A little baby goodness and some damn good strata

Posted by random olio

This past weekend my sister came to visit for her last trip before she has a sweet baby girl. We had a baby shower with my sister’s friends that live in my local area. It was a fun time. I always enjoy a group of women who get together and bond, even if 75% of the conversation is about babies. Even so women can be very sassy!

My sister is gluten-free. When the mom-to-be does not eat gluten, you make sure you have food just for her. For each item I had a gluten-free option. Cupcakes, scones, macaroons, and Eggs Benedict strata. What I want to tell you about is the Eggs Benedict strata. We took this recipe from the Taste and Tell blog, and made one pan that was exact to this recipe + red peppers. We then went to a local market and purchased gluten-free English muffins and substituted them for the regular english muffins to make a gluten-free option. Um. It. was. damn. good.

My apologies as I was caught up in the moment and never took a photo of the strata so you will have to go to the Taste and Tell blog to see their version (it looks exactly like it turns out). This is the perfect dish that you can prep and make the night before, and then bake just before your guests arrive. I am actually a bit excited for the next time we make it. I could not have enough. I even liked the gluten-free version!

For those of you that hate to make poached eggs, this might be the perfect brunch option to make at home. The hollandaise sauce is superb, and just the right added touch to this dish (it better be with all the butter it contains). I definitely suggest adding the red peppers. It gave it just the extra bite that was needed. Enjoy this quick and amazing recipe:

EGGS BENEDICT STRATA

6 whole English muffins
6 oz Canadian-style bacon, chopped
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
dash of hot sauce
1/2 cup butter, melted and very hot

INSTRUCTIONS

Spray an 8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Cut the English muffins into 1-inch cubes. Place half of the cubes in the prepared baking dish, then sprinkle with half of the Canadian bacon. Top with the remaining English muffin cubes and then the remaining Canadian bacon.
Whisk together the eggs and the milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top of the bread. Use your hands to press down the bread to make sure that it has all been soaked with the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the strata from the oven and let it sit on the counter while the oven comes up to temperature. Bake, uncovered, until puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes.
When the strata is almost finished baking, prepare the hollandaise sauce. Place the egg yolks, Dijon, lemon juice and hot sauce in a blender. Blend for several seconds. Very slowly, stream the hot butter into the sauce, keeping the blender on the entire time. Blend until the sauce is thick.
Serve the strata warm with the hollandaise poured over the top.

Compostable Diapers – who knew!

Posted by random olio

My sister is having a baby soon, so lately our conversations have included the discussion of car seats, strollers, and diapers. I mentioned that no one tells you how much you will truly spend on diapers. Ah yes, the fun part of raising a kid, endless butt wiping many, many times throughout the day. In a recent conversation, my sister told me about new technology for diapers.

The compostable diaper. Regular disposable diapers can take hundreds of years to decompose, and cloth diapers require too much water to wash and reuse. The compostable diaper (I even found ones that are flushable) are diaper inserts that can then be turned into compost. One company will pick up your dirty diapers weekly, and has a commercial grade machine that composts the diapers and turns your babies poo into topsoil for landscaping. Or you can take them out to your own compost bin in your yard (although they say only the wet diapers, not the poopy ones). Your baby will help fertilize your lawn!

Why has this taken so many years to happen? From my research disposable diapers made their debut in 1961 by Pampers. How many disposable diapers are sitting in landfills? Wikipedia says that:

“An average child will go through several thousand diapers in their life…An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in a possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills each year.”

Now multiply that times 52 years of diapers and you have 176 million tons of diapers have gone to landfills just in the United States. That is also 1 trillion, 424 billion disposable diapers sitting in our landfills. That is a shit ton of disposable poo. Two of the companies I found are in Northern California, I would be curious to hear if there are similar companies in other parts of the country. Definitely way past time for baby mommas to change the tune and start looking at alternative ways. I do not have the kid yet, but compostable diapers will be on the list.

