Daisy's Lentil Soup

Here’s a recipe from my mother-in-law, Daisy. She makes the best lentil soup in the world.  The last time I visited her, I got her to tell me how she does it.

1. Rinse a 16 oz. packet of lentils (red or green). Boil in pot with water to cover.
2. Add whatever vegetables you have in the house. (carrots,
    peppers, and onions work well.)
3. Add a stock cube.  (Or prepared stock, if you have it.)
4. Add 1/2 grated potato. (To “mellow” it out.)
5. Simmer for 1 hour.

Try it.  Crazy simple, but surprisingly delicious!

 

UPDATE:  A friend of mine posted a recipe for Maple Braised Bacon that I think would be perfect in this.  I haven't tried it (yet), but I imagine it would be super scrumptious!

Old (but fun) Stories: The Good Wife of the Megalo Monastery

 
This past Christmas, when we we visiting my mother-in-law, my husband and I took a little trip to the Meteora.  (without her!)  At the Megalo Monastery, I was blessed by a Greek monk!  Well, not really. Here's how it went down:

My husband (I'll call him Ted) was buying a book in the shop of the Megalo Monastery in the Meteora.  The monk that sold it looked at me, pointed, and said something in Greek to Ted.  Apparently, he said "She isn't Greek, is she?"  (Well duh! I can't think of many people who look less Greek than I do.)  He then said some more stuff in Greek, followed by "gut frau" (good wife).  Maybe he thought I was German?  Anyway, he thought I was a good wife because I was "so quiet and docile".  Yeah.  He doesn't know me well does he?  I plan to get lots of mileadge out of that "good wife" comment! ;-)

Mo' Show!

    The orchestra in which I perform is preparing for the upcoming all-Mozart (Mo) concert.  We are playing Symphony no.  31, Symphony no.  41 (The Jupiter), and Piano Concerto in C (KV 503).  It's going to be a great concert! 

     We musicians are going to really earn our paychecks on this one!  It takes a lot of focus to play Mozart.  He is one of those composers who writes deceptively difficult music.  At first glance, it looks pretty simple and straight forward.  It's only when you start to play it that you realize it doesn't always lie well on the instrument, or the tempo is at that awkward stage where it's too fast to single tongue but too slow to double tongue.  (Darn you, Mo!  I know you did that on purpose.)  Also, Mozart's music is very transparently orchestrated.  You feel very exposed (naked even) when playing his music.  Your technique has to be very clean.  Almost every musician I know is uncomfortable playing a Mozart piece.  ...and we have 3 of them to do on this concert!  I am super lucky to be playing with musicians who can handle it.  (No pun intended. ;-))  Even though (or maybe because) it's uncomfortable music to play, it's also very fun music to play.  The last movement of the Jupiter is exhilarating!  (...and will leave the audience asking for Mo'!)

    Don't get me wrong.  Mozart is an amazing composer, no doubt about it!  I just happen to have a bit of an irreverent view of good 'ol Mo.  Back in the day, he was touted as the child prodigy genius.  Certainly, he had a huge amount of talent.  However, I always wonder how much his daddy helped him out.  Leopold Mozart was a musician himself, and he knew a thing or two about show biz.  He promoted his son and made a pretty penny for himself in the process.  When they say little Wolfi wrote his first symphony at age 5, I wonder how much he came up with himself.  Surely, Daddy Leo had some suggestions for his son, don't you think?  Also, Leopold was an okay composer.  He knew that his pieces wouldn't be impressive if he said he wrote them.  Now, what if he said his 5-year-old son wrote them?  Suddenly, a decent piece would become crazy impressive!  (I'm not saying that's what he did, but come on.  It sure is possible, isn't it?) 

     Mozart also knew how to please an audience himself.  Today, our conductor read an excerpt of a letter which Mo wrote to his father about Symphony 31.  He says that he put in a section in the exposition which he KNEW would please the audience.  In fact, he knew they'd like it so much that he brought it back a second time later in the piece.  We don't think about Mozart (the worshipped diety of Classical music) as being an audience-pleaser, but there you are.  Mo knew how to put on a show too!

