Cat-Nap Wednesdays

Although high temperatures were only in the teens today, Katie found a peek of sun coming in the window, as she enjoyed her afternoon nap.

~Michele

Pineapple Cottage Cheese Griddle Cakes

Years ago I heard about this recipe as a tasty way of adding calcium to your diet. I have changed it quite a bit, to create a healthy version. We often serve these with a salad and some broccoli or other bright colored vegetable. Also, as a snack, (pictured below) served with "Food for Thought" jams.

Pineapple Cottage Griddle Cakes

1 16 oz carton (2 cups) low fat cottage cheese (I like "Nancy's brand" ... it has live cultures)

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple; drained

3 or 4 farm fresh eggs (whatever you like)

1/2 - 3/4 C flour (I use a mix of spelt and barley or whatever I have on hand. Use the lesser amount if you choose a whole grain or more if you choose white flour. Also you will have to adjust the flour depending on the consistency of your cottage cheese and how well the pineapple is drained.)

1 1/2 - 2 T vegetable oil

dash of salt

Beat the eggs; add everything else and gently mix, by hand, until well blended.

Spray griddle with a non-stick spray and cook like you would pancakes. I use my 1/4 C measure to drop the batter onto the griddle. They can sometimes be a bit tricky to cook. Make sure your griddle is heated well on medium or medium-low, before starting. These cook best if cooked slow, otherwise they will brown before the center is completely cooked. Cook the first side till top starts to become dull rather than shiny. They are much easier to turn if the first side is cooked well. (tip: these don't come out the same twice; but they are always good!)

Hope you give this recipe a try

~Michele

Ice Pipe (from the Archive)

As you can tell from this and the previous post, I like this pipe. Every year I watch for ice that has formed from its mouth and, more importantly, time to actually take pictures of it. No luck this year, but I've had some in the past.

Hope you enjoy!

Andy

Snow and Ice

First, THANK YOU, everyone for the wonderful well wishes for Michele! She is on the mend and we're hoping back to normal in another 2 to 3 weeks. With any luck she'll add some posts before long too. Thank you, again, our cyber family and friends. Since she was doing better I was able to get out for some winter shots. Can you tell I got a new lens? It was a great time to try it out. Hope you enjoy!

Andy

Close up of droplet above!

Blueberry Ice Cream Recipe

Just a quick post and sorry for the delay on this. Several people asked for this from our Sunday, 1/16/11 post. Here it is!

• 2 cups blueberries (500 ml)
• 1 cup milk (250 ml)
• 1 cup whipping cream (250 ml)
• 3/4 cup sugar (175 ml)

Put everything in a blender or food processor. I use a Braun hand held model like this.


Then, add this to your ice cream maker that can hold around 1 Qt or .9L. We use and have loved the Donvier model here. With only about 5 to 7 turns over 20 minutes we get some of the best tasting ice cream we've ever had.


Oh, lastly, need I say it? Use GOOD, REAL ingredients! Don't skimp. (Local fresh whipping cream, we froze our blueberries that we got from a local grower over the summer, organic sugar, you get the idea . . . )


It's awesome---enjoy!
Andy

Spouse of the Year!

Andy wins the "Spouse of the Year" award! I was part of the percentage of people who experience extreme pain with Appendicitis. I was very cross and very mean to Andy. I was crying. I wouldn't do anything he asked me to do. Simply put, by Andy, I was not an easy patient. Through it all, Andy continued to be kind, caring and he got me the help I needed. Sorry I was so mean honey ... and thanks for taking such good care of me!

Thanks so much to our dear friends, John and Michael, who sent these beautiful flowers to cheer me up!

And a big thank you to another dear friend, Scott, who came out in the snow storm (and sub-zero temps) to make sure that I was OK and that I had some CHOCOLATE!

Also, thank you to the staff who cared for me at Munson Hospital and Leelanau Urgent care. Everyone was so very compassionate and caring!

I'm home now and resting ...

~Michele

APPENDICITIS !! Ouch !!

Not good. It hit Michele Friday and we had a crazy 36 hours. She is now home appendix-less, resting and will hopefully be back to normal (and blogging) in a few days.

Happily (pathetically?  ;->  ), she was back to eating chocolate within hours after surgery! Thank you, Scott, for your visit and cocoa gift! ;->
Her big, silly comment was now that "it" was gone, maybe she lost some weight?! Whew, do we have problems or what?


In the surgery waiting room they have a monitor displaying the status. Good or bad, technology pervades everything . . .

This is NOT what we would consider our typical "cuisine post", but, heah, I needed to eat something at the hospital cafeteria. It was a healthy veggie burger and banana.

Lastly, I typically have bags of photo equipment when I shoot. I did NOT take these with me on our hospital excursion! I have "some" standards. ;-> Instead and at Michele's suggestion, I tried this post using nothing but my iPhone (and a little Photoshop). 


We certainly hope that your health is excellent in 2011.
Andy