Twilight Chain

You already know the best way to avoid spreading colds and flu is to wash your hands frequently, get a flu shot every year and stay home when you’re unwell. But did you know there are foods that can help keep you healthy? Chicken soup, the original comfort food, helps your body fight off the early stages of flu. Cinnamon has antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Sprinkle a little on your cereal or make cinnamon toast. Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli are packed with antioxidants that help your body fight illness. They’re great raw with ranch dressing, and even yummier steamed with butter and salt. Carrots and sweet potatoes have beta carotene which helps support mucus membranes, your body’s first defense against infection. Zinc is also important in the fight against illness. Foods high in zinc include oysters, beef, calves’ liver, lamb, wheat germ, crab and dark chocolate.

Flying Dutchman

I have several good banana bread recipes, even a Jamaican one that calls for lime, coconut and rum flavoring. But here’s the one I use most often; my old reliable:

Banana Walnut Bread

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

3 very ripe bananas

3 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 F. Butter and lightly flour a 9x5” bread pan. Cream together sugar and butter, add bananas and eggs and beat until smooth. Stir in buttermilk. Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and add to wet mixture. Beat until just combined (it should be lumpy). Pour into pan and bake an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes away clean. Remove from oven, wait 5 to 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing.

Texas Longhorns

Don’t know why . . . I’m just in a mood for red meat today.

Sesame Lime Steak Wraps

1/2 pound eye of round, thinly sliced

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 honey

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger root

4 big lettuce leaves – rinsed, dried and torn

4 eight-inch wheat tortillas

Put beef slices in a bowl. Combine juice, honey, oils, sesame seeds, soy sauce and ginger in jar. Put lid securely on jar and shake until blended. Pour over beef and marinate half an hour. Heat a skillet and pour beef and marinade in. Saute at high until beef is evenly brown. Remove beef and reduce heat. Continue cooking marinade, stirring so it won’t burn about five minutes. Put beef back into marinade and remove from heat. Layer lettuce and beef on tortillas, roll up and serve.

Double Anvil

Saturday we saw the movie The Impossible. In the film, Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts play a real-life husband and wife relaxing in Thailand with their three young sons over the 2004 Christmas holidays. Like so many other tourists the day after Christmas, they were enjoying their seaside resort when the enormous tidal wave hit. We were poised at the edges of our seats as we watched this average family deal with injury, separation and survival in the aftermath of a horrific natural disaster. Miraculously they were finally rescued, reunited and returned to their homeland, though for several hundred thousands the story didn’t end so happily. I did a little research after the movie, hoping to find it was based on a book that I could read. No such luck. I did learn, though, that many of the extras in the movie were themselves survivors of that same tsunami.  

Furrows in the Garden

I love gardening in January and February. There are never any weeds to pull in the winter months. I never have to deal with wasps or ants that sting. The birds and the slugs don’t eat my vegetables, and I never have to water anything. In the dead of winter, the only gardening chore I have to do is imagine what I’d like my garden to look like next summer. I can browse through seed catalogues, comparing the virtues of heirloom tomatoes and French radishes. I can formulate an attack plan for the Johnson grass that took over so much of the lawn last year. I can decide if I want to replace the ugly spirea with holly or barberry, or maybe some hedge roses instead. And I can do it all from the comfort of my armchair. If only gardening in the summer months could be this easy.

Banana Butterfly

I admit it was rather rude of me to mention my recipe for Apple Banana Smoothies in yesterday's post without actually sharing said recipe. If it was the only rude thing I did yesterday, I'd count it a pretty good day. My husband likes bananas best when they're still a little green around the edges. I tend to avoid them until they start to freckle a bit. Once their skin begins to turn dark, no one wants them but the fruit flies. That's when I usually make Banana Walnut Bread. (Yes, I promise to post that recipe in a few days.) If I only have one black banana, I peel it, cut it into 1" chunks, zip it into a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer. When I’ve saved two this way, I run them through the blender with a cup of milk, a cup of orange juice, and two peeled, cored apples.