What's for Lunch? Fried Green Tomatoes

Really, I'm not trying to write a food blog. I just happen to really enjoy food.

Last year, my friend Teresa told me she was craving fried green tomatoes. I didn't know people really ate them. So, as soon as I had some green tomatoes to give her, I did. She said they satisfied a craving she'd had for years.

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That got my curiosity up and all of a sudden I was craving them even though I'd never had them. Now it's the end of the growing season, and my tomatoes aren't all going to ripen. I decided to try making fried green tomatoes. I thought about waiting and making them for my family, but I was really craving them. So I made them for lunch. I'm not really into fried food, but these were pretty good. They could be an acquired taste. The fried green tomatoes of my imagination were better. Maybe if I added more salt?

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Anyway, isn't this green color amazing?! Love it.

I found a recipe on-line and sort of followed it. This is what I did:

1 1/2 smallish to mediumish green tomatoes

A sprinkle of salt

1/8 cup flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon skim milk

1/2 piece of whole wheat bread made into fine dried bread crumbs (about 1/8 cup)

1/8 cup corn meal

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

1/8 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

Cut the tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle salt on top and let sit for 15 minutes on a paper towel or rack. Put flour in a shallow dish. In a separate shallow dish, beat the egg. Add milk to egg and mix. In another shallow dish, mix bread crumbs, corn meal, cayenne, and pepper. Dip tomatoes into flour dish, using a fork to coat tomatoes. Dip tomatoes in egg. Cover tomatoes with bread mixture. Let sit on a rack or paper towels while heating oil and butter in a frying pan on medium heat. When the butter "sings" put tomatoes in oil. Let cook for about 3 or 4 minutes per side until golden brown.

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Maybe they need fry sauce?

Liking Apples

Upstate New York grows some delicious apples. I never was a big apple fan until moving here. Sometimes I felt slightly assaulted by the cold, hard, sourness of the raw fruit. Not anymore. One of my favorite snacks is to cut and core a just-picked-off-the-tree apple, microwave it for about thirty seconds, and then sprinkle organic cinnamon on top. The apples are warm and usually slightly crisp. It's the perfect, soothing afternoon snack for a rainy day like today.

Accepting Reality

This is not the picture of my imagination-- not exactly what I saw on a drive home, but it is the tree. It's really beautiful in real life, nearly half green and half red. When I first saw it, I thought it might be a good representation of my "all or nothing" mentality. It turns out, the picture is a better representation of learning to deal with reality.

I usually try to do more important things first, but this morning I went biking right after the kids got on the bus. There was a 30% chance of rain that was going up to 80% by 11 o'clock. I chose to seize the moment. About five minutes into my ride, I felt strong pain. Normally, I would have taken a shorter route just in case, but I wanted a picture of that tree. That meant an hour-long-plus route. I thought the pain might subside. Sometimes it does that. But it just intensified. Several times I thought I might have to get off the bike and walk or call somebody for help. I pushed on anyway. I wanted a picture of that tree.

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Finally, I saw it. It is striking, even from a distance. I wanted to get close enough that power lines wouldn't be in the picture. As soon as that happened, it sounded like ten dogs started barking and yelping at me. I figured they were penned up, but I didn't want to get any closer. I imagined the dogs alerted the owner of the house and that they might wonder what I was doing taking pictures. So I stayed where I was, a fair distance away. The dogs kept barking. I took two lousy pictures and left.

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The pain more or less went away. I took the pictures, made it home before a downpour, and got some exercise along the way. It wasn't ideal, but I feel healthy and at peace. I guess that's good enough.

Just Showing Up

(Found this image by Mila Zinkova on Wikipedia. Fog shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.)

I began with character exploration. I described her in a few different situations. After a week or so, I decided I didn't like her. She was too me.

I didn't want to give up. I'd made a commitment to myself to write every day and record my accomplished words here. So, I thought of a character who is prettier, stronger, smarter, and overall much more talented and interesting than I am. Since then, I've enjoyed the writing. We'll see how it goes.

