Debbie Delozier :: A Casual Affair

Happy Halloween everyone!  We actually had a few Trick-or-Treaters tonight.  Living out here in the country we don’t get many Trick-or-Treaters like city folk do.  We’ve lived here almost 29 years now and I could count the number of little ghosts and goblins

(or puppy dogs):     (See the little tail; the faster she walked the faster that little tail wagged)  on my hands.  When the girls were young we would take them to Talala to Trick-or-Treat then back to Nowata to do a little more.  In Talala they would go by Grandma and Grandpa M’s for hugs and treats, then go on over to Mrs. Henderson’s for one of her popcorn balls.

Mrs. Henderson has been making popcorn balls since I was a little girl.  Everyone has come to expect a popcorn ball from her and people will drive many miles to get these popcorn balls, and it isn’t only children but also adults who come for this annual treat.  Mrs. Henderson told J and I that she made 186 popcorn balls this year.  I guarantee you they will be gone by 7 pm and she will have to turn off her lights because people will keep coming in hopes they made it before she ran out.

Mrs. Henderson gave me the recipe to her popcorn balls a few years ago and Kati, J and I tried making them.  We all agreed they weren’t the same.  There is something about getting that 1 special popcorn ball 1 time a year that makes it taste special and unable to reproduce.

After Talala, Grandma & Grandpa and Mrs. Henderson’s popcorn balls we would then head back to Nowata to stop by Grandma and Grandpa D’s.  After getting hugs and candy that was specifically purchased and packaged for you and pictures we would then head to North Pecan and by the television station to Trick-or-Treat and be on television.

This was our Halloween routine for many, many years.  I think I’ll probably miss it.   

Even though our girls are grown now you can  still count on J and I making an early evening trip to Talala and dropping by to see our good ol’ friend Mrs. Henderson and enjoying a Halloween popcorn ball.

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I would love to be able to put a picture with this recipe however, something is going on between my computer and this silly in-house network and I am unable to get from my webpage to my picture files.  Maybe I’ll be able to get my computer savvy son-in-law here soon to take a look at it.  I would also love to show you the beautiful, large headed flowers I picked out of my garden today, maybe soon.

Nevertheless;  we were at Abuelo’s here while back and I was wanting some of their yummy Cream of Poblano soup.  I asked the soup of the day, hoping it would be this creamy potage, only to find out they no longer serve it.  Disappointed I was.    I swore right then and there I would come up with my own version of this delightful repast.

I had one final yield of peppers from the garden sitting in a basket and being moist and chilly, I decided yesterday was the day.  I roasted 3 of the poblanos for the soup but since, I’ve decided that maybe, instead of roasting them next time I think I will just seed and chop them and throw them in with the rest of the veggies at the start.  So if you try this before I get a chance to do it again,  let me know what you think.

For those of you who have never tried a poblano pepper it is one of the most flavorful of the pepper family.  It is dark green and pointer at the tip than a bell pepper.  They can range from mild to hot but I find not as hot as a jalapeno pepper.

These are the ingredients I used to make 4 servings:

2 tblsp butter
3 medium sized poblanos, seeded and chopped (mine were actually pretty mild so I don’t think another pepper would have hurt the dish
1 very large onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 rib of celery, chopped
1 qt chicken stock (you could use vegetable stock also)
2 medium potatoes, chopped
½ cup whipping cream

salt & pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

Heat the  butter in a Dutch oven.  Add the peppers, onions, carrots and celery and cook slowly for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the stock and the diced potatoes and bring to a boil;  reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes and vegetables are all soft (about 30 minutes).

If you don’t have an immersion blender for the next step you can use a blender, but remember to only fill your blender half full and begin to pulse slowly, holding the lid on.

Use your immersion blender in the pot to puree all the solids to a smooth texture.  Once everything is pulsed smooth add the cream to the pot and season with salt, but don’t add the pepper until you’re ready to serve.  Adding pepper before cooking is finished allows the fresh flavor of the pepper to cook off,  leaving you with a harsh flavor.

Return the soup to a simmer and ladle into bowls.

If I’d been thinking ahead I would have had some cilantro to chop and throw in at the end of the simmer.   J and I both enjoyed it even without the cilantro.  I hope you enjoy it too.

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Actually it was only City Visiting as this country mouse decided to tag along to the big city (that would be Oklahoma City) with J on business.   J has been going to this same water conference in the city for the last 30 some odd years and this is the first year I’ve been able to tag along with him.  As you’ve been reading, now that we have no youngsters at home I’ve been experiencing lots of firsts and side trips with J.

