The Skinny - How to fit into your little black dress forever and a healthy breakfast to start your day

The Skinny – How to fit into your little black dress forever by Melissa Clark & Robin Aronson. I just finished reading this fabulous little bright fuchsia book with the sexy LBD (little black dress) on the cover and it will change the way you eat forever, at least it has for me. It’s filled with practical, no nonsense advice on how to eat so you can lose weight, keep it off and still enjoy all of the foods that you love.

They say very simply “don’t eat what you don’t want.” I know you’re saying to yourself - I don’t eat anything I don’t want. Well, think about it. I know I do. Sometimes I find myself mindlessly eating the cheeseburger, or whatever, even though it’s too well done, dry and tasteless. Thanks to this book I’ve begun to take a good look at what’s on my plate and only eat the things I truly find tasty and enjoyable.

Portion control is stressed. When it comes to your waistline and that little black dress, you can eat what you want, but you can’t always eat all of what you want. Slow down, stop eating when you’ve had enough, and leave at least a little bit on your plate. Incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your diet and learn to recognize when you’re full.

This delightful book brought back wonderful memories of our Haitian gardener Fifi that worked for us when we lived in the Bahamas. Fifi’s morning snack was a small bag of peanuts. He would sit down and carefully eat a peanut, one at a time. When he completely finished chewing the first peanut, he would carefully pick up the next one and eat it very slowly, savoring each bite. I’m learning to do the same thing. Now instead of standing in the kitchen and eating what I want straight out of the jar, I carefully measure out a portion, put it in a bowl, sit down in a quiet spot, and slowly eat each nut, one by one, savoring each bite - “Fifi style.”

Rebecca Subbiah of Chow and Chatter shared the Friendship Award with me. Rebecca is a dietitian, writer and personal trainer who lives in North Carolina, where I also live. She’s a Brit who enjoys food and travel and has a wonderful blog devoted to her passions of healthy living. I wanted to thank Rebecca for this award and I thought it would be fun to honor her with this book review and a healthy breakfast to start the day. Here’s to you Rebecca.

I’ve adapted this recipe for Yogurt with Apples and Nuts from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, which I dearly love. The original recipe called for the apple to be grated, which I found made it watery and diluted the yogurt. I diced the apple and substituted toasted walnuts for the almonds and added strawberries and blueberries on top. We’ve used a variety of different apples with good success and, although the almonds were good, it’s fun to substitute different nuts, such as Georgia pecans, for a change of pace.

Yogurt with Apples & Nuts

Adapted from Everyday Food – Serves 2

One Granny Smith apple, cut into dice

1 ½ cups plain yogurt, preferably Greek

1/4 cup raisins

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted

Fresh blueberries and sliced fresh strawberries

Combine the diced apple, yogurt, raisins, and honey in a small bowl and stir to blend. Divide equally among two bowls. Top with nuts and fruit. Serves 2.

What's your favorite healthy breakfast?

Savory cornmeal pancakes with warm tomato salad and organic greens

I enjoy adapting recipes to suit my taste and needs. I was flipping through an old Gourmet and saw a wonderful idea for lunch – Corn Fritters with Arugula and Warm Tomato Salad. Corn meal pancakes, slathered with butter and maple syrup or honey, are a favorite breakfast in my husband’s family and he frequently asks for them in the mornings. He loves to reminisce about Gramps, his grandfather, and how he loved to cook. But after Gramps finished, the kitchen would look like a bomb went off. The first time I made corn meal pancakes I messed up every bowl in the kitchen and, when we sat down to eat, I said, “Don’t go in the kitchen, it look like Gramps was there.”

The idea of turning sweet breakfast pancakes into savory ones and having them for lunch intrigued me. The fritters in the magazine recipe turned out dry and had a raw cornmeal flavor. We critiqued them, which we often do with meals, and decided to give a new twist to our old stand-by cornmeal pancake recipe from Joy of Cooking. In Joy’s recipe the cornmeal is covered with boiling water for 15 minutes and looses it raw taste.

The most important addition we made was to add freshly cooked corn kernels, which was not in the Gourmet recipe. The addition of the corn lifted the pancakes to a whole new level. Grilled corn would have given it even more depth of flavor. Since we were making a savory pancake I also reduced the sugar in the original recipe and also substituted canola for the melted butter in the batter.