It all started out with being willing to show up at the computer every day. If I hadn't, I would never have come up with the idea I'm working on now. I need to keep a "do it anyway" attitude-- to ignore the gazillion excuses that keep me from writing. After all, if I'm going to try to be a writer, I've got to write. I know it doesn't matter how long it takes. I'm enjoying the process.

Bills

I've been sick for the past couple of days. Today, I felt well enough to ride my bike around local neighborhoods. I always bring my camera with me when I ride, just in case. Sometimes, I don't take pictures if there are people nearby. I'd feel like I'd have to ask permission.

I've ridden past these mailboxes several times. Nobody was around today, so I stopped to take a picture. Maybe you can't tell that the top one is about 12 feet above the ground. At first, I wondered why. Then I noticed it says, "Bills." I think it's kind of funny.

Experimenting

Today, I thought I'd try storytelling into a tape recorder. Notice the 312 words I accomplished. Not good. At the same time, when I listened back to the recording, I realized it didn't sound as bad as I thought it would. I could imagine somebody wondering what would happen next. Maybe I need to try this again. Maybe I could get used to it. I tend to give up too soon.

The main problem was I kept censoring myself as I was speaking and stumbling over my words, just like I sometimes do when I talk to real people. There is no out loud backspace key. I did rewind and tape over myself a few times, but that isn't the same as being able to change a few words here or there. It also takes time to transcribe everything. Anyway, it was fun to try something different.

My Late-Blooming Cosmos

Cosmos remind me of wildflowers. Their delicate, fern-like leaves and blooms take me back to when we lived in England near untamed English gardens. I like their texture and color variations.

My mom taught me about cosmos. At her house, they were planted in with the wild dill right by the driveway near her deck and swamp cooler. Until I learned otherwise, it was difficult to tell the difference between baby cosmos and baby dill. We just let them both grow.

When my husband and I bought our first home in Utah, one of the first transplants my mom gave me was a bucket full of dill and cosmos. They both reseed themselves every year. They bloomed in my front flower garden throughout the summer and into the fall for the seven years we lived there. I've missed them the four plus years we've been here.

Very early this year, I planted these from seed. Now it's nearing the end of summer, they are finally blooming. What took them so long? You could blame the location-- I planted them in the shade. You could blame the soil-- they like to be undernourished and I planted them in a healthy place. You could blame the water ballooners-- I planted them near our outside faucet and the children filled up a lot of water balloons and stomped on a few cosmos because they "looked like weeds." You could blame the rain-- cosmos are a drought-resistant plant and thrive with low water and we had a wet year. It's easy to find reasons to explain why they bloomed late. Whatever the reasons, I'm just glad they bloomed.

Motivation: Being Discontent

This morning, my husband said, "Hopefully being discontent will lead to positive changes," or some such thing. I was complaining and he was listening. We're good at that.

Ever since then, I've been thinking about how most big, positive changes in the world have come after someone was discontent. Otherwise, why be motivated to do anything about anything? Why change?

I don't like feeling uncomfortable; but, today I've been cheered up by the notion that being discontent isn't necessarily a bad thing if it leads to positive changes. It's motivating.

**Many bloggers I know take the weekend off. I think I'll try that. Have a great weekend!

This Morning's Sky

It seemed an unusual, soft color with greys, and blues, and purples. I went outside to take a picture. A bat circled above me. I walked through the grass on my tip toes, keeping away from the flower beds where rodents could be hiding. I took many pictures, and still couldn't seem to capture the color. Now, it's raining.

Work Before Play: Trying to Motivate Myself

This summer, before we drove across the U.S. and back again, I made sure every hotel we would stay in had a swimming pool. I thought it would help the kids-- they'd be trapped in the car all day. It's easier to endure when you can look forward to something.

The above picture was taken at our first hotel pool. We had it all to ourselves. The water was really cold. I planned to take pictures and wade a little. The kids and my husband were having fun and reassured me I'd get used to the water quickly, so I gave it a chance. They were right. We played sharks and minnows and had cannon ball contests. I actually swam instead of just wading for the first time in years. I discovered I float much more easily than I did when I was a young teen. It was great fun. As it turned out, having pools to look forward to at every hotel wasn't just good for the kids. It helped me endure the long drives too.