In the picture you’ll notice everyone was awaiting J’s arrival.  I had a good laugh over this sign, you can believe it.  J actually thought this was an omen and that Tuesday was his lucky day.  When the hotel also gave us room 312 (J’s birthday is March 12) he took this as another sign.  Then when we went up to our room (he swears he reserved just a regular old room with a queen size bed) we found we had a dining area with bar, full size fridge, dishes, etc which would have been pretty cool had we been staying longer, this confirmed that Tuesday was his lucky day, so off he went to buy a lottery ticket.

Yes, I mentioned we left on Tuesday and, as you know, Tuesday is Rotary lunch day.  I packed each of the members a brown bag lunch complete with Halloween sticker and their name printed on the front of the bag.  Each bag held a sub sandwich, a bag of chips, a bag of oat/chocolate/toffee chip cookies and condiments for the sandwich.  I made plates of tomatoes, lettuce, onion, pickles and a bowl of very large red seedless grapes for them also.  I was able to go with J because my wonderful father-in-law set everything out, did the dishes and took home the leftovers for me.  Thanks bunches, Dad!

I spent Tuesday afternoon at the conference meeting and chatting with people from the business side of J’s life.  I also visited with others who I’ve met over the years and had not seen in a while.  Tuesday evening we went to dinner with longtime friends, Jim and Linda.  We caught up on the last couple of months, laughed over a few glasses of wine and ate way too much.

Wednesday I had lunch plans with an old school friend who I haven’t seen since those long ago days of high school.  Carol and I spent 2 hours touching on the high points of our lives over the last 30 years.  We talked about our husbands (when and how we met), our children (names, ages, spouses, etc) and our lives now.  We talked of high school and laughed (hard) over some of our memories.  We talked about old friends that one or the other of us had been in touch with (you all know who you are; were your ears burning?) and swore now that we have FaceBook we would keep in touch.

After lunch I returned to the convention and finished the afternoon there with J and Randy.  Finishing up there J and I returned  to the hotel (they’d taken J’s name down by now and replaced it with another arriving guest).  We were both pretty tired having not slept well the previous night.  Neither of us sleep well away from home and then having such a big dinner late in the evening does not agree with my sometimes sensitive stomach.  We decided a nice long afternoon nap would do us both well.  I had a very refreshing nap, I’m not so sure about J though;  everytime he dozed off his phone would ring or an email would buzz him.

After a early evening drive around town and dinner we headed back to the hotel where we decided we both would prefer waking up in our own bed in the morning.  Having had a good nap during the afternoon we felt we had gotten our $ worth out of the room for the day so we packed up and headed east to Nowata.

Just as we happened to be driving through Tulsa J’s phone rang.  It was Travis wanting J’s opinion on how to do something electrical.  It was only 9 pm so we decided to run by there and give him a hand.  J and Travis crawled up in the attic doing “wire stuff” and Cass and I visited.

As we all know when you take a few days to play you have to spend a day or so playing catch up.  So today I’m catching up on mail (e and snail), work, laundry, etc. , and because of the rain it seems a great day to stay indoors and do just that.

Enjoy your rainy day!

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It isn’t even Halloween yet and my mailbox is full of catalogs already.  I get at least 2 a day and I very rarely order gifts from catalogs anyway.  Should I mention the number of sale offers and on-line catalogs I get in my email?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not finished with Fall yet.  I haven’t done my garden clean-up yet; my flowers are still blooming and I’m still cutting flowers every other day for bouquets.   J and I are still enjoying, though they are becoming more seldom, a few hours on the lake when it is nice enough.  We are wearing warmer clothes than we did while boating this summer, but we still enjoy our time in the sun.  J likes to anchor out in a nice sunny quiet area and just spend time with me.  tee hee  It actually makes for a nice afternoon nap.

We’re just not through celebrating all the activities that Fall brings us:  

There is just too much left to celebrate to pass right on over to Christmas.  I can’t wait to see what she does at Thanksgiving with a turkey.

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Brother-in-law & sister-in-law, Ed and Lori, gave me a gift bag of goodies for my birthday this year.  In the goody bag was a jar of Stonewall Kitchen’s Lemon Curd and a recipe card for Lemon Vanilla Creme Brulee’.    My Kati loves creme brulee, and since Kati was coming home from college today I thought I would try my hand at this little recipe.

