Things That Make Me Happy and a Giveaway

Things that make me happy:

Lillies blooming in my pond make me happy

Feeding the pond fish every morning is nice

Flowers in my garden make me smile

Butterfly Bushes are beautiful

My dog waiting patiently for me and my gardens that have been certified as Wildlife Habitats are a source of joy

A porch with a rocking chair is a good place to rest

My rain barrel makes me and my plants happy

Whimsical Garden Art is fun

Flowers on the steps are cheerful

Carved Wooden Bears are handy hose guides, they keep everything in line.

And FireWire

Wait, what? FireWire? 

YES! FireWire. FireWire is a flexible stainless steel grilling skewer that holds twice as much food as a regular skewer. But that's not the best feature. FireWire is dishwasher safe, won't rust and is reusable. AND you can marinate right on the wire. Just load your FireWire with food, place in a bowl or resealable bag and add marinade. When you are ready to grill, just remove the FireWire and place on the grill. How non-messy is that? 

But since The Best Husband In The World (TBHITW) is the grill master in the house, I handed over my test mitts to him. Here's what TBHITW had to say,

"Some of the best features that I noticed right away:

the tips of the FireWire Skewer remain cool so you can easily move your food around the grill and the food does not "twirl" on the skewer, so there's no battling with it in order to grill it on all sides. I also liked that the FireWire Skewer could hold a lot of food, I wasn't stressed out trying to turn 10 or 12 skewers all at once, trying to keep everything evenly cooked."

"Once the food was cooked, it released easily from the FireWire; no handling hot metal skewers, or worse, splinters in your food from charred, wooden skewers."

Vegetables marinating

We skewered the old way and the new way, with FireWire... TBHITW nominated FireWire as the winner. Since he is the grill master, I bow to his nomination.

The tip of the FireWire remains cool for easy handling

You can grill in a "loop" or in one long line ... 

Dinner is served

Want your own FireWire? 

Tell me what makes you happy in the comment form. 

Two lucky winners, randomly chosen from all comments received by midnight, Saturday, June 12th. 2010 will each receive a set of FireWire Flexible Grilling Skewers, just in time for Father's Day and grilling season! 

So, what makes you happy? I'll post the winners on Sunday, June 13th. along with a list of retailers where you can buy (if you don't win) your very own FireWire.

*I purchased my FireWire a few months ago and was so happy with the results, contacted FireWire and asked them if they would supply me with a few sets for a giveaway for you, my readers. FireWire happily obliged. I have not been compensated for this review, nor am I in any way (other than a happy consumer) affiliated with FireWire or Inno-Labs, makers of FireWire. - Geez.. what I don't go through for you people. 

Fun With Food and Chicken Skewers

The best husband in the world gave me a food scale for my birthday. Hoopdeedoo! Well, to be fair, he gave me a food scale AND a juicer. For some of you out there this would mean immediate expulsion from the best husband in the world club. But don't be judging the BHITW, because this is exactly what I wanted. 

It's not just any food scale. It is a new and improved nutritional food scale. 

Commercial quality with 8.8 pound capacity. 

Able to measure food in grams, kilograms and ounces. But wait, there's more. You can get the exact nutritional information of the food you are weighing, unlike my other old food scale that just weighed stuff. 

For instance, I have here an avocado. Just your plain, everyday Haas variety. When I put it on my old food scale I am told it weighs 7.5 ounces. When I put it on my new and improved nutritional food scale I am told:

Weight: 7.5 ounces

Enter the code for avocado: 334 and voila!

Calories: 375

Sodium: 25.73 mg

Fiber: 0

Cholesterol: 0

Protein: 4.89 grams

Carbohydrates: 14.71 grams

Fat: 36.76 grams

Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!  Wait, let's try a lemon.

Weight: 4.2 ounces

Enter the code for lemon: 359

Calories: 36

Sodium: 2.16 mg

Fiber: 2.0 grams

Cholesterol: 0

Protein: 2.16 grams

Carbohydrates: 10.86 grams

Fat: 0 grams

Imagine the possibilities!! No more guessing. No more cumbersome books and indexes. Who knew a food scale could be so much fun! Here's the skinny on tonight's dinner of 

Grilled Lemon Chicken Kabobs with minted sugar snap peas and tri-color couscous (serves 4)

1 Pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4 half breasts)

3 tablespoons (about) extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Juice of 1  fresh lemon (remember what I told you about that bottled stuff)

2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 cups fresh sugar snap peas, washed and ends trimmed

Heat grill to medium-high.