I've started writing on this blog to help me be more accountable and more disciplined. I don't like schedules or time constraints. I don't like being told what to do. At the same time, I need to work. I need something to keep me accountable. Most of the time, I prefer the feeling I get when I "work first, play later." Today, I did it all backwards and watched a long, lovely, BBC, Hugh Dancy movie while eating ice cream and Hot Tamales instead of all the other things I was supposed to do. Even though I managed to get in a bit of writing quickly and easily, I don't feel happy about it. I didn't work hard enough. I didn't accomplish enough. I could have saved the movie and used it as a reward.

Self-discipline isn't easy. Perhaps it's time I developed a schedule and a reward system.

Riding or Writing

I should change the title of this post to "Riding and Writing," but I'm not sure I'm going to make time today. Yeah, I'm making excuses again to not write. I'm getting good at that. There are so many distractions. It makes me wonder if I really want to be a writer. Biking is more fun.

This morning, the weather was perfect. I live in a great place for biking. It's one of my favorite things to do. I always take my camera with me, just in case. Today, there were geese all over the park. Thousands of them rest at the lake every year on their way south.

After I go to the store, do the laundry, and take a shower, maybe then I'll try writing about riding. Ha! That is if I have time.

Later: I hadn't finished everything I needed to do, but decided to quit making excuses and write anyway. I didn't want to disappoint myself and have 0 words written today. Keeping track on this blog is motivating. Writing about riding was fun.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cranberries

I've been wanting to make these cookies for a while. The natural white chocolate chips I use are made with cane juice instead of sugar and also have cocoa butter and pure vanilla in them. They are delicious and not at all waxy. I added a little too much flour to this batch of cookies, but they were still very yummy. Here's the recipe:

8 oz. softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

10 oz. package of white chocolate baking chips

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (I used orange-flavored this time.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together sugars and butter until smooth, beat in eggs, add vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Fold in white chocolate chips, pecans, and cranberries.

Drop rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 12 minutes until edges are slightly brown. Yum!

Perfectionism

(This image is from wikipedia and it's public domain. These are traditional Icelandic turf houses. Read on and you'll see why I could imagine living in one.)

I took a test on Psychology Today's website and discovered that according to my answers I'm only 67% perfectionist. I was surprised; I thought I would get closer to 100%. They don't give a lot of analysis of your results unless you pay for it, but it did mention I'd be happier if I overcame this tendency. Duh. There is a lot of information about perfectionism on their website.

On a different website, I read a very interesting article by Peter Bregman. You can read the whole article "How to Escape Perfectionism" HERE. This is the part I liked:

"According to the World Database of Happiness (yes, there is one), Iceland is the happiest place on earth. That's right, Iceland. Yes, I know it's cold and dark six months out of the year there. I'm just giving you the data.

"The secret to their happiness? Eric Weiner, Author of The Geography of Bliss, traveled to Iceland to find out. After interviewing a number of Icelanders, Weiner discovered that their culture doesn't stigmatize failure. Icelanders aren't afraid to fail — or to be imperfect — and so they're more willing to pursue what they enjoy. That's one reason Iceland has more artists per capita than any other nation. 'There's no one on the island telling them they're not good enough, so they just go ahead and sing and paint and write,' Weiner writes.

"Which makes them incredibly productive. They don't just sit around thinking they'd like to do something. They do it. According to the psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, who wrote the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 'It is not the skills we actually have that determine how we feel but the ones we think we have.'"

Now I want to move to Iceland and live in a turf house.

Trying to Come Back

I don't know if it will last, but I'm going to try public blogging again.

We had an incredible, memorable summer-- one of the best of my life. We took a long and scenic drive from our home in New York to Salt Lake City, Utah and back again.

Now the kids are in school. I'm going to try to write more often. I hope this will be a place where I can be accountable to myself.

I may go private again tomorrow, but I'll try this for as long as I can.