I have little green ramekins and a food torch so all I needed was some heavy cream and eggs.  After a not-so-quick trip to the market I had everything I needed so I set to work.  I gathered all my ingredients:

7 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
3 cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup sugar
½ vanilla bean split and scraped
6 Tblsp Stonewall Kitchen’s Lemon Curd

If you don’t have a jar of Stonewall Kitchen’s Lemon Curd you could use a different brand or even make your own before making this recipe.

I began by preheating my oven to 350 then I cracked 7 eggs and separated the yolks from the whites (I saved the whites so I could make meringues later – that will be all we’re saying on that subject).  I then mixed the 1/4 cup sugar in with the egg yolks and sat that aside.

I put the heavy whipping cream, the 1/2 cup sugar and the scrapings from the vanilla bean in a sacuepan.  I heated the cream on a med-low heat until the sugar was dissolved and the cream was steaming.

I slowly tempered the steaming cream mixture into the egg yolk/sugar mixture; stirring constantly.  Once all the cream was incorporated into the egg yolks I whisked in the 6 tlbsp lemon curd.

I sat 8 empty ramekins into a large deep roasting pan then ladeled the creme mixture into ramekins (depending on the size of your ramekin you could get 6-8).  Once all the ramekins are full pour hot water into the roasting pan until the water reaches about half way up the ramekin.

I carefully moved the roasting pan from the top of the range into the oven and baked the cremes for 35-40 minutes (again, this will depend on how deep your ramekins are).

Once the creme brulees were done I let them cool, then transferred them into the  refrigerator to chill.

When we were ready to indulge ourselves, we took 3 of the ramekins, topped them with raw sugar and torched them until the sugar made a carmalized shell on top.

Just out of the fridge:    layered with raw sugar: 

Beginning to carmelize:    ready to eat:  

All 3 of us thought these made for a very tasty dessert.  I hope you will give it a try, if you don’t have the lemon curd you can always try a different flavor or I’m sure plain ol’ vanilla would be pretty yummy.  Let me know what you try and what you think.

And, thank you Ed and Lori for the jar of lemon curd.

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Last night was the last of the 50th birthday celebrations.  I think I was able to get a whole week of celebrations for this birthday.  J will tell you that I took it easy on him this year as I usually seem to wrangle a whole month of activities, and at least one present a week, out of him, and I probably do (hee hee).

Last night’s benefit was a present from Cassie and Travis (Thank you again; I loved, loved, loved it).  They purchased a ticket for me  to attend the “Recipe to  End Hunger” at The Melting Pot.  It was an event sponsored by the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma (our own donations here in Nowata go to purchase food from this very food bank).  I can not tell you how pleased as punch I was that the kids gave me a gift that actually gives to other people, as the purchase price of the ticket went directly to the Community Food  Bank.  This is because the kind and generous people at The Melting Pot donated all the food for last night’s dinner.  Not only that, our waiter and waitress (Reagan and Erin) donated their time to demonstrate for us.

Reagan Erin

Also, A local family donated all the wine for the tasting.  Edwin Butler, our sommelier chose the wines and told us a bit about why he chose those particular wines he was serving to us.  Edwin was also telling me he taught a few wine courses at OSU.  This makes me wonder if he was one of instructor’s for Cassie’s own wine classes there.

We chatted a bit with Francis who works at the Food Bank and she told me I could come by for a tour.  Alan (our tablemate) said he had toured it and that it is an amazing tour and that I should do it.  I’m thinking maybe some of the people from our church would love to go and learn more about it.

As you can see by the above menu, the meal was abundant.  Edwin chose a chardonnay from the Newman’s Own line (yes, the same Paul Newman you see in so many other food products) to go with the first course.  I’m sure he did this because, being a Newman’s Own product, all the profit’s from the wine go directly to charity as do with all the profits from all his products.  I’m no wine-connoisseur so I can’t give you all the “it was smooth and had the essence of …,  but I can tell you it was tasty and I liked it.

I was afraid J wasn’t going to care much for the Spinach Salad, he likes salads and he likes some fresh spinach in a salad, but a whole spinach salad(?).  He liked it.  It’s no wonder, it was scrumptious.

With the 3rd course I told Erin earlier I was allergic to shrimp so she told the kitchen to not put it on my plate, and my tablemates were kind enough to cook their shrimp in one pot and not the pot I was using

as we had 2 of these pots on our table.  With this course Edwin chose a cabernet, again from Newman’s Own.  Now, I’m not a fan of deep, dark tasting red wines and this wasn’t my favorite, but I did drink the whole glass (tee hee).  This wine had an extremely oaky taste (is that right Cass?), and was very dry.  After my first sip I told J “it tastes like wood”. haha  J took a sip but did not drink any.

