I am really so lucky.  I have a roof over my head, food in my fridge, great kids, but most of all – I love my husband! Seriously!  I love coming home every day knowing he is here.  When he is out of town on business, and I hear his car pull up in the driveway, I still get butterflies in my stomach.  We met almost 10 years ago, but it feels as if we have been together forever.  Have your read how we met??   He tells me every day he loves me.  He tells me I am beautiful, even when I don’t feel it – how cool is that? 

and he wants the world to know he loves me! 😀

Words from my husband:

While my amazing wife Biz compliments my activities the outdoor maintenance of our home I think everyone needs to understand how much time she spends keeping our house a home.  My efforts pale in comparison to what she does daily, and yet she compliments me.

While I understand that she is not as inclined to jump on to the dirty end of a shovel, she has never once shied away from any unfamiliar outdoor activity.

I tell this story only to illustrate why I love this woman so much!

We moved into a new home. We had a big back yard. Biz and I decided to grow a garden, and what an amazing garden it would be. I should at this point make it clear that my wonderful wife had grown up in a city environment and outdoor stuff was not her forte.

We inherited a compost heap and decided to till that into our garden. With a true Pioneer Woman gusto, my remarkable bride dug into that heap with her hands. She spread it all over our new garden, as I worked the tiller. We were forming this land into a Garden of Eden where all vegetables would thrive. I was working the business end of a large tiller, and Biz was mixing in compost as I went.

We were about fifty percent done when I saw Biz run.  When I say run, I should say sprint.  Most of you probably don’t know that my amazing wife was at one point a scholarship athlete.  She won a scholarship at Southern Illinois. In addition she was also quite the high school track star.  I only mention this because the speed at which she ran startled me.  It was remarkable.  She moved like a gazelle.

When I eventually tracked her down she said only this “There are mice in the compost! “  She said this with an amazing volume.

As it turned out, we had interrupted a nest of mice, they were newly born and unable to see. They were teensy weensy blind mice.   To Biz however, they were rabid death mice on the move!

I would like to make it clear that Biz’s contributions to this household far exceed anything I may do outside, or inside.  With that said, she no longer goes anywhere near the compost heap!  Gosh I love her!

Biz is back – thank you for that lovely note Tony! 😀  I love you!

Okay, by now you know I don’t like to waste much food.  I had two kabobs left over from last night, so I decided to make an egg white omelet with the leftovers!  1/2 cup egg whites, 2 ounces of steak, 1 ounce of zucchini, 1/2 ounce of red pepper and 1/2 ounce of my 75% reduced fat Cabot cheese.  Only problem?  There was so much filling, my egg white kind of fell apart and it became and egg white scramble!

with 1 oz of bread: 379 calories, 31 carbs, 39 protein, 10.2 fat and 4.5 fiber

Whenever I read my grocery store sale flyer, and see that boneless, skinless chicken breasts are $1.49 a pound, I can’t help but think of Chicken Tikka Masala!!  Yep, this is the fourth round of making this!  On the base is 1/2 cup cooked rice:

And since I shared this with my co-worker, she shared her strawberries with me! 😀

On the way home, I picked up this weeks secret ingredient in the BSI recipe contest.  BEETS!

They were bunched together, so one bunch included three beets.  I did the self check out, and since there was no bar code, I just pressed the button for beets, it said how many, I punched in three and they rang up at $9! Okay, there is no way I was going to pay $3 a beet!  But I was wrong – I took it up to the counter and I had rung in three bunches, so I only paid $3 for three – phew!

First off, I didn’t even know you could eat the leafy green tops.  Second of all, I wasn’t sure if I had to peel them?  I did though.  And when I started to cut them, they started to bleed!

Do you like Terra Chips?  My plan was to make beet chips, but I couldn’t cut them thin enough so they ended up being really soggy.  I am not giving up though!  I am planning on drying them out in the oven, and then finishing them up in the fryer – we’ll see if that works!

Dinner last night I decided to make Italian burgers.  I had a bit of ground beef and Italian sausage that needed to be used, so I just added garlic, fresh basil and salt and pepper to the mix.

because of the Italian sausage, you really need to cook these longer than regular burgers

They were still juicy though!  And next time I might add a bit more basil 😀  My plate:  burger, 1/2 ounce of the goat cheese mozzarella (which is amazing!), 2 ounces fries and baby carrots.

Dinner: 719 calories, 60 carbs, 40 protien, 35 fat and 7.7 fiber

I also made a second attempt at rye bread!  This time it was a success!  I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, which has yet to fail me.  I was a bit suspect though – it only called for 1/4 a teaspoon of yeast!

Makes 1 large round loaf.   Published January 1, 2008.

An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. (See the related information in “High-Heat Baking in a Dutch Oven” for information on converting Dutch oven handles to work safely in a hot oven.) Use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (mild non-alcoholic lager also works). The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.

Almost No-Knead Rye Bread (printer friendly version here)

Ingredients

1 5/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1 1/8 cups rye flour (7 ounces)
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Instructions

  1. 1. Whisk flours, caraway, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
  2. 2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
  3. 3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.
here is how it looked after rising overnight

And then when I got home last night – this is what it looked like:

The finished product?

Look at all the holes of goodness!

next time I'll bake this in a loaf bread so I can use as sandwich bread (for maybe a Rueben??!!) 😀

Stats for Tuesday:

  • 30 minute, 6 mile bike ride at the gym
  • 45 minute walk with four pound weights at lunch
  • 1,541 calories, 121 carbs, 124 protein, 60 fat and 14.2 fiber

I’ll leave you with two pictures.   Hannah getting in the picture while I was taking pictures of the bread – yep, Hannah is a smores lover!

And our dog with his “new” friend.  This duck squeaks every time he bites it.  Until that sound goes away, Ed still thinks its alive!

and yes, that is one of his bones by his paw! 😀

Tonight we are having dinner with my step-son Joe and his new girlfriend.  We are going to The Lucky Monk.  Their burgers are out of this world – check out the menu!