birthdays are fun, getting older? hmm...

About this time every year, I really start thinking about my age and about my mortality. Not so much in gruesome terms, more like a startling afterthought, as in oh! forgot that for a moment. As much as I think, talk, and write about health and diet issues, I often forget that we are all transients on earth.

Obviously from my morose verbiage, I'm guessing one can tell my birthday is coming up, February 20th to be precise. I love birthdays---I think. It could be more like how I love giving parties and celebrating holidays. It's mostly the idea I like. The actuality, not so much. I love looking forward to birthdays, for sure. I love giving myself permission for little indulgences that I might forgo other times of the year. Yesterday for instance, I spent half the day at a spa after having breakfast with my daughter, Kristen, and followed all that with pampering from my hairdresser, Michelle. This whole day thing was a first for me.

Yes, the little indulgences part of birthdays is not the rub. The getting older part? It can't be all bad. It has it's good points. Compared to the alternatives, older is better. As I mulled this post over in my mind, I thought of talking about my age, my specific age in years, as part of a whole picture, full disclosure sort of thing. A this is who I am kind of thing. Then I remembered something my sister, Beverly, shared with us recently. She said a spiritual leader and teacher who we both respect said one should never tell her (or his) age. Not to be secretive or deceptive, not to pretend to be younger or older, but because we limit ourselves and others enough as it is. We label and define even without meaning to do so much of the time. He said not to add yet another meaningless bit of data to that limiting mess. So I am not talking specific numbers.  I may stop that entirely. For much of my life I have felt the need to reveal more than was needed, probably more than was wanted. For now I'll refrain and rethink those habits.

I will say, for me this is a significant birthday in many ways, my age being only one of them. In recognition of this, my daughter is planning a small celebration with my family. We met yesterday to talk about what we might do and what we would serve. As she started with a list of favorite party foods that we've loved and served over the years, I realized I could no longer eat any of those dishes. Wow! Times have changed. I now control everything that comes into my kitchen and as a result, everything that comes out of it. I focus on good foods I can eat and enjoy and all but forget about the rest. I tend to forget that not everyone cooks or shops the way I do. Not even those very close to me. Of course, if this were a party for someone else, I'd just eat first and no one would notice. Since the birthday celebration is for me, it feels a little different. We have worked it out, I think. Works well for me, anyway.

I love grilling or broiling shrimp even for cocktails. These are from US Wellness Meats.

So far we're planning lemon chicken sate with Sunshine Sauce via Well Fed, lots of beautiful fresh veggies like asparagus, cucumber, sugar snap peas, red peppers, grape tomatoes with a dairy-less dip as yet to be determined. We'll also have rare, grilled steak strips or chunks, shrimp in some form, baba ghanoush, mixed olives, our marinated mushrooms, fresh fruit, and a couple of versions of almond flour crackers. Did I mention this is a very small party? Well, my family is not all that small, but if we didn't overdo the food, we wouldn't recognize ourselves.

On what I find an interesting note, Kristen often says she's afraid to cook for me, even before I knew I had major dietary issues. She is especially hesitant to cook in my kitchen. I don't think I'm that picky, but we never know those things about ourselves, do we?

improvising, december without an oven

I've mentioned often that I am not a baker. It's not that I can't bake. It's just that baking is neither where my interest nor talent lies. But baker or not, I do use my oven a lot. I should rephrase that; I did use my oven a lot. Our oven has been performing badly for months, and only just before Thanksgiving (with 20+ people expecting a beautiful roast turkey to come out of my oven) did I realize why. It was heating a little, very little, with no air circulation, and this is a convection oven. Yikes! I had thrown out two different oven thermometers recently thinking they were not working. Apparently, they were working just fine; it was the oven that had gone south. 

To make matters worse, if that were possible, and as it turns out is possible, my oven is not that easy to service. It's not very old, but it's also not very common, so it's taken weeks to get someone to agree to look at it, and we still are up in the air about actually knowing if it can be fixed. So here we are in December, more family dinners, the dream of my (once a year only) holiday baking and a chance to use some newly acquired almond and coconut flour recipes, and of course, we do need to eat!  This time of year, at least in our house, eating implies roasting. I roast beets, sweet potatoes, squash of all denominations, onions, garlic, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, turnips, carrots, and meats galore. That is I would if I had an oven. Again, Yikes!

In reality, I guess I sort of have an oven. The clock works. The broiler works. And given 3 or 4 hours with the oven set at 450F, the temperature will get almost up to 300. Of course, there are hot spots you wouldn't believe, and I'm not running this stinking oven around the clock. 

Broiling meat is an option. It means using cuts of meats we don't often eat, those that will cook quickly enough to not be burned to a crisp on the outside. I like slow roasting or braising, especially when it's cold, so I usually focus on bigger pieces of meat and dense vegetables.

These chicken legs are a rarity in my kitchen. I bought a package yesterday, partly because they were on sale at our natural foods store, and partly because the kids like them. My plan was to toss them in the freezer. Of course, I had hoped, silly me, that our appliance repair duo would get the thing up and running when they were back out yesterday. That didn't happen, it had been a long day, and I had nothing planned for dinner. We decided on broiled chicken legs and gluten-free Dutch apple pie, another food that rarely makes it into our house. A weird dinner for sure.

chicken legs, seasoned and ready for the broiler

I seasoned the chicken directly on a baking sheet with Frontier Herbs savory seasoning mix, Spice Hunter Chef's Blend, sea salt, and a bit of olive oil. Coconut oil would be better for baking. I was being lazy. The seasoned chicken was in the broiler, set on low,  about 20 minutes. I turned it regularly as it browned.

ready to eat, simple and very good

This was a serious lazy cook's meal after a busy day. We didn't even add a vegetable, though sweet potatoes would be great, as would steamed broccoli. Dessert, which we have maybe 3 times a year, was a store-bought apple pie. This is a first. I virtually never buy anything ready-made. It was almost completely grain free (a bit of rice starch) and sweetened naturally without sugar. GK was less than fond of it, but he eats this kind of stuff more often, way more often, than I. It's been over a year since I ate anything calling itself a pie.



Mine is the sad little piece alone on the plate. His is 3 times the size and loaded with whipped cream. 



I have to share a recent breakfast, note my computer keyboard in the background. More about my versions of Paleo breakfasts soon. These shrimp, by the way, are available frozen from Wellness meats. They're from the US west coast, safe, and responsibly caught.

scampi for breakfast