Okay, you've listened to my crankiness about how awful I've been feeling lately.  You also heard how it is just the beginning of birthday season in our family.  Now I'm going to tell you how this year, my annual birthday party turned out to be one of our best and it didn't add to my pain.

First, as I mentioned Sunday, I trimmed the guest list.  I told the kids-sorry your friends can't come.  Since our son was kind enough to take care of me during 24 of my 48 hours of riding the porcelain bus-he had already told his friend and his fianc?, as well as a few others who always join us that the annual birthday dinner was off.  Our daughter and son-in-law delivered the news to their best friends (who now have a kid of their own).  There went 8 off the list right there.  

My parents weren't going to be able to come-Mom had surgery a month ago and hasn't been doing very well herself and Dad is not supposed to be driving.  My sister and her family completely understand my health problems so there went 6 more off the "need to prepare for" agenda.

Now we were down to 8.  

Remember my favorite caterer-Costco?  I already had a lot of paper/plastic products in the garage, so I had hubby bring them in.  I went into the warehouse and bought 2 roasted chickens, Kirkland tortilla chips and salsa, a bag of spinach, a box of tomatoes, feta cheese and dried cranberries.  I also bought a package of rosemary garlic La Brea bread (the grandkiddoes aren't too good with the chips and this way if anyone wanted to go the sandwich route they could).

For dessert-Costco had some very nice and huge cupcakes.  Bought some flavored water and some caffeine free diet coke and called it PARTY.

I enlisted everyone's assistance in setting the table and bringing in the extra chairs and booster seats.  Everyone bussed their own disposable stuff and the leftovers were packaged up and either taken home by our daughter or put away into the waiting fridge.

And you know what?  After it was over-everyone said it was the easiest and best time they've had in several years!  We could all hear each other talking; I wasn't trying to get things done with over 20 people in my kitchen standing right where I needed to be.  I wasn't running back and forth to the BBQ with heavy platters or trying to gather all the birthday people and get dessert and singing taken care of!

Lesson learned-sometimes the best thing you can do to celebrate, is tone it down to the mere basics.

It's not easy being green.  

What do all of you do when you have no choice but to carry on, even when you're sick as the proverbial dog?

You know what I'm talking about-you may not really be sick, but you feel like h-e-double hockey sticks.  That was me the last 2 weeks.

I'm upfront about having RA-this is an autoimmune disease, it's not just in my joints.  An inflammation can hit anywhere, anytime and it's not pleasant.  In fact, it stinks.  

Such has been my case the last few weeks.  I've spent many hours in the ER, getting tests to rule out other things and, quite frankly, riding the porcelain bus as a result of some pain meds that REALLY DIDN'T AGREE WITH ME.

Bearing that in mind-it's also the start of birthday season in my family.  There are too many to count, but the ones I am most concerned with are my son, my daughter and my son-in-law.  Because there are so many, I tend to do the 3 of them (the rest we do in connection with Mother's Day) on my own.  I have my parents and sister's family join us and I include our kids best friends.  

Our son turned 25; our daughter is turning 27, our son-in-law 28.

This is a huge undertaking-we are now up to about 22 people at this point.  

However this year, due to my health-I had to do the less popular but understandable form of celebrating.  Usually, I get some help from Costco (my favorite caterer)-but tend to make homemade side dishes, cookies, etc-didn't happen this year.

First off-learning to say NO when you're not well is imperative to your recovery.  Believe me; those who scorn you aren't worth entertaining, so get over feeling guilty.

Next-after you've shortened the usual guest list; get over yourself about needing to show your cooking skills off while you're dying.

Ready made is your friend-trust me.  On Wednesday, how our birthday celebration turned out to be one of our best.

Okay, let's talk about dressing.  Dressing, as is evident on all the aisles in the grocery stores, can be light and low in fat. They're very easy to make and the flavor options are endless!

Most recipes recommend using a 2 to 1 ratio of oil to acid.  This really isn't necessary.  Switch out some of the oil for a bit of chicken or vegetable broth.  It's flavorful and you lose a lot of calories.  

Try different acids-lemon juice, lime juice, tomato or vegetable juice and orange marmalade; use some rice wine vinegar and soy sauce as a combination.  Try using fresh herbs:  mint, thyme, basil and oregano!  

And even though fat is not a great thing in keeping calories down, it is important for taste and keeping our skin soft.  Check out the oils-walnut, sesame, almond, peanut and various flavored olive oils.  Give them a try in your next salad.

Here area few of the ones my family seems to favor:
For the Asian style slaw:

? C Each lemon juice, oil and soy sauce
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp salt
? tsp freshly grated pepper
2 tsp toasted sesame oil and if you'd like 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds.
Simply combine all the ingredients in a blender and pour over 2 pounds of shredded cabbage.

This next one is a favorite of ours in a cauliflower, spinach and white bean salad, but the dressing is great on any salad.

1/3 C olive oil-warmed first with 1 tsp of fresh rosemary.  Let it cool.
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
? tsp freshly ground pepper

Again, combine in the blender and you've got dressing!
This last one is great in a pasta-ish salad with sun-dried tomatoes and Greek olives.  I love adding leftover grilled asparagus, mushrooms and halved cherry tomatoes.  My son loves this one with orzo, but rotini or mini-pennes or bowties make a nice change!

