Smoky Bayou Black Beans

Tonight's creation is a pot of black beans flavored with two huge smoked turkey wings and a Bayou Cajun spice blend from the super market.

Will report back later...

Welcome Back

No, wait... I'm the one who's been gone. Sorry for my absence, fans. Both of you. Really. I mean it.

Since we've last visited I've discovered I have a gluten intolerance, and that chocolate and red wine trigger my weird headaches. This summer I had a large blood clot in my inferior vena cava, and massive pulmonary embolism. Therefore, my diet has greatly changed. What was once a diet of whole wheat breads and leafy greens is now mostly meats and the occasional veggie.

If you've never been on, or known anyone on the blood thinner Coumadin, then you're unaware of the diet restrictions. Vitamin K screws with the testing results so you need to limit that vitamin, which is abundant in leafy greens. So, what we're taught as healthy is now not good for me.

The gluten intolerance varies, and I can't pinpoint the things that bother me more than others. My symptoms are joint pain, swelling, anxiety, and abdominal pain.

The kids are doing very well. We're working on potty training Genna. Conner is as brilliant as ever. The dogs, cat, and fish are all happy and healthy. My Honey is still the worlds most perfect husband. He's handsome, sweet, helpful, a fabulous father and when no one is looking he snuggles the cat.

I'll try to post more often. Found an ap that let's me blog from my phone which makes things enfinetly easier.

More pics

Another set to wet the appetite...

Back Log of FOODS ...

Here is a collection of foods I hope to find time to write about soon. I'll leave captions off to entice you to come back to find out more. 

It's been a long time

With my main pastime loves being cooking, eating, and writing, it's really a shame that I don't post more blogs. 

In an effort to explain the joy of eating, cooking, and flavor profiles, I wish I could clone myself, JUST so I had a second stomach so I could eat more of tonight's super simple, and super yummy supper.

Wheat noodles, a can of diced tomatoes, a cup of salted, starchy pasta cooking water, 2 ounces of goat cheese, and left over balsamic reduction from this week's salmon (I'll try to get THAT posted soon too!).

One pot.  One meal.  One bowl.  One happy girl. 

The goat cheese made the sauce soft, tangy, and creamy.  The balsamic reduction made it sweet and elegant.  The wheat pasta has such a great mouth feel, texture, and nutty taste.  And the tomatoes added enough acidity and "Italian" flair to make it simply awesome. 

Stay hungry my friends!

Kids and Plumbing by Guest Blogger, Samantha Baldwin

This post is part of our series: 10 Things Women Should Know About Plumbing.

If you have little ones, you have little toys. Kids love playing with their toys anywhere and everywhere but when G. I. Joe wants to go for a swim in the toilet, there’s more to worry about than just germs.

Toys: A Leading Cause Of Clogged Sewer Lines

Sewer pipes clog when their insides become coated with oily deposits that in turn trap solid objects that try to make their way down the drain. The bigger the object that gets stuck, the more surface area the oily deposits have to stick to, the faster the sewer lines end up clogging.

Toys that go down the toilet are a big help to the clogs. They’ve got lots of surface area for the grease to stick to. Once they’re embedded in the grease, they’ll start snagging all the other things that go down the drain, like toilet paper and tampons, and before you know it, your pipe is clogged and raw sewage is backing up into your basement. Once that happens, the 99 cent toy you bought with their happy meal is now costing you thousands of dollars to clean up after.

So even if your toilet isn’t immediately clogged, a child flushing a toy down the drain is still a big problem. So what now? Well, the good news is, your toilets, sinks, showers and tubs are all going to keep working for the time being. The bad news is, if a toy is stuck in your sewer line, nothing short of hydro-jetting is going to move it out.

A Plumbing Snake Just Isn’t Gonna Cut It

A plumbing snake, which is essentially a long wire with a spatula on the end of it, will scrape the toy off the inside of the pipe once it becomes stuck, but it won’t push it down the line. You’ll likely have to have the line snaked several times before the toy makes it to the county sewer where the pipes are larger and a clog is the county’s problem, not yours.

Hydro-jetting, which uses high-pressure water to scour the inside of the pipe will push everything down the pipe, will clear the toy all the way down on the first try. It costs more than snaking the line, but it gives you the benefits of knowing the line is completely clear and, because it cleans all the greasy deposits off the inside of the pipe, it will actually have the long term benefit of preventing future clogs. The one downside to hydro-jetting is there is the potential for it to backfire, almost literally. If a clog is big enough, it may take the jetter time to break through it. With 18 gallons a minute flowing into the clogged sewer pipe, the time it takes the jetter to break through may be too long, and all the water it shoots down the pipe can very rapidly back up into your house. A good plumber will actually have you sign a waiver acknowledging the potential for this to happen.

In the end, the #1 rule when it comes to children’s toys and toilets is prevention. Once the toy is down the drain, you’re stuck. Keep the toys, and any other foreign objects for that matter (including feminine sanitary objects), out of toilets at all cost.