strives for such things. I eat beans, a lotta beans, whole grain everything, fruits, veges, but still have a hard time reaching the magic number. Take these muffins, by my calculation, they’ve got three grams each, so I would need ten to get my recommended daily allowance, and while I really, really like them, that would just be too much. Not that it will keep me from trying to get to 30 by other means (Yams! Parsnips!), by golly, I will.

Just in case you’d like to try the muffins, here’s the recipe, and I hope you aren’t dissuaded by their healthfulness (that word is a mouthful) because they really are delicious, like carrot cake. I like carrot cake. Yum.

Carrot Muffins

2 beaten eggs

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/2 cup sugar (actually, I used 3/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup agave nectar, but don’t know how easy it is to find everywhere)

1/2 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots

3/8 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/8 olive and 1/4 sunflower)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped dates (I am a recent convert – slightly sweet and full of fiber!)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, agave (if using), carrots, and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Mix in walnuts, raisins, and dates. Pour batter into greased or lined muffin tins.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This made 11 muffins, but I fill my cups pretty high, so you might get 12, or you might get less.

Enjoy!

Tags: Cooking and Baking, Decorating, Recipes

Bird Watching

February 10, 2010 in Admiring, Celebrating, Inspiring by Colleen | 2 comments

Look at my sweet Birdie. Doesn’t she have a fine profile? I love the curve of her nose, her enormous ears, and all that soft, silky fur. She is a fine specimen indeed. It’s funny, too, even after nearly fifteen years (her birthday is March 4th!), I never grow tired of watching her. Playing, sleeping, running in the yard, it’s always a pleasure to see her happy. Unhappy is quite another matter, but I won’t get into that!

In other bird watching news, I had the FINEST (all caps for serious emphasis) sighting from my back window this past Thursday afternoon. I was walking by and saw something high in a treetop, a slight white glimmer of movement. My heart leapt! Could it be? I turned back and stopped, focusing my eyes. It sure looked like it.

I whooped and hollered down the stairs, “Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” I grabbed the phone and the binoculars as fast as humanly possible and bolted back up the stairs. Imagine my excitement when I learned my hunch was absolutely correct. There was indeed a Bald Eagle atop a tree, no more than a hundred yards from me. I could see its regal gaze scanning the horizon, the beautiful white feathers, the golden beak, the lovely eyes. I called the hubster, and I spent the next few minutes detailing the eagle’s every move.

“It’s turning his head, yikes almost 360 degrees!”

“It’s moving it’s wings. Wow, it’s so big!”

“I think it’s looking right at me.”

“The crows are coming! They’re cawing, but this guy isn’t paying one iota of attention to them, no matter how close they get!”

“Oh my goodness, Buddy, I’m watching a Bald Eagle from our back window!”

In all, I probably watched it for ten joyful minutes, repeating that last sentence about five times. It then left it’s perch and flew right over our house, so close I could see individual feathers. I’d like to think it was a “Hello Colleen, I saw you, too,” gesture. Whatever it was, I could not have been happier (well, maybe if I could have taken a photo, but our camera cannot zoom like that), and I certainly won’t ever look at that tree in the same way again.

Nineteen

February 9, 2010 in Admiring, Being, Celebrating, Quoting, Remembering by Colleen | 2 comments

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

Nineteen years ago today, I went on my very first date with the very handsome fella pictured above. I wore a denim skirt and a cream colored blouse with silver button covers. He wore Levi’s and a rugby shirt and an incredible smile. We ate at Old Chicago and talked well into the night. I told him I believed in ghosts, and he held me tight.

I still believe in ghosts, and he still holds me tight. Thank goodness these things last…

I love you, Buddy!

An Education (or Two)

February 5, 2010 in Eating, Remembering, Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | 2 comments

Happy Friday, dear readers! Hope you had a lovely week. Mine was up, down, and sideways, but mostly down, to be honest. Even though I stopped taking the post-surgical hormones two months ago, I still feel funny, not to mention heavy. I gained fifteen pounds and have not been able to shake it, despite my pretty rigorous routine. A serious bummer but all part of my endometriosis education. It goes a bit like this:

1. Suffer serious pain

2. Suffer mental anguish at the fact that the pain is disregarded by a couple doctors (NOT Petra Caruso – she’s the tops), and, despite myriad efforts over ten years, does not lessen.

3. Deliver shock and awe over the severity and complexity of my case to a specialist dealing in these problems for more than thirty years.

4. Have fallopian tubes, the right ovary, uterus, and innumerable adhesions removed in a 6 1/2 hour surgery that was only meant to be two.

5. Lose so much blood in the process that standing for more than a minute on my own will be an event weeks in the making.

6. Take massive doses of progesterone to keep the endometriosis at bay while suffering through eighteen unpleasant side effects, including uber moodiness, headaches, sleeplessness, and the aforementioned weight gain.

7. Realize, holy smokes, this suff is hard, and depressing, and crappy, a real emotional roller coaster, and it isn’t over yet. I’m really ready for it to be, really, really.

On top of this, one of my great pleasures, as you well know, is going to the movies. Unfortunately there’s been a serious dearth of good films to see at the theaters I frequent. I can’t even remember the last time I was at the Academy. So, with all this in mind, imagine my delight, more like giddiness, when I saw that the Hollywood Theater had not one, but THREE movies this little lover of cinema was pining to see. I went into paroxysms of glee people. Glee! I would have my friend Bridget attest to this fact, for she was on the other end of the phone at the moment of my great discovery, but she is a little shy of the blog, so you will just have to take my word for it. I’m as honest as Abe.

One more bit before the movie, and yes, I do know I’ve gone on. The hubster was going out of town for a couple of days on business (to Napa! Fine food, wine, and learning), so we decided to make a little date night of it. We tried the new Foster Burger and enjoyed it quite a bit. I had a ginormous wedge salad with fresh herbs, apples, blue cheese crumbles, and a crazy piece of pork belly fried in duck fat, light as air and oh my, my, ooh la, la! The hubster had the expected burger, fries, and a chocolate milk shake, which he shared (I shared too). All was good – the food, convivial service, and music on the hi-fi. We’ll be back, definitely.

Of course, the movie was the icing on top. It follows Jenny (a girl who reminds me an awful lot of myself at that age), a sweet, smart, and occasionally sassy girl on the verge of turning seventeen. She’s a Francophile with a serious love for music, art, literature, and cigarettes. Though she has someone who is sweet on her, she finds him boring, and is swept off her feet by a man who is probably twice her age. He possesses everything she desires: culture, intelligence, good looks, and an impressive car to boot (a gorgeous Bristol 405, gulp), as well as some other dubious characteristics she is willing to overlook. He delights her, spoils her, and takes her places no one else can. All with her parents permission, I might add, for they are just as smitten as she. As their romance progresses, Jenny questions the worthiness of an education over spending her life married to someone so worldly, raising some pretty interesting questions in the process. Very well done.

Tags: Endometriosis, Movies