I subscribe to Oldways Mediterranean Food Alliance, a free online site founded to help companies build their brands and business around the popular, healthy, affordable Mediterranean lifestyle. The stories, articles, and recipes bring me back to my childhood when Nona lived behind us. She worked her vegetable garden early in the morning in an old pair of men's boots. Her house smelled of Italy. On her small kitchen stove spaghetti sauce with mouth-watering meatballs simmered, fresh-made pasta was laid out to dry on the wooden board, and a dish of fried cauliflower set on the counter for nibbling. She layered three aprons over her dress. An aprons to keep her dress clean and aprons to keep the aprons clean. Oldways recipes bring me back to her kitchen.
I have a three-bean salad recipe that I've been making for years, never varying from the ingredients nor the bottled Italian dressing. A few weeks ago, Oldways featured "Five Steps to a Tasty Bean Salad." With a bagful of fresh picked garden green and yellow beans in the refrigerator, this article caught my attention. After reading the five steps, I boiled a combination of both greens and yellows for the new bean salad and let them cool in a bowl. I opened and rinsed a can of white cannellini beans and aduki or adzuki beans and black olives. I prefer a strong garlicky taste so crushed and minced three large cloves (crushing brings out a stronger flavor), sliced some onion and black olives and threw everything into a deep bowl. For the herb vinaigrette dressing I chopped fresh rosemary and thyme from the garden, and added them into 1/4 cup wine vinegar, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, and about 1/4 tsp salt and placed the covered bowl in the fridge for a few hours. The salad is even tastier if left overnight. I found this method tastier than using a bottled Italian dressing with its added sugar and whatever else is in it. Making your own vinaigrette allows for more pronounced flavors instead of masking the fresh ingredients. Will try kidney beans, maybe chopped tomatoes, anchovies, etc. the next time.
I think I mentioned in a previous blog about our washing machine with the broken spin brake and the dryer that squeaked throughout the whole drying time. We had expected during the washer's spin cycle, that it would spin itself right out the back French doors and over the porch rails into the woods. The annoying high-pitched dryer resonance interfered with Cliff's naptime. Lowe's had a pretty decent Fourth of July sale on appliances with a rebate on a GE HE washer/dryer pair. The young lady who was unfortunate enough to be working that day told us it was only her second day selling appliances. I told her I didn't want a $6000 pair that would pick clothes off the floor and put them in the tub or remove the dry clothes, fold them and put them in drawers for me. More computer chips and electronics means more trouble. We did see a $6000 Samsung refrigerator with a glass door that you tap twice to view your foods before opening the doors. Our salesperson answered questions about different washer/dryers and we thought we had settled on a pair until she compared another pair with the one we had her put into the computer. Then we changed our minds again and she entered our new choice into the system. She never rolled her eyes or said "sheesh! make up your minds." With the final decision made and the delivery date set, she printed up the paperwork so we could pay at Customer Service. The dirty clothes piled up on the laundry room floor waiting to try the new HE washer and dryer. When removing the old washer, a river of dirty water trailed across the floor and out the back door. We wiped that up and the cleaned laundry floor for the installation of our new appliances. I skipped over the page that said "Read All Instructions Before Using the Appliance" and went straight to "Getting Started." We followed the directions and the pictures then reread the instructions again. This washer has so many choices and knobs and decisions to make. We put the detergent in, then the clothes, closed the lid and pressed the start button. Nothing. No sounds, no water running. Cliff opened the lid, shut the lid, pressed the button again. Nothing. So he started turning knobs and pressing buttons and changing settings before announcing "it's broken right out of the box!" Then we heard water run but after a few minutes it stopped and the agitator sounded as if it were struggling to wash the towels. We lifted the lid.......again and noticed the towels and clothes above the water level and assumed the washer didn't fill correctly. Older machines fill over the clothes. I reread the instructions again and read more pages of instructions on wash cycle selector knob choice. By this point I was ready to enroll in a night course at our community college to comprehend washer instructions. Cliff's blood pressure was up and I couldn't decide which setting to put the knob on after reading two pages of choices! So at this point we drove to Lowes with the manual in hand to ask questions and get answers. On the way to Lowes I flipped the pages back and found "Start-up Sequence" and other tidbits of necessary information that answered some of our questions. At Lowes after talking to James, who is in his 50's and understood our frustration, we headed home with a calmer attitude, some hints on using the new HE washer, and knowledge that these new machines are not quiet and make different noises than the old. The dryer is easy to use. I guess a dryer is a dryer! This afternoon I calmly did a load of sheets and towels while Cliff tried to nap on the couch. The washer filled to its correct level and the agitator went whamp...................whamp....................whamp............whamp, whamp, whamp........new machine, new sounds.
