Starting To Hate Mother Nature

It seems as though on Monday mornings (the time I take to write this column since it is due by noon, after all) Mother Nature decides to frown on us and deliver another helping of unwanted snow. It’s almost enough to make me want to discontinue writing a column, just to see if I’m the cause. Almost. But then I think of those of you who approach me when I’m in town to tell me you enjoy my scribblings. I do so like hearing those comments. Who wouldn’t? So here I am again.

The extent of my gardening this week was to water my houseplants. And to turn on the three grow lights I have for their benefit. Another of my amaryllis bulbs is sending up a flower stalk. I expect it will bloom within a week to 10 days. The philodendron slips are well-rooted and should be potted. They are thriving in water in the old plastic Hershey’s cocoa container in which they were started. They don’t seem to mind my procrastination.

This is the sixth and last week of the current Whole Life Challenge session. On Saturday I’ll be free to eat whatever I want without worrying about losing a point. Of course, I don’t want to backslide, so I won’t entirely abandon the good habits I’m establishing. But I will enjoy bread and cheese (pizza!) as well as the occasional sugar-laden sweet. The next six-week session will begin on April 11 and run through May 22. Guess I won’t eat cake on my birthday... Or maybe I’ll just lose a point that day!

Let’s move on to cooking since it still isn’t gardening weather. Darn you, Mother Nature! The seed catalogs remain untouched and are languishing in the cabinet where I lock them up along with Dennis’ tool and farm equipment catalogs. There are a couple art equipment catalogs buried in there also.

I baked chicken thighs in the oven and made a coleslaw variation. We had baked (microwaved) potatoes with the thighs. I also had some of my dilly beans and a handful of nuts with that meal. The salad is a meal on its own. (Dennis had leftover chicken and fried potatoes. I’m fine with that - more salad for me!)

Crispy Oven

Baked Chicken Thighs

3 pds. chicken thighs

2 Tbl olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika

Heat oven to 400°. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Arrange thighs on foil. Drizzle with oil. Rub to coat. Mix dried ingredients together and sprinkle over the thighs. Bake 35-45 minutes, until cooked through.

I left the skin on, because I like eating crispy chicken skin, but that’s a matter of taste. Remove it if you don’t care for it. Although, in that case, I’d mix the seasonings with the oil and marinate the thighs for an hour or more before baking. Dennis added jarred barbecue sauce to his servings. I thought it was tasty enough as is, but I’m also not one to drown foods in catsup. (Okay, I admit I can be a bit of a food snob. I also don’t automatically add salt to dishes before tasting them. I think doing that is an insult to the cook.)

Chopped Asian Salad

4 C cole slaw mix

1 C shredded red cabbage

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1 C shredded chicken breast

1/4 C slivered almonds

2 green onions, sliced

1 Tbl sesame seeds

Dressing

1/4 C coconut aminos

2 Tbl rice vinegar

2 Tbl olive oil

1/2 Tbl sesame oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

3 large dates, pitted

Toss all the salad ingredients together. Process all the dressing ingredients until the dates are ground and the dressing is creamy. Pour dressing on just before serving.

I had most of a red cabbage from my garden in the fridge. They keep a long time wrapped in paper towels and then in a plastic bag. You might need to trim away dried cut edges. You could shred and make your own coleslaw mix, but I took the easy way out and bought a pre-shredded bagged mix. I didn’t have green onions, but a few of my home-grown ones were sprouting, so I used those green tops along with a bit of diced onion. I used canned chicken breast - so easy! I add that while putting a serving of the salad mix on my plate. Ditto with the sliced almonds. (I still haven’t bought any slivered almonds since I have a bag and a half of sliced almonds in the freezer.) I keep the dressing in a small jar in the fridge and splash some on each time I have this salad.

If you don’t have coconut aminos, just use soy sauce. The aminos don’t have any added sugar. The dates are a natural sweetener, and are okay in limited amounts while on the WLC. I still have freshly grated ginger in the freezer. I’d grated it and froze it in teaspoonfuls on parchment paper. Once frozen, those little lumps were put in an airtight container to be kept in the freezer. It’s so handy that way. I don’t have to worry about the unused bit of ginger going bad in the bottom of the veggie crisper drawer in the fridge anymore.

I sure hope the coincidental snow doesn’t appear again next Monday. I do want to continue writing my column. And we’re awfully tired of icy roads up here by Opheim.