The meats and vegetables of the 3rd course were served with different types of sauces.    The red one is a spicy horseradish sauce, the front white one is bleu cheese, the dark one is a teriyaki that went wonderfully on the chicken.  The amber colored one was gingery and sort of like a sweet and sour and the yellowish one is curry.  The last one was a cheesy type that was really yummy on the mushrooms.

The dessert course was A M A Z I N G.  I’m not kidding.   This is melted white chocolate with spiced apples and then they threw in some streusel topping and stirred it all together.  Oh my goodness, it was tasty.  This is what we dipped in the white chocolate:  Strawberries, bananas, pound cake, cheesecake, rice krispie treats and marshmallows covered in peanuts and more in Oreo (I think).

With this course Edwin served a sparkling, bubbly Prosecco.  It went perfectly.  There was a full, uncorked (or would that be corked?, at any rate, it was not opened) bottle left after the dinner and Edwin brought it over, said “Happy Birthday” and handed it to me.  You can imagine how wonderfully happy I was. 

Here is a picture of the tablemates I’ve been mentioning:   Alan lives in Tulsa (right off Cherry St) and is very involved with the Community Food Bank.  He attends each of their monthly functions.  He was a very entertaining gentleman.

Amanda (she and Alan are not a couple and did not attend together “I’m saying this for her husband’s benefit; he was in OK City and was unable to attend and was teasing her about going alone”) lives in the Tulsa area but is originally from England.  She has the sweetest British accent even though she has lived in the states for 18 years.  She is involved in many of Tulsa’s charities and societies.  She was telling us that she is with the Tulsa Herb Society and one of the things they do in Tulsa are the  Farmer’s Markets each week during “the season”.

As I’m sure you have surmised by now, J and I had a marvelous evening.  I know it was a bit pricey Cass, but I did truly love it and enjoyed every single minute of the evening.  Maybe I’ll share my Prosecco with you!  Thanks again to you and Travis!

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Last night was supposed to be the final celebration event for my 50th birthday.  Somehow, between Cassie working 40 plus hours a week and having a month in which she hosted 4+ dinner parties, taking care of her home, husband, 2 doggies and 1 kitty, attended the family October birthday party, making reservations (and joining us) for the “night before my birthday” dinner at Ciao’s and readying herself for a 3 day business trip to Spokane, she told her dad that reservations for the “Recipe to End Hunger” dinner were last  night.  Oops, it is actually tonight.

Did J and I let this bother us?  No,  not one bit, and I hope it didn’t bother Cassie.  We had a wonderful evening.   We walked through the River-Walk, enjoying the cooler weather and watching the drizzling rain on the river.  We stopped in at Gina & Guiseppe’s Italian Ristorante’.  We enjoyed a yummy appetizer of fried mushrooms and zucchini: 

This yummy selection was followed by J’s Chicken Parmesan and my Spinach Ravioli which had the tastiest pesto cream sauce you could imagine.  No light meal I can tell you.

We sat at a window seat and watched the rain fall on the River Walk while we held hands across the table and enjoyed the character and charm of our setting.

After dinner we drove over to the Tulsa Hills shopping area.  It’s fairly new to Tulsa.  We’ve driven by a time or 2 on our way somewhere but we’ve never stopped as it has the same shops as most of the other shopping areas.  But,  tonight, being in no big hurry we stopped and strolled and did the teeniest bit of shopping.

It was a wonderful evening.  And the cherry on top of the whole situation:  I get to dress up and go out again tonight! Fantastic, don’t you think!

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This week’s Rotary lunch menu consisted of Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, mixed Italian vegetables (yeah, I  know those are green beans, that’s what J and I had with our meal) and a buttered hot roll.  This was followed by a dessert of Chocolate Ribbon Pie (will post a bit later).

Everyone really liked the Salisbury steak so I thought I would pass it on to you.  I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 can concentrated French onion soup (I have found this in Campbell’s brand)
1 ½ lb good ground beef
1 small can mushrooms (or a handful of freshly sliced)
½ cup bread crumbs
1 egg
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 tblsp flour
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup water
1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
1 can beef broth

Preparation:

In a large bowl, mix 1/3 cup cond. french onion soup with ground beef, mushrooms, bread crumbs, egg, salt & pepper.  Shape into 6 patties.

Brown patties on both sides in skillet.

