Every month has its star: cheese month, ice cream month,
strawberry month. Though they often pass by unnoticed, this month
is one that deserves notice. It’s
”
Beautiful Woman Month.
”
Every month has its star: cheese month, ice cream month, strawberry month. Though they often pass by unnoticed, this month is one that deserves notice. It’s “Beautiful Woman Month.”
What does this mean? The focus seems to be on helping women realize that they are all beautiful, no matter their size. Being the stepmom of girls, I see the peer pressure that’s put on young women to look a certain way. It used to be they wanted to look like super models. Now they just want to look like the Abercrombie catalog. Translation: thin, no stomach bulges, jutting hip bones. The current statistics show that one out of every four college-aged women has an eating disorder, either anorexia, bulimia or both.
The numbers also show that almost all of these women suffer from low self-esteem.
Several women’s organizations have put together facts and figures that they hope will make every woman realize how beautiful she is. Here are some I especially liked:
• There are 3 billion women who don’t look like super models. And only eight who do.
• Marilyn Monroe wore a size 14.
• The average woman weighs 144 pounds and wears between a 12 and 14.
• Models 20 years ago weighed 8 percent less than the average woman; today they weigh 23 percent less.
• And this poem with an anonymous author:
Beauty of a Woman.
“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart,
The place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
The passion that she shows.
The beauty of a woman
With passing years – only grows.”
Elegant mussels
Here’s a favorite recipe of Brandy Madison of Morgan Hill. She serves this for birthday dinners, “the boss is coming,” and any other time she wants something “simple, delicious and impressive.” If you’re cooking for four people, double the recipe. Serve with warm garlic bread for sopping up the sauce.
Mussels with Tomatoes, Herbs and Garlic (Moules Provencale)
2 1/4 lbs mussels, cleaned
1/2 cup dry white wine
Provençale Sauce:
1 T. olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp. chopped fresh basil, plus extra to garnish
Bouquet garni:
1 T. tomato paste
1 lb. ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 14-oz. can chopped
tomatoes
Salt and pepper
1 tsp. sugar
To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions, celery, garlic, basil and bouquet garni, and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until softened but not browned.
Mix in the tomato paste and tomatoes, salt, pepper, and sugar, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Put the mussels in a casserole dish with the wine, over high heat, and bring to a boil. Cook for a few minutes only, until the mussels have opened, stirring frequently to ensure they are evenly cooked.
Pour off the cooking liquid, discard any mussels that have not opened, and return the opened mussels, in their shells, to the casserole dish.
Pour the hot tomato sauce over the mussels and heat through. Sprinkle with chopped basil and serve at once. Serves 1-2.
Southwest pasta
This light pasta recipe is adapted from one that appeared in Bon Apetit magazine in August 1996. It’s an uncooked sauce, which really brings out the flavors of tomatoes and cilantro. If you want to replace the canned tomatoes with fresh tomatoes, use 2 3/4 lbs. of plum tomatoes; blanche them in boiling water, then peel, seed and chop. Make sure you let the sauce stand for at least an hour, to let the flavors develop.
Southwest Fusilli
3 14-oz. cans chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons minced garlic
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
4 teaspoons minced serrano or jalapeño chilies
4 teaspoons tomato paste
2 3/4 teaspoons chili powder
For pasta
12 ounces fusilli or other corkscrew pasta
1 1/3 cups (about 6 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
To make tomato sauce, heat oil in heavy medium skillet over high heat. Add garlic and sauté just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour garlic oil over tomatoes and toss to blend. Mix in cilantro, onion, lime juice, chilies, tomato paste and chili powder. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)
Make the pasta. Cook fusilli in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain fusilli well. Add fusilli and half of cheese to tomato sauce; toss to blend. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta to large shallow serving bowl. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve. Serves 4.
Summer pie
Do you have a special birthday or celebration coming up? This is a delicious hot-weather dessert and a classic that you may have not enjoyed in a while. This version is adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Collection Series, “Pie & Tart” by Carolyn Beth Weil. The chocolate curls are a little work, but so worth the effort because they look beautiful. Just try it!
Chocolate Pudding Pie
For the filling:
2 1/2 cups milk
5 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped into slivers
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cookie crumb or graham cracker crust (buy or make a chocolate cookie crumb crust if possible)
For the topping:
1 cup heavy cream
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Chocolate curls for decorating
To make the filling, in a heavy saucepan over low heat, warm together the milk and chocolate, whisking until the chocolate is melted; the mixture will be speckled.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow. Add the cornstarch and salt, then the vanilla, and whisk until well blended.
Slowly pour the warm chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly until well blended. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens and begins to bubble slowly, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir until smooth, about 1 minute.
Pour the filling into the crumb crust and smooth with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface, and refrigerate until completely cold and firm, 2 to 3 hours.
To make the topping, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed or a whisk, beat together the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
Spread the whipped cream on top of the pie. Decorate with chocolate curls (see below). Refrigerate until ready to serve, but let the pie stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving to take the chill off. Makes one 9-inch pie; serves 8.
Chocolate curls: To make decorative chocolate curls, wrap a medium-size chunk of semisweet chocolate in plastic wrap. Rub the wrapped chocolate between your hands for 1 or 2 minutes to warm it; the chocolate should not melt. For larger chunks, microwave on low for about 5 seconds. Unwrap the chocolate and, using a vegetable peeler, slowly and evenly scrape the edge of the chunk until curls form. If the chocolate is cold, the peeler will make ragged shavings rather than curls, so repeat warming the chocolate as necessary.
End notes:“You know you’re in love when you stop comparing.” ~ Mason Cooley
Happy cooking!
Tip of the Week:
If steaks (porterhouse or T-bone) are on special and priced the same, choose porterhouse; it’s got more tenderloin than the T-bone.
~ Jean Anderson