#putpootogooduse

For further research:

http://www.gdiapers.com/

http://tinytots.com/

http://www.earth-baby.com/p-3-the-earthbaby-story.html

Boss or Bossy? Ah, the stereotypes.

Posted by random olio

No one likes to be judged. Especially if you are being judged because of your gender. It is 2014. Does it still happen? You betcha. Should it still be happening? Hell no.

When I saw this Pantene commercial, I hardly thought about what they want you to think about, the individual’s hair. Yes, if you really look it is shiny, glossy, and looks great. Yes, you see it subliminally. Yet, at the moment, I do not care. I like an ad that can make me think, that can make me put myself in their shoes. That is telling a story, and making an emotional connection with their consumer. Does this commercial hit you in the gut, or make your cry? No. But, it does make you think.

How many of us have felt gender stereotypes in the workplace? I definitely have. Am I taken seriously because I am a woman? Not always. Do folks think I come off as a bitch when I might be firm and aggressive about a situation? Sometimes. Would they feel the same way if it was a man who was firm and aggressive? Probably not as much as they would a woman. Am I biased? Maybe. Why might I be biased? Only because I have felt what it is like to not be respected in my role by men, and sometimes even women. Gender stereotypes at its finest. You will see what I mean when you watch this quick Pantene commercial.

#Don’tletlabelsholdyouback

Bobby Pins… Really?

Posted by random olio

How is it that I am as old as I am and I never, ever knew that there was a right way to use a bobby pin? How is that possible?

I was on Pinterest the other day and happened on a site that had different hair how-to’s that every girl should know. The very first on the list was how to wear a bobby pin. I guess all these years I have been wearing them upside down. Sometimes it is the little things that can have a life changing impact. See, I usually go for a run with my hair back in a ponytail, and then all the stray hairs get held back with a bobby pin on each side. Partway through my run, my bobby pins often slip out and I have to put them back in. Until last week.

Last week, I learned to use a bobby pin in the appropriate way, and now they stay in place. If only I had known years ago, maybe I would not have needed to use so many bobby pins. AND, the bigger question is, why does the longer side up mean that hair will stay in place? It does not make sense to me. So when did you learn to use a bobby pin in the correct way? I imagine there are other things in our lives that we are never taught to do and the Internet has allowed us to learn things from the most mundane to the most profound. Obviously, bobby pins do not leave the profound impact on our life, but it was still an aha moment for me.

Sometimes you just have to turn something over for it to work right.

Which doors to open…

Posted by random olio

It has been a while since I have written about a book I have read. Two reasons: I have not had the time to read as many books lately, and I have not read as many books that have inspired me. However, over Thanksgiving I read a novel that I could not put down. It is called: “The Time Between” by Karen White. I am not even sure where to start in explaining this complex storyline.

It is about two sisters (Eve and Eleanor), their stories of loss, anger, longing, and forgiveness. One is in a wheelchair, and the other does everything she can to take care of her sister. She works long hours in an investment banking firm, plays the piano at night to bring in more money. The other sister sews gowns in her wheelchair. Such pieces she herself would have worn in past beauty pageants. Music is weaved throughout the story, second chances, and the beauty of an island. Of course there is so, so, so much more to the story, but I do not want to ruin it for you. There is one line near the end of the book that I had to share with you:

“There is how we were before, and how we are now, and the time between is spent choosing which doors to open, and which to close.” page 319

I thought this was the perfect morsel of insight from the book. White discusses this in different ways throughout the book. She is right. So often we are stuck in how we were before, that we cannot be okay with where we are now. As White alludes to throughout the book, there are many doors to which we can open or close and the choice is 99% ours to make. Do we forgive someone and move on, or do we stay stuck in what they have done to us? Can we get over the one that did not choose to love us, so that we can be present and ready for the one that we will love so deeply? Such good ideas for really anyone. Even with the sisterhood theme, it did not feel like chick lit to me. Just a great novel, and really I can see it made into a movie.

Open a new door. Take a few hours to read “The Time Between.” It is worth it.