Happy Lucia Day! (from our little Lucia)

One of the reasons why the name 'Lucia' is special to me is because I grew up celebrating Saint Lucia day at church. No, it is not a Catholic church but this is the one saint that is celebrated. It comes from the Swedish heritage that our church still honors. Sweden celebrates Sankta Lucia on December 13th. I'm assuming most of you reading this blog know about Lucia but I'll tell the story anyway. 

Lucia was a young Christian girl from Italy who was said to have given all she had to the poor and was known to secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs under the city. It was said that she wore candles on her head to light the way. She was martyred for her faith in 304 AD. Lucia means light in Italian which is a fitting name since she brought light and hope to others in need.

There are many stories of how this tradition came to be celebrated in Sweden. One version is that the monks that converted Sweden to Christianity brought the story of Saint Lucia in an effort to change the pagan 'festival of lights' tradition on December 13th into Saint Lucia day. The celebration continues, still representing bringing light and hope into the darkest time of the year and marks the beginning of the Christmas season.

Here's my attempt at taking a 'Lucia' photo with Lucia...

 It was an effort to get her to be by the light without eating the light. That restriction meant there were a lot of photos like the one above.

 We celebrate at church with a breakfast and program that tells the story of Lucia. Here are Sonja and Gwen at the breakfast. They also played a part in the program and did a very impressive job singing in Swedish.

It always ends with the high school girls singing the Swedish Lucia song, one of them taking on the role of Lucia herself complete with a real (and lit) crown of candles. The copper tray and pot carried each year is the one that I inherited from my grandma (who started the Lucia celebration at church many years ago). The tray was a gift for my great-grandmother when her family went on a trip to Sweden without her since she was too young to go. One of the reasons it is special to me is because her initials 'EMJ' (for Elvira Martha Johnson) that are carved into the tray are the same as mine (Elsa Martha Johnson)!

Happy Lucia Day! May we all represent light in the darkness today.

Pesto Avacado Melt

 BEFORE

 The Recipe 

• 2 slices of bread
• Pesto (homemade or store bought)
• 1/2 of an avocado, in chunks
• 5 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 5 small slices cheddar cheese
• Salt

 AND AFTER

The oozing cheese holds it all together

The Method

Layer up with pesto, avocado, tomato, salt and cheese and throw under the broiler for a few minutes.

This is a great way to use up extra pesto. I sometimes get bored of just using it with pasta. So yummy and so simple. Enjoy!

Spanish Tortilla

Don't let the name fool you. A Spanish tortilla is like an egg casserole with potatoes and veggies except without the half and half or heavy whipping cream. And a bit different of a method. I used a mash up of a few different recipes this time but I'm going to try my best to remember what I did. This recipe is versatile, use whatever veggies you love. 

I used these ones:

The Recipe:

• 4 Yukon gold or small russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 4-5 mushrooms, sliced
• 8 eggs
• 6-8 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

The Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Boil potatoes about 5 minutes, remove from water and lay out on a paper towel lined tray in a single layer
3. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil on med-high heat, add veggies and season with salt and pepper. Saute veggies until tender, about 7 minutes, let cool
4. Whisk eggs with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, add cooled potatoes, veggies and let sit about 15 minutes (it releases the starch in the potatoes or something)
5. Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil to a large saute pan, add egg mixture, pushing potatoes to the bottom
6. Cook on med-high heat for a few minutes
7. Transfer pan to oven and cook at 350 for about 20 minutes
8. Allow to cool a few minutes. Invert onto a plate to serve

Tortellini with Roasted Asparagus and Onion

More Real Food: simple and fast but really good. It's crazy how such a simple thing like roasting the veggies make them so sweet and tasty.


The Recipe (not the most precise but that's how I do it):

• 1 Package Tortellini (I used cheese)
• 1 bundle asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 large white onion, cut into 1 inch chunks
• a few tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• a few tablespoons butter
• 1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Toss veggies in oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes or until veggies starting to brown on top.
3. Meanwhile, cook tortellini according to directions
4. Mix butter, salt and pepper with drained tortellini. Toss in veggies.

BLT Pasta

 More real food. And I know it looks simple but this recipe is real good.

The Recipe:

• 1/2 lb pasta (I used bow tie)
• 3 cups arugula
• 6 slices bacon
• 10-20 grape tomatoes
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1/4 cup creamy salad dressing (like Caesar or ranch)
• salt and pepper

The Method

1. Cook pasta according to directions.
2. Cook bacon. My favorite method is baking bacon (place bacon on foil lined baking sheet, place in oven, turn oven on to 425, check after 20 minutes, bake until crispy)
3. Mix vinegar, mayo and dressing. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Layer pasta, about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups arugula and halved tomatoes. Drizzle dressing on top.

Real Food: Quinoa Crusted Pork

Since becoming a mom, the time I have each day seems much more precious. I work part-time, watch my sister's daughter while she works part-time and oh yeah, one more thing...taking care of a baby is a time-suck!

Our usual evening routine on my working days is: get home around 6:45, feed Lucia, get Lucia ready for bed, put her to bed, make dinner for us. As you can see, dinner comes last (and late). I grew up eating dinner later so I really don't mind that (and Matt has taken a liking to it) but I am always looking for recipes that don't take much time or effort.  I love making dinner and I think it's an important part of our family life but because it comes at the end of my busy day, I have had to sacrifice some of my more time consuming recipes to the all powerful parenting gods. Real food please!

In general, I am a person that needs a plan. Matt likes to tease me for my inability to answer open questions. What's your favorite movie? My mind goes blank. Not only can I not think of my favorite movie, but I cannot think of a single movie or only the dumbest ones. The same thing happens when I go to the grocery store without a plan or list. I just go blank. No ideas, or just bad ones. I need ideas! And what better ideas than my own? The other day I hunkered down and wrote down like one million 'real food' ideas and I want to keep those ideas alive. I am going to attempt to jot down the ones that work (electronically, in the form of this blog) so that I can check back for ideas when I draw a blank.

I am not professing that these recipes are the fanciest but ones that work for our family in this phase we find ourselves in. The criteria for my 'real food': real good, real ingredients, real quick and real-istic.

So I'll start with the quinoa-crusted pork I made the other night...

 

The Recipe:

• 3-4 boneless pork loins
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
• a few dashes soy sauce
• a few dashes siracha chile sauce
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• Olive oil 

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Season both sides of pork with salt and pepper. Make marinade: mix together barbecue sauce, Worcestershire, soy sauce and chile sauce. Cover pork in mixture and marinade in the fridge for 30 minutes (flipping pork half-way through).
3. In the meantime, mix quinoa and breadcrumbs together. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Let pork come to room temp. for about 10 minutes.
5. Heat some olive oil in a shallow, oven-proof saute pan.
6. Shake the excess marinade off each piece of pork, cover all sides in quinoa mixture. Sear on med-high until browned, about 4 minutes. Sear other side for a few minutes.
7. Finish cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until meat registers at 150 degrees.

(The marinade could be varied in many ways. I just made this one up from the stuff we had around. You could also add shredded Parmesan to the quinoa mixture. I served this with simple roasted potatoes and salad.)

It's not long now til we are in the next phase when Lucia will be eating dinner with us too and trying all the foods that we love!