We served the pancakes for lunch with an organic green salad mix tossed with my house mustard vinaigrette and roasted grape tomatoes that I salted and peppered and baked in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes, then sprinkled with chopped fresh basil right before serving.

Our new savory cornmeal pancake version came out terrific, but we had leftovers. We could have eaten the entire dozen between the two of us, but decided to watch our waistlines and experiment with saving the leftovers similar to how we save crepes. The experiment was a success – yielding great left over pancakes. I cut small pieces of wax paper, placed it between each cake and refrigerated them in a covered airtight container. The next morning we reheated the pancakes on a sheet pan in a 250 degree F oven for about 10 minutes until they were warm. They were every bit as good as the originals. Now we have a new savory recipe converted from an old sweet favorite and a great new way to save the leftover pancakes for another meal.

Cornmeal pancakes

Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Yield: Twelve 4” cakes

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon sugar

1 cup boiling water

1 large egg

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons canola oil

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup cooked yellow corn kernels

Sweet butter for serving, optional

Combine the cornmeal, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over the mixture, stir well, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

In a separate bowl beat the egg, milk and oil until combined. After 15 minutes, add to the cornmeal mixture and stir until smooth. Meanwhile in a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Stir into the hot cornmeal mixture, then add corn and mix well.

Heat a pancake griddle or 12” lightly oiled skillet until hot. Drop the batter by spoonfuls onto the griddle. When the pancakes begins to bubble in the center and start to dry around the edges, turn and cook until done. The second side takes only about half as long as the first side and never browns as evenly, so serve them first side up.

Remove the cakes and keep warm in a 200 degree F oven while you make the remaining cakes. Do not stack or they will become soggy. When all pancakes are done, serve immediately with sweet butter if desired. Save leftovers as described above.

New England Clam Chowder

Clam Chowder is one of those things that we associate with summer. It may not quite be summer yet, but we're ready. My husband grew up in the northeast and he and his family summered at the end of Long Island on Shelter Island. Nestled between Long Island’s two forks, Shelter Island is a tiny, sheltered spot that is still a popular get-away for busy New Yorkers. One of their favorite pastimes was to dig for clams and have big pots of steamers with plenty of melted butter for dinner. I, on the other hand, grew up in the landlocked deep south, but the first time I tasted clams I couldn’t get enough of them.

We no longer live near the seashore and about the only clams we see in our market in the mountains are in cans. Lately I’ve had a painful time chewing, so to make life easier for me and satisfy our craving for summer clams at the same time, we made a batch of New England Clam Chowder for dinner. Many restaurant chowders are thick and flour based, but we prefer the rich, creamy variety and therefore skipped the flour.

This recipe is adapted from The Beach House Cookbook by Barbara Scott-Goodman. Barbara used fresh clams and pureed her chowder in a blender or food processor until very smooth and creamy and served it cold. Although we didn’t blend our version and we served it hot, I agree with Barbara that it would be excellent brought to the beach in a chilled thermos for a picnic. In her recipe she uses a bay leaf for seasoning, which I skipped, and she saves the bacon for another use, using only the rendered fat. There is no “saving bacon” in our kitchen. If cooked bacon stays on the counter past the count of ten before anyone eats it, it’s rare. I have to hide it (from both of us) if I plan to use it later. Besides, we like bacon in our chowder. This serves 6 as a soup course or appetizer, or 2 – 3 generous servings as a main course.

New England Clam Chowder

Adapted from The Beach House Cookbook

2 slices bacon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

1 cup bottled clam juice

1 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced

Dash of hot sauce, such as Tabasco

1 (10oz) can whole baby clams with juice

1 (6.5oz) can chopped or minced clams with juice

1 cup whole milk

1 cup half-and-half

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons dry sherry

½ cup chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

Pats of unsalted butter for garnish

Fry the bacon in a large soup pot until it’s cooked but not crispy. Drain bacon, chop and reserve (or hide if need be). Discard all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat. Add the butter to the bacon fat and melt over low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup of water, the clam juice, wine, thyme and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Add the canned clams and their juices, the hot sauce, and the chopped bacon and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in milk, half-and-half, and salt and pepper to taste. Raise the heat to medium and, when the soup is just barely boiling, stir in the sherry and let it heat through. Add chopped parsley, stir, and serve hot. Add a pat of butter to each bowl for garnish if desired.

