I am in love with my new Vitamix blender. 2 horsepower of serious business.
While out to dinner with friends last week, we had Cauliflower Rice. So, so, easy to make.
Especially with the Vitamix. Bob - our cook - no - our chef, served it as a side dish with fresh pineapple.
I'll write my 'recipe' at the bottom of this post if you are interested.
I had this last week off and my little sis came out from Minnesota to sort out some family interventions. I'd love to write well about depression and aging parents but cannot come up with words that would describe the problems without getting too much into family politics.
My older sister has sunk into a deep depression and our daily visits seemed to help but she would not leave her house. Her son who lives with her is very worried. An unintended success was finding out the nephew needed a business casual suit for interviews he is involved in. So the aunties took him suit shopping.
This sister gets to her doctors appointments and grocery shopping but does nothing non-essential.
My mom and dad are in their 80's and downsized 2 1/2 years ago to a single story home in the same town. With my older sister and brother not available (they live local), I feel this burden on my shoulders. They are about 35 minutes away from me with good traffic. With my long work hours, we feel they are increasingly isolated.
Our third and recent snowstorm brought this home when my little sister and I arrived to find no one had come over to shovel off their driveway or check that they were okay (seven days). They had plenty of food (old school preparedness) but still... one of their new neighbors has boys in their 20's... This wouldn't happen in my neighborhood.
The plow blade came down their street and left ice boulders blocking their driveway. If they had needed to get out, they couldn't.
I cleared their drive and created a walkway that melted off in the sun. It was a pretty thick layer of ice covered by snow.
My sis and I came up with some suggestions to finalize the week and thoroughly piss off those family members.
At least we can rely on our Oregon weather to be finished with snow for the winter. (knock on wood)
We spent eight days working these family problems.
That's when I discovered the amazing fluffy ice the vitamix makes. OMG - best Margarita's ever.
The vitamix didn't even change sounds fluffing up that ice.
If you look again at the photo of my sis above, she fell while out running in the snow & ice in Minnesota three days before she came. It's a broken ankle. She came out with a knee scooter, an immobilizing boot and we also had crutches.
In our Oregon snow & ice.
You really can't kick her to the curb for trying to get stubborn family members to improve their lot. We played the sympathy card for all it was worth.
I did manage one fun morning that week meeting up with Pencil Girl at Fabric Depot. We had tried to meet up a few days previously but Portland was pretty bad with ice compared to where we live. On one day, meeting a nephew for lunch, we turned off the bare interstate onto five lanes of rutted ice. Pencil Girl and I met up later once the ice had melted.
She was looking to improve her niece's prom dress which was already awesome, so we solved the world's problems in the lace and bridal section.
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| Cuddle airplanes and look at the red chevron cuddle. Very soft. |
After dropping my sister off at the airport, I decided to drive to a couple of estate sales south of my town and found some treasures. Garage sale therapy.
My Creative Friend went to one of them before me. It was the estate of one of the Keil's. Their ancestors founded the Aurora Colony.
She bought a large box of old photographs and found some that she will need to donate to the Aurora Museum. Including a child's handwritten history in a composition book from the 20's.
This magazine page fell out and she almost gave it to me - look at the silly airplane. This is just the right-hand corner of the illustration. "Drawn, ever so Roughly by Michelson Hollywood" is inscribed at the bottom corner. Looks like vintage satire magazine advertising from the 40's. It gave me a huge smile to read all the little captions.
Cauliflower Rice
1 head of Cauliflower
Small can of Coconut Milk (1/2 cup)
Seasoning
Walnut Oil or Olive oil
Fresh Pineapple, diced fine.
Sausages
Chop cauliflower up roughly, discarding the leaves and stem areas.
Toss into vitamix and Pulse until like grains of rice.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in skillet. Transfer 'rice' to pan and cook on Medium high for 5 - 8 minutes with lid over rice to help steam it.
Add seasonings (I used a cajun seasoning and a seasoned salt shaker)
Add Coconut milk and heat through.
I added chopped sausages and topped it with the pineapple for a main dish.
I will have leftovers for a few days too. Yum.
