Recipes

There are certain instinctive drives that all human beings share. Hunger is one of them. Eating is necessary for our survival as individuals, so we eat. We can't live without eating, so the drive to eat is hardwired into our psyches. As individuals, we can live without sex, but as a species we cannot, so that drive is also hardwired into our psyche.

I'm a beef person; my husband is a fish person. Tonight I'm satisfying MY taste buds and serving Steak Diane. Sometime over the weekend I'll fix some salmon, his all-time favorite fish, just to be evenhanded. (Don't you just hate being fair and considering everybody's tastes? As far as I'm concerned, being "nice" is highly overrated. Why do I keep on doing it?!? Because I'm a patsy, that's why.)

The inspiration for tonight's menu comes from Susan M., someone I've known from various low carb lists and a CarbSmart Magazine reader. The Sizzling Steak Salad she suggested sounded so good that I asked her if I could use her idea for Low Carb Cooking 101. Thank goodness she said yes, because I really wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks, Susan!

I served this meal last week out in the sunroom with all the windows up and the ceiling fans creating a mild tempest. Judy went nuts with her crayons and markers and made Mexican placemats and napkins. She wanted me to buy a pinata, but I drew the line at that. After all, we're moving in a few weeks and the one thing I don't need is anything more to pack!

Ah, Memorial Day! It's not just a day off work. It's time to take the opportunity to remember those military personnel who have given their lives so that we can remain a free nation. Take a moment to remember our fallen men and women. Fly your American flag, and be thankful.

I like lamb. I like lamb A LOT. But as fate would have it, I am married to a non-lamb-loving man. He doesn't hate it, exactly, but he does nothing more than tolerate it unless I jazz it up with some sauce of some kind. Sauces he likes - the more sauce of any kind, the better. He likes it best when there's so much sauce that he can barely see the meat or fish under it.

Spring and Easter always make me think of baked ham. That makes sense within the context of ham being a traditional Easter dish, but then I start wondering why ham is a traditional Easter dish. Hogs are traditionally slaughtered in the fall, not the spring. It would make more sense if ham were traditional for Thanksgiving or Christmas, not Easter. But then, how long does it take to cure a ham? Weeks? Months? I honestly don't know. Maybe ham is traditional for Easter because that's when it is finally cured/smoked to perfection.

I'm always trying out new salmon recipes for Rod, and came up with Broiled Salmon With Zesty Lime Mustard a while ago. While the recipe calls for broiling the salmon fillets, you could cook these on an outdoor grill, too. I have a nifty little device that was made especially for grilling fish on an outdoor barbecue. It is a metal "cage" with a long wooden handle, and eliminates the problem of the fish fillets sticking to and/or falling apart when you cook them. Mine is a big one that holds 6 to 8 salmon fillets, but I have seen smaller ones for 1 or 2 fillets. In fact, I saw one at one of the dollar stores earlier this spring, and bought several to give away as presents - and kept a couple for myself, too, of course. They were only about $3.00 each, and worth every penny.

Franklin Roosevelt promised "a chicken in every pot" when he was first campaigning for the presidency. The Depression was in full swing, and having chicken for dinner - or any kind of meat! - was a luxury many people couldn't afford.

I'm ready for spring. No, I'm actually ready for summer. I want to grill out and have delightful meals on the patio, punctuated by the cries of the birds and cooled by soft breezes. Unfortunately, when I got up this morning, the outside temperature was 22 degrees, and it wasn't much warmer inside since I'd forgotten to turn the furnace back on. (Boy, did I catch what for from my family for that!)

Tonight's meal takes advantage of two different spring vegetables, radishes and spinach. If you garden, you're going to want to plant both. Radishes are particularly easy. We had a neighbor when we lived in Hicksville, Ohio (yes, there really is a town named Hicksville!) who used to bring us over bunches and bunches of radishes each spring. I finally asked him why he planted so many more than his family could use, and he replied, "Oh, we hate radishes, but they're the only thing we've been able to grow." Evidently, even someone with a brown thumb can grow radishes.

Today is officially the first day of spring, and what comes right on spring's heels? BASEBALL! Monday is Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds, and it's a very big deal here. At this point in the season hope springs eternal, and we all KNOW that the Reds are going to win the World Series this year. There's a parade before the game, and both kids and adults cut school and/or work to attend the pre-game festivities as well as the ball game itself.