Just when you need a lift

I’ve been suffering with TMJ and that is an awful thing to happen to someone who loves to eat as much as I do. In a nutshell, it hurts to chew. Isn’t that what you do when you eat? Chew? I’ve been feeling pretty down, but when I tuned into my Blogger Dashboard this morning and started to see what some of my foodie friends were up to on a weekend, low and behold I found that I had received an award from one of my favorite chefs, Chef E. Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve seen? 

Chef E does it all. Currently she teaches culinary classes, runs a catering business and still manages to share her knowledge and love of cooking with us all. Thank you Chef E. These flowers are for you. While you’re visiting her blog, be sure to enjoy the questionnaire that Rico gave her. I just discovered Rico’s blog. He has many fun culinary adventures of his own and I’m sure I’ll be visiting him again soon. The first question is “diamonds or pearls?” I’ll take two of each please. 

I would like to pass this award to Joie de Vivre and Tangled Noodle. Yes, I know Chef E also gave Tangled Noodle the award, but a girl can’t have too many friends or bras can she?

Joie de Vivre and Tangled Noodle collaborated on a healthy and informative series on mindless eating. They shared the secrets of why we eat more than we think based on a life-changing book from Brian Wansink titled Mindless Eating. I enjoyed each bite of their series and thank them for doing a wonderful job.

I have a good appetite and as Anthony Bourdain says, “I’m always hungry for more.” I clipped out a great article on eating that I thought you would enjoy that appeared in the September 2008 issue of Bon Appetit. Food writer and recipe developer Melissa Clark shares her tricks of the trade on how to stay slim and still enjoy every bite in this fabulous article. She’s come up with wonderfully simple plan – Don’t eat what you don’t like – ever. Read more....

Sounds simple but think about it. How often do you eat something just because it’s on your plate? I know I do. I was raised in what I call a “clean plate” household. My mother graduated from college at the height of the Depression and by golly, we were expected to eat everything on our plate. Not bad if you’re a teenager who can pack away a zillion calories and none of it shows. But I’m no longer the ninety five pound girl I was when I married. 

It’s swimsuit season and I’m ready to go to the beach. The one below fits the bill for me. It's in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas where we once called home. To see more about Abaco, stop by my blog Island Time in Abaco.

I hope you’ll click over to Joie de Vivre, Tangled Noodle and Bon Appetit to read more about eating and staying slim enough to fit into your favorite suit. And don’t forget to check out Chef E and take Rico’s fun questionnaire. 

Enjoy your weekend everybody.

Sam

Please don't feed the bears

This weekend my husband and I were sitting on our screened porch enjoying the cool mountain breeze when I heard something outside. 

“What’s that noise?” I said. 

“Oh, probably just a curly tail lizard,” he replied.

Curious, I got up and looked out. I could hardly believe my eyes - there was a big black bear walking through our yard only five feet away from where I was standing on the porch. It was huge and far from adorable and cuddly as the teddies above.

I said to my husband as quietly as I possibly could so as not to scare the bear, “You aren’t going to believe this, but there’s a bear walking through our yard.”

He hopped up to take a look. “Quick, get the camera,” he told me.

“You go get it. I’m watching the bear.” Finally I relented and ran inside to get the camera, but of course the bear was gone by the time I got back. It was too late to snap his picture. Where is that camera when you need it?

Black Bear Photo courtesy of PD Photos

There are bears all over the mountains of western North Carolina where we live, but we’d never personally seen one, especially not in our own front yard. The bear we saw probably weighed 150 pounds and, if he had stood up, he would have been as tall as my husband, who’s 6’2.  We’ve seen all sorts of critters on our property since moving here – a bobcat, a red fox, a mountain lion, a wolf, but this was our first bear. We’d heard from neighbors that the lady who owned our house before we bought it had left birdseed outside on the back porch and a bear broke in the porch to get the food. I’ve always wondered why that wasn’t a disclosure on her listing agreement? Oh well, at least there’s some excitement in our little part of the world. 

So - what did you do for excitement this Memorial Day?