Painting, Cooking and Traveling To Old Stomping Grounds

It wasn't too long ago that I learned that a dear friend of mine will be moving. Her family, like so many others, had been the victim of layoffs in the economic downturn. Hubby is an engineer in a specialized field and found himself laid-off by the company he'd served for so long. As his company opted to relocate to the next state over, our city became flooded with hundreds of out of work engineers all looking for a job. After nine months, he's finally secured one. 250 miles away. Sigh. Two of my neighbors, husbands both employees of the same company, have also moved away in this past week having had to settle for work anywhere they could get it. Which wasn't here. SIGH.

My dear friend's hubby is already there, transplanted and working. She, on the other hand is here, working, caring for her kids and trying to get her house ready to sell in an abysmal housing market. So I've been painting. Painting a lot. I went to her house with my plethora of paint fans and we picked two warm neutral colors. We picked a lovely white for the ceiling, doors and trims. The rest has been elbow grease, sweat, a few tears and plenty of trips down memory lane as we splatter ourselves with paint (nothing like using a 1/2" roller on popcorn ceilings to really make things fun). It's been bittersweet being able to use my skills to help my friend. I only wish it was a task preparing her home for moving in, not moving away.

On a completely separate note, as you get to know me better, you'll learn that my diet is quite the adventure.  I have Crohn's Disease. We'll trip the light fantastic about that saga of my life on another day. What's pertinent to today's post is that I was introduced to a diet, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet,that helps me keep my CD under control. My cousin pointed me in its direction, knowing the battles I've faced with this disease. Given the choice of healing myself with chemicals or foods, I'll choose foods, thank you.

I really enjoy cooking, so I'm always up for adventures. I spend a good amount of time trying to come up with tasty recipes that are SCD friendly that I will like and, more importantly, the rest of my family who's not on the SCD will like. I recently came up with 'a keeper', according to my hubby. So, I'm going to share it with you guys. It should be noted that SCD recipes are always Gluten-Free (as all grains are off limits) for any of my friends who deal with gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease.

SCD Baked Summer Squash Rounds
Serves 4 - 6
*Preheat oven to 425 F

1-2 large cooking sheets
1 gallon Ziploc bag
1 medium mixing bowl
1 wide shallow bowl (for dredging)

4-6 yellow squash, cut in to 1/4" thick rounds
2 beaten eggs, salted to taste
1 c almond meal/flour
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/4 t salt (optional)
1/8 t ground black pepper (optional)
1 t marjoram
1/4 t paprika
2 t oregano
2 t parsley
1 t thyme
1/2 t taragon

Put the sliced squash into the Ziploc bag, pour in the beaten egg, seal the bag well and shake until slices are well coated. Set aside.

Remaining ingredients go into a medium mixing bowl, stirred until everything's well distributed.  This is your 'breading', for lack of a better term! Place about 1/2 c into the dredging bowl. Have your baking pans on hand; you'll be placing your squash medallions onto the sheets as you go.

Open up the baggie, grab a piece of squash and lightly tap it into the almond/parmesan mix. 

 It's important you not press the squash pieces down into the nut meal mixture too hard or you'll get too thick a coating (which could make for a serious bellyache later on).  You'll still be able to see portions of the squash flesh peeking out from the moderate speckling of the crumbs, as shown in the pictures.

Line up your finished work onto your pans and don't worry about crowding. They'll do just fine. I also didn't worry about oiling my pans, but you can do so if you're concerned about the parmesan causing them to stick.

Set your pans into the preheated oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. I let them set for about 5-10 minutes once I took them out, just so my kids wouldn't burn themselves when digging in. The heat up great the next day, too!

*I have also pan fried these successfully, in which case I used a cast iron skillet with canola oil. I cooked them over medium heat until nicely brown on each side (about 5 minutes per side). But you must drain them before serving, otherwise the combined fat of the nuts, cheese and canola could leave you with a sick tummy. The added warning being that, if fried stove-top these shouldn't be eaten exclusively, but supplemented with another veggie that's been steamed or poached.


Lastly, this past weekend was my high school reunion. Most of the folks I went to school with I hadn't seen in quite a long time. It was great catching up with old buddies and even making a couple of new ones, too.  Something I learned: it was amazing how many of us had a ton of drama going on, yet each of us seemed to be oblivious to it. We had each been deep in our own juju, thinking the chaos had only been in our own universe. Little did we know that there was stress, drama and loss going on with each of us. It reminded me of a quote I had posted for quite sometime (though I can't remember who should get credit for it): "We would worry a lot less about what people think of us, if we realized how little they do."  Ain't that the truth?