Reed Fury

Maybe my knives aren't the problem.  Maybe I just spontaneously forgot how to make reeds!  Can that happen?  Seriously, the reeds I make lately are all terrible and I end up playing on an old reed that's so worn out, I feel like it's going to dissolve in my mouth.

Recently, a very good friend of mine sent me a fibercane reed to try.  I've never tried one so I was curious.  She told me it was terrible, but I didn't really believe it could be all that bad.  Plus, I really wanted it to work because fibercane reeds never wear out and you can play them forever.  (An oboist's dream!)  But alas, it sounded more like a bagpipe than an oboe when I tried it.  I would never play this reed for anything, even to practice.  Although, I may play it if I ever need to strip wallpaper.  Actually, we need to repaint the outside of our house this summer and I might be able to to save us some money if I just stand outside and play this reed instead of renting a sand-blaster!

I'm so mad because I spent all afternoon trying to get a good reed for rehearsal tomorrow.  I ended up destroying 2 of them.  One was just really flat no matter how much I clipped it, and the other one sounded just like the fibercane reed!  I started two more, but they are not playable yet.  Maybe they'll turn into something tomorrow, but I'm SO done with scraping reeds today.

I was thinking that maybe the color of the reed thread is the problem.  I've mainly been using greens and blues lately.  So, I tied on two blanks using hot pink thread.  Valentine's Day is coming up so maybe these little sweeties will make me fall in love with reeds again.  Fingers crossed!  (...or reeds crossed!)

Get Help from the Fly Lady

     Are you like me and never seem to have time to get your house organized?  Have large areas of your home been usurped by the clutter monster?  Then, get thee to flylady.com, pronto!  This site has a lot of good house-cleaning tips for busy people.  It's a little touchy-feely, but I'm finding it super helpful and filled with fun acronyms.  Apparently, I suffer from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).  I would love to be spontaneous and invite people over on the spur of the moment, but clutter-shame prevents me from doing this.  Here comes Fly Lady to save the day!

     Her main premise is to do a little bit every day.  For instance, set the timer for 5 minutes and clean as much as  you can of your "hot spot" during that time.  This makes it all seem more possible.  I've heard this technique referred to as "chunking", meaning  you break down huge tasks into little chunks.  I heard a story once about a guy in India who said he could swallow an entire airplane.  No one believed him, but he tore it down and swallowed the whole thing bolt by bolt (over the course of several months, of course.)  I doubt that this story is true, but it illustrates the point.  I have been doing the 5 minute thing for a week now and I already notice a difference.  Also, this technique can be applied to exercise.  I moved my mini-trampoline into my living room and I jump on it whenever I walk by.  This way, little bits of exercise add up over time when I otherwise wouldn't be doing it at all.

Here are some other things from the site that I found helpful:

1.  Polish your sink every day.  Yeah, I know you're probably thinking "who cares if my sink is shiny?  Out of all the things in my house, that's the one I care least about!"  I know I did.  Even though I was skeptical, I did try it and it did make a difference.  If clutter spreads, then the reverse is true too.  A clean, shiny sink gives you a burst of energy and makes you feel more positive about the whole cleaning thing.  I found that I'm more likely to keep up with the dishes if the sink is clean.  You can modify her advice to suit your needs.  She recommends doing this first thing in the morning, however I do it in the afternoon as soon as I get home.  This works way better for me because of my schedule.

2.  Declutter Technique   - I usually accumulate a whole pile of things to take to the Goodwill store that sits around forever and clutters up a corner of my kitchen.  Her idea of just putting one box in your car as soon as it's full is genius!  I did this, and then drove past the Goodwill store on my way home from work.  Now, my kitchen corner is clutter free!  When I get another box-full, I'll store it in my car and drop it off the next time I drive near there.

3.  Swish and swipe routine - My bathroom has never been cleaner with so little effort!

4.  Set out your clothes at night (for the next day).  I took this one step further and now spend a few minutes on a Sunday evening picking out the 5 outfits I'll wear for the week.  Then, I hang in them in order in my closet.  No more rushing around in a panic in the mornings!  


I love it when things are clean and I LOVE empty surfaces.  I'm so much more likely to feel creative and do something productive if there's a pristine, table or counter to do it on.  It's like a blank canvas!  I know that I feel stressy and stifled creatively when I'm in a house where every table top is packed with various knick-knacks.  If you want something new in your life, you must make room for it!

