Weekend Cooking – Gotta Love It

Posted on February 26, 2013 by heyitsjethere

Hey It’s Jet Here.

While Little Miss Color Restricted and I cannot fully grasp the color green due to evolutionary constraints , Mom makes up for both of us! This week, her weekend cooking sessions highlighted green all over the place. Having had quite enough of orange vegetables since leaving the hospital, she segued to another band of the rainbow with Dr. V’s permission. You may have learned in science class that when one sense has limits, another sense shines. In K9 world, we rock smell, hearing and enjoy taste quite a lot! With that in mind, Little Miss Kitchen K9 and I secured our kitchen locations for Mom’s cooking endeavors.

Remember Mom’s fascination with fennel a while back? Well, when she asked Dr. V about greens, Dr. V recommended soft greens. Mom piled the red kale, zucchini, Italian parsley, basil and baby arugula into her cart. Did I mention ARUGULA? Yeah, the stuff has like 3 names: arugula, rocket, roquette. Mom has a new fascination… yes, she’s enjoyed the veggie before, used it in her Kitchen Counselor classes, etc… however this weekend, she put the stuff in EVERYTHING!

Little Miss Show Off/Whoops What Did I DO ate a whole leaf and then casually dropped it on the tile – not enough crunch. Mom tried again removing the small stems; we liked that idea better. Oh, I forgot to mention that Ruby participated in one of the cooking sessions! Little Miss Puppy Dog Face and I LOVE when Ruby hangs out in the kitchen; more tidbits than usual seem to find our chompers! Ruby wanted to see if we liked parsley!

Arugula-Caraway Pesto Pasta

1 cup arugula leaves
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds (Mom used whole almonds she already had.)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon McCormick® Caraway Seed, finely crushed
8 ounces periatelli pasta or thick spaghetti (Mom didn’t prepare this part of the recipe.)
2 cups thinly sliced red Swiss chard (cut crosswise into thin strips) (Mom didn’t prepare this part of the recipe.)

1. Place arugula, parsley, oil, almonds, Parmesan cheese, garlic and caraway seed in bowl of food processor; cover. Process until smooth. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Return pasta to saucepot.
3. Stir Swiss chard into pasta on low heat until greens are wilted. Add pesto; toss to coat well, adding small amounts of reserved cooking water until desired consistency. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Mom’s taking the Pesto to the biscuit earning place today with a grilled chicken breast. Check out her FB album to see the step-by-step process.

Another great day in the kitchen with Mom and Ruby.

Thanks to Sugar and Kol for initiating Tasty Tuesdays, today is our forty-second participating post!

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My New Moniker (VBP) – Zig Zag Jetty

Posted on February 7, 2013 by heyitsjethere

Hey It’s Jet Here.

(My BFF, Savannah, wrote this reminder, and ahem… I hope she does not mind me borrowing it!) It’s THURSDAY and that means another VBP Blog Hop starts all over again!!

And you know the drill now, right?…just grab the badge and code…put it on your VBP post sometime between today and next Wednesday…and be sure to come back and visit the blue froggy symbol at the bottom of my page. Give him/her a click and enter your VBP post into the linky tool…PAWSOME!!

My young neighbor, Ruby, stopped by this past Saturday night to give us “cuddles”, to check on Mom, and to join us for our evening constitutional. Mom suggested a right route towards Miss Mary Ann’s house, except for crossing the main street to walk parallel to our usual side. We then cross back over at the end of the long block to return to the balance of our weekday morning route.

The paramount (VBP) sniffs on the opposite side of the street derive from a highly scented traffic light pole, and a swath (VBP) of softer grass variety (our native grass is scratchy) which feels like pillows under our paws. Little Miss Twirl and Poo loves to deposit her evening solid waste in this area. I find myself unstoppably drawn to the poofy grass mounds surrounding the soldier straight line of royal palm trees for what Mom and Ruby call Potty 92, 243 and 517!

Anyway, Ruby had custody of Little Miss Straight and Narrow while I walked a different pattern. As I did, Ruby busted out a rap… here’s the “chorus” Mom and I can remember…

Hey… I am Zig Zag Jetty and I’m here to stay, I go back and forth when I walk this way! Cause I’m Zig Zag Jetty and I’m (ok, here’s where we forget!)

I’ll ask Mom to see if Ruby will repeat or recreate her rhymes for Mom to write down. All I can tell you is that they both end up laughing really hard out on the walk. Mom, Little Miss Songbird and I already enjoy Ruby’s regular singing (she’s in Chorus you know) and Mom tells her how talented she is. She often serenades (VBP) us on our walks.

Mom update: She saw her Dr. V for the first follow up… she got an A for following directions and her instincts. Lots more medication planning, tests to do, monitoring to continue – a positive visit and the beginning of a VERY close and FREQUENT relationship with Dr. V!

Thyroid update: Dr. Schaffer gave me an A+ (ok, Mom too) for my 3lb. weight loss, my great test results and said the tiny dose is perfect, keep going!

THANKFUL THURSDAY: Mom: Thank you from the bottom of my heart and G.I. track for your incredible comments to Saturday’s post. I’ve read most of them and will answer more soon. Your feedback helped me immensely (VBP) and the fact you took such care and time to send words of support and understanding, well… that’s precious to me. I took many of your comments to the dr. with me yesterday, so thank you.

I was able to write my Kitchen Counselor newsletter, plan and execute an amazing Diabetic Peer Support Class in the inner city on top of my regular job since Friday. I still need more rest than usual; however, I’m incredibly grateful.

Another great Zig Zag day!

We joined the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop hosted by Pepi Smart Dog (formerly by Cokie the Cat!)