I have a three-bean salad recipe that I've been making for years, never varying from the ingredients nor the bottled Italian dressing. A few weeks ago, Oldways featured "Five Steps to a Tasty Bean Salad." With a bagful of fresh picked garden green and yellow beans in the refrigerator, this article caught my attention. After reading the five steps, I boiled a combination of both greens and yellows for the new bean salad and let them cool in a bowl. I opened and rinsed a can of white cannellini beans and aduki or adzuki beans and black olives. I prefer a strong garlicky taste so crushed and minced three large cloves (crushing brings out a stronger flavor), sliced some onion and black olives and threw everything into a deep bowl. For the herb vinaigrette dressing I chopped fresh rosemary and thyme from the garden, and added them into 1/4 cup wine vinegar, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, and about 1/4 tsp salt and placed the covered bowl in the fridge for a few hours. The salad is even tastier if left overnight. I found this method tastier than using a bottled Italian dressing with its added sugar and whatever else is in it. Making your own vinaigrette allows for more pronounced flavors instead of masking the fresh ingredients. Will try kidney beans, maybe chopped tomatoes, anchovies, etc. the next time.
I think I mentioned in a previous blog about our washing machine with the broken spin brake and the dryer that squeaked throughout the whole drying time. We had expected during the washer's spin cycle, that it would spin itself right out the back French doors and over the porch rails into the woods. The annoying high-pitched dryer resonance interfered with Cliff's naptime. Lowe's had a pretty decent Fourth of July sale on appliances with a rebate on a GE HE washer/dryer pair. The young lady who was unfortunate enough to be working that day told us it was only her second day selling appliances. I told her I didn't want a $6000 pair that would pick clothes off the floor and put them in the tub or remove the dry clothes, fold them and put them in drawers for me. More computer chips and electronics means more trouble. We did see a $6000 Samsung refrigerator with a glass door that you tap twice to view your foods before opening the doors. Our salesperson answered questions about different washer/dryers and we thought we had settled on a pair until she compared another pair with the one we had her put into the computer. Then we changed our minds again and she entered our new choice into the system. She never rolled her eyes or said "sheesh! make up your minds." With the final decision made and the delivery date set, she printed up the paperwork so we could pay at Customer Service. The dirty clothes piled up on the laundry room floor waiting to try the new HE washer and dryer. When removing the old washer, a river of dirty water trailed across the floor and out the back door. We wiped that up and the cleaned laundry floor for the installation of our new appliances. I skipped over the page that said "Read All Instructions Before Using the Appliance" and went straight to "Getting Started." We followed the directions and the pictures then reread the instructions again. This washer has so many choices and knobs and decisions to make. We put the detergent in, then the clothes, closed the lid and pressed the start button. Nothing. No sounds, no water running. Cliff opened the lid, shut the lid, pressed the button again. Nothing. So he started turning knobs and pressing buttons and changing settings before announcing "it's broken right out of the box!" Then we heard water run but after a few minutes it stopped and the agitator sounded as if it were struggling to wash the towels. We lifted the lid.......again and noticed the towels and clothes above the water level and assumed the washer didn't fill correctly. Older machines fill over the clothes. I reread the instructions again and read more pages of instructions on wash cycle selector knob choice. By this point I was ready to enroll in a night course at our community college to comprehend washer instructions. Cliff's blood pressure was up and I couldn't decide which setting to put the knob on after reading two pages of choices! So at this point we drove to Lowes with the manual in hand to ask questions and get answers. On the way to Lowes I flipped the pages back and found "Start-up Sequence" and other tidbits of necessary information that answered some of our questions. At Lowes after talking to James, who is in his 50's and understood our frustration, we headed home with a calmer attitude, some hints on using the new HE washer, and knowledge that these new machines are not quiet and make different noises than the old. The dryer is easy to use. I guess a dryer is a dryer! This afternoon I calmly did a load of sheets and towels while Cliff tried to nap on the couch. The washer filled to its correct level and the agitator went whamp...................whamp....................whamp............whamp, whamp, whamp........new machine, new sounds.
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