? C fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp each minced shallots and white wine vinegar
1 tsp each freshly ground pepper and kosher salt
? C olive oil
? tsp red pepper flakes is optional, but nice if you have a group that loves a bit of heat!

Hope these inspire you to celebrate Earth Day with a bowl of various greens!

It's Earth Day this week.  In food terms, I believe this means we should all try new or rarely used vegetables and fruits in our meals.  We tend to get into a rut with our menu plans.  Earth Day and Spring bring us the chance to widen our culinary horizons and see what is displayed at local farmer's markets and produce sections.

Even yours truly has several "go to" dinners that are hits with the family, let me cook without being in the kitchen for hours on end (unless that's what I want to do for the day) and are nutritionally quite sound.

However, it's time to look for and serve "Green" options!  They're really quite tasty, fast to prepare and fun to try-really!

Artichokes are poking their way into the markets, as are beautiful peppers, green beans and asparagus.  Since most of these are "in season", prices are pretty good as well.  Have you tried stir-frying mustard greens?  Perhaps making a "lite" cole slaw?  Making a salad of endive and arugula?  

The "trick" to most of these is to let the vegetable "shine" for itself.  Steam the artichokes in lemon juice, garlic and some fresh herbs.  Forgo the butter or mayo dressings!  Give the asparagus and peppers a light spray of olive oil and toss with some fresh garlic and either grill them or roast them in the oven with a little kosher salt.  Endive and arugula and other "bitter" greens work well when paired with some sliced apples or roasted pears.  Drizzle with a little vinaigrette and you've got yourself a gourmet salad if ever there was one!

And yes, cole slaw can be light and refreshing!  One of my family's favorites is an Asian slaw made with some rice wine vinegar, peanut oil, freshly grated ginger and soy sauce.  I add some toasted slivered almonds or crushed peanuts for a bit of added flavor, but even that is just a smattering.  Another favorite slaw is to add julienned carrots and peppers and serve with a Thai peanut sauce that I've thinned with some vegetable broth.  

On Wednesday-let's talk about the actual dressings I just mentioned.

Yes, we all have to go sometime-and after 4 meals, our ham's "life" was coming to an end.  None to soon for our home.  We love ham.  Everyone drooled the first night, were happy to see it the second night.  But after that-I thought I caught a peek of our son holding up a cross at my head behind my back!

I sent it for lunch with hubby and said "cross-bearing" son, as well as daughter-in-law-to-be a couple of days.  But alas, 10 pounds of ham is still a lot of pig-no matter how you package it!

Believe me, I served it stir-fried with broccoli and red peppers over brown rice.  I bought a bag of sweet peas and some fresh asparagus and whipped up a white wine-type sauce and served it over pasta.  I added some to a frittata for dinner.  

But being frugal-I plodded on to getting the most out of my grocery find.  All that was left was the huge bone and all the meat on it that couldn't be sliced off, so it was now time to bring out the Crockpot!

You all know what's coming from me-I went out and bought a pound of split peas and a bottle of Guinness!  All foodies have the staples of carrots, onions, celery and potatoes on hand, so that was really all I needed!

I put the bone in, surrounded it with the peas, veggies (chopped fine, of course), Guinness, garlic and chicken stock and slapped the lid on.  8 hours and a batch of apple-cinnamon muffins later-dinner was served.

And yes, I had leftovers.  But that was also a good thing, made packing lunch for my husband easy.  My son, not so much (he's the one that isn't thrilled with soup).  However, my daughter-in-law to be was thrilled to have enough to cover her lunches for a couple of days as well.  Bon Appetite!

Have I mentioned that I love the versatility of ham?  Well, I do.  I always buy one this time of the year-our local markets usually sell a half-ham in it's own juices for about $.77 a pound. If I want to spend $1.29 a pound-it even comes spiral cut!

I usually go for the less expensive whole piece because I can do so much with it.  This particular one that I'm going to make according to a recipe off of TVFN's Good Eats show with Alton Brown.  He's a fun and informative guy who pleases my food and my science senses with ideas and details about all things food.

As I was watching his show on ham-I thought "wow, I would have never thought of baking my ham in Dr. Pepper!"  Or, "this sounds really good too-I think this is what I'm going to do with this one."  This was in reference to baking my beautiful little pig thigh on a rack until about ? up to temperature, then paring off the remaining fat and skin pieces, then coating it with Dijon mustard, dark brown sugar and powdered ginger snaps and then upping the oven temp and baking it for another hour to create a delicious looking crust.

Yes, I went out the next morning and bought a box of ginger snaps.  As we all know, I bake, but I wasn't going to do double duty on this one.  For $2 I bought the box and then went on to Wal-mart to buy myself a brand new oven probe.  Seems my trusty 15 year old Polder didn't really like the fresh batteries I added and went straight to its final death.  

The ham started out at just a tad under 10 pounds.  First night the family was practically drooling from the aroma of brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon coming from the kitchen.  I served it with simply steamed broccoli and some brown rice pilaf.  To carry on the spice theme I added some of the cinnamon and ginger to the rice.

Night 2-same ham, but I served it up with spinach salad and tater tots.  Moving on to our 3rd night of the pig-I decided to chop up some of it and stir-fry it with some sugar snap peas and serve in a ginger teriyaki sauce over jasmine rice.  Our 4th night became a salad.  I used spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and some beautiful red peppers.  Served it with raspberry vinaigrette and some homemade cornbread.

On Wednesday, we'll talk about the "remains"!