Cut the chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes. Place in a bowl and drizzle about 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 the lemon juice over. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Let marinate 15 or so minutes. Not too long or the chicken will start to "cook" from the lemon juice. Thread onto skewers.  Grill for about 10 minutes until done. (hint: leave a little space between pieces of chicken for even cooking).

Meanwhile, steam the sugar snap peas. Toss with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon zest, rest of juice, salt, pepper (to taste) and chopped mint. 

Serve with a side of tri-color couscous made to package directions. 

Okay, here's the fun part:

4 ounces of chicken, 1/2 cup of the peas and 1/2 cup couscous:

547 calories

13.8 grams of fat

48 grams of protein

84 grams of carbohydrates

5.1 grams of fiber

*** I am NOT a registered dietician or a nutritionist - I am a serial dieter. 

At least I think that's what it all adds up to. The new and improved nutritional food scale did not come with a calculator and after 1 1/2 hours of trying to figure this out I'm tempted to just order pizza. 

Oh bother, I really just wanted it to weigh flour which is what my old food scale did. 

Tomorrow: LET THE JUICING BEGIN!! 

Talking Turkey

My husband asked me if I was going to blogviate today. As so often happens when we're speaking, I had no idea what he was talking about. Let me explain. My husband, whom I love dearly, likes to coin his own words. He patiently explained to me that blogviate was his version of "bloviate"; which didn't help me at all. So I looked up bloviate in the dictionary that is my constant companion since marrying this unique guy so long ago. Playing Scrabble with him is a real treat, but that's a whole different blog. Surprisingly, my New World Dictionary Of The American Language (2nd. college edition) did not list bloviate. So I turned to the Internet. 

Bloviate: (according to Wikipedia)

"To bloviate means "to speak pompously and excessively" or "to expound ridiculously". A colloquial verb coined in the United States, it is commonly used with contempt to describe the behavior of politicians, academics, pundits or media "experts," sometimes called bloviators, who hold forth on subjects in an arrogant, tiresome way.

The current verb 'bloviate' seems to be regarded as a back-formation from the noun blowhard.
The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that bloviate derives from adding a faux-Latin ending to the verb 'to blow' or boast, following a 19th-century fad of adding Latin-like affixes to ordinary words. However, others like William Safire claim that 'bloviate' comes from combining the words 'blow-hard' and 'deviation.'

Although 'bloviate' is listed in slang dictionaries as far back as the 19th century, the term was popularized by United States President Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. Famed for his poor English usage, Harding often used the word to describe his own speaking style. The term dropped from popular usage following his presidency but was resurrected in the 1960s when it was sometimes used in reference to Harding.

It became widely spoken again in the 1990s. Today, it appears regularly in The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post.

The term is used frequently by Fox News commentator, Bill O'Reilly whose show, The O'Reilly Factor, concludes with requests for email. The request for feedback sometimes includes: "And please when writing to us no bloviating, [that's] my job."

'Bloviating' has taken on new life in the blogosphere, used derisively to identify and otherwise chide the most pompous of contributors to message boards and forums."

Oh my - is that what I have been doing?? Bloviating on my blog? Does that make me a blogviator? Yes, my beloved assured me - although not as much as some. He said he was just giving it to me straight, "talking turkey". Which reminded me of the following recipe: 

Teriyaki Turkey Tenderloin (that's an alliteration by the way, which by telling you this makes me a bloviator or is it blogviator?...)

Two (2) Turkey breast tenderloins (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger (or a nub of fresh, sliced thin)

2 garlic cloves smashed

1/4 cup pineapple juice

Cut your tenderloins into 1 inch cubes. Toss with all above ingredients. Place in ziplock bag and marinade in refrigerator for at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours. 

Preheat grill to high. Skewer turkey tenderloin cubes. Grill until done, about 12-15 minutes, giving quarter turns every 4 minutes and basting first 3 turns. Discard any unused marinade. 

I like to serve this with grilled pineapple rings (brush with butter and melted brown sugar) grill lightly) and simple steamed white rice. 

Enjoy and try not to bloviate with your mouth full.