In a small bowl, blend the flour & the remaining french onion soup until smooth.  Add ketchup, water, Worcestershire & beef broth.  Pour over meat in skillet and cook 20-25 minutes or bake in oven for same amount of time.

As you can see in the picture I usually saute some onion slices and throw those and some extra mushroom slices into the gravy.  If you like more gravy add a little more beef broth (of course you’ll have to use more flour to thicken the gravy too).

Hope you’ll give it a try.

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I love to play just about any type of games or sports.  J, the girls and I have always loved to play cards or board games.  We also like playing sports type games in the backyard, although we try not to get into real contact-type games often because as J has always liked to say “it’s all just fun and games until someone gets hurt”.   We’ve never been a very graceful family and it seems that almost every time we play something it, somehow,  turns into a contact sport and one of us gets hurt, then the fun is over; case in point:  Kati’s sprained ankle which ended our latest game of croquet.

When our church bowling league began again a few weeks ago, J was thrilled.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t as thrilled this year; but with a little nudging and prodding (elbowing & jabbing)  from all the excited-to-be-bowling-again church members I caved-in.

J and I were out of town on the first night of play (thanks Cathy and Eric for subbing for us), so last week was our first week to bowl.  I did lousy, so lousy I set a handicap of 80.  No big deal, I’m really there to have fun. We bowled again last night and I did so much better they are probably thinking I was not doing my best when I set my handicap.  Last night’s first game I bowled a 139 and the second game I bowled a 157.  The 157 included a turkey (3 strikes in a row) followed by a spare.

During our last game (thank goodness) as I did my approach and readied to throw my ball down the lane I stepped over the line.  For those of you who don’t bowl, across the line (that you’re not supposed to step over) it is very (very, very extremely) oily.  You see, they oil the first half of the lane so the balls roll easier;  then once they hit the back part of the lane, where it isn’t oiled, they grip and can curve or go straight, whichever way according to the way you threw the ball.  Anyway, I stepped across the line onto the very oily part of the lane.  As I stepped across the line I also threw my ball, which caused me to turn just a bit and with my foot on the oily part I started to turn, slip and slide all at the same time.  I landed on my right knee.  But as I was still turning and sliding I  then landed on my right shoulder, spinning I finally rolled on my right side then came to rest, face down in the gutter.

There were choruses of “all you all right” coming from the back of the lane where all my teammates, plus the members of the team we were playing, were all sitting.  Yes, they all remained sitting while I was rolling around on the lane and in the gutter.  I think I stunned them all into motionlessness.  Fortunately, I was able to pick up myself up out of the gutter and walk back to my seat.

Today I have a large blue lump on the side of my right knee along with bruises on my right thigh, my right arm and my right shoulder.   Even in a non-contact sport such as bowling “it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt”.  Even though I’m a wee bit sore today I have a couple of great scores to show for it, and, I beat J both games (tee hee).

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I know the picture doesn’t apply to the title of the blog but who really wants to see cleaning tools or cleaning done, and this is one of my latest garden blooms.  Here’s another:Don’t you just love the colors, and you really wouldn’t believe the size of the blossom heads.

Today I’m getting down to the nitty gritty on the floors, the clutter all over, the dust on the tables and all the unthinkable  germy stuff in the bathroom.  Also, while I’m cleaning I might as well “come clean”.  They do say confession is good for the soul, so get ready for some “soul cleaning”.

I’ve been goofing off.  Not some some goofing off here or there, but a whole lot of goofing off.  I haven’t even been down to the glass shop in months.  Every since Kati left for college I’ve not been the organized, cleaning, cooking, keeping up with everything and everybody person that I’ve always been.  Oh, I’ve kept up with the laundry, sort of;  I try to do it once a week.  I’ve also kept up with the dishes.  It actually hasn’t been very hard since the only cooking I’m doing these days is for catering jobs.  Fortunately I’ve had a number of jobs lately so that keeps enough stuff in the fridge for J and I to eat.

The cherry on top of this is that I’m not sorry nor do I feel guilty about it.  As a matter of fact I’m even setting up more playtime and lunch dates, etc with people I’ve been out of touch with for quite a while.  I’ve been having a grand time.  I’ve been going places and doing things I haven’t taken the time to do in a very long time.  I’ve spent the last 2 1/2 months getting reacquainted with myself and with my sweet, adorable husband.  I’ve been having loads and loads of fun.

So, do you think, if I clean the house today I can goof off another 2 1/2 months without doing it again?  I don’t know if this confession has been good for my soul but I can tell you all the relaxation and playtime sure has.  TeeHee

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