I hope you find Fly Lady as helpful as I did.   

   

Crazy Greek Mother-in-Law

My Greek mother-in-law, Daisy, has some odd ideas.  She can be very entertaining so I thought I'd post some of my favorite stories about her.  Here are some of her crazy ideas about nutrition.

Health Advice:
According to her, you shouldn't eat watermelon because it is "pure sugar".  Also, the most fattening thing you can have on the planet is a potato.  However, cake isn't fattening because it is light and full of air. She refuses to throw away bread since she lived through the German occupation. Bread is like gold!  Even if it is moldy. She says that eating moldy bread is actually good for you because all mold is like Penicillin and will kill whatever germs are in your body. ! We have to sneak and throw the moldy bread away and buy more when she isn't looking.  They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Daisy lives dangerously.

The Butter Cookie Diet:
My husband and I were going to visit a friend of the family, and we were going to bring her a tsoureki.  Daisy said, "But she is too fat! Don't bring her a tsoureki! She shouldn't eat such things."  (Blatant honesty can be so entertaining.)  So, we thought, "okay--let's bring her some fruit".  But Daisy shot that down as well.  "Fruit is full of sugar!  Fat people should not eat too much of it."  So we asked her what we should bring then.  What do you think?  Danish butter-cookies!  Daisy says they're small so they can't have be too fattening.  So--eat up the Danish butter cookies and avoid bread and fruit! (I'm SO liking this diet!)

Protein:
Daisy's nutritional tip of the day: chicken has no protein in it, beef does! - One day (while we were visiting), Daisy said she was cooking beef patties for us because "we had had no protein since we had gotten there".  When I replied that we had been eating chicken, she said, "but chicken doesn't have protein!  All of the protein goes into their eggs!"  So there you have it.  All the protein from chickens go into their eggs.  I guess you have to eat eggs to get chicken protein.  By this logic, I guess beef does have protein because cows don't lay eggs!  You gotta love the reasoning here.

Chicken vs. Duck (spoiler alert: chicken wins!)

     Since I've started learning to cook for real, I have been learning how to roast things.  Well, birds mainly.  Okay, just chicken and duck but for me this is a big deal.  Until recently, I have only ever had pre-roasted "lazy chickens" which I bought at the grocery store.  About a month ago, I roasted my first chicken ever, following Julia Child's recipe to the letter.  Chicken that you roast yourself is so much better than the ones you buy!  It's like the difference between canned biscuits and real homemade ones.   Also, there is something very satisfying about making real, slow food from scratch.  You enjoy it way more because of the effort and suspense involved. 

     Last week, I tried roasting a duck.  I've never eaten duck except for the crispy Peking duck in Chinese restaurants.  Anyway, Julia's "Duck a l'Orange" looked good so I thought I'd go for it.  Disappointing!  (Not the recipe's fault.)  I thought duck would be tastier and more exotic and exciting than just plain 'ol chicken.  Nope.  It was tough and grissely, with a lot of cartilage.  My husband and I had to work to get it off the bone and we really did feel like we were gnawing on a bit of animal.  (Apologies to my vegetarian friends!)  The sauce, however, was good.  My advice:  Eat chicken and don't bother eating duck unless it's the crispy duck in a Chinese restaurant.  They've figured it out.  ---or maybe I just had a tough duck?

     Since the roast chicken had come out so good before, I decided to roast one again tonight for supper.  I know roasting chicken seems like such a frumpy, house-wifey thing to do, but I find it an extremely relaxing and satisfying process.  First of all, you get to chop up some veggies.  I love chopping veggies since I got my 8" Henkel chef's knife.  (I must have a thing about knives or something.  First, reed knives, now this.)  There's something really fun about chopping veggies with an ergonomically designed, extremely sharp knife while listening to music.  It's very therapeutic!  Second of all, you have to hover around the chicken as it roasts because you have to baste it every 10 minutes.  During these intervals, I get various little tasks done that I normally tell myself I'm too busy to do.  (empty the dishwasher, organize the junk drawer, scrub the sink, balance checkbook, etc.)  How useful!  You can get your house organized without even thinking about it, and in the end, you're rewarded with pure deliciousness.